When the Moth to Fire obtained the "Honkai Energy Absorber," they handed it to Vill-V so she could analyze its construction and composition. Although the owner of the Spiral Workshop had initially paid little attention to the crudely made-looking pendant, she was filled with tremendous delight when she examined its internal structure.
Despite its rough construction, the design hidden inside was extremely ingenious and sophisticated. It used special materials to imitate the properties and structure of a certain life-form, allowing it to absorb Honkai Energy while preventing that energy from accumulating and increasing in concentration, thereby avoiding the creation of a second source of infection.
The core could even be reused repeatedly. After high temperatures caused its structure to disperse and released the Honkai Energy stored inside, the core could be put back into use, unlike other products with a similar purpose, which could only be scrapped.
In other words, as long as one had a collector capable of generating high temperatures and absorbing Honkai Energy, this thing could even collect Honkai Energy from people infected with Honkai Sickness and use it as an energy source.
Vill-V was instantly captivated by the various designs contained in the device. When she finished analyzing the materials used in the Honkai Energy Absorber and discovered that they were all relatively common and inexpensive, the device looked entirely different in her eyes.
Vill-V was not actually someone deeply concerned with the livelihood of ordinary people. Even so, she could still understand that as the Honkai threat grew increasingly severe and would inevitably affect the entire civilization in the future, a low-cost, easy-to-maintain, reusable Honkai Energy Absorber would provide ordinary people with an enormous safeguard.
Therefore, on the very first day Dr. Mei brought Ai Yue back to the Moth to Fire, Vill-V began quietly keeping an eye on him through her own channels.
Dr. Mei and Mobius both thought that only they knew Ai Yue had developed Garuda's superpower factor in a single day. In reality, the machine used to simulate the Fused Warrior surgery had immediately sent the data to Vill-V, who was far away on the other side.
Thus, Vill-V also knew very clearly that Ai Yue's talent was not limited to any single field.
When Dr. Mei told her that she wanted to hand the Artificial Intelligence Project over to Ai Yue, Vill-V had actually agreed immediately. However, she waited three days before sending that answer to Dr. Mei.
After all, she had a genius's pride as well. Although she had already acknowledged him deep down, she still had to set a test to show her reserve.
That was how today's scene came about.
"Anything I want?" Ai Yue asked, surprise appearing on his face. "You're pretty generous."
He had actually wondered how Vill-V would make things difficult for him, but he had not expected her to be so unexpectedly easygoing.
After all, this kind of task posed no difficulty to him at all. The biggest problem would probably have been gathering the materials, but Vill-V had already solved that issue.
"Don't underestimate me. The key is 'something I've never seen before.' Understand?" Vill-V emphasized again. "That computer contains all kinds of masterpieces I've made. Before you finalize your project, remember to check whether anything similar already exists."
"Sure, I understand." Ai Yue waved his hand and began planning. "Let me see what you have first."
The system Vill-V had designed for herself was quite convenient. All the materials in the warehouse were clearly displayed before him, including their quantities, properties, value, and possible applications. They could even be sorted according to different criteria.
Vill-V truly lived up to her reputation as the biggest gold-devouring beast within the Moth to Fire. She actually possessed all kinds of rare materials. Ai Yue even suspected that the Logistics Department's collection was not as comprehensive as hers.
Yet faced with the dazzling array of materials, Ai Yue wore a troubled expression.
There were simply too many projects to choose from. His indecisiveness had flared up.
Vill-V assumed he had encountered a difficulty and smiled. "Don't rush. I can give you three days."
"It won't take that long." Ai Yue did not even raise his head. "By the way, could you go outside first? You're affecting my performance here."
"Hey, isn't this obviously my workshop?" Vill-V glared at Ai Yue helplessly, but obediently did as he asked. "Don't do anything strange to my lovely assistants while I'm gone, okay?"
The assistants she was referring to were naturally the large mechanical devices.
After saying this, Vill-V left the room, though the corners of her lips curled into a smile.
Ai Yue thought Vill-V was generous, but Vill-V considered herself cunning, because this seemingly lenient test had been heavily restricted from the very beginning.
The problem lay with those large mechanical devices.
Most of the equipment here had been designed and built by Vill-V herself. Each machine's function was related to the fields in which Vill-V excelled. If Ai Yue really relied on these devices to make his own item, he would inevitably overlap with Vill-V's areas of expertise.
And in the fields where Vill-V herself excelled, creating something novel that she had never seen before... Vill-V was at least very confident that Ai Yue could not do it.
She was already a top scholar in engineering and mechanics, a supreme authority whose papers could state, "This article requires no references whatsoever." No matter how much of a genius Ai Yue was, it would be difficult for him to surpass her in such a short time.
Sorry, Ai Yue. But who told you to take the project away from me? Consider this a little revenge.
Vill-V refused to admit that this was a form of jealousy toward Ai Yue's talent, attributing it only to a desire for revenge.
She had not expected that while she was still wondering what direction Ai Yue would take, the workshop doors would suddenly swing open.
"What happened?" Vill-V froze. "You gave up?"
