Honkai Star Rail: I am Godzilla, domineering and rampant.

With the Lightning Lord's arrival, the Cloud Knights all straightened up.

Eyes fixed on the moment the Lightning Lord would strike down the monster.

Bang!

As the sword slashed through the air, it also shattered the protective barrier Ruan Mei had set, the unstoppable power bore down on Number 0, who had no room to evade.

------------------------------------

"Boom!"

The Huge blade sliced through Creation No. 0 without suspense, cutting it cleanly in half.

Though its appearance had Godzilla-like details, it was ultimately just a pseudo-Godzilla creature created by Ruan Mei.

Under the Lightning Lord's assault, its former defenses completely collapsed.

People of the Xianzhou can live with clarity for a long time—even among the Cloud Knights, who tread the edge of danger year-round, many have survived for hundreds of years.

Several of those present had lived since General Teng Xiao's era. This scene reminded them of the past, of the battle between General Teng Xiao and the Flint Emperor.

The Lightning Lord's glory remained the same.

Just as everyone thought the catastrophe was over—

"Roar!"

A furious roar shattered the cheers. The crowd that had just been praising General Jing Yuan's might and the Divine General's invincibility instantly froze, some even locked mid-cheer.

Following their gaze, Creation No. 0, sliced in two by the Lightning Lord, was still brimming with vitality, even attempting to wrap around and reconnect itself with vines.

"I-It's still alive!" someone exclaimed, their voice filled with fear.

Seeing No. 0's vine-like tendrils frantically trying to pull its other half back sent chills down their spines.

Its tremendous regenerative power caused both halves to squirm continuously, writhing with tendrils like tentacles—utterly nauseating.

At that moment, Sushang's mind was in complete chaos.

Can something like this really exist in the world?!

Just its look alone would be enough to summon a holy knight for a demon-slaying chase as she had read in a novel!

"What powerful vitality. It seems that previous strike didn't deal any real damage."

Jing Yuan, equally stunned, looked at No. 0. The creature reminded him of the Abundance's monsters, though even they didn't regenerate this disgustingly.

Even if he hadn't used full power in that strike, it was still calculated based on observed data and Ruan Mei's input.

If he struck harder, maybe it would die—but in any case, the Alchemy Commission wouldn't survive.

"Ugh—your taste is really terrible." Herta looked utterly disgusted.

Though a pragmatist, she wouldn't take something this ugly even if it were free.

Ruan Mei didn't respond—appearance wasn't all that important to her. Most of the time, she couldn't predict how her creations would turn out visually anyway.

They wanted to continue talking, but No. 0, still fuming, didn't care. Realizing it had been forcefully separated, it thrashed its tendrils in rage, splitting the air with howls and cracking the ground.

Jing Yuan's brow furrowed. If splitting it in two didn't work, then...

"Again!"

The Lightning Lord swung the blade, unleashing countless slashes in the blink of an eye. Yellow light coursed through No. 0's body, seemingly trying to annihilate it entirely.

But even this wasn't enough to fully harm it.

"Roar!"

Another furious roar.

With the roar, No. 0's two halves trembled violently. In the blink of an eye, countless smaller No. 0s with long legs scurried off in all directions.

"A biological instinct to survive under crisis—it seems its method is to split itself to preserve individual lifeforms."

Herta explained to the speechless Jing Yuan.

Fortunately, these little No. 0s didn't require Jing Yuan's attention.

Sushang, "If I can't handle the big one, don't tell me I can't deal with the small ones?"

Sushang, "Rise, phoenix! Don't let a single one escape—burn them all!"

...

The miniature No. 0s, only the size of regular cats or dogs, were reduced to ashes in roaring flames and furious bombardments, with no sign of regeneration.

Jing Yuan silently observed it all.

It seemed the regeneration ability varied by individual—or perhaps these fragments were too small to inherit the original's monstrous healing.

"Huff."

Jing Yuan took a deep breath, looking at the still-struggling No. 0 as he gradually made up his mind.

If it couldn't be destroyed without wrecking most of the Alchemy Commission, then so be it.

They could allocate funds later to rebuild.

With that thought, Jing Yuan slowly raised his hand, his expression turning stern, feet lifting off the ground, mouth parting.

"Everyone, evacuate the Alchemy Commission immediately."

"Hey! You! Sit back down!"

Before Jing Yuan could finish, a furious shout thundered across the skies, echoing through the clouds and eardrums.

...

Ten minutes earlier.

"What! You're going to subdue that monster? Are you crazy? Or did you take the wrong meds today?" March 7th's eyes widened as she tiptoed and pressed a hand to Stelle's forehead.

"Not feverish…"

"I've got this." Stelle brushed March 7th's hand away, exasperated.

"I never fight unprepared..."

"Alright, alright, I give up. But if it doesn't work, I'm dragging you out myself."

...

As the voice echoed across the battlefield, an eerie silence fell.

