Honkai: Man(Sludge) From Future

Tesla was still bewildered after being woken up.

She'd been sleeping soundly, only to be yanked straight out of bed.

Even a workhorse deserved a break, right? Especially a Herrscher they'd produced themselves; you'd think they'd give her some time to recover!

After constantly monitoring the students' health, even Tesla couldn't help but feel a little burnt out.

It wasn't physical exhaustion, but more like that irritating feeling of doing the same task over and over.

When she heard everyone had entered Kiana Kaslana's Stigmata space, Doctor Tesla got seriously annoyed.

"Why me?! I've got a Kaslana-gene-modified living body too! How come Fu Hua just needs a battlesuit to get into the Kaslana family Stigmata space, but I can't?!"

Doctor Tesla felt discriminated against. She believed she should also be allowed into the Stigmata space to do some research.

Kiana Kaslana gave an awkward chuckle.

It seemed like everyone wanted a tour of the Kaslana family's Stigmata space.

She felt like it was some kind of... ahem, well, you know, that everyone could just hop into.

"It's the core. Your Herrscher core is what's keeping you out," Noldrei said, instantly recognizing why Tesla couldn't enter. It was all thanks to that Herrscher of Thunder core rejecting her.

"Oh, is that the reason? Well, never mind then…"

Doctor Tesla stopped complaining. Compared to getting into the Stigmata space, she wasn't about to lose the Herrscher core in her possession.

In terms of functionality, the Herrscher core and the Stigmata were the same anyway; they both allowed the user to manipulate Honkai energy.

"Mei, don't worry too much. It's just a bit of trouble in the Stigmata space. It's all good now, right? Just relax and go about your day. I've checked your body, and there's nothing wrong. And there's a Kaslana here, right? Why not let her go in and see what's going on?"

Tesla turned her gaze towards Kiana.

Kiana was slightly stunned, then involuntarily looked away.

She hadn't been to any Stigmata space! Heck, she didn't even need to sleep anymore! Why would she even care about some Stigmata space?

"Honestly, you guys are so dramatic. There wasn't anything out of control, so why did you drag me out here? Even if there was a problem, couldn't Noldrei just fix it? I need to get back to checking the students. Fu Hua's battle demonstration might have caught some students' attention, but plenty still want to ditch class."

"Especially some of those guys… ugh, they're so annoying. It's been a while since I visited the Far East, but has it really become this rotten? Though, I guess North America isn't much better…"

Tesla sighed, thinking about all those drug-addicted girls in North America, and didn't say anything more.

"Cocolia and Ryoma Raiden haven't returned yet. Siegfried also went to find some Valkyries to help. He should be back today. Once he's here, we can figure out if he got sucked into the Stigmata space too."

"Alright, let me see what's up with you…"

Since she was already up, Tesla decided to try and figure out why everyone was having the same dream.

But how could she possibly find the reason? The neuron system in the brain was practically infinite, so it would be super difficult for Tesla to find anything amiss.

Even if she could spot viruses and denatured proteins in the body, she couldn't directly detect anything out of the ordinary in the neuron system.

Doctor Tesla, looking like some kind of "superstitious guru," placed her hand on Mei Raiden's head, and a strange eye lit up on her forehead.

A respectable physics PhD, reduced to this ridiculous state.

"There's nothing wrong... sigh... I guess I'm not skilled enough…"

Despite the Herrscher core blocking her, Doctor Tesla was dying to see what the Stigmata space looked like, especially what the Kaslana family's Stigmata space was all about.

"So, what is it like in there? Mei, you've been inside, right? Do you remember anything?"

Raiden Mei thought back to her memories and said, "I remember it looking like a vast red sea. There was always this kind of message, like 'revenge against the Honkai,' floating around. It wormed its way into my mind and caused a corresponding reaction."

"Hmm... it has an ability like that?"

Tesla frowned, finding it rather bizarre.

Logically, Stigmata needed something like a rejection response in order to extract the genetic information within.

This was the first time she had heard of a Stigmata being able to drag outsiders inside.

"Is something off? I'll ask the Alliance Leader about it later. He's a Herrscher too, so he probably has had similar... experiences?"

Tesla wasn't too sure. She felt like her Herrscher status was different from a regular Herrscher, after all, she carried a living Kaslana gene in her body.

"I'm fine, so don't worry too much. And it's not like we can't leave that place. Even if there are monsters, I don't think it'll be a problem."

Raiden Mei wasn't so confident. She couldn't really tell if there would be issues or not.

"What happens if the information inside the Stigmata gets corrupted?"

Noldrei suddenly had a thought. He seemed to have come up with an even more interesting modification method.

In this era, Stigmata were a special entity that converted information into physical power.

That meant if you captured a certain ability and reverse-engineered it into data, then stored it in a Stigmata-like object…

"Artificial Stigmata, that's what Schicksal has been researching," Fu Hua, the old class monitor, revealed a bit of Otto's plan.

Noldrei looked at Fu Hua instinctively, and she gave him a look of 'support'.

'Go for it! Someone has already paved the way and successfully created a working model.'

He nodded, then seriously asked Raiden Mei, "Mei, how about I inject some genetic information into your body?"

"......"

Raiden Mei's mind froze for a long time. It took her a while to realize that the genetic information was different from what she was thinking.

"How should we do it?"

She was a bit nervous, worried that she might be turned into a weird creature again.

But Noldrei wasn't planning to change her pony form.

He asked instead, "What do you think genetic information is like? Is it like a mark etched onto the body? Or is it something that is already hidden inside of you?"

"They all started from the original fertilized egg, but why did some become organs and tissue, some became muscles, some became bones? They differentiated into so many weird things. Yet, in the end, they all formed what you humans look like now?"

"There must be some kind of stored genetic information that's guiding all of this, otherwise, how could cells be so clearly directed, right?"