Ai Yue giving up so decisively was beyond Vill-V's expectations. She knew very well that everyone who considered themselves a genius had their own pride and would not easily admit defeat. Giving up so quickly instead proved the extent of his talent.
He could only have noticed the trap she had set in the task within that short time, which was why he had abandoned it so decisively.
"Gave up? Gave up on what?" Ai Yue looked at Vill-V in confusion before tossing something toward her. "I finished it."
Vill-V: ?
How long had it been? Half an hour? An hour?
What could he possibly have made in that time? Had he folded a little boat out of sheet metal for her?
The thirty-first chapter: "You Know This Is Illegal, Right?!"
The first thought that flashed through Vill-V's mind when she heard Ai Yue was impossible.
But when she felt the heavy weight of the object he had thrown into her hand, she could not help lowering her head to examine it carefully.
It was a bracelet made entirely of metal. Its appearance was unremarkable, with only a square red metal panel on the front serving as decoration. Moreover, for something categorized as a bracelet, it looked excessively thick and heavy. Wearing it on the wrist would be a burden.
However, as a master of mechanics, Vill-V was not fooled by its plain appearance. She put it on, then pressed the square metal block on the front of the bracelet.
"Click."
With a soft sound, the entire bracelet instantly grew larger—no, it had not grown larger. After the metal block was pressed, it activated the mechanical device inside the bracelet, and the internal transformation mechanism pushed the entire bracelet open.
But what was the use of that?
"It's not over yet." Seeing the confusion on Vill-V's face, Ai Yue simply walked over and guided her hand by hand. "Grab this part and pull it upward. Then cover the back of your hand with it—"
A layer of "skin" made entirely of flexible metal was placed over the back of Vill-V's hand. As she moved, the bracelet immediately produced a dense, fine mechanical whirring. Every structure rapidly unfolded during the process, and soon it had transformed into a fingerless glove gleaming with metallic luster.
Vill-V instinctively turned her palm over. The red metal block that had initially served as the activation switch now lay in the center of her palm. At that moment, it split into four triangles, rotated, and moved aside, revealing a hollow space beneath.
"What is this for?" Vill-V looked at Ai Yue. "Don't tell me it also comes with a shooting function?"
"If you insert a Honkai Energy Core, the internal excitation mechanism can release shockwaves," Ai Yue said indifferently. "But I made it in a hurry, so the power may be a little lacking. At most, it'll be useful in close-quarters combat. Using it against a Honkai Beast probably won't work."
"You..." Vill-V lowered her head to look at the glove, then raised it to look at Ai Yue. "You made this in less than an hour?"
"It's all right. I was mainly in a hurry to catch a flight, so I couldn't take too long." Ai Yue nodded, not denying her claim. "Choosing the project took some time too. You have a lot of things here. They're all pretty ordinary, but your range of expertise is quite broad."
Ordinary?
Vill-V was just about to refute him, but then she looked down at the thing on her hand. Someone who could create this in such a short time really did have the qualifications to describe her creations as "ordinary."
She suddenly remembered what Mobius had told her when she had asked about Ai Yue a few days ago.
"You want to know what kind of person Ai Yue is?" Mobius's tone had been somewhat peculiar, as if she was reluctant to face the subject. "Let's put it this way. Even if you already think you've imagined him as being incredibly impressive, the real him is still beyond that."
"You might even think that this guy is someone who should never have appeared in this world."
Only now did Vill-V understand what those words meant.
"Fair enough." Vill-V closed her eyes and forced the words out with difficulty. "You win."
She did not suspect Ai Yue of cheating, because she was certain that this thing had never existed in the world before today.
As a top scholar in mechanics, Vill-V naturally understood how absurd this folding glove was. Being able to fold a glove down to the size of a bracelet required a structural design far beyond what an ordinary person could achieve.
Small-scale mechanical devices were notoriously difficult to make. The process involved not only manufacturing precision and material strength, but also the creator's understanding of spatial utilization. The more complicated the mechanical structure, the more difficult it was to miniaturize.
If Vill-V were to make something similar, even with a week, she might not be able to compress it to the size Ai Yue had achieved. What was more, she had already noticed that the glove's internal structure was so intricate that it had reached the point of being completely unnecessary. Removing the redundant designs could further reduce the bracelet's size without greatly affecting its structural strength.
Vill-V knew very well that Ai Yue had only one reason for doing this: showing off before her.
She could even read the creator's emotions from the device: Well? Isn't this damn impressive?
In reality, Ai Yue himself was even more absurd than the device.
How had he created something like this in such a short time? Had he prepared it in advance? But the high-precision requirements for manufacturing components of this level were not necessarily achievable even by the equipment in her workshop, one of the best on Earth. Could he have specifically made the relevant equipment as well?
It couldn't have been made by hand, could it?!
Forget it. She was too tired to care.
That was Vill-V's current thought. Mobius had been absolutely right. Imagination was practically worthless in front of this man.
She had even begun suppressing her urge to ask Ai Yue about the manufacturing details, afraid that any question she asked would receive an answer even more mentally devastating.
