The Fire-Chasing Herrscher Who Destroyed the World

The burnt yellow wind blew in the gray city, no, in the ruins.

Mikael couldn't even remember the last time he came here.

Counting on my fingers, it seems like it was two years ago.

That was after the turmoil of the Seventh Collapse was completely quelled, he returned to the World Bubble again, and after checking the infiltration phenomenon of the Quantum Sea caused by the repeated changes of power, he never came here again.

Since then, because his control of power has become more and more sophisticated, he no longer controls the space in the world bubble, but allows it to flow in the normal state of time and space.

The result is that the city becomes increasingly deserted.

"Cough cough cough!"

Klein, Yimer, and Ling followed closely behind him. Even though he had put up an imaginary barrier, the fine dust floating in the wind and sand in the sky made people's throat tighten and cough unconsciously just by looking at it. .

When they reached a stone bridge, the terrain was open and the wind and dust were blowing. Looking at the patterns on the handrails of the bridge that were almost worn away by the wind and sand, Mikael suddenly stopped.

"If you can't bear it, just rest here for a while."

"Come on, Uncle Mikael, this journey isn't tiring at all!"

Klein and Yimer both wisely remained silent, but Ling, who had a girlish heart, complained indifferently.

Mikael walked to the edge of the stone bridge, touched the almost unrecognizable pattern, and looked at the flowing water under the bridge... No, where is the flowing water? It had long since dried up, leaving only a river bed covered with moss and water plants.

"You still called me eldest brother two years ago, and at the earliest you called me brother. I am the only one who is getting older, and you are not, right?"

"whee!"

Ling lifted a bunch of red highlights on her forehead, held her head high and answered:

"You are already Ben San's uncle, and I am still an underage girl. Is there a problem!"

"Where did I go?"

"Twenty-three, rounded up, is twenty-five, twenty-five, rounded up, is thirty!"

"Was mathematics taught by the physical education teacher?"

"Master Qian taught me this!"

"..."

If it weren't for Mikael's face, Klein wouldn't have covered his mouth and held it in so painfully. But this did not prevent Yimer from laughing almost to the point of rolling on the ground.

Mikael really couldn't talk to Ling, so he could only sigh dejectedly, his expression getting older and older, and this time he really looked like Ben San's uncle.

He closed his eyes and hummed softly. When he opened them again, the girl's white shirt in front of him was fluttering gently. It seemed that he had not expected the flaw in the imaginary number barrier that was exposed at this moment. She raised her arms to cover the wind.

His vision was blurred for a moment.

Same place, same girl, same "sister".

Same fate.

I wonder how she is doing drifting in the quantum sea? When do you want to come back?

"……snort."

Mikael blocked the gap in the imaginary number barrier caused by his emotional fluctuations, and then coughed twice, and both Ymer and Ling put on serious faces.

They just received the order and followed Mikael here with their habitual obedience.

But to be honest, neither Mei nor Mikael told them the purpose of their trip. They don't even know where this abandoned city is. If I had to say it, only Ling squinted her eyes and looked around, feeling somewhat familiar, but somewhat unsure.

After all, the streets here were heavily damaged in several battles, especially the battle between Mikael and "himself". Most of the surface buildings collapsed. It is a miracle that this bridge can be preserved. It is unrecognizable. normal.

In fact, among the three of them, even Ling, who looks the most naive on the surface, can be called smart if he removes the superficial disguise. They themselves must have been thinking a lot secretly - since the location cannot be known, they can more or less determine what kind of mission it is by analyzing the candidates participating in the mission.

Klein, researcher.

Ymer, a brick can be moved wherever it is needed, except for scientific research.

Bell, responsible for cuteness.

Well, no clue.

They don't have to know the purpose of the mission in advance, but everyone wants to know the purpose.

But looking at Mikael's face, it was finally time to reveal the answer.

"First of all, let me tell you the truth - this is not the world you are familiar with, but a world bubble in the quantum sea. After experiencing the ninth collapse, I think you should be familiar with these two terms. ”

Klein and Yimer are naturally familiar with each other, but Ling is the only one who is completely confused.

Only then did Mikael remember that unlike members with higher authority such as Klein and Yimer, Ling was not even part of the Fire Chasing Moth's organization, so naturally he didn't know about World Bubble.

Fortunately, Klein noticed the embarrassment in time, leaned into Ling's ear, and explained to her softly, which saved Mikael a lot of effort.

"Quantum Sea? World Bubble?"

Yimer muttered twice, then suddenly slapped his head and became excited:

"Captain Mikael, do you want us to use this world bubble as our base to search for the whereabouts of Mu Continent?"

