Ai Yue's mind flashed with Aponia's image—If I could use the effects of "Discipline" to restrict these people, wouldn't things become much simpler?
Once I finished the urgent matters at hand, I'd make this a proper research project and study it.
Ai Yue shook his head, then began sorting through the piles of documents in his hands.
Naturally, he wouldn't bow his head just like that. But there were more important things to deal with right now. To avoid missing Kevin's birthday party, everything else could wait.
However, trouble always seemed to come one thing after another.
Before Ai Yue could finish looking through everything in his hands, the doorbell rang again.
This time, a "familiar face" appeared outside.
"Dr. Mobius?" A smile appeared on Ai Yue's face, but he grew wary inside. "What brings you here? Isn't the First Research Institute busy?"
The green-haired woman standing outside was none other than Mobius, whom he had met briefly yesterday. She no longer looked exhausted from yesterday's surgery. Instead, she had put on light makeup, making her already striking features look even more refined.
However, Ai Yue could see through that layer of skin and perceive her deeper nature, so it was difficult for her appearance to stir any unusual thoughts in him.
"I just came to congratulate my new colleague on officially starting work." Mobius raised her right hand, indicating that she had brought a gift. "What? You don't welcome me?"
"Welcome, of course!" No matter how wary he was of her, Ai Yue knew this was absolutely not the time to fall out with her. "Please come in, Dr. Mobius. It's empty inside, and I don't have anything to entertain you with. Would plain water be all right?"
"No need." Mobius placed the bag in her hand on the workbench and revealed its contents. "I happened to bring milk tea. One cup each."
Ai Yue: ...
You probably just snatched this from one of your assistants, didn't you? You call this a housewarming gift?
Ai Yue vaguely remembered that there was a rule in Mobius's laboratory: whoever arrived late had to buy everyone milk tea. He had no idea which unlucky person this cup had originally belonged to.
But he had to admit, it was pretty good.
"The assignment they gave you?" Mobius sipped her milk tea as she walked over to the pile of documents. She flipped through them, then scoffed. "As expected. Those people upstairs are too lazy to come up with even a new trick."
After expressing her disdain, Mobius looked at Ai Yue again. "Well? How do you feel about being treated this way?"
"It's all right." Ai Yue naturally had no intention of revealing his true thoughts in front of Mobius, so he put on the appearance of an honest man. "At least the conditions are much better than those on Twilight Street, aren't they?"
"What good are good conditions? Without a project, there's no funding. Without funding, there are no results." Mobius glanced at him. "Ninety percent of what you received is useless to the laboratory. You still don't understand what they mean?"
She spoke slowly. "If you refuse to become a powerful person's dog, then do this kind of work for the rest of your life. They would rather bury a genius than see a second Dr. Mei."
"That's rather frightening." Ai Yue put on a worried expression, then relaxed again. "Fortunately, Dr. Mei appreciates me. I probably won't be shelved, right?"
"That's hard to say. That fellow Mei probably won't have time to look after you from now on, will she?" Mobius suddenly smiled. "By the way, how about coming to work for me? If you perform well, I wouldn't mind giving you a hand."
"You should know that I was the one who discovered Mei in the first place."
"All right." Ai Yue pretended to submit. "I wonder what kind of project Dr. Mobius would be willing to give me?"
Not knowing what exactly had gone wrong with that sentence, Mobius suddenly fell silent, and her expression turned gloomy.
She looked Ai Yue over again, her gaze slightly cold. "Hey, you. That thing really was invented by you?"
"But why can't I find even the slightest trace of a 'genius' in you?"
Finally, she couldn't hold back.
Seeing Mobius tear away her human-like disguise and reveal her cold, gloomy expression, Ai Yue wasn't surprised. Instead, he felt relieved.
As an organization that had gathered elite talents from across the world, Moth to Fire had an almost absurd concentration of geniuses. You could go to the Logistics Department to collect a kettle and still run into seven or eight geniuses.
Even so, Mobius was absolutely one of the most dazzling among them. She was a "born knower," possessing sapience and wisdom from the moment she was born. She could think and understand the meaning behind other people's words—practically a protagonist's setting straight out of a novel.
It was precisely because of this talent that Mobius had developed a worldview completely different from that of ordinary people from a young age.
It could even be said that without such an extraordinary outlook, Mobius might never have reached her current achievements. The geniuses she was familiar with also displayed more or less some inhuman qualities.
In other words, scientists standing at the forefront of humanity were all somewhat obsessive—to the point of madness.
By comparison, Ai Yue's performance was extremely mediocre, even worldly. It was only natural that Mobius would grow suspicious of him.
In fact, Ai Yue's thoughts couldn't be said to be exactly identical to Mobius's inner thoughts. They could only be described as nearly the same.
In Mobius's view, anyone who aspired to change the world and possessed the ability to do so should have convictions of their own.
