Chapter 204

Mobius, standing to the side, looked somewhat surprised. "I thought you'd struggle a bit more."

"Because I suddenly realized that if there isn't overwhelming evidence, you would be even more resistant to this possibility than I am."

Vill-V shook her head. "But I still have to say, compared to all this nonsense, I trust Elysia more—she may really be Herrscher, but she won't be an enemy of humanity."

"Whether or not she is an enemy of humanity is something that even Elysia herself probably cannot decide."

Dr. Mei said, "You've seen Herrscher before. Even Ai Yue had to rely on special methods to avoid the interference of Honkai on his will. What if Elysia is also affected?"

"Then let's figure out a solution to this problem. Isn't that what we do?"

"Besides," Vill-V retorted, "Things obviously haven't gotten to the worst point yet. I can't bring myself to point a gun at my friend for a vague possibility!"

Seeing the somewhat agitated Vill-V, Dr. Mei and Mobius exchanged a glance and both smiled.

"She was more excited than I expected,"

Dr. Mei commented, "I thought she would try to steer the conversation in her usual flamboyant style."

"Haven't you noticed? This Vill-V is different from the one you used to know."

Mobius shrugged. "She should be considered half, no, three... well, maybe one percent of Ai Yue now."

"The content is too low!"

Vill-V's eyes widened immediately. "Are you kidding me? I used all my strength to simulate it! One percent is way too little, isn't it?"

"I still think this is too much."

Mobius rolled his eyes. "Do you think a hundred of you combined can compare to Ai Yue?"

"Your analogy is clearly flawed... No, now's not the time to talk about this, is it?"

Vill-V wanted to argue further, but then she suddenly realized, "Your attitude doesn't seem to suggest that you consider Elysia an enemy?"

"When did we say we would treat Elysia as an enemy?"

Dr. Mei asked with a hint of helplessness, "On the contrary, we originally intended to help her."

Vill-V quickly realized what was going on. "Oh, so you're testing me with this?"

After realizing that Elysia might be Herrscher, Vill-V naturally also realized that once Elysia's identity was exposed, everything she had ever had would be lost, and she might even fall into an abyss—even if she was still a warrior protecting humanity at this time.

Therefore, Elysia's current situation must be kept secret, and not a single word can be leaked. This is why Dr. Mei chose this place as the meeting location—because this place is not even in Ai's database, so there is almost no possibility that it will be known by others.

Of course, Vill-V thought that doing so was a bit like burying her head in the sand. After all, it was almost impossible to really hide it from Ai Yi. In addition, Ai Yi unconditionally obeyed Ai Yue's orders, so it was obvious that she was one of their own.

"There's nothing we can do about it; after all, this matter can't be taken lightly, right?"

Dr. Mei gave an awkward smile. "But we knew you would make this choice. This is just to be on the safe side."

"What if I really don't agree? What are you going to do with me...?"

Vill-V paused mid-sentence, then glanced around at her surroundings. "Let me guess, could this place have been prepared for me?"

A space deep underground with only one entrance and exit is obviously an excellent prison. As long as the only entrance and exit is guarded and all usable items on her are confiscated, it would be difficult for Vill-V to leave this place even if Kevin were possessed.

As for Vill-V, she usually keeps to herself and rarely appears in public. Someone like her, even if she stays in a place like this for dozens of days, will not attract much attention. In fact, most of the people who would notice her are here.

The silence between the two in the face of Vill-V's question somewhat confirmed this.

"I give up, okay?"

While feeling speechless, Vill-V breathed a sigh of relief, at least she hadn't made the wrong choice. "But speaking of which, there's something I'm really curious about."

Dr. Mei looked at her. "What is it?"

What made you make this choice?

"I would choose Vill-V over human Elysia because I don't really have a concept of good or evil. In this situation, I would naturally choose my friend. But you two are people who would do anything for the future of humanity. Faced with this situation, I find it hard to imagine that you didn't choose to nip the crisis in the bud," Vervi asked.

Vill-V knew very well that the three people present, and even Aponia who had joined from afar, were the kind of psychopaths who would trample on morality and ethics and abandon everything in order to save the world. Faced with this situation where "killing Elysia would prevent the Herrscher from harming the world," they actually chose to help Elysia, which was what Vill-V couldn't understand the most.

"Can't you really figure it out?"

Mobius looked at her with a subtle gaze. "I feel like you should know the answer to that."

"The reason is simple: our actions do not play a decisive role; the real influence is on others."

Dr. Mei was more direct. "In that case, we would naturally choose to help our friends, wouldn't we?"

Vill-V was silent for a moment, then breathed a sigh of relief, "That's right, if the sky falls, Ai Yue will hold it up, or rather, he's holding it up right now, right?"

