"Speaking of which... Mobius, this idea of yours, fusing various Honkai Beast ICHOR factors... Don't tell me you got it from that time I..." Michael flipped his cap backward, leaning against the glass of the cultivation tank, peering intently at the two indistinct masses – one white, one blue – stuck together inside.
"Hmph! Don't flatter yourself," Mobius scoffed. "Your fusion attempt back then was a spectacular failure. Aside from Yaksha, Parvati and Sesa mostly just enhanced your physical body as raw biomass, contributing very little in terms of actual abilities. It seems Vishnu's factor, despite its dominant assimilation properties, lacks strong compatibility. That's precisely why I chose Mahāmāyūrī as the second sample."
"So you do admit it..." Michael muttered under his breath, pouting slightly.
"What did you say?"
"Nothing..."
"Hmph—" Mobius crossed her arms, adjusted a few parameters on the cultivation tank, and was about to instruct Michael to use his powers. But the baseball cap on his head was incredibly distracting, especially the cat-ear-like protrusions on either side – it was obvious whose handiwork that was.
But why is he wearing a hat? Mobius had been wanting to ask this for a while.
Setting aside matters of politeness, if Michael habitually wore hats, fine. But he'd never had such a habit before. Suddenly starting now... was somewhat suspicious.
And looking at his completely bare temples... Mobius seemed to understand something.
"What you need to do is simple," Mobius instructed, trying to sound professional. "Manipulate the power of Death to accelerate the cell division of both masses, facilitating their eventual fusion."
As she gave the command, she nonchalantly circled halfway around the cultivation tank, ending up behind Michael without him noticing. He was completely focused, meticulously manipulating the division of the two cell types according to her instructions.
"Is that all?" he initially thought, preparing a sarcastic remark.
However, the actual process wasn't nearly as simple as Mobius made it sound. Accelerating cell division? Easy. But getting two distinct cell types to fuse solely through division? Almost impossible.
These were, after all, two entirely different types of Honkai Beast cells, both from extremely powerful Apocalypse-class entities.
Michael had to carefully select cells from the interface between the two masses, manually swap and alter their chromosomes, and then observe the rapid division, selecting and propagating only the cells that showed successful fusion.
The actual operational difficulty surpassed even locating and attempting to transfer the entire population of the Mu continent during the Ninth Honkai Eruption. Back then, Michael had dealt with less than a billion individuals. The number of individual cells in these two masses combined was already dozens of times larger.
He poured all his focus into the experiment, completely oblivious to Mobius having sidled up behind him.
Despite the complexity, however, he felt it wasn't that difficult, certainly much easier than the Ninth Eruption operation. He wasn't sure if his mind had simply become stronger through continuous exertion, or if it was... the enhancement granted to the Herrscher of Death's power by the Stigmata.
Mobius, having confirmed her suspicions by glancing at Michael's clean-shaven nape and temples, had been about to playfully snatch the cap off his head. But she forcefully suppressed the mischievous impulse, her eyes widening in disbelief as she watched the two masses physically merge into one in less than five minutes.
"Eh?"
Hearing the surprised sound behind him, Michael felt an inexplicable chill crawl up the back of his neck. Ignoring the ominous premonition, he proactively explained the situation to Mobius: "Both of these Honkai Beast cell types inherently possess high compatibility—primarily Vishnu, whose factor naturally has the property of devouring everything. So, I simply made it the dominant factor, encouraging it to actively fuse with the Mahāmāyūrī factor.
"And the Mahāmāyūrī cells showed almost no resistance. What I'm doing now is selecting, from the numerous fused cells, the genetic variant that best retains the abilities of both original Honkai Beasts." Michael, multitasking, finally found a relatively appropriate term, only to be cut off by Mobius:
"Continue, don't stop!" Her interest had immediately shifted.
"Alright, alright, not stopping, listening to you..." Michael hadn't intended to say much more anyway. While the difficulty was lower than expected, it didn't mean he didn't need to concentrate.
Especially when the faint, alluring fragrance drifting towards him along with that chill was already distracting him...
Also, perhaps Michael's hearing was too sensitive, or maybe the lab walls were thin due to prioritizing modular room division and easy reconfiguration, resulting in poor soundproofing. The heavy breathing and mournful cries – whether from beast or human – from the adjacent room continuously reached Michael's ears.
However, such things no longer bothered him.
An hour later, Mobius excitedly pointed at a tiny piece of flesh, no larger than half a pinky fingernail, floating in a test tube. "Alright! My adorable little Brahma is born!"
"That's it? Mobius, you're not telling me this lump of flesh qualifies as a Honkai Beast, are you?" Michael's image of Mobius as a scientist crumbled once again.
