After hearing Li Mu's words, the room fell into an eerie silence.
A long while later, Kevin pointed at her own face and said flatly, "Do you think I'm some kind of idiot?"
Li Mu carefully studied Kevin's appearance.
Maybe it was just his imagination, but ever since she had turned into a girl, he felt there was now a certain airheadedness to her face. Probably part of the built-in design of the Kiana model.
So he nodded with complete honesty.
"To be fair, you really do look a little dumb right now. But honestly, it fits the character setting pretty well…"
The moment Kevin heard that, she grabbed the mirror lying nearby and hurled it straight at his face.
"I'd sooner believe I'm the savior of the world than believe you're a reincarnator!"
Li Mu had already expected this reaction. He caught the mirror without difficulty.
Thinking about it from the other side, if someone walked up to him and claimed to be someone reborn from the future, he would probably think they were crazy too.
Fortunately, Li Mu had long since prepared a way to convince her.
So he fumbled around in his pocket for a moment—
Then casually pulled out a cat-head-shaped mechanical helmet and jammed it onto Kevin's head before she could react.
"Wait—where did you even pull that thing from—mmph?!"
The instant the helmet covered her head, Kevin began struggling violently.
But in the very next moment, her movements stopped.
Because the scene before her eyes changed.
The darkness caused by the helmet blocking her vision abruptly vanished, replaced by a pale land filled with desolation and killing intent.
Before she could even process what she was seeing, a fear so terrible it seemed to shake her soul rippled across the sky.
Kevin instinctively looked up—
And met a face that covered most of the heavens, along with fingers that were slowly drawing together, vast as mountain ranges, as though they intended to sever the entire land.
The face appeared to belong to a woman, and for some reason it felt intensely familiar to her, as though she had seen it somewhere before.
Behind that face floated a solitary sphere suspended in the void, its surface streaked with lava.
And yet Kevin could still recognize it at once.
That sphere was Earth itself—the planet that bore human civilization.
Only then did she understand where she was.
This pale land was Earth's satellite—the celestial body known as the moon.
And at this very moment, that satellite, which had accompanied Earth for billions of years, was being cradled in the hands of a woman so enormous it defied comprehension.
"What is this…?"
Kevin was so overwhelmed by the sight before her that she could barely form words.
At that moment, the sound of desperate running came from behind her.
Kevin was just about to turn around when a figure brushed past her shoulder and charged toward the godlike being standing at the edge of the world.
In that fleeting instant as they passed, Kevin caught sight of the runner's face.
White hair. Blue eyes. A body covered in wounds. And in those eyes, grief without end—as though after the flames of fury had burned out, all that remained was hollow despair.
He held a greatsword wreathed in fire, like a lone spark that had suddenly appeared in the endless night, as though it might go out at any second.
Kevin felt a surge of tragic grandeur.
But what drew her attention even more was his appearance.
That man looked astonishingly like her.
No—even more than that.
He was exactly the same person: herself, only older and more mature.
"This is… me?"
Kevin voiced the question aloud, and immediately a familiar voice answered.
"That's right. He is you—the future you from the original timeline."
Kevin turned to the side and saw Li Mu standing there. He, too, was gazing at the scene before them.
More precisely, he was looking at the godlike woman whose fingers were curling inward, as though she were about to clasp the entire moon in her hands.
Li Mu's voice was full of grief. Rather than an explanation, it sounded more like an elegy being recited at a funeral.
"The point in time we're witnessing now is only a little more than ten years from the present."
"Under the relentless advance of the Honkai, humanity endured twelve Great Eruptions under the leadership of an organization called MOTH."
"During that time, countless stories worthy of song and remembrance took place, and one brilliant hero after another rose to shine in history."
"But in the end, they all died amidst one catastrophe after another."
"As of this point in time, of the world's original population of seven billion people, fewer than one hundred thousand remain."
"At this moment, human civilization can already be declared extinct."
Li Mu lifted his head to look at the god holding the moon, and there was indescribable regret in his voice.
"And the one responsible for all of it is the final calamity born from the disaster known as the Honkai—a foe as powerful as a god: a Herrscher."
"And the one before our eyes is the strongest among them all."
"Her name is… the Herrscher of Finality."
The instant Li Mu's voice fell silent, a torrent of blazing fire ignited at the end of the horizon.
It rose like a sword, slashing upward toward the god in the sky.
Boom!!!
A burst of flame, brilliant as the annihilation of a star, exploded in the cold vacuum—
And erased everything, including Li Mu, Kevin, and all else besides.
…
They were back in Li Mu's living room.
Kevin tore the helmet off her head in one motion.
Her chest rose and fell violently as she greedily sucked in mouthfuls of air, as though trying to suppress the panic inside her.
Li Mu took out two cartons of milk, inserted straws into them, and pushed one across the table toward Kevin.
"Now that you've seen that scene, what do you think?"
Kevin looked up and saw that Li Mu's face was fairly calm. He was simply sipping his milk and watching her quietly.
"That just now… was that really something that will happen in the future?"
Though there was still some doubt in Kevin's tone, in her heart she had already believed him.
The moment she saw that version of herself—alone on the moon, charging toward the Herrscher of Finality—she had already believed.
"To be precise, it's what was destined to happen in the original history."
Li Mu continued explaining while drinking his milk.
"This world is far less simple than it looks on the surface. Beneath the peace of everyday life, a supernatural disaster called the Honkai has always lurked in the shadows."
"For thousands and tens of thousands of years throughout history, it has always existed alongside humanity. But because human civilization and technology were limited, it never became too serious."