He figured out everything in an instant - Klein provided technical support and technical docking, while he carried out specific search tasks, Ling... I heard that she learned a lot of psychological knowledge from Aponya and Su, and she was in a nursing home before. She enjoys providing psychological counseling to those "people"... Perhaps her existence is to prevent psychological problems caused by performing boring tasks for a long time.

His thoughts were transmitted to Mikael's mind under the influence of the power of the Eighth Herrscher. Mikael, who was still thinking about what excuse he should use, breathed a sigh of relief and chose to copy it unchanged - —

He is not some golden retriever, like the previous "showdown" with Mei, he naturally doesn't want to do that to everyone.

Again, this is not a question of candor or trust or distrust. Even if we look back at the original tragedy of Seele from the current perspective, we cannot say that it was caused by Mikael's lack of candor.

Sorry, standing here, it's really hard for Mikael not to think about Xi'er.

His concealment did have a bad impact on Xi'er, and it might even be some kind of psychological trauma. But if he had told her directly at that time, she would become the Sixth Herrscher. Of course, Xi'er could understand his decision, but How should she face Alicia and Mei in this world?

With Xi'er's character, it is not impossible to criticize herself for "things that haven't happened yet".

Moreover, whether Xi'er was able to return to the original world was due to the influence of the fluctuations of the quantum sea, the influence of the awakening of her own stigmata power, or a combination of both, it is impossible to verify, and there is no need to verify it.

However, if there was still a choice, Mikael would definitely make the opposite choice. But that is a decision based on the results.

As far as the current situation is concerned, to be clear about the so-called "knowing a certain possible future", it takes a lot of verbal effort. The reason why his communication with Mei was slightly relaxed is actually because most of them In some cases, Mei was telling her speculations.

And she was very measured and focused. All she cared about was the results. As for why Mikael was like this, she didn't ask any questions.

But if it were someone else...

After finally finishing the task, Feng Chen also slowly stopped.

Michael suddenly turned around, and a pink light appeared on the horizon. If he had good eyesight, he should be able to see that it was a pink rose flower.

Just like two years ago, she was waiting for him here.

No one has seen it yet, but the sound comes first——

"Hey, long time no see. Did you miss me? Yeah, there are so many people here this time!"

Klein, Yimer, and Ling's eyes instantly became confused.

…………

The spacious underground base became lively again. It already stocked enough supplies for tens of thousands of people to live for a hundred years, so there was no need to worry about survival. Ellie also knew that Mikael probably had something to say to Mei, so she prepared to welcome him. On the pretext of a banquet, the three people who didn't know how long they would stay here were deceived and dragged away.

Mei did not come out to meet the guests. Mikael guessed that she probably felt that she had a long time to come, so she could just leave this kind of matter to Ellie, who was better at it.

Besides, she probably didn't want to be called "uncle" and "sister" by the bell like Mikael and Ellie.

But for Mikael, facing Mei twice in less than two hours, she was still a "different" Mei, which gave him a sense of time and space confusion.

"Three people came this time?"

Mikael knew that Mei had already noticed the situation outside through surveillance, so he did not rush to reply, but waited for Mei's next words.

"Which Herrscher is it?"

Although it was a question, her voice was somewhat calm.

"The ninth time has just ended. These are the two individuals of the Tenth Herrscher, and the Twelfth Herrscher."

Feeling a little tired, Mikael was ready to explain again, but for some reason, Mei didn't ask questions on this matter. With her silence, the atmosphere became a little awkward for a while.

"Ahem! This time, besides bringing these three people here, I have two other things to do."

"explain."

Mei's unwillingness to say another word made Mikael mistakenly think that he had done something wrong.

Speaking of which, leaving this world alone for two years is indeed inappropriate. Facing the same face every day, facing the same cold wall, facing Prometheus, which cannot be regarded as a real life even if it is equipped with a human emotion module, Mei... The mental state of Mei in the world bubble is a bit worrying...

But it wasn't until he stepped forward that he realized that Mei was just staring at a lot of formulas.

She even took the initiative to apologize to Mikael, "Ah - sorry, I was lost in thought for a while."

Mikael shook his head and placed a small pocket watch-like device on the table in front of her.

"This is……"

Mei couldn't help but put down her work, picked up the "pocket watch" doubtfully, and looked at it under the light for a long time.

It was exquisitely made, but it would be an insult to Mei's intelligence if she really thought she would actually think of it as a pocket watch.

Apologizing in his heart, Mikael plagiarized a name without any psychological burden:

"I call it Gnius. It is your masterpiece in the intrinsic world. It is mainly used for communication in the quantum sea."

"oh?"

Mei raised her eyebrows, feeling both excited and disappointed.

