svetikya Page 169
Page 169
So, using a fabricated excuse, Mebius took the opportunity to slip away—although she really wanted to stop pretending and just kick that annoying woman out, she had no choice but to choose such an extremely humiliating way to get rid of that annoying woman, considering all aspects.
After leaving, she headed straight for the Yingjie Rest Area and immediately spotted Paradise Ellie huddled next to Aponia, watching something with great interest. The extraordinary eyesight granted by Shesa made Mebius's blood pressure spike after just one glance—it was the scene of her being 'tortured' by that annoying woman while wearing a short skirt.
"Oh my, Mebius, you're here?" As if she had just noticed, Paradise Ellie looked surprised—which made Snake even angrier.
Don't you have any idea why I came here?!
Huffing and puffing, Snake grabbed a glass of wine from the table and gulped it down—his face turned red after just one glass.
Paradise Alice scratched her cheek; that cup was hers... Of course, that wasn't really a big deal. Compared to who used the cup, what was more noticeable was Mebius's slightly flushed cheeks.
—Mebius’s alcohol tolerance is as worrying as her drinking habits.
"Hiccup... There's a big problem with your original body."
Holding a wine glass, Mebius, leaning back on the sofa, burped and spoke in a somewhat unsteady tone.
Although spending time with that annoying woman was unbearable, the information gleaned from her was, of course, quite satisfying.
—Alice is indeed the original form of Alice, but she is not the true self of Yingjie, but rather... the former self of Yingjie Alice.
Furthermore, some information that Alicia inadvertently revealed also refuted some of Mebius's original guesses—she had thought that Alicia's true form should be resurrected from the dead, or appear through some other similar means.
Although it sounds unbelievable that Mebius was not a guest at the banquet, no one can be sure that Alicia could not return after she left, not even Alicia herself.
After all, her appearance itself was a miracle.
If that's the case, it's indeed possible that Alicia was 'factory-prepared' after her resurrection and ended up in her current state.
However, judging from what that annoying woman said—that Möbius had discovered his own traces, discovered the Moth of Fire… this was clearly not normal.
It's impossible for the development of this era to be consistent with the previous civilization. Although Prometheus does ensure the similarities between the previous and current civilizations, he has always maintained contact with the outside world. With a vast intelligence source like the World Serpent hidden in the shadows, Mebius already knew the differences between this world and their previous civilization.
Parallel worlds? While such a possibility certainly exists, unfortunately, previous civilizations had already explored this idea when they created the Thousand Worlds One Vehicle.
Mebius, Kevin... and other heroes could all find their counterparts on the Tree of Imaginary Numbers, but only Alicia... MEI once commented that her probability of appearing was one in a billion. At least among what they knew, 'she' was unique.
"Jiang Qiao..."
Mebius's snake-like eyes narrowed slightly as he pondered the name the jackal had mentioned before.
The biggest anomaly was clearly in this person.
Before she could speculate further, Aponia spoke softly:
“Mebius, in fact…”
As her slender, jade-like hand gently brushed across the surface, a blurry, bloody image suddenly appeared.
You can vaguely see a pink-clad girl holding Aponia's hands.
Paradise Ellie blinked, looking somewhat puzzled:
"Hey, did something like that happen between us?"
She did indeed do something similar when Aponia first joined the Firemoth, but Aponia wasn't wearing this outfit back then, was she?
The plump lady from Paradise tried to search through her memories—that's the advantage of being a memory source; if you want to know something, you can just look for the book you want in a library without worrying about forgetting anything... However, this is quite a long time to do on a scale of 50,000 years, and Paradise Ellie has basically never done anything like this before.
"No need to look anymore, Alicia, that dress is what I wore when I was still in Twilight Street."
Aponia sighed softly. She was a 'criminal' arrested by the Firemoth and was tied up and taken back to the Firemoth by Sakura, so of course there was no need to pack her luggage—except for what she was wearing, all the clothes she had worn before were left in Twilight Street, including the one in this video.
Paradise Ellie looked adorably dazed, and suddenly realized:
"Ah...oh, I see. No wonder I don't remember it."
“Ellie, didn’t you notice a problem with this video?”
"what?"
"clothing."
Eden raised his handsome eyebrows slightly, gazing at the blurry 'Alicia' in the image, and pointed at her with his slender index finger.
Perhaps Alicia had been wearing that heroic outfit for too long and overlooked a key point, but how could Eden, as the designer of that outfit, have overlooked it?
—Ying Jiefu.
"I joined the Firemoth after the Seventh Great Collapse, and the Heroic Robes of the Thirteen Heroes were designed even later..."
Something is wrong, nine out of ten times something is wrong.
Although the people appear to be correct, both their clothing and the background are clearly wrong.
Yingjie and Alicia encounter Aponia of Twilight Street.
