The Solution to the Riddle / Go Big

"It was around that time that they began a secret experiment."

"Slap, slap."

"Hello? Sound check~ Sound check~"

As soon as Mei returned to the lounge, she heard a familiar voice amplified by a loudspeaker echoing between the empty walls.

"Mei, the girl who beat Mobius to a Mei, is back!"

"..."

The sound was deafening; it was clear that the person using the loudspeaker had turned the machine up to its maximum power, otherwise it wouldn't have had such a thunderous effect.

Mei, who was in a good mood after defeating Mobius with Klein's help, was at a loss for words after hearing the recurring loud noise.

She didn't need to guess to know who did it.

"I suggest you go find Elysia as soon as possible." At this moment, another person walked up to her. Lin, whom she hadn't seen for a long time, hadn't changed much since she left. "Otherwise, she will keep leaving."

After saying that, Lin tried to walk past her, but Mei took a step and stopped him. "Wait a minute, I've already beaten Mobius, shouldn't you tell me something?"

"It was Mobius who promised you. I can't control what she tells you, but since you haven't met my requirements, I won't tell you what you want to know."

As always, Lin left his words and walked past Mei into the anchor point.

The Solution to Chapter Thirty

The long-haired girl, without deactivating her Herrscher form, stood before Mobius, who was dressed in tattered clothes and sneering, "I think you won't go back on your word."

"That's hard to say." Mobius knew his words were unlikely to work on Mei. "I'm the most evil, the most bastard, the most terrifying Mobius! Do you think I'm incapable of going back on my word?"

"Lin told me that you would keep your promise."

"What good is his opinion? Who is he to me?" Mobius gritted his teeth at the mention of that name, the memory of being tricked by Lin still fresh in his mind. "According to the agreement between us, he is still my pet."

"... I don't know about your relationship, but based on one thing, he is definitely special to you."

Mei took out the super-concentrated wasabi she always carried with her. This thing, which looked like some kind of medicine in a bottle, made people feel a burning phantom pain in their mouths as soon as they took it out.

"..." Upon seeing this thing appear before him once again, Mobius's expression changed slightly.

"You have repeatedly mentioned Lin's Hypervariable Surgery. There are two doubts about his Hypervariable Surgery. One is that you prevented him from having the surgery before the operation, and the other is whether the Hypervariable Surgery had any impact on Lin after the operation."

"Imaginary Tree, 90 percent of those who had failed surgeries died, and those who were lucky enough to survive mostly had physical deformities and spent their remaining lives in a daze with aftereffects."

Mei held a piece of wasabi in her hand, her eyes fixed on Mobius: "The first point of doubt is that there is very little information available, and you, as the parties involved, are unwilling to speak. Moreover, it has little relevance to my question, so I will not investigate the reasons behind it. As for the second point of doubt... I think I already know what the aftereffects of Lin's surgery were."

"..."

"..."

Mobius raised his eyes disdainfully. "Is that all you wanted to say? And what does that prove?"

"This proves..."

"You can ask me whatever you want to know now, but it has nothing to do with that guy." Mobius flipped over and sat on her oddly shaped machine, revealing her usual slightly wicked smile. "I suddenly find you more interesting than I thought, so I might as well give you, my Lab Rat, some feed."

"If you had done this sooner, we might have had less trouble." Mei breathed a sigh of relief when she saw that Mobius was finally cooperating.

But...

She glanced at the wasabi in her hand, her mind wandering.

Was this something he had already anticipated?

Mei had already decided on Lin's character, began to speculate about Lin's purpose once again.

"You'd better hurry up." Mobius's expression was unfriendly. She glanced at her clothes several times, her expression as if telling Mei what she had done.

Mei didn't waste any more words with her. After organizing her thoughts, she asked, "Besides the Thirteen Heroes and the visitors, there are only two people in the Imaginary Tree who don't belong to the Thirteen Heroes but also exist here. Klein is the maintainer of the Imaginary Tree. So what is the significance of Lin's memory to the Imaginary Tree and to the Thirteen Heroes?"

The appearance of "Lin" gave her some vague guesses.

"Don't you already have the answer in your heart?" Mobius said. "A person closely related to the Thirteen Heroes, a person who participated in more than half of the Herrscher extermination wars in the Previous Civilization, a person who is not Flame-Chasers but has an imprint. If you focus on his personal life, you will not be able to see his whole picture."

