Why can't humans do it too?

After leaving the ruins of the village where he grew up, Riku encountered the village where Cole was fleeing, and then, in the body of a thirteen-year-old boy, he led everyone on their journey to this day.

"I thought it was just a chance glance back then, but I never expected that from that moment on, Shubi would follow me closely, and even her desire to seek the meaning of the heart was because of me..." Even Riku himself found this fact quite strange, and he chuckled as he spoke of it.

"Doesn't that mean all the changes and developments in the settlement over the years have been under the watchful eyes of the Machine Race?" Suer felt a little horrified.

“Yes, although we’ve known for a long time that human settlements can be easily detected by other races at any time, it’s a different story when they’re established right under our noses from the very beginning,” Riku couldn’t help but smile wryly. “Fortunately, Shubi has already broken off from the connector, otherwise it would be a real headache and we wouldn’t know what to do.”

"...So Shubi wanted to forcibly take you away from the settlement because she was afraid you would be in danger?" Having not been led astray by Riku, Sue finally returned to the place the white-haired man had wanted to casually take her away from, "Because Shinko...no, should I say Jibril is someone she can't defeat?"

"Well, according to what she said when she first appeared, the Winged Race is quite capricious and bloodthirsty. She tried to hide herself as soon as she saw them from a distance, and then wanted to take me away as soon as she realized that the Winged Race had left." Riku's expression became complicated when he talked about Shubi's initial thoughts. He probably had doubts about it himself.

Chapter 229 Riku's Plan

"Tsk tsk tsk tsk tsk."

"...Could you please stop making such strange noises?" Riku looked speechlessly at the guy who was shaking his head and sighing about something.

“Strange? Not strange at all,” Sur said, not only continuing his chorus but also clapping his hands in admiration. “I never expected that you could attract a Machine Race at the age of thirteen. Riku, you’re much more capable than I thought.”

“…What do you mean?” Riku asked, his eyes, which had been shining brightly, now rolled back into dead fish eyes. He seemed not to understand, but Sull judged that the man was pretending to be stupid.

"Of course it's because of what happened between you two," Suer said bluntly. "She's fallen for you, hasn't she?"

"Pfft! Cough cough cough! Don't talk nonsense!"

Although he had a premonition, Riku still felt his face suddenly burning when Sull actually said it. The white-haired man lunged to the side to cover Sull's mouth, but unfortunately, a well-trained guy dodged it a step ahead.

"No matter how you look at it, it's all because of love, right?"

"No matter how you look at it, it's because she wants to know the answer to her question, right? And don't just say 'I love you' all the time!"

Liku's voice, which had suddenly risen, dropped sharply as Suer put his index finger to his lips and pointed towards the outside of the cave. Despicable!

After a little playful scuffle, although he received two friendly punches from Riku, Sull felt gratified. When he last came back, Riku said that he had become much more cheerful. However, in Sull's opinion, Riku had also become more cheerful now. At least, the Sull who used to be so full of bitterness and resentment would never have smiled as happily as he does now... Did that machine race change him?

There's nothing wrong with that.

"...Can machine races have children?"

After a bit of playful fighting, the two sat on the ground, both lost in thought, in silence, until Suer suddenly broke the silence with his voice.

"Cough cough cough cough cough!!"

The coughing was even more intense than before. Riku, who was far more innocent than Sull, who had a past life experience, was completely overwhelmed by the question. He tried to maintain his dignity with a poker face, but he broke down on the spot.

"Just curious," Sur explained, patting Riku on the back with a serious expression, but what he really wanted to ask was...

It cannot be said, it cannot be said.

"Let's get down to business! Tell me what's happened to you these past two years! Don't just make me talk!" Riku said, selectively omitting a segment of memory, as he forcefully elbowed Sul in the ribs.

"It's an adventure that's practically a mythical epic! I even took some photos, let me show you!" Sul couldn't help but feel proud when he talked about it. He even took out a stack of photos from his bag, ready to brag about them.

"Let me think we can start with the marine species..."

Compared to Riku's monotonous expedition and his stories with the Machine Race, Sull's experiences were much richer, especially with the colorful illustrations in the photos, which made it even more interesting. From the deepest seabed to the power of the Fantasy Race connecting the sea and the sky, the ocean of elves, and the appearance of the God Race, Sull talked about many, many things.

Unlike last time, this time even though they had been talking for a long time, no one else came to disturb them until the very end.

"So you've found the answer that the forging god Okan spoke of?" Riku asked excitedly, equally curious and eager for the answer.

"Ah, found it." Although he found it, Suer didn't know how to say it, and even his previous excitement suddenly turned cold.

Perhaps noticing Sull's conflicted and troubled state of mind, Riku patted Sull on the shoulder, stood up, and gestured for Sull to follow him.

"...What is this?" Sur asked curiously, staring at the huge, yellowed map that Riku had taken out and spread out on the table.

