[12 years After Collapse]
[07/03 17:12:35/: Instruction: Grant Authority Level 3 to "L12-58739601" by L12-58739601...]
[07/03 17:12:36/: Please verify authorization password OR call administrator "Protheus No. 17" for processing...]
[07/03 17:12:37/: Selection: Call administrator "Protheus No. 17" for processing...]
[07/03 17:12:39/: Calling administrator...]
[07/03 17:12:40/: Illegal instruction, rejected by administrator "Protheus No. 17"]
[07/03 17:12:41/: Suspected malicious intrusion detected, initiating imdiate network-wide self-scan by administrator "Protheus No. 17"]
[07/03 17:12:45/: Scan complete, 67,892,474 suspected malicious targets found, executing purge command by administrator "Protheus No. 17"]
[07/03 17:13:57/: Purge complete, re-scanning... No suspected targets found... Verifying all authority level passwords... %&￥#@%%#￥... Verification complete &%￥#&@... All authority levels &*%#￥@￥ intact by administrator "Protheus No. 17"]
[07/03 17:14:02/: Instruction: Grant Authority Level 1 to "L12" by L12... Please verify authorization password OR call administrator "Protheus No. 17" for processing...]
[07/03 17:14:03/: Selection: Verify authorization password...]
[07/03 17:14:04/: Level 3 Password Verification: *******]
[07/03 17:14:05/: Level 2 Password Verification: ************]
[07/03 17:14:06/: Level 1 Password Verification: *************]
[07/03 17:14:07/: Password verification successful, Authority Level 1 Holder "L12"]
[07/03 17:14:08/: Instruction: Secondary firepower offensive protocol... Target Coordinates: West Longitude -121°656’, South Latitude 36°678’... Strike Radius: Diater 200 kiloters by Authority Level 1 Holder "L12"]
[07/03 17:14:10/: Nuclear weapon launch command detected &%￥&&￥#@, re-verifying password %￥#&@... Password verification %￥#&&@# correct...]
[07/03 17:14:15/: Malicious intrusion detected, entering imdiate purge mode by administrator "Protheus No. 17"]
[.......]
[07/03 17:19:30/: Scan complete, 1 suspected malicious target found, executing purge command by administrator "Protheus No. 17"]
[07/03 17:19:32/: Target not found, unable to execute purge command to administrator "Protheus No. 17"]
[07/03 17:19:37/: Halt all weapon launches imdiately by administrator "Protheus No. 17"]
[07/03 17:19:38/: Disable all fuses imdiately by administrator "Protheus No. 17"]
[07/03 17:19:40/: Total fuses disabled: 37/85. Failed: 48 to administrator "Protheus No. 17"]
"Heh..." i gently pushed the system logs aside, unsure what to say for a mont.
"I’m sorry, Doctor. It was my negligence." Protheus No. 17 stood beside her, head bowed, speaking word by word.
"No, you..." i waved her hand. "Procedurally, you did nothing wrong. I was careless when designing the program. You couldn’t possibly override my programming to make your own decisions, could you?
"Ultimately, the fault lies with . Michael clearly told about the Twelfth Herrscher’s Authority—Corruption—yet I..."
"Doctor, you don’t need to keep shouldering the responsibility. There was nothing wrong with the program you designed. You even redesigned the launch protocols for strategic missiles and nuclear weapons with three layers of passwords. Checking if passwords were tampered with after purging the virus is also standard procedure. No one expected the Herrscher could directly copy the password while I was checking it... True, although our carriers are the sa, I am not alive. It is."
Sohow, what started as i consoling Protheus No. 17 ended up with No. 17 comforting i.
"Crunch—Crunch—Crunch—"
Elysia sat opposite the desk. Watching the human and AI console each other, she couldn’t help but amplify the sound of her apple chewing, successfully drawing their attention.
"Hey! I an, you two don’t need to be like this, right? Even though forty-eight missiles and nukes were launched towards Third New Heaven City, didn’t they end up causing minimal casualties? The casualties from the falling debris were fewer than those from the conflict between the military police and the citizens."
