Chapter 42

Continental Mu, Center for Bioinformatics, Institute of Genetics.

In the empty laboratory, a plump woman with disheveled hair was lying on the table and fell asleep, and there was a slight sound of breathing between the arms that hugged her cheeks. The entire laboratory had no windows, and the LED panel lights embedded in the ceiling exposed the room to pure white light.

If she weren't so tired, it would be hard to imagine anyone sleeping in such an uncomfortable environment. But the fact is true, exposed to such bright light, the quality of her sleep wasn't great. Soon, amidst the feeling of soreness all over her body, her consciousness slowly surfaced until she woke up.

With thick dark circles under her eyes and the imprint of her skin pressed by the folds of her clothes, the woman slowly lifted her head. She had long green hair and appeared to be at an age where childishness had just washed away, but her plump figure and old-fashioned dress made it difficult to determine her specific age. She blinked her misty eyes, looked around drowsily, and then suddenly shivered as if catching a cold. She mumbled to herself, "Why is it so cold... Emiya... is breakfast..." Her words got stuck in her throat.

The laboratory remained silent, and no one answered her question. In the lonely silence, the expressionless woman took a long, deep breath, raised her palms, and covered her eyes.

Yes, the person who used to take care of her was gone. No one would cover her with a blanket while she slept, and she would never smell the familiar scent of rice again.

"Didn't I say that I can stand on my own? How long will I be depressed because of that little brat..." She moved her hands away from her eyes, and with some effort, she stood up from the chair. Her head hurt, probably from sleeping on the stiff laboratory table for a long time, and her whole body felt sore.

The woman walked to a nearby locker, opened it, and began searching for something to eat. Besides two buckets of instant noodles and a few ham sausages for emergencies, the locker displayed mostly uncooked grains and some vegetables wrapped in plastic. Under the locker, a neat row of seasonings was arranged.

Despite the variety of options, the woman picked the bucket of instant noodles with her palm without hesitation, seemingly oblivious to the other available food.

Next, she turned on the fresh air system in the laboratory to improve the air quality and boiled a pot of water. She tore off the wrapping paper of the seasoning and sprinkled it into the paper tube bowl of instant noodles. After pouring the boiling water into the bowl, she counted for about one hundred and twenty in her head, then picked up a plastic fork and tried the noodles.

However, to her surprise, the taste of the instant noodles, which used to be delicious, had become bland and unpalatable after losing the person who had always stopped her from eating them day and night.

After teasing her hungry stomach with the unsatisfying meal, the woman casually threw the bowl with some residue into an empty trash can. At that moment, her communication device suddenly rang.

Without bothering to check the caller ID, she weakly picked up the communicator and said, "Who?"

A middle-aged male voice came from the communicator, asking, "Dr. Mobius, have you read the fifth team's mission report?"

"What does the fifth team's mission have to do with me?" The woman recognized the identity of the contact person through the communicator's voice. This middle-aged man is the speaker of the Fire Moth Council, responsible for reviewing and supervising research projects proposed by front-line researchers like her. From a certain point of view, he can be considered her immediate superior, so she changed her tone of voice when addressing him, "I'm busy calculating what kind of 'type' will appear next. Don't bother me if there's nothing important to discuss."

"you, Dr. Mobius, submitted the calculation results to the council and filed a search application for the designated area," the middle-aged man said lightly from the other end of the communicator.

"So?" The woman, Mebius, snorted impatiently, "Did you find that thing?"

"Dr. Mobius, please correct your attitude!" The middle-aged man finally got angry, or rather, he had restrained his anger until now. "Through the analysis of the nature of the unexplained honkai eruption seven years ago, You theorized the existence of a completely different new species of 'Honkai,' which are distinct from 'Zombies' and 'Honkai Beast.' Our financial and human resources are limited! If you hadn't submitted your calculation results to the parliament, we would have never sent the fifth team to that town in vain!"

"It's you who should correct your attitude!" Mobius sneered, "Andrew, don't think I don't know what those insects in the Council are thinking. I've already warned you, if the 'new category' has the same nature as I speculate, and possesses the same rationality and thinking ability as us humans, then today, seven years later, it's impossible for that thing to have stayed in place!"

"Aren't you coveting that kind of 'controllable' power? Is it me who decided to conduct a comprehensive search of the border town without authorization?" Mobius couldn't help but retort.

Known as Andrew, he remained silent for a while, then said coldly, "...for your next research project, the funding will be cut in half."

"Why?!" Mebius stood up abruptly, "Damn it! Why should I pay for your ignorance and greed!"

