Regarding the question of whether one thousand lives are enough to beat Honkai Impact 3rd.

55. A harbinger of collapse.

In the clean and bright lounge, the only decorations were the mountains of documents piled on the desks and the data constantly flashing on the electronic screens.

The ground was covered with food packaging debris and brown stains.

In a time when thoughtful cleaning robots have long been a part of every household, this scene is somewhat rare.

This is especially true given that this office is located in the very center of the laboratory.

The old man bent over his desk and took off the glasses that were perched on his nose.

His eyes held an undeniable weariness and exhaustion. Even though he had diligently practiced martial arts to nourish his blood and improve his health in his youth, those skills had been worn away by his daily and nightly research.

The muscles and bones throughout his body have long since inevitably entered a period of rapid decline. The tall and strong body of his youth has withered and shrunk to this frail state where only his spine remains straight.

They eat only nutritional liquids and solid energy pastes for three meals a day, and special coffee has become an essential item for maintaining high concentration.

The old man was over seventy years old, and no one could understand how long he could maintain this belief and endure such torment day and night.

At his own suggestion, the higher-ups agreed to the possibility that the Honkai would completely crush humanity.

After all, from a racial standpoint, one can never be too cautious when it comes to such endless calamities.

To this end, under the leadership of the entire UN leadership, a series of initiatives to promote the seeds of civilization have already begun at this stage.

The current trend of Honkai is getting worse. Although there have been no events that have seriously harmed the entire human society or completely crushed the government's credibility, the continuous occurrence of Herrschers and the increasing frequency of Honkai outbreaks have forced us to make more plans.

At present, most of the government's funds, manpower and resources are naturally invested in how to resist the counterattack and collapse. The plan to continue the flame of civilization is only a basic contingency plan prepared in advance for a possible situation.

The funds allocated to these programs were clearly far less than those allocated to other projects aimed at improving the odds of winning the war.

As an expert in the field of quantum mechanics, he led one of the projects within the Spark Program.

That is, by utilizing the core link of the Second Herrscher to the Sea of ​​Quanta, it can be transformed into a backyard for humanity to store information, materials, and technologies of civilization.

Previous laboratories have made no progress in this almost completely unknown field, despite spending a lot of money and sacrificing the lives of hundreds of children in continuous human experiments to correct the errors.

The final result was that it was impossible to even get the object into a relatively stable quantum state.

But the existence of Seele Voller broke this deadlock.

This child, who was placed last in the experiment due to his exceptional qualities, successfully gave the disheartened crowd an unexpected surprise.

She successfully transformed into a quantum state, thus overcoming the hundreds of deaths she had accumulated and successfully entering the quantum sea.

The laboratory staff also recorded real data on how to link the Sea of ​​Quanta using the Second Herrscher core. With this data, the success rate of the experiment will be greatly improved.

This also proves that the quantum sea, which had previously only existed in theory, truly exists.

This seemingly absurd experimental project has thus been put on the right track.

The Sea of ​​Quanta is a mystery that is difficult to access with human technology at this stage without the use of Herrscher powers.

Even if the experiment breaks out of the initial deadlock, without the successful case of Seele-Velocity, it's unknown how many detours it will take to make another breakthrough.

Therefore, the moment the elderly person noticed the signal, they contacted their superiors to request that Seele O. Fulei be brought back to the laboratory.

However, the current result is an unexpected declaration of failure.

Someone rescued her.

The old man closed his eyes and rubbed his temples for a while.

His expression was habitually solemn, and the unconscious furrowing of his eyebrows revealed a sense of worry.

The old man kept recalling the images and various analytical data that came from the soldier's perspective.

As a researcher at this level, his knowledge of secrets and his authority far exceeded that of Xing Chen, but even with a broader database and data analysis, the results were still meaningless.

The boy's information had been thoroughly investigated within thirty minutes of him receiving the message.

Preliminary assessments indicate that the earliest traces left by the other party in this world were a few months ago. This young man named Su Qing'an lived in that small eastern city for a while before coming to Canghai City.

The only trace he left behind before this was an energy vehicle in the mountains beside the abandoned highway. Following this clue, it is suspected that Su Qing'an's earliest appearance was in that abandoned wasteland.

That was an observation site of one of the subordinate research institutes of the Fire-Chasing Moth, which has been abandoned for some time now.

There was nothing of value inside, only hordes of Honkai Beasts.

The reason why the Fire Moths didn't deal with these Honkai Beasts was that the wasteland had experienced a small Honkai outbreak.

Even if all the Honkai Beasts are dealt with in a short time, the intense Honkai energy in the area will still quickly give rise to a new batch of monsters as time goes by.

Therefore, it was sufficient to clean up the area several months later to the point that it would not affect the surrounding towns.

However, when the old man connected to the abandoned research institute and activated the external monitoring equipment, he keenly discovered that the number of Honkai Beasts in the wasteland was far less than the data estimated.

The reasons behind this are self-evident.

Everything Su Qing'an showed from the moment he appeared in this world indicated that he was very abnormal.

Based on just the tip of the iceberg that has been revealed so far, the old man dared to conclude that this was a powerful warrior who was unarmed and could fight against an Emperor-level Honkai Beast without any external assistance.

Even the Fire Moths, specifically designed to fight against the Honkai, cannot find a warrior who possesses this ability without the aid of equipment.

This is undoubtedly an incredible thing, as it is an organization established by the United Nations to combat the violence of the Honkai.

Yet, even with such unstable factors, there is still a veil of mystery surrounding them.

