Einstein and Tesla exchanged a glance as they listened to Irene speak. Then Einstein turned to face her, drew a slow breath, and nodded.
"How do we do it?" she asked. She had to admit that Irene's words had moved her — or rather, they had been the final weight on a scale already teetering on the edge of collapse.
"Tampering with a Herrscher Core is no simple matter. Extracting a consciousness from inside one especially."
"Good — glad you ca around." Irene snapped her fingers, then gestured toward Little Senti standing nearby. "As for how to tamper with a Herrscher Core, we go to the obvious expert — Little Senti, who is herself a Herrscher."
"And if one Herrscher of Sentience isn't enough firepower, we can also bring in Master. Fenghuang Down can handle it just as well."
"That's right — leave it all to ." Little Senti patted her chest, radiating confidence. "Anything to do with consciousness is my specialty. I'll definitely be able to drag that guy out of the Core."
"This is a delicate operation," Tesla said, eyeing the suprely self-assured Little Senti. "And we have absolutely no precedents to reference."
"Ah, co on — it's just going in and fishing soone out. Easy." Little Senti waved a hand dismissively. "So where's Bronya? Call her over. I'll get started right now."
"Hold on a mont, Little Senti." Einstein pulled a stool over and sat down beside them. "This ti you're not just going in alone to retrieve soone — you also have to be able to bring people in with you."
"Why?" Little Senti tilted her head, puzzled. "I go in, fish out Joyce, and then we talk to him afterward — can't we just do it that way? Irene makes him a body right after, the whole thing flows seamlessly. Wouldn't that be better?"
"We want to hear what Joyce himself thinks." Einstein looked at her steadily. "If he doesn't want to co out, we don't want to force him."
"Ha. How complicated." Little Senti looked between Einstein and Tesla, then glanced at Welt standing to the side — tense, visibly wound tight — and shook her head helplessly. "If that's the case, I can't guarantee it'll be very stable."
With her abilities, getting inside shouldn't be a problem. She hadn't paid much attention before, but now that she was focusing, she could indeed feel it — a great many latent consciousnesses, quietly dormant inside Bronya's Core.
Being able to sense them ant she could get in. But going in herself and going in while escorting others and maintaining the connection — those were entirely different matters. Every additional person multiplied the difficulty geotrically.
And on the other side there were 300,000 of them. The target was certainly large — but that also ant far greater complexity. Those 300,000 might be sharing a single collective dream, or each one might be dreaming their own small private dream.
If it was the latter, trying to pinpoint a single specific person among them — especially without knowing their ntal frequency — was roughly as difficult as finding one particular seashell on an entire beach.
If she were going alone, she could just wander around and stumble her way through — keep going and she'd bump into him eventually. She might not know his ntal frequency, but she did at least know what Joyce looked like.
But if she had to shepherd people along? That was a whole other problem.
"You've really handed a tough one." Little Senti scratched her head. She had confidence in herself, but not to this degree — a single misstep here ant lives on the line.
"I know it's difficult, but you're the only one who can help us, Little Senti." Einstein cradled her coffee in both hands. "You're the expert in this field, after all."
"This really is a headache though," Little Senti said, scratching her head again. "I don't mind making a few extra attempts — I'm bored enough these days — but consciousness is unpredictable, and we're not talking about 300 people. It's 300,000."
"Even herding pigs doesn't work like this. Let alone finding one specific pig among a whole herd of them running wild, and then catching it."
"And the bigger problem is that this whole herd of pigs has gone rolling around in a mud pit, so they're all covered in muck — and all we know is what the one pig we want looks like, so we'd have to check them one by one, wipe each one clean, and figure out which is actually the one we're looking for."
"It was already going to be a long haul. And now you want to co along too. Yeah. That's a bit much."
She'd already steeled herself for a war of attrition, ready to go searching one by one. But if Dr. Einstein was truly insisting on coming in...
"Let's bring the old antique along too." The way things stood, operating solo was still not quite stable enough. Bringing the old antique in, and using his Fenghuang Down as extra support, would make the whole thing steadier.
Einstein nodded, then took out her communicator to pull Fu Hua — who was still in the cultivation chamber chatting with the Fla-Chasers — over to join them.
"The DNA sample you asked for, Irene." On the other side of the room, Tesla placed a vial of red liquid into Irene's hand. "Will this be enough? Do you need anything else?"
"Don't worry, this is plenty." Irene gave the vial a light toss and caught it. "I thought it would take you Doctors a while to prepare — didn't expect you to produce it this fast. This isn't leftover stock from a previous research project, is it?"
"That's not the point, is it, Irene." Tesla crossed her arms and looked toward Welt, who had been standing to the side the whole ti, his hand alternating between clenching into a fist and relaxing again.
"You're nervous too, aren't you, Welt."
"Yes..." Welt nodded, reached up, and adjusted his glasses. "I don't know whether I'll be able to et Joyce's expectations."
"You've done wonderfully." Einstein clapped him gently on the back. "I'm sure Joyce will be proud of you. And besides — aren't we going to go see him together right now?"
"I know." Welt nodded, then turned and looked at Bronya with soft eyes. "Bronya, don't put too much pressure on yourself. Joyce is a gentle person."
"Bronya understands." Bronya nodded, then closed her eyes. From within herself, she drew out the Herrscher of Reason Core — an irregular blue crystal that drifted into the air, emanating a faint, soft blue glow.
