Hachiman Hikigaya looked at the state of the world after the live broadcast, then down at his own body.
He considered himself a superhuman, having previously possessed the power of Iron Man, but he never expected there to be so many stronger people out there.
What kind of battle was that? The light and sound effects, the fighting style—Hachiman couldn't understand any of it.
What kind of abilities were they using? Why did they have so many different effects?
Was this what high-level internal political struggles looked like? It was so straightforwardly shocking!
Hachiman was truly terrified. In a battle like that, there was no room for anyone else to interfere. Even the Anti-Entropy mechs had to stand aside, right?
"I feel like I'm walking on increasingly thin ice..."
Before, it was just the blade of power. Now, there was a whole new wave of powerful individuals.
It was truly unbelievable. Academy City had even been bold enough to let everyone watch the live broadcast. It was even synchronized worldwide.
It would probably soon take over all the major news media. Next, people would start thinking about how to obtain this kind of power from Academy City.
"Is this the power of Academy City's top fighters?"
Kiyotaka Ayanokōji hadn't seen Dr. Tesla's battle because the recording equipment had been fried by the electrical surges and failed to record anything.
But this time was different. This was a specially made device by Noldrei, with the sole purpose of letting the whole world watch the battle.
Every process of the fight was exceptionally clear. Now, the entire planet knew that the Herrschers had submitted to Noldrei's rule.
Isn't he basically the emperor now?
After thinking it over, Kiyotaka Ayanokōji realized that Academy City's political landscape had officially reached the moment of ultimate centralization.
With Schicksal without Otto, and Dr. Tesla of Anti-Entropy on Noldrei's side, there were no longer any organizations that could cause trouble for him. There was only one goal left.
To completely master the authority of Honkai Energy.
Unfortunately, with Schicksal losing Otto and Anti-Entropy losing Welt Yang, no organization could stop Noldrei's advance.
Just as Otto was now charging straight toward the Imaginary Tree.
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"You're telling me now that none of this is what you encountered?! Then where the hell did you come from?!"
With Noldrei's help, Otto charged straight into a group of Imaginary monsters. He was equipped with the Core of the Herrscher of Flame, which Noldrei had helped him obtain.
With his super-strong explosive power and Honkai Energy compensation, Otto had found the seam between the Imaginary and the real.
"I'm from the future! Maybe our experiment went wrong. After all, your Earth's celestial alignments are exactly the same as in our past records. There's no reason for me to have traveled to the wrong place."
Noldrei also felt his explanation was a bit too far-fetched. He suspected he might have really traveled to the wrong place. This was most likely not the humanity he understood from history.
This was terrible. After calling them primitive people for so long, it turned out everyone had gotten it wrong.
Over a million words, more than five hundred chapters—everyone had been convinced by Noldrei's confidence that he was indeed a man from the future.
And now, after Otto came to闯 into the Imaginary Space to create a parallel world, he was suddenly told that this wasn't what time and space should look like.
It was a testament to Otto's mental fortitude that he didn't just black out and collapse on the spot.
"If I believe you again, I'm a dog!"
Noldrei couldn't say much at this point. "Well, since we're here, let's just see if your theory works out!" he said vaguely.
This damned bastard, don't go all philosophical on me at a time like this!
Otto fought his way through the hordes and reached the Imaginary Tree. His hand finally touched the "past" he had been yearning for.
"If you reverse fate and prevent Kallen's death, won't that create countless futures where Kallen is alive at that point in time?"
Noldrei's question made Otto frown sharply. A bad feeling welled up inside him.
"What do you mean by that?"
"I mean," Noldrei asked calmly, "in the continuity of time, does the possibility of infinite division exist?"
Only then did Otto remember that this guy had also come back to change the fate of future humanity.
Regardless of whether he had gone to the wrong place, he must have also considered other possible paths for humanity.
"Unfortunately, I'm a conservative villain, and also a guy who chooses to believe in human emotions. For a question like that, I can only give you a disdainful answer."
"Goodbye, my friend from the future."
The Overseer bid a final farewell to Noldrei.
Otto's body dissolved into light and merged with the Imaginary Tree. Noldrei watched as the branches of the Tree changed, extending new branches of fate.
What a pity. This doesn't seem to be my world...
Noldrei also felt the despair of touching his own limitations.
What should I do next? The current humanity will most likely stop at the Stigma organization. They will no longer allow their minds to be further peered into by others.
The changes in the Imaginary Tree did not attract Noldrei's attention. He was still thinking about how to handle the current human civilization.
The Honkai was also just one final battle away. As long as he put Kiana on the throne, she would bear the supreme authority of Honkai Energy.
"Sigh..."
For some reason, the Imaginary Tree, which had attacked Otto like a mad beast, did not do the same to Noldrei.
This guy seemed to have no intention of using the power of the Imaginary Space to change the course of human destiny.
If he could, he could even use the path Otto had opened up to dominate the parallel worlds.
But that wasn't his problem.
Recreating the world, remaking humanity, decentralization, genetic modularization...
Noldrei's future world had already tried every path. The final result was just a continuation of the never-ending struggle.
The internal division of humanity was like an unchangeable setting. Even with a lifespan of ten thousand years, even with the centralized power of a god, even with all sorts of good and bad social systems.
Future humanity still couldn't give up the characteristic of dividing themselves. Even if all life in the world merged into one, it would still eventually go down the path of differentiation and reproduction.
Noldrei stood before the Imaginary Tree, as still as a stone, unsure if he was thinking or had given up thinking.
Touching the passage to the parallel world, Noldrei was certain that the world would continue to race toward the future he knew.
But what if he didn't touch it?
With the strength of the current native world, they themselves would one day arrive before this tree.
Noldrei was like a man standing at a historical turning point for human civilization.
Where humanity would go next was no longer up to him to choose.