But Hua had no idea that after becoming a Fused Warrior, all of Kevin's training had focused on increasing his raw strength. After all, fighting Honkai Beasts did not require much skill. As long as he had overwhelming power, that was enough. So, when it came to technique, this was indeed one of his weaknesses.
Of course, after Sakura's assassination attempt on Dr. Mei, Kevin had begun paying attention to this matter. Therefore, the difference between the two in terms of combat skills could only be determined after they fought.
"Come to think of it, was this armor made by Doctor Ai Yue?" Cosmo had no idea that Hua had taken his words as polite small talk. His attention had simply shifted back to the armor. "Does it have a name?"
"It's called Primordial Armor." Ai Yue smiled. "How did it feel fighting it?"
"It's tough. Really tough." Cosmo lowered his head and glanced at his claws. "My abilities could barely affect it. Is this some new special alloy?"
Compared with the others, Cosmo's ability seemed somewhat "insidious." Every attack he made left behind energy that was difficult to remove, inflicting continuous corrosive damage. At first, this damage seemed negligible, but it could stack endlessly with almost no limit. Once it reached a certain level, Cosmo could detonate it all at once, causing tremendous damage.
Moreover, because of Vishnu's characteristics, Cosmo possessed an extremely strong ability to fight continuously on battlefields filled with Honkai Beasts. Relying on his powerful endurance and bizarre abilities, he could fight even the strongest enemies. He could even wear them down to death.
Yet this ability could barely leave any real wounds on Primordial Armor. Cosmo had noticed earlier that even when his attacks struck Hua, the marks left by his claws quickly vanished, as if her armor possessed the ability to repair itself.
That was why Cosmo had been dragged into a prolonged battle by Hua and ultimately gone berserk after lacking a supply of Honkai Beast Factor.
"Mm. Its resistance to Honkai Energy is extremely high, so it can withstand your ability." Ai Yue did not explain much, because he knew Cosmo knew little about this field. "This material will soon be used in new equipment. Look forward to it."
"That's great! By the way, will this armor be mass-produced?" Cosmo's gaze ultimately returned to Hua. "Will we get one too?"
Hua could display such formidable combat power just by putting on the armor. If it were a Fused Warrior, wouldn't it become even stronger?
Besides, if ordinary people could be equipped with this armor on a large scale, perhaps there would be no need for the Fusion Warrior Project anymore.
Cosmo knew very well how dangerous the Fusion Warrior Project was. Even though Vishnu had the lowest fusion risk among all Fused Warriors, he had been the only survivor among that group of test subjects. A project that required countless people to be sacrificed to create a single success could never compare with an armor project.
Besides, it looked so cool. He really wanted one...
Under Cosmo's burning gaze, Hua began to feel uncomfortable. She quietly took half a step back and hid behind Ai Yue.
"Unfortunately, this armor is currently too expensive to produce, so mass production will be difficult." Thinking of the funding consumed to create Primordial Armor, even Ai Yue could not help shaking his head. "Of course, Fused Warriors are definitely qualified to use it. I'll design different versions according to each person's circumstances. It will just take more time."
"I understand." Cosmo's gaze still had not left the armor on Hua. "Speaking of which, how do you put this armor on? I don't think I saw any interfaces. Could they be hidden? Wouldn't that make it troublesome to put on and take off?"
Ordinary armor was designed with convenient mechanisms for putting it on and taking it off. Although that affected its appearance, at least it would not take too long to equip or remove. Yet Cosmo could not find any trace of such a design on Primordial Armor.
As if reminded by Cosmo's words, Hua immediately said, "Primordial Armor, disengage fusion."
She knew that Cosmo was only examining the armor. If she took it off, he probably would not keep staring at her, right?
"Command confirmed. Armor fusion disengaged."
Cosmo then stared in shock as Primordial Armor erupted with golden light. It was subsequently "drawn" into several special devices like flowing mercury, revealing Hua's body.
Th-this...
"I'll go change clothes first." Hua spoke softly, then turned and ran toward the changing room.
Cosmo could no longer spare any attention to her. The boy struggled to stand, then rushed in front of Ai Yue and grabbed both his hands. "Doctor Ai Yue, how do we need to cooperate for you to design armor for us?!"
"Look at you, getting all worked up." Ai Yue pushed up his glasses with one hand, concealing the corners of his mouth as they curled upward. "These things take time. There are many experiments that need to be done..."
"I'll cooperate! I'll cooperate with everything!"
Second Chapter: Suddenly Entering the Realm of Metaphysics
"I suddenly understand you a little, Mobius."
