That Name / Young People Shouldn't Get Too Carried Away!

Is this what a peaceful life is like?

"Well then, everyone, the Great Magician's performance has come to an end. I hope we will have the opportunity to meet again on this grand stage next time!"

The girl flipped her top hat, and countless playing cards shot out from it, scattering into the air like a rain of cards, obscuring her figure.

After the applause and gasps subsided, she disappeared behind the rain of playing cards.

Without any light obscuring her appearance or any stage mechanisms, she vanished from the spotlight on stage as if by true magic.

"It's perfect."

A man in a suit clapped enthusiastically, completely captivated by the magic trick of the passionate, unrestrained, and artistic girl, his face beaming with an approving smile.

"When I first saw her performance, I realized that there really are people in this world who can take magic skills to the extreme and make them seem like real supernatural phenomena."

"Huh? You've seen her perform many times?"

"Yes, I noticed her when she started performing in the Mu Continent a year ago. Every time she appeared somewhere and announced that she was going to perform magic, I would rush over overnight to see her performance."

After a brief chat with the person next to him, the man hurriedly walked towards the backstage. This time, he finally saw the girl carrying a briefcase and humming a tune as she walked out. He quickly stepped forward to block her way. "Hello, Miss Vill-V, it's a pleasure to meet you."

"Oh? Hello." At a glance, Vill-V could see right through this person from head to toe in terms of dress, appearance, and temperament. His status and identity must be quite good.

"I've been watching your performances for a year now, and I'm deeply impressed by your acting and personal charm. Could you please give me the opportunity to have dinner with you so I can learn more about you and your ingenious magic ideas?"

The man's smile was very appropriate and polite, perfectly matching Mu Continent's gentlemanly image. Generally speaking, no one would refuse such a gentleman's invitation.

After listening to him quietly, Vill-V smiled and narrowed her eyes. She took off her top hat and said in a polite manner, "I'm glad you like my magic, but I'm sorry, I don't think I can have dinner with you to discuss my magic."

The man's smile froze for a moment, "Excuse me..."

"Hmm... there are three reasons. First, I perform magic tricks simply to 'perform magic tricks.' I think that since I've already eaten the egg, why bother getting to know the hen that laid it? Second, it's not a 'genius idea,' but a 'genius idea.' Third..."

Vill-V smiled politely, but there was a mischievous glint in her eyes. "I will only have dinner with one man in my entire life. I don't want him to misunderstand or overthink me, even if he doesn't know it. And you, you can try to eat at the table next to me when I have dinner with him in a French restaurant one day."

After saying that, Vill-V picked up her briefcase, waved casually, and left with cheerful steps, leaving the man completely stunned and at a loss.

Chapter 171 That Name

"The nineteenth time..."

A pink-haired girl wearing a raincoat crouched on the edge of the eaves, her eyes, calm as if frozen, watching the man in black emerge from the high-rise building with an umbrella. Like a seasoned and patient hunter waiting for her prey to make a mistake, she remained motionless in the rain, observing the man's movements.

This was her nineteenth attempt to assassinate Gray Serpent.

Gray Serpent has multiple identities, and each time she finds him in a well-established antisocial organization, she discovers that he didn't just change identities and start anew after her assassination, but rather that he was developing multiple organizations simultaneously. This makes Sakura wonder how he possesses such terrifying management and instigation abilities.

She spent most of the year dealing with the Gray Serpent, and she still hasn't been able to get rid of this cancer that has grown in human society.

"Miss Sakura, could you please speak with me before we begin?"

Gray Serpent seemed to have sensed Sakura's chilling killing intent breaking through the rain and descending upon his body. He turned around and calmly spread his hands towards Sakura, who was hiding somewhere, and said, "I may be visiting the Branch 10 soon. Please cease hostilities with me for the time being."

"..."

Branch 10?

Sakura frowned when she heard that word.

Although it was already suspected that Gray Serpent only operated on the Mu Continent, his current request to visit the Branch 10 where she was temporarily staying is a kind of fearless provocation.

