In fact, the claims that "Phantom Butterfly must have already been located by the institute," "Phantom Butterfly can't escape," and "even Phantom Butterfly's domain would be crushed in front of an Ultra-Star Rank monster" were all things that Mo Bai had made up on the spot.

Her analysis had some probability, but it wasn't absolute.

But it was true that the Phantom Butterfly wasn't that important.

In front of an Ultra-Star Rank monster, and within Professor Yang's plan, the Phantom Butterfly was nothing more than an insignificant little creature.

The Phantom Butterfly was different from the players. Professor Yang intended to use the players to accomplish certain things. The Phantom Butterfly, on the other hand, wasn't nearly as useful.

So many monsters and living artifacts had escaped from the institute, and some were even deliberately traded out by the institute itself. The institute might not actually care that much about the whereabouts of a single Phantom Butterfly.

If the Phantom Butterfly tried to escape while taking Mo Bai with it, it would definitely be caught. But if it tried to flee on its own, it would most likely succeed.

But how could Mo Bai possibly let go of an A-rank monster that understood the institute so well, controlled the ventilation duct domain, and possessed mimicry abilities?

This instance was far too difficult. Mo Bai was determined to turn every possible force she could win over into an ally, even if that force was an instance monster.

The moment all her teammates had gathered, Mo Bai exposed Phantom Butterfly's identity. That was to instill a powerful sense of crisis in it.

Trapped between four players, it had no chance in terms of combat strength, so it would feel utterly isolated and helpless.

At that moment, Mo Bai cut off its last path of escape, pushing it even deeper into despair.

Only then did Mo Bai extend a lifeline. And the Phantom Butterfly would inevitably seize it.

In modern terms, Mo Bai was emotionally manipulating the Phantom Butterfly.

Mo Bai clearly knew that she used the power of her title.

Originally, the effect of her title is triggered passively. But Mo Bai forced the Phantom Butterfly into a state of despair, prepared a cage for it, and step by step trapped its heart, until it formed the belief that only by following Mo Bai and defeating the Ultra-Star Rank monster can it survive.

The Phantom Butterfly can only become their ally through this method.

Mo Bai admitted that this approach was somewhat immoral. But if she wanted to win over an instance monster whose stance was completely opposed to theirs, this was the only way.

Besides, in a matter of life and death, morality didn't seem all that important.

Under Mo Bai's successive encirclements, the Phantom Butterfly was completely conquered.

"I don't actually know that much. You have to consider that I was just a test subject inside a glass container back then. I wasn't in the same laboratory as the Schizophrenics. I couldn't possibly see the details of their experiments. I only know some of the results," the Phantom Butterfly said gloomily. It felt useless, unable to help Mo Bai despite having stayed in the institute for so long.

Fortunately, she didn't blame it. Instead, she spoke even more gently, "It's fine. Just tell me whatever you can remember. I'll handle the rest, analysis and deduction. You've already participated in our discussions. Don't you trust my analytical ability yet?"

Looking at Mo Bai's gentle, sweet smile, the Phantom Butterfly found itself thinking:

She doesn't blame me even though I'm so useless.

She's such a good person.

We're enemies, yet she doesn't kill me.

She's truly kind.

Mo Bai continued, "Even if you really can't remember, that's fine. I can guide you through it. You just need to answer my questions."

"Okay. You're really kind," the Phantom Butterfly obediently answered and earned Mo Bai's approving smile.

Liu Congyi and Du Heng: "..."

They had personally witnessed the entire process of Mo Bai subduing the Phantom Butterfly. Inevitably, they couldn't help but think back to how they had gotten along with Mo Bai.

It seemed that they, too, had first been cornered into desperation by her words. Then they were overwhelmed by her tolerance, magnanimity, wisdom, and determination, until they unconsciously began trusting and relying on her. By the time they realized it, they were already acting according to her instructions.

The most terrifying part was that even after they realized it, they still felt Mo Bai hadn't done anything wrong. As captain, she was simply stronger than they were. She possessed the power to make flowers of hope bloom along a road of despair.

