The "Big Event" Fuli spoke of was the ultra-despairing disaster recognized by countless people throughout history as the greatest and worst event of all time—the Great Honkai.
As a form of energy that coexists with civilization, Honkai Energy usually either blends into the planet's atmosphere as a special fundamental parameter or wanders the Imaginary Space—isolated from reality—as the excess entropy produced when Imaginary anchors to Real.
But once Honkai Energy gathers on a massive scale, whether through natural or unnatural means, it erupts with tremendous power in an extremely short time, much like the collision of matter and antimatter!
This unconstrained energy expands rapidly like a thunderclap, eroding or destroying every living thing it touches based on their individual resistance to Honkai Energy!
Honkai Beasts, tens to hundreds of meters tall, are born in batches of tens of thousands, ceasing only when the Great Honkai itself dies down!
According to historical records, excluding extremely rare anomalies like the Wanggongchang Explosion where the imperial guards swarmed out to stop it at the cost of their lives, a Great Honkai typically covers an area at least the size of a modern metropolis before it stops expanding!
(The Wanggongchang Explosion was a catastrophic and mysterious blast that occurred on May 30, 1626, at a government gunpowder armory in Beijing, China, during the late Ming Dynasty. It is considered one of the deadliest non-nuclear, man-made explosions in history, reportedly killing around 20,000 people and devastating a large area of the capital city.)
Unfortunately, three days from now, on March 28th, this rapidly developing international metropolis was about to face just such an apocalypse.
No one understood the horror of this calamity better than Fuli, who had experienced it firsthand. Therefore, he absolutely could not let his kind-hearted but airheaded Little Great-Aunt board that plane to Nagazora City again!
Fuli, burying his head in typing, suddenly said, [Come to think of it, in the last timeline, I was actually saved by her.]
Prometheus, sitting beside him, didn't make a sound, but her blinking eyes betrayed her curiosity, satisfying what little vanity Fuli had left after weathering so many storms.
[After a Great Honkai occurs, the denser the population, the more dangerous it is,] he explained. [Especially in the city center, commercial districts, schools, slave marke—I mean, talent markets. In places where people are packed shoulder to shoulder, you could throw a brick and hit three or five Deadwalkers.]
[However, at that time, I was rushing to the airport to pick someone up, so I was sitting in a taxi and happened to miss the peak of the outbreak. The driver was an unlucky guy with low resistance; the moment he touched the spreading Honkai Energy, he evaporated into nothingness on the spot.]
[Thanks to him, and the fact that I had my seatbelt on, I only suffered some inertia damage from the sudden stop. I was on the highway where the land is vast and people are scarce, so I managed to hunker down and survive until rescue came relatively easily.]
Incidentally, the taxi fare in the previous life was also given by his Little Great-Aunt. Given that Fuli was starving nine meals out of every three days back then, he had absolutely no money to pay for a Far East taxi, known worldwide for their exorbitant prices.
It sounded like it was easy...
Prometheus's eyes flickered, but she didn't voice this thought, realizing his IQ might be offline.
She changed the subject: [Then, Host, do you need me to help you come up with a plan?]
[I needed one just now, but not anymore. I've already thought of a brilliant move to put her off.]
Fuli sent the excuse he had edited to the other party, then picked up his backpack and baseball bat and walked out of the shop.
The dusk of March arrived unexpectedly early. The setting sun cast its afterglow, dyeing the dome of the sky like intoxicated red wine. Crows tumbled and sped through the hazy twilight, their rapidly flapping tail feathers shining under the solar disk.
The little AI reached out her hand, her illusory fingers passing through a falling black crow feather.
She spoke in a tone of ethereal disdain: [...Using 'locals can get things done easier' as an excuse to offer to buy flight and concert tickets, only to take the money with absolutely no intention of doing it... The Host is the absolute scum of the earth.]
"Being scammed out of some money is better than diving headfirst into the apocalypse."
Fuli, whose personal treasury was now much more substantial, argued plausibly, "The Great Honkai happening in Nagazora this time is the Third Eruption that gives birth to a Serial Herrscher. If an ordinary person crashes into this knowing nothing, forget about 'ten deaths, no life' (an idiom implying certain death with absolutely no chance of survival)—they are basically thoroughly screwed."
Not only did he feel no guilt, but he was actually a little amused.
Prometheus narrowed her eyes, which were as brilliant as the evening glow. [Serial... Herrscher?]
"Yes, a Serial Herrscher. A humanoid monster that has a probability of being born when the intensity of the Great Honkai reaches 1000HW or higher."
As the afterglow draped over Fuli's shoulders while he crossed the intersection, he took out his phone and pulled up a map to the suburbs for navigation.
"I can't explain the specifics too well because the higher-ups have always kept intelligence in this area under tight wraps."
He spoke as he walked, "For example, those three... friends of mine who were also survivors of Nagazora and lucked out by joining St. Freya Academy. Every time I asked them about this, they would start talking about the weather and looking left and right, refusing to reveal even a tiny bit."
Speaking of this, Fuli looked up and scrutinized the little AI floating beside him. "I just realized, Prometheus, your body type looks a bit like one of them. Did they use her as a reference when modeling you?"
The girl fell into a subtle silence.
Fuli, however, seemed to see through to the truth. "I felt like I vaguely saw her figure in the Theater of Domination before I regressed. It's a pity those sons of bitches blindfolded me with a black cloth at the time. I'm not good at sensory abilities, so I could only make a rough guess."
[Host, saying a girl looks like someone else is extremely turn-off behavior.]
"Fine."
Sensing that the little AI was a bit angry, the "turn-off man" spread his hands and returned the center of the conversation to the Serial Herrscher.
"Anyway, for stragglers and freelancers like us, the existence of a Serial Herrscher is more like an ethereal urban legend. Everyone knows a little bit about related things, but if you ask for specifics, it's always 'I dunno, I heard it from so-and-so, go ask him.'"
"There is one exception, though. The Sovereign of Anti-Entropy, the First Herrscher, Welt Joyce."
Fuli raised a well-defined index finger. "This Herrscher of Reason is the only Herrscher who has revealed his identity and is willing to fight for humanity. His information has always been posted on Anti-Entropy's official website. Anyone can browse it freely, although there's a hell of a lot of artistic embellishment."
"It's a pity I don't have the money to buy a Dark Web account right now, otherwise I could show you. He seems like a pretty harmless guy."
"But it doesn't matter. After I finish this job, whether it's the US Dollars Anti-Entropy uses to build their monetary hegemony in the mundane world, or the Crystal currency Schicksal uses to harvest resources in the Honkai world, I'll basically have as much as I want."
He waved his hand and boarded the bus heading to the outskirts of Nagazora.
...
[Author's Note:] Just in case, I'll mention it here: After Joyce sacrificed himself to protect Manhattan in 1955, Welt Yang used his authority to mimic him and act as the Sovereign of Anti-Entropy for over sixty years. That is why the Joyce clone in the manga's Moon Shadow arc could become the Anti-Entropy Sovereign controlled by Cocolia.