The Game... Ended Before It Even Began / The Price of Maturity

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

Sakura stared at the loudspeaker, puzzled. Seeing that Lin didn't react, she listened quietly to what the person had to say.

The voice was synthesized, and it was impossible to tell whether the person was male, female, young, or old; it had a slight electrical and hoarse tone.

"You have been hiding in the shadows all along, just like me now. You claim to be protecting humanity, but you are doing human experiments and killing each other, using the disaster of Honkai to glorify yourselves."

"Now, I want to play a game with you to test whether you are truly willing to give everything for humanity, as you claim..."

Chapter Fifty: The Game... It Ended Before It Even Began.

"There is now deadly poison gas spreading in this room. It can be absorbed through the skin and will cause death if inhaled for more than three hours."

"And the antidote that can keep you alive is somewhere in this house."

Sakura glanced at Lin calmly, but he did nothing; instead, he surveyed the entire room.

The room looked small and cramped. On a table not far away were two revolvers with two bullets in between.

In addition, there are two props next to the table that are obviously used to restrain hands and feet.

"Those two revolvers and two bullets are the key to getting out of this room. Just load the bullets, put them on the restraints, tie your hands and feet, and then pull the trigger twice at your temples to open the door."

"Note that both bullets must be loaded into the pistols and both pistols must be fired twice for the mechanism to work. Otherwise... you will never be able to leave here for the rest of your lives."

Clearly, this is a trap that lures people into killing each other.

The person said that both bullets should be loaded into a pistol, but didn't say they should be loaded into different pistols. In other words, after one party restrains the other, they can load both bullets into one pistol and pull the trigger twice.

While loading different pistols may reduce the likelihood of the same person being shot, there is still a probability involved, and no one would gamble on that one in six chance.

It's better to let someone else bear one-third of the risk than to bear one-sixth of the risk yourself.

She was smug, thinking it was a brilliant experiment. Although she hadn't actually released any poison gas, and the two guns were defective and wouldn't fire, it was precisely this game, which wouldn't actually lead to death, that allowed the two survivors to see each other's true colors...

Come on, let's fight amongst ourselves, let's kill each other...

"Sakura, open the door."

The smile froze on his face once again.

At Lin's command, Sakura drew a new sword, went to the exit, and casually swung it three times. The door and wall, which even missiles couldn't destroy, appeared as if they had been cut by a laser.

Wait a minute, this script isn't right.

Isn't that a cold weapon? It looks like a Japanese katana, doesn't it?

What she didn't know was that after May took office, in order to prevent the previous weapons data from being leaked and someone from developing new weapons in secret, the weapons data of the Research and Development Department were kept separately. In addition, they adhered to May's consistent fine style of "if it can be archived on paper, it will not use electronic files". As a result, she had no idea how advanced the weapons of the Fire Moth were.

She only knew that the Fire Moth was a mysterious organization that brought together the world's top talents and had world-leading technology, but she didn't expect that the degree of advancement was a bit too sci-fi.

She could see the level of weapon technology of various countries after hacking into their internal networks, so she believed that the level of technology of the Fire Moth would not be too far beyond her understanding.

As it turned out, she was wrong.

In the scene, Sakura easily hacked away at the various rooms and mechanisms that she had painstakingly built, leaving Sakura clutching her heart in agony.

That's too much! She spent over a year preparing for this magical house.

"Wait, wait a minute, why are they coming straight here?"

Suddenly realizing that Lin and the others' route led directly to the entrance to the underground area where she was, she understood the gravity of the situation.

Previously, when the hacker announced His rules of the game, Lin observed the layout of the house to find the most likely location of the basement entrance.

In fact, he had already guessed the reason why Mei had gone to such lengths to have them arrest the hacker: it was for the purpose of "appeasement."

When the hackers posted the betting odds, May did not immediately have Prometheus Unit 2 block the hackers' intrusion or cancel the betting odds, probably because she was afraid of alerting them and causing the hackers to disappear from the internal network of Moth Chaser.

