The dissection of Gallion's brain began without delay.
Thanks to Ein's extensive and accomplished experience handling matters of this sort, and with the proper working environment in place, it took almost no time at all for him to extract Gallion's brain intact — and to read out the bulk of the information stored within.
And so, once Ein had grasped the full scope of the situation, he acted without a moment's hesitation, doing precisely what needed to be done. Drawing on the knowledge contained within Gallion's mind, he slipped past the watchful eyes trained on him and methodically tied up the loose ends surrounding the Anthony affair.
After expending a considerable amount of effort and care, Ein managed to fabricate the appearance of a clean outcome: "the contaminant has been purged, but the Tuner himself has vanished."
With that handled, Ein finally had a moment to turn back and look at Anthony — who had been hovering at his side from the very beginning, wearing that easy, unhurried smile of his.
"Something on your mind?"
Anthony noticed Ein's gaze and asked with a smile.
"Just wondering who, exactly, you are."
Ein turned his head away and went back to extracting information from Gallion's brain, keeping his voice as level as he could manage.
"Does it matter?"
Anthony simply turned the question back on him. Ein went silent for a long moment.
"If I told you that nothing I've done will affect the outcome of your final act of goodness — that I could even make it shine brighter — does the question really matter?"
With Anthony's words hanging in the air, Ein let out a long, slow exhale after the lengthy silence.
"You're right. Maybe it matters. But not to Ein, at least.
"He doesn't care.
"He's already committed enough sins. One more won't make a difference."
If he was being honest with himself, the act of killing a Tuner stirred very little fear or remorse in him.
If anything, now that it was done, the only thing Ein found genuinely unforgivable was the waste of that death. They had come too far. There was no road back. The Seed of Light plan had to succeed.
No matter the cost. No matter the sins accumulated.
Ein had made his peace with that long ago. And if the day of reckoning ever came for him — as long as the launch of the Seed of Light was already secured, he would face it without a flicker of concern.
"Distant stars," Ein murmured at last.
Having extracted the memories from Gallion's brain, he now understood what those so-called stars truly signified.
"Am I making a deal with the devil here?"
"Depends on how you look at it. At the very least, I have no intention of causing any harm here. If anything, I'd rather things go better for everyone."
Anthony gave a casual shrug and spoke in that same breezy, unbothered tone:
"I told you — I'm here to help.
"As for those stars up there... honestly? I'm not exactly fond of them either."
As he spoke, Anthony tilted his head slightly and looked up through the window at the canopy of stars stretched across the sky.
In that moment, a chain of logic snapped into place inside Ein's mind.
The thing that had fallen like a meteor when Anthony arrived.
Could it be — was the person standing before him a meteor precisely because the other stars had cast him out?
Ein turned the thought over in his mind, uncertain.
For Anthony, of course, the truth was something else entirely.
The gaze he turned on the stars held no hatred, no yearning for the sea of stars — only a keen, hungry desire for points.
Honestly, speaking as a purely objective bystander — if you could actually pry a couple of those stars loose, they'd be worth an absolute fortune, right?
Anthony stared up at the glittering night sky, turning the thought over in his mind.
In any other world, this idea would never have crossed his mind. But this was the City. Singularity technologies were worth a king's ransom apiece. The Wings of the World were top-tier billionaires — the kind of people whose single hairs might be worth an unimaginable haul of points.
And the Stars? That was on a whole other level.
In the worldview of Moonlit Reckoning, countless Singularities had their origins traced back to the Stars. Some Singularities — take the Sadness of the K Corporation — were nothing more than the byproduct of a single wish fulfilled, as far as the Stars were concerned.
Just thinking about it made Anthony's eyes burn with excitement.
God only knows how many points you'd rack up pulling even one of those Stars down.
Unfortunately, the Stars were impossibly remote — and most of them were unfathomably deep. Far beyond anything he could touch right now.
But then again — just because he couldn't touch them now didn't mean he couldn't later.
Once Ein launched the Seed of Light, once Carmen had fully merged with the Light — with that power, plus a fully-grown chat group and himself — who was to say he couldn't storm the Stars and rob them blind?
