I Am Honkai

Listening to Selene's monologue, Fu Hua knew that Selene wasn't hiding her thoughts. Tilting her head slightly, Fu Hua took a small sip of her drink.

"Mobius, Her Majesty Selene, why are you muttering about her?"

Recalling her memories, in the previous era, Mobius conducted multiple modifications on herself through experiments related to "erosion."

Fu Hua silently pondered.

Although Mobius had significantly helped her, Fu Hua always found it difficult to deal with her and didn't know how to evaluate her.

Neither good nor evil, it wasn't gray, but rather truly walking the boundary between black and white. Fu Hua genuinely didn't know how Mobius managed to maintain this precarious balance.

Her true nature was entirely unknown to Fu Hua.

Mobius was a scientist, and Fu Hua acknowledged her technical expertise. However, every experiment she conducted caused considerable trouble for the organization and others, some even entirely opposing humanity.

Thinking of this, Fu Hua suspiciously looked at Selene. "Could it be, Your Majesty, that you value her scientific abilities?"

Clap! Clap!

"Exactly." Selene clapped her hands and nodded. "The Elysian Realm was created by her, right? After its destruction, I discovered a living being—a dead thing that resembled a living thing."

As she spoke, Selene tore open the space beside her and pulled out a "little figure."

With short green hair, clad in an ill-fitting white lab coat, black stockings, short legs, and an eyepatch over her right eye, her eyes had a rare green-to-red gradient.

She carried a relatively bulky book for her size with a backpack strap, and her pocket contained some luminous green medical reagent-like small vials. The connecting part of the backpack strap was a vivid green vertical pupil-shaped gem.

"Mmm! Mmm! Let go of me! I still need to do maintenance work!"

Held by the nape of her neck by Selene, her short legs kicked wildly, and she shook her head, shouting anxiously.

"I'm telling you, you don't need to maintain that thing anymore."

"No, that's Klein's task—it must be completed." Though her voice remained soft and childlike, Klein's tone was extremely serious.

"Is she... Klein...?"

Seeing this "little figure," her facial features were so distinct that Fu Hua quickly recognized her. She was a weaponized doll modeled after Mobius's assistant, Klein.

"Ah? Lady Hua."

Upon seeing Fu Hua, Klein instantly straightened up. Although she had floating capabilities, being held like this by Selene always felt a bit off.

"Yes, that's me. I'm Klein, Dr. Mobius's assistant. If you need to find Dr. Mobius, please sit in that chair over there and wait. She should be back soon..."

Klein spoke instinctively but trailed off mid-sentence. Uh... it seemed Dr. Mobius wouldn't return, would she? Klein didn't know where Dr. Mobius had gone either.

"Ahem... She probably doesn't know where Mobius has gone. She was captured by me as the caretaker of the Elysian Realm," Selene said, shaking her head and smiling. "From her base-level code, I discovered that Mobius had hardcoded an overworking trait into her program, making her work non-stop in the realm for fifty thousand years without a break."

Working fifty thousand years without a break—what kind of concept is that?

Mobius, using child labor like this, even hanging you from a streetlamp wouldn't atone for your sins. Forget capitalists shedding tears; even slave owners would weep at this.

Ahem... Just kidding. Though not as extensive in duration yet, in sheer quantity, Selene herself might be the one who deserves hanging from a streetlamp.

"After losing in her fight against the End, Mobius didn't enter a stasis pod but instead went alone to search for Dr. Mei's creation—the super AI Prometheus. She remains missing to this day."

"Did you find her? Where is she now? From this little one's program memory, I didn't uncover anything," Selene said.

Upon hearing this, Fu Hua was silent. She wasn't surprised that Selene could view the base-level code of the weaponized doll Klein. It was, after all, the Herrscher of Reason's authority.

Honestly, the Herrscher of the End possessed the full powers of all thirteen Herrschers before her. Fu Hua couldn't help but marvel—this was simply unfair.

"How could you casually look at Klein's base-level code without her permission?" Klein protested indignantly.

"Because you are now my spoils of war. Your master is no longer Mobius but me." With that, Selene released the weaponized doll, allowing her to float freely.

Whether or not Fu Hua felt that this weaponized doll had been affected, Selene showed no outward reaction. She remained calm, her half-closed eyes exuding warmth and composure.

"Of course, if you insist that Mobius is still your master, then fine. Go and bring her here yourself, and have her personally reclaim you from me. Otherwise, I'll dismantle you and rewrite your base code as my own."

"Ugh—!" Klein quickly hid behind Fu Hua, showing only a small part of her head, whimpering in fear.

"Alright, Your Majesty, no need to frighten a doll with the mind of a child," Fu Hua interjected, clearly picking up on the teasing tone in Selene's words.

