"Sothing's wrong. Very wrong!"
Inside Elysian Realm, Mobius sat atop her floating device, holding a thick stack of Elias' sketchbooks in her hands. Her dangerous yet beautiful snake-like pupils narrowed slightly.
She had wandered around the Realm for quite a while, only to discover that aside from Elysia, she hadn't seen a single other person.
"Could they have gone out for team-building? No, that can't be it. If it were team-building, there's no way they'd leave out that pink chubby woman. And fine, maybe the others—but even I isn't here."
Mobius knew very well that I was just as much of a hobody as she was. Under normal circumstances, I would never step out of her laboratory, much less leave Elysian Realm.
After all, ordinary people went out because they were bored. But as mad scientists, they had countless research topics to occupy them.
For example, research on the Imaginary Tree and the Sea of Quanta.
Although they had originally studied the Imaginary Tree in order to revive Elias, when it ca to that tree that represented "everything," the more Mobius, I, and Vill-V researched it, the more fascinated they beca.
One had to rember that until two years ago, the Cosmic Juggernaut had still been in World Serpent's possession. They could observe it however they pleased.
If not for the lack of a suitable opportunity, those three might have already attempted to charge straight at the Tree itself.
And since they were researching the Imaginary Tree, naturally they would also research its nesis—the Sea of Quanta.
In short, others might go wandering out of boredom, but the trio of mad scientists absolutely would not... though Vill-V would occasionally go out to perform magic tricks.
Yet now, in the entire Elysian Realm, only Mobius and Elysia remained. The one who loved liveliness the most was staying inside the Realm, while everyone else had vanished without a trace.
Mobius: "There's definitely a huge problem here!"
However, since it was rare for everyone to be absent, this cunning little snake began her looting operation.
She infiltrated the mory domains of the other Fla-Chasers and swept away all the Elias sketchbooks they had secretly treasured.
The Elias sketchbooks drawn by the famous Elysian Realm painter, Stars·Griseo, were considered hard currency within the Realm—no, among the female Fla-Chasers of Fire Moth.
Under normal circumstances, everyone would trade and borrow from one another to share what they had. But no one had ever stipulated that trading thods were limited to just one.
Though the thod was a bit... questionable, this was their own savior's sketchbook! Totally worth it!
Pardofelis was especially fond of this kind of zero-cost, high-return tactic. As for risks... for this lucky little cat, she always managed to avoid them.
Even a certain pink elf enjoyed doing this.
Though Elysia's approach was far more flamboyant.
She would scout the location in advance, then send a calling card, and finally change into a gorgeous phantom thief outfit—complete with a pink monocle that did absolutely nothing to conceal her face—before setting off to steal.
Back then, even Mobius had once received a calling card.
And the result...
Elysia: "Miss Shatter-Thief makes her dazzling entrance! Eh—ehhh—!"
The instant the pink phantom thief stepped into Mobius' laboratory, she was caught by a trap that had long been prepared, tied up in layers, and hung from the ceiling, swaying back and forth.
Mobius: "What a aningless act. Judging by your pitiful success rate, Elysia, perhaps you should learn from Pardofelis instead."
Elysia: "No no no~ Dr. Mobius, you don't understand. A phantom thief is a form of performance art. Sending a calling card before stealing turns it into an exhilarating duel with the owner of the item. That's what makes it fun~ Besides, I haven't lost yet."
Mobius: "Heh~ stubborn."
Elysia: "Coming from you? That's the last thing I want to hear."
In the end, Elysia still succeeded in taking Mobius' collection of Elias sketchbooks. This pink phantom thief completely abandoned "infiltration" and instead chose to activate full-on rampage mode.
She cut down whatever stood in her way and ultimately left in dashing fashion under Mobius' humiliated gaze, carrying away Snake's treasured Elias sketchbooks.
Mobius had nearly died of anger back then.
She had cursed on the spot, "What kind of phantom thief is this? Elysia, you're clearly just a bandit!"
