The Cocoon and a Welcome Gift

Liu Bai, like Aponia in the original timeline, had no choice but to start teaching Kalpas social skills.

"I've got it, stir-fried pork." Kalpas nodded.

"Generally, you can add the words 'please' before the sentence," Liu Bai added.

"Trouble."

"..."

"Pfft...!"

Sakura couldn't help but laugh as she watched the two of them communicate.

These two people felt like they were teaching a bell back in the day, patiently telling this girl what she couldn't eat, how to greet people, and how to ask for help...

When these two are paired together, Sakura doesn't know whether to call it incongruous or suitable.

A ghostly old father paired with a tall kid who's about 1.9 meters tall... even putting aside whether they're a good match or not, this combination is just too funny.

"... What is she laughing at?" Not sensing any hostility, Kalpas only showed a little confusion about this "sudden situation".

"... Ignore her."

Liu Bai quickly understood what Ying was laughing about, but he couldn't really refute it.

"Come with me."

Liu Bai drifted away, Kalpas turned around and followed without thinking.

Kalpas didn't have anything he wanted to do right now, so he was Kalpas indifferent to where Liu Bai, someone with whom he had a clear and inexplicable connection and who was more trustworthy than others, suggested.

But in Sakura's eyes, this reaction was more like that of a "good boy".

"Hmm... the sense of déjà vu is even stronger now." Sakura rested her chin on her hand, a smile on her face.

"Ugh... Sis, your laugh is kind of disgusting."

"..." Sakura silently suppressed her smile and looked at her younger sister, "Rin, has it been a long time since I spanked you?"

"I'm an adult! I don't deserve to be spanked!"

"Even if you're an adult, I'm still your older sister." Sakura gave a helpless smile. "I'll still teach you how to conduct yourself in society."

"Sis, you're just getting revenge—and I'm telling the truth. Sis, your smile is really disgusting, like an old woman's smile."

"I think 'warm and cozy' would be a better adjective," Sakura said, pressing down on her younger sister.

Kalpas walked down the corridor, he tilted his head inexplicably. He sensed that a fight had broken out inside as soon as he left.

But... there was no murderous intent.

Something's strange.

Kalpas was contemplating whether or not he should try to stop it.

"It's just a sweet moment between the sisters." Liu Bai said, "Kalpas, not all battles are accompanied by killing intent and anger—well, then education would be a more appropriate term for the two sisters."

"I don't understand," Kalpas said frankly.

"Okay, you'll understand someday—tsk, that's really cool, I've wanted to say that for a long time."

"...?"

I don't understand at all.

Kalpas suppressed the doubts in his heart.

Although the people here always confuse Kalpas, for now... he doesn't dislike them.

Everyone was kind to me, and there was no one like that woman, Aponia.

For Kalpas... it's quite a strange situation.

Liu Bai led Kalpas for a while, and soon they arrived at the room that had been temporarily prepared for Kalpas —a spacious and bright room that had no problems except for being a little deserted.

"From today onwards, this is your room, Kalpas. How does it feel?"

There are still quite a few empty rooms in the ELM building. After all, there aren't many people living in such a large building, so there are plenty of empty rooms.

"Feel..."

Kalpas once, Qianjie showed a thoughtful expression, quickly reviewed the basic terms Aponia had taught him, and then nodded. "Very good."

This is already a very high evaluation for Kalpas.

"However, due to time constraints, we didn't get many appliances. We'll have to wait until later..."

"Unnecessary."

Kalpas interrupted Liu Bai, walked into the room on his own, touched the thick mattress, then touched the white wooden bedside table, and fell into deep thought.

"My room... is very nice."

Kalpas nodded slowly again.

"Want to lie down and try it?" Liu Bai asked, arms crossed.

"No need." Kalpas's aura softened considerably. Even though the words "no need" still carried a sense of keeping people at a distance, they no longer came across as forceful.

"Oh... so are you planning to sit in the room for a while, or continue strolling around ELM with me?"

"...I'd like to sit here for a while." Qianjie stared at Liu Bai for Kalpas. "...Please leave."

Liu Bai shrugged.

That's good, at least it's not "get lost".

So even though this guy kept saying it was troublesome, he actually remembered everything he was taught, right?

"Okay, then I won't bother you anymore. I'll come and call you for lunch at noon."

Kalpas nodded, indicating that he had remembered.

Seeing this, Liu Bai did not linger any longer and immediately teleported away to give Kalpas enough personal space.

"Master, you and that Mr. Kalpas seem to be getting along quite well?"

After giving her younger sister a good talking-to, Sakura smiled as she looked at Liu Bai who had returned.

"You two really do look like father and son."

"Although I really want to refute it... never mind, you'd better not say that in front of Kalpas."

Although Liu Bai sighed because of Ying's words, he was still in a pretty good mood.

"Kalpas has taken the first step in integrating into the group, which is good news in any case."

"But there are other people besides ELM—for example, Dr. Mobius. To be honest, Dr. Mobius's personality..."

Chapter 386 The Pupa and the Greeting Gift

"Mobius... Is she alright? Don't let Kalpas's appearance fool you, she's actually quite patient. And although Kalpas has a violent temper, she's definitely not the type to kill people indiscriminately."

Liu Bai felt that Mobius was probably far less dangerous to Kalpas Jie than Aponia.

The most important point is that Mobius was very self-aware; he was always very clear that he was doing something taboo when conducting experiments involving forbidden topics.