Their personal visit was probably to show Moth's attitude, to teach this hacker a lesson, and most importantly... to prevent him from escaping.

Although Prometheus Unit 2 has now taken over the headquarters' system, and its existence can isolate most hacker intrusions and manage almost everything, it is ultimately just an immature Artificial Intelligence. May and Vill-V also have additional plans to take care of, and no one can improve the system for Prometheus Unit 2 and the subsequent Prometheus series of Artificial Intelligence.

This hacker may have exploited some loopholes in the defenses of the Firemoth's internal network after the Sixth Honkai War, but it also proves his strength and makes him the perfect choice for the Firemoth, which is currently expanding its workforce.

The Poisoned Cocoon has always been responsible for tasks that are more focused on the internal workings of humans, and this time is no exception.

They soon arrived at the location Lin had estimated, and as expected, the entrance to the basement was right there.

He didn't look closely at the games in the middle, but after a quick glance, he realized they were just games disguised as deadly ones. As for the so-called poison gas, it was nowhere to be seen in front of his helmet, which was constantly collecting information about the surrounding gases.

Through this, he roughly understood what kind of person the hacker was.

"Lin, could He have escaped through another exit?" Sakura asked Lin, who was standing in front of the entrance.

"No, the terrain here is low-lying, and this is the only place where an underground facility can be built. The area is not very large, and the other ground surfaces are not suitable for building passages, so there cannot be any other exits."

Lin gently pinched the lock on the entrance, crushing it into a ball of iron, and pulled it off. He then opened the door and went downstairs.

"Hahaha... Congratulations on completing the game! Did you two enjoy it?"

The masked woman in the black robe stood in front of the dense array of surveillance cameras, forcing a smile as the two people walked in.

"..."

Lin stared at her without saying a word.

This is exactly the same as in the information; what a terrifying sight...

Only after truly experiencing Lin's direct gaze did she realize that the rumors about Lin on the Moth Chaser's internal network were actually true.

"If you've had your fun, then hurry back. I have to go now. See you next time..."

"Bass."

She chuckled and turned to leave when she heard the sound of a sharp blade being drawn. Her hair stood on end, a flash appeared on the back of her neck, and she was spun around and forced to the ground.

Sakura, who was originally more than ten meters away, was now holding her hands down tightly and pressing the knife against the back of her neck.

"I ask, you answer."

Lin stood in front of her, coldly looking down at her.

Chapter 51 The Price of Maturity

"Name."

"Qianqi."

"Far East?"

"Yes."

Sakura was quite surprised. Including the person who called himself Qianqi, almost everyone present was from the Far East.

Three Far East meet in Australia?

Lin tore off Qianqi's mask, revealing a pretty face with a forced expression. She smiled in a friendly manner, but in front of the two cold-looking soldiers, she looked like a trembling rabbit.

His lifeless, light gray hair and slender, muscleless physique clearly showed that he spent most of his time hiding in such dark places.

"Why did you hack into the Firemoth's internal network?" Lin asked bluntly. He had already taken over the system with his helmet and destroyed all the data leaked by Firemoth.

"Um, if I said it was an accident, would you believe me?"

"..."

"Okay! Okay! Don't look at me like that!" Qianqi quickly stopped herself from making an unfunny joke. She smiled apologetically and said, "Actually, a few months ago, I found traces of your communication with the Security Bureau on the internal network of the Shenzhou Security Bureau. I followed the clues to find the contact address and finally opened the communication network by impersonating a Security Bureau member."

The hacker made it sound so easy, but in reality, it took her more than four months from discovery to intrusion. If the internal network's defenses hadn't suddenly weakened, she might not have been able to get in so quickly.

Afterwards, she forged a soldier identity as MSA-999, which allowed her free access to the internal network, and the backdoor was never used again.

"I said, you're not going to kill me to silence me, are you... I... I remember that the way you deal with people who know about this in your database is just to prevent them from contacting the Fire Moth again. There shouldn't be any exceptions, right?" Qianqi asked with a dry laugh when she saw Lin Mo thinking silently.

