Fragrant / Good Night

The man leaned against the wall, looking at the photo of the blue-haired woman and the girl inside the necklace frame in his hand.

They were in the sunlight, the woman holding the girl on her lap, the light streaming down from the clouds, wetting her hair and cheeks, while the girl looked at the camera with a blank expression.

His fingers gently stroked the smiling face in the photograph, his gaze as soft as the sunlight illuminating the two of them.

"Drop--"

He put away the necklace and connected the call.

"..."

The man walked to the window, looking at the stars in the sky. Far away, there was someone else, surely gazing at the same starry sky as him.

"I'm fine. Apart from the Honkai of Svatogor 51, I'm more comfortable than on vacation." A smile appeared on his lips, and his face was full of happiness. "Sometimes I feel like my body is rusting and I want them to send me on other missions."

"..."

"Haha, I was just kidding..."

"..."

Another thing was mentioned over the communicator, and the man's smile gradually faded, replaced by a thoughtful look in his eyes.

"Don't worry, there won't be any problems. Didn't Doctor Mobius say that Griseo has already mastered the control of her power?"

"..."

"Sometimes this world is truly unpredictable. After Lin's Hypervariable Surgery, he could no longer see the colors of this world, while Griseo was able to perceive the colors of the world more acutely after her surgery. I often wonder, if Lin were to take Griseo to see this world, what kind of scenery would it present?"

"No..." The man suddenly shook his head and laughed, "There should be such a day."

Chapter 211 Fragrance

The dim light from the screen illuminated Lin's mask as he glanced at the seemingly empty space beside him.

There is no doubt that there are surveillance cameras in the database.

He was wearing a robe that completely covered his body and a mask, making him look like a ghost that had crawled out of the screen.

Lin had a question: why hadn't the High Council made their "plan" public yet? Since it was a decision reached by all the High Council, why hadn't they, who held absolute control, openly shown the mechs and monsters they had created to the ordinary members of the Fire Moth?

After thinking for a long time, he came up with two possibilities.

The first possibility is that even the High Council are not truly united. Perhaps a small number of High Council are being swayed by the majority and their opposition is the reason why these immoral things do not directly appear in front of ordinary members.

The second possibility is... they haven't fully completed the guaranteed minimum for their plan.

What they considered was that there would be people in the Moth Chaser organization who would completely disregard its future existence, and those people might not give in for the sake of the organization's continued existence, but would instead rise up in rebellion.

Of course, the High Council definitely considered this. Those mechs and Flame-Chaser were created specifically to deal with humans, not only for their own ambitions and plans, but also to suppress dissenting voices.

They believe that the combined power of the mechs and Flame-Chaser is not yet sufficient to reliably suppress the opposition, which is why they are secretly expanding their forces.

Lin believes the second possibility is more likely, so there is a solution right now.

Reveal the plans of the High Council and join forces with those who intend to rebel to end the moths chasing the flame.

But that's not realistic.

After the end of the Moth Chaser event, how should we face the chaotic global situation? And how should we continue to fight against the Honkai?

Moreover, Lin also had some of his own... selfish motives.

He didn't want everyone to know the truth about the Fire-Chasing Moth.

"Life doesn't need faith, but faith is the best guarantee for survival."

Gray Serpent's words lingered in his ears like a spell. Lin closed his eyes in the pale fluorescent light, then slowly opened them again. He quickly used a fake identity to search for the information he needed. His fingers moved as nimbly as if playing the piano, finding everything he needed and memorizing it.

Lin finished all his tasks in three minutes. After deleting his browsing history, he hurriedly left the Branch 10.

"Ha..."

Delta got up lazily, ran her fingers through her long hair, and sleepily pushed open her bedroom door.

I went to bed too late last night...

"Good morning."

A woman with two different hair colors sat on the sofa, smiling as she ate a fried egg and greeted her.

"Good morning..." Delta yawned again, listlessly walked into the bathroom, stared at her reflection in the mirror with her two horns, and picked up her toothbrush.

...Um?

