"Sigh... Only seven days of vacation in total, and it's been raining for almost a whole day..." Elysia pinched the end of the fork handle, twisting it slightly. The fork bounced up and down, lightly tapping on the somewhat dry piece of bread.
Michael chuckled softly, about to reply, when he saw Mobius walk past their table, yawning, not forgetting to glare at Elysia.
"Did you really go to her room last night?" Michael asked while peeling an eggshell.
"Of course! A beautiful girl always keeps her word!"
Michael waited for her mouth to open last, then stuffed the peeled egg into it.
Although curious about what Elysia and Mobius had actually discussed, judging by Mobius's expression... besides a hint of annoyance, there seemed to be some defiance?
Anyway, it didn't look like a serious conflict had occurred, so Michael didn't ask further.
"Mmph!" Elysia glared resentfully at Michael.
"Don't look at me like that. You should eat the yolk. Most of the egg's nutrients are concentrated there. Proper yolk intake is even said to help maintain good skin."
Elysia stubbornly turned her head away, projecting a clear "I'm not listening, I'm not listening" vibe, but Michael distinctly saw the corners of her eyes crinkle, and the tips of her pointed ears blush.
"Skin maintenance isn't important to me! Sigh, ever since the Meta-Morph surgery, my metabolism has been completely messed up..."
"You mean, no matter how much you eat, you don't gain weight? You maintain graceful lines without exercising? And despite a terrible sleep schedule, you don't get pimples?" Michael propped his chin on his hand, his gaze drifting, clearly recalling some distant memories.
"Oh dear! Who told you that? Was it Grandma Mobius? Or dear Aponia?"
"You say that to everyone, but..."
"Mm-hmm?" Elysia raised an eyebrow, meeting Michael's questioning gaze.
*"Did you really... Did you really undergo the Meta-Morph surgery?"*—Michael wanted to ask.
But the words that came out were: "But the file Prometheus sent earlier said your body fat percentage increased by 1.2%, and your weight increased by 769 grams."
"Ah... that, that, that... Minor fluctuations happen! Besides, if a normal girl ate cakes and sweets like me, she'd long since become... Mm-hmm! Right?"
Michael propped his forehead with both hands and said helplessly, "Next time you get a cavity, don't come crying to me..."
As for the unasked question... it wasn't a new doubt, but something he'd pondered long before coming to this world.
Regarding whether Elysia underwent Meta-Morph surgery, initially, there was no room for doubt. The very definition of a MANTIS presupposed the surgery...
But her own descriptions were contradictory. Aside from the elf ears, the side effects she mentioned as "jokes" didn't actually exist. At least Prometheus had reminded her about the body fat percentage afterward.
Considering the elf ears were too perfect, Michael even wondered if she had used the ICHOR factor as an excuse to give herself a little... little... little gift?
If the doubts ended there, it would be one thing. But the stranger part was—in both the original history and the current Elysia's case, their surgeries were completed without anyone else noticing.
Even Mobius, who should have been the surgeon, only saw the documented records, having no memory of the surgery itself... Furthermore, none of Mahamayuri's side effects manifested in Elysia.
And Elysia seemed to have gained no abilities from Mahamayuri either.
But the reason he didn't ask wasn't Michael evading the issue again, but... he felt he had always known the answer—
Assuming Elysia didn't undergo the surgery, her claim to have done so, even forging records, was simply to conceal her Herrscher identity, allowing her to fight at full strength later.
But that didn't hold true now. In the current world, she had long displayed powers beyond ordinary humans; the ICHOR factor couldn't mask her previous abilities. Moreover, her Herrscher identity needed no concealment from Michael. Meaning, if she truly hadn't undergone the surgery, she at least wouldn't need to hide it from him.
So... the notion she hadn't undergone Meta-Morph surgery... wasn't so much a question as Michael's own touch of romantic wishful thinking—
Among the thirteen Flame-Chasers, the other twelve fell from humanity into non-human existence. The only one who was inherently non-human remained human from beginning to end.
Elysia... she would surely love such a romantic notion, right?
Elysia met Michael's incredibly complex gaze, scratching her head, somewhat puzzled.
"What's wrong?"
"Uh... Just thought of many things at once. Um... Want to check the observation windows? Although we haven't left the storm yet, thinking differently, no one usually sightsees during a storm. So if we go now, the scenery we see will surely be unique, right?"
