Chapter 179

At this point, Ai Yue thought of something else, "How is Hua now?"

Although Elysia is still nominally the head of the Moth to Fire Shenzhou branch, she actually has many more things to handle. Therefore, the person in charge of handling affairs in Shenzhou has now become Hua.

Ai Yue was initially surprised when he heard the news, but after hearing that Hua was doing a good job, he felt relieved and focused on his own work.

Now that he finally has some free time, he remembered this matter.

"Ahua did a great job!"

Elysia said with a smile, "She's so capable and hardworking, I almost want to give her the position of branch manager."

At this point, she looked at Ai Yue with a teasing smile, "But she was really worried when she first heard you were missing. She even went to the Sea of Quantum to look for you. Before I go back this time, I'm going to take a picture of you to take back with me. Ahua will be so happy to know you're back!"

"No need for that trouble, I'll go back with you."

Ai Yue smiled and said, "Before the Shenzhou representative left, he told me that they had already begun to centrally contain the Fused Warrior. Judging by the time, it should be completed in the next few days. I'll take care of this matter as well."

"I heard that you've solved the distortion problem, right? You're truly amazing."

Elysia paused for a moment, then smiled. "However, I can't return to Shenzhou this time, so I guess I won't be able to travel with you."

Ai Yue looked at Elysia's face, remained silent for a moment, and then suddenly asked, "Elysia, are you hiding something from me?"

Elysia blinked upon hearing this. "No?"

The two stared at each other, neither willing to back down, until after a moment, Elysia finally sighed and turned her head away, "I never thought you would find out... Okay, I'll tell you."

After calming herself down a bit, Elysia looked at Ai Yue again and said, "Ai Yue, I would like to ask you to do a thorough examination for me."

"I suspect that this mutation... started spreading from me."

Chapter Sixty: The culprit has been found @DaiDaiUltraman.

Upon hearing Elysia's words, Ai Yue's expression froze on his face.

Then he realized what he meant and frowned. "Why would you think that?"

The appearance of the Herrscher this time is indeed very strange. If we follow the original law that "Herrscher authority require a human as a vessel", there must be someone in the world who becomes Herrscher, but this time there does not seem to be such a person.

In the original storyline, the host was Sakura's younger sister, Rin, but since the child is still living peacefully at the Morning Sun Academy, she has been ruled out as a suspect.

In Ai Yue's view, there are many explanations for this situation, but he had never thought of the possibility that Elysia mentioned before—however, after she said those words, he suddenly realized that such a possibility existed.

The fact that even the Herrscher themselves were unaware that they were Herrscher is also recorded in the next generation of civilizations.

Do you remember the dream I told you about?

Elysia said, "It's that dream of the shattered world."

"I remember, and I later explained to you the possible causes of that dream..."

Ai Yue sensed something was off halfway through his sentence, "Did you dream about it again recently?"

According to Ai Yue's speculation, Elysia's previous dream was probably related to her reckless choice to try to contact the Cocoon of Finality. However, after becoming the Herrscher of Binding and circumventing the control of the Cocoon of Finality by exploiting a loophole, the aftereffects of this contact should have disappeared.

According to Elysia's previous statement, she did not have this dream again after the Herrscher of Constraint incident ended.

"I didn't dream of that broken world again,"

Elysia shook her head. "But shortly after you disappeared, I saw a girl who looked exactly like me in my dream."

Do you still dream about it now?

Ai Yue's expression also turned serious. "What exactly was the dream? Describe it in detail."

"At the beginning of this dream, I could only see a blurry figure, but every time I entered the dream, that figure would become clearer, until finally it became... another me."

Elysia lost her smile while describing the scene, revealing a deep psychological trauma she carried. "Later, the dream disappeared."

"The day it disappeared was the same day that electronic viruses began to harm the global network."

Ai Yue was silent for a moment, then grabbed Elysia's wrist and walked into the research institute. "Come with me."

Clearly, based on Elysia's description, the truth is quite obvious, but Ai Yue is still unwilling to accept this fact, so he plans to verify it again in his own way.

The result was obvious – residual distorted energy was indeed detected in Elysia's body. Although this did not have any effect on Elysia, judging from the degree of decay of the distorted energy, it had stayed in Elysia's body for longer than the earliest known distorted Sakura.

Ai Yue stared at the results, speechless for a long time. Elysia, seeing his reaction, realized the truth. "Sure enough, the source is me."

"No, even so, we cannot be certain."

