Chapter 161: Blank Key
Hyperion · Laboratory
Irene opened the door in front of her, looking at the various pieces of equipment piled haphazardly around the room. In reality, this had originally been an empty cabin.
But after Einstein and Tesla arrived, they temporarily repurposed it into a laboratory. As for the equipment, all of it had been scavenged by Tesla from Schicksal's Third Airport.
She and Himeko hadn't just been blindly charging forward the whole time. After Rin took control of a few Divine Machines, Tesla set her sights on the facility's equipment.
It wasn't that they lacked similar equipment of their own; it was purely out of a desire to make Otto bleed a little more, combined with a thief's mentality of never leaving empty-handed. After all, if they were taking control of those Divine Machines anyway, and didn't know what else to do with them, they might as well put them to work moving some loot.
For now, the items were just piled up temporarily, but they were sufficient for conducting research. Of course, since it was a makeshift setup, they could only run basic checks on Kiana's current physical condition.
And, as per Tesla's vehement demands, personally dissect the body Otto had left behind.
"Dr. Tesla, Dr. Einstein. I brought the body over." Irene tossed the prosthetic body of Otto she had been carrying onto the table.
"Ah, thank you for your hard work," Einstein turned her head to look, and Irene nodded in response.
"I'm sorry, but with Rin handling the Hyperion's operational issues, you are the only one who can safely handle this guy's body."
Although it seemed they had successfully taken out Otto, this was Otto they were talking about. If that guy hadn't left behind some sort of backup plan, Tesla would jump right off the Hyperion then and there.
However, Rin was currently busy playing shipgirl and didn't have the time to spare. Thus, the task of transporting and purging any traps Otto might have left in the body could only fall to Irene, who housed a Herrscher of Corruption within her.
This was why, even though Tesla had been extremely interested when Irene mentioned the Blank Key, she hadn't immediately rushed to move it herself.
Despite her deep-seated hatred for Otto, Tesla was actually still somewhat wary of him. She preferred to play it safe, at the very least ensuring they didn't fall into one of his traps.
So, the safer they played it, the better.
"Don't worry, he didn't leave any backup plans. Even if he did, after being thoroughly washed with Corruption two or three times, it'd be completely dead by now." Irene patted Otto's body.
"But speaking of which, how are things on Kiana's end?"
"Well, how should I put it? She's been far more cooperative than we imagined," Tesla scratched her head, casually lifting a massive chainsaw from the side that looked like it had just been freshly assembled.
"Oh, I'm not talking about Kiana, I'm talking about Sirin. It seems those two can swap places or even appear simultaneously now."
"She was so cooperative that we felt bad pushing for more detailed examinations. Besides, it's impossible to fully research a Herrscher with the equipment we have here anyway."
Irene nodded. "It's great that Sirin is willing to cooperate. After all, she still has a significant amount of psychological trauma regarding experiments."
"We can somewhat understand, so we didn't press the issue." Einstein walked over at that moment. They had a general idea of what had truly transpired at the Tower of Babylon back then.
They understood why Irene mentioned Sirin's strong aversion to research and her psychological trauma, which was why they didn't make any further demands.
After testing and confirming their physical condition, and making sure Otto hadn't left any hidden traps on them, they temporarily let the girls leave.
"However, we are far more curious about this thing right now." Einstein walked up to Otto's prosthetic body. "Opportunities to dissect something like this are rare."
"So I'm going to research it thoroughly." Tesla set the chainsaw aside and began studying how to strip the armor off Otto's body, even though it felt like there wasn't much need for it anymore.
After all, it had suffered a brutal beating from so many people. Three or four Herrschers had unleashed their attacks onto Otto, and Sirin had even directly performed a literal heart-ripping spectacle.
The entire armor had a massive hole blasted through it, and the rear mechanism—which was originally supposed to store and draw upon the Herrscher Core—was completely destroyed.
Yeah, managing to research anything from it was probably going to be a little difficult. However, this armor was supposedly made of Soulium. If it contained Soulium, its internal system should have retained the armor's original configuration.
This was the only way to ensure the Soulium wouldn't make errors during its self-recovery process. With that blueprint intact, given enough time, the armor would be able to repair itself, so it wasn't too big of a problem.
