Inside the cold isolation room, Dr. Einstein sat on a narrow bed, her freedom temporarily restricted and weariness written across her face.
Her heart felt tired.
So very tired.
When she had been secretly invited to join the Newborn World Serpent, she had believed she was fighting to change the predetermined destruction of the Current Era.
But now...
Hiss.
The electronic door to the isolation room opened from the outside.
MEI entered in her Key of Blankness armor, accompanied by Sim Kevin.
He did not step inside.
He merely remained in the doorway.
The faint outline of another pink figure could be seen beside him.
It was Sim Elysia, who had guided MEI there.
After Elysia informed MEI of Dr. Einstein's situation, Kevin Kaslana, the Returnee and Sovereign of the Newborn World Serpent, had also become aware of the developing situation.
However, he still had other urgent matters requiring his personal attention and could not leave them. Instead, he sent Sim Kevin to follow MEI and observe what happened next.
Kevin had no intention of intervening.
His Sim was there only to watch.
Hiss.
The electronic door closed.
Only MEI and Dr. Einstein remained inside the isolation room.
MEI stood near the door, maintaining her distance.
Dr. Einstein turned toward her and asked directly, "Are you here to persuade me to abandon the reconstruction of the Sea of Quanta Portal?"
After hearing the question...
"I want to know what exactly you were thinking."
MEI's voice was calm, and her expression equally composed.
At moments like this, the person speaking with her often found it impossible to read her emotions.
All they could hear were her words.
"Dr. Einstein, you should understand that human civilization on Earth has no room left for error."
"Yet at this critical moment, you intended to incite a large-scale internal conflict?"
"You cannot be unaware of the consequences."
MEI delivered each word with deliberate precision.
She had asked the question intentionally.
"Of course I know."
Dr. Einstein rose from the edge of the bed and looked MEI directly in the eye.
"Then you should also know that I would never actually do it. It was only..."
"Only a threat? A bargaining tactic?"
MEI's gaze sharpened.
"Everyone's nerves are already stretched to the breaking point. What effect do you think even one threatening remark would have right now?"
"..."
Dr. Einstein knew perfectly well.
She was currently bearing that "effect" herself.
She fell silent.
After a long moment...
"So you have truly decided to abandon the vast majority of people?" Dr. Einstein asked. "MEI, with our current technology, we will not be able to build a celestial-class ship capable of housing billions of people for at least another fifty years."
"Only the World Bubbles..."
"What makes you think the 'Nihility' embryo will not devour every World Bubble in this sector of space, along with everything else, once it hatches?"
MEI interrupted her and stated the problem bluntly.
"You do not even know what became of the section of the Mu Continent that your future self urgently transferred through the Sea of Quanta Portal in the original timeline."
"What if all of this amounts to nothing?"
Faced with that question...
"Are we supposed to stand aside and watch those innocent people fend for themselves?" Dr. Einstein countered.
"So we should abandon the optimal solution and gamble everything on an all-or-nothing plan?" MEI shot back.
"Interstellar migration... Is the Ark truly the optimal solution?" Dr. Einstein's voice grew sharper. "It is true that I cannot predict the consequences of opening the Sea of Quanta Portal."
"But your plan cannot guarantee success either."
"At least my plan guarantees that if it succeeds, everyone will survive."
After hearing that...
"There are no 'ifs' in this world," MEI said, cutting directly to the heart of the matter. "When the survival of a civilization is at stake, we need a 'result.'"
This time, Dr. Einstein did not reply.
MEI continued.
"Dr. Einstein, can you accept responsibility for the annihilation... no, the extinction of all human civilization on Earth?"
"..."
The other woman remained silent.
MEI did not stop pressing her.
Her tone, however, softened considerably.
"No one is capable of bearing that responsibility, nor does anyone have the right to claim it."
"All we can do now is give everything we have and make the best choices available to us."
MEI moved closer and stopped before the blue-haired woman, who was nearly a generation older than her.
"Besides, I do not personally oppose rebuilding the Sea of Quanta Portal," she said quietly.
"As you said, I cannot guarantee that interstellar migration, that the new Project ARK, will succeed."
"That is why I am only giving Project ARK priority. I am not placing every hope we have upon it."
"The Sea of Quanta Portal will have to be rebuilt sooner or later."
"But beginning reconstruction now would consume enormous amounts of manpower and material resources. Even if we completed it, the Herrscher of Thunder might destroy it again."
"We cannot afford to waste any more resources."
MEI had understood all of this before she arrived, and she knew Dr. Einstein must have considered it as well.
Even so...
"MEI, like you, I have no intention of stubbornly clinging to only one path."
"But if we rebuild the Sea of Quanta Portal, we can transfer people into World Bubbles in batches."
"That would give us several opportunities for trial and error, rather than the single gamble we have now."
"If even one group successfully establishes a settlement inside a World Bubble, they will become new 'Kindling.' The chances of that succeeding are still quite high."
"The interstellar migration you advocate would preserve another chance for survival as well."
"Conversely, if reconstruction is delayed, then some people will inevitably be abandoned in the end."
Dr. Einstein's voice softened.
"When that time comes, who will we abandon?"
"And how will we deal with the civil unrest that inevitably follows?"
"Will you suppress it by force, just as you suppressed me today?"
At this point, Dr. Einstein's position was unmistakable.
And she had no intention of changing it.
She would remain a steadfast member of the "Transfer Faction," prioritizing the Sea of Quanta Portal so that the world's billions of people could be evacuated in batches, in the hope of saving everyone.
MEI and Kevin, by contrast, represented the "Ark Faction." They prioritized preparations for interstellar migration, seeking to improve its chances of success by limiting the number of survivors the Ark would need to carry.
Neither faction intended to reject the other's plan completely.
But they had to seize control over which plan received priority.
The current situation did not allow them to pursue both at once.
Herrschers still existed in this world.
Until those Herrschers were eliminated, their defensive forces were sufficient to protect only one of the two projects.
Otherwise, the Herrscher of Thunder would not have been able to destroy the only completed Sea of Quanta Portal so easily.
Under these circumstances, Kevin had clearly chosen to support MEI.
That was why he had imprisoned Dr. Einstein without hesitation.
As for what the others would choose...
"I see."
MEI nodded, then spoke without warning.
"Before coming here, I believed Kevin's actions today had been too extreme."
"But now that I have seen this for myself, he did make the correct choice."
"You would never incite unrest across all of humanity."
MEI looked directly at Dr. Einstein.
"But before that... you intended to divide this organization, didn't you?"
"..."
Dr. Einstein did not answer.
She did, in fact, need supporters.
After a long silence...
"Dr. MEI."
She addressed the purple-haired girl standing before her.
"Ever since you donned the Key of Blankness, your way of thinking has become increasingly similar to that of a Herrscher."
"You self-righteously trade human lives for a higher chance of success without ever asking those people whether they are willing to be sacrificed."
"They do not even know that they have been 'chosen.'"
"And the people making that choice, people like you..."
"If the Ark is completed, there is no chance it would leave without a place reserved for you, is there?"
"..."
MEI remained silent.
But after several seconds...
"No."
MEI answered with measured precision.
"You have misunderstood."
She refuted the most important point.
"My mind has not been influenced by the Herrscher Core."
"I have always been this way."