Didn't you go to Teyvat to earn money to support me?

The snake, who was kneeling on the table, hugging his neck and snuggling intimately, chuckled softly, then opened her mouth to show Shen Liang her pink little tongue.

As a fusion warrior who fused with a snake-type Honkai Beast, Mebius's little tongue was slightly longer than that of an ordinary person, making it even more alluring. She looked up at Shen Liang, winking playfully, and Shen Liang noticed a small sensor card stuck to her tender little tongue.

"Is this your identification?" Shen Liang reached out to take it.

Mebius shut his mouth and looked at him with a charming smile.

Shen Liang withdrew his hand, and Mebius stuck out his little tongue again.

Shen Liang went to get it again, but Mebius shut his mouth again, still smiling in a cunning and cute way.

"Don't tease me."

“I’m not kidding you,” Möbius blinked his big green eyes and tilted his head innocently. “We’re all ‘snakes,’ so we have to use ‘snake’ methods to get it, right, Eve?”

Shen Liang chuckled silently, then lifted Mebius's chin. Mebius knew he understood, and he closed his eyes proudly and expectantly, straightening his back on the table.

The snake is entangled in happiness.

------------

The situation stabilized over the next few days.

Shen Liang enters the confinement room and, with the help of Alicia and Sakura, unseals the Herrschers while stealing the powers of the seven Herrschers.

When the fusion warriors who were to relieve Alicia and Sakura arrived, they found six Herrschers lying haphazardly beside Shen Liang, their eyes glazed over, completely unconscious, and devoid of any Herrscher abilities.

The Sixth Herrscher, also known as Seele, the one with short black hair, a weak personality, and who retained human consciousness, was dealt with separately. After being gradually persuaded by Sakura, or rather, after seeing Shen Liang enter, Seele didn't hesitate for long before agreeing to the experiment with her head down.

The core extracted from the Sixth Herrscher was analyzed to reveal the ability to control biological decomposition and repair, and the Sixth Herrscher was also named the "Herrscher of Death".

It's worth noting that the Sixth Herrscher, SEELE's, "human consciousness" was a facade. When Sakura persuaded SEELE, she only suggested that he participate in a genetic preservation experiment with Shen Liang, deliberately concealing the fact that she had stolen the Herrscher's powers. Upon realizing that his Herrscher powers had been stolen, SEELE exposed his facade in anger, but was powerless due to the limitations of the Soul Steel, and was ultimately able to have his Herrscher core extracted by Shen Liang.

Without their Herrscher abilities, Herrschers are no different from humans. Under the fabricated reasons of Shen Liang and Mebius, the seven Herrschers were spared their lives and an experiment was conducted to explore the possibility of educating them to human personalities.

However, given that the Herrschers were disobedient and frequently mocked and insulted education experts, the experiment was later taken over by the Son of Man Project team. The experiment proved that the seven Herrschers only felt fear and anger when they saw Shen Liang, while also experiencing an inexplicable joy. Only when Shen Liang was present would they reluctantly accept the personality reconstruction education.

Having obtained the cores of a total of eight Herrschers, Shen Liang released the "field" of the Herrscher of Consciousness, awakening all the slumbering beings at the Fire Chaser Base.

Mei, the strategic deputy commander of the Moth of Flames base, Möbius, the director of the Infinite Laboratory, and a large number of related researchers and fusion warriors vouched for Shen Liang, proving that he was unrelated to the Honkai side. After Shen Liang contributed all the Herrscher cores, the council agreed to preserve the lives of all the Herrschers, but raised Shen Liang's alert level to S and demoted his authority to B.

But no one cared about this symbolic punishment; both Mebius and Mei had 's' privileges.

The Herrscher Core was contained by the base, and after Shen Liang provided a "phantom," research began on materializing it according to Shen Liang's description of the "phantom." The materialized Herrscher Core is expected to be named "Key of God."

The Eighth Herrscher, Blanca, was reported by Möbius to have been killed in a dream, leaving no trace of her remains. This was to ensure Blanca was not imprisoned and had the freedom of movement of an ordinary person. Blanca herself would be monitored by the nine Primarchs of the Son of Human Project.

The Herrscher of Knowledge Collapse incident has come to an end. Apart from some workers who suddenly fell into a deep sleep and suffered workplace injuries, no one died.

Next up was the victory celebration banquet.

Chapter 47 Before You, Doll, Get Broken~

As dawn broke, the artificial sun was lit again, illuminating the underground base that had endured a month of hardship.

Experimental zones A5, B5, and C5 have returned to normal order. The fire in the building has been extinguished by firefighters, but smoke is still rising from the blackened frame structure.

A section of the row of buildings in the inner ring dormitory area was missing, as if a piece had been sliced ​​off in mid-air, the cut surface clean and smooth. A fire had broken out on the lower floors of the dormitory, and the fireproof insulation layer had descended, blocking rescue routes, with everyone trapped inside. This necessitated an airdrop rescue by fusion warriors, and the missing section of the building was proof of Kevin's intervention.