But for Irene, even if this armor lacked such a system, it didn't matter. Worst case scenario, she could just take a trip back to the Elysian Realm and ask someone for it.
Vill-V definitely had the original blueprints for this armor. She might even be able to enhance it for her. Speaking of which, that gave her an idea.
This thing was a severe burden for an ordinary person. Connecting to a Herrscher Core wasn't something just anyone could do. Even with the armor acting as a buffer and distributing the pressure, an ordinary person wouldn't be able to withstand it.
But just because an ordinary person couldn't, didn't mean a Herrscher couldn't. Although it felt a bit like putting the cart before the horse, she did currently have a Herrscher who could use some extra assistance.
Furthermore, even without connecting to a Herrscher Core, the Blank Key's base performance was incredibly strong. Equipping everyone with a set wasn't impossible. And wasn't it just missing Herrscher Cores to act as power sources?
Wasn't the Herrscher of the Legion coming up later? Irene couldn't think of even a single sliver of a possibility to redeem that thing; it was pure human malice.
It would be incredibly difficult to reform. It was the type of Herrscher that had completely fallen into the ink, blackened from head to toe. The chances of redeeming it were practically non-existent.
Fortunately, these guys were just as single-minded as the ones from the Previous Era, basically only focusing on attacking the main cast. Otherwise, if they were truly determined to cause widespread chaos, with their 1,000-plus individuals and the freely shifting Theater of Domination...
...dealing with them would be incredibly difficult. Perhaps she should start preparing a plan to counter them. They were called the 10th Herrscher, but Irene had always been wondering about one thing.
Regarding the so-called 1,000-individual Herrscher of the Legion: if you compared them to cockroaches, by the time you spot one cockroach, they might have already been infesting the area for a long time.
The reason they appeared tenth was simply that this was when they finally decided to start causing trouble. Of course, this was solely her own speculation.
It didn't prove anything concretely; it might have just been a coincidence. But regardless of whether her guess was true or not, she had to make preparations in advance.
After all, these guys really were like cockroaches. They were numerous, and while they might not cause particularly massive catastrophes—at least not the kind of direct, catastrophic damage other Herrschers could dish out—
...if you really let them stir up trouble, serious problems would definitely arise. Because no matter how weak those 1,000 Herrscher individuals were, they were still Herrschers.
Combine that with their abilities, and if they were hell-bent on destruction, resolving the situation without paying a heavy price would be almost impossible. It was indeed highly necessary to prepare early.
[Speaking of which, Sister Irene, the time is almost up, isn't it?] Pardo's voice echoed in Irene's mind. [Is Boss Kevin coming back soon?]
[Hard to say.] Irene's mental projection shook her head.[There's no telling where exactly Kevin ended up when he dove into the Sea of Quanta. He might not be able to return so quickly.]
To be honest, Irene found it hard to believe that Kevin could smoothly locate Griseo. Trying to find a specific Bubble Universe within the Sea of Quanta without any hints, relying solely on the premise that such a thing existed, to pinpoint a specific target...
...the difficulty could no longer just be described as finding a needle in a haystack. It was like searching an infinite, boundless void for a needle, knowing only that the needle existed, but having absolutely no idea what it looked like, what material it was made of, or its length and thickness.
Describing the difficulty as 'relying on blind luck' was an understatement; it was basically an impossible mission. Aside from praying for luck, the only thing you could do was pray for more luck.
As for how good Kevin's luck was? That was hard to say.
[He will definitely find her.] Pardo's tone suddenly became very firm.[Whenever I have free time, I always pray for Boss Kevin, hoping he can find Griseo.]
[And the me in the Realm will definitely be praying the same way once she finds out.]
Irene reached out and patted Pardo's head, a smile on her face.[Since it's Pardo's prayer, I believe Mr. Kevin should be able to find her.]
Originally, there probably wouldn't have been much hope. But since he was carrying a double dose of Cat blessings, it was really hard to say.
[Hehe.] Pardo nuzzled against Irene's hand. [Sister Irene, are you going back to the Realm recently?]
[Let's wait until the situation stabilizes a bit more.] Irene shook her head.[But I will definitely take everyone there sooner or later. It's an excellent proving ground.]
