The Man of Miracles, Part Two / The Man of Miracles, Part Three

"Can I really... decide who lives and who dies?"

He finished writing the last sentence, closed his diary, and pushed up his glasses.

"Has it been decided yet?"

"..."

The pink-haired girl stood behind him and repeated, "Have you decided yet?"

The man stared at the cover of the diary in his hand, stroking the wrinkles on it. After a moment, he nodded silently.

"Then hurry up and give the order; they're all waiting for you."

"... Don't you want to ask me what I've decided to do?"

"I believe you will make the right decision."

"Correct?" The man chewed on the word. He raised his head, something gleaming in his dark eyes, but upon closer inspection, there was nothing there. "Yes, I will always make the right decision. Any order I give will be the most correct."

No, it must be "correct".

Even if he were to press a button and kill tens of millions of lives in a city, it would still be the right thing to do.

Because all humans need someone to do this.

Do you believe in miracles?

The man turned to the pink-haired girl who had been with him for years and had grown from a girl into a mature woman, and asked, "Do you believe that the moment before I pressed the button, everyone in that city would wake up from their state of consciousness corruption? Do you believe that their emotions can transcend the power of Herrscher?"

"... What kind of answer are you hoping to get from asking me this? Do you want me to believe you, or not?"

"..."

"Lin, you should ask yourself, not me." The pink-haired girl's smile seemed to have never changed. She stood there in the light, not far away, yet not within reach. "Because you know that even if you still believe in miracles, you will still cruelly press the button."

The man stood up. He had forgotten how to smile, and when was the last time he had smiled, "In the last second before the city was destroyed, everyone regained consciousness, and then they had to face the fact that their own people had abandoned them. No... they didn't even have time to realize that it was happening, and they died meaninglessly."

Both the man and the girl have personally experienced the power of the Herrscher, a power that leaves no room for luck and is absolutely impossible for any human individual to resist. Miracles are impossible for them.

Therefore, his decision was not wrong.

"So you think miracles can't happen, and that way you don't need to bear any psychological pressure for what you do, because those who are killed are Honkai creature corrupted by Herrscher, not living humans."

However, the girl saw through his thoughts.

They tore his disguise apart, forcibly revealing his most vulnerable, most despicable, and most ashamed self.

"... Then what should we do?"

The man's facial skin twitched; he couldn't even make a decent expression.

"With the global human population already reduced by a third, can we still pray for miracles? Pray that those monsters will stop appearing, pray that they will regain their senses, pray that they... will come to help us?"

"I have been hoping for countless days and nights that those people who have been Honkai by the Honkai into monsters can be restored by the power of so-called human emotions."

"We no longer need to raise our knives against those who were once our compatriots, and we can believe that the miracles brought about by human emotions can overcome the Honkai."

"But the fact is..."

"Even the smallest miracle will not be left to humankind."

Chapter Sixty-Two: The Miracle Man, Part Two

"Doctor Lin, we will replace the remaining part of your body with a mechanical prosthetic body. This is to prevent your condition from worsening, and it is also for the future of all mankind."

"...I see."

"How about we schedule the surgery for tomorrow?"

"Whatever."

"OK."

The man stood by the window, gazing at the afterglow of the setting sun. His left eye, wrapped in bandages, throbbed slightly, but soon he would be numb to even that pain; pain would become a luxury.

He himself has little Honkai Energy Adaptability and resistance. Even though the diseased parts were removed and replaced with mechanical prosthetics, they will still be corroded a second time. Therefore, the remaining parts must also be replaced with Soul Steel to prevent future troubles.

Sometimes, he actually wanted to tell them to stop caring about this useless body and just let him die; perhaps that would be better.

Countless people outside are going crazy trying to survive the Honkai Energy corruption, but the people of Meteor's Demise won't even glance at them, because their existence won't help humanity's survival in any way.

But weren't Meteor's Demise born to protect humanity?

"..."

It's really a contradiction.

"It seems like the thing I see most about you is your back."

"..."

Even without turning around, the man knew she was coming.

The last time they met was about six months ago. Since then, the man hasn't contacted her, and she hasn't bothered him at work.

"Is there something you need?" Perhaps only now could they sit down and have a calm conversation.

There was no work or experimentation, no battlefield to command; it was simply the two of them, who had supported each other all the way but had never taken their relationship any further, talking face to face to say things that belonged only to them.

"... Will you become a real T-800 in the future?"

"Perhaps even more advanced than that." The man glanced at the metal prosthetic arm on his right hand, the technology embodying the pinnacle of human ingenuity. "But perhaps, it will be even less human-like than a bionic robot."

At least the T-800 has bionic skin, body temperature, and bodily fluids, but in order to enable men to think more rationally, these factors that affect thinking will be stripped from his soul steel body.

"..."

Another long silence followed, but the man was used to it.

He sat alone for too long, with no one to talk to.

Perhaps he just wanted to be there alone.