Elysia: "Hehe~ not at all. For example, as Eli once said, as long as it's a single shot and kills in one hit, even a cannon counts as a sniper rifle. I sent a calling card and wore a monocle, so of course I count as a phantom thief~"
Mobius: "%￥#@￥...*!"
...
Thus ended those beautiful mories.
After hesitating for a mont, Mobius wrote a few calling cards on sheets of paper and tossed them into the empty mory domains.
One could only say that people always ended up becoming what they once despised.
"I sent the calling cards. Whether you saw them or not has nothing to do with . That makes a phantom thief too, right? And I must say~ my sense of guilt has lessened quite a bit. Though I never really cared in the first place~"
Mobius looked at the richly harvested sketchbooks in her arms. After blushing and admiring them for a while, she decided she would head to Vill-V's mory domain later and swipe a sturdier safe to hide them in.
"Alright, the treasure is in hand. Now it's ti to find out where those people ran off to."
Under normal circumstances, Snake wouldn't bother. Unless soone else's life was in danger, she would only appear calm on the surface while secretly panicking as she rushed to help.
But sothing like a simple disappearance? Mobius couldn't be bothered.
Except Griseo was among the missing.
And her instincts told her that sothing was seriously wrong!
However, there were no surveillance caras in Elysian Realm.
After all, this place had no possibility of being invaded—unless soone brought the Herrscher of Corruption in from outside.
But Mobius had already thought of the perfect solution.
...Several minutes later...
"Waaah! Dr. Mobius, how could you do this? Hurry and return the [Elysian Realm Information Database Digitized Collection Console Interactive Output...]—uh, this elf typewriter to !"
A Weapon ELF, Elf Elysia, cried out pitifully.
Although she tried her hardest to reclaim the Elysian Realm typewriter, against this Infinite Ouroboros, the poor elf—who possessed no combat ability whatsoever—could do absolutely nothing.
"I'm only borrowing it for a mont. Besides, didn't I already send you a calling card earlier?"
"You typed it on the spot with the typewriter! What kind of phantom thief does that? That's not professional at all!" Elf Elysia complained.
"Nonsense. I was never a phantom thief to begin with. I'm rely a wicked and dangerous venomous snake," Mobius declared proudly, lifting her chin.
"Wah, she actually said it herself." Elf Elysia hurriedly retreated several steps.
"Hmph. In any case, I'm borrowing this typewriter. I won't take it away."
In the end, Mobius did not take the typewriter. Instead, she began operating it right there in the archives room.
Elf Elysia let out a sigh of relief. After all, she was the administrator of the archives room and the guardian of this typewriter.
If Mobius had truly taken it away, she would have been in serious trouble.
"Co to think of it, I've never actually touched this thing before. Since it's Vill-V's invention, it shouldn't disappoint."
As everyone knew, Elysian Realm possessed a magical typewriter capable of objectively recording everything that had ever happened within the Realm. There was no better tool for investigation.
Mobius had never used it before. After fiddling with it for a while, she found it rather interesting. No wonder Elysia always seed to know exactly where she had hidden things.
However, even convenient tools had their inconveniences.
Because the Realm had accumulated an overwhelming amount of data, if the question was too vague, the typewriter would be unable to extract and summarize a specific file or set of files from the database.
"Question: What did the Fla-Chasers, aside from Mobius and Elysia, go out to do?"
The typewriter did not respond.
"Fine. In that case... when was the most recent ti the Fla-Chasers, aside from Mobius and Elysia, left the Realm?"
Click clack click clack...
A precise question received a clear answer.
Mobius picked up the sheet of paper containing the response. Her brow lifted slightly as she read the recorded departure tis.
Fu Hua had left long ago in her capacity as a watcher and could not serve as reference. But the dates of the others' departures only deepened Mobius' suspicions.
"Aside from Hua, the first to leave were Eden and Aponia. Then Sakura, I, Griseo, Vill-V. Most recently... Pardofelis."
Mobius ignored Kevin and the others' entry and exit records. At this point, the snake had already realized sothing.
"They all left and never returned. What could possibly be out there that attracts them so strongly? Wait... don't tell !"
If there was anything in the Current Era capable of drawing these female Fla-Chasers away without return, only one white figure ca to mind.
