Apocalyptic Era: Starting from picking up a Bishoujo

Careful thought... No, even without careful thought, one can understand. The Power of Return is not the force that transforms things into their "correct form," but rather the power that reverts things to their "original form."

In today's world, there is no such concept as "original correct form." From the moment Liu Shuying called it forth, this world was full of flaws. So, if the Power of Return could truly make it correct, it would certainly be in the form of the "previous world."

That would only fulfill Tai Sui's desire, but it would go against mine.

My attempt to use the Power of Return to restore human history was doomed from the start, just a test born of curiosity.

Normally, the Power of Return does not possess the ability to operate across world lines. If faced with a naturally disabled person, no matter how many times you reset them with the Power of Return, you can't create a healthy body because there's no record of that person ever being healthy in this world's history, unless you switch to a parallel world where the person was born healthy.

It was due to my knowledge of some information from the "previous world" and my forceful distortion of the world with my cognition, that I could achieve some effects with the Power of Return. This is only possible on the foundation of opening the Third Door. Even Mazao, as the prototype of the power, couldn't achieve this on her own, yet I, the "imitator," did.

So, if Mazao truly wants to take on the responsibility forcibly granted by the planetary natural will, pushing open the Third Door is just the starting line.

Her current ability to directly settle Du Shuo Mountain Yellow Springs with the Power of Return, eradicating the Evil that has become a monster, which is the "native product of this world view," along with its power, is because she is "favored" by the planetary natural will.

"In terms of results, using the Power of Return to restore human history might indeed transform our world into a form similar to the background setting of the previous world, but doing so shouldn't go against Brother Zhuang Cheng's principles," Little Bowl said.

"Why is that?" I asked curiously.

"To facilitate understanding, Brother Zhuang Cheng, I must first pose a question—if a person suddenly lost all the memories accumulated in their past life, and then embraced a new life, accumulating a personality drastically different from the one before amnesia, would you consider 'the original them' to have died?" Little Bowl asked.

"Although I wouldn't rashly assert it, general opinion would probably deem it so," I said.

Little Bowl continued: "It's inevitable for a person to forget past memories and accumulate new ones in their life. Child, adolescent, adult, middle-aged, elderly... A person might have vastly different personalities at different life stages. By the same logic, a person dies many times in a lifetime. Does Brother Zhuang Cheng agree with this?"

This sounds like the classic "Ship of Theseus" paradox. If a ship sailed for an exceedingly long time, and people continuously replaced its parts to prolong its life, until all parts were replaced, would it be an entirely different ship?

For Doomsday survivors, who often lose memories little by little like being cut by a dull knife, this isn't an idle, imaginary dilemma but a terrifying reality they must confront constantly. Little Bowl and Mazao must have contemplated this matter countless times, having their own answers.

"Isn't it a different matter?" I voiced my personal insight, "A person's consciousness, no matter how it changes, retains continuity, which the former does not.

"Assume someone is cloned, producing a replica with identical memories. No matter how lifelike or complete the latter's memory may be, it can't be seen as the original. Its memories start from the moment it was created, without continuity with its presumed past memories.

"In making significant decisions, the me before manifestation differs greatly from now. The past me would never have considered stopping the Doomsday. But would you see the current me as entirely unconnected with the past me?"

"In Brother Zhuang Cheng's view, the most important aspect of consciousness is 'continuity,' huh..." Little Bowl seemed a bit surprised.

Fortunately, the answer didn't catch her off guard. After a slight pause, she said, "Therefore... The plan I propose is not to use the Power of Return to instantly save this world, but to save it gradually."

"Gradually?" I seemed to comprehend her intention.

"Brother Zhuang Cheng can somewhat delay the Doomsday process because its accumulation of errors surpasses the speed at which you can use the Power of Return to repair human history. However, conversely, as long as the repair efficiency of the Power of Return exceeds the progress of the Doomsday even by a bit, the Doomsday will grow increasingly distant from us under the premise of not vanishing immediately," Little Bowl said, "If human history were repaired in an instant, living people would certainly lose their current personalities, forming complete memories and a new personality based on a 'flawless human history.'

