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Bianca believes that a qualified warrior should not cause trouble for his comrades due to bad habits in his daily routine. She has no bad habits, spends most of her free time reading, maintains a regular schedule, and has a fixed sleep time. Unless she is on a mission, she will never stay up late or sleep in.

Her body, imbued with immense power, is like an alarm clock that never fails, strictly adhering to her set times for falling asleep and waking up, without a moment's delay.

So when she woke up once again from a perfect night's sleep, full of energy, without the hazy transition from sleep to wakefulness, she opened her eyes with great spirit, wanting to get up and exercise immediately.

I drooled in my sleep again last night, ugh, when will I ever break this bad habit...?

Speaking of which, why does the blanket feel a bit stiff when I hug it today?

She looked down, feeling refreshed.

"..."

A glistening strand of saliva clung to the corner of his mouth, stretching as thin as a silken thread with a gentle pull. His face, less than half a centimeter away, was covered in her saliva, as if someone had collected all her saliva and poured it all over his face.

Huh... huh?

Bianca's body temperature rose rapidly. She held her breath and felt a burning sensation rush from her neck all the way to her forehead, and her ears felt like they were on fire.

She could even see a lot of saliva dripping onto Lin's lips.

He slowly opened his mouth wide, and a sound of shame and indignation gathered in his throat.

At the last second, she covered her mouth, breathing heavily as she stared at the soundly sleeping Lin, the sticky feeling on her hands making her even more ashamed.

But Bianca could tell what was going on. She knew better than anyone that Bianca loved to roll around and hug the blankets. The current situation was definitely because she had hugged Lin tightly last night, and he couldn't break free, but she didn't want to disturb his sleep.

Her body stiffened as if she hadn't applied any lubricant. She carefully wiped the drool off Lin's face with a towel, then rushed out of the tent for a morning run as if fleeing.

The body, which had been motionless from the beginning, trembled slightly and quietly opened one eye after hearing the chaotic footsteps recede into the distance.

"It seems you two get along well."

Einstein saw Lin again three days later. She crossed out one of the many derivations in her hand. The room was full of papers filled with incorrect results. She pushed up her red-rimmed glasses, put down the paper, and smiled slightly at him.

"Miss Rita has already told me about last night's attack, so it seems we need to speed things up."

"..."

"So many dangerous individuals, even the Moth of Fire would have to go through a lot of trouble, is it all thanks to that Divine Key?"

"No." Lin Cong the ground and said blankly, "That person's combat ability is beyond imagination; she annihilated most of them."

"Hearing you say that, it seems the girl from 50,000 years later is indeed quite remarkable." Einstein twirled her pen, looking at Lin with a playful smile. "And your specific assessment?"

"It's more advanced than Kevin's combat capabilities when we left. His physical abilities have reached the level of a top-tier Flame-Chaser, and he also has five superpowers that can assist in combat, including that lance..." Lin paused for a second, then continued, "It should be made of Soul Steel, but it's definitely not Divine Key."

Where are they?

"...What?"

The professor capped his pen and, resting his chin on his hand in the quaint treehouse, asked the taciturn, cold man, "I mean, what's your opinion of her as a person?"

The image reflected in the dark green pupils shifted from the pen with its cap on to the face of the doctor who had been separated from him by seven years.

"Einstein, what are you trying to say?"

"What am I trying to say?" she repeated, as if savoring a snack. "Do you think I have anything to say?"

"... You can tell me."

"Of course, we are comrades-in-arms, and we have been together for many years." Einstein's smile was very cheerful. According to Lin's memory, she often smiled calmly. Her extensive knowledge and advanced ideas that far surpassed those of others made her seem very at ease.

Ke Lin felt that she was different from before, just like the scraps of paper she had thrown away, covered with messy lines.

"Lin, you've experienced this many times."

"..."

"So you don't want other people to experience that feeling, right?"

"..."

"Although it sounds cliché, like using medieval art styles during the Renaissance, but... Lin, you are a gentle person, but what does gentleness mean to some people? You know very well why you never had deep contact with people before."

She sat in the treehouse that would eventually decay, gazing towards a future where sunlight would forever bathe the ground.

"Time is not a river, but a waterfall. Standing on the splashing pool, you can see the magnificent Milky Way pouring down, but you can never swim against the current to where it falls."

Lin dragged the chains of Oath of Judas as he slowly walked through the ruins. Alone in this post-apocalyptic world, he was lost and confused, like a glorious day that had vanished into thin air, leaving only a ghost wandering among the ruins where people once lived.

Lin's memory contains some errors due to historical reasons. Sometimes he judges the authenticity of a memory by the logic between its beginning and end. It is at such times that he recalls those experiences that can be described as bumpy, and those people who have long since left him.

He stood alone in the desolate ruins.

So, what was left behind?

He turned around but saw nothing. He looked up and saw only devastation.

Over the long course of time, only he remained, a product that seemed to be a fusion of the ideals and hopes of many people.

Lin sat on the ground, raising dust. A ray of sunlight shone through the overgrown ruins, and he thought of that fairy tale.

The little girl struck a match and saw warmth in the flame, as well as her long-deceased grandmother.

The illusion is so captivating that even if you light all the matches at once, you still want to hold onto the unattainable phantom.

He turned around again, and this time he saw many figures. Some were smiling at him, some were blaming him, and some were just standing there watching him indifferently.

When will he become one of them?

How could he leave behind proof that they once existed in this world, so that their figures could still be faintly seen in the cascading flow of time?

Lin reached out, wanting to touch those phantoms.

"Scum Mushroom, what are you doing here?"

"..."