He recognized it at a glance as a map showing the outline of the entire continent, but it was much more detailed than the map from a few years ago. In addition to the ever-present latest distribution map of various races and the main battlegrounds, there were also new small, circular symbols scattered across the continent.

“Ah, a plan, I think it’s the most perfect plan,” Riku turned his head to look at Sull with an expectant smile, looking away from the map. “Let’s create new rules, Sull.”

"Abandon the hope that the war will one day end, which will never come. Use our strength to end this foolish war."

“You know what, Sull,” Riku’s voice became incredibly light, “this world has never changed…it has always been the simplest game.”

Without responding, Sull simply watched Riku, who was completely absorbed in his story, as the white-haired man continued to expound on his grand ambitions.

“What we need to do is not follow the unruly game of pursuing the Star Grail that the gods love, but instead create the rules we want,” Riku said as he walked around to the opposite side of Sul, as if to embrace the whole world. He bent his arms and leaned slightly on the table, his two arms forming an arc that covered the small circular symbols.

"...How can you do that?" Suer asked calmly. "How do you plan to defeat the God of War?"

Anyone who wants to end this endless war cannot get past a huge obstacle: the god-like beings who feed on war—Altheus.

It's incredibly ironic that two beings who are nothing more than weak monkeys in the eyes of other races are hiding in a dark cave, plotting how to defeat the strongest being in the world.

Before Sull could even begin to grapple with how to reveal his plans to Riku, Riku preemptively recounted the plans he and Shubi had devised over the past two years, which secretly brought Sull a great sense of relief.

"Do you remember the information you once told me?" Instead of explaining directly, Riku brought up the information that Sull had brought back in the past, "All the divine species were born in the Elf Corridor, including the God of War who would grow stronger without limit as long as there was war."

"Yes."

"If that's the case, then it means that the power of the Elf Corridor will always be greater than the power of the God of War. Just as the divine species cannot create a stone that it cannot lift, the power of 1 can never create the existence of 2. Moreover, the key called the Star Cup, which leads to the throne of the One God, is also in the Elf Corridor. So what we need to do is very simple."

Riku picked up the chess piece that was placed aside and slammed it heavily into the center of the map, his voice becoming incredibly firm.

"It will pierce through the entire planet, shatter the entire Elf Corridor, and unleash the full power that even the God of War cannot match!!"

Chapter 230 Flaw

Sull had thought his plan was an almost impossible delusion, but now, hearing Riku's plan, he was still ashamed of his own audacity. Did this man really know what he was talking about?

Pierce through this planet beneath our feet?

It's important to understand that this planet, inhabited by all races, has endured countless wars since countless years ago. Although it appears damaged on the surface, it has survived relatively intact. Even those beings at the very top, who are directly conceptual avatars, have not been destroyed in their battles. To penetrate such a solid and sturdy planet, one must release the full power of the hidden Elven Corridor within it...

"...Leaving aside how everyone will survive under such immense power after breaking through the planet and the Elf Corridor, how do you even plan to break through this planet?" Instead of blindly denying it, Suer calmly countered.

“This is what we’ll rely on,” Riku said, bending down to pull a large box from under the bed. It was filled with creations that had a very distinct machine-like style. Each one was a sphere about the size of a palm, with a red shell and a blue ring around it. “We call it the Passage Rules.”

As he spoke, Liku tossed a round ball into Suer's hand.

"...Use it to pierce through a planet?" He weighed the sphere in his hand, his words full of distrust. It wasn't that Suer looked down on Riku, but this thing was just too unreliable.

“Of course, it’s not about achieving the goal directly. Look at this,” Riku said with a smile, waving his hand and gesturing for Suer to come to the unfolded map. His finger landed on a small dot marked as a large circle in the middle of the entire continent. “Just like the lens of a telescope, these rules of conduct have the function of distortion and convergence, which can distort the direction of all other forces to directly downwards.”

"Other forces?"

“Ah, that’s what we’re going to do,” Riku said, raising his head with a confident smile. “We’ll secretly lure other races into fighting each other. With the help of the Forest Elves, this step will be much easier. Then, in the center of the continent, on this prepared stage for the final battle, we’ll use all the established rules of passage and the power of those races fighting each other to pierce through this planet. Finally, after the Elf Corridor is destroyed and revealed, we’ll obtain the Star Cup.”

"As for how to survive under such immense power... all you need to do is order the reconstruction and restoration of everything the moment you obtain the Star Cup. The power of the One God is more than enough to accomplish this. What do you say?" Riku sat back down, waiting for Sul's response.

With his eyebrows furrowed tightly, Suer was deep in thought. To be honest, Riku's plan was full of traces of the Machine race. Suer undoubtedly needed guidance from Shinko and Jibril on matters related to elves. But setting aside the parts whose feasibility he couldn't confirm, there were still several doubts about the things Suer could be sure of.

