Strategic Arrangements

Mobius's laboratory.

Seeing Mobius emerge from the lab, Elysia asked, "Mobius, how did it go? What were the results of the tests...?"

Mobius glanced at the crowd that had gathered around her, her gaze lingering on Lionel, Hen, and Disaster before she said, "The situation is consistent with that of other patients with narcolepsy. They are all in a state of deep sleep. By comparing the test results of other narcolepsy patients with those from Admil's side, it can be confirmed that all patients with narcolepsy can be considered to have been attacked by some kind of memetic weapon."

"So, the Eighth Herald has already appeared?" Lionel said solemnly. "He struck and even the strongest warrior of the Fire Moth was hit... That makes sense. The Honkai always targets the weaknesses that we humans haven't been able to overcome. In terms of physical abilities, we have already gained power comparable to the Heralds, and thus the Heralds who can wield memetic weapons have appeared..."

"But we also have Fusion Warrior with mental abilities, so perhaps we can fight the Eighth Law." Beifengge turned his gaze to Seele. "However, we don't even know where the enemy is or how to find her."

"There are ways, but the current number of mental Fusion Warrior is not enough to help us find the exact location of the Eighth Law." Mobius said calmly. "We need more mental Fusion Warrior to cooperate and delve into the illusion woven by the Eighth Law, trace its origins, and capture it in one fell swoop."

"An illusion woven by the Eighth Law?" Lionel frowned.

"You can understand it as the ultimate effect of the Eighth Law's memetic weapon on humans being to trap them in a dream of their ideal life, which is why no one has been able to wake up yet," Mobius explained.

"A world where all one's wishes are fulfilled... Indeed... It's hard to refuse. Even the most steadfast warriors, deep down, will also look forward to the day the war ends." Lionel muttered to himself, then nodded to Mobius and said, "I understand. I will discuss this with Dr. Mei immediately and try to gather the necessary mental Fusion Warrior as quickly as possible."

Kevin glanced at Lionel. He knew that May's health began to deteriorate when she was attacked by the Eighth Law during the Eighth Law incident. The reason she was attacked was that when May was trying to collect information on various people who had fallen into a deep sleep after being attacked by the Eighth Law, she deduced information that had been corrupted by the Eighth Law, but was inadvertently attacked by the most corrupted information from the Eighth Law.

This time, the Fire Moth reacted quickly to the Eighth Law's attack, but...

"I'll go with you," Kevin said.

Lionel nodded, while Beifengge stroked his chin and said, "I remember I'm also qualified to perform Fusion Warrior surgery, so why don't I register here first?"

"Let's get started right away," Lionel said, and then left with Kevin and Beifengge.

"What are you all standing there for? Instead of standing here in a daze, why don't you go and gather information on what those people who fell into narcolepsy did before this?" Mobius said to Hen in an annoyed tone. "Although we have deduced that the power of the Eighth Law is a memetic weapon, we do not know what the specific medium is."

"I understand, I'll go tell them right away." Hen nodded, completely unaware that Mobius was trying to get rid of them, since not everyone present had memories of their previous life.

Lilith crossed her arms and looked at Nahamah and Abaddon: "You two should go and take a look too."

"Huh? No..."

Nahamah immediately realized that Mobius was holding back something and trying to get rid of some people with the most reasonable excuse. He also guessed that this matter was related to Zhu Yufeng. Since it concerned the boss, how could he ignore it?

"Understood." Abaddon said, then dragged Nahamah away, not giving him any chance to speak. Although Abaddon had also noticed something, he chose to remain silent. He believed that since Mobius was going to keep it a secret, she must have something to be confident in controlling the situation, and this information might not be suitable for them to know right now.

While being dragged along, Nahamah was arguing with Abaddon. He changed the subject, criticizing Abaddon for being clueless about social etiquette and having no respect for him. In fact, he thought much the same as Abaddon: if he didn't need to know something, then he wouldn't know.

