MGSFV?! Chapter 537: Is Theresa Really in Danger?; Just Blame Ourselves for Being Too Sensitive
The reason they suddenly brought up Vishnu and man-made Herrscher awakening—
Was because the in-game main story mentioned it too.
Theresa not only had experience and capability, but she also carried the dream-eating trait of Vishnu.
Her earlier encounter with dream-Otto had already proven that Vishnu's dream-eating trait worked wonders against the dreams of the Stigma Plan.
Given that, there was simply no one more suited for the mission.
"But isn't the real world Durandal and the others reclaimed still anchored to Theresa?"
"That's true, but I believe Siegfried can handle that. He's been on standby for a while now—has quite a backlog of complaints. As for overall operations, I trust Rita, Nagamitsu, and Amber will make the right calls."
At this point—
Everything that needed to be said had been said. All arrangements were made.
It looked like Theresa could now enter the dreams of the Stigma Plan without worries—as the spearhead of the operation.
"Theresa won't..."
Would being so free of burdens actually raise more concern?
In Honkai Impact 3rd, it feels like having some worries is better.
Otherwise...
The most obvious example would be... Kevin.
"...get into trouble, right?"
"There are many stories where someone does something because they have a very specific power—only for things to take a turn and—"
Hearing Elysia's murmur, Hokuto's eyes narrowed behind his mask, and he deliberately followed along, "analyzing" with her.
And his "analysis" ended on an ominous note.
"??"
"What do you mean 'and—'?"
The moment the question left her lips, Elysia already realized—
That "and" usually leads somewhere bad, doesn't it?
"...'Mr. Otto,' are you hinting that Theresa is actually going to be in danger?"
"Of course..."
Hokuto let out two words first—just enough for Elysia's expression to shift—
And just as she opened her mouth to ask further—
He pivoted.
"Not."
"You know I've never been fond of spoilers."
Elysia: "..."
"Mr. Otto, could you not do that big dramatic pause when you talk?"
She let out an audible sigh and blinked.
"But..."
She seemed to realize something.
"If that's the case, doesn't that mean what you said earlier was just a joke?"
"Then we can breathe easy, right? No need to worry?"
Elysia flipped the script: "Thank you very much, Mr. Otto, for ruling out a very unpleasant possibility."
Logically, Hokuto should react with a speechless pause in response to Elysia catching his logic flip.
But instead...
He "kindly" added: "Because... no matter how you look at it, now's really not the time to give Theresa a disaster flag, is it?"
"The last person to carry Vishnu's genes—Kosma—had a very radiant moment. Our Archbishop of Schicksal, our Academy Head..."
He paused, deliberately leaving the rest unsaid.
"I believe the direction of their stories should have some mirrored parallels."
"?"
Let's not mirror that.
After all...
Kosma's shining moment—
Let's just say: it was impressive. But no one wants to go through that again.
...
Even though someone's comment had sent the emotional mood into another nosedive...
The story still had to continue.
In the story—
Schicksal and Anti-Entropy were preparing to send Theresa in as the core of the operation to dismantle the Stigma Plan. Everything was in full swing.
Suddenly, the game screen changed.
A question that had appeared many times before resurfaced on screen:
"Why do birds fly?"
Accompanying the subtitle was a deep, heavy voice.
It wasn't Kevin's voice. Nor anyone familiar.
Which immediately diverted players' attention—just as they were trying to guess what Hokuto meant earlier with all that "story parallel" teasing.
Who was that?
As soon as they focused again on the screen—
As if perfectly timed for their regained attention, the story picked up at just the right beat so they wouldn't miss anything.
No sense of disconnection. Just seamless transition.
What they saw—
Kevin stepping through a gate of light, his Flame-Chasers uniform now replaced with a very ancient Greek outfit.
So, it turned out this was Kevin—who had just spoken to Raven—reaching the deep layers of the dream collective.
And now, he was recalling memories buried long ago.
Memories from a millennium past—in ancient Greece.
There once was a philosopher who would tirelessly ponder this question with others:
"Why do birds fly?"
"Of course, I too once thought it a pointless question."
"They simply can fly—just as our instincts allow us to see, to hear. A gift from the gods."
"But even with this forced reasoning, all we can explain is how birds fly—not why they want to fly."
[Isn't that enough? Birds can fly because they can, right? Do birds really need a reason to fly?]
[Hmm...]
It did sound a little like philosophical nitpicking.
"No, hear me out—"
The philosopher's lecture didn't end there.
"Everyone standing here—we are born with the ability to see, to hear, to walk to the farthest reaches, to conquer everything."
"But this is a right. And we've seen many who chose to give it up."
"Yet... have we ever seen a bird willingly give up flying?"
[Huh?]
The philosopher's framing felt... quite unconventional?
[Well, birds flying is like people walking, right? Why would they give it up?]
