"Of course, no problem."

The Forerunner, who clearly didn't mind investigating the situation in advance, chuckled lightly.

For him, using Kevin as a focal point to probe the Rifts between worlds located in the Sea of Quanta was not a difficult task.

By just spending a few minutes, he could acquire a great deal of intelligence from an outsider and pass it on to Kevin.

To be honest, Su had rarely encountered such a good deal in his entire life.

He squinted his eyes and extended his hand towards the river beside the young man. Countless bubbles rose and sank within it.

This was the counterpart to the Bodhi tree behind Su, a symbolic representation used for the Sea of Quanta.

The primary objective of Project Ganges Sands was to probe the Imaginary Tree.

However, as the observer, it was impossible for Su to completely ignore the Sea of Quanta, which had a love-hate relationship with the Imaginary Tree and also imprisoned his good buddy.

The area around the part corresponding to Kevin's world bubble was magnified, and the rifts of the World Rifts, symbolizing the point of lowest energy, subsequently appeared.

The Forerunner, who had evidently long since created a means of observing the Sea of Quanta, sat down beside Li Zihan. He used his utterly unique eyes to gaze at the rift beneath the river.

"Are we... just going to watch like this?"

The young man, feeling that the Forerunner's observation method was slightly different from what he had imagined, sighed.

"Please wait patiently."

Su, whose patience was clearly far superior to Li Zihan's, chuckled lightly.

"I will give you an answer today."

"I hope you can hurry it up."

Li Zihan, who had left Bronya outside to wait for him, sighed.

Leaving a young girl to stand all alone by a river waiting for him really gave him a bad look.

"I will speed up the search."

The Forerunner named Su said with a smile, then promptly changed the subject, bringing up a topic of great relevance to his friend.

"What is your opinion of the Stigma Project?"

"Drinking poison to quench thirst."

The young man, who had some understanding of the plan that was intended to be implemented fifteen hundred years ago, stated his opinion very directly.

The so-called Stigma Project was to evenly distribute all the Honkai energy in the world among all people.

The humans of the Honkai world were descendants of humans modified by MEI; their ancestors' generation all had the power of Stigmata in their genes, but due to procreation, the originally relatively complete Stigmata were broken up and scattered.

As long as the power of the Stigmata was reactivated, humanity would transform into a new type of human capable of withstanding Honkai energy, becoming vessels for it.

The conditions for a Herrscher's birth are a high-concentration Honkai energy environment and a suitable host nearby. The emergence of a large number of Stigmata bearers could lower the ambient Honkai energy, thereby preventing the birth of the Herrscher of Finality.

This was a rather dangerous plan because those who failed to awaken their Stigmata would collectively kick the bucket.

To be honest, Li Zihan thought Kevin was truly insane.

Even a hero making a desperate sacrifice isn't supposed to be done like this.

"The essence of Honkai energy is Imaginary Internal Energy. It is a special manifestation of everything consumed in the material world entering Imaginary Space and then flowing back into the material world."

The young man, not minding spoilers, shrugged and said.

"As long as living beings exist in this world, Imaginary Internal Energy will increase, and thus Honkai energy will continuously increase."

The Second Law of Thermodynamics states that if the entropy in a system decreases, it will inevitably cause the entropy of another system to rise by a larger margin.

The Honkai world had two completely different spatial systems: Real Space and Imaginary Space.

All energy consumed in Real Space, that is, the material world, would eventually enter Imaginary Space and become Imaginary Internal Energy, the source of Honkai energy.

The saying, "the stronger the civilization, the stronger the Honkai," was actually incorrect.

The Honkai intensifying with the advancement of civilization was purely because a powerful civilization would consume a large amount of physical energy, leading to a rise in Imaginary Internal Energy.

Kevin's idea was probably to lead a humanity composed entirely of Stigmata bearers to establish a civilization with Honkai energy as its fundamental power source, then play out a cycle of Honkai energy—matter—Honkai energy—matter.

"Under the premise that Imaginary Internal Energy will only ever increase, the Stigma Project can only allow humanity to barely survive a little longer."

The very cruel reality was uttered from the young man's mouth.

"Using the deaths of ninety-nine percent of humanity as the price to give human civilization a breath of life, don't you think that's a bit inappropriate?"

"The Stigma Project is the worst of all the plans, but it is also the most effective."

A rather cold voice rang out from the river. That voice belonged neither to Li Zihan nor to Su.

"Implementing this plan may cause massive casualties, but it is a necessary sacrifice for civilization to continue."

"It's a pleasure to meet you, Lord Kevin Kaslana."

The young man, hearing a third voice out of thin air, showed no surprise. Instead, he greeted the man trapped in the Sea of Quanta by Su in a very relaxed and casual manner.

"Outlander, the Stigma Project may seem ridiculous to you, who lives in a peaceful world, but this is humanity's final choice."

The strongest warrior, who had once faced the Herrscher of Finality head-on, spoke through this virtual river.

A peaceful world?

Li Zihan was stunned.

Are you talking about that little broken ball of a world whose final outcomes are either the Land of Steel or the Coral of the Moon, and which casually prunes worldlines as Lostbelts?

That little broken ball of a world where humanity was incinerated and then frozen over, where the Quantum Record Tape was nearly dismantled, where Cosmic Star Gods from other universes come to collect protection fees, where UOs from other star systems get lost and end up on Earth, and where a large number of aliens are loitering around outside?

"I think you might have some misunderstanding about what 'peaceful' means."

The young man, who sometimes felt that luring the roots of the Imaginary Tree to the Type-Moon world wouldn't be such a bad thing, sighed.

As ruthless as the Imaginary Tree was, it at least gave a path to defeat the Honkai and climb the ladder. The Moon World was just hell-bent on screwing over humanity.

"I do know that some worlds are very peaceful, but my old home is definitely not on that list."

"However, for a special case like me, it doesn't matter. Even if humanity in my old home evaporated, I could still take the people I care about to a peaceful world."

The young man, who completely treated the system as an emotionless transmigration machine, shrugged and said.

"A peaceful world?"

The expressions of both Kevin and Su, who once had a companion sent out of the solar system with humanity's gene pool to establish a second home, changed slightly.

They had lost the signal from their companion responsible for the Ark Project fifteen hundred years ago.

This was also one of the important reasons why Kevin wanted to execute the Stigma Project.

Project Ganges Sands had been running for sixteen thousand five hundred years without seeing any results, Project Ember had barely begun before it lured out a Judgment-class Honkai Beast, and the Forerunner executing the Ark Project had lost contact.

Humanity was truly running out of options.

However, it now seemed that there might be a second way out.

Kevin, located within the world bubble, had a glimmer in his eyes.

The Ark Project and the Ember Project... it seemed they weren't entirely impossible to execute.