Although the process was quite complicated, the result was still good... probably.
At least the moment the system reward arrived, Lucius knew his idea was sound. By replicating the character trajectories from the main storyline fifty thousand years in the future, he could indeed circumvent this dummy system's determination.
So what needed to be done next was very clear.
In this world destined to be destroyed by Finality, he would build a stage according to the storyline from fifty thousand years later.
Search for counterparts of those familiar characters and give them corresponding background settings.
Finally, throw these counterparts onto the stage to complete performances according to his script.
And as the director orchestrating all of this, what he needed to do was press the shutter at the close of each performance, thereby extracting those rewards from this rigid system.
Accumulate enough trump cards before Finality descended to ensure the Herrscher of Finality would never return.
Although the Previous Era's timeline in the main storyline was quite vague, with no precise time for the Herrscher of Finality's descent.
Based on the plot, he could roughly deduce that there were at least ten to twenty years from now until destruction.
This time was completely sufficient for Lucius—one could even say abundant.
After all, the main storyline's Kiana had only taken five years from escaping Nagazora City to receiving Finality's authority and becoming Earth's god.
Opening: Emerging from Siberia, searching for Dad.
Ending: Becoming Earth's god, sovereign through the ages.
"No matter what, ten years versus five years—advantage is mine!"
Lucius shifted his attention from the system's rewards to the mission that still remained in gray status.
[Facing the crisis-ridden Nagazora City after the Honkai outbreak, heading toward Anti-Entropy's artillery fire and Honkai beasts' roars, Kiana and Raiden Mei began their grand escape.]
[Along the way, they even encountered Anti-Entropy member Bronya operating a giant mech—the Big Three's fates converged here.]
[In the end, the three successfully escaped Nagazora City, and what awaited them was the Hyperion descending from the sky...]
[Mission: Check in at Big Three escaping Nagazora City. Reward: S-rank Stigmata Selection Box x1, Crystals x3000, unlock Divine Key Pavilion.]
[Mission Status: Error, key characters not detected]
Lucius only glanced at it before moving on. This mission required gathering the Big Three and using all of Nagazora City as a stage.
He didn't yet have the conditions to complete this mission, so he looked at this task's sub-item.
[Mission: Witness ME Corp's young miss Raiden Mei's enrollment at Chiba Academy. Reward: A-rank Stigmata Selection Box x1, Crystals x300]
[Mission Status: Key character Raiden Mei not detected]
The road had to be walked step by step. At least this mission was much easier for Lucius—he already had an idea for completion.
Mei had recently encountered some tricky matters due to family changes. He could make his move from that angle...
However, before that, he needed to settle the performance fee for this production first.
[Crystal Balance: 300]
"Enough for now."
Lucius opened the shop and found the knowledge payment category among various listings.
[Stigmata Genetic Engineering (Fifth Revised Edition)]
[Price: 30,000 crystals]
Naturally, Lucius couldn't afford this price, but this item could be sold in parts.
This system was particularly fastidious in certain aspects—it could quantify abstract knowledge, giving exactly as much knowledge as you paid for.
Although Lucius was also curious about how this system determined the value of knowledge, it didn't prevent him from praising this design.
Lucius exchanged 100 crystals and obtained 1/300 of the Stigmata Project's knowledge.
Selecting purchase, the next moment Lucius found an additional file on his terminal.
He immediately sent it to a certain green-haired woman. This was the compensation promised to her beforehand for creating the Gene Remodeling Serum.
After sending the message, it wasn't long before a message came back.
[What about the rest?]
[Don't think you can fool me. I can tell this is only part of it. You definitely have the complete version.]
Seeing the message that came back on the terminal, Lucius raised an eyebrow. His fingers danced rapidly, and a message went back.
[That's a different price, Doctor.]
[You don't think you can get the complete Stigmata Genetic Engineering data with just one gender-swap drug, do you?]
After Lucius sent his message, the other side fell silent for a while.
[...]
[Name your price, name your price. As long as it's something I can do.]
Even through the screen, Lucius could feel the other side's thirst for knowledge. But unfortunately, he couldn't let Mobius complete the Stigmata Project yet, or all of humanity would explode.
Of course, more importantly... he had no money.
[Doctor, we'll have many more opportunities to cooperate in the future.]
...
On the other side of the Earth.
Fire Moth's subordinate First Research Institute.
In the eyes of some uninformed people, this was the benchmark of life sciences in this era, where countless scholars flocked. But to others, it was a place comparable to a demon's lair.
The reason for these two extreme evaluations lay with the institute's head.
—This era's most dazzling biologist, Professor Mobius.
Some viewed her as a demon, others as a pioneer of human evolution. But neither side could deny Mobius's god-like talent in biology.
But at this moment, this great scholar was clutching her terminal communicator in frustration.
"Cliffhanger dogs don't get houses!"
Unlike most hearsay fabrications, Mobius wasn't some monster with fangs and claws. On the contrary, this doctor could even be considered a great beauty.
Her waist-length green hair cascaded down, her shapely figure couldn't be concealed even by a loose white lab coat. Her complexion lacked color from long-term confinement in the laboratory, which instead gave her a certain morbid beauty.
Without doubt, this was someone who could be considered beautiful even by human aesthetic standards.
—If one ignored her current gritted teeth and twisted expression.
One couldn't blame her for being so emotional. As a scientific researcher, pursuing knowledge was one of her primary driving forces.
Whenever confusion in her mind was answered, that feeling of satisfaction was simply ten times—no, nine times—better than climaxing!
