When he decided to shoot you in the back, the finger on the trigger would never hesitate. That was probably what it felt like.
Neither of them spoke. The atmosphere settled into silence. After remaining wary for a moment, Mei took a step back and asked tentatively, "You seem to have a good relationship with all the Flame-Chasers, but you aren't one of them. And there's a memory of you in Elysian Realm too. Could you be some sort of hidden character among the Flame-Chasers?"
"...The Thirteen Flame-Chasers were rather special. The reason I left behind a memory wasn't because I was connected to the organization known as the Flame-Chasers. It was merely because..." Lin's gaze lowered and settled on the photograph. "I was connected to them."
"Because your strength was no less than theirs?"
"My strength?" Lin seemed somewhat surprised by that wording.
"Yes. Elysia told me that you once killed Herrschers, and more than one at that."
"..." Lin silently lowered his folded arms and looked at the pair of horns atop Mei's head.
Mei's expression changed. She covered her horns and took another step back. "Don't tell me you too..."
Apparently, Elysia's obsession with those horns had made her worry about something utterly baseless.
"Don't misunderstand. I have always been human. Perhaps a little more outstanding than the average human, but if we're talking about individual combat ability, even Pardo, the weakest among the Flame-Chasers, was stronger than me." Lin calmly tossed out those words. It was unclear whether his warning not to misunderstand referred to the horns or his strength.
He had not examined Mei's horns out of malicious intent. He merely had complicated feelings about that inhuman proof of her being a Herrscher.
"Individual ability isn't the standard for measuring combat power."
"Then who do you think was stronger, Kevin or me?"
"..." Mei fell silent, because Kevin was unquestionably the strongest.
"I know you'll refute me by saying Kevin was the strongest. Then let me tell you this: even now, when this memory was at his most physically robust, I was still only an ordinary person. I could kill Herrschers not because I was strong, but because humanity was strong."
"Just as they created Flame-Chasers, the conditions that allowed me to kill Herrschers were also created through humanity's combined efforts."
"So my relationship with the Flame-Chasers has nothing to do with strength. You can understand it as me having known them long before they gained their current identities."
It was the first time Mei had heard Lin say so much, and it was only to explain a relationship that did not seem especially important. Usually, whenever she encountered him in Elysian Realm or received one of his Signets, he would merely watch her in silence.
"All right. Thank you for explaining. At least you don't make people guess riddles like Kevin does."
Mei handed the photograph to Lin. It belonged to him, so naturally it should be returned to its owner.
"Keep it, or throw it away. Either is fine." Lin did not take the photograph. His azure visor flickered once as he turned away. "It no longer means anything to me."
Mei withdrew the photograph in confusion and looked at the scenery within it. The man wrapped like a mummy in the center of the photo had been far less detached back then. Behind him was a sunlit sea, peaceful, tranquil, and filled with joy.
The red-haired woman was grinning as she supported his head with one hand. The girl with inner highlights held onto the red-haired woman's arm with some concern. Hua, too shy to look at the camera, stood a little farther away in a brand-new uniform.
The visor inside the helmet displayed the photograph.
"Haha, Lin, don't wrap up that delicate face of yours when we're taking pictures."
"Come on, Captain. Team Member Lin has only just recovered a little. Team Member Hua, come help out too."
"Huh? I-I..."
"..."
Smiles, laughter, dazzling sunlight, and the sea breeze blowing in.
The bandaged man waved, telling the person holding the camera to press the shutter.
The flash made him squint.
"Crackle."
The light inside the helmet that had illuminated his face flickered out, allowing darkness to return.
The fiery red passion of that day, the tranquil azure, the immature pale gray—those had been the brightest colors in his memories. Now, the man could see only one color.
Lin closed his eyes and let the darkness embrace him.
Watch Out for Someone Pulling Your Oxygen Tube
Bubbles rose from beneath his feet, passing through the transparent liquid before reaching the top of the Repair Pod and bursting amid its reflections.
The respirator continuously supplied oxygen. Lin watched the faint green glow in the pupils reflected on the inner wall of the Repair Pod gradually fade away. Under the combined effects of high-precision neural repair surgery and the Repair Pod, the pain sensation he had lost slowly returned to his body.
There were quite a few injured soldiers lying in the Repair Pods beside him, but the medical staff gathered before Lin's pod had formed a circle, pointing and discussing him.
"When they first brought him in, if the ECG monitor hadn't shown something other than a flat line, I would've thought they'd carried in today's ingredients to make minced pork with eggplant." The doctor in charge of Lin's surgery looked immensely pleased with himself. "There wasn't a single part of him, inside or out, that was intact. More than half his bones were broken, every internal organ had varying degrees of damage, half his skin had been burned away, and that's not even mentioning the rest. On top of that, there were two inexplicable toxins still damaging his nerves."
