The most powerful weapon the people of Blue Earth prided themselves on could create a nuclear fireball thousands of meters wide and a mushroom cloud tens of thousands of meters high.
The light blooming from its explosion, even from hundreds of kilometers away, was too bright for humans to look at directly.
It could be said that one of the reasons Blue Earth was currently at peace was precisely because this terrifying weapon was heavily equipped by many countries, used for mutually assured destruction.
It's no exaggeration to say that the weapons humans possessed could allow their civilization to destroy itself many times over.
But the power of such a weapon was only relative to the humans of Blue Earth. In front ofthe people present now, a small nuclear bomb was really nothing.
For a super Emanator like Caelus, watched over by several Aeons, even traversing the galaxy physically was a trivial matter. Taking a nuke to the face probably wouldn't cause him any harm.
As for people from other Honkai worlds, although they didn't possess such ridiculous strength, they had countless ways to deal with a nuclear explosion.
Even in the Chainsaw Man world, which seemed less formidable in terms of combat power, the Nuclear Weapons Devil had long been devoured by Chainsaw Man, and even the concept of nuclear weapons had been erased from that world.
And for Twilight, whose combat power was exaggerated to a cosmic level, and Li Bei, who was even stronger than her, a nuclear bomb was no different from a toy.
So when a nuclear bomb fell from the sky and exploded into a mushroom cloud above Li Bei's head, the expressions of the crowd were initially bewildered—but this was quickly replaced by excitement!
"It's here… It's here!!!"
Even someone as calm as Otto finally lost control of his expression at this moment. The faces around him were filled with unrestrained ecstasy. Unlike them, Li Bei at this moment seemed to be only filled with confusion and incomprehension.
"A toy exploded, what are you all so excited about? What, seeing your own doom approaching, have you all gone mad?" Li Bei sneered, very cooperatively, taunting, "You don't actually think this kind of thing can hurt me, do you?"
Just as he said, not only did the exploding nuclear bomb not get a speck of dust on Li Bei's clothes, but even the leaked energy was easily restrained and eliminated by Li Bei before it could affect the surroundings.
After all, acting was acting. If this nuclear bomb really blew up the people around, it would truly be a disaster…
"Of course not, after all, you are no ordinary person…" At this moment, Otto finally straightened his back, spread his hands, and said sincerely, "But it's enough as long as it can hurt ordinary people."
"You don't actually think one or two nuclear bombs can destroy the world, do you? I don't remember you being such a naive fellow, Otto Apocalypse."
Li Bei's voice was unhurried, appearing as if he had everything under control. "To truly destroy this civilization, you'd need to start a global nuclear war. But unfortunately, the people of this world aren't that crazy yet, and you currently don't have the ability to simultaneously control all the nuclear-armed nations on Blue Earth.
The external suppression barrier is stably in effect; it eliminates not only the impact of simple violence on the world but also those consciousness attacks and mental pollutions that can manipulate the entire world—after all, you guys always have such bizarre abilities, how could I not guard against them."
"Whether it's that MANTIS who keeps his eyes closed pretending to be blind all day, or Makima, that Dominance Devil—hmm, where did she go? Whatever, whatever… The mental abilities of you otaku stowaways from other worlds will automatically trigger the barrier's suppression effect the moment their range of influence becomes too large."
Although his current human-shaped body didn't even have eyebrows, it didn't stop Li Bei from raising an eyebrow. "So, do you understand? From the very beginning, your little scheme had no chance of success."
Li Bei, of course, knew what these guys were thinking.
They were all like students who hadn't finished their homework from the night before when the teacher was about to enter the classroom, desperately trying to attract his attention here.
The reason was none other than to provide cover for Makima and the others on the other side. After all, this plan, from its inception, was a script he and his clones had personally orchestrated!
How to bid a final farewell to these lunatics, how to protect his peaceful life on Blue Earth, how to lose to this bunch of weaklings without being found out… Even as a main body who treated his clones well and respected their opinions (though Unit One had some reservations about this), he still had to listen to the opinions and suggestions of all the clones.
But in the end, when it came to making the decision, he had orchestrated the current scene.
