The Twelve Trials Starting from Zero

"Heh, the defeat of the Herrscher of the End is the condition for starting the true final trial. With the current power of human civilization, there is not even a one in a million chance of victory. The only variable is you, outsiders."

What is the final trial?

"The endless Honkai Beast frenzy."

"What are the conditions for defeating it?"

"Destroy me, there is no other way."

"Oh, destroy you?" Su Qi said with some surprise, "We're clearly enemies, is it really okay for you to be so honest?"

"Being destroyed by humanity is my wish, my goal, but only if you can do it."

He frowned slightly. "Your wish? Your goal? Why do you say that? What is the truth behind the collapse?"

"Come and ask me for the answer yourself, outsider."

After saying that, the other party stopped responding and withdrew its consciousness. The Eye of Heaven also quickly dissipated, but the collapse energy of the imaginary space continued to overflow, seemingly endless and never-ending.

"This is not a good situation..."

Su Qi sensed the increasingly dense Honkai energy in the air and decided to speed up, immediately taking the unconscious Kallen away. Moments later, based on the memories he'd obtained from Moro, he returned to Otto's secret base and quickly located his target.

"These are the relics of the previous civilization, the key to unlocking the source of the Honkai?"

He stood inside a large vault in the base, looking at a black sphere about six meters in diameter in front of him. Its surface was completely black and smooth, without any holes or gaps. He couldn't tell at all that this thing was a key.

However, in Moro's memory, this was something Otto had dug out from the ruins of that previous generation of civilization. Moreover, given the technological level of that previous generation of civilization, the key could be made in any shape. Besides, the key might not just be a key.

"So next, we need to bring this giant bowling ball back to headquarters."

As Su Qi was speaking, he was about to use his telekinesis to lift the large black ball when the personal terminal strapped to his hand suddenly beeped with a call notification. He had put it into his personal space before the battle and only took it out afterward to avoid it being damaged during the fight.

"Hey, what do you need?"

Roselle's projection appeared, her expression slightly grave, and she asked, "What did you just do?"

"Nothing more than taking the head of Otto, the enemy's general who had transformed into the Herrscher of the End. Has anything unusual happened over there?"

"See for yourself."

After she finished speaking, she sent over several sets of images, which Su Qi opened and viewed.

The first scene shows countless flying Honkai Beasts falling from the sky above the city like raindrops. The light from anti-aircraft shells and missiles explodes into bursts of sparks among the Honkai Beasts, but it is just a drop in the ocean and cannot stop the number of Honkai Beasts at all.

The second scene shows the outer perimeter of a city's defenses. From an aerial perspective, a vast expanse of purple and white water sweeps across the mountains and fields, submerging everything. This is a beast tide composed of countless Honkai Beasts of various sizes and species. Moreover, by widening the view further, one can see an endless stream of Honkai Beasts converging from all directions behind the tide.

The third scene shows the latest charts from Honkai energy monitoring agencies around the world. The function curve representing Honkai energy concentration and energy value suddenly rose sharply a moment ago, almost forming a straight line at a 90-degree angle, like a strange peak rising suddenly.

Scene four shows a large number of Honkai Beasts rushing into the city and wreaking havoc. The once bustling metropolis is now in chaos, with thick smoke billowing and ruins, fires, blood, fallen humans, damaged mechs, and of course, the horrific scene of Honkai Beasts running rampant everywhere.

Of course, there were more than just these four images; there were others, but they didn't fall into the above four categories. Su Qi just glanced at them without examining them closely and said directly, "Has the intensity of the Honkai disaster increased again?"

"Yes, and it's a sudden increase of several times over. Under these circumstances, several small (relatively speaking) city defenses have already fallen. If the disaster continues indefinitely, it's only a matter of time before most, if not all, human cities fall. And even so, the intensity of the Honkai disaster continues to rise at a considerable rate."

Su Qi sighed softly, "In other words, if we delay for too long, more and more people will be sacrificed, and our mission evaluation will definitely plummet."