After all, in this era, every step scholars took into the unknown could provoke countless arguments and criticism. The Fusion Warrior Project was one such example.
Many people walked this path, but every one of them was alone. Without a strong heart and firm convictions, how many could persist to the end?
Even if they couldn't go so far as to "be willing to oppose humanity for humanity's future," they should at least possess pride of their own.
But Mobius had seen none of that in Ai Yue.
A strong heart, firm convictions, pride—not even arrogance.
Even when she tried to provoke him with a tone resembling charity, all she received was a grateful expression.
What kind of scholar was this? He was nothing more than an old hand in the workplace!
Mobius even felt that if she threw him into politics, he could fight those scheming old bastards to a standstill.
Could someone like this really conduct experiments alone under the crude, harsh conditions of Twilight Street, refuse to admit defeat after repeatedly tasting failure, and ultimately complete such an exquisite work?
Mobius held the Honkai Energy Absorber in very high regard. It was a product that had been carefully considered from every angle and could be described as having no weaknesses.
Moth to Fire was not lacking in devices with similar functions, but each had its own problems. Some were too large to carry and could only be placed in a room for use. Others were portable enough, but so expensive that mass adoption was impossible. Some were barely affordable, but their effects were difficult to apply in real-world situations.
The only product within Moth to Fire that could be mass-produced was a disposable item. It had to be discarded and replaced after twelve hours of use. Yet placed beside Ai Yue's Honkai Energy Absorber, it looked like a joke.
Although the device was crudely made, that only made its value more apparent. It was a product one person had painstakingly refined through his own efforts despite lacking material resources. Just this alone was enough for Mobius to picture a lonely yet stubborn figure in her mind.
She had never expected its creator to be this fellow standing before her!
In fact, if Ai Yue had truly made the Honkai Energy Absorber through his own ability, he might have matched Mobius's imagination.
Unfortunately, although Mobius was a genius who had been born knowing, it was still difficult for her to imagine that cheats actually existed in this world.
If Ai Yue knew what Mobius was thinking, he would definitely have said that she had "formed expectations on her own, then become disappointed on her own," and was being a little too single-minded.
But for him, this was a good thing. Once Mobius dropped her act in front of someone, she became much easier to communicate with afterward.
Ai Yue didn't want to watch her put on that human-like expression again. To be honest, it triggered the uncanny valley effect.
"Could it be that, in Dr. Mobius's eyes, all 'geniuses' follow a template?" Ai Yue deliberately countered. "Are only people who fit your understanding qualified to invent something like this?"
"Hmph." Mobius snorted coldly instead of answering directly. "What are the raw materials and synthesis formula for the most crucial component in the Honkai Energy Absorber's core—the Activated Synthetic Carbon Core?"
Ai Yue said nothing. He simply took a pen and paper, wrote down a string of formulas and materials, then handed them to Mobius.
Mobius lowered her head to look at the contents. Her teeth unconsciously gnawed at the milk-tea straw with a sharp crackle. After a moment, she raised her head. "The materials and formula differ slightly from the version you previously asked Dr. Mei to submit."
"I improved it over the past few days when I had nothing else to do." Ai Yue spoke as though nothing were unusual. "Using this new version should increase the absorber core's service life by around fifty uses. I haven't had time to test it precisely."
"It won't reach fifty. Forty-four, at most." Mobius was a top scholar indeed. She had arrived at an accurate result through mental simulation alone. "Hmph. Fine. I'll count that as passing."
"Then the test was pretty easy." Ai Yue smiled. "How is that any different from an open-book exam?"
"If you had simply handed me the original contents unchanged, I would have given you zero." Mobius rolled her eyes. "No matter how perfect something appears to others, its creator can always improve and optimize it."
"You didn't seal it away just because the work was complete. That can't prove you're a genius, but it does at least prove that you can be called a scholar."
"Dr. Mobius, you didn't come here today just to test me, did you?" Ai Yue sighed. "It seems the First Research Institute doesn't have enough work after all."
"What's it to you?" Mobius sucked the last bit of milk tea from the cup, casually placed it on the table, then reached into the bag and took out a document. "I originally came to recruit you, but it seems I'll need to observe you a little longer."
As she spoke, she tossed the document to Ai Yue. "Still, giving you this as a reward is no problem."
Ai Yue picked up the document and glanced at it, then looked at Mobius in astonishment. "Am I really allowed to read this?"
The red cover bore a single simple line—
"Fusion Warrior Project."
The Fusion Warrior Project.
Before the Divine Keys project had even been formally proposed, this was the greatest weapon in Moth to Fire's possession for fighting the Honkai and Herrschers.
The disputes over benefits and clashes of ideals caused by this project were already raging fiercely within Moth to Fire. Beneath its seemingly harmonious and stable exterior, the seeds of division had already been planted.
