"Grandpa?!"
"How could this be…"
Looking at the all-too-familiar figure before her, Theresa couldn't help but feel shocked.
Otto smiled and said: "Don't be nervous. I'm merely one of your subconscious manifestations."
"Another reference point you use to recognize yourself—understand?"
"Congratulations. Amid the random fluctuations of your subconscious, you've accidentally discovered the fact that you're dreaming…"
Up to this point, both Mei and Theresa had entered the dream, constantly uncovering the truth of the Stigmata Project.
A plan to let humanity achieve euthanasia in dreams and transform into new humans through Stigmata.
It could also… be seen as another Elysian Realm.
But no matter how the plan's form changed, it couldn't conceal one fact.
The Stigmata Project was ultimately a great culling.
Those unqualified would become nourishment, allowing the qualified to proceed toward the future.
After truly understanding the Stigmata Project, let alone the main cast—it was impossible for them to accept.
The vast majority of viewers outside the TV couldn't accept it either.
"This is how humanity is definitely going to defeat Honkai? Sure, sure, this is the kind of 'defeat' you mean!"
"Even though I can understand—the essence of this plan is 'if you can't beat it, join it,' survival of the fittest—but I still can't accept it."
"As expected of the worst plan. I really can't hold it together anymore. I knew that dog director wasn't holding back anything good!"
"Is Kevin ultimately going to become the villain after all? Please no!!"
"There won't be a second Elysia, but Mei and Kiana will succeed!"
"…"
At Fire Moth Interstellar Entertainment Company.
After glancing at the chat group messages, a flicker of disappointment passed through Bronya's eyes.
As one of the Big Three, her current position felt somewhat awkward.
Kiana had Herrscher of Flamescion, Mei had the Elysian Realm.
Only she, despite becoming the Herrscher of Reason, kept getting setbacks left and right—not to mention she hadn't gotten any major personal arc.
With the Herrscher of Corruption already dead and the finale approaching, Bronya's standing among the Big Three kept dropping.
She was even jokingly called things like "frequently having her license revoked" by quite a few fans.
Elysia keenly noticed this, quietly approached Bronya's side, and smiled:
"Don't worry. You're a protagonist too. How could the director possibly forget about you?"
Hessian had been playing a game, but from the corner of his eye he caught Elysia's glance.
He immediately cleared his throat seriously and said: "Of course. Bronya is undoubtedly one of the protagonists!"
"Revoking her license is impossible—there's only putting on mecha to make a living, that kind of thing."
Hearing Hessian personally promise this, Bronya's eyes instantly lit up.
"Not only screen time, but mecha too?"
Unfortunately, poor duck didn't know that while she got to pilot mecha, the other two were even more heavyweight.
Of course, Hessian wasn't dumb enough to say that out loud.
On TV.
Kevin's icy figure appeared once again, instantly drawing everyone's attention.
The Lord of World Serpent walked through time; in the crystallization of his dreams, the black night left behind faintly discernible starlight.
Kevin once remembered her saying:
Every faint thread of starlight in the night sky is born from fusion reactions in the core of a star.
It often takes tens of millions of years of random wandering before finally escaping to the star's surface.
Then it must cross tens of millions of years of lonely, cold journeys through the cosmos before landing precisely—not a bit off—into your and my eyes at this very moment.
"In my early years, I once believed every star in the sky was an enemy."
"But at the moment when the world was about to fall into reincarnation, I suddenly realized…"
"Every star in the sky is also the mark that civilization will ultimately break its fate."
MEI's voice echoed alongside the memories, yet Kevin's cold face showed not the slightest thaw.
The next moment, a segment of memory appeared before Kevin.
It was a little girl chatting with her father.
"Daddy, the fact that we actually have life… don't you think it's really amazing?"
Dad: "Huh?"
At this point, quite a few viewers burst out laughing on the spot.
From a god's-eye view, it was easy to understand that the little girl was MEI as a child.
But no one expected that even at such a young age, MEI was already thinking like this.