The evaluation criterion for missions in this world is the number of survivors after eradicating the Honkai. Therefore, the longer the mission takes and the more casualties there are, the lower the evaluation will be.

"Based on the current situation, the number of casualties will increase rapidly in the early and mid-stages due to being caught off guard, while the pace will slow down relatively in the mid and late stages. Therefore, the sooner the mission is completed, the better."

"I understand. Fortunately, the key has been found. All we need to do now is open the door to the source of Honkai and smash that so-called Honkai will."

Roselle said, "With your current strength, we can't really help much in a battle of that level, so I'll stay here with them to minimize casualties. Also, I've already made arrangements with Abyss City. You can go there directly with the key; Einstein is waiting for you there."

"Understood. Without further ado, I'll head to Haiyuan City now."

After saying that, Su Qi hung up the call and, with the key and Karen, began to run at breakneck speed.

……

Ten minutes later, in the western Pacific Ocean, in the Mariana Trench, at the lowest level of the ancient civilization ruins of Abyss City, at the entrance to the Quantum Sea known as the "Eye of the Abyss".

"That's right, there is indeed a coordinate inside, which may be the location of the source of the Honkai."

In the blue and white, sci-fi-style hall, the black sphere brought by Su Qi had been installed in the groove in the center of the platform. Its surface was cracked with meridian-like dark blue fissures. Einstein said this while adjusting it on the control panel next to him.

Su Qi, who was standing next to him, asked, "Can we go now?"

Einstein's five fingers danced gracefully like playing the piano as he rapidly operated the panel, saying, "This key is well preserved. Once activated by the matching device in the Eye of the Abyss, it can directly send you to the coordinates via the traction beam, so theoretically there should be no problem."

But what about in reality?

"In reality, the passage to the Sea of ​​Quanta is currently blocked. Before that, we need to solve this problem first."

"An ancient serpent..."

Chapter Seventy-Seven: Stay here and do not move.

The so-called ancient serpent is the culprit behind the blockage of the Quantum Sea and the root cause of the emergence of a mysterious organization called the "World Serpent".

Several years ago, Walter Yang, the second leader of Anti-Entropy, persuaded Einstein to conduct an energy projection experiment on the Eye of the Abyss. The experiment unexpectedly caused the spatial structure to collapse, and the two fell into the spatial rift between the Sea of ​​Quanta and the real world, where they encountered a mysterious being who called himself the "Ancient Serpent."

It claims to be more ancient than human civilization, and its goal, like Destiny's Anti-Entropy, is to eliminate the Honkai calamity, but its ideology is completely different. Its plan is to transform the consciousness of all humans into a quantum information state like its own, and then create bodies that are fused with the genes of Honkai beasts to coexist with the Honkai. In this way, the Honkai will no longer pose a threat to humanity, which will naturally be considered as eliminating the Honkai calamity.

However, Walter disagreed with its philosophy, leading to a fierce battle between the two. Ultimately, Walter was defeated, sacrificing himself to send Einstein out, and using his last strength to create a barrier between the Sea of ​​Quanta and the real world, trapping the ancient serpent within the Sea of ​​Quanta.

This is precisely why Cocolia was able to seize the opportunity of Welt's absence and the weakening of the conservative forces to rise to power and become the acting leader of Anti-Entropy. Meanwhile, Einstein and Tesla, besides being politically inept, were also preoccupied with figuring out how to rescue Welt, and thus gradually lost control of Anti-Entropy.

After that, they mobilized all their resources to try to find clues related to the ancient serpent, but the other party was too well hidden and they did not make any great progress until Su Qi and Ai Jiang formed a male and female duo to brainwash the whole world, which finally exposed the mysterious organization called "World Serpent".

