King Insect of the Otherworld

"From now on, you'll be called... hmm..." Morien thought for a moment. "How about Fortune-Collecting Mother Insect?"

The Fortune-Collecting Mother Insect immediately conveyed a feeling of joy.

Morien reached out and stroked its body.

The insect, enlarged to human size, was furry and felt quite nice to the touch.

It was just that its legs, mandibles, compound eyes, and the like were rather unsettling.

Yet Morien unexpectedly found it quite nice—rather cute, even.

Perhaps this was what they called a "parental filter."

"I finally understand why, in the Ancient Sun God's eyes, Amon's behavior could only be called 'a child's prank.'"

"Strange. It's not like I have pregnancy hormones either." Morien grumbled.

When he placed his hand against the butterfly's cheek, it immediately rubbed its head against him.

Morien chuckled.

"Heh. Since I already have a mother insect under my command, it doesn't seem quite appropriate for me to keep being a mother insect myself."

"It's time to give myself a raise and promotion."

A sudden thought came to Morien.

"Hmm... then I'll promote myself to Royal Insect." Morien said it as if it were only natural. "I don't care whether anyone acknowledges it or not."

"I'm propagating across countless heavens and worlds. Who dares say I don't deserve to be called a 'Royal Insect'?"

"Even in settings with 'infinite parallel worlds,' my birth would mean that every additional parallel world split off another me, while every choice and every action I took would create infinitely many versions of me."

"Is there any other insect that can do that?"

"Even if the [Propagation] Aeon came back to life, I'd make Them polish my shoes."

Though the Honkai: Star Rail world might have parallel worlds too.

Morien was an infinity of infinities.

After saying that, Morien suddenly noticed the newly born mother insect rapidly waving its foremost pair of legs.

It seemed to be applauding.

Cheering!

As that butterfly began clapping, more and more butterflies started beating their foremost pairs of legs together.

This was the swarm's collective nature.

"Oh?" Morien raised his eyebrows with interest.

This mother insect seemed to possess considerable intelligence.

He put the mask back on.

"Very smart." Morien reached out, picked it up like a puppy, and held it against his chest.

"Your emotions really seem excessively rich."

"From the original story, the swarm... should only know how to propagate. Is it because your Royal Insect has too much humanity?"

The Fortune-Collecting Mother Insect opened its mandibles, vibrating the air with energy mixed with spirituality, cursed energy, and Path power, releasing a buzzing hum.

Morien understood.

It was saying, "Father is amazing."

Morien released it and let it fly on its own.

"Your intelligence is actually this high? You even know how to flatter someone." Morien said in surprise.

"If that's really the case, then I can't keep calling you 'it.'" He stroked his chin thoughtfully.

"Hmm... you need a name."

"Hmm, very good!"

"Since you're the first Fortune-Collecting Mother Insect, then your name will be Fortune-Collecting."

"As for your offspring, I won't concern myself with them. You can manage them yourself."

Morien was extremely satisfied with his naming ability.

That was how it should be—simple, faithful, expressive, elegant.

Fortune-Collecting was very happy.

Morien turned back toward Ijichi.

"What time is it now?" Morien asked.

"It's..." Ijichi immediately lowered his head to look at his watch. "It's 22:03."

"After ten at night?" Morien pondered.

That meant it had been nearly an hour since he had left the space.

"The Curtain can be dispelled." Morien sent his voice into Ijichi's mind.

"Okay." Ijichi raised two fingers and dispelled the Curtain he had set up.

The mall immediately became a degree brighter, no longer quite so dim.

The Curtain set up by Ijichi disappeared.

But Ijichi's Curtain was not the only one that had vanished.

"Ah... there was another Curtain..." Morien raised his head and looked out the window.

The second Curtain surrounding the central district had disappeared at some point.

Originally, that Curtain had wrapped Shibuya's central district like a black eggshell. Yet, while Morien had been trying to create Fortune-Collecting, it had somehow quietly vanished.