Whether in his professional field or in putting on a show, she had lost utterly and completely. What a mechanic.
Ai Yue naturally paid no attention to Vill-V's complicated and abundant emotions. The moment he heard that evaluation, he knew the victor had been decided.
Of course, that was inevitable. Forget humans—even if a Herrscher came, they would still have to take two slaps from my mighty system.
Scholar of the human world, you did your best.
"So, what about the project I need?" he asked bluntly.
"I'll transfer the contents of all the projects to you. Give me some time." Vill-V spoke listlessly. "Sigh, I've suffered a huge loss this time."
The Artificial Intelligence Project was currently the hottest project and the one with the greatest hope of producing results. It had therefore naturally received the Moth to Fire's full support, allowing Vill-V to fulfill many of her own little wishes along the way.
But now it was about to leave her. How could she not be sad?
"Also, take this back." Vill-V reluctantly restored the glove to its bracelet form and held it out to Ai Yue. "It's very interesting. I like it a lot."
Seeing her expression, Ai Yue could not help smiling. He then asked, "Do you want it?"
"Are you willing to give it to me?" Vill-V's eyes widened in surprise, but she soon realized something. "Wait, you want me to trade something for it, don't you?"
"Nothing much. I only took some of your materials. In exchange, I'll give you this." Ai Yue smiled. "I'll take my leave first. The plane above is waiting for me."
After saying that, he hurriedly left the Spiral Workshop.
"Materials? What does that have to do with..." Vill-V stopped halfway through her sentence. Suddenly realizing something, she rushed into the workshop.
A moment later, her wails echoed throughout the entire Spiral Workshop.
"Thief! Bandit! Burglary! This is burglary!"
The thirty-second chapter: "A Beautiful Girl Doesn't Drool"
Ai Yue knew perfectly well that he was in the wrong. Otherwise, he would not have run away so hurriedly.
As the Moth to Fire's weapons development director and a scholar specializing in mechanics and engineering, Vill-V naturally cared greatly about materials.
Her warehouse therefore contained countless precious materials.
In Ai Yue's eyes, the warehouse of the Spiral Workshop was practically a key to unlocking the system's treasure vault. Faced with such a mountain of treasure, how could he possibly allow himself to leave empty-handed?
Besides, these materials could serve a greater purpose in his hands. For the sake of humanity's future, Vill-V could just suffer a little!
Once he became successful in the future, he would properly compensate her.
Sitting on the plane, Ai Yue could not resist taking the spoils from his bag—no, the goods obtained through a trade—and carefully examining them.
Although Ai Yue had taken them without permission, he still had a basic bottom line. He had only taken several materials that he believed were equal in value to the folding glove.
One of them was a cloudy crystal sealed inside a transparent box. If one looked closely, one could see several flashes of lightning occasionally flickering within it.
In Vill-V's warehouse inventory, this thing was called a "Honkai Thunder Crystal." It was a type of crystal that appeared in areas of land ravaged by the Third Herrscher when she descended. A small amount of the Third Herrscher's power remained within it.
"Third Herrscher Honkai Energy Sample (Rare): Usable Value 100%"
"Using this material can directly unlock a research project related to the Third Herrscher."
Looking at the information displayed by the system, Ai Yue could not help clenching his left hand.
The glove containing the Spacetime Distortion Generator was still covering his left hand. The reason he had been able to directly unlock that absurd technological advancement back then was because Pardofelis had stolen a Honkai Energy Sample that had been mistaken for a radioactive gemstone.
That sample had come from the Second Herrscher, an existence who wielded the power to manipulate Imaginary Space.
That was the effect of a rare material: it could ignore all prerequisite technologies and forcibly unlock a technological advancement directly.
At Ai Yue's current research progress, reaching the Spacetime Distortion Generator would have taken at least two years. Yet a single Honkai Energy Sample was enough to let him skip the entire process and reach the destination in one step.
The Honkai Energy Sample alone was already so powerful. What kind of incredible effect would the Honkai Energy Core possess?
Moreover, unlike the Second Herrscher, the Third Herrscher's abilities leaned more toward destruction and annihilation. Since he already had means of protecting himself, perhaps this time he could try making an offensive weapon.
Ai Yue had already decided what to do with this Honkai Energy Sample. He set it aside and picked up another item.
It was a special metal particle tightly sealed inside a lead box. In Vill-V's warehouse inventory, it had the highest price. It was called the element californium.
The amount Ai Yue held was only the size of a grain of rice and weighed 0.3 grams. Even so, its value exceeded five million US dollars, making it one of the most expensive elements in the world.
The effect of californium was just as impressive as its price. It could be used to develop a "Honkai Sickness Antibody."
Unfortunately, Ai Yue had not yet unlocked the prerequisite technology for this field. Thus, even after obtaining such a material, he could not use it for the time being.
However, he already had a plan. As long as he found a way to become familiar with the people at the Fifth Research Institute, the problem would naturally be solvable.
Aside from that, Ai Yue had also taken three different kinds of ore. Although each possessed its own special properties, compared with the two heavyweight materials mentioned earlier, they could at most be considered stepping stones.
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