I'm No MOTH Hero

Kevin lowered his head and walked from behind Lin to his side, his voice low and unlike that of the cheerful boy.

Lin didn't need to see his expression to know that his face was filled with turmoil and pain.

"The surgery is over," he rasped.

"...And the result?"

"Doctor Spacy's entire left forearm was amputated. He's no longer in critical condition."

"What about SiZhi?"

"..." Kevin didn't reply.

Here we go again.

Lin heard the sighs of the dead standing behind him.

Kevin leaned against the decaying wall, clutching his chest and gasping for air, the heavy guilt threatening to crush him. He looked at the silent Lin and murmured, "Lin, have you been through this many times?"

"Is this your first time?"

"I..." Kevin brought his hands up to his eyes. His black gloves were stained with blood. The scene of Lin shooting Karen replayed in his mind, making his stomach churn and want to vomit.

He should have been the one to do it, but Lin had beaten him to it.

Just like before, Lin had resolutely left to protect him, who knew nothing.

He looked up at the ceiling. "Lin, to save more people, is it truly right to abandon some?"

"No, it's wrong," Lin replied decisively.

He turned his head, facing the bewildered Kevin with his cold helmet. "Kevin, if you had to shoot Mei to save all of humanity, would you do it?"

"I..."

Kevin's bewilderment faded significantly, but what followed was his fear of his own answer, which hadn't shown even a hint of hesitation.

"There are differences even between minorities, let alone situations where 'an individual' is greater than 'all.' Measuring people on a scale is a false proposition with no answer from the start."

"I would have pulled the trigger, simply because we had no choice at that moment."

What if he hadn't pulled the trigger? Would he have watched Karen attack them?

"Don't define the value of sacrifice, otherwise, you've been treating humans as objects from the very beginning."

"And no matter how many objects are lost, it won't cause heartache."

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

To protect the majority by sacrificing a minority, Lin envied those who could do such things. In them, humanity's greatness was fully displayed. Their spirits would guide humanity forward, becoming the shining "heroes."

The words Lin spoke to Kevin had long since become an unachievable luxury when he chose to pull the trigger again and again. He was the flawed person who made the "right choice" for everyone, as he himself had said.

He suddenly reached out and clutched his chest.

"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 exacerbate your physical burden. I will lock your armor functions until you are healed.]

To break through from the outside and return to the Fifth Branch, Lin had used the newly installed Burst Mode of his power armor midway. The increased output had overloaded his body. Fortunately, he had only used it for travel, so the duration was short; otherwise, it wouldn't have been just spitting blood.

"I transferred the authority to you. You can't lock my armor," Lin said dismissively, wiping the blood from his lips.

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

Lin didn't respond, merely adding indifferently, "Someone has to do it."

He turned and faced the stunned Soul.

Chapter Forty-Eight: Nothing Left

"Are you alright?"

Rarely, Lin voiced his concern.

He didn't have similar experiences. Perhaps he should have said something gentler, but the tears welling up in Soul's red-rimmed eyes proved he was overthinking it.

Soul hugged Lin, burying her head and sobbing uncontrollably.

This time, Lin didn't push her away. He gently patted her back, letting her vent her grief.

Her heartbroken cries echoed through the deserted building.

The support from the Third Branch arrived on time. They disembarked from the transport plane wearing protective suits, first loading the injured onto the plane, and then clearing the wreckage of the Fifth Branch in groups of three.

Corresponding personnel had also sealed off the area below the building. The news had already begun reporting on this "gas pipeline explosion" accident, and the public's attention would soon shift.

"The total number of survivors at the Fifth Branch is fourteen, all with varying degrees of Honkai Energy erosion. The lost data and research are still being tallied, and it's estimated that not much can be salvaged," Mei said, removing her surgical gloves and mask and standing beside Lin, speaking to him in a low voice.

Lin looked at the motionless Soul. She knelt beside her parents' corpses, as if all life force had been drained from her body. He closed his eyes and asked, "What are your plans?"

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

"An attack."

"Then let's return to headquarters."

"Headquarters isn't entirely safe either."

"But at least we won't be 'attacked' there."

Headquarters wouldn't suffer indiscriminate attacks like those at the Fifth Branch. At most, there would be assassination attempts targeting Mei, and with the checks and balances among the higher-ups, they wouldn't be able to cover their tracks as they did this time. Then, Mei would begin her counterattack.

"What exactly did you and Mobius do?" Lin knew the entire reason stemmed from the plan Mobius had mentioned. She had hinted in every way possible that Mei and she were on the same side, willing to make humanity no longer human for the sake of humanity.

"The birth of a Herrscher occurs when Honkai Energy condenses within a human body with extremely high Honkai Energy Adaptability, forming a Herrscher Core and granting humans power akin to a natural disaster. This indicates that Honkai Energy itself grants humans additional abilities, with the strength of their adaptability determining whether it leads to collapse or reinforcement."

"You've already reached the pinnacle of what humanity can achieve. If you could use Honkai Energy like a Herrscher, it's entirely possible you could rival a Herrscher in combat power."

Mobius had said something similar before. The focus of this theory wasn't the outcome, but the process.

Lin, while pulling up the previous mission briefing and searching for clues within the text, asked, "How do we do it? With a Herrscher Core?"

"The First through Third Herrschers all exhibited personality corruption or the emergence of a new personality replacing the original after acquiring their Herrscher Cores. Therefore, using a Herrscher Core would only create another Herrscher. I intend to turn them into weapons against the Honkai."

Weapons...