Yes, Dr. Mei and the others, including Vill-V, did not choose to help Elysia simply because they believed in her. Rather, it was because Ai Yue chose to help Elysia that they were left with only this choice.

Without Ai Yue's existence, even if Dr. Mei were unwilling, they would probably have had no choice but to regard Elysia as an enemy in the end—because they might not have the ability to solve the problem, so they had to get rid of Elysia in order to save human civilization.

Fortunately, Ai Yue's presence saved Dr. Mei and the others from having to face such a difficult choice. However, judging from the current situation, even Ai Yue probably finds this problem troublesome, otherwise there would have been no action for so long.

"Yes, he's been holding on the whole time."

Dr. Mei sighed, "So all we have to do is some preventative work."

"To prevent anyone from hindering Ai Yue's efforts to solve problems,"

Mobius gave a cold, almost chilling smile. "Prevention alone is far from enough."

"I said, is that guy really okay?"

Vill-V gestured to Dr. Mei to whisper, "She seems more like the mastermind now, doesn't she? Maybe if we take her out, Elysia's problem can be solved!"

"I think someone like you is completely useless to our plans."

Mobius retorted, "Why not just lock her up here? Letting this guy run wild outside will only cause the budget to go over budget."

Just as these two people, whose relationship wasn't great to begin with, were about to start arguing over money, Aponia's voice entered their minds at just the right moment. "'Please' calm down, you two. There's no need to worry about the expenses. Eden is happy to cover all expenses related to Elysia."

So the two of them stopped immediately. If one didn't know that this was the precept taking effect, their actions would have been so synchronized that it seemed like they were just putting on a show to ask for funding.

"Alright, now listen to me."

Dr. Mei said, "At this stage, Elysia probably doesn't need us to do anything, so our current goal is to cover for them as much as possible to prevent anyone from becoming suspicious."

"Isn't that a bit too broad a statement?"

Vill-V sighed. "And it seems like I can't be of any help in this matter?"

"You're already helping by simply keeping quiet."

Dr. Mei smiled and said, "Of course, I have another matter to ask you."

As she spoke, she took out a portable storage device and pushed it off the table toward Vill-V: "There is a design blueprint in here. I hope you can manufacture it as soon as possible."

"Let me see..."

Vill-V took the memory device and examined it. Then she quickly looked up at Dr. Mei with a subtle look in her eyes. "Did Ai Yue make this?"

These words may sound hurtful, but for them, "Your work is like Ai Yue's" is the highest compliment.

"This is my design, but it does reference Ai Yue's techniques."

Dr. Mei calmly stated, "But it's still in the theoretical stage... Are you confident you can make it?"

"Some things here are quite troublesome to deal with."

Vill-V stroked her chin, then smiled slightly. "However, this happens to be one of only two places in the world capable of resolving this—wait for my news."

After Vill-V left, Mobius spoke again, "Aren't you going to tell her everything?"

"As Vill-V said, there's not much she can do, so naturally the less she knows, the better."

Dr. Mei said calmly, "That way, even if it's exposed later, her punishment will be the least severe."

"Do you think she's afraid of punishment? People like us live off punishments."

Mobius shook his head. "But this is indeed a bit of an exaggeration. You're not really planning to take control of the entire United Earth Government, are you?"

That's just the worst-case scenario.

Dr. Mei's face was expressionless, making it difficult to guess her inner thoughts. "If the fact that Elysia is Herrscher cannot be concealed, we must find a way to buy more time for Ai Yue. However, it would be best to resolve it quietly without anyone knowing, just like the Restraint Incident."

"So, everything depends on the progress on Ai Yue's side."

Mobius looked up at the light source on the ceiling. "I wonder if that guy has made any progress."

Ai Yue's research has made rapid progress.

The problem is that he's not sure if he'll be alive enough to bring that data back.

Because Elysia's current state can be described as "extremely dangerous".

The moment Ai Yue noticed Elysia's condition, he realized something was wrong and immediately tried to distance himself from her.

Unfortunately, his rational reaction of observing the situation first, making a judgment, and then driving his body to move caused him to miss the best opportunity to dodge. As a result, Ai Yue had only taken two steps back when a wild bolt of lightning shot out from Elysia's fingertip and aimed directly at Ai Yue's heart.

Ai Yue only had time to utter the first sound of "Holy crap!" before he was struck by the lightning and sent flying backward, crashing into the makeshift wall behind him.

Fortunately, he was wearing the Wuji Armor the whole time, so this move only looked exaggerated, but he didn't actually suffer much damage.

Damn it, after this is over, I really need to get Kevin others started their special training!

As soon as Ai Yue climbed out of the rubble of the wall, he saw that Elysia was gathering even more powerful energy in her hands. Fortunately, at this moment, the nearby drones had already detected the anomaly and rushed directly towards Elysia.

And so the accumulated lightning bolt was unleashed upon the swarm of drones, instantly turning more than two-thirds of them into fireworks.

