Honkai: Man(Sludge) From Future

When Noldrei said "God," he didn't mean he himself had become God.

Rather, he had obtained God-like administrative privileges over the shaping of humanity's spiritual world.

"Using a virtual world to raise humanity's threshold for needs is a very common technique. Then, we fulfill their individual needs through that world. These social needs will be delivered to them through the 'Will of the Stigma'."

In Kiana's eyes, the Will of the Stigma was a special lifeform indistinguishable from a normal person. She still wasn't quite sure how she should treat the Will she herself had created.

"Given that the genetic information accumulated within the Stigma Space has reached a certain threshold, we can use Kiana's Will of the Stigma to shape the 'Will of the Stigma' for all users of Stigma Battlesuits."

"People will use the power of the Kaslana Stigma Space to replicate a Will of the Stigma that suits their own needs. However, we must intervene in this process and shape a necessary 'object' for humanity."

"This is a method I've deduced based on the memory data left behind by the Previous Era. We can allow people to find friendship, love, and companionship in the Stigma Space. The joy of success, beautiful scenery, the feeling of striving for a goal... we can even give them seventy-two virgins. Even handling sexual needs is perfectly fine. We can even conjure up a doctor to solve problems like impotence."

Noldrei's words were somewhat reminiscent of The Matrix, but his method wasn't about farming humans. Instead, it involved controlling a person's real-world activities by controlling their needs within a new spiritual world and their access to it.

"This sounds... more effective for manipulating people than the brain-in-a-vat concept. Interesting!" Otto nodded in understanding, quickly grasping the subtlety of this method of rule.

It was like microtransactions in a game, but instead, you performed corresponding real-world labor to gain access to the "Garden of Eden."

The important thing wasn't the "Garden of Eden" itself, but the primal motivation people had to enter it.

Tesla exclaimed in admiration, "You should have directed The Matrix. If they had known about this method of controlling humans, why would those robots have ever been hostile to humanity? They could have had everyone wrapped around their little fingers long ago."

Noldrei felt like he was being mocked. Wasn't he just copying the ruling methods of primitive humans? This was something humanity itself had created to control itself. What did it have to do with him? He had merely upgraded the hardware.

"I can testify to that. Memory data can certainly be... manipulated. Living together, doing... intimate things, going on dates—it's all possible," Elysia explained, highlighting the excellency of memory data. She hadn't even revealed the best parts.

For example, memory data could be copied, allowing everyone to have their own.

If you extended this to the scale of the cosmos, you could theoretically create an "object" tailored to every single human's needs.

'Wait, someone has already put this into practice?!' Tesla was slightly taken aback, feeling that things were more complicated than they seemed.

Otto's expression immediately became serious. "So, you're saying Mr. Man from the Future has indeed practiced this on Ms. Elysia here?"

Noldrei nodded. "That's right. Her figure is quite good, she's well-spoken, and she's very pleasant to be around. I believe she is qualified to be promoted to one of the 'ponies'."

Overseer Otto leaned back slightly, smiling. "Then I have no further questions. Please, Dr. Tesla, the floor is yours."

With a gesture, Overseer Otto drew attention to a displeased-looking Dr. Tesla.

She had been a Teletubby for a long time. How could this newcomer get promoted directly to a pony?! This was a grave insult to her.

"No! I object! Cocolia has been mocking me for being a Teletubby for a whole year! Why does the new girl get to be a pony?!"

Tesla was furious, declaring that she required a sufficient price to be bought off and placated.

This troubled Noldrei. He had thought Tesla would quite like her status as a Teletubby.

Elysia felt something was off. She hadn't expected "pony" status in the real world to be directly linked to social standing.

Noldrei was a political genius. He had secretly created a theoretical 'Stigma Pony Land' and then tied pony identity to real-world status. This created a bizarre ruling class, something akin to a species-based identity replacement.

"Then, Dr. Tesla? How about I give you my pony status?" Elysia asked curiously, wanting to know what being a pony actually entailed.

"Bitch!" Tesla was seeing red. She felt as if this wicked woman was mocking her. "Don't you know that every pony has its own unique representation?! What do you mean, giving me your pony status?!"

'Oh? So each pony status has a different meaning.'

Elysia nodded thoughtfully. She was beginning to understand how Noldrei had created his pony politics.

"I see. So you haven't obtained your own unique pony identity yet. I didn't realize it was so important."

Elysia had assumed becoming a pony was just about having fun together. She truly hadn't expected there to be such a unique status attached to it.

Noldrei frowned, feeling something was not quite right.

Weren't the ponies just something he had come up with on the fly to distinguish insiders from outsiders and to give these people an insurance policy for bodily recovery? Why was Tesla so worked up about this? A Teletubby could do the same thing.

Admittedly, the overall effect of a pony was better than a Teletubby; that was undeniable.

Ponies had a unique way of being identified, and they even had "cutie marks" that represented each individual.

And the Teletubbies? They just weren't as good-looking as the ponies. Poor Dr. Tesla had worked for so long and still hadn't been promoted to pony status.

"Don't be angry, don't be angry. I'll turn you into a pony when we get home!" After pondering for a moment, Noldrei figured out what was bothering Tesla and managed to soothe the doctor, who was on the verge of exploding.

"Alright, let's continue the meeting. This time, let's just take over Europe's... huh? Isn't Schicksal basically the Church?"

As Noldrei thought about it, something felt off. Schicksal seemed to be a church-like organization, and the Valkyries were a kind of armed collective, like knights of a theocratic state.

He scratched his head, suddenly discovering a blind spot in Academy City's grand plan.

'Wait a minute... is it possible that the biggest religious leader is actually Academy City itself?'