Having Nothing / We Are Friends

Kevin lowered his head and walked around from behind Lin to stand beside him, his voice so low it barely sounded like that cheerful boy.

Lin did not need to look at his expression to know that his face was filled with conflict and pain.

"The surgery is over," he said hoarsely.

"...What was the result?"

"Doctor Spacy's entire left forearm was amputated. He is no longer in danger."

"What about SiZhi?"

"..." Kevin did not answer.

Here it came again.

Lin heard the dead standing behind him, sighing.

Kevin leaned against the filthy, decaying wall, clutching his chest as he gasped for air. The crushing guilt seemed ready to break him. Looking at the silent Lin, he murmured, "Lin, have you been through this many times already?"

"Is this your first time?"

"I..." Kevin raised both hands before his eyes. His black gloves were covered in blood. The image of Lin shooting Karen played over and over before him, making his stomach churn with the urge to vomit.

It should have been him who did it, but Lin had acted before him.

Just like back then, when Lin had resolutely left to protect him, who had known nothing.

He raised his head and looked up at the ceiling. "Lin, is it really right to give up some people in order to save more?"

"No. It is wrong," Lin answered without hesitation.

He turned, his cold helmet facing the lost Kevin. "Kevin, if shooting Mei could save all of humanity, would you do it?"

"I..."

Most of Kevin's confusion vanished in an instant, but what followed was fear—fear of the answer he had reached without even the slightest hesitation.

"There are differences even among minorities, let alone situations where one individual outweighs everyone else. Placing people on a scale and weighing them was a false proposition with no answer from the very beginning."

"I fired only because we had no choice at the time."

And what if he had not fired? Would they have just watched Karen attack them?

"Do not define the value of sacrifice. The moment you do, you have already begun treating humans as objects."

"And no matter how many objects are lost, no one feels heartbroken."

Kevin returned to the rooftop. Lin's words might not have dispelled the confusion in his heart, but Lin believed that Kevin would find his reason to fight by Mei's side.

Being able to protect the majority for the sake of a minority—Lin envied people who could do that. Humanity's greatness was displayed most vividly through them. Their spirit would lead mankind onward, making them those radiant, shining "heroes."

What Lin had told Kevin had long become an unattainable wish when he chose to pull the trigger again and again. He was the wrong person who made the "right choice" for everyone, as he himself had described.

He suddenly raised a hand to his chest.

"Cough, cough..."

Lin loosened the collar of his helmet and spat out the blood in his mouth.

Lin, your body has not fully recovered. Using Burst Mode will worsen the strain on your body. I will lock your armor functions until you have recovered.

In order to break through from the outside and return to the Fifth Branch, Lin had used the newly installed Burst Mode on his Powered Armor midway through. The increase in output had overloaded his body. Fortunately, he had only used it to travel and for a short time. Otherwise, coughing up blood would have been the least of his problems.

"I transferred the authorization to you. You cannot lock my armor," Lin said lightly as he wiped the blood from the corner of his mouth.

"Yes, but I request that you do not use Burst Mode again." Prometheus's voice always appeared so suddenly.

Lin did not respond, merely adding flatly, "Someone has to do it."

He turned to face Hun, who stood there in a daze.

Nothing Left

"Are you all right?"

It was rare for Lin to voice his concern.

He did not really have experience with this sort of thing. Perhaps he should have said something gentler, but the tears that welled from Hun's reddened eyes proved that he had worried too much.

Hun threw her arms around Lin, buried her face against him, and wailed without end.

This time, Lin did not push her away. He gently patted her back, letting her vent that grief.

Her heartrending sobs echoed through the empty building.

The Third Branch's support arrived on schedule. Wearing protective suits, they disembarked from the transport aircraft, first carrying the wounded aboard before splitting into teams of three to clear the ruins of the Fifth Branch.

Personnel below the building had also established a blockade. The news had begun reporting the incident as a "gas pipeline explosion." Before long, public discussion of the event would disappear.

"A total of fourteen people survived at the Fifth Branch. All of them suffered varying degrees of Honkai Energy erosion. The lost data and research are still being counted, but I doubt much can be preserved." Mei removed her surgical gloves and mask, then came over to speak quietly beside Lin.

Lin looked at the motionless Hun. She knelt beside her parents' corpses as though every trace of life had been drained from her body. He closed his eyes and asked, "What are you planning to do?"

"...How will this incident be explained?"

"An attack."

"Then we return to headquarters."

"Headquarters is not completely safe either."

"But at least it will not be 'attacked.'"

At headquarters, there would be no indiscriminate attack like the one at the Fifth Branch. At most, there would be an assassination directed at Mei personally. And with the High Council's checks and balances, it would not leave no trace as this incident had. When that time came, Mei would begin her counterattack.

"What exactly did you and Mobius do?" Lin knew that the cause lay in the plan Mobius had mentioned. In every way, she had implied that Mei was on her side—that they would turn humans into something no longer human for humanity's sake.

"The birth of a Herrscher occurs when Honkai Energy condenses into a Herrscher Core within a human body with extremely high Honkai Energy Adaptability, granting that human authority akin to a natural disaster. This indicates that Honkai Energy itself can grant humans certain additional abilities. It is only the degree of adaptability that determines whether it causes them to collapse or strengthens them."

"You have already reached the pinnacle of what humanity can achieve. If you could use Honkai Energy like a Herrscher, then it would be entirely possible for your combat power to rival one."

Mobius had said the same thing before. Yet the crux of this theory was not the result, but the process.

While pulling up the previous mission briefings and searching for clues between the lines, Lin asked, "How? By using a Herrscher Core?"

"From the First Herrscher through the Third Herrscher, all of them displayed either personality corruption or the emergence of a new personality that replaced the original after obtaining a Herrscher Core. So using a Herrscher Core would only create a new Herrscher. I intend to turn them into weapons against the Honkai."

