I Am Not a Herrscher Chapter 3

"Yes."

"Hey, wait a moment, Captain... wouldn't it be too much to have member Lin be solely responsible for clearing half the area..." A much weaker voice made Lin, who was about to act, pause. She seemed so nervous that she spoke haltingly, "He and I are both newcomers. Wouldn't it be better if we went together..."

The mature female voice responded teasingly, "Oh, little Hun, you're worried about Lin, aren't you? Don't worry, Lin had already participated in many Honkai Beast exterminations before you joined the team."

The softer female voice tried to explain in a panic, "Huh? No, I meant..."

"Member Hun."

Lin didn't want to listen to them argue about trivial matters. He stopped Hun from continuing. After a simple breathing cycle, he exhaled and said, "I have experience with several solo missions, while you have no mission experience yet. It's best for you to learn by staying by the Captain's side."

"..." There was no sound from the other end, only the muffled sound of the Captain trying to suppress a laugh.

Lin shook his head. Ever since he'd known her, he felt that this colleague, who joined the team after him, was weak-willed yet exceptionally noisy, and overly concerned with things outside of missions.

Especially her extreme attention to trivial matters reminded him of that pink-haired woman who always seemed to "accidentally" show up. Lin found himself impatiently walking around her.

He pushed aside those useless thoughts and immersed himself in the mission. After loading the firearm on his back, he pressed a button on the side of his helmet, and a massive amount of information flooded his visual display.

[Jump Gear activated]

Lin leaped from the high platform. His display had already locked onto the three closest Mortals. Before he even landed, he pulled the trigger, blowing their heads off like watermelons amidst the gun's recoil.

"Mission start."

"Bang!"

Upon landing, Lin immediately pulled out the Sonar Detector from his waist and smashed it against the wall behind him. His vision was now overlaid with additional data, showing the movements of all Honkai Beasts and Mortals around him.

"Tap tap tap..."

He raised his flame-spewing gun, his modified firearm tearing apart the bodies of these ordinary Mortals. He methodically chose the order of kills, aiming to eliminate multiple Mortals at once to conserve ammunition while dealing with targets most efficiently.

In the blink of an eye, the surrounding Mortals fell like wheat stalks. The commotion he caused quickly drew a response from the monster's nest.

While reloading, a piece of data flashed across his screen. Lin glanced at it and reflexively leaped, his right Grappling Hook Device shooting out. Combined with the Jetpack on his back, he was instantly propelled forward as if flying.

A second after he shot out, the wall behind him was shattered by a Honkai Beast from within with a deafening roar. A foul-smelling maw let out a deafening, distorted roar.

Simultaneously, a swarm of small, winged Honkai Beasts poured out of the breach, charging rapidly towards Lin in mid-air.

Lin swung to another wall, using his Jetpack to "run" extremely nimbly along the wall towards the Chariot-class Honkai Beast that was clearly the leader. In his tightly clenched left hand, the fuse of a grenade had already been pulled.

At times like these, Lin couldn't help but recall some of the useless discussions within MOTH.

Most Mortals and lower-level Honkai Beasts were transformed humans. So, when they killed these "monsters," were they freeing them, or were they self-righteously taking their lives?

Lin labeled these discussions as boring.

Regardless of any moral, philosophical, or biological arguments, when these creatures prepared to take human lives, all debates about whether they deserved to live seemed utterly pointless.

And Lin never hesitated to pull the trigger on them.

This was what he lived for.

"Bang!"

This meat grinder continued until dusk. Only after detecting that there were no more Mortals or Honkai Beasts within the entire sealed area did Lin, dragging his empty gun and his tactical knife stained with blood and grease, return to the handover point.

"A-rank area cleared. Requesting logistics team takeover. Squad Five returning."

After boarding the transport aircraft, Lin closed his eyes with slight fatigue and dozed off briefly.

Logistics personnel, as they passed by the transport vehicle, would glance at the man whose face they couldn't see with a mixture of awe and fear.

A superhuman in a helmet, hunting Honkai Beasts and Mortals day and night, even single-handedly exterminating high-level Honkai Beasts from the Second Honkai War. In the mere few months since Lin joined MOTH, these rumors had already spread.

