"Her skill is low, but her addiction is high."
Waking up in the morning, Xin Yu looked at Mobius, still sprawled bonelessly on the bed in a deep slumber, and couldn't help but shake his head and sigh.
She clearly knew the disparity between them, so why did she have to keep provoking him? Midway through, Xin Yu's consciousness had become relatively clear, and he could have controlled himself somewhat, but Mobius just had to keep running her mouth.
In the end, she lost consciousness just like the day before.
After Xin Yu had prepared breakfast, Mobius, having casually thrown on a few pieces of clothing, came downstairs, rubbing her eyes in a somewhat disheveled manner.
Seeing this, Xin Yu stepped forward to help Mobius neaten her scattered clothes, then wiped the sleep from the corners of her eyes before saying, "Go take a shower after breakfast."
"Okay."
Mobius mumbled an incoherent reply and walked to the dining table. Today's breakfast consisted of scallion oil noodles and fragrant fried wontons. Xin Yu had even specially prepared a small dish of vinegar on the side for the wontons. Mobius dipped a crispy fried wonton into a bit of vinegar and popped it into her mouth. That marvelous taste of fried food mixed with vinegar, though a bit strange, was indeed delicious.
After finishing her portion of breakfast, Mobius went to wash up, then changed into a set of clothes suitable for going out. Carrying a small metal case in her hand, she smiled at Xin Yu and said, "Want to come with me for a tour of my laboratory?"
"No, I plan to go out for a stroll today, get to know this current era."
"Alright, but don't just disappear without a trace. If you pull a stunt like last time, just leaving a note and vanishing, I won't let you off the hook."
"That was just an accident. Don't worry, I won't just leave directly without even meeting you again. That was indeed poorly handled on my part."
"I'll remember your promise. Well then, see you tonight, my dear pretty boy."
"See you tonight, Snakey."
Hearing the nickname "Snakey," Mobius felt an inexplicable sense of embarrassment. She shot Xin Yu a slightly exasperated glare before leaving the house.
After Xin Yu finished cleaning up the breakfast dishes, he stepped out of the house, deciding to go and see the world of this particular time. Originally, he had planned to go out after resolving his emotional vulnerabilities, but for some reason, he couldn't shake the feeling that his current emotional state and its hidden dangers were merely a simple prank by Aha.
Xin Yu didn't know if his own conjecture was also within the other party's expectations, but he always felt that this matter wasn't so simple. Perhaps Aha wanted him to experience the complete seven emotions and six desires that a normal person should have?
After all, from the moment he gained consciousness and opened his eyes, his own emotions couldn't exactly be called normal. Many aspects were rather weak. The reason he went around doing good deeds and helping others was purely an obsession stemming from the influence of past memories, not because he felt any joy from helping others. It was only later, due to being infected by the void, that he began to use that obsession as an anchor to sustain himself, and only then did he start to feel happiness from the joy and happiness of others.
But he himself was, in fact, not normal. This abnormality manifested in many aspects.
Now, his emotions had become extremely sensitive and intense due to Aha's influence. While this made him uncontrollable, it also gave him the opportunity to complete his own humanity.
He had experienced pain, sorrow, helplessness, joy, and other emotions, but he had never experienced anger, despair, hatred, greed, jealousy, and the like.
He had a hunch that once he had experienced all the emotions a normal person possessed and completed the final piece of his humanity, he would advance to an even higher realm.
As for what that higher realm entailed, Xin Yu didn't have a precise understanding. After all, in his impression, the realms above Nascent Soul were sometimes called Soul Separation, sometimes Body Integration, and sometimes even Spirit Transformation.
But no matter what kind of realm it was, what he should do now was to complete himself and possess emotions that truly belonged to him.
Thinking this, Xin Yu reached out and stroked his chin. After hesitating for a long moment, he sighed. Then, closing his eyes, an extreme sense of listlessness and void gradually emerged from him.
Xin Yu slowly opened his eyes. At this moment, there was no emotion whatsoever in his eyes; even the color of his pupils had vanished, his eyes presenting an empty hue that ordinary people couldn't comprehend.
At this moment, Xin Yu was wholeheartedly experiencing an emotion that had always existed within him, yet he had never truly felt.
Void.
Everything was meaningless. His existence in this world was fundamentally devoid of any meaning. His birth was meaningless, his appearance was meaningless, and the things he did were even more meaningless, because everything would eventually return to void. No matter how splendid and colorful the process, it would ultimately turn into nothingness.
As that emotion called void enveloped his entire body, as Xin Yu calmly watched his own form gradually turn ethereal, as all colors were overlaid by emptiness, he felt himself being drawn by some distant existence. That familiar feeling—he already knew he was falling towards the Land of Nothingness. That was his destiny, his end, his conclusion.
And as he watched himself disappear bit by bit, as he felt his own existence being stripped away piece by piece.
Xin Yu thought of many people. He thought of the priest who had watched over him in the orphanage. He thought of Sakura, Mobius, Kiana, and Mei. He thought of everyone on the Astral Express crew. He thought of the many people still waiting for him to save them.
He felt fear. He feared not being able to fulfill his promises. He feared seeing the disappointed and pained eyes of others. He feared the despair of his loved ones. He also feared that after falling into a vortex, he would be unable to change anything, and everything would return to its original track.
An intense sense of fear pulled Xin Yu back from the void. He knelt on the ground, gasping for breath. If not for the fact that his body's constitution was different from that of a normal person, he would probably be drenched in sweat by now.
"So, this is the void and fear of emotions?"
Xin Yu could clearly feel that his essence had actually solidified slightly. Was it because he had experienced true fear and the emotion of void?
No, to be more precise, it was because he had reclaimed these emotions.
Xin Yu propped himself up from the ground. After calming the incessant waves in his heart and soothing the surging fear, he let out a long breath and decided to go see some places in this world.
He knew that for a species like humans, sin and virtue would always coexist, regardless of the era.
He needed to witness tragedy and despair, to see those victims in their miserable suffering, to see those perpetrators acting with wanton impunity.
Sympathy and compassion, he had already reclaimed long ago.
What he needed to reclaim now was the emotion called anger. It was a pity that if he hadn't been interfered with by Aha when he confronted Cocolia back then, he might have been able to reclaim anger through that.