For actions that disregard one's own life and health, all Takatsuki and Seele could do was advise.
Even if they tied these people to the clinic, if the patient didn't cooperate, how could the doctor treat them?
Takatsuki did have ways to quickly treat them. The Horse Talisman's power could cure illnesses, and Orario's potions could heal injuries, both of which were immediately effective.
But Takatsuki couldn't stay here forever.
It's not about scarcity, but about unevenness.
He couldn't just treat a part of them and ignore the lives of others.
"Takatsuki, are the miracle drug and Dr. Vaughn that the patient mentioned..."
Seele didn't finish her sentence, as this guess was too cruel. Although Seele was kind, she wasn't naive or foolish.
"They're experimenting on the people of the Underworld, right?"
Takatsuki said it without hesitation.
This kind of thing wasn't hard to guess, nor was it uncommon. After all, there's no such thing as a free lunch anywhere.
If there is, then that lunch is definitely bait thrown by the person throwing it.
What they are after is something bigger than the lunch itself.
When Takatsuki and Seele told Natasha this news, Natasha sighed.
"Vaughn, he's my brother."
A shocking truth came from Natasha's mouth.
"He believed that humanity's fear of cold was a disease, so he was obsessed with creating a medicine called 'Blizzard Immunity' so that people could leave Belobog and survive in new places. What he distributed were actually medicines he used for experiments. He used the pretense of free distribution to have patients test their efficacy, and many patients suffered severe torment as a result."
Natasha shook her head: "Therefore, Oleg, the leader of the Wildfire, and I permanently exiled him from the Underworld, forbidding him from ever returning."
"If you don't believe me..."
Takatsuki shook his head: "Of course we believe you, Dr. Natasha. There's naturally no such thing as a free lunch."
Natasha showed a relieved smile.
"Thank you for your trust, Takatsuki. Then can I ask you to help with one more thing?"
"Tell me."
"I hope you can help me find the Mutual Aid Society's base and destroy that batch of medicine. I think they must have found Vaughn's old laboratory and started selling the medicine again. Their actions of harming people for profit are something I, as a doctor, cannot forgive."
Natasha, who had always spoken in a gentle tone, showed some anger at the end, clearly, these people's actions had touched her bottom line.
"No problem, we actually already found out that the Mutual Aid Society is in Rivet Town."
"Rivet Town!?"
Seeing Natasha's surprised look, Takatsuki nodded: "Yes, what's wrong with Rivet Town?"
"You just came to the Underworld, so you don't know. Rivet Town has already been eroded by the Fragmentum, and there are many Fragmentum creatures wandering inside. All the townspeople have now evacuated from Rivet Town, how dare they…"
Takatsuki had already learned about the Fragmentum from their previous conversation.
They didn't know much, nor did they know where the Fragmentum came from, but they knew that this thing called the Fragmentum would erode living beings and inorganic matter, and then produce some Fragmentum creatures that would attack living people.
Takatsuki felt that this thing called the Fragmentum, how was it somewhat similar to Honkai?
Should it be said that it lives up to being a Mihoyo product?
However, Takatsuki also confirmed that this world was not Teyvat from Genshin Impact, after all, there were no Fragmentum or galaxy settings in Teyvat.
In the end, it could be said to be a world similar to Honkai, but different.
After learning that the so-called Mutual Aid Society was in Rivet Town, Natasha changed her previous request.
"In that case, you'd better not go."
Compared to an illegal drug-selling organization, she was more concerned about the safety of Takatsuki and the others.
"Rivet Town is very dangerous now. As for that Mutual Aid Society, just leave them be. It wouldn't be good if you encountered danger because of them."
After this matter came to a hasty end, there was nothing more Takatsuki and Seele could help Natasha with. After leaving Natasha's clinic, Takatsuki asked Seele, "Seele, are you afraid of fighting monsters?"
Seele, holding Takatsuki's hand, looked at Takatsuki and blinked, quickly understanding what Takatsuki meant.
"Takatsuki-nii, if you want to go, then go. Seele is fine."
"Thank you, Seele. Don't worry, I won't let those monsters get close to you."
With Takatsuki's current methods, monsters that these local residents could defeat with some effort could naturally be easily defeated by Takatsuki.
He led Seele towards Rivet Town.
Although the so-called Mutual Aid Society was in Rivet Town, in reality, they didn't dare to go deep into Rivet Town. They merely took advantage of the fact that others dared not enter Rivet Town, establishing a stronghold on the edge of Rivet Town.
