"What are you doing!" Ai Yue was horrified. He instinctively clung to the table beside him. "Let go... Damn, where did you get all that strength!"
Only then did he remember that this seemingly frail scholar was also a Fused Warrior.
"Enough nonsense. Come with me to the First Research Institute!" Mobius did not even turn her head. "I need to verify whether your results are genuine!"
"Can't you at least let me eat first? Let me brush my teeth, at least!"
"If your results are usable, I'll buy you food for a whole year!"
Ai Yue knew very well that an ordinary person had no room to struggle before a Fused Warrior, so he gave up resisting.
The two soon arrived at the First Research Institute. As soon as they entered, they saw a figure in a white lab coat busy at an experimental table.
"Dr. Mobius, weren't you going back to rest?" Klein, who was still handling documents, raised her head and saw Mobius dragging an unfamiliar man into the institute. "Oh, you must be Mr. Ai Yue? Hello, I'm Klein, the doctor's assistant."
"You..." Ai Yue had intended to greet Klein in her human form, but Mobius had no intention of stopping. She dragged him straight to the innermost room, leaving him no choice but to wave before leaving Klein with an awkward sight. "Hello."
"This is the place." Mobius activated the instruments in the room, and the display soon lit up. "Enter the data you obtained. This machine will simulate the results of the Hypervariable Factor merging with the human genome. The sample size is still too small, so the simulation may not be entirely reliable, but it will be sufficient as a reference for testing your results."
Ai Yue quickly entered the information on the Hypervariable Factor he had created into the machine. Mobius was equally straightforward and immediately performed a hundred consecutive draws... I mean, a hundred consecutive simulations of the Fused Warrior surgery.
If the success rate was really as high as he had claimed... No, even if it was only 9.6%, instead of 96%, it would be enough to instantly elevate Ai Yue's position within Moth to Fire to an unimaginable height.
Even Mobius was secretly looking forward to it, hoping that at least ten of the hundred simulations would result in successful integration.
However, the result far exceeded her expectations.
The simulation results were usually represented by green circles and red crosses for success and failure respectively. In Mobius's previous simulations, there had usually been one green circle among a sea of red, but today was completely different.
Green circles filled the entire screen. Mobius checked the results over and over, yet could not find a single failed simulation.
"This..." She instinctively slapped the display. "Is this thing broken? Did that guy make another useless consumable just to fool me?"
"Indeed. It feels like something must have gone wrong." Ai Yue spoke with a serious expression from the side. "According to probability, there should have been at least a few failures. Looks like this simulator isn't accurate enough."
Mobius looked at him, but this time she said nothing suspicious.
Facts spoke louder than words. Since such a result was right before her eyes, Mobius could only accept reality.
But that made things even more troublesome.
Thinking of this, Mobius took out her communicator and dialed a number.
"Mei, come to the First Research Institute immediately." Mobius's tone was extremely serious. "There's something very important we need to discuss in person—and aside from your little follower, don't tell anyone."
A moment later, Dr. Mei also appeared before the simulator.
She stared at the results on the screen and pondered for a moment before sighing. "Dr. Mobius, I didn't expect you to have researched Garuda's genome to this extent. It looks like it can be put to use soon."
"It wasn't me." Mobius sighed and pointed to the side. "It was him."
Dr. Mei turned her head and only then noticed Ai Yue flipping through Mobius's various experimental notes nearby. "Mr. Ai Yue?"
"Hm?" Ai Yue, who was taking advantage of the opportunity to pour information into the system, raised his head and saw Dr. Mei pointing at the display with a puzzled expression. "Oh, I made it."
Dr. Mei looked at Ai Yue, then at Mobius. "Mr. Ai Yue made it alone?"
Mobius nodded.
"And it only took one day?"
Mobius nodded.
"A hundred percent success rate?"
"He said it was 96%." Mobius spoke in a complicated tone. "He also said that this simulator wasn't accurate enough."
"After all, Vill-V only spent three days making it, so its lower performance is understandable." Dr. Mei nodded, then revealed a strange expression. "But can something like this really happen?"
Mobius said nothing. She merely handed over a sheet of paper—the formula Ai Yue had previously given her, which could screen out redundant information in a region according to certain patterns.