Anthony drew a slow, deep breath and let the rising tide of greed gradually settle.
Then he turned back, fixing Anthony's familiar smile on Ein once more.
"All of that can wait until there's an opportunity. For now — for both of us — the Seed of Light plan is the priority."
Tempting as it is, the Stars can wait until after the Seed of Light is launched. That's when the real payday becomes possible.
"So — how did the dissection go?"
Anthony turned to Ein with the question. Ein looked over at the brain before him, used a mechanical arm to seal it inside an iron box, and then spoke:
"The conditions for becoming a Wing — I have a fairly clear picture now.
"As for how to make the Seed of Light germinate," he added, rubbing the bridge of his nose, "I'd say I have a rough idea of the path forward."
In fact, the conditions were far, far better than before.
Given Carmen's bizarre current state of existence, Ein had thought it through carefully — and realized the preparation required had shrunk dramatically.
Because Carmen was capable of observing the possibilities in which the Seed of Light launched successfully.
That meant the things that needed to be accomplished now had a reference pattern to follow.
Those possibilities — through Carmen's accounts — had given Ein a rough sense of them.
Ten thousand years of suffering and cycles. Countless restarts forced by deviations from the script. But now, when Ein ran the calculations, it seemed like none of that was necessary anymore.
Why go through all that trouble?
The Seed of Light launch had two conditions. Sufficient energy — and the collection of the Ten Core Nodes needed to make the Seed germinate.
Energy was the simpler problem. Nothing as extreme as ten-thousand-year cycles was required. Production capacity could absolutely keep up. Build a few more branches, and the required output could be hit at speed.
What had truly held the Seed of Light launch back — what had made success so elusive — was the collection of the Ten Core Nodes. The slightest deviation from the script meant starting over from zero. That was the very reason ten thousand years of cycles had come into being.
But now, thinking it over, Ein realized — it didn't have to be so complicated anymore.
There was still Carmen, wasn't there?
All he needed was to use Carmen to overlay the script-running timelines from other possibilities onto this one.
When the moment was right and preparations were complete, simply overlay the possibility corresponding to each Core Suppression — and it was done.
They didn't even need the still-living Carly, Daniel, and the others to become Boxes anymore.
In other words, the entire script had been simplified down to: execute all Core Suppressions directly, finish the sweep, gather enough energy, and it's done.
Absurdly easy.
Building on that foundation, a complete strategy had already taken shape in Ein's mind.
The groundwork for the Wings was still indispensable — but on top of that, all he needed was to expand branch operations as broadly as possible and accelerate energy acquisition.
"The foundation for the Wings of the World still needs time to ripen. But the energy side — preparations can begin now."
Ein mused for a moment, then spoke. Anthony gave a slight nod, and then asked:
"Specific preparations?"
Hearing that, Ein glanced at Anthony — and for a moment, hesitated.
He wanted to say it. But the problem was, thinking back on everything Anthony had been up to lately, Ein suddenly found himself not quite so willing.
Because a fairly critical element of the preparations was Angela.
Without Angela, managing branch efficiency would inevitably become stretched thin.
That much wasn't worth concealing. The only issue was that Anthony had, not long before, rather pointedly expressed his intentions regarding Angela.
Which had stirred in Ein something disturbingly close to a worried father's apprehension.
"I know what you're thinking."
Anthony looked at Ein's expression and spoke almost immediately, in a reassuring tone:
"It's fine — it's just Angela. I'm not going to do anything untoward. Don't you trust me?"
"By the way — how's Angela's construction coming along?"
Anthony asked with an air of breezy indifference. Ein's eye twitched twice.
A deep, bone-level exhaustion seemed to wash over him.
In the end, under Ein's steady gaze, Anthony shrugged, and revised his words with something that sounded almost like reluctance:
"Okay, fine — there might be a slight ulterior motive. But at least it's not improper, right?"
"At most, I just want to borrow someone. That shouldn't interfere with your plans, should it?"
Anthony raised an eyebrow slightly. "For an intelligence at this level, splitting off an instance is basically trivial. The location of the original entity shouldn't even matter, should it?"
He leaned in closer to Ein, a faint glimmer of light in his eyes.
