Silver-Tongued / Never-Ending Chatter

...Forest?

"Relax, you guys are going a bit too far." Lin raised his hands with a light laugh to soothe the two people in front of him whose eyes were now completely filled with hostility. "I am Lin, you don't even recognize me, do you?"

"Heh... aside from the striking similarities in feigning innocence and acting like a jerk in certain situations..." Mobius chuckled coldly, then turned to ask, "What do you think?"

Elysia stared at Lin expressionlessly, her expression speaking volumes.

She was friendly to everyone, even those imprisoned in the Deepest Place; she could greet them with a smile.

But she couldn't possibly laugh at an unknown creature that might have taken over her friend's body.

"This is really frustrating... but I have a way to prove it."

Lin shook his finger and said to the suspicious Mobius in a joking tone, "A'She, your period is always in the middle of the month, and it's a little painful."

Mobius paused for a few seconds, then was about to speak, dissatisfied with the nickname "A'She," when her eyelids twitched after hearing the whole sentence.

"... How did you know?"

"Of course I'm keeping track of the time. Do you think that period of your month is when Klein puts jujube tea on your desk?"

After thinking about it carefully, Mobius realized that there was indeed a cup of tea on the table every morning and evening during the period of extreme irritability each month for the past two years, but there didn't seem to be any when Lin went on missions.

"Wait a minute." Elysia was momentarily dizzy from the topic. She stared at Lin and said, "If you are Lin, then you should remember that there is an agreement between me and Lin."

"... Oh, sorry, it's been so long I forgot. Can I put on my helmet now? By the way, where did my helmet go?"

Elysia could hardly believe that this flippant man was actually the sympathetic Lin, but after hearing her words, he only thought for less than a second before remembering their agreement.

If it wasn't Lin, how would he know the contents of the agreement? If it was Lin, what's wrong with him now? Is it really like Mobius said, that he's suffering from personality splits due to excessive pressure?

Just as Elysia was stuck in a rut of thought, Lin's eyes lit up, and he waved behind them. "Sakura!"

Sakura, who was eavesdropping cautiously, was about to run away when the other person looked over, but was stopped by the other person first. She stiffly stepped out from behind the cover.

For some reason, she recalled the last time she passed by Lin in the lab without exchanging a word.

She hadn't grasped the current situation yet, but judging from what this man said, he was definitely Lin, right?

"It's been a long time! You're back from your mission? You must be exhausted." Just as she was feeling a bit awkward, Lin walked over with a grin and patted her on the shoulder. "Remember when I said I'd visit your house? If there's nothing else, I think we can go now..."

"Huh? Uh..." Sakura's head was spinning. She had never seen Lin so enthusiastic before, and his face was so endearing that she was even a little afraid to look him in the eye. "Um... I can't go back..."

"Why? Oh~ it's because of Rin, right? It's okay, we both have the same C..."

"Smack!"

Mobius slapped Lin across the face to prevent him from saying anything outrageous.

"I was wrong. He's not just being a jerk anymore; he's preparing to become a complete jerk," Mobius said coldly to Elysia.

Chapter Forty-Nine: Eloquent

"For you, it's just going through it again."

Lin licked his dry lips, which were like dried orange peel. With a casual lick, he peeled off some dead skin, and the feeling in his mouth was nauseating.

The heavy rain seemed to be pouring out all the accumulated sorrow onto people's heads, and the frenzied sound played incessantly in their ears.

The one who spoke was Yan Luo. Her long, wet, silvery-white hair clung to her back, and her petite body shivered slightly after being soaked in the rain. She glanced at him with indifferent eyes before looking back at the heavy rain ahead.

The rain at midnight was bleak and indistinct; the smell of burning was overwhelmed by the dampness, but it still lingered in my nostrils.

"Compared to last time, you see things more clearly this time, but in reality, you can't remember what your real parents were like at all. You can't even beautify your memories. They only live in the records... and in an 'inhumane' form."

