Chapter 103

If this is indeed the prototype of the Stigmata, then Ai Yue only needs to figure out the reason for its birth and catalyze it to once again improve the combat power of the Fused Warrior, and may even promote the evolution of humanity.

Stigmata and Fused Warrior are actually different. They don't necessarily need the genes of Honkai Beast to drive them. If used properly, they can even grant humans powerful abilities without affecting the purity of their own genes.

If the Stigmata Project and the Divine Tone Project can be implemented simultaneously, it would represent a revolutionary transformation in the overall strength of human civilization.

Moreover, Ai Yue had a vague feeling that the secrets hidden in these unknown ingredients were not limited to this.

"Doctor Ai Yue."

Just then, Prometheus suddenly spoke up, "I think you should come and take a look at this."

"What's wrong?"

Ai Yue looked up. "Weren't you in charge of the Fused Warrior's physical examinations? Something happened over there?"

"If the abbreviation for something good also means something bad has happened, then yes."

Prometheus responded with the unique humor of Artificial Intelligence, "Traces of Stigmata Factor were detected in the blood of all 24 Fused Warrior led by Miss Sakura."

Ai Yue paused for a moment, then smiled and said, "It seems we don't need to worry about the reason for the birth of the Deep Scar Factor anymore."

55

Chapter 55 How can someone who can't die be afraid of death?

What sets Sakura's squad apart from other squads is that they do not have a fixed base or jurisdiction like other squads; instead, they are an emergency mobile combat force.

The term "emergency mobilization" naturally means being on standby at any time to deal with various emergencies. In other words, wherever Honkai disaster occurs that exceeds the local response capacity, Sakura and her team will go there to help.

It is precisely because of this that Sakura and her companions do not have their own base. Instead, they have a mobile aerial fortress that not only uses the most advanced Honkai Energy engine, but is also equipped with four "Herrscher of Herrscher of Domination Cores, each of which has related powers that are related to the Herrscher authority of Wind powers that can create ideal fluids."

Normally, this aerial fortress relies on an anti-gravity device to maintain its altitude and moves with atmospheric motion. In case of an emergency, it can use the power of the Herrscher of Domination's core to unleash a speed of over 5,000 kilometers per hour to quickly travel to any place on Earth.

Of course, this is only a temporary measure. The real emergency mobilization will have to wait until Ai Yue's Teleportation Gate are spread all over the world. At that time, no matter where a disaster occurs, troops can be mobilized through the Teleportation Gate, truly achieving the goal of one place in trouble and all places helping each other, with the whole world as an emergency mobile combat force.

The most important aspect of an emergency mobile combat force is that it must be capable of fighting. After the first generation of Fused Warrior were basically dismantled and assigned to different regions, it became particularly important to train a Fused Warrior squad capable of fulfilling this role.

This is why Sakura takes her team members on trips all over the world; without high-intensity training, they cannot grow up quickly.

Although Sakura's team members were the elite of the second batch of Fused Warrior, and were already battle-hardened soldiers before undergoing the surgery, the fighting style of Fused Warrior is different from that of ordinary soldiers. In addition, Sakura also had to pass on her skills and experience, so high-intensity battles were naturally unavoidable.

The difference between them and the ordinary second-generation Fused Warrior probably lies here. Even though the second-generation Fused Warrior are also receiving the same training, that level of training is obviously much easier than the standard of Sakura, who is directly sent to the battlefield.

So that's why they have the Stigmata Factor in their bodies—the trials between life and death that stimulate the body's potential and give rise to this peculiar substance?

Such reasoning seems to make no problem, and the cases of Mobius and Aponia can also prove this point from the opposite perspective.

After all, one of them is a scientist who spends all day in the laboratory, and the other is a mental ability user who works in psychological counseling. Their only battlefield experience is basically clearing out grunts, and it is hard to say that they have experienced the trials of life and death.

"Note: Your speculation contains a flaw."

Prometheus offered his opinion on Ai Yue's speculation. "If this theory is followed, then Dr. Mobius's level of Stigmata Factor should far exceed that of Mr. Kevin. After all, others are merely teetering between life and death, while she dies on average every six hours."

"You've overlooked a crucial premise: the potential that humanity unleashes when faced with the threat of death is the key to the birth of the Stigmata Factor."

Ai Yue obviously had his own guesses about this. "In Mobius's state, it would be difficult for him to have any reverence for death. Without the desire to live, there would naturally be no soil for the birth of the Stigmata Factor."

"So, does this mean we're going to have to deal with the variable of 'spirit' again?"