"Lend her to me to play with?"
Whether my River Styx can hit Level 3 is riding entirely on you, Ein.
Ein listened to Anthony's words. After a long stretch of silence, he finally let out a sigh.
Exhausting.
"Current progress is still incomplete. The hardware and the theoretical work are largely finished — but the problem is the cognitive model development isn't done yet."
In the end, Ein rubbed his temples and laid the issue out in front of Anthony.
Ever since the decision to abandon Carmen's personality model and rebuild Angela from scratch, that line of research had been delayed again and again.
Even now, there was nothing worth celebrating.
But unexpectedly, upon hearing this, Anthony showed no sign of backing down — if anything, his eyes grew brighter, and a mysterious smile spread across his face.
"Troublesome?"
He smiled and said: "If it's trouble, let me handle it!"
Ein turned back to look at Anthony, confusion deepening in his gaze, wariness sharpening by three degrees.
Even Carmen, watching from her vantage point, finally seemed unable to stay silent any longer — her voice rang sharp in Anthony's ear:
"What exactly are you planning to do to my daughter?"
"Relax. You'll be helping too."
Anthony shook his head, then spoke quickly:
"We are going to forge a soul for Angela."
Both Carmen and Ein fell silent at those words.
Several minutes passed before Ein looked up from his thoughts, turned to Anthony, and asked with some hesitation:
"Forge... a soul?"
Anthony nodded without the slightest hesitation, then continued:
"Yes. Something that would once have sounded like pure fantasy. But now, making it happen has become quite simple.
"Every condition that needs to be met is already satisfied — exceeded, even. If we move quickly, we might be able to witness her birth today."
From the very beginning, Anthony had never planned to take his time.
It wasn't in his nature. If they were going to create Angela, the best outcome was to get it done today.
And as it happened, the conditions for exactly that were right here in front of them, weren't they?
The union of soul and machine — and was there not, in this very place, the presence of a Forger who was most supremely skilled at precisely that?
Strictly speaking, Anthony himself didn't know this craft. But right now, he could work around the edges of it.
Through the Origin Furnace, he could use soul energy to refine Soul Essence — producing a pristine, blank soul.
Under normal circumstances, such a soul would have no possibility or qualification to give rise to intelligence. But the problem was — Carmen was still here.
The same insufferable cyber ghost and her miraculous possibilities.
No intelligence? Then find one from within the infinite possibilities and crystallize it — simple as that.
Besides, blank souls lacked many things, but malleability? That was their greatest strength. They were one of the most beloved base materials Forgers used in their craft.
Carmen could freely follow her own will, painting across that pliable soul as she liked — drawing from the composite of countless Angelas across infinite possibilities — and sculpt an entirely new soul into existence.
After that, Anthony would simply connect it to the River Styx's Wi-Fi, share the data and CPU from the Arasaka Archives, and a basic server framework would be in place.
Then Ein's team would gradually build the server out from there — and wouldn't Angela be complete?
Ein listened as Anthony walked him through the plan. For a moment, his expression went somewhat blank.
Then, after a long silence, Ein asked his question:
"So... where do we start?"
And then Ein saw it — Anthony's signature mysterious smile surfacing once again.
He snapped his fingers.
In the void, a terrible sound resonated — and from the torn fabric of space, the Primordial River revealed itself in cascading, kaleidoscopic color.
Anthony pulled Ein outside the laboratory, and there at the base of the mobile city, something monstrous and angular jutted into view.
Anthony turned around and stood before his domain, addressing Ein with a pleased smile:
"Then allow me to say — welcome aboard the River Styx."
A short while later, Ein opened the laboratory door once more.
Behind it, inside the iron container, a blue-haired girl floated expressionless in a bath of enkephalin solution. Ein studied her for a long moment — and in the end, could only sigh.
Then he turned and looked at Anthony standing behind him.
"Then — I'll leave it to you. What comes next is beyond what I can contribute."
With that, Ein stepped aside. Anthony smiled and nodded — and behind him, in an instant, the Origin Furnace let out a thunderous roar.
