I am Möbius's sister.

"What's wrong, sister? What happened?" Xilin asked, puzzled as she watched the soldiers leave in a panic.

However, Mebius did not answer Sirin's question. Instead, he gently stroked her face and smiled as he said to her, "Sirin, you can use the Second Herrscher's abilities now, right?"

Sirin tilted her head in confusion, then nodded. She could indeed use the Second Herrscher's abilities now, and with a certain level of proficiency. Although she didn't know why, using the abilities was like muscle memory, as easy as using her own limbs.

“Then… let’s play a little game…” Mebius whispered in Sirin’s ear.

Chapter Three: The Demon's Nest

This day marked the third Honkai outbreak, and at the same time, the long-absent alarm sounded at the headquarters of the Firemoth.

"Sister... is this really okay?" Xilin turned around to look at the soldiers lying haphazardly behind her, feeling a little uneasy.

“It’s alright. They won’t back down unless they’re taught a lesson. The Third Honkai Impact has probably already occurred, if the predicted date is correct. So at this point, they definitely don’t want to deal with two Herrschers at the same time.” Mebius’s lips curled into a slight smile, as if victory was assured.

Listening to Möbius's words, Sirin fell into thought. Although she didn't know what the soldier had written on the paper to Möbius not long ago, it must have been something unpleasant, since Sirin had clearly seen her sister get angry at that time.

"Sister... what was written on that piece of paper?" The more she thought about it, the more curious she became, and finally she couldn't help but ask Mebius.

Upon hearing this, Möbius glanced at Sirin beside him, then looked away and said, "You don't need to know."

Seeing that Möbius refused to tell her, Sirin became even more curious. She felt a tickle in her heart and a little uncomfortable. Sirin pursed her lips, gritted her teeth, and started to act cute and charming towards Möbius.

"Sister~ please tell me~"

Looking at Sirin's current state, Möbius couldn't help but feel a little helpless. Even though so much time had passed, Sirin was still like a little child. Oh well, what could he do? She was his only family member. Yes, his only one.

[Mebius's favorability has increased by two points, currently at 6-4]

As a cold, mechanical, electronic notification sound rang in Sirin's mind, Mebius's voice also reached her ears.

"I just can't do anything with you." Möbius looked at Sirin helplessly, a rare tenderness appearing on his face. "Since you're so eager to know, I'll reluctantly tell you, but don't be afraid~"

"Yes, yes, I'm not scared." Upon hearing this, Xilin was quite happy and nodded repeatedly.

"Hehe~" Seeing Sirin's excited look, Mebius chuckled twice and said, "Listen carefully~ What's written on that piece of paper is what those guys want to do to you, which is to operate on your brain to control you. But to me, these people are simply wasting your talents. Your value is far greater than your combat value."

Inherent value? Sirin blinked in confusion. Although she didn't quite understand what Möbius meant by inherent value, she could clearly see a flash of fanaticism in Möbius's eyes when he said those words.

Wait a minute… After spending so much time with Möbius these past few years, she almost forgot he was a mad scientist. So, the intrinsic value she was referring to probably wasn't his research value…

Celine couldn't help but shiver. Looking at the smile on Möbius's face, as if he were looking at a treasure, Celine felt a little panicked. The scene of Möbius strapping himself to the operating table and slowly approaching her with a scalpel as thin as a cicada's wing flashed through her mind.

Suddenly, Celine's face turned deathly pale, as if she had been terrified. She even seemed to be hallucinating, as if Möbius was whispering in her ear, "My little guinea pig~ Where are you going~"

Although the snake is beautiful and tempting, she doesn't want to be a guinea pig!

Seeing that Sirin looked frightened, Mebius slowed down and patted her head with his other hand.

Her younger sister is as adorable as ever! I hadn't really looked at her properly before because of work, but now that I see her so closely, with her rosy lips, white teeth, and flawless skin, she's definitely a natural beauty, and a perfect example of it all.

Thinking this, Mebius unconsciously tightened his grip on Sirin's head, and Sirin's hair became somewhat disheveled.

However, Sirin didn't care about her hair at the moment. She felt Möbius's presence beside her and glanced at the inexplicable smile on Möbius's face out of the corner of her eye, which made her even more uneasy.

Oh no, oh no, why is Mebius laughing so happily at this moment, and why is he touching her head in such an unusual way? Could it be that he's going to use her as a guinea pig later? Sirin's wild thoughts made her slow down her pace.

Just as Xilin was lost in thought, a notification sound suddenly rang in her mind, bringing her back to reality.

