“MEI, keep going! You can do it, catch up!” Yuji jogged in place on the sports field while MEI followed behind him, already gasping for breath.
“But… hah… but… why… did it suddenly… hah… become like this… Yuji… slow down a little…” MEI, who could no longer run at all, stopped in her tracks.
Sweat kept pouring down, soaking her thin clothes.
“MEI, one look and it’s obvious you lack exercise. If this continues, when danger comes you won’t even be able to run away.”
“But… aren’t you here? You’ll protect me, right? And besides, whose training intensity is this high?!”
Indeed, MEI’s physical condition was not actually low.
The main problem was that Yuji’s intensity was simply too high.
With his skilled techniques, he could make one unit of stamina do the work of two.
“Alright, I admit I was a little too impatient. Come, let’s walk and rest for a while.”
“Here, drink some water. You can’t just stay cooped up at home reading books every day. Come out and exercise more. It’s good for your body.”
Yuji took a water bottle from the backpack on the ground and handed it to MEI.
Then he led her to find a place to sit down.
Last night Yuji had thought about many things.
He thought about the original ending of this world, and he thought about his own situation.
He really did want to go home, but perhaps because he was kind-hearted, or perhaps because he wanted to leave something behind.
In short, he wanted this world to change.
No matter what kind of change, as long as it was a good one.
Therefore, before leaving this world, he had to become very strong—extremely strong—strong enough to change the ending of the story.
Right now, Yuji’s only advantage was the System, and the System’s quests clearly wanted him to leave his own footprints in this world and create enough bonds.
Yuji did not know why the System was doing this, but he knew that for now, these things were not harmful to him.
“Yu, do you know something?” After resting for a while, MEI finally caught her breath and turned to ask Yuji.
“Know what?” Yuji began to play dumb.
After all, if he really talked about the Honkai… MEI would… wait, it seemed MEI would actually believe him.
“The purpose of what you’re doing, and that problem you gave me before.”
“It’s already very obvious, but keeping these things bottled up inside must put a lot of pressure on you, right?”
Yuji had nothing to say.
He could lose his life at any moment, and to his family he was already a missing person.
If… if he did nothing and left nothing behind in this world, then wouldn’t he be…
“I want to help you, but… if you really can’t say it, I still want to do everything I can…” MEI spoke very directly, yet also very reservedly.
“I understand, MEI.” Yuji suddenly realized that one person’s power was very small.
MEI would find out about these things sooner or later.
It would be better to just say it directly.
He would feel better too.
Then Yuji told MEI about the Honkai.
“Is that so… You’ve been worrying about this kind of thing the whole time?”
“Yes. Although right now I can’t do anything.”
“How could that be? At the very least, we can do some things within our power.”
“Come on. Training still has to continue, but it needs to be gradual.”
After exercising with MEI for a long time, physical fitness up!
“Next, we need helpers!” MEI sat on the chair and pointed at the phone in her hand.
“You mean finding Dr. Mobius?” Yuji understood MEI’s meaning at once.
“Yes. According to what you said, as one of the founding members of The Flame-Chasers and someone who has researched the Honkai for a long time, Dr. Mobius is an indispensable source of help.”
“But right now Mobius should theoretically be busy dissecting the Second Herrscher. Getting her to free up time…”
“So what we need to do is cast the bait.”
Yuji realized MEI’s idea.
She was betting that Mobius’s solitary personality would not directly report them.
Normally, Mobius would only talk with MEI after Kevin transferred schools.
What the current MEI needed to do was make Mobius come over early.
If there was anything that could attract Mobius more than the corpse of the Second Herrscher, it was without a doubt the Third Herrscher.
But how to make Mobius believe it would require a little bit of deception.
On the other side, Mobius was observing the experimental results.
Her furrowed brows clearly showed that the results were far from satisfactory.
“Doctor, a message from Miss MEI.” Klein held up the phone.
“I know. Tell her to wait a moment. Wait, just read it out directly.”
Mobius thought about it and decided she should still show some respect to this genius.
Even if she was only just beginning to show her talent, sooner or later she would become her colleague.
“Alright, Doctor. Um… Miss MEI seems to have sent a story.”
“…Yes… just like I said before… just call her… Mobius…” The more Klein read, the stranger it felt, until she reached the final sentence.
(Elysian Realm: Death and Rebirth, Mobius’s background story.)
Klein carefully watched Dr. Mobius’s reaction.
Although she could not see anything obvious, she could still feel that Mobius’s aura had changed a little.
“There’s more after this… Doctor, do you still need me to…”
“Read all of it.”
What Mobius felt in her heart, she knew very clearly.
Anger?
Sadness?
No, nothing at all.
Because she knew that these emotions were unnecessary (tsundere).