It seemed that little old man who played with reversing strength and weakness had been taken out.

Morien touched his mask and gazed out the window.

I really want to go in and have some fun...

But the swarm's instinct to seek advantage and avoid danger told him that place was dangerous and unsuitable for survival.

But... that was the mindset of trash!

Since he was already here, it would be a real loss if he did not watch the live version of that elbow-strike brawl.

And besides...

Morien thought of a cursed spirit.

Dagon, one of the Four Great Calamities.

A cursed spirit born from humanity's fear of the ocean, his Domain was Horizon of the Captivating Skandha. It was one of the rare Domains that was not frightening at all, its environment a vacation beach.

And as the ocean was the source that nurtured all life, within his Domain, he could summon an endless stream of shikigami.

"Endless..."

Morien sighed.

"That's quite a claim."

"But..."

He touched the mask on his face.

"I really want to see it."

He turned back to Ijichi.

"Can you contact Kento Nanami?"

"Ah, I can." Ijichi immediately took out his phone.

"Good, make the call." Morien nodded.

Hmm, it should still be early enough. He could make it in time.

But before entering the central district, Morien still decided to synchronize first.

Nearly an hour had already passed. The other two might have made new progress as well.

With a blink, Morien arrived in the synchronization space.

The moment he entered, Jujutsu Morien saw two people.

"Yo, you're here." Mystery Morien waved.

"Slow time flow really is nice." Star Rail Morien said with a smile. "Every time I come in, I run into someone."

"Unlike me. In two weeks, I only ran into people four times."

He elbowed Mystery Morien beside him.

"Luckily, you can keep me company and chat."

"Then shouldn't you call me your savior?" Mystery Morien elbowed him back. "Also, quit elbowing me around. We synchronized 'Elbow Technique Kaisen.' What if you elbowed a Black Flash out of me?"

After saying that, the two laughed happily.

Jujutsu Morien laughed too.

"I've got something good."

He raised both hands and high-fived his other two selves.

The next second, cries of surprise rang out.

"Holy shit!"

"Awesome!"

"Heh heh, but I'm not bad either." Mystery Morien lifted his chin.

"I'm now a noble Sequence 8."

"Three days have passed on my side." Mystery Morien held up three fingers.

"Because this riot was resolved fairly quickly and easily, we didn't deviate too far from the route."

"We returned to Enmat Harbor in Tingen City earlier than in the original story."

"It only took around two days."

"After getting off the ship, the police intended to investigate because of the Clover, but I slipped away beforehand."

"Then I infiltrated Tingen City's underground secret gathering, used the money I got from Alger to buy the materials, and used the remaining money to get identification documents through the black market."

In three days, he had advanced to Sequence 9 and then Sequence 8.

In the world of Lord of Mysteries, he truly had reason to be proud.

"But really, if my reserve of secrets couldn't digest Mystery Pryer in a second, then Sequence 8 shouldn't exist in this world." Mystery Morien spread his hands and joked.

"True."

"You're awesome too."

"That's great."

Mystery Morien was quite satisfied with his hype men.

"As for me, I've been completely riding someone else's coattails."

"Three days after transmigrating into this world, there were monsters everywhere. It was really hard to endure."

"And my starting point was Z-City. Luckily, I met Saitama, so I simply moved next door to him. That made me feel safer."

"Oh, there are monsters? Then it's normal to ride someone's coattails." Jujutsu Morien nodded.

"It'd be strange not to cling to a powerful backer when you had one. Understandable." Mystery Morien agreed.

"There are monsters? If there are monsters, then there really was nothing you could do." Star Rail Morien offered consolation.

After the three of them finished giving their evaluations, they suddenly froze together.

Something was wrong.

At once, all three turned to look at the fourth Morien.

"Why are you looking at me?" The fourth Morien scratched his head. "Aren't we sharing information?"

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