The ground was littered with the manned transport vehicles that had collided together. These vehicles were originally running automatically on the ground, but after a sudden loss of control and subsequent power outage, they continued to travel along their predetermined tracks due to inertia, eventually crashing together at the intersection, piling up into a mountain, and becoming totaled with a series of cracking sounds.

Many vehicles braked and stopped midway, but due to the loss of power, the inertia caused their cargo to spill all over the base ground. Various experimental items and equipment, dehydrated vegetables, energy drinks, and other items were scattered everywhere. Many ordinary people jumped to the ground to collect usable resources, and the streets were full of people picking up trash.

May and Kevin stood on the edge of the rooftop of a dormitory building, looking at the devastated base.

“The losses were actually much smaller than I thought,” May said. “I originally thought that this would be the most severe crisis the base had ever faced, with more than 60% of the fusion warriors dying and all plans completely failing.”

"What about ordinary people?"

"Maybe 90% will die, who knows? I don't have time to weigh the pros and cons."

“Mei, if others hear you say that, they might start to misunderstand.” Kevin smiled slightly. “What do you mean by the female demon who created the fusion warriors already disregarding human life, and yet another piece of ironclad evidence that the Fire Chaser Base is trying to usher in a new era for humans? Look, I’ve already thought of all the public opinion for you.”

“If fusion warriors alone can defeat the Honkai and allow us to live in peace, then they are right. I do want to usher in a new era for humanity.” Mei wrapped her coat tighter around herself; she was only wearing her work uniform and black pantyhose. The rooftop was windy and a bit chilly. “But fusion warriors aren’t enough either.”

"Isn't that enough?" Kevin was slightly taken aback. "Even if it's the Herrscher of Knowledge, Aponia can handle it. We will eventually win."

Mei glanced at him and wearily rubbed her temples.

Seeing her shivering, Kevin quickly took off his trench coat to put it on her, but Mei instinctively stepped aside. Then she realized her rejection was too obvious, so she waved her hand, "Sorry, I didn't mean to refuse you, I'm just... not that cold."

“Alright, Mei, stop pretending to be tough. A large part of the reason you feel cold is because of me.” Kevin shook his head and said in a low voice, “After becoming fusion warriors, we don’t even dare to be 30 centimeters apart, so don’t force yourself. Take your clothes. Don’t worry, it doesn’t mean anything. We’re classmates after all.”

Everyone who becomes a Fusion Warrior undergoes some changes. Kevin's change is that his body temperature drops to minus forty degrees Celsius. At this temperature, he cannot have any contact with humans, otherwise he will suffer frostbite. Therefore, he always carries a thick coat to avoid making others too uncomfortable when communicating with them.

But Mei turned away, not taking up the subject. "The base's hardware damage can be fully restored in a few months. The key is morale. It's terrible. Most of the Fusion Warriors were affected by this Honkai event without even knowing what happened. They had no room to use their abilities, and even their victory was a mess. This is a huge blow to the confidence of the Flame Chaser. If the Eighth Herrscher is like this, then theoretically each subsequent Herrscher will be stronger than the last, and their strength may not necessarily be their combat power."

"Don't be so pessimistic. At least the Eighth Herrscher was killed by Mebius, right? Since we can solve this, there's no need to worry about the future. People who have escaped death will embrace life more enthusiastically." Kevin said with a smile, "The most important thing is to rebuild confidence. Even if we don't understand how the base won this time, it won't stop us from having a victory celebration."

Mei shook her head: "That's called fooling the masses."

But she smiled too.

"But this is a well-intentioned lie, a necessary means to maintain morale. After all, we can't tell everyone that we don't know how the Eighth Herrscher died, that she died at the hands of the great Dr. Möbius, and that as for how Dr. Möbius killed her, sorry, she's unwilling to provide information. As long as you all know, the powerful combat strength of the Firemoth is basically just slacking off and daydreaming—we can't say that, can we?"

As Mei said this, she maintained a smile, but inwardly she was sighing.

How could they not know how the Eighth Herrscher died? As Eve's Primarch, these things could be kept secret from the entire base, even the whole world, but not from the nine of them. That Blanca, Möbius's assistant, the dignified Herrscher of Knowledge, was still taking her job as a researcher at the Fire Chaser Base for granted—no, she's not a researcher anymore; she even temporarily resigned to work as a physical library administrator to focus on her pregnancy!

God knows how many people still read physical books these days? She's casually doing incredibly low-intensity work in the library, and nobody seems to care! How arrogant!

However, Mebius and Shen Liang had already revealed their entire plan. Seeing the boy, who had almost never made any requests in all these years, begging them for the first time, even the usually wicked Mebius couldn't refuse, let alone her.

It's not a big deal to conceal the fact that a Herrscher has lost all power and is even firmly controlled by the doll, right?

Thinking about this, Mei sadly realized that she was becoming less and less principled in front of Eve.

Thinking about it this way, every spoiled woman is the same.

“Let’s have a victory celebration tonight. Although the repairs aren’t finished yet, we still need to boost morale. After all, we won a great victory this time, and no one died.” Kevin nodded. “Especially Mebius and Eve.”

