Chapter 180

"Elysia's."

Without looking up, Mobius said, then added, "These are samples collected between the occurrence of the Aberration Event."

The Aberration Event occurred during this period, which means this was a sample taken before the Twelfth Herrscher left Elysia!

Ai Yue reacted instantly, quickly returned to the lab bench, placed the sample into the instrument, and glanced at Mobius: "This has really been a great help."

"Snort."

Mobius didn't look up. "If you had come back a few days later, I would have taken this and used it myself!"

It seems you still mind a little.

Ai Yue could only offer a forced smile before immersing himself in the study of the samples.

With this sample, his analysis of the Herrscher authority can be more in-depth. Although it may not be useful when dealing with Herrscher, it is of great help in the face of the current difficulties.

Night fell quickly. Ai Yue, working with both hands, had already created the shielding device that Elysia needed, and the analysis of the sample was in its final stages. It could be said that they were already able to glimpse a corner of the Herrscher authority.

Unlike the previous Herrscher, if the Herrscher Ai Yue encountered before could be seen as enhanced versions of those in the original work, then this Herrscher completely surpasses the version in the original story.

In the original storyline, the twelfth Herrscher was named the Herrscher of "Erosion". He has the ability to erode everything. He can not only erode living beings and turn them into his slaves and soldiers, but also erode electronic devices and even control the network, thereby fundamentally destroying everything that humanity owns.

In the original story, humanity was already barely surviving under the ravages of the Herrscher, with only three large shelters remaining. Even these three shelters were eventually Herrscher of Erosion through nuclear weapons launched via the network, wiping out the last vestige of what could be called "civilization".

When Dr. Mei used the special "Black Box" to trap the Herrscher of Erosion, they had already completely lost their future. So, in the end, they decided to use everything in the current civilization to pave the way for the next generation of civilization.

Now, the Herrscher that Ai Yue is facing seems to have gone a step further than the "corruption" power it already possessed, having mastered the power to cause organisms to mutate. Interestingly, after research, Ai Yue realized that this so-called "mutation" was merely a description from a human perspective.

This means that, from another perspective, they might not be considered aberrations at all—but rather a kind of "evolution."

No, you can't say that.

Ai Yue for a moment, Ai Yue rejected this view.

If this change is to exchange wisdom for greater power, then it cannot be called evolution, but only some kind of adaptive modification. So, can we assume that the power possessed by the Twelfth Herrscher allows Him to modify organisms according to His will, enabling them to transform into whatever He desires?

Realizing this, Ai Yue's expression turned serious—if the Herrscher's power could truly influence the genetic changes of living beings at will, then it meant that his "Aberration Corrector" could not truly be immune to the effects of aberration.

Even though the current Fused Warrior can recover from their original mutations with the help of the potion, they will still be turned back into monsters once the Herrscher uses his powers on them again.

Fortunately, the Herrscher was probably worried that if it went too far, Elysia would find out in advance. So after gaining the ability to move freely, it decisively broke away from Elysia's body and then tried to completely destroy human civilization from two aspects through the network system.

If He truly succeeds, then both the humans who have all turned into monsters and the weapon systems activated through the network will be enough to completely erase human civilization from history, leaving no way to even leave a spark for the next generation of civilization.

However, the Herrscher clearly underestimated the surprise that Ai Yue had prepared for Him. Prometheus and Queen, two super Artificial Intelligence that had been evolving since their inception to target the "Herrscher of Erosion," had been waiting for this day to arrive.

Thus, His plan not only failed to cause double the damage, but also suffered double the failure—He was blocked in the online world and unable to escape, while the mutation in the real world, which could only target the Honkai Beast genes, resulted in the survival of the vast majority of humans.

In this way, human civilization was given a precious respite, which finally allowed it to hold on until Ai Yue returned to the real world.

However, after Ai Yue told Mobius his speculations, the other party shook his head. "I don't know much about other things, but there's one thing you're wrong about."

As she spoke, she took out a document and handed it to Ai Yue: "The power of the aberration doesn't just affect the Fused Warrior; it has already infiltrated the bodies of ordinary humans. Once catalyzed by external forces, it will be directly triggered. At that time, humans may even all degenerate into monkeys."

"This is really... a completely unfunny joke."

Ai Yue flipped through the documents in his hand and sighed, "Then it's quite obvious why the Herrscher would prioritize taking over the network."

Spreading distortions through the internet... Damn, could Herrscher really do something like that?