"If we take it slow, things would be different. Say, over the course of a hundred years, or several hundreds or thousands of years... There's no need to alter the memories of 'this generation' remembering the flawed human history. Instead, let them live and reproduce generation by generation while ensuring that inherited historical memory returns step by step to a correct, healthy form.

"In this process, human civilization might gradually make new archaeological discoveries, overturn past historical understandings, thus aligning with correct human history. Demon hunters fostering erroneous worldviews and anomalies will also gradually exit the stage of history over generations.

"Many Immortals will undoubtedly survive after hundreds or thousands of years, such as Impermanence and Great Success Rank individuals, including Sister Mazao and Zhu Shi.

"But there's no need to proactively alter their memories. Since this group won't be vast, like how the human body can resist illness to an extent, as long as the number of Immortals is small enough, they can't truly negatively impact human history. Initially, the Evangelical Institute's human extermination plan also intended to leave a small portion of humans as racial continuation material.

"If those Immortals wish to spread erroneous human history later, simply use Brother Zhuang Cheng and the divine seal's power to remind them of their stance. As for anomalies, this part can be directly eliminated using divine seal power.

"I call it the 'End of Divine Era' plan."

To let demon hunters and anomalies exit the stage...

Honestly, this development doesn't sit well with me. Or, put differently, I don't care for any ending in which "amazing forces disappear from the world at the end of a magical story." But compared to Tai Sui's wish, this proposal is something I can at least accept.

The biggest erroneous segment of current human history is the forcibly woven elements involving demon hunters and anomalies. Trying to save the world while preserving these is an impossible task. So I didn't object. For now, this seems like the best solution.

"... Brother Zhuang Cheng, you don't seem very satisfied." Little Bowl astutely detected my mood, "I'm sorry, but this is all I can think of for now... I'll strive to come up with a solution that meets Brother Zhuang Cheng's expectations later."

"No, let's go with this plan," I said, "This way, we might even establish a cooperative relationship with Tai Sui."

"It's best not to disclose this plan to Tai Sui," Little Bowl shook her head, "Even though the end result might be a world similar to the previous one, it's ultimately not the world Tai Sui desires. Our goal is merely to remove the Doomsday process. Once human history is restored to a point where there's no impending Doomsday, it would be a great success.

"In other words, a lot of history that 'doesn't belong to the previous world but won't adversely affect human history' will be preserved. As such, the resulting 'present' and 'future' won't become what Tai Sui truly wishes for.

"If Tai Sui insists on further restoration, although it wouldn't be impossible to comply, the more severe issue is that this plan's completion may span over several centuries. The people Tai Sui cares about from the original world can't live for that long, and they certainly can't return.

"Tai Sui currently unaware of our plan is likely to be unconcerned about us. But if we inform him and he disagrees... He most probably would, then the situation would become unfavorable to us afterward."

Tai Sui is evidently a person of great morality, and his heartlessness toward the people of this world might stem from critical ties in his original world... Perhaps it's precisely because of the contrast and disparity that he harbors such a strong sense of detachment toward the current world.

"But all these discussions are based on the premise that I can become the Master of Divine Seal," I said, "My compatibility with the Divine Seal Fragment is fatally low. Even if I mimic the nature of the Divine Son, I can't transform into the present Tai Sui. Tai Sui seems very confident on this point.

"And even if I could truly overthrow Tai Sui and become the ruler of the Doomsday Divine Seal, I don't know how to merge the Doomsday Divine Seal and the Current World Divine Seal. The Doomsday process is caused by a Complete Divine Seal, and to completely overturn it, a Complete Divine Seal should be used. It seems only Liu Shuying can merge the Doomsday Divine Seal and Current World Divine Seal."

If I could open the Fourth Door, maybe I could forcibly merge the Current World Divine Seal and the Doomsday Divine Seal together with sheer force, or even possibly erase the Doomsday process without needing the power of these divine seals... However, I never expected myself to open the Fourth Door.

My intuition also tells me this. Even though I have now manifested "Manifestation," to open the Fourth Door with my own strength alone, unless I completely abandon the main framework of my soul structure and genuinely become someone else, it would be utterly impossible, even if heaven and earth were overturned.

Little Bowl must also have considered these, perhaps she even has a solution for them?