[Really? Darling.] [Irene] poked Irene's cheek at that moment.[Is there truly no underlying desire to show off so many Herrschers fighting for humanity to Elysia?]
[Don't put it so bluntly.] Irene waved her hand, not denying the point. Well, it certainly played a part in her reasoning—just a little bit.
[Yeah, but it would definitely be quite interesting.] Little Corruption chimed in as well.[Everyone here has ties with quite a few Herrschers. Or rather, life-and-death bonds.]
Yes, life-and-death bonds in the physical sense. Putting everything else aside, take Kosma for example. Back in his student days, before he had any powers, this guy dared to strap a bunch of bombs to himself and jump straight into a tornado whipped up by the Herrscher of Wind.
If someone hadn't saved him back then, he would have been instantly scrapped inside that tornado.
The others had also, to varying degrees, been screwed over by various Herrschers or had life-and-death encounters with them. Even though these current ones were all examples of Herrschers fighting for humanity, the chances of the Flame-Chasers having absolutely no reaction to them were practically zero.
In her case, it was because right off the bat, she had saved Rin, Pardo, and the two little doctors. Compared to her identity as a Herrscher, the massive favorability boost she gained from saving those four completely smoothed over any issues her Herrscher status might have caused among the Flame-Chasers.
And as long as her Herrscher identity didn't cause immediate friction, she could rely on Elysia to start racking up favorability points for her.
[That's true, I suppose.] Irene shrugged.[But with me leading the group, it should actually be fine. Everyone is reasonable, aren't they?]
[Weeeeell~] Little Corruption dragged out her tone.
"Sigh. Well, repairing this damage will probably take quite a long time." The two scientists, having truly exhausted themselves trying to find a way to strip the armor from Otto, finally succeeded. They arranged the dismantled components on another table, roughly laying them out in the shape of the armor.
However, compared to the deep crimson it had displayed upon its initial appearance, the entire armor's color had gradually faded closer to white now that it had lost the empowerment of the Gem of Haste.
"Can you export the data?" Looking at the practically mangled armor, the two shook their heads before Einstein looked up at Irene.
They didn't have the appropriate equipment on hand, so they had no way to connect directly to the armor. However, they did have an omnipotent electronic warfare expert right here, didn't they?
"I'll give it a try." A faint light appeared in Irene's hand as Little Corruption's card slid out from her sleeve. The moment it touched the armor in front of her, the virus swept through the entire suit in an instant.
It began cracking the armor's internal firewall. Aided by the potent capabilities of the Corruption virus, the armor's preset internal firewall was breached in the blink of an eye.
The internal data began exporting. Just as Einstein and the others had suspected, it indeed contained the original blueprints meant to guide the Soulium in repairing the full armor.
It even possessed a self-evolution capability. Based on the Herrscher Core connected to it, the armor could roughly evolve to manifest supplementary armaments or modify its plating to suit those abilities, and even possessed the ability to alter its color scheme.
However, judging from the data, it seemed it had only been programmed with the data of the few cores that had already appeared. As long as it recognized a matching Authority, it would initiate a transformation in that specific direction.
The selection was quite limited. It only held programmed data for the Void, Thunder, Wind, Flame, and Rock Cores. Presumably, there hadn't been enough time to input more data, nor was there much need to do so.
Inputting the Core of the Herrscher of the Legion would be useless anyway. And the innate characteristics of the Herrscher of Sentience dictated that it would be practically impossible for it to synergize with the armor.
The same logic applied to Binding and Corruption; there was virtually no necessity to connect them. The Herrscher of Reason was likely omitted for similar reasons.
Vermilion Knight, on the other hand, was the form the Blank Key would assume upon connecting to the Core of the Herrscher of Flame. Though, the various supplementary armaments were likely the result of Otto's own handiwork.
The Blank Key itself did not include any integrated weaponry. The only thing that changed was the armor itself.
"Yep, all done." After exporting all the data, Little Corruption cooperatively conjured a sphere of light composed of the Corruption virus in Irene's hand, fully packed with the parsed data.
Einstein floated a tablet over, and Irene promptly embedded the sphere of light into it. Looking at the data now displayed on the tablet, Einstein gave an approving nod.
"Thank you for your hard work, Irene."
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