Before Jing Yuan and the others could process what was happening, the once-roaring, thrashing monster suddenly froze—

It stayed stuck in the exact pose of struggling with all its might.

Tap, tap, tap.

Short-heeled boots clicked crisply against the stone floor. Stelle held her head high, eyes narrowing, steps firm and steady, walking toward the statue-like No. 0.

"You better turn back right now! Stirring up this much trouble—are you looking for a beating?"

Hearing Stelle's unapologetic threat, No. 0 visibly shuddered.

The next moment, under everyone's dumbfounded gaze, it began to transform.

To the size of a cat.

Curled up and trembling at the bottom of the massive crater it had made.

Shrunken from a height of forty or fifty meters down to the size of an adult cat, everyone looked as if they were dreaming.

Jing Yuan, Ruan Mei, Herta: "???"

Cloud Knights: "???"

But that wasn't the end—Stelle walked to the bottom of the crater, eyes narrowing slightly, a dangerous glint in her gaze as she stared at No.0, who remained frozen and trembling.

In its miniaturized form, No.0 looked like an oversized ball of grass. There was no sign of where its tentacles had gone.

The next moment, she reached out her hand.

Lifted it, weighed it a bit, then…

"Yeet!"

Thud!

"Huh?"

Stelle tilted her head to the right, watching the silhouettes of three people in the direction No.0 had been flung.

...

"Hey, hey, squeak squeak."

Squatting on the ground, holding a stick she'd picked up, March 7th poked at No.0, now compressed into a fuzzy lump.

"What's with this thing? Where did all that swagger go? Weren't you super powerful?" March teased as she poked.

After listening to Stelle's story, Ruan Mei seemed thoughtful.

"Because it was contaminated by Godzilla's aura, that's why it's so scared of you," she said, glancing at No.0 being bullied by March 7th and nodding slightly.

Considering the most important material for fusion was a plant mutated by Godzilla's influence, Ruan Mei wasn't surprised.

"I was just guessing. My heart was racing when I tested it," Stelle laughed.

"Still, it was too risky. It would've been better for me to just have the Lightning Lord smash it together with the Alchemy Commission. Just a matter of budget," Jing Yuan said with a helpless shake of his head.

But since Stelle had helped a lot, it would seem petty to keep harping on her recklessness, so he turned his criticism to Ruan Mei instead.

"Ms. Ruan Mei, if there are experiments like this in the future, please inform me beforehand. With all the noise, I thought something went wrong in Luofu again."

Ruan Mei nodded slightly and said, "No need to worry, General. I'll prepare compensation for the damage caused."

She turned to look at the grass-ball-like creature and said softly, "In fact, No.0 can only hold out for half an hour at most before it self-destructs due to its capacity, so…"

As soon as she finished speaking, No.0 suddenly stood up, then collapsed flat to the ground. Before their eyes, it quickly decomposed, leaving behind only a bit of residue as proof of its existence.

March 7th held the stick, unsure whether to keep it or drop it. Noticing the stares from others, she awkwardly tossed the stick away.

Jing Yuan's mouth twitched slightly.

If he remembered correctly, that wall was probably smashed by himself…

"Ahem, anyway, thank you both for your timely help. I still have official duties to attend to, so I won't keep you. I sincerely invite you to visit the Seat of Divine Foresight later. I'll have some tea ready and hope you'll honor me with your presence."

...

Jarilo.

Tingyun picked up her phone and casually opened the message Stelle had sent.

Her ears twitched.

"Eh?!" Seeing what was on the screen, Tingyun's eyes widened in disbelief. She leaned closer to the phone, pupils reflecting the image.

...

"So Ruan Mei created a Godzilla-like entity using the simulated universe, and this thing went berserk in the Alchemy Commission, but calmed down the moment Stelle showed up, then eventually self-decomposed?"

After hearing Tingyun's not-too-absurd story, Godzilla tapped his tail twice in response.

He wasn't surprised Ruan Mei could create something similar to him.

After all, she had managed to reproduce the Emanator of Propagation just from pure simulated universe data.

Even a flawed Emanator was still an Emanator.

What did surprise him was that Stelle, just from long-term contact, had picked up enough of his aura to terrify the Godzilla-like creature into cowering in fear.

Godzilla didn't really care about the outcome.

He was more curious about Stelle's brain structure—maybe Kafka and Silver Wolf forgot to install brain cells when building her body.

Otherwise, how did she end up running into the Alchemy Commission like that?

As for that creation—it wasn't even strong enough to trigger his danger sense. Without a massive energy source, he couldn't be bothered.

Seeing his complete indifference, Tingyun rolled her eyes.

"Sigh… I'm over here telling this whole story and you don't appreciate it one bit."

...

Xianzhou Luofu.

"GENERAL JING YUAN!!!"

Fu Xuan's thunderous roar shook the entire Seat of Divine Foresight.

The staff, who had already prepared earplugs the moment they saw the enraged Master Diviner rush in, remained calm and even whispered among themselves about how the General would pacify her this time.