"Damn, the gap between people really is bigger than between people and dogs!"
"When I was that small, I was probably still playing in the mud—pouring my own pee on myself kind of thing."
"On the diversity of the human species: please do not generalize rare individuals to the whole group."
"…"
But on TV.
MEI continued: "Daddy, I don't understand why we have life."
"I don't understand why the world even exists. I can't think of any reason to explain it."
"…"
Dad—or rather, MEI's father—was silent for a moment before slowly saying: "MEI, don't say things like that outside."
MEI asked, not understanding: "Why not?"
MEI's father smiled: "Nobody likes hearing questions like that."
"If someone talks like that outside, people will wonder if they need to see a psychiatrist."
"Or if they ate something weird."
MEI still didn't quite get it: "But… do the people outside know the answers to these questions?"
MEI's father pondered: "I think they probably don't. And that's exactly why they don't like hearing these kinds of questions."
MEI asked: "Why is that?"
Children always have endless whys. MEI's father patiently explained:
"Because they lack the courage to face life head-on."
"You're still young… maybe you really can't understand that yet."
The memory shattered, revealing Kevin's icy-cold face—his eyes too were cold, devoid of any emotion.
"…"
After a moment of silence, Kevin opened another memory.
This time it wasn't just MEI—Kevin himself and Su were there too.
MEI began: "Please imagine a possibility. For a spacetime vaster than the universe itself."
"Your consciousness—your very life—may have already appeared countless times—only you yourself can never become aware of it."
Kevin, still a sunny young man at this point, asked: "If I myself can never become aware of it…"
"Then doesn't that mean whether this hypothesis exists or not makes no difference at all?"
It had to be said: Kevin at this stage, before he became a complete lunatic, really gave off a dumb, dazed feeling.
The kind of pure, unpolluted innocence in his eyes—clear stupidity.
And what the three were discussing was, in plain terms, a philosophical concept.
There's a saying that describes it:
For philosophy, the questions are far more important than the answers.
Another shattering and restarting of memory.
And this one was even more heavyweight, because the scene now featured that flawless pink fairy girl.
Elysia smiled brightly and said: "How about it? The test results are correct, right?"
"Just like I said—Elysia is a genuine, bona fide Herrscher."
With just her entrance, the nationwide audience erupted in excitement again. Many viewers burst into tears.
It even felt like a lifetime had passed.
When in reality, only a week had gone by…
On TV, MEI nodded hesitantly: "…Mm."
"Interestingly, I once calculated the probability of a Herrscher of your type appearing."
"It requires thirty to thirty-five consecutive zeros after the decimal point."
Elysia said somewhat surprised: "Really? But I clearly feel like I'm very ordinary?"
MEI crossed her arms: "From your subjective perspective, perhaps that's true."
"Due to an accidental symmetry breaking, you escaped the restraint called Finality."
"If I use a somewhat strange metaphor—"
"It's like someone, defying the laws of thermodynamics, used an ice cube to boil the coffee in a cup."
Faced with this analogy, Elysia's eyes sparkled:
"Wow, that would be a truly rare cosmic spectacle!"
"Thank you, MEI. For what I'm about to do next, I feel like I have a lot more confidence now."
A single short sentence landed like a soft knife.
Even MEI fell somewhat silent: "…I wish you success."
Elysia said without hesitation: "Of course! You're my guarantee of good luck, MEI."
"Maybe not every member of Fire Moth likes you…"
"But no one can deny your ability, and no one can negate your contributions."
"The things I'm going to do can only possibly bear real fruit in the future by relying on everything you've created."
"You don't have a channel to return to Honkai like I do, nor do you have the power to oppose Honkai like Kevin."
"But your wisdom can penetrate the essence of the world and point out the only possible path forward for humanity trapped in the vortex."
"Of course there are irreparable mistakes in that, sacrifices that can't be accepted—"
"But facing such an unreasonable world, who can claim they can lead everyone forward smoothly without a hitch?"
