The Iron Age / Survival and Faith
Over the past few days, her mind has calmed down considerably. Some of her previously awkward movements have improved with a more composed mindset. There's no doubt that this is thanks to that seemingly useless "game."
She lightly leaped onto the windowsill, pushed open the glass window, sat by the window, wrapped her tail around her right leg, and gazed at the bright moon with her head in her hands.
What should a person fight for?
"Do you want to undergo the Hypervariable Surgery?"
"..."
"This is a piece of advice: regardless of whether the Hypervariable Surgery is successful or not, you will no longer be human."
"..."
"If you've made up your mind, then sign here. Welcome to Moth of Fire."
Fragmented memories flooded her mind, and Delta bit her lower lip, her eyes fierce and filled with unvented anger.
"Knock knock knock".
The knocking pulled Delta back to reality from her reverie. She glanced at the door but ignored it.
"Knock knock knock".
"..."
"Ms. Delta, if you don't open the door soon, your ten million records of tantrums will be broadcast to the whole world for everyone to enjoy."
Lin waited at the door for a few seconds, then heard a thud, followed by angry footsteps that quickly reached the door. When the door was opened, Delta's furious face appeared before him.
What are you doing!
"Have a meal."
Lin pushed the curry chicken rice bowl in his hand into hers, then turned and left.
"Hey! Wait a minute!"
"..."
"Lieutenant Lin! You bastard! Do you really want me to call you that?!"
Lin stopped and turned back to look at Delta calmly, as if to say, "Speak quickly if you have something to say."
Delta gritted her teeth, staring at the sumptuous, steaming meal in her hands. She then looked at Lin and asked, "Why... why did you bring me this food?"
"... Because it was like this for the past few days too."
"What about today! Didn't I say I wasn't hungry?"
"I've already made it, if you don't want to eat it, give it back to me, I'll give it to Pardo."
Pardo?
Delta remembered. It was the member of the Thirteenth Squad who would come to see Lin from time to time. However, she and Lin seemed to have a particularly good relationship. Lin was not as friendly to her as he was to the other squad members. Moreover, Lin only called Pardo, while he called everyone else by their full names.
"Eat! Why won't I eat!" Delta thought of this and fiercely lowered her head to shovel a big mouthful of rice. When she looked up, her face was covered with rice grains and orange sauce.
"...You eat." Lin shook his head and was about to leave, but Delta called him back from behind.
"Wait a minute, I have something I want to tell you."
Lin entered Delta's room, but instead of sitting down, he stood at the door, seemingly not intending to stay long.
Delta stuffed mouthfuls of food into her mouth. It would be a lie to say she wasn't hungry; she was starving. And although Lin was a rather wicked guy, one of his few good qualities was that he was an incredibly good cook.
It's no exaggeration to say that Lin's cooking was the best she had ever eaten, though it might also be because she was hungry.
After finishing her meal, she pushed the plate aside, put her bare feet on the table, her tail wrapped around her right leg, and three nimble little toes at the end of her tail threaded through the gaps between her toes. She stared at Lin in the distance, her face full of displeasure.
It seemed that she was the boss, and Lin was the subordinate who couldn't sit down.
"Why did you come to the Moth of Fire? And why did you undergo the Hypervariable Surgery?"
Lin hadn't expected Delta to ask this question, and he was taken aback for a moment. Then, somewhat puzzled, he asked in return, "And what is it for?"
Shouldn't they have come here with the same goal?
Delta waved his hand casually. "If I don't join, I'll starve to death."
"..."
If you don't join... you'll starve to death...
Lin never expected such an answer, nor Delta's nonchalant expression.
"My sister and I became orphans due to an accident and could only wander. Even the orphanage didn't want us. Just when we were about to starve to death, we were found by members of the Fire Moth who were looking for volunteers to participate in the Hypervariable Surgery. What could we do? Of course, we joined! They even asked me if I was willing. Did we have any other choice?"
"And what about your sister?"
"..."
Delta didn't speak; she turned her head away and looked at the two greatswords leaning against the corner.
Chapter 180 The Iron Age
"Hey... are you still there?"
Mei leaned wearily against a colossal clock tower, facing an endless desert that mirrored her current state of mind.
"Herrscher of Thunder, what's wrong? Are you already planning to give up?"
The woman's slightly hoarse voice rang out. Although her attitude was still very bad, Mei felt her tense nerves relax a little.
Fortunately, there was a "living person" who could talk to him.
"How could that be... But I think we should take a break." Mei coughed twice. This wasn't reality, but she still felt like she'd swallowed a mouthful of sand. "Judging from your tone, you're very familiar with this place. Have you experienced something like this before?"
"Don't bother trying to extract information from me. Everything here is a reflection of the test subjects' inner thoughts; there's no 'walkthrough' for it."
She wasn't as cold and heartless as she sounded.
"Then let's chat for a while..."
"Hmph, whatever."
"Is that person who sounds exactly like Lin your companion?" Mei asked impatiently. There was a familiar feeling about this person, just like... her and Kiana.
"Him? We may only have the same goal for now, but we might not continue down the same path in the future." She said coldly, "Consider this a piece of advice: don't tell him about me and you, and don't assume he's a good person just because he talks nonsense."
"May I ask what his name is?"
