"Dr. Mobius is in Operating Room Two..." Klein replied instinctively, only to see Doctor Ai Yue walking inside. She hurriedly got to her feet and tried to stop him. "Wait, please wait! The doctor's work is very important. You can't interrupt her—ow!"
Perhaps because she had spent so long working at her desk, Klein's physical fitness was rather pitiful. She had barely taken two steps after standing up when she stumbled and was about to fall flat on her face.
In the end, Ai Yue caught her, sparing the fragile woman the fate of landing face-first on the floor.
"Thank you." After Klein got back to her feet, she let out a long breath, but still firmly grabbed Ai Yue's arm. "But you really can't go in right now."
"Let him in." Mobius's voice suddenly came from a speaker in the corner of the ceiling. "Remember to put on protective clothing."
Only then did Klein let go. She silently nodded apologetically to Ai Yue before returning to her seat and continuing her work.
"Are you sure you can keep this up?" Ai Yue didn't leave at once. Instead, he looked at Klein, who was working so hard, and asked, "If you go on like this, you might drop dead one day."
"It doesn't matter. I'm not important." Klein said it without a care. "But if slacking off delays the progress of the project in my hands, that would hold up a lot of things."
Faced with Klein's attitude, Ai Yue could only shake his head slightly and say nothing more.
Operating Room Two was located in the northwestern corner of the First Research Institute. When Ai Yue entered after putting on his protective suit, he happened to meet two people dressed in the same kind of protective clothing coming out. With their bodies wrapped so tightly, it was difficult for Ai Yue to identify them. However, based on the information he had, these two should be Mobius's other assistants, Sōgen and Danzhu.
"Hello, Doctor Ai Yue. This should be our first time meeting, right?"
Ai Yue was still considering how to begin when the other party greeted him first. "My name is Danzhu, and this is my older sister, Sōgen. We're both assistants to Dr. Mobius!"
"Hello." Ai Yue nodded in response to Danzhu. "Why did you come out? Is the surgery over?"
"Ah, how should I put it?" Danzhu hesitated for a moment before saying, "Although it's called an operating room, this room basically never performs surgeries in the usual sense. Instead, it..."
"Danzhu, you talk too much." Sōgen interrupted her sister, then looked at Ai Yue apologetically. "Sorry, Doctor Ai Yue. Once my sister starts chatting, she never stops... The situation at the institute is rather complicated. You'd better ask Dr. Mobius directly. We'll take our leave first."
Compared to the simple-minded Danzhu, Sōgen clearly considered more factors. After nodding to Ai Yue, she pulled her bewildered sister aside to make room.
Ai Yue had only asked casually and hadn't expected these two to provide any unexpected information. He paid it no mind and pushed open the operating-room door.
Unlike the three people wrapped from head to toe, Mobius had merely thrown on a white coat, exposing herself to the high-risk environment. The advantage of a Fused Warrior's immunity to Honkai Energy radiation was displayed to its fullest at that moment. It was hard not to suspect that Mobius had performed the surgery on herself in the first place specifically for this reason.
Of course, the most eye-catching thing was the... organism lying on the operating table.
It vaguely possessed a human outline, but its body was covered in all kinds of twisted, deformed growths. It had become a complete monster. However, the changes had abruptly stopped before they could engulf the entire body, clearly forcibly halted by some external force.
Although Ai Yue had never seen such a deformed body before, the knowledge he had obtained from the Fused Warrior Formula let him identify the monster at a glance.
A failed subject of the Fused Warrior surgery.
"Come on, give me a hand." When Mobius saw Ai Yue enter, she didn't bother with pleasantries. Pointing at the opening in the subject's chest, she said, "Hold this area open. I'll cut out the aberrant tissue inside."
Ai Yue stepped forward and followed Mobius's instructions, but he kept talking as he worked. "Did you talk to Pardo about becoming a Fused Warrior?"
"Pardo? Oh, you mean the girl who came to the Moth to Fire with you?" Mobius didn't look up, and her hands didn't pause for even an instant. "I saw her medical report. It was quite good, so I asked her about it when we met that day. Why?"
"Stay away from Pardo in the future." Ai Yue was blunt. "I don't care if you abduct other people, but don't come and harm one of my people."
"I didn't expect you to be so..." Mobius got what she wanted and signaled that Ai Yue could let go. "Protective?"
"Don't worry. I won't force anyone to undergo my surgery."
"That's why I only came to tell you." Ai Yue glanced at the remains on the operating table. "Also, unless the success rate improves significantly, stop performing Fused Warrior surgeries. All you'll do is cause more meaningless sacrifices."
"Well said." Mobius smiled faintly. "Then how about we let ordinary soldiers face the Honkai disasters when they appear?"
Mobius's words were filled with sarcasm, but Ai Yue couldn't refute her for a moment.
It was true. The problems humanity faced now didn't allow them to deal with things so lightly. One more Fused Warrior might prevent the deaths of dozens, or even hundreds, of ordinary soldiers.
"I read the report you submitted earlier." Mobius continued, "Using information from the redundant regions of the genome to deliberately create Redundant Aberration during the Fused Warrior surgery, thereby increasing the success rate—it really is an excellent design."
