On How New Friends Are Made / A Second Encounter

He turned his head and said in a chilling tone, "Instead, we're figuring out how to kill her."

At this moment, he stood in the shadow of the light, looking into those eyes that were both ferocious and pleading.

Perhaps there really is a way to save his student.

She was a perfect research subject, but wasn't she also his student? During the three years they spent together, this child was intelligent and cheerful, always smiling like a little sun, and loved to serve him tea and water, massage his shoulders and back, calling him "teacher" all the time.

She also often talks to herself about her younger siblings. After their parents passed away, she has been taking care of them. She said that after the Honkai ends, she wants to take them to settle in Shenzhou and enjoy traveling and sightseeing every day.

Oh, and she also likes to drink yogurt, the really sour kind. Occasionally she'll look enviously at other girls' well-developed breasts and talk loudly about the handsome boys she met that day.

She still has a future; she can still take care of her younger siblings; she can still drink milk every day; she can still laugh heartily; she can still...

She can still live.

He stared at his own panicked self, distorted under the light, reflected in the scalpel's gleam.

Gradually... he loosened his grip on the scalpel.

He stood in front of the bathroom tap, rinsing the blood off his hands.

He took off his gloves, which were stained with bright red blood, and washed away the thick, red liquid.

But no matter how much I wash it, it won't get clean.

Chapter Fifty-Four: On How New Friends Are Made

"Hey Kevin, missed me?"

Elysia waved to Kevin as he walked down the corridor, but he stopped abruptly, glanced at her, and said nothing.

"Oh my..." Elysia moved a little closer, staring at his indifferent expression with a mischievous smile, "If it were Lin, he would say 'no' at this point."

"... Is there something you need?"

"Oh dear, I've only just arrived, can't you come and welcome us?"

"We are on a mission, not here for a welcome party."

"She said exactly the same thing as Lin."

"If you want to find Lin, you can open your communicator and have a good chat with him now." Kevin turned around and walked into the conference room. "But if you want to hear about the progress of the next mission, come in."

Elysia shrugged, pointed to the seats in the corridor behind her, and then followed Kevin inside.

The girl sat blankly in the chair, staring at the closed door of the conference room.

"Captain Lin?" After a while, a questioning voice drew her attention, mainly because of the word "Lin" in his words.

Kosma looked at the girl in surprise, but he soon realized that this person was not Lin, but a woman wearing the same helmet.

After the Sixth Honkai War, Hen's temporary squad was disbanded and reorganized. Kosma returned to the Squad One as Kevin's second-in-command, and this mission naturally followed Kevin to Shenzhou.

After hearing that the Squad Thirteen had arrived, he wanted to go with Kevin to discuss the next mission with Elysia, but unexpectedly he met a girl who looked just like Lin.

"I'm sorry, I made a mistake..." Kosma quickly calmed down, apologized, and then looked at the girl as if he wanted to say something.

Why is this person wearing Captain Lin's helmet? It's definitely the same style; although I haven't had much contact with it, it left a deep impression on me.

Is she wearing the same helmet because she admires Captain Lin? But this helmet doesn't actually improve combat efficiency. Wouldn't a more convenient system be better? I should just remind her.

Her demeanor is also similar to Captain Lin's; could they know each other? Then Captain Lin made her put on this helmet, so wouldn't it have been redundant for me to remind her?

Oh wait, it's also possible that she chose this helmet by chance. If Captain Lin saw it, wouldn't he think that no one reminded her that choosing a more advanced system was bullying a new recruit?

Okay, then let me remind you anyway.

"You..." Kosma spoke slowly after he had thought it through.

"..." The girl waited silently for him to speak.

"... No, it's nothing."

The girl stared at the man who seemed to have been deep in thought for a long time and looked like he wanted to say something but hesitated. He clearly had something to say, but why did he hold it back?

Influenced by Lin's straightforward manner, the girl asked the guide without hesitation, "Do you know Lin?"

"Yes, we know each other." Kosma didn't expect the girl to ask him so directly, and that she and Lin actually knew each other.

"What's your name?" the girl asked again.

"Kosma, the second-in-command of the Squad One."

"I am MSA-970."

"..."

"..."

Then what?

After saying all that, the girl stopped talking, as if she had completed her mission.

Kosma cautiously observed the girl. Ever since the suicide squad incident during the Fifth Honkai War, he had been thinking a lot, and this girl, who seemed to have a lot to do with Lin, made him even more imaginative.

Why didn't he say his name? Was it because his hesitation earlier offended her? Or was his answer too brief, making her feel it was impolite?

But he didn't actually mean to be rude; he just thought Kevin's simple and clear way of speaking was very efficient.

Why don't you ask me to explain and then tell me your name?

No, it's also possible that Captain Lin dislikes him?

Upon closer reflection, since this person's helmet is exactly the same as Captain Lin's, she might be Captain Lin's disciple, just like her relationship with Kevin. Could it be that Captain Lin privately said he disliked her, which made this person dislike her as well?

No, no, Captain Lin is definitely not that kind of person...

Could it be that the part of Captain Lin's description of him that aroused this person's disgust?

It must be because he still has some shortcomings, right? Then I might as well ask her for advice and correct them in time.

"That..."

"..."

"No, it's nothing."

