The Passing of a Meteor / Awakening

He didn't reach out to touch his wife; his fingertips could no longer even feel the coldness.

What Lin saw was a screen in front of him flashing and reporting errors. He realized that the reason for the simulation error probably lay with the Herrscher of Reason from the Previous Civilization.

Simulation chambers are prohibited from simulating combat against Herrscher. Lin once had Delta try to simulate Herrscher, which caused the simulation device to break down. The massive amount of data involved was beyond the simulation device's ability to replicate.

Her presence consumed most of the data used in the simulation, and also damaged the original key information.

Lin glanced at the figure symbolizing destruction, then at the motionless Lin, and said in a deep voice, "In the 'final' moment, did you choose to do this...?"

Can a person who cannot feel body temperature not embrace a dead lover?

"What did you say?" Lin didn't understand what he meant.

"I have come to punish the Herrscher of Reason."

Before Lin could react, Lin rushed out of the room, stabbed the knife into the elevator door and forced it open, then jumped down the elevator shaft.

The falling gust of wind whipped at his clothes, and the rapidly approaching ground pressed down like a heavy hammer.

"Boom!"

Before the smoke from the ground could dissipate, a pitch-black shadow rushed out, holding a short dagger in one hand and pulling out an unnamed broken blade stuck in the ground outside the tower with the other.

Lin stood in front of the screen, the pale fluorescent light reflecting off his silvery-white skin, his mechanical eyes fixed on that resolute back.

This place is a fabrication, a past that has ended, a tragedy buried in history.

It's just a piece of incorrect data.

But Lin did not hesitate. He knew he would do it, even if he were the only person left in the world.

Whether the real Lin ultimately embraces his wife or not, Lin will now give the fake version of himself time to embrace the fake wife.

So...

The helmeted man leaped into the air and swung his broken blade at the god of destruction in the sky.

Chapter Twenty-Seven: The Meteor's Demise

The battle lasted for a very short time, less than ten minutes.

The Herrscher of Reason is severely injured and unable to create weapons with excessive power. In addition, the database of the Fire Moth contains information about the Herrscher of Reason, so it is not difficult for Lin to win.

But that doesn't mean it will be easy.

With one hand covered in shattered gauntlets, it grabbed the leg of the Herrscher of Reason was trying to fly upwards, while the other hand grabbed the corpse of Honkai Beast on the ground. With a sudden force, it slammed the Herrscher of Reason was missing a wing, to the ground.

Azure light fell from the sky, one foot stepping on the Herrscher of Reason's raised hand, the reverse-grip dagger plunging into her back, twisting—

"Sizzle—"

Blood splattered onto his face through the gaps in the shattered helmet.

"Huff... huff... huff..."

Lin put down the dagger, slumped to the ground, and placed one hand on the back of someone's hand in the pile of corpses.

His battle this time was similar to a suicide attack. Even if the simulated body died, it would not affect the normal body outside. In order to quickly eliminate the Herrscher of Reason, he almost completely ruined his body.

However, the virtual body will not automatically recover. The simulation training sets the amount of data for each person at the beginning in order to achieve the training purpose, so it cannot heal itself.

It seems that the Previous Civilization ended at the hands of the Herrscher of Reason. Humanity's last military force was exhausted, and then the Herrscher of Reason was not completely dead, launched a surprise attack on the tower, killed Lin, and ended the Previous Civilization.

However, in this simulated scenario, Lin is able to slightly alter the final outcome.

He stumbled back to the tower.

In order to intercept the Herrscher of Reason outside the tower in time, he damaged the elevator, so he had to drag his half-crippled leg up the tower little by little.

But soon, he would no longer have to worry about climbing to the third-to-last floor.

Lin stood at the top of the stairs, looking down at him. The tenderness in her eyes vanished, replaced by a gaze that Lin recognized.

This kind of look is most often seen in Mei's eyes.

"You seem very familiar with the Herrscher of Reason. I've never seen the weapon you're using before, and that helmet probably serves more than just head protection and face covering." Lin's eyes narrowed, a subconscious habit of his. "Who exactly are you? If you're human, why have I never seen you before? If you're Herrscher, why would you attack the Herrscher of Reason?"

