Chapter 282 Missing Power

The wind swept through every corner of this city that had been uninhabited for many years, throwing gray dust and keratin all over the sky.

Mikael stood at the anchor point, that is, on the tall building. This time, he did not go directly to the destination, but leaned on the railing that was rusted to the point that it could be crushed into slag with a slight pinch, and quietly looked at the city called "Brindi".

Unlike the abandoned cities seen in the original world, there seemed to be something missing here.

Mikael silently compared and soon found the difference.

After all, humans do not mean all life. After humans completely lose a place, countless animals, insects, microorganisms and plants will spontaneously fill their vacancies, even in the face of pervasive collapse energy radiation.

At the very least, the cats and dogs that "rob houses" every day, or the collapse beasts, will definitely not be absent. They step on the slippery moss and make extremely slight sounds. Although slight, this is vitality, the hope of life that will never be missing at any time and place.

However, the city in front of him, apart from the flying ashes and keratin powder left after the destruction of all life, only has the same ruins. Occasionally, some of them will collapse under the heavy load, making a huge echo that can be heard throughout the world, but although the sound is huge, it has nothing to do with life.

He cast his eyes further east. If this is not a bubble of the world, he should be able to see the street reflecting the dusk.

Here, it is the place where many stories begin and the starting point for many people to meet.

And in the same place across a world, perhaps... it will also be the end of a story?

Mikael broke the last section of the railing in front of him and crushed it into powder with his thumb and index finger, and then opened his hands, letting the wind bring the rusted powder and dust to the sky.

Humans are the primates of all things?

It's ridiculous.

In fact, they are just like these powder and dust. In front of the wind, they have always been swept away to an unknown place.

Mikael jumped down from the roof, and every step he took, a sea of ​​white flowers bloomed behind him.

The green vines pushed open the dry and cracked concrete road, wrapping the tall buildings.

If we don't do some greening, the oxygen here will be consumed, not to mention that he knows she likes it.

So, the whole city is bounded by him, behind him is a vibrant sea of ​​flowers and forests, and in front of him is still cold and gray reinforced concrete.

Only that touch of pink is particularly bright in the gray, and it also points out the direction for Mikael to move forward.

Neither of them seemed to be in a hurry. When Mikael walked across the stone bridge, he even stopped and looked at the nearly collapsed railings and the nearly dried water under the bridge.

Thinking about it carefully, every time he met Ellie in the world bubble, the two seemed to need a long period of lead time to decide what kind of mood and attitude they should use to face each other.

To each other, both of them are extremely special - he is Mikael, she is Ellie, but there is no connection between them as in memory.

Yes, connection.

Mikael once thought about what the difference is between Ellie in the world bubble and the Ellie he knows?

In the final analysis, it is connection.

Living in the world, whether one is willing or not, one cannot avoid establishing connections with others. This connection can help people define what "self" is, and it is also this connection that makes people unconsciously want to get closer to each other.

"A person's feelings for another person are always due to connection, not the person himself."

For Ellie in the world bubble, Mikael once summarized it this way.

However, these ideas are nothing more than based on existing human ideas, and they cannot transcend the limitations of human cognition. For example, when those thinkers and philosophers think about this, they will never consider the relationship between another me in the parallel world and another her.

Is the me in another world considered a part of "self"?

Is the her in another world considered a part of "her"?

This is not a self-indulgent nitpicking. In this broken world, especially with the choices that Mikael has to face, this question is necessary to discuss.

If the one in the other world can be counted as her, then Mikael doesn't have to worry about Ellie's sacrifice at all, but how is that possible? After all, this Ellie didn't experience those stories with Mikael and establish that kind of connection, so how could she replace the real "her" in Mikael's heart?

But if she is not her, why couldn't Mikael accept her and the Sixth Herrscher's death when he first came to this world, and why, every time he meets now, he always maintains a nervous feeling in his heart?

After thinking for so many years, Mikael can only come up with an extremely vague concept-how can human emotions be fully recorded by cold language and words?

There is nothing absolute in the world, and complex and changeable emotions are no exception.

In fact, if we continue to delve deeper, we may be able to say that we love her and her dog, but no matter what, she can't replace her, so there is no need for Mikael to think deeply about this question.

It's just that every time I come to the world bubble, my brain will consciously put this question out.

"Hi! Long time no see!"

"Yeah."

Faced with Mikael's pretended indifferent answer, Ellie pouted dissatisfiedly, and then her eyes couldn't help but stare at the sea of ​​flowers behind him.

"If you want to pick one, just pick one."

Her gaze was so obvious, why couldn't Mikael see it?

He pursed his lips and said half helplessly and half amusedly.

Ai Li then bent her eyes and smiled, leaned over and picked the largest-looking flower.

"This...how do you pin it on your head?"

She pinched the flower and slapped it on her head, only to make her hair a mess.

"Oh……"

Mikael couldn't hold it back any longer and chuckled, and was immediately caught by her:

"Put it on for me!"