[Mebius's favorability has increased by two points, currently standing at 66]

"Huh, her favorability rating has increased? It seems it's not what she thought." Xilin blinked, feeling relieved. The heavy weight she was carrying was finally lifted, and she wasn't as nervous as before.

Seeing that Celine was less nervous, Mebius removed his hand from Celine's head and quickened his pace.

In fact, Celine's thoughts were not entirely wrong. Möbius did want to use Celine as a guinea pig for her experiments, but Celine was still her sister and the only sample, so Möbius would not let her do any highly dangerous experiments.

Moreover, Möbius had an unchanging principle when conducting experiments: he would first test the experiment on himself.

"Alright, we've arrived." A short while later, Möbius stopped in front of a gate made of an unknown metal.

Upon hearing this, Sirin looked ahead and saw a very high-tech door. Möbius took out a card from the pocket of his white coat, swiped it on the sensor, and the door opened.

“Cirin~ Welcome to my laboratory~ Welcome to the Devil’s Nest~” Mebius gave Sirin a slightly seductive smile.

"The Devil's Nest?" Sirin looked at Mebius with some confusion. She didn't understand why Mebius's laboratory would have such a name.

"Oh dear, these are the names those people gave my lab. I thought they were pretty good, so I used them. Actually, I wanted a cuter name, but in their eyes, I'm a devil. Oh well, what can I do? I really am a devil." A meaningful smile appeared on Möbius's lips, whether it was self-deprecation or pride was hard to tell.

“A demon…” Sirin murmured to herself. To those people, a mad scientist could indeed be considered a demon. After all, for Mebius, human experimentation was something he did frequently, which was morally unacceptable.

But... this is a world in ruins... a world gradually sliding towards destruction... perhaps not following the rules is an effective way to save it.

Sirin sighed, looked up at Mebius in front of her, her eyes filled with complex emotions. She wanted to speak, but didn't know how to say it.

Seemingly sensing Celine's hesitant expression, Möbius tugged at her hand, pulled her into the lab, and said, "Alright, don't think about these things anymore. They're not wrong, I am a demon, but... so what? Let's get down to business."

Seeing the curve of Möbius's lips, Celine seemed to understand something. She should have understood long ago that her sister, Möbius, was not someone who cared about other people's opinions. She was full of self-confidence and would stick to her own path no matter what, forging ahead bravely.

Chapter Four: Negotiation and Transaction

After entering the laboratory, the door behind Xilin closed. The laboratory was very neat and tidy. Not far away, against the wall, there was a water tank containing some strange fish.

“This is my lab. Please find a place to sit down.” Möbius walked to a table, sat in a swivel chair, and gestured for Sirin to sit down.

After glancing at Möbius, Sirin didn't stand on ceremony and casually found a chair to sit down.

"Are you sure you want to sit in this chair?" After Celine sat down, Möbius raised an eyebrow, a slightly amused smile playing on his lips.

Seeing Möbius like this, Celine blinked. Hmm? Is there a problem? Celine looked at the seat under her but couldn't see anything wrong, except that there was a long strap dragging on the ground from the back of the chair.

Seeing Celine's puzzled look, Möbius chuckled and casually changed the subject: "Alright, there's no problem with this seat. If you like it, sit here. I reckon those guys will be communicating with us soon."

“Hmm…” Sirin nodded. Although she still didn’t know what Möbius meant by what he said, she let it go since he didn’t want to say it. However… those guys Möbius mentioned were the upper echelons of the Fire Moth, right? It sounded like Möbius looked down on them.

Xilin leaned back in the chair and only then did she realize that the chair was made of a very hard, unknown metal that felt cool and comfortable to the touch.

Wait... this is...

Medical restraint chair?

Celine stared blankly at the words printed on the armrest, momentarily stunned. Recalling the straps dragging on the floor she'd seen earlier, Celine suddenly understood why Möbius had asked her, "Are you sure you want to sit in this chair?"

So this is just a restraint chair for experimental subjects!

Silently, Xilin jumped off the restraint chair, expressionlessly moved to an ordinary chair, and remained silent as if nothing had happened.

This series of actions was naturally observed by Mebius. Well, it seems that her younger sister is not so stupid after all. However, she quite liked the way Sirin sat in the restraint chair, preferably with those special straps tied on.

'drop--'

At that moment, a message suddenly appeared on the large screen to Möbius's left: a communication request.

As this text appeared, a sharp beeping alarm echoed in the laboratory, drawing the attention of both Sirin and Mebius.

Are they here?

Mebius answered the call with a smile, and a moment later, an image appeared on the screen. It was a middle-aged man wearing a well-tailored suit with stubble on his chin and around his mouth. He was looking at Mebius and Sirin with a livid face.

