This was his first time being a backup.
Still, he did not refuse Mebius's request, since he knew the reason.
Then he threw a punch without holding back at all.
The final scene was extremely bloody, at least in Chang Yuan's opinion.
At that point, Mebius really was scattered into pieces.
But soon, Chang Yuan could sense that the Honkai creatures around them seemed to be getting drawn in, converging where Mebius was.
The next moment, Mebius's body healed at high speed. Even though she had been scattered into pieces, she was restored immediately.
And because her body had been reconstructed, Mebius's white lab coat naturally fell away.
But clearly, the experiment was not over, and Mebius did not care in the slightest about her current appearance.
She merely glanced at Chang Yuan and said, "Continue."
"Fine, fine. I really don't know what goes on in that head of yours, doing something like this."
Several hours later, Mebius finally stopped the experiment.
"The maximum number of revivals is two hundred. Furthermore, each revival lowers the surrounding Honkai Energy by one level. The further it goes, the longer the revival takes. And after every death and rebirth, the body seems to regress toward an embryonic state.
"Each revival is also accompanied by a craving for energy. The more energy-starved it is, the stronger the body's instinctive desire becomes, to the point where even I lost control of it."
Looking at her once mature body of several decades, now transformed into that of a young girl, Mebius had reached all her conclusions.
"Say, Dr. Mobius, if you go out looking like this, won't people think you have an illegitimate child?"
Upon hearing Chang Yuan's question, Mebius rolled her eyes at him irritably.
"Why should I care what others think of me? As long as I got what I wanted, that's enough."
As she spoke, Mebius picked up her fallen white lab coat and put it back on.
The lab coat now dragged across the floor, since it had been made for her original body.
"Tch. Looks like I'll have to change sizes again. What a hassle."
Annoyed by the matter, Mebius clicked her tongue.
Then she walked out of her private laboratory without looking back.
However, the moment many people saw Mebius emerge, they were utterly stunned.
Rumors instantly began to spread.
In less than half an hour, the entire Flame-Chasing Moth was buzzing with the claim that Mebius and the First Squad's vice-captain had an illegitimate daughter.
After all, the two of them had gone in, but only a little girl came out.
Who knew whether Mebius had been afraid of others finding out about the child, so she had kept her living inside all along, only for her to accidentally run out today?
Looking at the information network on the Flame-Chasing Moth's internal network, Chang Yuan felt like his head was about to split in two.
The rumor that should have been pinned on Qianjie had somehow landed on him instead.
Seeing Airi's calls flooding his phone, Chang Yuan answered helplessly.
"Hello—"
"A-Yuan! When did you and Mebius have an illegitimate daughter? How did I not know? Was it years ago? No, that girl is so big, it must have been more than just a few years. Mebius broke the law, does she know that?"
Before Chang Yuan could explain, Airi's voice came pouring through from the other end.
Only after Airi finally stopped chattering did Chang Yuan begin explaining slowly.
"I see. That's what happened. I knew it. Although the things Mebius does are pretty inhumane, she shouldn't be breaking the law to that extent. You scared me."
After hearing Chang Yuan's explanation, Airi inwardly breathed a small sigh of relief.
Good, good. What she had feared had not happened.
"Wait, Mebius kept being reborn, so that means you saw her naked?"
"Uh, I guess so."
"You jerk! Couldn't you have covered your eyes?!"
Hearing Chang Yuan's guilty reply, an inexplicable fire instantly rose in Airi's heart.
Damn it, damn it, damn it! The first flawless body Chang Yuan had seen was not hers, but Mebius's.
Waaah, my A-Yuan isn't pure anymore.
Airi felt like dying. A few days ago, she should not have let embarrassment stop her from getting closer to Chang Yuan.
Otherwise, she definitely would have known about and stopped what had happened half an hour ago.
"Well, uh, I didn't really think that much at the time."
Feeling his face grow hot, Chang Yuan scratched his cheek.
"I don't care! Don't let me see you for the next few days!"
Beep, beep, beep—!
"...No, you're not even my girlfriend, and you're already exercising girlfriend privileges? And Airi throws tantrums too?
"No, it should be that the flawless filter from the game was too strong, making me think her personality was supposed to be just as impeccable and noble.
"But in reality, she was human too, and a Herrscher as well. Or rather, a Herrscher with humanity. And if she had humanity, then she had the seven emotions and six desires. So throwing a little tantrum didn't seem like much."
Chang Yuan rubbed his chin and muttered to himself.
Just like in the original story, even Dr. Mei, the most rational of them all, had fully displayed her love for Kevin at the very end.
Many people thought Dr. Mei had used that child to hold Kevin hostage, but in truth, she feared Kevin would have nothing left to hold onto and thus lose the will to live.
At the time, Dr. Mei must have been afraid that Kevin would take his own life, so she used a child to give him one small reason to keep living.
"So how am I supposed to comfort a girl? I don't think I know how to do that."
As a man who had been single since birth for over a decade, he genuinely had no idea how to comfort girls.
"Tch, should I ask the omnipotent Big V Teacher?"
Thinking of Velvie, Chang Yuan recalled just how omnipotent she could be.
Perhaps if she were given a dating manual, she really could become an expert playboy.
"Looks like that's the only way. Let's go, let's go."
The moment he decided, Chang Yuan immediately ran toward the Spiral Workshop.
By then, Velvie had already completed most of the prototype for the Divine Key. All that remained was to set the Herrscher Core into it.
Thus, she was researching something new—something that the future Chang Yuan had seen had never mentioned before. Something that could tip the scales, once inclined toward Finality, a little further in humanity's favor.
Naturally, all of that was immediately interrupted by Chang Yuan barging in.
"Big V Teacher, Big V Teacher, save me! Save me! This is an emergency!"
Pushing open the Spiral Workshop's doors, Chang Yuan anxiously shouted Velvie's name.
Hearing Chang Yuan call for her, Velvie stopped thinking and wrote down every thought she had been working through, making it easier to pick up where she left off later.
Before you continue