She suddenly reached out and deleted all the formulas that Mikael had not yet had time to read. Prometheus was about to say something, but she turned on the silent mode.

"What's wrong?"

Mikael instinctively felt something strange, but couldn't explain what it was.

"No, I just want to feel it... It's a pity. If possible, I really want to sit down and have a good conversation with my other self."

Two Meis sitting together and communicating?

Mikael tilted his head. With his poor imagination, he really couldn't simulate that state.

Instead, the image of two plums, one holding scrambled eggs with tomatoes and the other holding a plate of sushi, sandwiching Kevin, suddenly came to mind.

"Pfft... hum hum hum... hehe hehe... hahahahahaha!"

"why are you laughing?"

Mei was caught off guard and was startled by him, then she narrowed her eyes slightly and asked calmly.

"Mei...no, I just thought of happy things."

The two joked for a while and got back to business again.

"Actually, according to Mei, uh, what Mei said, this little thing can maintain the user's integrity to a certain extent to help the user's ability to travel in the quantum sea, but I don't need this, and I haven't done it. You can do any experiment if you have time."

After Mikael finished speaking, he found that Mei's expression became even weirder.

It seems that there is both loneliness and unwillingness, but also expectation and excitement.

So Mikael had to sigh that compared to the Mei in front of him, the one in the original world was more emotionless and emotionless.

It's a bit strange to say that Mikael thought that Mei in the world bubble would be more mature than in the original world after experiencing life and death with Kevin. This is of course not to say which one of the two is more naive, it's just a relative term.

But if you think about it carefully, the so-called growth is actually to make up for your own shortcomings. Some people cannot accept or face life and death, so it is often easier to achieve overnight growth under such circumstances.

And some people need exercise more than facing it.

From this perspective, Mei, who has been in charge of the Fire Chaser and guided the destiny of mankind for four years, is naturally closer to the appearance of Mei in Mikael's impression.

In this way, he answered his own questions and doubts, and unknowingly forgot why this doubt arose.

And Mei seemed to be aware of her gaffe, and she steered the topic in another direction without leaving a trace——

"You just said that there are two more things. One is to give me Gnius, but what about the other one?"

From Mei's perspective, Mikael's expression suddenly looked a little sad, but in just a blink of an eye, he disappeared without a trace.

Just like before in front of Mei in the Intrinsic World, Mikael waved and a stack of documents appeared in his hand, and he handed it to Mei.

"This is again..."

"There is a plan related to the retreat of our civilization. Although Mebius and Apponia...oh, you may not know Apponia. In short, I agree with the plan they proposed, but I am not satisfied with it - —

"I don't want 50,000 years of struggle to leave only a bunch of data in the end, and I don't want a glorious civilization to only exist in the memory of a few dozen people. I want to combine their plan with the world and let the data ...It’s no longer just data. Of course, you and Alicia are the masters of this world, and I need to ask for your opinions first.”

Mei was stunned by what he said, as if she suddenly remembered something, she lowered her head and looked at the title page of the plan - "The Paradise Plan"

"Of course, I hope you can help. With the resources and time we have, mainly time, there is no time to make more choices about this plan."

"clatter--"

Mei tapped her fingers lightly on the table - "I know, leave it to me."

Mikael didn't expect her to agree so readily, so he couldn't help but poke his head and said further:

"Ahem! Then... there were some minor problems during the ninth collapse. Can you help me with one more thing?"

"Fine."

Mei held her forehead helplessly.

"Mikael, a lot has happened in two years."

"..."

Is this kind of life really just brought about by time?

…………

"Hey! The dumplings I made by myself...uh, is it called this, right? After all, it's a delicacy from Ah Hua's hometown."

Michael, who was forced to stay here to eat, looked at the rosebud-like dumplings in his bowl with some embarrassment, feeling that something was wrong...

It's not that the shape of this dumpling is... I can't say it's weird, it's just very Alicia's style.

The real problem is -

"Alicia, you...don't you know Hua?"

In this world without Mikael, everything should mostly unfold according to the future he knows well.

In that case, Hua and Ai Li shouldn't have much interaction before the tenth collapse, and it's not even clear whether they know each other.

But it's not absolute. After all, the ending of this world bubble deviates from that kind of future, so it makes sense that there is a slight deviation in the middle process.

Not to mention, Hua, as an "old antique" who joined the Fire Chaser Moth during the third Collapse, may not have crossed paths with Ellie before becoming a fusion warrior.

Before Ellie opened her mouth to explain, Mikael had already consciously given a reasonable answer.

After all, no matter what, she is Alicia, and the name itself means a lot.

At the very least it means that complete trust can be given and given.