Clearly, from any perspective, a pile of undifferentiated flesh couldn't be considered a living individual organism.
Of course, with further cell cultivation techniques, this mass of cells from unknown body parts could potentially be shaped into a Honkai Beast. But that would require someone with advanced biological knowledge – specifically, knowledge related to Honkai Beast physiology.
And obviously, Michael was only interested in biology based on the human body.
"Mhmhmhm— Hahaha— HAHAHAHAHA! Michael, I have to say, sometimes you're really foolishly adorable!"
"What did I..." Michael's indignant retort died before it left his lips as he felt a sudden coolness on the back of his head – unlike the previous psychological sensation, this time it was physically cold...
He scrambled to cover his now completely bare scalp. He wanted to explain, but Mobius had already turned to face the wall, her shoulders shaking with suppressed laughter, making little "hoo-hee" sounds.
After four or five seconds, she couldn't hold it in any longer. The hand holding the cap pressed against the wall for support, her forehead resting on the back of her hand. Her other hand, clutching the test tube, pressed against her stomach as she doubled over, laughing uncontrollably – after their earlier emotional rollercoaster, she seemed to have become slightly... just slightly... more open in front of Michael.
"Hehehehehe! HAHAHAHA!" Her neurotic laughter echoed through the empty lab, eerily harmonizing with the increasingly shrill screams from the next room. What a typical day in Mobius's lab!
Michael shook his head, bored. By the time Mobius finally managed to stop laughing and turn around, his hair had already grown back.
"Why did you suddenly... Oh, I remember. That time in New Atra, you took Kevin's Judgment of Shamash head-on, burned all your hair off... But wasn't that half a month ago? Logically, your hair should have grown back by now, right?"
"...I just wanted to try a new style." Michael silently took the hat back from her. He couldn't exactly tell her the truth: yesterday, he'd wanted to trim his shoulder-length hair, but Elysia insisted on showcasing her 'skills.'
The end result was that by the time Michael, lost in thought, noticed his head felt a bit cool, Elysia had already shaved half of it bald. To prevent the 'style' from evolving further in bizarre directions, Michael had 'obediently' submitted, letting her use a razor to remove all his worldly tresses.
As compensation, Elysia gave him a black baseball cap, complete with two cat-ear-like protrusions on top... mm, the very one in his hands now, which also had Eden's signature inside...
But his claim of "trying a new style" wasn't entirely a lie. After all, as a Herrscher, regrowing hair was trivially easy.
Okay... the real reason was that Elysia had been watching him like a hawk yesterday, giving him no chance to fix it. Later that evening, and even after waking up this morning, he had mostly accepted the 'bald' look and even found it quite comfortable – if Mobius hadn't discovered it and caused this social death, that is.
"Alright... back to your Brahma topic. Mobius, you're not seriously telling me you think this lump of meat can be called a Honkai Beast?"
The smile Mobius had just suppressed reappeared. She quickly shot Michael a glare and retorted, "Why would I let it be born in a complete form? Am I tired of having too many resurrections and immune to pain? Or do I have too much salary that I'm eager to have docked?"
"Er... Ah, I see." Michael nodded in understanding.
He had even been mentally preparing for battle, ready to drag the newly born Apocalypse-class beast into a Bubble Universe the moment it appeared, then decide whether to "drown" it in the Sea of Quanta based on its abilities.
He had braced himself for Mobius's maximum level of recklessness, only to find that, this time, she actually hadn't been that reckless.
Thinking about it logically, just like Mobius's flexible definition of "human," what she wanted from "Brahma" were its abilities. And acquiring those abilities only required cells for the MANTIS surgery; there was no need to actually create a full Honkai Beast.
Especially one that was likely Apocalypse-class at minimum.
While Mobius usually didn't care much about potential collateral damage, especially with Michael around, if this unauthorized project came to light and Mei hit her with the demotion-plus-research-funding-cut combo, she wouldn't enjoy it. Although she and Vill-V were probably used to it by now.
As for the first part of her retort, "Am I tired of having too many resurrections and immune to pain?"... Please. Someone truly afraid of pain wouldn't constantly cause lab accidents that resulted in their repeated de-aging.
"But there's still one problem," Michael pointed out. "These cells we've obtained now, they only theoretically combine Vishnu's assimilation and Mahāmāyūrī's compatibility. How do we experimentally confirm the actual effects?"
Mobius certainly didn't lack test subjects nowadays. But Apocalypse-class Honkai Beasts were special—if the experiment failed completely, fine. But if it succeeded, even partially, facing a MANTIS fused with Apocalypse-class factors who harbored ill intentions towards Fire Moth would inevitably lead to massive losses.
