Chapter 230: Elysia Drawing Circles
"Are you really sure this is okay?" Elysia looked at Fu Hua. "That Divine Sound put you through a really rough time before, Hua, and now we're going to do it all over again — is that going to be all right?"
"Every safety measure has been put in place." Fu Hua nodded. "There's no such thing as smooth sailing for everything, and I trust Dr. MEI's research."
It wasn't as though MEI and Mobius hadn't asked her to take part in similar experiments before. This one was just more dangerous, more critical, more necessary — and every time, Mobius had gotten her safely up off the sickbed. This time wouldn't be any different.
…Probably.
"And this time, we're going to work on clearing out the Divine Sound." Fu Hua looked at Elysia. "Just as you said — the Divine Sound's influence on me is too great, so Dr. MEI and Dr. Mobius are going to see if they can reverse and remove it."
"I see." Elysia nodded. How to put it? Thinking about the mess Aponia had stirred up — that one had been no small thing. Sigh, Discipline really was just too… potent.
Maybe it was just as Mobius had said back in the Realm — they were holding something even the people involved couldn't explain, using methods none of them had a firm grasp on, to attempt things that were fundamentally uncertain.
Stirring up trouble was the most natural outcome, wasn't it? But the truly unfortunate thing was that not a single one of them had ever learned from it — not even once.
"Miss Hua, Miss Elysia, hello." At that moment, Puppet Klein came walking up from a distance, a tablet hugged against her chest, and raised a hand in greeting to the two standing in the corridor.
"Oh, it's Klein!" Elysia turned around and waved at Puppet Klein in return — then promptly scooped Puppet Klein straight up into her arms.
"Mmph…" Klein, held tight in Elysia's embrace, struggled slightly. After confirming that Elysia had no intention of putting her down, she gave up on struggling.
Across tens of thousands of years of getting to know her, she had long since learned the lesson: when Elysia genuinely wanted to cuddle her for a while, struggling did no good.
It would only make Elysia more excited.
"Did Klein come looking for Mobius too?" Elysia bobbed Klein up and down as she leaned down to ask. Seeing Klein nod, she fell in step with Hua and the two of them went off to find Mobius.
"If you're here to be a pest, go pester your Eden, or Aponia." The moment the door opened, Mobius spoke up immediately. She turned to look at Elysia, who had just stepped inside, signaling clearly that loiterers should leave.
"I'm not the one looking for you~" Elysia shook her head. She had no concept of what the word "refusal" meant. Instead, she raised the Klein she was holding.
"I just happened to run into Fu Hua and Klein, and I was about to come over and see what was going on, so I came along too."
Even as she spoke, Elysia turned her gaze toward Irene, who was sitting on the other side of the room yawning. "Didn't expect Irene to be here too."
"I'm here to help out." Irene raised a hand and looked at Elysia. "Over the past couple of days, I've finally managed to get just about everyone's bodies put together — and then, before I knew it, Dr. Mobius dragged me over here."
Over these past few days, Irene had been finding pockets of time to load the DNA samples of the bodies inside her head into the cultivation pods and start the cultivation process. The catch was that high-tier cultivation pods were limited in number, so they all still had to wait their turn.
"Ohh." After hearing Irene's words, Elysia immediately turned to look at Mobius with an air of feigned outrage. "I'm filing a complaint, Dr. Mobius — you exploit your employees."
"…I knew it. There's no expecting you to come around for anything serious." Looking at Elysia, whose face all but had the words "here for the fun" written across it, Mobius shook her head, exasperated.
She couldn't be bothered to engage. The more she did, the more wound up Elysia got. Mobius then turned to Puppet Klein. "What did you want with me?"
Klein wriggled free of Elysia's grip and looked up at Mobius. "Dr. MEI is looking for Mobius. She says she wants to go over some of the contents of Project Stigma again."
"…What does she want? Spell it out for me first." Mobius's mouth twitched. Honestly speaking, the moment she heard "Dr. MEI" and "Project Stigma" in the same breath, Mobius was already very much not in the mood to go.
Each of those keywords on its own, she wouldn't have worried about. But strung together, even Mobius felt a little bit of dread.
[MEI], [Project Stigma], [Again], [Discuss].
Those four keywords instantly brought back the memory of being made by MEI to revise the Project Stigma proposal a full fifteen times in a row — fifteen times!!!
