Pour out the Nutrient Solution, then pour the drink in. Nutrient Solution was the one thing they had no shortage of.
"Mobius, don't add any of your genius ideas to my drinks from now on!"
"Tch."
Seeing Mobius's displeased expression, Bai Chen had no idea whether she had taken his words to heart.
Time passed quickly. Over the next few days, Bai Chen went to cooperate with the Stigma Research Institute for another experiment. Other than collecting a little more data than last time, nothing else happened.
Then Bai Chen discovered something else about Mobius: she couldn't even cook! No wonder Chijie could threaten her if she knew how to cook.
No, why had he summoned her here, then? Wasn't she supposed to serve him!?
"Mobius, go cooperate with them on that stigma research."
Bai Chen felt that stigmas were practically Mobius's field of expertise, weren't they?
"No. I have projects of my own to research. I don't want to create more trouble for myself."
Mobius directly refused Bai Chen's request.
"Huh? But aren't stigmas your thing?"
Bai Chen scratched his head. Something this familiar shouldn't affect her, right?
"That was what the Mobius of your world did. I'm not the Mobius of this world, so don't lump us together. Besides, it's not within a servant's duties."
Mobius lay sideways on the sofa like a beautiful serpent, her nimble fingers tapping at the instrument before her as if she were browsing this world's technological level.
It seemed Mobius truly didn't want to help with the artificial stigma research. But did she think she could refuse just because she wanted to?
Just as Bai Chen was preparing to take some coercive measures, an urgent message came through on his communicator.
Interrupted mid-cast, Bai Chen picked up his communicator to check the message, then grinned.
"Great. The fish took the bait."
Dr. Maki had stolen the Serenity Gem and fled. Bring Dr. Maki back alive if possible. If necessary, only the Serenity Gem needed to be recovered.
After waiting for Dr. Maki for so many days, Bai Chen could barely restrain himself from contacting that bastard Cocolia!
Since his brother had betrayed Schicksal, it was perfectly reasonable to beat him until he couldn't get out of bed for half a year, right?
"I wonder how strong Waltz is."
Bai Chen said it indifferently. He couldn't be that strong anyway.
Waltz's Death
But Bai Chen found something strange. Judging by the timeline, this incident should have taken place after the Anti-Entropy Invasion arc.
Yet Bai Chen had been staying in the St. Freya dormitories almost the entire time, and he hadn't noticed Waltz coming to cause trouble?
Waltz was Cocolia's replica of Anti-Entropy's first Sovereign, the first officially introduced replica.
At this point, Bai Chen had no idea that he had been gone from the main world for over half a month. He had always thought he had only been gone for a day.
Never mind that. The people who needed beating still needed beating.
Before going, he should buy a few things as gifts for their first meeting.
At night, several Valkyries cornered Dr. Maki. As long as they pulled the trigger, they could end Dr. Maki's life.
"Dr. Maki, please come back with us. As Schicksal's chief researcher, you are important property of Schicksal. Unless necessary, we do not wish to harm your life."
Though the Valkyries spoke politely, judging by Dr. Maki's battered body and the guns and cannons poised in their hands, they clearly did not value his life as much as their words suggested.
"I will not hand these things over to that demon Otto!"
Dr. Maki clutched the suitcase in his hands tightly. Inside was the Serenity Gem.
"That's right, Doctor. As long as you hand that over to us, we'll put it to better use."
An arrogant-looking fellow emerged from the darkness, bearing some resemblance to Welt Joyce.
But unlike Joyce's easygoing demeanor, this fellow was full of arrogance and swagger, like some spoiled rich brat.
"You're finally here. I thought that bastard Cocolia had broken her promise."
The moment Dr. Maki saw Waltz, relief appeared on his face. Little did he know that the person before him was even more detestable than Otto.
"Cocolia! You actually cooperated with that crazy woman!?"
The pursuing Valkyries were dumbfounded. He thought Otto was a demon, so he fled Schicksal—but did he know what kind of person Cocolia was?!
Had she done any fewer inhuman things? Wasn't he just leaving the wolf's den for the tiger's lair? If he thought Cocolia was a good person, then the tens of thousands who died in all of Changkong City would give him a big thumbs-up.
"Fine, you trash can leave the stage now!"
Waltz laughed cruelly and directly unleashed pseudo-black holes at the Valkyries, intending to tear them to pieces.
But he was destined for disappointment. A silver curtain of light instantly swept the Valkyries away, moving them from that place.
"Who is it!?"
Seeing his attack miss, Waltz furiously scanned his surroundings. He would not tolerate anything beyond his control!
Bai Chen watched Waltz barking over there with a strange expression. For some reason, he felt that Waltz looked like one of those dogs called Chihuahuas whenever he got angry.
"Weren't you at Lord Otto's side these past few days?"
The rescued Valkyries were visibly surprised when they saw Bai Chen. Bai Chen had become quite popular among the Valkyries lately. They all said that Rita had found Durandal a new lover behind her back, perhaps because Lord Durandal's shelf life had expired.
"That guy is a replica of the First Herrscher. His abilities can easily cause collateral damage, so leave him to me."
Ignoring the Valkyries' strange looks, Bai Chen gave them a simple instruction and stepped out on his own to draw Waltz's attention.
"You! You executioner!"
The moment Dr. Maki saw Bai Chen step out, a trace of resentment immediately appeared in his eyes.
