Setting Out / I Want to Play a Game with You

Then Sakura looked at the girl. She hadn't met Lin many times, but the girl was always by Lin's side, so she could be considered to know the girl.

"Good morning, Sakura," the girl greeted calmly.

"Um... hello." Sakura hesitated for a moment, but still responded.

The girl has no name, and even Lin doesn't know her name. If he had to address her, he could only use words like "hey," "you," or "that," or even her MSA-970 designation. In short, it seemed a bit awkward at this moment.

Let's go.

Lin Yima stepped into the Research and Development Department first, followed closely by the girl and Sakura. They quickly found Mei, who was wiping away sweat after finishing a dangerous experiment.

"You're here... I have some things to take care of, so I'll get straight to the point."

This is probably the opening line that Mei has used most often recently.

She didn't look at Lin Heying, but instead focused her gaze directly on the girl. "The Poisoned Cocoon Squad is heading to Australia to arrest and investigate the hacker as planned."

"MSA-970, temporarily join the Squad Thirteen to go to Shenzhou to carry out an investigation mission on Visitor from Beyond the Stars."

Chapter Forty-Eight: Departure

"Can you come to Shenzhou by transport plane after you complete the mission?"

"...cannot."

"Then what about food?"

"... Actually, besides me, there are many other people who can cook."

This was the first time Lin had encountered such a drawn-out situation when saying goodbye to someone.

He rarely gives many instructions when people leave. Some people will meet again, while others will part ways. Language cannot convey everything.

But the girl acted like a freshman preparing to enter a full-time boarding school, worrying about many useless things and asking Lin a lot of unnecessary questions.

Lin patiently gave her the answer he had prepared beforehand.

"Elysia will go with you, don't worry. Just ask her if you need anything." Although Lin couldn't see her expression through the helmet, her still uncontrolled body language told him that the girl was indeed very flustered.

"Lin, you're a despicable guy. You left your wife to be taken care of by another girl and had the audacity to say that you can ask me anything."

Elysia had arrived at the helipad at some point, and she glared at Lin, pretending to be angry.

The girl saw Elysia arrive and extended her hand. "Eri..."

"Haha, of course I was just kidding! I love Little Seven so much, taking Little Seven to Shenzhou is so much fun." Elysia quickly changed. She greeted the girl with a grin, hugged her waist, and vigorously rubbed her lower abdomen to tickle her, causing the girl to tremble with ticklishness.

"Little Seven" is the nickname Elysia gave to the girl because the girl didn't have a name, and Elysia didn't want to call her by her number, feeling that it would be too distant, so she used "Seven" from MSA-970 as her name.

"Elysia, I'll leave her in your care for now." Lin breathed a sigh of relief upon seeing this. Besides him, the girl's closest person was Elysia, so having her in Elysia's Squad Thirteen during this mission eased some of Lin's worries.

"Don't worry, don't worry, I'll take Little Seven to Shenzhou to eat delicious food and buy her new clothes."

"Delicious? Is it as delicious as Lin's?"

"Uh..." Elysia was momentarily speechless, "This is a bit difficult..."

While Lin was talking to Elysia, he turned around and saw Klein walking towards him, holding two vials of potions.

"Mr. Lin, this is the Neural Repair Potion Doctor Mobius asked me to give you. The second injection should be given two weeks after the first. The precautions have been sent to your communicator. Please do not do anything that could damage your nerves, especially avoid disrupting Neural Connection." Klein spoke calmly, pausing briefly before continuing—

"Mr. Lin, you didn't say goodbye to the doctor before you left. Although she didn't say anything, she seemed very angry and said that the dishes you agreed to make would only be cooked after you came back, which is a breach of your promise."

"..."

Angry?

Mobius never gave him a friendly look in the lab, and their conversations were mostly sarcastic. Would he really be angry about this?

As for cooking...

"Let her eat in the cafeteria; instant noodles don't provide enough nutrition."

"I've been trying to persuade her..."

Klein scratched the back of her head helplessly. She had tried to persuade Mobius to eat the school cafeteria meals countless times, but Mebius either said she didn't have time or that the food wasn't good. In reality, she didn't want to go out and hear other people's criticisms.