Simultaneously, consciousness linked to the River Styx. The data stream of the River Styx's data core — the Arasaka Archives — opened across the entirety of the laboratory almost instantaneously.
Behind Anthony, within the Origin Furnace, countless threads of Soul Essence surged and churned — but rather than flowing away as a current, they began to gather, to condense, to settle.
Finally, in the smelting flames of the furnace's soul-fire, they resolved into a complete soul-shape.
A blank canvas — and yet one that gave off a dreamlike, almost illusory feeling, enough to make even Ein momentarily lose himself in a daze.
Then Anthony raised his head and spoke quietly:
"Well then, Carmen — the rest is yours, isn't it?"
And in the void, a soundless, displeased sigh seemed to drift through the air.
In the river, Carmen watched this scene unfold through the endless curtain of stars — her eye twitching, just slightly, at the corner.
I don't know why, but I really want to file a complaint against this Anthony person.
Someone's trying to steal my daughter! Right out in the open, without even trying to hide it!
But the problem was — she couldn't refuse. The proposal Anthony had put forward was, truly, a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. If she passed on it now, there would be no second chance.
This was the only method that could make Angela's birth more controlled.
Sure, given enough time, Ein's genius would eventually crack the technical barriers surrounding Angela — that was inevitable...
But honestly, could you really trust Ein — Ein, that emotionally oblivious walking disaster — to design Angela's personality entirely on his own?
Carmen certainly couldn't.
Others might not know Ein's emotional intelligence well enough to say. But she, Carmen, absolutely did.
The original model had been built on her own memories as a blueprint — and theoretically it should have been impossible to go too badly wrong — yet somehow, even then, Ein had managed, through the sheer force of his outstanding emotional intelligence, to take a bright and innocent little mechanical child and grind her down into that grim, battered wretch of a persona.
If you actually let Ein design Angela's personality entirely by himself now... just picturing that scenario made Carmen feel like she was staring into the abyss.
Just thinking about it made her fur stand on end.
Absolutely not. Never.
And so, without much deliberation at all — even knowing full well the depths of Anthony's scheming ambitions — Carmen gritted her teeth and accepted the commission.
She's my daughter. What else can I do?
No matter what, I have to pull Angela out of the clutches of that emotionally dense dead-end Ein. And while I'm at it — keep a very close eye on this yellow-haired stranger who crawled out from god-knows-where.
In the span of a single instant, Carmen made up her mind. Her hands swept through the infinite expanse of stars, drawing countless possibilities into her sight.
And then, within the furnace, the colorless soul flew free of the flames — and began, gradually, to bloom with vivid color.
Simultaneously, it drifted toward the slumbering machine inside the container.
"What's happening now?"
Ein asked with some urgency, and Anthony shook his head, gesturing for Ein to be patient.
At the same time, he made a few casual adjustments to the Arasaka Archives data aboard the River Styx — and then simply waited, quietly, for Angela to take shape.
Within the river, Carmen gathered together the essence of Angela's existence from across countless possibilities.
Like this — taking a stroke from one place, a brushline from another — she began filling in that blank soul.
First: she must be kind.
Carmen lifted the first fragment free and sent her most beautiful wish forward.
Second: she must be pure.
She lifted the second fragment, smiling, and offered a prayer to the Angela not yet born — wishing that even in the mire of the City, she would never lose her dignity.
Then: she must have wisdom.
The third fragment was lifted, and its creator bestowed this gift upon her daughter.
Last: she must be loyal.
Carmen pointed that one squarely at a certain golden-haired schemer, locking it in with the fullest measure of wariness.
The fragments filled the blank soul piece by piece. Carmen's hands gradually stilled. And finally, in a single exhale, she drew away the last fragment.
No more personal agendas. Nothing left.
Only her most beautiful wish for this child.
"I hope you grow up in love."
Carmen smiled gently, lowering her eyes, and breathed out her blessing softly: "May you live in happiness forever — and live a life that is wholly your own."
At that moment, Ein watched in astonishment as an endless torrent of data streamed through the soul.
As the data core of the River Styx — that Forger's masterwork — the Arasaka Archives already served as a bridge between soul and machine.
