Volunteers / Thanks

The lights were turned on.

Chapter 187 Volunteers

The office lights were turned on, and the person who turned them on paused at the door for a moment, but didn't see anything unusual inside the office.

Erwin covered his mouth and hid under the desk, sweating profusely as he listened to footsteps approaching the desk from the doorway.

There were two footsteps.

It's strange, didn't Doctor Einstein say that no one would be coming for the time being?

Is it going to be discovered?

He was incredibly nervous, afraid that a head would pop out at any moment, but thankfully the two feet stopped beside the table, as if no one intended to sit down.

Would you like some alcohol?

"No need, just say what you have to say quickly, it will be troublesome if someone finds out later."

Erwin was under immense stress, to the point that he could barely understand the conversation between the two people. However, he recognized one of the voices, though he couldn't quite place it at the moment.

"Where did CM-000 go? He's not in the Branch 10 right now."

"He probably went out to relax. After all, there's nothing to do right now, so going out doesn't matter."

"... Wasn't he investigating the Svatogor 51 incident?"

"It's been a year..."

CM-000... Isn't that the number for Flame-Chaser? But why is it 000? Does this number even exist?

"How's that matter going?"

"Although it was a bit troublesome, we still managed to contact the remnants of the Speaker's forces. I bet no one expected that the Eighth Herrscher used to be the Speaker's subordinate."

What's this?

Erwin's eyes widened as he listened to their conversation, realizing that he seemed to have been completely drawn into a bizarre event.

There really is a traitor, and he's even connected to the Speaker...

"Then let's leave it at that."

Perhaps considering that they might be noticed, the two left after a brief exchange, turning off the lights as they went.

Erwin lay exhausted under the desk, panting heavily. At that moment, all he felt was terror.

"Speaking of which, why did Sakura become Flame-Chaser?"

Delta was very curious about the reasons behind the behavior of this aloof female senior.

"... Does there have to be a reason?"

"Ah, not really. Some Flame-Chaser have told me they underwent the surgery simply for the profound ideal of all humanity. Those great people... I can't compare to them." Delta smiled sheepishly. "Sakura, you also did it because..."

"No." Sakura said softly, her voice barely audible. "Someone just asked me if I would like to become Flame-Chaser, and like you, I asked someone else... Maybe his figure was so imposing that I unconsciously chose the same option as him."

"This is wonderful..."

Delta could see the gleam in Sakura's eyes, and she couldn't help but yearn for it, but she quickly suppressed it.

She also has her own principles, however insignificant they may be.

Maintaining this pride in herself, she will continue to fight as Flame-Chaser of the Firemoth.

Who is that person?

"Forest."

"..."

Delta's expression stiffened slightly. How did she hear that person's name again from Sakura's mouth?

Why does Sakura's description of Lin feel completely different from what she knows? That person... she admits that he is somewhat unusual, but apart from his recorded achievements, he doesn't seem like a great person at all from his daily life, someone who could even be described as "imposing from behind".

He doesn't seem like it on the surface, but he's actually a cold, calculating man...

"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."

Delta sat on the cold bench, staring at the voluntary form in black and white before her. She silently read it over and over again, but the person in front of her and the organization he belonged to clearly disdained to tamper with it, so... it was concise, truthful, and cruel.

Of course, they were certain that people like Delta had absolutely no other choice.

It was either death or surgery, but instead of pulling the trigger themselves, they turned a blind eye.

"Do we have any other options?" Delta muttered to herself.

That person probably took her mutterings as a question to him. His meticulous face showed no extra expression. "You already had other options, such as continuing to wander and then starving or dying of illness in some remote corner."

"And once you sign the consent form in front of you, you will lose your human rights after the surgery, regardless of whether it is successful or not."

Delta, who had been wandering for a long time, revealed a mocking smile, "Slave?"

"To be precise, it's the soldiers, and their property."

What's the difference? Is it just using a different term to justify one's actions in a grand and respectable way?

But... it is indeed an option.

"Where is my sister?" Delta looked up and asked.

"We didn't have the two people choose together; everyone has their own choice."

Delta's eyes widened, and she slammed her hand on the table. "What do you intend to do to my sister!"

"Please rest assured, all of this is voluntary."

The person was expressionless, like a robot, coldly surveying an inanimate object.

"Your sister chose this side, that's all."

"Who exactly are you people?!"

"I'm sorry I can't tell you, but I believe that people in our organization should be proud of who they are." At this point, a slight change in his expression finally appeared. "We are for all of humanity!"

"All of humanity..."

This vague and ethereal rhetoric was accompanied by an incredibly fervent gaze.

But Delta could sense it.