She didn't want anyone to bring her food after Lin left, and she wondered if she would have to go back to eating spicy, seafood, and hot and sour instant noodles for each of her three meals a day.

"Let's wait for Mr. Lin to come back soon," Klein a smile. "But Australia has had the highest temperatures ever in recent years, so Mr. Lin shouldn't get 'frozen' while on his mission."

"..."

"Huh? Not funny? I've memorized all of Mr. Lin's lame jokes."

"It's nothing," Lin said after a long silence. "I will."

Afterwards, two transport planes took off from the headquarters' tarmac and headed in different directions.

"Hua, Immer, now you're really my team members."

A woman with long, fiery red hair stood in front of the transport plane, smiling as she greeted Hua and Immer as they disembarked.

Dessidobia, standing to the side, also greeted them with a broad smile.

"Captain Himiko... it's been a long time." Hua also responded to them with a rare faint smile.

"It's only been a little over a month, I guess." Himiko on her fingers, then put her hands on her hips and laughed loudly. "I've finally managed to snatch you two away from that kid Lin. Let that little brat go play house with those two girls by himself."

"Two girls?" Immer asked, puzzled.

"Oh, you guys don't know? Lin's current team only has one girl with pink hair, and a new recruit who follows him around all day. I heard they're playing husband and wife or something..." Himiko her hand dismissively. "If you ask me, that girl with pink hair is quite suitable... uh, no, it's nothing."

After hearing Himiko's words, Hua sighed, "The captain is doing very well now..."

"Pshaw, don't get your hopes up too high. He's coming to Australia on a mission soon."

"Recently?"

"Yes, but his mission is different from ours. His team is just carrying out a simple investigation."

Dessidobia patted Himiko on the shoulder, signaling her talkative captain to stop talking; it felt strange to be standing here and talking loudly about President Lin.

Immer had also thought of this, "Alright... let's get on with the mission as soon as possible."

"No rush. The squad has expanded, and it'll be several days before it's your turn to carry out the mission. Let's first get back to the state of mind from the last mission." Himiko seriously, "Tell me about your mission in Shenzhou."

Immer and Hua both fell silent, seemingly wondering where to begin, after all, this matter... was rather illogical.

"Captain Himiko, you should have already heard about the truth behind the Honkai Energy anomaly that was uncovered during this investigation mission."

"Yes, 'Visitor from Beyond the Stars,' right?"

Visitor from Beyond the Stars, also known as "aliens".

Immer exhaled and solemnly whispered, "During the investigation, we came into contact with one of the Visitor from Beyond the Stars. It learned human language and conveyed some information to us."

"One of the most important pieces of information is that Visitor from Beyond the Stars race wants to invade Earth."

Chapter 49 I Want to Play a Game with You

Hot.

This word can encompass the entire summer. Even things with higher temperatures may not be able to represent the word "hot," because almost everyone has experienced a summer filled with the chirping of cicadas, scorching heat, and garlic-smelling watermelons from the refrigerator.

Sakura was hit by a heat wave the moment she stepped out of the transport plane.

They didn't land at the branch in Australia, so there was no shelter or air conditioning when they landed. In just a moment, Sakura felt like she had arrived in a scorching hell, and the scenery in front of her was distorted by waves of rising heat.

At that moment, she sincerely envied Lin's fully enclosed helmet, which was said to have a built-in temperature control system, equivalent to a Xiao Kong.

Do you need sunscreen?

Just then, Lin's voice came from behind. Before Ying could turn around, a brand new bottle of sunscreen was handed to her.

"Ah..."

Sakura was surprised that Lin had prepared something like this.

"She bought it," Lin Yubo said calmly.

"..." Sakura accepted it with a strange expression.

She was referring to the MSA-970 girl.

Sakura actually felt that the relationship between the two was more like that of an elder and a younger relative than a husband and wife... like a brother and sister, or a father and daughter. Every time she saw them together, Lin was teaching her something, and the girl's tone showed a strong dependence on Lin, just like a little girl who couldn't live without her father.

