Mysteries Morien Was a Freeloader

In the black Synchronization Space.

One-Punch Morien, dressed in a training uniform, walked out of the profound darkness with a yawn.

Today was the third day since he had joined the Water Stream Rock Smashing Fist dojo. It was Sunday.

He planned to take the hero examination in three hours, so he decided to synchronize before it, grind some experience, and update the system.

Over the past three days, as a "Melee Scholar," he had successfully learned ninety percent of the movements and could execute the martial art smoothly.

But its effectiveness was still far inferior to Bang's.

This also confirmed Morien's guess: aside from "martial arts," at least half of Bang's strength came from his "faith" in martial arts.

There was no light at all in this space, and Morien himself did not glow, yet the Moriens could still see one another.

Before long, One-Punch Morien spotted two versions of himself chatting.

One-Punch Morien immediately recognized through their special connection that they were Mysteries Morien and Star Rail Morien.

"You really are a regular guest." One-Punch Morien walked over and extended a hand to Star Rail Morien. "You're here every time I come in."

This was his first time entering the Synchronization Space since the initial visit.

But he possessed the memories of his other selves, so he knew clearly that no matter who entered this space, they could almost always see Star Rail Morien right away.

"What the hell else am I supposed to do?" Star Rail Morien complained, high-fiving One-Punch Morien.

"Looks like we still aren't strong enough." Morien suddenly froze for a moment, then spoke as he sorted through the new memories in his head. "If we became powerful enough in the future for every word and action to change the entire universe, the Stellaron Hunters would have come for us long ago."

"Or perhaps, in the timeline Elio knew, leaving us alone was what led to the best future." Star Rail Morien shrugged.

"Or maybe they went to influence other people." Mysteries Morien placed a hand on One-Punch Morien's shoulder, completing his synchronization. "Oh, you helped me summarize an acting rule."

At that moment, One-Punch Morien had also finished sorting through Star Rail Morien's memories and could not help complaining.

"You're basically a compressed knowledge archive."

Star Rail Morien's memories were entirely a compressed knowledge archive.

"I was bored anyway." Star Rail Morien spread his hands.

During this period, he had unpacked every compressed archive sent by the Hidden Sage and understood the knowledge within.

Once he completely immersed himself in knowledge, time actually passed very quickly.

Relying on his absurdly strong body, Star Rail Morien had gone without food or sleep and spent a week thoroughly analyzing all the information the Hidden Sage had stuffed into his head during the first two instances of Knowledge Pursuer.

Although ninety percent of it was useless knowledge like "postpartum care for sows" and "a hundred ways to eat Dixie pie," the remaining knowledge was still quite useful.

The Hidden Sage did not simply throw knowledge around at random.

During the Mystery Pryer stage, It would toss in things related to ritual magic. During the Melee Scholar stage, It would toss in things related to fighting techniques.

It was just that It always felt it was not enough and would casually add a little more.

It also liked making associations.

If you trained your body, you had to eat, right?

So It added some cooking and some animal husbandry.

If you cooked, you needed a wok, right?

So It added some pot-making techniques, blacksmithing techniques, mining techniques...

Association after association after association.

Then It kept adding more and more.

But at its core, it was definitely useful to Beyonders themselves.

It was good stuff.

"That's great." Mysteries Morien patted One-Punch Morien's shoulder. "The two of you are each helping me digest a bit of it. One of you keeps doing research by 'acting as a scholar of combat,' while the other learns combat through combat."

"Now I'm a freeloader."

"Mm, indeed." One-Punch Morien nodded.

"Could you at least pretend to be modest?"

"What is there to be modest about?" One-Punch Morien narrowed his eyes at Mysteries Morien. "Tell me, what have you even done over the past half month?"

About half a month had passed on Mysteries Morien's side. Aside from recently joining a Divination Club in an attempt to run into Klein by chance, he had basically done nothing.

"What was I supposed to do?" Mysteries Morien said righteously. "It's not like I could go out into the streets and beat up innocent pedestrians."

"This isn't GTA. If I turned into a five-star model citizen, I might genuinely get taken out by the Nighthawks, Mandated Punishers, or the Machinery Hivemind."

Although he barely possessed the combat strength of a Grade 1 Jujutsu Sorcerer, he was still not much in the Mysteries world.

At least for now, he had no interest in becoming a fugitive.

He had just paid a year's rent.

The Synchronization Space shook again as someone else entered.

"Oh, you're here too." Mysteries Morien looked toward Jujutsu Morien.

He spread his arms in an embracing gesture.

"Come on, let me see what surprise you can bring me this time."

Over there was the Shibuya Incident, where people were truly getting their brains beaten out.

Jujutsu Morien hugged him and synchronized with the installation package Star Rail Morien had sent out. His brain also froze for a moment.

"Damn, I feel like my potion has digested a little more," Mysteries Morien said.

That fight with Toji had also helped the Moriens digest part of their potions.

It had been a fight fought by "abandoning all supernatural powers and relying entirely on combat," and they had even landed a Black Flash.

Mysteries Morien had truly become a freeloader now.

PS: I argued with someone in the writers' group today. If you're interested, you can check this chapter's author's note.

If you want to see the argument firsthand, you can also join the group and read the chat logs.

The group link is in the description.

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