After all, such a MANTIS, if pushed into severe MANTIS overload, would be indistinguishable from an actual Apocalypse-class Honkai Beast.
True, with Fire Moth's current combat strength, beasts below Apocalypse-class posed no threat. Michael, Kevin, Elysia, Kalpas, or Sakura could likely kill them almost instantly.
But against Apocalypse-class and above? Michael could only say they could be killed, but he couldn't guarantee zero damage to the base. After all, the definition of Apocalypse-class wasn't just "stronger than Judgment-class"; its upper strength limit was undefined.
Therefore, fusion factors from Apocalypse-class beasts required testing on "reliable" subjects. Even during the desperate times around the Sixth and Seventh Honkai Eruptions, when Fire Moth suffered from severe 'combat power deficiency syndrome,' they hadn't relaxed this criterion when selecting subjects for the Vishnu experiments.
Otherwise, the number of subjects who died before Kosma's successful fusion wouldn't have only been just over eight thousand.
But then again, they weren't suffering from that syndrome anymore, so there was no need to be quite so desperate.
Besides, in Michael's eyes, the truly "reliable" individuals were only a handful. He believed Mobius felt the same. And asking them to take such a risk was clearly not worth the potential gain.
That's what Michael thought, until he noticed Mobius's emerald eyes staring fixedly at him.
"Mobius, you're not suggesting..." Michael hesitantly pointed his index finger at himself. "The test subject... is me?"
"Is there a problem?" Mobius argued. "You've already fused with the Vishnu factor yourself. And Mahāmāyūrī... the only woman who successfully fused with its factor was also a Herrscher. See? You're practically the most suitable subject."
"Vishnu... You want me to directly assimilate?"
"Oh? So you've noticed too. Even this newly constructed body hasn't completely shed its identity as a MANTIS." Her gaze quickly scanned Michael's chest, the location of his Stigmata, which glowed faintly crimson even through his thick T-shirt.
The essence of the Stigmata was to record stories – not just Seele's, but Michael's as well. If he was willing and able to break his self-imposed limitations, replicating the power Vishnu displayed during the Seventh Eruption wouldn't be difficult.
"But... I don't need you to do that," Mobius clarified. "You possess a third advantage as a test subject – setting aside the Stigmata and Herrscher Cores, your current body is fundamentally no different from an ordinary human's. Meaning, we can obtain the most objective observational data. Of course," she added nonchalantly, "you can always switch to another body after the experiment is over. Just don't forget to incinerate the original corpse this time, okay—"
Michael pressed his left fist against his chest, falling silent abruptly.
Seeing his expression, Mobius's eyes darted around slyly. She suddenly stuck out the tip of her tongue, mimicking "that woman's" tone: "My oh my! If you agree, I could also give you..."
Michael, having already foreseen her intended words with his Sentience powers, simply quirked his lips, turned his head slightly, and said nonchalantly, "Bring it on."
"?" Mobius, cut off again, looked slightly annoyed. But then, confusion filled her face— Wait, "bring it on" in which sense? ???
---||---
The official "Artificial Honkai Beast Experiment" lasted only about fifteen minutes. The subsequent several hours were dedicated to the "Brahma Hyper-Adaptive Factor Fusion Experiment."
Around dinnertime, Michael, having switched to yet another new body, once again walked down the same long, dim, narrow corridor.
The base was underground. As evening approached, the air grew damp, a condition exacerbated by the tunnel's structure.
Michael kept his gaze lowered, appearing somewhat detached. He casually reached out, brushing two fingers against the armored wall beside him. A cool, damp sensation met his touch... it felt rather cold.
Mobius had said she needed to clean up the operating theater; since Klein wasn't around, such chores fell to her.
As Michael walked alone through the long lab tunnel and returned to the outermost lounge, he once again encountered an unexpected sight—
Spread out on the sofa was a pink maid outfit, the same style as Elysia's white one. And the person responsible for bringing it, Elysia herself, was standing in front of Mobius's wardrobe, holding up the pink blouse Mobius had worn hours earlier, sniffing it delicately.
"Oh my! This smells like Mobius! She really did wear it! I thought she didn't like pink, who knew she actually bought one herself!"
Leaning against the doorframe, Michael watched Elysia's mock-exasperated complaints with amusement. He cleared his throat: "Ahem! Is it possible she just doesn't like maid outfits? Or maybe she just doesn't like the one you tried to force on her?"
Michael didn't bother asking how Elysia got the passcode to Mobius's lab. For Pardo, such things weren't secrets; she likely had numerous ways to infiltrate without needing a code anyway.