This man had been standing there for almost ten minutes, but he hadn't said more than thirty words in total. The girl just watched him silently as he stared at her, and the two fell into an eerie silence.

Is the food here good?

After a while, the girl remembered something important and asked Kosma about it.

"Well enough."

What does this mean?

What is she testing?

Will people come in and immediately ask if the food is good?

"Lin often cooks Shenzhou food for me. He says that compared to the Far East, Shenzhou is more like his hometown, so the first cuisines he learned were all from Shenzhou." The girl murmured as she recounted her conversation with Lin. "Do you have any late-night snacks here?"

"No, going out at night is prohibited."

"Oh..."

Judging from her voice, she seemed somewhat regretful.

Kosma couldn't understand this girl anymore; he simply couldn't comprehend whether her words had any deeper meaning.

The girl in the helmet blinked, tilted her head, and said, "Don't you want to talk?"

"No..." Kosma instinctively wanted to deny it.

Strange, was she actually chatting with him?

"Oh, okay, then tell me about your captain too. He's Lin's good friend, right?" The girl patted the seat next to her; there was still plenty of empty space on the bench.

Kosma sat down beside her hesitantly, gradually becoming curious about the girl.

His intuition told him that this was a special person, just like Lin.

"Captain Kevin is indeed Captain Lin's friend. They were already close friends before I joined the Firemoth."

Kosma recalled the unspoken understanding between Kevin and Lin in the howling winds of the border town during the Fourth Honkai War, and the natural smile on Kevin's face whenever he mentioned Lin.

But since he returned to the Squad One, he has never seen Kevin smile again.

"He is now the most powerful warrior of the Firemoth, and he carries more and more burdens on his shoulders," Kosma murmured sadly.

"No, Lin is the strongest." The girl shook her head, interrupting his sentimentality.

"Hmm? But Captain Kevin's physical abilities far surpass Captain Lin's."

"Lin beat him in the sparring match."

"That was just training. In actual combat, Captain Kevin cleared out an entire Class A danger zone by himself last time."

"Lin is also an option."

"No, Captain Lin is certainly very powerful, but Captain Kevin is currently the strongest warrior of the Fire Moth."

"No, it's Lin who is."

Just as the two were raising their voices higher and higher, arguing endlessly over a baseless pretext, their voices, like children bickering, were about to echo throughout the corridor, the meeting room door opened.

"Kosma".

Kevin stood in the doorway, staring indifferently at Kosma had stood up, his face flushed and neck red.

Elysia couldn't help but chuckle as she watched the sulking girl.

Chapter Fifty-Five: Second Contact

The moment a person grows up is not when they discover they are lonely, but when they learn to endure loneliness.

I hate the world created by language, so from beginning to end, I have only ever lived in my own world.

Enduring loneliness...

"The above is the information obtained from our interactions with Visitor from Beyond the Stars."

Kevin projected the documents onto the conference room screen. His stern face appeared even more serene under the pale screen light, exuding an eerie indifference.

Elysia also put away her frivolous attitude and began to seriously examine the information that, although not much, made each one of them frown.

"Their race is called... Starfall?" Elysia felt a strange, indescribable feeling when she saw this simple name. "Has it been confirmed that they are an alien race?"

"They told us all the information, so there's no way to verify its authenticity. However, they offered a method, and I'll explain it to you after you've read the information." Kevin's emotions didn't change much; it was unclear whether he had moved past his initial surprise or simply no longer felt any particular emotion about the matter.

"..."

Elysia continued reading, but with each bit she read, her brows furrowed more deeply.

This race, called Starfall, comes from a galaxy at least 500,000 light-years away from Earth. They are a race very similar to humans, with a planetary civilization at a similar level of development to Earth, and their technology is more advanced than that of humans.

They, too, suffered Honkai.

After the surface of the planet was filled with Honkai Energy, Xingcai could no longer survive on her home planet. So she transformed the remaining individuals of her race into mechanical life forms, studied the Honkai, and eventually created ships that could travel through space and interstellar space. However, they had difficulty controlling the direction and distance of the ships and could only drift in the universe until they happened to come to Earth.

This coincidence is like finding a needle in a haystack. An alien race that started its journey from 500,000 light-years away has somehow managed to arrive on Earth, where life exists.

"... So, they want to settle on Earth now?" Elysia asked Kevin after reading the brief information.

"To be precise, it's a part of Xingcai." After she learned the general information, Kevin began to recount the results of his earlier visit to Shenzhou and his contact with Xingcai. "They will also provide technology and experience in fighting the Honkai, on the condition that they can set aside an area for Xingcai to live in, roughly the size of a province or city."

"Part of it, so next, is it time for the other part to take over?"

"Just like there are doves and hawks in human political parties, there is also a group of Stars who do not want to live in peace with humans. What they want is the whole Earth, to invade human society and then destroy humanity," Kevin said expressionlessly. "Two-thirds of the Stars that landed in Shenzhou are hawks, and the remaining one-third are the group that came into contact with us."

"It sounds like a cliché alien invasion story," Elysia chuckled. "Killing the natives to conquer a planet is both absurd and plausible."

"Those Stars who have come into contact with us are also willing to help us resist the invasion of the hawks and try to persuade other Stars to coexist with humans."

"I guess that's the real reason they're contacting us, and the terms should be quite interesting."

"They want to study the Herrscher Core."