"You may have misunderstood. Migratory birds don't land just to hunt for food, and I didn't go to the Branch 10 to disrupt the order. To be precise, my 'father' is in the Branch 10, so I simply went to visit him."

"Father?"

Sakura softly murmured the word, "The Gray Serpent's father is in the Branch 10?"

But Gray Serpent has become a major criminal in many antisocial and anti-human organizations, so how could she possibly let him go to the territory of the Fire Moth?

Gray Serpent spoke to her in an extremely sincere and consultative tone, which Sakura found utterly arrogant.

Therefore, Sakura did not give him a chance to say the next sentence.

"Bass!"

In the near-frozen moment, a head flew into the sky, turning the rain a transparent red.

"A group of Flame-Chaser will be training different squads soon."

After a day of training, Elysia was about to go to lunch when she heard her adjutant receive a message from headquarters after submitting the report he had written for her. She tilted her head in confusion. "Flame-Chaser... why?"

"Because Flame-Chaser are not only produced within the Moth of Fire, adaptability is a part of the success of the Hypervariable Surgery. Among the newly added Flame-Chaser, only one-third are original members of the Moth of Fire."

How to increase the Flame-Chaser is a difficult problem, but how to increase the number of usable people is something that the High Council of the Firemoth has always been extremely good at. The simplest and most direct way is to recruit new members.

This raises another question: how to integrate these Flame-Chaser into the Firemoth, or rather... how to quickly turn them into usable combat forces.

So, this final question was posed to each team, which is the so-called "veterans mentoring newcomers".

"The Squad Thirteen has been assigned three Flame-Chaser."

"So much?"

"... This number has already been reduced according to the actual situation of the mission being carried out."

The other squads would have at least ten Flame-Chaser, but the Squad Thirteen was stationed at the Branch 10, so it only had three people.

However, all three of them were complete "newcomers".

Elysia didn't really care. In fact, she was quite excited and happy, her face beaming with the joy of having someone else to mess with.

When will you arrive?

"Right away." Lin put away the communicator.

"What do you mean, 'immediately'?"

Lin pointed out the window; a transport plane was landing.

"Flame-Chaser CM-079, Delta, salute to you."

Lin was somewhat dazed and confused when he received the document.

The girl in front of him, who was half a head shorter than him, had long, deep pink hair with some blue-green highlights. On each side of her head, there was a horn with a different color on the inside due to surgery, the left one being blue and the right one being red. The Honkai Beast she fused with was Ashwatthama.

Unlike the other newcomers, she didn't show any panic or curiosity. Instead, she had a mature calmness. Although her salute wasn't quite standard, she didn't slack off in the slightest.

"Your name is... Delta?" Lin asked hesitantly, asking a question he thought was insignificant.

"Yes," she answered fluently. "Is there a problem?"

"..."

Its number is 079, and its name is Delta.

Lin knew that she had no connection with someone who was no longer alive except for their name, but when she saw that name, her heart couldn't help but tremble.

"No, it's nothing, just confirming."

Lin quickly composed himself, showing no sign of distress. "From today onwards, I will be your trainer. In addition to the basic soldier standards, there will be specialized training for Flame-Chaser."

"You?"

Delta looked at the helmeted man with some confusion, not because she doubted his status as an adjutant, but because of something else.

Are you Flame-Chaser too?

"...no."

"Then how are you going to train me?" Delta frowned, and said in a serious tone, "I think the captain of the Squad Thirteen, that Flame-Chaser, is more suitable for this mission."

"..."

Lin really wanted to tell her that it was actually Elysia, after learning that she was to train three Flame-Chaser, complained bitterly and hoped that he could take charge of the guidance of one of them, which is why she was assigned to Lin to guide them.

In fact, in other squads, it was usually the lieutenant who trained the newly recruited Flame-Chaser, not the captain, because the captain's job was not training but management.

Delta, however, believed that Lin did not possess such abilities; he was merely an "ordinary person."