"…Thank you."
MEI first thanked her, then slowly said: "But honestly, the side of me that everyone fears most isn't those mistakes themselves, is it?"
Elysia scratched her head: "Mm… maybe that's true."
"But from my perspective, that's actually one of the important reasons everyone trusts you so much."
"Kevin should understand that best, right?"
"Ah, right—I want you to relay exactly what I just said to him, word for word."
...
The scene shifted again.
MEI came before Su and Kevin and asked: "…What are you two doing?"
Kevin scratched his head: "Uh, nothing much."
Su said: "We were discussing the changes to the plan."
"Although I understand the reasoning for changing the executor of the Stigmata Project to Kevin…"
"But you should have informed me in advance, MEI."
MEI said in surprise: "Kevin didn't tell you? This was his own application."
Su hesitated: "I know, but…"
MEI said calmly: "Everyone needs something to force themselves to keep moving forward."
"You're the same, and so is he."
Su: "…"
Seeing Su fall silent, MEI explained: "Su, if the Stigmata Project were in your hands…"
"Then from a strategic perspective, I think Kevin's analysis is correct."
"We would effectively have lost that option."
"…Am I wrong?"
Su shook his head: "…No."
So MEI stated directly: "Then, from the organization's standpoint, I require you to accept this arrangement."
Su: "Understood."
From this segment of memory, viewers undoubtedly saw a completely different MEI.
Not as Kevin's wife, but as the leader of Fire Moth.
Seeing Su accept the arrangement, MEI began to explain: "I understand how you feel."
"But in the end, we cannot measure strategic value by personal likes and dislikes."
"The Stigmata Project will only ever be the worst plan…"
"But as the final safeguard to help civilization escape its fated end, it must exist."
"Even if that means we will sacrifice our most important lives, honor, and even values."
The memory shattered again. Viewers outside the TV gained a bit more understanding of the Stigmata Project.
It truly was the worst plan—even MEI thought so.
But when the situation truly became irretrievable, it was still a viable last-resort choice.
The reason it was unacceptable was that, even now, the Current Era had not yet reached a point of absolute desperation.
As Kevin continued flipping through memories, viewers finally realized: even though Fire Moth had left behind so many plans.
In the end, the only plan that could be completed was the worst one—the Stigmata Project.
And this hopelessly cruel plan was personally carried out by Kevin himself.
But what made viewers lose it the most was that every single memory segment seemed to feature MEI.
A memory could lack Kevin, or lack anyone else.
But it could never lack MEI.
As the memories faded, after a period of silence, Kevin thought to himself:
"After all, our world itself is just that insane."
Just like the cruel and insane Stigmata Project.
Finally, Kevin arrived in an inexplicable space. Before him floated an enigmatic object.
It looked like torn space, or perhaps a strangely shaped slime?
Kevin spoke: "I'm here."
The enigmatic object in the space did not respond. Kevin spoke again:
"You've worked hard. Maintaining self in countless derivative consciousnesses—even for you, that's no easy task."
"…"
"No matter. The plan only requires you to appear at this juncture. Even if you've remained dormant until now, you have fulfilled your mission admirably."
"…"
"Of course they have the chance to prove themselves. But likewise—they must understand exactly what they are challenging."
"…"
"Yes, that is indeed an unstable factor. I'll personally go meet her shortly."
"…"
Kevin nodded: "Yes. I will bear the Authority of Finality bit by bit, exactly as planned…"
"And complete the final leg that fate has decreed for us."
"The wait of fifty thousand years is over—thank you for your hard work, Number 17."
"From now on… please rest in peace."
Only at the very end did the nationwide audience—who had been spamming question marks—realize that Kevin had been conversing with some consciousness.
But that dog director didn't release even a shred of information, forcing them to guess everything themselves.
And even as the scene shifted, it never revealed what exactly that enigmatic object was.
At best, they could guess it was the consciousness body of Number 17.
But Number 17… who exactly was that?