Before traveling through time, Ling Ke had once heard a line in a soft science fiction movie called Men in Black:
"A person is smart."
"But a crowd is a dumb, panicky, dangerous animal."
These two sentences left a deep impression on him and were still vivid in his memory.
Today, the shocking battle fought between Raiden Mei and Kevin inside Changkong City's International Airport, seen through the eyes of ordinary people, had shaken the world.
Of course, the "world" mentioned here naturally didn't include the blocked messages. Even regular citizens who saw or took pictures of the prohibited images around the area had to sign a confidentiality agreement.
It referred to high-ranking officials from major world governments, important agency personnel, and the entirety of "Fire Moth."
One could say that even Mebius, who was far away at the time in other regions, had seen everything through the surveillance feeds. Others with the corresponding status and permissions could naturally see it as well.
During this period, several surveillance satellites were urgently deployed.
Along with forcibly collected footage from various private sectors, the scene could only be described as devastating. Its related information had already begun circulating among a designated group of people.
In less than half a day—
"Have you discovered the identity of those two?"
"Are they the new Herrschers?"
"The damage they caused was too great."
"They must be captured as soon as possible."
"Two monsters!"
...
Let's not even get started on the situation elsewhere.
Within Fire Moth, an emergency meeting was held.
Mebius also had to attend.
At that moment, she sat languidly in her seat, legs crossed, her face full of disinterest.
Her "right hand rested on her cheek, eyes filled with ridicule."
She simply yawned, unconcerned with appearances.
Then, she looked off to the side in a certain direction.
One representative had just spoken quite well!
His word choice was particularly... skilled.
He said "capture" instead of "arrest."
"Are you treating them like prey—or even trophies?"
"Haha~"
Mebius scoffed.
A bunch of short-sighted fools.
Thinking they held some kind of worldly power in their hands, assuming that since no previous Herrscher had caused too much damage, they could start strutting around?
Such arrogant judgment. They clearly hadn't thought about who their opponent was.
Fortunately, the surveillance footage from that café had already been erased by her "little snake."
So, the most critical... and two unlucky brats, hadn't been exposed yet.
But, thinking about it logically, she knew that with Fire Moth's level of investigation, the first might be fine, but the other two...
...The young Kevin and May would definitely be exposed soon.
Still—
"That doesn't seem like something I need to concern myself with."
Mebius narrowed her blue, scale-like eyes and thought to herself.
That night—
"Mmm~"
Headache.
Soreness all over.
"This... where am I?"
Mei slowly woke up and rolled over.
Instinctively, she tried to lift herself up from where she lay.
But as soon as she tried to prop herself up with both hands—
"Don't force yourself."
"You need to rest properly right now."
A cold tone... and yet, the softness in those words was unmistakable.
Mei tried to open her eyes.
The first thing she saw was a high-end interior resembling an intensive care unit.
The sound of medical instruments dripping echoed in her ears.
At that moment, her left hand was still fitted with an IV drip.
And when she turned her head to the right, what appeared in her field of vision was a white-haired (?) young man wearing a black windbreaker—his appearance painfully familiar.
"Kay... ven?"
Mei murmured very softly.
At that moment, the white-haired (?) young man sitting beside the hospital bed seemed to laugh.
Just the barest twitch at the corner of his mouth—perhaps?
As if hearing that familiar title from a familiar voice had brought him satisfaction.
What a shame—
"No, you're not Kevin."
Mei quickly snapped out of it, her eyes sharpening with caution.
"Who are you?"
Now, she remembered much more clearly.
Earlier today, she had been lured with false information and had "coincidentally" met a purple-haired girl who looked exactly like her.
And now...
.
The person in front of her looked exactly like Kevin, but his demeanor and aura were completely different. He seemed... lost.
Clearly cold, yet this contrast existed.
"Where is Kevin?"
For some reason, Mei asked, and her tone softened instinctively.
More than anything, she felt like the other party wouldn't hurt her.
This feeling was completely different from the one she got when she met the purple-haired girl who called herself "Raiden Mei."
Right now—
"He's in the next room."
The white-haired (?) young man answered Mei's question clearly.
"I—"
"Wait!"
At that moment, he stood beside the bed, walked to the foot of it, and gently adjusted the control on the bedside equipment.
The hospital bed Mei lay on... the upper section began to tilt and lift slightly.
Now reclining more comfortably, she glanced sideways again at the white-haired (?) young man, who had returned to the chair by her bed.
Already, she felt much more at ease.
"You—"
"My name is also Kevin."
The white-haired (?) young man answered directly.
"Kevin Kaslana."
He was "no longer a Reforged One at this point."
Nearly every question Mei asked—he answered.
Now—
"Are you also a version of Kevin from the next era of civilization, 50,000 years in the future?"
"Like that Raiden Mei, who is... me, in the next era?"
Mei asked.
And Kevin—
He thought for a long time, constructed several psychological frameworks, weighed the pros and cons...
Of course, he wasn't weighing his own stakes, but rather those of the purple-haired girl in front of him.
In the end—
"No, I'm different from Raiden Mei."
Kevin seemed to have made some kind of decision.
In that moment, he, whose will had remained firm and unyielding for ten thousand years, took a deep breath—a rare sight.
And then—
"I come from more than 50,000 years in the future."
"But... I'm a survivor from this era of civilization, who lived on into the next era."
After saying that, Kevin fell silent.
He simply looked at Mei, with a kind of... evasiveness?
How long... how long had it been since he had shown this kind of unease?
Perhaps, as Grey Serpent once said—
Now, he already had a "weakness."
And in the face of that "weakness"—
"You!!!"
On the hospital bed, Mei's face filled with shock.
Her eyes widened, pupils contracting.
By then, she had already understood everything.
The reason the person in front of her felt so incredibly familiar, yet so profoundly different—the root cause of such contradiction—
Thousands of scars, like blades carved deep long ago.
Their name: Wounds.
Heartache.
Again—
"Kevin!"
Mei called him that once more.
She raised her right hand, trying to touch his face.
But Kevin, reflexively, avoided it.
"Don't."
He explained in a deep voice, helplessly:
"My... surface body temperature is extremely low. You'll freeze."
.
Mei went silent too.
Then, the two of them gazed at each other in silence—for a long, long time.
"Seems like the 'future' hasn't been kind to you, huh?"
Mei spoke again.
"No."
Kevin shook his head.
"The future gave me a second chance."
He looked at Mei with a determined expression:
"This time, I won't make the same mistakes."
"I'll make this world what we always hoped it would be."