Through "soul searching" of numerous related individuals, Su Qi discovered that the World Serpent is a colossal entity lurking in the shadows, controlling governments worldwide and even a large number of high-ranking officials within the Heavenly Mandate Anti-Entropy regime, with a history far older than that of human civilization in this generation. They are also the true masterminds behind Cocolia and Rita.

Of course, the term "giant" is relative. Generally speaking, any secretive organization hidden in the shadows cannot outpace a legitimate organization operating in the open. This is because operating covertly means it cannot openly recruit large amounts of resources and talent, and it requires additional resources and manpower to maintain its secrecy, making it difficult to grow to a large scale.

The same applies to the World Serpents. Although powerful, their strength lies only in intelligence, secrecy, and advanced technology. Their true size is not comparable to the governments of the five major powers, and they are even inferior to Destiny and Anti-Entropy. Therefore, after Su Qi, who does not play by the rules, followed the clues and investigated them, in order to maintain the stability and harmony of the anti-collapse united front, the World Serpents in the real world were quickly exposed and killed.

Subsequently, most of the people who had been in contact with the World Serpent were purged. Only the leader of the World Serpent, "Grey Serpent," was able to barely escape because he had already transformed his consciousness into an information state. It is now unknown where he is hiding.

During this process, Su Qi and his team also obtained some information about the ancient snake.

Based on internal information about the World Serpent, it is speculated that the Ancient Serpent was also a survivor of a previous civilization, narrowly escaping destruction by transforming itself into a quantum information state. However, this also caused it to become lost in the quantum sea for an extremely long period of time.

Fortunately, it had a backup plan before transforming itself into a quantum state: an absolutely loyal android named Grey Serpent. If he gets lost in the Sea of ​​Quanta, Grey Serpent will be responsible for continuing his research and bringing him back from the Sea of ​​Quanta.

However, an unexpected event occurred. The previous generation's Herrscher of the End, in destroying civilization, damaged his secret base, causing it to be partially destroyed and the Grey Serpent to fall into a deep slumber. It wasn't until tens of thousands of years later, in this generation, that the base and the Grey Serpent were discovered by ancient humans, leading to the formation of the World Serpent organization.

Not long after, the Gray Serpent was completely destroyed, but under its guidance, the leaders of the World Snake Organization began to call themselves the Gray Serpent and made finding the ancient snake one of their most important goals.

However, let alone going to the Sea of ​​Quanta, even establishing communication with it is not an easy task. Therefore, it was not until modern times that the World Serpent finally made contact with the ancient serpent in the Sea of ​​Quanta and began to make its way around the world.

Therefore, although the World Serpent is powerful and has a history longer than that of Destiny, its true strength is not entirely proportional to its history, which is longer than that of humans. The Ancient Serpent is the same; although it has been hiding for a long time, since even Welt could fight it to a standstill and keep it outside the real world, Su Qi is naturally no less a match for it.

"If you're planning to deal with the ancient serpent, could you also check on Walter's condition for me?"

Clearly, Einstein didn't believe that the Ancient Serpent could survive against Su Qi, who had just killed the Herrscher of the End.

"No problem. Just stay here and don't move. I'll be right back."

Su Qi readily agreed, and then, with a leap of faith, jumped into the entrance to the Sea of ​​Quanta.

A dozen minutes later, Su Qi, who had just left, immediately returned, with a comatose girl with short blue-black hair tucked under his left arm.

Walter was nowhere to be seen...

Einstein's gaze swept over them, a sense of foreboding rising within him. But he suppressed his emotions for the time being, immediately stepping forward and asking in his usual calm tone, "How is it?"

"Everything went smoothly, the ancient serpent is dead."

"You killed it?"

She was somewhat surprised. Even if the ancient serpent's combat power was no match for Su Qi's, its unique form of existence ensured that it was difficult to be killed by ordinary attacks.

"Don't be surprised, I have special monster-fighting skills. As long as it's alive, I can kill even a god."

