Ling Xi thought it over again and smiled. "Doctor, you might not believe me, but Seele and I really don't have any special relationship. To be honest, I've probably met Seele fewer than ten times. I only invited her to the concert this time to apologize."
"Oh, really..."
Mobius was still deeply skeptical. Nothing special? Then why had Seele been so emotional when Ling Xi saved Rin before, throwing her arms around him with such a worried expression? That clearly hadn't been an act.
Still, she was not especially concerned about it. Seele was only sixteen and still a first-year high school student, so... it was not a big problem.
"Fine, let's change the subject."
Mobius smiled and shook her head, no longer asking about Seele. "Actually, I called you here today because I wanted to discuss something with you. More precisely, a new experiment—one related to research!"
"Hehe..."
Hearing Mobius's words, Ling Xi could not help laughing. "I'm your assistant, Doctor. Of course I should follow your arrangements. If there's anything you need for research, just tell me directly. Why call it a discussion?"
"No, no. How could that be?"
Mobius smiled and shook her head. "I'm a researcher, not a dictator. You are my assistants, not my subordinates. So when something needs to be discussed, we should discuss it."
"Besides... this matter requires your help."
"Uh... do you need to pull out my hair again?"
The first thing Ling Xi thought of was providing hair or blood samples. After all, Mobius had always been coveting his abilities.
"Yes, I'll need a little, but that isn't the focus of this experiment."
Mobius did not deny it. "My plan is to use the Superpower Cells you provide and make them react with Honkai Energy."
"Then, within a short time, they'll release a massive amount of energy. That energy... may cause a localized Honkai phenomenon!"
"Mm... Honkai?"
Ling Xi immediately understood what his Doctor meant. "You mean you want me to stay by your side while you conduct the experiment, then eliminate any Honkai Beasts as soon as Honkai appears?"
"Yes!"
Mobius nodded and smiled faintly. "After all, if someone gets hurt because of an experiment, I would bear an inescapable responsibility."
"So I hope you'll stay during the experiment. That way, even if another Honkai outbreak really occurs, it can be dealt with promptly and the losses kept to a minimum."
"No problem!"
Ling Xi nodded without hesitation and smiled. "As long as you need me, Doctor, just call for me anytime. But if you conduct this kind of experiment again in the future, you have to tell me. It'd be best if I were there too!"
"Of course."
Mobius nodded with a smile. "Also, when conducting the experiment, I'll choose a secluded location within the institute. I'll clear the area in advance and evacuate everyone nearby."
"That way, even if something unexpected happens, it will only result in property damage, not casualties!"
"Huh? So you actually consider things like that too, Doctor?"
Hearing Mobius's words, Ling Xi felt somewhat moved. In his eyes, aside from himself and Klein, Mobius looked at everyone else as though they were another species.
Among the Flame-Chasing Moths' top ten rumors, one of them was...
Mobius treated human lives like grass and never cared whether anyone lived or died. The subjects involved in her experiments often suffered severe injuries or even death!
But now, it seemed that rumor clearly differed from the truth.
"Hmph..."
Mobius snorted with slight dissatisfaction, then shook her head. Smiling, she replied in her lazy voice, "Ling Xi, you should know that sacrifice itself isn't frightening."
"But pointless sacrifice is unnecessary. Besides... I don't particularly want others to know about this experiment of mine. As for why... you should understand even if I don't say it."
"Uh..."
Ling Xi merely paused and said nothing. After all, if one judged Mobius by the reputation of her laboratory, then even breathing would be wrong for her. Or rather...
Mobius had done nothing wrong. Her only mistake was being Mobius!
"Ling Xi..."
Suddenly, Mobius moved closer again. She gently wrapped herself around Ling Xi's arm, then lightly pinched his cheek with one hand. Smiling, she asked, "By the way... have you considered what I mentioned to you last time?"
"The student thing?"
Ling Xi immediately grew nervous again. And besides, did this snake really not know how charming she was?
"Yes."