As she spoke, she gently stroked the deformed remains on the operating table. "Before you, I was also exploring this field. However, thirteen people died on my operating table, and the data I obtained still wasn't enough to establish a complete theoretical model. How laughable."
Ai Yue suddenly felt the atmosphere in the room grow heavy. He lowered his head slightly and noticed that a pool of pitch-black shadow had appeared beneath his feet at some point.
No, it wasn't a shadow. It was some other tangible substance. Its sticky, uncanny sensation was like a venomous snake lying in wait to hunt, making his chest feel tight and his breathing difficult.
"Tell me, Ai Yue." Mobius stared into Ai Yue's eyes. "What exactly are you?"
Chapter Thirty-Four: The Clear-Minded Gun
How did God view humanity?
If God loved all people, then why had the Honkai and the Herrschers appeared?
But if God wanted to destroy humanity, then—why had Ai Yue appeared?
These questions had troubled Mobius constantly during this period.
As the original designer of the Fusion Warrior Project, Mobius believed that no one in the world understood this flawed and difficult project better than she did. It could be said that it shouldn't have been treated as a scientific research project at all, but as the ramblings of a madman and thrown straight into the trash.
After all, no matter how profound or difficult a research project was, it should at least possess theoretical feasibility. Yet when the Fusion Warrior Project was first proposed, they couldn't even construct a theoretical model.
If Dr. Mei hadn't later dug it out of the classified files and painstakingly completed its theoretical framework, and if the threat of the Herrscher of Flame hadn't been imminent, the project would never have had a chance to see the light of day again.
That was precisely why Mobius understood that every improvement made to this technology was soaked in countless sacrifices.
Those sacrifices had been unavoidable. Without the data provided by experiments, without dissecting and analyzing failed cases, Mobius could never have figured out how to solve the flaws and shortcomings of the Fused Warrior Formula through imagination and theoretical deduction alone, no matter how intelligent she was.
But Ai Yue could do it.
On the first day, relying on the basic Fused Warrior Formula, he completed the genetic editing of Garuda and derived a Hypervariable Factor with a hundred-percent success rate.
On the second day, using several Fused Warrior surgical records and their corresponding Hypervariable Factors, he proposed a complete theoretical model for "increasing surgical success rates through Redundant Aberration."
This directly shook Mobius's previously unwavering convictions.
If the Fused Warrior Formula could be completed so easily by someone else, then what did the so-called "unavoidable sacrifices" she had caused amount to?
In the eyes of others, Mobius was a scientific madwoman. She was cold-blooded and ruthless, willing to sacrifice anything for research and refusing to stop until she achieved her goal.
But some people said that Mobius treated scholars and soldiers alike, and was actually a very good person.
As for Mobius herself, she believed that neither statement was wrong.
As long as she could achieve the goal she envisioned, Mobius could sacrifice anything. This "anything" included herself, other people, and everything in the world.
She truly did treat everyone equally. That was only because, to her, everyone was the same.
Since they were indistinguishable in her eyes, there was naturally no need to treat them differently.
This worldview, so different from that of ordinary people, had shaped Mobius as she was and supported her research creed.
That was precisely why, when she encountered someone as far beyond common sense as Ai Yue, Mobius was more shaken than anyone else would have been.
So much so that when she faced Ai Yue today, she felt a sense of hostility toward him.
She desperately wanted to know what Ai Yue really was—and if necessary, she would even use force...
Mobius's thoughts were surging violently, but Ai Yue didn't care.
The moment he noticed the emotions in Mobius's eyes, he knew that today's matter would be difficult to resolve peacefully.
Fortunately, the reason he had chosen to come at this time was precisely to guard against that possibility.
"I don't know if you've misunderstood something about me, Mobius." Facing Mobius's threatening question, Ai Yue suddenly began unfastening his protective suit. "But I suggest you calm down. Otherwise, this may be difficult to resolve."
The heavy protective suit slid to the floor at Ai Yue's feet, finally allowing him to draw the secret weapon hidden at his waist.
"What's that supposed to be?" Seeing Ai Yue draw something and point it at her, Mobius nearly laughed aloud. "A handgun? You're going to use that against a Fused Warrior?"
It was indeed a handgun. Its black-and-yellow paint scheme and slightly futuristic design made it look quite distinctive, even a little cute.
But no matter what, a handgun was still a handgun. Even if it was a weapon carefully crafted by Vill-V, could it really threaten a Fused Warrior?
Mobius felt that she was being looked down on. Although she was a researcher, that didn't mean becoming a Fused Warrior had made her as weak and powerless as a scholar.
"I advise you not to underestimate it." Ai Yue could see the disdain in Mobius's eyes. After hesitating briefly, he sighed. "Forget it. There's no point in saying more."
With that, he pulled the trigger without hesitation.
The bullet didn't hit Mobius. Instead, it flew toward a piece of medical equipment beside her.
With a soft click, the bullet effortlessly bored into the machine.
The entire piece of medical equipment then collapsed in an explosion of light and heat, leaving behind not even any sizable fragments.