Unlike the Scars, the Fallen Angel at least had some subconscious impression of what had happened, so they could tell something was wrong, but they all chose to remain silent about it, including Beifengge, who had run away long ago.

Esmodius and Beelzebub were released on bail and joined Zhu Yufeng's team. The surgery was completed, but they were still locked up in the Deepest Place under the supervision of the Aponia Discipline.

Kosma paused for a moment, then looked at Disaster and said, "Let's go too, Disaster."

"Yes." Disaster nodded. "Let's not delay!"

After everyone else had left, Lilith turned to Mobius and said softly, "Alright, Dr. Mobius, now that everyone else is gone, is there something about Maple that you couldn't say earlier?"

"Follow me."

Mobius beckoned the others to follow her into the laboratory, then had Rovoc pull up Zhu Yufeng's examination records for comparison with those of others, and said, "Let's get straight to the conclusion. Yu Feng's condition is different from the others. The Eighth Law of Manifestation did not have any substantial impact on his mental state. Compared to the others, Yu Feng's current state is probably more like having a lucid dream."

"In other words, he knows he's dreaming, and most likely he also knows he's been attacked by the Eighth Law, but for some reason, he's temporarily unable to wake up like everyone else?" Lilith said.

"Generally speaking, the stronger one's resistance to Honkai Energy and the more resolute one's will, the easier it is to wake up from the dream woven by the Eighth Law. Yu Feng's situation is different." Mobius said, looking at the data on the screen. "According to the analysis results of the instruments on Admil's side, Yu Feng and Astaroth have a large overlap in their thought waves, which can almost be considered as... he and Astaroth are having the same dream."

"In other words, the main character in the dream is actually Astaroth. If Astaroth can't wake up, then Feng can't wake up either, right?" Lilith said. "After all, I've spent so much time with Feng, and I know his personality well. The Eighth Law has no effect on him at all."

"Yes, indeed... Feng Yi clearly distinguishes between dreams and reality." Elysia nodded thoughtfully. "In other words, the Eighth Law may have also realized this, so he simply used Astaroth's dream as his cage to bind him inside. That way, if he wants to break through the dream, then..."

"He needs to kill the master of the dream. Although it's possible he might turn against the Eighth Law afterward, given the cowardly nature of the Eighth Law, he'll probably just utter a harsh word and run away without looking back." Lilith shrugged. "But... Feng won't do that. If the master of the dream were someone else, he would do it without hesitation. The reason he hasn't done it is because that person is Astaroth."

The Eighth Law is actually quite cowardly. When Lilith broke through the Eighth Law's dream, the Eighth Law was shocked and angry but did not choose to pursue her. On the one hand, she felt that it was not important for one person to break through, and on the other hand, she was really cowardly, afraid that if she made any big moves, she would attract the attention of the Fire Moth and end up being locked on...

Later, the Eighth Law and the Fire Moth officially clashed. She tried to attack the Fusion Warrior who were locating her by controlling the guards who were falling into her dream world. At the same time, she was constantly hiding her tracks. In the end, she was locked on by Su and caught by Aponia. She had no choice but to fight. While fighting, she did not forget to try to find an opportunity to escape.

In truth, the Eighth Law couldn't help but be terrified. After all, her predecessors were basically all killed by humans after their locations were exposed. The Seventh Law, with the most glorious record, was still instantly killed by Kevin. Kevin wasn't this strong before; he performed surgery and instantly killed the Law. Who wouldn't be afraid? Even if her main body was a consciousness entity, what if another person similar to Kevin popped out from among the mental Fusion Warrior? She had no choice but to be terrified...

The ninth and tenth Lawful Spirits followed the basic principle of developing stealthily and hiding whenever possible, unlike the previous Lawful Spirits who went to fight humans as soon as they awakened.