When I said "preventing distortions by the whole nation" before, it was just to remind representatives from various countries. I never thought it would actually come true!

"What do we do now?"

Mobius looked at Ai Yue, "Even if we start developing new drugs now, it will never be able to keep up with the speed at which the mutation spreads among the general population. Once it breaks out, even the most conservative estimate is that more than 70 percent of the population will be affected."

"What else can we do? If we can't solve the problem, then we'll deal with the people who created it."

Ai Yue gritted his teeth fiercely, "Once I have some free time, I'll go and strangle that damn Herrscher online!"

Chapter 61 You're done pretending? Then you should give it to me.

As a result, it wasn't until the next day that Elysia finally returned to the Moth to Fire.

Ai Yue looked at Elysia, somewhat surprised. "Why did it take so long? Where are the Vill-V people?"

He thought it would be a simple matter, but he didn't expect that Elysia would take almost twice as long as expected, to the point that Ai Yue even wondered if Vill-V wasn't in the Spiral Workshop at all.

"Oh, don't even mention it. That girl, Vill-V, turned the workshop into a maze. It took me ages just to find her."

Elysia said angrily, "After we found her, she refused to leave no matter what, insisting on completing that... Oh, Mobius, you're back too?"

Halfway through her sentence, Elysia spotted Mobius working on the other side of the lab table. She immediately dropped what Ai Yue was saying and rushed towards the green-haired scholar, saying, "Long time no see! Did you miss me?"

"It was there a moment ago, but it's gone now."

Mobius feigned impatience and reached out to push away Elysia's face, which was rubbing against him. "Hey, don't disturb my experiment!"

"How ruthless, Mobius!"

Elysia wasn't about to let go so easily, especially since Mobius hadn't even used any force. "How have you been lately? You haven't been staying up all night, have you?"

"Wait a minute, can you finish what you're saying first?"

Ai Yue interjected with a hint of helplessness, "What's wrong with Vill-V? What is she trying to accomplish?"

"I don't know either. That guy was being very mysterious, saying things like 'I'll be too ashamed to show my face if I don't produce something,' and he kept me in suspense for several hours."

Elysia went behind Mobius and rested her chest on Mobius head. "Vill-V should be going to see Dr. Mei now. She'll be here soon."

At this point, she gave a subtle look. "Let me give you a heads-up—that guy is really smug right now, so don't let her scare you later."

Looks like they've actually managed to create something.

Upon hearing this, Ai Yue couldn't help but reveal a cruel smile.

Unfortunately, genius is merely the threshold to my understanding.

He wanted to see what exactly Vill-V had researched that made her so smug, even knowing she was back.

Just then, the focus of their discussion came into play—though she hadn't shown herself yet, her voice carried from afar. "Where's Ai Yue! Call Ai Yue over!"

Goodness, this can't even be described as smug; it's downright arrogant!

"That guy..."

Mobius, already overwhelmed by a heavy burden, was now even more furious. "Ai Yue, go and give her a good beating!"

"Yes, ma'am."

Ai Yue gave a casual bow, then turned and walked out of the laboratory. Elysia, realizing she could join in the fun, immediately left Mobius behind and chased after him.

Finally finding some peace and quiet, Mobius refocused his attention on the experiment before him, but he couldn't concentrate, so he simply went outside as well.

Let's watch Vill-V get her comeuppance to change our mood; maybe it'll spark some inspiration?

When Ai Yue arrived at the lobby of the First Research Institute, he finally understood why Elysia's expression was so subtle.

At this moment, Vill-V was extending the four pairs of spider-like mechanical arms on her back without any restraint, literally "baring her teeth and brandishing her claws." Not only that, she was also wearing a strange compound eye mask, making her look as bizarre as a spider that had come to life.

After witnessing this scene, Ai Yue silently turned to look at Elysia: "Are you sure this is just smugness, and not madness?"

"At least mentally, he should be normal, right?"

Elysia couldn't help but show a somewhat hesitant expression. "That's strange, she wasn't at this level before?"

"This is clearly the result of a second wave of overconfidence."

As a long-time rival of Vill-V and the Moth to Fire, Mobius immediately saw through her situation. "She probably received praise from Möbius—it seems she has indeed come up with something useful this time."

"What are you saying?! I heard everything!"

At that moment, Vill-V naturally noticed the three people whispering and immediately turned around, "Hey you over there, come over here and massage my legs!"

The robotic arms behind her also began to move, all pointing at one person.

"I?"

Ai Yue pointed to himself in surprise, then turned to look at the two people beside him, "Has she become so brave lately? Doesn't she know I'm going to cut her funding?"

