Chapter 198

However, just as she reached the door, she suddenly stopped. "Herrscher are not independent individuals; they are connected. If you want to figure this out, it might be easier to start with other Herrscher."

After saying this, she left the laboratory, leaving Ai Yue with a complicated expression.

From this sentence, Ai Yue could tell that Mobius had roughly guessed what he was researching, and the other party's words also enlightened Ai Yue.

The powers of the Herrscher seem to be varied and unrelated, but there is one that is special—that is, the Herrscher of Domination.

The Herrscher of Domination can imitate and use some of the abilities of other Herrscher, which means that the Herrscher are not completely unconnected. Their powers may be separated from each other, but the ways to acquire those powers may very well lead to the same goal.

Perhaps the answer lies hidden within the other Herrscher?

With that in mind, Ai Yue handed Elysia's genetic data to Ai Yi for analysis, and then left the laboratory, heading towards the other side of the Star of Light.

If someone were to obtain the detailed blueprints of the Star of Light, they would discover that neither the central hall used to entertain guests nor the central control room housing the core servers are actually located at an angle; they are not truly situated in the exact center of the entire experimental base.

The true core of this base is a warehouse used to store some extremely valuable materials.

The remains of the first Herrscher defeated by Ai Yue, the Eighth Herrscher, are placed here.

In the original storyline, each Herrscher has a "door" inside their body. This is not only a channel to maintain a connection with the Cocoon of Finality, but also a way for them to gain power. As long as the door is still there, even if the Herrscher Core is taken away, the Herrscher can reshape a Herrscher Core with enough Honkai Energy.

In other words, this "gate" is the real reason why Herrscher can be called Herrscher.

Elysia clearly has something similar within her, but since she is not fully awakened yet, this "door" cannot be revealed. Therefore, Elysia cannot use her powers, and Ai Yue cannot detect anything unusual within her.

But the Eighth Herrscher is clearly different—as an awakened Herrscher, the gate within her body must have been activated, making her easier to detect in comparison.

The only question now is whether Ai Yue can still find traces of the "gate" on the deceased Herrscher.

However, Ai Yue already had an answer to this question. He remembered the "Artificial Herrscher project" he had given to Mobius. Since materials collected from Herrscher remains could be used to create a potion that temporarily granted Herrscher authority, it meant that such powers could be "borrowed" through genetic means.

Of course, if that really doesn't work, he has other options.

After all, he himself is still half Herrscher.

As Ai Yue pondered this, he arrived at the location of the warehouse.

Although it's called a warehouse, it's actually more like an exhibition hall. Countless pillars stand in the hall in a staggered manner, and each pillar is a storage cabinet. Although you can't see the contents from the surface, Ai Yue can read the description of the items from the patterns on the surface of the pillars through a special method.

This method of transcribing text and patterns was something that Vill-V insisted on using, for the purpose of aesthetics and concealment, so that even if outsiders came in, it would be difficult for them to find what they wanted.

The problem is that ordinary people simply cannot hack into this location, and those who are truly capable of hacking in wouldn't be greedy for these items, so it's essentially a meaningless anti-theft measure.

However, before he could find the place where the Herrscher's body was kept, he suddenly saw a shadowy figure huddled in the corner.

He took two steps forward and recognized her by her silhouette—in fact, there was no need to think about it; who else could be sleeping anywhere on the Star of Light besides Pardofelis?

However, didn't Ai say that Pardofelis wasn't on the Star of Light?

Ai Yue subconsciously took another step forward, and Pardofelis, who was curled up in a ball, suddenly twitched her ears. Then she sank into the ground, leaving only half of her head above ground, which looked very strange.

Fortunately, after she recognized who was approaching her, she immediately sprang out of the ground. "Brother Yue? What are you doing here?"

Ai Yue could only sigh helplessly at this.

Well, it seems that Vill-V's measures did have some effect.

Chapter 76 All the troublesome guys have disappeared.

After silently complaining to himself, Ai Yue refocused his attention on Pardofelis: "I came to get something—what are you doing sleeping here?"

"Huh? I often sleep here?"

Pardofelis scratched her head, looking somewhat embarrassed. "Sleeping here feels very satisfying... so is it not okay?"

Judging from Ai Yue's expression, Pardofelis realized that she seemed to have done something wrong.

"If it's just for sleeping, then it doesn't matter,"

Ai Yue glanced around at the surroundings. "You didn't touch anything here without permission, did you?"

He could understand why Pardofelis would say, "It's so satisfying to sleep here"—because, in essence, this place holds the most precious things in the world.

This place not only contains unique and top-tier research materials such as the remains of Herrscher, but also many technological prototypes that Ai Yue believes are not suitable for release at this stage, as well as extremely dangerous high-risk equipment that even he dares not use easily. It can be said that taking any one of these out would cause a huge uproar in the world.

