Honkai: Man(Sludge) From Future

Noldrei sighed in disappointment.

"He failed, couldn't make it through this stage."

Kiana felt it was a bit too difficult for that young man. Few people in the second stage directly faced an existence of Noldrei's level.

It was undoubtedly like asking an average person to suddenly meet a national leader, to confirm whether the national leader was the same being as they perceived, or just the existence propagated on television.

Kiana said with some pity, "He's quite pitiful, why are you suddenly so scary to him? I think you're pretty good, apart from being a little crazy and abnormal."

Elysia froze for a moment, wondering if Kiana had something wrong with her head. Would a normal person set the Stigmata space will trial to be like this?

Miss Mystelin asked herself if she could pass a trial of this level, and she doubted she could, let alone a high school boy.

At this moment, Hachiman Hikigaya's shadow was no longer in the Stigmata space. With his disconnection, his Stigmata Will also disconnected.

"Although the stage is the same, each person's understanding of each stage is different, so the trials for each person to pass the stage will be different."

"The first stage is clear self-awareness, recognizing that the Stigmata Will reaction is a fragment of the self, not the true self. Its purpose is to get rid of childish narcissistic tendencies. This stage is very simple, so most people pass it quickly."

"The second stage, the Signifier Stage, requires discovering the limitations you set for yourself. This limitation is within your own cognitive range. As long as you bravely take the first step and take action in reality that breaks through your limitations, then this cognitive range will self-destruct, representing the breaking of the signifier chain. The purpose of this stage of assessment is to make people take the first step out of their cognitive range, and clearly recognize this step."

Noldrei briefly explained the first two trials.

After passing the first two trials, a person would basically possess the personality traits of self-awareness and courage.

Hachiman Hikigaya passed the first one easily, but was stuck on the second.

As for Bronya, she hadn't even passed the first one yet. This little loli was actually very narcissistic and needed to fail a few more times to get rid of this mentality.

Elysia now clearly felt what it meant to be a future human like Noldrei.

In the past, she simply thought this person was very powerful, with various miraculous methods emerging endlessly, but overall, he gave her the feeling of being not much different from ordinary people.

However, now Elysia was not so confident. She felt that if Noldrei used this kind of method of mentally manipulating people against her, it might cause her to develop mental anxiety.

"The promotion of Living Stigmata is not a problem, but the synchronization effect of Stigmata is quite slow. At this rate, I'm afraid it won't keep up with your progress outside."

Elysia was worried about the speed at which Herrschers were appearing outside. She needed to maintain the normal operation of this Stigmata space. However, Noldrei was not in a hurry at all, which Elysia didn't quite understand.

Thinking again of the workers who smashed steam engines that Noldrei had mentioned earlier.

"Kiana, you think we promoted gender liberation. Will anyone be harmed by gender liberation? What kind of thoughts will these people have?"

Noldrei suddenly turned to ask Kiana about gender liberation.

She thought for a moment, unconsciously swaying her tentacles.

"There definitely will be, right? Just like going to the toilet normally is not so safe anymore. You'll always feel if the women around you are men who have transformed. Or, for some families, children suddenly see their parents change their appearance, and then a good family falls apart."

"These people will all become victims of gender liberation, and they will definitely hate you for doing this."

Kiana felt that what she said was reasonable. Since Noldrei had destroyed the ethical structure of humanity, the people who were originally happy in that ethical structure would instantly collapse.

"Then do you think, these collapsed people who hate us… that is, the people in Academy City, will they become more easily targeted by the Honkai in turn?"

Noldrei's words made both of them momentarily stunned.

How exactly did he think of this usage?

Elysia was silent for a long time, wanting to say something, but hesitated.

Noldrei then continued, "The Honkai will definitely choose these people as new carriers of the Honkai. With the addition of Living Stigmata, this is even more so. The intrusion of Honkai energy will even give birth to Herrscher consciousness similar to Stigmata Will."

"And this consciousness will be the collection of this person's resistance to the painful feelings of reality. That is to say, we are very likely to see a Herrscher who wants to return society to normal male and female genders, or a Herrscher who wants to destroy human society with gender liberation."

Not only did he not think there was a problem, but he even said very calmly, "Just like those workers who blocked the steam engine, these Herrschers will also become 'workers' blocking the path of New Humanity."

"Whoa!" Kiana was even more shocked, completely not expecting that the Honkai in Noldrei's eyes would have such a reversal.

"Doesn't that mean the Honkai Herrschers will become the good guys?!"

The pink tentacle monster deeply realized that something was wrong here. She hadn't expected that the Honkai would one day become the echo of humanity's old order.

"No way, I always feel like something is not quite right? Will the situation you described really happen?"

Kiana's mind was a little confused, and she was wondering if Noldrei was talking nonsense.

"This is where the problem of 'public opinion' I told you about lies. Whether they will appear or not doesn't depend on them, but on us who hold the 'discourse power'."

Noldrei uttered the term 'public opinion,' meaning that his next actions would primarily use public opinion as a tool.

Elysia then understood why Noldrei suddenly brought up issues related to public opinion.

He wanted to divide Academy City into two distinct human groups: humans who supported gender freedom and humans who supported the old social order of men and women.

This was an attempt to create new points of conflict, and then impose these points of conflict on future Herrschers, making this future Herrscher experience the suffering brought about by the progress of the times.

Finally, he would deliver a heavy blow to turn the Herrscher into a ideological conservative.

This time, Miss Mystelin understood.

Her mind was full of 'can it be played like this?' shock.

Using the social changes he brought about, and then using social contradictions to shape the thoughts of people who might become Herrschers in the future. Using the extreme effect of Herrscher consciousness brought by the Honkai to demonize and distort the last bit of struggle of the old human society.

Noldrei obviously didn't trust the relationships between humans in this era.

His ruthlessness was not in the commonly understood decisiveness in killing, but in this ruthless crushing after shattering the important relationships that humans valued, without giving any breathing space.

'Too cold-blooded, even more cold-blooded than the people of World Serpent.'

Miss Mystelin couldn't help but frown, almost stepping into the camp of the Honkai Herrschers.