Even before arriving at the Branch 10, Delta had already gained a basic understanding of the team's composition. She naturally knew that Lin, this "celebrity," was someone who had failed his Hypervariable Surgery and had not become Flame-Chaser.

Therefore, her question actually carried a hint of mockery, as if she already knew the answer.

Lin gazed into Delta's eyes, which were also bicolor, with blue irises and pink centers, serious... and proud.

Lin put away the documents in his hand and said calmly, "Then let's have a one-on-one practical exercise to see if I can handle this job, okay?"

Chapter 172 Young people shouldn't be so arrogant!

"Bang!"

Delta lay blankly on the ground, her tail drooping, her long, neatly tied hair scattered all over the floor like ink drops in clear water, staring at the ceiling of the training room with unfocused pupils.

Lin, standing to the side, casually walked off the field, fiddling with his wrists as if he had only done a few push-ups.

We lost.

A crushing defeat.

Despite having the superior speed, strength, and reaction time, he was defeated without even touching him, and the other man didn't even use his weapon.

The outcome was decided in just a few seconds, and her pride in becoming Flame-Chaser vanished completely.

Delta isn't the type to make excuses after a loss, saying Lin is more experienced or that his actions were too underhanded. She's always quick-witted, calm, and has her own kind of pride. A loss is a loss, especially in a one-on-one real fight without any external interference.

"I'll accept you for now," she said resentfully as she got up, staring at Lin's retreating figure.

Lin walked out without looking back.

"I don't need anyone's approval."

One person had already peeked through the window and was leaning against the wall waiting for Lin to come out. He then shrugged and made a pitiful, silly expression, like Delta standing there.

"You went too far. She's a new recruit, isn't she?"

Lin Mo removed the bandage from her hands and threw it into the trash can.

"Rather than getting taught a lesson on the battlefield, it's better to get a lesson beforehand...?" Hen scratched his head, looking helplessly at the listless girl. "Speaking of which, here comes another one..."

"What? Another one?" After checking a few items on his helmet panel, Lin's view was lit up.

"Never mind what I said, it's your business anyway."

Lin nodded, then turned and peered into the training room, speaking in a low voice to Delta, who was looking down, "Let's begin training."

Delta felt that this person was special.

As expected, you have to see it for yourself to know if it's true or not. Delta only knew that the rumors about this man were not exaggerated, but rather somewhat conservative.

For example, we could easily add a new label: sadistic tendencies.

"What kind of training is this...?"

Delta sat in front of the machine that looked like an arcade game no matter how you looked at it, watching Lin manually bring up the game screen... Is it really an arcade game?

"Through our practical training, I've learned which areas you're lacking in, and I will help you overcome those weaknesses one by one." Lin's viewport was always flashing with a bright blue light, Delta didn't know what it meant. "But I'm always very strict with my team members. If you don't meet my training requirements, you'll only face punishment."

"First, there's this arcade game, a very common game where you shoot down targets to increase your score, but it's the most difficult kind. Your training goal is simple: surpass the highest score."

That simple?

Delta is Flame-Chaser; the highest score in the arcade might be an insurmountable mountain for most people, but with her reaction speed and hand speed, she can achieve it with ease...

"One million three hundred thousand?!"

She pressed her face against the screen in disbelief, staring at the first-place player who was more than a million points ahead of the second-place player, who only had tens of thousands of points. This was not just a one-man show; it was like living in a completely different world.

Shooting down a target only grants three points. Successive hits will gradually increase the score for each target, but the speed will increase as you go. If you miss a target, the combo will be broken, and the target's score will start again from three points.

This is not just a test of reaction speed and hand speed; it's a real test of patience and composure.

"What kind of monster scored this score?" Delta swallowed hard, staring at the player with the ID "zero" ranked first. "Hey..."

"Please call me Lieutenant Lin."

"... Lieutenant Lin, is this really not a system error?"

"There's no mistake. I know Zero personally, and I saw him achieve this score with my own eyes."

Lin thoughtfully answered Delta's question, then moved a chair over and sat down next to her, comfortably making himself a cup of coffee.