Are You Going to Betray Your Friends? Are Your Friends Going to Betray You? / Who Will Play the Villain?

Just as Lin was about to tell Qianqi to leave first, the lights in the entire room suddenly...

It disappeared.

Everything before them, including Qianqi, was plunged into darkness.

Lin could hear his and Qianqi's breathing, which became more rapid and intense during this terrifying incident.

At that moment, Lin's breath hitched.

He heard the breathing of a third person.

"Bass!"

Lin instinctively drew his dagger with his right hand and slashed upwards at Qianqi's back. A sharp clang rang out, and a few sparks lit up the scene for a moment.

Couldn't... see clearly?

Lin had clearly seen the attacker's face at that moment, but after the light faded, the clear memory quickly blurred, and the memory of the attacker's appearance vanished in an instant.

He immediately activated the helmet's night vision function, but due to his loss of color vision, all he could see were large, writhing black and white patches.

But that's enough.

Lin placed his left hand on the holster at his waist. Without drawing the gun, he simply gripped the handle and pulled the trigger.

The bullets whistled out, but what the opponent did in the next second was truly eye-opening.

They also pulled out a dagger.

Then, from Lin's perspective, He swung his dagger and cleaved all three bullets that were in a line at once.

This kind of action?

Such a swift reaction and perfect angle clearly indicate that the opponent is also a battle-hardened warrior.

"Lin?!" Qianqi panicked at this moment. She heard a loud bang explode in her ear, the strong wind stung her face, and a terrifying killing intent rushed straight to her back.

Before Lin could respond, she threw out a grappling hook to try and entangle the attacker's trouser leg, but the attacker easily dodged it.

He wanted to run away!

Lin immediately sensed the attacker's intentions. Just as he was about to give chase, the attacker, who had retreated to the doorway, suddenly turned around, and the sound of a gun being cocked was crisp and clear.

Attack Lin? No, that's not right.

He turned and stood in front of Qianqi, gripping the dagger in reverse—

"Bang bang bang!"

Three bullets tore through the darkness and hurtled toward the two men. Based on what he had overheard, Lin drew his dagger.

Lin knew very well that it was impossible to gather all the useful information by relying solely on hearing.

"Bass!"

The two bullets were sliced open and passed by Lin on both sides.

"Puff--"

In the darkness, a long silence fell.

Qianqi trembled as she gradually adjusted to seeing in the dark and saw a human-shaped silhouette blocking her view.

"Forest?"

"... Hmm." Lin's voice was calm and steady, and there seemed to be nothing unusual about it.

She gasped for breath, her legs gave way, and she collapsed to the ground. Her pupils dilated and contracted uncontrollably as she clutched her chest, hearing her heart pounding in her throat.

It was attacked.

The mastermind behind this has discovered their investigation and just now tried to kill her, the hacker who might be able to recover the data.

Like a venomous snake lurking in the darkness, it stretched out its fangs.

"Aren't you hurt?"

Qianqi nodded with difficulty, swallowed hard, and said, "And you?"

"... It seems he's been shot."

"You, you, you... hurry up and get to the Medical Department!"

When Qianqi heard that Lin Zhong had fired a shot, she was so frightened that she almost lost her soul. At that moment, the overhead lights came back on, and she saw Lin looking down at his abdomen, with a large pool of bright red blood dripping from between his fingers.

"You really got shot..." Qianqi rushed to Lin's side, feeling helpless and wanting to do something to help him, but not knowing what to do. "Can you still walk?"

"... I'm fine."

Lin calmly shook his head. This kind of injury was only a minor one compared to the injuries he had suffered before. Besides, he was no longer in excruciating pain and hadn't felt the bullet hit him at all.

"This is hardly nothing... I'm so sorry, I..." Qianqi's eyes widened, tears welling in them. Lin was shot while protecting her; if Lin were to die...

Lin stared at the shape of his wound. "Could you find the attacker's bullet?"

"What time is it..."

"Hurry up."

Lin raised his head seriously. "I need to confirm the bullet type."

Chapter 143 Are You Going to Betray Your Friends? Are Your Friends Going to Betray You?

"You really are a mess. Everything in your personal information is correct. It's a complete miracle that you've survived this long."

With her hands on her hips, Qianqi regained her usual composure, her brows furrowed as she stared at Lin, who was receiving stitches.

The bullet pierced Lin's waist but didn't damage his internal organs, which was fortunate; all that was needed was disinfection and stitching up the wound.

"Where's the bullet?" Lin nodded to the nurse who had finished stitching up and bandaging his wound, then turned to Qianqi and asked.

"We've found them all, including the one that wounded you. I'm not very familiar with guns, but to me, all these bullets look the same."

Qianqi was right. The bullets she brought back, including the five bullets that had been cut open, were all of the same caliber, as Lin could tell at a glance.

This made Lin close his eyes and take a deep breath.

"What's wrong? It's normal for the bullets to be the same, after all, soldiers use the same equipment, right?" Qianqi asked, puzzled, seeing that Lin seemed a little preoccupied.

"...The standard-issue pistols used by soldiers no longer use solid bullets." Lin took out his pistol, which was already chipped of its paint, and slammed it on the table. "Pistols that use this caliber of bullets have also been phased out."

"What's the meaning?"

"..."