Inside the First Research Institute, Ai Yue analyzed Cosmo's genetic data using Mobius's experimental equipment while speaking to Mobius in the corner.
"What do you mean?" Mobius, who had been watching him all along, hurriedly looked away and pretended she had only just noticed him. "By the way, why is that Cosmo guy so enthusiastic toward you? You didn't do something to him, did you?"
Just now, Mobius had personally watched Cosmo follow Ai Yue into the First Research Institute and undergo a complete examination lasting two hours. He had even left behind 1,200 cc of blood when he departed. If Ai Yue had not stopped him, he would have drawn another 1,200 cc.
When had Mobius ever seen anything like this? Cosmo was taciturn and usually displayed almost no emotion. After undergoing the Fused Warrior surgery, he had never come within five hundred meters of the First Research Institute. He was, without a doubt, the hardest to trick—cough, the least cooperative with research—among the Fused Warriors.
Yet in front of Ai Yue, Cosmo was practically under hypnosis. He did whatever Ai Yue told him to do, while his expression continuously cycled through "I'm so damn happy—no, I have to hold it in—I can't hold it in, I'm so happy." If Mobius could not tell from his every detail that his mind was perfectly clear, she might even have suspected that Ai Yue had brainwashed him.
No, even brainwashing could not achieve this level, could it? Based on Cosmo's performance just now, Mobius felt that even if Ai Yue had said, "Next, we're going to remove your kidneys for research," Cosmo would have willingly lain on the operating table, stripped off his clothes to make it easier for Ai Yue to cut him open, and even asked, "Is one enough?"
This was not an excessive fantasy on Mobius's part. Cosmo had genuinely said something similar just now: "Is this amount of blood enough? Should I have another barrel drawn?" It had truly shocked Mobius.
"Although I can't say I did nothing, it's definitely not what you think." Ai Yue shook his head. "I mean that appealing to someone's interests and getting them to take the bait and cooperate with research can indeed give a person a rather dark sense of satisfaction."
"Exactly. You finally understand." Mobius nodded in agreement, then reacted. "Wait, what do you mean by a dark sense of satisfaction? Are you insulting me?"
Ai Yue grinned at her without saying anything.
"Why are you being so sarcastic?" Mobius sat in her office chair and kicked off the floor, gliding over before trying to kick his calf. "And what exactly did you do to Cosmo?"
"Stop fooling around. I'm working." Without even turning his head, Ai Yue pushed Mobius and her chair far away with one hand. "I merely showed Cosmo some new equipment. He wanted one too, so of course he had to cooperate with me."
"So what new equipment did you make?" Mobius frowned. "Weren't you busy with the Honkai Sickness Serum recently? You've been secretly working yourself to death again without telling me, haven't you?"
"You haven't?" Ai Yue glanced back at her. "Do you need me to remind you that Rosalie is now managing the computer system at the First Research Institute too? I know exactly how much electricity your institute uses each day."
"That's no fun..." Mobius pouted, then quietly edged closer. "So what are you researching? I can help with the Fusion Warrior Project."
"Nothing much. I'm mainly checking whether Cosmo's genetic information changed after he went berserk." Ai Yue spoke casually. "So far, there doesn't seem to be any difference. It seems the balance within him isn't that easy to disrupt."
Ai Yue had initially thought that going berserk, as a precursor to Overweight Hypermutation, would leave at least a few traces of mutation in Cosmo's genes. However, the equipment revealed no abnormalities, as if going berserk was not enough to make Cosmo cross that threshold.
In other words, the mutation of the Honkai Beast genes was not the key to Overweight Hypermutation?
"Cosmo went berserk? He didn't hurt you, did he?" Upon hearing this, Mobius immediately came over and reached for Ai Yue's collar. "Let me see!"
"Don't worry. I'm perfectly fine." Ai Yue hurriedly held down his clothes to stop her from harboring ulterior motives. "Hua was the one fighting him."
Incidentally, Hua was unwilling to enter the First Research Institute either, so she was currently waiting outside.
"So the new equipment you prepared for Hua defeated Cosmo, which is why he cooperated so much?" Mobius quickly pieced together the truth from Ai Yue's few words, then leaned over to the equipment. "This gene expression is very stable. His rampage must have been very brief."
It could only be said that Mobius really was an expert in this field. Although she could not compare with a cheat like Ai Yue, she was still a top scholar in genetics.
"I figured you must have researched this before, so I'll get straight to the point." Ai Yue looked at Mobius. "Overweight Hypermutation. What conclusion have you reached?"