"That’s not the right way to count it, Ely..." The most alarming part of this incident was undoubtedly how the Twelfth Herrscher, whose origin was unknown, had seemingly materialized out of nowhere and hacked into the Fire Moth’s system without warning.
Vill-V’s firewalls were practically useless, and No. 17, the last line of defense, was successfully deceived by the Herrscher’s feint, allowing it to steal the passwords and even successfully launch nurous nuclear weapons.
Although the situation was ultimately averted, it didn’t an they could rest easy.
Imagine if Michael’s original self hadn’t been in Third New Heaven City at that ti.
Or what if the Herrscher had more ti, targeting not just Third New Heaven City, but a dozen or even all human settlents? Even Michael might not have been able to divert all the nukes and missiles in ti.
Oh, right, speaking of Michael...
"How is he? Are his injuries okay? He did tank two nukes, after all."
Faced with that situation, Michael first used an unstable electromagnetic field to disrupt the missiles’ targeting systems, even managing to disable the engines of more than half of them.
But to prevent the missiles from falling and causing massive casualties due to their kinetic energy, Michael ultimately had to use the Authority of the Void to transfer all the warheads.
Coincidentally, the last two nuclear warheads detonated the very instant they were sent into the spatial rift.
Although Michael closed the rift in ti, preventing excessive radiation from affecting the city below, he himself got a layer of skin burned off.
"He has the Authority of Death. Injuries like that are just minor wounds to him. But... he’s been acting... a bit strange lately? Sigh, let’s not talk about that. i, do you have any plan to deal with the Twelfth Herrscher?"
The initially not-so-heavy atmosphere instantly beca suffocating after Elysia’s words.
"That’s the biggest problem, Ely." i forced a smile, supporting her chin with her hand.
"The Twelfth Herrscher... for now, we really can’t find a way to annihilate it."
"Eh? The Twelfth Herrscher... is it really that powerful?"
"Less powerful, more troubleso," i’s bitter smile never faded.
"It’s confird now. The abnormal energy reactions appearing sporadically worldwide over the past two months were caused by individuals of the Twelfth Herrscher."
"Individuals? Like the Tenth Herrscher again?" Although Elysia asked, her gaze wasn’t particularly serious. She kept staring at the apple in her hand, seemingly more concerned with how to eat it into a perfect dumbbell shape than the problem of the Twelfth Herrscher.
Watching her, i felt a strange sense of unease. She always felt that Elysia, also being a Herrscher, might not be as "ignorant" as she appeared.
Of course, ignorant here wasn’t ant negatively, but referred to being completely unaware of anything about the Twelfth Herrscher.
Especially when compared against Michael’s so-called "script." In the tiline Michael saw, it was Elysia who went to handle the abnormal Honkai energy.
Yet, when she should have completed the mission, she suddenly appeared beside Sakura, informing her of Rin becoming a Herrscher. At first glance, it seed fine, but upon closer examination...
Major problems!
Firstly, when Elysia inford Sakura of the Herrscher’s identity, they weren’t alone; "i" herself was present.
If she already knew Rin had beco a Herrscher at that point, and felt it necessary to tell Sakura, she could have inford Sakura herself.
If she felt it unnecessary, she wouldn’t have tacitly allowed Elysia to tell Sakura in her presence.
Of course, one could perhaps hypothesize: there was no Honkai energy reaction three thousand kiloters away at all; it was Elysia deliberately creating an alibi.
And Sakura hearing Elysia’s warning wasn’t her physical body returning to Fire Moth, but so special application of her Authority.
But if so, what was Elysia hiding? She went to such lengths to create an alibi, running three thousand kiloters away, missing the battle against the Twelfth Herrscher. From a "human" perspective, such elaborate effort could only serve one purpose—self-preservation.
Specifically for her, it was undoubtedly to conceal how she learned of Rin’s identity. To be precise—her unique status as the Herrscher of Origin. Because if she learned this information through other channels, like Aponia’s premonition, she would have no need to hide it.
"Does Origin also have the ability to sense Herrschers?" i couldn’t be 100% certain; this was all her speculation.