“Möbius deserves the most credit, but Eve’s contribution is no less than Möbius’s. She researched a way to extract the Herrscher’s core and proposed the concept of the ‘Divine Key.’ These contributions make her more than worthy of being ranked above you, Kevin.” Möbius smiled. “Compared to Möbius’s contributions, this is already more than enough. Eve’s contribution this time is truly astonishing. She is probably the star of the celebration banquet.”

"It's really hard to imagine. For those of us who watched him grow up, it feels like just three years ago he was still a tiny little guy, and even a few days ago I thought he was still a tiny little guy. In the blink of an eye, he has become a big figure praised by the base."

“A big shot?” Mei looked into the distance, brushing a strand of wind-blown hair behind her ear. “No, the boy hasn’t grown up yet. He’ll always be a child, a silly kid who never thinks about the consequences of his actions… He trusted the nine of us so much, but didn’t he ever consider that if we weren’t worthy of his trust, this alone would be enough to make him…”

"What did you say?" Kevin was taken aback.

“I just feel that the child still needs some education, but I really like this kind of trust.” Mei smiled and turned to leave. “Kevin, you have other things to do, right? You don’t need to always follow me. I have Sakura to protect me.”

Kevin turned around and was surprised to see Miss Fox, the guard, leaning against the water tank, chewing gum and holding a knife, her face expressionless. Mei walked over and naturally took Sakura's hand. The two beautiful, tall girls chatted about girly topics, their soft laughter and complaints echoing as they turned and left.

Kevin had a vague, inexplicable feeling that he seemed to be getting further and further away from May.

----------

While the Fire Chasing Base was preparing for the victory celebration banquet that evening, the main character of the banquet was being passionately kissed inside a thawing life support pod filled with nutrient fluid.

"Waaaaah, I don't want to come back! I don't want to come back! You have no idea how wonderful my dream was! I want to die in my dream! I don't want to come back! Waaaaah!"

Pado, crying, pressed Shen Liang down into the life support pod and began biting his lips like a vicious mother cat, eventually moving her bites to his face and neck. The other people who had thawed and awakened witnessed this scene and all showed exaggerated expressions of astonishment.

It wasn't until the soaking wet Daisy Dobia woke up at her regular time and saw the scene being watched that she walked over with a dark face, grabbed Paddy by the back of the neck and stopped her from continuing to press down on Shen Liang and throw a tantrum.

“Let go, let go, Dobia! Waaaaah, you have no idea what you missed by waking me up! I’ve been married to the baby for ten years, we’re an old married couple! We got our marriage certificate, I even wore my wedding dress! And you woke me up just when I was out buying drinks with the baby, waaaaah… My decades of happiness, Blanca…”

Before the word "Blanca" could even be uttered, Shen Liang swiftly covered Pado's mouth and gestured to her. Pado then slightly snapped out of her daze, but still stared at him with teary eyes.

"Marriage... sob sob... baby, marriage..."

"What marriage? Go eat your peaches!" Daisy Dobia said fiercely. "Why are my dreams never as exciting as yours? In my dreams, I can only be a lover to a doll! And a lover whose number I don't even know!"

The nurse next to her immediately laughed, "Dobiya, I recorded what you just said! You actually dream about how to abuse dolls in your dreams? I'm going to send this recording to Kosmo!"

"Go ahead and send it, it's better to give up." Desdobia shrugged, then looked at the girls watching, hands on hips, glaring, "What are you all watching for! You lot, dare to say you didn't have dolls in your dreams? Only those who didn't dream about them have the right to laugh at me!"

As soon as she finished speaking, the girls who had been pointed at looked away shyly, their faces slightly flushed. This life support pod area was for women, so although Shen Liang's face remained impassive at first glance, she was already panicking inside.

“Marriage…” Pado was still squatting down and sobbing, gently tugging at his clothes.

Shen Liang squatted down, brushed aside the cat's bangs, and seeing her reluctance to leave the dream, could only whisper, "That was a dream, cat. This is reality. Aren't I right here beside you?"

"I don't care... I don't care anymore! In my dreams, we've been married for ten years. We're already an old married couple who respect each other deeply. I don't want to start over. I don't want to!"

Shen Liang rubbed her ear, almost laughing. Pado really knew how to come up with clever excuses, thinking he didn't know about the dream, so she described herself in more detail. What do you mean by "married for ten years"? They clearly got married ten years later… and "a harmonious marriage"? You learned an idiom and then misused it? Do you even know what it means?

But Shen Liang calmly rubbed her cat's head, her tone even, "Then let's date for another ten years, and then have a wedding."

Pado was stunned, as were the girls watching the spectacle.

"Eee ...

"Are you kidding, baby? You're responsible for your dreams too?"

"I dreamt about you too! I dreamt about you too! I want to dream about you too!"

"We can't show favoritism! You're so good to the pet cat, you should be good to us too!"

"Protesters are worse than cats!"

Pado never expected that her simple act of being a little coquettish with her lover out of spite would actually elicit a response.

After hesitating for a moment, she cautiously asked, "Then... I'll wait for you to grow up?"

"Okay."