The process had been rather tortuous, but judging by the result, things had turned out fine… probably.
At the very least, the moment the system reward landed in his hands, Li Mu knew his idea had worked. By recreating the character trajectories of the main storyline from fifty thousand years later, he really could bypass this brain-dead system's judgment.
So what came next was very clear.
In this world destined to be erased by Finality, he would reconstruct the stage according to the plot from fifty thousand years in the future.
He would search for counterparts of familiar characters, assign them matching background settings, then throw them onto the stage one by one.
They would perform according to his script, act by act.
And as the director behind it all, his job was simply to press the shutter at the end of each performance, prying rewards out of this rigid system's hands.
He would stockpile enough trump cards before Finality descended, making sure the Herrscher of Finality would never walk away.
Although the timeline of the Previous Era was vague in the main story, with no exact point given for the arrival of the Herrscher of Finality, it could be roughly inferred that there were still ten to twenty years before destruction.
That was more than enough time for Li Mu. Generous, even.
After all, in the main storyline, Kiana went from escaping Nagazora City to inheriting Finality and becoming the God of Earth in just five years.
Beginning: Leaving Siberia, searching for her father.
Ending: Becoming the God of Earth, standing alone above all ages.
"No matter how you look at it, ten years versus five years. Advantage is mine."
Li Mu pulled his attention away from the rewards and looked at the system tasks still grayed out.
Facing the Honkai outbreak-ravaged Nagazora City, under Anti-Entropy artillery fire and the roars of Honkai beasts, Kiana and Raiden Mei begin a grand escape.
Along the way, they encounter an Anti-Entropy member, Bronya, piloting a massive mech. The fate of the Big Three converges here.
In the end, the three successfully escape Nagazora City, only to be greeted by the Hyperion descending from the sky…
Task: Check in on the Big Three escaping Nagazora City.
Reward: S-rank Stigmata Selection Box x1, Crystals x3000, unlock Divine Key Archive.
Task status: Error. Key characters not detected.
Li Mu only glanced at it before skipping over it. This task required assembling the Big Three and using all of Nagazora City as the stage.
He did not yet meet the conditions, so he turned to the subtask.
Task: Witness ME Corporation heiress Raiden Mei enrolling at Chiba Academy.
Reward: A-rank Stigmata Selection Box x1, Crystals x300.
Task status: Key character Raiden Mei not detected.
You had to walk the road step by step. At least this task was far easier for Li Mu. He already had a plan.
Mei had recently run into some thorny issues due to changes in her family situation. That was a perfect opening.
But before that, he needed to settle the performance fee for this act.
Crystal balance: 300.
"Enough for now."
Li Mu opened the shop and navigated to the knowledge category.
Stigmata Gene Engineering (Fifth Revised Edition).
Price: 30000 Crystals.
He obviously could not afford that, but the item could be purchased in parts.
The system was oddly strict in some areas. It could quantify abstract knowledge, giving you exactly as much as you paid for.
Li Mu was curious how it judged the value of knowledge, but that did not stop him from praising the design.
He exchanged 100 Crystals and obtained one three-hundredth of the Stigmata Project knowledge.
After confirming the purchase, a file appeared on his terminal.
He immediately forwarded it to a green-haired woman. This was the payment he had promised in advance, related to her creation of the gene restructuring serum.
Not long after sending it, a reply came back.
Where is the rest?
Do not try to fool me. I can tell this is only part of it. You definitely have the full version.
Li Mu raised an eyebrow and typed back rapidly.
That costs extra, Doctor.
You did not seriously think a single gender conversion serum was enough to buy the complete Stigmata Gene Engineering data, did you?
After his reply, the other side went silent for a while.
…
Name your price. Name it. As long as it is something I can do.
Even through the screen, Li Mu could feel her hunger for knowledge. Unfortunately, he could not let Mobius complete the Stigmata Project yet. Otherwise, all of humanity would explode.
More importantly… he was broke.
Doctor, we will have plenty of opportunities to work together in the future.
…
On the other side of the Earth.
The First Research Institute under MOTH.
To some who did not know the truth, this place was the pinnacle of life sciences in this era, a holy land countless scholars flocked to.
To others, it was closer to a demon's lair.
The reason for such polarized views lay in the institute's director.
The most dazzling biologist of this era, Professor Mobius.
Some saw her as a monster. Others as a pioneer of human evolution. But no one could deny her godlike talent in biology.
At this very moment, however, the great scholar was clutching her terminal and losing her mind.
"Cliffhanger Authors Deserve To Become Homeless!"
Contrary to exaggerated rumors, Mobius was not some fanged, clawed freak. On the contrary, she could even be called a great beauty.
Her waist-length green hair spilled down her back. Her curvy figure could not be hidden even by a loose lab coat. Her pale complexion, the result of living in the lab, gave her a sickly sort of allure.
By ordinary human standards, she was undeniably beautiful.
If one ignored her current gnashing teeth and twisted expression.
