Chapter 127

Dr. Mei thought about it and felt relieved—after all, it was Ai Yue, so it was normal.

She felt she understood Mobius's feelings a little better—it was really easy to throw all the unreasonable things at Ai Yue and then be able to justify them as reasonable.

"I don't know if he can actually do that."

Vill-V shrugged. "But the contents of this design are indeed related to energy interference."

Tell me more.

Kevin immediately perked up, and everyone else focused their attention on Vill-V. "Does Ai Yue really have a way to break the Herrscher's powers?"

"No, it's not possible right now."

Vill-V shook her head. "Of course, it's not necessarily his fault. After all, I was the one who perfected the latter half of the design, so it might not have been able to fully meet his expectations."

"Stop keeping me in suspense and just tell me what the design drawings are like!"

Kevin couldn't help but urge, "The situation is not optimistic. If we really don't have a way to check the Herrscher authority, then we may all die!"

"Calm down. Can you really unleash your full potential like this?"

Vill-V glanced at him, her tone still casual and nonchalant, yet surprisingly persuasive. "Besides, if I'm not mistaken, that Herrscher is probably too busy to pay attention to us right now."

She watched the brief yet unique battle playing on a loop in the projection, a thoughtful expression creeping onto her face.

What do you mean?

Dr. Mei also understood the implication in Vill-V's words and couldn't help but ask, "What did Ai Yue tell you?"

"You can understand this kind of thing even without Ai Yue explaining it,"

Vill-V shook her head. "It seems you're all deeply involved, and I, as an outsider, don't see things as clearly as you do."

"If you keep spouting riddles, I'll cut your funding."

Dr. Mei's tone was cold and ruthless. "Now that Ai Yue is gone, the management of funds is back in my hands."

"Oh, I'll tell you."

Vill-V clutched her Achilles' heel, surrendering. "It's a simple question—which do you think is more powerful, the power of the Herrscher or Ai Yue's talent? Raise your left hand if you think the Herrscher authority is more powerful, and raise your right hand if you think Ai Yue's talent is more powerful."

A moment later, everyone responded—without exception, even Sakura, who had personally experienced the Herrscher authority, chose to raise her right hand.

"That's what I meant."

Vill-V nodded in satisfaction. "Even we know very well that Ai Yue's talent is far more terrifying than his Herrscher authority. So, how could the Herrscher born from Ai Yue's body not know this?"

"But he only used the powers of Herrscher in the battle, so you don't think he has Ai Yue's talent?"

Kevin couldn't help but look puzzled. "Is it possible that it's just because the conditions he currently has aren't enough to bring out the advantages of Ai Yue's talents, or that it's unnecessary to use them in battle?"

"No, that's not the case,"

Before Vill-V could answer, Dr. Mei realized, "The ultimate goal of the Herrscher is to destroy human civilization. From this perspective, Ai Yue's talent is far more useful than the Herrscher's power. If the Herrscher really had the former, then he shouldn't have shown himself and wasted his time on us."

"Yes, we haven't found any clues about him at all. Instead, he showed up on his own and started a war with us."

Elysia also had a look of sudden realization, "Thinking about it carefully, this is completely unnecessary!"

So why did he do that?

Eden also said, "If we combine these analyses, then the Herrscher's proactive appearance must be for some purpose."

"His goal is to make us back down and choose a conservative fighting strategy."

Kevin's instincts for battle were quite sharp. "By displaying his immense strength, he forced us to retreat and defend... He was buying himself time!"

"This is Ai Yue's biggest trump card."

Vill-V's face showed admiration. "He restricted his consciousness in some way, so that even if the birth of Herrscher would distort his mind and make him an enemy of humanity, he would not be able to master this talent."

"But wouldn't doing this have a very serious impact on him?"

Elysia couldn't help but show a worried expression, "It might even lead to a split personality?"

"That's something we'll consider after we've managed to save him."

