Mobius's Curious Adventure

This whole baffling farce, which had been playing out from the very beginning, was finally cut short by the sudden appearance of this outsider.

Of course, it was only when Lin Wei followed the sound and looked over...

...that they abruptly recalled one very obvious fact—

I'm the outsider here.

...

A figure with incredibly long green hair, almost reaching the ground, emerged silently from the omnipresent shadows in the distance, as if stepping right out of them.

This figure looked petite, almost like a young girl.

She didn't spare Lin Wei a single glance.

Instead, she just floated towards Vill-V's position, her feet never touching the ground, moving like a ghost drifting on the wind.

She carried a chilling presence, an almost palpable air of... something slippery and hard to grasp. In a low, sharp voice, she demanded,

"How many times does this make?"

Lin Wei never imagined they'd meet the legendary Dr. Mobius like this.

"Well, well, isn't it Dr. Mobius?"

Still hovering high up on her flying contraption, Vill-V slowly descended.

When she was less than two meters off the ground, she hopped down nimbly, patting imaginary dust off her hands.

Acting completely nonchalant, as if nothing was amiss, she looked Mobius up and down with feigned surprise, taking in the intimidating aura rolling off her. With a smile, Vill-V chirped,

"It's been ages! What a rare guest!"

"What's wrong? Did that toolbox you use to get around finally give out? Need me to help you improve it?" Vill-V teased.

Ever since her body had shrunk to the size of a little girl's, Mobius, who was once remarkably tall, had been extremely vexed by her current form.

It wasn't about trivial things like looks or figure—those were meaningless details in her eyes.

No, the real issue was how this small stature seriously impacted her work efficiency.

To put it simply, her once agile hands, capable of operating seven or eight screens and keyboards simultaneously...

...well, now her arms simply weren't long enough.

The operating table, which she used to know better than her own dining table or coffee table...

...now that her height had drastically shrunk, even standing on a stool, she found it hard to get back to the viewing angle that felt most comfortable for her, let alone actually performing the intricate steps of her experiments.

And even something as basic as walking—

These short little legs, now skinnier than her old arms used to be, couldn't even run as fast as she used to walk...

How could Mobius, someone obsessed with efficiency, possibly stand for this?

Of course, being the proud individual she was, Mobius naturally wouldn't stoop to admitting such an embarrassing problem.

She merely seized an opportunity—when Vill-V, as often happened, had her research funding cut again—to reluctantly strike a small deal.

Mobius would provide some research equipment Vill-V desperately needed, but in return, Vill-V had to build her a "workbox" designed to improve her efficiency.

Whether it stemmed from a deep understanding and unspoken connection with her "old rival," or simply her uniquely eccentric way of thinking, Vill-V actually took the initiative to integrate a "transport" function into this toolbox.

When Mobius received this seemingly superfluous addition, she wore a look of disdain, clearly unhappy with Vill-V's unnecessary touch.

However, when she secretly tried it out alone in the lab, she was surprised to find it felt... actually pretty good.

A few days later, when the others at the base saw Mobius "emerge" from her lab again, they were stunned.

She wasn't wearing her usual white lab coat, the one she practically lived in.

Instead, she'd swapped it for a peculiar garment. Its lower half was incredibly long and strange, almost like a single, bizarre stocking that looked as if it would bind her feet completely, rendering them immobile.

She herself was perched atop an equally strange, box-like contraption, and just like that, she glided out silently from the dimly lit doorway... like a phantom.

The whole scene devolved into utter chaos, a real pandemonium.

"What's there to be surprised about?" Mobius asked coolly, maintaining her composure despite the situation, ever the proud one. "This skirt was a birthday gift Elysia gave me not long ago. I was just trying it on to see if it fit."

She let out a sigh.

"Alas, her taste is clearly... peculiar. You can't even walk properly in this thing. So, I had no choice but to figure out a different way to get around, now did I?"

"Gulp..."

Nuwa, who had also been taken aback by Mobius's unconventional look, was utterly bewildered by this explanation.