If MOTH had been able to publicly announce its existence, Lin's injuries could have gone down in human history as the most severe case ever to survive.
And the doctor who had treated him would undoubtedly receive the greatest recognition for his skills after handling such a case. That was why he was so proud, recounting his glorious achievement around the clock in the Medical Department, describing Lin's injuries as though he knew every detail by heart. He practically wished he could broadcast it throughout MOTH every day.
Still, thanks to his superb medical skills and MOTH's advanced technology, all of Lin's injuries could be healed without any lasting complications. Outside MOTH, if someone suffered injuries like Lin's, there would be no need for the ambulance to even stop—they could take him straight to the crematorium.
But the process would be extraordinarily long. Skin regeneration alone took several days. Conservatively speaking, Lin would need to sleep in the Repair Pod for at least a month before he could emerge. Then there would be self-healing, recuperation, rehabilitation, and more. It might take several months before he could return to battle.
That was nothing much to Lin. While several days passed in the blink of an eye for other soldiers enjoying full, restful sleep, his toxin-altered brain could no longer be sedated with sleeping medication. Aside from natural sleep, his consciousness remained abnormally clear, which left him rather bored.
Fortunately, some people had thought of that too, so Lin often opened his eyes to find someone standing before the pod.
The first to arrive was Elysia. She came carrying a fruit basket filled with the fruits she liked to eat.
Yes, fruits she liked to eat.
"Oh my, I didn't expect you to be locked up in a Repair Pod, Lin. Munch, munch... How pitiful. You can only receive nutrient fluids. Munch, munch... So I specially brought you some fruit. Don't worry, if you can't eat it, I'll help you. Munch, munch..."
Elysia stood in front of him, taking out fruit after fruit and eating them before Lin's eyes, which were practically freezing over.
Her pearly white teeth bit a delicate little crescent out of an apple. The pink-haired girl licked the juice from the corner of her mouth with her pink tongue, then tilted her head and gave Lin an adorable smile.
Lin merely closed his eyes quietly in response to her almost coquettish behavior and said nothing more.
"By the way, Lin, why are you still wrapping your face in bandages even inside this pod?" Halfway through eating, Elysia revealed her true purpose. She called over a doctor nearby and asked, "The patient says he can't breathe and needs the bandages removed. Is that okay?"
"But he was the one who requested them himself."
"But he isn't covering anything down there, so why is he covering his face instead?"
Elysia unhappily tapped a certain spot on the pod wall, feeling that such behavior was terribly improper.
Lin's injuries were too severe, so his physical condition needed to be monitored in real time. And miraculously, his face had not been as badly damaged as the rest of him, so it had healed first.
Seeing the doctor hesitate, Lin spoke through the intercom. "Elysia, how is the Third Honkai War going?"
Whether from weakness or some other reason, Lin's tone toward Elysia was much gentler than before. But his voice had always maintained the freezing chill of minus twenty-five degrees, so outsiders might not have noticed much difference.
Yet Elysia was extremely perceptive and sensitive. The instant Lin spoke, she noticed the shift in his attitude. Her willow-like brows curved into lovely crescents as she teased him coyly. "Oh? Our Mr. Robot can actually speak to girls in such a gentle tone? Did you pass the Turing test?"
"..."
Lin decisively closed his eyes.
"Hey, hey, wait! It was just a joke. Don't be so petty!"
Lin always felt that Elysia could gradually wear down people's psychological defenses. Every time, she drove people mad while leaving them utterly helpless.
She fully practiced that gentleman's principle: if you wanted to open a window, first smash a hole in the roof.
"Back to my previous question. How is the Third Honkai War?" Lin felt he had indulged her too much, so his tone returned to its former coldness.
Elysia thought back to what had happened before she found time to visit Lin. "Hmm... Let me think. Compared to the first two, this Honkai outbreak covered far too large an area, so the usual excuse of a gas explosion probably won't work as well this time. But everything is still under MOTH's control."
Once ordinary people learned of Honkai's existence, the resulting social unrest would be impossible to control, and the damage it caused might even exceed that caused by Honkai itself. Therefore, during every Honkai outbreak, MOTH's first priority was not clearing the affected area, but finding a way to conceal the truth.
"After the Third Herrscher died, combat personnel from the branches were dispatched to Changkong City and several severely affected cities for cleanup. Without communication interference, the operation went rather smoothly."
"But there were still some unexpected developments. For example, the Honkai Beast accompanying the Third Herrscher that you defeated still had a core. By the time the operatives found it, it had already recovered halfway. But your captain and that cute girl on your team killed it completely together."
Hearing that the snake-like Honkai Beast she had been concerned about was dead, Lin let out a faint breath of relief.
"But it still wasn't completely over. After that Honkai Beast died, its corpse mysteriously disappeared. Maybe it has the ability to revive, since it's a snake and all. Based on its Honkai Energy readings, which far exceeded those of an Emperor-class Honkai Beast, MOTH gave it a new classification: Judgment-class."