From a young age, she was exceptionally sensitive to other people's emotions. She could sense that this person was not simply excited for the sake of all humanity he spoke of.

A mixture of vanity, arrogance, and contempt was revealed all at once.

"You're hesitant, but unfortunately I can't tell you the whole truth. So, let's wait until your sister's surgery is over."

"Varied--"

"We just happened to find Honkai Beast that is a perfect match for you and your sister, so your sister started the surgery after signing the consent form. Now... it should be almost done."

Just then, his communicator rang. He took it out and glanced at it, his face expressionless.

"Oh, it's over."

"What was the result?"

He was calm, without regret or excitement, as if the success or failure of the surgery was just a fact that didn't need to be dwelled on.

"It's faster for you to see for yourself than for me to tell you."

Delta took the communicator, his eyes trembling as he looked at the screen, and then... his pupils contracted.

She saw her younger sister.

Chapter 188 Acknowledgments

"Mark."

A professor with blue curly hair stood at the entrance of the corridor, twirling a pen between her right index and middle fingers, and gave a wink to Hen, who had just walked out of the room.

After a moment of hesitation, Hen nodded subtly, as if to understand. Then, Einstein led the way, and Hen followed behind, into a room.

Einstein parted his lips slightly. "To make a long story short, I have been investigating the Stargate incident a year ago, and I have recently come to a conclusion: there was a traitor among the Firemoths, and they were the ones who carried out the attack on the Stargate a year ago."

"Traitor?"

Under Einstein's gaze, a look of incomprehensible confusion appeared on Hen's face.

On the third day of his trip, Lin leaned against his motorcycle and took notes. His senses had recovered to a certain extent before stopping. His color vision could barely distinguish some bright colors, but overall it was better than nothing.

The meteor that Svatogor 51 twenty years ago did indeed exist, and many people remember that a group of unidentified people came to Svatogor 51 to investigate an eight-year-old child a few years after the meteor fell, although many of them only knew it from hearsay.

Progress was slow, much like searching for information in the Branch 10.

Just as Lin was about to write the next word, his hand stopped.

Someone approached him from behind.

With their eyes covered, a mischievous voice rang out. "Guess~ who~ I~ am~?"

Lin closed the notebook, put the pen and notebook into his jacket pocket, and calmly asked, "Elysia?"

"Hmm? Guess again?"

"Mobius?"

"Isn't she at headquarters?"

"Pardo, stop fooling around."

The girl seemed a little dissatisfied. "You have one last chance. There's a reward if you guess right."

"I was just joking, Aponia."

"I'm angry."

"Then I hope you go back now."

Lin pushed away the delicate hand on her face, and when she turned her head, she saw her classic vent hairstyle and the tight vest she was wearing even in sub-zero temperatures.

There was no indication that Vill-V was angry; she was smiling and cheerful as usual.

"How did you find me?" Lin hadn't told anyone his whereabouts, and even Ying only knew that he had gone out, yet Vill-V found him so accurately.

"Oh my, how did you find him? For Detective Vill-V, finding him by looking up Mr. Lin's records in the database is nothing, right? It's not even the simplest deduction."

"I deleted all the query records."

"I don't know~"

It seems that Vill-V has been secretly observing him all along.

"Sigh..." Lin was somewhat helpless. The people around him, especially the girls, were all incredibly shrewd. He could keep the secrets from the High Council and the strategic department of the Fire Moth, but he couldn't keep them from Vill-V.

Never mind.

He took off his coat and draped it over Vill-V's thin shoulders.

"So, what you want to investigate is the Svatogor 51 incident?"

Vill-V sat on the bed in the hotel room, testing its softness. She had heard Lin explain the purpose of his trip on the way there.

But after listening, Vill-V gave a playful smile, "Lin, do you really just want to know what fell from the moon? Or are you more concerned about her identity?"

"..."

Vill-V noticed Lin's silence out of the corner of her eye and changed the subject. "The internal situation of the Fire Moth is not clear. To be honest, it is more chaotic than before the Cleansing Incident. However, back then there were many factions, but now the upper echelons are completely in cahoots. I don't know what I did to threaten them, but they suspended me from my post."

"Those guys do love humans, but they're the kind of humans they define themselves."

After she finished speaking, she picked up the air conditioner remote and started adjusting the heating, while Lin sat in the chair pondering.

Their own definition of... humanity.

Lin recalled the speaker, the main figure in the Cleansing Incident, who vehemently opposed the Flame-Chaser project.

His thoughts were a bit jumbled, so he stopped his random thoughts in time. People tend to be extreme when they can't come to a conclusion, so it was better for him to stop in time.