"But, Doctor, your birthday is clearly..." Nuwa started, intending to helpfully point out that Mobius's birthday was still several months away. Who would give a birthday gift that early?

But the words barely left her lips before a pair of utterly emotionless, serpentine eyes fixed on her, sending a chill down her spine. Whatever else she was about to say vanished instantly from her mind...

Anyway, the matter was somehow glossed over like that.

However, news of Mobius's new look spread through the entire base like wildfire.

Not long after, Elysia, having heard the rumors, came bustling over excitedly. She circled Mobius, looking her up and down, before bursting into laughter, practically doubling over.

"My dearest Dr. Mobius, you look absolutely adorable! This skirt seems to suit you even better than those other clothes I gave you!"

"...Elysia," Mobius hissed, "Shut. Your. Mouth!"

---||---

That little episode from long ago had long since been swallowed by the river of time. Eventually, everyone slowly got used to Dr. Mobius's new look.

After a while, it seemed like people just accepted this strange appearance as the way the already extremely strange doctor was supposed to look. Even Mobius herself started to think so.

"Cut the crap, Vill-V!"

Mobius clearly wasn't going to be fooled so easily. The thick, almost tangible shadows around her began to slowly spread outwards. She gritted her teeth and spat,

"Tricking Elysia, telling her I told her to drop her work for a bit to help you build that... whatever that nonsense is... How are you going to explain that?"

"And you even dared to swagger right up to my lab door? If you don't give me a proper explanation today, then you can just plan on spending a few days as a guest in my lab!"

Mobius was incredibly irritated right now. Extremely.

Truth be told, she'd been feeling irritable for quite some time.

She felt she had given far too much for this... family, which had so few members left.

Yet, she was never understood. Instead, the others seemed to subtly push her away, keeping their guard up around her.

Regarding this, Mobius merely offered a cold smile, then continued doing things exactly her own way, as always. She didn't care what others thought, nor did she feel the need to explain herself to them.

Over a year ago, something huge had happened in the Elysian Realm.

Word came from Kevin in the real world: someone intended to send the Herrscher of Corruption—the very being who had stolen the last shred of hope from their era—into the Elysian Realm.

The Elysian Realm instantly erupted into chaos!

Even Mobius, who usually kept to herself in her own domain and rarely interacted with the other Flame-Chasers, couldn't just sit by.

She stormed up to Kevin's simulation in the Realm, emotionally demanding to know if this news was true.

The Herrscher of Corruption!

Didn't he understand the horrifying consequences of letting her into the Elysian Realm?

"He has his reasons," Kevin replied calmly, obviously referring to his counterpart in the real world.

Seeing Kevin's firm stance, realizing the situation was unavoidable, the initially agitated Mobius actually calmed down.

First, in an extremely volatile mood, she ordered Elysia to get the hell out of the Elysian Realm, to go as far away as possible.

Then she went back to Kevin again, asking if he had any plan to deal with the Herrscher of Corruption.

"Just do what you need to do."

Kevin's attitude remained unchanged.

This infuriated Mobius. She immediately stormed back to her lab deep within the Realm and shut herself inside.

Fine! You all can play your little games, I'm washing my hands of this!

Of course, anger was one thing, but Mobius never seriously considered just letting everything fall apart.

She kept a close watch on every whisper and movement within the Elysian Realm, while simultaneously digging out her most precious treasure from the deepest recesses of her storage box.

She was ready. If that damned Herrscher of Corruption truly started rampaging through the Elysian Realm, she planned to use that thing for one last desperate attempt, to see if anything could be salvaged.

But then, events took an unexpectedly positive turn.

The Herrscher didn't cause any real damage to the Realm. Instead, she willingly transformed herself into a brand-new Divine Key.

Of course, that didn't mean the Elysian Realm suffered no losses.

At least, Mobius felt she had suffered a devastating blow.

That Herrscher, having once again taken on the appearance of the girl named "RIN" from fifty thousand years ago...