The Prometheus of today no longer needs emojis to express her current "feelings." Instead, her virtual avatar displays vivid expressions. "This touches on my area of expertise, so please excuse me."

"Who isn't? It's like I've figured it out."

Ai Yue sighed as well, "I have a feeling that if we could completely understand the mysteries of human consciousness, we could..."

"Doctor Ai Yue, I must remind you that this is not the first time you have brought up this topic."

Prometheus said mercilessly, "Given your achievements in other fields, I don't think you should have made no progress in the spiritual realm for so long. Shouldn't you reflect on whether you've been making any effort?"

"Rose, you're becoming less and less considerate."

Ai Yue feigned sadness and said, "As my assistant, shouldn't you be comforting me at a time like this? At least you should change the subject!"

"Based on the machine's personality simulation of Doctor Ai Yue, you will not be affected by such words, and your current expression is 100% a feint."

Prometheus's tone was as calm as ever, but it sounded particularly cold in this context, "Moreover, as your assistant, it is naturally even more necessary for me to urge you to work hard and save the world as soon as possible."

"Easy to say..."

Ai Yue shook his head, glanced at Pardofelis who had already curled up in the corner and fallen asleep, and then sighed softly, "But it's not that simple."

The key problem that makes it difficult for Ai Yue to make significant contributions to the spiritual realm is that the technological trees in this field are almost entirely independent of the existing technological system. If he wants to illuminate the relevant technologies in a conventional way, he must spend a lot of time and resources to build the system from scratch, which is obviously unrealistic given the current predicament facing humanity.

After all, his system is only single-threaded and can only process one project at a time. If all his energy were concentrated on mental projects, the technological development of human civilization would essentially come to a standstill.

Therefore, he could only choose another method, which was to find materials with "rare" spiritual attributes and use the characteristics of rare materials to directly skip all prerequisites and start any project related to the spiritual realm.

The problem now is that materials of this caliber simply cannot be found.

The only material that Ai Yue had ever handled that met this condition was the "spiritual sample of the Eighth Herrscher" that he had captured in the Eighth Herrscher's dream. However, that sample was judged by the system to be material related to the "Eighth Herrscher," and the items that could be activated were all related to the Eighth Herrscher's powers.

Moreover, in order to pinpoint the Eighth Herrscher with incredible accuracy, Ai Yue used it all up. Although the technology he obtained was related to consciousness, it is obviously no longer applicable to the research of Stigmata Factor.

After all, the attributes currently exhibited by the Stigmata Factor include not only mental power, but also genetic information and Honkai Energy...

Ai Yue paused for a moment as he thought of this.

Is it possible for him to try to artificially synthesize the Stigmata Factor?

56

Chapter 56 No, you two haven't even gotten to the tug-of-war stage yet.

"Doctor Ai Yue, you were looking for us?"

With a question, two figures appeared together at the Star of Light experimental base. They were Cosmo and Desdrobia, who had been specially arranged by Ai Yue to be stationed in Australia.

Although they are nominally each leading a team, their bases are basically located together, and the two teams have been training and cooperating on the battlefield, so they actually spend more time together every day than before.

"Oh, come here."

Ai Yue, who was busy at the lab bench, turned his head and pointed to the equipment next to him. "Go over there and get your blood drawn, and do a physical examination."

"Oh."

Cosmo had no doubts about Ai Yue's words and walked directly to the equipment, showing his wrist.

After a year of getting to know each other, Cosmo's trust in Ai Yue had reached a level close to Kevin's. In addition, Ai Yue had given him the Armor Driver. So, although Cosmo did not show it on the surface, he had actually come to regard Ai Yue as a friend.

Not only him, but Desdrobia was the same. Although she did not consider Ai Yue a friend for some strange reason like Cosmo did, she did not question his requests either.

"Speaking of which, are we the only two getting a physical exam?"

After the blood was drawn, Cosmo asked, "And isn't just drawing blood a bit too simple? Isn't there anything else we need to do?"

"The other procedures are next door. You can go over there after you finish having your blood drawn."

Ai Yue didn't turn around. "As for the others in your station, there's no need for them to have medical checkups at the moment."

"I see,"

Cosmo nodded. "Shall we head over there?"

"Just go one by one, since you can only do a physical exam for one person at a time anyway."

Only then did Ai Yue put down what he was doing, turn around, and wait for Cosmo to leave the room before abruptly asking, "Haven't you taken him down yet?"

"Ah?"

Desdrobia instinctively uttered a questioning sound, then realized what Ai Yue was asking, and blushed slightly, "Wh-what do you mean by 'take down'..."