Mobius looked at Ling Xi with a smile. "Wouldn't it be nice to become my student? I can teach you personally, you know."
"Day or night, I can explain things like the origin and birth of humanity to you myself. I can even... demonstrate them for you!"
Ling Xi: "..."
As she spoke, Mobius moved closer and closer. Her face was less than a centimeter away from Ling Xi's.
This...
"Uh... Doctor, I suddenly remembered that I have something to do, so I need to head back. See you tomorrow. Hehe, goodbye, Doctor..."
As he spoke, Ling Xi slipped away as though fleeing for his life...
"Hehe, hehe..."
Watching Ling Xi flee directly, Mobius had no intention of stopping him. She merely sniffed the hand that had just caressed his cheek, then licked her lips.
Her face wore an utterly expectant smile. "Little white mouse, I kind of want to eat you up..."
Selfish Genes!
The next day, it was Monday again—another boring day of classes!
"Seele!"
At noon, Ling Xi successfully ran into Seele once more.
Of course, this time was not a coincidence. Ling Xi had deliberately asked Seele out, and they were not meeting at their usual spot, but beneath the teaching building.
"You're here?"
At the entrance of the teaching building, Seele held her phone in one hand and leaned against a pillar. She smiled at Ling Xi. "I thought I'd have to wait forever."
"I already told you, last time was an accident..."
Ling Xi was truly speechless. He had indeed stood her up once, but did she really need to remind him every single day?
"Hmph..."
Seele merely gave a soft snort before asking, "What are we having for lunch today?"
"That depends on what you want to eat, Seele."
Ling Xi was not particularly picky about food. What mattered was what Seele wanted to eat.
"Hmm..."
Seele thought for a moment, then smiled. "Let's go to the cafeteria and see what they have before deciding."
"OK!"
Ling Xi immediately agreed.
Before long, the two of them sat in the cafeteria hall with trays in hand, enjoying that day's lunch.
"Ling Xi, that Mobius from last night... she's from the Flame-Chasing Moths, right?"
As they ate lunch, Seele finally could not resist asking about Mobius. After returning home last night, she had looked up the name Mobius.
Then...
She found information related to Mobius. After all, Mobius was somewhat famous, so there was plenty of information about her online.
Though... most of it was negative.
"Looks like you already know."
Since Seele had asked that question, Ling Xi knew he could no longer keep it hidden. Mobius's information was all over the internet.
"I just didn't expect it to really be her!"
Seele pursed her lips, looking conflicted. "Ling Xi... could you stop working by her side?"
"Huh?"
Ling Xi froze and looked at Seele in confusion.
"I... I'm not telling you to leave because I dislike her. It's just that..."
Seele said quietly, "Mobius is dangerous. Really dangerous. Whether it's the rumors or my intuition from last night, anyway... being around her makes me feel extremely uncomfortable."
"Seele, that's... prejudice."
Ling Xi shook his head helplessly and smiled. "Most of the things online about Mobius are rumors. Although Mobius has indeed conducted some inhumane experiments, it was all for science, and it was nowhere near as outrageous as the internet makes it sound!"
"For example, there's a rumor that Mobius tied people suffering from Honkai disease to an operating table and dissected them alive. But the truth is..."
Ling Xi spread his hands. "Mobius brought patients whose illnesses could not be treated with current technology back to her laboratory and signed contracts with them."
"They agreed to let Mobius use her own methods to treat them, and to let her dissect them after their deaths. Naturally, Mobius also gave them a large sum of money so their families would not have to worry."
"Only then did she begin the treatment. It was just that..."
"Seele, you should know that with humanity's current level of technology, patients suffering from Honkai disease cannot be cured. So in the end, Mobius still could not cure the patient."
"Only after the patient died did she perform the dissection. Yet... who knew who started the rumor that Mobius dissected living people?"
"Eh..."
Seele froze for a moment before saying, "But... Mobius must have wanted that person to die, right? Otherwise, she couldn't dissect them."
