Collapse, survive

“Fear? I was afraid last time, but not of a nuclear bomb hitting my head. It never did me any good. I was just afraid of the world collapsing.”

Fang Jie didn't use the 'time-stop explanation' this time; it was only three minutes long.

"Because some of you idiots simply don't understand the price he has to pay for his eagerness to choose destruction."

This time, Rita, as the price, didn't want to speak. She wasn't afraid of sacrifice and becoming a Valkyrie. Even though those born with the Holy Mark Awakening didn't have the flaw of a short lifespan, she had long been prepared.

"As for this time, I have even less reason to be afraid."

It was all just fireworks.

Perhaps this is one reason for making a plaintext call—it's a provocation, a confirmation, a... I'm powerless now, come quick, heroes to save the world, hurry up!

It's just Otto's usual tactic: to make the situation seem incredibly tense and desperate, implying that either someone will step in to stop him, or he'll destroy the world first.

The threat was not directed at Fang Jie.

Nausea.

There's no way around it; communication is always necessary, and that inevitably involves some unpleasantness. Fang Jie reached out his hand—

It grabbed the neck of a newly activated soul steel body in Oceania.

He's not just good at catching kangaroos.

As time passed, the gradually spreading 'sky loop' reconnaissance network provided him with sufficient intelligence. These nanoscale virus networks did not rely on existing modern civilization communications or the World Serpent's network, becoming yet another intelligence network for the dark side of the world.

Rita was shocked, watching as he suddenly pulled a... woman out of thin air!

"awesome."

The woman seemed astonished, completely unconcerned about the creaking sound coming from her neck, and smiled: "You must be the alien named Fang Jie, possessing such power. Your previous clumsy performance... was it perhaps aimed at the demon in that black box?"

The woman spoke in Otto's voice, which startled Rita even more.

Fang Jie remained silent, only squeezing the Soul Steel, making a creaking sound as he listened to the beautiful noise, without any intention of communicating with Otto.

Inflicting a little pain, though insignificant, was enough to make him feel better.

Yae Sakura also cast a glance, a look of disdain and hatred, disgusted by everything Otto had done to Kallen's body.

Otto couldn't stand that look: "You naturally evil fox spirit, ugh..."

Fang Jie has silenced him.

Communication doesn't need to be through language; conveying my killing intent is enough. Anyone who dares to appear before me will die.

It wasn't a quick death yet. [Ghoul] slowly gnawed at the Soul Steel body, turning it back into materials. Even though [True] could create its own, the taste of this spoils was much better.

The great lady was too kind-hearted; she killed so quickly.

Otto was unable to make a sound, and was gradually worn away before Rita's eyes. She was not angry because of this. After all, the bishop himself came to buy time, and after being killed for three minutes... he couldn't hold on and ran away.

"Did you know that the nuclear bombs didn't just land here, but all over Oceania?"

Fang Jie casually put away the spoils of war, intending to give them back to Uncle Yang as gifts, and said to Rita.

"?"

She didn't quite understand what that sentence meant.

"What I mean is that Otto is betting on my attitude, on whether I will continue to protect the people here, so he will keep firing, firing and firing, using the most powerful weapons to wear me down, even if I withdraw my defenses, the number of dead will not be less than a million, or even tens of millions."

They came with the intention of sinking Oceania.

Rita was speechless. This... was very much in line with His Holiness the Bishop's style. Rather than letting the people here become hostages of aliens, it was better to kill them all, demonstrating an attitude of not caring about the cost.

Not only against the opponent, but also against Yae Sakura, against Qigefei, against Cecilia, and against every appearance of Welt, from Joyce to Uncle Yang, Otto would bombard them with Honkai Impact Explosions.

In a sense, I am one too.

—Walter.

Shaking his head, Fang Jie stretched out his hand, pointing it at the sky in front of Rita:

"A sword is originally made of ordinary iron, but it becomes spiritual through wielding, moves with the heart, lives with blood, and dies from non-thought."

The same applies to the Taixu Sword Qi.

Fang Jie does not pursue the profound mysteries of spiritual manipulation or the mysterious essence of 'severing consciousness'. Instead, he draws upon the techniques and combines them with the life-expanding mental methods of the "Beloberg Ancient Martial Arts" to continuously solidify his foundation.