The two exchanged a glance and sensed each other's thoughts.

When they looked toward Sheng Yan, who was clearly Mo Bai's diehard subordinate, they saw him staring at Phantom Butterfly with obvious displeasure, completely unaware that it had been tricked over by Mo Bai.

Forget it. Even if we're not as good as Mo Bai, we're still a little better than that guy, the two thought simultaneously.

With someone at the very bottom for comparison, they didn't seem quite foolish anymore and felt somewhat relieved.

Mo Bai had no idea what her teammates were thinking. After a moment's thought, she asked, "Have you ever seen Schizophrenics where the fusion failed?"

The Phantom Butterfly brightened when it realized it knew the answer. "I have. They were all destroyed by the institute's five guardians."

"That's not what I'm asking. In a research institute like this, it's normal for failed products to be destroyed. What I want to know is, what counts as fusion failure, and what counts as fusion success?" Mo Bai asked.

Phantom Butterfly tried to recall, then said, "If they can't fuse at all, or only partially fuse. If their condition is unstable after fusion, and they show rejection reactions. If the monster side becomes the dominant consciousness after fusion, or if the human side becomes dominant but their form remains monstrous. All of these are considered failures."

Mo Bai explained, "In other words, a successful fusion is achieved only when a being possesses both a human form and a dominant human consciousness, while also having the ability to transform into their monster form and utilize monster abilities at will. This clearly indicates Professor Yang's objective: he aims for perfect fusion."

She continued, "Next question: has there ever been a case where either the human side or the monster side died? Did the institute conduct experiments on that? Is there a connection between the two split entities?"

Phantom Butterfly blinked. "If you hadn't asked, I really wouldn't have remembered. The institute did conduct such experiments. I didn't see them personally, but I overheard researchers talking about it.

If the monster half were killed, the human half would die immediately. If the human half died, the monster would show two possible outcomes. One, it wouldn't die immediately, but would become extremely unstable and attack everything in sight until it exhausted its energy and died. The other possibility was a strong devouring impulse. It would continuously consume other lifeforms until it stabilized again.

I remember during that experiment, one monster developed devouring tendencies after its human personality died. The institute kept feeding it test subjects, and I was even on the feeding list. But my species was too different from that monster, so I was placed far down the list. The mutants were ahead of me.

After devouring a lifeform, the monster would quickly spit out the remains, seemingly absorbing only the parts beneficial to itself. It kept eating and spitting, spitting and eating, until it devoured an intelligent mutant. That time, it didn't spit anything out. It still looked like a monster, but it became very intelligent, stopped eating indiscriminately, and even chatted with Professor Yang."

"What happened to that monster?" Mo Bai asked.

"Professor Yang destroyed it," Phantom Butterfly replied. "Oh, right. Professor Yang never feeds any of the split personalities to the underground monster. He always destroys them."

Mo Bai said, "I had originally thought we might be able to prevent the birth of the Ultra-Star Rank instance by killing Professor Yang. Looks like that path won't work. With Professor Yang around, the Ultra-Star Rank monster can remain stable. Even though it's an incomplete being, it can still either destroy the entire instance or devour all of us until it finds the one who can fuse with it perfectly."

"It has already devoured so many humans. Isn't it complete enough?" Du Heng frowned.

After thinking for a moment, Mo Bai said, "It's spiritual rather than physical incompleteness. To it, everyone else is food, its energy. Only the correct half is its soul. Unless that half appears, it will always crave other souls. What it truly wants will always be its other half."

After a pause, she asked, "How many successful fusion cases were there in total? During the fusion process, was there anything noteworthy?"

After struggling to recall, the Phantom Butterfly replied, "Each split case had its own laboratory. Researchers would send different experimental materials to different labs. I remember that for a period of time, the researchers extracted large amounts of my coma-inducing scale powder and used it on the split personalities. One case even succeeded.

