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ArabicChat Group Crossover: My System Simulates Infinite Anime Worlds — Chapter 9
Chapter 9: Condensing a Core in a Month and a Half
[, the most critical issue you face is how to make contact with her.]
[To do so, you must either join the Flame-Chasers or orchestrate a chance encounter.]
[Joining the organization would make acquiring research equipment incredibly convenient. Given your abilities, you could easily have her transferred to your own laboratory.]
[You dismiss the thought almost as soon as it appears. It’s better to first investigate what the Flame-Chasers are truly about.]
[The moment the idea of contacting them surfaced, your mind was flooded with unsavory concepts: internal strife, corruption, bribery.]
[You realize this is likely because your memories contain some latent knowledge about the organization. A thorough investigation is the only prudent course of action.]
[At that very moment.]
[Elysia, somewhere within the Flame-Chasers’ headquarters, suddenly shudders. She wraps her arms around herself and glances in every direction, a strange chill running through her, as if she has just been targeted by something deeply unpleasant.]
[You return to your routine of studying, physical training, and private research. The daily interactions with Mei bring a quiet, consistent joy to your life.]
[In the background, you conduct a discreet investigation into the Flame-Chasers, and your initial suspicions are quickly confirmed. The organization has problems.]
[The world-famous superstar, Eden, funnels a massive sum of money into this “charitable organization” at regular intervals.]
[However, the majority of this money is siphoned off by a handful of individuals. These same people frequently use flimsy excuses to slash the research budgets of certain laboratories.]
[The diverted funds line the pockets of those in power. Some have even used the money for illicit activities, including hiring assassins.]
[One laboratory, in particular, has suffered severe budget cuts: that of the genius scientist, Dr. Mobius.]
[More interestingly, the very research proposal you saw earlier—the one about combining Honkai Beast genes with humans—appears to be her work.]
[According to your digging, she left her hometown as a child, apparently due to family conflicts, and arrived on the M Continent alone with nothing but a suitcase. Her brilliance allowed her to complete her education entirely on scholarships.]
[She transitioned into laboratory work, where her outstanding results attracted willing sponsors, allowing her to establish her own lab.]
[Eventually, she was scouted and brought into the Flame-Chasers, becoming one of the veteran scientists specializing in Honkai Beast research.]
[As you uncover this information, you are left utterly speechless.]
[She is one of the pillars of the Flame-Chasers, yet she is being actively undermined by her peers, her funding choked off, and she has been forced to endure it all.]
[She even frequently goes out drinking and socializing, trying to solicit sponsors on her own.]
[You can only sigh at the revelation. This is humanity in a nutshell—even with a world-ending crisis looming, they are still consumed by internal conflict.]
[An idea flashes through your mind: should you establish an organization yourself?]
[You recall a previous world where you led a rebellion. The early stages were a nightmare of lacking talent, forcing you to manage every single detail yourself. It was far too troublesome.]
[Fortunately, the people in that world were relatively simple and loyal, which made them easy to manage in the long run.]
[You glance again at the names on the list you’ve compiled—the untouchable figures at the top.]
[If a United Nations-level organization can rot like this, what chance would you have? With no established means of control, a new organization founded by you would be even more susceptible to corruption.]
[With a few deft keystrokes, you leak the data on their corruption to the desks of various world governments.]
[As an afterthought, you slightly modify the data, carefully scrubbing any information related to the Honkai.]
[Finally, you send a copy to the private email of their largest benefactor, Miss Eden.]
[You think to yourself that, given Miss Eden’s public influence as a world-class artist…]
[…the Flame-Chasers organization should know exactly what to do.]
[Miss Eden, currently on a world tour, has just finished a bath in her hotel suite. She pours herself a glass of red wine, preparing for a small drink to unwind.]
[She idly checks her private inbox and notices an unfamiliar file. Moving her mouse, she clicks it open.]
[As she scrolls through the contents—transcripts of video conferences, audio recordings of executives dividing the spoils—her serene expression becomes exceptionally animated.]
[She never imagined that the money she had donated to the charitable organization over the years… was being spent on this. A powerful interest in the anonymous sender of the email immediately sparks within her.]
[She types a quick, concise reply: ‘Thank you. I will handle this.’]
[You are just about to begin your daily cultivation when you hear the notification chime from your computer. A glance at the screen reveals Eden’s reply. You’re surprised she responded so quickly; you had expected such sensitive information to be set aside and deliberated upon for some time.]
[A feeling of anticipation settles over you, like the curtain rising on a good show.]
[Overnight, those implicated in the corruption within the Flame-Chasers were arrested.]
[They were swiftly served with subpoenas and confronted with mountains of evidence sent by Eden’s legal team.]
[The affair left officials from various countries speechless. They had no choice but to scramble for ways to appease the anger of the world-class artist.]
[The most furious, however, were the researchers themselves.]
[Especially Mobius, who had been debasing herself by drinking with potential investors.]
[Only now did she realize just how wealthy the Flame-Chasers truly were. Although she knew it was an armed organization with significant expenses, she was still a member of its upper management. She never dreamed that so many people would conspire to gouge out such a huge chunk of her research funding. This was absolutely unforgivable. With that funding, her research would have leaped forward ages ago.]
[On the bright side, because of this massive internal scandal…]
[…the matter of you hacking into the Flame-Chasers’ network and diverting most of their supercomputer’s processing power was quietly dropped.]
[A month and a half has passed since you arrived in this world.]
[During this time, you have continued your studies alongside your beautiful desk-mate.]
[You’ve even attended a few of her cooking classes.]
[You can’t help but lament that while God may have opened a window for you, He also slammed a door shut.]
[How to describe the food made by your beautiful desk-mate? It looked fine. The aroma was perfectly normal, even appetizing.]
