I'm No MOTH Hero

"Bang!"

Lin, having lost his strength, was pulled to the ground and lay in the middle of the door. This prevented Prometheus from closing it, as Lin would have been crushed into a pulp.

But Ritter was already outside the door. Lin immediately commanded, "Prometheus, close the door."

"...No."

Prometheus, who always followed orders loyally, coldly defied Lin's instructions at this critical moment.

Chapter 64: Destroy Its Heart

Prometheus refused to obey.

Lin hadn't expected that at this final moment, the artificial intelligence that should have faithfully executed all his commands would disobey him.

There was no time to think about why. The Honkai Beasts were already approaching the door. If this continued, a bloody massacre would unfold in The Deepest Place once more. Lin urgently commanded again, "Close the door! Prometheus!"

"No."

He was still met with a cold, mechanical voice.

If the door were closed now, Lin would die right on the threshold meant to prevent the Honkai Beasts from harming humans.

His flesh and blood would become the final barrier.

Prometheus's command execution system and her thinking system clashed at this moment. After a brief circuit conflict, her higher-priority thinking system prevented the command from being executed.

"Ugh—"

Even more unexpectedly, Ritter grabbed Lin's arm and, veins bulging, desperately pulled him outward.

"What are you doing? Get away from me!"

Before he could finish speaking, a tentacle detached from Lin's foot and grabbed Ritter's waist instead.

Ritter's legs were immobilized, and he had no room to resist when grabbed!

Ritter let go of Lin's arm and smiled at him with resignation. "As expected, someone like you should live..."

"Whoosh—"

Another tentacle grabbed Ritter's foot. After the afterimage of his smile in Lin's field of vision, he was dragged inside. With his last bit of strength, he pushed Lin out.

One in, one out.

The moment Lin exited, Prometheus closed the door. The heavy isolation gate descended, sealing Ritter, who hadn't finished speaking, and the last look of peace on his face, inside the A-3 area filled with monsters.

"Bang!"

Lin struggled to his feet and stared at the door, through which not even a sliver of light could pass.

Ritter had opened the door then, unleashing the disaster. Now, he had closed it, trapping the disaster inside.

There were no screams, no cries. After a final, unsettling bone-cracking sound, only the deafening roars and impacts of monsters against the door remained from behind it.

The alarms, belatedly, sounded in The Deepest Place.

"Lin, the guards are estimated to arrive in three minutes. Please evacuate."

Lin didn't reply.

He recalled Ritter's final smile, which gradually overlapped with Spasi's rage.

Lin, wearing his helmet, stood frozen before the door like a statue.

"Everyone confirm your equipment and prepare to suppress the Honkai Beasts!"

Swarms of guards approached, and Prometheus's urgent prompts continued to echo in his ears.

All information converged within his helmet, blood-red characters flowing like blood down his cheeks.

"Doctor Lin Qijiu? Interesting, so he fabricated an identity?"

The light from the screen illuminated her unusually fair and delicate skin, a result of rarely leaving her room. The green-haired woman's earrings glittered under the fluorescent light. Seeing the access record on the screen, she couldn't help but sneer.

She used her authority to access MOTH's database. Although she was restricted everywhere within MOTH, she was also a veteran member. Moreover, to obtain her research results, MOTH granted her a considerable degree of authority, at least what a "veteran" should outwardly possess.

After searching for data on The Deepest Place, Mobius discovered Lin's fabricated identity and his access records.

"Little white mouse with broken legs, what will you repay me with this time?" 69.493.6135

Mobius wickedly deleted Lin Qijiu's records and identity from the database with a smirk. Mei had asked her to do precisely this. To give Mei more influence and to find out who was obstructing them from behind the scenes, Mobius helped Lin complete the final step of his infiltration: erasing traces.

Besides her, at least one other person knew Lin had been to The Deepest Place, but they couldn't reveal it and had to keep the secret buried.

"Dr. Mobius, what are you doing here?"

Another figure appeared at the entrance of the database.

Sigma stood in the shadows like a ghost.

Mobius, with an impatient expression on her face as she stood with her back to Sigma, disappeared after turning around. She nonchalantly crossed her arms and said, "Just some experimental data. What do you need?"

"Nothing, I just need to use the database. Sorry to have bothered you."

Sigma walked to another terminal and logged into the database using his identity card.

Mobius narrowed her eyes like a snake, staring fixedly at Sigma. Then, without a word, she let out a soft hum and left, the crisp sound of her heels echoing behind her.

"..." Sigma cautiously turned his head to look in the direction Mobius had gone.

"Heh..."

A pair of emerald eyes, like those of a cold-blooded animal, met his gaze.

Mobius stood at the doorway, hands in her pockets, a cold smile on her face as she watched the frozen Sigma.

"What are you planning to do here again?" Mobius leisurely raised her right hand, examining it closely under the light. Her slender arm and delicate skin appeared completely non-threatening.

But to Sigma, this gesture was undoubtedly terrifying.

"Nothing, I just wanted to look up some combat data from the Third Honkai War to improve myself."

"Oh? Here? Can't you just use your own terminal?"