As for Aponia... she was truly doing what she believed to be right and forbidden things with the resolve of martyrdom.

Honestly, this kind of mentality is quite scary.

So, at best, Mobius was described by Liu Bai as a "mad scientist."

As for Aponia, she was given a title that is almost like a special description. "The abyss of mercy."

In other words, Honkai has always been relatively simple and straightforward, without the "polluting" nature of the Cthulhu series. Otherwise, it wouldn't be a problem for Aponia's eccentric personality to be paired with a storyline of corruption and evil.

However, if you say this to Sakura directly, she definitely won't understand.

"Not to act rashly... Alright, since you've said so, then Mr. Kalpas should be the one."

Sakura felt somewhat helpless, but for her, refuting the "head of the household" wasn't her job; she just needed to provide support.

"Oh, right, there's something else. Dr. Mei sent me information about an organization called 'Poison Cocoon,' saying that this organization might be the black glove of the Moth Chasers to Fire, and asked us to help investigate it."

"Poison Cocoon ..." Liu Bai pondered for a moment.

This organization is definitely not a good thing—at least for now, this kind of assassination organization used for internal purges does more harm than good.

"What exactly did Mei say?"

"... There's nothing specific. Dr. Mei said she only vaguely knows about this organization, which is why she needs our help to investigate. It's inconvenient for her to be with the Moth Chasers to Fire."

"Oh... this is really like finding a needle in a haystack, but it's not a big problem. Go find Pardo and Vil-V, and then have Vil-V carry Pardo to gather information."

"..."

Why does the head of the household always manage to come up with these kinds of ridiculous things?

Well, from a certain perspective, it does have a convincing feasibility.

Sakura nodded with a wry smile.

"Then I'll leave lunch here to you as well. I'm going to the Moth Chasers to Fire, and I might not be back by noon, so don't wait for me."

Although Liu Bai doesn't need to eat, as the "head of the family," everyone waits for Liu Bai to return before starting the meal.

Liu Bai thought that since his student had suddenly brought this up, he had to go and take a look, lest his student be picked on no sooner or later than he left.

"I understand." Sakura nodded in understanding.

Then, Liu Bai switched his host to Mei and instantly teleported to Mobius's office.

"Teacher, you're back?" Mei looked at her teacher with some surprise.

"Why do you think I came back?" Liu Bai tapped Mei's head impatiently. "What's the deal with that Poison Cocoon?"

"I told her," Mobius interjected, raising his hand. "After all, I'm a veteran of the Moth Chasers to Fire, and I have a vague feeling that they've been secretly doing something."

Mobius in a bad mood. Because of Liu Bai, he had to provide shelter for Eden and the others. Therefore, compared to the original timeline, Mobius was more perceptive about the problems within the Moth Chasers to Fire.

"And look at those biological agents these past few months... to put it bluntly, the amount of various toxins used has increased significantly. Do they think I'm stupid?!"

They probably think you're incapable of handling this kind of thing... Liu Bai thought to himself as he looked at the disgruntled Mobius.

"They took it openly for months and you only found out? What do you mean by that? You're stupid."

Mei said this with a hint of mockery.

Mobius's face immediately darkened. "In any case, I will try my best to find out where those drugs went."

"Don't bother investigating. It's too risky to investigate this directly. Let's leave it to the teacher."

Mei has full confidence in Liu Bai's side.

These days, it's only the Herrscher are hard to say; the others, whatever, just have their own teacher paired with a capable combatant and they can just kill indiscriminately.

Mei strongly suspects that her teacher might be more unbeatable than any human warrior in terms of dealing with people, no, even more terrifying than Herrscher.

It possesses and restrains all technological creations. The curse can effectively affect the frail human body. What's more deadly is that it is intangible and formless, seemingly existing on a different level from reality, yet it can still influence reality. Reality cannot harm it, and all defenses are useless against it.

To be honest, Mei's worst-case scenario used to be the emergence of someone exactly like her teacher—but after thinking about it, Mei abandoned that assumption.

If they can't handle it, they've already lost when the opponent is completely invincible. Even if the curse can't directly kill some strong people, no one can survive if it's worn down day by day. If it weren't for the fast pace of fighting the Herrscher, I don't think my teacher could curse the Herrscher to death with persistent curses.

After all, curses are never simply about high output; the most terrifying curses are those that accumulate over time.

So Mei gave up that idea. After all, if she used Liu Bai, who had no distance restrictions, as the template for the enemy, then Mei didn't know anything else. She could only choose to die like a scientist—the idea of having no distance restrictions was too terrifying.

Incidentally, because of this, Mei is now quite resilient to anything related to Herrscher. After all, a truly unsolvable being is right beside her, and Herrscher, who are meant to die if killed, are nothing to her.

That's why Mei was so bold as to entrust this matter to Liu Bai. If Liu Bai really brought an organization that Sakura couldn't break through in one go, then Mei thought she should use strategic weapons—if they can't break through you, do you have Herrscher hidden in your house?

"Okay, leave that to me. I've already had Vil-V start investigating." Liu Bai agreed to this small matter without any pressure. "By the way, you two getting together, are you plotting something dangerous again?"

"... I was just checking on the progress of Dr. Mobius's 'Fusion Warrior Project' experiment."

Mei pushed up her glasses.

"There are only a few hurdles left. Once we overcome them, it should be ready for immediate use."

"What do you mean by 'directly' putting it into use? Clinical trials will take a long time." Mobius really felt that Mei was sometimes even crazier than himself.