MEI, that little so-and-so, had used every method imaginable to redefine what "defeating the Honkai" meant, and on those grounds had kept slapping back the proposal Mobius had already finished — forcing her to revise it fifteen times!!
As the party on the receiving end of all that, Mobius's blood pressure had been through the roof. Unfortunately, she and MEI were more or less close friends, and on top of that, Kevin served as MEI's bodyguard — so Mobius had never dared lay a hand on her.
On top of that, MEI back then had just been an ordinary person. As a MANTIS, if Mobius hadn't gauged her strength carefully, MEI might have ended up in two pieces — one bit east, one bit west.
Oh — speaking of which, MEI wasn't an ordinary person now, was she? So she could finally lay hands on her, couldn't she? Hmm, that wasn't entirely out of the question…
"Dr. MEI didn't go into detail. She only told me to inform you to come over and discuss it." Klein shook her head as she looked at the deep-in-thought Mobius.
"Dr. Vill-V has also been called over. I was on my way to fetch you when I had the misfortune of being snatched up by Miss Elysia — though fortunately, since Miss Elysia was curious, she brought me along with her, so the process wasn't actually delayed by it."
"Hey, hey — what do you mean, misfortune?" Elysia, listening to Klein's words from the side, was clearly displeased. She crouched down and rubbed at Klein's cheek.
"I was just curious, so I came along — and I even carried you over."
"According to the data," Klein looked up at Elysia, "Miss Elysia tends to play the role of unwelcome mood-livener at meetings of this kind, lowering meeting efficiency."
"Therefore, encountering Miss Elysia on the way — and given Miss Elysia's personality, the certainty that you would insist on joining the meeting — I deemed this a misfortune."
"Uwuwuwu…" Elysia clutched at her chest as though she'd taken a heavy blow, and slumped against Mobius's shoulder. "My dear Dr. Mobius, is it really true?"
"Hahh…" Mobius made herself calm down, rubbed at her throbbing, blood-pressure-spiked temples, and casually pushed away the little head leaning in against her.
"Quit fooling around. Go pester your Eden or your Irene. This matter is important."
Elysia's body froze stiff on the spot, as though struck by a devastating blow. After a moment of silence, she crouched down in the corner of the laboratory and began silently drawing circles on the floor.
Mobius glanced at the clowning Elysia and let out a sigh. Right now, though, she didn't have the time to deal with the clowning Elysia. "Where is that MEI?"
"Please come with me." Klein nodded, then led the way out of the laboratory. Mobius pinched the bridge of her nose, then turned to Fu Hua.
"As for your matter, just wait here for Aponia to arrive. I've already explained the procedures to Aponia and Little Senti."
With that said, Mobius then turned her gaze to the side. "Rin, are you there?"
"My main self is off playing with Elder Sister and isn't available right now. I'm the auto-response Rin." A little fox Rin poked her head out of the screen. Mobius looked at the little fox Rin.
"Where did she pick that up?" Mobius muttered, then looked at the little fox Rin. "Mm, later — when they're actually performing the operation, record all data that can be recorded. That'll be fine, right?"
"Understood." The little fox Rin nodded, then ducked back into the screen. All the observation machines in the surrounding area immediately powered on, awaiting the start of the experiment.
Mobius turned her head back toward Fu Hua again. "If you start feeling any discomfort, just abort. We'll find another way. Sigh, honestly — to think Divine Sound could leave you in a state where you can't even use Honkai Form. MEI really did leave behind a whole pile of problems."
"Understood."
Mobius glanced once at Elysia, who was still drawing circles. Forget it. If this one were the sort to listen to advice, she herself wouldn't have to suffer this kind of headache.
After laying out everything that needed laying out, Mobius left, following Klein. Sure, having to do a sixteenth revision was infuriating, but in the end, it was for the sake of victory.
Besides, she had a pretty good idea of what MEI was actually trying to change this time.
"Mm, counting this one, it's going to be the sixteenth revision, isn't it?" Hua watched the departing Mobius and shook her head. It wasn't as if she didn't know about this matter either.
After all, during that period of time, Mobius's mood had been consistently foul — you could say her resentment had practically filled the air. Under conditions like that, it would have been hard not to know.
"Uwuwuwu…" Off to one side, Elysia was still drawing circles on the floor. Irene sighed, walked over, and patted Elysia on the back.
