Vill-V was still the same as before, always liking to give people tickets to her magic shows.
Jun An and Mobius arrived together at the venue for Vill-V's magic show and, unsurprisingly, encountered various strange Anti-Kevin Armaments and Anti-Jun An Armaments.
That's right, Anti-Jun An Armaments.
This was after Jun An first became a MANTIS, and his combat power had basically risen to be somewhat stronger than Elysia's. Thus, Vill-V had found a new research direction: Anti-Jun An Armaments.
Jun An had undoubtedly cooperated with her. So far, just like the Anti-Kevin Armaments, none had been successful. However, due to the short timeframe, the Anti-Jun An Armaments had only developed to version 009 before Jun An was gone.
And as soon as Jun An and Mobius arrived, they immediately encountered Anti-Jun An Armaments 011 and 010.
Undoubtedly, she must have known long ago that Jun An would come looking for her, so she had started using these things to greet Jun An early on.
Jun An, without hesitation, threw Mobius at them.
"Don't worry! Just like how Taishan's meteorites can't hit the Tiger King, you'll definitely be fine!"
Jun An explained, watching as Mobius used an Artificial Honkai Eruption to destroy Vill-V's magic show.
Facing enemies custom-made to Jun An's standards, although the enemies were somewhat unconventional, it still took her considerable effort, even messing up her hair a bit.
Mobius looked at Jun An with an added touch of malice in her eyes,忍不住地 (rěnbuzhù de - unable to resist) gritting her teeth. "Little guinea pig, you just wait and see!"
"Alright, I apologize."
So Jun An picked up Mobius. "I'll carry you the rest of the way."
Mobius thought about it and ultimately didn't struggle out of Jun An's princess carry. Anyway, what did his apology have to do with whether she'd retaliate or not?
Thinking this, Mobius then shouted to her surroundings, "Vill-V! Alright, let the Captain play these flashy tricks with you next time. There's proper business that will interest you. If you don't come out, I'll go find Nagamitsu."
The director of Schicksal's St. 1504 Research Institute, and also a genius researcher on par with Dr. Einstein. Mobius had quite some interaction with her due to her participation in the research on the Cocoon of Finality.
Therefore, Vill-V wasn't actually the only candidate for the gift Jun An wanted to give Kiana. For engineering talent, Mobius alone could pick Nagamitsu and Tesla. However, Nagamitsu had more passion for research and was easier to talk to than Tesla.
Mobius had specifically come to find Vill-V mainly because she was closer.
"Proper business? Alright then. Seeing as you didn't actually intend to just half-heartedly watch my magic show, I'll temporarily stop this performance and save it for next time."
Vill-V's voice came from the sky. Then, a giant hat fell. Amidst an explosion, the hat burst open and transformed into Vill-V's appearance.
After an entrance very much in Vill-V's style, just as Vill-V saw Jun An pick up Mobius in front of her, her expression couldn't help but become somewhat complex.
But out of a magician's professionalism, she immediately calmed down and muttered to herself, "Magic show is paused for now. Conductor, it's your turn to appear."
In just the blink of an eye, she successfully completed the personality change.
The one who opened her eyes again was the Conductor, one of Vill-V's eight personalities – Conductor, Magician, Expert, Mystic Scholar, Chef, Anti-Kevin Armament Model Five, Lecturer, and Original. Although she, too, couldn't help but be moved upon seeing Jun An princess-carrying Mobius.
Incidentally, the Lecturer persona had long been separated by Vill-V, along with Aponia's Discipline, into a card-playing robot, and was currently still diligently teaching the Anti-Kevin Armament card game in the Elysian Realm.
However, even though the Elysian Realm was much more open to outsiders now, this place was still quite deserted; the Lecturer basically just wandered around aimlessly.
"So, Mobius, what's this proper business you mentioned?"
The Conductor before them was considered the closest to the Original among all Vill-V personas, and also the most humane one, so she couldn't help but complain, "I hope it's not some thankless task. After all, Expert hasn't finished her part of the report on the Cocoon of Finality yet."
Currently, almost all top-tier scholars were assigned research topics related to the Cocoon of Finality, striving to make the application of Honkai energy more commonplace.
Of course, a research topic was just a topic; it wasn't a task that needed to be completed immediately.
Take Mobius, for example. Over the past year, while researching the Cocoon of Finality to satisfy her research desires, she could still spare two or three hours a day to work on small patents for money.
Even like yesterday and today, after casually dealing with her experiments, she could come and, hand-to-hand, mouth-to-mouth, pussy-to-pussy, teach the layman Eden about hardware softening technology, software hardening technology, hardware lubrication technology, and so on.
