Honkai: Man(Sludge) From Future

Of course, there were still some who fell within the range of "normal."

For example, Elysia.

Elysia and Mobius both used bodies differentiated from Noldrei's to go about their lives. Life in Academy City naturally had aspects that leaned towards the old human way of life. After all, not everyone could accept the wild lifestyle of future humans.

It was like how, even after entering the industrial age, many elderly people still preferred to stay in the countryside.

Elysia was one such person, but she couldn't just do whatever she wanted openly. That would anger Noldrei.

Noldrei allowed individuals to maintain their original lifestyles because they were destined to be phased out. However, he did not permit these people to gather and form organized groups to preserve old habits. That was a blatant act of defiance against His Majesty the Emperor and would get them a visit from the Academy City Board of Directors.

"Oh, Mobius," Elysia sighed, "I've discovered... I've become a bad woman who loves conservative humans."

Elysia needed to find Mobius to heal her soul. She felt she could no longer keep up with the times. The humans of the Current Era were far beyond her comprehension and had dealt a heavy blow to her mental state.

Although Mobius was also a "lady of progress," her progress was still stuck in the primitive stage where "evolution is ugly." She had yet to reach Noldrei's new civilizational stage where everything was "beautiful."

In fact, many researchers in Academy City had already begun to accept Noldrei's rhetoric.

That's right, evolution is beautiful! A chunk of flesh is damn good-looking! A super-adaptive body like a pile of jelly-poop-mud is subarashii!

At the very least, Mobius still knew to prepare some accessories to adorn herself.

Otherwise, why would she design such alluring clothes? Was it specifically for the lustful gaze of men? Of course not! It was Mobius's own aesthetic preference, which is why she wore such things.

Compared to Noldrei, who believed his own body was the most beautiful and liked to run around naked to show it off, Mobius still couldn't really connect with him.

Therefore, Mobius could still understand Elysia's thoughts.

A beautiful girl who could walk the high-fashion runway, of course, could not accept...

What? You say the fashion runways of the Current Era are also filled with such abstract clothing? Oh, well, in that case, Elysia really was behind the times.

"I suspect that guy probably didn't evolve from human civilization," Mobius mused. "Of course, I only believe about thirty percent of his story about coming from the future. I even suspect he's an alien from another galaxy... but now I'm starting to doubt that 'Jie' was an alien."

Mobius compared the differences between Jie and Noldrei. It was like the difference between an alien imagined by humans and a real alien.

"However, he's very supportive of my research. He even considered turning all of humanity into MANTISes. If it weren't for the immense danger posed by the Honkai factor, I doubt he would have given up on that possibility."

"There's some truth to what he says. From the perspective of propagating MANTISes, having humanity abandon so-called primitive mating and use targeted genetic cultivation is a better way to reproduce."

Mobius was seriously considering Noldrei's proposal. She had even imagined the grand spectacle of a world with billions of MANTISes.

"Misteln came to see me recently," Elysia said, changing the subject. "She wanted to ask you, the original founder of World Serpent, what your plans are for her future. That girl seems a bit unable to accept the changes in this authentic world and wants to escape to another parallel world or a bubble universe to live."

Misteln Schariac, also known as Hare, was a little scared of the new civilization Noldrei was building. She had indeed been nearly influenced by this societal form, even once doubting whether humanity should maintain the "evil" idea of primitive reproduction.

Hare had almost lost her composure. She wanted to ask Noldrei whether she should now be considered a Stigma lifeform or a real human.

She was the type of person who kept her thoughts bottled up, and there weren't many people she could talk to. Elysia was one of them.

Elysia relayed Misteln's situation to Mobius, hoping she could think of a way to help Misteln with her current troubles.

"What can I do? If she can't get over it herself, then nothing will work." Mobius, clad in a white lab coat, sat with her legs crossed, seemingly aimlessly flipping through the documents in her hand.

She was currently selecting a batch of suitable researchers from Academy City to bring to Jerusalem.

"Misteln isn't unable to get over it; she's just having trouble adapting to the life of the Current Era. You know she was born in the middle of nowhere in Siberia and encountered all that trouble. She had just managed to adapt to the new human society for a while, and then suddenly, the Current Era turned into this monstrous state."

"If you had put me in that situation when I was a child, I'm afraid I would have quickly fallen into a true Herrscher as well. It's a very dangerous situation. You can't just have Misteln try to seduce Noldrei, can you? He's not the type to care about external form."

Elysia's choice of words had changed. She had replaced "appearance" with "form."

"Thank you, Mr. Noldrei, for letting me escape the 'cage' of loving humanity. If I had known humans were all like this, I suspect I would have become more human than humans themselves."

Elysia sighed. She suddenly felt there was a reason Mobius had become so kind and approachable.

"Telling me this is useless. I can't help Hare."

Mobius didn't see herself as omnipotent. After emerging and discovering so many 'like-minded' individuals, she realized she wasn't so special after all.

Thus, Mobius had unexpectedly trended towards 'normalization.'

What she was more worried about now was what the newly born Herrscher of Sentience, Mobius, was up to in Jerusalem.

Although she didn't know what work was being done, Mobius still guessed that the other Senti-Mobius was most likely researching Noldrei's plan to seal off Honkai from ordinary people.

The other Mobius was probably trying to turn those who died at the slightest touch of Honkai back into normal people.

Otherwise, the Honkai would no longer be able to descend upon humanity.

And if the Honkai did not descend, then the Herrscher of Sentience would undoubtedly be fighting a lonely battle.

Thinking of this, Mobius began to ask about Elysia's work progress.

"And you? How's your work teaching Sirin going? Has she been studying hard?"

Elysia sighed again, helplessly. "Noldrei just disciplined her a while ago. She's been much more behaved now."

To use the power of the Herrscher of the Void to dig a canal, Sirin first had to learn geography and related architectural knowledge.

Poor Sirin. She hadn't even had two days of fun before she was plunged back into the endless hell of studying.