Honkai Impact 3rd: Starting with Hand-Crafted Black Tech to Save the Pre-Civilization

"Of course," Ai Yue quickly changed the subject. "In short, there will be plenty of time later. If you don't trust me, you can observe me for a while longer."

"I have my own ideas," Mobius snorted. "So, can today's matter be concluded?"

To be fair, Mobius didn't actually believe Ai Yue would do anything detrimental to humanity. From a scholar's perspective, Ai Yue seemed different from all other scholars, including Mobius herself.

Some scholars viewed knowledge as a stepping stone to wealth and status; such scholars contributed little and caused little harm. Others sought to make the world and humanity better. These individuals could become great scientists whose names would be etched in history or sinners whose reputations would be forever tarnished. Still others walked a fine line, relying on their beliefs or certain bonds to ensure they wouldn't harm humanity. These scholars were extremely dangerous, yet they also held the potential to change the future of human civilization.

Mobius believed that she and Mei belonged to the third category.

But Ai Yue—honestly, if the other party hadn't casually produced results that could propel human technology to new heights with a single leap, Mobius would have found it hard to believe he was involved in research.

Rather than a scholar or scientist, Mobius felt he was more like a... charlatan.

The kind of person who, with a few gestures and mumbled words, followed by a couple of steps, could directly provide a solution to a problem, and when asked why, would say, "The secrets of heaven cannot be revealed."

The more Mobius thought about it, the more agitated she became. She just wanted Ai Yue to disappear from her sight quickly so her blood pressure could go down.

"One more thing," Ai Yue said. "Is the Second Herrscher's corpse with you? I want a gene sample from her."

"What do you want to do?" Mobius was taken aback, looking at him with a strange expression. "This is one of the highest secrets within Moth to Fire. Without a permit signed by the higher-ups, no one is allowed to access it, not even me."

"But you definitely have some stashed away," Ai Yue said with certainty. "Give me one; I have a use for it."

"You want to research Herrschers?" Mobius's expression grew even stranger. "Can't you just chant a spell or something and research the Second Herrscher's abilities?"

"What do you take me for, a mage?" Ai Yue rolled his eyes. "Without the most basic samples, what am I supposed to research?"

"Then what about that gun you had earlier?" Mobius was still bothered. "That was clearly the Third Herrscher's power, right? If you need samples, how did you manage to create something like that?"

"I 'borrowed'... cough, 'borrowed' it from Vill-V," Ai Yue almost slipped up, but Mobius didn't seem to care. "So, are you going to give it to me or not? I can trade something else for it."

"What something else?" Mobius asked curiously, implicitly admitting she did have it. "Don't try to fob me off with just anything, okay?"

"This," Ai Yue took out a few crumpled papers from his pocket. "I think you'll be interested."

Mobius took the papers from Ai Yue and unfolded them, revealing a casually formatted report.

The cover read: "Hypothetical Herrscher Authority: Possibility of Replication on Fused Warriors via Genome Editing."

Although the title was nonsensically written, it didn't prevent Mobius from understanding it. She glanced at Ai Yue with a look of horror before hastily flipping it open.

These simple three pages contained content enough to shock the entirety of Moth to Fire.

It was a theory built upon the Fusion Warrior Project, but even more radical and dangerous. Ai Yue wrote in the report that by analyzing the waveform of the Herrscher Authority's energy, it was discovered to be a special manipulation of Honkai Energy that allowed it to interfere with reality.

If this special Honkai Energy manipulation could be reverse-analyzed, then by editing the genomes of Fused Warriors, they could themselves possess the ability to alter the nature of Honkai Energy, thereby simulating Herrscher Authority abilities.

The specific operational approach is as follows...

Mobius turned to the next page and found nothing.

This was just a summary!

"And then! And then!?" Mobius, her blood pressure rising another notch, threw caution to the wind. She scrambled off the operating table and lunged at Ai Yue, grabbing his collar. "Give me the rest!"

Mobius's momentum was strong, but Ai Yue was a head taller than her, making her look like a child demanding candy.

"The free content ends here," Ai Yue calmly held out a hand to Mobius. "To view the paid content, please purchase VIP service for unlocking."

He was fishing with these few pages!

Mobius naturally realized Ai Yue's insidious scheme, but she couldn't stop herself.

She released his collar, took a few deep breaths, and finally managed to calm herself down.

"Follow me." She put away the papers and couldn't help but give Ai Yue another glare before walking out of the operating room.

Ai Yue followed silently behind her.

As they left the operating room, Mobius noticed the Sōgen Sisters standing not far away, looking as if they were about to leave.

Something was wrong—these two slackers usually slacked off as much as possible and would never approach the operating room unless absolutely necessary. Why were they still here?