"..."

This Lin is merely a data simulation of the last human from the previous civilization, but he senses something is amiss in this virtual world.

"... Also, Sakura isn't my wife, is she?"

"..."

Seeing Lin look up in surprise, Lin's serious expression disappeared, and she smiled slightly, "You rushed out without saying a word and found where she was, and it seems you know her too."

"... Don't you find it strange?"

"I am indeed very curious. I've been curious about many things since childhood, and it seems to me that the way to solve these mysteries is quite simple." Lin pointed to Lin's helmet. "Take off your helmet."

Lin and Lin looked at each other for a few seconds. He sighed, said nothing, and put his hands on the helmet, taking off the helmet with a torn corner off his head.

Upon seeing Lin's appearance, Lin did not show surprise or shock; he simply nodded in relief.

"I see... So, am I real now, or am I fake?"

"Does it matter? Whether it's real or fake, you are your own will right now."

"I just wanted to confirm what the situation is, but I already know from our conversation."

"... Did you leave this data?"

"I don't know, maybe it was just a coincidence," Lin said with a smile. His eyes seemed to light up, as if he were not a simulated virtual character, but a living person standing here.

"In our time, there are many people like you who are selfless and determined to defend this last piece of territory that belongs to mankind, even if the final victory cannot save humanity."

Lin turned his head and looked out the window at the mountain of corpses and sea of blood. He stared at the human remains, some of whom he knew and some of whom he didn't. In the end, they lay together, experiencing the same death.

"Do you think I'm afraid of death? Even if all of humanity dies, I'm still alive, coldly watching my compatriots fight a war they can't win."

"Yes, I should be afraid of death. As a leader, even if my comrades, friends, relatives, and wife die in front of me, I must endure it. They all believe that I can fight for the hope of survival for mankind and lead mankind forward, so I cannot die."

"I've been in this steel coffin for so long that I've almost forgotten what I used to be like."

Lin sighed and lowered his head, standing on the stairs gazing at Lin's face.

Gradually, the data dissipated, starting from his feet and spreading towards the surrounding buildings.

The data from this simulation has reached its end.

Lin whispered a suggestion, "Aren't you going to hug your wife? Perhaps at that moment, you..."

"That's not my wife, how could I possibly hug someone else's lover?"

Lin smiled brilliantly and disappeared.

"So you must hug her tightly..."

After the light faded, Lin stood in the empty data space, watching Sakura gradually open her eyes.

He looked up but did not see the "abnormal" data.

"This is what I'm leaving you... sizzle"

Lin silently watched the data collector in his hand overload, the piercing alarm echoing in the empty tower. He turned to look at the Herrscher of Reason approaching on the screen.

He put down the data collector in his hand. It seemed that there was no time to leave anything more for future civilizations. Hopefully, they would be able to discover the legacy they had left behind.

After activating the tower's self-destruct mode, he glanced at the countdown and went to the room on the third-to-last floor. But just as he was about to enter, he stopped.

It lifted the metal foot that was suspended in mid-air and slowly retracted it.

Lin didn't linger to look at the "sleeping" person inside again. He turned around, took the elevator, and went outside the tower.

Looking up at the bright moon that was faintly visible behind the clouds, he pulled out a broken blade from the ground and walked toward the approaching Herrscher of Reason.

"Come on, I am the last human being."

The person leaped up, falling like a shooting star.

Chapter Twenty-Eight: Awakening

Sakura poked her head out of the simulation pod that was giving her a headache, took a deep breath of the icy night air, and her drowsy brain cleared up a little.

His lifeless pupils became focused, making the blurry world clear, and a hand was already extended in front of her.

"...Thank you." Sakura grabbed his hand and whispered her thanks, not knowing if Rin heard her.

The lights in the simulation room were still on, but the room was empty. Someone must have seen that someone was still using the simulation room and didn't care. If Lin hadn't corrected the mistake in time, they might have been trapped for a long time.