Elysia looked deeply at him, her face quickly blooming into a smile: "Okay! But..." Her smile gradually turned mischievous—
"Michael, such a good opportunity, shouldn't we invite Mobius along?"
The corner of Michael's upturned lips froze, his initially curved smiling eyes widening gradually...
0.37 seconds after Elysia posed the question, he swiftly gave his answer: "No! Definitely not!"
"Oh! Really?" Elysia bit her finger, smiling with narrowed eyes. "Really don't want to invite her? After all, I just said those things to her last night. Turning around and abandoning her today will severely damage my credibility!"
[How would I know what you said to her last night!] Michael's internal roar didn't stop his throat from bobbing as he swallowed.
Fine beads of sweat on his forehead were hidden by his bangs, not yet visible, but the hair at the back of his neck was already damp.
"Elysia... Spare me..."
[If Elysia's words put you in a difficult position, don't force yourself. Just concede immediately... Hmm? You talk about a man's dignity? What's that? Believe me, if you force yourself, you'll only face an even more embarrassing situation.] — Michael's Survival Guide, Rule 1
"Alright, alright! Just teasing!"
[But if you promptly beg for mercy and concede, she'll lose interest and generally stop teasing you.] — Michael's Survival Guide, Rule 1 (Addendum)
The two then stood up, placed their used breakfast plates into the cleaning machine, and openly walked together, slipping over to the observation windows.
"...Wow! Michael, look at that fish..."
"Isn't that just a shadow..."
The cruise ship rocked in the storm, the view through the windows constantly changing—sometimes grey, hazy mist, sometimes murky, dim underwater scenes.
As for fish, few were actually visible.
"Don't say that! 'Unique scenery,' didn't you just say that?"
"I didn't expect it to be this..." Whether in the mist or underwater, it was all blurry, nothing much to see...
"You should think like this!" Elysia poked Michael's cheek, then gently pressed his head down with her palm, directing his gaze straight out the window.
"Look, with such bad weather, you never know what will happen next second. But as you said, thinking differently, precisely because you don't know what happens next, there's anticipation. Even just the shadow of a fish is enough to excite, isn't it?"
But the two leaned against the window for a long time, waiting, yet saw no more fish...
"Ahhhhh! Damn it! This view is so boring!" Elysia pouted, spun around quickly, and leaned heavily against the cabin wall, visibly annoyed.
Remembering she had just been praising the view's interest, Michael couldn't help but chuckle.
"Damn it! Michael, how dare you laugh at me!" Elysia suddenly lunged, grabbing handfuls of his silver-grey medium-length hair and messing it up.
Caught off guard, Michael, after a brief stun, quickly counterattacked. The two tussled noisily like children, wrestling for who knows how long before finally separating, leaning against opposite cabin walls across the corridor to rest.
Resting, but neither felt particularly tired. After all, they weren't ordinary humans anymore...
"Michael!"
"Hm?"
"Quick! Look this way, and make a 'peace' sign!"
"Don't... Is taking a photo necessary..." Michael resisted verbally, but couldn't help a wry smile, tilting his head, posing as Elysia requested.
"Alright! Hmph! You think I wanted to take your picture? I was just thinking, after all these years, you only have two and a half photos—one taken during our previous travels, one ID photo from joining Fire Moth, and that one Immer took... hahaha! The one without a head, just shorts!"
"Is that appropriate? I think not!" Mentioning this angered Michael!
He took out his phone. Sure enough, Immer's profile picture hadn't changed. He prepared to add another entry to his "crimes" list in his phone's notes, for future "retaliation."
But Elysia clearly misinterpreted his action: "Oh my! Michael, you know me too well! Quick, quick! Take one of me too!"
She stood before the observation window, the grey mist outside serving as a backdrop.
She first retied her slightly loosened hair into the high ponytail Michael liked best, then adjusted her outfit—
She still wore that plain white dress. To match the color, she wore not the purple-gold hairpin, but a white ribbon with a bow on each side.
Her smiling eyes crinkled into two arcs, the corner of her slightly upturned lips revealing half a small tongue. Finally, she clasped her hands before her chest, forming a heart shape.
Michael held up his phone but hesitated to press the shutter button.
He didn't know if Elysia had taken any photos since her Fire Moth ID picture, but at least, this was the first time Michael was taking one for her.