...had kicked open her lab door, snatched the treasure right out of her hands with a chilling smile...

...and then swaggered off without a single word, completely unlike the well-behaved girl Mobius remembered.

That day, as the only Flame-Chaser in the Elysian Realm to suffer actual, tangible property damage...

Mobius was practically about to explode with rage...

And then, the brand-new Divine Key, embodying the power of Corruption, began shadowing the young man who had brought her into the Elysian Realm, never leaving his side.

As for the young man himself, he showed no intention of leaving the Realm either. Instead, he settled right in, starting a life that seemed remarkably close to just idling around.

While Mobius couldn't fathom Lin Wei's seemingly aimless lifestyle, it didn't stop her from observing him with the cool detachment of a snake lying in wait.

She watched this fellow, who seemed even more fragile than the little white mice in her petri dishes, and soon discovered something utterly fascinating about him:

How is it possible for someone to perfectly graft one person's Stigmata onto another, making it so seamless, so indistinguishable?

This discovery, as astonishing as seeing an apple sprout from a mushroom, greatly intrigued Mobius, the original creator of Stigmata.

She guessed it might be a peculiar application of the Herrscher of Corruption's power and wanted to delve deeper, to see if she could unlock even more possibilities.

So, brimming with excitement, she headed out of her lab, intending to hook the guy who'd piqued her interest. Perhaps she could persuade him to voluntarily become her next test subject.

But the moment she pushed open her door, she found Kevin standing there like an immovable mountain, silently warning her not to make any rash moves.

"....."

Mobius had set out full of purpose, but her little adventure ended in disappointment before it even began.

She merely shot a few sarcastic remarks at Kevin before diving back into her original research with even greater intensity—

—researching how to transform memory data back into a complete life form, one capable of walking in the real world.

Previously, while this research was important to her, she hadn't felt a particular sense of urgency.

But the unexpected incident with the Herrscher of Corruption had drastically heightened her sense of crisis.

Even with all their power, the Flame-Chasers, existing only as memory data, were almost completely helpless against the Herrscher of Corruption.

This time, the Herrscher of Corruption from the Previous Era had perhaps spared them out of consideration for old ties. But what about next time?

This current era's civilization had already evolved to the point where Herrschers were beginning to be born.

How much time was left before this era's own Herrscher of Corruption emerged?

If she entered the Elysian Realm like the last one did, could they really hope that she, like Rin, would show mercy and spare these pathetic clumps of memory data?

What a joke!

The proud Mobius silently swore to herself: I absolutely must lead these companions out of this cursed cage, back under the vast, real sunlight!

As she immersed herself in her research, Mobius soon found her interest in Lin Wei waning.

After all, the guy's body was pitifully weak, completely unqualified to serve as a vessel for a Flame-Chaser's consciousness. Since that was the case, he wasn't exactly indispensable.

And so, barely leaving her lab, a year slipped by.

Lin Wei had left the Elysian Realm at one point, but he returned soon after. And unbelievably, he brought back another new 'little white mouse' that caught her interest.

Kevin had long since stopped guarding her door, no longer interfering with her freedom, even after Lin Wei's return.

This new girl seemed even stronger than Kosma – a physique far superior to Lin Wei's. She seemed like she might qualify to participate in the next stage of Mobius's research.

But before Mobius could even begin to act, she discovered the girl was an even more unreasonable lunatic than Kalpas.

This instantly put her off, and she temporarily shelved any plans involving the girl.

However, what Mobius didn't know was that while she had temporarily decided not to target others, Lin Wei had actively set his sights on her.

If she had known, she probably would have scoffed loudly—in over fifty thousand years, no one had ever dared to target her first! Aside from that annoying pest Elysia, Lin Wei was the very first!

"Well now, young man, you've certainly got guts. Don't worry, I definitely won't disappoint you!" she might have said, dripping with sarcasm.

Although Lin Wei didn't know about Mobius's experiences or her inner thoughts, based on his understanding of the doctor—whose stubbornness could rival Soulium—he had actually made considerable preparations for potential scenarios.

