Chapter 20

Mobius had not originally been so deeply connected to Mu Continent, but the world was unpredictable.

For one thing, Mu Continent trusted Mobius as well. After all, Mobius was the foolish child who, even with a bright future ahead of her, insisted on tasting every thorn for the sake of her dreams.

Of course, that was only a tiny part of it...

The larger reason was that the Herrscher of Reason had destroyed Mu Continent's capital. Too many people who should not have died had perished in that disaster, including Mu Continent's "future."

And the parents of that future were currently in charge.

That was also the fundamental reason Mobius had not adhered to the "art of compromise."

"We merely raised reasonable questions. Naturally, we fully support the alliance!"

Seeing Mobius's attitude was so firm, the superior of the person who had raised the doubts immediately stepped forward to smooth things over, attempting to make up for the offense in those earlier words.

The issue was resolved. At the very least, Mu Continent and Europe had no choice, and their trust would draw Elysia over as well. No one wanted to face the Herrscher of the Void's edge alone.

The alliance's name was especially plain: the Human Contract Alliance.

Mu Continent, the first to join without being driven by the imminent Herrscher crisis, held an exceptionally special and important position within the Human Contract Alliance.

With the matter settled, the entire world began mobilizing. Though factions still faintly remained, Fire Moth temporarily accepted everyone.

Late at night, Elysia sat alone on a bench. Mobius walked over and naturally bandaged her palm.

"Professor... are you representing Mu Continent?"

Elysia's voice was exceptionally calm, carrying the exhaustion and emptiness left behind by the events.

Mobius paused.

She carefully smoothed down the edges of the bandage without looking up. "I wasn't originally, but you didn't persuade them."

Elysia fell silent.

"At Fire Moth, I am the First Laboratory. But here at the United Nations, I am nothing. If I want to speak, I need an identity."

Mobius sat beside her. The night breeze stirred her hair, and her tone was particularly calm.

Mu Continent had come to find her. Their fury for revenge had not caused those people to lose their composure; they wanted leadership.

Mobius could have refused to help. After all, everyone knew her personality. But if she did not help, she would have no right to speak.

Elysia softly murmured in acknowledgment, hugging her knees and curling up on the bench as she looked up at the night sky.

Dreams were so complicated, far more complicated than reality. An Yu had become a bad person too, and the professor was no longer so pure.

Reality was better. She did not want to dream anymore. In reality, everyone was just an ordinary person, with none of these countless positions to consider. An Yu would also stand by her side unconditionally.

"If it hurts, then cry."

Mobius's voice broke through her inner murmuring.

"I will stand by your side simply because you are my friend. I will help Mu Continent because I know that, at this moment, Mu Continent wants Honkai dead more than anything. That is all."

She reached out and drew Elysia into her arms, letting out a quiet sigh.

She hated politics most of all, yet one of the few friends she had was caught in the vortex, unable to escape, becoming the center of the world.

She could faintly hear the sobs of the girl in her arms. She really was still just a child. Young people still held the loftiest kindness toward this world, which was why reality hurt them so deeply.

"Elysia, didn't you hate Fire Moth and want to change the world?"

"Now the opportunity has come."

Elysia wiped away her little pearls of tears and complained through a sob she could not suppress, "Professor, did you have to say that now...?"

The professor truly did not know how to comfort people. Whether in dreams or reality, that had always remained the same. How annoying.

"It is fine even if you fail to seize it this time. After all, you are still young."

Mobius's tone softened somewhat as she looked at the stars filling the sky. She tried to find a tissue in her pocket, but unfortunately, she had never had the habit of carrying tissues.

"I'll seize it."

Elysia sniffled, but her voice had already become resolute.

Even though she had never studied this kind of knowledge before.

"If you cannot seize it, then come be my student. Because I still have another opportunity here."

The Stigmata Project.

Mobius had no friends, so naturally she had no student to inherit anything from her. Blanca barely counted as half a friend at present, but she could not be considered a student at all.

Elysia was the same as her. This divine maiden from the Prophecy seemingly did not have any friends either.

The Stigmata Project's complete form was not something that could be accomplished in a short time. A person's lifespan was limited, so she needed—and would be best served by having—a student who could inherit the Stigmata Project.

The world was changing too quickly, so quickly that besides excitement, Mobius naturally felt a measure of fear.

What if... I do not make it in time?

Volume One: Chapter 29, The Maginot Line

It felt like the game had become a little different.

Separated by the sea, An Yu watched a "high wall" rise in the distance at a speed visible to the naked eye.

Of course, they were not truly building a wall. Those NPCs had merely concentrated their firepower and formed a battle line. Brilliant energy barriers flickered in the night, pulsing like breathing.

An Yu had not intended to pay attention to this sort of NPC defense mechanism, but when his gaze swept past the barrier—the densely roaming elite-unit markers behind it made him change his mind.

"Who said the open world had no way to group monsters..." he muttered, the corner of his lips unconsciously curving upward. "Isn't this perfect for me?"

[Please choose an upgrade direction]

Elemental Shield 5 → Echo (Void)

Elemental Overflow 0 → 1

Attack Power 0 → 1

A mindless upgrade... Wait, wait a second, Overflow? Is there an Archangel?

Just kidding. He would still mindlessly advance the skill.

[Echo (Void)]

Active: Gain a special shield worth 100% (1000 + 1000 + 1600) hw. When the shield shatters, the surrounding area is forcibly placed into a Temporal Slowing state.