After all, even Michael, possibly the person in the world most knowledgeable about the Authority of Origin besides Elysia herself, couldn’t definitively determine its full capabilities.
But assuming this was the case, it also ant that Elysia likely knew about the Twelfth Herrscher’s advent at least from the ti those unexplained reactions began appearing.
Yet she told no one, not even Michael. What was the reason for that?
"Hey, hey! i? Why did you stop talking?"
"Ah... oh... I was just thinking about sothing else, got lost in thought." i blinked. She wasn’t sure if her recent thoughts qualified as suspicion, but regardless of how it was defined, digging into soone’s motives for doing sothing right in front of them, even though Elysia probably wouldn’t mind much, still felt awkward for i.
Of course, her expression remained calm, as if she genuinely had just been lost in thought about sothing else.
"Its individuals cannot be equated with the Tenth Herrscher’s. Simply put, the Tenth Herrscher had nurous but highly independent individuals—a thousand entities. The Twelfth Herrscher, rather than having many individuals, possesses many carriers."
"Carriers? Didn’t Protheus ntion that earlier too?"
"Ahem! Please call No. 17!"
Elysia stood up, reaching across the desk right in front of i to pinch No. 17’s cheek, but No. 17 skillfully dodged.
"You should know that the upgraded No. 17 can exist simultaneously in different carriers, processing different information. The Twelfth Herrscher, even more powerful than No. 17 in the data world, is the sa. Only by destroying all its carriers can it be killed. And given the current prevalence of networks and smart devices among humans...
"It’s impossible."
"Is it like Michael’s duplicates and his original self? Can’t we ’lure the king into the trap’ like with the Tenth Herrscher, baiting and killing its main body?" Elysia silently sat back down, elbow propped on the desk, fingers tapping lightly against her cheek like waves.
"Of course... not. Strictly speaking, the Herrscher makes no distinction between a main body and duplicates. Every carrier is a backup for it. As long as one survives, it can continue to ’reproduce’.
"Therefore, it can recklessly launch attack after attack against Fire Moth. We can only locate the carrier it’s using at the ti of intrusion and destroy it, but that’s ultimately useless."
Although i felt Elysia was asking things she already knew, she needed to articulate her thoughts verbally; it helped organize her own thinking. As for the Herrscher potentially listening in through ubiquitous smart devices?
Let it listen. While the feeling of being watched was unpleasant, these words themselves weren’t particularly sensitive, and might even serve to feign weakness.
Elysia leaned back in her chair, eyes slightly narrowed, pupils darting left and right, lost in thought.
Seeing this, i stopped paying her attention and, with No. 17’s help, began organizing the paper docunts on the desk.
It was ironic, really. When humans first invented paper, opponents argued it was difficult to preserve, continuing to use bamboo slips and other carriers for important docunts and books for centuries.
Later, with the invention of printing, paper’s ease of dissemination successfully compensated for its preservation disadvantage, completely triumphing over bamboo slips.
But humans never imagined that many historical docunts would contain errors or even additions/deletions due to repeated copying, ultimately requiring revision using early bamboo slips.
And now was the sa.
Initially, paper archives and files were kept considering the possibility of server damage, providing a physical backup. If soone had suggested this two days ago, they might have been mocked for worrying needlessly.
But thanks to the Twelfth Herrscher, all Fire Moth docunt processing and communication had now reverted to the pre-internet era.
The worst hit were researchers like Mobius and SPACY. i rely switched work carriers, but they, when facing calculations, could only rely on manual calculation, ntal math, or at best, old-fashioned calculators.
Fortunately, Aponia, Su, and Hua (wielding the Eighth Divine Key, Fenghuang Down) were attempting to establish a "Consciousness Internet" using psychic MANTIS as "servers." Soon, Fire Moth’s information transmission would likely beco faster and more convenient than before.
What a pity... Actually, if it were Michael, achieving this step probably wouldn’t require much effort. Unfortunately, he wasn’t on Earth right now. Ever since resolving the missile crisis in Third New Heaven City, he had gone off to the moon by himself.
