It sounded like quite a humane test question, not directly cutting everyone off like past Herrschers — it even gave humans the right to self-select.
The vile become more vile, while the noble receive rewards. Regardless, those with some Honkai resistance would ultimately find it easier to survive future major Honkai eruptions than those with no resistance.
But from an administrator’s perspective, this Herrscher of Domination was quite troubling.
Just the characteristic of making ordinary people more susceptible to desire would cause crime rates to skyrocket, not to mention the effect of making bad people worse…
If some administrators were affected by this, it would be a complete disaster.
“Can’t we remove the cores or control the spread somehow?”
“Not really feasible.”
MEI shook her head and continued:
“You probably didn’t notice, but the Herrscher of Domination’s core location is different from normal Herrschers. It lodges in the cerebral cortex and connects to the nervous system. Even removing it through Herrscher methods could easily cause irreversible damage to the core’s host.”
“If it’s small-scale, it’s manageable — we could attempt nanoscale surgery, but this method obviously lacks scalability.”
No matter how humanitarian they were, they still had to consider cost issues, especially with Fire Moth’s control gradually transitioning to them.
As leaders, they had to consider reasonable resource allocation.
“Besides, removal is meaningless. Even after removal, as long as they encounter infected bodies again, cores will reappear.”
“As for transmission…”
“This thing can spread through animals.”
— And because it’s a Herrscher core, unlike ordinary viruses, this thing could not only spread through birds and beasts, but even fish and insects could become carriers.
For this reason, MEI deduced that if this thing spread in the future, the animals humans raised would probably all become hazards.
After all, humans could still be managed to some extent through technology or law, but if animals were dominated by the Herrscher of Domination’s desires, surely no one could expect animals to understand restraint — perhaps a few might exist, but those obviously lacked universal applicability.
“Hehe, you needn’t be so pessimistic.”
With beeping sounds, Mobius joined their conversation, her words carrying some lightness.
“Although this is indeed a big trouble, isn’t it also a pathway for human evolution?”
Saying this, her eyes held some fervor.
The deeper her understanding of this Herrscher of Domination that spread in a “virus-like” manner, the more excited and thrilled Dr. Mobius became.
This was even more fascinating to her than dissecting the 2nd Herrscher’s remains.
— With my hands, ascending to godhood.
Having developed this ideal of making humanity more perfect — not ugly like her father — due to her terrible family background, when Mobius saw the perfect beings called Herrschers, she conceived this philosophy.
But even after personally dissecting the 2nd Herrscher, she couldn’t find satisfactory answers.
After all, the birth of perfect life forms like Herrschers was ultimately too demanding and lacked universal applicability.
So later, Mobius chose a more universally applicable route — fusion warriors derived from Honkai Beasts.
Due to circumstances and various factors, although this technology granted her “immortal” life, compared to her ideals and what she wanted to achieve, this was at best a semi-finished product, a failure.
Until the 12th Herrscher’s sudden appearance, Mobius finally saw the dawn of her dream’s realization — unfortunately, no one agreed with her ideas.
No one wanted to abandon human form and become a consciousness virus like the 12th Herrscher, right?
Although now, the 12th Herrscher hadn’t appeared.
But from this “new Herrscher of Domination” that The Cocoon created specifically to target the “Herrscher of Origin,” Mobius seemed to see a glimmer of hope.
It could turn all humans into “Herrscher of Domination embryos.” Although compared to true Herrschers, Mobius clearly understood that “Herrscher of Domination embryos” were essentially fake silver-tipped wax heads that couldn’t become true Herrschers — at best, they were slaves dominated by desire.
But—
If she could research a method to convert them from false to real and eliminate the hidden dangers, then the ideal of making humanity into more perfect life forms seemed within reach.
By then, even the originally worrying Honkai wouldn’t need to be feared anymore.
“…You’re still holding onto that idea, Dr. Mobius.”
MEI sighed.
Her — or rather, their — biggest disagreement with Mobius lay precisely here.
Whether MEI or Vill-V, both found it difficult to agree with Mobius’s ideas.
Although they clearly understood that what determined human essence wasn’t the frail “human” body, Mobius’s ideas seemed too hasty and extreme to them.
It was like betting humanity’s fate on Mobius’s confidence in her own talent.
Mobius didn’t expect MEI to agree with her. In fact, when discussing this topic, they often ended with arguments and parting on bad terms.
So instead, she looked toward another person — if it were that fool, the snake definitely wouldn’t do such stupid things, but the current 【Elysia】 made Mobius expect perhaps different answers. This usually strong-willed genius now had eyes flashing with some barely concealed longing and anxiety:
“Elysia, do you think the same way too?”
“Sorry, as 【Elysia】, I hold the same view as MEI.”
The pink girl pondered for a moment and said words that disappointed Mobius — although very slim, she still hoped that at least Elysia could become her understanding companion. Unfortunately, she seemed to remain alone.
…This was fine too. Mobius never needed any companions anyway.
Thinking this, disappointment hidden in her heart, but her determination to do what she wanted remained unshaken.
Even if MEI and Vill-V opposed her, she would definitely do what she set her mind to!
But just as she was about to end the communication, the girl’s unfinished words rang in her ears:
“But personally, if you think that’s possible, then go ahead and do it to your heart’s content.”
At this moment, Mobius’s lips curved into a genuine smile.
Indeed, that woman was really annoying!