Even with the help of the intelligence network at higher levels, the old man could not find any trace of Su Qing'an left behind in that wasteland.

In an era of technological prosperity and extreme official authoritarianism, if the upper echelons were willing to trace a person's life in the world, even an unregistered resident living in a backward area not yet part of the United Nations could not erase the traces so cleanly.

But Su Qing'an did it, it was as unreasonable as if she had never existed in this world before.

If possible, the old man would naturally not want to be enemies with such a person.

Excessive mystery implies a lot of unknown information and enigma, and the unknown always makes people hesitant to act rashly.

At the same time, theoretically, even if Seele Vollerai left the quantum sea and met Su Qing'an immediately after leaving the laboratory, that period of time wouldn't be considered very long.

Even if the other party declared that they regarded him as family, he did not think Su Qing'an would choose to face the laboratory with the United Nations background so recklessly unless he was absolutely certain that he could protect himself.

Of course, the old man acknowledged that not everyone lives in this world by adhering to the principle of doing what is within their capabilities, but it is undeniable that the boy did have that kind of confidence when he said those words.

That was as if they were bluntly telling the people in the lab to consider whether Seele Voller was worth making them their enemy.

However, if it were based solely on the previous experimental progress, the higher-ups would certainly not have taken such a risk given their level of attention to this matter.

But things might be a little different now. Knowing that obtaining Seele Voller will allow the experiment to move quickly toward its ultimate goal, even if the plan is currently only one of the final backups, it can still receive attention from the government.

In other words, regarding the Seele/Velocity incident.

His authority has risen from instructing modified soldiers like Xing Chen to the point where he can contact the Moth Chaser faction and request this violent organization to take action.

The old man's position and personality were not suited to worrying about things outside of experiments. It would be more appropriate to leave this matter to Moth Chaser to decide whether there was room for maneuver.

Professional matters should naturally be considered by professionals to weigh the true advantages and disadvantages. Even though Mu En himself understands the current situation, the Moth Chaser is unlikely to pose a threat to Su Qing'an.

But as a researcher, all I need to do is find out whether it's possible or not.

If it's the former, that's naturally the best; if it's the latter, there's no need to lament.

Humanity needs time. The reason why the current Fireseed Project is not receiving much attention is that the war has not yet reached its worst point.

But what about the future?

During the experiment, the old man witnessed firsthand the greatness and mystery conceived within the core of the Second Herrscher. Assuming that such monsters would continue to appear one after another, he held a pessimistic attitude even from a human perspective.

It was this mindset that led him to become the head of the project team.

Perhaps one must have the mindset that this project is likely to play a role in order to acquire the tenacity to overcome any setbacks or difficulties.

It is precisely this sense of honor and mission to ignite the flame for the continuation of civilization that led the elderly man, who had vehemently opposed human experimentation a few years ago, to personally soil his own hands during what should have been a time of enjoying his retirement.

The elderly man named Moon is over seventy years old, which would be retirement age in most industries.

In fact, he had retired for a period of time, during which time Moon entered the church and chose to believe in an ethereal deity.

But as the war of Honkai intensifies, he is worried about the future of humanity and finally makes up his mind after witnessing the true nature of the Second Herrscher's power.

With all his connections, resources, and wealth as collateral, the old man presented his experimental goals to the United Nations government and ultimately won the right to conduct experiments using the Second Herrscher Core.

The experiment has always been in a difficult pioneering stage, and the support from the higher authorities is ultimately limited, especially when there is no progress or return in sight.

If it weren't for Seele Voller's intervention, which gave her an unexpected turnaround in what should have been a failed experiment, this seemingly fantastical grand plan might have been abruptly cut short.

One fact has now been established.

Seele is special; with her around, the experiment could very well make rapid progress once again.

Based on the current experimental results, Moon has found the signposts in the direction of chaos from that set of data.

This is equivalent to finding the fulcrum to leverage something, which allowed the experimental team to understand the true direction of their efforts, and Seele's role made that direction even clearer.

Especially after learning that she could actively enter the quantum state, Moon became even more certain of her value.

Therefore, even if Seele Vollerai is not worth turning against the upper echelons and Su Qing'an at this stage, it may not be so in the future.

Of course, as part of the Spark Project, the faster the experimental progress in this area, the better.

Thinking of this, the old man dialed a number and made a phone call.

……

……

"Based on the information you provided, Doctor, it's currently difficult to force the Fire Moth to compromise. Trying to influence his daily life would be tantamount to starting a direct war."

"This is not a question of whether we can win the battle against the other side, but rather that as long as he stays in Canghai City, we cannot fight him."

"The only possible scenario for taking action against him is based on the premise that it will not be discovered by the residents of Canghai City. As for the reason, you should understand that the government's policy in this regard has always been the same."

The old man on the other end of the communicator frowned upon hearing this and said:

"I have done a preliminary analysis of the map of Canghai City. If we consider the destructive power shown in the video, we can fight in one of the abandoned and unreconstructed areas."

“You have the ability to infinitely reduce the impact of a disaster within a certain range, which is not difficult with the help of the government.”

The woman calmly rejected the proposal, saying softly:

“You know Doctor, no lion would deliberately jump into the abyss, especially when the only bait that can hook him is right next to him.”

The woman speaking with Moon was mature in both temperament and age. Her bright red hair cascaded down her soft waistline, and her tight-fitting black dress accentuated her beautiful figure.

The woman stood there in the quiet room, wearing black high heels.

The view from the outside world was clearly visible through the reinforced glass, and the endless yellow sand was reflected in her calm, amber eyes.