Error / Closing In

The chair, which was supporting the weight of three people, groaned in pain.

"I mean, you go and drive one yourself..." Lin stared at the back of her head.

"If I don't play, I won't keep others from playing."

Why does this conversation sound so familiar?

The mechanical girl leaned against Lin's chest, rested her head on the side where Elysia wasn't, closed her eyes, and began to sleep... or perhaps undergo routine maintenance?

Lin sighed again at their refusal to communicate. After thinking for a moment, he took off his coat and covered the two girls with it.

Nothing gained...

Lin closed his eyes to rest amidst the surrounding sounds of typing and noisy conversations.

Before leaving, Yan Luo didn't explain much about the "future," perhaps because she had tried many times to change the course of fate by informing Lin from other worlds, but each time she failed.

But the person who took over his body also seemed to know about the "future," and in the text he left for Mobius, there was a sentence that Lin found very interesting.

"I don't know if giving these to you will cause further changes to the Honkai..."

This will cause further... changes in the Honkai...

Lin had known for a long time that Honkai seemed to change and evolve itself according to the situation of humans, and could this be the reason why Yan Luo always failed?

Even if one can know the future, one cannot escape the control of the Honkai. If one responds based on the known future, it will cause even more unbelievable and dangerous consequences.

Therefore, neither of them told the other about the upcoming large-scale Honkai.

No... if there's a next time, he definitely will...

Lin opened his eyes, and his dark eyes behind his sunglasses instantly fixed on the approaching waiter. The terrifying gaze that pierced through the sunglasses made the waiter's hand freeze in mid-air.

"Um... you're awake..." The waiter smiled awkwardly. The internet cafe was quiet, most people had left, and it was almost six o'clock. The waiter faced Lin's scrutinizing gaze with unease.

So there are people whose gaze can be felt without even looking into your eyes... It's like a knife, so terrifying...

Lin glanced down. Elysia was still fast asleep. Prometheus... um... could Prometheus sense the outside world during this maintenance period?

"What is it?" Lin asked calmly.

"N-nothing, I just came to tidy up the tables. Actually, the restaurant has private rooms, or..."

The private rooms here don't refer to the five-seater booths in internet cafes, but rather small rooms with living facilities, beds, and even showers, similar to a small hotel. They are much cheaper than hotels and offer a high degree of privacy.

Some people with severe internet addiction, or young couples who like to seek thrills, especially love it.

"No need." Lin shook his head, still staring at the waiter, so much so that the waiter took a step back in fright.

"Then, then I'll go get you a blanket!"

Before Lin could answer, the waiter rushed to the backstage and brought out a blanket. As he passed the front desk, he thought for a moment and also poured himself a drink and brought it over.

"Give."

Lin stared silently at the waiter, swallowing nervously, but thankfully he still accepted the blanket.

After placing the drinks on the table, the waiter quickly fled backstage.

The waiter breathed a sigh of relief after entering the backstage area. The oppressive gaze from Lin had almost made his blood vessels burst, but thankfully...

He glanced at something on the ground out of the corner of his eye, then reached out to pick it up...

"Bang!"

His head slammed against the wall with a loud thud; he cried out in pain as his head was struck hard, but soon he could barely make any other sound.

An arm as strong as steel gripped his neck and slammed him against the wall. He painfully reached out to pry open the face of the person gripping him, tearing off the sunglasses from their face.

"Smack."

The sunglasses made a sound as they hit the ground.

The waiter's face turned red. The feeling of suffocation made his brain lack oxygen. He opened his bloodshot eyes with difficulty and glanced at the person in front of him.

Within a pair of murderous black eyes, a faint, ominous emerald green lingered, emitting an eerie glow in the darkness.

"You..."

Lin didn't give him a chance to speak, his face suddenly close to the waiter's, and he asked sharply, "Who are you?"

At their feet lay another... internet cafe employee.

Chapter Ninety-Eight Error

Although Lin hadn't been to an internet cafe for many years, he still remembered those things very clearly.

How could a waiter work both the morning and evening shifts at the same time? You know, internet cafes are open 24 hours a day, so the waiters must take turns on duty. But this person was there when they came looking for him at noon and was on duty until the morning.

And he probably thought he was being discreet, but Lin still discovered that he had added some powder to the drink.

He could see this person's information clearly by simply checking the database of the Fire Moth through the helmet. He even knew the exact date when he secretly glanced at the girl he had a crush on. But why would such an ordinary person, whose resume showed absolutely no problems, knock out his colleague, pretend to be a waiter on duty, and even drug his drink?

"Gurgle... Ugh..."

Lin saw the man's initially panicked eyes tremble slightly after he saw through his deception, and then...

"Hee hee hee hee hee hee... Hahahaha... Hee hee hee hee..."

He smiled.

He let out an indescribable, eerie laugh, his mouth stretching into a terrifying arc, as if his cheeks had been torn apart.

He completely disregarded the fact that he was still being held by Lin, and frantically waved his hands and feet, like a mad believer who had seen his god.

This is not a state that a normal person might be in.

Lin frowned and choked the waiter unconscious before he could let out an even more indescribable scream.

Looking at the waiter lying on the ground, and the lingering maniacal smile on his lips, Lin felt as if he were in a fog, gazing at the unknown and gloomy future ahead.

"This person's brainwaves are abnormal."

The person in charge stated the results of the examination. He was very dissatisfied with the results, his eyebrows furrowed like a tuft of caterpillars. "When you first brought him back, his brain waves were at a high level even when he was unconscious. But when we started examining him, the excitability of his brain waves dropped rapidly and had been stable for an hour."

