"I see. So, Elias, you've successfully absorbed the Herrscher of Million's Core and ascended into the Herrscher of Good and Evil. Tch! Why did it have to happen while I wasn't there?"
Inside Mobius' laboratory.
Elias was lying on Snake's favorite experiment table while numerous instruments scanned his body. However, many of the readings soon exceeded their detection limits, causing the machines to start smoking.
Earlier, he and Elysia had spent several more hours fooling around in the Elysian Realm. Under the tremendous impact of the Planet-class Chimera, the pink elf had already been reduced to a cream puff incapable of getting back up.
She was currently lying dead inside the Castle of Eternity, resting.
After returning alone to St. Freya Academy, Elias happened to encounter Mobius as she climbed down from a streetlamp. Once he explained the situation, Snake dragged him straight into the laboratory.
At first, Elias had resisted. After all, he was still in his post-nut clarity period. But who could blame him when Snake had changed into a nurse's uniform?
Elias: (Who could possibly resist that?!)
"So? Snake, are you satisfied now~?"
"Mm. Congratulations, little lab rat. You've completed yet another magnificent evolution. But next time, wait until I'm present. I want to witness the moment of your evolution with my own eyes."
"Sure, sure. Next time, definitely~ But speaking of which, where did Klein go? It wouldn't be strange for anyone else to be missing from your laboratory, Snake, but Klein's absence is almost unbelievable."
Elias looked at Mobius with a teasing smile.
As everyone knew, Klein's range of activity extended nowhere beyond Mobius' laboratory. After all, the poor girl had her labor mercilessly squeezed out of her by Snake all year round.
Although recently, she seemed to have pulled off a magnificent counterattack~
But after the influence of the Herrscher of Million vanished, who knew what fate awaited Klein once she regained her senses?
"Ahem! K-Klein went somewhere very far away."
Mobius coughed softly and instinctively rubbed the back of her head, which still hurt a little. An awkward expression appeared on her face.
"Snake, did you kill Klein?!"
Elias widened his eyes in horror.
"Huh? What are you talking about, little lab rat?! I merely gave Klein an extended vacation and let her go traveling."
"...Who the hell are you? You've got some big nerve impersonating my Mobius!"
Elias immediately flipped off the experiment table and landed on his feet. He stared at Mobius warily, looking as though he were facing a deadly enemy and might attack at any moment.
"Your disguise may look identical, but my Snake could never possess this much conscience! Mobius giving Klein an extended vacation to travel? That would never happen even if the sun rose in the west!!"
Elias declared righteously.
Did she understand what it meant to be the ultimate evil capitalist, a cold-blooded, black-hearted labor-exploiting demon who used labor laws as toilet paper?!
"...Hmph!"
Mobius' eye twitched violently. She wanted to pick up the beaker on the table and throw it at Elias, but ultimately restrained herself. Instead, she crossed her arms and let out an extremely cool "hmph."
"How heartbreaking. So that's the kind of person I am in your eyes, little lab rat. What a terrible misunderstanding. I'm clearly a good superior who cares about her subordinates. As for my conscience... Why don't you feel around and see whether it's still there~?"
"!!!"
Watching Mobius approach him with narrowed snake eyes, radiating a dangerous yet irresistible charm, Elias felt his throat go dry and instinctively swallowed hard.
Mobius' allure was terrifying.
She was the kind of woman you knew perfectly well was dangerous.
If you got too close, she would toy with you until not even your bones remained. Yet you would still willingly lie down on her experiment table and become a little lab rat for her to play with however she pleased.
And Elias had never backed down from Snake's provocations.
"Hmph! Fine, I'll feel! Let me see whether Mobius' conscience is really still there. But honestly, Snake... You call yourself a good superior who cares about her subordinates? Do you dare look Cangxuan and Danzhu in the eyes and say that again?"
"Why wouldn't I? Cangxuan, Danzhu, tell me. Am I not a good master... No, wait. A good superior?"
Mobius' snake eyes turned toward the twin sisters working inside the laboratory. Cangxuan and Danzhu instantly stiffened. After exchanging a glance, they forced smiles uglier than tears.
"Ha... Haha. Yes. Doctor is a good superior."
"Mm-hmm. There's no better master in the world than Doctor... Ptooey, I mean, no better superior. Haha... Hahaha..."
"Cangxuan, Danzhu, your eyes are already dead. Blink if you're being threatened," Elias said.
The twin sisters immediately began blinking at astonishing speed. Mobius, a good superior? Bah! They had lived for fifty thousand years, and never in their lives had they told a lie bigger than the one they had just uttered.
Danzhu: (Cangxuan, after telling such a massive lie, we won't get struck by lightning the next time we go outside, will we?)
Cangxuan: (...Call me Big Sister. After work, we'll visit a reputable temple in Shenzhou and burn some incense. Maybe there's still hope for us. Worst case, we'll wear insulated suits whenever we go outside.)
Danzhu: (After work? Do you think we'll ever get off work in this lifetime? Boohoo, I'm so jealous of Klein. She actually got a vacation to travel. I want to travel too~)
Cangxuan: (Sigh~ Give up. Doctor probably let Klein take a vacation because she got scared. Who could have imagined that the usually obedient Klein would become a Herrscher, knock Doctor unconscious, and hang her from a streetlamp... It was so satisfying. Ahem, I mean, so unexpected.)
Danzhu: (I see. So as long as we also knock Dr. Mobius unconscious and hang her from a streetlamp, making her understand the true meaning of fear, we'll get a vacation too, right?!)