"You don't think nobody noticed, do you?"

Seeing the other party's reaction, Ai Yue couldn't help but reveal a subtle expression. "This was an opportunity specially created for you. You didn't do nothing, did you?"

"Huh? Everyone already knows?"

Desdrobia froze on the spot, then slowly squatted down, covering her face with her hands. "How... how could this be!"

Looking at Desdrobia's expression, Ai Yue was at a loss for words.

In the original storyline, because Desdrobia died in the disaster caused by the Eighth Herrscher, she did not have much screen time. Ai Yue's previous impression of her was only that she would give gifts to other Fused Warrior. Apart from that, it was hard to say any other characteristics.

Even whether there were any feelings between Desdrobia and Cosmo was not shown in the original storyline.

However, Ai Yue's intervention caused a huge change in the original plot, which allowed Desdrobia to survive. So from this perspective, Ai Yue was actually her savior—although no one else would know this except Ai Yue.

It was precisely because of this that Ai Yue was able to be certain that the girl in front of him did indeed harbor feelings for Cosmo that went beyond camaraderie, but whether Cosmo himself felt the same way was really hard to say.

After all, his current mental state is not much different from that of a 14-year-old with chuunibyou (middle school syndrome), and whether he can develop such consciousness is still unknown.

Therefore, if Desdrobia doesn't take the initiative, the situation between these two will likely be even more troublesome than that between Kevin and May.

"It seems you haven't made up your mind yet."

Thinking of this, Ai Yue shook his head. "I was too talkative. Let's just pretend nothing happened."

"No, Doctor Ai Yue, I don't want to wait any longer either."

Desdrobia had already composed herself and stood up again. "But that guy Mobius is really... Anyway, do you have any ideas?"

Clearly, Desdrobia has also been very troubled by this matter. After all, Cosmo is, to put it nicely, slow-witted, and to put it bluntly, he has no awareness of this at all. The only difference between him and a chuunibyou is that he actually possesses extraordinary power and a transformation armor system. Otherwise, they are exactly the same.

Sometimes Desdrobia would have self-doubts late at night, wondering why she liked this guy. But once she saw Cosmo enthusiastically sharing his stories with her during the day, she would find it hard to resist being drawn in by his emotions.

"It's very simple."

As if he had been expecting this, Ai Yue reached into his pocket, pulled out a vial of pink medicine, and handed it to her. "Find a night when you're alone, find a way to mix this stuff with water and make him drink it, then just—"

He didn't finish his sentence, but instead made a gesture that required his words to be blurred out, in order to explain the "making the die-hard" solution.

"This... this won't do!"

Desdrobia blushed and snatched the vial of medicine from Ai Yue's hand, but shook her head. "Doctor Ai Yue, you misunderstood me... I can't be sure of Mobius's thoughts yet!"

What troubled Desdrobia the most was this: if her feelings were only one-sided, she would rather bury them in her heart than reveal them.

This was probably her last bit of restraint.

"I see."

Ai Yue then realized that he had overlooked the girl's delicate feelings, and nodded, "Then I'll ask for you?"

"May I?"

Desdrobia was initially delighted, but then realized, "You wouldn't ask so directly like this plan, would you?"

The girl considered Ai Yue's violent proposal, and her tone became suspicious.

"What are you saying? Do I look like an idiot?"

Ai Yue waved his hand, revealing the air of a master, "Don't worry, I'll make sure that guy is taken care of clearly."

Desdrobia was still hesitating, but Cosmo had already returned. "Daisy, it's your turn."

"I see!"

Desdrobia responded with a single sentence, then bowed slightly to Ai Yue, saying, "Then I'll leave it to you."

After saying that, she turned around and brushed past Cosmo.

"What's wrong with Daisy? She looks preoccupied."

Cosmo looked at his somewhat unusual partner with some confusion. "Doctor Ai Yue, what did she ask you to do?"

"It's nothing, it's just that some data needs to be kept confidential,"

Ai Yue lied without batting an eye, saying, "After all, she's a girl, you know how it is."

"Oh, weight or something like that, right?"

Cosmo nodded in agreement, "I really don't understand why Daisy cares so much about this. She's not fat."

"You still don't understand women enough."

Ai Yue couldn't help but shake his head. "The love of beauty is a woman's nature. No matter what kind of woman she is, even if she is extraordinary, she cannot avoid this."

Who would have thought that even a woman like Aponia would be so concerned about her weight?

"I see,"

Cosmo nodded thoughtfully, then looked at Ai Yue, "Doctor Ai Yue, do you perhaps know a lot about women?"

"Well enough,"