The blonde girl walked in, bathed in light. She wiped the sweat from her brow with a towel and asked Lin, who was sitting in the shadows, with a puzzled look.

Lin turned his gaze to her.

"Um... well..." The girl looked away shyly when he stared at her. "Do you want to train together? People from 50,000 years ago, they must have trained, right?"

"...certainly."

"Hmph, that's good then. Let's see who can run the farthest!"

Lin stared at the girl's face, still unable to understand why such a powerful warrior, fifty thousand years later, could possess the intense emotions that those who chased the fire moth lacked.

At that moment, he thought of someone who never lost her smile.

... It seems that something was left behind.

Lin stood up, left the phantom, and walked towards the girl.

What are the benefits of winning?

"Huh? What kind of benefits do you want?"

"... Don't be nervous, it's okay if you don't have it."

Chapter 53 (The following content is for paid users)

The two men set up their positions on the plain, facing each other bare-handed.

Bianca's high ponytail shone brightly in the direct sunlight. Her gaze was calm, and with her left palm in front, she slowly approached the man who had also taken a lunge stance and assumed a fighting posture.

On the open ground under the high sun, the wrists of two hands collided, and at that moment, the tension reached its peak, and the two struck at the same time!

"Bang!"

With a slap, she knocked Lin's arm away. The pinkish-red fist made a whooshing sound as it struck his face. Lin stepped back and turned, letting the fist graz the back of his head.

He followed up with an elbow strike, but it was blocked by Bianca's palm, producing a dull thud.

The two exchanged blows, the explosive sounds of their fists clashing echoing throughout. In ordinary close combat, there was not much difference between them.

However, Lin was ultimately no match for Bianca's physical abilities. Even when Bianca held back, Lin gradually fell into a disadvantageous position.

In the end, Lin's desperate counter-punch was blocked by Bianca, who raised her hand and stopped her long, round, straight leg next to his neck.

"I won." She raised an eyebrow and smiled smugly.

After Lin stopped, he looked at his hands and chest, took a deep breath, and took two steps back. "Just tell me what you want."

"Hmm, I'll tell you how to torture you later. Let's eat first!"

Since regaining his sense of taste, Lin has not skimped on food. Today he made a small mushroom stew and a curry potato rice bowl. Considering Bianca's preference for stronger flavors, he made some minor adjustments. They had already been stewing potatoes during training, so they could just open the pot and eat when they got back.

Eating a piping hot, slightly spicy curry is enough to bring a sense of happiness.

Lin sat down next to her with a bowl in his hand, but before his bottom even touched the ground, she bit her spoon and whimpered as she moved away.

Her cheeks flushed slightly under Lin's puzzled gaze. "If I sweat a lot, I'll smell bad."

"... I can't smell it." Lin thought it was making a fuss over nothing.

"How come you can't smell it when you're so close?" Bianca, drenched in sweat, pushed him away in disgust. "Or do you really just like smelling other people's scent?"

"That's you..."

Lin stopped mid-sentence, noticing Bianca's stunned expression. Realizing he had almost let something slip, he changed his words, saying, "That's just your imagination."

The panic in Bianca's eyes subsided, and she scoffed, "Who knows, Scum Mushroom."

After a brief silence, Bianca buried her head in her food, clearly distracted, which Lin noticed, but he didn't say anything.

Halfway through her meal, Bianca looked up, a grain of rice clinging to the corner of her mouth. "Scum Mushroom, what kind of person is your lover?"

"..."

"I just want to know what kind of woman is so tolerant that she can allow you to be with so many girls."

Lin put down his bowl and said indifferently, "Someone who taught me a lot."

"Is that all?" Bianca asked curiously.

"Um."

Lin didn't actually know how to describe Elysia; there wasn't a precise word for it. Or rather, Elysia was just a very "Elysia" person.

However, if Elysia knew that he described her that way, she would probably be very happy, since it would be like treating her as a special person. But she would also smile and say that she was a shy girl like a flower.

After taking a couple more bites of food, Bianca asked vaguely, "Are you married?"

"...No."

Don't you want to get married?

"It wasn't in time."

"..."

Bianca stopped what she was doing, a look of apology flashing in her eyes, her expression somewhat strange. "What happened?"

"It's just that I didn't have time." Lin repeated this sentence only once, and then said no more.

Bianca hesitated, feeling that this wasn't her usual self. She always spoke her mind, which led some people to describe her as overly stubborn, and she was even given nicknames behind her back when she tried to educate lazy people.

But now, when she thinks back to the question she asked Lin before, "Do you have a lover?", and connects it with what he said now, a sense of guilt washes over her.

"I have another question."

Lin glanced at the girl out of the corner of his eye; she was serious by nature, and this was no exception when it came to these matters.

"You said before that if your time has already passed," her pretty face was full of seriousness, "Then you will continue to fight until the Honkai can no longer destroy the next 'time'."

"Suppose you can no longer go back to your time, and everything in your memories has become dust of time, would you be willing... to come with me to the world 50,000 years in the future?"

The rosy glow of the sunset shone on the girl's fair and translucent skin. Lin calmly watched her without making any move, and she did not avoid his gaze, but responded to his gaze with her straightforward and earnest eyes.

Lin turned to look at the setting sun. "... How old are you?"

The girl paused for a moment, then solemnly replied, "19 years old."

"I'm 30 years old, it's not suitable."

"You... you're 30 years old?" Bianca was utterly astonished. "You look like you're not even 20... Wait, no, that's not right! What are you thinking! Pervert! Scum Mushroom! I'm asking if you'd be willing to fight alongside me for humanity!"

Lin nodded. "Yes, that's what I meant too."