Chapter 214 214: Operation Rat Extermination
"Counting on that bastard Otto not to cause us trouble." Tesla crossed her arms, and the look in her eyes made two words perfectly clear: not buying it.
"Sooner believe he'd entertain us by hanging himself from the southeast branch of a tree, picking a fight between his neck and the rafters."
If it came to that kind of performance, Tesla figured she might even be in the mood to tip Otto — say, one freshly fired rocket, give or take.
Oh wait, a rocket wasn't enough. It'd have to be a silver bullet. Couldn't make Anti-Entropy look cheap.
"Hmm, hard to say, really." Irene thought it over. What Otto was planning to do was honestly not that far off from hanging himself, was it? So the comparison wasn't entirely wrong.
"So you really do know something." Einstein studied Irene. "And you truly can't tell us?"
"I can only explain after he's gone ahead with it." Irene shrugged. "What I can say right now is just that what he's planning won't hurt us."
"Really?" Tesla's expression was all skepticism. That bastard, not causing them problems? Whatever he was doing being harmless to them?
After all, as far as they were concerned, the things Otto had done were... rather memorably awful.
"Seems you truly have no favorable impression whatsoever of that Overseer." Mobius stood with her arms folded, watching Einstein and Tesla — though as for the grudge between them, Mobius had no desire to weigh in.
Because that's just how humans were. That kind of united-in-righteousness, world-in-harmony federation or alliance — save that dream for when you're asleep.
So long as it didn't get in the way of fighting the Honkai, Mobius had no objection. And frankly, the Current Era was doing far better at it than they ever had.
Fire Moth had indeed been founded by their time — it had even started operating — but the situation? You could sum it up in two words: pitiful.
They reacted quickly, sure. But speed alone was useless. An organization too bloated, too sluggish, with no real understanding of the Honkai — they thought as long as they could win each eruption in a fight, that was enough.
No foresight whatsoever. Only after the Honkai delivered a stunning blow to the head would they shift slightly, and then after one victory they'd go right back to moving at a tortoise's pace.
Right up until the Herrscher of the Legion. Those damned higher-ups — most of them had to die before anyone got the chance to move up, but by then it was far too late.
MEI's body had been corrupted by Honkai energy around that time too. Not even two continent-shattering Herrschers — the Herrscher of Flame and the Herrscher of Rock — had been enough to fully knock those idiots awake.
On that point, Mobius almost felt like thanking the Herrscher of the Legion for wiping out those thick-skulled fools who had their heads stuck where they shouldn't be — but the Current Era?
An organization five hundred years in the making, fighting the Honkai and keeping every other faction in check. Of course, Mobius could see clearly that the Overseer called Otto had his own agenda.
But so what? He was fighting the Honkai. His people were fighting the Honkai. As long as he kept fighting the Honkai, Mobius figured his personal motives were at least better than those idiots who were still fighting each other right up to the end.
"Just old grievances. Forgive me for letting you see that." Einstein glanced at Mobius. "If you'd like, I'll have Irene fill you in later — I suspect she knows it all more thoroughly than we do."
"Mm." Irene gave a small nod. She did, generally speaking, know a bit more — or rather, she had Otto's perspective in addition to Einstein's.
That man was about to do something that would shake heaven and earth and move even the spirits of the dead. And one couldn't help but reflect: who ever said a villain couldn't believe in love and justice?
"I'm sorry, what did I just hear?" Tesla looked as though she'd suddenly gone deaf, digging a finger in her ear and staring at Irene in disbelief. "Love and justice. Otto. Irene — which one of those four words has anything to do with Otto?"
"Everything, actually. This man is the purest of pure-love devotees." Irene spread her hands. Pouring everything into one person. Five hundred years of effort. Even willing, in the end, to deceive the world itself, to reverse causality — all for the sake of giving that one person a perfect ending. How could that not be true love?
Of course, astonishment was astonishment, and admiration was admiration — the moment that man tried anything funny, Irene was absolutely not going to spare a single bottle from her collection.
After all, there was also that saying: the only good Otto is a dead Otto.
"I have no idea what you're talking about." Tesla shook her head with an expression of total incomprehension. Finally, after that bit of banter had run its course, she seemed to snap back to reality and looked toward the cores on the table.
"Right, shouldn't we get started?"