"Hey, hey, hey, don't look at me with so much hatred. I only helped Lin end her suffering. And if I'm an executioner, what does that make you, the one who performed the experiment?"
Bai Chen refused to take that blame.
"..."
After hearing Bai Chen's words, Dr. Maki lowered his head again, regret filling his eyes once more.
"I'm sorry, I'm sorry..."
Dr. Maki choked out apologies, though no one knew who he was apologizing to. But at that moment, his resolve to take the Serenity Gem away from Schicksal only grew firmer.
"Hey, brat, what backwater did you crawl out of? Where did those pieces of trash go?"
Seeing that it was just some kid, Waltz casually picked at his ear and asked in a questioning tone.
"And what incubator did you crawl out of? Did you even wash the nutrient fluid off yourself before butting in?"
Bai Chen already found this guy unpleasant. Thinking about how he had shamelessly fawned over Fu Hua in the original plot made him even more annoyed! Though his tongue was cut out later.
"You!?"
Waltz's already unstable emotions were instantly ignited by Bai Chen's mockery!
To hell with it! It didn't matter where those Valkyries had gone. Right now, he was going to kill this little bastard!
Waltz manipulated dozens of times the normal gravity to descend upon Bai Chen, but it failed to crush him. It merely flattened a patch of snow.
"Actually, your ability would be pretty useful for clearing snowy roads. How about negotiating with Shenzhou? Five hundred yuan per street after heavy winter snowfall?"
Bai Chen had already dodged aside and stood on a branch above Waltz's head, his face full of mockery.
"You little bastard!"
Mocked again, Waltz felt like he was about to explode from rage! He had never suffered this kind of humiliation in his memories!
A small black hole instantly appeared beneath Bai Chen's feet, trying to drag him in.
But it was still too slow. Before the suction force could even appear, Bai Chen turned into an afterimage and vanished.
It seemed Waltz was much stronger than Waltz One, after all. Waltz One apparently couldn't use black holes this easily.
"Is your power just throwing little black balls around? Are you some kind of Herrscher?"
Bai Chen moved into Waltz's blind spot again, his verbal attacks never stopping.
"Shut up! All you know how to do is run away?"
His face red with rage, Waltz hurled an energy sphere at Bai Chen, but an attack of that level still missed.
Bai Chen was no longer there. At the same time, Waltz felt as though someone had pressed a hand against his kidney.
"You told me not to dodge, didn't you?"
"You..."
Waltz looked down at Bai Chen's hand pressed against his waist. Just as he was about to say something, an enormous force pierced through him and tore through his kidney!
"Urgh!"
Waltz flew through the air like a rag doll, while Bai Chen slowly withdrew his stance.
Inch Force: Heaven Splitter.
Bai Chen could have dealt with this guy much more easily. He could have simply transformed into an A-rank Valkyrie from the start and, after equipping the stigma, ripped his head off in a single exchange.
But Bai Chen didn't want to do that. It would have been too boring. Before his opponent became truly disgusting, Bai Chen didn't mind playing with him a little longer.
"Dr. Maki, I truly can't understand why you chose to cooperate with Cocolia. Do you think she has taken fewer innocent lives than Otto?"
Seeing that Waltz could not get back up for the moment, Bai Chen deliberately chose not to finish him off and instead started chatting with Dr. Maki.
"I..."
Dr. Maki was actually gambling as well. He believed that with the help of a chief researcher like himself, Cocolia would not go too far.
"You're truly senile. New Zealand is your destination, right? There's only one outcome if you go there: Cocolia will sacrifice another city and create a second Changkong City."
Bai Chen coldly revealed what would happen in the original plot.
"No. With my help, she has no need to use such underhanded methods."
Dr. Maki retorted.
"You won't give up until you see the coffin."
Bai Chen turned to look at Waltz, who had climbed back up. He would deal with this bastard in front of him first.
"Hey, Herrscher. I prepared a gift for you before I came. Want to take a look?"
Bai Chen asked with a grin.
"Pah, you little bastard! You think you can get cocky just because you landed a couple of sneak attacks!?"
Waltz spat out a mouthful of bloody phlegm, his expression severely twisted by rage and pain.
"Wow, looks like you really want to see it. Then, ta-da!"
Bai Chen waved his hand, and a Dimensional Wall appeared out of thin air. After leaving something behind, it vanished.
"Have a safe journey?"
Waltz stared blankly at the four black words on the white background. A moment later, once he realized what it meant, he became even more furious!
"Fuck you! You dare give me a funeral wreath? Killing you ten thousand times today won't be enough!!!"
Waltz frantically scattered a sky-covering barrage of energy spheres, trying to overwhelm Bai Chen's speed with sheer numbers.
Bai Chen merely snapped his fingers. The energy spheres vanished from where they were as if erased by an eraser.
Of course, Bai Chen had sent all of them into a World Bubble.
"Wow, the Prince's Tactics. Too bad other people have smoke and take no damage, while you have neither smoke nor damage!"
At that moment, Bai Chen's smile looked unbearably dazzling to Waltz, but all he could do was rage helplessly!
"Die!"
Having lost his mind, Waltz summoned countless black holes again, surrounding Bai Chen. He refused to believe Bai Chen's ability to erase things had such a small cost. After using it a few more times, he definitely wouldn't be able to use it anymore!
But he was wrong. Bai Chen's spatial transfer did indeed consume very little.
But Bai Chen had no intention of using that power to deal with Waltz.
Drive: Eden's Star
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