Bang!
Having lost all strength, Lin was dragged to the ground and lay in the middle of the doorway, preventing Prometheus from closing the door. Otherwise, Lin would be crushed into pulp.
But Ritter was already outside. Lin immediately ordered, "Prometheus, close the door."
"...No."
Prometheus, who had always faithfully carried out every one of Lin's orders, coldly disobeyed his instructions at this moment.
Destruction of the Heart
Prometheus refused to carry out the order.
Lin had not expected that, at this final moment, the Artificial Intelligence that should have faithfully executed all his commands would defy him.
There was no time to consider why. The Honkai Beasts were already approaching the door. If this continued, another bloody massacre would unfold in The Deepest Place. Lin could only urgently command again, "Close the door! Prometheus!"
"No."
All he received was the same icy mechanical voice.
If the door closed now, Lin would die directly on this threshold that kept Honkai Beasts from harming humans.
His flesh and blood would become the final barrier.
At that moment, Prometheus's command execution system conflicted with her thought system. After a brief contradiction in her circuits, her higher-priority thought system stopped the order from being carried out.
"Urgh—"
What Lin had not expected even more was that Ritter grabbed his arm at that moment, veins bulging on his forehead as he pulled Lin outward with all his strength.
"What are you doing? Get away from me!"
Before he finished speaking, a tentacle released Lin's foot and instead seized Ritter around the waist.
Ritter's legs could not move. Once he was caught, he had no chance to resist!
Ritter let go of Lin's arm and smiled at him in relief. "Sure enough, someone like you deserves to live..."
Whoosh—
Another tentacle grabbed Ritter's foot. After leaving behind the afterimage of his smile in Lin's visor, he was dragged directly inside, using his last strength to push Lin out.
One went in, while the other retreated.
The instant Lin got outside, Prometheus closed the door. The heavy isolation gate fell, separating Ritter, who had not finished speaking, and the relieved smile on his face from the monster-filled A-3 Zone.
Bang!
Lin laboriously climbed to his feet and stared at the door, through which not even a beam of light could pass.
Back then, Ritter had opened the door and released the disaster. Now, he had closed the door and sealed the disaster inside.
There were no screams, no cries. After the final strange crack of breaking bones, all that remained behind the door were the thunderous impacts of monsters crashing against it and their roars.
Only then did the alarm finally ring through The Deepest Place.
"Lin, guards are expected to arrive in three minutes. Please evacuate."
Lin did not answer.
Ritter's final smile gradually overlapped in his mind with Spasi's furious expression.
Wearing his helmet, Lin stood frozen before the door like a statue.
"All personnel, confirm your equipment and prepare to suppress the Honkai Beasts!"
Groups of guards gradually drew near, while Prometheus's urging rang endlessly in his ears.
All information gathered inside his helmet. Startling scarlet words seemed to flow with blood as they slid down his cheeks.
"Doctor Lin Qijiu? Interesting. He actually forged an identity?"
Screen light illuminated the unusually pale, delicate skin of the green-haired woman, who rarely left her room. Her earrings glittered beneath the fluorescent glow as she looked at the access records on the screen and sneered.
Using her authority, she accessed the MOTH database. Although she was restricted at every turn within MOTH, she was also one of its founders. And in order to obtain her research results, MOTH granted her a considerable degree of authority—at least everything a "founder" was supposed to have on the surface.
After searching through the records of The Deepest Place, Mobius discovered Lin's forged identity and his access logs.
"Lab Rat with broken legs, what are you going to use to repay me this time?" 69.493.6135
With a mischievous grin, Mobius deleted Lin Qijiu's records and identity from the database. This was precisely what Mei had asked her to do. To give Mei greater influence, and to discover who was obstructing them from behind the scenes, Mobius helped Lin complete the final step of his infiltration: erasing the traces.
Besides her, at least one other person knew Lin had been to The Deepest Place. But neither could reveal it. They could only bury the secret in their stomachs.
"Doctor Mobius, what are you doing here?"
Another figure appeared at the database entrance.
Sigma stood in the shadows like a ghost.
An impatient expression appeared on Mobius's pretty face as she faced away from Sigma, but it vanished when she turned around. Crossing her arms, she said evenly, "Just some experimental data. What do you want?"
"Nothing. I just need to use the database. Sorry for disturbing you."
Sigma walked over to another terminal and logged into the database with his identification card.
Mobius narrowed her eyes like a snake and stared unblinkingly at Sigma. Then she said nothing, merely snorted before leaving amid the crisp clicks of her heels.
"..." Sigma cautiously turned back to look in the direction Mobius had left.
"Heh..."
A pair of gleaming green eyes, like those of a cold-blooded animal, met his gaze.
Mobius stood at the doorway with both hands in her pockets, watching the frozen Sigma with a cold smile.
"What are you planning to do here?" Mobius leisurely raised her right hand and examined it beneath the light. Her slender arm and delicate skin looked entirely harmless.
But in Sigma's eyes, that gesture was undoubtedly terrifying.
