Are You Out of Your Mind?

Yet another survival crisis, based on Lin Yu's guess, was probably Otto realizing he hadn't kept a close watch on K423 and, entertaining the thought of is this brat not working seriously?, turning his murderous intent toward him.

Otto wouldn't directly kill a useful employee.

Yet for a useless employee, or one who messed up at a critical juncture, Lin Yu didn't believe Otto would be all that soft-hearted.

At a critical juncture, Otto could shoot his old friend Fu Hua right between the eyes, and feed his granddaughter Theresa to the Herrscher of the Void as the nutrient of "love" to help her awaken.

He could do such things to those close to him, so if Lin Yu dared to mess up in Changkong City, he figured that a few days after returning to Schicksal, he would end up with eighteen bullets in his body and be ruled a suicide.

Therefore, upon confirming that Raiden Mei was temporarily fine, he rushed off without stopping to do something else—search for K423.

Come to think of it, Mei wouldn't awaken as a Herrscher for the time being.

System, where's my reward for surviving the crisis?

What makes you labor under the delusion that you've already survived the survival crisis?

Hey, hold on a minute?

The system panel isn't wrong, is it?

It isn't wrong. She won't awaken for the time being—isn't that clear enough?

...What the fuck.

That meant Changkong City was still going to blow up, forcing him to run back and forth between two ends, right?

Figure it out yourself; this system has already done all it can.

To be fair, indeed.

He had been preaching that others needed to be independent, yet in the end, he was still relying on the system to solve all his problems. He really had no shame.

Sigh, didn't those two blockheads stick together every day in the original work?

Why did things turn out like this now?

Just as Lin Yu was speeding forward, the phone in his pocket suddenly rang.

"...An unfamiliar phone number?"

After answering the call, before Lin Yu could speak, he heard a voice reach his ears.

"A'yu, how is the situation on your end? Is anyone giving you trouble?"

Rita?

"Not for the moment."

After a brief pause, Lin Yu added a word.

"Sister."

"Then you must be careful."

"Someone is displeased with the actions of Anti-Entropy executor Cocolia and plans to meddle in this affair, but that man is not our comrade, so if you encounter a white-haired, one-armed man—run immediately!"

"White-haired... one-armed?"

Weren't those descriptions—wait.

Was Siegfried in Changkong City at this point in the original work?

"Yes, the former head of the Kaslana clan, Siegfried Kaslana, has already appeared in Changkong City with a Divine Key."

"Oh, right, our monitoring system shows that you are some distance away from K423. Why is she a few kilometers ahead of you?"

"Why did you two split up?"

"Did she give you a hard time?"

K423 is just a few kilometers straight ahead of me?!

Nice!

Just as Lin Yu prepared to speed up, he suddenly sensed a wave of crisis.

So intense was this crisis that, unconsciously and without his own awareness, Lin Yu instinctively entered the state of Mirror Mind.

This feeling...!

In the next instant, Lin Yu leaped straight off his motorcycle and, using the bike as a springboard, vaulted directly onto the nearby ground.

And right as he completed this movement...

"Boom!"

The motorcycle he had just been riding was struck by something and exploded right before his eyes.

Chapter 33: Are You Out of Your Mind?

On the other end of the terminal, hearing the explosion sound from Lin Yu's side, Rita asked him nervously.

"A'yu, on your end—"

"Oh, sis, it's fine."

Staring at the figure that had just appeared before him, Lin Yu spoke softly into the phone.

"I had a bit of a careless traffic accident on my end, the car blew up, I'm fine now."

"So I'll go chase that little cutie now, remember to root for me."

"Wait—"

Before Rita could finish, Lin Yu on the other end cut off the communication.

Although Lin Yu hadn't explicitly said it, how could Rita not know that he must have encountered an enemy on his end?

She knew Lin Yu's strength.

Sending him to beat up ordinary people—having undergone training, he had no problem bullying regular folks.

Yet the enemy he had encountered over there... if they were truly ordinary street thugs, Lin Yu wouldn't have needed to hang up the phone.

"Lady Rita."

At that moment, an intelligence department member responsible for tracking the whereabouts of K423 and Lin Yu looked at the electronic device before him, a trace of tension instantly surfacing on his face.

"The electronic equipment on our side was just hacked by Anti-Entropy again."

"So the intelligence on our end..."

"Furthermore, because of this, we have no way to continue tracking the positions of Lin Yu and K423. All we can confirm now is that he and Raiden Mei have separated."

"Ah, don't blame yourselves."

Looking at the tension on her colleagues' faces, Rita suppressed the anxiety in her heart and resumed her usual courteous demeanor.

