Trust in the Wisdom of Future Generations

"...Kevin, how many of them do you think will survive?"

Looking at the neatly arranged troops not far away, Lee slowly closed her eyes.

"I don't know," Kevin answered honestly.

But according to his estimate, even in the best-case scenario, if 30% could survive, it would already be the limit.

The Eleventh Herrscher's barrier had further expanded during the period of planning and mobilization. Now, 2/3 of the Earth was shrouded within it. At this point, the surviving human population was probably less than a billion.

Civil order was on the verge of collapse, but Fire Moth truly had no energy left to manage these things. Their only opponent was the Eleventh Herrscher.

The only good news was that in the recent preparation period, Lee had successfully determined the approximate location of the Eleventh Herrscher.

After learning that the Eleventh Herrscher's barrier could not directly kill Lee, only suppress the supply of Honkai energy, Mei provided Lee with a rather simple solution—add more cores.

In addition to the several combat-type Divine Keys that could be carried, Mei and Vill-V even dismantled the still-unformed Herrscher of Reason core and the Herrscher of the Void core, which had already been installed on the SELENE, and temporarily connected them to Lee.

This method, similar to an external battery pack, successfully provided Lee with sufficient Honkai energy. Although it was still far from being able to fight, it was enough for Lee to use a portion of the Herrscher of Sentience's authority to scan a wide range of consciousness.

She didn't even need to distinguish whether the consciousness belonged to the Eleventh Herrscher, because all conscious beings had died due to this barrier.

With the plan and target location determined, the course of action was also decided.

Since the Eleventh Herrscher's location was not at the edge of the barrier, all MANTIS warriors needed to reach the airspace above the Eleventh Herrscher by spaceship, and then jump from near-Earth orbit to launch the attack.

Kevin needed to be on standby at high altitude, waiting for the moment the Herrscher relaxed to kill her.

It was another plan where others attracted attention with their lives in front, while he prepared for a sneak attack... Kevin was now somewhat numb.

Perhaps in the face of Herrschers, they had no other choice but to sacrifice a small number of people in exchange for a greater victory.

Fire Moth's most elite MANTIS warrior force had already assembled at the airport—nearly ten thousand MANTIS warriors. This was all that humanity had left. If even this could not eliminate the Eleventh Herrscher, then humanity could only wait for death.

"I will enter one step ahead of the troops to confirm that the Herrscher's coordinates have not moved..."

Lee frowned slightly, and after hesitating for a long time, she finally spoke to Kevin. "Kevin, I will connect our consciousnesses later. When the opportunity arises, I will tell you the location you need to attack... Don't hesitate, okay?"

"...You won't take any risks, right?" Kevin stared at Lee blankly. "Your job this time is to transmit information... Don't get close to danger."

"Don't worry, I always know what I'm doing," Lee smiled and walked towards the direction where the MANTIS warriors were gathering. "Alright, I'll go and see how the others are doing first. Elysia hasn't come to see me for a long time. I finally have a chance to catch her, I can't let it go."

And as she walked past Kevin, Lee's soft sigh reached Kevin's ear. "Don't hesitate this time, Kevin."

"...Mm."

Kevin gave an affirmative answer, although he himself had no confidence that he could do so.

But this was Lee's expectation... Trust her, trust Lee's judgment.

Elysia was clearly deliberately avoiding Lee, so much so that after walking around the MANTIS warrior troops for a full circle, Lee still didn't see Elysia.

This even made Lee somewhat puzzled. The blow from the Herrscher of Legion shouldn't have been enough to make Elysia like this, right?

It was just suspecting her best friend, preparing to attack her, and finally realizing that she had completely misunderstood her, and indirectly causing her to be seriously injured and almost die.

It wasn't a big deal. Lee, as the friend who almost died, didn't have any complaints.

But although she didn't find the pink Elysia, Lee did find another interesting target.

"Hua, long time no see."

"—!"

Seeing the familiar gray figure not far away, Lee smiled and walked over to greet her. In contrast to the relaxed and comfortable Lee, Hua's figure was obviously stiff, and she immediately lowered her head and hurried to leave.

"Wait a minute, Hua, why are you avoiding me?"

Unable to escape, Hua, who was grabbed by the shoulder, knew that she couldn't get away, so she could only turn around and face her old friend.

"Lee..."

Hua's voice was very low, and her head was always lowered, like a puppy who knew she had done something wrong and didn't dare to look up at her owner.

Hua's attitude almost made Lee laugh. "What happened? Why are you like this?"

"...I'm sorry," Hua's head lowered even further, almost touching her chest, which had developed considerably.

Mm, it seems that letting this child drink more papaya milk a few years ago was the right choice. It seems she has successfully avoided becoming a flat-chested character and even becoming a meme to be mocked.

Looking at the results of her efforts, Lee nodded in approval in her heart. Although it was still a bit lacking compared to herself, it was at least much better than Mobius, who had now become a child.

"What's there to apologize for?" Lee looked like she couldn't help but laugh and shook her head. "How many years has it been since we last met? I think it was... after the Australia incident, right?"

"I'm sorry..."

Hua lowered her head, only able to see Lee's legs. But she always felt that the color was a bit more sickly white than it had been years ago.

She knew that Lee had been injured many times since then, but... she had never gone to see her.

Since the Seventh Herrscher incident, she had been afraid to see Lee... Hua didn't know how to face this friend who had the opportunity to kill the Seventh Herrscher, but failed because of her obstruction, and was instead seriously injured.

If she had trusted her at that time, perhaps even the Seventh Honkai could have been prevented...

And after she had done such a stupid thing, Lee had even protected her with her body at the most dangerous moment.

How could Hua raise her head? She could only continue to avoid it, and she had never dared to go to Fire Moth headquarters, where Lee was located, since then.

"So I said there's absolutely no need to apologize," Lee touched Hua's head. "If anyone should apologize, it should be me apologizing to you. If I could have—sigh, there's no end to talking about this topic. The departure time is almost here. How about we talk about how you've been lately?"

"I participated in Dr. MEI's experiment some time ago," Hua answered whatever she was asked. "I became a MANTIS warrior in the Tenth Divine Key test, and then I underwent the SWARA experiment."

"The SWARA experiment, huh..."

Huh, Gaoming mentioned this term to me a long time ago? It seems to be one of the reasons for Fu Hua's later breakdown?

Since it was a breakdown, it should be a mental influence, right?

Looking at the still-obedient Hua, Lee gently placed her hand on her face. "You've been through a lot."

Give this girl some mental protection. Maybe she won't be so crazy when she chokes Lihua in the future. Although, considering her plan, she might have gone crazy because of her at that time.

It doesn't matter. Lihua lives in the future, so she is her descendant.

Trust in the wisdom of future generations.