True Lies / Tearless Tears

A baby cries from the moment it is born. Many people think that it is the fear of losing security after leaving the mother's body, but in fact it is just that the chest cavity expands, the lungs open, and the air exhaled after inhaling bursts open the vocal cords, forming a cry-like howl.

Humans are born with the ability to lie, even newborn babies are no exception.

Detecting lies is also a part of interpersonal relationships. Most people don't like others lying to them, but they like to lie to others. This instinct is ingrained in human DNA.

Therefore, when a person exposes her own lies, it often gives people the feeling that "what she says next is the truth," a comfortable feeling of entering a comfort zone.

But is that really... "real"?

Having experienced a near-rebirth-like rewind event, Lin harbors extreme skepticism towards anyone in the enigmatic present.

In particular, Qianqi herself falsified her own information.

Hacking, in essence, is Social Engineering, which is a means of attacking by amplifying the vulnerabilities in people's minds. It is often more sophisticated and insidious than ordinary deception. Therefore, Qianqi, who is proficient in hacking, is also a master of deception.

Even if Lin revealed her secret, how could Qianqi so easily reveal hers?

Could the secret exchange also be a trap to lower his guard?

No... it's completely indistinguishable.

"As for my real name... I'll keep it for now. I think the name Qianqi is quite good; I chose it myself." Qianqi picked up a piece of chewing gum with two fingers, popped it into her mouth, and said indistinctly while chewing, "It comes from your hometown, Lin. After I found out that your hometown is in the Far East, I thought I might as well choose a name from the Far East."

So that's how it is. In other words, she decided to infiltrate the Firemoth after discovering his information in the Firemoth database.

Lin could easily deduce her thoughts: by analyzing a certain amount of data, she would decide what role she needed to play in order to infiltrate the Fire-Chasing Moths unnoticed. This also aligned with Qianqi's description of "conspicuous ordinariness."

"And then... about my past..."

What Lin heard next was an even more bizarre and convoluted story than what he had investigated before.

"In short, that's all. Isn't it a shame? Although it sounds strange, it's nothing compared to organizations like the Fire Moth that hide in the shadows of the world to save humanity. It also has no history of trauma." Qianqi spat out the tasteless gum in her mouth, then stuffed another one in. She smiled helplessly.

The smile contained some complex emotions.

Is she lamenting the insignificance of her past life experiences, making them insignificant after encountering a moth drawn to a flame? Or has she already let go of those experiences and doesn't really care about them anymore?

Which is the real person: the hacker who occasionally reveals mockery and contempt, or the girl who secretly fears the moth drawn to the flame?

... It's also possible that they're all fake.

Lin still couldn't tell the truth from her words. In fact, he wasn't a human lie detector. Even if he could detect a person's heartbeat and breathing rate, he couldn't determine whether a person was lying. Not to mention that once trained, it would be impossible to judge by physical methods.

"Is something terrible happening in Moths of Flame? It's not just the database theft, is it?"

Qianqi's sudden, soft remark caught Lin off guard and struck his chaotic thoughts.

He raised his head, his indifferent gaze sweeping over her, before finally giving a nonchalant nod.

This girl was smarter than he had imagined.

"No matter how much I try to convince myself, you're not the kind of person who would come to me for a heart-to-heart talk, so you suspect I've done something?"

"You've heard of it."

"Yes, in that laboratory, you mentioned 'traveling back' to here."

"... You believe that??"

Even Mobius and Vill-V couldn't believe such an absurd thing. No, even Lin himself couldn't fully accept this story, which resembled a terrifying allegory, as his own experience.

Anyone who is still capable of rational thinking would probably not believe it so easily, right?

I believe it.

"..."

Lin couldn't understand Qianqi at all. Her fickleness, her deception and concealment, and her current sincerity... could they really be the same person?

"So please, Lin, find out the truth and don't make me like that."

A gentle smile played on her lips as she solemnly entrusted the matter to Lin.

"..."

Lin left. A minute ago, he didn't say anything, but he did agree to her request with a slight nod.

Qianqi watched him leave gently, and even after he was gone, she still wore that smile.

"Hehehe..."

Until a "point in time".

The warmth in her smile was replaced by a twisted, cold laugh.

This is a side that wasn't shown in the footage Lin was monitoring.

"He's so stupid it's adorable." Qianqi looked at herself in the full-length mirror on the other side, her reserved smile growing wider and wider. "Even though he sensed that what I said was a lie, he was still willing to grant my request. Has he always been this stupid? It's so interesting."

At this very moment, what appears in the mirror is the hacker who coldly mocks others.

It seems we can already conclude which one is the real Qianqi.

"Dr. Vill-V has been murdered."

