Honkai: It’s broken, I have become the Herrscher of Corrosion?

"Ms. Mei, you seemed to have mentioned me in your monologue just now."

Mei Raiden came to her senses and found that Grayshu had already left the Paradise Hall. Eden was sitting on the sofa, looking at her with a very gentle expression.

"...Ah, Eden, this is it..."

Mei gave a brief account of what she had just seen and heard in the system.

"So that's how it is. Miss Enosia is right. After the second collapse, the whole world was in turmoil. Before that, people in the pre-civilizations viewed the collapse as a natural disaster like an earthquake, a tsunami, or a hurricane. As long as you are not in an earthquake zone or within the range of the monsoon climate; as long as you can prepare in advance and follow the arrangements of the government and experts, even if you cannot avoid being affected by the disaster, you can minimize the losses caused by the disaster."

"But when the second Herrscher arrived, the countries in the western part of Mu Continent went all out, the state machinery began to operate, and the whole country was united, but it ended up with families broken up and the whole country becoming a thing of the past."

"Furthermore, after studying the corpse of the Herrscher of the Sky, the Fire Chaser concluded that there is no rule for the birth of the Great Collapse. Whether it is plains or mountains, whether it is developed or poor, as long as there are human activities, the Herrscher may be born."

"Even the mobilization capabilities of a country may not be enough to defeat them. This is also closely related to everyone. What will happen next... Miss Mei, I'm sure you can guess."

"It will cause panic on a global scale and accelerate the research of previous civilizations on collapse."

"Miss Mei is really smart. After the second Honkai Impact, the world's attention to Honkai Impact has skyrocketed. It has changed the lives of many people, including me, of course. If you don't mind, Miss Mei, you can listen to my story."

"... Eden, you are too polite. My purpose of coming to the Paradise of the Past is to learn about the stories of the previous civilization."

Eden changed his posture, his thoughts drifting away with his gaze.

"Ms. Mei, you should know that before the first collapse, I had already started to be active in the entertainment industry of Mu Continent as an artist."

"After the second collapse, several important shareholders of the company I was in at the time had considerable investments in countries in the western part of Mu Continent. Due to the destruction by the Herrscher of the Void, several of them suffered great losses, and some even became poor overnight."

"After a major change in the company's equity, the new person in power...perhaps in order to make more money in a shorter period of time, wanted me to endorse the products of a few designated companies."

"Advertisements... to attract attention, they are somewhat exaggerated. But at this critical juncture, they are willing to provide a large amount of funds to a company with financial problems to solve its urgent needs. There is no deep friendship between the other party and my company. The most important thing is that I have never heard of the name of the other party's company before, so... Miss Mei, you should understand what is going on."

“The products that these companies are selling ... have significant problems.”

"Yes, the products sold by these companies are either cosmetics or food. Although I don't think I'm a good person, I also understand that the purpose of any company is to make a profit... but... such blatant false propaganda goes against my personal bottom line."

"So... I had a falling out with the company. No matter how the company changed the contract, even if it offered me a very high salary for a relatively unknown artist, I did not compromise."

"Finally... I left the company, and that angry shareholder used all the available funds to ban me. So... I reached the lowest point in my life. It was not until several months later that the company went bankrupt due to the shareholder's impulsive behavior that I was able to show up in public again..."

Mei showed a surprised expression:

"A company that trains artists, how can it be so connected?"

Eden smiled and shook his head:

"If the company was really well-connected, it wouldn't have grown to the point where such an impulsive person became the sole largest shareholder. In the final analysis, it was because I was just a little-known figure at the time, and in the eyes of others, I didn't have that much value."

"There is an old saying in China: The world is bustling with people, all for profit; the world is bustling with people, all for profit. Just by not giving a little actor a chance to work, they can make money out of nothing, so why not do it?"

"Ms. Mei, I have always been in the paradise of the past. But thanks to Ms. Enosia's magical ability, I know a little about the outside world, that is, the current life of modern civilization."

"Whether it's the entertainment industry or other fields, if you compare the upper limits, you can always find outstanding people that everyone admires; if you compare the lower limits, you can always dig up endless amounts of negative information. This has always been the case in previous civilizations."

"Ms. Mei, I believe that after these days of exploration, you should understand that the lives of people in the previous civilization are essentially no different from those in the current civilization. The mystery of the previous civilization in your eyes is only because it is unknown..."

"Ah, sorry, that seems to have gone off topic. As I said just now, I have been treated unfairly in the industry, but I have also received help from many friends, which helped me get through the most difficult time in my life."

"After the ban was over, I stepped back onto the stage and performed several charity shows, attracting more attention than before. I remember the comments from the entertainment industry after the [Heavenly Voice Charity Show] caused a stir. The words of a professional singer gave me great encouragement:

[It is rare for a singer of this age to have such powerful singing skills. I can imagine the efforts she has made behind the scenes. In addition, she has a beautiful voice. If nothing unexpected happens, she will become a rising star in the music industry in the future.]

Of course, since the attention brought to me by the "Tianlai Charity Concert" far exceeded my expectations, it was inevitable to suffer negative comments. At that time, a famous critic said this:

[Her singing voice is indeed good, but people should not praise her as a god. From the video, we can see that her performance as a singer is still insufficient. And the repertoire she performed in the show is limited, so it is difficult to see whether she has any differences in other styles. Maybe this is just another short-lived flower that became popular due to traffic. ]

"But Eden, it turns out that you are indeed a capable person, and..."