"Hey, stop bringing up funding all the time, okay?"

Upon hearing the key words, Vill-V's attitude softened somewhat. "You are now facing the savior who holds the secret to saving the world. It won't hurt to be respectful!"

Hearing this somewhat familiar tone, but clearly mixed with a lot of exaggeration, Ai Yue couldn't help but rub his temples. "Looking at it this way, am I sometimes quite annoying?"

This tone clearly suggests that the personality within Vill-V that mimics him is in control, but isn't that a bit too exaggerated? I'm a very pragmatic person!

Elysia shook her head, but Mobius curled his lips into a knowing smile.

"Fine, anyway, you better not disappoint me."

Ai Yue composed himself and then stepped forward. "That's true, but you shouldn't be indoors... wait, isn't this a robotic arm?"

As soon as Ai Yue took two steps closer, he noticed that the "mechanical arm" behind Vill-V was very strange... Its structure and texture were obviously not the mechanical arm that Vill-V had used before, but some kind of bionic, or simply a biological arthropod.

If you look closely at her mask at this point, you will find that the compound eye structures can actually move independently, and their agility completely surpasses the limits of current mechanical creations.

"Mutated Weapon?"

Ai Yue quickly realized Vill-V's current state and couldn't help but show a hint of surprise, "You actually figured it out."

"That's right, this is my own Mutated Weapon!"

Vill-V nodded smugly, then spun around in place. "How was it? Not worse than yours, right?"

"I can only say... it's very rough."

After recovering from the initial surprise, Ai Yue quickly figured out the details of Vill-V's "Mutated Weapon". "It's about the same level as the initial version of my design - oh, the initial version was never actually implemented. All the Mutated Weapon you can access are products that have been iterated three times."

"Huh?"

Vill-V was stunned for a moment, and even the limbs on her back drooped down. "No way, is it that much different?"

"It's not your fault, it's just that I'm too strong."

Ai Yue patted her on the shoulder and gave her an encouraging look. "You've done your best, human scholar."

"Don't just casually put yourself above humanity, okay?"

Vill-V shrugged, brushing Ai Yue's hand aside, and simultaneously put away her Mutated Weapon. Her face clearly showed her frustration. "Damn Ai Yue, you just wait! One day I'll surpass you!"

"You don't need to worry about things at least 20,000 years from now."

Ai Yue smiled, then stretched out his hand again, "Where's your pride? If this is all you've got, don't blame me for cutting your budget."

Although he said that, Ai Yue had already acknowledged Vill-V's abilities. After all, he would never have been able to create the Mutated Weapon so easily without relying on the system. Even though Vill-V was just imitating what already existed and the difficulty wasn't that high, it was still something to be proud of.

"Wait a minute!"

Upon hearing about the funding, Vill-V shuddered. "Although it looks like an ordinary Mutated Weapon, it is actually a very special Mutated Weapon!"

After saying that, she gave Elysia a wink. "Elysia, say something too!"

"Oh, here it comes!"

Elysia then came to her senses and said, "I can testify that Vill-V's armor has very special functions!"

Let me guess,

Ai Yue narrowed his eyes, already realizing something. "You're not going to say that this Mutated Weapon can resist the effects of the aberration, are you?"

Vill-V froze on the spot. "You haven't already figured it out, have you? But Dr. Mei told me you hadn't gotten to that point yet?"

The reason she was so proud was that she had confirmed Ai Yue's progress with Dr. Mei and knew that Ai Yue could only solve the aberration problem with the Mutated Weapon surgery, but could not prevent it.

"No, that's true."

Ai Yue shook his head, then said meaningfully, "I'm just curious, how exactly did you determine that this Mutated Weapon can resist the effects of the aberration?"

Vill-V didn't speak, but looked at Elysia was standing to the side.

"Let me explain,"

Elysia also stepped forward and introduced, "Just like you thought, Ai Yue, when I found Vill-V, she looked perfectly normal."

"At first I thought she had overcome the distortion on her own, as you said, but you told me that she never experienced any distortion from beginning to end."

Vill-V couldn't help but proudly raise her head, revealing her fair neck and delicate collarbone—this was the feeling, this was the feeling of having someone else help her show off!

Damn it, so Ai Yue has been living such a comfortable life all along!

"Where's the evidence?"

Seemingly unable to bear Vill-V's smugness, Mobius, who had been observing, couldn't help but ask, "Can't you convince people with just a few words?"