But conversely, if the confusion in her mind remained like a layer of paper that couldn't be pierced, she would be miserable and unable to enjoy anything.
The knowledge held by that person who contacted her not long ago had opened up a line of thinking for her.
Stigmata Genetic Engineering—the ideas within coincided completely with some of her own thoughts. One could even say they were exactly the same.
If the other party hadn't proposed this idea and concept first, she would have suspected they'd stolen the idea from her mind.
But regardless, the knowledge the other party provided did open up her thinking and showed her a bright path.
If she could continue down this road, perhaps there was a chance to complete her ultimate aspiration.
After completing the transaction with the other party, she had obtained the knowledge she wanted as she wished. But just as she was using it to expand the inspiration in her mind... it suddenly cliffhangered!
"Cliffhanger dogs don't get houses!" Mobius went crazy.
"Doctor, please don't be angry anymore."
A woman also wearing a white lab coat with silver-white hair came to Mobius's side.
She held a bowl of instant noodles in both hands, passing it to Mobius with an indulgent smile at the corners of her mouth. "Things have come to this point, so please eat first!"
Mobius held the instant noodles in one hand and stirred with a fork in the other, her small face immediately drooping.
"...Why is it pickled vegetable flavor again?"
Hearing Mobius's somewhat complaining tone, Blanca slurped up a mouthful of noodles with her fork.
"Doctor, it's already good to have something to eat. We've spent this month's budget, and I bought these with my own money."
"Blanca, I'm so lucky to have you. Without you, I don't know how the lab would function." Mobius looked moved, but then sighed, the sorrow plainly written on her face.
Blanca held her instant noodles in one hand, bit down on the fork with her teeth, and gave Mobius a thumbs up.
"I believe in the Doctor..."
Then picking up her fork again, she said to Mobius, "I believe that with your talent, Doctor, you can definitely achieve your goal even without others' help."
"But I just feel so uncomfortable..." Mobius looked miserable, stirring the instant noodles in her hand with her fork. "The questions in my mind aren't answered—I feel like I can't even eat."
"If only I could find that guy." Mobius revealed a sinister smile. "Once in my hands, I have a hundred ways to make him spit out everything in his head—a hundred ways!"
"Slurp~" Blanca slurped some noodles.
"Doctor, although the outside world has some misunderstandings about us, we're not bad people, right? Let's not have such dangerous thoughts."
"Besides, the other party used disguises and counter-tracking. We're not professional intelligence personnel—we can't possibly catch them."
Blanca had wanted to persuade Mobius to give up this dangerous idea, but who knew that after saying this, Mobius's eyes suddenly lit up.
She put down her bowl of instant noodles and slapped her palm, suddenly realizing, "That's right! I can totally get professional intelligence personnel to dig them out!"
Oh no, the Doctor's lost it.
Already having sufficient understanding of Mobius's personality, Blanca knew she was about to cause trouble the moment she saw Mobius getting excited.
"Doctor, are you going to ask those Fire Moth people?"
"Although their intelligence network covers the globe, I don't think dealing with them is a good thing..."
But Blanca found that after hearing her words, Mobius looked at her like she was looking after a child.
"As long as I ask, Fire Moth would definitely be willing to help me."
"But if the Stigmata Genetic Engineering data falls into those ****'s hands, won't I still be at their mercy?"
"Those old foxes' hearts are so black that they'll definitely, no, they'll certainly demand outrageous prices and make all kinds of ridiculous demands."
"Won't I become a beggar then?"
After listening, Blanca nodded in agreement. "That makes sense, so Doctor, let's just not—"
"Do you know the organization called Poison Pupa?" Mobius interrupted Blanca.
"Doctor, you mean that notorious assassin organization?"
Mobius nodded.
Blanca was immediately shocked.
"Doctor, it's not worth it, really not worth it."
"That person only cliffhangered—it's not worth hiring assassins to take them out, right?"
Seeing Blanca panic, Mobius rolled her eyes at her.
"What are you thinking? I just want the knowledge in their head, not their head itself."
"Although Poison Pupa is known for accepting assassination contracts, how could they support an entire organization just on killing jobs?"
"Besides taking assassination jobs, they also moonlight finding cats and dogs, debt collection, investigating adultery, and such."
"Their eyes and ears also cover the globe. I think they should be able to help me find that person."
After learning that Mobius hadn't developed murderous intent, Blanca secretly breathed a sigh of relief, but then she thought of an even more critical problem.
"But Doctor, do we have money to pay Poison Pupa's commission?"
Hearing Blanca's question, Mobius puffed out her impressive chest with a smile on her face.
"This quarter's research funding is about to be disbursed. As for experiments... some losses are normal, right?"
"But Doctor, using experimental funds for things other than research isn't quite right, is it?"
"Blanca, I have a premonition that as long as we can find this person, our research progress will definitely advance greatly."
"Looking at the results, spending this money is indeed promoting research, and it's very worthwhile!"
...
But Mobius didn't know that her supposedly covert little actions were so obvious to certain old foxes.
In a certain closed room, several people were passing reports back and forth.
After reading the report, one person said, "Mobius is misappropriating funds. Should we report her to the higher-ups?"
But after speaking, he found the other several people staring at him like he was a fool.
"Why would we report her?"
"If Mobius doesn't take it, how can we take it?"
"We don't have Mobius's talent and background. If we don't take some, how do we climb up?"
After some discussion, several people decided to pretend they hadn't seen anything, just tacitly adding a zero after the funds Mobius misappropriated.
"She gets one part, we get nine."
"And she should thank us for it!"
---
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