"I knew you were going to ask that." Mobius smiled smugly and used the computer to pull up a file. "Overweight Hypermutation currently exists only in theory. Because we lack real cases to support the theory, we can't investigate it further. Do you think Cosmo could be one?"
Mobius had no intention of hiding her abilities in front of Ai Yue. The moment he mentioned Overweight Hypermutation, she knew she had to reveal everything. She understood that if she failed to demonstrate her ability and value in this field, he would cast her aside and work alone. Within a few days, he would produce results with a success rate above ninety percent and reduce her research to dust.
Since that was the case, she might as well be frank from the beginning. Perhaps she could even get Ai Yue to hand control of the project over to her.
After all, he usually had no interest in projects that were not very difficult.
"These cases all involved people who had failed during the Fused Warrior surgery." Ai Yue flipped through the files. "So what do you think is the key factor causing Overweight Hypermutation?"
"Emotion, will, or, more precisely, mental state." Mobius snatched control of the computer back from Ai Yue and dragged the file to the end. "Compared with all the successful cases we have so far, the aberrant mutations in the failed cases basically occurred when the subjects were emotionally frantic, their wills had collapsed, or their minds had become scattered. If I describe it in a less rigorous way—"
"The soul is what determines whether a Fused Warrior surgery succeeds."
Twenty-Fourth Chapter: The Ultimate Answer to the Universe Is Love
Whether souls truly existed was an extremely controversial topic in every world.
Ai Yue naturally believed that souls truly existed. After all, if they did not, there would be no way to explain his transmigration. However, figuring out how to concretize this abstract concept and apply it to scientific research was not something that could be solved by simply saying "I believe."
After all, here, "belief" could not change anything.
"I don't believe in miracles... All right, I didn't before." Mobius continued, but after glancing at Ai Yue, she changed her wording. "Before you intervened, the success rate of the Fused Warrior surgery was essentially zero. Even so, we now have so many successful cases. Are we supposed to attribute all of them to miracles?"
"I think some important factor that cannot be concretely quantified must be at work." Seeing that Ai Yue remained silent, Mobius continued. "Aponia's appearance filled in the final gap in this theory and allowed me to reach this conclusion. Regardless of whether souls truly exist, the strength of one's mental power really does affect the outcome of the surgery."
"Does mental power have a specific unit of measurement now?" Ai Yue asked.
"The specific standards are still being drafted, and someone still needs to develop the relevant mental-power testing equipment." Mobius glanced at Ai Yue. "But the strongest equipment developer in Moth to Fire is currently working as your assistant. How could he have time to handle my request?"
"Wait a little longer." Ai Yue patted her shoulder. "If necessary, I'll make you a temporary one to use first."
"You said it. Starting tomorrow, I'll call you three times a day to hurry you along." Mobius immediately smiled in satisfaction. "All right, back to business. There's another piece of data that can prove my theory."
She opened another file. Soon, countless densely packed slides covered the screen, each showing a different brain scan.
"The normal ones at the top are brain scans of several Fused Warriors, including me." Mobius's finger slid downward along the results. "The ones below are arranged according to the severity of the mutations in the failed cases, from mild to severe."
Mobius had helpfully written the results of the failed cases along the edges of the slides. They ranged from "immediate death" at the beginning, to "still retaining basic human structure," and finally to "complete aberrant beastification." One could see a normal brain gradually shrink and twist until it developed bizarre mutations, making it impossible to tell that it had once been human. Even an ordinary person who knew nothing about scientific research would feel fear upon seeing this sequence of changes.
"The degree of brain erosion is positively correlated with the severity of the mutation." Ai Yue nodded. "That was within my expectations. But how do we prove the causal relationship between them?"
According to Mobius, the brain's mutation and the body's mutation were clearly causally related. The severity of the brain's mutation determined the severity of the body's mutation. Yet the causal relationship could just as easily be reversed—the severity of the body's mutation might determine the severity of the brain's mutation.
Clearly, these slides alone could not show what role mental power, or the soul, played in the process.
"Exactly. Because failed cases alone can't prove whether mental collapse causes complete physical mutation, or excessive physical mutation causes total mental collapse, we need a real case." Mobius said, "If there were someone who could remain rational after entering a state of Overweight Hypermutation, then my theory would truly be established."
"Cosmo is indeed the best candidate. Vishnu's genes possess growth potential and are controllable to a certain degree." Ai Yue nodded. "However, there are still many uncontrollable difficulties with Overweight Hypermutation, so stop thinking about using Cosmo."
"I never considered using him for an experiment." Mobius smiled. "Because he isn't the best choice."
"Take it easy." Ai Yue gave her a look and immediately knew what she was thinking. "You've shrunk noticeably over the past few days. You've even started wearing high heels."
