It must be that pink little fatty causing trouble again. In the Eternal Paradise, she had always been overly friendly with a certain Thunder Herrscher.
Ryan left the room and immediately realized that Elysia was definitely up to some mischief. Even when she heard his footsteps, she didn't let go. As for why, he wasn't sure, but the result made him somewhat annoyed.
This little fatty probably thought things weren't complicated enough and was almost tangling everything into a yarn ball.
He could almost see a relationship diagram, with complex arrows tying together Mobius, Hua, Sakura, and Elysia. There were stubborn ones, troublemakers, and some clueless ones. It was all just so complicated, even Sakura, who was a rare normal person, got dragged into it.
Just as he was thinking about it, his phone beeped again. Ryan pulled it out and couldn't help but twitch his mouth.
[Senior Brother, heard from Elysia that you have already recovered from your injuries?]
[Barbarian, are you alive? If you're dead, make sure Elysia brings your corpse back, I still have use for it.]
Normally, it wouldn't have bothered him much, but now, comparing it, it was truly annoying. Mobius was always cold and proud to others, but to him, but why is She so rude to me?
This wasn't a question worth considering, because Ryan suddenly realizes that he is also rude to Mobius..
"Forget it, the more I deal with her, the worse it gets." Ryan deleted the rude words and focused on answering Hua.
[Actually, I didn't really need to be hospitalized. But the Fire Moths had to boost public morale, so they pushed me out, and I took the opportunity to escape.]
[Why? Senior Brother, don't you want to be a hero?]
[I do want to, but I don't want to be shamelessly praised. From what I've seen, I really don't think this is a great victory.]
Ryan leaned against the railing, staring at the wall across from him. He saw the purgatory of North Britain and the crowded Thames River, but he just didn't have the mood to read from a speech about grand ideals.
Corruption wasn't just a war, and it wasn't something that could be fought off with rifles. In other words, the vast majority of humans were just bystanders.
The phone was silent for a while, and Ryan felt as if he saw a girl deep in thought amidst the broken walls. It took a long time before the vibration came.
[Although I don't understand, Senior Brother, you must be right.]
This girl was still as boring as ever. It felt like discussing work with an old-fashioned person—she didn't even use emojis.
Ryan shook his head and then steered the conversation himself:
[After the first stage injection of the supermutation factor, how do you feel?]
Hua also underwent the surgery, but not with the Garuda, because who knew when the Judgment-level Corruption Beast would show up. They couldn't just wait idly.
So Mobius chose according to cell synchronization rate, and coincidentally, it was Ryan who had fought the Emperor-level Corruption Beast, Adedo, in the Far East.
[I've begun to grasp the morphological changes in Honkai energy. It matches well with the technique of the Inch Heart Fist, with both offensive and defensive capabilities, especially in terms of lethality...]
Ryan immediately saw a short thesis, accompanied by a short video. He saw the crimson energy transform into swords and shields, or even into armor covering the forearm.
After all, it had fused into the body. The fusion warriors understood it more deeply than Ryan, even surpassing the original Corruption Beast's abilities.
[As long as it's useful. You need to keep familiarizing yourself with the ability.]
[Yes, Senior Brother.]
[Don't worry too much about the future. To break through your limits, you first need to reach them.]
[Understood, Senior Brother.]
...
Ryan gave more instructions until Hua replied, "The Captain wants us to continue forward," and Ryan finally let out a sigh of relief. Chatting with this girl had made him act more serious than usual—it really took a lot of energy.
He was about to put the phone back when he felt it vibrate. He pulled it out and saw a short message.
[I'll miss you, Senior Brother. When I come back, I'll definitely impress you.]
Just a few short words made Ryan smile and stretch lazily.
The girl had grown up.
Among all the troublesome things, seeing the growth of people around him instantly lifted his mood.
The chat between women seemed to have come to an end.
He thought for a moment and started heading back. Halfway there, his phone rang again. Ryan pulled it out, looked at the caller, and helplessly pressed the call button.
"Hello, Mobius..."
"Why didn't you reply to my messages?!" The woman voice was a little shrill, full of deep dissatisfaction.
Ryan immediately held the phone away from his ear and already had a response ready: "Mobius, I'm an injured person, I don't keep my phone next to me while resting, and I was sleeping soundly when you disturbed me..."
"Don't start with that! Why did you reply to that little girl, huh? You choose who to wake up, huh?!"
"Did You installed a bug equipment on Hua phone?" Ryan expression changed instantly.
"No, I just said it casually, and you admitted it." Mobius sneered, crossing her black stocking-clad long legs. Her high heels were halfway off, and she was gently swinging them on the tip of her toes.
Ah, she's trying to set me up?