"But with the Industrial Revolution, humanity's technology advanced explosively, and at last it began to bare its fangs."
"From this point onward, over the next several years, Honkai disasters will only worsen. In less than twenty years, humanity's population will plummet from seven billion to fewer than one hundred thousand."
Listening to Li Mu's explanation of the so-called Honkai, Kevin felt her scalp go numb.
But compared to the miserable future that might one day arrive, there was something else she cared about more.
"You said that everything I love, and everything that loves me, will completely disappear. Then my parents, my family, my friends…"
To that question, Li Mu gave a brutally direct answer.
"Yes. All of them. Dead."
Kevin's face turned deathly pale, as though every last drop of blood had been drained from it.
Li Mu not only offered no comfort—he drove her even further down when her heart was already at rock bottom.
"You'll be one of the few survivors of that battle. As one of humanity's pioneers, you'll lead the remnants of mankind, sleep for tens of thousands of years as a living spark, and arrive in the next era."
"For the sake of a promise—to defeat the Honkai once and for all—you'll become a savior, bearing the future of all humanity on your shoulders."
"Well, Kevin? Could you accept an ending like that?"
Kevin fell silent.
Li Mu did not disturb her. He simply continued sipping his milk in silence.
Only after some time did Kevin speak, her voice hoarse.
"If everything I care about is gone… then what meaning is there in staying alive?"
Hearing her answer, Li Mu set down his empty milk carton and looked at Kevin with blazing eyes.
"Exactly. If everything we know and care about is gone, then what meaning is there in civilization continuing?"
"In the original history, I, you, Su, and many other pioneers entered hibernation and traveled into the next era. We continued human civilization and planned to help the next generation finally overcome the Honkai."
"That plan, stretching across fifty thousand years, ultimately succeeded. Human civilization fifty thousand years later survived. They had a bright future ahead of them."
"But what does that have to do with us?"
"Everything we care about exists in this era."
"That's why, in that world fifty thousand years later, I paid a tremendous price to return to this point in time."
"And now I intend to rewrite everything—to let this era continue instead."
Li Mu clenched his fists tightly, as though he wanted to seize everything before his eyes and hold onto it.
"Compared to the weak and powerless me from the original history, the me now has memories from the future, a heart tempered by countless hardships, and wisdom forged through suffering."
"The me now can do anything!"
When Kevin heard those words, she looked up and found Li Mu's gaze more fervent than she had ever seen before.
But she could not deny that he was right.
Everything she cared about existed in this era. If this era were destroyed, then she herself would have no reason left to live.
Kevin let out a sigh and said, "I believe now that you really did return from the future… probably. So what are you planning to do?"
Hearing Kevin's response, Li Mu raised a hand and pointed upward.
"Before that, Kevin, I think you need to understand where the disaster called the Honkai comes from, and why it wants to destroy humanity."
"A god. A literal god. Let's call it the Cocoon."
"It lowers its threads and weaves fate, staging the drama called civilization over and over again upon the stage of Earth, all for the sake of finding a civilization capable of enduring its embrace."
"Though for any civilization, that embrace is indistinguishable from destruction."
"And what we call the Honkai… is the form that embrace takes."
After listening to Li Mu's explanation, Kevin could not help but complain, "So this Cocoon destroys the world just because it wants someone who can embrace it back? It must be seriously starved for love."
Hearing that, Li Mu could not help laughing as well.
"With the power we have right now, destroying the Cocoon of Finality is impossible. If we want civilization to continue, the only way is to accept its embrace—and take control of it ourselves."
"And you, Kevin—in this drama, you are someone qualified to bear that embrace."
Kevin blinked.
"So, Mu… the way you plan to save the world is…"
"That's right!"
Li Mu sprang to his feet and looked at Kevin, who stared back at him in utter stupefaction.
"My good bro, for the sake of saving all humanity, please become the Great Sage Equal to Heaven—no, wait, the God of Earth!"
Li Mu's voice rang with passionate conviction.
Kevin was almost moved.
Almost.
But then suddenly, the intelligence that had been suppressed inside her broke free and reclaimed the high ground.
Kevin spotted the bug in his logic.
"Hold on! You almost talked your way past it!"
She looked down at her current body, then glared at Li Mu through gritted teeth.
"What does saving the world have to do with turning me into a girl?!"
"Don't tell me this Cocoon of Finality is sexist too?!"
But Kevin discovered that after hearing her question, Li Mu actually nodded with grave seriousness.
"You know… it really is sexist."
"And not only that—"
"It's a lesbian."
"…Huh?"
Join here to read ahead.
In Star Rail, Ultra-Beast Armored — Have I Caught "Equilibrium"? l (Chapter 80)
Uma Musume, But I Only Have Five Years Left to Live (Chapter 120)
Zenless Zone Zero: I'm a Doctor, Not a Bangboo (Chapter 100)
Ben Tennyson Wants to Join the Justice League (Chapter 100)
TYPE-MOON: Redemption Beginning with the Holy Grail War (Chapter89)
Yu-Gi-Oh! — Transmigrated into the White Dragon Girl (Chapter86)
"Is this chat group even serious?" (Chapter63)
I, Lord Ravager, Utterly Loyal! (Chapter75)
Can Playing Games Save the World? 53
Crossover Anime Multiverse: The Demon Hunter of an Unnatural World 57
From Junkman to Wasteland 35
Weekly Refresh of Overpowered 26
I'm Grinding Proficiency Like 27
From Kiana, Lord Ravager, Onwa 26
Honkai: Is This Still the Prev 26
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