"Yes, yes, let's get started." As she said it, Irene handed control of her body back to Vill-V. For anything requiring serious brainpower, it was always better to leave it to the top-tier scientist.
"Leave it all to the all-capable Vill-V! Finding a way to track the Herrscher of the Legion — I'll definitely figure out how to build something for that."
"Great, you two work hard. Irene, could you tell me where you put the cloning tanks for our bodies? Just point me in the right direction — I won't be getting involved in this one."
Mobius looked toward Irene. This particular problem didn't suit her specialty. She worked in biology — if there were corpses, that would be one thing — but obviously the Herrscher of the Legion moved in puppet form, which meant there were no bodies to speak of.
So Mobius decisively resolved to focus on what actually suited her: namely, the cloning tanks where Irene had been cultivating their new physical bodies.
And on this matter, Mobius truly had to admire Irene's position as the Herrscher of Death. When it came to this kind of work, the advantages she'd been born with were extraordinary.
To clone their bodies — had Mobius not already tried? Cloning had long since stopped being anything particularly difficult for them.
But it couldn't be done. MANTIS technology had never been a stable science — not in its original form, not in the metamorphic factor version. Never.
Too much randomness. During cloning, small accidents that ranged from mildly annoying to catastrophic were extremely easy to trigger.
Things like turning into a full-blown Honkai Beast. A Honkai Beast. A Honkai Beast.
That kind of small accident had happened on her end more times than she could count, and she'd dealt with the aftermath just as many times. The clone-a-MANTIS project had been thrown in the trash long ago.
Only Irene, as the Herrscher of Death, had a natural command over Honkai energy — combined with a Honkai Adaptability that was literally off the charts.
Mobius had never seen anyone outside of Elysia who could casually crystallize Honkai energy on a whim with such exceptional purity.
Even Elysia had to use some effort. With Irene, it seemed to be pure instinct — if she wanted it, the Honkai energy simply condensed itself to her will. That kind of Honkai Adaptability was something no one could help but envy.
Probably only her. Only Irene could manage the clone-a-MANTIS project and guarantee there would be no major accidents.
And yet even under these ideal conditions, Irene's cloning process had still hit a snag — which was more than enough to prove just how unreliable MANTIS surgery truly was.
"I'll guide Aunt Mobius." A flicker of Zero's presence crossed the nearby screen, and then the light bulb overhead dimmed. Clearly, Zero intended to use the darkened bulbs as trail markers to lead Mobius along.
"Alright then, let's go." Mobius gave a small nod, stepped out of the room, and the others, once she had left, threw themselves into figuring out how to use the few cores to somehow locate — or find a way to open, or find — the Theater of Domination.
It was worth noting, though, that as the research got underway, the voices grew louder and louder, and louder still.
— World Serpent —
In a cool, quiet hall, Kevin sat in his high seat, intently reading... documents. After scrolling through a few screens, he swiped the interface away.
If he didn't need to understand this civilization, Kevin really wouldn't want to look at this kind of thing. For him, it put rather too high a demand on his brain.
These five thousand years certainly hadn't been idle — he'd definitely done some training along the way — but his hardware was still what it was. When working through material like this, Kevin still found himself with something of a headache.
Just then, the hall's large doors slid open and Gray Serpent walked in from outside. Kevin looked up at the new arrival. "Something happen?"
"My lord, there is a message from Miss Irene." Gray Serpent met Kevin's gaze. "Miss Irene's group was attacked by the Herrscher of the Legion. The Herrscher of the Legion has already descended without our knowledge."
Hearing Gray Serpent's words, Kevin's brow furrowed slightly. The Herrscher of the Legion — he had quite a vivid memory of them. After all, they were truly the one Herrscher with little raw power who was, nonetheless, genuinely infuriating to deal with.
Too good at hiding. Too many of them. Especially compared to other Herrschers who had no brains and only knew how to destroy — the Herrscher of the Legion were the scheming kind, the ones who actually used tactics.
"Are they alright?" Kevin studied Gray Serpent. Logic said that with Irene's group's combat strength, dealing with a Herrscher of the Legion shouldn't lead to anything too serious — but it still warranted asking.
Gray Serpent replied at once: "The intelligence Miss Irene transmitted makes no mention of that, but I would assume they are fine."
"Additionally, my lord, regarding the Herrscher of the Legion — should we..."
