"The Witch's Companion" - Hua

"Um... a life assistant? It may be a bit presumptuous, but I still want to ask, Mobius, do you even have a life?"

"What do you mean?" Mobius turned to look at Chen Luo.

"From what I know of you, you're probably a madman who spends 80% of his time holed up in the lab. Where would you find the time to go out and enjoy life? Besides, if you really had any sense of life, you wouldn't have come out to pick me up in this white coat. And also, isn't Klein your assistant? What do you need me for if you have Klein?" Chen Luo complained.

Although Klein was Mobius's research assistant, Mobius usually went to Klein for help whenever he needed anything.

"Oh, you mean this? I was working all night in the lab, but I only remembered I was supposed to pick you up after my alarm went off, so I just slept on the bed in the lab break room and came to pick you up without changing my clothes. Shouldn't you feel honored?"

"Yes, yes, I'm so honored, but to be honest, staying up late is bad for your health."

"I don't want to discuss health issues with someone like you who goes to bed at least after 1 a. m. every day." Mobius glanced at Chen Luo.

Does Mobius know what time Chen Luo's bar stays open every day?

"But speaking of which, why did you take such a long detour?" Chen Luo asked, looking at the navigation and having driven for 10 minutes without reaching his destination.

"Do you think the Fire Moth are all useless? Their surveillance of their base is all-encompassing. If they want to bring you, an undocumented immigrant whose origins are completely unknown, they'll have to go somewhere far away, at least to a normal residential area."

"I could drag you straight from the bar to the lab to clock in, in fact I really want to do that, but then you wouldn't have the record of the Fire Moth entering."

"I've gone to great lengths to deal with you, this unregistered resident," Mobius sighed.

As a United Nations- affiliated organization dedicated to resisting the Honkai, Fire Moth possesses considerable strength; otherwise, it wouldn't have been able to withstand destruction for so long. Therefore, its personnel vetting process is naturally quite rigorous.

If you see someone appearing in the Fire Moth's base without any entry credentials, you'd be doing Firemoth a disservice by not thoroughly investigating.

"Can you please stop calling me an undocumented immigrant? I'm a Traveler, after all."

"But you are an unregistered person in this world."

"Speaking of unregistered residents, I'm really curious. Mobius, how did you manage to get me into your lab? Logically speaking, as one of the important labs of the Fire Moth, it shouldn't be a big problem to put people into your lab, but getting a series of Identity Proof would be a bit difficult, right?" Chen Luo was genuinely curious about this matter.

If we're talking about creating a Flame-Chaser, Mobius is good at it, but when it comes to relationships, Chen Luo speaking, Mobius doesn't seem to be someone who has any expertise or influence in that area.

Around Chen Luo's neck now hangs a badge indicating he is a researcher at the Mei Biu Si Laboratory, which is required for entry and exit from the Fire Moth base.

As the head of the lab, Mobius could naturally provide the proof, but the problem was that the series of Identity Proof next to it were clearly something Mobius couldn't produce.

"Of course I can't do it. I'm not interested in that, so I just asked someone else for help," Mobius said nonchalantly.

Mobius didn't feel ashamed of not being able to do it. As the oldest member of the Order of the Fire Moth No. 1, if he really wanted to advance to a higher level, Mobius should be able to reach at least a high-level position by now.

But Mobius was not interested in these power struggles; Mobius was more interested in human evolution.

"Who?"

"Mei," Mobius said.

"Dr. Mei?" Chen Luo was startled when he heard the name.

"Hmm? Why do I always feel that you show more respect when you call her name than when you call me?" Mobius, who had keenly noticed this, frowned as he looked at Chen Luo.

To be honest, I became famous much earlier than Mei.

Although Mobius never really cared about such things, that was his attitude towards how others perceived him.

Mobius will still be unhappy with Chen Luo's double standards.

"Ah, no, you might have misunderstood. But how should I put it, the consciousness inside the Void Archive in my hand seems to be the result of Prometheus merging with the Herrscher consciousness, and Prometheus was created by Dr. Mei..." Chen Luo found a suitable excuse to evade the question.

In fact, it's mainly because Dr. Mei appeared in the early Honkai Impact 3rd and had a significant role, being introduced as the greatest scientist of the Previous Era.

As for Mobius... who's that? Never heard of him?

From a purely rational perspective, it was both reasonable and unexpected for Mobius to seek out Möbius to resolve this issue.

