"Blergh!"
The moment he returned to the main hall, Lin Wei scrambled towards the nearest trash can, burying his head inside and retching violently.
That was traumatizing! Thank god I didn't bring anyone else!
Even as he vomited uncontrollably, a sliver of relief ran through Lin Wei's mind. Yuno's fragile nerves wouldn't have withstood that level of psychological assault...
"Tch, look at you, so pathetic. Truly unsightly~"
Mobius floated silently behind Lin Wei, a malicious smile playing on her lips as she savored his wretched state. Her words didn't fail to deliver further sarcastic barbs.
"It was merely observing the experiment for a while... What, you can't even handle that much?"
You talk tough, but can you actually handle it yourself?
"You... Blergh!"
Lin Wei, his stomach still churning, was infuriated. He managed to suppress his physical discomfort slightly, lifted his head, and started cursing.
"You damn... Ugh..."
The instant he saw Mobius's face, another violent wave surged through Lin Wei's stomach. He lowered his head again, lost in another bout of retching.
"Hahahahahahaha!"
Mobius burst into even louder, more unrestrained laughter. For some reason, seeing Lin Wei bullied into such a miserable state brought her immense pleasure and doubled her joy.
"Mobius..."
Only after he had vomited until even bile ran out, with absolutely nothing left to expel, did Lin Wei weakly protest.
"You... You'd have to be a ghost for anyone to actually like you!"
Heaven knows what Lin Wei just went through!
...
"First, hand me the scalpel and the hemostat."
Mobius gestured towards the storage cabinet with her eyes, issuing commands to Lin Wei as if he were truly her assistant.
By the time Lin Wei returned with the requested items, one of the two incubation pods had been opened. The male body, identical to his own, lay stark naked on a pristine experiment table, every detail exposed under the focused glare of dozens of lights.
"Ah, this..."
Lin Wei felt a wave of awkwardness wash over him, as if he were the one lying naked there. For a moment, he even felt the urge to make the unreasonable request, "Maybe we should just forget about it?"
"What are you standing there gawking for?"
Mobius, now fully in scientist mode, expressed dissatisfaction at Lin Wei's. She shot him a glance like a teacher looking at an "underachieving student."
Then, pulling on gloves, she snatched the scalpel from Lin Wei's hand. A cruel smile spread across her face as she leaned down and, without hesitation, made an incision on the body that was a perfect replica of Lin Wei.
Pshhh!
A spurt of hot blood sprayed out, splattering across Lin Wei's face.
"..."
The utterly bizarre experience of being splashed by "his own blood" made Lin Wei's scalp crawl. Staring at the identical face on the body now steadily bleeding, Lin Wei momentarily felt as if he were the one lying there, experiencing phantom pain in the corresponding part of his own body.
If he hadn't immediately used Pandora to scan himself and confirm there was nothing wrong, that it was purely psychological, he might have truly lost control.
As for the earlier embarrassment of being "seen naked," it had instantly become irrelevant, vanishing the moment the incision was made.
"Hemostat."
Mobius's voice became devoid of emotion. She held up a small, blood-stained hand, demanding the next instrument from Lin Wei.
If things had stopped there, it wouldn't have been that bad. It would have just been observing a peculiar human dissection—the only unsettling part being that the dissected body intensely provoked Lin Wei's nerves.
But Mobius's understanding of "dissection" clearly far surpassed Lin Wei's comprehension, trampling wildly upon his sanity...
This green-haired scientist, whose petite frame and youthful face resembled that of a young girl, hummed a strange little tune Lin Wei had previously only heard from Eden. With incredibly deft movements, she proceeded to dismantle the body on the table into pieces—literally into pieces.
Lin Wei watched, horrified, as Mobius, with blinding speed and technique, meticulously stripped away the muscles, bones, nervous system, circulatory system, and more from the complete body. Unflinchingly, she placed these gruesome components into prepared life-support systems, ensuring they remained viable and full of vitality even in this "specimen" state...
When had Lin Wei ever witnessed such a scene?
By this point, he already desperately wanted to vomit, only managing to hold it back through sheer willpower. But clearly, it wasn't over—
Like an energetic little bird, Mobius flitted excitedly between various instruments. Employing knife skills that would make even ancient master butchers exclaim "divine technique," she further broke down the separated "body systems" into even smaller tissues.
Then, humming her tune again, she examined each "sample" meticulously under a microscope, jotting down line after line of complex data Lin Wei couldn't comprehend into a thick notebook beside her...
Next, after Mobius had satisfactorily completed all her experimental work, Lin Wei watched, numbly, as she reassembled the dismantled tissues—none larger than a spicy snack strip, completely unrecognizable as human parts—back into their original places, like assembling building blocks.