Kevin closed his eyes and thought over the tactics they had once used against them. Then he opened his eyes and looked at Gray Serpent. "Do we have any assets — something that sounds, well, at least impressively valuable?"
"My lord intends to go fishing?" Gray Serpent understood immediately. "I see — my lord is wise. I'll begin spreading the word online at once."
"Yes, go do that." Kevin heard that Gray Serpent had caught his meaning and nodded repeatedly. "The Herrscher of the Legion aren't particularly powerful — but never forget what they are. They're still a Herrscher."
"If necessary, I'll go there myself."
"Understood, my lord. Also, according to the intelligence Miss Irene relayed, the Herrscher of the Legion in the Current Era appears to have gained a very particular new ability."
"Tell me."
"They have a theater situated within Imaginary Space, where they ordinarily hide." Gray Serpent looked at Kevin. "And they operate in puppet form."
"But according to Irene's intelligence, while in puppet form they can simultaneously disguise themselves as ordinary humans, making them nearly impossible to distinguish by the naked eye."
"Probably because of the Current Era's unique nature?" Kevin listened, and upon hearing that the Current Era's Herrscher of the Legion had gained this additional ability, he frowned. A theater situated in Imaginary Space.
Since when had the Herrscher of the Legion acquired that capability? If they'd had it during the Previous Era, they wouldn't have been caught wholesale in a single fishing operation.
This was the Current Era's uniqueness at work — same as the dual Herrscher of Ice and Rock who appeared earlier, or the multi-core Herrscher who emerged during the Second Eruption.
In that case, things were rather more troublesome. The whole point of fishing was to catch them all in one net — otherwise they'd never fall for it a second time.
And with that so-called theater of theirs, the moment they sensed danger they would almost certainly flee immediately, and then they'd probably never trust such a scheme again.
Finding them after that would be exceedingly difficult.
"Make the news big. As valuable as possible. Draw in as many of the Herrscher of the Legion as we can." Kevin thought back to the plans MEI had once laid out with them.
"If possible, the ideal bait would be intelligence about some large-scale construction project underway or somewhere that needs a large number of workers — that way the Herrscher of the Legion would likely try to infiltrate."
"Understood." Gray Serpent nodded. Truly worthy of the Sovereign — he had immediately conceived such an excellent plan. If all went smoothly, they might just catch the entire Herrscher of the Legion in one sweep.
"Also — do we have any way to observe Imaginary Space?" Kevin looked at Gray Serpent. Counting solely on the fishing approach to net them all was probably asking too much.
"Ideally we find a way to go straight into the theater and sweep it clean — that would be faster. Hit both angles at once, and we should be able to exterminate the Herrscher of the Legion completely."
"Let's just hope that bunch doesn't stir up anything catastrophic before we're ready."
"We haven't done much research in that area, but I'll find a way." Gray Serpent hesitated slightly. The Sea of Quanta was one thing — they'd put in considerable effort on that front before, trying to save the Sovereign. But Imaginary Space was a domain they'd genuinely studied very little.
There'd been no real reason to — it couldn't be used to save the Sovereign, so it had never held much significance for their research. But if the Sovereign needed it, they would simply find a way.
Jackal could take the hard work for once. That guy had been completely at loose ends lately — giving him something to do would keep him from pulling some harebrained stunt out of sheer boredom.
Kevin hadn't caught Gray Serpent's momentary hesitation — Gray Serpent's expression rarely gave anything away. "Well, I'll leave that in your hands then."
"Yes, my lord." Gray Serpent gave another nod, then rose and took his leave to go arrange things — such as fabricating information online about a large-scale anti-Honkai construction project.
Of course, doing it on ordinary civilian networks would be problematic. These days, among regular people, the Honkai was little more than a legend — a bad look, that.
Gray Serpent figured that since Irene's side had been attacked, Schicksal — currently the world's largest anti-Honkai organization — had probably been hit as well. In that case, using Schicksal's network to post the information made perfect sense.
Their subsidiary Shenchen Pharmaceuticals already had a cooperation arrangement with Schicksal, so posting recruitment notices and project documentation on Schicksal's network was entirely reasonable. As long as the key steps were done correctly, the Herrscher of the Legion ought to believe it.
The only question was whether any of the Legion had already climbed their way into a position high enough to matter.
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