Kiana didn't sneeze.
But she did feel a sense of unease.
Are there always treacherous subjects trying to harm me?
She wasn't idle either. Right now, she was learning about Finality from Kevin.
There was a backdoor left by the Previous Era inside the Cocoon of Finality. This backdoor had infiltrated the so-called Will of the Honkai, thus giving it some misleading guidance.
It sounded a bit ridiculous. It was like when Otto communicated with the Will of the Honkai, the result was that the Will of the Honkai possessed incredibly powerful knowledge and knew more secrets of the world.
But the result was that this conscious entity, which Otto had surmised to be extremely powerful and intelligent, had no idea it had been parasitized by something designed by the Previous Era.
So the question was, was the Previous Era that lost to the Honkai not strong enough? Or was the Honkai's power, as calculated by Otto, not strong enough?
Kiana was currently delving deep into knowledge about the Honkai. The main purpose was to seize the Cocoon's channel for communicating with the Herrscher Cores.
To put it simply, the Herrscher Cores are the internet cables, Honkai energy is the network traffic, and the Cocoon is the central server.
The Herrscher of Finality is the Herrscher who controls the authority of all internet cables, so theoretically, all network traffic belongs to the Herrscher of Finality.
And the Herrscher of Origin is the power that lays the Honkai's internet cables.
"You mean... theoretically, all Cores are tools that link to the Cocoon? As long as all the links are concentrated in one person's hands, that person is considered to have obtained the authority of the Herrscher of Finality?"
"But, there's a problem that doesn't seem right."
Kiana pondered for a moment before asking, "Then what about the Divine Keys of the Previous Era? What do they link to?"
Kevin fell silent. He thought for a moment before saying, "I don't know."
"Fine, if you say you don't know, then you don't know."
Kiana had no intention of pressing further. She didn't really care about these messy ideas anyway.
According to Noldrei, the Imaginary Tree that the world possessed didn't bring any benefits to the world. Instead, it brought a large number of erroneous bugs, allowing many people to cheat using the Imaginary Tree.
The result was greater inequality among humans, more imbalanced power, and concepts becoming playthings in the hands of the capable. The ownership of the means of production had, in fact, become centrally controlled.
Since the Imaginary Tree was a world bug, the Cocoon of Honkai was naturally no good thing either.
Kiana possessed it, and she would lose it sooner or later. But before that, she would be crowned empress, becoming the one who centralized the ownership of Honkai energy.
This was, in fact, the real outcome shaped by the Previous Era's Project Stigma to seize the "Cocoon."
"I will continue the plan of the Previous Era. I just need to, when I usurp the Stigma Space... Hmm, speaking of which, I just remembered a surprising question."
Kevin was very puzzled at this point. He asked, "As far as I know, Noldrei said that future humans don't dream, right? Then you, with the body of a future human, do you still dream?"
Kiana's mood was very complicated. Because Noldrei had explained these things, his explanation was that future humans didn't need to dream to soothe their brains and let them rest and recover.
Theoretically, Kiana was also showing this trend now. For example, she had no need to sleep at all, no desire for it.
But the problem was, Kiana still dreamed.
Her body, based on the genetic information of her original body, had retained Kiana's ability to choose to sleep and dream.
"I can dream, but there's no need for it..."
It wasn't a big deal for Kiana not to be able to sleep and dream. Anyway, it was just like having a few extra hours of life.
"Yes, that's it..." Kevin nodded. "Since he doesn't dream, how does he infiltrate the Stigma Space through other people's dreams?"
Kiana shook her head. "I don't know. He said all future humans are like this, they don't need to dream to relieve brain fatigue. All of humanity has progressed to the point where they no longer need to rest. Their bodies can adaptively switch states, and their recovery speed is far greater than their consumption speed."
Kevin was silent. After a moment of thought, he said, "Have you ever considered that the people of Noldrei's world have abandoned something very important? Dreams are the way Honkai Beasts think. To enter the Cocoon, you must enter the Stigma Space and thus connect to the dreams of humans."
"In our world, dreams have the power to communicate between the Imaginary and the Real. Noldrei, who has abandoned dreams, theoretically has no way to control Imaginary energy and Honkai energy. However, his power has broken through the limits of life as understood by our Previous Era."
"His consciousness is the activity of pure matter. He won't experience the various phenomena of consciousness separating from the body like we do."
Kiana put away her casual attitude and asked, "Who came up with this question? Are you saying the key difference between Noldrei and us is dreaming? That's too ridiculous, isn't it? He can also simulate the process of the human brain resting. It's not like he can't dream if he wants to. It's just that there's nothing he needs in his dreams, so there's no need to dream."
Kevin nodded. "That's right, that's the power. Even the memory constructs in the Elysian Realm, the MANTISes of the Previous Era, can't do this. After so much research, the Previous Era still couldn't make humans lose the ability to dream. Nor did they research the power to make consciousness eternal and indestructible."
"Our consciousness is a product of the movement of matter. But Noldrei's consciousness shows signs of being above matter."
"The Cocoon is more like a high-dimensional life form that transcends matter. However, even so, the Cocoon has still not broken the limits of life. It can grant activity to a certain material life, but that life does not have the power to change its own nature."
"So can you understand? How powerful is a future human who can freely switch between organic and inorganic, particle states, and states of existence?"
"And yet, there are three beings like him! He is number 03."
Kevin made an "OK" gesture, signaling Kiana to think carefully about the horrifying details.
This time, Kiana was also silent. She really couldn't ignore these problems.
Just as Noldrei had said, he was the ultimate crystallization of the wisdom of nearly half of future humanity, and the strongest human weapon.
That endless struggle of life, what was it?
"What does this have to do with us dealing with the Honkai of Finality?" Kiana didn't quite understand the meaning.
Kevin said truthfully, "According to Dr. Mobius's prediction, the Honkai is most likely no match for Noldrei. And once you complete the centralization of Imaginary energy for him, human civilization will truly be in his hands. His will will permeate human civilization for the next hundred thousand, even millions of years."
"If Imaginary energy is possessed by Noldrei, our world will most likely also head toward the future of his world."
This time, Kiana understood. She didn't get angry right away, but carefully thought about the reasoning in Dr. Mobius's words.
She asked, "You mean, to defeat the future ideology he brings, we must first betray the human civilization he designed?"
Kiana suddenly understood the importance of the throne. At this moment, she was holding the direction of civilization in her own hands.
No wonder Noldrei had directly ascended the throne and declared himself emperor back then. No wonder he said that modern civilization was just the emperor changing his title and the throne changing hands.
The contradictions arising from this change of path were precisely the proof that the future struggle of humanity would be endless.
This cage could make even a terrifying future human struggle for over a hundred thousand years.