"... Could you use a more easily understood way of saying it?"

Mobius glanced at Mei with surprise, and that genuine look made Mei feel a little ashamed. After thinking for a moment, she changed her approach and said, "So, have you ever thought that we are the 'Thirteen Heroes' and not the 'Fourteen Flame-Chasers'?"

"Isn't it because only thirteen Flame-Chaser survived the Tragedy of Binding that you formed the special group of Thirteen Heroes?" Mei asked, frowning. "And Lin's Hypervariable Surgery failed, so he is naturally not a member of this group."

"Heh..." Mobius seemed to enjoy mocking the other party with ambiguous laughter. "Do you think that, apart from me, others, especially Elysia, would want Lin to become a member of the Flame-Chasers?"

Mei's eyes widened in astonishment upon hearing this.

Why didn't she think about this before?

Although Lin is not Flame-Chaser, he does possess the qualities to become Flame-Chasers. He also has Flame-Chaser designation. Judging from the reactions of others to Lin, most of them would not object to him becoming Flame-Chasers.

Lin even possesses the [Nameless] inscription.

What does this mean?

"But you still haven't answered me, Lin..."

"This is really troublesome. Do you know why Lin asked you those three questions?" Mobius interrupted Mei impatiently. "His meaning is quite clear: none of us will answer any of your questions about Lin directly. The only one who can answer is himself."

"..." Mei's eyes sharpened. Since it was impossible to pry all the information out of Mobius, based on her lesson with "Lin", Mei cut to the chase and asked, "Then, I've got it in mind, who knows the answers to those three questions?"

When Mei asked the question she most wanted to know, Mobius suppressed his impatience and stared at Mei with a smile, his cold gaze swirling in his eyes.

After a long pause, Mobius said, "These three questions are 'Lin's appearance,' 'Lin's age,' and 'Lin's cause of death.' You should have asked some people these questions, so you should know their reactions to them."

"They were only willing to answer with 'age' and 'appearance'."

Some people are even unwilling to describe their appearance.

"Really? Then I'll only answer 'age'."

"What do you mean?" Mei glared at the unfazed Mobius, her eyes sparkling with anger. "You wouldn't really..."

"This is what you want to know. To be honest, I was a little surprised that Lin would give you such a simple question, but seeing that you still look blank, I'm not too surprised."

Mobius's tone was always full of sarcasm and pretense, and this time was no exception.

"Lin has already given you a hint this time. The key to the three questions is not that no one wants to answer them, but that everyone is willing to answer them. The reactions of people including myself are actually the best answers."

"Because Lin didn't ask you what the answers to those three questions were, but rather who the person who knows the answers is."

Mei frowned, pondering Mobius's words.

It's not the answer to the question, but the person who knows the answer...

Wait a moment...

"Then I'm only willing to answer with my age."

I only want to...

What does this mean?

Chapter Thirty-One: Let's Do a Big Heist

My right eye is experiencing phantom pain.

Lin knew that in these fragmented memories, his body was nothing more than a wandering soul created by his own mind, but the pain simulated deep in his brain still made him cover his right eye, which was different from his intact right eye in reality.

After a while, the pain subsided slightly, and he lowered his hand, seeing bloodstains on his palm.

"Lin, don't come any closer!"

The words he had heard before rang out again, this time exploding right in Lin's ears, as if someone were roaring at him.

The scene before me blurred for a moment, the pitch-black night and blood-soaked corpses flashing by.

Time is running out.

"I know," Lin repeated as if speaking to someone. "I know."

After saying this, he took a deep breath to rouse himself and immersed himself wholeheartedly in the conversation between the man and Zero.

"First adults, then teenagers, then children, then babies..." the man recounted the events that had occurred. "Finally, unborn children. By the time we discovered it, your parents had already killed nineteen people under the guise of experiments, including pregnant women."

"At that time, the organization was still in its infancy and did not realize that their ideas were fundamentally different from those of the Human Research and Conservation Association, which was just a group of people who came together out of interest. Their research and escape led to the establishment of the organization I belonged to, the Moth of Fire."

"According to the investigation, the couple conducted Gene Modification experiments on each victim. They attempted to transform humans into more powerful beings. As the age of the test subjects gradually decreased, it indicates that they realized that the key to this experiment lay in the age of the recipients."