"Halt," Mobius immediately called out to the two. "What are you doing lurking around here!"

"Dr. Mobius!" Danzhu was so scared she froze. "We, we, we really weren't stealing..."

"We were just standing by outside the operating room, Dr. Mobius!" Sōgen quickly interrupted Danzhu's near confession. "What if you and Dr. Ai Yue needed our help?"

"Hmph?" Mobius let out a meaningful hum. "Never mind, this doesn't concern you anymore. Let's go."

She didn't have the time to deal with these two right now.

"Thank you, Doctor!"

Sōgen quickly pulled Danzhu to the side, leaving space for Mobius and Ai Yue to pass. As Ai Yue walked by, she winked at him.

Her expression was very animated, and she even gave him a thumbs-up.

Was she... saying I did a good job? What did I do?

Ai Yue looked at the two mischievous girls with confusion, not understanding why they were suddenly praising him.

Only after the two had disappeared around the corner did Sōgen and Danzhu finally let out a long sigh of relief.

Then their expressions turned excited. "Danzhu, are you sure you heard correctly?"

Just as Danzhu had almost blurted out, these two slackers had indeed been trying to eavesdrop from outside.

"That's absolutely right!" Danzhu nodded with certainty. "Dr. Mobius was just shouting something about 'below' and 'giving it to me'!"

"Wooooow~~~" Sōgen immediately covered her ears as if to block out the sound. "That's an operating room! Isn't that a bit too bold?"

She knew Mobius wouldn't casually let someone with no connection into the operating room, but this development was truly beyond their imagination.

However, there were still volunteer corpses on the operating table. In such an environment, could anyone really get excited?

Sōgen pondered for a moment, then suddenly realized—what kind of good person would be on Mobius's wavelength? This kind of environment might even be their idea of foreplay!

"Sister, sister," Danzhu looked curiously at Sōgen, whose expression was a mix of emotions. "Is this that 'big gossip' Imor was talking about?"

"Yes, Danzhu, this is big gossip, or 'big melon' for short." Sōgen nodded, then couldn't help but shiver and looked at Danzhu sternly. "But this absolutely cannot be spread. Only the two of us know, understand?"

If she spread rumors about Dr. Mobius and Mobius found out, wouldn't she be the next one on the operating table?

Seeing the frightened Sōgen, Danzhu nodded as if she understood, though not entirely.

But it was clear she didn't have Sōgen's cunning and couldn't think that far ahead.

Meanwhile, Mobius, unaware that her image had transformed in the minds of her two assistants, led Ai Yue to another corner of the research institute.

"Your research institute is so huge," Ai Yue couldn't help but exclaim. "Compared to this, my place is practically a shack."

"You'll have one too in the future, maybe even bigger than this," Mobius said, standing before a door. She unlocked it with a key. "We're here, this is it."

Inside was a simple and unadorned bedroom: a bed, a wardrobe, a desk and chair, with no excessive decorations. The only exception was a pink bunny plush toy on the bed.

"This is where you usually live?" Ai Yue wasn't surprised. Mobius clearly seemed like a scientific fanatic, and he doubted she even came back here every day. "I didn't expect you liked rabbits."

"I don't, but Elysia insisted on giving it to me. What could I do?" Mobius's tone was somewhat helpless, mixed with other emotions. "Wait here for a moment."

She walked to the wardrobe, opened it, and rummaged inside for a long time before taking out a small box. "Here it is."

Just as Ai Yue reached out, she quickly hid the box behind her. "What about what you promised?"

So Ai Yue also took out another folded report from his pocket. They both extended their hands simultaneously, taking what they needed from each other.

The transaction was complete.

Chapter 36: You're All Working for Me Now

"Gene Sample: Second Herrscher (Rare): Usable Value 100%."

"Using this material can directly activate research projects related to the Second Herrscher."

As Ai Yue held what Mobius handed him, the information that appeared before his eyes made him smile.

"You're really easy to fool," Mobius thought with a mischievous idea as she saw his expression. "Aren't you afraid I just gave you something random to trick you?"

"I have my own detection methods," Ai Yue put away the box and shook his hand, showing her his gloves. "It seems you're quite trustworthy, Dr. Mobius."

"Hmph." Seeing that he could indeed distinguish genuine from fake, Mobius let out an unintelligible snort, then lowered her head to study the report Ai Yue had given her.

After a brief scan of the remaining content, Mobius looked up again and said to Ai Yue, who hadn't left yet, "The content is incomplete. Is there some super VIP paid content missing?"

"How could that be? What do you take me for, Penguin?" Ai Yue waved his hand. "This is all the actual content."

The reason it wasn't the complete version wasn't because Ai Yue was intentionally withholding information, but because the report's content didn't come from a system-deduced research project.

