The Ailment of Life / Zero

"Aging often begins with a serious illness."

"Physical damage and mental succumb to illness, when faced with diseases that can no longer heal themselves, marks the beginning of the first stage of human aging."

The speaker tossed a coin onto the table.

"Splash splash splash..."

The coin spun on the smooth tabletop, like a tiny sphere.

"Do you think this coin will land heads or tails when it falls?" The Speaker tapped his gloved fingers on the table, his smile hidden in the darkness carrying a certain mystery. "This is something I often do in my spare time. I think the most interesting thing is that when the coin actually falls, you can't know whether it will land heads or tails."

"Don't you find it interesting? Unlike the inevitable demise of a person, a coin always has a chance to flip heads."

"Clatter".

The door was pushed open from the outside, and a sliver of orange-yellow light shone through the crack in the door, transforming into a wide, elongated beam that illuminated the speaker sitting beside the conference table.

Most of his face was shrouded in darkness, but the pupils on the illuminated side of his face were turned toward the person in the doorway.

"Speaker, what brings you here?"

The speaker stood up warmly and gestured for the person in front of him to sit down.

The parliamentary system adopted by the Fire Moth ensures that everyone has equal power, but equality of power does not mean equal voice. Seniority and contributions can determine far more than most people imagine.

The person in front of me has a very high level of influence among the High Council; in other words, he is an authority figure.

The elderly man, though past sixty but still vigorous, glanced at the polite speaker, unsure of his intentions, but still sat down in front of him.

After he sat down, the speaker returned to his own seat, straightened his tie, and smiled, saying, "The reason I invited you here today is to discuss the issue of centralized power that we mentioned last time..."

"Hmph, I knew you weren't up to any good." The old man interrupted the speaker bluntly, and this action of not letting the speaker finish speaking made his brow twitch.

"Do you think I don't know what kind of underhanded things you've been doing behind the scenes? Do you crave power that much?" the old man said coldly.

"I think you've misunderstood." The Speaker sighed, pulled out a white napkin and spread it across his chest, and said calmly, "I don't really care who has the power. I just think that having the power concentrated in one's hands is more suitable for the implementation of various plans. And you are the most senior member, so I think you are the most qualified person to implement the mechanism change."

"Then you don't need to waste your breath. The system of the Moths of Fire was established from the very beginning, and it cannot be changed by a few words from you."

"... It can't be changed with just a few words..." The speaker narrowed his eyes.

The old man sneered at his appearance, "What? What else do you want to do? Your private army has been wiped out. Even if there are any remnants, they can't get into headquarters. Do you think we'll let you bring in people from outside headquarters after the last assassination attempt?"

"...I am very sorry, I am really sorry." The speaker stood up, his face full of regret, and extended his hand to the old man. "I am deeply sorry that we could not reach an agreement."

The old man glanced at his gloved hands and snorted, "Hmph, forget it."

He ignored the speaker's hand and turned away arrogantly.

"Well..."

"Waaah—"

The old man, whose mouth was covered from behind, looked in horror at the indifferent man in front of him who picked up the coin on the table. After glancing at the tails side of the coin, he put it into his pocket.

"I really can't bring someone to headquarters in full view of everyone." The Speaker put his hands behind his back and took a step back. "But have you forgotten that there are also elite combat personnel at headquarters?"

"Bass!"

In the final moments of his life, the old man saw his chest ripped open by a grotesque and terrifying weapon, which lifted him up like a rag doll and slammed him onto the conference table.

"Bang!"

The speaker respectfully removed the blood-stained napkin from his chest.

The first rays of morning sunlight fell on Pardo's forehead. Her eyelids fluttered a few times as she got up from the mat and stretched lazily.

"Meow~"

Pardo's ultimate goal in life is to find a place where she can sleep peacefully and bask in the sun. She feels that she has already accomplished half of that goal. The other half is to confirm whether she can live in this house for a long time.

"Oh, right..." Pardo shook her head, remembering what happened yesterday, and jumped up like a cat whose tail had been stepped on, "Where is that guy?"