"Hehe..."
Ling Xi shook his head again and smiled. "Seele, believe me. Under those circumstances, no one wanted to cure that person more than Mobius did."
"After all, a method capable of curing Honkai disease was far more valuable than the corpse of a Honkai patient. Do you think... Mobius really wouldn't want to save them?"
"This..."
Seele was briefly at a loss for words because... Ling Xi made a lot of sense.
"Alright, Seele, let's stop talking about Mobius!"
Seeing that Seele still seemed to want to say something, Ling Xi quickly cut her off with a smile. "Let's eat first. If we keep talking, I'm afraid neither of us will be able to finish."
"Hmph, who asked you!"
Seele snorted unhappily, but her body was quite obedient as she meekly resumed eating her lunch...
Since Seele was only in her first year of high school, she naturally had full-day classes. After Ling Xi spent half an hour with her, Seele went back to rest.
After all, she still had classes in the afternoon. If she did not rest a little at noon, she would be playing chess with the Duke of Zhou during class that afternoon...
As for Ling Xi... naturally, he went to the laboratory!
"Doctor, out of four hundred experimental groups, half have already lost activity and are confirmed dead. The activity levels of one hundred and fifty groups are declining, with extremely strong rejection reactions. They are expected to completely lose activity within twelve hours..."
Inside the laboratory, Cangxuan was reporting the progress of the experiment to Mobius. "Of the remaining fifty groups, twenty have undergone division, but seventeen of those groups have already died!"
"Have the dead cells that underwent division been tested?"
Mobius asked Cangxuan while continuing to work on her own tasks.
"Yes!"
Cangxuan said quietly, "The cell tests showed manifestations of Superpower Cells. After further testing of the Superpower Cell expression fragments, seventeen cell groups displayed seventeen different DNA expression fragments. In other words..."
"In other words, trying to replicate Superpower Cells by editing DNA is almost impossible, correct?"
Mobius smiled and finished what Cangxuan had not said.
"No, not almost impossible. Absolutely impossible!"
Cangxuan gave an even more definite answer. This thing was simply too random; there was no pattern to it at all.
"That makes sense..."
Mobius stretched lazily and smiled. "But it doesn't matter. At least we still have three groups, don't we?"
"Besides... no matter how bad the result is, I've at least learned one thing. The ability of Superpower Cells can be inherited."
"But even knowing that is useless."
Cangxuan spread her hands helplessly. "An experiment with a ninety-nine percent success rate somehow became one with a ninety-nine percent failure rate. And I have a feeling the remaining three groups will fail too."
"Hmm... perhaps that is the charm of human genes."
Mobius smiled faintly. "Since they can stop you from replicating them through scientific means, then naturally they can stop you from inheriting them through scientific means as well."
"However... I'm quite curious about something. If it were natural inheritance, would it still be stopped?"
"Uh... I don't know."
Cangxuan shook her head, unwilling to answer the Doctor's question.
"It probably wouldn't, because..."
Mobius smiled. "Genes are selfish. The purpose of genes is to constantly replicate themselves, so even if genes possess self-protection mechanisms, they cannot possibly cut off their own hereditary line."
"Otherwise..."
Mobius spread her hands with a smile. "Such genes would have long vanished into the river of history. How could they possibly have survived until now? Therefore, natural inheritance should be a viable solution."
Cangxuan: "..." So... what exactly was the Doctor trying to say?
Klein Is Working Overtime!
"Klein, are you working here again?"
After arriving at the laboratory, Ling Xi once again saw Klein working on the sofa in the lobby. He walked over with a smile, set down what he was carrying, and said, "Want some milk tea? I brought you some."
"Milk tea!"
The instant she heard the words "milk tea," Klein seemed to have had some sort of switch flipped. She immediately stopped what she was doing, turned around, and stared at Ling Xi.
Her eyes seemed to glow green...
Ling Xi: "..." Hey, hey, hey, don't look like you're about to eat me too!
Before you continue