"They've all left, you know. Who exactly are you putting on a show for? Don't tell me you're performing for me?"
"Mm, that wouldn't be too bad either~" Elysia snapped back to normal in an instant and turned to look at Irene. "After all, our adorable Irene is also a beautiful girl! Go ahead and comfort me, by all means."
"All right, all right, now's not the time." Irene made an X with her arms in front of her chest and patted Elysia on the head. "So get up off the floor for now. Come back when we're done with all this."
"Okayyy~" Elysia returned to normal in an instant. "Mm, I wonder what Dr. MEI and the others are actually going to discuss over there?"
Irene, with practiced ease, slid open a drawer in the laboratory and pulled out several packets of coffee, beginning to brew them. "I think it's better if Elysia doesn't go barge in over there. After all, you wouldn't be able to follow it — you'd only end up causing trouble on the sidelines."
"'Causing trouble' is really…" Elysia thought about it for a moment — what exactly could she do if she went? After some consideration, she realized that yes, all she really could do was cause trouble, and her tone weakened.
"You're being a little too blunt about it…"
"So I'll point you down the right path." Irene patted Elysia's shoulder with the air of an immortal pointing out the way. "Miss Elysia, why don't you go find Eden and the others and have a good time playing with them?"
"That's a much better fit for Miss Elysia's particular talents."
"But Eden and the others have all gone out already." Elysia scratched her head, looking helpless.
Why was Elysia even this free in the first place? The reason she hadn't gone off to keep Eden and the others company was, of course, because Eden had gone outside to take a look at the Current Era.
The past few days had basically only seen some small Honkai incidents. While Eden was outside Haiyuan City restocking supplies, she'd taken the opportunity to wander around outside.
She claimed not to care about how entertainment had developed out there now, but as a former king of the music scene and idol to the masses, how could Eden possibly truly not care at all?
"And she didn't even take me with her." Elysia raised both index fingers and poked them together. "She didn't even tell me a word about it, Irene — don't you think she's being just terrible?"
"At a time like this, you should learn from those wife-chasing novels and just go after them directly." Irene stirred the coffee in her hand. "As for where they are — you could just go ask Rin, and you'd know, right?"
"Failing that, just ask the staff and then go look for them. Simple."
"Oh, you have a point." Elysia seemed to have a sudden epiphany, as if waking from a dream. With a thoughtful look, she started walking outside.
"Sigh, honestly. At times like these, she actually doesn't show as much aggression as she used to." Irene took a sip of her own freshly brewed coffee. "Well, the past couple of days have been busy, to be fair."
"Sigh — speaking of which, should I go learn some MANTIS techniques myself? See if I can find some dolphin Honkai Beast genes?" Irene stroked her chin. In theory, it wasn't impossible.
As the Herrscher of Death, she was extraordinarily skilled in matters of biology. There wasn't anything stopping her from operating on herself — and besides, being a MANTIS and being a Herrscher weren't mutually exclusive professions.
Wasn't there a perfectly good role model standing right there in the form of Fu Hua?
Suddenly feeling that she'd been called into the conversation, Fu Hua looked up at Irene. "When will Aponia and the others get here?"
"Should be soon, I'd say." The words had barely left Irene's mouth when Aponia and Little Senti filed in through the laboratory door. Aponia was just about to greet Mobius when she realized Mobius wasn't in the laboratory.
"Where's Dr. Mobius?"
"Called away by Dr. MEI." Irene sipped her coffee, then raised the still-half-full coffeepot on the other side. "Want a cup?"
"No need." Little Senti shook her head, then squeezed her fist, looking utterly enthusiastic. "Ahh, finally — a chance to openly and aboveboard rough up the old— ah, no, I mean help the old relic."
"Little Senti…" Fu Hua, listening to Little Senti's words, shook her head a little helplessly. Irene only shrugged. The way they got along now was already worlds better than in the original work — at the very least, Little Senti was willing to listen these days.
"I'm so sorry, Hua. I never thought back then…" Aponia hadn't even finished speaking when Fu Hua raised a hand and cut her off.
"It wasn't your fault. None of us could have foreseen things turning out that way." Fu Hua looked at Aponia. "What we need to do right now isn't apologize, is it?"
"That's right, that's right." Irene nodded and clapped her hands. The Bodhi imprint manifested across her palms. "So then — let's get to it. Time to begin."
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