I Am No Hero

Unseen by his eyes, just a few meters below his feet, the remaining black fluid began to slowly converge in his direction.

This wasn't an illusion. From all directions, a pair of eerie green snake eyes were quietly staring at him.

It wasn't in a hurry, just waiting for an opportunity to strike.

It flicked out its forked tongue, licked its lips, and gazed at the helpless, weak human.

"Hiss..."

Just then, a syringe emerged from Lin's armor, and another dose of serum was injected into his body.

In that brief moment, only during the less than half a second when the serum's effects wore off and Lin was dazed, his muscles loosening as he gripped his blade, did the one in the shadows seize the chance.

"Clang!"

The black fluid at his feet suddenly transformed into sharp spikes, piercing the rain and lunging towards the back of Lin's head!

"Fell for it."

The deliberately unfocused look in Lin's eyes sharpened instantly. His emerald green pupils narrowed to a pinpoint, and he spun around, thrusting his High-frequency Cutting Blade forward.

"Screech—"

Sparks illuminated Lin's helmet.

At the same time, they illuminated the serpentine figure lurking in the shadows.

Chapter 9, Part 1931

The ugly, distorted serpentine form left an imprint on his retina, and the world before Lin's eyes was immediately consumed by a crimson warning.

The moment it revealed itself and attacked, the detected Honkai Energy surged in a stepwise fashion, its abnormal energy levels surpassing all recorded Honkai Energy except for Herrschers, and even far exceeding the readings for Emperor-class Honkai Beasts.

This wasn't an Emperor-class Honkai Beast! This Honkai Beast was far more dangerous!

Lin's hand went numb from the impact. He didn't confront it head-on, merely using his weapon to alter the trajectory of the attack. Even so, it nearly dislocated his arm.

Without hesitation, he immediately drew his blade and leaped back, firing his grappling hook to create distance. He then drew his pistol and pulled the trigger, aiming at its most conspicuous, monstrous head.

"Bang! Bang! Bang!"

The bullets couldn't penetrate its hide, but they clearly enraged it. Black fluid seeped from the gaps between its scales, twisting into needle-like spikes that shot back at Lin with a speed far greater than the incoming bullets.

Every pore on Lin's body contracted. He watched, helpless, as those black tendrils, with enough power to easily tear through powered armor and flesh, shot towards his head, and then...

They stopped in mid-air as if time had been paused.

Lin landed on the wall, the emerald green hue from the serum in his eyes now more vibrant, mirroring the scales of the serpentine Honkai Beast before him.

The black mud-like substance the Honkai Beast attacked with had a range of about ten to fifty meters. Its own high-speed movement was likely reliant on the black mud, so the best course of action was to maintain a safe distance and stay away from the black mud left on the ground.

"Roar—"

In a flash, the incredibly massive, unknown Honkai Beast twisted and climbed from the ground onto the wall with a speed completely incongruous with its size, pursuing Lin upwards.

More black mud erupted from its scales. They seemed to gain sentience, crowding together chaotically yet with order, forming two colossal hands that slammed towards the man clinging to the wall from either side.

The speed was simply too fast. Even with Lin's dynamic vision, all he could perceive was a black blur rushing up the wall from below, and then the two giant hands, comparable in size to the Honkai Beast itself, were upon him.

"Bang!"

The black mud grazed his face.

With the combined force of those hands, a gaping hole was torn into the skyscraper, like half of a sandcastle being scooped out, and it immediately began to collapse.

Before Lin, who had dodged the attack, could figure out his next move, the giant hands mutated. Countless spikes burst from between the palms as they closed.

Lin's pupils constricted. He twisted in mid-air—

"Clang!"

A splash of crimson bloomed in the rain.

His right abdomen, left calf, and left shoulder were pierced. The protective armor offered no resistance; the black mud began to corrode his body the instant it pierced him. A toxin flowed into his system along with the black mud, paralyzing a large portion of his body.

"Cough—"

Even though the serum dulled the pain, the foreign sensation and his body's feedback made Lin's eyes widen. The paralyzing toxin also invaded his brain, causing the world before him to blur.

Lin drew his blade, severing the black mud, and began to fall. He weakly fired his grappling hook, but this time it caught nothing. He plummeted straight to the ground.

"Crack!"

The sound of his body twisting echoed.

Blood stained the azure interface a deep crimson, interspersed with streaks of emerald green serum.

The world in his eyes became surreal. His body was unresponsive, unmoving. He didn't know if it was a joint in his limbs that had malfunctioned, if his cerebellum, which controlled movement, had been damaged, or if his spine had been shattered in the fall.

The colossal serpentine shadow coiled around the half-destroyed skyscraper, mockingly watching the human whose life was steadily draining away.

"..."

Was there any way?

"..."

His muddled brain began to process, and the mocking serpentine shadow seemed to slow.

All the scenes of this person's life flashed before his eyes, passing before him like a slideshow.

But this wasn't a deathbed vision, nor the end of Lin's life, but his contemplation.

Lin would never give up, no matter what.

Death? Wouldn't that mean he, as a human, had lost to the Honkai?

"..."

No, humanity would not lose.

Then, only two options remained: the Phase Transfer Device and...

"So, the first thing I'm giving you is to help me test these things. They can temporarily enhance your physical functions and reduce your pain..."

Mobius's words echoed in his ears. For some reason, Lin remembered her saying this with a meaningful tone.

Her pupils gradually overlapped with the snake's pupils of the Serpent Shadow.

Lin reached out and grabbed the remaining four vials in the mobile unit, then took them all out and injected them into his neck.

The veins on his right hand, encased in armor, bulged as he clenched his fist and slammed it onto the ground.

