Because such brilliant intelligence—
If it were confined by a short lifespan or perish through accident, would that not be a pity?
Thus Nous, the Aeon of Erudition, generously shared the Path of Erudition with the geniuses—
Or rather, with the wisdom of the geniuses themselves.
Nous did not worry that a genius might someday surpass Him, overthrow Him, and take His place.
On the contrary.
He might even welcome such an outcome, and perhaps long for it.
Because that would mean that a brand-new, higher form of intelligence had been born.
Thanks to this generosity, every time a new genius appears, the Path of Erudition expands slightly.
Because geniuses are extensions of Nous's wisdom.
They are a part of Him.
Every time a genius dies, however, Nous's humanity grows by one measure.
He is no longer merely a great machine that only knows how to think.
Because geniuses themselves embody His humanity.
Or perhaps—
He was never just a thinking machine to begin with.
Zandar One Kuwabara, the first genius, did not only construct the body of Nous.
He also formed the earliest fragment of His humanity.
As Dr. Ratio once said:
"Geniuses shine like the stars, while ordinary people can only struggle forward step by step."
But for geniuses, is Nous not the same?
Nous's wisdom shines like a constellation of stars.
And the "geniuses" can only wander alone beneath that brilliance—
Gazing upward, yet never quite reaching it.
Ordinary people are numerous.
They can encourage each other.
Travel together.
Share burdens.
But geniuses are few.
Even the act of gathering together to combine their ideas is difficult.
Compared to ordinary people—
They are often even more lonely.
But perhaps there is another possibility.
When one genius after another continues to be born…
When countless cycles of time pass…
When the number of geniuses truly becomes as numerous as the stars themselves…
Then how wide would the Path of Erudition become?
At that time, perhaps human knowledge would already outweigh divine wisdom.
Or perhaps—
Divine wisdom had always been human knowledge from the very beginning.
And when that day arrives…
Erudition would gain humanity constructed by geniuses.
And become—
Human.
Perhaps within Fuli's "Garden of Recollection" there remains a precious record—
The logic engraved by Zandar himself on the day the celestial supercomputer ascended.
The logic he carved before it became a god.
The logic of the "Human Creation Project."
The half Key of Intellect used to forge the curio "Game of Life" did not originally belong to Lin Yi.
He discovered it by chance during his travels among the stars.
But thinking back on it now—
Perhaps the Key had actually chosen him.
Normally, the Key of Intellect exists only in its complete form.
It should never appear in a damaged state like this.
As long as the genius who owns it is alive, the Key will never be damaged and will never leave their side.
And when that genius dies—
The Key disappears simultaneously, without warning.
As if it had never existed at all.
As for why this Key existed in a half-broken state—
Even Lin Yi had been unable to determine the reason.
Nor could he identify which genius it once belonged to.
Or whether that unknown genius was still alive.
Still, his research wasn't entirely fruitless.
He discovered that the Key was slowly disappearing, at an extremely slow rate.
Lin Yi once attempted to stabilize it—
To stop the Key from dissipating.
But the result was obvious.
He failed.
Thus, he eventually forged the Key into a curio.
His hope was that doing so might preserve it longer.
Even if it failed—
At least it would serve some purpose.
Otherwise it would simply remain a decorative object.
Because it was not Lin Yi's Key.
He could not wield its power.
And thus—
The curio "Game of Life" was born.
Its ability was powerful enough to justify the tremendous effort Lin Yi had spent creating it.
Its function was simple:
Overwrite reality.
Once activated, it gamifies the world, turning life itself into a game.
(Silver Wolf would absolutely love this.)
This perspective belongs to Lin Yi alone.
Others would notice nothing unusual.
Externally, everything remains logically consistent.
Internally, however—
Everything becomes game mechanics.
The advantages of such a system hardly needed explanation.
Just two examples alone were enough:
You could "chip away" at a boss's health bar
You yourself would no longer possess fatal weak points
Both were immensely valuable.
Lin Yi's design philosophy when creating Game of Life was simple:
"If I've already come to the Honkai: Star Rail universe, how could I not play a turn-based game?"
And now—
Lin Yi took it out for exactly one reason:
To add a margin of error to the upcoming battle.
Because he had not been lying.
He truly was terrible at fighting.
His combat IQ was extremely low.
Meanwhile, the opponent ahead of him clearly looked like someone very good at combat.
Their fighting skills—
And combat intelligence—
Were probably extremely high.
Lin Yi activated Game of Life.
Nothing appeared to happen.
Everything seemed ordinary.
But Lin Yi knew the truth.
The world had already changed quietly.
Or rather—
The world centered on his perspective had changed.
Of course, Game of Life had its limits.
Lin Yi had once tested it against Herta's true body.
Even against the great Herta—an Emanator of Erudition—it still functioned.
But the distortion became extremely severe.
Simply put—
The "game" started glitching.
Thus Lin Yi roughly concluded:
The interference limit of Game of Life was Emanator level.
Entities of that level could heavily distort the rewritten reality.
But Lin Yi didn't believe Dekara possessed strength equal to Herta.
Against Dekara—
Game of Life should still work very well.
Far away, Dekara raised his lightning spear high into the sky.
Then thrust forward.
A terrifying beam of energy erupted.
The beam pierced through every layer of recursive space.
The shockwave shattered the collapsing spatial fragments, preventing any chance of reconstruction.
The beam tore through space itself and continued racing toward Lin Yi on the ground.
Game of Life Perspective:
Boss — Mad King Dekara
Position: Mid-air
Action: Charging Skill
Skill Name: "Uniformity • Yao Yin"
Black mist surged from nowhere.
The purple glow of the Stellaron merged with it.
Both forces gathered at the spear's tip.
Dodging this attack would be easy.
But Lin Yi could not dodge.
If he avoided it—
The planet Kasbelinyat VIII would take the hit directly.
And considering the planet's hollow interior structure…
The consequences were impossible to predict.
Game of Life Perspective:
Activate Equipment Skill — Phase Walker
Skill: Spatial Control
Battlefield Formation: Spiral Domain
A spatial gate appeared three meters in front of Lin Yi.
It was three times larger than the gate he had once used to channel a star-destroying cannon.
The gate formed a triangular structure.
Another triangular gate appeared above it.
As if separating from the first one.
This second triangle was twice as large.
The two triangles began rotating in opposite directions.
Forming a distorted hexagram pattern.
Then the larger triangle stretched forward.
Its edges expanding further and further outward.
The smaller triangle rotated backward.
Shrinking as it moved deeper into space.
Splitting repeatedly like roots anchoring themselves into the void.
A strange spatial construct appeared.
It resembled a massive prismatic horn.
The front formed an equilateral triangular pyramid.
The rear spiraled outward into a fractal structure—
Like the entrance to an impossible Gulliver tunnel.
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