Although the process was quite convoluted, the result was good…
probably.
At the very least, the moment the system reward arrived, Li Mu knew his idea was sound.
By replicating the character arcs of the main story from fifty thousand years in the future, it was indeed possible to bypass this idiot system’s judgment.
Therefore, the next steps were clear.
In this world destined to be destroyed by the Finality, he would build a stage based on the plot from fifty thousand years later.
He would search for the counterparts of those familiar characters and bestow upon them their corresponding backstories.
Finally, he would throw these counterparts onto the stage and have them perform one act after another according to his script.
And as the director orchestrating it all, his job was to press the shutter at the end of each act, prying rewards from the hands of this rigid system.
He would accumulate enough trump cards before the Finality’s arrival to ensure the Herrscher of Finality would never return from whence she came.
Although the Previous Era’s timeline in the main story was rather vague, with no precise date for the Herrscher of Finality’s descent, he could roughly infer from the plot that he had at least ten to twenty years from now until the end.
This was more than enough time for Li Mu.
It could even be considered ample.
After all, it only took the main story’s Kiana five years to go from leaving Nagazora City to seizing the authority of Finality and becoming the God of Earth.
Opening Act: Leaves Siberia, searches for Dad.
Finale: Becomes the God of Earth, reigning supreme for all time.
“No matter how you look at it, ten years versus five.
The advantage is mine!” Li Mu pulled his attention away from the system rewards and looked at the system mission, which was still grayed out.
[Faced with the perilous Nagazora City after the Honkai Eruption, amidst the cannon fire of Anti-Entropy and the roars of Honkai Beasts, Kiana and Raiden Mei began their grand escape.] [Along the way, they encountered the Anti-Entropy member Bronya, who pilots a giant mecha.
The fates of the main trio converged here.] [In the end, the three successfully escaped Nagazora City, and what greeted them was the Hyperion descending from the heavens…] [Mission: Check-in at the main trio’s escape from Nagazora City.
Reward: 1x S-Rank Stigmata Option Box, 3000x Crystals, unlock Divine Key Vault.] [Mission Status: Error, key individuals not detected] Li Mu gave it a single glance and skipped over it.
This mission required assembling the main trio and using the entirety of Nagazora City as a stage.
He didn’t have the conditions to complete it yet, so he looked at the sub-mission instead.
[Mission: Witness MEI Corp’s young lady Raiden Mei’s enrollment at Senba Academy.
Reward: 1x A-Rank Stigmata Option Box, 300x Crystals] [Mission Status: Key individual Raiden Mei not detected] One step at a time.
This mission, at least, was much easier for Li Mu.
He already had a plan to complete it.
Mei had recently run into some trouble due to family matters.
He could use that as his opening…
But before that, he needed to settle the payment for this act’s performance.
[Crystal Balance: 300] “This should be enough for now.” Li Mu opened the shop tab and, among the various categories, found the knowledge-based items.
[Stigmata Gene Engineering (Fifth Revised Edition)] [Price: 30,000 Crystals] Naturally, Li Mu couldn’t afford such a price, but the item could be purchased in fragments.
The system was strangely meticulous in some areas.
It could quantify abstract knowledge; you got exactly as much knowledge as you paid for.
Although Li Mu was curious about how the system determined the value of knowledge, it didn’t stop him from praising this design.
Li Mu exchanged 100 Crystals and received 1/300th of the total knowledge of the Stigmata Project.
He confirmed the purchase.
The next moment, a file appeared on his terminal.
He casually forwarded it to a certain green-haired woman.
This was the promised payment for her creation of the Gene Restructuring Agent.
Not long after the message was sent, a reply came back.
[Where’s the rest?] [Don’t try to fool me.
I can tell this is only a part of it.
You definitely have the complete version.] Seeing the reply on his terminal, Li Mu raised an eyebrow.
His fingers danced across the screen, and a message shot back.
