What happens when someone stays cooped up for too long?
For some, it's liberating. No one can disturb their solitude, bringing them genuine happiness.
For others, it's unsettling. The feeling of being disconnected from the outside world makes them anxious; the loss of communication makes them lonely...
But whether a person despises or enjoys it, after spending a relatively long time alone, they all undergo the same change—their ability to communicate with others imperceptibly and significantly deteriorates.
Even the ever-gentle Su, who as both a doctor and a Flame-Chaser was endlessly patient with visitors; even he, who was widely acknowledged in the Elysian Realm as the one best suited to coordinate the team and "welcome" newcomers, what did he become after locking himself in Sumeru and observing parallel worlds with sleepless, high intensity for thousands of years?
"Don't tell me what you think, I'll tell you what I think!"
—When facing Durandal, whom he had "forcefully invited," he appeared gentle, but his actual attitude was domineering and unreasonable.
It wasn't until a "personality correction fist" was smashed squarely into his face that the "sage's" muddled mind was shocked back to clarity...
So... how should one put it?
If even the kind, calm, and restrained Su couldn't escape this fate, then Kevin, who had become taciturn and unapproachable like a forbidding iceberg long ago, would naturally be in an even more sorry state...
However, not all 'icebergs' are created equal.
Even if the days of his pure and foolish youth were long gone, after crossing the span of fifty thousand years into the new era millennia ago, the Kevin of that time, though already an iceberg, still had a certain human touch in his tone when communicating.
At least he was still someone you could talk to—whether it was to his comrades, his companions, or to strangers of the new era.
At the very least, the Kevin of that time could still inspire a highly respected philosopher to muster his strength on his deathbed for one last philosophical discussion with him.
Not like now, where Kevin could offend someone to death the moment he opened his mouth—
"Find someone for me and bring him back here. In return, I can promise to bring you all back to the native world in the future."
After tossing Seele, who was still in a "quantum superposition," into the raging energy tides of the Sea of Quanta, Kevin spoke in an extremely indifferent tone.
His calm and deep voice was filled with an irrefutable, domineering will.
He knew she could hear him. His words were exceedingly concise, and the content he wished to convey was complete:
Mission: Find a person, bring him back.
Reward: When it's done, I'll take you home.
See? The content and key elements were perfectly complete, weren't they?
But, if he had spoken to MEI like that back in the day, if she hadn't slapped him on the spot and told him to "get lost," it would have been a testament to the girl's excellent upbringing.
Had it been the dying old philosopher, he probably would have been angered to death on the spot by his rudeness...
Seele trembled in fear at Kevin's sudden voice. Seeing this, the other Seele was startled and shot her head up, questioning loudly:
"Who are you? Who's there?"
She and Seele had no idea how long they had been trapped in this dark "little room." Just when they thought they would have to spend the rest of their lives in misery, a blinding light suddenly shone into the darkness, like a door being opened in their cell.
But before they could feel any surprise or joy, Kevin's voice followed, reaching their ears.
What did that voice feel like?
Cold, domineering, like a terrifying sovereign issuing commands from on high, impossible to defy.
In that instant, Seele felt as if her fate was held in the hands of the voice's owner, a shiver running through her very soul...
Even the seemingly rebellious Veliona, despite her angry, loud questioning, wasn't she also terrified in her heart?
But at this moment, facing such a terrifying, unknown existence, if she didn't bravely step forward, who else could protect her and Seele?
The answer was no one. So she had no choice.
"Who I am is not important."
Kevin didn't care about the girl's attitude toward him. He just repeated in the same tone:
"I only need you to bring that person back."
"Why me?" Veliona pressed relentlessly. "Who are you, and what are you plotting?"
To this, Kevin, unwilling to waste his breath, gave a flat reply that sounded very much like a threat:
"If you wish to regain your freedom, you had best do as I say."
As expected, hearing such a naked "threat," both Seeles trembled. It was still that same arrogant tone that brooked no argument.
But what they didn't know was that they weren't even qualified to be threatened by Kevin. On the contrary, Kevin's intentions were entirely good—
Years ago, he had discovered this girl who had fallen into the Sea of Quanta for some reason and had casually fished her out. But at that time, Seele had completely lost her unitary nature, becoming a cloud of discrete microscopic particles.
For someone in her state to enter the Sea of Quanta was like a drop of water falling into the ocean; she was on the verge of being completely assimilated and disappearing without a trace.
Kevin had merely caught that drop of water before it completely merged with the sea and set it aside.
But that was all Kevin could do.
He was not a god; he could not reverse Seele's state of existence.
He could only forcefully intervene to prevent her from dissipating completely, maintaining this delicate state of "neither life nor death." To bring her "back to life," he could only pin his hopes on a future opportunity, one that could turn this dissipating "drop of water" into a "fish" that could swim freely in the sea.
Although the girl had become a cloud of discrete particles, her consciousness itself was still strong enough not to dissipate.
She was still a living being. As long as there was a chance for her to replenish herself, it was entirely possible for her to become a special "life form of the quantum world."
Now, the opportunity had arrived.
The brief battle and collision moments ago had violently stirred the regular, gentle tides of the Sea of Quenta, creating a raging torrent.
The hazy, indistinct "probability cloud" now had traceable paths.
Countless world bubbles were born and destroyed in these waves.
