Elysia blinked. "How could there be any dangerous places? No, no. Flame-Chaser has always been one big happy, harmonious, warm family, you know?"
As if to prove her point, Elysia walked straight over to Chen Ran. "Hi, hi, Chen Ran, what's wrong? Did the institute's internal gathering become too much for you?"
"The institute doesn't have a habit of holding internal gatherings."
Chen Ran murmured, "I just got off the doctor's operating table."
Vill-V's brow furrowed even deeper.
"Human experimentation..."
Though such things happening in an organization like Flame-Chaser did not seem strange, there appeared to be no safeguards at all.
Chen Ran was mainly on the verge of a mental breakdown, pale-faced and walking more like a living corpse. Though he was not missing any limbs, he really did look as though he had just come down from an operating table.
Seeing Chen Ran's state, Elysia could not help but look surprised. "I heard that none of Dr. Mobius's lab rats ever survived the operating table. You're pretty lucky, then."
Chen Ran: "..."
Damn, he had nearly forgotten something.
Would getting off Mobius's operating table turn him into someone with terrible luck?
He could not help staring directly at Elysia.
Elysia jumped. "What is it?"
"Do you have a phone?"
The girl shook her head. "You know I'm not used to using those."
As long as she was in Flame-Chaser, Elysia would be constantly wandering around, barely using electronic devices. If anyone needed to contact her, the internal communicator was usually enough.
Chen Ran turned and looked at Vill-V instead.
Vill-V hesitated for a moment, then nodded. "What do you need?"
"Do you have any gacha games? I want to pull."
Vill-V said, "I don't play games, but you should be able to download one."
"Lend it to me for half an hour."
Then, he downloaded one of the more popular mobile games in this world.
After half an hour, he had finished the beginner missions and accumulated enough crystals.
Then...
Every pull hit pity.
Chen Ran's face darkened, and life suddenly felt utterly joyless.
--
Fifty thousand years later, above the Atlantic Ocean.
After evading Schicksal's pursuit, Wendy's eyes revealed a trace of unwillingness and hatred.
"There's nothing left. Nothing at all."
The traces of his existence, and the overlapping shadows, were all gone.
The girl's heart grew ever more frantic, as if it were being scorched by fire.
Her remaining sanity seemed about to be devoured by some special entity. Then, at that moment, an aura that made her tremble—an aura she knew well—appeared.
"Hey."
"You beat me up pretty badly last time."
Raven had reappeared at some unknown time.
"But I'm not here to fight this time. You should be familiar with this."
She held a photograph in her hand.
Wendy's pupils contracted slightly. It was a photo of Chen Ran and Wendy together at the beach.
Raven spoke softly. "I know you have a lot of questions. Likewise, we have questions for you."
"For example, how can someone travel through fifty thousand years of time and space?"
The Poor Sap Vill-V Had Her Eyes On
Chen Ran could no longer remember when he had returned to the dormitory. When he woke up there again and felt a little more energized, he saw Kevin slurping noodles in the room.
The scent of instant noodles filled the dormitory. Chen Ran saw several vegetables, sausages, and a fried egg inside.
This was a luxurious deluxe cup of instant noodles.
Seeing that he was awake, Kevin said calmly, "I brought you one too. Your complexion doesn't look very good."
"Thanks, thanks."
The smell made Chen Ran's mouth water.
Now, he and Kevin got along like high school or college roommates. They were nowhere near as close as Kevin and Su, but at least they were no longer strangers like when they had first met.
It seemed No. 666 had done quite a lot to win Kevin over.
After eating and drinking his fill, Chen Ran's complexion finally looked a little better.
"Kevin, how's your training going now?"
"Not bad."
A hint of pride appeared at the young man's lips.
Everyone who could enter Flame-Chaser was undoubtedly a genius. Kevin was no exception.
Though he had not surpassed anyone in academics, physically, he was already the most gifted recruit in Flame-Chaser's First Squad.
After completing a few Honkai missions, he would be able to form a warrior squad centered around himself.
Chen Ran could not help remarking, "Judging by that expression, when you say not bad, you actually mean very good."
Kevin said nothing, but Chen Ran had clearly hit the mark.
Chen Ran narrowed his eyes slightly and suddenly asked, "By the way, Kevin, I remember your wife published a paper in quantum physics, right?"
The photograph of the young man and Wendy still lay beneath the pillow by his bed.