[But you always sensed a great and terrible horror emanating from it. A phantom black skull seemed to hover over every exquisitely plated dish.]
[During one class, a classmate unceremoniously picked up a mouthful with his chopsticks, popped it into his mouth, and was immediately rushed out of the room to have his stomach pumped.]
[You could only offer an awkward, polite smile, silently thankful that you had escaped disaster. You offered a silent prayer for that taste-testing classmate’s long and healthy life.]
[Mei didn’t say anything, her head bowed in a mixture of shyness and distress.]
[Meanwhile, your martial arts cultivation has hit a bottleneck. Your current technique has no further stages.]
[During this period, you have been using your study time to calculate the subsequent realms for your practice.]
[You drew inspiration from the classical path: Refinement of Essence into Qi, Refinement of Qi into Spirit, and Refinement of Spirit into Emptiness.]
[This aligns perfectly with the path you are currently on. The previous martial arts cultivation, which tempered the physical body, was the Essence Refinement stage. The logical next step is to open a Dantian Qi Sea in the lower abdomen to store Qi.]
[You requested a leave of absence from school, citing some personal business you had to attend to. The teacher readily approved your leave slip.]
[Mei looked at you with concern, her violet eyes lingering on you, silently asking where you were going.]
[Seeing her expression, you gently stroke her jet-black hair. “I’ll be back in two days,” you say softly. “Don’t worry. I’ll come find you as soon as I return.”]
[A faint blush dusted Mei’s cheeks, and she turned her head away in embarrassment.]
[Looking at the flush on her face, you reflect that you haven’t even used half of the techniques you used on your childhood friend in the last world, and she’s already like this.]
[If you were to use all of them…]
[You consider it for a moment, then decide against it. Best not to completely ruin the girl, though you suppose you’ve already ‘ruined’ her to some extent.]
[You rent a motorcycle from the local bosozoku and ride it deep into a remote, desolate mountain forest.]
[To break through, you need to absorb Honkai Energy. It’s inevitable that while doing so… you might condense something like a Herrscher Core, an unwanted crystal in your body, and inadvertently trigger a Honkai Eruption.]
[As for why Herrschers attack others and are branded enemies of humanity… you have been pondering this question during your free time.]
[Your investigation into the two previous Herrschers yielded some clues. It seems both suffered unfair treatment and suppression before their awakening.]
[This led to a deep despair with the world, generating a massive amount of negative emotion. When combined with some other factor reaching a critical point, it achieved a resonance, transforming them into Herrschers.]
[Your desire to meet Elysia grows even stronger. You desperately want to study how she can move so freely in areas with such dense Honkai Energy.]
[Elysia, currently training at the newly purged Flame-Chasers headquarters, shudders again.]
[Deep in the forest, you find a dilapidated shrine.]
[And there seems to be something else inside—it must be one of the Honkai Beasts you saw in the data files.]
[After stepping inside, you see it: a creature over two meters tall, stark white with decorative purple stripes.]
[Recalling the files, you identify it as a Chariot-class Honkai Beast.]
[The Chariot-class beast leaps high into the air, pouncing directly at you.]
[You drop into a low horse stance and pull your fist back to your waist. You want to test your current strength, and you also want to study the internal structure of this creature.]
[You throw a single, straight punch. Under the force of your blow, a large hole appears in the center of the Chariot-class Honkai Beast’s torso. It collapses to the ground, inert.]
[Just as you are about to pull the machete from your back to dissect the creature…]
[…you suddenly hear a buzzing sound, the distinct noise of wings flapping at high speed.]
[Your senses instantly lock onto the direction of the sound. You turn to look.]
[Three creatures, each over a meter long, are charging rapidly toward your position. Ganesha-class Honkai Beasts.]
[With the machete now in hand, you make short work of the three ‘mosquitoes’.]
[Finally, you begin to dissect the four Honkai Beasts, piece by piece.]
[Inside their bodies, you find purple crystals shaped like complex cubes. The four cores vary in size.]
[You can feel it instantly—they are Honkai Energy crystals in a solid state, containing high-purity Honkai Energy.]
[You raise an eyebrow. Something feels off, as if these were deliberately sent to provide you with cultivation resources. Could it be the will of the planet?]
[The more you think about it, the more plausible it seems. Your genius beauty of a desk-mate, your own arrival in this world…]
[The doctors of the Flame-Chasers—each one a figure who would stand out in any other era, yet they were all born in this one.]
[It suggests that some special will has sensed a danger lurking in the shadows and has developed a self-preservation instinct.]
[It could be the collective unconscious of humanity. It could be the planetary will itself. Or, in the worst-case scenario, this is all just an experimental field.]
[After all, that image of the Honkai seared into your mind was of a massive Herrscher clutching the planet, looking down upon it expressionlessly, like a god.]
[That image could represent many things. It could signify protection, or it could mean it views this planet as its personal laboratory.]
[The thought doesn’t bring despair or boredom. Instead, you find it incredibly interesting.]
[Let yourself go wild for once. Let’s see what level you can lead the people of this world to, and whether you can defeat the opponent waiting at the end.]
[You find a clean spot and place the high-purity Honkai Energy crystals around you. Sitting directly on the ground, you begin to absorb the surrounding Honkai Energy.]
[As you enter a meditative state, the ambient Honkai Energy rapidly gathers, flowing into your body.]
[The four Honkai Energy crystals around you dissolve into pure energy and surge into you as well.]
[A low roar echoes in your ears. You have successfully opened your Dantian Qi Sea.]
[But you notice the influx of Honkai Energy hasn’t stopped. Instead, you feel it coalescing, forming something like a Herrscher Core inside your body, though it seems a bit smaller than the ones described in the data.]