The chat wasn't just arguing for the sake of it—debate sparked deeper thinking.
[But... people have chosen to stop walking. And I've never heard of birds giving up flying.]
[That's because birds don't have the brains... not smart enough? I saw flightless parrots in the Bahamas—they didn't fly away even outside cages.]
[If you raise a person in a cage from birth, they might not run either... that's a whole different issue.]
Ideas collided, generating even more ideas.
[Why do all birds fly? Survival pressure? Then why do some humans choose suicide?]
[Even if I still don't understand why birds fly, I've realized humans might possess a unique "Authority"—the ability to shape their own fate.]
...
"So this is what I say to you all—"
"If we were lucky enough to return to the origin of the world, and see the first bird—then it surely had no wings."
"It had, instead, a heart that longed to touch the heavens. A heart noble as the moon."
This philosopher's message was, clearly, romanticism.
And so, Kevin's assessment was...
That the man had courage.
Not just in that era—even centuries or millennia later, in much freer times—such views would still spark debate.
But Kevin didn't dismiss him. Quite the opposite.
With knowledge of the Previous Era, understanding its history and the birth of its ideologies—
Kevin could see the unique meaning each philosophy brought to civilization.
Countless ideas clashed in the tide of time.
And eventually, the dominant ones would guide the path of civilization.
[But... doesn't history show us that to win history's tide, what you really need is... power? Like how Confucianism only rose because the guy with the biggest fist supported it.]
[So, you're saying no one ever won the debate—just got backed harder?]
[Or maybe... the fact that no one could persuade everyone proves each view holds some truth.]
[Yeah... any idea deeply thought through has value.]
Maybe that's why—
Players could discuss every philosophical question raised in the story so passionately.
And maybe that's also why—
Kevin and Su needed to walk among people. To hear their different ideas firsthand.
Yes.
Because this was a thousand years ago, in the current era. Su hadn't fallen out with Kevin yet. Hadn't faded away.
This memory showed Kevin walking alongside Su in a newborn civilization.
At that time, they had promised—
No matter what happened, they would always move forward together.
"..."
Of course, none of that was spelled out in the scene.
But—
The moment players saw Kevin and Su side by side, they naturally recalled their old promise—
And how, in the not-so-distant future, they would part ways.
Kevin wouldn't even get to see Su one last time...
In that moment, the flood of memories hit them like an invisible blade—piercing them without a trace.
If the miHoYo writers did that unintentionally—well, maybe players were just too sensitive.
But if they did do it intentionally...
Then all we can say is—they succeeded. (Damn it!)
...
The reason Kevin and Su walked among the new civilization—
Was, of course, for a greater goal: to help it avoid the wrong paths of the past and guide it toward a better road.
[But isn't it possible that, while avoiding one dead end, they led it into another? Maybe we can't even tell which path is actually "right."]
You know...
Kevin really did wonder about that.
Sometimes, in rare moments—
He'd think:
Was humanity destined to walk the same path from the moment it was born?
Was his guidance... nothing but wishful thinking?
[So that's why Kevin said "a more correct" path, not "the correct" one? Pretty subtle writing.]
[Same formula, same flavor—but seriously, I want to know Kevin's take. What's his real opinion?]
[Me too... Everyone does, right?]
Yeah.
Everyone did.
So—
Right then, the game screen left the flashback.
Kevin walked out of the gate of light, face as expressionless as ever.
The Kevin players had seen a hundred times—full ice mode.
How thrilling. Not.
That version of Kevin clearly wasn't about to answer any of their burning questions.
Which meant—
The writers were once again baiting them.
Yep—same formula, same taste.
Player: ?!!
Emotions surged again.
As those feelings welled up—
Kevin continued walking calmly.
He wanted to see this world flowing from his own hands inside the Stigma Plan.
As for how?
Simple: he'd pick a random "lucky" dream and go in.
Observing a human's dream?
That did spark some curiosity about what he might find.
As the saying goes: no two leaves are alike—and no two dreams are, either.
Of course, that curiosity was only mild. Their emotions were still simmering after the scriptwriter's latest cliffhanger.
They were already typing in protest.
But as the lucky dream Kevin chose began to unfold...
Players who had just placed their hands on the keyboard—
Suddenly blinked, hard.
?????
Were their eyes playing tricks on them?
This dream... looked weird.
It was a deep purple-black mass. Something indescribable seemed to be writhing inside.
Was this really a human dream?
Livestream chat grew more focused and observant. Then came the question rising in their minds:
Wait—was this dream not from a human at all?
After all, humans didn't normally dream... like this, right?
At least as humans, they'd never seen such a thing.
[So what is this?]
[Hmm... judging by the color and pattern, it's probably a Honkai Beast dream. Purple and pink usually = Honkai.]
[Wait, Honkai Beasts can dream?]
[What would a Honkai Beast even dream of—sheep?]
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