"After they arrived in the Far East, nearly a hundred people were victimized, all of whom were unborn babies and their mothers. Then one day, they lost all contact with each other and disappeared in a shopping mall fire."

The man's expression didn't change much when he talked about the victims; he seemed completely indifferent to the dead.

"However, by then the Firemoth had already been established, and my position in the Far East was unmatched. So after some time, we finally found them, and at the same time... we also found the fruits of their research." The man's gaze shifted to Zero's face, and he said frankly, "You already know what happened after that."

They used children as experimental subjects to complete a human modification project, and ultimately used the results of this experiment on their own children.

"To be honest, I don't usually consider these kinds of people to be human, but there are quite a few people within the Fire Moth who support their actions."

"I don't know when I will be assimilated by their ideas. For the sake of all mankind, I'm afraid I will become like that sooner or later, as long as it's for the sake of more valuable people, using those worthless people as stepping stones."

He smiled wryly and took a drag of his cigarette, "I really... don't want to become like that."

"You can leave." Zero showed little surprise at the man's words; instead, she began to suggest something to him.

The man picked up the extinguished cigarette butt, tossed it in a perfect arc, and threw it into the trash can. "Leave? That might be a good idea... but I can't stand idly by. To witness atrocities and remain unmoved would make me an accomplice."

"I saw a lot of people laughing," he muttered self-deprecatingly, his knuckles turning white from clenching his fists. "So it can't be wrong."

The man loathed the couple, but he also loathed himself; he loathed all humans who resembled him.

Because they share the same unwavering belief, a belief that will never change, even if it means scattering others in flames.

What that couple did was just the tip of the iceberg of what the man would do in the future. Sooner or later, he would commit even more heinous acts, all under the banner of human righteousness.

It is precisely because of this understanding that men deeply despise humanity and their unwavering belief in the death.

"However, they did overlook one thing." The man suddenly laughed freely, and reached for a cigarette, but after seeing Zero's still childish and short stature, he put the cigarette pack back. "They modified you in every aspect to surpass humanity, but they neglected the most crucial Honkai Energy resistance. However, they really didn't know the true nature of Honkai. It's quite a coincidence."

"As long as you don't have Honkai Energy resistance, you can live as an ordinary person. I will process your identity certificate, and you can live in Changkong City from now on."

The video recorder was turned off; the nineteenth recording should be the last.

But as the man reached the door, Zero looked up and asked, "What is Honkai?"

"I don't know exactly what it is. Is it a concept? A manifestation? A disaster? But it made me determined to become one of the moths chasing the flame."

"I want to join the Fire Moths."

Zero's words froze the man's expression. He turned around and, seeing Zero's blank face, instinctively asked, "Why?"

"Because I have to protect humanity."

At that moment, the man shivered.

He discovered the most terrifying transformation that the parents had made to the child: it wasn't his learning ability or his reflexes.

It's not about his life.

They cast a curse on zero.

"Only the most foolish human being would place all their hopes on a child."

"Heave-ho... How do I use this thing?"

Pardo took out all the weapons she could use from the room and laid them on the table, including Lin's pistol.

Wooden sticks, kitchen knives, fruit knives, hair dryers... Without a doubt, this pistol is the most powerful weapon. It's the perfect weapon to drive away the people monitoring you, but Pardo doesn't know how to use it, and she doesn't want to kill anyone.

After some back and forth, she could only put the pistol and knife into her pockets, hold a thin stick in her mouth, and silently climb onto the roof using both hands and feet.

Lin told her that someone was watching them. Before that, she had not found any trace of the watcher. She had no confidence that she could beat the watcher... She was not good at fighting and mostly did petty theft.

She's good at cheating and slyness, but when it comes to direct combat, all she can do is cheer on her opponents.

However, the die was cast. Lin's decision to have her drive away the monitors indicated that their presence was of no benefit to them. Moreover, Pardo also knew that she had been closely monitored by that man, and she feared that if she did anything against the rules, she would be killed.

In order to regain her freedom, Pardo decided to pull off a big heist.

"Where could they be hiding? Outside this house, where can we keep watch..."

Thinking back to Lin's ruthless actions that day, Pardo calmed down without realizing it.