Passive: Initial capacity increases by 1000 hw. Gain Super Armor while the shield exists.

"Upgrading is getting harder and harder."

He complained.

If levels 14 to 15 required around fourteen million experience points, then levels 15 to 16 required roughly forty-three million.

An Yu roughly estimated the level cap. "Level 20? At this rate, I'll be picking things up until the Year of the Monkey."

So, without some method to group monsters, this game would soon become tasteless to play yet too regrettable to abandon.

Thinking this, An Yu was no longer in a hurry. He found a concealed high point and sat down, quietly watching the distant battle line steadily improve. The energy barriers intertwined into a net in the night, gun turrets took their positions one after another, and elite monsters flickered in and out of sight behind the barriers.

"Forget it. I'll check again tomorrow. Maybe all the elite monsters will be gathered together by then."

He set the game to automatically save and close after three hours, gave Bebe Dragon a few instructions, and chose to log off.

The city's neon lights were dazzling and bright at night, but the house was completely dark. His older sister seemed to have already gone to sleep.

Elysia had not woken up yet. Although the emergence of the Human Contract Alliance had briefly unified humanity's front, the issue that followed immediately was... her position.

How should they resist the Herrschers? Technology? Or the divine maiden from the Prophecy?

At Mobius's suggestion, Honkai Energy Manipulation was incorporated by Elysia into technology as a concept.

But this skill, which would become widespread in the future, carried risks and dangers that were entirely unavoidable in this era.

"Miss Elysia, please trust human technology once more."

She did not know how many times she had heard similar persuasion. The project's success rate was extremely low. The only reason people could still maintain confidence was that successful cases had indeed appeared.

Moreover, with such an enormous population base, the number of successful people appeared quite considerable.

Among them, the high school student Kevin had risen at an almost exaggerated speed to become humanity's second strongest. More importantly, Kevin's physical data could withstand examination.

"I can guarantee that this plan will never be shelved, but at the very least, these prewar losses are simply too severe."

The other party's tone was as gentle as ever. Since Kevin had appeared, Honkai Energy Manipulation training had progressed in an orderly fashion. Yet now that everyone had truly achieved results, they seemingly had not displayed much of them.

Elysia remained calm.

Until a certain moment, Elysia truly felt the change the professor had spoken of.

She found the initial source of that change. This fearless sacrifice had finally gained value. Her eyes gradually moistened, but she did not reveal any weakness.

From that moment on, the Stigmata Project was set into motion, and Mobius's past vision truly merged into reality.

All they needed was to implant a special fragment of genetic code into the human body. It could store vast quantities of information and grant considerable resistance to Honkai energy.

"If danger were not already upon us, I would truly like to call this art."

Mobius leaned off to the side, looking at the projected genome model. Unfortunately, time was limited. Even after paying such an enormous price, she had only found one barely compatible gene sequence.

Elysia gave a bitter laugh.

If this was art, it was rather ironic.

"You should smile. Because of genetic affinity, many people will like you more in the future."

Mobius spoke softly, offering a little comfort. "Your future environment will be much better."

After all, for the sake of survival, Mobius had temporarily changed her original objective into this: transform humanity into divine maidens like Elysia, possessing powerful immortality and stable conditions within Honkai zones.

Elysia said nothing, barely forcing out a smile. After all, this was something she could genuinely help with.

Mobius understood that silence.

Young people always needed some time to change. After all, they were not yet accustomed to treating human lives as numbers.

She draped a coat over Elysia, then left the laboratory alone and went somewhere rather far away—another laboratory, Einstein's.

Einstein caught sight of the visitor and lightly pushed with her fingertips, sliding the device containing the Herrscher Core of Reason toward Mobius.

She mockingly said out of habit, "Found a way to evolve humanity?"

Mobius did not answer. She merely rolled up her sleeve, and the gesture made Einstein instinctively shrink back.

The physical advantage Mobius gained from her height of 173 centimeters made Einstein doubt that she would have the upper hand in a conflict.

"You need to help me."

Mobius spoke softly. Of course, she had not come to fight. She extended her pale arm, and a vivid mark had appeared upon skin that should have been clean and snow-white.

Einstein froze for a moment, then blurted out, "Have you turned into a delinquent girl?"

Mobius's brows furrowed slightly, black lines appearing across her forehead.

She pressed her palm lightly against the solid wood desk. Fine cracks spread from beneath her hand like a spiderweb.

"Yes, ma'am!"

Einstein instantly straightened her back, her throat bobbing instinctively. If that punch landed on her head...

The warrior side had not even been finalized, yet this gluttonous snake had already experimented on herself?

"I need an artificial intelligence, preferably a biological computer. One that can repair itself, and one capable of carrying the emotions of several billion people."

Mobius laid out her requirements.

"The requirements may indeed be difficult, so several auxiliary AIs can help."

"After Stigmata are implanted into human bodies on a large scale, there must be a terminal. After all, we do not have enough time to let the Stigmata complete themselves."

She explained simply. Einstein would understand, Mobius thought.

Einstein remained silent for several dozen seconds.

"If you want to beat me up, there is no need to find such a troublesome and lofty excuse."

A biological computer capable of carrying the emotions of billions of people... It was not that such a thing did not exist, but it was definitely not something that could be created in secret.

This kind of computer was not as simple as making a game.

Mobius quietly looked at her. Once Einstein confirmed that the other woman did not want to beat her up, she pointed at the Herrscher Core that was supposed to be under her research.