Mobius stared at what had happened. A buzzing sound rang out in her head, as if she had been struck by a heavy hammer.
She had seen this scene before. That was...
"This is the Third Herrscher's authority..." Mobius forced the words out with difficulty. When she looked at the handgun in Ai Yue's hand again, her gaze was completely different from before. "How is that possible?"
Research into Herrscher authority was an extremely important project within the Moth to Fire. Countless branches, thousands of scholars, hundreds of completely different projects, and incalculable research funding—in total, forty percent of the Moth to Fire's efforts were devoted to studying Herrscher authority.
Yet to this day, the gains the Moth to Fire had obtained were still nowhere near enough to match what it had invested.
But Ai Yue already possessed a mature weapon capable of being used in actual combat?
While researching the Fusion Warrior Project, you still had the time to make something like this?
"Not bad, right?" Ai Yue spun the gun twice before returning it to his waist, because he saw that Mobius had regained her composure. "I call it Pikachu."
The "Simulated Herrscher Authority: Atomic Rupture Technology" had finally been completed by the system at noon that day, and the first thing Ai Yue did was make himself a handy weapon.
It was precisely because he had this thing that Ai Yue had the confidence to face an emotionally unstable Fused Warrior.
As it turned out, his decision had been correct.
"You..." Mobius opened and closed her mouth, but in the end, she asked the same question as before. "What exactly are you?"
This time, however, her tone was no longer as aggressive as before.
"Someone who came to save this world." Ai Yue smiled faintly. "So with me around, you don't have to push yourself so hard."
Chapter Thirty-Five: A Segment That Simply Had to Be Savored
In Ai Yue's view, Mobius was a scholar worthy of respect.
Although her methods were too extreme, and she had hurried too far along her journey of seeking evolution and a way to overcome the Honkai, there was no doubt that she had been constantly striving for the sake of "humanity."
Unfortunately, such extremism could not win the approval of society at large. That was precisely why Mobius had become increasingly twisted under the combined pressure of the outside world and herself, to the point where she even wanted to transform humanity into beings like digital lifeforms for the sake of their survival.
Although that plan had never succeeded in the end, it had nevertheless revealed Mobius's mental state at the time from another perspective.
Now that Ai Yue and the system existed, Mobius no longer needed to bear such a heavy responsibility. At least from Ai Yue's perspective, he hoped that this green-haired woman could live a little more easily.
That was why he had said those words.
However, those words clearly meant something else to Mobius.
"Are you pitying me?" Mobius clenched her teeth when she heard Ai Yue's words, her expression becoming slightly twisted. "Pitying someone like me, who can't measure up to even a fraction of you no matter how hard she tries?"
Halfway through saying it, she had already begun to lose heart herself.
From Ai Yue's perspective, wasn't it normal to pity her? When she had worked with those scholars in the past, watching them argue and study over the simplest of formulas for an entire month without reaching a reasonable conclusion, hadn't she felt something like that deep down?
Mobius had never thought that no one in the world could be smarter than her. But before meeting Ai Yue, she truly couldn't imagine that such an outrageous... monster existed.
"All I can say is that I'm not pitying you." Ai Yue shook his head. "As a scholar, you should understand very clearly that I'm only stating a fact."
Ai Yue wasn't incapable of understanding Mobius's current feelings. In his previous life, when he had been repeatedly slaughtered by the opposing team in games, he had been much the same as Mobius was now. Anything the other side said sounded deliberately sarcastic.
But Mobius wasn't so fragile that she needed him to comfort her. Given some time, she could adjust herself.
"So what are you planning to do?" Mobius also stopped venting her pointless emotions and looked at Ai Yue calmly. "Tell the people above to disband the First Research Institute and have me become your assistant?"
"Of course not. I don't need an assistant." Ai Yue shook his head as though it were obvious. "Just as I said, reduce the sacrifices that can be avoided and slow down your research. Leave the rest to me."
"Well said." Mobius clapped, as if applauding Ai Yue. "But I have a question."
Ai Yue didn't speak. He merely watched her in silence.
He could more or less guess what Mobius was about to ask.
"How can I believe that you'll always stand on humanity's side?" Mobius looked straight into Ai Yue's eyes. "There are simply too many examples of people losing their way while pursuing knowledge and ultimately bringing disaster to humanity. Do you think you're an exception?"
"You don't need to believe that I'll always stand on humanity's side." Ai Yue shook his head. "You only need to know that I'll always stand against the Honkai."
At that point, he suddenly remembered something. "Also, you've gotten one thing wrong."
"I don't pursue knowledge." Under Mobius's puzzled gaze, Ai Yue pointed at his own head. "It comes looking for me."
"So I'll never lose my way."
Mobius: ...
"What's wrong? Wasn't that funny?" Ai Yue was somewhat puzzled by Mobius's speechless expression. "I thought telling a joke might calm you down."
"Say something like that to a scholar and you'll only raise their blood pressure." Mobius rolled her eyes. She hated Ai Yue's deliberate showboating. "What do you mean, knowledge comes looking for you? You're..."
She suddenly stopped halfway through and then asked cautiously, "You're sure that was a joke, right?"
Before you continue