Without encountering any monsters, Takatsuki and Seele arrived at the place the previous patient had mentioned.
However, just as they reached the entrance, two people darted out from the corner.
"Who are you!"
One tall and one short, one fat and one thin, the two stood in front of Takatsuki and Seele like door gods.
"We are here to buy medicine."
"Buy medicine?"
The tall, thin man sized up Takatsuki and Seele. Perhaps because his gaze was too aggressive, Seele hid behind Takatsuki, and the other party didn't bother to observe a child closely.
"How come I've never seen you!"
"Isn't this my first time here because my friend told me there were special medicines for sale? Besides, you don't know everyone, do you?"
Takatsuki said casually, but even so, the other party looked at Takatsuki suspiciously.
"You want special medicine, right? Five hundred Shields. Just give me the money directly, and I'll give you the medicine. You don't need to go inside."
Takatsuki scratched his head in confusion: "You give me the medicine? Is that true? Don't trick me."
"Hey, I said I'd give you the medicine and you don't believe me? Are you buying or not? If not, get out!"
Takatsuki shook his head: "It's not my fault. Look at this place of yours, located within Rivet Town, where Fragmentum creatures are everywhere. Before seeing the medicine, who knows if it's some fake medicine?"
Takatsuki said as he pulled out a handful of Shields: "I brought the money, so of course I want to buy medicine, but if you don't let me see the medicine, how can I feel confident buying it?"
"You want to see the medicine, right? Wait here."
It seemed that because he saw the money Takatsuki took out, the other party's attitude improved slightly, but only slightly.
Soon, the fat guard came out, holding a paper bag. He opened the paper bag, and Takatsuki saw the pills inside.
"See? These are the special medicines left by Dr. Vaughn. They are much more effective than that woman's medicine. You should know Dr. Vaughn, right?"
Takatsuki looked at the medicine in front of him, then handed the Shields in his hand to the other party: "Of course I know him, otherwise we wouldn't have come to buy medicine, would we?"
The other party weighed the money in his hand, revealing a satisfied expression: "Consider yourself sensible. Here, this is your medicine."
After leaving the stronghold with Seele, Takatsuki opened the paper bag and had his Stand hold it while he picked up a pill and sniffed it.
Although Takatsuki's medical skill level was not high, he could still simply judge some of the medicinal effects.
Under Seele's worried gaze, Takatsuki scraped some powder from the medicine and put it into his mouth.
"Ptooey!"
Spitting out the powder in his mouth, Takatsuki looked grimly at the medicine in his hand.
"Takatsuki-nii, what's wrong?"
"Nothing, it's just these medicines…"
Takatsuki didn't even think about keeping the medicine. He immediately had his Stand silently destroy it with a bomb before speaking.
"This kind of thing is like a stimulant, activating the body's potential, and it has huge side effects. People with good physiques, after taking the medicine, can quickly feel themselves recovering their health, but in reality, it leaves huge hidden dangers in their bodies. And those with poor physiques, after taking this medicine, will basically never be able to leave their beds for the rest of their lives."
"How could this be… Takatsuki-nii, we must stop them."
Takatsuki nodded: "I think so too, but we can't do it ourselves."
Regarding Dr. Vaughn, many people in the Underworld thought Vaughn was a good doctor, and that Natasha persecuted Vaughn because she wanted to gain profit.
Furthermore, both of them were outsiders, and if they acted personally, it would inevitably invite criticism.
"Well, we just need to destroy those medicines, right?"
"Yes, but how can we do it without making them suspect us and Natasha?"
If he were alone, Takatsuki could use the characteristics of Time Erase to achieve perfect infiltration, but at this moment, he was also with Seele.
Seele thought for a moment and said, "Can we use those Fragmentum creatures to scare these people away? That way, wouldn't we be able to get to the medicines inside?"
Seele's suggestion made Takatsuki's eyes light up.
"You're right, Seele, let's go see if there are any suitable monsters."
Maximizing his aura perception, Takatsuki led Seele to the closest Fragmentum creature with the weakest energy reaction.
"It's a mosquito."
Looking at the monster below that resembled the Honkai Beast called a mosquito, Takatsuki seemed a bit disgusted.
"Takatsuki-nii, why do you call it a mosquito?"
Seele asked curiously, looking at the monster below that was entirely composed of ice crystals.