Sakura's consciousness was still not clear, and the effects of the rejection reaction were still taking hold. After standing up, she leaned against the hatch and looked at Lin, who was checking the simulation data, with a complicated expression on her face.

Although her data was reconstructed into the corpse of Lin's wife from the Previous Civilization, she could still sense what happened back then.

This person is sometimes so cold that he seems like a machine, and other times he is exceptionally sentimental. After the reorganization into the Poisoned Cocoon Squad, she thought Lin had become more sentimental, but in this simulated world, she doesn't know how to describe him anymore.

Was he doing those things for the information from the Previous Civilization, or to save her, or even for that fake... Lin?

Although it was only for a moment, as she left, Sakura saw Rin, who wasn't wearing a helmet.

After recovering from her initial shock at his appearance, she thought of the indifferent expression on his face.

Although he had no expression, he still conveyed a strange sense of melancholy.

"Um, Lin..." Seeing Lin Cong yielded any useful information, she couldn't help but call out to him, though she didn't even know why she was calling him.

"..." When Lin turned around and looked at her with a serious expression, she felt a little nervous.

What followed was a long, despairing silence.

As the minute hand of the clock in the simulation room moved another mark, Sakura was still regretting why she had spoken up when Lin, who had been staring at her, said in an indifferent tone, "Want to get something to eat?"

"Huh? Huh?"

Sakura followed Lin without looking back, completely bewildered.

They said they were going to eat something, but actually they were just cooking instant noodles...

Sakura sat in the living room of Lin's room, glancing somewhat awkwardly at his back as he leisurely waited for the water to boil in the kitchen.

The rooms of the Fire Moths are all similar in structure, with the only difference between the private rooms being the direction of the kitchen and bathroom. When Sakura entered Lin's room, she almost thought that Lin had led her to her room.

Their rooms were similar in height.

The reason isn't that the setups are similar, but rather that none of them have been set up; they all look like they've been reset to factory settings.

However, the two of them did have one thing in common: they both had several photos on their desks.

Sakura posted a photo of herself and Rin. She was a little curious about whose photo Rin would post, but she didn't want to blatantly invade other people's privacy.

After thinking it over carefully, she got up and walked towards the kitchen, saying as she went, "Lin, how about I do it..."

"No need." Lin Cong the packaging bag. Ying glanced at it, and the muscles on her face twitched slightly. He actually bought a double pack of instant noodles. Was he really that frugal?

"I can cook, but recently someone treated me to instant noodles." Lin stirred the noodles with chopsticks, calmly watching the white foam rise to the surface. "I think... some things I haven't tried before might be pretty good."

This sentence revealed Sakura's thoughts. She did think that Lin probably couldn't cook, which was why he ate instant noodles. Upon hearing that Lin actually just wanted to eat instant noodles, she turned around and walked back to the living room, feeling a little embarrassed.

On the way back, Sakura glanced at the two framed pictures on the table and saw the images inside.

One is a group photo of four people, and the other is a group photo of three people. Apart from Lin, there is only one gray-haired girl who doesn't like to look at the camera in both photos.

Lin, with bandages wrapped around his neck, and Lin, standing...

In that brief moment, Sakura noticed that Lin's identity seemed different in the two photos. In the first photo, although Lin was also standing in the middle, the leader seemed to be the red-haired woman. In the second photo, Lin was clearly the leader of the two.

Sakura had heard the rumors that had been circulating about Lin Cong he joined the Fire Moth.

Squad Five and Squad Seven...

Cooking instant noodles takes no time and requires no skill. Even a five-year-old child could do the whole process by standing on a stool. Before long, Lin brought the steaming instant noodles to the table and sat down.

It really is all instant noodles...

Sakura thought Lin would put some simple vegetables in it, but Lin only ate instant noodles. In the spicy broth, all you could see were a pitiful few inconspicuous vegetables from the side dish packet.

Lin handed her the chopsticks, and without any formality, picked up a handful of noodles and lifted his helmet to eat.

"I'm starting to eat." Sakura said politely with her hands clasped together in a low voice, but when she picked up her chopsticks to eat, she saw that Lin's noodles were stopped at his mouth without being put in, and he was staring straight at her.