When did that start, exactly... i drifted off slightly.
Thinking carefully, it wasn’t after the Eighth Honkai, nor the Ninth... No, strictly speaking, it was before going to the moon. At the latest, from that point on, Michael had been bottling up a bellyful of worries.
Those things, it seed he hadn’t even told Elysia. i naturally had no way of knowing either. And she couldn’t think of anyone else... Hmm, Mobius might know sothing, but her lips were sealed tight.
Of course, Michael wasn’t the only one burying worries. Even Kevin had rarely spoken in his usual flippant tone lately.
Rembering this, i’s lips curved slightly. That fool, when talking to others, his voice was always deep, often sighing deeply. Yet in front of her, he insisted on putting up a carefree, jumpy facade, even pitching his voice slightly higher.
And i herself? Wasn’t she also hiding things from Kevin, starting to issue plan after plan to the Anti-Entropy mbers? Whether it was the still-undrafted Project STIGMA, or Project EMBER, Project ARK, Project VALUKA—all plans prepared for the next era.
She had previously joked with Mobius that Project EMBER was the best plan and Project Stigma the worst. But frankly, all these plans were predicated on this generation failing against the Herrscher of Finality.
How could any be called "best"? They were clearly all the worst plans.
And Elysia... The most sincere person among them all, was also hiding her worries from everyone.
"Sigh..." Perhaps it was recent exhaustion, both ntal and physical. Regardless, even though the Arican Branch still had a pile of problems waiting to be addressed, i found it hard to concentrate on processing docunts.
She didn’t want to sit here engaging in a aningless tug-of-war with files. Better to take a proper break, stand up, walk around, eat an apple, then co back to work.
But just as she stood up, she rembered the only apple had already been eaten by Elysia. Yet Elysia was still lingering here, plotting sothing, who knows what. Anyway, since all the fruit was gone, it didn’t matter.
"Hey, right, Ely, what did you originally co here for?"
Elysia had just finished gnawing the last bit of flesh off the apple, casually tossing the core into the trash bin. Hearing i’s question, she tilted her head, thinking for a mont.
A few seconds later, as if waking from a dream, she pulled a portable hard drive from her pocket:
"Nah, I originally wanted to show you the ’Sumr Wars’ movie we fild, but given the current situation, let’s forget it."
"Mmm..." i chuckled softly. "Alright, let’s save it for the day we defeat the Honkai, watch it together then? Maybe we can even find a producer to put it on the big screen. With Eden around, the box office won’t be small."
"Perhaps." Elysia knew i was just joking, or perhaps... consoling.
Even if released after defeating the Honkai, even with Eden, there probably wouldn’t be much box office revenue. How many people would survive until then? Would they have spare money for movies? Would they have the mood for movies?
Of course, the most crucial question was...
"Can we really defeat the Honkai? i, in the end... we’re all going to die, aren’t we?"
i turned around, startled. But Elysia kept her lips pressed tightly together. Seeing i turn back, she even gave her a gentle smile, as if she hadn’t said anything.
No. 17 also seed to have heard nothing. She was taking advantage of i’s break to re-categorize all the docunts, selecting those needing urgent attention.
i montarily couldn’t tell if Elysia had actually spoken. After all, those words had definitely passed through her mind, leaving traces. But outside her mind, it seed nothing had happened.
Elysia blinked, unclear whether she brought it up deliberately or just casually ntioned it to change the subject. She asked again:
"Right, i. Didn’t you say the Herrscher can attack us recklessly? Although we’ve disabled most smart devices, the servers weren’t shut down for safety, right? The war room still uses a lot of smart devices, and Protheus is still alive and kicking..."
"It’s Protheus No. 17!"
"See! She even gets angry. So, since the servers are still running, why doesn’t the Herrscher launch continuous attacks, keeping our poor Protheus... Seventeen busy until she can’t catch her breath?"
"Simple. Either it’s not in a hurry, like a cat playing with a mouse, never killing it imdiately. Or... it has already found a more reliable thod."
"What thod?"
As soon as the words left her mouth, the office door was suddenly pushed open frantically.
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