Hearing such shameless words, Lu Yao froze.
Then he placed the back of his hand against Yumemi’s forehead.
“Do you have a fever?”
“I’m serious.”
Yumemi’s expression remained perfectly solemn.
“I studied under the greatest physicist to prove grand unification theory, and I became a doctor at eighteen.”
“With some degree of self-praise, I think my genes are suitable enough to match yours.”
She nodded.
“So having your child would be a reasonable idea.”
“Artificial insemination works.”
“Natural reproduction works too.”
“Choose.”
Yumemi had suddenly begun coveting his body.
Lu Yao hadn’t previously thought of her as this extreme a rationalist.
Was she really willing to sleep with someone she didn’t love simply to produce the next generation of intelligent life?
“Don’t make that face.”
Yumemi looked mildly offended.
“I do have a favorable impression of you.”
“So doing that with you wouldn’t disgust me.”
“Let’s talk about this in the future.”
Lu Yao refused.
“I’m not prepared to become a father.”
Yumemi studied him for a moment.
“Let me ask something.”
“You still possess a sex drive, right?”
“Probably.”
“Life continues through genetic transmission.”
Yumemi continued analytically.
“Genes create reproductive instincts.”
“So once you can control gene expression, even instinct itself becomes controllable?”
“I won’t deny that.”
Lu Yao answered.
“The first stage of the Gene Lock focuses heavily on utilizing instinct.”
“If an ordinary conscious brain tried to manually control the body, it would require a supercomputer.”
“But by fully exploiting the body’s existing stress responses and autonomic systems, precise conscious control becomes unnecessary.”
“I want your genetic material even more now.”
“Your dialogue is rapidly approaching pervert territory.”
Lu Yao stared.
“If you don’t want children right now, then forget it for the moment.”
Yumemi wasn’t obsessive.
“The offer remains open indefinitely.”
She changed topics immediately.
“The experiment is finished. What are you doing next?”
“I’ll head back to my apartment first.”
“Then probably register with the Hero Association.”
“I see.”
Yumemi waved him away like an annoying fly.
“Then go do that.”
A moment earlier, she had been saying things capable of making people blush.
Now she wanted him gone.
Before leaving, Yumemi added something else.
“Right.”
“Genus’s research suggests psychic powers arise from beneficial mutations in certain brain regions.”
“So you could try seeing whether you can use psychokinesis.”
“I’d recommend directly scanning an esper’s brain structure, honestly.”
“Dark Matter can do nearly anything anyway.”
Yumemi had a point.
Psychic power would make many things convenient.
If every supernatural ability possessed by espers resulted from beneficial mutation somewhere in the body—
Then theoretically I should be capable of imitating any esper ability.
Lu Yao thought.
Though some powers may be linked with willpower, mental energy, or even the soul.
Those are difficult to quantify and observe.
That makes them interesting.
The subject was too metaphysical.
Lu Yao didn’t understand it well.
His thinking had increasingly shifted toward rational analysis.
To him, human consciousness was based on matter.
Thought, cognition, memory—
They were ultimately patterns of electrical signals transmitted across countless neurons.
From that perspective, creating a robot approximating humanity wasn’t necessarily impossible.
The brain was simply so precise and complex that reproducing it was extremely difficult.
But Lu Yao wasn’t trying to deny the uniqueness of life.
And more importantly—
What kind of world was this?
It was another world fundamentally different from reality.
And based on everything he had observed—
It was clearly the world portrayed in One-Punch Man.
Naturally, Lu Yao wouldn’t assume the two were completely identical.
During his early exploration, he never treated manga or anime knowledge as absolute doctrine.
But if this was genuinely such a world—
Then no matter how unbelievable something seemed, it deserved investigation.
If something existed, it could be observed.
If it could be observed, it could be understood.
And once understood—
Technology concerning souls, magic, divinity, and other supernatural phenomena could eventually emerge.
Knowability.
Dialectical materialism.
Those formed two major foundations of Lu Yao’s worldview.
He didn’t reject psychic powers, gods, monsters, souls, or magic by declaring them “unscientific.”
If they existed—
Then they were part of science.
Science was a systematic body of knowledge created by observing objective phenomena and explaining their existence and rules.
In other words—
Anything that existed and could be observed could eventually be converted into scientific knowledge.
Whatever.
It’s too early to think about this.
I don’t even have proper subjects to observe.
Besides, I don’t particularly like making everything unnecessarily complicated.
Lu Yao discarded the tangled train of thought and started walking toward the outskirts of City Z.
Optimizing every action and thought for maximum rational efficiency sounded appealing.
But treating a human being like machinery was fundamentally anti-human.
Creating different Gene Lock stages probably reflected Lu Yao’s reluctance to completely abandon the humanity he had developed throughout his life.
Otherwise—
He might eventually become a pure monster of rationalism.
That choice was also why Lu Yao was currently strolling home so leisurely.
From a purely rational perspective, walking was inefficient.
It consumed physical energy.
It exposed him to annoying monsters.
He could simply perform some kind of hyperspatial movement once he developed the technology.
Lu Yao casually vaporized a monster along the road.
Then he noticed two familiar people approaching.
Saitama and Genos.
Naturally.
In City Z, the only people who could casually wander around like this were probably the three of them.
“Mr. Saitama. Genos.” Visit g.com for the full chapter.
Lu Yao greeted them.
“Rare to see the two of you moving this slowly. Going somewhere?”
“Lu Yao!”
Saitama actually smiled slightly.
“Haven’t seen you for several days. Where’ve you been?”
“I was at Yumemi’s place.”
Lu Yao looked at them.
“What about you?”
“It’s like this.”
Genos stepped forward.
“Master and I are heading to the Hero Association to register as professional heroes.”
“Huh?”
Lu Yao looked at Saitama.
“Mr. Saitama, weren’t you already a hero for fun?”
“Well… there are reasons.”
Saitama looked embarrassed.
Genos answered for him.
“Earlier today, Master went out to perform justice. After returning, he complained about having no fame.”
“He then discovered that since he isn’t officially registered, none of the monsters he defeated were formally credited to him—”
“That’s enough!”
Saitama hurriedly stopped him.
“I understand.”
Lu Yao nodded.
“So basically, Mr. Saitama, you think your popularity is too low.”
Saitama’s face flushed red.
Then he gave up pretending.
“Yeah! That’s exactly it!”
He shouted.
“Damn it, I’m still a hero! But some guy today said he’d never heard of me, and when I walk around people think I’m a terrorist!”
“That’s too much!”
“I’ve been fighting evil for three years!”
Please forgive Saitama for possessing a tiny amount of vanity.
He wanted fans too.
At present, it wasn’t merely that his fame was low.
He had virtually none.
Though even then, he wasn’t truly obsessed.
Just mildly irritated.
Saitama looked at Lu Yao.
“Hey, Lu Yao. Come register with us.”
“You’ve never called yourself a hero, but whether intentionally or accidentally, you’ve killed plenty of monsters too, right?”
“Probably.”
Lu Yao had never counted.
He thought briefly.
“Sure. I’ll come.”
“Huh?”
Saitama blinked.
“You agreed that easily?”
“You invited me.”
“I only said it casually.”
Saitama scratched his cheek.
“You don’t seem interested in this kind of thing at all.”
Lu Yao smiled.
“I don’t have anything particularly important to do anyway.”
“Besides… you spend plenty of time doing meaningless things too, don’t you?”
Saitama paused.
Then said nothing.
There was no point overthinking something so small.
Lu Yao didn’t even return home.
He simply joined the two by chance and headed toward the Hero Association.