Indeed, the Ancient Serpent's existence is practically cheating; attacks with conventional attributes simply cannot inflict any real damage on it. However, skills like Death Perception, which are conceptual in nature, are an exception. Therefore, even this super cunning Ancient Serpent player was decisively defeated.

"Then... what about Walter?"

"I'm sorry..."

As Su Qi spoke, he extended his right hand, palm open, and handed a black Herrscher Core to Einstein. "When I arrived, he had already exhausted all his power, leaving only the Herrscher Core and a fragment of his mind... He asked me to bring the Herrscher Core back to you."

“Joachim…”

Gazing at the crystal-like black core, and softly murmuring his companion's true name, Einstein, who was always composed, finally couldn't help but reveal a hint of sadness and loneliness.

Finally, it's just her and me left...

She sighed inwardly, reached out and retrieved the Herrscher Core, clutching it tightly in her hand. Fragments of past memories involuntarily flashed through her mind. But quickly, having long been accustomed to joy and sorrow, she forced herself to calm down and looked at the girl tucked under Su Qi's arm. "And who is this?"

"Oh, don't worry about her. She's just a random girl I rescued on a whim. We'll just pack her up and send her to Bronya at headquarters later."

Now that the Honkai disaster is expanding rapidly, Canaan and St. Freya Academy have been abandoned by Schicksal, and all students have been transferred to the headquarters to continue their education. Therefore, Kiana, Mei, and Bronya, whose physical problems have been resolved, are also there.

After saying that, Su Qi handed the girl over to one of Einstein's assistants and asked her to find someone to take care of her. Then, getting back to the main topic, he said, "Anyway, the problem has been solved. Now you should be able to send me to the Will of Honkai, right?"

"Rest assured, everything is ready and we can depart at any time."

As Einstein spoke, he turned to look at the platform in the center of the hall. The black sphere had bloomed like a lotus flower, revealing the complex mechanical structure inside, which emitted streaks of dark blue light, resembling a radar dish, and the cannon-like object at the very center.

……

Five minutes later, accompanied by a blinding, eerie blue light, a beam of light about four feet in diameter enveloped Su Qi and shot out from the transmitter at the center of the black lotus, crashing into the Eye of the Abyss, which served as the entrance to the Sea of ​​Quanta.

The next moment, inside the Sea of ​​Quanta, in the world bubble closest to the real world, a loud explosion suddenly erupted from a deep underwater ruin that had been dormant for tens of thousands of years in the depths of a trench.

boom!!

The hall shook, and the receiving device on the central platform suddenly exploded, scattering countless mechanical parts in all directions.

"Damn, those old machines from tens of thousands of years ago are really unreliable. Luckily, Einstein used Otto's data to make a special shuttle for returning, otherwise even if I had defeated the BOSS, I would have had to go back directly."

Amidst the mess, Su Qi stood up and looked around, discovering that he was in a space exactly the same as the bottom hall of the Eye of the Abyss, almost like a copy and paste, except that the floor was covered with a thick layer of dust.

Time was of the essence, so he didn't linger and quickly found the exit, starting to run. A few seconds later, he found himself in a ruin of a previous civilization that was exactly the same as Haiyuan City in both style and structure, and it was also underwater.

He left the ruins immediately, swam swiftly upstream, broke the surface, and with a quick glance, saw the boundless sea stretching out beneath him, with land faintly visible on the horizon ahead. Without hesitation, he immediately strode across the water, breaking the sound barrier, and swiftly reached the land, where he saw a majestic, towering wall.

Calling it a wall is an understatement; more accurately, it should be described as an energy barrier.

The barrier is connected by towering, polygonal pillars, each over a hundred meters tall, that pierce the clouds. The pillars are spaced hundreds or even thousands of meters apart depending on the terrain, and are linked by a pale red, transparent energy barrier. The entire high wall stretches along the coastline like the Great Wall, with no end in sight on either side, as if encircling the entire continent.

"The Walls of Asgard..."

Su Qi had seen the same images in Rita's memories and recognized the high wall in front of him at a glance.