Finally, Mobius's last suturing movements concluded gracefully under Lin Wei's already somewhat numb gaze. The body, identical to his own, reappeared on the experiment table, almost completely intact, its chest rising and falling gently, as if merely asleep...
Lin Wei's participation was not required from beginning to end. The only tasks he performed were handing Mobius a scalpel and a hemostat.
"What a pity. This is ultimately just a replica created based on previously collected biological data."
Mobius's serpentine eyes flickered towards the pale-faced Lin Wei nearby, a dangerous glint appearing. She spoke with feigned regret.
"If possible, I'd really like to perform an identical set of comparative experiments on you, to see if this replica and the real you are truly identical?"
"...Ugh!"
Mobius's light, airy words were the last straw. Lin Wei could no longer control the convulsions in his stomach. He fled Mobius's laboratory as if escaping for his life, retreated back into the Elysian Realm proper, and returned to the main hall, where he vomited until the world spun...
...
Lin Wei had never met such a person before, couldn't even imagine such a person could exist—
She could take the human body, an incredibly complex structure evolved over millions of years, and casually slice it into a pile of scattered parts, then piece those fragments back together exactly as they were, as easily as playing a well-practiced game of building blocks.
"Mobius, I think I finally understand why you hold humans in such contempt."
After resting limply for a while, the devastated Lin Wei finally regained a little color.
"Being able to manipulate the human body to your extent... it truly makes it easy to lose reverence for the very existence of 'humanity'..."
Indeed, when "life" loses all mystery in someone's eyes, even becoming a toy they can manipulate at will, who could possibly demand they continue to hold it in awe as before?
"Heh, just got a bit of your soul back, and you're already eager to lecture again?"
Back in the main hall, Mobius reverted to her usual disdainful demeanor. Stretching languidly and comfortably, she clicked her tongue and sneered.
"I thought you'd be scared off the moment you saw me!"
Over fifty thousand years, the only people who could witness Mobius's experimental process without fleeing in terror or feeling revulsion, besides the few assistants in her lab, were, counting everyone, just Elysia and Dr. Mei.
Elysia, that traitor, was an exception. Her way of thinking was different; she seemed naturally devoid of negative emotions like fear, disgust, or anger, always wearing that annoying smile for everyone.
As for Mei...
Mobius clearly remembered that little girl, just a naive middle schooler when they first met. The first time Mei proactively asked to observe her experiment, she reacted worse than anyone, practically fainting on the spot from fright. After waking up, just like Lin Wei, she clung to a trash can, vomiting and crying uncontrollably.
But that little girl also showed more resilience than anyone. After crying and vomiting her fill, she simply took the mouthwash Kevin offered, cleaned herself up briefly, then calmly refused her boyfriend's heartfelt pleas to stop. Stubbornly, she stood before Mobius's operating table once more.
And then, continued to vomit...
"For humanity's future, someone needs to bear these sins."
It was her test for Mei. Mei passed. Mobius was pleased.
Later, Mei gradually grew accustomed to the cruel, bloody scenes and smells, becoming composed and nonchalant, even proactively offering to join her research project. Mobius was even more pleased.
From then on, like a dedicated teacher, Mobius practically guided this "student"—who wasn't actually part of Mobius's lab—step-by-step, teaching her everything she knew. Fortunately, Mei learned diligently and possessed immense talent, reaching a level comparable to Mobius's own in a very short time.
If not for that, how could Mobius, the proposer and controller of the highly controversial "MANTIS Project," already criticized for its extremely high mortality rate, entrust the scalpel for the first clinical trial to this unknown junior?
It was because Mei's will earned her recognition, and her talent earned her deep admiration. Events proved Mobius's judgment correct.
In the days that followed, they not only completed the "Stigma Project" together but also independently expanded upon the "MANTIS Project," opening new possibilities. Mobius's achievement was undoubtedly the "Artificial Cascade Form," significantly increasing the "depth" of MANTIS abilities.
Mei, too, produced her own "SWARA Project," greatly expanding the "breadth" of MANTIS capabilities. From this perspective, Hua was likely one of the very few "works" they "completed together."
Unlike the purely idealistic Mobius, Mei, while also an idealist, harbored a deep pessimism within her soul.
This unique trait certainly endowed her with a romance and empathy lacking in most geniuses, but it also made her even more fanatical on another level. In short, she possessed a tenacity and thirst for knowledge that even frightened Mobius, along with a greed to perfect everything...
This greed propelled her to heights everyone looked up to in an incredibly short time. Not only did she become Mobius's equal in biological research, eventually even taking the lead as time went on, but she also reached a level in weapons and equipment development that left even Vill-V feeling inadequate.
