Hi3rd: Achievement Hunter

Sixteen days had passed since the fifth eruption. Fire MOTH began picking up the pace again. They were able to free several battle fronts with the MANTISes' help. This gave them a leeway to re-deploy units to other areas that needed them.

"Can't we speed up the production of high-level MANTIS?"

"Says the one who couldn't do the surgery on their own. We haven't forgotten the attempted data leak amongst us."

"Where was Doctor Aleph? Shouldn't we… deploy him to more high-risk areas? Just like the clean sweep he did in the eastern continent…"

A meeting was held in the familiar conference room. Unlike other times, more than a quarter of the councilors attended in-person. The remaining ones attended the meeting through their virtual projections—and that included Mei.

"Doctor Aleph does not act under the military division. It is an inappropriate suggestion."

The commander-in-chief, Hagen, shut the voices suggesting Aleph's deployment.

"He is a research personnel. His actions in the eastern continent should have been his own."

Hagen gave Mei a look, to which the latter nodded at his words.

With this issue resolved (i.e., left alone), they talked about other topics. The councilors who wanted to raise complaints regarding the Project Soldier were forced to keep it to themselves.

After all, who asked their personal researchers to not be able to have a success rate akin to Mobius'? 

Now, there are more than twenty high-level MANTISes—people who were able to have an emperor-class honkai beast as their ICHORs. This wasn't their main problem, however.

It was the fact that nearly half of them belonged to Mei's side. The remaining half was under the councilors with Hagen, and only six of these high-level MANTIS belong to the opposition.

It didn't help that Mei herself was a part of them. That one move was enough to reduce the chances of her assassination to nil.

If it was known that she originally had an adaptability issue, these councilors would kill just to get the methods that could allow them to become a MANTIS as well.

Unfortunately, they were destined to fail. The main reason why Mobius' surgeries went well was due to her skills and Aleph's blood. 

Without any of these, they faced the problems the original Fire MOTH faced.

'They are planning something.'

Some sharp-eyed ones noticed that everyone who attended the meeting in person were all the councilors with Hagen. Their gazes shifted between them and Mei.

Ultimately, they looked at their fellow faction members. It was unknown whether the undercurrents they planned could suffice, but hesitation was prominent among some of them.

After all, Mei still gave them six quotas for the high-level MANTIS. This compromise alone was enough to place hesitation in others' hearts.

The smart ones among the hesitating councilors saw through this 'vicious' plan of hers. They knew it was a poison-laced gift, yet they had no other choice but to take it.

'The rift should start to appear. So long as the damage could be minimized…'

Ever since Mei began to take assassination attempts as well as the half-baked responses regarding honkai eruptions, she agreed with Aleph's view regarding this monolithic organization.

Fire MOTH had no need for the parasites who impeded their progress. A second wasted was equal to dozens of lives killed. Fire MOTH's influence was extremely big and was very useful in the fight against the honkai. 

But, the majority of this power was misplaced due to the division of authorities. It would be different once it has a set goal to reach.

The responsibility of changing this status quo naturally fell to Mei's shoulders.

"...This concludes the meeting today."

Buzz-!

Buzz-!

…

Only Mei's projection was left sitting on the conference table. She already expected this second meeting along with her 'allies'.

She fixed her silver-rimmed glasses as she asked:

"Let's not waste any more time, shall we?"

*****

Aleph was aware of the changes that occurred in Fire MOTH. He was, after all, one of the biggest reasons why such changes occurred.

The power he showed to the public during the eight day crusade was enough to make his prestige extremely high amongst the military division.

'Flamechasers will become a thing this time around.' He mused.

Thinking of the information he knew, there were several ways to forcefully integrate Fire MOTH together, such as using Fenghuang Down to manipulate them.

However, it might leave hidden risks that could erupt. The controlled councilors breaking free and turning into a Herrscher was but one of them. At the very least, these risks had to be avoided now. There are still many ways to grasp control of Fire MOTH with less risks.

"So, what do you plan to show me?"

Mobius' voice came from beside him. She was wearing her usual attire. Nevertheless, Aleph began to notice the small things he failed to notice before.

A scent entirely unique to her mixed with her current shampoo. It was different before, in a way that Mobius' scent was dominant due to her choosing not to bathe for two to three days. 

Body odor wasn't an issue to her because of her physique as a MANTIS back then.

Chaotic thoughts began to creep up to his heart. It was slowly gnawing at his mind, telling him that there's nothing wrong with a few minutes of cuddling.

In the end, Aleph successfully repressed it, but not without Mobius noticing something amiss. Her snake-like pupils scrutinized Aleph's dark purple pupils.

"Ahem."

With a cough, he cleared up his mind.

"It's because of this."

A black cube the size of his palm appeared in his grasp. It was none other than the Evolution Cube, the reward that came out of his [Random Box].

After three days of scrutiny, Great Sage thoroughly processed most of the information it could gather on it. That included Aleph's use of elemental sight to further dig deeper into its effects.

"It's one of the things I got with my power to travel through worlds." He explained. "It was said that this cube used to be an artifact of a civilization. As for its uses… it's related to evolution."

Aleph wasn't sure before, but upon usage of his Sanctum Keys to enter the "First Sanctum", he managed to acquire information regarding it under the paper "Effects of Artificially-Induced Evolution Process to the Biological Body". It was written by a researcher from the 'Evolutionary Civilization'.

Aleph chose that paper and got to know more about this mysterious cube.

"Evolution…"

Mobius' interest peaked when she heard of these words.