His entire body was clad in specialized equipment that would likely fall apart if used by an ordinary person. Especially his helmet. Ordinary equipment was designed to simplify complex information for soldiers to fight more easily. However, his helmet crammed all the detailed, massive amounts of information into his head for him to analyze and process personally.

This greatly increased his combat efficiency, but for anyone else, let alone processing the information, simply acting normally would be a problem.

Furthermore, he was cold and aloof, never interacting with anyone outside of missions, as if he were just a robot programmed to fight Honkai.

"Beep—"

A communication alert sounded from inside his helmet, connecting to his phone. Lin opened his eyes, glanced at the name on the visual display, and silently answered.

"..."

"..."

A long, suffocating silence.

Lin never imagined that one day he would be on the phone with his friend, unsure of where to begin.

Kevin hesitantly spoke first, "Lin, are you okay?"

"..."

Am I okay?

Lin glanced at the blood and bodily fluids of unknown Honkai Beasts or Mortals clinging to the inside of his arm. Even after a round of cleaning upon his return, they still hadn't washed off completely. He was utterly exhausted, his overworked brain buzzing internally.

He withdrew his gaze, which had momentarily blurred, and looked at the name on the screen, replying faintly, "I'm fine."

Just living on the edge of life and death every day.

Hearing Lin respond to him, Kevin breathed a sigh of relief. "Oh, really? That's good."

Lin asked, "...What did you need me for?"

Kevin paused for a moment, then stammered, "N-nothing..."

He just wanted to ask about his old friend, whom he hadn't contacted in a long time. He wanted to know how Lin was doing, where he went after dropping out of school, and what he was doing now.

But the words caught in his throat, and he swallowed them back. Lin's expression when he left was still vivid in his mind, making him realize that even if he asked, he wouldn't get an answer.

Lin was silent for a few seconds, guessing Kevin's thoughts. He recalled his past voice and adjusted his tone, asking as gently as possible, "How are you and Mei?"

Kevin's eyes lit up when Lin brought up Mei. He poured out his story like a waterfall. "Heh heh, we go out together all the time now. She invites me to her lectures and academic seminars, though I don't understand any of it..."

"Is that so? That's great. Keep it up, Kevin." Lin's brows softened slightly, and he offered a sincere blessing.

Then, his tone turned icy cold. "I have work to do on my end, so I'm hanging up now."

"Huh? Wait, Lin—" The sudden shift caught Kevin off guard, and all he heard was the prolonged dial tone.

"..."

Lin looked up in silence, glancing back at the red-haired woman watching him with amusement, and the girl next to her with multicolored streaks in her hair, who was flustered by Lin's gaze.

These two had likely been watching for a while.

The tall, red-haired woman was Himiko, the captain of Squad Five and Lin's superior. The captains in MOTH were top-tier fighters among the soldiers, and she was no exception.

In fact, given Lin's achievements in defeating Emperor-class Honkai Beasts during the Second Honkai War and his performance as a mission expert, he should have been promoted to squad captain soon. However, he was still a rookie, and for various reasons, he was temporarily assigned to Himiko's squad.

The girl with blue-purple streaks on the inside and black on the outside was Seele. She joined slightly later than Lin. She was quite shy and introverted but also very talented.

"Mmm... 'That's great. Keep it up, Kevin~'." Himiko pinched her throat and mimicked Lin's encouraging tone in a high-pitched voice. Seele, meanwhile, looked back and forth between the mischievous captain and the silent senior, looking a bit lost.

Lin: "..."

"Ahaha, Lin, you actually said something like that? I thought you only used filler words like 'Oh,' 'Ah,' and 'Hmm' when talking to people outside of missions." Himiko laughed heartily, pointing at Lin, almost rolling on the ground. The face inside Lin's helmet turned as black as coal.

Seeing that the captain's unrestrained teasing seemed to displease Lin, Seele weakly explained, "Um, Squad Member Lin, we just accidentally..."

"Who's that Kevin? Your good friend? Our headless knight actually has friends?" Himiko's laughter was as hearty as her personality. She hooked her arm around Lin's neck and pestered him with a sly grin.