However, a small number of drones managed to break through the onslaught. After diving close enough, they fired two thin, syringe-like objects from the launchers mounted on their bodies.

That was an anesthetic prepared in advance by Ai Yue to prevent Elysia from losing control. If more than three needles hit, even Fused Warrior would not be able to withstand it.

In the blink of an eye, Elysia's upper body was covered in drones. At first glance, it looked like she was receiving acupuncture treatment. As the anesthetic was injected, the strength in Elysia's hands began to dissipate, and she was clearly losing control of her body under the influence of the drug.

After swaying a few times, the Elysia regained her balance. Not only that, but the injections that were inserted into her body were also squeezed out by her muscles and fell to the ground.

Clearly, this is the power of the Sixth Herrscher at work.

Fortunately, Ai Yue had taken advantage of the gap to close the distance with Elysia, but just when he was less than two steps away from Elysia, she raised her head again.

Along with her reaction, the previously dissipated lightning also appeared—even with the naked eye, Ai Yue could see that this hastily condensed lightning was even stronger than the attack that had just swept away the drone swarm!

Within seconds, Elysia's (questionable) control over her powers increased at an unbelievable speed. If she continued like this, things would be difficult to control.

However, this powerful bolt of lightning did not hit Ai Yue —even though it was so close, Ai Yue bypassed the lightning's attack range with an even more unbelievable speed and arrived directly behind Elysia.

This time, he finally remembered the "Spacetime Distortion Generator" on his body.

In the blink of an eye, the roles of offense and defense shifted again. Ai Yue, who had regained the initiative, did not hesitate and directly took back the Third Divine Key from his opponent's hand and the Eighth Divine Key on his head.

Without the Third Divine Key, Elysia immediately lost the ability to release electricity, which confirmed Ai Yue's guess— Elysia now seems much "smarter" than usual, but in the end she is still Elysia. Once she loses the support of the Herrscher Core in the Divine Keys, she is unable to activate her powers.

However, Ai Yue only had time to seize two Divine Keys before the Spacetime Fracture effect ended. Almost the instant the time flow returned to normal, Elysia turned around without hesitation and grabbed Ai Yue by the neck.

Although Elysia's physical strength was insufficient to harm Ai Yue through the armor, Ai Yue felt his strength rapidly draining away the moment their bodies made contact.

It was the power of the Sixth Herrscher —under such terrifying life-draining effects, even though Ai Yue's current physique ranks among the top of the Fused Warrior, he still couldn't last long.

Fortunately, Elysia's actions also exposed the Sixth Divine Key hanging on her chest to Ai Yue's eyes. Although his arms were already as heavy as a thousand pounds, Ai Yue still managed to grab the amulet-shaped Sixth Divine Key and pull it off.

Elysia, who has lost her last Herrscher authority, has not yet returned to her former self, but something seems to have appeared in her originally indifferent eyes.

She released her grip on Ai Yue's neck and began to search his body, clearly trying to reclaim what was rightfully hers.

But before Ai Yue could do anything, the other person had already collapsed softly onto him. It was unclear whether the residual anesthetic had finally taken effect, or whether the consciousness that occupied Elysia's body had once again broken the connection after losing the support of the Herrscher authority.

Ai Yue instinctively hugged Elysia, but was pulled down to the ground by her body. Only then did he realize that he was completely exhausted, obviously having almost been devoured by the power just now.

Fortunately, the Sixth Divine Key was currently on him. After regaining some strength with the help of his power, Ai Yue temporarily left Elysia aside and went to check the monitoring equipment.

Fortunately, although all these devices were reduced to rubble in the battle, the data storage system, which Ai Yue had specially reinforced, preserved everything perfectly.

Having confirmed this, Ai Yue finally lay down on the ground with a relieved smile, "Luckily, it wasn't all for nothing."

Chapter 84 The Cocoon of Finality, your tricks seem rather ordinary.

When Elysia woke up again, she was lying on an operating table in the laboratory, her whole body covered with all sorts of messy equipment, looking as miserable as a critically injured patient who was about to die.

"What am I doing..."

The girl responded briefly, then realized her memory was blank and understood what had happened. "Ai Yue, Ai Yue? Are you alright?"

Elysia's tone was somewhat anxious, because she knew exactly what it meant to have a memory gap—recalling the destruction she had caused last time, she was naturally worried about Ai Yue's current state.

However, considering that I will be here directly, Ai Yue should be fine.

Ai Yue, who was hidden from view by the various instruments next to the operating table, leaned out and said, "Don't worry, everything is normal—by the way, you'd better not move around too much yet, the anesthesia hasn't worn off."

On the way back to Elysia, in order to prevent her from losing control again, Ai Yue gave her several more injections of anesthetic, but it seems that he overdid it, which is why she only woke up now.