"Oh~ those guys pushed you out to negotiate with me, huh? What? Are all those guys in the council cowards?" Möbius leaned back in his chair, turned around, and seemed confident about the negotiations.

“Dr. Mebius, stop now. The council will forgive your mistake and give you the resources you want,” the middle-aged man on the screen said, his voice sounding somewhat hoarse.

Upon hearing this, Mebius scoffed disdainfully, his casual expression vanishing as he stared intently at the middle-aged man on the screen. He said coldly, "Forgive my mistakes? Sorry, I don't need forgiveness. Besides, do those guys really think they're something special? Let those guys in the council talk to me. You're not qualified."

"You..." Upon hearing this, the middle-aged man wanted to say something, but he couldn't say anything. He could only look at Mebius with anger.

A moment later, the image on the screen changed again. This time, there was no human figure, only an indistinguishable male or female voice.

“Dr. Mebius, state your request.” The voice sounded somewhat strange.

"Oh? I thought you guys were going to pull some convoluted tricks again. It's rare to see you so straightforward. Let me guess, the Third Herrscher should have appeared by now." Upon hearing this, Mebius's lips curled up slightly.

The person opposite him remained silent for a moment before openly acknowledging the fact that the Third Herrscher had appeared. A large part of the reason why Mebius was able to walk back to his laboratory so smoothly was that a lot of the armed forces here had been transferred out.

The Third Herrscher's power was far greater than anyone had anticipated. If another Herrscher were to cause trouble at this time, it would only worsen the already unfavorable situation.

"So, what do you want, Dr. Möbius?"

"What do I want? It's simple. First, provide my lab with ample funding. Second, don't even think about touching my sister; I won't allow you to waste her like that. Third, let my sister join the Firemoth and become my assistant. Fourth, don't interfere with any of my actions."

"Hmm... I can agree to the first three. As for the fourth... if it's not something harmful to humans, I can agree to that too." The man replied after thinking for a while. To be honest, he thought Mebius would ask for more, but he didn't expect him to only ask for this much.

"Don't worry, I won't do anything harmful to humans, um, humans," Möbius assured with a smile. "By the way, in exchange, I can give you a gift."

What gift?

“I can send her to the front lines to fight against the Herrscher of Thunder,” Mebius said, pointing to Sirin beside him.

Upon hearing this, both Xilin and the person opposite her were stunned. After a moment, the person asked in a serious tone, "Can you guarantee safety?"

"No, because we haven't figured it out yet," Mebius said frankly. "But, it's worth a try, isn't it? Your combat strength must be quite strained, right? If a Herrscher-level combatant were on our side at this time, it would surely relieve a lot of pressure, wouldn't it? If you're worried, I can also go to the front lines with you."

After Möbius finished speaking, the laboratory fell silent. After a long while, the person finally agreed to Möbius's request: "We accept this gift, but you can forget about going to the front lines, Dr. Möbius. You are an important talent for our Firemoth."

“Alright then.” Mebius shrugged, unconcerned.

Mebius then continued to stall for a while, making a few more demands to the parliamentarians. After receiving their consent, the negotiations finally ended, and the communication was immediately cut off.

After the negotiations ended, Sirin, who had watched the whole thing from the sidelines, approached Mebius and asked, "Sister, are you planning to send me to fight against the Third Herrscher?"

“Yes.” Möbius nodded slightly. “Could it be that Sirin is scared?”

Xilin shook her head: "No, it's just that it feels a bit sudden, like a dream. I was playing at home yesterday, and today I'm going to the battlefield."

"This is the first lesson of growing up~ Just like a snake shedding its skin, growth always requires shedding the past to gain new life. The opportunity to grow up can be so sudden. I'm really looking forward to seeing what you'll become." Perhaps you'll even fulfill her lifelong wish...

Chapter Five: Bloodletting

"By the way, sister, aren't you afraid those people will change their minds?" Xilin glanced at the now-closed screen.

“They won’t, because they still need us. We are irreplaceable to them. There may have been replacements in the past, but not anymore.” Möbius put his hand on Celine’s shoulder to reassure her.

Sirin lowered her head thoughtfully. It seemed she still had a lot to learn. She couldn't continue to live a life of idleness like before. She had now entered the battle between humanity and the will of Honkai. A slight mistake would mean certain death. She had no choice but to grit her teeth and move forward.

[The third collapse of the storyline has been triggered; the difficulty of this storyline is slightly higher than in the original timeline.]

[Story Completion Criteria: Kill the Third Herrscher and her retinue]

[Perfect completion standard for the storyline: Complete all unexpected events]

Completing this storyline will grant you another chance to win a prize; a perfect completion will double the reward.