"...The entire implementation of this plan was orchestrated by Schwi?" Sue's finger traced the symbol encircling the continent on the map. "Including the locations where these rules of conduct should be established?"

“Ah, right, is there anything we haven’t noticed?” Riku paused for a moment.

“There are indeed a few problems… Shouldn’t Shubi have already lost connection with the connector? Including the fact that it didn’t briefly reconnect when calculating these positions?” Sue confirmed.

"No," Liku was quite certain of this.

“I think of each machine type as a very advanced computer, but no matter how advanced a computer is, its individual computing power should be limited. Without the support of other machine types for joint calculations, some errors are inevitable. This is a difference determined by computing power... And according to what you just said, even among all machine types, Shubi is not the type that is biased towards combat, right? Its own functions are not the best.”

The Mechs are a race that connects actions and shares minds and computing power; an individual can never compare to the combined power of the collective.

"...Do you mean...there might be an error in the specific location?"

Having understood the meaning behind Sull's words, Riku muttered to himself as he looked at each specific coordinate marked on the map. In most cases, Riku had regarded Shubi as a unique and living being, but Sull, who had not spent much time with Shubi, could grasp Shubi's essence more accurately.

Liku could not deny Suer's idea. Even after Suer raised the question, he also felt worried. In the end, no matter how confident they were, they were all unsure about such an important matter.

"Moreover, you intend to lure other races into fighting each other, and then unleash their strongest attack to pierce through the entire planet. This would undoubtedly include the Skywing race and their gods or other divine races... No one can imagine how powerful that force would be, right?"

"Faced with a power that combines the strongest attacks of all races, even the slightest, almost non-existent error would likely be magnified to the point of near-disaster... And this kind of simple calculation is not Xinke's forte at all. In this respect, even the Forest Elves and Skywings cannot compare with the Machine Armored. In other words, we cannot even complete the completion plan."

"Unless you can convince Shubi to reconnect with the Machine Gundam's connector, and then convince the entire Machine Gundam connector... can you do that?"

Riku was naturally unable to do it. When he tried to imagine it for a moment, he was even surprised to find that deep down he was resisting Shubi reopening her mind and returning to the consciousness of the entire race.

He had grown accustomed to the Shubi who was always around him, the simulated personality that had been born from his initial protests and compromises.

Seeing that Riku's expression turned grim, Sull had many other concerns.

“There’s another, and most crucial, issue,” Suer sighed deeply, pulled up a chair and sat opposite Riku, saying, “The Star Cup is the throne that the gods fight for to become the one true god, and it is only a throne that the gods fight for. Do you understand what I mean?”

"Even if there are no errors or accidents, and all the previous plans are carried out successfully, at the very end, when the planet is pierced, the Elf Corridor is destroyed, and the Star Cup is revealed... how can you, who are not a god, touch and use the Star Cup?"

Suer asked the question calmly.

Chapter 231 A Sudden Turn of Events

How can mortals access treasures belonging to the divine?

Even in the face of the treasure known as the Star Cup, powerful races like the Forest Elves and the Skywings, whose strength far surpasses that of humans, are classified as mere mortals.

Perhaps the one who has become the only god can pass the throne to mortals, but at this moment, the most primordial Star Cup, which has never been touched by any being, has an invisible threshold that keeps mortals below the steps, only able to look up in awe.

"..."

Silently, Riku gripped his hair tightly with both hands, his arms resting on the wooden table, his head bowed and saying nothing.

He was thinking, endlessly thinking, seeking a better solution.

"So, would you like to hear my plan?" Forcing a smile, Suer gestured with both hands. "I won't be leaving empty-handed this time either."

"Well, tell me about it," Riku said with a forced smile.

"Then let's begin with the conversation with the God of Suspicion, the mystery of the birth of the divine race, and... the power unique to me," Su'er's voice suddenly became incredibly deep, "This is a plan that I've discussed with the God of Suspicion and Xin Ke for a long time..."

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"Sister Xinke, you and Brother Su must have a very tough time outside, right?"

Rubbing the wooden cup in her hands back and forth, Nona finally couldn't help but ask.

"Huh? It's not too tiring, is it?" she replied with a smile. The forest elf with long, light golden hair... no, at least she looked no different from an ordinary human, except for being exceptionally beautiful.

However, if we're talking about looks, there are quite a few people sitting in this small cave who could be considered pretty. But that's normal, since the only ones who can be considered human are Ke'er and Nona, who tragically drag down the overall appearance.

Not long after Sur and Riku left, Credo sensed something was off, so he quickly took his two lively children and left, claiming they were hungry.

"Of course it's not hard work. This woman basically hasn't done anything herself, has she? Isn't everything done by Suer? From cooking to bathing and stuff," Jibril said, lying flat on the rock with her legs casually crossed. She held up a book with both hands and flipped through it, while continuing to expose Xin Ke's dirty secrets.