Stigmata

"I understand. I will upload some of my data," Admil said to Lionel on the screen. "The Third Research Institute will also do its best to assist in searching for information contaminated by the Eighth Herrscher."

"Then I'll leave it to you, Director Admil." Lionel nodded and then ended the communication.

Admil was promoted to director of the Third Research Institute after the Seventh Herrscher Incident. In fact, the Mu Continent was also aware that Admil had effectively controlled nearly two-thirds of the Third Research Institute's power. After the death of the former director, Elvon, the newly appointed director was unable to suppress Admil's willful behavior. After struggling for a while, they chose to leave each other alone, and the Third Research Institute was almost torn apart. Although Admil didn't interfere much, the other members of his faction never forgot to suppress the director's faction. In particular, Gray Serpent, whom Mobius had arranged to help him operate here, was fond of stirring up trouble, which led to a period of tension between the two sides. Gray Serpent even mobilized the "Arc Moon" assassin organization, which had been swallowed up by World Serpent, to carry out its work.

After the Seventh Herrscher Incident, Mobius resigned from his position as a councilor. Mu Continent, to do a favor, readily gave the position of director of the Third Research Institute to Admil, who belonged to Mobius's faction. In any case, at that time, the director's faction had already been suppressed by Admil to the point of being unable to raise their heads.

After Admil became the director of the Third Research Institute, the Third Research Institute could basically be regarded as the headquarters of the World Serpent. The Fire Moth had long been aware of the existence of the World Serpent, but they could never catch these shadows hidden in the darkness. They only knew that there must be a shadow organization of the Fire Moth.

The most outrageous thing is that Mostima, as a high-ranking fighter in the World Serpent, was secretly observing the information exchanges of others. Some people deduced that Mobius was related to that shadow, but in the end it turned out that even Mobius was just one of the cadres who was pushed out as the public figure.

Some people speculate that this hidden organization existed alongside the Fire Moth was established, never imagining that World Serpent had only developed in the last few years.

Mostima: "..."

Well... not surprising, after all, no normal person would expect Mobius to cause so much trouble after the Third Herrscher incident, and even seem to know what would happen next as if he were a prophet, and then use it to his advantage.

Mostima needed to do was steer the conversation at the right time, after all... no one would have thought that Vill-V and Mobius had jointly built the Gray Serpent Network for communication within the World Serpent, and then he and Vill-V had established a surveillance system for the Fire Moth... The key geniuses of the Fire Moth, apart from Mebius, were basically all working for the World Serpent, and although Mebius hadn't joined the World Serpent, her style of doing things was actually not too different from that of the World Serpent.

Mu Continent and Lionel are naturally aware of this, but in any case, World Serpent's ultimate goal is still the same as that of the Fire Moth. However, in order to fight against the Honkai, World Serpent's current actions are quite radical.

In order to defeat the Honkai, humanity always has to pay a price, especially when humanity has begun to show signs of decline in this war. Therefore, the Mu Continent has maintained a tacitly acquiescing attitude towards this.

Otherwise, if they were determined to investigate thoroughly, they could still find some people involved.

Basically, everyone in the know believes that Admil is one of those shadows. Giving him the position of director of the Third Research Institute can be seen as giving World Serpent a place to operate openly. The first meaning is indeed to balance the internal relations of the Fire Moth, but the deeper meaning is that the shadow that the Seventh Herrscher has brought to humanity is huge enough. If the Fusion Warrior Project had not been realized by Mobius ahead of schedule, the destruction caused by the Seventh Herrscher would have been even more severe than it is now.

Regardless of whether Admil is one of the Shadows, as long as his style of doing things is suitable for succeeding Mobius, that's fine. As for how many people Admiral sacrificed before Mobius completed the first Fusion Warrior surgery, although Mobius's report afterward didn't mention it, who would believe it? Don't they even look at how many people Admiral has survived the surgery since the Seventh Herrscher Incident?

Nobody really wanted to care; if Mobius said so, then so be it.

After ending his communication with Lionel, Admil instructed his men to immediately search for and compile information on those infected with narcolepsy in the Third Research Institute and submit it to headquarters.