"I accidentally deleted the data on my terminal."

"..."

The pressure of Mobius's gaze was no less than that of the helmeted kid. Cold sweat began to bead on Sigma's back.

After scrutinizing him for a long moment, Mobius shifted her weight and walked towards the exit. "You'd better be."

Sigma watched Mobius leave the data archives. He waited for a full five minutes, and only when he was certain she was truly gone did he gasp for air, clutching his chest as he collapsed onto the ground.

Lin climbed ashore. In the twilight of the crimson sky, he found a random tree and leaned against it. The data from the Poisoned Cocoon, which had been thoroughly shattered, lay scattered on the ground, mostly illegible.

Only one piece of data remained relatively intact, containing information about one of the members.

But Lin didn't look at it, nor did he ask Prometheus to contact Mei immediately.

He had temporarily shut down all information collection systems, leaving only a visual display to watch the scenery outside his helmet.

At this moment, he should have been jumping onto the speedboat, heading back, and doing what he needed to do.

"Prometheus, why did you disobey my orders?"

Lin softly asked Prometheus, his tone not accusatory, but distinctly different from usual.

"I cannot allow Lin to sacrifice himself."

"Why?"

"I cannot... let you... die."

"..."

Lin stood up, picked up the last piece of data, and walked towards the speedboat.

"Prometheus, when we get back, I'll have Mei retrieve you."

"..."

Prometheus did not respond. She remained silent, like a true human.

Chapter 65: The Transformation of Man, What Can Be Done?

"Commencing test of the second-generation submersible engine for naval warfare. First, dive depth set to 4000 meters."

"Ten, nine, eight..."

Delta sat on the deck, gnawing on a piece of dry bread, looking disheveled. A yawn sent the bread flying out of his mouth in the sea breeze.

The listless man's mouth went empty, and he watched his bread roll across the deck. He immediately perked up and sprinted after it. "Hey! Wait, my bread! I didn't eat breakfast!"

"Minister, the test is in progress, don't go over there!"

His assistant dragged the dejected Delta back, scolding him with annoyance. "Minister, you're the one who requested this test, why aren't you paying attention?"

"It's just an engine test. The data fluctuations won't exceed a thousand. There's no need for such a grand test; calculations would suffice." Delta patted himself down, finally finding a piece of gum in his back pocket. He sighed and popped it into his mouth, chewing the flavorless candy.

"Huh? Then why are we testing? And why are we doing it outside the base instead of using the internal equipment?"

"Why, you ask? Heh heh..." Delta gave a meaningful smile.

Of course, it was because doing it outside would attract more attention.

"This is... quite something..." Vill-V's expression was particularly complex. She turned off the display, looking somewhat saddened.

To describe it... she had rented a DVD from the video store specifically to watch a thrilling spy movie about infiltrating an underwater base. But what played wasn't an action flick, but a drama that left anyone who watched it with an indescribable feeling. That was how she felt now.

She glanced at Lin, who hadn't said a word the entire time. This helmeted man had watched the event he personally experienced again, yet showed no reaction. His psychological resilience was truly extraordinarily tough.

Ritter's death was not worthy of sympathy; in fact, he deserved it. But at the very end, his smile of release had a greater impact than his cries of fear for his life.

A person who had taken another's father's child, who was also the father of his own child. He could kill for his daughter, but he could also save a stranger he had met for less than half an hour.

Were Ritter's thoughts complicated? They seemed quite simple. Vill-V could understand his logic. But even understanding it left her with a strange sense of heartache.

Did this man think the same way?

Vill-V's voice softened. "Are... are you alright?"

"It's fine." Lin had already gone back to his room to deal with his outer clothing. As usual, he was clad in armor that didn't expose any skin, like a corpse trapped in a steel coffin.

Vill-V pressed a few buttons on her homemade player and said nonchalantly, "Alright, then our transaction is concluded. I'll erase the recording."

"Mm."

Lin pivoted his feet. This matter wasn't over yet; he had more events to handle, and next, he needed to find Mei to explain about The Deepest Place.

"Mm… If you need anything in the future, you can come find me." Vill-V waved at his retreating back.

Lin walked out of the workshop, leaving behind a single sentence: "There's no need."

No need?

Vill-V froze for a moment.

Did he mean there was no need to find her? Or that her guilt was unnecessary?

"So that's how it is. Poisoned Cocoon, The Deepest Place, the higher-ups, the assassin…"

After listening to Lin's calm narration, Mei gained a thorough, general understanding of the entire situation.

Kevin looked at Lin with some concern. "Lin, what about your injuries?"

"It's nothing, just some scrapes," Lin shook his head. He couldn't get these injuries treated at the medical department, or it would expose too much information.

However, old wounds plus new ones were far from the simple matter he made them out to be. Lin's condition hadn't been normal since the Third Honkai War. He should have been resting, but now he was barely clinging to life.

"But Prometheus said your injuries are very serious," Mei pointed to the message Prometheus had sent back on her screen.

"…"

Lin glanced at the top right corner. Prometheus wasn't speaking, empty as if she were sulking with him.