Ai Yue was still trying to explain, "This alone isn't enough to confirm the source of the infection; there might be someone even more infected than you..."

Before he could finish speaking, Elysia reached out and covered Ai Yue's mouth. "Okay, stop lying to yourself, Ai Yue."

Her gaze was so calm that Ai Yue gradually calmed down as well.

"The mistake has already been made, so no amount of running away can change that fact, but at least I can still make amends."

After seeing the change in Ai Yue's expression, Elysia let go of his hand. "However, I'm afraid it's difficult for me to clear my name on my own, but you will help me, right?"

"This is not your fault, it is my fault."

Ai Yue then shook his head. "Once contact occurs, it cannot be easily eliminated. Even if the connection is severed at one point, as long as the two ends of the link still exist, the channel will not truly disappear... I should have realized this sooner."

Elysia shouldn't have had that dream. If it weren't for Ai Yue's reckless actions, the efforts made by the Pre-Civilization would have been enough to prevent the Cocoon of Finality from re-establishing a connection with Elysia. However, in order to avoid the tragedy created by the "Herrscher of Binding," she instead plunged human civilization into another huge disaster.

If his contingency plan hadn't been reliable enough, what awaited him upon his return from the Sea of Quantum would likely have been more than just a human civilization without a network.

No, this wouldn't even be the worst outcome—if, if even Elysia were chosen again by the Cocoon of Finality because of this...

Since coming into this world, this was the first time Ai Yue had felt such intense fear and lingering dread. In the past few days, he had been forcing himself not to think about these issues by working, but with the arrival of Elysia, these issues eventually flooded his mind like a torrent.

His string of successes had made him somewhat complacent. He forgot just how powerful the Cocoon of Finality truly was, how fragile human civilization was, and even more so, what he had relied on to get to where he was today...

Suddenly, the impact he felt brought him back to reality. He blinked and realized what had happened.

Elysia was holding him tightly, gently patting his back as if comforting a frightened child. "It's okay, as long as we start trying now, everything can be salvaged, right?"

After a moment of silence, Ai Yue finally raised his hand and patted Elysia's shoulder. "Elysia, I'm alright."

"Really?"

Elysia released her embrace, but still placed her hands on Ai Yue's shoulders, staring at him with a worried expression. "It's okay if you don't force yourself. There's no one else here."

"It's really okay now."

Ai Yue closed his eyes, then opened them again after a moment. "Even if something happens, we should wait until everything is over before talking about it—we need to race against time now."

Instead of regret and self-blame, it's better to vent your energy on that damned Herrscher —kill him first, and then you can reflect on it later.

Seeing the sharpness and confidence that once again shone in Ai Yue's eyes, Elysia finally smiled with relief, "So, what should we do now?"

"First, I need to know who the people in the know are."

After clearing his mind of all the random thoughts, Ai Yue's thoughts became clear again. "And what attempts have you made to solve this problem?"

"I told May and Mobius, after all, it's a special time, and it's hard to find anyone else who can help."

Elysia for a moment before replying, "As for trying... I didn't really do anything, because after Mobius understood the situation, she said it was too late to try it on me, and then she went to study the aberration phenomenon."

"That is indeed... a very rational judgment."

Ai Yue shook his head slightly. "Once the infection spreads, the source is no longer important. Moreover, judging from your current situation, it is clear that the source of infection has completely left your body. It can be said that you are no longer related to the Aberration Event."

With the Twelfth Herrscher having left Elysia can actually be considered the "cleanest" Fused Warrior. After all, the others still have the effects of the Aberration, but only a little bit of residual energy can be found on Elysia.

"So, does that mean I'm not of any help?"

Elysia said with some surprise, "I thought you could find some way to deal with the Herrscher from me, like before."

"The situation with this Herrscher is very complicated. Based on the information we have, we can't even determine exactly what its powers are."

As Ai Yue spoke, he turned to operate the equipment on the experimental table. "Although you are no longer involved in the Aberration Event, there is still another matter that needs to be resolved."

You mean, that dream?

Elysia asked curiously, "And what you just said about 'contact' and 'link'... is it related to those?"

"Yes, because of your special identity, you are naturally more likely to resonate with the Cocoon of Finality."

Ai Yue nodded. "And because of my mistake, this latent feeling was eventually activated, becoming the bridge that connects you to the Cocoon of the Cocoon of Finality. The Herrscher without a physical form also came to the real world through this connection."

"So if we follow this connection, we can find the Cocoon of Finality, right?"