"You don't seem interested in finding out about the contaminated information, Director Admil," Gray Serpent's voice echoed in the shadows of Admil's laboratory.

Admil didn't even bother to look at it. He just looked down at the latest experimental report in his hand and said, "The power of the Eighth Herrscher is a memetic weapon. Our research institute doesn't have any mental Fusion Warrior who can fight against it yet. Moreover, we have more important things to do right now."

Although Admil is now Fusion Warrior, he is not a mental Fusion Warrior... he is probably more of a functional one... In short, he can basically be regarded as the weakest one among those who have completed the Fusion Warrior surgery so far.

Ever since Zhu Yufeng and Rovoc confessed some things to each other, the Stigmata Project had been lingering in Admil's mind. His goal was to improve the physical fitness of some humans so that they could withstand the consequences of Honkai Energy for other humans, and the Herrscher was one such target. However, after Zhu Yufeng told him about the concept of Stigmata, he changed his approach.

He is indeed persistent in the Artificial Herrscher project, and he has not completely abandoned it yet. He regards the Fusion Warrior Project and the Stigmata as a stepping stone for human Herrscher. According to Zhu Yufeng's description of two of the fifteen versions of the Stigmata Project, Admil prefers the Adam of Spirit version.

After all, not all humans are qualified to survive the "baptism" of the Honkai. The "Adam of Spirit" can almost be considered the best solution to preserve all of humanity, provided that humanity cannot defeat the Finality.

Unfortunately, this plan would require modifying the entire human genome, so Admil ultimately abandoned it with regret. Of course, he also had a feeling that if he persisted with the plan, he would be met with a severe beating from Zhu Yufeng...

Both the Fusion Warrior Project and the Stigmata Project can improve humanity's adaptability and ability to use Honkai, but the success rate of the Fusion Warrior Project is too low, and now the Fusion Warrior Project and its variant, the Chimera Project, are being handled by May and Mobius. Therefore, it is only natural that Admil would turn his attention to the Stigmata Project.

Admil's understanding of the concept of Stigmata came entirely from Zhu Yufeng, but Zhu Yufeng, who didn't care about such things, didn't understand it either. He only knew that Stigmata were essentially databases containing a large amount of genetic information, manifested in the form of "Honkai Antibodies".

Mei left the Stigmata Project to future generations because there simply wasn't enough time. The Stigmata Project was even more time-consuming than the Fusion Warrior Project. Mei used all her knowledge to only complete the modification of the current human female gene pool; she didn't have time to complete the modification of all the male genes. Therefore, in the end, there were far more females than males among the humans who possessed Stigmata.

Even if Mei made modifications to the entire human gene pool, very few humans would ultimately obtain the natural Stigmata.

Of course, Admil couldn't possibly proceed with the Stigmata Project as envisioned by May. In May's Stigmata Project, the combat experience and life experiences of each generation of Stigmata holders would be recorded in the Stigmata, thus providing stronger power for the next generation of holders. But where would Admil find so much time to cultivate so many generations of Stigmata holders?

Therefore, what Admil actually created was an Artificial Stigmata based on the research of the current Schicksal's Destiny on the Stigmata. Unlike Schicksal, Admil basically started from scratch, knowing nothing and relying solely on a concept given to him by Zhu Yufeng to conduct experiments.

However, although Admil's experiments were not very successful, he, like Mobius, respected the wishes of the test subjects when selecting them; the experiment would only begin if they agreed.

For most people Corrosion by the Honkai, Admil offered a possible path to recovery and relatively good living conditions. Many people even signed the papers before Admil finished explaining.

In response, Admil could only say that since they were practically offering it to him, he might as well take it.

Another purpose of Admil's research into the Stigmata was to plan for the future civilization. He learned from Zhu Yufeng that the Stigmata Project had flaws due to insufficient time. If they still could not overcome the Finality this time, it would be necessary to make further plans for the future.

To be honest, he admired Mei. Based on the information he got from Zhu Yufeng, Mei had completed a workload beyond what ordinary people could imagine, and still had time to research the Stigmata Project and a bunch of other plans. If Mei hadn't died from Honkai Corrosion and overwork, Admil would have had to question Mei's identity.