The genius concept of the Zeroth Divine Key actually tempted the usually arrogant Vill-V to secretly try and replicate it—something truly out of character for her...
Beyond that, this amazing individual single-handedly shouldered numerous other equally important projects, such as the development of the "Prometheus" artificial intelligence system, exploration of the Sea of Quanta, and gradually taking over the exploration of the moon, among others...
Besides managing nearly all of the Fire Moth' scientific research, she somehow found the energy to engage in political struggles with the stubborn old guard in the upper echelons, later becoming deeply involved in the internal governance of the Fire Moth and the tactical command against the Honkai...
It was hard to imagine just how terrifying the potential hidden within the body of that little girl, who remained in a fragile, original human form until her death, truly was.
Even Mobius herself couldn't have predicted that the naive young girl she first discovered at an ordinary academic seminar would ultimately walk such a difficult and lonely path.
Through her undeniable achievements, as an ordinary human girl, she effortlessly commanded the respect of the entire Fire Moth, including all the MANTISes, becoming the undisputed leader of humanity...
Mobius had never submitted to anyone in her life. Mei was the sole exception. Otherwise, did anyone really think they had the right to reject her proposals fifteen times in a row?
Not to mention, it was her own "Stigma Project"!!
It was her creation, yet somehow she ended up being the subordinate party. How could things be so upside-down?
What a pity...
Mobius reminisced, a touch of regret in her thoughts.
Pity she died, her curtain falling alongside the entire era...
Mobius often couldn't help but wonder: if Mei had been given a stronger body, more time, what incredible things could that girl have achieved?
After entering the Elysian Realm, she always felt an indescribable loneliness, because the one person who should have been there was missing.
Though no one ever mentioned it, Mobius knew that it wasn't just Kevin; everyone there regretted Mei's absence...
And now, for reasons even Mobius herself might not fully comprehend, she had subjected Lin Wei to a similar trial, driven by hidden thoughts she couldn't quite unravel.
Perhaps I wanted to see if he could truly be my kindred spirit, not just someone who talks big but ultimately disappoints?
Mobius thought darkly—of course, the malicious satisfaction of seeing him embarrassed was also a factor.
"Fleeing in panic? Get lost!"
Lin Wei jumped up as if provoked, pointing angrily at Mobius, spitting furiously as he ranted.
"I suffered so much this time! If you don't give me a satisfactory result afterward, I'm not done with you!"
The psychological trauma was too deep. Lin Wei almost wanted to run to Hua and beg her for a "Great Memory Wipe Technique" to escape his suffering.
But, one couldn't suffer for nothing, couldn't take a loss without compensation!
So, after much deliberation, Lin Wei decided to grit his teeth and endure it. He could always settle the score with Mobius later!
"..."
Mobius recoiled a significant distance with a look of disgust, afraid Lin Wei's spit might land on her. She glared and reprimanded him disapprovingly.
"Watch your mouth!"
"None of your business!"
Lin Wei, slumped weakly on the bench, waved his hand dismissively, deciding to end the pointless argument.
"Your research isn't finished yet, right? When does the next experiment start?"
This abrupt shift caught Mobius off guard. She eyed him suspiciously.
"What, still reeling from vomiting just now, yet already impatient for more?"
"What's wrong with vomiting? Seeing that stuff of yours, not vomiting would be abnormal, wouldn't it?"
Lin Wei shot her an exasperated glare, then spoke with a pained expression.
"But vomiting aside, the project still needs to move forward..."
"..."
Lin Wei's calm, matter-of-fact attitude surprised Mobius slightly. She had expected him to need much longer for psychological recovery.
Although his attitude was somewhat satisfactory, Mobius's venomous tongue clearly wasn't ready to let Lin Wei off the hook easily. She spoke in a tempting tone.
"What, not considering staying far away from my lab and just waiting for me to give you a detailed research report in the end?"
"Absolutely not!"
Lin Wei wiped his face, instantly rejecting Mobius's "proposal."
"The Elysian Realm can't directly affect reality. The research results you get from those replicas can't be directly applied to the real world. Won't I have to figure that out myself later anyway?" Lin Wei said miserably.
"Since that's the case, learning something from you in advance is better than being completely clueless when the time comes, right?"
"...Heh, guess you have some backbone after all. Not completely hopeless."
Mobius responded noncommittally to Lin Wei's attitude, tossing out a harsh evaluation before turning to leave.
"Keep up. There's still a lot of work to do."
"Sigh..."
Lin Wei sighed, following her with a pained expression.
Half an hour later, Lin Wei returned to the main hall again, looking utterly wretched.
"Blergh... Waaah!"