With a somewhat subtle expression, Vill-V said, "In short, if this deduction is correct, then the current Herrscher shouldn't be in a hurry to attack us, so everyone can relax until then."

"But should we really give them time?"

Kevin's brow remained furrowed. "What if the Herrscher can really break through the restrictions set by Ai Yue and obtain Ai Yue's talents?"

Vill-V thought for a moment, then couldn't help but reveal a strange smile, "If he really had that ability, then he wouldn't need to covet Ai Yue's talent, right?"

Kevin was slightly taken aback, then couldn't help but nod. "What you said makes sense."

At least in this respect, Kevin had enough confidence in Ai Yue —since the Herrscher couldn't obtain Ai Yue's talent in the beginning, he wouldn't be able to in the future either.

97

Chapter 97 So you came here to ask us for help after all that.

"So, in other words, we now have enough time to rest and prepare, right?"

After a moment's thought, Dr. Mei suddenly realized a problem. "But Vill-V, you still haven't said what exactly that design drawing Ai Yue gave you is?"

"Ah, this..."

Vill-V couldn't help but turn her head to look at the empty space to the side, "Because it's really not finished yet."

"Not finished?"

Elysia couldn't help but repeat, "When you first appeared, you acted like you were here to save the world. What were you doing then?"

The others also watched Vill-V closely, exerting pressure in silence.

"Of course, it's just for show."

Vill-V gave an awkward laugh. "It's not my fault. Who told Ai Yue to leave behind this half-finished product with no beginning or end? I've already tried my best to figure out what it means!"

So what do you plan to do?

Kevin was the first to calm down. "Or is it that you came here to ask us for help?"

"Well, that's roughly the idea."

Vill-V quickly put on a serious expression, trying to escape everyone's judgment, "Actually, I have a clue, but I lack experiments and data correction, so I need your help."

"In the end, it turns out we're the ones helping you, not the other way around, not you helping us?"

Dr. Mei couldn't help but sigh, "How exactly do we do it?"

"Let's start by explaining this design drawing."

Vill-V snapped her fingers, and the mechanism box on her lower back immediately projected a new image. "Simply put, Ai Yue's design is to create a special field generator that can resist external influences. This field cannot be used for defense, but it can 'lock' the holder's state, making them unaffected by external influences."

"With this, we'll be able to maintain our state within the Herrscher's bizarre domain, right?"

Kevin suddenly realized, "Ai Yue really did predict the powers he could wield?"

"I guess he only had a vague idea, otherwise he wouldn't have left behind such a half-finished product."

Vill-V shook her head. "For a design blueprint, it lacks the most crucial part, namely feasibility—we don't have data on how to counter the Herrscher authority. Even if we build it according to the blueprint, we can't guarantee that it will actually work."

"In other words, to turn theory into reality, you need a lot of data, right?"

Elysia expressed her understanding, "So, where are you at right now?"

"I filled in the rest and then made a few samples."

With a quick pull from behind Vill-V back, a metal box that looked like a fanny pack appeared in her hand. "This is it. According to simple tests, it can maintain the stability of the internal state of the force field in special environments such as high temperature, electromagnetic storm, and high concentration of Honkai Energy, but that's all."

"In other words, we need to use it against the Herrscher to test whether it can truly resist the Herrscher's power, right?"

Kevin took the metal box from Vill-V's hand and clipped it to his belt. "Perfect, we can't let him have it too easy."

Now that he knows the Herrscher is stalling for time, Kevin doesn't intend to let him get through this period peacefully, regardless of whether the Herrscher ultimately succeeds.

"No, no, no, what you're talking about is something that happened later,"

Vill-V quickly stopped him, "As I said, it was just a simple test. Before it goes directly to face the Herrscher, I think it still needs to be tested by the Fused Warrior."

"At the very least, it needs to be able to operate normally under your influence in order to face the Herrscher, right?"

"That makes sense. After all, you can't always escape from Herrscher by using Simulated Black Hole."

Eden nodded. "And we also need time to rest and recuperate."