"————"

The visual display flickered, showing the armor's damaged sections. The countdown, which had ended, was replaced by a new ten minutes.

This time, the countdown was blood-red.

Lin struggled to his feet from the ground. He could feel the residual pain rapidly disappearing from his body, the effects of the toxin being suppressed by another toxin.

Lin didn't adjust his breathing. Instead, he raised his head and locked onto the enemy using the interface in the visual display.

This time, he didn't create distance. He raised his blade and charged towards the monster.

"Boom!"

The Serpent Shadow roared in response, and waves of lightning flashed out from the black mud.

"Doctor, where are those artificial toxins you synthesized earlier?"

As Bianca was tidying up documents in the laboratory, she noticed something that was originally placed there was missing. After searching everywhere and not finding it, she turned to Mobius, who was sitting in a chair drinking coffee and looking through Lin's files, and asked.

Mobius frowned at a sentence written on Lin's file. Hearing Bianca's question, her frown relaxed. "Artificial toxins? Oh... those. That little white mouse with a congenital defect took them."

"Took them? That young man?" Bianca was taken aback. "What did he take them for?"

"To use them, of course."

"..."

Bianca was stunned.

"What are you staring at?" Mobius looked up, a sinister smile on her pretty face. "Isn't that exactly how they're meant to be used?"

"But don't those toxins damage the pain nerves?"

Those artificial toxins had been formulated long before Mobius joined MOTH. Their original purpose was to strengthen humans, but the side effects were too severe, so they were never approved for use.

"Damage nerves? That's just a negligible side effect of the drug, something that can even be considered a positive effect," the Doctor said, lightly touching her earring. The excitement in her green eyes grew more intense. "Lin, I've examined him three times, and each time he disappointed me. However, the two most recent surgeries made me realize that his extraordinary endurance is the reason for his combat capability, surpassing others with Honkai Energy Adaptability."

From a memory so distant that she was about to forget the person's face, drugs that manipulated human nerves, emotions, and bodies, making humans appear ugly in her eyes.

The ideal of human evolution was imprinted in her future at that moment.

"Do you know what the biggest side effect of those toxins is, Bianca?"

"It mobilizes the user's emotions, making them violent, warlike, and addicted. There were a total of 1,931 experimental cases of these toxins, yet no organism escaped being controlled by them. After the effects wore off, 923 cases resulted in brain death, while only one survived after injecting six doses."

"But I believe in that human. He is the 'human' I have always hoped for."

She believed in humanity more than the one-in-one-thousand-nine-hundred-and-thirty-one chance.

Chapter 10: Destroy His Body

Everything that could be seen became slow.

The process of raindrops shattering on the helmet was clearly visible.

Black mud, like a tide, surged down from above. Perhaps to kill the annoying human once and for all, this time the black mud spread across the entire building. The Serpent Shadow followed closely behind, and it was conceivable that upon landing, the spreading black mud would engulf the entire street, crushing everything around it.

The black and green snake head gathered emerald lightning at its apex. Under the control of its flashing green eyes, it was poised to strike.

After a pause of one-third of a second, Lin pulled out a Honkai Energy Split Grenade, pulled the pin, and threw it at the black tide that was just within reach.

"Bang—"

The exploding dust and the black mud that instantly closed again engulfed Lin's figure.

"Roar!"

The Serpent Shadow roared, its cunning snake eyes glaring ferociously at the dissipating smoke in the rain.

Although it was only for a brief moment, its attack had indeed created a gap. It was certain that the human was not dead.

"Clang!"

The azure blade sliced through the white smoke, and Lin emerged from it, surging towards the skyscraper's summit against the black tide. The overloaded jetpack allowed him to move across walls as if on level ground, and his bleeding wounds didn't impede his speed.

In fact, Lin was faster than before.

On the visual display, every part of Lin's body thumbnail glowed red, signifying danger. His heart rate was off the charts, his breathing so rapid that his internal circulation system couldn't keep up with his ventilation. Two small bumps bulged on his temples, and an ominous, pale green fluid coursed through his thick veins.

Mobius probably never expected Lin to inject all the toxins into his body so early, and not in single doses, but by using all four doses at once.

The consequences were yet unknown, but the effects were obvious.

With his pain receptors burned out, Lin could only tell which parts of his body were damaged by looking at his status panel. However, without the sense of pain, Lin's other senses became sharper, and his thought process accelerated, allowing him to perform actions that were almost unimaginable.

"Crackling—"

The snake's eyes fixed on the approaching black dot, then suddenly flashed brightly. The green lightning from the snake's head split into three, striking down at the foolhardy human from above.

The terrifying power of the lightning carved three massive craters into the ground, but the snake's shadow froze upon seeing the figure that reappeared amidst the lightning.

It didn't hit?

No, Lin had dodged.

The precursor to the lightning strike, the light in the snake's eyes, lasted only tens of milliseconds. But to Lin, it was no different from a streetlamp suddenly illuminating the pitch-black night, practically shouting at him to dodge.

So, he simply shifted sideways a short distance. The lightning only caused a slight numbness in his arm as it passed through the moisture in the air, having no other effect on him.

The enraged Honkai Beast roared, and this time, more lightning gathered on its snakehead. Seeing this, Lin decisively cut through the wall above with his sword and burrowed into the skyscraper, causing it to lose its target.

Upon entering the building, Lin didn't hesitate. He threw grenades at several support pillars and detonated them with gunfire before they even hit the ground.

"Boom!!!"

Amidst the violent explosion, the already half-collapsed skyscraper began to crumble, sending the Honkai Beast coiled around its upper section plummeting downwards.

"Roar—"