Weapons...

What a Herrscher Core contained was undoubtedly the authority possessed by a Herrscher. Turning it into a weapon alone would not be enough to fully recreate a Herrscher's power, but without question, it was the best way for humanity to make use of the cores.

"But I have also considered what you mentioned—using a Herrscher Core directly."

"..." Lin was not especially surprised. Mei had always possessed radical, bold ideas, the complete opposite of her serene appearance.

Mei did not continue. Instead, she returned to the previous topic. "Since Herrscher Cores cannot be used, we set our sights on Emperor-class Honkai Beasts, which possess comparable power but no authority. They are all composed of pure Honkai Energy and are highly malleable."

"Fusing Honkai Beasts into human bodies—that is our project."

Mei had referred to herself as "we" throughout those words. Did she mean herself and Mobius, or had even more people already joined this project?

Such a plan was undoubtedly mad and terrifying. Leaving aside the fact that MOTH was already fighting the Honkai, merging humans with Honkai Beasts would draw opposition from certain fundamentalists. And in order to achieve the project's goals, how many people would Mei and the others place on operating tables, never to leave them again—or turn into monsters?

"...When did you first have this idea?" Lin stared deeply at the calm Mei. She casually smoothed down the long hair stirred by the wind.

"The first second I saw a Herrscher's corpse."

So that was why the High Council that had originally invited Mei into MOTH had split into two factions in such a short time.

"Lin, can you kill people?" Mei suddenly asked an inappropriate question, but Lin heard her intentions in her tone.

In the end, the Fifth Branch had been implicated because of her, and Mei could not guarantee that similar incidents would not occur before she gained control of the discourse.

How did one become emperor? Simple. Kill the current emperor.

Out of the corner of his eye, Lin caught sight of someone rising to his feet. He said quietly, "Judging humanity is not my place."

"Then we will choose someone else."

"Mm."

"Aaaaaaah—"

Bang!

A fist slammed into Lin's helmet. The crisp sound of finger bones breaking rang out. Lin, who had not braced himself, was knocked to the ground. Through his visor, he watched the crazed Doctor Spacy ignore his broken right hand, straddle him, raise that hand, and roar as he struck Lin's body.

One punch, then another.

Doctor Spacy's fists could not leave the slightest mark on Lin's armor or helmet, yet his eyes were still bloodshot and his face twisted beyond recognition as he raised his forearm-less left arm and broken right hand, splashing blood across Lin's body.

"It was you! You killed Karen! You!" The words roaring from his mouth were already indistinct. He had bitten through his own lips, and the veins in his face were as thick as chopsticks.

Like a wild beast, he tore at Lin in madness.

Seeing this from a distance, Kevin hurried over to stop him. "Doctor Spacy! Stop!"

"Get out of my way! You monster! You murderer!" Doctor Spacy somehow found the strength to shove Kevin aside. He smashed his head into the front of Lin's helmet, blood streaming from his forehead onto it as his eyes nearly split apart. "You heartless, bloodless killing machine!"

"Do you think you've done another good deed for humanity?! Ptui!"

A mouthful of bloody spit landed on the visor.

"You are only following the program set inside your heart! You are a monster colder than an AI!"

"You have no parents! No lover! No children! You even intend to abandon your friends! You have nothing! You have nothing to lose, so you have no human emotions!"

"Did you hear me?! You have nothing!"

Lin gradually relaxed the muscles in his limbs. The information display inside his helmet vanished, leaving behind only darkness and Doctor Spacy's shrieks.

The collapsing Doctor Spacy grabbed the pistol from Lin's holster, pulled it free, and aimed it at Lin's head.

"Doctor! Stop!" Kevin's eyes widened as he sprinted forward.

"Team Member Lin!" Hun, who had turned around, saw it too.

Lin closed his eyes and waited quietly for the gunshot.

Bang!

We Are Friends

The transport aircraft was as steady as it had been on the way there, but its atmosphere was utterly different from a day earlier—deathly silent, like a morgue.

After venting her emotions, Hun boarded the transport aircraft and fell asleep with unwashed tear stains on her face, lying across Lin's lap. In a single day, she had gone from reuniting with her family to losing them. It was more than someone of her age and experience could bear.

This time, Kevin did not say a word. He looked anxiously at Lin, who had not moved since boarding the aircraft.

"I'm fine."

Lin shook his head calmly at Kevin.

He looked miserable, covered head to toe in blood, but not a single drop belonged to him. Doctor Spacy's attacks had amounted to little more than polishing his outer armor.

But Kevin clearly intended to ask about something else.

"Did you know Doctor Spacy would miss?"

At the final moment, Doctor Spacy had fired without the slightest hesitation. The overflowing hatred had been terrifying, yet the shot had missed Lin. Then Doctor Spacy had passed out once again. He was currently aboard the transport aircraft as well, being taken to headquarters for treatment.

No matter how sturdy Lin's helmet was, it could not stop specialized bullets. Had Doctor Spacy not missed, there would have been one more corpse to clean up.

"Doctor Spacy's right-hand finger bones were broken, he had no left hand, and his mental state was unstable. It was impossible for him to hit me." That was Lin's explanation.

"Why didn't you fight back? Or were you really planning to repay—"

"Doctor Spacy has lost too much. It is only natural that he would direct his anger at me. You do not need to concern yourself with it."

But it wasn't your fault.

Kevin had wanted to say that, but Mei beside him stopped him, gently shaking her head.

What Lin cared about was not any of this.

"Welcome back. It has been a long time... Though I would like to say that, you came and went far too quickly."

On the deck, a pink-haired girl held down the hem of her skirt against the wind from the transport aircraft as she welcomed the exhausted-looking group.