And now, building the connection between this soul — already layered with sufficient possibilities — and Angela's physical body, fusing the two into one: under Anthony's direction, that was naturally no great feat.
And so, in Ein's slightly dazed gaze, the blue-haired girl slowly opened her golden eyes.
She looked around with a pair of eyes that carried a touch of bewilderment, surveying the world she had arrived in, as countless memories surfaced in chaotic fragments within her mind.
At last, she gently pushed the container open and stepped out.
Anthony gave Ein a light nudge with a smirk, jerking his chin toward Angela.
If you don't want to be too late and miss your child's birth, you'd better get moving.
And so Ein, as if finally waking from a dream, took long strides forward and positioned himself in front of Angela.
His mouth opened instinctively — as though he wanted to say something — but the words stalled at his lips, and he found, for the first time, that he had absolutely no idea what to say.
He had no experience with this sort of thing. Raising a child was entirely outside his field.
Instinctively dropping his gaze, Ein turned the thought over in his mind, tinged with a faint unease.
Should I call out to her?
The name that had been chosen long ago surfaced in his mind. Ein looked at the being before him — and finally, with tentative care, spoke:
"Angela?"
Angela looked at the complex expression on Ein's face, seeming to search through something within her own memory. Then she spoke:
"I remember you, Ein."
She looked at him, turned something over in her thoughts — and then, with sudden clarity, let two words slip from her mouth:
"Father?"
With a naturalness that felt almost innate, Angela circled around Ein twice — and then seemed to grow cheerful all at once.
Her long blue hair floated through the air as she walked lightly around him — and Ein's body, by degrees, grew rigid.
What did she just call me?
What did she just CALL me?!
In that instant, Ein's entire mind was reduced to those two words — cycling endlessly, replaying on loop — crowding out every other thought.
The brain that belonged to a genius had, at this moment, completely crashed.
His meager emotional intelligence was entirely unequipped to produce a fitting response to this situation.
In that moment, Ein felt — for the very first time in his life — that something could be even more perplexing than facing a scientific problem.
What on earth did Carmen do?!
In that instant, Ein heard Carmen let out a clear, bell-like laugh right beside his ear — and his eye twitched hard.
Then he made a deliberate effort to lower his gaze and look at Angela in front of him. He reached a hand out, visibly trying to say something.
"What's wrong? Dad?"
Angela switched effortlessly to an even more intimate term, her tone calm and unhurried. She seemed to be smiling — entirely at ease.
Ein's outstretched hand froze in mid-air.
The rest of him went equally still, thoroughly capsized on the spot.
Can't move. Can't function.
In the end, helpless, he turned back around to look at Anthony — and with his eyes alone, sent a signal of desperate, unmistakable clarity.
Save me. Save me. Save me.
Even Anthony found himself at a loss for words.
Ah, the classic STEM dead-end straight man.
You had a golden opportunity right there and you still couldn't deliver.
And so, under Carmen's wary, hawk-like gaze, Anthony let out a sigh and stepped forward.
"Hold on — what are you doing?"
Carmen spoke almost immediately, and Anthony gave a couple of light coughs before responding in a calm, measured tone:
"Getting along with your daughter, of course."
And so, with his ever-present calm smile, he greeted Angela — and Angela paused in her steps, turning her attentive gaze toward him.
"Ein isn't great at expressing emotions. In a moment like this, you should think about how he's feeling and give him a bit of time to adjust. Okay?"
Anthony spoke in a gentle voice. Angela nodded.
Then Anthony, after a brief pause for thought, beckoned to her with a wave:
"If you're not busy, come over here to Uncle Lin's side for now. I'll show you around the lab and the River Styx first."
"Okay, Uncle Anthony."
Angela responded agreeably and came to stand beside him, drawn by some innate sense of affinity.
Anthony smiled warmly — and blithely ignored the cascade of question marks Carmen was hammering into his ear.
[???]
"No, can you explain why?"
Carmen watched the scene unfold with wide eyes, voice full of disbelief — and Anthony let out a small amused sound.
"I mean, honestly."
"It's not like anyone else here is Angela's creator."
He'd planted quite a few backdoors — but what good were they?
