Gritting her teeth and muttering Elysia's name, Mobius shot Lin Wei a hateful glare. She spat out sharply, "I'll settle the score with you later!" before vanishing instantly without a trace.
Lin Wei curled his lip, unfazed by Mobius's ghostly disappearing act. No need to guess, he thought, she's definitely gone to settle scores with Elysia, the 'main culprit'...
You couldn't really blame Mobius for reacting so strongly. After all, what Lin Wei had just said did sound exactly like something Elysia would say and do.
Having been tricked by Elysia countless times over the years, how could Mobius, a self-proclaimed "victim," not recognize the pattern? To doubt even for a second at that moment would have been disrespectful to their... unique relationship!
"Damn you, Elysia! Just you wait!" The proud Mobius felt she'd utterly lost face in front of this outsider. Unwilling to stay another second, she immediately stormed off towards the main hall, full of fury, intending to find Elysia and give her a piece of her mind!
"Does this count as a prank on my part too?" Lin Wei muttered to himself.
After all, Elysia hadn't actually fed him any specific "lines." She'd definitely be surprised by Mobius suddenly showing up to "denounce" her!
"Tsk, I suddenly really want to know what expression Elysia's making right now..."How interesting~ For a fleeting moment, he actually shared Elysia's usual mischievous delight.
It seemed rather fun... maybe he'd dare to try it again sometime!
While his thoughts wandered aimlessly, Lin Wei silently estimated the time.
He waited until he figured Mobius's initial barrage of "output" had likely been absorbed by Elysia, then allowed himself a small smile. With a mental command, his consciousness immediately withdrew from the Elysian Realm and returned to the main hall.
"Mobius, you look so cute right now, even when you're angry!"
"Elysia, shut up!"
In the brief moment of returning consciousness to the hall, Lin Wei faintly heard the sounds of Elysia and Mobius bickering in the distance—
"That was a sincere compliment! I really don't have even the tiniest intention of making fun of you, I promise!" Elysia seemed to be trying her best to explain, laughing lightly.
"Whether before or now~"
Followed by Mobius's increasingly annoyed cold laughter,
"Elysia, you finally admit you did those things earlier?"
Those words that little mouse 'relayed'... aren't they just your signature style of 'compliment'?
...
Tsk, what a coincidence. Seems I've triggered a new random event in the hall? Lin Wei grumbled inwardly as he headed towards the rest area where the voices were coming from.
"Oh, you're back too?"
Lin Wei appearing in the hall naturally didn't escape the notice of the two MANTIS warriors. Elysia was the first to turn her head towards the entering Lin Wei.
"You're just in time! Quick, help me explain to Mobius! I really don't want to be misunderstood by my best friend~" Although her words sounded like complaints, the smile in her eyes was as bright as ever, even carrying a hint of "joy."
Elysia seemed naturally devoid of "anger" or "fury." No matter when or where, she always appreciated every blade of grass, every tree, every action in this world with joy and understanding.
Even though Lin Wei had unceremoniously framed her, she didn't get mad at all about taking the blame for no reason. Instead, she seemed to view it as a small "surprise," readily accepting it with pleasure like a gift.
Of course, part of the reason was that she herself had done plenty of similar things...
"Explain what?" Lin Wei glanced at the two people in the room. Elysia was still lounging arrogantly, while Mobius was pointedly keeping a significant distance from her, currently fixing her unfriendly serpentine gaze on him, the uninvited guest. "You two seem to be having a fine chat. Makes me wonder if I'm interrupting?"
Lin Wei ignored Mobius's intimidating glare, offering only a casual deflection before asking the question currently most important to him: "Where's Yuno?" Didn't I ask Elysia to bring her back to the hall? Why isn't she here? I was only gone for a short while, where could she have gone?
"With me, of course~" Before Elysia could speak, Mobius suddenly cut in, saying in her characteristic sarcastic tone, "That little girl is the Herrscher of the Third's companion Honkai Beast, and the super-variable factor I fused with also came from the Third's companion Honkai Beast—though we're not from the same era, don't you think that little girl following you around should naturally be paired with me?"
"Is that so? Then by your logic, if the Herrscher of Thunder came to the Elysian Realm, should you, who fused with a 'companion Honkai Beast,' call her 'Master'?" Lin Wei felt irritated and retorted sharply. He then ignored the increasingly furious Mobius and simply waited quietly for Elysia's answer.
"When I noticed Mobius had actually come out, I handed her over to Hua first, asking her to help look after her." Elysia explained the sequence of events simply. Turns out, the root cause still lay with the trouble Lin Wei stirred up.
Then, without waiting for Lin Wei to say more, Elysia just chuckled, glanced again at Mobius, and then smiled. "Looks like you and Mobius still have a lot to talk about, so I'll take my leave now—oh dear, such a shame, I really wanted to stay and listen to what you'd discuss, but Hua really does make one worry..."
Muttering with regret, Elysia jumped lightly off the sofa, ready to leave in the blink of an eye?
"..." Lin Wei was speechless for a moment. Could her intentions be any more obvious?
"Hah. I have nothing to say to someone with only some petty cleverness." Mobius, however, clearly wasn't going to appreciate the sentiment. She shot Lin Wei a cold glance and stood up, intending to leave as well.