Her entire body trembled as she hurriedly posed another question to the typewriter.
"What was the purpose of their most recent departure?!"
Click clack click clack click clack...
The typewriter began operating.
In the next second, countless sheets of paper spewed out. Aside from Sakura and Pardofelis, who had encountered Elias by coincidence after leaving, resulting in slightly different records, the others shared only one reason.
Mobius' entire body shook as she watched sheets filled with the na "Elias" scatter across the archives room. She felt her mind go blank.
At this point, she understood completely.
Those shaless won had all run off ahead of her!
While she had been holed up in her laboratory conducting research, they had likely already gone out to find Elias and were having the ti of their lives!
Mobius: "These disloyal won! I can forgive them for hiding it from Elysia—but they even hid it from !!"
(The girls: Ehe~)
At the sa ti, because it had printed far too many pages at once, the elf typewriter began malfunctioning. Amid a string of jamming noises, it went boom and exploded into a pile of parts.
Elf Elysia: "M-My typewriter!!"
Mobius: "You treacherous won. I'm cutting ties with all of you! One day I'll dissect every last one of you!"
After saying that, Mobius stord out of Elysian Realm in a huff. She was convinced that within the entire Realm, only she and Elysia were unaware of Elias' return.
Even Kevin and the other n probably already knew.
Which ant she was second to last.
Mobius: "Huff... huff... looking at it from another angle, at least I'm ahead of that pink chubby woman! If I find out before Elysia does, that counts as a win!"
One had to admit—truly worthy of Snake. Even with no one around, she still refused to lose face. As expected of the resident tsundere among the Fla-Chasers.
She glanced back in the direction of Elysian Realm, thinking that the destruction of the elf typewriter had actually been a huge help.
At least this way, Elysia would be unable to discover the truth using the sa thod.
Later, she would have Klein seal Elf Elysia's mouth as well. That should eliminate any problems.
However, at that very mont—
"Burp~ That new ran shop was pretty good. Sha the noodles lacked chewiness. I'll give it a seventy."
A certain white-haired husky who had just returned from slurping noodles strolled leisurely through the Realm. But upon seeing the unusually quiet Elysian Realm, Kevin could not help but sigh.
"Busy is good, busy is good~ Those won are probably still fighting over Elias right now. Su found himself a job as a doctor. Kosma has no idea where he ran off to escape again. And Kalpas... tsk tsk..."
Since Elias had already returned from the Previous Era, there was no longer any need for secrecy. While the won busied themselves with their romantic war, the n were happily minding their own business.
Kevin thought of a certain hot-headed fellow. Among the male group, Kalpas was the one living most colorfully in the Current Era.
First he entered a boxing tournant and nearly punched his opponent out of existence. Then he worked as a chef at a restaurant for a while. After spending all his money, he even beca a model and shot a fashion photo collection featuring cowboy jeans.
Comparing himself to that, Kevin felt his own life was plain and unadorned... Every day consisted of searching for newly opened ran shops in pursuit of ever better noodles to slurp.
There was no helping it. He had been starving for too long back in the Sea of Quanta.
Just as Kevin was wondering whether he should simply beco a ran blogger, a chilling green figure that instinctively inspired fear suddenly appeared before the white-haired husky.
"My~ Kevin, so you're still in the Realm as well."
"Mo-Mo-Mo-Mobius, what are you trying to do?!"
Kevin instinctively raised his guard to the maximum, nearly activating [Diabolic] on the spot from sheer fright.
Though his current strength ranked only below Elias and the Herrscher of Finality—after fifty thousand years of growth, even Jyahnar would struggle to defeat him—fear of certain people was engraved in one's DNA.
Back in the Previous Era, Kevin had spent no small amount of ti lying on Mobius' operating table and drinking her strange concoctions.
After all, as the only other Chira MANTIS besides Elias, many experints Mobius was reluctant to perform on the latter had instead been carried out on Kevin.
(I should've walked off that al before coming back. Of all tis to run into that madwoman Mobius... why do I suddenly have such a bad feeling? Soone save ...)
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