Such a thing... in a normal world, how could it be possible...
Even people who disliked photos should have at least a hundred pictures by their early twenties, right?
But alas... for them, leisure time and the mood for relaxation were scarce. A heavy burden pressed on their hearts constantly. Even during occasional respites, few thought of taking pictures.
And like in the original world, Hua and Su's memory data, fifty thousand years after the Previous Era's demise, only then found leisure to chat about their hometowns, discovering they were practically neighbors... The suppression and weight buried behind that... was simply unimaginable...
But thankfully, he didn't have to experience that weight yet. He still had the chance to personally take the first photo of Elysia, as a record.
To record her joy at this moment, record her carefree spirit at this moment, record her existence until eternity.
To ensure this "first time" was perfect, Michael adjusted the angle several times, yet remained unsatisfied—not because the shots were bad, but... for Elysia, at least in Michael's heart, every angle was perfect, making it impossible to choose which one should be the "first."
Elysia didn't rush him, her pose frozen as if captured, forever holding this perfect moment.
Michael even had an extremely selfish thought—he wanted to disregard everything and freeze time at this instant, just look at her forever. Let neither Honkai nor humanity interfere, just let the two remain in this state eternally...
But he lacked the power to stop time. This plan was impossible from the start. As for the rational outcome and Elysia's wishes, they became irrelevant.
Finally, he chose the most ordinary, mundane angle—from his own perspective, he took the first, and only, photo from the front.
"Oh my! We really are in sync! Seeing you adjust the pose for so long, I was getting quite anxious! Thankfully, you chose my favorite angle in the end!"
Michael gently brushed the bangs from her forehead, amused. "Since you already had a preferred angle, why didn't you say so from the beginning?"
"Lala! I just wanted to see if dear Michael, after cruelly rejecting me for two years, could still maintain our previous tacit understanding!"
Silence fell between them for a moment. They simply turned to look out the window at the uninteresting scenery.
"Michael, why is it that every time we supposedly go on vacation, it's always to the seaside? That time in Attica, we were originally planning to go to the coast. This time, we're directly using Eden's cruise ship. Do you have such a fondness for the sea?"
During their six years of travel, they had visited almost every corner of the world: cities, plains, coasts, mountains, deep valleys, jungles, deserts, snowfields, ice seas.
But somehow, now when considering vacations, everyone always thought of the sea first.
"Why always the sea..." she murmured.
"Because the land is full of Honkai Beasts," Michael replied helplessly, shaking his head.
Perhaps because human civilization was largely land-based, Honkai Beasts in the sea were very rare, except for the wave during the Fourth Honkai Eruption.
Later, around the Eye of the Deep, occasional abnormal Honkai energy readings emerged, mostly Quantum Shadows, requiring only periodic cleanup by Kalpas or Kevin.
After the Seventh Honkai Eruption, Michael completely sealed the Eye of the Deep. Quantum Shadows stopped appearing. For a time, the underwater world actually became safer than land.
This was likely why, whenever vacations came up, everyone instinctively thought of the sea.
Vacationing on land, encountering Honkai Beasts along the way, ignoring them was impossible. But doing such work during supposed relaxation time... Who wants to work overtime on vacation? Even if such overtime came with large bonuses, money, after the world collapsed to this extent, was essentially just numbers.
You want me to work overtime just by showing me a pile of numbers? Impossible!
Of course, they weren't the only ones who realized the scarcity of underwater Honkai Beasts. The United Government had similar thoughts. At least Michael knew they had invested heavily near Te Moana Kino to build an underwater city.
Though knowing the theory was unreliable, driven by a "what if it works" mentality, they even styled the underwater city like a castle, truly stacking all the buffs...
But the most ridiculous point was, the underwater city had been completed for nearly three months, yet they still hadn't decided whether to send people to occupy it—
It seemed they only now remembered that occupation could potentially spawn Honkai Beasts, and fighting Honkai Beasts underwater...
Apologies, but existing human equipment rarely maintained combat effectiveness underwater. Their replica of the Fire Moth-class sky battleship also had diving capabilities but no underwater combat ability. Ultimately, they would still have to request MANTIS assistance...
Heh heh.
After Michael recounted this to Elysia, she burst out laughing, leaning against the window edge for support.