"Besides, we still don't have a way to pinpoint the Herrscher's location,"

Elysia added, "We can't just wander around Australia aimlessly like this, can we? We might exhaust ourselves before we even find Herrscher."

"I also need some time to do a more detailed analysis and organization of the information I have collected."

Dr. Mei asked, "Vill-V, how much time do you need?"

"Not too many are needed; among the Fused Warrior, there are only a handful who are truly capable of participating in the experiments,"

Vill-V pondered, "Kevin, Elysia, Eden, Desdrobia... if you count it that way, three hours should be enough."

"Then let's rest for three hours first, and then come back here to gather again."

Dr. Mei made the decision. "Does anyone have any objections?"

"I may not be able to participate in the experiment, Vill-V,"

Desdrobia raised one hand. "I'm afraid my current condition makes it difficult to meet your requirements."

"You've overexerted your mental energy, haven't you?"

Vill-V glanced at Desdrobia to ascertain her condition, then took out a pale pink potion from her pocket and handed it to her, saying, "Here, try this."

Desdrobia instinctively took the potion, but didn't make any rash moves. "What is this?"

"A degraded version of Aponia's Embrace..."

"Ever since Vill-V Ai Yue obtained the Herrscher Core of the Eighth Herrscher, this thing has been discontinued. He also refused to hand over the formula, so I remade a new one based on the potion I left behind. Although the effect is not as good as the original, it can still replenish mental energy."

Desdrobia injected the potion with some skepticism, but after a moment her complexion indeed became much rosier. "It actually works!"

"What do you mean by that?"

Vill-V rolled her eyes. "Alright, since it's useful, get to work!"

"That,"

Just then, Pardofelis, who was in the corner, suddenly walked towards Kevin and said, "I want to go out for a walk."

Kevin watched her, and seeing that Pardofelis showed no sign of changing her mind, he nodded. "Be careful, and report to us immediately if anything happens."

Pardofelis's ability to act independently was granted to her by Ai Yue. Although Kevin still had some doubts about Pardofelis's strength, he still chose to trust Ai Yue's judgment.

As Ai Yue's closest confidant, he couldn't possibly push Pardofelis into a fire pit.

Pardofelis nodded and walked towards the door, quickly disappearing from everyone's sight.

She quickly left the Star of Light experimental base and arrived in Australia. Then, as if diving, she sank into the ground.

It's clearly the most suitable person to leave the task of finding Ai Yue to her.

98

Chapter Ninety-Eight: The episode where the cat is most efficient.

On the other hand, things were not going smoothly, just as Vill-V had said.

"What's going on? I definitely sensed it just now..."

In the dimly lit space, Herrscher Ai Yue opened his eyes again, his brows furrowed.

As for Ai Yue himself, the Herrscher Ai Yue was naturally aware of the problems that had arisen within him; in fact, it could be said that he was even more anxious than Vill-V had imagined.

Herrscher Ai Yue knew very well that since Ai Yue could restrict himself to this extent, he must have prepared a backup plan against him. Therefore, time was very precious to him. As long as he could find a way to break the deadlock before the Moth to Fire could react, victory would be within his grasp.

That's why he risked appearing in front of Kevin and the others, using his power to force them to change their strategy from offensive to defensive.

Of course, killing one of the Fused Warrior is not difficult. For example, when they first attacked the plane, he was fully capable of turning Desdrobia into a vegetable in that instant, so that she would never wake up again.

However, through Ai Yue's memories, Herrscher Ai Yue also knew very well that such behavior would only provoke the other party—once the Fused Warrior suffered casualties, he would not only face the threat from Kevin and others, but also the entire Moth to Fire, or even the overwhelming force of the United Earth Government.

At that point, he might even be overwhelmed and killed by the enemy's numerical advantage. Not to mention buying time to break the restrictions left by Ai Yue, even saving his life would become extremely difficult.

Therefore, maintaining the status quo is what Herrscher Ai Yue most wants to see.