But that scene never got the chance to play out.

Because of someone's interference...

Or perhaps it's better to say, Dr. Mobius's string of misfortunes was far from over—heaven knows what she had just been through!

Who knew what crazy stunt Vill-V was pulling this time, suddenly moving her entire "stage" right to Mobius's lab doorstep without so much as a heads-up?

If it had just been that, maybe she could have let it slide. Vill-V was always a mysterious one, acting like this for years; it wasn't entirely unbearable.

But what was with that series of massive explosions that sounded like they were about to blow the entire Elysian Realm sky-high?

Even my lab got caught in the crossfire! It's a complete mess now!

Just thinking about her lab, utterly wrecked by the continuous, violent "earthquakes," made Mobius's head throb.

If it had stopped there, maybe it would have been okay. It wasn't the first time Vill-V had caused such chaos, after all. Dr. Mobius, long accustomed to it, could have come out, lodged a few complaints, and they could have moved past it.

Worst case, she could just contact Elysia, have her work her magic, maybe roll back the state of her lab's area a bit, return it to how it was before the "disaster." Simple.

But then, Mobius made a shocking discovery: Elysia was unreachable!

Unreachable. Can't get through...

And just like that—snap!—that was the last straw. Mobius completely lost it!

Barely holding onto her fraying nerves, Mobius immediately used her authority to rush to Elysia's location. Looming over the poor combat puppets representing Elysia, she unleashed a torrent of furious reprimands.

"What were you doing?! Why didn't you answer my call?"

"Are you disobeying me now too?"

Confronted with Mobius's sudden appearance and baffling accusations, Elysia's representation was utterly confused.

"Doctor? Wasn't it you who told me to fully cooperate with Dr. Vill-V's plan and not be disturbed by any external factors during that time?"

"When did I ever...?"

Mobius looked completely baffled by the statement, but she knew her assistant wouldn't lie. She instantly suspected some other trickery was involved.

Seeming to sense the disbelief on her creator's face, Klein tapped a few times on a screen, pulling up a recording. As a top-tier professional—even as data—Elysia was naturally adept at basic procedures like "keeping work logs."

"Elysia, there's something important I need you to do..."

And so, Mobius watched, utterly dumbfounded, as someone who looked exactly like her, speaking in a strained voice, delivered instructions she had absolutely no memory of giving.

Mobius listened patiently through the whole thing. Sure enough, it was an order for Elysia to fully cooperate with Vill-V, blah blah blah...

Since the command came from "Mobius" herself, it was perfectly logical for Elysia to execute it diligently.

Thus, Mobius easily forgave Elysia's "mistake."

Which meant there was only one person left to blame...

"Key... of... Corruption..." Mobius mused for a moment, then bit out each syllable through clenched teeth,

"Vill... V!"

There was no doubt about it. This kind of stunt could only be pulled off by Vill-V using that Key of Corruption she'd conveniently picked up!

And so, Mobius, having already reached her breaking point, finally, utterly, completely exploded!

"I thought my self-control was pretty good! I've put up with you lot time and time again, holding back again and again..." Mobius fumed inwardly as she stormed back towards her lab, feeling both wronged and furious.

"And this is what I get in return? You just push things further and further, taking advantage of my patience, is that it?"

Feeling like she'd been utterly taken for granted, Mobius made up her mind. That's it! I'm not putting up with this anymore!

And so, radiating pure fury, she charged right up to Vill-V.

If you can't give me a satisfactory explanation this time, then you'd better prepare to choose a satisfactory way to die!

"Oh! Mobius! I didn't expect to see you here too!"

Just as Mobius was steeling herself for a showdown with Vill-V, Elysia suddenly popped out seemingly from nowhere. She swept the completely unprepared Mobius into a hug, her face beaming with an incredibly bright smile.

"Heehee, I'm so happy to see you!"

---

Total chaos ε=ε=ε=(~￣▽￣)~