But how could Lin Wei let her go so easily?
"Dr. Mobius, weren't you very interested in Yuno just now? Why are you leaving in such a hurry?" Lin Wei casually moved away from the doorway, adopting a "listening attentively" posture. He then calmly walked over to the spot Elysia had just vacated and sat down slowly, before asking seemingly puzzled, "Are you perhaps planning to chase after Elysia?"
"...Pitiful little mouse. Do you think that just because you luckily obtained the Key of Corruption, you have the right to speak to me in such a tone?" This question, touching upon Mobius's pride, easily halted her steps.
She turned her head back, glancing disdainfully at Lin Wei, her voice dripping with her perpetual sarcasm, "Perhaps the reason you stopped me is actually because you intend to return the things you secretly took from me, with interest?"
"Hmm... Allow me to correct one mistake, Mobius—the Key of Corruption, that wasn't luck. It was my spoils of war after defeating a Herrscher. As for secretly taking..." How could Lin Wei be so easily provoked? He replied calmly, with a hint of a smile, "I don't recall the Herrscher of Corruption's virus being your property. Why don't you wait until she's awakened and ask her yourself?"
"The so-called 'Herrschers,' to me, are just slightly special research materials. What's worth mentioning? Even the 'Herrscher of Corruption' you speak of is just one among them—oh, by the way, let me tell you quietly, even the name 'Herrscher,' I gave it to them! How about that, sound good?" Mobius sneered haughtily.
"Herrschers? Ha! Ridiculous! A bunch of ignorant beasts who don't understand the power they wield, just blindly squandering their strength! They're nothing more than beasts with slightly sharper claws!"
She then added, seemingly nonchalantly, "If not for my current weakened state as memory data in the Elysian Realm, do you think she could have taken anything from my hands so easily?"
My memory-data self facing the Herrscher of Corruption is just as powerless as when I faced the Herrscher of Binding back then. How could she accept that?
From Mobius's words, Lin Wei understood at least two things she was bitter about—one was naturally her powerlessness before the Herrscher of Corruption; the other should be the remark he made earlier about whether she should call the Herrscher of the Third 'Master'.
Being treated as inferior, how could Mobius accept that? Even if it was just verbal sparring, it still stung.
"You're absolutely right, Mobius." Understanding the art of "PUA," Lin Wei knew that after needling Mobius repeatedly, it was time to stroke her ego a bit.
He agreed emphatically, "Whether it's the Herrschers of your era or the Herrschers of the current era, the vast majority are like monkeys who found a gun. All they know is to pull the trigger non-stop, emptying all the bullets. They don't know that besides 'pulling the trigger,' there are many other operational methods worth studying. They don't know you can completely dismantle the gun, deeply study its mechanical structure, why it can fire such powerful bullets, thoroughly analyze its principles, and then use those analyzed principles and structural diagrams to manufacture tens of thousands of identical guns..."
"?" Mobius was visibly taken aback. Aren't we arguing? Why are you suddenly agreeing with me? And your analogy, while crude, actually sounds quite reasonable. What's going on?!
Before the momentarily CPU-lagged Mobius could respond, Lin Wei pressed on while the iron was hot: "I believe, if so-called 'Authorities' can be mastered by human civilization, they must become like what I described: great tools that help the 'monkey troop' escape ignorance, leave the forest, walk towards broader plains and oceans, and evolve into higher beings. Not pathetic toys wielded by one or two monkeys to slaughter their own kind."
"..." Mobius stared intently at Lin Wei, her expression still mocking, but the derision had lessened considerably. How strange. Someone in the world actually holds such thoughts, she thought silently.
Unlike those who just talk big but are actually like Lord Ye who loved dragons [only in appearance], this Lin Wei before me has personally faced Herrschers, experienced the ruthlessness of the Honkai and the terror of Herrschers firsthand, yet he still holds such a transcendent, almost visionary perspective. It's quite admirable.
In that instant, Mobius found herself actually starting to like this guy... But upon realizing this thought, she immediately and unhesitatingly snuffed it out.
"Hah. Little mouse, I must say your imagination is quite rich. In a way, that counts as an irrelevant virtue." That mouth of Mobius's, even she didn't know if she was praising him or being sarcastic. Tsk, I actually started to like this guy... When Mobius realized this thought, she immediately and unhesitatingly snuffed it out. (Note: Repetition from OCR text)
"These hypotheses you mentioned, some Herrscher Authorities could theoretically achieve them. But there are far more things they absolutely cannot do—do you know why?"
"Hmm..." Feels like a small test from Mobius, Lin Wei thought. After a moment's reflection, he answered cautiously, "Of course. No matter how powerful a gun seems, its caliber ultimately has limits."
"Hehe... Hehehehehe..." Mobius suddenly burst out laughing.
Actually, she herself didn't quite understand why she added that last bit.
Perhaps it had been too long since she had someone she could talk to... Although Lin Wei's answer was quite amateurish, ignorant like a real monkey, only able to use very simple analogies to describe his thinking.
But regardless, his line of thought was satisfactory—at least, quite interesting.