[That will cost extra, Doctor.] [You didn’t really think you could get the complete Stigmata Gene Engineering data for a single gender-swap potion, did you?] After Li Mu’s reply, the other side went silent for a while.
[…] [Name your price, name your price.
As long as it’s something I can do.] Even through the screen, Li Mu could feel the other party’s thirst for knowledge.
Unfortunately, he couldn’t let Mobius complete the Stigmata Project just yet, or the whole of humanity would probably explode.
Of course, the more important reason was…
he was broke.
[Doctor, we will have many opportunities to cooperate in the future.] —o— On the other side of the planet.
The Fire Moth’s First Research Institute.
In the eyes of the uninformed, this place was the pinnacle of life sciences in this era, a destination coveted by countless scholars.
But to others, it was a place comparable to a den of demons.
The reason for this polarized reputation lay with the institute’s director.
—Professor Mobius, the most brilliant biologist of this era.
Some saw her as a demon, others as a pioneer of human evolution, but neither side could deny Mobius’s god-like talent in the field of biology.
But at this moment, this great scholar was clutching her terminal, on the verge of a meltdown.
“To hell with people who use cliffhangers!” Contrary to most of the fabricated rumors, Mobius was no monster with fangs and claws.
On the contrary, the doctor was quite a great beauty.
Her waist-length green hair cascaded down her back, and her curvaceous figure could not be concealed even by a loose lab coat.
Her complexion was pale from spending long periods cooped up in the lab, which in turn gave her a certain morbid beauty.
Without a doubt, she was a person who could be considered beautiful by any human standard.
—If one were to ignore the way she was currently grinding her teeth and the twisted expression on her face.
It wasn’t that she was being overly emotional.
As a researcher, the pursuit of knowledge was one of her primary motivations for living.
Every time a puzzle in her mind was solved, the rush of satisfaction was simply ten—no, nine—times more exhilarating than an orgasm!
But on the flip side, if a question in her mind remained just out of reach, like it was separated by a thin sheet of paper she couldn’t break through, she would be miserable, losing her appetite for everything.
The knowledge from the person who had contacted her a short while ago had opened up a new line of thought for her.
The Stigmata Gene Engineering Project.
The ideas within it coincided with some of her own, and one could even say they were completely identical.
If he hadn’t proposed the idea and framework first, she would have suspected he had stolen the thoughts right out of her mind.
Regardless, the knowledge he provided had indeed opened a new path for her, allowing her to see a bright road ahead.
If she could continue down this path, she might have a chance to fulfill her ultimate wish.
And after completing the transaction with him, she had obtained the knowledge she desired.
But just as she was using it to expand upon the inspiration in her mind…
it suddenly cut off!
“To hell with cliffhanger authors!” Mobius screamed in frustration.
“Doctor, please don’t be angry.” A woman with silver-white hair, also wearing a lab coat, approached Mobius’s side.
She was holding a bowl of instant noodles, which she offered to Mobius with an indulgent smile.
“What’s done is done.
You should eat something first.” Mobius took the noodles in one hand and stirred them with a fork in the other.
Her little face immediately fell.
“…Why is it pickled cabbage flavor again.” Hearing Mobius’s slightly complaining tone, Blanka slurped up a mouthful of noodles from her own bowl.
“Doctor, we should be grateful we have anything to eat at all.
We’ve already used up this month’s funding.
I bought these with my own money.” “Blanka, thank goodness for you.
I don’t know how this lab would function without you.” Mobius looked moved, but then she sighed, the melancholy written plainly on her face.
Blanka held her noodle bowl with one hand, clamped her fork between her teeth, and gave Mobius a thumbs-up.
“Mmmph blieve Docth…” She took her fork back and said, “I believe that with your talent, Doctor, you’ll be able to achieve your goal even without anyone’s help.” “But it’s just so frustrating…” Mobius grimaced, stirring the noodles in her hand.