This person doesn't want to tell Mei her identity, but that doesn't mean she's unwilling to tell that person's identity. Judging from the description, they seem to be just in a cooperative relationship.
"He is nobody. Maybe he was someone once, with a name, but now he is a real monster, more like an aggregate, something that is beyond your imagination."
"That person"...
There's new information: these two people aren't from the Land of Imaginary Tree, and they shouldn't be related to the World Serpent. But who are they? And how did they get into the Imaginary Tree, which is guarded by the real World Serpent, "Holy Lord" Kevin?
Something that surpasses the limits of your imagination.
A terrifying thought gradually formed in Mei's mind.
"Is there anything else you want to say? If not, then continue." Her tone was already a little impatient. Mei's questions were numerous and sharp. If she hadn't promised someone to take care of Mei, she would have already abandoned this Herrscher.
Thinking of her most likely guess, Mei's tone became somewhat strange. "If I may ask, do you... like Lin?"
The moment the question left her lips, Mei's ears fell silent, and then...
The indescribable terror was like a bullet piercing the heart.
A pair of Prismatic Eyes flashed before her eyes for a fleeting moment.
"You'd better know what you're talking about."
"..."
"In short, it was supposed to be that my sister and I fused Ashwatthama's super mutant genes together, and then... not everyone can have the surgery successfully completed, that's all."
Delta's expression remained largely unchanged as he recounted the story, and his tone was quite normal.
This seemed like a trivial matter.
"There's nothing to complain about. That's just how this shitty world is. Everyone can leave for some bizarre reason or live in some unexpected way." Delta smiled. "I survived, so I have to take on her share and live proudly with that identity."
That's why this young girl, still quite childlike, looks so strong and... proud.
"And what about you? You still haven't told us why you had the Hypervariable Surgery?"
"..."
Lin was unable to speak at that moment.
He was supposed to choose to be the first to undergo the Hypervariable Surgery in order to prevent people like Delta from becoming Flame-Chaser, but why... something is different... it's like something went wrong.
Can he tell the truth to a girl who sees the Flame-Chaser as her identity?
Tell her that he made the decision to give up his proud human identity precisely because he didn't want her or anyone else to become Flame-Chaser.
Lin opened her mouth hesitantly, but couldn't utter a single word.
The second phase of the Flame-Chaser project.
Lin slowly moved down the corridor, the screen in his helmet extracting pieces of intelligence from a vast database and piecing them together to form the truth.
"After Doctor Mobius's improvements to the Hypervariable Surgery (Hypervariable Surgery CM-003), the success rate rose to 37.9%, meaning that on average, one in three people could become Flame-Chaser. However, there are also certain side effects. The bestial mutation symptoms that appeared on Sakura (CM-004) and Kosma (CM-008) have worsened..."
Mobius improved the Hypervariable Surgery.
Lin thought about the changes in Mobius's body over the past year, the frequent triggering of the "side effects" of his resurrection, and how she had inadvertently mentioned the term "Artificial Collapse"...
The horns and tail that appeared on Delta were an even more severe form of bestiality than Sakura's, meaning that she was a modified Flame-Chaser.
Within the subdirectories derived from this intelligence, there are some project plans that Lin cannot view with his limited access. These are all related to the improved Hypervariable Surgery. Lin can only deduce from fragments of other intelligence that some of them are related to the Deepest Place.
KaliYuga.
Among these, a peculiar term caught Lin's eye. It seemed vaguely familiar, so he searched through the classified information he couldn't access and found a document named "KY-00." The required access permissions for this document were...
Highest level of authority.
Lin stared at the document highlighted in red for a while, then began to read about the follow-up to the Flame-Chaser project.
"However, the Hypervariable Surgery still has a high mortality rate, and the number of soldiers willing to participate in the Flame-Chaser project is small, and they are all valuable assets of the Moth Chaser."
Property.
The word lingered in Lin's mind for a few seconds, as if it had stabbed something in his brain.
Following that, there was another plan, a follow-up phase of the Flame-Chaser project. Lin still didn't have enough authority, but this time he deduced its contents based on the information about the growth of Flame-Chaser over the past year.
Over the past year, Moth Chasing Fire has searched all over the world for "talents" suitable for Hypervariable Surgery and transported them to headquarters. Including those who have not yet undergone Hypervariable Surgery, the total number has exceeded ten thousand...
Files of information on Flame-Chaser flashed before Lin's eyes.
Orphans, homeless people, terminally ill patients...
Apart from the soldiers of the Firemoth who volunteered for the project, none of the remaining Flame-Chaser were exceptions...
They all encountered "hope" in their most desperate moments, as if God had deliberately sent light upon them.
"Do you want to undergo the Hypervariable Surgery?"
"This is a piece of advice: regardless of whether the Hypervariable Surgery is successful or not, you will no longer be human."
This is one of the "onboarding" videos.
And beneath each of these videos lies the final outcome.
"Voluntary" participation in the Flame-Chaser project.
Chapter 181 Survival and Faith
"..."
As he was about to return to his room, Linton stopped, turned off the data on the monitor, and opened the combat module.
His hand moved closer to the holster at his waist.
A "person," seemingly appearing out of nowhere, like a ghost, stood at the end of the road, dressed in black, blending into the night.
"Long time no see, Mr. Lin."