For ultimate geniuses like Mobius, who could casually write a report to dismiss the research institute even when their research was only half-done, their time was generally flexible. Vill-V was the same.
"Technology to temporarily separate the Power of Finality and the Herrscher of Finality."
Mobius glanced at Jun An and said, "This man proposed the basic model framework. You're responsible for building the hardware; I'm responsible for handling the Herrscher."
Separating the Power of Finality and the Herrscher of Finality – this was the method Jun An could come up with to allow Kiana to leave the moon for a short time without causing immeasurable consequences.
Even with Sirin's power as the Herrscher of the Void, the distance of "heaven and man separated" was ultimately too great. Even for the Hyperion, upgraded into a cosmic battleship, a round trip would cost tens of millions in Honkai energy crystals and a good seven or eight days.
Of course, money was secondary; Jun An could earn it from Susannah after a few sleepless days and nights. The real problems were time and regulations.
Moreover, the Hyperion, as a warship, naturally couldn't be used as a personnel transport to casually fly to the moon.
So, if the Valkyries wanted to visit Kiana normally, they could only hitch a ride on a dedicated transport ship during the once-every-few-months supply runs to the lunar base. It was truly troublesome.
Thus, Jun An, having seen the plot in advance, had mentioned this early on. But at that time, there really wasn't enough time. Jun An hadn't even finished drafting the plan for the Flame-Chasers to return to reality, let alone having time to research the Power of Finality.
Then Jun An was gone, and naturally, no one mentioned this plan again.
Now that Jun An was back, he naturally wouldn't mistreat his Valkyries anymore, so this plan naturally needed to be restarted.
Jun An also explained, "There are only a few difficulties with this problem."
"First, a material capable of containing the Power of Finality. I'll handle this."
Jun An naturally had ideas in mind, so he readily took on this task.
"Second, finding a feasible method to separate Kiana from the Power of Finality. Mobius, you handle this."
Mobius was a top figure in biology and the earliest proponent of the Stigma Project. Jun An had great confidence in her wisdom. More importantly, he had already paid a deposit with his body; she couldn't possibly go back on her word, right?
"Third, a machine that allows the Power of Finality to operate normally even after leaving Kiana. Of course, something similar to a seal would be sufficient; it doesn't need to be freely usable."
This part, of course, would be handled by the genius mechanical engineer, Vill-V.
Vill-V's eyes lit up. "Indeed a challenging plan, even a bit crazy."
Jun An's plan was like skipping the steam age and going directly to the electric age. What Jun An wanted to do was to attempt using the Power of Finality directly, in an era where even Honkai energy hadn't been fully mastered.
Although it was aiming high, it wasn't impossible.
After all, what Jun An wanted was just something like a battery – a battery that could hold enough energy to easily destroy Earth's civilization hundreds or thousands of times over.
Vill-V looked at Jun An with burning eyes. "I feel like I like you even more now."
Mobius, however, directly dismantled the praise. "He's not crazy; he simply doesn't know this is fundamentally a thankless task."
Although Jun An was smart, he was also undoubtedly missing a few screws.
"That kind of thing doesn't matter. Anyway, I've accepted it. I'll talk to Expert later."
The Conductor said, then looked at Jun An. "So, the most crucial thing next: are there any documents? What's the budget? What's the salary?"
Mobius also looked curiously at Jun An's chin. "Little guinea pig, you're not planning to get this for free, are you?"
"Uh..."
Jun An said, "I've mentioned the documents to Theresa. As for the budget and salary... I'll work hard to earn money later."
—Looks like I'll have to go find Bronya.
After all, the one who could earn money legally the fastest was undoubtedly Bronya.
Mobius, however, had some mischievous thoughts and smiled. "What? Not planning on payment in flesh anymore?"
"Payment in flesh?"
The Conductor looked at Mobius's intimate gesture of hugging Jun An and immediately understood. "Then payment in flesh it is."
Jun An: "?????"
Mobius, however, glared directly at Vill-V, then wrapped her arms tightly around Jun An's neck, declaring her sovereignty. "Vill-V, what crazy idea are you having now? I'll pay your salary! I'll give you a body that can move freely outside! If you're horny, go relieve yourself!"
A brand-new body – this was the price Mobius offered Vill-V.
"Oh~"
Vill-V, however, became even more curious. She immediately went over to carefully examine Jun An, her giant steamed bun mountains squeezing Mobius between her and Jun An without a care.
"Curious,"
Vill-V's eyes gleamed. "Now I want to taste even more what kind of big fellow could make even Mobius like you so much. Right here, let's begin."