Eden shook his head.

"Ms. Mei, if you were an ordinary netizen who had some interest in music and knew nothing about the name [Eden] at that time, and had never heard my singing, and your knowledge of me came entirely from other people's words, how would you view me in the face of so many mixed reviews?"

Mei couldn't answer.

"I believe that if we talk about who in modern civilization knows the most about the Internet, I believe that no one has a better say than Miss Ino. After she came to the paradise, while listening to our stories, she also often looked for everyone, especially Ellie, to share her experiences and opinions."

"Her comments on the Internet are quite interesting. As a Herrscher of Corrosion, she commented on the Internet, which is praised by countless people, as follows: The moment the Internet connected people from all over the world, it officially ushered in an era of universal mental retardation."

Mei's eyes widened.

"It's a very unpleasant comment, but it's very typical of Miss Ino. She tends to be rather sharp when criticizing people or things that she doesn't really care about. She never takes any consideration into account, and never considers whether her comments will hurt the self-esteem of other people who like this person or thing. Of course... in terms of strength, she is indeed qualified to do so."

"As expected of Eden, he even imitated my demeanor and tone of voice exactly."

Enosia crawled out from the wall of the Paradise Hall. Mei observed that her eyes were flickering and she seemed a little... embarrassed?

"Ms. Aino, I'm sorry to have embarrassed you. If you are willing, it would be more appropriate for you to convey your own views. If I relay it to Ms. Mei, it will inevitably lead to distortion of the information."

"And...if I remember correctly, you should have gone to Ellie's room just now. You came to see me, could it be..."

Enosia nodded like a chick pecking at rice:

"When I was having sex with my sister just now, I was too concerned about her and... couldn't satisfy her at all. As her close friend for 50,000 years, Eden should be more experienced than me in this regard..."

Eden's face immediately turned red as if he was drunk:

"I understand, Miss Mei. Miss Aino has memorized everything about the previous civilization in the Land of the Past. I will let her tell you the rest of the story."

After saying this, Eden walked out of the Paradise Hall with graceful steps.

"So, Enosia, where exactly were you going..."

Enosia blinked:

"It's something that shows the pure revolutionary friendship between girls... some intimate interactions. Mei should have done it with Kiana before."

As someone who has experienced this, Mei instantly understood what Enosia said.

"Ahem, let's continue with the previous topic. Just now... yes, you are the Herrscher of Corrosion, and you should know exactly what Eden said to me."

Enosia's expression gradually returned to normal:

"Well, let's continue. Mei, where do you think a person's values, or perception of things, come from?"

"…derived from the information he initially received."

"That's right. Everyone is born as a blank sheet of paper, just like Gracie. Once they are touched by a certain color, they will take on the characteristics of that color."

"After I came into this world, the first thing I learned was about my sister. I became like her, and learned what beauty and love are. At the same time, she shaped some of my basic values."

"Then, I came to the data room of the Destiny headquarters and discovered the inhumane human experiments in the Tower of Babylon. It made me understand what ugliness and hatred are, and shaped another part of my values."

"If I came to the paradise right after I was born in the collapse, and in the process of shaping my cognition, I encountered Qianjie who was fighting, or Mobius who was addicted to experiments, then... I would be terrified."

“And if this fear turns into an obsession of ‘They will kill me here, I must live no matter what’, I am afraid that due to the mismatch between my cognition and ability and the lack of proper guidance, an irreversible tragedy will occur.”

"Similarly, a newborn's understanding of things depends largely on the information they receive."

"In ancient times, spreading information was a privilege, and only people with a certain amount of power were qualified to pass on information to ordinary people."

“Papermaking, printing, the Internet. As technologies that facilitate the spread of information become widely used, more and more people will possess these technologies.”

"Some people say that they can break out of the information cocoon woven by others and get rid of the brainwashing of one person's opinion. But in reality, people often move from one information cocoon to another."

“In the past, the privileged class certainly monopolized the dissemination of information, but the privilege itself was won through countless competitions. Although the information disseminated did have obvious subjective tendencies, its value was often much greater than it is now.”

"The result of allowing everyone to speak is a group of idiots, which pollutes a group of people who lack cognitive ability and makes them new idiots."

"For example, there is a place on the Internet where people who discuss things can't even do calculus. The first step they take is to reduce the d in the equation."

"But it is this group of people who question Newton's laws today, build a perpetual motion machine tomorrow, and prove the flat earth theory the day after tomorrow."

"People with knowledge will regard these things as clowns, adding new fun to their lives. But if an ignorant child reads these things before learning knowledge, he may take these actually nonsense arguments as truths, and finally be assimilated by them, becoming a joke without knowing it."

"It's easy to say that you have no right to speak without investigation, but there is a lot of unfounded information on the Internet. Some of the information that has been widely circulated has not been verified, but many people believe it is the truth."

"Just like Eden's first performance after her comeback, which was clearly a free charity performance, some people on the Internet said that Eden must have performed this way to gain sympathy so that he could make more money."

"When the nature of this performance became known, some people immediately spread conspiracy theories, saying that [the so-called charity event is just transferring money from one hand to the other], which immediately gained a lot of attention on the Internet."

"Look, Mei, the emergence of the Internet has provided a convenient way for a group of idiots to turn more people into idiots, right?"

"As for why I am particularly interested in this aspect..."

“Isn’t it [erosion] to use the Internet to influence or even change a person’s perception of things?”