"Bang!"

Delta opened the bathroom door, her bloodshot eyes staring at Vill-V, who was nonchalantly eating breakfast. She blurted out, "What are you doing here!"

"Hmm?" Vill-V took a big gulp of hot milk, then stuck out her little pink tongue and licked the milk foam from the corner of her mouth, giving Delta a strange look. "Can't I be here?"

"No, that's not it... wait! Why are you in my room?!"

"I broke in."

"Don't make it sound so casual."

Delta couldn't hold back any longer. She nervously glanced around, and breathed a sigh of relief when she didn't see Lin. Thankfully, Lin hadn't been discovered...

"If you're looking for Lin, he's temporarily gone."

"..."

Delta's face froze instantly under the light, feeling as if her face were rock hard, the kind that could be banged on.

Vill-V pointed to a plate of untouched fried eggs on the table. "This is the breakfast he left for you. I've already eaten mine."

"You..." Delta realized that Vill-V seemed to know everything, and she asked in surprise, "Did Lieutenant Lin send you?"

Vill-V blew on her nails. "No, I just did a simple deduction. Now that the Fire Moth is searching the forest everywhere, everyone who is close to him will be under strict surveillance, and complete strangers cannot trust him. So, we need someone we know, but not someone the Fire Moth knows we've been close to for so many years. Naturally, only you fit that description, so I came to find him."

"So what do you want to do?"

"I don't want to do anything, you can rest assured. I'm on Lin's side. I need you to cover for me, since I'm basically in hiding right now and we can't let them find out."

Where did he go?

"Didn't he tell you? He went to figure out a way to clear up the 'misunderstanding' between him and the Firemoth."

"..."

Delta had her doubts, but Vill-V didn't seem to be planning anything, and besides, she knew what had happened better than Delta herself, so there was no need to doubt her.

So, with some mixed feelings, she sat down on the other side of the sofa and picked up her fried egg.

The fried egg was still warm, probably from being in an insulated box. Delta ate the fried egg in small bites, glancing at Vill-V, who was sitting in Lin's original spot, out of the corner of her eye.

"Sniff... ha..."

Vill-V was sniffing something repeatedly, which puzzled Delta. After quickly finishing her fried egg, she put down the plate and asked, "What are you doing? Does this fried egg smell that good?"

"Fried egg? No, I'm just smelling Lin's scent." Vill-V moved closer to where Lin was using her head as a pillow and smiled.

"..." Delta's expression changed drastically. "You... you're acting like a pervert."

"How innocent you are! The stimulating scents between opposite sexes can have a positive effect on sexual activity." Vill-V smiled lightly. "And oxytocin makes it easier for people to form intimate relationships. So how can you like someone just by looking at their photos? You have to smell them, lick them, touch them, and even rape them."

"I have absolutely no idea where to even begin to complain..."

"Haha, just kidding. It's just that a person's scent can sometimes reveal changes in their body, and Lin's case is a bit special."

Vill-V sniffed the lingering scent of Lin again, her brow furrowing slightly.

Although I had noticed it before... Lin had a particularly attractive fragrance, but it was a light fragrance similar to body odor, maintaining the same scent and intensity.

But now the scent left by Lin has become even more... intense.

It was like a deadly scent from nature, used to lure prey.

Chapter 212 Goodnight

"Mr. Lin, seeing you like this truly breaks my heart."

"..."

Lin stopped a few meters away, coldly staring at the Gray Serpent.

He lifted his hood, and his inhuman crimson eyes met Lin's captivating gaze beneath the mask.

"Tell me everything you know." A thin layer of ice condensed in the surrounding air, and Lin exhaled a chilling breath. In the misty world, the figure of the person in front of him was indistinct.

The Gray Serpent let out a hoarse, low laugh like a blower, "It's my pleasure to serve you."

Lin took a step, but then stopped, drew a long sword from his weapon case, and pointed it in a certain direction.

"..."

The Gray Serpent also lowered its hand, its crimson eyes watching the scene before it with great interest.