She finally managed to stop laughing, wiped the tears from the corners of her eyes, and said: "Mentioning the United Government, it's hard not to think of Mei—Poor Kevin, and little Griseo. Mei had already arranged work for Prometheus, and Uncle Ato and Aunt Blanca had agreed to come on vacation together. But then the United Government suddenly called a meeting, completely disrupting the schedule, and us..."
The United Government's order came just as everyone was preparing to depart. It was sudden; not attending was impossible. Kevin did propose vacationing in Mu instead, but that was merely hoping not to be separated from Mei. This was clearly impossible too.
If Anti-Entropy went en masse to Mu... although they were indeed vacationing, Michael didn't think the United Government would believe it.
For this reason, even sending just Kevin might trigger their fragile nerves.
The final result was: Aponia remained guarding the base as usual, the rest took their vacations as planned. Mei formed a small, seemingly unremarkable team.
Ostensibly: Mei, Ato, Blanca, Evangeline, plus a regular armed squad commanded by Aldemir.
Covertly: Sakura provided assistance.
Although this team ostensibly had three MANTISes, Blanca and Evangeline were emergency surgeries during the Eighth Honkai Eruption; the United Government would struggle to gather intel on them. Ato spent most of his time on the moon and had almost no combat record in anti-Honkai missions.
Moreover, they knew nothing about the abilities of psychic-sensitive MANTISes.
Such abilities were limited against Honkai, but against humans themselves...
If conflict truly arose, the three of them could be more effective than ten Kevins.
But... Michael didn't think such a situation would occur.
"Wrong! Michael!" Elysia kneaded his cheeks while questioning him: "Why not postpone the vacation for a few days, wait for Mei and the others to finish their meeting, then vacation together!"
"Vacations can naturally be postponed. But the United Government hasn't interfered with Fire Moth for a long time. This time, there must be major developments. Once the meeting ends, in the short term, forget Mei, even we might not have time for vacation. That's probably why Mei and Aunt Blanca respectively hoped Kevin and Griseo could enjoy this vacation."
The truth, of course, was more than just that. Just as Sakura served as a covert insurance beyond the overt team, what Michael said above were merely the presentable reasons.
Naturally, there were also unpresentable reasons, kept hidden deep within.
On one hand, the "vacation" itself signaled peace and non-hostility towards the majority of ordinary people in the United Government.
On the other hand, being in the North Pacific, extremely close to the Mu continent, also acted as a deterrent...
But more importantly... it related to the upper echelons of the United Government.
Let's put it this way... this "meeting," which confused everyone yet made them secretly wary, was, in a sense, instigated by Michael himself.
On the very night the Eighth Honkai Eruption ended, he had impatiently, secretly left HQ. Relying on eight powers, silently infiltrating the United Government's Mu headquarters, even getting close to each SEELE member, was trivially easy.
Though perhaps late, unifying all human resources to fight the Honkai wasn't too late yet.
As for how?
Using psychic sensory powers to influence the United Government's high command—Michael had done this before with Aponia after the Fifth Honkai Eruption.
But times had changed. Through years of accumulation, the United Government, through trial and error (like a blind cat catching a dead mouse), had also cultivated three MANTISes. Specific details were blank—not even uploaded!
Michael couldn't discount the possibility of psychic-sensitive MANTISes among them. Aponia's abilities were relatively distinct, and tight control was easily detectable.
So Michael adopted a completely different approach this time—he exerted minimal mental influence on the SEELE members, instead offering seemingly insignificant "hints," hoping to guide them towards the final outcome.
For example, "Unite to fight the Honkai."
For example, "That day, He fell from the sky. People on the ground looked up and thus saw the starry sky"—though Michael himself didn't understand this sentence, it came to mind at the time, so he implanted it...
It sounded like Discipline but wasn't entirely the same. Discipline was stronger, the results more obvious.
To make an analogy, Discipline was like leading someone by the hand for a while, while "hints" were just a gentle push from behind. Discipline was certainly more effective, but also easier to detect.
Michael sorted through these thoughts, casually resting his palm against the cabin wall. Then, he and Elysia simultaneously retracted their hands.
"What was that?"
"You got shocked too?"
They exchanged glances, making a judgment in less than a second... No, judgment wasn't even necessary. The massive figure was visible through the window—
"Target seventy-five degrees to port, two hundred meters depth. Identified as Emperor-class Honkai Beast. Level one combat readiness!"