The Herrscher Core undoubtedly contained the Herrscher's authority. To fully replicate a Herrscher's power, simply making them into weapons wouldn't be enough. However, for humanity, this was undoubtedly the best way to utilize the Cores.

"But I've also considered your suggestion of directly using the Herrscher Cores."

"..." Lin wasn't particularly surprised. Mei always had radical and bold ideas, a stark contrast to her serene appearance.

Mei didn't elaborate further, returning to the previous topic. "Herrscher Cores cannot be used, so we've set our sights on higher-level Honkai Beasts that possess comparable strength but lack authority. They are all composed of pure Honkai Energy and are highly malleable."

"Integrating Honkai Beasts into the human body—that's our project."

In Mei's few sentences, she referred to herself as "we." Did this mean just her and Mobius, or had more people joined this project?

Such a plan was undoubtedly insane and terrifying. Setting aside the fact that MOTH was already fighting the Honkai, combining humans and Honkai Beasts would draw opposition from certain fundamentalist factions. Even just to achieve the project's goals, how many people would Mei and the others put on the operating table, or turn into monsters?

"...When did you start having this idea?" Lin gazed deeply at the calm Mei, who casually smoothed her hair, which had been blown by the wind.

"The very second I saw the Herrscher's corpse."

So, the higher-ups who had originally invited Mei to join MOTH had split into two factions in such a short period.

"Lin, can you kill people?" Mei suddenly asked an out-of-place question, but Lin detected her intention from her tone.

Ultimately, the Fifth Branch had been implicated because of her, and Mei couldn't guarantee that similar incidents wouldn't occur before she gained influence.

How to become emperor? Simple, kill the current emperor.

Lin's peripheral vision caught sight of someone standing up. He said in a low voice, "Judging humanity is not my task."

"Then let's find someone else."

"Mm."

"Aaaaaaaahhhhh—"

"Bang!"

A fist slammed into Lin's helmet, accompanied by the crisp sound of a broken knuckle. Lin, without exerting any force, was knocked to the ground. Through the visor, he watched as the frenzied Doctor Spacy, ignoring his broken right hand, straddled him and raised his right hand, roaring as he struck Lin.

Punch after punch.

Doctor Spacy's fists couldn't even leave a mark on Lin's armor and helmet, yet he still, with bloodshot eyes and a contorted face, raised his left arm, which lacked a forearm, and his broken right hand, splattering blood onto Lin's body.

"It was you! You killed Karen! It was you!" The words he roared were slurred. He bit his own lip, the veins on his face as thick as chopsticks.

He tore at Lin like a wild beast, driven mad.

Kevin, seeing this from a distance, rushed forward to intervene. "Doctor Spacy! Stop!"

"Get away from me! You monster! You murderer!" Doctor Spacy, with strength he shouldn't have possessed, pushed Kevin aside. He slammed headfirst into Lin's chest, blood streaming from his forehead onto the helmet. His eyes bulged with rage. "You soulless killing machine!"

"You think you've done another good deed for humanity! Pfft!"

A mouthful of bloody spit landed on the visor.

"You're just executing a program set in your heart! You're a colder monster than any AI!"

"You have no parents! You have no lover! You have no children! You're even planning to abandon your friends! You have nothing, and you don't need to lose anything, which is why you have no human emotions!"

"Do you hear me! You have nothing!"

Lin gradually relaxed the muscles in his limbs. The information panel inside his helmet disappeared, leaving only darkness, along with Doctor Spacy's shrieking.

The broken Doctor Spacy grabbed the pistol from Lin's holster, drew it, and aimed it at Lin's head.

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

"Team Member Lin!" Hun, turning his head, also saw the scene.

Lin closed his eyes, awaiting the gunshot.

"Bang!"

Chapter 49: We Are Friends

The transport plane was as smooth as when they had arrived, but the atmosphere was drastically different from a day ago, as silent as a morgue.

After venting, Hun boarded the transport plane and lay on Lin's lap, tears still wet on her face, falling into a deep sleep. Experiencing a reunion with her family only to be separated from them in a single day was too much for someone her age and with her limited experience to bear.

Kevin remained silent this time, gazing worriedly at Lin, who hadn't moved since boarding the transport plane.

"I'm fine."

Lin shook his head calmly at Kevin.

He looked covered in blood, a truly pathetic sight, but not a single drop was his own. Doctor Spacy's attack, at most, had merely polished his outer armor.

However, Kevin clearly intended to ask about something else.

"Did you know Doctor Spacy would miss?"

At the last moment, Doctor Spacy had fired without hesitation. The overflowing hatred was terrifying, but the shot hadn't hit Lin. Doctor Spacy had then fainted again and was now also being transported to headquarters for treatment.

No matter how sturdy Lin's helmet was, it couldn't block a specialized bullet. If it hadn't missed, there would have been another corpse to clean up.

"The Doctor suffered a fracture in his right index finger, and with his left hand unavailable and his mental state unstable, it was impossible for him to hit accurately," Lin offered as an explanation.

"Why didn't you fight back? Or did you really intend to repay..."

"The Doctor lost too much. It's perfectly normal for him to target me, you don't need to worry about it."

But this isn't your fault.

Kevin started to say this, but Mei, standing beside him, stopped him, shaking her head gently.

Lin wasn't concerned about these things.

"Welcome back, it's been a while... Though I'd like to say that, you two certainly made a quick trip."

On the deck, the pink-haired girl, holding down her skirt which was being blown by the transport plane's wind, welcomed the exhausted-looking group.