"Our resources and manpower are already tight, and even without this incident, your research project hasn't produced any actual results for more than half a month." Andrew said calmly, "If you don't show useful results, the Council will naturally be unable to allocate further resources to your project. Dr. Mobius, I respect your talent and abilities, but I also hope you can understand our difficulties. Fire Moth may claim to be the cradle of idealists, but it's still an institution directly under the United Nations, just with a unique nature."

"..." Now, it was Mobius who was left speechless.

The world of adults is harsh reality. If you can't produce convincing results, you won't receive additional resources from others. Despite Mobius' papers and research projects having considerable academic value, to those politicians who are laymen, what matters more is tangible wealth or power.

While cursing deep in her heart, Mobius couldn't help but bite her thumb and looked behind her subconsciously, intending to say something to someone who wasn't there. However, she realized that there was no one standing behind her, and the words she had in mind were suppressed.

Morbius suddenly felt an indescribable fatigue. She was not the only researcher at the Institute of Genetics, but even her fellow doctors couldn't understand Mobius' persistence and philosophy. Not long ago, she still had someone who would unconditionally support her, even though they didn't understand her work, but now...

'Tsk! Why did I remember that stubborn little brat again!'

Mobius took a deep breath and shook her head, trying to dismiss the thoughts of "not important" and "it's no big deal if you leave." However, the more she tried to forget the figure that had been with her for eighteen years, the clearer the image become in her mind.

"Do you understand, Dr. Mobius?" Andrew's voice came through the communicator after a long silence.

"Shut up!" Mobius cursed back, suddenly interrupted from her thoughts. "Cut the funds in half if you want to, do as you please!" After a moment of silence, she added in a low tone, "...Is there anything else? I'll hang up if there's nothing."

"...Although the fifth team didn't find the 'existence' you calculated, this single search mission can't be considered fruitless," Andrew said, "In Vostok, the fifth team marked the personal information of a resident with an identification mark exclusive to the Fire Moth."

"Oh? Mobius made a voice that sounded a bit curious, "If I remember correctly, that kind of identification mark should be the means you use to distinguish between 'ordinary people' and 'chosen ones', That is to say, 'people' with some kind of special ability? Or, a 'genius' like me."

The so-called 'Chosen One' is a collective term for those who have special abilities. This special ability can be a kind of supernatural ability, or it can be an ability that surpasses the physiological functions of the human body in some aspects, such as having superhuman strength and tenacity. The 'Chosen One' is the threshold to join the Fire Moth. For a long time, the Fire Moth has always claimed to be the paradise of the ideal, but the things that can support the ideal must have strength that can't be

In a sense, all members of the Fire Moth, are 'monsters' in the secular sense, but rather than monsters, they prefer to label themselves as 'The Chosen One'.

At least until they can develop something that allows ordinary people to save their own lives when the Honkai erupts come out, it is impossible for Moth that chases Flame—or, in other words, everyone in this world who have any understanding of Honkai to be able to tolerate the idea that their leader is an ordinary person who will appear extremely vulnerable in the face of Honkai.

"From what the captain of the fifth team said, the child marked by her seems to be much stronger than ordinary people," Andrew added.

"Is it just stronger than ordinary people?" Mobius couldn't help showing a disappointed expression.

"Do you need me to send you the identity information of that child?" Andrew said.

"Forget it, the lab doesn't need savages, I'm not interested in communicating with ordinary people with mediocre intelligence. If you can bring him to my operating table, I don't mind having an extra experimental subject in my lab," Mobius shrugged and flatly rejected Andrew's proposal.

In this world, although it is rare to see human beings whose strength surpasses that of ordinary people, it is not uncommon to the point that will make Mobius look sideways. The five teams currently owned by Fire Moth alone have a total of more than a thousand such people.

Compared with power, Mobius values "intelligence" more, so when she knew from Andrew that the so-called "chosen one" was just a person with brute strength, she immediately lost interest.

——The current Mobius still doesn't know that at a certain time in the near future, this decision will make her regret it to the point of crazily smashing her head against the wall.

"I have nothing else to say." Now that Mebius has clearly stated that she has lost interest in the child that Himeko marked, Andrew is too lazy to argue, "I hope you can continue to contribute to Moth's development, doctor."

After finishing speaking, without waiting for Mobius' response, Andrew hung up his communicator without hesitation.

Hearing the beeping tone from the communicator echoing in this empty laboratory, Mobius pressed the button to hang up.

The entire laboratory was once again immersed in cold silence.