Dr. Mei's understanding of the Fusion Warrior Project was profound. With only a simple analysis, she realized that the formula was absolutely genuine. The value of the approach reflected in it was even greater than that of the formula itself. If some of the data in the formula could be modified according to this approach, it might even be possible to use it to screen information from other regions.
Her expression consequently became even stranger.
The Fusion Warrior Project could be considered a theoretical system that Mei and Mobius had painstakingly summarized after exhausting countless amounts of time and energy. Although the system was still extremely crude, and could even be said to rely on gambling with one's life and luck to create miracles, it was still the crystallization of their efforts.
Yet one person had managed to perfect this still crude and rudimentary system to an inconceivable degree in a single day. If she had not seen it with her own eyes, Dr. Mei would absolutely have thought it was some kind of hallucination.
But now, it had all happened.
Dr. Mei suddenly remembered a conversation she had had with Aponia when she visited her the previous night.
After gaining the power of a psychic Fused Warrior, Moth to Fire had completely lost any means of restraining Aponia. With only a few words, Aponia could directly dismantle the entire Moth to Fire. Even if they tried to use weapons of mass destruction, Aponia had more than enough ability to survive them.
If Aponia harbored hostility toward Moth to Fire, humanity might not even need to be destroyed by the Herrschers.
Dr. Mei had visited Aponia partly to conduct a systematic study of her abilities, and partly to test Aponia's attitude and see whether she could persuade her to fight the Honkai together with them.
However, after a simple conversation, Dr. Mei discovered that Aponia herself did not seem to care much about everything outside. Instead, she had bound her own will to Ai Yue's. Almost every question she was asked, Aponia chose to answer from Ai Yue's perspective.
Just as Dr. Mei thought Aponia's reaction stemmed from some kind of affection, Aponia's answer surprised her.
Aponia said, "I trust Mr. Ai Yue unconditionally because he is my savior. He once saved me from sin, and in the future, he will certainly save this world from disaster."
Dr. Mei knew something about Twilight Street. She knew that Ai Yue had once used the Honkai Energy Absorber to eliminate the hidden danger of a Honkai eruption at the sanatorium, so she had regarded Aponia's words as some kind of religious misunderstanding.
But after seeing what had happened before her today, she understood that perhaps it had not been a misunderstanding at all.
The Honkai Energy Absorber and the Fusion Warrior Project involved completely different fields. Even with his previous experience and knowledge, it should have been difficult for Ai Yue to apply them to the Fusion Warrior Project.
Yet he had still completed the work of editing Garuda's genes into a Hypervariable Factor in only one day.
This was no longer something human intelligence could explain... Could there really be a god in this world?
As a scholar, Dr. Mei rarely concerned herself with such matters.
But everything that happened today still made her unable to stop thinking about it.
"Stop spacing out, Mei." Mobius's voice pulled Dr. Mei out of her thoughts. She raised her head and saw Mobius frowning. "What do you think about Ai Yue?"
Dr. Mei came back to herself and quickly understood Mobius's meaning.
"We can't let this spread for now." Dr. Mei spoke quickly. "Mr. Ai Yue's matter must also remain confidential. We can't let the people above know, especially the 'Opposition Faction.'"
Saving humanity was not easy. When you reached out your hand, some people would not only fail to appreciate it but would also try to drag you into the abyss so they could make room for themselves.
The "Opposition Faction" within Moth to Fire was made up of exactly such people. Some of them truly feared that the "Fused Warriors" would become uncontrollable monsters and cause even greater harm to human society, but most were merely afraid that this uncontrollable power would affect their own positions and interests.
For the sake of their own authority, these people were even willing to sell their lives to the Herrschers.
If they learned of Ai Yue's terrifying talent, they would never allow someone like him to remain alive.
These hidden dangers had to be dealt with as soon as possible.
Chapter Twenty-Three: Some People Would Be Better Off Dead
If Dr. Mei were asked what the greatest danger hanging over humanity was, she would say the Honkai and the Herrschers.
But if she were asked what crisis humanity most urgently needed to resolve, the answer would be entirely different.
In Dr. Mei's eyes, the most urgent problem was humanity's internal conflict.
Despite the enormous external pressure from the Honkai and the Herrschers, humanity had barely banded together and established Moth to Fire, an organization that coordinated everything and fought the Honkai. But for various reasons, Moth to Fire was far from united internally.