Normally, they would probably think this is some kind of photoshopped image.
But Aponia isn't the type to play around; what she presented wasn't some photoshopped image, but rather her own 'memories'.
"How did this memory come about?"
Aponia shook his head in response to Mebius's attention.
"It's as if it appeared out of thin air."
“I also tried to check the records of Paradise, but there were no additions or deletions—it is no different from the other memories I have.”
If it weren't for the fact that this memory conflicted significantly with her original memories, and that Aponia had started to reminisce about the past because of the appearance of 'Alicia', even she probably wouldn't have noticed this strange memory mixed in with her past.
Have any other people experienced similar situations?
"I didn't deliberately investigate."
Aponia shook her head.
Although as the administrator of Paradise, she has the ability to view the memories of other heroes, she will not do so unless absolutely necessary, out of respect for her companions.
None of the three people present could find anything similar in their own memories.
If no other heroes exist, and this uniqueness is limited to 'Aponia', then the only possible reason is... Aponia is the only 'living' hero in this paradise.
Although in Vilvi’s view, Aponia’s decision to merge into the Land of the Dead was no different from being dead—in fact, Aponia has coexisted with the Land of the Dead for the past 50,000 years.
Other heroes may merely be remnants of memories left behind by the heroes of the past, but Aponia—
She is both the memory body and the essence.
While the four members of the Paradise Princess were discussing this change, Jiang Qiao, who had returned to the Firemoth headquarters with Aponia from the previous civilization, sat on the sofa, looking at the intellectual girl deep in thought while holding the examination report, and smiled:
"How about it? Isn't Aponia's ability exceptionally effective?"
"We have to admit that her arrival was indeed a pleasant surprise. We never expected that even among humans who aren't Herrschers, there would be such a unique individual..."
Looking at Aponia's various medical examination data and the assessment of her 'discipline' ability, Dr. MEI couldn't help but sigh.
The ability to influence a person's vital signs and behavior solely through 'words' is not merely miraculous, but rather sinister.
"With her help, many things will indeed be much easier to handle from now on."
Originally, the higher-ups of the Fire Chaser were extremely afraid of Aponia's ability, because when this thing fell into their hands, they could truly feel what it meant to be 'out of control'.
Therefore, after Aponia was captured, she was interrogated and then taken to the operating table in an attempt to kill her. However, this only resulted in her being strengthened. In the end, the higher-ups, who were wary of Aponia, could only send her to the 'Deepest Place'—the most special prison built by Velvi in the previous civilization, which held the most vicious criminals. Anyone who wanted to enter had to go through layers of screening, which shows their fear of Aponia.
MEI is different.
Although she also felt that this ability was somewhat dangerous, she was known for her 'absolute rationality', and her first thought after learning that Aponia possessed this ability was how to use this power in a reasonable way.
She is no longer the Dr. MEI who was suppressed by Zhu Huo and even by high-ranking officials of various countries.
Invited by Jiang Qiao and now part of her group, she only thinks about how to save humanity and how to defeat the Honkai. As for the many taboos involved... that might have been a problem before, since she needed to consider the reactions of the general public. But after Aponia arrived—who cares!
Under the rules, those who cooperate are fine, but those who don't have to behave like dogs!
This thing is even more useful than Sakura wielding the Key of Corruption!
MEI, who is absolutely rational during work hours and has long been fed up with those trashy blabbering, just wants to say to Aponia—sister, you came at the perfect time!
“Although Aponia’s abilities are indeed very powerful, they are also very dangerous. You must use them with caution, MEI.”
Seeing MEI's happiness, Jiang Qiao gave her a rather serious and earnest warning.
The effect of discipline can push people to extremes in one direction.
Originally, Aponia used this ability to achieve almost no good results.
Even a very simple commandment ultimately led to the tragedy of Bell.
The weakened version of the precepts—the result of Shenyin—was also extremely unsatisfactory. Although carrying this thing boosted her combat power, it also caused Shenzhou Tablet to become obsessed and was directly 'filial' to death by those good disciples in the days that followed.
MEI nodded slightly.
As an absolutely rational being, how could she not understand the consequences of such an abuse of power that leads to 'extreme' behavior—especially since Jiang Qiao had already explained some of it to her.
However, these are not a problem, as long as we figure out the general upper limit of the 'precepts' and make their application 'standardized'.
As the pinnacle of pre-civilizational intelligence, MEI, with its mastery of nuances, can make the most of this ability.
“With the existence of ‘rules,’ the gradually rising ‘crime rate’ globally can be somewhat curbed,” MEI exhaled.
Although only Aponia possesses the Commandments, they can develop similar abilities by referencing Aponia—similar to the Divine Sound System that appeared later.
However, even so, it still seems a bit slow...
Thinking about this, MEI recalled the inspiration she had when she was working and figuring out how to develop an AI to assist her.