Yet now, this document that should have been Moth to Fire's highest-level secret had appeared in the hands of Ai Yue, who had joined Moth to Fire only a day ago.
He didn't need to think to know that this was certainly Mobius acting on her own. It was possible that even Dr. Mei knew nothing about it.
"What? Are you afraid?" Seeing Ai Yue's reaction, Mobius revealed a faint smile. "If you're scared, you can return it. We'll pretend none of this happened."
"What do I have to be afraid of?" Ai Yue looked at her in confusion. "You just need to make sure you're not afraid."
Once this thing fell into his hands, even Ai Yue himself couldn't determine what consequences it would cause.
He didn't hesitate for long. Soon, he opened the document and began reading.
"Quite eager." Mobius smiled and didn't stop him, merely watching quietly from the side. "Can you understand it?"
Judging from the Honkai Energy Absorber Ai Yue had made, he was probably skilled in materials science. The Fusion Warrior Project clearly involved knowledge from one or even several other fields. If Ai Yue only excelled in materials science, it would be difficult for him to understand.
Ai Yue's expression was as calm as still water. He didn't answer and simply flipped through another page.
He really couldn't understand much of it—but his cheat could.
External research project detected. Record it? New research project created. Recording in progress...
Within the field of vision only Ai Yue could see, the magnificent and flourishing technology tree resembling a galaxy began illuminating new brilliance.
Mobius clearly noticed something from Ai Yue's attitude as well, and her brows knitted together. Could this kid really understand it?
After recovering from her initial loss of composure, Mobius naturally realized that Ai Yue's attitude had been deliberately put on. His purpose was to make her lose her composure.
But she wasn't angry. Instead, she secretly nodded. Whether he had recognized her disguise through intuition or keen observation, that was an excellent quality essential to any scholar.
Mobius was not incapable of understanding human nature. It was simply that, in her eyes, the vast majority of people in the world were not worth expending so much emotion on.
But for the sake of the Honkai Energy Absorber, Mobius was still willing to give Ai Yue a chance.
"That's all?" Ai Yue quickly finished reading the document. He shook the pages at Mobius with a frown. "This isn't even five percent of the complete contents, is it?"
"Obviously. How could the Fusion Warrior Project be explained in just a few words?" Mobius snorted. "What you have is only one sub-project. Even so, it's a hundred times more valuable than all the trash on your desk combined. Understand?"
"So you plan to leave this sub-project to me?" A smile appeared on Ai Yue's face again. "Then I'm truly grateful, Dr. Mob..."
"Stop, stop, stop. Don't disgust me." Mobius hurriedly interrupted him. "In any case, solve this project as soon as possible. After that, you'll basically have the ability to create projects and apply for funding yourself."
"All right." Ai Yue nodded. "Then I'll go to the First Research Institute to find you tomorrow?"
"Sure..." Mobius had just agreed when she suddenly realized something. "Wait. What do you mean? You can solve this thing in one day?"
"What's wrong?" Ai Yue looked at her oddly. "Didn't you say to do it as soon as possible?"
"Good." Mobius suddenly smiled. "That's more like it. You should be a little more arrogant—but aren't you underestimating this project a bit?"
"Could it be that you're underestimating me?" Ai Yue shook his head. "To be honest, the Fusion Warrior Project isn't all that impressive. Its failure rate is too high."
"You..." Mobius was momentarily rendered speechless. "You brat, don't get too arrogant!"
No one had ever dared say such a thing in front of her. What did he mean, the Fusion Warrior Project wasn't impressive enough?
But Ai Yue was being completely sincere, though he was also somewhat speaking from a position of privilege. After all, his cheat contained countless technologies related to bodily modification. Compared to those, the current, unoptimized Fusion Warrior technology truly wasn't anything special.
The good news was that the Fusion Warrior Project could light up the related technology tree for the "flesh modification surgery" from the major revision. Perhaps it wouldn't take long before he could combine the two and create an even better modification plan.
Mass-producing Ultramen was still a little too far off, so he would start by mass-producing Kamen Riders.
But considering the color schemes of Kevin and the others, should they be counted as a Super Sentai team instead?
"What are you thinking about?" Mobius looked at this fellow, who had actually begun wandering off while talking to her, and was nearly angered into laughter. "Fine, fine, so you're that arrogant, are you? You don't need to go to the First Research Institute tomorrow either. I'll come personally to inspect it at this time!"
After saying that, she stormed off.
Ai Yue came back to himself as well. After watching Mobius leave, he shifted his gaze to the milk-tea cup she had emptied.
More precisely, to the straw's thoroughly mangled mouth.
He calmly walked over, reached out, and fiddled with the straw opening. Then he revealed an excited expression.
If someone happened to see this scene, they might mistake Ai Yue for some kind of crazed, perverted fan of Mobius.
But only Ai Yue knew what he was really doing.
Before you continue