Destroy / Hide-and-Seek

"Team Member Lin, I no longer have nightmares."

Hun stood formally in front of the table displaying the group photo. She gazed at herself, still smiling gently, and quietly took the photo out of the frame and put it in her pocket.

"Don't we always feel that we've become a different person when we look back on the past?"

"I think I've changed a lot, but one thing hasn't changed." She put her palm on her face, imitating herself in the photo, and a smile crept onto her lips. "I'm a coward. While you, Team Member Lin, were still moving forward recklessly, I had already hidden in a corner, afraid that the people around me would sacrifice themselves, afraid that death would take everything away from me."

"To this day, that remains unchanged."

"However, I will move forward, even if I stumble and fall."

"I am willing to face death for everything you want to protect, and for everything I want to protect."

"So, you must also fulfill your promise from back then..."

He lowered his hand.

Let's go.

She whispered to herself.

Silent Death unfolded in her eyes.

Chapter Fifty-One Destruction

"Once, we dreamed that we were all strangers. When we woke up, we realized that we were actually loving and affectionate towards each other."

The man softly recited poetry, his deep, magnetic voice as solemn and resonant as the tolling of church bells.

"Drop--"

He put down Tagore's poetry collection and picked up the communicator.

"..." After listening to the report, the man who had put the communicator to his ear thought for a long time before saying quietly, "No, let it be. You did a good job."

After putting down the communicator, he opened the poetry collection again, searching for something in those poignant words.

After a long pause, he murmured—

"This morning I sat by the window, and the world, like a passerby, paused for a moment, nodded to me, and then moved on."

"Sorry to keep you waiting."

As the soft music began precisely on time, a man with a cane and wearing a top hat appeared before the Squad Five. His polite and apologetic smile relieved the somewhat tense Squad Five.

Himiko said solemnly to the Speaker, "No, you are very punctual."

"Really? But I feel like this moment is already a long time overdue. I've kept you waiting for far too long," the Speaker said with a smile, adjusting his hat brim.

"No." However, it wasn't Himiko who answered the Speaker, but Soul. Her short hair was ruffled by the breeze, and she said calmly, "Now please board the transport plane, and let us do what needs to be done."

The speaker nodded, leaning on his cane, and slowly passed by them.

Himiko frowned slightly. She noticed that the Speaker's movements were somewhat slow and uncoordinated, and that the cane didn't seem to be just for decoration...

"Speaker, is your leg injured?" She couldn't pretend she hadn't seen it; protecting the personal safety of these High Council was their responsibility.

"No, I'm just getting old." He said without turning his head. "When people get old, their bones rust, their flesh rots, and their brains become clouded. I'm just walking the path that humans are meant to walk. There's nothing surprising about it."

"No matter who I am, the fact that I am human will never change."

"Just like a bad person, they won't become a good person just because they did one good deed."

"You want to leave?"

After hearing Lin's words, Spasi was silent for a few seconds, stopped adding the medicine, and looked at Lin.

After a few days, his condition did not improve; it only temporarily suppressed the erosion of Honkai Energy.

There were no physical changes whatsoever; only his spirit returned to its normal state.

"You are still alive, not in some crematorium or on an experimental table. It's not because you are special, it's because I'm keeping you alive. Once you leave the Medical Pod, your organs will quickly lose their vitality, and you may die in a few days."

"Thanks."

"I'm not asking you to thank me, I'm just stating the facts."

"There is someone I want to see, and there is a question I want to ask."

"..."

Spasi's expression was somewhat subtle, containing... surprise.

"Is it important to you?"

"I have no idea."

"..."

"No, it's very important," Lin replied seriously.

"Su, aren't you going to rest for a bit?" Director Fal placed a tube of hot coffee on Su's desk, but Su only glanced at it listlessly and didn't reach for it.

"Rest... but the patients' conditions have all worsened. How can anyone feel at ease resting in this abnormal situation..." Su sighed, deeply worried about the critically ill patients on the list. "How could this happen..."

Director Fal opened his coffee and took a sip without any politeness. "There's bad news, and that's all."

"What?"

"It's not just Honkai Sickness, nor just our hospital; patients in other regions are also experiencing varying degrees of worsening symptoms, and the cause cannot be found."

"..."

"Su, although I, as a doctor, shouldn't be saying this," Director Fal's hand clenched, leaving wrinkles on the coffee can, "What's happening now is likely beyond what we can explain medically."

"But..."

"Knock knock".

There was a knock on the door, interrupting their discussion. A brown-haired woman with a ponytail appeared in the doorway, dressed in a white doctor's uniform.

"Dr. Su, Director Fal, a patient's Honkai Sickness has flared up and requires immediate surgical removal."

"Doctor Laguna, please prepare for surgery immediately, Su..."

"Director Fal, I haven't finished speaking yet. Please calm down." Ragna pursed his lips, his eyes twitching. "It's not just one patient, but fifteen patients. The Honkai Sickness is spreading rapidly at the same time and is about to erode their hearts."

