A Rebellious Daughter Is Born, Fog

"Whoa! Xiaoling, you've been spying on my life goals!"

"This fell right at my feet—it was clearly your fault, Sister Pardo!" Ling said indignantly. "I'm going to tell my sister right now!"

"Gurgle..."

Pardo looked troubled. "No, no, Xiaoling, we can talk this over..."

Pardo was speaking when she suddenly noticed the notebook in Ling's hand.

"Wait, don't tell me you want me to tear up your homework—I tore it up for you last time, and you didn't show any loyalty, Xiaoling. After your parents were called in, you betrayed me! I ended up being chased all over the place by Sister Ying!"

Pardo is clearly quite traumatized by this kind of thing.

"Haha... Well, those are two different things..." Ling scratched her head a little embarrassedly. "I came to see Sister Pardo this time for other things!"

"Other things?"

Pardo came down from the balcony.

"You really didn't tell me to tear up my homework because I couldn't finish it?"

"No way—that time, before my sister even started Pardo you, she beat me up first, okay!"

Ling decided that she was the type to remember both the good times and the bad times, and had no intention of challenging her older sister's authority again.

"I'm talking about that new PhD student at ELM!"

"Doctor..." Pardo, who usually didn't care much about outside affairs, thought for a moment before remembering that there was indeed such a thing. "I think her name is Mei? She's the boss's student—what, did she assign you homework?"

As the only little girl in ELM right now, even though she's old enough to be called a young girl, Rin is still in a situation where she's constantly being assigned homework by her "elders".

"No, she's been here for two weeks now, hasn't she? Sister Pardo, have you seen her?"

"...No." Pardo thought for a moment. She had spent the whole week eating, sleeping, and sunbathing. Meeting people? Who could she possibly meet?

Okay, to be more precise, Pardo has been eating, sleeping and sunbathing for the past few months.

"Sister Pardo, aren't you interested in my brother's students?"

"Not interested."

Pardo shook her head. All she needed to do was know her owner... no, her boss, wasn't that enough?

"Oh, then I'll go report to my sister that you stole Pardo's pudding."

Ling nodded calmly, then turned and left.

"Alright, alright! You actually just want to visit the lab, right?" Pardo's brain started working again after a long time. "Just say it! I can take you there."

"You're not kidding?"

"When have you ever lied to me Pardo!" Pardo proudly puffed out her chest, which could already be described as quite ample. "Don't even mention a mere laboratory; I can take you on a tour of any kind of inescapable trap!"

"Alright! Let's go!"

"Let's go... wait, Pardo, are you really going out in this outfit?" Ling pulled Pardo back, who was only wearing pajamas and showing off her long white legs.

"Oh! I haven't been out in so long. Wait a minute, I'll change my clothes."

"Beep! Identity verification successful. Welcome, Miss Pardofelis."

The door emitted a cold, impersonal authentication sound.

"Alright, let's go." Pardo lowered her hand from the authentication panel, a smile on her face, and called for Ling to follow her.

Ling looked completely bewildered. "That's... that's it?"

Shouldn't it be the kind of thrilling and exciting infiltration?

Why did it switch to a straightforward fingerprint recognition system?

"Of course! What else did you expect it to be?"

Pardofelis skipped and hopped down the laboratory corridor, thinking, "Sneak in, then unlock it?"

"Hmm... more or less." Ling nodded, feeling a sense of disillusionment about her dreams.

"That's all ancient history to me—and I've never targeted such high-tech locks before."

Pardo couldn't even remember the last time she used a wire to pick a lock.

However, this does not prevent Pardo from giving Ling a lesson in this regard.

"Instead of trying to crack the door that Sister Vil-V made, why not just try using a large amount of explosives... Hmm, maybe we can gamble that Sister Vil-V forgot to close the door? When I used to steal things, quite a few people would forget to close the door."

"Sister Pardo, you're just incredibly lucky..."

Ling knew how abnormally lucky Pardo. She could find money even in a place like Dusk Alley. If she were to walk around a big city like this, she could probably fill up the lost and found office of the police station.

It truly lives up to its reputation as ELM's mascot.

If I touch Sister Pardo when I haven't done my homework, maybe the teacher will forget to collect my homework during class?

I think it's worth a try...

After walking through the long and cold corridor of the laboratory, Pardo and Ling finally arrived at the inner door of the laboratory.

"Hmm, this should be the place... Come to think of it, I don't think I've ever been here before."

It's been almost a year since this place was built. Pardo thought about it and realized that she had never actually been here before, except for the small laboratory in the main building of Vil-V.

Pardo for a moment, Pado felt that perhaps she could make "infiltrating the laboratory" her new life goal.

"Never mind, let me knock on the door first and see if everyone is busy."

Snap snap—

Pardo slammed her hand on the heavy iron gate in front of her.

Not long after, the iron gate slowly opened.

"Slurp, slurp... May I ask who you are... Slurp?"

A woman wearing a long-sleeved shirt with long, dark purple hair and exuding a slightly aloof aura appeared before Pardo.

But...

Pardo looked at the steaming instant noodles in the other person's hand and suddenly realized that the other person might actually be quite funny.

He doesn't even look so cold anymore.

"Oh, isn't this Pardo and Xiaoling? Slurp... What's up?"

Vil-V then came into Pardo's sight, bringing Pardo back to her senses.

Peeking inside, I found the researchers slurping instant noodles.

... What a strange sight this is?