Lin's ruthless actions remain vivid in her memory; they are arguably the most profound memory she has ever had since birth.

Those weren't some fancy special moves; they were real techniques, each strike capable of crippling someone. If they hadn't deliberately held back, those people yesterday would probably have been more than just crippled; they could have ended up in the cemetery.

A bucket of cold water was poured over her head and back. Pardo cautiously looked around but didn't see Lin. She circled the room but still couldn't find him.

"Huh? Where did he go?" Pardo scratched her head. Usually, Lin would be wandering around the house, but she hadn't seen him today.

Reaching the window, Pardo saw through the glass the back of the figure in the wheelchair, motionless in the snow.

"Oh no! Could he have frozen to death?!"

Pardo hurriedly opened the door and rushed to Lin's side.

"..."

Pardo's anxious face appeared in Lin Kongxu's dark eyes. Only after seeing that he looked no different from usual did Pardo breathe a sigh of relief.

Since the temperature has risen, people shouldn't get frostbite easily outside.

"No matter who you are, I would feel very guilty if you died..." Pardo said to Lin in a somewhat reproachful tone, "You can hear me, right? And yesterday, you should be able to return to normal sometimes."

"Could it be that your inability to speak and the hallucinations are caused by those illnesses you have?"

Pardo racked her brains trying to say something that would stimulate Lin to recover, but she was afraid that he would stand up and beat her until she was barely alive, just like yesterday. In the end, she could only give up.

"By the way, I remember there were people with similar symptoms to you at that sanatorium. Could they cure your illness?"

Pardo was proud of her keen observation and extraordinary memory, but then she began to worry about how to get Lin there.

Will they take Lin in for free? From what I saw last time, the sanatorium was almost overflowing with patients.

"Let's go see him again today... Sigh, if you recover, you must remember how kind I was to you."

A glint of light flashed in Lin Huansan's eyes.

Chapter Twenty-Two: The Sickness of Life

"Location of death: Conference room at the headquarters of the Firemoth."

"Time of death: Around 10 p. m. last night."

"Cause of death..."

Mei looked at the old man on the conference table, his eyes wide open in death, his body stiff, his chest as if torn open by the giant claws of some wild beast. The cause of death was already quite obvious.

"The surveillance footage shows no abnormalities," Prometheus Unit 2 mechanically stated in her earpiece.

The conference room was not equipped with any surveillance equipment, a decision made to prevent the contents of upper-level meetings from being leaked. Unexpectedly, this has now become an aid for the murderer to escape justice.

Mei calmly watched the group of people disposing of the body. "Have all the surveillance cameras at headquarters been searched?"

"Yes."

"..."

Mei wasn't too surprised by the result; daring to take action at headquarters meant they were confident they wouldn't get caught.

"That's truly tragic." Kevin stood behind Mei with a cold expression. "He was killed from behind. They could have made his death more dignified, but instead they went to great lengths to torture his corpse."

The body was almost torn in two by the large hole in its chest, and it was slammed onto the conference table with force, blood splattering out in a circle, like a mosquito that had sucked blood and been slapped to death on the wall.

There was no mercy shown; it was like slaughtering an animal.

"This is a demonstration." Mei walked to one of the splattered bloodstains and pointed to the bloodstains on the wall. "There's an unnatural spot missing from this bloodstain. Someone was standing there at the time. He wasn't the executioner, but a spectator. This means that at least three people were present, including the deceased."

"Let's have a thorough search of the entire Headquarters Base first, to see if there are any deliberate traces... although I don't think that will be of any use."

A horrific murder occurred at headquarters, an unprecedented and shocking case, a slap in the face to these saviors of humanity.

With such a big incident, things are clearly not going to be peaceful for a while. Kevin stays by Mei's side at all times to prevent anything similar to what happened with Ying from happening again.

"A provocation against all of us, isn't it?" The Speaker, his face grave, entered leaning on a cane and asked May, "Any progress on the murderer?"

After seeing him, Kevin moved closer to May, his hand already outside his holster.

Mei shook her head normally. "We can confirm that there were only three people present who witnessed the whole process. The person who did it was most likely an assassin or a soldier. It was impossible for an ordinary person to cause such a terrible wound."