Lin dodged her embrace with a swift movement, twisting his helmet coldly. He didn't answer her question and turned to her, saying, "Captain, outside of missions, I say one more word besides filler words."

"Oh? Which word?"

"It's one I often use when dealing with a woman, and I think it's applicable to the current situation."

Lin stared at the smiling Himiko and said with chilling coldness—

"Scram."

Chapter 3 Lin Can't Do Anything About Elysia

The transport plane glided smoothly through the clouds.

Lin was an extremely boring person. His life consisted only of missions and training. His original life had nothing to do with Honkai, yet he actively fought against it more than most people in MOTH.

These were Himiko's words to Seele today. She glanced hesitantly at Lin, who was meticulously maintaining a handgun opposite them.

Seele had seen this handgun before. It was standard MOTH equipment. Lin always carried it with him and maintained it meticulously, yet he had never used it.

"Squad Member Lin, why did you want to join MOTH?" Seele thought she should build a good relationship with her squad members, as they might have to fight side-by-side for a long time in the future.

Himiko, stimulated by Lin's blunt words, also turned her head to look at Lin, who had stopped his actions. She was also quite curious why an ordinary person from a humble background would want to join MOTH.

"..."

"..."

Lin's silence was well-known, but since he had stopped what he was doing, it meant he wasn't ignoring the question, just contemplating how to answer.

After a long while, a muffled voice came from inside Lin's helmet: "And why did you?"

"I... My parents are researchers in MOTH. I was detected to have relatively strong Honkai Energy Adaptability, and I also want to help them..."

A considerable number of people in MOTH joined because they were affected by the Honkai, but there were also many like Seele. For her, fighting the Honkai might just be about killing zombie monsters, and it would be a way to help her parents.

"As for me... everyone needs a goal in life, right?" Himiko chuckled self-deprecatingly, a nostalgic light in her eyes.

Lin simply responded with an "Oh" to their reasons and then lowered his head to meticulously wipe the gun barrel.

"..."

The scene was silent for a few seconds before Himiko snapped back from her memories and asked in confusion, "Then what about you?"

Lin finished wiping the gun oil and stared at the dark gun barrel, pointing directly at his own forehead, as if a bullet could be fired at any moment, piercing his helmet and his brain.

"I want to find the truth."

He said this cryptic sentence and then fell silent.

As the MOTH headquarters, built on the sea, came into view in the shimmering sunrise, Lin heard Seele sigh in relief. Perhaps it felt like coming home.

When Lin looked at Himiko, she was looking at him with an expression of great interest.

Lin understood that look. He had seen a similar expression on a green-haired researcher who had given him a physical examination. They had likely viewed him as rare research material, but after a round of tests, their interest had waned.

He personally witnessed the woman known as Doctor Mobius's eyes glow with an increasingly strange light during the test, reaching a peak where she seemed desperate to pounce on him and slice him to pieces. Her expression changed instantly, like finding half a fly in a cake halfway through eating it.

At that moment, Lin vaguely guessed at the outcome; receiving the report merely confirmed his suspicions.

Lin had initially thought this mission was to help the new Squad Five gel, but now it seemed it was just another "test."

He believed that soon, his latest combat report would be placed alongside a cup of coffee on the desk of some MOTH executive interested in him.

He hoped they wouldn't spit their coffee onto the report when they saw the section on Honkai Energy Adaptability.

"Want to grab a drink after you shower?"

A drink?

Lin glanced at the rising sun just emerging from the sea level, wondering which country considered it customary to hold a wine bottle first thing in the morning.

He shook his head, and Himiko shrugged, pulling Soul along as she left first.

"Looks like he has a date."

Lin had never heard of unilaterally blocking someone's path being considered a "date."

Seeing the pink-haired girl standing at the entrance with a smile, as if she had been waiting for a long time, Lin sighed subtly and shook his head, preparing to walk past her.

Tap.

His vision flickered, and the smiling girl was suddenly in front of him again.

"..."

He shifted his feet.

She blocked him.

He shifted his feet again.

She blocked him.