Just like the words she had thought when she was first born.
[But… what is this fluctuation…?]
[Is this what they call… emotion?]
“I… will let [humanity] achieve [evolution].”
“No matter what kind of disaster, what kind of medicine… I will never let them humiliate [humanity] like this again.”
“Enough! Klein, give me the phone.”
Mobius finally could not hold back and put down the work in her hands.
She took the phone from Klein.
This situation was like opening a blind box.
After all, what she had been like in the past, as long as one invited a professional… my ass!
What kind of person could even guess the words in one’s heart?!
Moreover, this was like digging up someone’s scars.
It did not seem like something that MEI would do.
Looking at the message on the phone, the final sentence was:
—That day was the girl’s ninth birthday.
It was also the last birthday she spent at home.
“You are not MEI. Who exactly are you?” Mobius held the phone and asked the question.
“Want to know more about the Honkai? Want to know how to let humanity soar and become gods? Want to know where the Third Honkai Eruption will break out? Seven days later, at this location. Come alone.”
Mobius stared fixedly at the message on the phone and made no sound.
“Doctor… are you going?” Klein was a little worried about the doctor’s state.
“Heh. An obvious trap. I’m not as stupid as other people.”
That was what she said, but Mobius’s eyes revealed her true thoughts.
On MEI’s side, she watched Yuji typing out Mobius’s background story word by word and suddenly asked a question.
“You know Mobius very well. Do you pay a lot of attention to her? Or do you like people like her?”
“Uh… isn’t this for the sake of the plot… The more detailed it is, the easier it will be for her to come.”
Yuji was so startled by MEI’s question that he almost typed the wrong characters and hurriedly explained.
“Pfft… You don’t have to be so nervous. I was just asking.” MEI gave a light laugh.
If only the hand that was still gripping Yuji’s clothes was as relaxed as her answer.
“Alright. Mobius has taken the bait.” Yuji let out a breath of relief.
He had successfully reeled in a mature little snake.
“Then next, it’s time to start the devil training.” MEI said out of nowhere.
“What do you mean?”
“Of course it’s studying! Defeating the Honkai isn’t something you can just talk about. If you don’t improve yourself, how is that any different from empty words?”
“Alright, alright. But don’t stay up too late tonight. School starts tomorrow.” (Precisely because school starts, that’s why it’s seven days later.)
“I naturally have a sense of proportion. It depends on you.” MEI had also figured out Yuji’s personality.
“Of course I won’t stay up too late!”
However, in reality, after studying for a long time, MEI had already fallen asleep, while Yuji was staring at the System.
“System Log: 「Achievement: You don’t want to fail to achieve your dream either, right?」 Reward: Gacha pulls +1”
“System, when did I complete this?”
“Ding. Right when you threatened Mobius.”
“When did I threaten her?”
“Ding. You know it yourself.”
Speechless, Yuji was so angry that he directly started the gacha.
“Ding. Congratulations, Host. You have drawn Ability: Healing (Purple)”
Ability: Healing Description: You can rapidly heal minor injuries.
Serious injuries can have their healing accelerated.
Can be used on others.
No side effects.
A purple-rank Healing ability… In that case, I can do some things I’ve always wanted to do but never had the chance to?
No sooner said than done.
Yuji opened the door, bypassed MEI’s room, walked to the kitchen, took out a small knife, and casually grabbed a roll of paper.
Returning to his room, Yuji bit the paper in his mouth, then steeled his courage and used the knife to cut a bloody line across his hand.
“Hiss… It really hurts…”
Pain continuously surged toward his brain.
Endurance and Adaptability kept working, allowing Yuji to gradually adapt to the pain.
He knew that there would be continuous battles in the future, and getting injured was inevitable.
The original Yuji was someone who had spent more than ten years living safely in a safe society.
The greatest pain he had ever experienced was nothing more than stubbing his toe on the corner of a table.
If he could not adapt in advance, when the real battle came the impact would not be small.
If pain caused his brain to shut down, what followed would no longer be simple pain, but death.
The Healing ability activated.
The palm that had just started to bleed recovered completely in one second.
If not for the blood still remaining, Yuji would have even doubted whether he had cut himself at all.
So Yuji wiped away the blood with paper and continued to familiarize himself with the Healing ability while adapting to the pain.
Without realizing it, this “self-harm” behavior continued until the middle of the night.
All the paper he had bitten in his mouth was used to wipe away blood.
And he no longer needed to bite anything to endure the pain.
The good news was that Healing could replenish blood.
Otherwise the current Yuji would already be ready for the ICU.
The bad news was that the paper in the trash can was hard to deal with.
The long period of pain and healing left Yuji very weak, especially since Healing consumed stamina and directly exhausted him.
At this point, he should just sleep first.