"You're about to crash and burn."
After parting ways with Ana, Ling's gloating voice echoed from within Jizo Mitama.
During the interval between the first and second batches of the Artificial Herrscher Experiment, Ana, who was clearly interested in Li Zihan, wanted to stay at St. Freya Academy.
Unfortunately, the other girls with whom Li Zihan had ambiguous relationships also lived at St. Freya Academy.
If Ana were to move in next to Li Zihan's dormitory, it would mean the probability of her encountering the other girls close to him would skyrocket.
The girls who knew Li Zihan had, to some extent, all realized that he was a playboy.
But for various reasons, they had all chosen to turn a blind eye, thus forming a strange and precarious balance.
And now, upholding the Schariac family tradition, Ana Schariac, whose speed of surrender had left even Li Zihan a bit bewildered, had chosen to burst into his life.
Mhm, a life that had appeared so calm due to the girls around him maintaining that balance for their own reasons.
Once she finished packing and moved in next door to Li Zihan, the things that the girls connected to him had been deliberately ignoring would be brought out into the open.
This weird balance…
Was probably about to be GG'd.
And once that balance was GG'd, Li Zihan himself wouldn't be far from his own GG.
"Hey, hey, hey, Ling-chan, in the most difficult time of my life, as my most reliable companion, is it really okay for you to be so sarcastic?"
The boy, who was truly walking on the line between life and death, unsheathed the tachi that was always hanging at his waist.
The blade of the sword reflected the image of the girl named Ling.
At this moment, the beautiful fox-like girl wore the expression of someone enjoying a good show.
"Why would you think that I, as a girl, wouldn't enjoy seeing a scumbag crash and burn?" Ling asked, rolling her eyes. She hadn't been let out of Jizo Mitama at all due to the frequent experiments these past two days.
Rolling one's eyes was actually quite an ungraceful action, but because the one doing it was a beautiful girl like Ling, it still looked rather nice and didn't give off a bad impression.
"And why would you think that I'm going to crash and burn?"
The boy with crimson eyes glanced at the former Herrscher of Erosion hidden within Jizo Mitama and pouted.
"Brother, you need to wake up."
Ling looked at Li Zihan with a hint of pity.
"This isn't just a car crash. This is a chain-reaction pile-up."
"Rest assured, an ordinary kitchen knife can't hurt me," the boy, whose defense and regeneration were both frighteningly strong, said with great seriousness.
"A kitchen knife?"
Ling, the Twelfth Herrscher of the Previous Era, was stunned for a moment before retorting furiously.
"Brother, why would you think a Herrscher would use something like a kitchen knife?"
"If you crash and burn, what's waiting for you will be atomic decomposition, cellular decay, and fluid cutting."
"Thinking you can get away with just a couple of slashes? You must be dreaming."
…
Damn it, I can't even refute that.
Hearing Ling's words, Li Zihan fell silent.
The girls around Li Zihan basically all had Herrscher potential. People with that kind of potential were, in fact, pre-selected by the Honkai consciousness to be future Herrschers.
As long as those people came into contact with a large amount of Honkai energy, they would naturally undergo Herrscherization.
"However, looking at you, you must have some preparations, right?"
While Li Zihan was silent, Ling pondered for a moment and spoke again.
The boy, who looked extremely nonchalant, shrugged and said.
"What specific measures?" Ling asked, still quite curious as to what Li Zihan would do.
"That's a secret for now."
The boy, who had already started preparing for a disastrous implosion the moment he started thinking about building a harem, smiled and said.
"Rather than worrying about a shuraba that will only happen in the future, we should probably focus on the experiment."
????
Are you the type of person to focus on experiments?
Ling looked at Li Zihan in disbelief, her wide eyes filled with shock.
"The 'Artificial Herrscher' Project's entire second batch will be postponed to the third batch."
The boy, who was clearly intending to suppress the Herrscherization timeline of the girls he knew, spoke.
This guy, what kind of new trick is he trying to pull?
Sensing that Li Zihan might be about to stir up trouble, Ling's eyelid twitched.
"Then… what do you plan to do during the second batch's timeframe?"
"Of course, I'm going to modify myself and conduct a Herrscherization experiment," the boy said, a faint smile on his face as he felt the looming crisis of kitchen knives. He revealed a set of chillingly white teeth.
"The Key of Revelation, the Void Archives, created from the Previous Era's Herrscher of Reason's core. Have you forgotten?"
"That thing already contains the data for twelve Divine Keys. If I also analyze Jizo Mitama, I'll be able to simulate the authorities of thirteen Herrschers."
The boy, who could input the knowledge of Jizo Mitama into the Void Archives if he so pleased, grinned.
"Since Herrschers are so dangerous, then I'll just become a Herrscher too."
"As long as I consume the Herrscher of Reason's core within the Void Archives, which contains all the knowledge of the previous era, I'll become stronger than any Herrscher besides Finality, won't I?"
Hearing Li Zihan's words, Ling fell silent. A powerful urge to roast him was stuck in her throat, leaving her speechless for a moment.
"…Your way of dealing with a shuraba is to become stronger so the girls can't beat you up?" Ling finally managed to say after a long pause.
After provoking a bunch of girls who could become incredibly powerful in the future and sensing the immense crisis, Li Zihan's reaction…
Was this?!
Could you be any more absurd?!
"That's just the prerequisite for the plan's implementation," said the boy, who would probably experiment on Chen Tianwu tomorrow and then, as promised, trade a Soulium body for his power.
"Alright, don't get hung up on it. It's time to rest."
Because of the situation with Ana, the only test subject left was Chen Tianwu.
Although Murata Himeko was likely a candidate for the Herrscher of Flame, Li Zihan instinctively ignored her for some personal reasons.
Therefore, his previous plan needed to be completely scrapped.
Without spending too much time thinking, Li Zihan formulated Plan 2.0.
This time, the experiment site would not be Raven Island.
It would be the Reality Marble recorded in the Emiya family's Magical Crest.
The Emiya family's magecraft involved accelerating or stopping the flow of time within a Reality Marble, which was not subject to the world's interference.
By using the knowledge of the Fifth Magic—the Law of Order—that he had learned from Aoko Aozaki to disrupt the order of the normal flow of time and then run it, he could achieve things the Emiya family's magecraft could not.
—Time Stop, Time Deletion, and… Time Reversal.
Since he had fewer test subjects, he would just use one test subject for multiple experiments.
Maintaining a Reality Marble was not a difficult task for him, who possessed a Mystic Code of the Second Magic.