Chapter 42: Chapter 42
Continental Mu, Center for Bioinformatics, Institute of Genetics.
In an empty laboratory, a plump woman with disheveled hair was lying on the laboratory table asleep.
There was a slight sound of breathing between the arms that hugged her cheeks. There are no windows in the entire laboratory, and the LED panel lights embedded in the ceiling expose the closed room.
If it weren't for mental fatigue, it would be hard to imagine that anyone would be able to sleep like a dead pig in such an uncomfortable environment.
Exposed to such a bright light, the quality of sleep wasn't good. Amidst the soreness all over her body, her consciousness slowly woke up.
"Hmm..." With thick dark circles under her eyes, the woman slowly lifted her head from her arms.
From her face, this woman with long green hair should be a teenager but with her plump figure and mature, old-fashioned dress, it is difficult to distinguish her specific age.
She blinked her misty eyes and looked around drowsily. She suddenly shivered as if he had caught a cold, and said to herself, "Why is it so cold...Emiya...breakfast...what do we have for breakfast?" Her words got stuck halfway through her throat.
The entire laboratory was silent, and no one answered her questions.
In the lonely silence, the expressionless woman took a long, deep breath and covered her eyes
That's right.
"The person who has been taking care of me is gone."
No one will cover her with a blanket while she is asleep, and when she wakes up, she will never smell the familiar rice scent again.
"It's really ugly. Didn't I say that I can stand on my own? Why would I be depressed because of that brat..."
She moved her hands away from her eyes, endured her dizzying headache, and stood up from the chair with a somewhat cold body.
Her head hurts, probably because she slept on the stiff laboratory table for a long time, her whole body was occupied by a sore feeling.
The lack of nutrition made the woman subconsciously walk to the cabinet beside her and began to search for something to eat.
... Except for two buckets of instant noodles and a few ham sausages for emergency use, the food displayed in the cabinet is mostly uncooked grains and some vegetables.
A caring old woman chooses the types of food that could be preserved for a certain period. Right under the cabinet, there's a neat row of seasonings.
The people who previously owned this cabinet seemed to know how to live cost-effectively, and there is a mini refrigerator next to the cabinet.
But after seeing the food neatly displayed in the cabinet the woman picked the instant noodles without any hesitation, ignoring the food waiting to be cooked.
Walking to the door, the woman turned on the air system in the laboratory. The dull air gradually flowed under the guidance of the exhaust fan.
She boiled a pot of water, tore off the wrapping paper of seasoning, and sprinkled it into the paper tube bowl of instant noodles
She then poured the boiling water into the bowl, and in a short while a rising white mist formed. The strong aroma of instant noodles filled the entire interior of the laboratory.
The woman counted one hundred and twenty seconds in her head and picked up a plastic fork and ate.
"...I don't know why, it was delicious before"
After losing the person who stopped her from eating instant noodles all day and night, the taste of instant noodles became boring and stale.
"It's so unpalatable."
The women never thought that there would be a day when the taste of instant noodles was so monotonous that it was hard to swallow.
After touching her hungry stomach, the woman casually threw the bowl with some residue in the empty trash can.
At this time, her communication terminal suddenly rang.
The woman didn't even look at the caller ID and said weakly, "Who?"
A middle-aged man's voice came out of the communicator: "Dr. Mobius, the fifth team's mission report, have you read it?"
"What does the task of the fifth team have to do with me?" Through the voice of the communicator, the woman recognized the identity of the contact person.
This middle-aged man is the speaker of the Fire Moth Council. Responsible for reviewing and supervising the research projects proposed by the first-line researchers.
From a certain point of view, this middle-aged man can be regarded as the woman's immediate superior so facing her immediate superior the woman's tone completely changed
"I am busy calculating what kind of 'type' will appear next. Whatever the nature, don't bother me if there is nothing important."
"However, it was you, Dr. Mobius, who submitted the calculation results to the council and filed a search application for the designated area." The middle-aged man at the other end, the man said lightly.
"So?" The woman called Mobius snorted softly in an impatient tone, "Did you find that thing?"
"Dr. Mobius, please correct your attitude !" The middle-aged man only now got angry, which showed his great patients
"Through the analysis of the unexplained collapse seven years ago, it is found that there is a kind of 'corruption' in this world. You are the researcher of the completely different new category of "Honkai Species", which is completely different from "Zombies" and "Honkai Beast". Our financial and human resources are limited! If you don't submit your calculation results to the parliament, we would have sent the fifth team to that shitty town in vain!"
"It's you who should correct their attitude!" Mobius sneered
"Andrew, don't think I don't know what those insects in the Fire Moth Council are thinking. I have already warned you, if the 'new category' has the same nature as I speculate, and has the same rationality and thinking ability as us humans, then that thing can't stay in the same place for 7 years!"
"Aren't you coveting that kind of 'controllable' power? How could it be me who decided to conduct a comprehensive search of the border town?" After finishing speaking, Mobius couldn't help but spit.