The moment Prometheus informed Lin, his brow twitched inside his helmet.

Murdered?

Countless ideas flashed through his mind, but he ruled out the most likely ones, leaving only a few seemingly contradictory possibilities.

This time he went to discuss it with Vill-V. Even if Vill-V didn't completely believe him, she should still be wary.

But why was she killed when Erwin and Pardo were both safe?

Where was she murdered?

"Spiral Workshop".

At that moment, a bolt of lightning struck Lin's heart.

Something vague was quickly taking shape in his mind.

"Don't believe it, Lin."

He recalled that voice that had appeared before.

He had heard of it.

Although the voice was distorted, Lin was certain he had heard it before; it was a familiar voice, and its content was conveying a message to him.

An "impossible" message.

"What about time?"

When Prometheus announced that time, Lin's fist clenched suddenly, and the "gloom" seemed to expand invisibly.

Chapter 140 Tears Without Tears

"You've come, Lin."

Kevin's appearance didn't surprise Lin much; it was Kevin was investigating last time, and it was the same person this time.

"Where is the body?" Lin asked.

Kevin led Lin into the Spiral Workshop. Even though Lin couldn't smell anything, he could guess that it must be filled with the smell of blood.

Compared to the last time when we saw Vill-V's body several hours later, this time it was much "fresher".

Vill-V's incredulous expression froze on her blood-stained face. She must have witnessed something astonishing before she died, lying face down in a pool of blood, seemingly without much struggle.

Having her throat slit wouldn't kill her instantly, but Vill-V clearly didn't intend to suffer a painful death and simply accepted it.

This also made the investigation relatively easy.

The cause of death was the same as last time. In fact, the position of the body and the location of the wounds were exactly the same, with no visible changes. This means that the murderer this time should be the same as last time.

Lin pondered why Vill-V still died, when she should have been the least likely among them to die.

Could it be that the murderer killed Vill-V right after he finished talking to Vill-V?

It's quite possible that Prometheus also brushed past the murderer last time; no sooner had he left than the murderer entered the Spiral Workshop and killed Vill-V.

The timing of Lin's conversation with Vill-V this time might be slightly before the time of her death last time.

In other words... was it unexpected?

However, Lin did not give up. Just like last time, he found the backup plan left by Vill-V. He believed that Vill-V would leave more clues this time!

Lin and Kevin listened as Prometheus played the messages from the Black Box.

"You... so... you were aware..."

"..."

Strangeness?

Lin had Prometheus play it again, slowing it down tenfold so that every syllable could be heard clearly.

But this gave him the greatest sense of "bizarreness" this time.

No change.

The message and Morse Code were exactly the same as last time!

Impossible! Didn't Lin already tell Vill-V the ending and the message she conveyed last time? Why is she conveying the same thing again this time?

Too late? No, it's not a question of whether it's too late or not.

Lin's puzzled gaze slowly shifted from the playing Morse Code to Vill-V's corpse, her genuine "bewilderment" vividly reflected on his retina.

The manner of death, the appearance of death, the time of death, the message left behind... everything was the same.

It was as if he had simply watched the video again.

"Lin?" Kevin's call brought Lin back to his senses, and he forced himself to calm down.

What does "consciousness pollution" mean?

Kevin had also learned of the information that Vill-V had conveyed, but he couldn't understand what it was.

Couldn't you have been a little more direct?

"I don't know, maybe it's to warn us about people whose consciousness has become disordered."

Lin's subconscious answer.

So, whose consciousness will become diseased?

"Is Vill-V dead...?"

After listening to Lin's report, Mei closed her eyes, seemingly lost in thought, and took a deep breath.

The reason Lin came to report was because Kevin had already led the others to begin searching the headquarters of the Firemoth.

Although, based on Lin's "experience," it's certain that there won't be any results.

"Lin, what do you think the motive is?"

"..."

He had already thought about it before Mei posed the question to Lin.

He had already considered what the mastermind's purpose was back then.

Someone who, like the Speaker, seeks change? But seeking change wouldn't mean killing everyone at headquarters. Interests? Impossible. The Fire Moth itself is the world's largest concentration of interests; if the Fire Moth disappears, those interests will collapse as well.

No matter how much you think about it, you can only come to one conclusion in the end.

"There is no... motive."

Killing Erwin, killing Vill-V, killing everyone at headquarters... Lin Cong saw was "meaninglessness".

Just like when Erwin died, the murderer's method of killing was like that of a madman who randomly picked someone to kill.

Therefore, the murderer's sole purpose was to commit meaningless killing.

"The Herrscher..."

Clearly, after Lin and Mei spoke at the same time, their eyes met in the air, and they both thought of the same possibility.