Cangxuan: (Hehe~ Great idea. Go ahead, little sister. This day next year will be the anniversary of your death. I wonder what sort of execution Doctor will devise for you. Just thinking about it is terrifying~)
Mobius: "Cangxuan, Danzhu, both of you have stopped working. Do you feel you don't have enough work to do?"
Although the flawless Klein was absent, daily life in Mobius' laboratory remained unchanged.
Elias shook his head with a sigh. Mad capitalist scientists truly were terrifying... But he liked it!
Moreover, according to the Herrscher of Good and Evil's assessment, Mobius' affection toward him had reached a full 640 percent, a staggering six-point-four-fold enhancement. As expected of Snake.
Her lips might be stubborn, but they softened once he kissed them.
"Snake, stop working overtime all the time. Eating instant noodles for all three meals isn't healthy either. I won't nag you about anything else, but at least come back to the dorm every day and eat properly."
"I don't have that much free time. I still have so many research projects waiting for me. Don't concern yourself with it, little lab rat. A MANTIS' body isn't that fragile."
Mobius remained unmoved, carefully reading the freshly printed medical examination report in her hands.
"...Please, Mobius. I want to eat with you every day. Fulfill my wish, all right?"
As Elias spoke, he pulled her directly onto his lap, affectionately rubbed his cheek against Snake's, and acted spoiled in the tone of a certain Miss Pink Elf.
Mobius' entire body trembled. The report slipped from her hands and fell to the floor. Judging from the faint blush on her cheeks, Snake's heart was racing with excitement.
(Strange. The same words coming from Elysia would only annoy me, so why do they sound so pleasant when my little lab rat says them?)
"Ahem! Fine. Since you're begging me so earnestly, little lab rat, I suppose I can accompany you occasionally."
"Mm~ Thank you, Mobius. You're so good to me~"
After speaking, Elias kissed Mobius on the cheek. The corners of her lips immediately curved upward beyond her control.
The twin sisters nearby were already staring in astonishment.
From the perspective of Cangxuan and Danzhu, the two observers, anyone could see that Mobius only appeared to be in control. In reality, Elias had Mobius completely wrapped around his finger from beginning to end!
'Shh~ Good children shouldn't say things they aren't supposed to.'
Elias made a silencing gesture toward the sisters while smiling and using the authority of the Herrscher of Transcendent Sentience to warn them.
"!!!" x2
Cangxuan and Danzhu sucked in a sharp breath. Hearing his voice directly inside their minds, they felt that the white-haired youth had changed slightly compared to the past. He now possessed a trace of the cunning wickedness of a bad man.
Yet that only made him more devastating!
Ordinarily, he shone as brilliantly and passionately as the sun, a savior more deserving of the word hero than anyone else in the world. But at this moment, he displayed the tenderness of the moon at night. He had learned the art of disguising himself as a small animal to soften a woman's heart.
Even the observers, Cangxuan and Danzhu, felt their cheeks grow hot, let alone Mobius, who was caught in the middle of it.
Elias: "Playing around like this once in a while is pretty fun~"
...
After setting a fire in Mobius' heart, Elias returned to his haven of tenderness.
He enjoyed a lazy and comfortable life as a useless shut-in inside the dormitory. After all, the Herrscher of Million had only recently been dealt with, and Elias judged that there was still plenty of time before the next Herrscher appeared. Since that was the case, naturally, he had to seize the opportunity and devote himself wholeheartedly to enjoying life!
"The Herrscher of Dominance was already strengthened to this extent. Binding will definitely be even more difficult! And the original game's plot can no longer serve as a reference. From now on, we may only be able to respond to whatever comes our way. But that's a problem for the future, and it has nothing to do with the present!"
Even heroes needed rest~
Occasional laziness was necessary to conserve energy for critical moments.
Thinking about it now, Elias felt that he had truly worked far too hard. There was nothing wrong with being a little selfish and lazy once in a while, was there~
After hearing his realization, Mei, Rita, Aponia, and the others shed tears of emotion. This man had finally seen the light and learned how to be lazy. It had not been easy at all!
Still, Elias was Elias in the end...
Elias: "I'll have some free time for a while. Since this opportunity is rare, let's travel through the Sea of Quanta. I recently discovered several interesting bubble worlds, along with quite a few that are about to be destroyed. I need to hurry and eat/protect them."
As civilization's Noah's Ark, Elias continuously absorbed bubble worlds into his body. The number of bubble worlds that had escaped destruction because of him had already reached several thousand.
Therefore, although Elias' journey was a form of relaxation, it was still a journey of salvation at the same time.
"Oh, right. I recently asked Vill-V to modify the Hyperion. I wonder how it's going."
Elias muttered to himself as he thought about it.
The Hyperion was no longer worthy of him. After all, the built-in Honkai reactor's maximum output was only a pitiful 1,380 HW, while the main cannon possessed only enough firepower to fight an Emperor-class Honkai Beast.
Compared to the Moonlight Throne battleship Elias had used in the Previous Era, the Hyperion was inferior by an immeasurable degree... Though by now, even the Moonlight Throne was no longer worthy of him.
Although abandoning them would have been the most convenient option, Elias had grown attached to both battleships. Therefore, some time ago, he had asked Vill-V to modify them.
She was to merge the Hyperion and the Moonlight Throne into a single vessel, then equip it with planet-destroying warship technology for a massive upgrade.
"Let's go take a look~ Hopefully, it's already finished."
As Elias spoke, he opened a portal and prepared to visit Helixcraft to inspect the situation. At that moment, he had no idea that an incomparably enormous surprise was waiting for him aboard the new battleship.