This is probably what people often call "dramatic".

Where the knife tip pointed, a hesitant pink-haired girl emerged, a stark contrast to her usual decisive and cold demeanor.

Her clear purple eyes reflected the unwavering blade pointing at her chest; her hands hung at her sides, not even touching the hilt of the sword at her waist.

She came to carry out a mission, but she never expected to see this.

Lin, who was once her comrade but is now a wanted criminal, stands next to her target, pointing his weapon at her, as if she has returned to that night at the artificial lake many years ago.

To be precise, both of these people in front of her are now her targets.

"Because of what I told you? So you believed him and left the Moth of Fire." Even after seeing that it was Sakura, Lin didn't put down his knife; he even gripped the hilt tightly. Sakura pursed her lips and asked.

"..."

Lin stared intently at the pair of beast ears on Sakura's head. He thought of the other people's private discussions about Sakura, the ugly faces of the three Flame-Chaser, and Sakura's sister, Rin.

"... Don't follow me, and don't go on any missions lately." Lin put down his knife, turned around, and quickly left in another direction.

"Ms. Sakura, this time you just need to pretend you never met Mr. Lin. After all, you know very well that the task the Fire Moth gave you to kill me is impossible to complete, and they themselves know that too. So when you go back, you just need to submit a Mission Report you 'killed' me again." Gray Serpent also turned and walked in the direction Lin left. "Then I wish you a pleasant life. See you next time, Ms. Sakura."

Sakura stood there, head bowed, stunned, the misty white fog wetting her hair.

"Is this a good idea? Humans don't appreciate lies."

Lin walked ahead without answering Gray Serpent's question; he put his knife back into its weapon case.

"Perhaps it would be better if you told her the truth."

Lin quickly arrived at a secluded spot, turned around to face Gray Serpent: "What are your intelligence channels?"

Since their first meeting, Gray Serpent had shown his knowledge of the Fire Moth, and this time he even passed on a message from Svatogor 51 to him.

This illustrates one thing: the Gray Serpent had informants and insiders among the fire-chasing moths.

How could an Artificial Lifeform that has only been around for a few years manage to plant spies among the Moths of Fire? And even know top-secret information known only to the High Council?

"I don't think the source of intelligence is important. After all, you should have already figured out that my information channels come from within the Fire Moth. Who exactly it is is irrelevant." Gray Serpent's hoarse chuckle always gave people a chilling feeling.

"... What caused the Honkai of Svatogor 51?"

"You should know why the Stargate was built in Atra." Gray Serpent handed Lin a chip, which Lin took and put in his pocket. "Atra is a region with extremely unstable space. The Stargate was built here because it can be used to teleport to Atra on the moon. The Fire Moth wants to connect the Stargate to the Quantum Sea and begin exploring the Quantum Sea."

Lin immediately understood what Gray Serpent was saying and silently clenched his fist.

Since the attack, the Stargate not been modified in the past year. However, as can be seen from what Lin saw in the KY-00 air fortress, the Fire Moth has been secretly conducting various research, development and modifications.

In other words, the Honkai of Svatogor 51 was likely an accident that occurred during the modification of the Stargate... no, it could also have been a deliberate experiment using Svatogor 51, since it was extremely special to the Firemoth.

"Everything you want to know is in there. I'm glad you came to me. You finally understand what I'm saying."

Lin glanced at him, pressed his hand to his mask, and a deep voice came from beneath it. "I don't understand."

In KY-01, the second base of the project called KaliYuga (Iron Age), the people in the command room are yawning.

"Ha~"

"Don't get distracted." The person next to him nudged him. "KY-00 has been attacked. The mission now requires us to be careful of KY-01 being attacked."

"Isn't he just that helmeted guy who's been making all the fuss about?" the yawning man said dismissively. "How can we use the same trick twice? Let's not even talk about how he can find KY-00 but he might not be able to find us on the ground. Besides, he's just a useless guy who failed his Hypervariable Surgery. We have thirty Flame-Chaser and so many mechs."