The young man chatted cheerfully with Kevin, but he had other thoughts in mind.
The young man was not someone who would admit defeat.
Even though he knew that joining Flame-Chaser had been an accidental stroke of luck, and that without the system, he was just an ordinary person incapable of keeping up with this world's geniuses.
Still, he was unwilling to let everything end like this.
Once he cleared the system's simulation scenario, it would quantumize him, and breaking free of that quantumization would be difficult.
But that did not mean he would willingly accept it all. If he were willing to accept everything the system gave him, he would not have done something as foolish-looking as that.
Since force would not work, he would use knowledge.
And MEI was an expert in the quantum field.
His mind was clearly already working, but under the current circumstances, he could not disturb MEI yet.
The system had already warned him once, so he could not keep doing something as foolish as provoking it. It occupied his body like a Stigmata and possessed consciousness, which meant the system could not truly be kept in the dark about Chen Ran's plans.
Besides, MEI was still rotating through the various research institutes. This was a crucial period in which she absorbed the strengths of Flame-Chaser's many disciplines.
MEI's genius rested on her extremely rapid learning ability. If she were interrupted during this process, it might disrupt the inertia of history.
What was more, even if he wanted to trouble MEI, he could not offer a corresponding benefit.
In Flame-Chaser, emotions alone were not enough.
This was a front-line anti-Honkai organization backed by every nation. Only mutual interests could forge stable relationships. In the end, people like Kevin and Blanca were the exception.
And Mobius had described MEI as a monster of reason.
For some time afterward, Chen Ran's life was exceedingly monotonous.
Aside from cooperating with Mobius's experiments every day, he spent most of his time trying to study on his own. In addition to biology, he delved deeply into fluid mechanics.
The system's inspection and repair would most likely take a long time. Though he could not simulate for the moment, it had not reclaimed his rewards. He had plenty of time to adapt to the authority and power of the Herrscher of Wind.
So, aside from the First Research Institute, the place he visited most often was the training grounds.
Chen Ran was now officially part of the First Research Institute, categorized under logistics rather than the combat division.
But the training grounds did not prohibit Chen Ran from entering. After all, even researchers knowing martial arts was perfectly normal.
As always: do not use the limits of ordinary people to define the limits of geniuses.
I'm just an ordinary researcher, so it's perfectly reasonable for me to know martial arts, right?
What surprised Chen Ran, however, was that he often saw Vill-V appearing here alone.
If he remembered the plot correctly, Vill-V should have been excavating the Abyss around this time.
Like other organizations, Flame-Chaser had its own "dark side." The Abyss was used to contain "uncontrollable" people.
But Chen Ran would not casually involve himself in such matters.
Still, Vill-V had set her sights on him.
Vill-V needed helpers.
Though she had already formed an initial concept for the Abyss, manpower remained a problem.
She could certainly build excavators or robots herself to do the job, but that would not meet the deadline.
Vill-V did not actually need many people, because the first requirement of the Abyss was secrecy.
Too many people would fail to meet that requirement.
This was Flame-Chaser's test. Though she hated the feeling of being tested, if she passed, every new material Flame-Chaser acquired could pass through her hands.
Vill-V simply could not resist that temptation.
So, she accepted the arduous assignment and prepared to find a few people who looked easy to fool into joining her.
Vill-V's requirements were not high. They only needed to be able to move and obey orders.
Whenever demolition was involved, she could just use explosives. She only needed a few people to handle the cleanup.
After observing for some time, Vill-V had found two people who met her criteria.
One was Kevin. This man was supposedly the most talented recruit at present, but he looked a little dim, so he should be easy to fool.
The other was Chen Ran. Though he did not look quite as dim, his status within Flame-Chaser did not seem very high. After all, he was already being subjected to human experiments. With a little sweet talk, she could probably get him on board too.
Vill-V watched Kevin and Chen Ran training together in the distance and began planning how to approach them.
Kevin naturally noticed Vill-V's unusual behavior.
Looking at Chen Ran, he asked thoughtfully, "That girl in work clothes has been staring at us. Do you think she might mean us harm?"
Chen Ran said casually, "Don't think so badly of people. Maybe she likes me."
Kevin said, "Wouldn't that be even worse?"
Chen Ran: "..."
He had not expected Kevin to possess a talent for sharp tongues in addition to being secretly flirtatious.
As the two trained and chatted, Vill-V walked over.
"Hi, you two."
Before you continue