Andrew was silent for a while before saying coldly: "...For your next research project, the funding will be cut in half."
"Why?!" Mobius'' expression changed, and she stood up abruptly, "Damn! Why should I pay for your ignorance and greed!"
"Our resources and manpower are already tight. Even without your actions being involved, your research project has not produced actual results for more than half a month." Andrew said calmly
"Without seeing any useful results, the Fire Moth Council will naturally be unable to devote further resources to your project, Dr. Mobius. I respect your skills and talents but I also hope you can understand our difficulties. Even if we claim to be a cradle of ideals, Fire Moth is still an agency directly under the United Nations."
"..." Mobius couldn't help but be speechless.
The world of adults is such a reality. If there is no way to produce convincing results, then natural resources will not be given.
Although Mobius' papers and research projects have a considerable degree of academic value, for those politicians who are purely laymen, visible wealth and power are more important than academic value.
'Those short-sighted mentally handicapped!' Mobius couldn't help biting her thumb, subconsciously looked behind, and opened her mouth—however, she realized that there was no one standing behind her.
Afterward, the words that she originally wanted to say were pressed back.
She suddenly felt a burst of indescribable fatigue. She was not the only researcher in the Institute of Genetics, but even those researchers who were also doctors were completely unable to understand Mobius' persistence and philosophy.
If it was not long ago, she would still have someone who would unconditionally choose to support her, even though she didn't understand the things she was messing around with, but now—
— Tsk! Why did I remember that old-fashioned little devil again?
Mobius took a deep breath and shook her head. Trying to put the image of "pretty boring", "not at all important" and "it's no big deal if you leave" in her mind as distracting thoughts.
However, the more she wanted to forget the figure that had accompanied her for eighteen years, the image of that figure would become clearer and clearer in her mind.
"Do you understand? Dr. Mobius?" Probably because Mobius was silent for too long, Andrew on the other end of the communicator couldn't help but speak.
"Shut up!" Mobius, who was suddenly interrupted from thinking, cursed back, "Isn't it just cutting the funds in half? Cut it as you like!"
After a moment of silence, Mobius added in a low tone: "... Is there anything else? I'll hang up if it's nothing." "
"...Although the fifth team did not find the 'existence' you calculated, the search mission can't be regarded as fruitless," Andrew said
"In Vostok-51, the fifth team marked the personal information of a local with an identification mark exclusive to the flame moth."
"Oh?" Mobius made a voice that sounded a bit curious
"If I remember correctly, that kind of identification mark should be the means you use to distinguish between 'ordinary people' and 'chosen ones'. Do they have some sort of special ability? Or, are they a 'genius' like me?"
The so-called "Chosen Ones" is a collective term for those who have special abilities. These special abilities can be a kind of superhuman ability, or it can be an ability that surpasses the physiological functions of the human body. Ranging from things such as having greater strength, the ability to think faster, or being more tenacious.
"The Chosen One" is the threshold to join Fire Moth. For a long time, Fire Moth has always claimed to be the paradise of the ideal, but the things that can support these ideals must be the physiological perception.
In a sense, all members of the Fire Moths, including members of the Fire Moth Council, are 'monsters' in the secular sense. They label themselves as the "Chosen Ones" a better name being the "Transcendence".
At least until technological innovation allows ordinary people to save themselves from Honkai, it is impossible for Fire Moth and all of humanity to tolerate Honkai. Her own superior is an ordinary person who will appear extremely vulnerable in the face of Honkai.
"From what the captain of the fifth team said, the child marked by her seems to have a stronger power than ordinary people," Andrew said.
"Is it just stronger than ordinary people?" Mobius couldn't help showing a disappointed expression.
"Do you need me to send you the identity information of that child?" Andrew said.
"Forget it, the lab doesn't need savages, and I'm not interested in communicating with ordinary people with mediocre intelligence. If you can bring him to my operating table, I don't mind having an extra experimental subject in my lab." Mobius shrugged and flatly rejected Andrew's proposal.
In this world, although it is rare to see humans with strength that surpasses that of ordinary people, it is not uncommon to see. The fifth teams currently owned by Fire Moth alone have a total of more than a thousand people. If the reserves who are developing their potential are counted, the number can even exceed 1,000.
Compared with power, Mobius now values "intelligence" and "idea" more, so when she heard from Andrew that this so-called "chosen one" was just a person with slightly stronger strength, she immediately lost interest in the "windfall" of this operation.
—The current Mobius still doesn't know that at a certain time in the near future, this extremely rash decision would make her freeze, and regret to the point of crazily grabbing the ground with her head.
"I have nothing else to do." Now that Mobius has clearly shown that she has lost interest in the child that Himeko marked, Andrew is too lazy to continue
"I hope you can contribute more power, doctor."
After finishing speaking, without waiting for Mobius' response, Andrew hung up his communicator without hesitation.
Hearing the busy tone from the communicator echoing in the empty closed laboratory, Mobius pressed the button to hang up.
The entire laboratory was once again immersed in a cold silence.
Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
stone