Holy shit! Why did you follow me over here?!
Morien raised a hand and touched the mask on his face.
He had just concluded that items couldn't synchronize across both sides...
Uh...
Come to think of it, he wasn't entirely sure whether this counted as an item.
What if this was "Grace"?
The Mask of Elation was probably a reward from the Aeon of Elation.
Morien had no idea which of his actions had pleased Aha, the god of mischief, but Aha had indeed rewarded him with a mask at that moment.
Then again, hadn't Aha gone to tease a dog, gotten bitten, and come down with rabies? Did Aha really have spare time to bestow Grace upon a transmigrator?
Now that he thought about it, he really had no idea what point in the timeline the Honkai: Star Rail World was at.
Tris merely glanced at him before quickly looking away, paying little attention to Morien.
He seemed to sincerely feel that there was nothing strange about a man in bizarre clothing wearing a mask.
His subconscious directly ignored Morien's abnormality.
Watching this, Morien casually shifted his posture, sitting cross-legged on the floor with one hand propping up his knee and the other resting on the mask over his face.
He silently pondered.
Now, he probably counted as one of the Mother Bugs of the "Morien" race.
It sounded a little strange, but Propagation did not care about gender. Once one had enough strength, enough status, and could split, one was a Mother Bug.
He had also realized that his self in the Honkai: Star Rail World had survived purely because of the god of mischief's reward.
And the reason his self in the Mysteries World had not been discovered by Outer Deities because of what was in his head was most likely the mask as well.
He did not know whether Aha had taken a fancy to his identity as an outsider, found it amusing that he was human yet had become a Mother Bug, or wanted to watch the fun of other worlds through him.
In any case, whatever the reason, he was accepting this benefit.
As for whether he would put on a sufficiently entertaining grand performance for Aha...
Accepting a gift doesn't mean I accept the deal.
The inequality settled it instantly.
He was now a genuine Mother Bug, top tier in the current version.
Unreasonable?
So what?
Still, although this was important, what mattered more was figuring out how to save his other self.
Propagation + Elation.
Who knew? One day, his self in the Honkai: Star Rail World might end up splitting himself apart.
Though that would not necessarily be a bad thing.
Morien lightly tapped his fingers against the mask.
For a Beyonder from the Mysteries World, physically crossing the universe was still far too difficult.
Most Demigods could not accomplish that. Among the few viable options were the Wanderers of the Apprentice pathway.
But Wanderers relied on the Astral World. It was hard to say whether the other side even had something like the Astral World.
Still, it was not as if there was no way to help his other self out of trouble while still at the Demigod stage.
Mystery Pryer.
A Mystery Pryer could briefly become a half-human, half-data lifeform starting from Sequence Four.
He already had a ready-made vehicle; he simply lacked the authority to use it.
Then what if he became a data lifeform?
Combined with Propagation and Elation, if he became a worm of data and a ghost of ether, then changing the ship's permissions should be easy, right?
But becoming a Demigod would still take a long time...
Still, this was the only way.
While Morien was deep in thought, Tris had already stirred the atmosphere inside the cabin to its peak.
Outside the cabin were vicious criminals hijacking ships and murdering people. Inside were ordinary crew members unwilling to become beasts.
One after another, they picked up weapons—kitchen cleavers handed out to them or wooden clubs torn from chairs.
"Friends, three days have passed. Their food should be nearly gone by now."
"It's time for us to fight back!"
Tris raised his weapon and rallied them.
"Fight back!" The crew members thrust up their hands and shouted.
By coincidence, a bolt of lightning struck from the sky at that very moment, followed by a rumble of thunder.
Though they could not see the lightning down in the hold, the thunder still went unexpectedly well with Tris's speech.
Morien also raised his hand in cooperation.
But he quickly discovered that he did not actually know Loenese.
He could understand it, but he could not speak it.
So he mumbled out a few vaguely similar sounds before lowering his hand.
Suddenly, he noticed something slightly off.
After realizing that he was wearing the Mask of Elation, he saw faint colored vapor appear before his eyes.
But that description felt a little too undignified, so he preferred to think of it as some sort of "aura."
They drifted from people's bodies and dispersed through the air.
Morien could choose whether to see them, and they would not obstruct his vision.
"What is this..."
After thinking for a moment, he raised his right hand, covered in fluorescent patterns, and made a grasping motion through the air.
He caught it, but there was no real sensation to it. It truly felt like trying to grab a handful of steam.
A realization suddenly came to Morien, and without being taught, he knew the name of these auras.
"Oh... Wish Power."
This was Wish Power—wishes, emotions.
Morien did not know how these things were generated, but for now, they seemed to be a product of the Path of Elation.
Wanting to survive... wanting to leave this place...
This was the Wish Power produced by the crew members inside the cabin.
Wanting pleasure... wanting to unleash the malice in human nature without restraint...
This was the Wish Power produced by the thugs outside the cabin.
I want to live... I want to do whatever I please... So hungry... Kill them... I'll do anything...
Morien reached out and grasped at the air, feeling that he had caught more and more Wish Power.
The mask on his face unknowingly lit up with a faint rainbow glow. In the next moment, the Wish Power scattered through the air converged toward Morien's palm.
This was all the Wish Power that had continuously filled the ship throughout the week since the riot began.
Drawn in by the mask, it had not dissipated. Now, Morien, who had finally come into contact with the mask's power, gathered it into his hand, where it swiftly merged into his body.
Morien's mood became more joyful at that moment.
No, it was more than joy.
At that moment, Morien felt like he was the happiest person in the world.
The corners of his mouth unconsciously curled upward as he felt delight from the depths of his heart.
"Hehe~."
Feeling the ship rise and fall beneath him, he sensed that a torrential downpour might arrive soon.
After all, the waves were absurdly huge right now, and he could hear the wind outside even through the walls.
At the same time, Tris's speech reached its conclusion.
Everyone's emotions had been stirred to their peak. As a veteran Instigator, he immediately seized the opportunity.
"Everyone!" he shouted with all his strength. "If you want to live, then follow me and kill our way out!"
Following Tris's slogan, the Wish Power on the crew members grew denser and clearer.
Inside the cabin, the scattered Wish Power also took on a hint of red.
Morien remained seated where he was, not joining them in their chants.
But he held out his hand, constantly feeling the Wish Power drawn by the mask gather around him and flow into his body.
"Ah..." he let out a faint sound.
It was a comfort he had never experienced before.