"Oh! You have discovered such small details. You are indeed the number one Herrscher! In fact, Hua and I met several times after the third collapse, but she probably didn't until... I found out that I have been paying attention to her."

Alicia looked a little regretful, but she soon became optimistic:

"Eat it quickly! No! Guess what kind of stuffing is in the bread here!"

Is there any need to guess?

Mikael laughed dumbly. Several other people at the table seemed to be eating with their heads covered, but in fact they were staring here intently.

"Well!"

Ling tremblingly picked up a dumpling with pointed chopsticks and opened her mouth to make gestures for a long time. Unfortunately, the "flowers" wrapped by Alicia perfectly followed the principle of one-to-one reproduction in terms of volume. She really couldn't follow it. Being accustomed to swallowing in one gulp, I could only bite off a corner lightly, then my eyes lit up, and I winked at Mikael, trying to secretly convey information to him through lip language.

A pair of slightly cold hands quickly covered Mikael's eyes.

"Hmph! Do you still want to cheat in front of me? Mikael, guess it! Guess it, guess it!"

There was nothing Mikael could do against her. He originally planned to use his sense of smell to give an answer, but he didn't seem to smell any obvious filling smell.

He was about to randomly select a lucky person among "pork and green onions", "corn pork", "cabbage pork", "celery pork", "shepherd's purse pork", "carrot pork" and beef and mutton, but suddenly something happened in his heart. , changed his words:

"The truth behind this must be Alicia's sincerity!"

Straight ball attack!

"Eh...Eh? Eh!"

Ellie barked three times in a row, each one louder than the last.

Then she quickly covered her cheeks, shook her head wildly, and screamed shyly:

"Ahhhh! Is this Mikael now? Your answer is so foul!"

"Um...Ellie, there's no need to be so excited..."

To be honest, the reason why Mikael was able to give such an almost perfect response was simply because he had long been manipulated by Ally from the original world...

It's simply because he knows the Alicia of the original world so well that he can easily figure out the thoughts of Alicia in this world.

So he couldn't tell clearly. No, he knew very well that the person expressing his feelings in his words was definitely not the Alicia in front of him.

But what he doesn't understand even more is how should he face the Ally in front of him?

She is indeed Alicia, but she is not Alicia.

Among the existing philosophical thoughts of mankind, at least those that Mikael himself has seen, there is no thought that can describe this problem.

After all, in a world without collapse, there would be no phenomenon of two people being both the same individual and two different individuals.

Perhaps such a question has been raised in psychology, and Mikael plans to take a look at it when he has time in the future.

Mikael frowned, skillfully picked up the flower buds in front of him with chopsticks and stuffed them into his mouth.

"Hmm? Hmm..."

He finally understood why Ling looked like he was hesitant to speak.

He finally understood why he couldn't even smell the stuffing with his nose.

Because the bread inside the dumplings is still dumplings...

To put it simply... these are not dumplings, but steamed buns.

When she turned around, Alicia was laughing so hard that half her mouthful of rice spat out.

Mikael could only comfort himself with Ah Q's spiritual victory method - it was okay, in a sense, he had eaten Ally's steamed buns.

The so-called banquet ended quickly, and Mikael didn't say anything in advance, so Ellie prepared in a hurry.

Mikael left quickly and didn't stay long. He seemed a little reluctant to leave, but also felt...unable to avoid it.

"Yeah! It's so late, Mei, you're still working overtime, you're really working hard!"

Mei said nothing. There was Gnius on the table in front of her, but her eyes were fixed on the clock on the wall.

"Oops, Mikael looks like he can't tell the difference between me and me!"

"I think he is much clearer than when he first came to this world. At least when faced with that choice again, he will probably kill you and the Sixth Herrscher mercilessly."

"Wow! It sounds scary! But you still don't know Mikael well enough, May. No matter what, he won't do anything to Alicia!"

May shook her head noncommittally.

The clock on the wall was ticking, and in an atmosphere of extreme silence and oppression, the bright red time numbers finally all returned to zero——

【00:00:00】

"Zizzi...zizi..."

A sound similar to electricity suddenly came from the Gnius on the table.

"Hello?"

A voice that was extremely familiar to Mei sounded:

"Finally we meet, the other me."

Mei smiled:

"Yes, it's really tiring and not stable enough to communicate through dreams with the help of quantum entanglement. But you are still awesome. I am still in the theoretical verification stage, but you have already made something."

"After all, my Prometheus...zizi..."

Gnius's communication was suddenly interrupted. When the connection was reconnected, along with Mei's sigh, a joyful voice sounded from Gnius:

"Hi, long time no see. Isn't it wrong to say this? Oh...ah? Should I say it like this? Oh!

"Qiang Qiang finally meets the other me, the other Mei!"