Honkai: Man(Sludge) From Future

Welt was still venting his frustrations to Kevin.

"Tell me, are you Noldrei in disguise? Are you?! Tell me!"

"You're drunk. I just came here to see how the Current Era is developing..."

Kevin was in a bind. Despite his frosty exterior, he was actually terrible at handling situations like this. It was the same with Su. They'd been friends and colleagues for years, yet even sitting down for a simple conversation was a struggle for him.

Without MEI, Kevin was, deep down, not much different from a powerful walking corpse.

"You have to be Noldrei! You have to be! I know it. You look down on the aesthetics of us primitives, you look down on everything we've created, and you think humanity could be so much better if we just took one more step. But you're just too cowardly to act! Aren't you! I know that's what you're thinking!"

Welt chugged down more alcohol. He was completely unable to accept the reality that his vision for human civilization had hit a dead end.

Democracy, freedom, the future, technology—the masks had been ripped off of them all.

It was too painful! It was just too painful!

"Only you can make all this world seem right."

"Only you can make the darkness bright."

"Only you and you alone can thrill me like you do."

Unable to cope, Welt grabbed his bottle, held it up like a microphone, and started to howl.

He grabbed Kevin's shoulder with one hand, held the bottle to his lips with the other, and began an impromptu karaoke performance, serenading Kevin with the 1955 American pop classic, "Only You."

The old ancestor Kevin almost lost his composure. He never imagined a Herrscher would do something like this after getting drunk.

The song sounded more like a love song.

What Kevin didn't realize was that in every era, there are sappy love songs like this used to express feelings toward "leaders" or the "ruling class."

Welt didn't mean anything romantic by it. He just wanted to satirize how Noldrei acted without any consideration for what others thought.

It felt like being in a relationship where one person is so consumed by their own emotions that they end up constantly hurting the other with their "love."

That was exactly how miserable Welt felt now. He felt that his entire life's work had been maliciously insulted by Noldrei.

Yet this insult wasn't one of oppression or combat, but of Noldrei dragging humanity at a breakneck pace toward a future Welt couldn't even have imagined.

The Anti-Entropy Sovereign's heart ached. He felt as if he'd been betrayed by humanity itself.

What happened to the idea that humanity's goodwill was its most precious treasure?

Noldrei's actions had ripped the skin of human goodwill clean off and paraded it right in front of him.

Welt looked at Kevin with grief and indignation.

In Welt's eyes, Kevin had transformed into Noldrei, holding out a huge, delicious-looking chocolate bar. Only after Welt had taken a bite did Noldrei reveal it was actually mixed with a giant pile of shit.

One can only imagine how much Welt detested Noldrei right now.

But Kevin was truly innocent in all this. He just wanted to observe the warriors and Herrschers of the Current Era.

Who would have thought he'd run into this just by going out for a bowl of noodles?

A rare, troubled expression appeared on Kevin's icy face. He really had no idea how to handle the First Herrscher, the Herrscher of Reason.

Should I take advantage of him being drunk, kill him, and take his core?

But Kevin quickly dismissed the idea. He couldn't sense the Herrscher Core within the Herrscher of Reason's body. While the cores of this era had sacrificed some raw power, they had become far more versatile in form.

Given how difficult the Previous Era's Herrscher of Reason's core had been to deal with, Kevin decided to put aside the thought of taking Welt's Herrscher Core for now.

This was also thanks to Noldrei's overwhelming power, which had introduced many new variables. As long as Noldrei hadn't abandoned these friends of his, Kevin had no intention of moving against the warriors of the Current Era.

"When you hold my hand, I understand."

Welt was really into his singing, but it would have been better if he'd just stopped.

In his drunken stupor, he had latched onto Kevin, treating him as Noldrei and unleashing all his pent-up emotions through a series of classic hits.

Kevin had certainly never seen a Herrscher like this. He had to admit his understanding of them was far too one-sided.

If there could be an unconventional Herrscher of Human like Elysia, then wasn't it perfectly natural for there to be a Herrscher of Reason who went crazy when drunk?

Kevin quickly accepted this new reality.

The reality was that the Herrscher of Reason wasn't very reasonable at all. He was an impulsive, passionate idealist with a pure and innocent heart.

"You're mistaken. I'm not this Noldrei you're talking about."

"I... I know... you are! You might not be, but anyone could be him. He just gives people what they want, the power to do the things they've always wanted to do."

Welt's head was spinning. He wasn't using his Herrscher powers to suppress the alcohol in his system.

"It's... it's like... hic... like just giving away Honkai Energy weapons for next to nothing. Is that even arms dealing?! Arms dealers demand money! But he only asks for one dollar! He just gives it away! For free! You can't even call it selling!"

"I don't even... even..."

"I don't even know how to attack you on a moral level. You have Honkai Energy weapons, you can give them to whomever you want, and how they use them is their own business... No..."

Sovereign Yang hung his head, shaking it slowly.

"No, I could still say you shouldn't have given that power to them, knowing they were bad people. But... that doesn't make sense... it just doesn't... That's not what I was taught growing up."

"If I condemn him for doing that, doesn't that mean I'm saying those scoundrels in America don't deserve the same human rights? Wary scrutiny for those far away, but equality and freedom for those close by? By that logic, I should shut down every gun store in North America first."

Welt felt tormented. He had the power to stop this, yet his own lifelong moral and ethical education prevented him from doing so.

It was too absurd. If Noldrei had at least been making a dirty profit, Welt could have consoled himself somehow.

But no, he was actually giving away weapons and power to those bastards for free.

"I thought I was going crazy, but now I know... it's this world that's gone mad! It's the world! I'll kill them! Yes! I'll kill them!!"

He seemed to have found a solution. He gritted his teeth and said, "As long as I kill all those bastards beforehand, Academy City will have no reason to intervene! To preserve humanity's last shred of morality and ethics, they must die!!!"

Welt ripped off his glasses and smashed them on the ground.

Kevin could only stare, speechless, at the drunken Herrscher of Reason.

In his drunken rage, Welt shot into the air and flew off, streaking west from the Far East.

The old ancestor, Kevin, silently watched the hole Welt had left in the roof. He was still pondering what the Herrscher had said.

He said he's going to kill some of the 'bad' humans... for the sake of humanity?

That sounds like something only a human would do.

If the wind sobers him up mid-flight, isn't that going to be incredibly awkward for him later? Once he's rational again, will he go through with it or not?

Kevin fell into deep thought.