"Speaking of which, you haven't mentioned marrying me since then." The pink-haired girl seemed to have just picked a topic off the top of her head, but her words seemed to have a hidden meaning.

"... It's meaningless."

Marry?

The word was so unfamiliar that it took the man a while to recall it.

He didn't have the energy to start a family. The Meteor's Demise needed him to manage and direct everything, and there were countless projects and decisions waiting for him to make.

In this vortex of forgetting one's own life, marriage is absolutely impossible.

This actually surprised him a bit, since he thought the pink-haired girl should have been married long ago. More than ten years had passed since she left that hellish Changkong City, and their contact had gradually become distant over those years, with them not seeing each other for half a year at a time.

Moreover, she was just an ordinary person, and even though she lived in the Meteor's Demise, she did not participate in any work.

"It's strange, isn't it? I often think about that day when you proposed out of the blue. We didn't know anything back then, we were just two students." The pink-haired girl's smile was filled with the old light of memories. "But if you ask when we were most likely to get married, it could only be back then."

"... Shouldn't it be during the time when he first joined Meteor's Demise?"

Even if the man is unwilling to recall the past, he can still remember that the period when they were most interdependent was actually the time after they had overcome the difficulties in Changkong City and joined Meteor's Demise.

Back then, men would show their weaknesses and troubles to girls, and girls would embrace them with their gentleness and encourage them.

Later, the man stopped giving anyone a chance to observe his inner thoughts and stopped getting close to her.

"And then... you didn't say those things to me anymore, did you? Because you grew up and became a leader." The girl smiled. "A leader can't be bound by personal feelings."

"..."

"By the way, you asked me before whether I believed in miracles, right?"

"..."

"I thought about it for a long time after that. I didn't want to give you a casual answer. If I just comforted you or gave you my own answer, it wouldn't express my thoughts. So I hope that my answer truly comes from my heart."

The man never expected that the girl would bring up that same question again after so many years.

The man hadn't taken on any students in a long time, and he had never heard a student ask him again whether he believed in miracles.

"I guess I don't believe in miracles."

The girl's answer, however, surprised the man.

He had always assumed that the girl would say she believed in miracles, after all, she had always been so cheerful and optimistic, as if all the goodness of humanity was concentrated in her. Shouldn't someone like her believe that human emotions could bring about miracles?

"In the end, what exactly is a miracle? Is it something that was originally impossible happening, or something that we hoped for happening? I think it should be the latter. So the miracles we pray for are just our wishes, and it seems that neither your wish nor my wish has come true."

The girl lowered her head gently, her hair falling behind her shoulders, her cherry-colored lips pursed, and she stopped smiling.

"Then how can I believe in miracles?"

"..."

The man stared intently at the girl's face; she had never shown such an expression before, outside of the First Honkai Eruption.

She seemed to have lost her strength and become fragile, like stained glass, ready to fall at any moment.

"What is your wish?"

He suddenly asked.

This sentence came directly from his heart, so much so that he didn't even realize it when he said it.

At that moment, the girl smiled slyly, like a fox perched on a cherry blossom branch, curling its lips at him.

Let's get married.

"Doctor, we are about to perform surgery on you. You will not feel anything."

"...I know."

The man lay on the operating table, slowly closed his eyes, then reached out and removed the ring from the ring finger of his left hand, placing it in a flawless container.

"Look, now our wishes have all come true, so miracles can happen."

The girl waved and laughed at him, her unassuming ring gleaming slightly in the sunlight.

"This is the miracle caused by our love."

The man's heart sank.

My once numb heart has started beating again.

Chapter Sixty-Three: The Miracle Man, Part Three

"Are you sure there's nothing wrong? Or maybe Kevin, your presbyopia is acting up again?"

"..."

Kevin shook his head dejectedly. He had personally watched the surveillance footage of Starry Night's room from beginning to end, and he was certain that he hadn't made a mistake; Starry Night had never left the room.

The database terminal has been destroyed. Judging from the traces, it is very similar to the standard knife of the Fire Moth. Is it going to be another case of guessing who the mole is?

The problem is... this incident is nothing at all.

The terminal is just a device for accessing the intranet. It is neither a secret technology nor an important device. It won't take long to rebuild a new one if it is destroyed. Moreover, after checking the access records, it can be confirmed that no one accessed the Headquarters Database through the Shenzhou Branch's terminal last night.

In other words, that person simply destroyed the device and did nothing else.

What is the significance of this behavior?

Furthermore, how did that person infiltrate the database?

Just as Kevin was about to discuss things further with Elysia, he suddenly turned his head, his eyes fixed on the deepest part of the corridor like an eagle's.

There was no one there.

Kevin felt that for a moment, a gaze had fallen on him.

"What's wrong, Kevin?" Elysia looked in that direction when she saw Kevin's highly alert expression.

Kevin didn't answer her. Instead, he took out his communicator and dialed the monitoring room. "Is Xingcai still in that room?"

"It is still observing the room and has not left."

"..."

Is it just an illusion?