The Déjà vu of "buying small items that only girls would use for their father who is going far away" is even stronger.

However, this is indeed useful for Sakura, as her armor doesn't cover much skin anyway... Although she had applied to change to a more normal armor with less exposed skin when she was getting a new one, the Research and Development Department rejected her request on the grounds that "what kind of speed armor do you want to make?" So, the current armor looks about the same as before.

She can control the heat with her weapon, but she can't block out direct sunlight.

After quickly wiping off the exposed skin, she returned the sunscreen to Lin.

"Let's go, the location of the mission objective is nearby."

Lin jumped off the transport plane, landing on the ground and kicking up dust.

This mission was extremely simple, and could even be said to have nothing to do with Honkai. It was to capture the hacker who had invaded the internal network of the Firemoth and posted betting odds in Mei's name. If it weren't for the fact that this was a two-person operation, Lin would never have been sent to do such a ridiculous thing. Sakura even thought it was Mei's personal grudge.

Moreover, after Prometheus Unit 2's reverse intrusion thoroughly investigated and removed the hacker's more than one hundred fake IPs, the actual location was found to be this desolate and uninhabited wilderness.

In other words, the hacker was likely living alone in a secret base, thus avoiding the hassle of operating in crowded and chaotic cities.

Using the cold air released from the knife to cool herself down, Sakura followed Lin forward.

This was her first time in Australia. She had been to most countries before when she was eliminating the original Poisoned Cocoon members, and Australia was one of the few places she had not yet set foot in.

This is Western Australia, mostly desert and semi-desert. She wondered if anyone really had enough money and ability to establish a secret base here? Or was it actually an organization?

However, her doubts were quickly resolved when Lin called out "Stop!"

Because a very inconspicuous-looking house appeared in front of them.

The house's color is very similar to the desert, so it was probably designed for concealment. Judging from the solar generators scattered around it, it probably doesn't have to worry about power supply.

Lin had nothing, but walked straight up and pushed open the door...

"Hahaha... It's finally here."

A hand hidden in the shadows reached out and tapped a few keys on the keyboard under the screen's glow. The door in the surveillance footage unlocked automatically, and the helmeted man easily pushed it open.

"Oh? It's actually Lin and Ying. Looks like I'm quite valued... Well, they didn't bring any powerful equipment, so let me take a good look at whether the soldiers of the Fire Moth are really as described in the data..."

Before she could finish speaking, Lin in the surveillance footage suddenly looked up, and a gaze broke through the limitations of the monitor, meeting her eyes directly.

"... Huh?"

That's strange. It was a disguised pinhole camera; you shouldn't be able to tell it was there from the outside.

Moreover, Lin's expression suggested that she knew Lin was observing them.

Sakura also looked up at the light. "Is it a surveillance camera?"

"Hmm." Lin nodded, glancing back at the door. "The lock on this door is remotely controlled. Someone unlocked it manually and is watching this place."

From the outside, you can't tell that the front door is manually locked or that there is a camera, but these subtle details are not hidden from Lin. He can find out about the internal structure of the house in many ways, including determining that there must be a basement after seeing the terrain and shape of the house.

And the person watching this from behind the screen is most likely in the basement.

This time, Prometheus was not brought along. The Divine Key Project of Vill-V was in its early stages and short of manpower, and this kind of mission did not require her, so she could not directly hack into the monitoring system.

However, it doesn't need to be that complicated; they can catch Him by going down the road.

"Did you find it..." She was silent for a moment, watching Lin and Ying walk nonchalantly into the depths of the house in the picture. She hesitated and thought, "Then why did they come in? Aren't they afraid of an ambush?"

After much deliberation, she decided to proceed as planned. She watched intently as Lin and Ying entered the room she had reserved and then pressed the close button.

"Bang!"

The reinforced gate blocked the way back, and the walls were also specially thickened and reinforced, making it impossible for ordinary firearms and melee weapons to penetrate.

Then, she turned on the microphone...

"Hey, you two from the Firemoth, I'd like to play a game with you..."