"Oh, that's because in our world, there's a Honkai Beast that looks very similar to it, and we call it a mosquito."
Takatsuki explained, while waving his hand and shooting a sword from the Gate of Babylon, piercing the monster in the distance.
With just one strike, without even using Broken Phantasm, the monster turned into ice crystals and vanished without a trace.
"It seems its strength isn't great. Let's find some stronger ones."
After testing its approximate strength, Takatsuki led Seele towards some stronger monsters on the other side.
Takatsuki discovered that the Fragmentum monsters were mainly composed of ice and fire attribute monsters.
They felt like elemental beings.
Soon, the two found some humanoid Fragmentum creatures wielding long-handled weapons. After Takatsuki tried to communicate, he found that they were simply humanoid and actually no different from the others.
"These will do. I can't control those flying guys well."
After much picking and choosing, Takatsuki only selected those humanoid monsters, using the power of the Rooster Talisman to suspend them in the air.
Because they couldn't exert force, these monsters could only struggle continuously in the sky, but they posed no threat to Takatsuki.
"Takatsuki-nii, so many monsters… won't something happen?"
Seele said with some worry, looking at the dozen or so Fragmentum creatures in the air.
"Don't worry, I'll be watching. As long as they don't seek death trying to protect those medicines, nothing will happen."
If those guys didn't even care about their lives and wanted to protect the medicines, then they could just die.
Takatsuki didn't say the second half of the sentence, as it would scare the child.
Takatsuki took Seele and a large group of Fragmentum creatures and flew high into the sky.
Then, he controlled these creatures and dropped them all at once over the Mutual Aid Society's territory.
It was also fortunate that they were strong enough not to be directly killed by the fall.
It was a good thing Fragmentum creatures couldn't speak, otherwise they would surely be cursing.
Inside the Mutual Aid Society, the two guards Takatsuki and Seele had just met were drawn out by the sound of something landing at the entrance.
As soon as they came out, they saw Fragmentum creatures getting up from the ground.
"Oh no! Fragmentum creatures are here!"
Seeing the dozen or so Fragmentum creatures at the entrance, the two jumped in fright and ran inside.
And these Fragmentum creatures, after getting up from the ground, also rushed into the courtyard.
Takatsuki held Seele with one hand, floating high in the sky, observing the movements of the people below.
Some people immediately started running away upon seeing the Fragmentum creatures, while others ran towards the dead end inside, seemingly still wanting to take those so-called special medicines with them.
Then… let them fend for themselves.
Takatsuki looked at the people being chased out of the courtyard by the Fragmentum creatures. Just as they were about to be caught by the Fragmentum creatures, in a blind spot they couldn't see, a sword would shoot out from a corner, killing or knocking away the pursuing Fragmentum creatures, preventing them from continuing the chase.
Seele hugged Takatsuki's arm. Although she knew she wouldn't fall, the feeling of being suspended still made her feel a little fear and novelty.
The commotion at the Mutual Aid Society did not last long. About ten minutes later, Takatsuki sensed that only the aura of Fragmentum creatures remained in the room.
It turned out that if human bodies remained in the Fragmentum for a period after death, they would also disappear like Fragmentum creatures.
Takatsuki gained some understanding as he sensed the changes in the room.
This Fragmentum is very peculiar. It seems to form itself, eroding and devouring everything here. Its consumption of inanimate objects is much stronger than that of living beings.
And the corpses of the dead and their spirits will turn into afterimages, remaining forever in this Fragmentum.
But no matter what, the so-called Mutual Aid Society completely disappeared today.
After waiting for the human corpses to disappear, Takatsuki brought Seele down.
Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh!
Dozens of projected weapons pinned all the Fragmentum creatures to the ground.
Under Takatsuki's protection, he led Seele all the way into the room.
"Ah…"
As soon as the two entered the room, they saw a large pool of blood on the ground, which startled Seele. However, looking left and right, she didn't see any bodies.
"Someone must have been injured here earlier."
Takatsuki said this, but he knew that someone had indeed died there just now, but the Fragmentum had devoured his corpse, leaving behind a pool of blood.
Seele nodded gently without speaking.
Takatsuki looked at the boxes piled high in the room.
After a sword pierced through a box, the pills that fell out confirmed to Takatsuki that this was his target.
After using the power of fire demon qi to burn these things to ashes, Takatsuki took Seele and left the place directly through [Close at Hand Yet Worlds Apart].