Her reaction was understandable. As a researcher, pursuing knowledge was one of her core motivations for living.
Every time a puzzle in her mind was solved, the pleasure was ten times, no, nine times more exhilarating than anything else.
But when a question lingered just beyond reach, like a thin sheet of paper that could not be pierced, it left her miserable. Food lost all taste.
The person who had contacted her earlier possessed knowledge that opened up an entirely new line of thinking.
Stigmata Gene Engineering. The concepts aligned perfectly with some of her own ideas. They were nearly identical.
If the other party had not proposed the idea first, she might have suspected they had stolen it straight from her mind.
Regardless, that knowledge had illuminated a bright path for her.
If she could continue down it, she might achieve her ultimate ambition.
After completing the transaction, she had finally obtained what she wanted. But just as she was expanding on that inspiration…
It cut off.
"Cliffhanger Authors Deserve To Become Homeless!" Mobius raged.
"Doctor, please calm down."
A silver-haired woman in a lab coat approached.
Holding a bowl of instant noodles with both hands, she offered it to Mobius with a gentle smile. "Since it has come to this, you should eat first."
Mobius took the bowl and stirred it with a fork. Her face fell.
"…Why is it pickled vegetable flavor again?"
Hearing the complaint, Blanca slurped her own noodles.
"Doctor, having food at all is already nice. Our funding for this month is gone. I paid for these myself."
"Blanca, thank goodness for you. Without you, I do not know how this lab would even function," Mobius said, visibly touched, before sighing again, sorrow written plainly on her face.
Blanca balanced her noodles in one hand, fork in her mouth, and gave Mobius a thumbs-up.
"I trust you, Doctor…"
Then she picked up her fork properly and added, "With your talent, even without outside help, you will definitely succeed."
"But I feel awful…" Mobius groaned, stirring her noodles. "Unanswered questions make even eating unbearable."
"If only I could find that guy." Mobius smiled darkly. "Once he is in my hands, I have a hundred ways to make him spill everything in his head. A hundred."
Slurp.
"Doctor, people already misunderstand us enough," Blanca said carefully. "We are not bad people, right? Let us not think such dangerous thoughts."
"And he even used countermeasures and anti-tracking. We are not intelligence professionals. There is no way we can catch him."
Blanca was trying to dissuade her, but the moment she said this, Mobius' eyes lit up.
She set down her bowl and slapped her fist into her palm.
"That is right! I can just hire professionals to dig him out!"
Oh no. The Doctor was getting excited again.
Having long understood Mobius' personality, Blanca knew the moment she saw that gleam that trouble was coming.
"Doctor, are you planning to ask those people in MOTH?"
"They have intelligence networks everywhere, but dealing with them is not exactly safe…"
But Mobius looked at her as if she were a child.
"As long as I ask, MOTH will definitely help me."
"But if the Stigmata Gene Engineering data falls into those bastards' hands, I would still be the one getting squeezed."
"Those old foxes are black-hearted. No, not might be. They will absolutely demand outrageous conditions."
"Then I would just become a beggar."
Blanca nodded. "That makes sense, so Doctor, maybe we should not—"
"Have you heard of the organization called Poison Cocoon?" Mobius interrupted.
"Doctor, you mean that infamous assassin organization?"
Mobius nodded.
Blanca went pale.
"Doctor, that is too much. Really, that is too much."
"He just cut off the chapter. Hiring assassins to kill him is going way too far."
Mobius rolled her eyes lightly.
"What are you thinking? I want what is in his head, not his head."
"Poison Chrysalis is famous for assassinations, but killing alone could never sustain an entire organization."
"Besides hits, they also take jobs like finding lost pets, collecting debts, investigating affairs."
"Their network is global. They should be able to find him."
Hearing that Mobius was not planning murder, Blanca secretly breathed a sigh of relief. Then she realized a more serious problem.
"But Doctor… do we even have the money to pay Poison Chrysalis?"
Mobius straightened her impressive chest and smiled confidently.
"This quarter's research funds are about to be allocated. Experiments have losses sometimes. That is normal, right?"
"Doctor, using research funds for non-research purposes is not exactly appropriate…"
"Blanca, I have a feeling. If we find this guy, our research progress will leap forward."
"From a results standpoint, this spending absolutely advances the research. It is worth it!"
…
What Mobius did not know was that her supposedly subtle moves were painfully obvious to certain seasoned veterans.
In a sealed room somewhere, several people passed reports back and forth.
After reading them, one person asked, "Mobius is embezzling funds. Should we report her?"
The moment he spoke, the others stared at him like he was an idiot.
"Why report her?"
"If Mobius does not take any, how are we supposed to take ours?"
"We do not have her talent or background. If we do not skim, how do we climb?"
After some discussion, they decided to pretend they saw nothing.
They quietly added a zero behind the amount Mobius had diverted.
"She takes one. We take nine."
"At this rate, she should be thanking us."
…
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