Airi loved humanity selflessly.
"A-Yuan, you'll support me too, right?"
Airi knew Chang Yuan and Velvie were friends, so she had to ask Chang Yuan for his opinion first.
If Chang Yuan disagreed, Velvie definitely would not help her either.
"...I really give up on you. Fine, we'll do as you say."
In truth, Chang Yuan did not think this would genuinely reduce the damage Herrschers inflicted upon civilization.
After all, if any Herrscher truly erupted, the Ninth Herrscher was the perfect example.
It had directly devoured an entire continent.
That was a whole continent. And what the Ninth Herrscher could do, most Herrschers could do as well.
For instance, the Seventh Herrscher's flames had burned an entire state for seven days and seven nights.
If she had not been swiftly slain, a little more fuel would have been more than enough to burn down an entire state.
So this method was not useless, but its usefulness was negligible.
But seeing Airi like this, Chang Yuan had no way to refuse her and could only agree.
"I knew A-Yuan was the best."
Once Chang Yuan had agreed, Airi knew Velvie would not refuse.
The moment she returned to Flame-Chasing Moth Headquarters, she ran straight to Velvie's Spiral Workshop.
Chang Yuan, meanwhile, went to Mebius's laboratory, where she was studying the slices of Shesha.
"Mebius, you started researching it the moment it was brought back?"
Watching Mebius, already dressed in a white lab coat and mask, Chang Yuan raised a brow.
"So, what is it? If there's nothing important, don't disturb me."
As for Chang Yuan, who had suddenly interrupted her while she was working, if not for his importance, Mebius would have practically told him to get lost.
"This is the Third Herrscher's accompanying Honkai Beast. It can regenerate endlessly through Honkai Energy; as long as there is enough Honkai Energy, it can revive.
"The reason it is dead now is probably because it has exhausted its stored Honkai Energy. So while studying it, pay attention to the fluctuations of Honkai Energy within its body.
"If the Honkai Energy behaves abnormally, immediately chop it into pieces and force it to consume Honkai Energy to heal itself."
"You said it can regenerate endlessly?"
Mebius did not take in the warning that followed at all.
The only thing she cared about was what Chang Yuan had said: as long as there was enough Honkai Energy, it could regenerate endlessly.
Was that not similar to the infinite evolution she had dreamed of?
Perhaps she could uncover the mysteries of evolution through it.
"That's right. Research is research, but Velvie's Fusion Warrior plan is probably close to succeeding. Watch your own safety."
"Tch, got it. But is it really okay for Velvie to be this much of a genius?"
After spending so much time with Velvie, Mebius had come to truly understand just how monstrous Velvie was.
After studying biology on her own for a month, she was already nearly comparable to Mebius back when she was still in school.
And by now, her biology skills were likely not much inferior to Mebius's.
"Mhm. That's why I said Velvie is a monster among geniuses. If she were a little more rational and a little less humane, I feel like she could create something earth-shattering."
Compared to Mei, who possessed absolute rationality, Velvie would have a hard time surpassing her.
After all, many plans could only be conceived with absolute rationality, sometimes even requiring one to set aside part of one's humanity.
Velvie was clearly not that kind of person, so in certain respects, it would be difficult for her to surpass Mei.
"Alright, you've said everything you needed to say. You can leave now."
After her brief reflection, Mebius began showing him out.
Chang Yuan did not linger either and instead headed for Velvie's Spiral Workshop.
Velvie had already completed all the prototypes of the Divine Keys.
So now that they had obtained the Third Herrscher's core, they could directly create a Third Divine Key.
Chang Yuan remembered that the Third Divine Key in the original work even had a lipstick mode, but he still did not tell Velvie not to add it.
After all, if Divine Keys did not come with some strange and bizarre extra functions, he would feel unaccustomed to it.
Of course, that was only so long as those functions did not affect the Divine Keys' capabilities.
"Say, Chang Yuan, why did you support Airi's idea?"
Seeing Chang Yuan arrive, Velvie gave him a helpless look.
She had seen through his feelings for Airi perfectly clearly.
But precisely because of that, she did not understand why Chang Yuan had agreed to let Airi ask her to make those things.
If they truly did that, Chang Yuan would probably only get to see Airi once a month.
That was not even the main issue. If he wanted to see her, he could visit her whenever he wished.
The key point was that Airi would definitely lead from the front and set an example herself.
By then, Airi would surely be exhausted.
"Hey, hey, Velvie. A-Yuan already agreed to it. You're not allowed to make him change his mind."
Seeing Velvie question Chang Yuan, Airi immediately cut in, afraid that Velvie would persuade him otherwise.
"Don't worry, Airi. I won't go back on something I promised you."
Chang Yuan shook his head with a faint smile and looked at Velvie.
"It's fine, Velvie. At worst, Airi and I can go together. When she's tired, I'll take over. When I'm tired, she can take over. Wouldn't that solve it?
"And I heard your Fusion Warrior plan has been progressing quite smoothly lately. Once it succeeds, perhaps Airi and I won't need to work so hard."
"No, where did you hear it was progressing smoothly? Only one out of every hundred people succeeds. How is that smooth? That's a one percent success rate."
Hearing Chang Yuan call her work smooth, Velvie could not help the corner of her mouth twitching.
How could he call a one percent success rate smooth?
What Velvie did not know was that in the original work, this probability was already considered very high—at least far higher than when Mebius had first proposed it.
"One percent? That's already quite impressive."
Hearing that the success rate was as high as one percent, Chang Yuan could not help looking at Velvie in a new light.
Good grief, she had directly accomplished everything Mebius was capable of.
Then what was Mebius useful for now? Filling out the Thirteen Flame-Chasers to make thirteen members?
For a moment, Chang Yuan genuinely could not think of anything else Mebius could do, since everything she could do had already been done by Velvie.
"By the way, Velvie, why not exchange ideas with Mebius? You two are both at the forefront of biology now. Maybe you'll make even better discoveries."
"Right. Having another person offer suggestions from a different perspective really would help. Ah, I kept thinking I had to work behind closed doors and forgot there were peers in the field."
With Chang Yuan's reminder, Velvie finally remembered that she was not alone.
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