If Chen Luo remembered correctly, Mobius was the one who introduced Mebius to the Fire Moth.

Furthermore, May had also been involved in the Stigmata Project led by Mobius and was invited to participate in an experiment.

Mobius did become famous earlier than Mebius. The two first met when they attended an academic conference six months before the Third Honkai Outbreak.

Therefore, it is quite reasonable that the two have a good relationship.

After all, given Mobius's personality, the fact that he would still prepare some gifts for Kevin at his Kevin's birthday was largely due to Möbius's influence.

Unlike Mobius, who was not only a genius scientist, he was also involved in politics, perhaps because he believed that scientific research alone could not save humanity.

After all, sometimes you'll encounter some incredibly stupid higher-ups who will thwart your experiments.

Therefore, in addition to her research, Mebius also put a lot of effort into building her own strength and team. She was completely different from Mobius.

Before the 6th Honkai Outbreak 3rd, Mei already held a certain position among the Fire Moth.

At that time, as Mei faced increasing opposition within the Fire Moth, a high-ranking official ordered Sakura, a subordinate of "Poisoned Chrysalis," to eliminate Mei.

However, due to the leak of information, Kevin stayed by May's side to protect her.

As a result, Kevin was hospitalized and Sakura was imprisoned.

Later, Mei successfully turned Sakura to the other side and had her purge all the original members of the Poisoned Chrysalis and establish a new Poisoned Chrysalis.

This also shows that Mei has a long-term vision.

The best way to prevent those idiot executives from interfering with your experiments is to get rid of them and become an executive yourself.

Mei offered Ying a deal: she could help protect Ying's younger sister.

As for the result...

Well, all I can say is that those who know, know.

Now that the Seventh Honkai Outbreak has ended and the fusion surgery was successful, Kevin has become the first Flame-Chaser and defeated the Seventh Herrscher, May's status should be even higher.

So helping Mobius sort these things out shouldn't be a problem.

Of course, there are advantages and disadvantages. The advantage is that Chen Luo has an identity, but the disadvantage is that these little tricks may not be able to hide from some high-ranking people. Once this information is known to them Chen Luo will also be labeled with the "Mei" faction's label.

However, Chen Luo didn't care about this at all.

"It seems that in the post-civilization era, Mebius is much more famous than me." It was obvious that Chen Luo was trying to fool him, and Mobius didn't fall for it. He also realized something from this, but Mobius didn't mind.

"It's not so much that he's more famous, or that he left behind more. Also, Kevin is more famous."

"That little follower of Mei? The other person's potential is indeed quite good. Speaking of him, we have to go to his birthday party in a while, it's all your fault." Mobius rolled his eyes at Chen Luo.

"Huh, what does that have to do with me?"

"Do you think you got all these documents for nothing? I paid you handsomely for them," Mobius said, pointing to the briefcase next to Chen Luo.

"So, the reward is... going to Kevin's birthday party?"

"May knows I'm not interested in that kind of thing and will most likely just give me a gift, so she asked me to take some time to attend Kevin's birthday party," Mobius said lazily.

"These conditions... don't seem that strict."

"Yes, it's not exactly harsh, but that's no excuse for not repaying me." Mobius nodded.

"Rewards?"

"Naturally, after reporting to the lab, I should quickly buy all that knowledge about the Tree and Sea, and then let me study you... and that knowledge properly." Mobius, who almost gave himself away, quickly changed his tune.

"...I understand." The clever Chen Luo decided not to dwell on Mobius's slip of the tongue.

Hmm, it was probably just a slip of the tongue.

"Also, remember to be careful of people lurking in the shadows after you officially join the Fire Moth," Mobius warned.

"Huh? Is the power struggle among you Fire Moth really that fierce? I'm just a simple, ordinary researcher with no strength to even kill a chicken," Chen Luo said, somewhat aggrieved.

"So I've decided to turn all those people into puppets! It's also time to replenish my puppet collection. Murderers should be prepared to be killed."

Let's see how strong it is. If it's weak, we'll treat it as a consumable doll; if it's strong, we'll treat it as a slightly more valuable consumable doll.

This is what happens when you come to the apocalypse; in the apocalypse, humanity is extremely fragile.

Or rather, in this place, human nature is actually the biggest obstacle.

If you weren't human, you might live a better life in this world.

"Oh, you might have misunderstood. I wasn't warning you about those other high-ranking spies or anything like that. Although the Fire Moth is an organization that resists the Honkai, there are actually quite a few internal conflicts, especially since you entered the Fire Moth through Mei's channels. So those who oppose Mei might indeed send people to investigate or deal with you. You can do whatever you want with them. I have faith in your abilities."

