Water was water.
Mercury was mercury.
It was as simple as that, Melissa knew as she looked at the vial in Dr. Blessed's hand.
With that, she finally understood why he had put the Inorganic Ingredients on a much more difficult tier compared to the Organic ones.
Using Bioalchemy, Dr. Blessed could create brand-new organic life, native to Mr. Fool's world.
By combining the organic materials taken from these creatures with the special ingredient he hadn't revealed yet, he could make the final ingredient needed for a specific Sequence's Potion.
So, even if these alien plants and animals had no Corruption, their presence was still enough to brew a Potion.
But what about inorganic materials?
If a Potion called for 10 ml of Distilled Water — even if it had no Corruption just like the organic materials — how could anyone tell the difference between distilled water from this world and distilled water from Mr. Fool's world?
And that applied to every other material, whether it was an element or a compound.
It wasn't just hard.
Solving the problem of inorganic ingredients was downright impossible!
Yet Melissa knew it couldn't be impossible, because her own presence as a Beyonder proved that Leader had already solved it.
The question was: how?
"How many isotopes does mercury have?" Dr. Blessed asked.
"Stable ones?" Melissa answered. "Seven."
Was the difference between this world's mercury and the mercury from Mr. Fool's world just a matter of isotopes?
No, that made no sense.
Isotopes of the same element had almost the same chemical properties.
It didn't matter if you made them in a lab, found them in deep space, or pulled them out of thin air.
That was just basic science.
Dr. Blessed smiled at her confusion, pulled a tablet from the desk drawer, and handed it to her. "Test results," he said, opening the file. "A comparison between this mercury and a normal sample from our world."
Melissa pushed her glasses up and looked through the data and diagrams.
At first, she saw no difference at all, which made her frown.
Then, suddenly, she jumped to her feet.
"This… this…" Melissa stammered, her eyes wide as she stared back at the vial in Dr. Blessed's hand. "… How?! This shouldn't be possible… It shouldn't even exist!"
"The difference isn't chemical," Leader explained. "Both samples are mercury. Both have eighty protons. But the mercury from Mr. Fool's world exists in an exotic nuclear state — an unnaturally stable one. That's why I call these inorganic ingredients Exotic Isotopes. It's this unusual quantum setup that lets them react with the special ingredient when brewing a Potion."
Even while listening to this wild scientific explanation, Melissa saw another huge problem.
Even if Leader was right, and substances across dimensions really did have different exotic structures…
"… How did you even get it?" Melissa asked, completely baffled. "There is no technology that can make an Exotic Isotope like this. And it's not just about having the machines, either. It's about keeping it stable and getting enough of it. It's about making it over and over again without fail… No machine today can do this — not for another decade or two, maybe longer. Unless you're using magic or something—"
Create…
Creation…
Creation!
Melissa slowly dropped back into her chair, staring dumbfounded at Leader's knowing smile.
"As His Blessed," Dr. Blessed said, "I receive the exact atomic blueprint of these materials straight from Him. Then, I give that information to Momo Yaoyorozu, who uses her Creation Quirk to bring these Exotic Isotopes into reality. 'Luke' is supposed to have the Raven Quirk — which allows him to use different Quirks through Nyx by consuming these special items. So, as far as UA and Momo are concerned…"
Leader left the rest unsaid.
He didn't need to finish the sentence.
In that single second, Melissa finally understood why Luke was at UA, and why he was trying to be a Hero.
Neither Momo nor UA would ever think twice about helping a promising student grow stronger.
Besides, the Raven Quirk, while nowhere near as strong as Bioalchemy, still sounded like a power that could change the world.
What Pro Hero in their right mind would stop to question where an exotic material came from if it helped a student?
Melissa was sure Momo had noticed how strange the blueprints were.
The girl must have just ignored the impossible science behind the structures appearing in Luke's head, choosing to care only about the results… just like most Heroes did.
"The special ingredient is my blood," Leader said, dropping another shock out of nowhere. "That's what makes me… Blessed."
Melissa opened her mouth, closed it, and opened it again before giving up.
After everything she had heard in the last thirty minutes, finding out Leader's blood was the source of all the Corruption barely even registered.
"Why?" Melissa asked quietly. "Why are you telling me all this, Leader?"
It was obvious by now that he had brought her here for a specific reason.
"Remember that topic I said we'd return to?" Dr. Blessed asked, leaning back in his seat.
Melissa nodded.
"Beyonder Creatures are living things with Beyonder Characteristics," Dr. Blessed said. "In our terms… creatures with Quirks. The Quirks I give using Bioalchemy only last a few minutes at best. I've spent years trying to break through that natural limit. But time after time, I've failed. Well… except for two cases."
Melissa went dead silent.
She glanced at Nyx, who was still sitting on her shoulder, while thinking of Mushroom-nimi.
Dr. Blessed leaned forward, his face dead serious.
"With the threat of the Monocles and the Claws getting worse, and with no end in sight," he said, "it's time I finally reach that goal. That's why I told you all this, Miss Shield. Because to pull off what I have in mind, I have to cross some… lines. Because to make this work…
"… I need Quirk Amplification Device — and I don't have the engineering skills to build one, unlike you."