Lin gestured for Ying to release her hand and coldly replied, "No."

"Phew, that's good..."

"Sakura, take her away."

"Huh? Wait, what are you doing!"

Before Qianqi could react, Sakura delivered a karate chop to the back of her neck, knocking her unconscious on the spot.

When she woke up again, she had arrived in an unfamiliar place from underground, which looked like the interior of an airplane cabin, except that the facilities here looked very futuristic.

Lin Zheng sat opposite her, quietly watching her as she slowly woke up.

"... Where am I?"

"On the transport plane bound for the nineteenth branch in Australia," Lin explained to her, then calmly began to explain, "From now on, you are officially MSA-999, directly under Mei, the Head of Research and Development at the Moth of Fire headquarters."

"Wait a minute? What do you mean? Have I been granted amnesty?"

Qianqi's mind worked quickly. She immediately realized the current situation. From the information in the Fire Moth's database, she knew that they had recently gone through a fierce battle and were short-handed. So, if she hadn't been let go, she was most likely to be "hired".

"Yes."

"No! I don't want to go to that Moth Chaser who's on the front lines fighting the Honkai all day! I want to enjoy life before the Honkai destroys the world, I don't want to die so soon!" Qianqi looked at Lin with teary eyes, "Can you really bear to see such a beautiful girl like me die on the battlefield?"

"First, you have no right to say 'no.' This is the price you pay as an invading Moth of Fire. According to the previous rules, you should actually be imprisoned in the Deepest Place."

When Sakura heard the words "the Deepest Place," her brows furrowed almost imperceptibly.

"Secondly, you joined Moth Chaser as a researcher and technician, not as a soldier. You will not be going to the front lines."

"Third," Lin said indifferently, arms crossed, "In terms of beauty, Ying is more beautiful than you, and she is also a frontline soldier."

"Forest."

Sakura couldn't help but call out to Lin, and after Lin turned around, she asked, "What's wrong?"

"...nothing."

"My lovely Little Seven, just let me see her once, just once."

"No, Lin said that if Eri does it once, she will definitely do it again."

"What exactly did Lin teach you?"

Elysia was quite exasperated by the stubborn girl. The girl covered her helmet warily, not letting Elysia touch her. This scene seemed rather strange to the other team members, because this new girl seemed to know their captain very well, but they had never seen her before.

Except for that familiar helmet.

"But... Little Seven, you're getting cuter and cuter, unlike Kevin, you're becoming more and more like Lin." Elysia touched the girl's helmet and smiled affectionately. "It's so strange... everyone is becoming the kind of person they used to hate, but no one seems to think it's bad."

Kevin once said that even Lin had a brief period of cheerfulness during his high school years.

Kevin didn't go into detail about what Lin was like back then, but Elysia guessed that it was probably Lin's happiest and most emotional time.

From the moment Elysia met Lin, what she saw was already the Lin of today. In just a few months after joining the Fire Moth, he had reverted to the way he was before he met Kevin.

Kevin has now become a serious and unsmiling person, always preoccupied, and most of the time all you can see is his back.

In the years since Elysia entered the Firemoth, she has witnessed many changes, the most significant of which have been in people.

Everyone stood behind the warning line they never wanted to cross, looking back at their former selves, and cutting all ties with them from then on.

So she doesn't want to change. She wants to remain "Elysia" from beginning to end, to tell those who have changed that she is still here, and that even as time goes by, there will always be things that remain unchanged.

Even just a little bit of warmth would be a comfort to these people who are fighting.

"Because Lin said that the process of a person becoming more mature is not about gradually becoming cold." At this moment, the girl said softly, "True maturity should be about becoming more gentle."

"...puff."

Elysia chuckled, then laughed so hard she almost fell over.

The team members were used to it; their captain always had some inexplicable funny moments, and since his laughter wasn't unpleasant, they were all used to it.

"Lin always takes such a rigid approach to raising children, and so does Xiao Chu, and you too. Can't he use a more tactful way of saying it?"