"Everyone did their best. When it comes to this sort of thing... if there's no way, there's just no way."

"Lord Otto is very magnanimous, so don't worry too much about it."

Seeing the expressions on everyone's faces relax slightly, Rita could only force herself to calm down.

She desperately wanted to comfort herself with the speculation that now that the Third Honkai Outbreak has reached the verge of erupting, Anti-Entropy simply has no time to deal with Lin Yu.

Yet right now, Lin Yu had already been ambushed, which indicated that the people from Anti-Entropy had definitely set their sights on him.

A'yu, please don't try to fight them head-on at a time like this.

Sigh, back then...

Why on earth had he suddenly chosen to volunteer himself for this dangerous mission?

At that moment on the street, Lin Yu stared at the man who had appeared before him, feeling a slight ache in his head.

The "Escape from Changkong" arc hadn't been detailed in the original plot.

So it was completely normal for the blanks in many details to be filled in with all sorts of bizarre people and events for various reasons...

Lin Yu wanted to tell himself that, but recalling the events unfolding now, he felt he was still too naive.

In the "Escape from Changkong" arc, other members of the Schicksal Council demanded the dispatch of an S-rank Valkyrie.

Then Theresa, the Far East Branch Overseer who hadn't even gone to Changkong City at the time, stopped them, stating that there was no need to panic because there was an A-rank Valkyrie, Murata Himeko, and the Hyperion over there, and she herself held a trump card.

So according to the original plot, Rita shouldn't have appeared here at all.

And here I was thinking of using the original plot as a reference... How utterly foolish.

"Yo, little brother over here, I have a question to ask you."

On the street some distance away from Lin Yu, a handsome, one-armed, white-haired middle-aged man raised the uniquely aesthetic handgun in his hand and aimed it directly at Lin Yu's body.

"At your age, not going home in the middle of the night—what are you planning to do following a young girl around?"

"Nonsense, I'm her senior."

Having entered the state of Mirror Mind, Lin Yu could feel the oppressive aura emanating from the opponent.

He had to admit, even though Siegfried's body was weak from the overuse of the Hyper-Evolution Factor, he was missing an arm, and he had lost the second core required to unleash Jie Mie—leaving him with probably less than one-thousandth of his peak strength—still...

Right now, Old Yang is at low health, Kevin is soaking in water, and Su is peeking. Even with a few debuffs applied to him, Siegfried was still one of the strongest people in history.

Not to mention he was still holding a Divine Key; if Siegfried got serious, even bare-handed he would likely be absurdly strong.

"A senior found his junior skipping class and wandering around late at night, and prepared to catch her so she'd go to school obediently tomorrow. What's wrong with that?"

"Oh, well said."

Hearing Lin Yu's reply, the man nodded, appearing satisfied.

"But I'm still going to beat you up, kid."

"I'm her dad, and you actually dared to stalk my daughter. I can't let that slide."

Watching Lin Yu's tense body, Siegfried loosened his shoulders and put away Flame-Chaser's Judgment.

"Forget it, I can't be bothered to keep arguing with you about all this nonsense."

In the next instant, a helpless expression crossed Siegfried's face.

"Young fellow, you're from Schicksal, right?"

"...You already know all that, yet you're still wasting time here with me?"

Good, no killing intent.

Looks like he hasn't gotten serious yet.

"Of course. As an old veteran of Schicksal, I don't think all my dear juniors are bad guys."

Staring at Lin Yu, Siegfried spoke to him in a deep, earnest tone.

"However, young fellow, your supreme superior Otto is truly not a good person."

"Following his instructions to act is really not a good thing."

"If you have any interest, you can break away from Schicksal and join Anti-Entropy. At least on Anti-Entropy's side..."

At this point, Siegfried trailed off slightly.

Originally, persuading a sheltered youth to rebel against an organization had a low success rate, but it at least possessed some possibility.

Yet, thinking of Cocolia's actions, Siegfried discovered an awkward problem.

Before he could persuade his opponent, he found he couldn't even persuade himself.

"Oh, I know the Overseer isn't a good person—truth be told, most of the higher-ups in Schicksal know that too."

Looking at the suddenly silent Siegfried, Lin Yu continued.

"The problem, however, is that while the Overseer is no saint, the directives he issues while ruling Schicksal are at least mostly unproblematic."

"He's at worst a bad guy, and now you're telling me—Hey kiddo, abandon that bad guy and join Anti-Entropy with me."

"Anti-Entropy is currently preparing to directly trigger a massive Honkai Outbreak, so are you telling me to forsake an organization that protects the world and join one that's preparing to cause destruction?"