Therefore, his ordinary attacks can easily combine with the field to achieve the 'space slash' that can only be achieved by mastering the Taixu Sword Qi.

A mere nuclear bomb!

Now, let me take this "no attack" approach.

Rita was terrified—what was that pose? Did you intend to slay them? Rita had no doubt that he could do it. When Durandal turned into a star in front of her, Fang Jie's strength was silently and infinitely elevated by her.

But Fang Jie did nothing, or rather, he had already done it.

"boom--!"

The dragon danced wildly in the sky, and it even self-destructed in mid-air. Before landing and getting close to the rain, it exploded over New Zealand, spewing out countless things that ravaged life.

More than one.

A steady stream.

As Fang Jie was killing Otto, the various Destiny branches around the world continued to launch missiles. Among them were even completely different types: streamlined, bullet-shaped missiles with silver metallic shells and an industrial aesthetic, which were much faster than the others and were heading towards Queenstown.

Each one is enough to blow up a city inhabited by hundreds of thousands or even millions of people.

But for this place, it's just fireworks.

Rita, who was in the middle of it, did not feel any warmth, but only felt that her whole body was cold.

She stared blankly at the fireworks, not even feeling the glare, and fell into another kind of silent despair.

"Welcome to the new era, a new era of...eliminating all waste and becoming more efficient. Don't embarrass yourself with outdated things."

A multitude of fireworks burst forth, offering a salute to the era. Fang Jie neither flees nor hides, letting everything roar as it may.

Nuclear bombs would be useless. Only particle cannons, the most advanced technology in humankind, could possibly shake his shield. However, the energy generated by nuclear fission, even if mixed with Honkai energy and increased in power to the point of destroying the continent, would be no different from a gentle breeze.

The simultaneous detonation of nuclear weapons, with almost no casualties, signaled that this planet no longer needed to waste resources researching useless things.

Machine guns are useless, tanks are useless, heavy artillery is useless, fighter jets are useless, warships are useless, missiles are useless, nuclear bombs are useless, electromagnetic weapons are useless, particle weapons are useless, annihilation weapons are useless, genetic weapons are useless...

All of it is useless!!!

It wasn't cruel; it was full of friendly exchanges.

Not only does the provisional goal aim to help promote resistance against Honkai, but it also aims to guide civilization in the future, enlightening the new Earth to the key to survival in the galaxy—

For the meaning of existence.

When the gap between civilizations becomes immeasurable, resources, technology, and so on become difficult to justify as a means of communication. For civilizations that have never left their home planet, war is nothing more than a means of pursuing some kind of interest. But for the Milky Way, which has ventured deep into the universe, many resources are extremely abundant and many technologies are readily available.

The meaning of existence is the direction in which galactic civilization moves forward, even if the masked fools do it for fun...

.

Chapter 59 Baseness is the shield of the base.

The sun is high in the sky.

The current state of Changkong City is disastrous. There are almost no intact houses or even a single standing tree in sight, only countless muddy puddles.

The once towering reinforced concrete buildings, at least near Qianyu Academy, have now been razed to the ground. Only some rusty steel remnants remain, twisted in various shapes... Everywhere are horrific ruins and the ashes of humanity, covering the ruins of this modern civilized city.

But Queenstown is different, and so is the whole of Oceania. Even amidst a more horrific disaster, everything remains the same in the rain.

Fang Jie had imagined how to counter artillery bombardment, meaning heavy artillery, like railguns, starting with testing bullets.

I never imagined we'd be hit by a nuclear bomb.

"Is the movie good?"

On the not-so-cold Frozen Throne, Fang Jie, sitting in the audience, asked Yae Sakura, "We've already watched a movie, King Kong. He used the Destiny's Web when he strangled Otto, and then used Rita's Azure Knight Moon Soul as a projector to watch the movie together."

The maid had no objections; she simply closed her eyes and covered her ears, determined to leave the movie-watching experience to Durandal...

Fang Jie didn't care that your first time wasn't Bianca's, but rather my own interest, so I let her be.

It could be said that prisoners of war were treated well.