This uproar may have some aspects in terms of public opinion, and some in terms of physical aspects.

Therefore, from this perspective, the value of this hall can be said to be extremely rare in the world. For a little money-grubber like Pardofelis who is terrified of being poor, sleeping here would probably feel just like a dragon lying on a treasure.

The only problem is that there are so many dangerous items here, and Pardofelis's ability allows her to ignore any physical barriers. Therefore, if she becomes curious about the items collected here, it could very likely lead to some unimaginable consequences.

Upon hearing Ai Yue's question, Pardofelis quickly shook her head. "Of course not! Just getting close to them makes my scalp tingle, how could I possibly touch them?"

So you're still sleeping here?

Ai Yue looked at her with a subtle expression, but didn't say anything—if it were someone else who had barged into this place, he would have given them a lecture, but Pardofelis was an exception.

Pardofelis's luck gives her the ability to avoid danger and seek advantage. As long as she doesn't actively do anything that will lead to certain death, she will generally be safe, so there is not much to worry about.

Of course, it would be even better if we could stay away from such places.

"In short, it's good that everything is alright."

After confirming that Pardofelis was safe, Ai Yue waved his hand, "Then you can continue sleeping. I'll leave as soon as I find what I need."

As he spoke, he walked toward the other side of the hall, and Pardofelis followed—clearly, she couldn't sleep under these circumstances either.

Moreover, although Pardofelis dared not touch anything here, her curiosity had not disappeared. Now that she saw an opportunity to find out what was inside, she naturally wanted to go and take a look.

Ai Yue glanced at it but did not stop her. After all, once she saw what he was looking for, Pardofelis might back down.

Following Ai Yi's guidance, Ai Yue quickly found the location of the Eighth Herrscher's remains. He raised his hand and pressed a gear pattern on one of the pillar's markings, and the pillar, having read the unlock information, immediately emitted the sound of mechanical operation.

Soon, the protective layer on the pillar slowly opened, revealing what was inside to Ai Yue. As expected, Pardofelis shrank behind Ai Yue upon seeing what was inside. "W-how could it be a corpse!"

The thought of her sleeping in the room where corpses were kept made Pardofelis's tail straighten.

Are you scared?

Ai Yue glanced back at her and said, "If you're scared, just go back to your room and sleep."

"Who, who's afraid!"

Pardofelis remained defiant, not even lifting her head, "It's just a corpse... Waaaaaaah!!!"

Before she could finish speaking, the Eighth Herrscher's body suddenly floated forward out of thin air, startling Pardofelis so much that she thought it was a ghost. She jumped onto Ai Yue and used her hands and feet to hold him tightly.

"Alright, alright, calm down."

Ai Yue quickly collected the necessary materials from the Eighth Herrscher's body and stuffed them back into the pillar. "It's just that the levitation device was activated, it's not a ghost."

"I, of course I know!"

Pardofelis's voice trembled, but she still tried to be stubborn, "I just wanted to hug you!"

"Okay, okay,"

Ai Yue could only helplessly comfort her, "So how long do you plan to keep hugging me?"

"Wait a little longer..."

Pardofelis buried her face in Ai Yue's shoulder, and even through her clothes, Ai Yue could feel the warmth of her face. "My legs are a little weak..."

"I'd better take you out with me."

Ai Yue put away the sample in his hand, then reached out and lifted Pardofelis's legs. "Looks like you won't be coming in here so casually anymore, right?"

"That's hard to say."

Pardofelis blinked and suddenly said, "Speaking of which, why didn't I see Sister Snake come with you?"

"Mobius has gone back to Moth to Fire,"

Ai Yue was somewhat surprised by Pardofelis's question. "I remember you were quite afraid of her, weren't you? What, do you miss her a little now that you can't see her?"

"I wasn't really scared... although Sister Snake can be quite frightening sometimes."

Pardofelis said, "But if she goes back, won't it just be the two of us left in the base?"

Thinking of this, Pardofelis was a little excited—if Mobius hadn't taken over Ai Yue's bed last night, how could she have run outside and slept wherever she wanted?

Now that Mobius has gone back and Aponia is not here, Ai Yue's bed is now hers!

Then she heard someone say, "Oh, Elysia will be staying at the base for a while."

"Huh? Sister Ai Li?"

Pardofelis paused for a moment, then said with some surprise, "Shouldn't she be stationed in Shenzhou?"

"There have been scheduling changes, that's normal."

Ai Yue also noticed the change in Pardofelis's mood. "What's wrong? You don't sound very welcoming?"

"No way! I really like Sister Ai Li!"

Pardofelis immediately retorted, "Although sometimes Sister Ai Li teases me with the crystal flowers she makes."