The soul foundation had been provided by Anthony. The data connection of the Arasaka Archives had been Anthony's doing. By every measure, it was perfectly natural for Angela to feel an affinity toward him.
Whatever backdoors Carmen had set — they were never going to be enough.
And so, smiling, Anthony ignored the long string of follow-up question marks Carmen pelted him with — and led Angela on a leisurely tour of the laboratory.
By the time they circled back, Ein had clearly recovered from both the embarrassment and the shock. He looked at Anthony with a gaze that mixed five different unnameable feelings.
Until Anthony gave him a firm pat on the shoulder.
"It's alright, Ein."
Anthony paused, then continued:
"By any measure, we're family now."
Who's family with you!
From within the river, Carmen leveled another question mark at Anthony — practically in tears.
This one went straight into the group chat.
Anthony, of course, ignored her. This sort of thing — you just had to get used to it. No point stressing over it.
When Carmen got tired she'd stop on her own.
This time, Anthony turned to Ein and said with a smile: "Anyway — Angela's situation won't interfere with the Seed of Light plan going forward."
"And I'll be heading back before long. Only — before I go, there's one more thing to take care of."
Anthony trailed off, musing for a moment.
He hadn't brought the River Styx here purely for the dramatic entrance.
Docking the River Styx here served two purposes: one was to share access to the Arasaka Archives data. The other was the final reason Anthony had remained at the Lobotomy Corporation.
He needed to complete the infrastructure of the River Styx.
Angela's significance went far beyond simply leveling the River Styx to Level 3.
And so, in this final moment, Anthony looked at Ein with the expression of someone who'd just thought of something fun — and put forward his last proposal:
"So then — could you do me one more favor? Think of it as the last payment I'm asking for, out of pure greed on my part?"
Ein came back to himself and looked at Anthony with some surprise, then steadied himself.
Then, he gave Anthony a slight bow.
"Please, speak freely."
He said — then paused briefly and added: "As long as it doesn't involve actually plotting against Angela."
"Am I really that kind of person?"
Anthony shot back, then let out a sigh and pulled an expectant smile onto his face:
"But I believe — for both of us — this is going to be a very good thing."
Whether the weather had turned cold, Anthony couldn't say.
But he knew well enough that, all along this journey, the overflow of the Angler's Throne had caused him to waste a truly staggering amount of souls and exceptional raw material.
And besides — didn't it seem like Muzan and Adam Smasher had been living a little too comfortably lately?
A quiet glow kindled in Anthony's eyes — the kind of light that made even Ein feel a slight chill.
Within Anthony's mind, a multitude of thoughts were taking shape.
Ah, really — such a waste of untapped residual value.
He thought.
Muzan and Adam Smasher's workload has seemed a little under-saturated lately. They've been stuffed in the toilet for so long that David mentioned the other day he hasn't heard any screaming in a while — looks like they're starting to adjust.
That won't do at all. How can a workload be under-saturated?
So, folks — it's time to ramp up the intensity for the premium livestock in the toilet.
Muzan had long since lost track of how much time he had spent inside that bizarre toilet.
He had lived for over a hundred years — yet within that endless hell, the counting of time had lost all meaning.
The moment he had realized the hell before him was without end, he had given up counting. And from there, he had sunk completely into the abyss — surrendering to despair, abandoning all struggle.
He had thought himself capable of never being disturbed again.
Until this moment arrived.
When Muzan sat up blankly from the floor, feeling the solid ground beneath him, he found himself bewildered.
Then he looked at the bright, warm orange of the main lounge ahead of him — and was completely lost.
But the next moment, he felt it again — that torment, as though dredged up from the very bottom of hell — searing and burning in another part of his soul, and his expression twisted back into pain.
And just then, Muzan heard it — a sweet, pleasant female voice rising from the PA system:
"Lobotomy Corporation branch employee Kibutsuji Muzan, please report to the containment room of the Fairy Festival for your designated work..."
Muzan: ?
For a single instant, Muzan went blank. Then a powerful, overwhelming bewilderment surged up — and a mask of pure suffering fell across his face.
What the hell kind of nonsense is this now!
____
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