Given Chen Luo's strength, instead of worrying about Chen Luo, it would be better to worry about whether those people will die a horrible death.

"The people I told you to be careful about are mainly those sent by Mebius," Mobius said.

"Ha?"

"What? Are you confused?"

"A little bit, but I think I understand a bit too."

"I understand. After all, you are indeed an unregistered person, so unregistered that even your photo was provided by me. Since the other party has obtained a series of legal identity documents for you, they will naturally investigate you as well."

"It's precisely because she's the one who made the fake documents for you that she knows how abrupt your appearance is. And since you're coming to work in my lab, it would be strange if she didn't investigate you."

"Since it was Mei who issued you the credentials to get into the Fire Moth, then when Mei sends people, don't kill them. Try to handle it amicably," Mobius said.

"That makes sense, so I understand." Chen Luo nodded.

Chen Luo is now a stranger to Mei and the others, and it's normal for strangers to be wary of each other.

To say that the other party gave Chen Luo a fake identity and didn't care about anything, treating Chen Luo like a stranger, would be an insult to Mei's intelligence.

Especially since the other party entered Mobius's laboratory, the more they learned about Mobius, the more they realized how high Mobius's potential was.

Chen Luo wasn't worried about those sent by Mei; at worst, he could just change their minds.

Let's just turn them into dolls; after all, they're our own people...

Uh, not entirely one of us.

"Well, we're almost there. Let's get ready," Chen Luo said to Mobius, who had somehow closed his eyes to rest.

Mobius opened his eyes and looked ahead, and saw a colossal steel beast lying in the wilderness.

Chapter 394 "The Witch's Companion" - Hua

"... Snake Snake."

"What's wrong? Is something the matter?"

"Well... I'll buy the knowledge about the Tree and Sea in a bit. Which one do you want to study first?" Chen Luo said after being checked by the soldiers stationed at the base and allowed to enter.

"Oh, why are you suddenly so enthusiastic?" Mobius looked at Chen Luo with surprise.

"Could it be..." Mobius thought to himself as he looked at Chen Luo with some concern.

"You... you don't actually think I care what other people think of me, do you?" A very slight smile appeared on Mobius's lips, and his gaze towards Chen Luo became increasingly strange and... [dangerous].

An alternative kind of danger.

"Ahem, what are you saying? I don't understand." Chen Luo turned his head and examined the decorations inside the Fire Moth.

To be fair, Fire Moth is indeed wealthy. The interior is quite luxurious, and all the doors are automatic sensor doors, which look very heavy. Even if an ordinary tank Honkai Beasts punches it, it shouldn't cause much damage.

"Like the guards who checked our documents just now, they're already used to the way they look at me. And you'll need to get used to it too. After all, once you're in my lab, you're one of my people, and you're tied to the devil's experiments. Your reputation won't be good."

"So instead of worrying about me, you should think about how to get used to this kind of gaze." Although Mobius said that Chen Luo's concern was superfluous, there was a sense of pleasure in his voice.

"..." Upon hearing Mobius's words, Chen Luo recalled the situation from earlier.

It's normal to stop the car and get out for inspection, but the only abnormal thing was the complex emotions that flashed in the soldiers' eyes when they checked Mobius's identification and realized that she was indeed Mobius.

Fear, rejection, awe, disgust... all expressed differently.

However, these soldiers all had the same attitude towards Mobius: to keep their distance.

This shows that Mobius had a notorious reputation.

It wouldn't be accurate to say he was infamous, but at least Mobius's demonic reputation was widely known among the Fire Moth. They might not have met Mobius, but they certainly had heard of Mobius.

Especially when he saw the unusual snake-like eyes in Mobius's pupils, his disgust and fear seemed to reach their peak.

Don't assume that powerful beings like Flame-Chaser are highly respected in the Fire Moth; in fact, their treatment might be quite the opposite of what you imagine.

"Monster" is the common term these people use to refer to the Flame-Chaser.

After all, before Kevin became the first successful case of fusion surgery, it is unknown how many people died from fusion surgery, which was not a successful procedure.

If conventional methods were no longer sufficient to deal with the Seventh Herrscher, the Fusion Warrior Project might have remained on hold.

Even before the destruction of the Previous Era, fusion surgery could not be considered a procedure with a high success rate.