"???"
Seeing Li Mu deliver such an absolutely earth-shattering statement with a completely straight face, Kevin seriously wondered if she needed to get her ears checked.
"Are you telling me... that the almighty god who holds the power of life and death over humanity, the cosmic entity hellbent on wiping out the entire world, is actually a raging lesbian?!"
Looking at Kevin's utterly flabbergasted expression, Li Mu nodded solemnly.
"Correct."
"..."
Ignoring Kevin's spectacular look of disbelief, Li Mu continued. "Kevin, you are the one chosen by that god. You are the only vessel capable of bearing the totality of Its power. But unfortunately, you weren't perfect. In the eyes of that god, you had a fundamental flaw, meaning you couldn't fully accept Its embrace."
"Because of that flaw, according to the established history, our era's civilization was doomed to burn. Only a handful of sparks survived, crossing fifty thousand years of time to take root in the earth once again."
"In that new civilization fifty thousand years from now, an individual will be born who possesses the absolute highest compatibility with the Cocoon of Finality. She will fully embrace the Cocoon, finally putting an end to a cycle of reincarnation that has spanned hundreds of millions of years."
At this point, the aloofness vanished from Li Mu's face, replaced by a profound sorrow.
"In the end, humanity will survive. But it won't have anything to do with us anymore. Because we—along with all seven billion people of the Previous Era—were merely the inevitable price paid to reach that ending."
Kevin roughly understood the overarching trajectory of the future. It was a classic tale of the predecessors paving the way for the successors. But there was still one massive, glaring question she couldn't wrap her head around.
"Okay, but what does any of this have to do with turning me into a girl?!"
"Everything. The connection is paramount," Li Mu said, sitting up straight. Out of nowhere, he asked a seemingly irrelevant question. "Kevin, do you believe there can be two identical flowers in this world?"
Kevin shook her head. "Of course not. No two flowers are exactly the same."
Li Mu nodded in agreement. "True. There are no completely identical flowers in this world—but there are similar ones. Flowers that share similar traits, similar environments, and similar destinies."
Kevin furrowed her brows, completely lost. "Mu, what are you trying to say?"
Steepling his fingers in front of him, Li Mu explained patiently. "That girl born fifty thousand years from now, the one who successfully embraces the Cocoon of Finality... is a flower remarkably similar to you. In a cosmic sense, you could call her your parallel equivalent."
"There is absolutely no reason why you can't do what she does. You already possess the baseline qualifications to embrace the Cocoon of Finality; you just had a 'flaw'. In other words, if we completely eliminate that flaw right now, we won't need to bet the fate of the world on the next era. You can seize the authority of God fifty thousand years early and put a stop to this apocalypse yourself. By doing so, the billions of lives in this era will be saved."
"Two similar flowers..." Kevin muttered under her breath. "So, this 'flaw'..."
Kevin suddenly froze. She wasn't an idiot. As the gears in her head finally clicked into place, the horrific realization dawned on her.
Flaw.
The Cocoon of Finality is a lesbian.
Turning into a girl...
Combining these three pieces of data produced an incredibly absurd, yet undeniable conclusion.
Kevin's mouth twitched violently. She looked at Li Mu, her face contorting into an expression that was halfway between crying and laughing. "Mu... don't tell me this 'flaw' you kept mentioning was..."
"Yep. It was your gender."
"..."
Kevin plunged into a deep, existential crisis regarding the fundamental nature of the universe.
Fortunately, after the rollercoaster of shocks she'd endured today, her mental resilience had been buffed tremendously. She quickly adjusted her mindset. After all, she had already permanently parted ways with her little brother; the puppet master behind the apocalypse being a massive yuri fanatic honestly wasn't that hard to swallow anymore.
"So, what's the plan?" Having processed the trauma, Kevin shifted her focus to how exactly Li Mu intended to save the world.
Li Mu, of course, already had the blueprint.
"Ascending to become the God of Earth is undeniably difficult. Starting from scratch would make it virtually impossible. But while solving a master-level exam on your own is hard... copying someone else's perfect answer sheet is incredibly easy."
"As her parallel equivalent, all you have to do is retrace the life trajectory of your counterpart from fifty thousand years in the future. Do what she did, and you'll smoothly inherit the power of Finality."
"So that's the real reason you gender-bent me?" Even though her anger had mostly subsided, hearing it laid out like this still made Kevin incredibly uncomfortable. "Just so I can walk down someone else's path and become a cheap imitation?"