In her previous life, there was another reason why the Eighth Law decided to take the initiative to attack the Fusion Warrior who were trying to locate her: she used her abilities to kill several mental fusion Fusion Warrior, including Disaster, which gave her a lot of confidence. Then, when she encountered Su and Aponia, she realized that she was no match for them and immediately backed down, trying her best to escape.

"So, besides finding and eliminating the Eighth Law, is there no other way for us now?" Seele said. She only knew a general idea of the Eighth Law's powers. After all, she wasn't even human at the time, and Zhu Yufeng couldn't get involved in the battle with the Eighth Law at all. As just a Divine Key, she didn't have enough to assess the Eighth Law's abilities.

"Theoretically, if Feng is strong enough, he can locate the Eighth Lawful Man's position within the dream created by the Eighth Lawful Man and then kill him," Rovoc said, resting his chin on his hand. "However, although it's a bit strange..."

"Feng has also developed abilities similar to those of a mental Fusion Warrior, right? He already told us about it," Lilith said. "After all, everyone here is someone Feng trusts, so there's no need for him to keep this from us."

In fact, among the Fallen Angel, only four people know that Zhu Yufeng has the ability to Fusion Warrior: Rovoc, Xila, Lilith, Admil. The others are completely unaware of this. Among them, Rovoc, Xila, Admil are still unaware of his lawyer identity, at least he has never told them.

Zhu Yufeng's Hypervariable Factor comes from Ugar, which is a top-secret file in the Fire Moth. If the ability Ugar gave him also includes mental abilities, it will inevitably bring a lot of trouble.

Therefore, even in the top-secret files, Zhu Yufeng's ability is recorded as a time-related ability, manifested as the speeding up and reversing of his limited self-time, as well as the speeding up and reversing of time when he touches an object.

There was no other way; his abilities needed to be documented on the Mu Continent. The King of the Mu Continent was very interested in Zhu Yufeng and Kevin, the two "warriors" who were the first to undergo surgery, and he certainly couldn't hide it from them. So he could only write something realistic that wouldn't exceed His Majesty's imagination.

Rovoc frowned slightly. What she really wanted to know was, Ugar was clearly Honkai Beast with time-based abilities, why did Feng, who fused with its Hypervariable Factor, possess mental abilities? However... SEELE's Hypervariable Factor came from the Honkai Beast Yanluo, and she ultimately became a mental Fusion Warrior. Xila, who was also undergoing the Chimera Project, did not develop mental abilities after fusing with Yanluo's Hypervariable Factor. Could it be that not only do different Honkai Beast result in different abilities, but different people fusing with the same Honkai Beast also produce different results?

Ugar's time-manipulation ability is currently the strongest known ability, bar none. Even just the theoretical possibility of its existence is enough to rival the power of a Lawbringer. Just as the essence of the Seventh Lawbringer's power is rapid quantum thermal motion, the ability to manipulate time can also influence the creation and decay of the First Lawbringer... In other words, if Ugar truly corresponds to a Lawbringer with time-related powers, He might be humanity's final enemy...

"There is another method, just like how Admil used the machine he made to find answers about you Fallen Angel. I can modify the machine he made to send an external consciousness into the consciousness space where Yu Feng is now." Vill-V said, "However, since the consciousness space where Yu Feng is now is constructed by the Eighth Law, the instrument alone is not enough to break through it. A spiritual Fusion Warrior is needed to break through that barrier."

"Should we send Sister Nia or Brother Su?" Pardo asked.

"They need to lock onto the Eighth Law from the outside, so it can't be them." Vill-V looked at Seele. "Or we can go back to our original plan, do nothing, wait for Yu Feng's message, and then we can kill the Eighth Law from the outside."

Seele crossed her arms and said, "I understand. Then let me do it. I want to see what kind of dream that guy is having. Although the main subject of the dream is that girl Astaroth, there must be some influence from her."

For example, she was also curious about how the Eighth Law would handle the relationship between this blockhead and other girls.