Those opposed to the Fusion Warrior Project were merely one aspect of this infighting. The true internal struggle was far more complicated.
Moth to Fire's sources of funding were complicated. There were appropriations from various countries, investments from multinational corporations, and income from internal patents and missions. Precisely because the money came from different sources, Moth to Fire's upper echelons had divided into various factions. For the sake of their respective interests, their conflicts might be bloodless, but they were no less ruthless.
To restrain one another, they did not hesitate to spend huge sums probing hostile factions. To restrain one another, countless weapons of war still pointed their muzzles at their comrades even at the most critical moments. To restrain one another, elite soldiers who should have been fighting bravely on the front lines against the Honkai were reassigned as private troops in assassination units...
If Dr. Mei could endure those things, then the acts of people who blocked and sealed projects that could benefit humanity for the sake of their own interests touched her bottom line.
Dr. Mei could mediate among the factions and strive to win more support in order to fight the Honkai. But if even "fighting the Honkai" itself had to become a bargaining chip for those people, what meaning would remain in Moth to Fire's existence?
"Mr. Ai Yue." Dr. Mei seemed to have made up her mind. She pulled over a nearby chair and sat down, clearly having much to say. "What comes next is very important. I hope I can gain your understanding and support."
"That serious?" Seeing Dr. Mei's expression, Ai Yue put down the experimental materials in his hands and pulled over a chair as well. "All right, I'm listening."
"You've finally made up your mind, Mei?" Mobius clearly realized what was happening, and a smile appeared on her face. "That's more like it. Those people obstructing us should have been dealt with long ago."
"First, the first matter." Dr. Mei ignored Mobius and spoke to Ai Yue. "The patent application for the Honkai Energy Absorber has been temporarily frozen."
Before this, Dr. Mei had said she would help Ai Yue apply for a patent for the Honkai Energy Absorber. That way, if the device could later enter mass production, Ai Yue would be able to receive patent fees.
Considering that the Honkai Energy Absorber was superior to similar products in terms of quality, there would naturally be no need to worry about sales. The patent fees would clearly not be a small amount.
Yet now, the plan had died before it even got started. If no one was plotting behind the scenes, even Pardofelis would not believe it.
"I see. I understand." Ai Yue nodded, then asked, "Is there anything you need me to do?"
"I'm afraid it wouldn't make much difference what you did." Dr. Mei shook her head, then looked somewhat puzzled. "But you don't seem angry at all?"
"I just arrived and immediately took someone else's rice bowl. Not getting beaten up is already a good outcome." Ai Yue shrugged. "Dr. Mei, don't think I'm that socially clueless, all right? Just tell me what's going on."
Clearly, Ai Yue had already realized what Dr. Mei wanted to say.
"Then I'll be direct." Dr. Mei nodded. "You may not understand how significant what you accomplished yesterday was, but it was undoubtedly an extraordinary achievement. Leaving Garuda's Hypervariable Factor aside, this formula alone could further perfect the Fusion Warrior Project. However, none of this can be published for now. Only a few of us can know about it."
"Understood." Ai Yue nodded. "If this gets out, I'm guessing I won't be rewarded with a promotion and a raise, right?"
"No. You would instead invite disaster upon yourself." Dr. Mei briefly explained the Opposition Faction's existence. "So before this matter is resolved, I hope you can keep a low profile and avoid attracting too much attention."
"Don't try to keep him out of this at a time like this, Mei." Mobius cut in from the side. "Ai Yue, do you want to join us and help us properly deal with these people whose minds are filled with scheming?"
"We don't have absolute confidence in this matter. How can we drag Mr. Ai Yue into it?" Dr. Mei shook her head, then looked seriously at Ai Yue. "Mr. Ai Yue, you're exceptional—probably more exceptional than Mobius and me. If our plan fails, I hope you can shoulder the responsibility of defeating the Honkai after us."
Dr. Mei's tone was firm, yet also carried a calm acceptance. Clearly, she had already made up her mind and understood the consequences this matter might bring.
"I think Dr. Mobius is right. If I wait until you fail before doing anything, won't it already be too late?" Ai Yue shook his head slightly. "Besides, after you've said all this, it's already impossible for me to stay out of it. Why don't you tell me your plan, Dr. Mei?"