Although Elysia didn't quite understand, she still grasped the key point. "Unfortunately, I don't have the energy for that right now, so I can only block it out for now, right? It seems that Dr. Mei did the same thing; she gave me this."

As she spoke, Elysia reached under her skirt and pulled out a bulky ring-shaped mechanical device.

"I was wondering why you changed into a long dress. Was it to cover this up?"

Ai Yue took the device, which was still slightly warm, fiddled with it for a bit, and then handed it to Elysia. "This thing isn't completely useless, but its effect is limited. However, it's definitely enough for temporary use."

Dr. Mei is indeed a genius. Despite the harsh conditions, she was still able to create such a shielding device based on insufficient intelligence and data. Unfortunately, this level of device is not enough to completely sever the connection between Elysia and the Cocoon of Finality.

"Give me half a day, and then you won't have to carry this bulky thing around anymore,"

After analyzing Dr. Mei's work, Ai Yue almost immediately sketched out a completely upgraded product in his mind. "But before that, I'll have to trouble you to make a trip to Spiral Workshop and bring that guy Vill-V, back to work."

As he spoke, he took out two more items and placed them aside, gesturing for Elysia to take them.

"I've already been there once, but I can't get in at all. Vill-V has sealed off the Spiral Workshop."

Elysia picked up the two items and fiddled with them curiously for a moment. "I know this syringe; it's used to inject the distortion correction agent, right? What's the other one for?"

"This is the back door key for Spiral Workshop. Although it was made a while ago, I guess it should still work."

Ai Yue shrugged. "It's okay if it doesn't work. Just stick it on any wall, press the red button and turn it counterclockwise three times, and it will blow the wall apart—I guess Vill-V doesn't have any means to defend against atomic pyrolysis bombs."

"That's a really crude method, but in these special times, we can only ask for Vill-V's help."

Elysia carefully put away the back door key, then said, "Then find her, inject this aberration correction agent into her body, and Vill-V will be back to normal, right?"

"Well, of course, this is only the worst-case scenario."

Ai Yue nodded. "I guess Vill-V should be able to overcome the effects of the aberration on her own. The reason she hasn't come out is probably because she's researching how to solve the Aberration Event. Just tell her the situation and ask her to come back and help as soon as possible."

"I see."

Elysia nodded, then suddenly laughed, "It sounds like you know Vill-V quite well, Ai Yue."

"It's alright. Although that guy is a bit unreliable, his skills are still good enough."

Ai Yue waved his hand, "If you understand, hurry up and go. It will take a lot of time to go back and forth."

"Hmph, you suddenly turned your back on me, Ai Yue, really."

Elysia pouted, then suddenly laughed, "You were cuter when you were all flustered just now."

"Stop talking nonsense and get to work!"

Amidst Ai Yue's somewhat exasperated tone, Elysia happily left the First Research Institute.

But after a moment of silence, another sound of footsteps came from behind Ai Yue.

"Love... no, Mobius?"

At first, Ai Yue thought it was Elysia who had run back, but he quickly realized that the footsteps didn't belong to that pink-clad girl. "You're back from North America?"

He turned around and, sure enough, saw Mobius, whom he hadn't seen for more than seventy days, standing not far away.

Of course, this is from the other person's perspective—due to the time flow issues within the Sea of Quantum, for Ai Yue, the two of them had only been separated for less than a week.

Mobius stood less than three meters away from Ai Yue, quietly observing him. Then, without saying a word, he turned and walked away, clearly indicating that he didn't want to pay any attention to Ai Yue.

"Huh?"

Ai Yue paused for a moment, then quickly chased after him, "Wait, Mobius, I..."

Then he saw Mobius pull a small box out of a storage cabinet in the lab, hand it to him, and roll his eyes as a bonus. "What are you trying to say?"

Ai Yue, holding the box in his hands, was momentarily bewildered. "Huh?"

"Judging from your expression, you're not planning to say something meaningless like in the TV dramas, are you?"

Seeing Ai Yue's reaction, Mobius couldn't help but shake his head. "Instead of wasting time, you should hurry up and get to work to make up for the work you missed before."

After saying that, she walked directly past Ai Yue and headed towards the experimental table.

Ai Yue also came to his senses and couldn't help but shrug.

Yes, given the tacit understanding between him and Mobius, what need is there for further words?

"So what is this?"

Skipping over the trivial details, Ai Yue refocused his attention on the box Mobius had handed him. "A... blood sample?"