This was something Ai Yue had figured out himself over the past two days, combining knowledge from the Herrscher technology of the first two Herrschers with the content of the Fusion Warrior Project. Due to his limited knowledge, the content was incomplete. Compared to the full project, it was merely a starting point.

This was also why he chose to give the report to Mobius.

Indeed, all scholars in the world combined couldn't compare to the system, but humans weren't useless, and the system wasn't omnipotent. Since the system could only deduce one research project at a time, this efficiency forced Ai Yue to prioritize the research projects he had.

Since there were some projects that even he couldn't reach a conclusion on, it was better to hand them over to top scholars like Mobius. Perhaps they could share some of the burden?

"So, you're trading me an unfinished product... no, less than an unfinished product?" Mobius glared fiercely at Ai Yue. "Do you think that's fair?"

Ai Yue retorted nonchalantly, "Do you think it's not worth it?"

Mobius and Ai Yue stared at each other for a long time before she finally broke eye contact. "It's worth it."

As a scholar, Mobius couldn't lie about research projects. Although the report Ai Yue provided was merely a prototype, or perhaps not even that, but rather an embryo, it was still an embryo capable of nurturing infinite possibilities.

Mobius knew better than anyone how precious such an embryo was.

Let alone a gene sample of the Second Herrscher, even if Ai Yue had asked for the Second Herrscher's corpse, Mobius would have found a way to get it for him.

And he gave such a thing to her so easily. Did he not know how precious it was?

Oh, it wasn't a big deal to him. In that case, never mind.

As the saying goes, "When the thought of giving up arises, the world feels vast." Once Mobius calmly accepted the gap between herself and Ai Yue, a string in her mind seemed to snap, making her feel much more relaxed.

"It belongs to me now anyway," Mobius unceremoniously stuffed the entire report into her pocket. "If I achieve results from my research, I absolutely won't credit you!"

"As you wish," Ai Yue waved his hand dismissively, then began examining the various documents on the bookshelves Mobius had placed on her desk. "If you have any questions, feel free to ask me anytime."

This remark, like a teacher instructing a student, made Mobius's eyes widen again—she was usually the one saying such things to others.

Fine, out of sight, out of mind. It'll be better once this guy leaves.

Mobius comforted herself internally, preparing to go to the laboratory to thoroughly analyze the details of the report.

However, by the time she reached the door, she still hadn't seen any sign of Ai Yue intending to leave. He had even taken out a book and was sitting in her chair, reading!

"What are you doing?" Mobius finally lost her composure and spoke up. "You just got new materials, aren't you going to go back and do experiments?"

"Huh?" Ai Yue looked up at her, then at the words "Artificial Imaginary Space Stabilizer Under Development" floating in the upper left corner of his vision. He shrugged, "No rush. Elysia has something going on tonight, and it's closer to go from your place."

It's all system-powered training anyway, where I train doesn't matter.

"So, you really..." Mobius felt her blood pressure hadn't been stable since she met Ai Yue. "Are you really a scholar?"

Mobius still remembered the excitement and eagerness she felt the first time she obtained a precious research sample. She hadn't delayed for a moment then, rushing back to her laboratory to start her research without stopping. Unlike this guy, who was actually thinking about having something to do tonight and going from her place because it was closer?

"What could be more important than researching the gene sample of the Second Herrscher?" Mobius thought, "Elysia... has she been up to something again?"

"Preparing a birthday party for Kevin. Tonight is the rehearsal," Ai Yue looked at Mobius. "She probably invited you too, right?"

"Oh, so that's what it is." Mobius finally found the corresponding memory from the corner of her mind. "Is that kind of thing important?"

"It's alright," Ai Yue said nonchalantly. He knew Mobius wouldn't be interested in such things. "I'm going anyway."

"Mmm..." Mobius looked at Ai Yue, lost in thought. After a while, she closed the door again and returned inside. "Then I'll go take a look too."

"Huh?" Now it was Ai Yue's turn to be surprised. He turned his head and looked at Mobius, who had already gotten into bed. "You're going?"

"What's wrong, can't I?" Mobius smiled slyly, seemingly satisfied with Ai Yue's reaction. "Elysia invited me before too, though I didn't agree at the time."

Ai Yue naturally wouldn't try to dissuade her. He could only shrug, "Alright, hope she doesn't mind."

"When has she ever minded?" Mobius shook her head. "Instead of worrying about her, you should worry about others."

"Hope they can still eat when they see me."

Chapter 37: Are You Collecting Them All Here?

As it turned out, Mobius had a very clear understanding of herself.

When Elysia learned that Mobius was also coming, she was delighted: "Mobius is coming too? That's great, it's more fun with more people!"

But then she changed the subject: "However, Mobius, you should also pay more attention to your relationships with others, okay?"