Hearing Chang Yuan's long-term considerations, Elysia couldn't help but fall into deep thought as well.
Clearly, Elysia also didn't know what to do after defeating the Honkai in the future.
"Who cares? We can decide when the time comes, right?"
Since she couldn't figure it out, Elysia simply decided to leave the problem for her future self to solve.
"Hehe, is that your choice? What a coincidence, it's mine too."
But the real question was, would there even be a future?
In the original story, it wasn't mentioned whether the higher civilization would directly intervene in this assimilation, but no one could guarantee they wouldn't.
For now, all they could do was take things one step at a time. If his butterfly effect really caused the civilization behind the Cocoon of Finality to intervene directly, then they could just raise their hands and surrender.
If the Cocoon of Finality alone was enough to overwhelm the Previous Era, then the civilization that created it would be even more formidable.
"That's why there's no point in thinking about these things. Come on, I heard there's a new ice cream shop in the southern part of the city. Let's go try it out. You're coming with me."
"Alright, let's go."
Since the global Honkai situation wasn't severe yet, it wasn't like the later stages where Honkai outbreaks occurred almost every moment.
For now, they could still cherish the present.
A few days later...
"Mobius, we heard your research has made a major breakthrough, which is why you called us here. So, what's the breakthrough? What's so important that it requires our personal attention?"
At the round table, one of the council members, a shifty-eyed man with a square patch of black hair above his lip, asked.
Clearly, he was a council member from the Far East.
Hearing this, Mobius remained calm and unhurried.
"We've extracted a special factor from Honkai beasts. After researching it, I managed to neutralize its side effects and injected it into a human subject."
At this point, Mobius stopped speaking.
This pause gave the council members the perfect opportunity to react.
"Mobius, how dare you conduct human experiments!"
One of the self-righteous council members slammed the table and stood up, loudly reprimanding her.
But in reality, he was just trying to extort more benefits from Mobius.
With one person leading the charge, the other council members seemed to flip a switch and began accusing Mobius as well.
As time passed, the council members began to feel thirsty and started drinking from their water glasses.
Only after confirming that all the council members had taken a sip did Mobius drop her earlier fake smile.
"You fools, I haven't conducted any human experiments—at least not yet. I just needed an excuse to get you all here."
"Wait, Mobius, what do you mean by that?"
One of the council members, sensing the shift in Mobius's tone, began to panic.
But Mobius didn't respond. Instead, the doors to the conference room opened.
Two figures walked in—one with a two-toned, fluffy hairstyle (Vill-V) and the other, the protagonist, Chang Yuan.
Clap, clap, clap—!
"Hello, parasites. The mastermind you're looking for is here."
As he clapped, Chang Yuan entered the room with a smile.
At this moment, he looked like the quintessential villain from a shonen anime.
"You're the deputy captain of the First Squad. What are you trying to do? Start a rebellion?"
Ignoring the barking accusations, Chang Yuan found a seat at the head of the table.
He crossed his hands and rested them under his nose.
"Parasites, how was the water you just drank?"
"What do you mean? Did you poison the water? Do you realize that if we die, not only will Fire Moth be disbanded, but all of you will be hunted down by every continent?"
Hearing Chang Yuan's words, many of the council members, with their wild imaginations, began to panic and threaten him.
"No, no, I know killing you would cause chaos in the world, so I didn't poison the water."
Hearing this, the council members' expressions improved slightly.
But before they could relax, Chang Yuan's next sentence sent them plummeting into despair.
"You just swallowed some nanobots that will stick to your stomachs and explode.
Oh, and don't try to remove them. If they're disturbed, they'll explode very easily."
Chang Yuan's tone was calm, as if he didn't care about their lives at all.
And in truth, he didn't. But they couldn't die just yet.
At least not until he had fully divided their power. Otherwise, their deaths would cause societal upheaval before the Honkai could.
"Mobius! Aren't you going to explain this to us?"
Betrayal. This was blatant betrayal. All the council members glared at Mobius with venomous eyes.
But Mobius didn't care. After all, her relationship with the council members was purely transactional.
More importantly, she disliked them too. They constantly cut her funding while doing far more unethical things behind the scenes.
Yet they had the audacity to accuse her of being inhumane and use that as an excuse to slash her budget.
They wanted her to achieve the greatest results with the least amount of funding.
"What does this have to do with me? I'm a victim too. I was deceived by him."
While filing her nails, Mobius spoke in a flat tone.
But the council members weren't fools. Her relaxed demeanor made it clear she was involved.
"So, what do you want?"
The older people get, the more they fear death—especially these high-ranking parasites.
The only reason they funded Mobius was because they recognized her talent in biology.
They hoped she would quickly develop a way to achieve immortality.
And cutting her funding was just their way of minimizing their investment.
After all, they had already poured a significant amount of their personal wealth into this research. Every cut they made could have created a billionaire elsewhere.
"Nothing much. I just want you to slowly transfer your power to me, as well as Dr. Mobius."
"Impossible!"
The moment Chang Yuan finished speaking, all the council members unanimously rejected his proposal.
Chang Yuan wasn't surprised. After all, they had already tasted the addictive drug of power. Getting them to give it up was impossible.