Honkai: Man(Sludge) From Future

Noldrei was unaware that the officials in the Far East were convinced a war was imminent. Although he did indeed plan to purge the region's religious organizations, he had a much more precise method in mind.

The Middle East, this chaotic and lawless land, was about to welcome the god it truly needed.

As Kevin walked through this land, what did he see? Extreme wealth disparity, child soldiers robbing people at gunpoint, and regions carved up by warring factions.

It looked like a chaotic, untouched frontier. He had only come here to see the land Noldrei had described as ripe for development.

It was indeed a suitable place for development, but Kevin was not suited to be a leader.

As he pondered his next move, a young boy approached and offered him a cup of murky water. It had been filtered through sand and gravel; though it contained some grit, it could supposedly aid digestion.

What's that? You say there's nothing in your stomach to digest? Well, that must be because you haven't worked hard enough to earn money.

Kevin wasn't worried about poison. He tilted his head back and drank it down. In his current state, no natural toxin from plants or insects could affect his body. As for high-tech Honkai-based poisons, their energy signatures were too high to be discreetly mixed into water.

"Alright," Kevin said to the boy. "You said there's another village nearby? Let's go and deal with the soldiers there, too. After we clear out this area, people will come to pave roads. They'll set up simple container homes for you along the road, and once the power lines are up, you can move right in."

Simple container homes were an extremely cheap, temporary solution, made possible by Anti-Entropy's industrial mechs, which had reduced production costs to practically nothing.

"Really? Prophet!" the boy exclaimed.

Kevin paused for a moment before correcting him. "I am not a prophet. You can't call me that."

"Then you must be Noah!"

A rare, subtle expression flickered across Kevin's face. "Noah is my son," he said.

The child looked stunned. He had personally witnessed Kevin wipe out the ruthless warlords.

"You... could you be Allah?"

Kevin considered his own identity and nodded. "You're not wrong to say that. Everyone in the world is my 'child'."

"Then why didn't you drown those American infidels? That way we could go to heaven too."

The child was naive, truly believing that the people on the other side of the world were heretics.

Is it possible that I don't care about your religion at all? Kevin thought. His only goal was to defeat the Honkai. He had already built a "heaven" for humanity and was prepared to send everyone there at a moment's notice.

He hesitated for a long time before replying, "Children shouldn't be thinking about going to heaven. That's no place for a child."

Gray Serpent, who was following Kevin, could barely contain himself. His CPU nearly overheated.

Kevin explained with great seriousness, "Think about it. If you go to heaven, where do the angels—the Stigma-integrated humans—in heaven go? They would surely come to this world. At that point, wouldn't the people around you in heaven be the same people you see here?"

The child had apparently never considered this. The thought of sharing heaven with people he disliked stripped the very meaning from the concept.

"No way! I can't let people I don't like go to heaven! They have to go to hell!"

Kevin flatly rejected this notion. "No. I want everyone to go to heaven. Hell is for dealing with devils—the Honkai. Humans can't go there."

A look of disappointment crossed the child's face. "But I think they are the devils. Why else would they always bully us?"

In the child's eyes, "they" included everyone who bullied him, friend or foe, and even those who forbade him from robbing infidels.

This put Kevin in a difficult position. He had never really considered such problems before; this was the kind of thing MEI would have handled.

"Lord Serpent," Gray Serpent chimed in, "you could say that it is precisely because they bully him that they are infidels."

Kevin glanced at Gray Serpent, momentarily unable to process the strange logic.

Did humanity first label others as "infidels" and then begin to harm each other, or did they first harm each other and then invent the concept of "infidels"?

Kevin mulled it over for a long time. He suddenly had an epiphany about why humans were so fond of imposing their will through force.

"They don't just bully you," Kevin explained simply to the child. "They bully other infidels, too. These violent people bully all the weak, equally." He added, "The only way to reason with people like that is with the weapon in your hands."

The child nodded in agreement. "I see! So they really are controlled by devils!"

This time, Kevin gave up on trying to correct him and simply nodded along. "That's right. They are devils."

He abandoned his role as an educator and decided to simply guide the child onto the "right path." He would worry about the future later; he had to trust in the wisdom of Noldrei, a man of a later generation.

Gray Serpent was left speechless by his lord's response. He felt as though his admiration had been wasted on a scumbag. Was his own suggestion somehow wrong?

The child hadn't received the real answer, but he had received the answer he wanted—one that put his mind at ease. Now, he wouldn't have to think so much when he charged into battle with a gun in the future.

The boy ran off, unconcerned about whether Kevin would stay or leave.

Kevin wasn't here just to solve the local religious issues. He needed to see if there were any local organizations he could support and build up.

As it turned out, Kevin was getting ahead of himself. This kind of work wasn't suited for him. Even Gray Serpent was better equipped to be the founder of an organization.

"The religious atmosphere here is too pervasive," Kevin thought. "Although I can see their current leadership has intentions of secularizing, they lack the ability and the material foundation to accomplish such a task."

The region's impoverished methods of production and distribution meant the entire Middle East lacked the groundwork for secularization.

Having traveled this land for some time, Kevin quickly came to agree with Academy City's strategy: a clean sweep.

They had to dismantle the entire upper structure in the shortest time possible if they wanted any chance of enacting change.

"Lord Serpent, if their internal conflicts don't escalate, they won't fight among themselves," Gray Serpent noted. "And if they don't fight among themselves, it will be difficult for us to destabilize the local governments."

Gray Serpent, ever the troublemaker, came up with a rather clever idea.

"We should mine Honkai Crystals on-site," he suggested. "Then we can use the wealth generated to buy off those who support secularization and opening up to the world."

Kevin nodded. "Fine. Do as you say. Those who can be bought will certainly not be religious hardliners."