"Can you confirm the type of weapon?"

"A kind of...claw, a giant claw like the Claw Mortal." Mei had been in the research department for some time and knew the types of weapons like the back of her hand. "There are no soldiers at headquarters who use similar weapons."

"We must get to the bottom of this. We can't let this uncertainty affect the stability of the Firefly." The Speaker's fingers tapped nervously on his cane. "Disagreements have already torn us apart. The Firefly can't afford any more deaths."

"..."

After the speaker left, May and Kevin went to a private corner, where Kevin asked bluntly, "Could it be him?"

"Sakura mentioned that an assassin using heavy weapons had interfered with her mission, but based on the description, the weapons they used were not the same... so we cannot draw any conclusions."

Because he was once the leader of the Poisoned Cocoon, the speaker is a prime suspect, but his behavior has been normal so far, and there is no evidence pointing to him.

At this moment, the deputy director of the Research and Development Department sent Mei a message.

"Minister, I've found something. It's an encrypted file in the former minister's database."

After seeing the contents of the document, Mei stared expressionlessly at the large hole in the corpse's chest.

It was pitch black, and you could still see the conference table behind it.

"Captain, what happened?"

Fully armed, Soul stood at the end of the corridor with Himiko and Dessidobia. After seeing countless people hurrying past them, she realized that something big had happened, so she asked the solemn Himiko.

"Someone in the upper echelons was killed in the conference room."

"Someone... was killed at headquarters?" Soul repeated, puzzled.

"That's right, and the culprit is very likely among the soldiers. From now on, headquarters will be on high alert and will no longer go out on missions. You all need to be careful of other people."

"Yes."

"Then, what about the Squad Seven?" Soul thought of the Squad Seven, which had been without a leader since Lin's disappearance. Because the reconstruction work of the Fifth Honkai War was not yet completed, internal adjustments had not yet begun.

Himiko, "Someone will take responsibility."

"A rare guest indeed."

Mobius leaned against her desk, blew on the steam from her cup, and spoke to the blue-haired woman who entered her private office.

"Doctor Mobius, it's been a long time." Einstein, carrying some documents, placed them on the table as he entered. "The last time we met was at the academic conference on the Mu Continent, wasn't it?"

"Yes, I never expected that we would never have met after joining the same organization." Mobius's polite words were different from others; her tone was full of probing and she was deliberately trying to make it clear.

"After all, our research areas are different, so we don't have many opportunities to meet. Isn't this a good opportunity to do so?"

"... Didn't you notice what happened at headquarters today?"

"I am saddened by the passing of that old gentleman." Einstein paused for a few seconds, then continued amidst Mobius's sneer, "But I think the creation of Armed Puppet should be an effective way to prevent such incidents from happening again."

"To be honest, I'm not interested in your so-called 'Armed Puppet.' Are you trying to replace someone by stuffing a bunch of mechanical creations with consciousness that is similar to but completely different from that of humans?" Mobius was best at pouring cold water on things. She waved her hand and said, "Besides, you shouldn't have come to me. You should have gone to Vill-V. She's more interested. You can continue your 'crazy girl party.'"

"But as far as I know, your interest in 'creating life' is no less than mine."

"..."

"..."

"Despair."

The green-haired woman took a sip of bitter coffee.

Mobius put down her cup, her earrings swaying, and said casually, "I am indeed very interested in modifying the genes of a life to create a more perfect offspring, but recently I discovered that someone did something similar more than 20 years ago."

"However, I'm not really willing to share my insights with you."

After being told to leave, Einstein wisely departed. She had long heard of Mobius's temperament and had no intention of getting anything from Mobius. However, both Vill-V and May had suggested that she come to Mobius to discuss issues related to the self-discipline of the Armed Puppet.

Is it possible for someone to be born with hopes that don't belong to them?

Mobius stared Ruoshui at Lin's genetic test results on the screen, and subconsciously touched the earring that had been with him since birth.

"If so, did the person who created him really want him to be a 'human being'?"

Chapter Twenty-Three Zero