Professor Yang was very pleased. He extracted even more of my scale powder and used large quantities of other hallucinogens as well, but most attempts failed.

He said my scale powder wasn't strong enough. It couldn't soothe overly powerful split monsters and only worked on B-rank monsters. He needed a stronger anesthetic.

For a while, their research direction was to help me evolve. They fed me all sorts of strange things, but that plan was later halted by Professor Yang. He said that unless I became as powerful as the underground monster, my scale powder wouldn't work. Therefore, he changed the research direction."

Mo Bai said, "I think the new direction Professor Yang chose was to make use of the system. He's very clever. He knew that the system always finds ways to deal with monsters. So he deliberately leaked the method to counter the Ultra-Star Rank monster to Du Heng, had the system develop the serum, and then brought those who carried the serum into this place.

He doesn't dare to move against us easily because, unlike the system, he doesn't know where the serum exactly is. He's also afraid that we might destroy it and ruin his fusion plan. That's why he's been playing along with us and tolerating everything we do. As long as we don't try to get close to the truth like Mao Juncai and Zhuang Xiangyang did, he won't harm us.

Du Ying likely consumed the thing from Mao Juncai and Zhuang Xiangyang's minds out of fear that they might destroy the serum if they were injured and fell into despair."

"So, whether it's the system or Professor Yang, they're both coveting the serum inside us? Both of them want us dead?" Liu Congyi asked.

"Yes," Mo Bai nodded.

After thinking for a moment, Liu Congyi suddenly said, "Xiao Meiyong (Little Useless), ask the main system something for me. We've already completed the task it assigned, haven't we? It told us to uncover the hidden secrets of the institute. We've basically figured everything out, so it should send us out of the instance now, right?"

Seeing everyone looking at her, Liu Congyi explained, "Xiao Meiyong is my smart assistant."

"That's actually a good idea," Du Heng said. "We already completed the system's initial task. If it can send us out and then dispatch high-level players from Neverland into the instance, then they could definitely deal with this Ultra-Star Rank instance before it's even born. Our boss is incredible, and his intelligence is even higher than Mo Bai's. If I told you about his abilities, they'd scare you to death. And his character is excellent. If he came to this instance, he would definitely clear it."

From Du Heng's tone, it was clear that he had high regard for the leader of the Mending Heaven organization.

Mo Bai didn't mind his comment about the intelligence being higher than her's. In her view, there was always someone better out there, so it was normal for Du Heng to think that way.

Sheng Yan, on the other hand, looked displeased and muttered, "Mo Bai is the smartest. Her abilities would also scare you to death."

Du Heng heard Sheng Yan's loud muttering and was about to argue back when a system notification appeared.

All four players in the room received the message simultaneously.

 

[Dear players, congratulations on discovering the institute's secret and completing the first phase of the mission.

Next, the system has a more important mission for you.

Second Phase: Please stop Professor Yang's conspiracy and prevent the birth of the Ultra-Star Rank monster. This instance mission has no time limit and no survival rate restriction. As long as you clear it, all of you can survive.]

 

Everyone: "..."

Sheng Yan snapped, "So what you're saying is, if we don't stop the Ultra-Star Rank monster from being born, we'll just die in this instance?"

Du Heng was also furious. "Then why don't you send higher-level players in here?"

At that moment, the system sent another message:

[Dear players, I would prefer even more than you to send high-level players into this instance. Because you uncovered the institute's secret, the system has upgraded the danger level of the Biological Research Institute No. 7 instance to S-rank. It is now fully eligible for high-level players.]

 

"Then send them!" Liu Congyi retorted. "Why are you making things hard for a bunch of beginner players?"

The system continued:

[According to the domain rules of forced instances, once players are inside, the instance will not be opened to other players until all current players have died.

If you wish for the system to send additional players, please end your lives as soon as possible.

Before ending your lives, please destroy your serum.]

 

Everyone: "..."

So the main system was actually annoyed that they were still alive inside the instance.