Ryan clenched his teeth in frustration, realizing his lack of vigilance, falling right into her trap.
"So you're calling just to rebuke me?" he asked.
Shouldn't she scold me for not answering her call?
Mobius traced circles on the table with her finger and said, "Do I look that free? I'm just curious, is the Fourth Herrscher useful?"
Her words were vague, but Ryan understood what she meant. The Fourth Herrscher was definitely useful, and it confirmed one hypothesis—one could have more than one authority.
"She's interesting. She's going to keep me thinking for a while."
Just as expected.
Mobius narrowed her eyes. She accidentally kicked her high heels off her toes, and her expression became more excited.
What a wonderful life, with nearly infinite potential for evolution!
She had once thought of transplanting a Herrscher core into a human to create a fully evolved being. This had been the limit of her imagination.
But Ryan didn't have a Herrscher core. Instead, he had authority. Not just one, but two. Didn't that mean...
"I somewhat regret my previous patience. I should've found you before the First Herrscher."
"Enough. Abilities are earned by battling. First, I have to be able to defeat a Herrscher." Ryan wasn't as excited as Mobius might have expected.
"Oh? I thought you would be overjoyed."
"Herrscher is an existing entity, what's there to be overjoyed about? Unless she becomes even more special."
Ryan hummed. He was calm, unlike the excitement he felt after the battle in Canghai, which was driven by fate. He had always been good at finding shortcomings.
Corruption energy was still Corruption energy. More authority required more energy, especially with the ideas of combining wind and thunder, which consumed a lot of energy.
But MP wouldn't come quickly, and the Corruption world didn't have a concept of "passing on techniques."
Mobius fell silent. She probably understood what Ryan strengths were. Rather than overwhelming power, it was his victory through technique.
When Corruption energy reaches an extremely high level, combined with several authorities, what kind of monster would that be?
"I just want to see how far you can go and what kind of surprises you'll bring me."
"Then just keep waiting," Ryan saw someone coming down the corridor and hurriedly said, "I have something to do, I'm hanging up."
"Wait... Hey, hey, damn it, this bastard!" Mobius angrily threw her phone down, slamming the table. She was trying to show concern for Ryan body, but this bastard just hung up on her.
She clenched her teeth, saw the phone on the floor, and quickly ran to pick it up. The screen was cracked. She couldn't help but feel a pang of heartache.
'It's been two years, and I haven't been willing to replace it.' She quickly walked back to the table, opened the drawer, and took out a notebook.
It was filled with Ryan debts to her, and at the end, she made a heavy note.
Ryan still didn't know that Mobius had potential as an accountant. He put his phone back in his pocket and walked toward the person coming toward him. The person was wrapped in bandages, leaning on a crutch, and the purple hair that used to be slightly flashy was now shaved into a flat top.
Vinal stopped when he saw Ryan, and a bitter smile appeared on his face.
"Dr. Ryan, didn't expect you to be hospitalized too."
"Captain Vinal, I was just about to visit someone when I ran into you. The Battle of Britain, I owe it to you." Ryan was good at socializing, and Vinal expression softened. The battle had been tough for them, and Ryan had stolen the spotlight, but now it seemed he had misjudged him.
"The Herrscher was defeated by you. You are the hero of millions of Britons, and we didn't do much to help."
"Not at all, heroes aren't just one. Without you guys drawing enemy forces and letting the Wind Herrscher relax, I wouldn't have had the chance to act."
"Uh, we were just fighting on the outskirts, never even saw the Herrscher."
"The battlefield is a whole. There's no such thing as primary or secondary. Want me to take you back to the hospital?" Vinal shook his head, thinking that Ryan probably had something to ask. But Ryan was a good person, so he didn't mind interacting more.
"Let's walk in the garden."
"Alright."
The two patients went down the stairs, chatting along the way. Ryan then learned that their twelve-person squad had lost three people, five were seriously injured, and after the Battle of Britain, they had almost lost their combat ability.
In fact, there were quite a few fusion warriors. On the original world line, they could have sent out units in the thousands to take down a Herrscher. But people like Vinal, who were anonymous, were different.
They were living beings—who could feel pain and fear. But Ryan wasn't the type to sigh deeply. He just held the railing and gazed at the river.
"The Battle of Britain, every unit suffered heavy losses. Europe is going to need some rest."
"Yeah, but if it weren't for you, humanity would have been defeated." Vinal said it seriously, and Ryan accepted the compliment without hesitation.
With the lives of several fusion warriors and tens of thousands of soldiers, exchanging it for a Herrscher wasn't a bad deal.
"These are problems for the higher-ups, Captain Vinal. I want to ask you something." Ryan turned to him with a serious expression.
"Is that Ed from your squad mutated?"