Honkai: Man(Sludge) From Future

So where was Kevin now?

Of course, he was in Jerusalem.

But it couldn't be called Jerusalem anymore. The place had been completely bombed by Welt into a giant crater, with only faint traces of shattered religious relics visible.

As for what "Holy City" or "land of faith," in Welt's eyes, it had become a source of chaos. As long as it was completely eliminated, there would be no more danger.

As for the actual reason for the conflict between Palestine and Israel, Welt paid it no mind. In fact, he was even hoping these religious figures would declare war on Academy City.

Either don't do it at all, or do it to the absolute extreme!

At this moment, the usually quiet three major religious communities were stunned by this news. Their first thought wasn't to find out who did it, but to process whether the news was even real.

Jerusalem was gone. This news was too shocking, like someone had stormed the Vatican and slaughtered the Pope along with a whole host of cardinals.

"Strange... Gray Serpent, why does this stuff look so familiar?"

Kevin looked at the records in the Bible, feeling a sense of déjà vu. It seemed like there was something in there he had seen before.

"What has been will be again, what has been done will be done again. The Serpent Lord's deeds will always be recorded in bits and pieces, drifting through the cracks of history like the story of Noah's Ark. Isn't that perfectly normal?"

Gray Serpent was the same as always, with his umbrella and hood. If it weren't for the Honkai devastation in Jerusalem right now, others might have mistaken them for some special religious cult.

"Gray Serpent..." Kevin hesitated for a moment before saying, "Based on my recent study of the Current Era's philosophy, that phrase means that within a certain period, due to their own limitations, humans will experience a certain degree of repetition and cyclical work. When you believe that something is constantly repeating itself in history, it means you are also deeply immersed in that cycle. It is an expression of your own cognitive limitations."

Gray Serpent fell into a long silence. He, a biomechanical android with a [shared network], was being told by Kevin that he possessed human limitations.

"I know you're confused, but as a biomechanical android, the moment that term was created, it already carried with it humanity's own limitations. If there's another possibility, I think you'd be better off just dropping the 'biomechanical android' part. There's no need to be one."

Kevin had gradually accepted the human concepts constructed by Noldrei, especially since they were dominated by humanity's own needs. There was no reason not to accept them.

With Noldrei's complex personality, even Gray Serpent seemed more like a normal human than him.

"Serpent Lord, forgive my impertinence, but where did you get such an idea?"

Gray Serpent was a little worried that his Serpent Lord might be Noldrei in disguise, especially since that guy was truly capable of such things.

"I learned it from Noldrei. He understands what the people of the Current Era are thinking better than most. To him, this kind of religious literature isn't worth respecting. The social cycle you believe in is because you can only see the part that cycles, and then you write it down yourself. Gray Serpent, you haven't been founding various strange religions in the years since, have you?"

Kevin didn't pursue Gray Serpent's mistaken ideas. He was just curious why a biomechanical android had managed to persevere until now.

"For most humans, absolute freedom is nothing more than a heavy burden. Even if they haven't realized it... in reality, they prefer to have others make choices for them."

Gray Serpent simply explained his reasoning. In his eyes, the current human consciousness was exceptionally naive.

However, was that really the case?

"Because of their own limitations, humans have no choice but to surrender some of their power. But that doesn't mean they like having others make choices for them. They just like having someone else bear the painful sin, or 'responsibility,' of making those choices. In fact, when humans behave this way, it's because they are clearly aware of their own limitations. This is the basic operational concept of democratic politics. Whoever makes the choice takes the blame, and organizational concepts are promoted through simple personification."

"In a corporation, this is called the 'legal person system'."

Gray Serpent realized a very bad situation. Kevin understood the workings of modern social systems better than he had imagined. In Kevin's eyes, all the profound and mysterious language he used to fool people had corresponding social systems in the Current Era.

Someone had been giving Kevin political lessons?!

Who could it be? It had to be that bastard Noldrei who did this.

"Through the genetic information fragments in the Stigma Space, I can directly inherit the will of past Kaslanas from the Kaslana Stigma Space, thereby obtaining corresponding cognitive and practical knowledge. Gray Serpent, you have been carrying out Mobius's will since the Previous Era, but never mine."

What was Kevin's will? To defeat the Honkai! Nothing else.

Due to his personal limitations in political aptitude, he could only execute the plans set by the Flame-Chasers. But that didn't mean Kevin was an idiot, or someone who didn't improve his knowledge. As long as he could make up for these shortcomings, Kevin would take the initiative to practice new plans that could better achieve his goals.

Did Gray Serpent's actions help Kevin? Yes, but not much.

Gray Serpent was more like a degraded version of a Project Stigma lifeform created with a mechanical foundation.

"Gray Serpent, I remember you should have an administrator inside your network, right? One day, you will also be affected by your own limitations, causing the individuals in the Gray Serpent network to compete with the Gray Serpent administrator for this authority."

Kevin issued his verdict with great certainty. His attitude towards Gray Serpent was somewhat like his attitude towards his old friends among the Flame-Chasers.

Perhaps it was because Gray Serpent was a lifeform created by Mobius back then that Kevin could treat him with the same attitude he had towards life from the Previous Era.

"..."

Gray Serpent felt that there might be something wrong with the Serpent Lord.

He carefully considered the internal situation of the Gray Serpent network. This was indeed a potential problem, especially given the administrator's attitude towards the various nodes in the network.

But again, who had taught the Serpent Lord these things? How was Gray Serpent supposed to manage the Gray Serpent network now? How was he supposed to run the World Serpent organization according to his own ideas?

Noldrei was truly wicked. What was he doing teaching the leader political science and economics for no reason?