"And now... hehe... see for yourself."

The person in charge handed the report to Lin, who remained silent after reading its contents.

This person is in the exact same state as the victims of the "1:15 video".

But Lin kept him under strict surveillance after knocking him unconscious and bringing him back. He didn't wake up, and there was no way he could have accessed a phone or computer. How did he...?

Lin suddenly remembered something. He opened the internet cafe surveillance footage he had retrieved on the screen inside his helmet, and went back to 1:15 a. m., stopping at the moment when the student fell unconscious.

His gaze slowly shifted from the students to behind him.

The waiter was right behind him at that moment... Although his facial features were not visible, he must have glanced at the screen as he passed by.

"Should I congratulate us on finally making some progress?" the person in charge muttered, almost self-deprecatingly.

He didn't immediately fall into a coma after watching the video; instead, he remained active for several days before taking action when someone came to investigate the incident...

Was his attack on them motivated by his own will? It seems unlikely; his final, frenzied actions were a far cry from his previous character.

Does that mean everyone who watched the video could hide as a normal person instead of falling into a coma like him?

If so, then the strangeness of this incident is probably far beyond imagination.

How many people were pretending to be normal while watching the video? Who is distributing the video? Could the person who is already unconscious undergo a personality change like the waiter, or even wake up again and start causing trouble?

And most importantly... how exactly can one do this with a video recording that shows less than two seconds of footage? Even the almost omnipotent Honkai Energy cannot explain how this phenomenon is achieved.

It can't be some kind of ultimate despair video, can it?

"Yawn... You were sleeping so soundly." Elysia, who was next to Lin, yawned. "I just noticed today that you have a really nice scent. You can't smell it at all unless you get very close."

"... Does it?" Lin couldn't smell any odor on himself when he had his sense of smell.

Elysia rubbed her eyes and chuckled, "I can't smell some of my own scent."

Lin neither confirmed nor denied that there was indeed such scientific verification.

"Alright, where are we going to investigate this case, Detective?"

"School."

"School?"

Lin nodded. "That student had friends with him when he was unconscious."

In other words, the closest witnesses at the time, besides the waiter, were the victim's friends.

Lin now wants to know more about what happened at that moment; perhaps the problem isn't with the video itself.

Since Prometheus wasn't needed this time, only Lin and Elysia came to the school, which wasn't far from the previous internet cafe.

Yesterday was a holiday, and most of the students who came to school today looked listless and lethargic, clearly suffering from holiday syndrome. Lin quickly found the person he was looking for.

This male student looked much like the others, with dark circles under his eyes and a listless demeanor, but the fear in his eyes revealed that the reason for his listlessness was different from the others.

"Snow?"

The male student stopped in his tracks, looking bewildered at the two people blocking his way. One was wearing a black hat, black glasses, and a black mask, while the other had his face half-covered by a hood, making them look very suspicious.

"We need to talk to you about something."

"Who... who are you? Don't come any closer, this is a school."

As mentioned earlier, the male student was not mentally stable. He looked at the two of them in fear, and his feet began to pound as if he wanted to run away.

But after Lin Cong his shirt pocket and showed it to the male student, all the misunderstandings were cleared up.

How much do you know about what happened that day?

Lin sat on a stone bench in the school park, looking quite serious, and took out a pen and paper, looking at the anxious male student.

However, he seemed more concerned about Elysia, who was sitting with him idly blowing bubble gum. Would a police officer be so... casual when handling a case?

"Never mind her, she's my assistant," Lin said calmly. "Let's get back to the case."

"Ah... um..."

The male student nervously twisted his fingers on the stone table, dappled shadows falling on his face. He didn't speak directly, but seemed to be deep in thought, looking very conflicted.

But Lin wasn't in a hurry; he waited for the male student to speak up.

"I...saw it."

His first words made Lin frown.

Chapter Ninety-Nine Approaching

Lin exhaled a puff of cold, misty air, checked the contents of the notes one last time, then closed the notes and put them into his jacket pocket.

Since Lin wanted to know everything about what happened that day, he asked him to start from when the two of them went to the internet cafe after school and recount the whole process, including any unusual things he noticed while playing games.

Many details led Lin to some speculations, but the most noteworthy thing was what he said.

"I... saw it." His expression was ambiguous, and he bit his lower lip after saying this.

"What did you see?" Lin asked, deliberately guiding him.

"When I saw him collapse onto the keyboard..." His hands trembled slightly as he clutched his head, his pupils contracted, his breathing became rapid, and his still somewhat immature face was filled with panic. "He was... he was smiling... He didn't actually faint immediately like those rumors said... I'm pretty sure he was staring at me and smiling at that moment..."

"He was like a completely different person... I felt like he was going to pounce on me and bite me to death any second! Yes! He was going to bite me to death! The look in his eyes couldn't be human!"

"I! I! I..." he stammered, his hands flailing unconsciously in the air, the confusion in his eyes spreading across his pupils.

"Okay, that's enough."

A powerful yet calm voice pierced through his confusion, leaving him stunned.

Lin tapped the table with his pen, making a clanging sound, "Let's skip this part for now and start from when you get out of school."

After listening to the whole story and asking a few questions, Lin let him go.

Sure enough... he didn't faint immediately, and seemed like a completely different person...

He looked up, squinting at the dense foliage, which withered and turned yellow in this season of approaching winter, falling one by one from the branches.