Although she said that, Pardofelis was indeed a little disappointed, but she quickly realized that Elysia wouldn't be sleeping in the same bed with Ai Yue like Mobius and Aponia, so there was no possibility of her competing with her.

Thinking about it this way, the girl's mood immediately improved.

After sending Pardofelis back to the central hall, Ai Yue returned to the laboratory and began conducting experiments using samples from the Eighth Herrscher.

With his previous ideas in mind, he directly focused on the genes of the Eighth Herrscher —the "gate" inside Herrscher's body is just an abstract concept and does not exist in a concrete form. If such a concept can still be preserved after the Herrscher's death, then it can only be hidden in the genes.

Deciphering genetic information is a rather complex and lengthy process. Fortunately, Ai Yue still has the research results he had previously preserved. By comparing them, the progress will not be too slow. At most, it will only take three days to complete the deciphering of the Herrscher's genetic information.

Ai Yue first handed over the preliminary analysis work to Ai Yi and the instruments, while he himself began to look at Elysia's gene analysis report.

The result was not beyond Ai Yue's expectations— Elysia's gene percentage was the highest among all the Fused Warrior.

The genes of Fused Warrior are formed by combining human and Honkai Beast parts. The simplest way to maximize the strength of Fused Warrior is to increase the proportion of Honkai Beast genes in the overall gene pool. Therefore, in the first generation of Fused Warrior, Honkai Beast genes accounted for about 45%.

This wasn't the absolute limit; it was simply that with the technology available at the time, exceeding this limit would have resulted in a zero success rate, and even miracles wouldn't have occurred.

After Ai Yue updated the technology of the Fused Warrior, now only 30% of the Honkai Beast genes are needed to unleash power close to that of the first-generation Fused Warrior. If it weren't for the fact that each of the first-generation Fused Warrior possessed unique skills, they would probably have been surpassed long ago.

According to preliminary calculations, the Honkai Beast genes in Elysia's body account for less than 20%, which means that the power granted to her by the Honkai Beast genes is not very strong.

Even with this level of enhancement, Elysia is still able to become the second strongest among the Fused Warrior, which is enough to show how special she is.

Incidentally, Kevin, who participated in the "Brahma Project," now has less than 35% human genes in his body. This means that the Honkai Beast genes in his body are too complex, so the overall proportion is still mostly human. Otherwise, Kevin would probably have become a monster long ago.

Fortunately, only Ai Yue and Mobius currently possess this technology; otherwise, Elysia would probably have been exposed long ago.

Upon seeing Ai Yi's preliminary analysis results, Ai Yue couldn't help but frown.

Elysia's genes are far more complex than those of normal humans, and even far more complex than the genetic information of Herrscher. Therefore, even for Alicia now, analyzing them is extremely difficult.

When Ai Yue passed by the central hall earlier, he could even hear the sound of overload operation coming from the central server under his feet. He had already anticipated this, but he did not expect the difficulty to be even higher than he had imagined.

This made him think of the murals that Eden and the others found on the moon—if all of that really corresponded to Elysia, then was the complexity of her genes the work of the previous civilization?

But no matter what, I need to find a breakthrough right now. But if I were to analyze it from the beginning, it would probably take ten days or half a month to finish... How about I pick a section to try first?

Just as Ai Yue was deep in thought, he suddenly noticed a head peeking out furtively from the wall next to him.

Those obvious cat ears and this special ability clearly speak volumes about the other party's identity.

"Pardo, you should try to use the main entrance,"

Looking at Pardofelis, who was curiously examining the interior of the laboratory, Ai Yue couldn't help but sigh, "To be honest, playing like this all the time is a bit too terrifying."

"Hehe, I'll be more careful next time."

Pardofelis chuckled and squeezed through the wall. "Speaking of which, I haven't seen you use this lab much, Brother Yue?"

"Because Mobius is almost always here when we use this place, so why don't you come along?"

Ai Yue stroked his chin. "Why did you suddenly come over?"

"It's a bit noisy in the lobby, there's a buzzing sound under my feet,"

Pardofelis's ears twitched, then she put on a concerned expression. "Besides, since Sister Snake isn't here, I'll naturally stay with you. That's something you asked me to do before."

Ai Yue then remembered that he had indeed kept Pardofelis by his side to avoid losing himself.

As a result, the two of them were so busy during this period that they hardly ever saw each other.

But wait a minute?

Looking at the girl in front of him, Ai Yue suddenly realized something.

Since I'm thinking of randomly selecting a portion to analyze first, I naturally need enough luck to ensure that I can find the content I need exactly—and speaking of luck, isn't there a guy with incredible luck right in front of me?

"Perfect timing, Pardo, come here for a second,"