English
Indonesia
Chinese (Simp)
Japanese
Korean
Spanish
Portuguese
French
German
ArabicChat Group Crossover: My System Simulates Infinite Anime Worlds — Chapter 19
Chapter 19: The Flame-Chasers in Name Only
You watched the figure retreat into the distance, a frown creasing your brow. The current situation felt uncomfortably familiar, stirring memories of the time your Magnetic Field Rotation awakened its more… esoteric, succubus-like traits. It was a strange and complicated feeling.
Once she was gone, another young woman approached. She wore a simple blue qipao that did little to accentuate her modest figure, yet she carried herself with a quiet grace. A sense of recognition washed over you—not of a specific memory, but a feeling of warmth, an absence of the usual guardedness you held for strangers. In its place was a faint, inexplicable affection.
She noticed your gaze and offered a slight, respectful bow. “Dr. Nagumo,” she began, her voice soft but clear. “My name is Hua. I’ve come specifically to thank you…”
As she spoke, the pieces fell into place. The Breathing Technique you had published had become a foundation of public health in this era of rising Honkai Energy. For most, prolonged exposure led to Honkai Energy erosion sickness, a debilitating and often fatal condition. Hua explained that her own father had been suffering from its torment until he began practicing the technique, which had allowed him to recover.
While some individuals naturally developed antibodies, they were tragically few. The alternative was a monstrously cruel calculus: through barbaric extraction methods, the antibodies from a thousand people could save the life of a single person. How did you know this? You had personally dismantled several foreign laboratories not long ago, uncovering mountains of data from their vile human experiments.
After Hua expressed her gratitude and departed, you found yourself greeting a steady stream of people. The annual meeting was in full swing, and from the stage, Elysia’s cheerful voice, amplified by a microphone, guided the proceedings.
Then, you sensed a presence beside you. You turned to find Mobius, who had appeared without a sound.
Her choice of attire today was… striking. A cascade of green fabric draped her slender frame, from her dress to her shoes, all of it complementing her vibrant green hair. The overall effect was less a coordinated outfit and more the spitting image of a stalk of fresh bok choy.
She opened her mouth to speak, but you held up a hand, cutting her off preemptively. “No.”
Mobius’s eyebrow arched in irritation. “I haven’t even said anything, and you’re already refusing. What is the meaning of this?”
You met her gaze, an eyebrow of your own raised in challenge. “You’ve been submitting applications to research the genes of the Emperor-class Honkai Beast, Sheshe. Don’t think for a second I don’t know what you’re planning.”
You let your hand drop, your tone firm. “You don’t need to be so anxious. Give it some time, and I’ll be able to synthesize an Emperor-class Honkai Beast serum myself.”
The color drained from Mobius’s face, replaced by a sickly green that clashed horribly with her hair. She ground her teeth. “You—! You’re overthinking things. I just wanted to chat. Do I really look like the kind of person who would do something so dangerous?”
You gave her a slow, deliberate look, scanning her from head to toe. You nodded with conviction. “Yes. Very much so.”
“To this day,” you continued, your voice dropping, “I still don’t dare let you get your hands on a Herrscher Core or a Herrscher’s body for research. Who knows when your mind might finally snap? One day you’ll just start shouting, ‘Humanity has its limits, so I choose to stop being human!’ and inject yourself with the first unstable sample you can find.”
Mobius was rendered speechless. She couldn’t refute a single word, not when she was already well on her way down the path of transcending her humanity.
There was, of course, one thing she left unsaid. The genetic material Mobius coveted most wasn’t from any Honkai Beast; it was yours. But several pairs of eyes were always on you, chief among them that pink-haired nuisance, Elysia. Every time Mobius had tried to get close, to perhaps slip a prepared aphrodisiac into your drink, that woman would appear out of nowhere, foiling her plans with an infuriatingly sunny smile.
Just then, the host on stage changed. Su took over the microphone, his calm demeanor a stark contrast to Elysia’s boundless energy.
Moments later, Elysia herself came bouncing over to you, now dressed in a fetching black and white maid outfit. She pirouetted on one leg, a playful flourish that sent the hem of her skirt fluttering, revealing a tantalizing sliver of skin between her thigh-highs and the fabric’s edge—a perfect execution of zettai ryouiki that could spark endless fantasies.
She clasped her hands behind her back, leaned in close until her face was inches from yours, and gave you a dazzling smile. The movement offered a generous view of her deep cleavage. “Nagumo,” she chirped, “what do you think of my outfit?”
A faint, sweet perfume wafted from her. You took in her appearance, your mind connecting it to the research you’d been conducting on Elysia herself. It was a purely academic inquiry, of course, not the kind of intimate exploration one might imagine. Your understanding of her was still superficial.
From what you’d gathered, Elysia believed her unique authority could allow her to preserve her consciousness after death, and perhaps even influence events in a small way. She had shared an idea with you recently—a contingency plan. In the event that humanity failed to overcome the Honkai, she was prepared to sacrifice herself to ensure the Herrschers of the next era would be born with their own consciousness, with their own humanity.
You had vetoed the proposal on the spot. You told her many things, but the gist was simple: I’m not dead yet, so don’t you dare be so pessimistic.
Your own broken memories contained visions of the Final Herrscher, a calamity of such impossible scale that it could hold the entire planet in its palm. Yet you remained resolute. You firmly believed that if you could fully master the power of Magnetic Field Rotation, if you were given enough time to break through to its highest levels, even a godlike being could be fought.