Mo Bai, however, wasn't surprised by the system's response. The main system upheld the rules of the entire Infinite World. It valued players' lives, but it valued the lives of the majority rather than a handful of individuals.

In its eyes, the imminent birth of an Ultra-Star Rank instance could threaten the safety of the entire Infinite World. What did the lives of a few players matter? The system probably wished they would die sooner rather than later.

"Then at least lift the restrictions on Sheng Yan and Du Heng," Mo Bai said.

The system replied:

[ Impossible. Sheng Yan violated the Public Security Regulations. His punishment period has not yet expired. Du Heng used the Survival of the Fittest card to downgrade himself to a low-level player. Unless the card's effect expires or he uses it again to readapt to this S-rank instance, the restriction cannot be lifted.]

 

"Then you might as well just kill us," Du Heng said coldly.

[The system cannot harm any player's life.]

The system responded.

Liu Congyi, Du Heng, and Sheng Yan began cursing the system angrily.

Only Mo Bai remained calm. She stopped them and said, "That's not how you negotiate. You have to grab the system by its weak spot."

After thinking for a moment, she said, "System, if you refuse to provide any assistance, I'll go directly to Professor Yang. My teammates and I will actively cooperate with him and help him complete the fusion of the Ultra-Star Rank monster.

I'll tell him that he needs five doses of serum, and I can even tell him where the serum is hidden. Maybe he'll extract it and use other test subjects to refine the drug."

The system replied:

[That serum can only suppress the Ultra-Star Rank monster when it is inside players. Players are different from instance NPCs and instance monsters. You are positive flow. Only positive flow can suppress negative flow.

Player Mo Bai's idea of placing five doses of serum into a single body will not work. The serum only functions when combined with a player's internal positive flow. Without five sources of positive flow, five doses of serum are useless.

Please abandon naïve ideas. Either strive to prevent the birth of the Ultra-Star Rank instance, or die.]

 

The system had laid its cards on the table.

Mo Bai said steadily, "If you refuse to help, I'll negotiate with Professor Yang. Using the serum from myself, Mao Juncai, Zhuang Xiangyang, No. 025, and No. 251, I'll help him achieve his goal in exchange for him sparing the rest. If we listen to you, none of us will survive, but if our group follows my plan, at least Du Heng, Liu Congyi, and Sheng Yan can live!"

Mo Bai understood that, in the system's eyes, their lives carried no weight. Only the birth of an Ultra-Star Rank instance could truly threaten it.

After a moment of silence, the system said,

[The main system can provide assistance. However, it is not what Player Mo Bai wants. It will just bring you one step closer to the Abyss.]

 

"First, tell me what help you can provide within the constraints of your rules," Mo Bai replied.

The system answered:

[The main system cannot interfere with events inside the instance. However, since you have completed the first phase of the mission, the system can settle your mission rewards in advance. Additionally, the second phase is an S-rank mission, which is far beyond your current capacity. The system can also advance 50% of the reward.

These rewards can turn you into an intermediate player. This is the maximum assistance the system can provide within its authority.]

 

Mo Bai said, "I remember that when beginner players advance to the intermediate level, they must sleep for three days. Otherwise, their bodies can't withstand the massive surge of power."

The main system replied:

[ That is true for ordinary players. However, your bodies have already been enhanced by the Ultra-Star Rank monster's extract. Your physical constitution is comparable to that of intermediate players. You can withstand the evolution without entering a dormant state. ]

 

"And him?" Mo Bai pointed at Sheng Yan. "After becoming an intermediate player, will his abilities still be sealed?"

 

[ One month is one month. It is unrelated to whether Player Sheng Yan is a beginner or intermediate player. However, he can still advance to the intermediate level. ]

 

Mo Bai weighed the options in her mind for a brief moment, then decisively replied:

"Deal!"

 

 

Author's Note:

Gu Tiandong, Ding Xun, and Ye Pingjun: We only slept for a few days, and when we woke up, our weak and helpless beginner-level Observation Group teammate was already at a higher level than us...