"The World Bubble is like a bubble; it can disappear at any time, and everything in the World Bubble will disappear with it, so you don't need to care about what happens here."

Yan Luo spoke to Lin casually in her own tone.

"... There is no Honkai threat to humanity here."

Lin looked up, the cool sound of rain sliding down the edge skipping past his ears. He stared at the gray ceiling, and somehow his lips moved. "They became friends this time, without any opposing stances, yet the exact same thing still happened."

Speaker, please present the couple, along with their research materials...

"Because they broke a taboo, something that ordinary humans should never do." Yan Luo's eyelids were heavy, and she rubbed her eyes hard. "For the Speaker, he prevented an event that could have caused global panic and nipped the horrific human modification experiments in the bud. All he paid for was the worthless lives of two mad scientists. They didn't even respect the lives of their own children, so how could they expect others to respect their lives?"

"..."

Even without the Honkai, what has happened cannot be changed.

No, it should be said that precisely because there was no Honkai, those things that were done under the Honkai of Honkai have no cover-up.

It was caused by human beings themselves, not by natural disasters.

So, was this how it was supposed to be?

The deaths of those two people were so natural, so full of righteousness and justice.

"So tired..." Yan Luo could hardly resist the urge to sleep. After a night of running around and fighting, she hadn't felt sleepy in a long time and was now so tired that she simply sat down next to Lin and fell asleep on his lap, turning her head to the side and closing her eyes.

And so I fell asleep without even realizing it.

"..."

A soft snore escaped from her slightly open mouth.

Five seconds after she fell asleep, the door to the escort vehicle was opened from the outside, and a man in a suit walked in without saying a word. He glanced at the peacefully sleeping Yan Luo, and then looked at Lin, who also had no expression.

The speaker already knows how this so-called time traveler came to be.

In the experimental records of those two devilish couples, there was a project to modify children's thinking. They rapidly accelerated Lin's mental age, making him appear to have reached the age of an adult.

"Kobayashi, I have something to tell you."

Lin shook his head at him expressionlessly, then gestured with his eyes that Yan Luo was sleeping before closing his eyes and taking a short rest.

"..."

The speaker neither sighed nor showed disappointment; he merely waited indifferently for a few seconds before leaving again.

Lin listened to the sound of the door closing, his mind blank.

Suddenly, he touched something in his arms.

It was skin and bones, with a somewhat creepy, furry texture.

That was a monkey's paw.

"I don't really understand the issue of thinking either. Does psychology count? I specifically got a PhD in psychology to develop magic."

Vill-V spun around in her swivel chair, fiddling with the magician's hat on her head.

"The instrument checks showed no problems; he was almost too healthy. Actually, the general expectation for Flame-Chaser was that Lin would be at the average level, but the abilities of the Flame-Chaser who successfully underwent surgery far exceeded expectations..."

As she spoke, she drifted off-topic. Mobius pretended not to hear what Vill-V said next and pondered, "As expected, it's still a split personality?"

"Shall we take the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory?" Vill-V asked.

"Given this guy's special condition, I'm afraid even a proper test wouldn't reveal anything."

Mobius raised his chin and looked at Lin, who was getting off the resonator.

In the end, she decided to use a proper examination to see if Lin had any problems. But when he readily agreed, she had already guessed the result. Sure enough, all the tests she could think of were used. The only thing that could be found was that this guy was no different from before. If his sassy mouth could be used as a standard for judgment, she would have picked up a gun and shot him long ago.

For example, right now...

"So you studied psychology, Vill-V? I never would have guessed." Lin casually draped his coat over Vill-V's shoulders and walked behind her, holding the back of her swivel chair. "I always thought your magic was all about talent. I always thought you were a genius."

"Hahaha, Lin, what do you think I am right now?"

"Still a genius, just working even harder."

Vill-V was quite pleased with this flattery. Her thought process was different from most people's; the word "humility" was not in her dictionary.