During this time, the 'fireworks' roared incessantly, dazzling and magnificent, with a sense of devastation. Upon hearing this, Yae Sakura recalled the bell that shot down the plane at the Empire State Building. To be honest, she didn't understand the plot very well, but she found this kind of art novel to her.

"nice."

Yae Sakura made this assessment.

"That's good."

Fang Jie felt happy and relaxed. He ate the last bit of popcorn, stood up, and opened the Holy Mark Space—under Rita's horrified gaze, Fang Jie pulled out another... fairy.

Fu Hua wasn't entirely unaware of the outside world; after all, Fang Jie had shown her the projection, and it was understandable that she was saddened.

"You brought about a war."

"No, I brought peace."

Fang Jie did not accept this accusation, since he was not the one who fired the first shot.

Do you really think that the nameless stranger would just run away if he were wanted? At least Otto doesn't deserve that.

At this moment, Fu Hua accepted his existence with a mixture of sadness and joy, and as she gazed at the fireworks still exploding in the sky, she couldn't help but sigh.

It was like clearing out a nuclear stockpile, one bomb after another was used up to wear him down, and it bombed for several hours.

If this counts as consumption.

Rita: "..."

It turns out she wasn't autistic at all; closing her eyes and covering her ears was all an act. She was secretly observing all along.

At that moment, he realized that Fu Hua had betrayed him.

But you didn't die, Grade A.

Of course, but you could also think that she died once, or that she went missing, otherwise Otto wouldn't have reacted so strongly.

Otto always relied on scheming and plotting, but once overwhelmed by insurmountable difficulties, he would just give up, leaving the mess for others to work on, and then claiming credit for himself afterwards.

Fu Hua is one of them.

Fu Hua stopped looking at the futile fireworks: "You've damaged humanity's confidence. Without these weapons, how are they going to fight the Honkai?"

"Does having these weapons mean humanity can fight the Honkai? Not necessarily. In my opinion, these weapons are better suited to destroying humanity itself."

With the [Food] in hand, Fang Jie had the confidence to say such things, and even Immortal Fu Hua couldn't refute him.

Ultimately, the weapons needed to combat the Honkai are not these wasteful 'civilian technologies'. They are merely 'toys' created by the human elite to appease the public, conceal the Honkai, and make the public feel protected.

In the face of true collapse, it's not that it's completely useless, but rather that it consumes resources.

In Fang Jie's view, this kind of thing has some value, but it is not worth the internal friction and repeated waste. It would be better to eliminate it with a peaceful war.

He knew he was being treated like an alien, and along with the Far East Demon Fox, he was being subjected to a demon-slaying order. Schicksal's laboratory was eagerly awaiting the day when he and Yae Sakura would be cut like Cecily, Joyce, Cecilia, Karen, and countless others who had been placed on the experimental table...

This was a life-or-death situation, yet he fought back with righteous indignation.

The resulting 'peace' will hang like the Sword of Damocles over the 'new Earth,' posing a threat.

As long as he is alive, even if he doesn't show his face, people will never dare to wage a large-scale civil war.

Otto's existence would then be meaningless; we could gradually strip him of his social attributes and then kill him completely.

On the other hand, it is also a form of coercion. When humans are under strong pressure, they will definitely unleash amazing potential, and a technological explosion may happen at any time.

This is a trial, an oppression of civilization, creating an 'enemy' and a target for the current civilization.

Joyce is no good. As a Herrscher who is completely on the side of humanity, he is excellent, but he makes the Honkai seem like something that can be used, which reduces humanity's vigilance and the oppressive feeling of the Honkai.

And he was killed by humans.

Sirin was quite imposing, successfully stimulating the potential of human civilization, and various advanced technologies began to emerge... or rather, after being severely beaten, Otto was willing to release the technology of the previous civilization, euphemistically calling it the research ability of destiny.

Moreover, Sirin was also elbowed by the heroes and the old men; if it weren't for Otto... there would have been no tragedy for Sirin.

As a result, the current civilization simply didn't have time to develop and remained trapped in the plans of the previous civilization, unable to find a better way out.

What? Otto is actually blocking the development of civilization to reduce the occurrence of the Honkai? So he's doing a good job?

Whoever believes it is stupid.