"If I hadn't heard about it, I wouldn't even have known the Alchemy Commission was about to explode!"

Fu Xuan gritted her teeth, glaring at the still-smiling Jing Yuan, clearly itching to slap him right then and there.

At the very least, we need to give the people of the Xianzhou a responsible general!

"Ahem, Diviner Fu, you really can't blame me for this. As soon as I got the news, I rushed over immediately to stop the situation from escalating."

Jing Yuan truly felt wronged. He had been sitting properly in the Seat of Divine Foresight, thinking about countermeasures against the Scorching Flare, when he was suddenly informed that there had been another catastrophe at the Alchemy Commission.

It almost made him suspect that the Alchemy Commission still had some Disciples of Sanctus Medicus that hadn't been eradicated.

Only after arriving did he learn it was a creation made by Ruan Mei.

"...Besides, she had already prepared emergency measures. If anything, it was my actions after arriving that made the situation worse," Jing Yuan said helplessly.

Ruan Mei clearly knew her creation could only last half an hour, yet she just stood by watching.

Though he guessed she probably wanted to take this opportunity to collect firsthand data, he couldn't be the one to take the blame.

Hearing Jing Yuan's explanation, Fu Xuan's anger finally subsided.

In recent days, due to Godzilla's departure, the pain in the third eye on her forehead had become increasingly unbearable. If she had never seen the light, she wouldn't have felt the darkness—already enduring pain, she was naturally upset to hear about more trouble from Jing Yuan's side.

After hearing the explanation, Fu Xuan furrowed her brow and calmly analyzed:

"General, that Ms. Herta is at least manageable. She's caused some commotion in Luofu recently, but overall, she remains stable. But Ms. Ruan Mei—you've seen it—she's clearly more rational in her pursuit of higher fields. That's an obvious potential danger. Why...?"

Fu Xuan looked at Jing Yuan in confusion, trying to understand.

"...Diviner Fu, do you remember what I told you about Godzilla?"

Fu Xuan nodded slightly.

"I skimmed a few of Ms. Ruan Mei's papers on life sciences recently. In my opinion, she probably came to the Xianzhou in pursuit of a higher breakthrough."

"A higher breakthrough? Are you referring to Godzilla?"

Jing Yuan nodded and said seriously, "We can't stop her from approaching Godzilla... unless Godzilla himself rejects her. Otherwise, a top genius like her entering Luofu is as easy as flipping her hand."

"And her research in the life sciences field makes me instinctively wary. At the very least, under our watchful eyes, we can at least have some idea about what she's doing."

In short, it was to prevent Ruan Mei from secretly developing something maddening behind everyone's back.

The Xianzhou could not cut ties with Godzilla.

Looking at Ruan Mei's posture, she wouldn't give up easily either.

Instead of fighting, it would be better to cooperate sincerely.

Jing Yuan really wanted to know if this genius could develop a method to suppress the Mara from Godzilla. If she could, it would give him many more chips when negotiating with the Alliance in the future.

At least, it wouldn't repeat the mistakes of those predecessors who sought immortality...

...

The accident—well, to be precise, this wasn't really an accident.

After all, without Jing Yuan's intervention, Prototype No. 0 would have disintegrated on its own.

"So? Did you discover anything?" Herta asked curiously as she looked at the contemplative Ruan Mei.

"Not enough," Ruan Mei came back to her senses at Herta's voice, shook her head slightly, and spoke firmly.

"I need more contact with him. The true essence of life lies within him. Herta, I have a feeling that my research in the life sciences desperately needs his existence."

Ruan Mei spoke earnestly.

"Hey hey hey, can't you say that in a less creepy way?" Herta quickly waved her hands.

Both of them knew each other well, and nothing good ever came from Ruan Mei suddenly speaking like this.

But...

"If you're thinking of going to see Godzilla now, I suggest you stay here for the time being. From what I can tell, Godzilla will be back soon," Herta shrugged and said.

"That guy has so many energy ores in Luofu—it's like a self-serve buffet that keeps getting restocked. No reason for him to just leave."

Ruan Mei nodded slightly, agreeing with Herta's prediction.

Her gaze finally landed on a glass bottle on the table, where a quiet substance lay—the residue left after Prototype No. 0 disintegrated.

"Herta," Ruan Mei suddenly spoke.

"Hmm?"

"That's life. What I can replicate is nothing more than the crudest of man-made creations. But true life... is like that."

Ruan Mei's tone was resolute.

At that moment, Herta felt like she was glowing... not really!

"You... could you not say stuff that sounds so cringy?" Herta shivered and rubbed her arms, taking a step back from Ruan Mei.

This woman had been acting like this ever since Prototype No. 0 disintegrated.

If Herta hadn't confirmed it was still her, she would've suspected she'd been possessed by one of the Xianzhou's Heliobi.

"Whatever. I'm taking this."

Herta decisively took the data and follow-up concepts they had discussed earlier about Prototype No. 0.