"Um... are you eating? Is it okay to eat like this in a lab?" Pardo felt that this scene was quite different from what she had imagined.

"It's okay, this is the rest area, the lab is still inside... Slurp... Pardo, have you had breakfast? Although it's just instant noodles, it actually tastes pretty good."

"...breakfast?"

Pardo looked confused.

"Um... Xiaoling, you called me at six o'clock in the evening, right?"

"Yes, six o'clock in the evening." Ling felt that not only was her impression of the righteous thief crumbling, but her impression of the scientist seemed to be crumbling as well.

"... Six o'clock in the evening?" Vil-V tilted her head somewhat slowly, then a strange expression appeared on her face. "What day is it today?"

"Saturday—the second Saturday after you begin your experiment."

Pardo wasn't stupid; she immediately understood—these scientists had messed up their own timeline.

"I mean... don't you have a clock in your lab?"

Yes, there is!

Pardo glanced in the direction Vil-V was pointing. Yes, it was a mechanical clock, a personal favorite of Vil-V's. The hour hand was almost pointing to seven—when Ling looked for her, it was six o'clock, so it was quite normal for it to be almost seven now.

From this perspective, the clock's accuracy is not the problem—it's just that these scientists have their day and night reversed.

But how did these guys manage to turn day into night?

"Has no one noticed anything unusual?"

Faced with Pardo's question, both Vil-V and the unfamiliar doctor next to her shrugged simultaneously.

"Actually, before you came, we thought it was only ten days, not two weeks—after all, this experiment doesn't require much sensitivity to time."

"Actually, in the first few days when we were determining the nature of the problem, our sense of time wasn't messed up yet—we still needed to record the observation time, and all sorts of timers were running." The woman with long purple-black hair added, "But the next few days were just simple and monotonous research and development, and perhaps it was during this period that our sense of time became messed up."

"Ah...so that means I've fallen asleep at six and woken up at seven several times – I thought it was seven the next day." Vil-V scratched her head.

Even Pardo was speechless listening to the conversation between the two.

Don't you feel sleepy?

"That's what youth is all about," Liu Bai floated out. "I've been led astray by these guys too—by the way Pardo, what are you doing here with Ling?"

"Could it be that you've finally become interested in science, Ling?" Vil-V asked, somewhat surprised.

"Huh?"

Bell sensed something was very wrong.

"I've been compiling some Honkai observation data lately, Rin, go calculate the patterns within it..."

"Sorry, Sister Vil-V! I have to go now!"

Chapter 369 The Rebellious Daughter is Born in the Mist

"That child really has absolutely no interest in science..."

Vil-V watched Ling run away and couldn't help but feel a little regretful.

Although she doesn't have any of the traits of being a know-it-all, she still has some expectations for Ling, the only child of ELM—after all, she can't expect anything from a kid like Kosma whose life path is predictable from the start.

"It's not a pity if you're not interested. At least seeing this girl grow up healthy will give you a sense of 'your efforts weren't in vain,' right?" Liu Bai leaned over the computer next to him, pretending to be an AI.

Well, there's really no need to pretend like that in front of other people.

A group of top scientists worked together for half a month. Liu Bai able to get by at first, but as time went on, quite a few people began to have doubts or even further speculations about his performance in the experiment.

However, these people were all handpicked by Mobius himself, and were invaluable talents whose abilities and character were impeccable. After working together for half a month, everyone tacitly kept quiet about the matter.

"My efforts weren't in vain... I guess you could say that."

Vil-V sighed, "It just feels like this girl is getting more and more mischievous—by the way, Pardo, would you like to come and visit the lab?"

"Eh?"

Just as Pardo was about to sneak away, she was stunned when she heard Vil-V call her name.

"Um... let's make this clear first, we don't know anything, and we won't be guinea pigs..."

"I don't have the habit of using pets as test subjects." Vil-V reached out and grabbed Pardo, then looked at Mei beside her, "Let me introduce you, Pardofelis, my family's mascot."

"... It is quite auspicious."

Even Mei could feel the relaxing aura emanating from Pardo.

Hmm... that's definitely the kind of temperament that cats and other pets should have—so mascots are just a euphemism for pets, right?

"It's the last step, Pardo, please help us get some good luck."

"Huh? A lucky draw? I don't have to do anything?" Pardo relaxed a little. "But Sister Vil-V shipped the goods in just two weeks this time? It feels like it's much faster than before."

"On the one hand, the current finished product is only a 'semi-finished product'; on the other hand, don't underestimate the hard work of our group, day and night."

"Actually, the main reason is that it was a semi-finished product and the first attempt, so everyone didn't set high goals."

Liu Bai sabotaged Vil-V's efforts.

To be honest, this research and development wasn't due to their incredible dedication; it was mainly because Liu Bai was extremely familiar with the structure of the Imaginary Archive, the First Divine Key —which was also the structure of his future rebellious daughter.

Although this sounds a bit like an Oni Chichi, there's no way around it, that's just how things are.

Of all these God Key, Liu Bai was most familiar with the Imaginary Archive. If that one was even a little blurry, he could save a game and go back to the present civilization to check on his rebellious daughter's body.

It has to be said that, in Liu Bai's view, this simulation is an open backdoor. Although saving and loading can only be used to switch between simulation and reality, and there is only one save slot that cannot go back to the past like in a real game, the fact that you can go back to the current civilization for last-minute cramming is enough.