First Laboratory.
"You're awake. Congratulations, you're now a handsome boy."
Mobius's tone was flat, her fingertips tracing the curves of the girl's waist. To think she is almost indistinguishable from a human...
"Professor... Mobius?"
Elysia clutched her head with one hand while instinctively gripping Mobius's wrist with the other. The headache was intensifying, and that piercing pain in her abdomen was surging back once again.
Mobius tilted her head slightly, a flash of inquiry crossing her snake-like vertical pupils.
"You know me?"
"I..." Elysia opened her mouth several times but found no words.
Right. This was a dream. Professor Mobius didn't know her.
Elysia sat on the operating table like a silent log, the smile she usually took so much pride in completely absent.
"But I certainly know you, Elysia. An orphan with dreams of traveling the world, born in the town of Vostok-51."
Mobius leaned against a nearby surface, quietly reciting the details of the girl's life.
That's not my life, Elysia wanted to argue. But this wasn't the first or second time she'd had these bizarre dreams. Even Professor Mobius had appeared in them before.
Mobius didn't give her time to interject.
"That monster born within the Honkai disaster... we have named it a 'Herrscher.'"
Furthermore, while this Herrscher's past was traceable, she had displayed knowledge that shouldn't belong to her life at all—specifically, the ability to "restructure and upgrade" objects.
And then, there was the nearly invincible Elysia.
Elysia remained silent.
She had been a bit too willful in this particular dream. Unlike previous times, she had exposed far too much.
Mobius handed her a glass of warm water. "I have a friend in the Engineering Department. She told me that the surveillance footage from that period can 'vanish' entirely. No one will be able to trace it."
"Elysia, tell me: Are you a human, or a monster?"
She stared into Elysia's eyes, her slender fingers instinctively tightening.
By all accounts, she shouldn't have made this decision. But she was Mobius. She didn't care about the opinions of others, nor did she care about "bargaining with a tiger."
She was a scientist who believed in—and looked forward to—humanity more than anyone.
That question again... Elysia had been tormented by these dreams for days, but her long-ingrained habits allowed her to force a faint smile.
"I am a human. I was in the past, I am now, and I will be in the future."
"I promise."
Mobius visibly relaxed, a touch of ease appearing on her exotic face.
She recalled a nursery rhyme that had circulated among the "old fossils" in the archeology world for a long time: On that day, He fell from the heavens; the people on earth looked up, and thus they saw the starry sky...
The little girl who mysteriously appeared in Vostok, Elysia... could it be you?
Mobius shook her head. Damn it, I'm getting as superstitious as those old fogies. Why should some prehistoric civilization's proverbs affect the present?
"Then, are you willing to join MOTH to save the world?"
Smiles are contagious. Seeing the Professor smile in the dream, Elysia smiled too, though she shook her head firmly.
"Since I was a child, I've held onto one dream: I want to create a paradise where everyone can be happy."
She lowered her head, speaking to herself, and Mobius listened patiently.
"MOTH will never be a paradise. Never."
She lifted her head, her gaze seemingly piercing through the laboratory walls toward some non-existent distance.
The dreams were treacherous and grotesque. Elysia couldn't forget.
This "MOTH" organization, which had just rebranded and had a decent reputation, would cross every human boundary within a few short years and become absolute evil. To the point where, when people mentioned MOTH, they would feel a visceral disgust before belatedly remembering that the "evil Mobius" happened to be there too.
"You know much more than I imagined."
The atmosphere grew a bit tense, but Mobius simply tilted her chin, looking at Elysia with newfound respect.
"So, what do you plan to do?"
Start your own organization? Where would you get the money?
"I don't know."
Elysia shook her head with total honesty. She wasn't sure, but she really intended to try. It was just a dream, anyway.
"How about working a job at MOTH first?"
"In the First Lab?"
"No. The army."
Elysia blinked. The army?
To deal with the next Herrscher? But Mobius shouldn't know there are more Herrschers coming yet.
"I can give you a platform. How much profit you can squeeze out of it later depends on your own skill."
"And what you need to pay is very simple: kill the Herrscher you crippled earlier."
Mobius extended her hand.
Elysia's expression darkened instantly. That guy isn't dead yet?
She clutched her abdomen. The wound was still healing, new flesh budding—in fact, the new skin was almost indistinguishable from the rest.
"Deal, Professor."
Mobius felt a spark of anticipation. Although she had never actually been a "Professor" before, she didn't care about such a small detail.
Survivor: Kaito
Level: 14
Skills: Replication Reconstruction, Artillery Support 3, Hive Mind 4
Attributes: Attack Speed 3, Skill Frequency 2
"Bring out the boss!"
Just kidding. If the boss actually showed up now, he couldn't win.
He hadn't even unlocked his second evolved skill yet. Although his reflexes and motor skills were practically back to his eighteen-year-old prime, give "Big Brother Kaito" a break—who talks about "skill" in a rogue-like game?
Rogue-likes are either about beautiful stats or beautiful mechanics. Controls? The boss can literally freeze space just by breathing; how are you supposed to "outplay" that?
"Seriously, what kind of 'genius' designer thought of an Open World Rogue-like where the Boss wanders the map at random? It's all down to luck."
Kaito was washing his face at a sink. To prevent being found by the final boss again, he had mimicked his appearance to look like a generic NPC.
The underlying logic of this open-world rogue-like seemed decent, actually. He planned to send a message to the designer later to see if he could poach their team.
The streets of the small town were bustling with traffic. In this busy world, no one paid attention to what an NPC was doing.
Kaito stood alone under a road sign, gesturing with his fingers.
"Take Train No. 13, then fast-forward time by four hours... and I'll reach the biggest mob spawn point?"
The electronic noise was deafening. Everyone's voice sounded like heavy metal pollution in his ears. Looking at the blurred faces and stiff, aimless movements of the mobs around him, he simply muted all sound.
"Leveling is getting harder and harder. I hope this new farm spot can get me to Level 17 so I can round out my attributes."
Perhaps because this game was never intended for the public market, it was riddled with issues. The most important one—experience gain—could only be optimized by maxing out his "Hive Mind" minions and hoping for a bit of luck.
After waiting about a minute, the train arrived. Kaito hopped in, found a seat, opened his settings, and slid the clock hand forward four hours.
While "speeding" was fun, the map was too big. It was better to use the in-game transport and skip time.
As the clock hand spun, his consciousness grew heavy. When he opened his eyes again, the train had reached the next city.
"If only reality had a skip button," Kaito muttered, stepping out of the station.
Immediately, a dense pack of mobs swarmed the platform. Countless gun barrels pointed at the train. As an explosion rocked the station, the muzzles flashed in unison.
"GOD DAMN THIS OPEN WORLD ROGUE-LIKE!!!"