The attackers wanted to throw dirty water on him.

The other party was someone who knew Lin very well, or at least knew that Lin was still using this pistol.

"What? Fine, don't tell me then." Qianqi noticed Lin's silence, pursed her lips, and turned her head away indifferently.

On the bright side, we now have a clue: the mastermind is someone close to him, or at least someone connected to him, which narrows down the scope of suspicion.

But Lin was not happy at all.

"By the way, I checked the surveillance footage again afterwards and found that the part where we were attacked was still interfered with, in the same way. It's so strange. If Prometheus Unit 2 hadn't done it personally, how could they have interfered with the surveillance so quickly?"

This also includes the fact that the lighting in the monitoring center was turned off and then restored after the attacker left, which all indicate that the attacker could freely manipulate the headquarters' systems.

"... Let's go."

"Hey, wait a minute! Aren't you going to rest for a bit longer?"

Qianqi's expression was unpredictable; she couldn't quite figure Lin out.

Lin's words were actually half true and half false. As a Social Engineering expert, even if she couldn't tell which of Lin's words were sincere, she could guess that he wasn't telling the truth.

So, she was the same.

When a person puts on a mask, they become another person, and by wearing different masks, they can become different people.

But Lin's instinctive act of blocking her way, to be honest, Qianqi felt...

That's so stupid.

This isn't some kind of tsundere or hypocritical act; the only word Qianqi can think of to describe Lin is "stupid."

When a rational person acts on impulse, it's easy to tell how unintelligent that person is, without needing to say much.

It's pointless to ask why Lin stood in front of her now.

Do you have a clue?

To everyone's surprise, Lin stopped listening to this. He first observed the surrounding environment, then pulled Qianqi into a room next door.

Before they knew it, they had arrived outside Lin's room.

"I hope you can do me a favor." Lin roughly pressed her against the wall and made his request in an unquestionable tone.

"Huh? What are you talking about? Aren't I helping you right now?" Qianqi cried out in pain in secret, but still put on a fake smile when facing him.

Who wants to help you, you idiot?

In her view, all those who chase after the flame are neurotic, and Lin is the most eccentric one among them, a severely neurotic person who should be locked up in the intensive care unit and monitored 24 hours a day.

From the very beginning, she only wanted to come to the Moth Chaser for fun, to see what kind of people these self-proclaimed protectors of humanity were. As expected, they were a group of extremists and traumatized individuals.

She stood on high ground, inwardly mocking and enjoying the farce these guys were putting on. As she had said before, "conspicuous ordinariness" was the best way to hide one's true intentions.

In reality, she doesn't care what happens to humanity; her suicide attempts are irrelevant to her. "Wanting to protect humanity" is just the first layer of her disguise, a facade that's easy to spot.

The second layer of disguise is the fear of becoming a serial killer in the future. Qianqi doesn't care whether she will kill everyone in the headquarters in the future.

Qianqi only wanted to play a certain "role," and the Moth Chaser was the perfect place for it. Here, everything was far removed from reality, and everyone acted like a wound-up toy, following some strange pattern—illusory, ethereal, and exhilarating...

Name, identity, stance—none of these matter.

Whether "Qianqi" is a good person or a bad person, normal or strange, what does it matter? In any case, even her name is fake.

"I hope you can try to put in a good word with Kevin."

"..."

Qianqi picked at her ears, making sure she hadn't misheard; Lin had indeed told her to test Kevin.

"Wait a minute, let me calm down." Qianqi stopped Lin, holding her head and standing there for a few seconds, then glanced at Lin with a subtle expression. "Are you doubting Kevin?"

Lin stated frankly, "Yes."

"... That can't be right, why would you suspect Kevin?"

"Because all the clues so far correspond to Kevin."

Lin even suspected that Mei was Kevin's accomplice.

Kevin meets all three conditions: the ability to kill everyone in headquarters, the ability to control headquarters' systems, and the potential for his consciousness to be corrupted. His strength is undeniable, and the ability to control headquarters' systems could easily have been created by Prometheus Unit 2. His consciousness is corrupted...

Side effects of Hypervariable Surgery.

The Hypervariable Surgery itself involves integrating the genes of Honkai Beast into a human body. Anything can happen, and the probability of turning into a monster is over 90%. Even if Kevin succeeds, there is no guarantee that he will not undergo another mutation afterward.

Moreover, Kevin is one of the people who knows him best.

"Then you shouldn't have been able to stop him if he had tried to kill me just now," Qianqi couldn't help but say.

"Disguise, framing."

When Lin saw Kevin and Mei's bodies last time, he assumed they were innocent. However, Vill-V has already refuted this claim. His last memory was completely hazy. Just as the possibility of Qianqi being the murderer is very small, were Kevin and Mei really dead at that time?

Is it really that easy for someone to break the Flame-Chaser's vitality and Kevin's strength?

Are you trying to doubt your friend?

Qianqi lowered his voice and asked Lin.

"Yes."

Lin replied coldly, seemingly devoid of emotion.

Sending a cold-blooded doll that neither cries nor laughs to investigate the dead is a wise choice.

Chapter 144 Who Will Be the Bad Guy?

"... Are you so quick to doubt your own friends?"

"If you think you can get away with something just by having connections, you'll never uncover the truth."