He glanced at Mobius's feet. She had never worn high heels into the laboratory before, but now, to maintain her height, she had no choice but to put on the uncomfortable things.
"Oh, I've still been found out." Mobius sighed theatrically before standing up. "Don't worry. With more important research projects ahead, I won't conduct this kind of experiment. If Overweight Hypermutation is irreversible, then even if I could revive myself, I probably couldn't eliminate its side effects. Until I have a sufficiently suitable test subject, I can't let my precious brain suffer any damage."
After saying this, she stood before Ai Yue and gestured at the difference in their heights. "With these on, I'm even a little taller than before. No wonder some people like wearing them."
"Die a few more times and you'll have to walk on stilts." Ai Yue spoke expressionlessly. "It's decided. When your birthday comes, I'll give you a pair of stilts as a birthday present."
"You did that on purpose, didn't you?" Mobius rolled her eyes. "Can't you even compliment someone?"
"You care about this sort of thing?" Ai Yue snorted and turned toward the exit. "I left Cosmo's blood with you. Remember to use it sparingly."
"He seems to come whenever he's called. Can't I just find him again after I use it?" Mobius did not care in the slightest, while a thought surfaced in her mind.
If she went to find Cosmo in Ai Yue's name, could she really trick him onto the operating table?
"Don't use my name to swindle people." Ai Yue knew what she was plotting from her expression alone. "If I find out, I'll send all your research funding to Vill-V!"
After saying this, Ai Yue left Mobius's laboratory.
Yet Mobius's words continued to echo in his mind.
Mobius did not know that what concerned Ai Yue most in her words was neither the soul nor the mind, but "emotion."
He vaguely remembered that in the original storyline, Cosmo first underwent Overweight Hypermutation after the emotions of disappointment and rage toward Moth to Fire and Kevin reached their peak following Hen's death in battle.
In the next era, Otto had proposed a similar theory: as long as one possessed sufficiently intense feelings, one could break free of a Herrscher's inherent restraints and use one's own will to control the authority derived from Honkai.
And then there were the "fragments of will" from an unknown being hidden within Honkai Energy...
Could emotion truly be the ultimate answer?
Twenty-Fifth Chapter: Crafting Cheats by Hand Is a Scientist's Basic Skill
Whether emotion was truly the ultimate answer to defeating Honkai could not yet be proven with the knowledge Ai Yue currently possessed.
But at least, judging from all kinds of information, it could be confirmed that emotion, the soul, will, and the mind—things invisible, intangible, and impossible to quantify, yet impossible to ignore—would all be key factors influencing the future.
This seemingly ordinary conversation had even given Ai Yue a new idea.
According to the original storyline, it was practically impossible for humanity to defeat the Herrscher of the End through its own power by climbing the technology tree. The Pre-Civilization had produced countless brilliant geniuses, yet they had still been unable to bridge the enormous gap between humanity and the Herrscher of the End.
Even the Current Era, which had received assistance from the Pre-Civilization, surpassed the Pre-Civilization of the same period in both its starting point and development, and had used special methods to resolve two of the most troublesome Herrschers with almost no casualties, had still failed to solve the problem of the Herrscher of the End.
In Ai Yue's view, the Current Era's method had merely used clever means to delay the final problem indefinitely. This was certainly one path for civilization's survival, but it was absolutely not what the unknown civilization that released the Cocoon of Finality wanted.
Then the question was, what kind of answer was this unknown civilization seeking?
Could it be that, through endless cycles of reincarnation, they intended to stack countless civilizations together and create a special existence resembling Black Tech?
Or were they seeking something else?
Ai Yue thought about it, then suddenly laughed.
No, wait. What did those bastards want as an answer have to do with him?
Trying to guess other people's thoughts was far too troublesome.
So why not just flip the table over?
What the hell was this Cocoon of Finality? He would dig it out and stuff it into the Plasma Spark Tower as a battery!
Thinking of the backing he had, Ai Yue's lofty ambitions immediately ignited. He returned to his laboratory with an expression so resolute that it looked as though he could craft a Plasma Spark Tower by hand that very night.
However, five minutes later, he collapsed across the table like a dead dog.
Damn it, why was this Data Transcription Technology for Genetic Information so difficult?
At first, when he saw that "special research projects require specific materials to advance research progress," Ai Yue had not taken it seriously. After all, if he wanted to, more than ninety percent of the materials on Earth could be delivered to his laboratory within a day. With the entire planet behind him, could he really fail to solve one small special research project?
Reality proved that he really could.
Before you continue