Ato felt as if something had tugged at his heart.
But no matter how wide he opened his eyes, he could not find any trace of anything existing in the void.
There was nothing but blackness before his eyes.
Zzzzt! Zzzzt! Zzzzt!
The old electric light flickered twice, casting a dim glow and illuminating the alley.
"Found it."
Levi looked at the single thread in his hand that extended from Ato. The other end of the thread was connected to another thread.
It stretched all the way to the bustling part of the city.
"Looks like you and Blanca are already connected by heart."
"How could that be?"
Ato scratched his head shyly. But when he raised his head again, he found that Levi had already run off.
He was incredibly fast. In the blink of an eye, he had reached the entrance of the alley.
He turned around and looked at Ato, who was still standing there in a daze. "What are you standing around for? Hurry up."
They had already found Blanca. Was there any reason to keep staying in the alley?
Hearing Levi's voice, Ato quickly followed him.
One in front and one behind, they ran toward the busiest part of the city. On the road, pedestrians and vehicles were everywhere.
Levi simply strode forward, and after hesitating for a moment, Ato followed him as well.
Beep! Beep! Beep!
Screeech!
"Do you have a death wish?!"
"F*ck! Are you trying to scam someone at this hour?!"
"Idiot."
"Sorry, sorry, sorry!"
Ato kept apologizing to the vehicles around them.
Compared to him, Levi looked much more at ease.
Among the traffic, his figure was as nimble as an elf, leaping through the gaps between vehicles.
Unlike Ato, he did not force any cars to stop.
In the end, the two stopped in front of a huge building.
"Are you sure it's here?"
Covered in dirt and looking rather disheveled, Ato raised his head toward the towering skyscraper and asked Levi beside him.
This building was far too aboveboard. It did not look like a place where someone would be kidnapped at all.
According to Ato's guess, they should have gone to the abandoned factories, unfinished buildings, and other places in the suburbs to search.
Yet Levi had instead led him straight into the bustling part of the city.
Levi glanced at the thread extending into the building and nodded. "No mistake. Blanca is inside."
Humans could make mistakes in their judgment, but Honkai could not.
After answering Ato's question, Levi stepped forward first. When the receptionist warmly approached and asked why they had come, he replied with a smile, "We're looking for someone."
"Looking for someone? Please tell me her name. I'll contact her right away."
"Blanca."
After standing there and waiting for a while, Ato said impatiently, "If you can't find her, just let me go in and look for her myself..."
"Found her!"
The receptionist spoke enthusiastically to Levi and Ato.
"Ms. Blanca is on today's visitor list. According to the message Ms. Blanca left, if the two of you want to find her, please go to the meeting room on the second floor."
Ato and Levi exchanged glances.
Ato could not quite understand what the other party was trying to pull.
Levi fell into thought.
'Just as I thought, it's a show of force...'
When he saw that Blanca was in the city center, Levi had already determined that this was most likely a show of force from the higher-ups toward Mobius.
The purpose was naturally to make Mobius submit to them so that they could conduct the relevant experiments according to their wishes.
As Mobius, who had become famous in research circles at a young age, although her personal reputation was not particularly good, her academic abilities were absolutely among the best in the world.
In fact, in the field of biology, it would not be an exaggeration to say that she was far ahead of everyone else.
And when talking about biology, they inevitably had to bring up the "superhuman" Elysia they believed in, as well as the subject of immortality.
Both of these were things they desperately wanted right now.
The former was still manageable, but as for the latter... if Mobius released even the slightest bit of information, those people would flock to her.
Anyone with either money or power desperately wanted to live forever.
Unfortunately, no matter how powerful a MANTIS was, no one knew how long their lifespan might be. When faced with Honkai, if they were destined to die, they would still die.
So in this world, the prerequisite for immortality was that Honkai had to be defeated.
Otherwise, no matter how immortal you were...
Could you make your own neck disappear?
No matter how outrageous Honkai was, it was not magic. Otherwise, the Herrscher of Death's authority would not be about decomposing its targets into disorder.
Instead, she could simply summon a horde of undead and sweep across the entire planet.
She could just open an undead apocalypse dungeon.
If she could revive the undead of all the other dead Herrschers, the Flame-Chasers probably would have fallen to the Herrscher of Death right there.
There would have been no need to wait for Finality to make a move.
———
With the receptionist leading the way, Levi and Ato pushed open the meeting room door, and Blanca's voice, which Ato had not heard in a long time, entered his ears.
Only, compared to Blanca's usual gentle voice, she sounded extremely agitated.
Ato's eyes narrowed, and his hand moved toward the gun at his waist. But after hearing what Blanca was saying, he silently withdrew his hand.
"Please forgive me, but I cannot accept your offer!"
Blanca frowned tightly.
Nearly fifty percent above market price. Did they really think she was a sucker?
"Ms. Blanca, please allow me to address you as such."
Sitting across from Blanca was a man in a suit and leather shoes. When he saw Levi and Ato barging in, he did not say anything, merely smiling and nodding at the two of them.
He then turned to Blanca and said, "The Mobius Research Institute you belong to has already been blacklisted by many manufacturers in our industry."
As for the reason, it was nothing more than human rights issues, the high death rate among volunteers, and so on.
"If I'm not mistaken, you must have run into obstacles everywhere in this city."
Hearing this, Blanca was unusually silent for a moment. Although Mobius did not care about such a reputation, that reputation still had quite a significant impact on the laboratory.
"Moreover, your superior at the First Research Institute does not get along with many scholars. Doing business with you is equivalent to cutting off the possibility of doing business with those people."
With all these factors combined, the man in the suit shrugged. "This price is already quite fair. If you can find someone willing to offer you a lower price than us..."
"I'm willing to sign a ten-year agreement with the First Research Institute at half the market price."
Then, with the face of a cunning businessman, he smiled and said, "Of course, if you can find one."
As if. There was no way they could find one.
Every material supplier in the entire city made excuses and left as soon as they heard that she had come from Mobius.
Forget about finding a lower price. Even finding someone willing to cooperate with them was difficult.
The reason Mobius had given her so much more funding was probably because she had already anticipated this situation.
As if resigned to her fate, Blanca prepared to agree to a one-year contract at fifty percent above the market price.
But at that moment, a hand pressed down on hers.
When she looked up, it was "Elysia."
Levi blinked at her and casually squeezed her hand.
There was a little too little flesh. Elysia's hand felt better to squeeze.
After taking advantage of Blanca right in front of Ato, Levi looked at the man in the suit with a beaming smile. "We refuse to sign."
"?"
Seeing that the other party seemed unable to understand, Levi repeated himself.
"Buying raw materials at a price fifty percent above market value, far beyond what the First Research Institute expected, we refuse to sign this contract."
The man in the suit glanced at "Elysia," then turned to Blanca and looked at her questioningly.
Could the other party represent the First Research Institute in negotiations?
Blanca hesitated for a moment. In the end, she looked at "Elysia's" confident smile and nodded.
If the Doctor were here, she would probably do the same, right?
Of course, the more important reason was that, as a researcher, she simply had no idea how to negotiate with businessmen.
She had only watched a few movies and was imitating what they did at times like this.
Even if Elysia performed terribly... surely the result could not be worse than what they had now, right?
Fifty percent... the research institute's funding was about to be completely burned through.
"..."
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