Little Senti looked at the crystal floating before her, and dark red feathers drifted down, brushing across its surface. She couldn't help a small sigh of recognition.
"Pretty obvious, actually — how did I not notice before?" Little Senti shook her head. Well hidden, certainly — she hadn't caught it when she wasn't looking for it. But no matter how well sothing was concealed, it couldn't hide from a Herrscher of Sentience.
"Mm. They're fairly resistant. But that's fine — not a big deal. I'll just shove them aside by force."
"You were looking for ?" Fu Hua pushed the door open at that mont, clearly surprised to find so many people in the room. But Einstein quickly brought her up to speed on what they were planning.
"Have you settled on the group?" Fu Hua nodded to show she understood, then looked around at the others. "The fewer people the better — it keeps the connection stable. And if anything goes wrong, it'll be easier to pull everyone out quickly."
"I need to go in." Irene raised her hand. "Little Corruption's Corruption virus is more than stable enough to hold its ground even within a dream — it could dig in against even Spiritual Adam. A dream ford from 300,000 people is hardly going to pose any challenge."
"For the others — the current shortlist is Welt and Einstein."
Tesla had originally wanted to go as well, but after she and Einstein discussed it and weighed the group-size constraints, they agreed it should be Einstein going instead.
As for Welt — there was nothing to deliberate there. As Joyce's first successor, whatever the outco, Welt had to go in and speak with Joyce in person.
"Three people should be manageable." Fu Hua nodded. It was her first ti doing work of this kind — stability above all else was the priority.
"Once you're all ready, lie down on the beds." Little Senti clapped her hands now that things were settled. "Of course, if any of you prefer to stand and then just collapse on the floor when you lose consciousness, I have no objections."
"Ooh, then I'll hold Irene." Elysia scooped Irene up with gleeful enthusiasm — warm and soft and absolutely incapable of putting up a fight. A rare and precious quality!
Bronya heard this and imdiately fixed Elysia with a look that said, in no uncertain terms: I am not happy about this. Her eyes practically had the words "I object" written across them.
Unfortunately, if that sort of thing worked, Elysia wouldn't have been such a headache for the people of the Previous Era. Elysia simply smiled at Bronya and looked away, as though she hadn't seen a thing.
Irene patted Elysia on the head, a little exasperated — but she had to admit, Elysia had been completely quiet this whole ti and hadn't interfered once. It seed Elysia did know when to read the room.
Irene stretched out a hand and pressed her palm against the nearby wall. Under her direction, a mass of green vines sprouted from the point of contact, growing from nothing, and gradually wove themselves into the shape of reclining chairs.
The group settled in without ceremony, each one lying back in a chair and closing their eyes. Little Senti moved through them, and dark red feathers drifted down to rest upon each person's forehead, glowing with a gentle light.
"There we go~" Little Senti carefully guided their consciousnesses into the Herrscher of Reason Core floating beside them. "Now it's all up to them..."
"What is it, Little Senti?" Fu Hua caught the pause in Little Senti's voice and imdiately tensed, already moving to intervene and pull them all back out.
"No — nothing's wrong. The opposite, actually — things are going very smoothly." Little Senti waved her off, stopping Fu Hua's movent. "Their consciousnesses had barely entered when sothing swept them up into a dream. If I'm right, soone ca to find them on purpose."
With her eyes still closed, Einstein suddenly felt a fresh breeze wash over her face. When she opened her eyes, she was no longer in the utilitarian dormitory — before her stretched a wide, open grassland.
"Long ti no see, Ein." A voice both familiar and strange rose up from directly behind her. Einstein spun around — and found herself looking at the man standing there.
"..." Einstein opened her mouth, staring at Joyce. "It really has been a long ti. You look well."
"I thought you'd be more emotional about it." Joyce looked at her and smiled. "But that's just like you, Ein. As for doing well — in a dream, at least, you can have anything."
"..." Einstein opened her mouth again, looking at the serene, unhurried Joyce, at a loss for words. She glanced out across the open grassland — but saw no sign of Irene or Welt. "Where are the others?"
"Still at the edge." Joyce looked into the distance, then turned back to Einstein. "I ca to see you first."
"Ca to see first..." Einstein nodded slowly. She was satisfied with that answer. But then her tone shifted. "So it never occurred to you to co out and look for us even once?"
Joyce stood where he was, pressed his lips together, and finally let out a long, heavy sigh.
"I'm already dead, Ein....."
He was dead. What existed here was only a remnant — a thread of consciousness. He couldn't reach the outside. He wasn't the Herrscher of Sentience. He was only the Herrscher of Reason.
He could only look out at the world beyond the Core, watching what unfolded there — but even those monts were precious and few. Most of the ti he could only sit quietly in the Core's depths, seeing nothing at all.
But he had seen things. He had watched Welt, after inheriting his Core, take wound after wound in the fight against the Honkai — losing his body, reconstructing it, losing it again.
He had watched Welt suffer beneath the constant erosion and pain of the Honkai energy bound up in his Core — and he had been powerless to do anything about it.
Through the link between Welt and the Herrscher Core, he could send Welt dreams. But he had never dared to say that he was there, living inside the Core. He was afraid Einstein and the others would worry too much.
He was also afraid that Welt, knowing he was inside his own body, might beco too afraid to use the Herrscher's Authority — or might only grow more anxious than he already was.
He was already dead. And because of that, he had no right to co back out and cause trouble for Einstein and the others.
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