"Hm! Finally waited until you... Eh! Michael! Your hair!" Predictably, the first thing she noticed was Michael's once-again shoulder-length hair. "Hmph! This is basically the same as not cutting it at all!"
Michael silently put the cap Elysia had given him back on. Only then did her complaining stop, replaced by a beaming smile.
He finally understood. The bald head was just teasing; Elysia simply wanted to see him wear the hat she gave him.
"By the way, what brings you to Mobius's lab?" Eden had just become a MANTIS; Elysia should have been busy helping her adapt to her new powers this past week. Of course, the main reason he asked was feeling slightly guilty.
"Eh... How should I put it..." Elysia met Michael's gaze with a knowing, mischievous smile, then her eyes slowly drifted downwards. "Well, maybe it's better to let the person involved say it— You can come in now, Kevin!"
MANTIS hearing was excellent. At Elysia's soft call, Kevin pushed open the lounge door and entered.
"Michael... Er, Dr. Mobius is here too..."
"Ah! Mobius, you're here too! Quick, come listen to what Kevin has to say! I guarantee you'll be looking forward to it!"
Her interjection didn't help; Kevin was already nervous, and her prodding made him completely forget the speech he had prepared.
Michael stroked his chin. Being a newly formed body, it lacked stubble, feeling overly smooth, not quite right to the touch. He suddenly remembered something and asked Mobius quietly, "What's today's date?"
"April 12th!"
"Oh my! It seems the clever Michael has already guessed! That's right, what Kevin wants to tell everyone is— Tomorrow is Mei's birthday!" Elysia had somehow ended up half-reclining on the sofa, conveniently using her body to hide the pink maid outfit.
Prompted by Elysia, Kevin finally regained his composure. Placing his right hand lightly over his chest, he lowered his voice slightly: "Tomorrow is Mei's birthday. I wanted to plan a surprise birthday party for her. Could I invite you all to attend?"
"Of course, no problem. Tomorrow is our training day, right?正好 The vacation time after the Ninth Eruption hasn't been approved yet, we can just swap the days. Anyway, the 'you all' you mentioned probably includes more than just the three of us." Michael nodded without hesitation.
Mobius, however, turned her head away, snorted coldly, neither accepting nor refusing. But Michael's Sentience powers saw clearly what she was thinking— "Oh dear, what birthday present should I prepare for this old friend... Wait, why did I say 'Oh dear'? Damn you, Elysia!"
"Oh my! Kevin, see what I told you? Michael would agree without hesitation, and Dr. Mobius would just snort coldly while secretly wondering what gift to get."
"Ahem! Actually, about the gifts, I've already thought of something for everyone." Kevin suddenly looked rather shy.
"What?" The first to ask was Elysia, clearly unaware of this part.
"Well... I was thinking... I would like to request that everyone personally prepare one dish as a birthday gift for Mei... Would that be okay?" Kevin asked cautiously, hesitantly.
Silence fell in the lounge.
Elysia's eyes widened like saucers, cold sweat already beading on her forehead.
A muscle twitched at the corner of Mobius's mouth as she contemplated the possibility of passing off convenience food as homemade.
Only Michael let out a long sigh, unable to resist asking, "Kevin, are you still traumatized by... Mei's sushi I left in the fridge earlier?" Even Pardo wouldn't eat that stuff...
"No! Absolutely not!"
Michael tilted his head, thinking for a moment, then sighed again: "Kevin, for this... how long have you been practicing cooking?"
"Half... Okay, two and a half years..."
"So what kind of noodles are you planning to make tomorrow?"
"Who... Who says I only know how to make noodles? Tomorrow, I'm preparing meat lasagna and creamy mushroom pasta!"
Lasagna... Pasta...
Rationally speaking, one involved layering thin pasta sheets with cheese and meat sauce, then baking. The other involved hollow, tube-shaped pasta served with a creamy mushroom sauce... Neither technically counted as 'making noodles,' at least not 'noodle soup'...
"But... Kevin..."
"What is it?" Michael wore an expression of utter despair, like trying to teach an incorrigible child, leaving Kevin completely bewildered.
"..." Michael pressed his lips together, looked Kevin up and down twice more, but ultimately didn't say the words aloud.
However, Elysia and Mobius both understood his meaning— "Kevin, doing this, don't you think Mei might feel just 'a little bit' offended?"
They quickly averted their gazes, trying to hide the gleam of excitement sparkling in their eyes, also understanding why Michael had swallowed his words—
"Heehee... Hahaha... I really want to see Mei's face tomorrow when she sees a table full of disastrous-looking dishes, only to realize every single one tastes better than hers! Hahaha!"