Thus, the opportunity for Seele to undergo a "unitary evolution" once more under the interference of his will, to become an isolated system no longer coupled with the outside world, had appeared so suddenly.
And so, Kevin had unhesitatingly thrown her into that raging "tide." As long as she could freely traverse the infinite "bubbles," her being would naturally return to a complete, solid state.
Since you have to make this journey anyway, helping me find someone along the way is killing two birds with one stone, isn't it?
That was what Kevin thought, and that was how he arranged it.
It was only natural that when she and the person she found returned to him, complete, bringing them all back to the native world in the future would be a matter of course...
Win-win!
But Kevin was, to put it mildly, not a smooth talker.
And after his self-exile to the Sea of Quanta, where he had been passively practicing a "vow of silence" for millennia, his way of speaking had become even more disastrous.
And so, what should have been a perfectly good "mutually beneficial" situation had inexplicably turned into this speechless, car-crash of a conversation.
And if nothing unexpected happened, "car crashes" like today, where a joyous occasion was handled like a funeral, would be repeated many times in the years to come.
The more outstanding the junior, the more they couldn't help but want to fight him to the death upon their first meeting.
What was even more awkward was that Kevin's power was simply too immense. No one could even give him the same "personality correction fist" that Su had received to wake him up...
After all, not everyone was like Gray Serpent, who had gained a thorough understanding of him early on and had made ample mental preparations before meeting him.
For Seele, this was asking far too much...
"Damn it... If we don't do as you say, we'll be locked in this damned place forever?" Veliona couldn't help but rage.
It was clear she had misunderstood again, believing Kevin was the culprit who had imprisoned her and Seele.
Kevin remained silent, implicitly confirming her words.
From his perspective, if she didn't do as he said and gave up this rare opportunity, she would naturally remain trapped in her current painful state. As for the trivial differences and misunderstandings, even if he noticed them, he couldn't be bothered to explain.
And so, a conversation where two people were talking past each other, clearly misaligned yet surprisingly smooth, was bizarrely achieved...
"Damn it..."
Confirming that the owner of this arrogant voice did indeed hold her life and death in his hands, Veliona felt a wave of powerlessness.
She smiled bitterly at the other Seele, who seemed stunned into a daze, and said:
"Seele, it looks like we don't have a choice but to agree..."
As long as there's life, there's hope. We'll see about this! Veliona thought viciously.
"Bronya-oneechan..."
Suddenly, the Seele who had seemed to be in a daze, the one with the gentler disposition, abruptly murmured this name. Then, she timidly raised her head and mustered her courage to ask:
"Excuse me, were you the one who sent me Bronya-oneechan's message before?"
Not long ago, she had suddenly received a video message from Bronya. It was a treasure she still cherished.
For a long time, she had watched it almost every day, and every time she watched, she would cry. Veliona had once complained about this:
"If you keep watching like this, I'm afraid you'll cry your eyes out one day. Wouldn't your Bronya-oneechan be worried to death if she saw you?"
And so, from that day on, Seele stopped watching, so as not to make Bronya worry about her in the future.
Instead, she replayed it in her mind every day. She had long memorized the content of that message by heart...
It was also because of this that she always remembered Bronya's warning in the message: the man who passed on the information was a very dangerous person, and she had to be careful! Really, very scary...
Was Bronya-oneechan dealing with people like this before?
Seele was so scared she could feel her heart trembling, but she still cheered herself on in her heart.
If Bronya-oneechan could do it, then I definitely can too!
"Yes." Kevin nodded. He certainly hadn't forgotten helping Gray Serpent deliver a message before.
"Then... can I see Bronya-oneechan again?" Seele couldn't help but ask timidly.
"As long as you bring that person back to me, I will grant your reunion in the future," Kevin said. "When you return to the native world, as long as your family is still alive, seeing them will be simple, won't it?"
"Really? Thank you..."
Seele smiled, wiped away her tears, and said firmly, "Okay, I'll do it!"
"Seele..."
Veliona was dumbfounded watching from the side. You agreed that easily?
But on second thought, it seemed there was no other choice. She could only helplessly accept her "recklessness" and pull herself together to ask:
"This person you mentioned, who is he? What's his name? Male or female? How old? How am I supposed to find him?"
A barrage of questions. Compared to the other Seele, her personality was clearly more impatient.
"His name is Lin Wei. When you meet him, you will naturally be able to recognize him," Kevin said. "After all, he also fell into the Sea of Quanta from the native world. A subtle connection in the grand scheme of things will naturally draw you to each other."
After speaking, seeming to feel he had said too much and wasted too much time, Kevin paused briefly and ended the conversation:
"Alright, go."
With that, he waved his hand, sending the barely-cohesive ball of energy deeper into the quantum tides, as if giving them a push.
"Let's go, my other self..."
In the dark space where Seele was, the distant light suddenly grew brighter. Suppressing the fluttering in her heart, Seele took Veliona's hand and walked, trembling yet brave, toward the glowing doorway.
"I don't know what lies ahead, but we shouldn't just stop here!"
Being pulled along, Veliona looked helplessly at her back. I'll listen to you. What else can I do?
[T/N: In Chapter 12 of the main story, when Seele sees Kevin in the world bubble, she clearly doesn't recognize him. She's even shocked when she leaves the bubble and sees his true form. This means... although she was ordered by Kevin to find Welt's Herrscher Core and was even badly scared by him, she never actually met him face-to-face from beginning to end...]