Even as you dedicated yourself to studying the esoteric power of the Magnetic Field, you had not neglected your martial arts cultivation. It was a pity that you had no clear memories of the higher realms of martial arts, forcing you to forge your own path, step by painstaking step. You relied on absorbing raw Honkai Energy to continuously temper your body. In the process, the inert Herrscher Core within you had finally become fully charged, a true and proper core.
The result, however, was not what you’d imagined. The storm of negative emotions you’d anticipated never materialized. The silence was, in a strange way, disappointing.
Ever since that conversation, Elysia had become more… adhesive. She would frequently drag you out to buy clothes or visit amusement parks—activities that felt suspiciously like dates between normal people.
You didn’t pay it too much mind. That was just Elysia’s personality, you told yourself. She was enthusiastic and kind to everyone. The combat personnel, the researchers in the labs—they all adored her.
But you had long since sensed her feelings for you, even if you chose not to acknowledge them.
She would say things like, “Isn’t it perfectly normal for an older sister to love her younger brother?”
But the homemade Valentine’s Day chocolates, the way she would piggyback you without a care for anyone’s gaze, the playful ‘face washes’ with her soft hands… those told a different story.
You were intimately familiar with one of life’s three great illusions: ‘She likes me.’ You had fallen for it countless times.
In your fuzzy memories of that first Western fantasy world, you recalled an elf who was incredibly warm and enthusiastic towards you. You thought she liked you. You confessed. Only then did you learn she was already a grandmother with five children.
The next world was one of mired in misery. The common people suffered, and you were always busy. You had to practice drawing talismans for your cultivation, find ways to increase crop yields, discover new edible plants. There were a million things waiting for you, and you simply had no time or energy for romance.
In the third world, your lifespan was tragically short. Your entire existence was a whirlwind of subduing demons and eliminating monsters, followed by a shipwreck that stranded you in a foreign land where you spent the rest of your days farming and raising children.
And in your previous life, your original life, you did have a childhood sweetheart. You thought, for a time, that you could live a quiet, simple life together. You didn’t expect to be dragged into a disaster that ended with you being stabbed to death. You could still clearly remember the moment. Looking back on it now, it only hurt a little. It wasn’t that painful, really.
Your mind returned from its journey through time and death. You looked at Elysia, who was still beaming before you, showcasing her charm. For a long moment, you didn’t know how to face her.
Then, the corners of your mouth curled up slightly. A faint, genuine smile touched your lips as you said softly, “It’s very beautiful.”
A brilliant, sun-like smile immediately bloomed on Elysia’s face, a sight that instantly put every other woman secretly observing the scene on high alert.
In their shared understanding, you were a block of wood, a man who didn’t comprehend the subtleties of human emotion. Your mind was filled with nothing but calculations on how to fight the Honkai, completely oblivious to the trail of hearts you’d charmed, intentionally or not.
MEI, watching from afar, had deep and personal experience with this. The things you had said to her during your time at school, things that had made her heart race, seemed to have been uttered with complete, maddening unconsciousness. She had hinted, she had prodded, she had practically done everything short of physically dragging you to the civil affairs bureau to get the marriage certificate stamped.
A wave of regret washed over her now. If she had known you would become such a magnet for trouble, she would have locked you down with a marriage certificate first and asked questions later.
Then again, she hadn’t considered that even a legal document would be little more than a piece of paper to the other women. It wouldn’t stop them from doing what they wanted.
Mobius still wanted your genes. Elysia wanted to leave a piece of herself with you. The quiet girl, Hua, who you’d met earlier, was forever seeking a way to repay her debt of gratitude. And Eden, the golden diva, held a clear and favorable impression of you. It was a romantic battleground of the highest order.
In the distance, two twin girls were quietly observing the unfolding drama. They watched your little corner of the room as if it were the most fascinating gossip show, holding snacks in their hands and nibbling on them bit by bit. Their expressions seemed to say that such high-stakes drama really worked up an appetite.
These were none other than the genius scientists from Shenzhou, Danzhu and Cangxuan. They were also the assistants you had personally assigned to Mobius; their shared expertise in biology made them a perfect, if chaotic, match.
Beside them, Klein, sporting two heavy dark circles under her eyes, held a massive bucket filled with milk tea. She drank from it in large, satisfying gulps through an oversized straw. It was safe to say that today, Klein had achieved ‘milk tea freedom.’ One could only hope her blood sugar wouldn’t skyrocket.
After the brief annual meeting concluded, everyone returned to their posts.
Another three months passed. During this time, Honkai phenomena of varying sizes erupted across the globe.
And the organization known as the Flame-Chasers was now completely defunct. It had officially announced its dissolution some time ago. It had to be dissolved; the rot of corruption had simply grown too deep.
The pattern had become predictable. A Honkai event would occur, but before the Flame-Chasers could even begin to mobilize, your Taixu Laboratory would have already arrived on the scene, resolved the local problem with terrifying efficiency, and departed just as quickly.
Seeing this, the high-ranking officials of the Flame-Chasers began to sit back and enjoy the fruits of your labor. Corruption, once hidden in the shadows, became blatant. Why bother with the risk and effort? With Taixu Laboratory around, they could just let them handle the Honkai.
The organization was in name only. They might as well grab a final, hefty profit and get out while they could.