"However, I think your magic trick was a little off."

"Oh?" Vill-V raised her head in confusion, looking at Lin's chin.

He lowered his head and smiled, "Your beauty surpasses your magic. Like Venus without her arms, anyone would be drawn to your charm first."

"..."

Seeing Vill-V standing there in a daze, Mobius sighed and rubbed his forehead in exasperation.

This Lin... this guy is so eloquent. He can talk so much that he can break through the defenses of a female engineering student who has been holed up in the Spiral Workshop with just a few words. He has chatted up countless people along the way, both men and women. His 37° smile and sweet talk that hit the nail on the head almost made him fall for her tricks.

What's even more infuriating is that his face is so appealing that it's impossible to feel any dislike for him at first glance.

Lin used to be a cold and aloof mission-oriented guy who didn't interact with anyone at all, but now the contrast is huge...

"Forest?"

At that moment, another figure entered the Spiral Workshop, her mechanical female synthesized voice uttering a questioning sound.

Lin turned around and greeted him with a perfect smile, "Isn't this my good friend Prometheus...?"

"Bang!"

Prometheus suddenly punched Lin in the face without any mercy.

Chapter 50 Incessant Chatter (Bonus Chapter)

Yan Luo hates looking at the sea. She is not the kind of person who can calmly gaze at the ocean. Even when the sea is calm, she will only pay attention to the tides.

She couldn't see the clear blue sky or the still, mirror-like sea.

Sometimes I feel like we're living in a dream world~

Hearing the sweet sigh behind him, Yan Luo hugged one knee, put the other foot off the deck, and stared at the world's zero point without turning around.

"Among the planets in the solar system, only Earth has deep oceans, vast skies, solid ground, and... beautiful people. It's like a paradise that has been depicted."

A paradise on earth?

There is a terrifying paradise that seems like a natural disaster, with wave after wave of people preparing to wipe out all of humanity.

Exorbitant taxes are more ferocious than tigers, but now the tiger has devoured the bureaucrats and is preparing to enter the city and wreak havoc.

"Perhaps there are countless 'paradises' in that starry sky." Yan Luo lowered his eyes. "Our specialness is only based on the fact that we can only observe the limits of our cognition. Earth is neither special nor wonderful to the entire universe."

"But it's precisely because we live here that it's so wonderful~"

"...boring."

Yan Luo dislikes such subjective statements, as if everything can be explained by emotions, and that as long as one fights for the beauty and ideals in one's heart, one can unleash infinite power.

If everything could be accomplished solely through the power of "love," then those who died in battle, those who perished on the path of progress, those pioneers... they died with love for humanity, yet their deaths were utterly worthless, unnoticed, and even their bodies could not be recovered.

In the end, all they did was shout "I love to die!"

My heart has grown cold.

"One day, I will prove it to you."

"What are you looking at?"

"Humanity, love, and... hope."

Yan Luo turned around and saw Yingying smiling.

"..."

When Yan Luo opened his eyes, he saw Lin's face, who was sleeping peacefully. Lin had been sleeping in that position all night, and Yama had spent the night on Lin's lap.

Perhaps sensing the change in his legs, Lin also woke up from his sleep. After exchanging glances with Yan Luo, he tacitly looked away.

"Where are you now?" Yan Luo's powder puff face still showed traces of sleep, but her expressionless face, as if her nerves were dead, gave no hint of allure.

The carriage was shaking, indicating that they were still being transported.

"I don't know." Lin could sense through his senses that the vehicle's direction was changing and complex, as if it were passing through a maze-like place. "... That thing should happen next."

"Being used as an experimental subject...?"

Lin Duo glanced at Yan Luo, who was muttering to himself.

Knowing even this, Yan Luo truly knows everything about his life.

This time, however, he wasn't alone; there was also a Yan Luo, his "sister," so what would happen next might be unpredictable.

"Ding-dong."

Suddenly, the two of them trembled and exchanged a puzzled look.