"What?"

"Put it on my head!"

"..."

Unable to resist her, Mikael took the white flower, first held her head, combed the messy hair neatly, and finally inserted the flower gently into the hair next to her ear.

In fact, just from the perspective of personality, we can also find the differences between the two Alicias.

Perhaps because she has faced the weight of the destruction of the world, Ellie in the world bubble is quieter in most cases. She often walks alone in the city to see the scenery, and does not communicate with many people. .

But after all, she has much less experience than the Ellie that Mikael knows well, so whenever she speaks, she still has the immaturity of a little girl.

But...it doesn't matter...

"This will all be over soon," Mikael repeated in his mind, as if he wanted to carve this meaningless sentence into his mind.

As for whether this is a prophecy or a prayer, there is no need to distinguish.

The two soon arrived at the terrifyingly empty base. As soon as they entered, they saw a man about the same build and age as Mikael. He was sitting on a recliner, holding a book in his hand, and humming inexplicably. The melody is very noisy.

But the most speechless thing is that he put a pair of striped pants on his head, and used scissors to cut out several round holes for his eyes, mouth and nose...

In short, at first glance, it makes people feel that their mental state is worrying.

"Imer?"

Mikael shouted tentatively.

In fact, there is no need to test. There are only five human beings in this world bubble, and among them, this is the only male. Who else is there except Ymer?

It's just... Ymer's past character, although he occasionally made childish actions like using Mikael's underpants as a profile picture, but considering the childish attributes of the man himself, Ymer's overall appearance is definitely considered good. He is less talkative and more steady.

And with his current appearance, it's hard not to think he's Ling...

"Huh? Mikael...Captain?"

He raised his head in astonishment, then hurriedly pulled off his pants, then smiled dryly and didn't know what to say.

"Give way, give way! Brothers and sisters, give way! Put your feet up! Go back! Hurry up! Hahahahahaha!"

Accompanied by an exaggerated laugh, a smaller voice rushed out from the door on the side. She pushed two mops filled with water and dragged the entire room... until the entire room was wet.

Mikael shook his head, and while stepping on her mop, he gently pressed her shoulders, and then the bell stopped moving.

"Ah! Huh? Brother Mikael!"

She tilted her head and looked at it for a while, and then she confirmed the fact that the person coming was Mikael.

"Hey hey hey... Brother Mikael, you are here, does that mean we can go back?"

Michael looked at Yimer who was holding his pants and bowing his head silently, and asked:

"Is there anything uncomfortable about staying here?"

"ah?"

Ling's brows and nose were all wrinkled, and her lips were raised upwards, as if she didn't understand Mikael's question.

"Uncomfortable place? No? I think it's pretty good."

As if she was afraid that Mikael wouldn't believe it, she hurriedly added:

"You don't have to be pulled up early in the morning by your sister to practice swordsmanship, and you don't have to have Pado take away all kinds of snacks, just...just..."

"Just what?"

"Hehehe, I'm just a little bored, and then... I miss my sister a little bit..."

When Ling finished speaking, her voice was as thin as a mosquito.

"And you?"

Mikael looked at Ymer.

"Me? I don't think it's anything. This is good. You don't have to perform tasks, and you won't be plagued by thousands of calamities. It's just a paid vacation."

"...I'm asking you why you put your underwear on your head."

"Huh? Well...ahem...don't worry about these details!"

In fact, even without asking, Mikael could guess the general reason - in an unchanging and sealed space, facing the exact same people all day long, saying the exact same words...

As time goes by, it’s hard to say that there won’t be any mental problems.

This is not unfamiliar to Mikael, who knows the entire story of [Xie'er] through the stigmata.

He suddenly wanted to say sorry, not only to Ling and Yimer, but also to Klein of course, and...

Yimer, who could more or less guess what he was thinking, shook his head and took the initiative to say:

"It's okay, Mikael. Compared with you fighting on the front line, we have been in this world bubble for more than a month, but we have not been able to find any trace of Mu Dalu's world bubble... It is really a failure."

"Well?"

If he hadn't said that, Mikael would have even forgotten the excuse he made earlier.

His face was expressionless, he just blinked, and then suddenly spoke, and what he said caught Yimer off guard:

"Actually, I'm here just to inform you of good news."

"Huh? What good news? Mu Dalu has been found?"

"Well……"

Mikael shook his head, a little embarrassed.

Lies are just like that, whether they are out of good intentions or malicious intentions, lies are lies, and lies need to be covered up one after another.

Unless someone can say it without hesitation - I'm sorry, I lied before.

Only then can this endless cycle end.

However, from Mikael's perspective, very few, or even almost no, people can do this. Compared with the unknown consequences of self-exploding lies, human beings would rather bear endless heavy burdens.

This is also one of the manifestations of the contradictions of human beings - they clearly pursue connections with others, and they clearly long to cuddle up with others for warmth in this dark and cold world, but when others are really close, they instead Hiding and tucking, using lies one after another to cover up the true self, keeping a distance between oneself and others.