Since the power gap between these lunatics and himself was too large to hide easily, he would let them experience this gap firsthand.
Then, after racking their brains, they would come up with a [solution] that targeted his weakness—just like what Otto and the others thought of, using Blue Earth itself to threaten him, this fake Blue Earth civilizational consciousness.
But if things progressed too smoothly, this group of highly suspicious individuals would definitely still be skeptical. So, he introduced twists and turns, adding the elements of their loved ones' last wishes and sacrifices… And the result was what they had now.
The plan they designed was actually very simple. The key was that several clones were all, in fact, double agents. Without Li Bei, the main body, knowing, they found an opportunity to meet secretly and reached an agreement.
To prevent Li Bei, this paranoid world consciousness with a persecution complex, from harming their important people, they laid out a plan in advance to find a way to restrain him.
As his clones, they knew the main body's strength was extreme; even if everyone joined forces and fought with all their might, they couldn't win.
Therefore, from the very beginning, they thought of that nefarious solution: to use the Herrscher of Sentience's ability to influence people worldwide, control the higher-ups of various countries on Blue Earth, and then aim the local nuclear bombs at Blue Earth's civilization itself.
Nuclear bombs were Blue Earth's own power and were affected by the barrier. Therefore, once a full-scale nuclear war began, Blue Earth's civilization would instantly vanish in explosions and radiation.
To achieve this goal, Lihua and Shoko, in order to confuse Li Bei's surveillance, pretended not to know what the other was doing, acting as if they had no connection.
One worked diligently all day, seemingly not daring to cross the line Li Bei had set. The other wandered around, even finding Denji and the others multiple times to persuade them not to get close to danger.
Eventually, they found an opportunity. Lee was finally summoned, and she seized the chance to deliberately engage in a seemingly very fierce battle with Elysia, attracting Li Bei's attention.
Meanwhile, Lihua and Shoko took the opportunity to leave their final messages.
The former asked the Herrscher of Sentience to go to a pre-prepared basement that could shield against detection and hide temporarily.
The latter instructed Makima to find the Herrscher of Sentience when Li Bei was preoccupied with fighting Twilight and couldn't be distracted, and tell her to officially start the plan.
This way, even if Li Bei wanted to eliminate the Herrscher of Sentience to stop it, he couldn't, because Twilight had the ability to stop him before the nuclear bombs exploded—We might all die, but you can say goodbye to your Blue Earth civilization too!
Li Bei called this plan "Operation: Fear the Consequences of Harming the Hostage." And the first battle was the decisive battle. Although he was both the planner and the victim, he now had to pretend he hadn't realized he had fallen into a trap…
"Yes, we outsiders certainly can't do it, after all, we don't belong to this world… But someone can." Although his body was in a terrible state, Otto spread his arms again at this moment, confidently saying, "Someone who isn't here right now!"
"You mean Acheron, who was thrown off when the Astral Express rushed into the atmosphere and is now lost on Mars?" Li Bei snorted coldly. "Let alone the fact that she's not here now, even if she were, the power of a mere Emissary is not enough to shake Blue Earth's protective barrier."
"Guests should follow the host's lead. How could we outsiders destroy this Blue Earth? If we're going to make a move, of course, it has to be the locals."
Otto smiled; he hadn't smiled this happily in a long time. "Your Excellency, why don't you think again?"
"Playing mysterious—"
Suddenly, Li Bei's voice froze. Yes, he remembered someone. Someone he hadn't paid attention to since that troublemaker over there had attracted his attention, someone whose traces he hadn't detected since then.
A fool who bore Lee's name and face, someone who should have belonged to the Honkai world but was unexpectedly born locally on Blue Earth and obtained world citizenship, someone who could use powerful abilities under the rules that suppressed external forces.
"Damn it, the Herrscher of Sentience…?!"
Anger at the ants' resistance, disbelief at being tricked, shame and fury at discovering things were irreparable… At this moment, Li Bei was not fighting alone!
All his clones, whether dead or alive, supported him with their lifelong acting skills, allowing him to deliver the most perfect performance of his life!