Li Mu simply shrugged at the complaint. "Well, Kevin, do we have any other options? I highly doubt you want to sit back and watch everyone you care about turn to ash in the Finality's wake, right?"
"..."
"Alright," Kevin sighed in defeat. "What's our first move?"
Compared to a future where every single person she loved died horribly, spending the rest of her life as a girl wasn't the worst trade deal in history.
Seeing Kevin fully on board, Li Mu secretly breathed a massive sigh of relief. All his meticulous preparations hadn't been in vain. The first major hurdle had been cleared. As long as the next steps went smoothly, he'd finally have a genuine chance at flipping this doomed chessboard.
"A massive Honkai Eruption is about to take place right here in Nagazora City," Li Mu said, locking eyes with her. "It will birth a Herrscher. Your mission is to defeat her!"
"A Herrscher?" Kevin blanched, staring at him in utter disbelief. "You mean the Herrscher of Finality we just saw?!"
With her current petite, soft frame, she figured the only way she could possibly defeat the Herrscher of Finality was by dying in such a pathetic, hilarious way that the cosmic entity literally died of laughter.
Li Mu shook his head. "Of course I wouldn't send you to fight Finality right now. You just need to deal with the 3rd Herrscher."
Kevin exhaled a massive breath she hadn't realized she was holding. Her bravado instantly returned. "How strong is this 3rd Herrscher? Not to brag or anything, but I'm pretty damn good in a street fight."
"Oh, she's not too bad. She only has enough raw destructive power to completely wipe the entire East Asian continent off the map. In the original history, a few hundred million people died because of her."
"ONLY?!" Kevin shrieked.
"What's the big deal?" Li Mu looked at her weirdly. "She's just an early-game mob. Compared to the future you, she wouldn't even be fit to tie your shoes. In the original timeline, you fought the Herrscher of Finality all the way to the moon and literally ground the Imaginary Space to dust."
"You said it yourself—that's the future me!" Kevin shot back. "Right now, I'm just a normal high schooler! How the hell am I supposed to fight a walking nuke with my bare hands?!"
Panting heavily, a sudden thought struck Kevin. She squinted suspiciously at Li Mu. "Hold on a second, Mu. If you're a Regressor... shouldn't you already know who this Herrscher is?"
"Why don't we just find the host before they awaken and lock them up?"
Hearing this surprisingly tactical suggestion, Li Mu paused. He looked Kevin up and down, genuine amazement pooling in his eyes.
"W-What?" Kevin squirmed under his intense gaze.
"I'm just stunned that you actually managed to come up with a thought that complex," Li Mu sighed dramatically. It was like watching a lovable idiot finally rub two brain cells together to create a spark.
Kevin rolled her eyes. "What kind of brain-dead moron do you think I am? A gorilla?"
Li Mu chuckled, then shook his head. "It's a smart idea, but unfortunately, it won't work. Unless absolutely necessary, I will not interfere with the life trajectories of the Herrscher hosts before they awaken."
"Why not?" Kevin argued. "Isn't it better to nip the threat in the bud?"
"I could easily capture the host before they awaken, or even assassinate them. But what happens after that? If the original vessel is gone, the Cocoon of Finality will simply choose a new one. Remember, every single human on this planet is a potential target."
"Since that's the case, it's vastly superior to leave the original hosts alone. That way, we maintain total control of our intelligence advantage. We can use this prep time to quietly accumulate power, and the moment they erupt, we strike them down instantly, minimizing the casualties."
"Makes sense." Kevin sighed. "So, what exactly do you need me to do right now?"
"The time isn't ripe to take out the 3rd Herrscher yet. However, there are preparations we can make in advance. Kevin, I need you to enroll in Chiba Academy and protect someone."
"Who?"
Instead of answering, Li Mu pulled out a photograph and slid it across the table.
Kevin looked down. It was a picture of a girl with short, elegant purple hair and glasses, radiating a quiet, scholarly charm.
The moment Kevin's eyes locked onto the girl in the photo, she was utterly captivated.
She pressed a hand against her chest, feeling her heart suddenly hammering uncontrollably against her ribs.
Is this it? Is this that legendary feeling? Love at first sight?!
But as her hand rested over her heart, instead of a flat, muscular chest, she felt an undeniable, plush softness.
Instantly, a wave of profound, arctic desolation swept through her soul.
The crushing realization hit Kevin like a freight train: with her current anatomy, she could only ever be "sisters" with the girl of her dreams.
She slowly raised her head and glared at Li Mu, her eyes brimming with an infinite, bottomless resentment.