Hi3rd: Achievement Hunter

Throughout the entire month, Aleph was professional. It was their first time seeing him act like this.

"If you're asking me why, Doctor Mobius is an important asset to humanity. Things like physical and mental health should be handled well."

"You're thinking a lot of things." 

Mobius commented with slight fluctuations in her eyes.

"I do. I know this can be seen as overstepping my boundaries, but this matter must be addressed well."

A while later, Mobius reorganized the thoughts in her head.

"I thought you were the playful one. I didn't expect to see this kind of seriousness in you."

"Humans aren't that superficial. Doctor Mobius should know about it."

"..."

These words resonated with her. She was caught off guard that she couldn't respond as usual to him.

"Let's start working."

Mobius stood up from her desk. She headed towards the room that stored the preserved specimen. Aleph didn't say anything further and followed her steps.

Soon, they arrived inside a large room. Several honkai beasts lay silent in the glass chambers filled with blue liquids.

"We are working with a chariot-class beast."

"Which live sample will be used?"

"Cebidae."

Mobius passed on a thesis worth more than fifteen pages to Aleph. It recorded everything regarding the experiment. 

Aleph took less than five minutes to finish reading. Mobius was already aware of his insane reading speed—more so about his academic capabilities far surpassing most of the scholars she met.

There were a lot of things she discovered during their month of cooperation.

"The challenge is whether its body could withstand the conflict."

"Exactly."

A hint of praise could be felt on Mobius' reply.

"With your blood as a counter, the rest will be the sample's burden."

Their cooperation stemmed from Aleph's specialty. Mobius wasn't wrong with that. When they tested Aleph's blood, it was able to fend off the honkai beast genes, in turn making the gene fusion process more stable.

Such a dilemma that lasted for nearly ten years was solved with Aleph's arrival. That was the main reason why Mobius changed her attitude towards him—from a special lab rat to a coworker.

"I'm afraid it will be up to luck… again."

Aleph's words served to strike Mobius.

"Sometimes, you are too sharp for your own good. Don't you think so?"

"Maybe." He replied with a shrug. "Just don't do it again."

What he talked about was the reckless thing Mobius did more than three years ago. She didn't hesitate to test the gene of a chariot-class beast on herself. 

Perhaps it was due to her mentality of stagnating after numerous years.

In the end, she survived. It granted her a strong physique that wouldn't fall despite her unhealthy habits over the years. 

That was also the reason behind the danger Aleph felt from her.

Unfortunately, it wasn't stable nor reproducible. Several live human testers died to confirm that fact.

More than twenty minutes had passed when the experiment began.

Mobius served as the head while Aleph assisted her on the side. The first thing to do was to extract the gene sample which was done through the small mechanical arms inside the chamber.

Once it was extracted, the surgery was performed on the Cebidae monkey species. It was a deep surgery that involved rewriting the genetic code of the organism. The honkai gene was put forth to induce a controlled mutation from the living body.

It was a process with extremely minimal success. The means to stably conduct such surgeries are still not present. 

Everything relied on luck to succeed, that is, until Aleph arrived.

His blood was highly resistant to honkai itself. It was something only done through the process of adaptation. It pushed his body to have an unprecedented level of honkai resistance.

"Cut. Anesthesia."

"Received. Completed."

"Ongoing."

"Use the blood."

The two specialists cooperated smoothly. Their eyes are set on the microscope that doubled as a GUI connected to other surgical devices. 

An hour later, they looked at the Cebidae inside the glass box. They threw away the bloodied gloves onto the bin.

"If this works, our direction is correct." She said.

At this moment, Mobius put away her playfulness. When it comes to this research project, she is extremely serious.

A few minutes later, the sleeping Cebidae woke up. Its eyes agilely moved around the glass box. It didn't take long before it started jumping around it.

"It worked?"

"Wait." Aleph interrupted her excitement. "There's something wrong."

Just as Aleph felt its danger aura increase slowly, the Cebidae's right arm twitched. What followed next was its left arm, torso, legs, and then the head. It seemed like a seizure.

Several seconds later, the Cebidae stood up once more. This time, its eyes have a mix of white and purple. Unintelligent growls came from it as it started banging against the glass box.

Then—

Splatter-!

Its entire body exploded into pieces.

"Normalcy for 10.55 seconds. Mutation occurred right after. It lasted for 7.85 seconds. Finally, it imploded after 2.41 seconds."

Knowing this could occur, Aleph took out his small notebook along with a timer. Everything here was recorded, yet doing this could save Mobius from some work.

"I think we should start over from seraph-class beasts." Aleph suggested. "Although our success rate was not high, it's the most stable one so far."

Mobius, who was back from her usual expression, suddenly turned her eyes on him.

Seeing this, Aleph felt a chill on his back.

"If reason didn't prevail, I would have placed you on top of a dissection table already."

"Are you sure you can do that?" Aleph replied with confidence.

"Fair enough."

Despite another failure, their banters are still as usual.

*****

Three days later, Aleph left the fifth institute.

"I mentioned it long ago. I'm glad Mister Aleph pointed it out as well."

Klein brought the ordered food to Mobius' desk. Her tone was flat when she reprimanded Mobius.

"Don't say anything further. I thought he was as cunning as a snake. In the end, it was you two that are more alike than anything else."

"It's good." Klein replied.

Mobius' first impression was the same as Sakura's. They expected Aleph to be the same as the two-faced people who hid daggers behind their backs. Only, they were surprised that Aleph was much more simpler than they imagined.

"Whatever. His presence is useful enough."

"If you say so."

For some time already, Klein saw the slight changes brought by one person's presence.