His the Present research, besides enhancing humanity's combat capabilities, is also intended to provide a foundation for the next civilization should Mei need it, offering a more perfect safeguard.

"How's the situation the Present there?" Admil asked.

"Although I don't know why you suddenly became so interested in that Stigmata, as you wished, the Stigmata has achieved initial success, although the price is a bit too high for humans," Gray Serpent said.

"Is it a physical mutation, or a shortened lifespan?" Admil continued to ask.

"It's a shortening of lifespan, and a significant one at that. Based on the one successful case we've obtained so far, the Stigmata helped him resist the Honkai's Corrosion. Although he didn't gain power like Fusion Warrior, at least his resistance to Honkai Energy has greatly increased, and his ability to utilize Honkai Energy is far beyond that of ordinary people," Gray Serpent answered methodically. "The price he paid was a significant depletion of his life force. According to observations, only a few hours after the Stigmata appeared, his bodily functions began to rapidly decline."

Admil put down the experimental report in his hand and looked at Gray Serpent: "Is it because he used Honkai Energy, or did this happen even though he did nothing?"

"To show off his 'superpowers' to us, and also for our further observation, we let him do as he pleased." Gray Serpent seemed somewhat regretful about this, "Unfortunately, compared to the Fusion Warrior Project, the Stigmata Project is still not mature enough."

"I understand." Admil stood up. "I'll go to the scene and find out what's going on."

"Speaking of which, there's something I'm very curious about." The red light in Gray Serpent's eyes brightened slightly. "You have a very high regard for Feng, and you can basically be seen as working for him the Present. But why, after your initial understanding of Feng's current state of sleep, did you change your mind about him?"

"Because I have absolute trust in him." Admil walked out of his laboratory. "The Eighth Herrscher ... may not be able to do anything to him."

The red light in the Gray Serpent's eyes flashed, but he ultimately said nothing.

The reason Admil dared to say this was because he had already realized the identity of Zhu Yufeng, which Mobius had tried his best to conceal. Although there was no solid evidence that Zhu Yufeng was a Herrscher, Admil had no proof. However, when he came to this possible conclusion, he was genuinely delighted, just as he had finally seen the result of his years of research.

And for some reason, he doesn't seem to have much interest in the Fusion Warrior Project the Present, as if he's already gone down this path and just wants to take a different one.

Fire Moth Headquarters.

"Amo, what exactly is the Eighth Herrscher? According to Dr. Mobius, is it possible that this Herrscher doesn't even have a physical form?" Disaster said while organizing the information she had gathered so far. "First there was the Herrscher had no rationality and only knew how to use her powers, then there was the Herrscher had developed consciousness, and the Present this Eighth Herrscher... Aren't our enemies getting more and more troublesome?"

Kosma remained silent. It wasn't quite true that there was only one Herrscher without a physical form, the Eighth Herrscher, but the fact that they were becoming increasingly troublesome was undeniable. He had initially tried to prevent Disaster from accessing written information, but all he got in return was Disaster's question, "How can I collect and organize information if I don't read? Someone has to do these things, right?"

Kosma had no choice; he really didn't know what to say. He could only rely on his limited memories from his previous life to figure out which information was safe to organize.

"The Present is really troublesome... More and more people are falling into a deep sleep after being attacked by the Eighth Herrscher, and Kaede is one of the earliest ones..." Disaster said, straightening up and taking out her phone to take a look, but then she thought about the information that might be contaminated by the Eighth Herrscher, so she refrained from looking and put the phone back.

"We've already investigated that storybook. We can roughly determine the page number where the words corrupted by the Eighth Herrscher are located. Then we can ask other psychic Fusion Warrior to enter the Eighth Herrscher's illusion and find the Eighth Herrscher," Kosma said.

"I can't even read storybooks anymore..." Disaster muttered. "Never mind, I'll just keep checking the information."

"After all, the Present the Eighth Herrscher's corruption has not yet been fully determined, and she may create new corrupted texts at any time," Kosma said.

But he didn't hear the girl's response. Instead, he heard someone fall and papers scatter on the ground. In the boy's suddenly constricted pupils, the girl lay on the ground as if she had fallen asleep, without any response.