“When there’s an unanswered question in my head, I feel like I can’t even eat.” “If only I could find that guy.” A sinister smile crept onto Mobius’s face.
“Once I get my hands on him, I have a hundred ways to make him spill everything in his brain.
A hundred!” Slurp~ Blanka ate another mouthful of noodles.
“Doctor, although the outside world has some misunderstandings about us, we’re not actually bad people, are we?
It’s probably best not to entertain such dangerous thoughts.” “Besides, he used cloaking and anti-tracking measures.
We’re not professional intelligence agents; it’s impossible for us to catch him.” Blanka had intended to dissuade Mobius from this dangerous idea, but to her surprise, Mobius’s eyes suddenly lit up after she said that.
She put down her bowl of noodles, slammed a fist into her palm, and said with an air of sudden realization, “That’s right!
I can just hire professional intelligence agents to dig him out!” Oh no, the Doctor’s getting carried away.
Having a thorough understanding of Mobius’s personality, Blanka knew from her excited expression that she was about to stir up trouble again.
“Doctor, you’re not going to ask those people from the Fire Moth, are you?” “Their intelligence network may be global, but I don’t think dealing with them is a good idea…” But Blanka noticed that Mobius was looking at her as if she were a child.
“The Fire Moth would definitely be willing to help me if I just asked.” “But if the Stigmata Gene Engineering data falls into the hands of those ****, won’t I be just as easily manipulated?” “Those old geezers are so black-hearted.
They probably—no, they definitely—would make outrageous demands.” “Wouldn’t I just become a beggar then?” Blanka nodded in agreement.
“That’s true.
So, Doctor, we should probably just…” “Have you ever heard of an organization called the Toxic Pupae?” Mobius interrupted her.
“Doctor, are you talking about that notorious organization of assassins?” Mobius nodded.
Blanka was instantly horrified.
“Doctor, it’s not worth it.
It’s really not worth it.” “All he did was leave you on a cliffhanger.
You don’t have to hire assassins to take him out, do you?” Seeing Blanka’s panic, Mobius rolled her eyes at her.
“What are you thinking?
All I want is the knowledge in his head, not his actual head.” “Although the Toxic Pupae are famous for taking on assassination contracts, how could they possibly support their entire organization just on killing?” “Besides assassinations, they also do side jobs like finding lost cats and dogs, collecting debts, and investigating extramarital affairs.” “Their network of informants is also global.
I’m sure they can help me find that guy.” Blanka breathed a secret sigh of relief, knowing Mobius wasn’t planning a murder.
But then she thought of an even more critical problem.
“But Doctor, do we have the money to pay the Toxic Pupae’s commission?” Hearing Blanka’s question, Mobius puffed out her ample chest and smiled.
“This quarter’s research funding is about to be allocated.
And for experiments…
isn’t a little bit of ‘loss’ perfectly normal?” “But Doctor, isn’t it wrong to use research funds for non-research purposes?” “Blanka, I have a hunch.
As long as we can find this person, our research progress will definitely take a huge leap forward.” “So in terms of results, spending this money is for the sake of advancing our research.
And it’s well worth it!” …
But Mobius had no idea how transparent her supposedly covert actions were in the eyes of certain old foxes.
In a closed-off room somewhere, several people passed a report among themselves.
After reading it, one of them said, “Mobius is misappropriating funds.
Should we report her to the higher-ups?” But as he spoke, he saw the others staring at him as if he were an idiot.
“Why report her?” “If Doctor Mobius doesn’t take some, how are we supposed to take some?” “We don’t have Mobius’s talent or background.
If we don’t take our cut, how are we supposed to climb the ladder?” After a brief discussion, the group decided to pretend they hadn’t seen anything.
They simply, with a tacit understanding, added a zero to the end of the sum Mobius had misappropriated.
“She takes one part, we take nine.” “And for that, she’ll even have to thank us!” —o—