In an earlier timeline, deep within the Sea of Quanta, three figures—two old and one young—sat listlessly slurping noodles, discussing what to do for the day. They were growing bored with their routine of daily noodle slurping.
"Three people isn't enough for mahjong or Landlord... How about Parcheesi?" Snow suggested, stroking her chin.
"Hmm... slurp... Three people always feels incomplete," Kevin mused between slurps.
"If we're short one... there's someone right outside," Su said, glancing at the Sea of Quanta beyond the World Bubble with a faint smile, as if spotting Anti-Entropy's next patsy.
"Right! Let's grab Welt Yang!"
-
"How did you get here?"
Under Welt's dumbfounded expression, Snow and Kevin emerged in front of him.
"Why shouldn't we be here? Let's get inside!"
The elderly man and young woman, one white-haired and the other golden, the Kaslana lineage's grandfather-granddaughter pair, seized Welt Yang by the shoulders and hoisted him up. Without giving him a chance to resist, they carried him straight into the World Bubble, leaving only an empty Maze Seal behind.
-
"So... you're abandoning the Stigmata Project?"
Welt pushed up his glasses, his expression grave as he looked at Kevin Kaslana.
"To be precise... we'll put on a show to fool Overseer Otto Apocalypse, but the global-scale Stigmata Project will never be carried out."
Kevin crossed his arms, nodded solemnly, and addressed Welt as the Sire of the World Serpent:
"...?"
"Are you conspiring with everyone to screw over your own father?"
Welt turned to look at Snow, who was assembling several computers nearby, seemingly determined to turn this World Bubble into an internet cafe. The network cables transferred from the World Bubble lay coiled beside her.
"What do you mean 'screw over'? Did I screw anyone over? No, I didn't!"
"Dad was just minding his own business at home when Kallen suddenly fell from the sky! How is that 'screwing over'? It's not—"
"Fine... and one more thing—don't squeeze the thermal paste into the CPU socket on the motherboard! Seriously, where did you even learn to build a computer?!"
Welt's eyebrow twitched as he watched Snow begin to assemble the PC haphazardly.
"Huh? I found this guide on a forum in one of the World Bubbles. The GIF animation showing the PC assembly process showed it being done exactly like this!"
The Apocalypse heiress, who had never built a PC herself, declared in confusion, halting her movements.
"Didn't you read the rest of the thread?"
"The rest?"
The blonde girl scratched her chin, pulled out a smartphone she'd pilfered from that World Bubble, and performed a series of magical operations to connect to the internet. At the very bottom of the thread, she found a message from the forum administrator:
[Misleading new users. Account banned for ten cycles. Let this serve as a warning to all members.]
"Ah... this..."
"So, what are you doing here now?"
Welt glanced sideways at the gray-haired young man beside him, who, after slurping down the last of his noodles, carelessly tossed the plastic bowl out of the World Bubble without a shred of public decency. Suddenly, Welt felt that all his previous caution toward the Previous Era Predecessors had been a complete waste of effort.
Su, noticing Welt's gaze, waved at him.
"You must be Mr. Welt Yang, the current Herrscher of Reason?"
"I am... And you are?"
"I'm Su. As you can see, I was one of the MANTIS from the previous era. The young descendant of the Kaslana family gave me a request—one that's quite relevant to you."
"To me?"
"Or rather, to Mr. Welt Joyce... This will determine how we bring him back to reality."
"I've observed the story between you and Mr. Joyce... I understand the conviction contained within the Welt surname you inherited, which is why I accepted the young girl's request."
Su calmly explained the reasons to the somewhat agitated Welt Yang before her.
"What do I need to do?"
"Relax your mind, Mr. Yang. I'll join you in infiltrating the true core of the Herrscher of Reason—"
"If Miss Snow Apocalypse's theory is correct—he should either be lost or asleep within the core right now. I can sense the will of the 300,000 people within this core, and his consciousness should be among them. Our task is to guide him back."
Su opened her eyes, gazing at Yang and awaiting his response.
"Alright... I trust you."
Yang nodded, and shattered gray crystals materialized in his hand. Su gently touched them with her finger, closing her eyes.
"Come now, step into this Immeasurable Light..."
"Do you think they'll succeed, Little Snow?"
Snow, with Kevin's help, had finished tinkering with several commandeered computers. The white-haired man glanced at the two figures sitting cross-legged on the ground, their eyes closed.
"Of course they'll succeed. Let's just call it Kaslana family intuition... After all, the descendants of this bloodline have always had remarkably accurate instincts, haven't they?"
"Intuition... If only I possessed such a keen sense—a Herrscher who, from birth, stood firmly on the side of humanity and civilization..."
Kevin Kaslana fell silent, the ancient Predecessor seemed lost in thought, his mind drifting into memories.
"How alike they are... Even their fates are nearly identical—choosing sacrifice to save humanity."
"At least for this one, we can still rewrite the predetermined ending..."
The golden-haired girl's voice broke Kevin's reverie, pulling him back to the present.
"After all this... would my descendants be interested in exploring the Elysian Realm of World Serpent's past? It belongs to the Previous Era—a record of 'her' already-sealed fate?"
"Miss Elysia... I'll go see her eventually. But for now, let's wait for Su and Welt Yang to return."
Knowing the past stories and understanding whom the ancestor was referring to, the golden-haired girl nodded in agreement to the young man's invitation, already scheming her own plans.
If I'm not mistaken, what's stored there are the Heroes' consciousnesses, not just their memories. Ignoring the mind-numbing philosophical implications, you could practically say they are the Heroes themselves...
Ah—the world allows consciousness to match with new vessels. Tsk, tsk, tsk.
A mischievous glint sparked in Snow's eyes, but Kevin, oblivious to the scheming swirling in the girl's gaze, remained completely unaware.