Director Fal and Sue exchanged a glance, both seeing shock in each other's eyes.

"... Is this what happened to Lin?"

She put down the letter, went outside, and stepped into the sunlight.

The sunlight, which shines on everything, is somewhat dazzling at this moment.

"When exactly did the mistake begin?"

She murmured it aloud.

This was the last sentence of the letter, and the writer's fingers had stopped trembling when he wrote it.

He was filled with doubt, determination, and even murderous intent.

The first half of the letter is a farewell to Lin, while the second half is a farewell to himself, which means that he may be lucid and looking at his actions from the perspective of a third party.

No one is born wrong, nor is anyone born hope. But as we grow up, we make mistakes, and as we grow old, we correct those mistakes. That is the course of human history.

The letter was filled with the man's ideals and ambitions; he was aware of his own cunning and evil, and to some extent, he even despised himself.

That's why he said those things to Lin.

"Do you love humans..." she murmured.

This letter was supposed to reach Lin, and its impact on him was predictable.

So she put the letter in an envelope, then tore it up along with the Experiment Log into irreparable pieces, and threw them into the brazier, setting the papers that contained the words and the past ablaze.

"I'm sorry, it seems I can't convey this to Lin for you, but I think he will follow his own 'right' path, even if that 'right' path goes against your thinking."

"However, it's perfectly normal for children to have different ideas from their parents, isn't it?"

The pink-haired girl watched the sparks drifting in the air, stepped over the brazier, and walked back the way she came.

"This is Elysia. I have searched Dusk Street and found nothing unusual."

Elysia suddenly turned around and looked at the house.

"Yes, there's nothing here."

Chapter Fifty-Two: Hide and Seek

"Sister, what's wrong with you today...?"

Ling looked at Sakura, who had just returned from outside, with a puzzled expression. She rarely saw her calm and gentle older sister show such a flustered look.

Since she returned from a business trip, Ling felt that her older sister seemed to be going out more frequently, and each time she left, she would not return for a long time, and her face was always covered with deep fatigue when she came back.

Whenever Rin asks Sakura what her job entails, she is given various excuses to brush her off.

This initially made Rin think there was something wrong with Sakura's job duties, but Sakura repeatedly assured her that Rin had no choice but to believe her.

"Rin, pack your things. We're leaving." Sakura said to Rin as she tucked the sword her father had passed down to her waist.

I wasn't joking at all.

"What happened, sister? Is it something to do with your work?"

Ling couldn't help but ask Sakura, and she could see that Sakura's movements faltered after she asked the question, clearly indicating that she had been hit where it hurt.

Sakura's tense arms relaxed. "... Rin, I'm sorry, I can't tell you."

"Sister, it's okay! Haven't we always gotten through this together..."

"That's not how it is." Sakura looked bitterly at her sensible younger sister. She was indifferent to others, but she could treat her only family member with the most genuine and vulnerable emotions. "Rin, I don't know where to begin. If possible, I wish you would never know..."

"Drop--"

The ringing of the communicator startled Sakura. She glanced at the bell with a complicated expression, picked up the communicator, and went outside to answer it.

"... Yes, I will carry out the mission to subdue the Sixth Herrscher after I complete the evacuation."

"Whoosh..."

The boy puffed out air into the balloon with all his might. In the season when it was not yet fully warm, his cheeks were red, and his cheeks looked even more like balloons when he blew air into them, which made many onlookers find him cute.

Do you have enough lung capacity and strength?

But clearly their worries were unnecessary. The boy easily blew up a balloon and handed it to his father, watching him tie it to other long balloons to form a strange little dog shape.

"Thank you for your visit, I hope to come again next time!"

The father rubbed his cracked hands, gave a kind smile, and waved to the family of three who were walking away with the balloon.

After finishing his morning work, the father patted the boy's head with his big hand. "Alright, go and rest, Xiaoming."

"Mmm! I want to eat chocolate!"

"Okay! Let's go get some chocolate."

The father and boy found a place to rest. The father put his tools aside, bought some not-too-expensive chocolates for the boy, and watched the boy happily eat the chocolates while smoking and smiling with crescent-shaped eyes.

The boy licked the crumbs off his fingers, his eyes gazing curiously at the bustling amusement park. "There are so many people today, Dad."

"Yes, it's the perfect season for travel and leisure, so we need to step up our efforts." The father's wrinkled face seemed to relax with joy at the large number of tourists. The more people there were, the better the business would be. He wasn't very well-educated, but he understood this. "If we earn a little more money, we won't have to worry about anything."

They had no debts, were a bit poor, but had no problem making ends meet; they were a very free and comfortable family.

"Oh, right, I also need to buy sleeping pills for your mother. Xiaoming, you watch the things here, I'll be back in a bit."

"Okay!"

Xiaoming Ming sat listlessly in the chair. The amusement park was very interesting. All the children of his age were extremely excited when they came here, and they wished they could play every ride several times.