"Judgment-class." Lin murmured those words.
"Well, if it isn't Elysia. How did you find the time to visit this half-dead Lab Rat?"
Suddenly, a woman's sarcastic voice came from behind Elysia.
He Still Has to Thank Us
"Are you the type who has to marry anyone who sees your face?"
"..."
Lin answered Mobius's question with silence, while Elysia, standing behind her, could not hold back a laugh.
There were many mysteries surrounding Lin, but the most eye-catching one was undoubtedly how he hid his true face at all times. MOTH's internal network had even opened betting pools over what he actually looked like.
"At least the good news is that Lin really is a boy, and not a robot." Elysia took out MOTH's all-purpose communicator, tapped the screen a few times, found the hottest post at the top, and glanced at the most-voted option. "The people who bet on him being a girl won't be sleeping tonight."
"...What is that?" Watching her operate the communicator, Lin had a bad feeling.
Elysia casually swiped away the top entry and said with a smile, "Everyone was very curious about what Lin looked like, so I went with the flow and set up a betting pool for them. Made a little money too."
"..." Lin should have guessed that only one person in MOTH would do something so boring.
Lin did not care much about it. He had his own reasons for hiding his face. As far as fighting Honkai in MOTH was concerned, concealing his appearance definitely did more good than harm.
What intrigued Lin more was why Mobius had come here.
"What kind of look is that? Have you forgotten who gave you the hand you're using now?" Mobius brushed her hair aside and stared teasingly at Lin, who was soaking in the Repair Pod. "Or are you planning to break our agreement?"
The air turned cold on the last word.
Elysia smiled as she ate fruit and watched them without speaking.
Lin gave a slight shake of his head in the transparent liquid.
Mobius nodded as well, very satisfied with his good sense.
"I'll tell you what I need you to do after this frail body of yours recovers. You are my test subject now, so first I'll explain some precautions, especially matters concerning your body."
"..."
Lin expressed his willingness to listen through silence.
A smile curled Mobius's lips. She placed a hand against the outer wall of the Repair Pod and spoke to Lin within. "You're very lucky. Lucky in the literal sense. Being brought back from the brink can be called an advancement in modern medicine, and coming out of it without lasting complications is even luckier."
What Mobius implied by "lucky" was the six doses of toxin she had given Lin. Before he was pushed into surgery after returning, she had personally come to see him. She was certain he had used all six doses.
Although Lin not showing the brain-death symptoms of her previous test subjects was within Mobius's expectations, the fact that even his emotions had not been stirred in the slightest far exceeded her plans.
She had never seen the adaptability displayed by the toxins and limb replacement in any other human. Lin's body was like a piece of exceptionally high-quality putty; it did not matter how it was kneaded or shaped.
If certain aspects of Lin had not taken humanity's flaws to the extreme, he would have been a perfect test subject.
"But unfortunately, your 'flaw' remains as disappointing as ever."
Lin had already guessed what Mobius was about to say. After all, several days had passed since he regained consciousness, and his perception of his own body was sharper than that of ordinary people. He could sense any abnormality.
No matter how much protection, prevention, or suppressants he used, prolonged combat in an environment with such a high concentration of Honkai Energy—and close contact with both a Judgment-class Honkai Beast and a Herrscher along the way—was impossible to avoid.
He simply had not expected it to happen so soon.
"Even though you received suppressants before entering the battlefield, and again when you were transported back, your pitifully low Honkai Energy resistance can't be solved with a few injections."
Mobius raised her head and calmly looked into Lin's tranquil black eyes. "Your body has already been corroded by Honkai Energy. This is an irreversible process. You know that, don't you?"
Honkai Energy corrosion.
In this era, even within MOTH, those words were practically synonymous with a death sentence.
It was also a problem Lin could not avoid. As long as he remained on the battlefield, Honkai Energy corrosion would find him sooner or later.
He simply had not expected it to come so quickly.
Elysia did not look particularly surprised either. Before visiting Lin, she had already learned about his condition through certain channels.
"But you don't need to worry. Honkai Energy corrosion is a process, after all. As long as you use suppressants on schedule and let me employ a few little methods, I can guarantee you a few more years to live." Mobius's smile remained just as unsettling, and through the transparent liquid, it looked even more twisted.
He spoke in a low voice. "How many years?"
Lin did not ask about the price. He had no grounds to bargain. It was better to ask how much time remained of his already limited lifespan.
"Roughly speaking, five years." Mobius gave a soft laugh after Lin spoke. "But considering that you'll be fighting on the front lines for a long time, it may be even shorter than that."
Five years...
In merely eighteen hundred or so days, would he become a monster like a zombie?
At that moment, Lin realized with some surprise that he always seemed to measure his life in countdowns, down to every day, every hour, and every second.
Before you continue