Weaponized dolls, though extremely intelligent and highly capable as assistants, seemed to have, perhaps due to the creator's eccentricities, varying degrees of mental regression compared to their prototypes, resembling children.

"Hmm." With a soft chuckle, Selene leaned against the railing, gazing at the Mediterranean Sea under the sunset, lost in the memory of the information she had retrieved from Mobius's memory in the Elysian Realm.

Mobius's original body and her memory were truly an amusing pair, entirely different from the other Flame-Chasers memories.

When Mobius synchronized her body with her memory, the memory implanted a "seed" in her, subtly guiding her towards death. The memory even claimed to be "the one and only true Mobius."

However, Elysia's memory told Selene that Mobius's memory was incomplete, as Mobius's original body seemed to have tampered with it.

This was [Infinity], wasn't it? Endless possibilities.

Compared to the memory, Selene leaned towards believing that Mobius's original body was still alive. As the second only to Dr. Mei in the previous civilization, and someone who even slightly surpassed Mei in the field of biotechnology, how could Mobius be outwitted by her own memory?

When synchronizing with her memory, Mobius must have deliberately intervened. The sigil she bore was—[Infinity].

Allowing the memory to exhibit such subjective initiative and relinquishing control likely represented yet another path Mobius was observing in the realm of infinite possibilities.

And Mobius's original body must still be alive. A snake sheds its skin and evolves... isn't that exactly what she has been pursuing?

While in thought, Selene suddenly looked up. "Hmm? Grey Serpent, something unusual? Alright, I understand. Well done."

"Then, this little one will be entrusted to you for the time being, Fu Hua... my vassal," Selene said with a meaningful glance at Fu Hua.

"Alright." True to her succinct nature, Fu Hua nodded.

Rip~

Waving her hand, Selene tore open a human-sized spatial portal. Just as she was about to step through, she turned back and said, "Oh, by the way, Vassal Fu Hua, I need you to write a manual interpreting the Taixuan Sword Art training method."

"It will serve a great purpose. Surely, Vassal Fu Hua won't begrudge this favor?"

The essence of Fu Hua's Taixuan Sword School's incantations originated from an experiment conducted 50,000 years ago during the previous civilization.

Fu Hua had participated in Dr. Mei's "Divine Melody" experiment. The so-called "Divine Melody" was a secondary derivative application of [Discipline].

It was a subconscious hypnosis therapy that could stimulate the developing brain cortex, adapting the body to better withstand Honkai energy. This allowed ordinary humans to possess the power to combat the Honkai.

Selene had already acquired the essence of [Discipline], but it wasn't easily replicable. In contrast, Fu Hua's refined Taixuan Sword School techniques held much greater potential for dissemination.

Besides, having it was better than not having it. Even if it couldn't be widely promoted due to its high aptitude requirements, Selene wouldn't lose much. At worst, it could sit in the Imperial Capital's library, gathering dust as ballast.

"No problem. I'll complete it," Fu Hua replied.

"Good."

Buzz!

...

As Grey Serpent used the lab left behind by Mobius to broadcast the failure of the current civilization against the Honkai to all surviving refuges of the previous civilization...

Aside from the shelters already completely destroyed, some Flame-Chasers had awoken from their stasis pods and emerged, while a handful of underground shelters were still operational.

It went without saying that these were Dr. Mei's handiwork. Besides herself, probably no one knew how many refuges she had created or how many backup plans she had left behind for the current civilization.

Among these were locations like North Africa, Egypt, Jerusalem, and the Middle East.

Specialization matters. Upon learning that these areas had strong religious influence, Alex decisively assigned the task to the 17th Legion of Astartes, the Imperial Heralds.

Unlike the Far East regions under Grand General Budo, the regions under Alex's jurisdiction—Europe, North Africa, and the Middle East—had suffered relatively less damage.

...

Giza, Egypt.

As the headquarters of the world-renowned pharmaceutical company, Heliopolis Life Sciences Pharmaceuticals, the city was filled with exotic Egyptian-style buildings.

These structures blended seamlessly with modern skyscrapers. Beautiful strings of colorful lights adorned the city, outlining the buildings. Above them, digital billboards flashed with various images...

But suddenly—BOOM! BOOM!

The sudden sound of explosions and the roar of projectile weapons interrupted the tranquility. The city, which had recently been subdued by the Imperial Heralds after hundreds of kilograms of physical persuasion via holy scriptures, was once again plunged into chaos.

A nimble silhouette with cat ears dashed swiftly across rooftops and walls. Her movements were unnaturally agile, and the explosive projectiles couldn't catch up to her. Mindful of the fact that Giza was already a conquered city, the Imperial Heralds refrained from using heavy firepower.

This put them in an awkward situation.

"Mutant! Stop running! Stand still!"

"Ahh! I just woke up, and you're already chasing me? I'm not Brother Kalpas—I didn't eat your rice! Ugh, so annoying!"

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