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ArabicChat Group Crossover: My System Simulates Infinite Anime Worlds — Chapter 20
Chapter 20: While Parents Are Alive, Do Not Travel Far
[The ranks of the Flame-Chasers were thinning.]
[More and more of its members were leaving. Some found a new home in the Taixu Laboratory under your command, while others chose to return to the M Continent, resuming their work in the labs they had once led.]
[It was during this period of transition that the Taixu Laboratory came under attack.]
[Before you, a young girl named Vill-V was bound so thoroughly she resembled a caterpillar in a chrysalis. In your hand was a medical report, its clinical terms diagnosing her with what amounted to schizophrenia.]
[Yet, the report also detailed the nature of her ‘split personalities’—each one a genius in a different field, with a particular prodigy for mechanical engineering.]
[You studied Vill-V’s defiant glare. If Elysia hadn’t physically held you back, and if not for the faint, almost imperceptible flicker of goodwill you felt towards the girl for reasons you couldn’t explain…]
[…you would have already walked over and delivered a couple of sharp slaps to knock some sense into her.]
[After a brief investigation, you uncovered her origins: a chaotic slum known as Dusk Street, a place teeming with criminals and outcasts.]
[During the course of this investigation, you also located her teacher and dispatched a team to extend an invitation.]
[Your plan was twofold: invite her teacher to join the Taixu Laboratory as well. After all, your investigation revealed the teacher was a considerable talent in her own right.]
[When the delicate, graceful woman who was her teacher appeared in the room, Vill-V’s jaw dropped. Her defiant composure shattered. “You bastard!” she shrieked, her voice echoing. “You’re despicable!”]
[You merely chuckled, your eyes narrowing into amused slits. “There’s an old saying: ‘While one’s parents are alive, one should not travel far.’ My investigation tells me the two of you share a bond just as close.”]
[Translator Note: This is a classic Confucian saying, often used to emphasize filial piety. Here, Nagumo is using it mockingly to say he’s brought her ‘family’ to her.]
[Seeing her student in such a state, Vill-V’s teacher began bowing repeatedly in a flurry of apology.]
[“I’m so sorry, I am so deeply sorry. Vill-V… what exactly has she done? May I know? If she has caused any trouble, I apologize to you all on her behalf.”]
[Faced with her teacher’s humble, pleading demeanor, Vill-V was rendered speechless. What could she say? That this was all part of her grand scheme to get noticed?]
[When Vill-V’s teacher finally learned what her student had done, her expression was one of pure, unadulterated shock.]
[She could never have imagined her kind, brilliant student would attempt such a thing. The entire situation felt utterly nonsensical to her.]
[Vill-V, unable to bear it any longer, finally confessed her true purpose: she wanted to join the Taixu Laboratory and felt she needed to make a grand demonstration of her strength to be accepted.]
[Her reasoning left you somewhat speechless, but her abilities were, without a doubt, the real deal.]
[You then tossed her the cores of the Second and Fourth Herrschers, tasking her with developing them into weapons. One was to be designed to improve the planetary environment; she could do as she pleased with the other.]
[Before long, she presented her creations: a massive locomotive built around the Second Herrscher’s core, and a sophisticated satellite powered by the Fourth’s.]
[Vill-V, now channeling her ‘Magician’ persona, began to theatrically introduce the functions of her two new Herrscher Core weapons.]
[The locomotive could function as a weather-control weapon, capable of regulating the planetary environment on a massive scale.]
[The satellite, meanwhile, could perform traversals through Imaginary Space.]
[Both projects were colossal in scope. The amount of funding and resources consumed in their creation was astronomical.]
[For any other individual or organization, the cost would have been crippling. For you, however, it was manageable.]
[Besides, you recognized the necessity of these projects. No matter the cost, you had to prepare for the future, for a time when the Honkai might become overwhelmingly powerful.]
[You knew its final descent would be terrifyingly fast. You had not yet mastered Magnetic Field Rotation, and even if you did, you wouldn’t have much time to accumulate power.]
[You also sensed that the Magnetic Field martial arts you had been developing were on the verge of a breakthrough, needing only a single catalyst.]
[Just one final piece was needed to push you from the principles of Current Propulsion into the domain of Magnetic Field Rotation.]
[Time flowed onward.]
[Three years had now passed since your arrival in this world. It felt like an eternity. So much had happened, so many battles fought, and, somehow, you had managed to attract the attention of a surprising number of women along the way.]
[But today, a deep sense of accomplishment washed over you. You had finally broken through the bottleneck, transitioning from the world of Current Propulsion to the esoteric art of Magnetic Field Rotation.]
[With each completed cycle of the Magnetic Field Rotation, you could feel your power swell, a tangible increase in the magnetic force thrumming through your very cells.]
[The growth was slow, almost glacial, but it was constant.]
[You felt that, given enough time, you could reach the legendary pinnacle: One Million Horsepower.]
[Yet, a premonition shadowed this achievement. You suspected you would not be granted that time.]
[You could feel the Honkai energy in the atmosphere accumulating at an ever-increasing rate, a evident pressure that screamed of impending crisis.]
[At the same time, you began to finalize your grand strategic layout. The Taixu Laboratory was, at its heart, an organization of Shenzhou.]
[Operating in other countries was not always convenient.]
[The solution, then, was deceptively simple: if the entire world became an extension of Shenzhou, the problem would cease to exist.]
[You formulated a two-pronged strategy: one path focused on winning hearts and minds, the other on overwhelming force.]
[In addition to the advanced weaponry developed within the Taixu Laboratory, you had also perfected a series of Strengthening Potions.]
[After Mobius joined the lab, the development of these potions accelerated. What was once the third generation was now the fifth, and the sixth generation was already viable for manufacturing.]
[, the potions had to be administered sequentially to be effective.]
[The first-generation Strengthening Potion could be mass-produced on an industrial scale. A single injection allowed an ordinary person to live a healthy life to the age of one hundred, with their immune functions drastically improved. When combined with the Breathing Technique, a lifespan of 120 years was easily attainable.]
[The second-generation Gene-Strengthening Potion was derived from a specific substance found within common Honkai Beasts, for which a method of artificial synthesis had been discovered.]
[This, too, could be mass-produced. When used after the first-generation potion, it granted an additional thirty years of life.]
[Their physical capabilities were amplified dramatically, allowing them to easily shatter the known limits of human performance.]
[The third-generation Gene-Strengthening Potion, taken after the second, focused on raw combat potential. It enhanced strength, speed, and physical toughness, pushing the user completely beyond their original biological limits.]
[A soldier enhanced by it could, with cold weapons alone, easily annihilate multiple Knight-class Honkai Beasts. Because of its focus on battlefield enhancement, it only added twenty years to one’s lifespan.]
[Regrettably, while an artificial synthesis method was found, technical constraints prevented mass production. Only 200,000 doses were ever created, all of which were distributed to the army.]
[As for the fourth-generation potion, you only managed to produce 10,000 doses. It wasn’t for a lack of trying. The raw material was simply too scarce, as it had to be extracted from the apex of high-ranking Honkai Beasts: the Honkai Emperor.]
[The substance harvested from a single Honkai Emperor could, at most, produce two doses of the potion.]
[Sometimes, you would only get one. On occasion, you would get nothing at all.]
[Most critically, the synthesis process was so maddeningly complex and prone to failure that you had eventually shelved the project entirely. Mass production, for now, was an impossibility.]