He took a deep breath and pressed his hands on the table.
"So, the root cause of the failure in the last loop might lie in the 'nature' of our actions.
"We are still trying to intervene forcefully with 'external variables' to reverse a system about to collapse. This method, when the system's own power is still intact and highly alert, is destined to trigger the strongest rejection reaction.
"We might need to change our 'identity,' change our 'method.' We should no longer just be 'heroes destroying the established trajectory,' but..."
His gaze turned to Fu Hua, and seemed to pass her, looking outside the martial arts school, at the city emerging from the night, about to face its third test.
"...Rather, we should try to understand the final 'logic' before this system collapses, find those truly key 'fulcrums' that can exert influence from the inside, or...
"At least we must avoid being easily 'cleared' by this system at the last moment before the Honkai again."
A pin drop could be heard in the room.
Joachim's words were like a heavy stone, but after being thrown into the lake of everyone's hearts, which were already surging with undercurrents, they allowed the confused crowd to find direction.
He denied not the effort, but the method.
Joachim looked around at the silent crowd whose gazes were gradually focusing. The mist of confusion and self-doubt shrouding the conference room due to repeated failures had been poked open by his analysis just now.
What they needed now was to widen this crack and let the clear light of strategy shine in.
"Now," he clapped his hands, his voice steady, carrying a decisiveness that pulled attention from emotions back to reality. "Let's temporarily put aside the ultimate goal of 'saving the world,' which is so grand that we don't know where to start.
"The highest priority task currently is information integration and behavioral pattern deconstruction.
"I need the most detailed intelligence on everything we observed, encountered, and even fought against in the previous two loops."
He looked at Natasha first.
"Natasha, you should have something for me, right?"
From just now, Natasha had been acting differently from the others in the conference room.
While everyone else was bowing their heads in contemplation, only Natasha had been frequently operating the microcomputer she brought from the branch.
At this moment, under Joachim's reminder, Natasha finally ended her dazzling operations, stretched, and moved her tired body.
The next moment, with a wave of her hand, a pale blue light screen unfolded in front of her, and complex data streams and 3D dynamic models began to emerge.
"Of course, this is what 'you' from the last loop asked me to give to you."
She projected a city model among the crowd. Joachim recognized at a glance that this was a micro-sand table of Sapphire City. Connecting it with the idea that only existed in his heart, Joachim and his former self's thoughts instantly synchronized.
"The Honkai outbreak model... which iteration is this?" Joachim took over control of the model.
"Third generation." Natasha sighed. "It's filled with real data from two Honkai outbreaks on the initial model."
Joachim nodded to show his understanding. He examined the model based on real-time monitoring data, energy peak records, infection diffusion rates from the two loops...
Finally, he grabbed the model projection with both hands in the void and then suddenly enlarged it.
In the center of the light screen, the 3D map of the Pearl of the Sea appeared, with countless red dots representing the initial infection sources of the Honkai outbreak.
As Joachim slowed down the evolution time, everyone could clearly see that the formation of these red dots was not evenly distributed, but presented a clear radial pattern, with the source highly concentrated.
The model's evolution rewound to the very beginning and then stopped.
Joachim stared at the small area clearly marked in the first frame of the model's evolution.
This was the core of the Honkai outbreak.
"During both Honkai outbreaks, the core area where the Honkai energy descended was here." Natasha watched Joachim stop at this frame without any surprise. This was a node that the other Joachim was certain about.
"Although there seems to be a slight shift between the two times, it is certain that the source we are looking for is within this small range."
"Which means—"
Natasha's voice suddenly became heavy.
"The Herrscher is right here."
This model confirmed a key conjecture that only existed in the memories of Himeko, Fu Hua, and Kallen.
In the "original plot" played by Shu, there was an almost constant phenomenon—
Every regional Honkai outbreak reaching the 'sequence' level was inevitably accompanied by the birth or awakening of a 'Herrscher' at its center. It seemed there was some anchoring relationship between Honkai energy and Herrschers that they hadn't fully understood yet.
The most typical case record was the "Third Honkai Impact" that erupted in Nagazora City.
The point wasn't how much destruction that Honkai caused, but that in that Honkai, the order of the Herrscher and the Honkai's descent was the clearest.
That was a "man-made" Honkai, and the method of creation was—"creating an artificial Herrscher."
It was Mei in the original work who first became the "Herrscher of Thunder," and then the Third Honkai Impact descended.
Looking at the Honkai eruption at Schicksal HQ, the Fourth Honkai Impact in New Zealand, the Honkai eruption on Coral Island, and the Honkai eruption in Kolosten.
Even the Honkai eruption in the Elysian Realm, the Honkai on the moon...
Almost all Honkai outbreaks that gave birth to Herrschers followed the same sequence.
First the Herrscher is born, then the Honkai is triggered.
The Herrscher is the core of a Honkai Impact.
"Therefore, combining the eruption core points shown in this model, which highly coincide both times, we can draw the most reasonable operational hypothesis at this stage.
"The 'cause' that plunged Sapphire City into the loop of Honkai, a Herrscher, is right within the area of 'Pearl of the Sea.'
"Our cycle is extremely likely to be occurring around this Herrscher who has not yet fully awakened or is in some special state within the loop."
The conjecture completed the loop at this moment.
In the very first loop, Joachim's guess about the "Herrscher" fit perfectly at this moment.
The Herrscher was out of control. He/She had a strong tendency to act but couldn't control his/her own power, so he/she could only place hope on them who "strayed in."
Just then, Fu Hua, who had been listening silently, slowly raised her head.
"If the Herrscher's anchor point is there..." Fu Hua's voice was not loud, but clearly reached everyone's ears. "Then, there is a person we might need to pay extra attention to."