Ai Yue knew very well that he had entered Moth to Fire through Dr. Mei's recommendation. After joining, he had also received care from Dr. Mei and Dr. Mobius. In the eyes of others, he had undoubtedly already been marked as part of Dr. Mei's faction. If someone truly wanted to strike at Dr. Mei, he would not be able to escape either.
Rather than hope that others would graciously let him off, he might as well seize the initiative himself.
Besides, how could Ai Yue miss such a chance to deepen his relationship with Dr. Mei and the others?
"All right. If you insist." Dr. Mei sighed and did not press him further. "First, have you heard of the 'Poisoned Chasm'?"
Ai Yue honestly shook his head. He knew about it, but naturally could not show that at a time like this.
"The Poisoned Chasm is an... assassination unit controlled by Moth to Fire's upper echelons." Dr. Mei explained, "The higher-ups usually use this unit to deal with... opponents who disagree with them."
"Sakura came from the Poisoned Chasm." Mobius explained from the side. "Mei met her because of an assassination attempt."
"In short, if we want to resolve the problem of internal consumption, we must expand our influence." Dr. Mei continued, "And the best way to expand our influence is to possess sufficient military power."
"I intend to destroy the Poisoned Chasm and establish a new secret unit."
Chapter Twenty-Four: I Missed You, Yuri
Only the one with the bigger fist had the final say. Ai Yue agreed with that principle as well.
Therefore, he naturally supported Dr. Mei's plan—but it was not enough.
"With all due respect, merely expanding our influence probably won't be enough," Ai Yue said. "Using only a secret unit to suppress the organization's internal conflicts would merely treat the symptoms, not the root cause. Unless those people are willing to abandon their old grudges, your actions will only draw their hatred toward you."
"They may no longer clash violently with one another, but they certainly won't mind turning their spearheads against you and making things difficult for you whenever they get the chance."
Malice would not disappear because of violence. It would merely hide temporarily, then erupt even more fiercely.
"You're right, but there's no better solution at present." Dr. Mei sighed, clearly aware of the plan's shortcomings. "If we can make them spend their energy and money on more important areas, then so be it if they target me. I'm not afraid."
At this, Dr. Mei revealed a faint smile, evidently thinking of Kevin.
"Why not just kill them all? What a bunch of annoying people." Mobius spoke impatiently. "Kill enough of them and they'll all behave."
"Unless you're confident you can kill them all before anyone has time to react, you'll only trigger an even greater civil war." Dr. Mei looked at Mobius as if she were saying, How can you be so naive? "Most of the world's wealth and military power are currently in those people's hands. Unless the plan is meticulous and decapitates them in one strike, all we can do is deter them."
It was clear that Dr. Mei had considered this option as well.
"Ugh, this won't work and that won't work either. What are we supposed to do?" Mobius glanced at Ai Yue and suddenly remembered something. "Right, the one who underwent the Fused Warrior surgery before... Aponia? Doesn't she have mind-control abilities? Find an opportunity to gather those higher-ups together and have Aponia control them. Wouldn't that solve everything?"
"Aponia's 'Discipline' is still somewhat different from true mind control, and her ability is currently being observed and tested. It may not actually be capable of reaching the level of mind control." Dr. Mei sighed. "Besides, do you think those higher-ups don't know about Aponia's information? They may even have received the detailed report before you did."
Moth to Fire's upper echelons were not a group of incompetent fools occupying their positions. Anyone capable of holding a place among Moth to Fire's higher-ups could hardly be stupid.
Underestimating an enemy would only lead to ruin. Relying on an enemy's carelessness to complete a plan would never end well.
"I don't recommend using Aponia's abilities for this either." Ai Yue shook his head. Compared with the two scholars, he understood Aponia more deeply. "When Aponia acts, the result usually goes against her original intention. Perhaps you only want to make Moth to Fire's higher-ups unite against the Honkai, but if you use Aponia's ability, you may create a group of warmongers who pursue military power and push civilization toward extreme warfare."
Ai Yue knew the original plot and understood all too well what consequences Aponia's ability could cause. Some people might consider the immense power Aponia possessed a gift from God, but in Ai Yue's eyes, that power combined with Aponia's compassionate personality was precisely an expression of so-called divine malice.
Judging from most of the consequences caused by "Discipline," it was less a blessing than a curse.
Before you continue