"Nothing. I wanted to look up combat records from the Third Honkai War to make up for my shortcomings."
"Oh? Here? Can't you use your own terminal?"
"I accidentally deleted the files on my terminal."
"..."
The pressure of being watched by Mobius was no less than what that helmeted brat had endured. Cold sweat began to seep down Sigma's back.
After scrutinizing him for a long while, Mobius shifted her toes and headed outside. "You'd better be."
Sigma watched Mobius leave the database. He waited a full five minutes, and only after confirming that she had truly left did he collapse to the ground, clutching his chest and breathing heavily.
Lin climbed ashore. In the crimson twilight, he found a tree at random and leaned against it. The Poisoned Cocoon files, shredded beyond recognition, were scattered all over the ground, most of them blurred beyond legibility.
Only one document was relatively intact, containing information on one of its members.
But Lin did not look at it, nor did he have Prometheus contact Mei immediately.
He temporarily shut down every information-gathering system, leaving only a visor through which he could look at the scenery outside his helmet.
At this moment, he should have boarded the speedboat and returned immediately, then done what he needed to do.
"Prometheus, why did you disobey my order?"
Lin quietly asked Prometheus. There was no reproach in his tone, but it was very different from usual.
"I cannot let Lin sacrifice himself."
"Why?"
"I cannot let you die."
"..."
Lin stood, picked up the final document, and walked toward the speedboat.
"Prometheus, when we get back, I'll have Mei remove you."
"..."
Prometheus did not respond either. Like a real human, she fell silent.
How Much Can a Person Change?
"We will now conduct the first test of the second-generation submarine engine for aquatic combat. Diving depth is set to four thousand meters."
"Ten, nine, eight..."
Delta sat sloppily on the deck, biting into a dry piece of bread. With one yawn, the sea wind blew the bread right out of his mouth.
The listless man's mouth suddenly went empty. Seeing the bread roll across the deck, he immediately sprang to life and dashed after it. "Hey! Wait! My bread! I haven't had breakfast!"
"Director, testing is underway. Don't go over there!"
His assistant dragged the dejected Delta back and scolded him irritably, "You were the one who demanded this test, Director. Why are you the least concerned about it?"
"It's just an engine test. The data fluctuation won't exceed a thousand. There's no need to make such a big production out of it; calculations would be enough." Delta searched all over himself before finally finding a piece of gum in his back pocket. He sighed, tossed it into his mouth, and chewed the flavorless gum as he muttered.
"Huh? Then why test it? And why specifically choose a location outside the base instead of using the internal facilities?"
"Why, indeed? Heh heh..." Delta gave a meaningful smile.
Of course, because being outside would attract more attention.
"This is kind of..." Vill-V's expression was especially complicated as she turned off the video, looking somewhat saddened.
If she had to describe it... she had rented a DVD from the video store specifically to watch a story about a super agent infiltrating an underwater base, but what played was not an exciting action flick. Instead, it was a drama that left anyone who watched it with an indescribable feeling. That was how she felt now.
She glanced at Lin, who had not said a word from beginning to end. This helmeted man had watched the event he personally experienced all over again without even the slightest reaction. His psychological resilience was truly extraordinary.
Ritter's death was not worthy of sympathy. It could even be said that he deserved it. But at the very end, that relieved smile was far more impactful than the terrified wails he had let out while covering his face.
A man who had taken away another child's father, while also being the father of his own child, could kill for his daughter, but he could also save a stranger he had known 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 an indescribable tightness in her chest.
Was this man thinking the same thing?
Vill-V softened her voice. "You... are you okay?"
"I'm fine." Lin had already returned to his room and disposed of his outer clothing. As always, he wore armor that exposed not even an inch of skin, like a corpse trapped inside an iron coffin.
Vill-V pressed a few buttons on her homemade player and said absentmindedly, "All right, then our deal ends here. I'll erase the recording."
"Mm."
Lin turned on his heel. The aftermath of this matter was not over yet. He still had more things to deal with, and he needed to find Mei and explain what had happened in The Deepest Place.
"Um... if you need anything in the future, you can come find me." Vill-V waved at his back.
Lin walked out of the workshop, leaving behind a single sentence. "No need."
No need?
Vill-V froze for a moment.
Did he mean there was no need to find her? Or that there was no need for her small sense of guilt?
"So that's how it is. Poisoned Cocoon, The Deepest Place, the High Council, assassins..."
After listening to Lin's calm account, Mei gained a roughly thorough understanding of the overall framework of the matter.
Kevin looked at Lin with some concern. "Lin, what about your injuries?"
"It's fine. Just some scrapes." Lin shook his head. He could not go to the Medical Department for treatment, or too much information would be exposed.
But old wounds layered atop new ones were far from as minor as he made them sound. Lin had not been in normal condition since the Third Honkai War. He should have been resting, yet he was practically down to his last breath.
"But Prometheus said your injuries are serious." Mei pointed to the message Prometheus had sent to her screen.
"..."
Lin glanced at the upper-right corner. Prometheus said nothing. The space was empty, as if she were angry with him.
Before you continue