But what about lies for Mikael? What about the truth?

In the face of the coming end, everything is meaningless.

Or, as he said to Hua, he has a way to reverse everything, a way to make all the pain that Honkai has brought to this world no longer exist, and to accomplish this, he only needs to do it in the near future A matter that is insignificant to most humans, and after taking that step, all human troubles are just a passing thought to him.

In other words, things have reached this point. Humanity is now just one step away from facing the end, so there is no need to hide it.

"You can return to your original world."

"Huh? Huh?"

Yimer frowned, and Mikael could see that he originally had something to say, but those words were like unnailed music scores, blown by the wind and carried to a place beyond the reach of his consciousness. place.

After a while, Yimer slowly spoke:

"However, the plan to search for Mu Dalu has not been fully implemented yet..."

"The plan itself is not important. Even if we find the world bubble of Mu Continent, we do not have the ability to reconnect it to the original world without damaging it itself."

"..."

Yimer opened and closed his lips in vain, and then asked:

"Then we...the purpose of our coming to this world is..."

"Yes, I lied to you."

Mikael's eyes swept over Ling, who lowered his head guiltily, so Mikael smiled self-deprecatingly:

"Actually, you have already guessed about this, right? Such an important task as searching for Mu Dalu's world will inevitably require a huge team, and the team's composition also requires various professionals. In short, it is impossible to mix in a girl like Ling.

"Besides, such a plan will inevitably require close contact with some departments in the essential world. During this month, only Mebius, Sakura and Qianjie occasionally talked to you with the help of Gnius, and they never mentioned work. , it’s really hard not to make people suspicious.”

"so……"

"The reason why you can return to the original world is because of the eleventh time, no, to be precise, it is because of the end of the tenth collapse."

"Tenth? Eleventh? So fast?"

Yimer sighed habitually at first, but he was not a fool. He reacted in just two or three seconds and understood the true meaning of Mikael's words.

"Did you mean..."

"Yes, if you and Klein were not hiding in this world bubble, then there is a high probability that you would become one of the individuals of the Tenth Herrscher..."

Yimer was still wondering what "one of the individuals" was, but Suzu couldn't wait to point to his nose and asked:

"What about me? What about me?"

She had an ominous premonition - the so-called "you can return to your original world"...may not include her...

"We'll talk about your questions later."

Mikael rubbed her head gently, and then looked at Alicia, who had been leaning against the door and smiling silently from the beginning:

"Is Klein at Dr. Mei's place? Let's go. Let the two of them return to the original world first. There are people over there who can't wait."

The ensuing negotiations took little effort.

Mei was completely aware of the general inside story. Of course, even the unknown parts were understood through Gnius and from Mei in the original world.

Klein seems to be in a much better mental state than Yimer and Ling. After all, she is also working with Dr. Mei here, which is not much different from working with Mebius in the intrinsic world.

However, compared to the 25-hour workload at Mobius's place, the days spent in the world are too leisurely. After all, Mei only cares about two things, one is the Stigma Project, and the other is to The technology of materializing consciousness into memory is the Elysium Project.

In fact, her work process is to complete some tasks and hand them over to Mei, who then passes them to Mei in the original world through Gnius, who then passes them to Mebius, who then arranges them. Part of the mission...

Rounding things off, Klein was still working for Mebius, but due to the lag in information transmission, she suddenly had more rest time.

So, when Mikael told her that she could return to the original world, she was excited but also a little reluctant.

But no matter what, it was a good thing to be able to return to the world she was familiar with.

Mikael opened the space rift, and without any hesitation, Imer and Klein stepped in.

Ling opened her mouth wide and looked at the darkness with longing, and then was led away from Mei's laboratory by Ellie who stroked her head.

"How is the Paradise Project going?"

Mikael moved a stool and sat down without hesitation.

Mei rubbed her brows, looking a little tired:

"If we follow the original plan of Mebius and I, we can start implementing the plan now, we can start making memory now, and... it's a little late now."

"In other words, my plan is not possible at present?"

"Yes, the original Paradise plan is to build a world similar to the metaverse by relying on the ability of spiritual perception fusion warriors and data terminals. This is already possible with our current technology."

"... Can you stop riding on the popularity?"

"Hmm?"

"Nothing, you continue..."

"But now you require that this world exist in the form of data..."

"Can't do it?"

"Hmm..."

"Like the model of Apolonia and the Deep Place... Well, that is a pure spiritual world, which does not have the possibility of coordinating memory."

"Well, yes, that's right."

Mikael narrowed his eyes. He knew that things were not that simple. If it was really impossible to do it, Mei would have directly rejected his improvement plan, and there would not be room for it until now.

"Just tell me, what's missing?"

"Just like what you said just now, you know it very well, right? To complete this plan according to your goal, what we are missing now is a power that has not yet appeared - the power to control the data world."