The End

He himself couldn't laugh naturally.

His facial cells were not necrotic, and he could make other expressions normally, but his smile seemed to have completely disappeared from him ever since he joined the Fire Moth.

So Lin said to Prometheus very seriously, "If you laugh, I will laugh back at you."

It's a lie.

Lin was certain that Prometheus couldn't do it, and since she couldn't, Lin naturally didn't need to laugh.

However, to his surprise, the gray-haired mechanical girl nodded.

"Please help me."

Prometheus had Lin extend her index fingers, then she held those two fingers to the corners of her mouth and gently pulled, creating a smile.

His eyebrows and the corners of his eyes were frozen and did not move, only the corners of his mouth were pulled at an angle.

It was the perfect example of a forced smile, but Lin was stunned.

Was she really laughing?

It doesn't look like it at all.

But when she saw Lin's surprised expression, the corners of her mouth seemed to naturally turn up slightly, and her face, which had been frozen like an ice sculpture, melted.

Prometheus also reached out and placed his hands on the corners of Lin's mouth, pulling them up slightly.

A similarly forced smile was born.

"That way, we've all had our laughs."

She tilted her head and said stiffly.

Two people who couldn't smile managed to force extremely stiff "smiles" with each other's help.

Despite her seemingly silly appearance, Lin found a sense of comfort and joy in the tranquility within her heart.

Having done all this, Prometheus reverted to his usual taciturn self, took a step back, and said calmly to Lin—

"Come back soon, Lin."

Almost everything has been explained.

Large raindrops poured onto the deck, soaking the man completely.

Do humans have the concept of a soul?

He was unaware that Mobius had once said that humans only have "consciousness," and that the soul is merely a figment of human imagination, a concoction to comfort themselves that there is something left after death.

But Lin felt that the "soul" in his body was gradually getting cold and hard, and as the rain penetrated it, it took away the little warmth left.

"It's raining, Lin. You seem to have a special connection with rain."

A person walked past him, sat on the railing, yawned listlessly, and looked up at the dark clouds that obscured the moon.

He scratched his messy hair, then rubbed his dark circles and smiled at Lin, who was looking at him. "Is it raining somewhere in your heart all the time?"

"... You are already dead."

"Yes, I am dead, and so are many others. The person I am now is just your imagination, after all, you are someone who can't get over the past." He chuckled softly. "You know that very well, yet you buried our souls somewhere in your heart, in a cemetery where it never stops raining."

Rain lashed against his face, and Lin's pupils dilated and shattered once more.

"Should I call you stupid? When you're about to die, you're not thinking about yourself, but about whether those who have died will be completely forgotten after you die."

"This time will be the same."

"Wrong."

Lin's sudden voice startled the man. Lin's pupils had somehow refocused, and some iridescent light flickered in his eyes.

He said to the man, "This time, it's different."

"..."

"..."

After a long pause, the man chuckled, then burst into carefree laughter. "Hahahaha... You're different now, Lin."

"Then let's keep going."

The man's body became transparent, and rainwater passed through him, falling onto the deck.

He patted Lin on the shoulder and smiled gently.

"We are right beside you."

"Tick-tock".

A night breeze blew by, and the man disappeared into the wind. Lin looked up and saw a bird soaring excitedly in the rain, flapping its wings towards the distant sky.

Its loud cry disappeared into the clouds, vanishing without a trace.

Chapter Thirty-Seven Finality

"Found it! Found it!" A lively voice pierced through the rain, making Lin Weiwei look up. "What are you doing out in the rain?"

"..."

Lin wondered what he was thinking when he first saw her at the entrance of the training room.

Two people walked slowly in the rain, their footsteps making a clear sound on the deck.

"Is this... not yet past the age of acting melancholic in the rain?" Raindrops slid down the girl's face with a sly smile, making Lin suddenly feel a sense of emptiness.

Each time, her face appeared so clear, yet each time, Lin felt it was so blurry.

"What's wrong? Is there something on my face?"

"It's nothing... there are just too many things to do all at once, I need to calm down." Lin put aside his thoughts and looked at the people who represented his two different periods.

Kevin and Elysia.

"Is it unpleasant to regain your memories?" The white-haired man seemed much more relaxed after this trip, and his cold tone betrayed a hidden concern.

"No." Lin shook his head. "I can't say for sure. Maybe it's just my imagination."

His heart would still beat slightly faster when he realized he was lying.

Elysia's bright eyes, shining even in the darkness, stared at him, and her half-smile gave Lin the illusion that she saw through his lie.

"To celebrate Lin regaining her memory, let's throw a party when we get back," Elysia suggested excitedly. "And let Mei join us too; she's always working so hard, she deserves a break, don't you think, Kevin?"

"Ah... um."

Kevin only showed a hint of emotion other than his coldness when he mentioned May. He nodded hesitantly, which was considered as agreeing to Elysia's suggestion.

"Don't use my suggestion to host a banquet as an excuse," Lin said calmly.

"Hehe, how could that be an excuse? I had already planned to hold a banquet once you recovered."

"You said last time that you were going to hold a dance party."

"Huh? Eh? Right! It's a dance party, anyway, they're all pretty much the same."

"I was lying to you, you never said that."

"..."

Kevin watched the interaction between the two with amusement; it was truly fascinating.

Elysia leaned against Lin and said with a smile, "It's a pity that we'll have to split up to carry out missions after we get back. But as for what Thirteen Heroes are thinking, hmph, we have Eden, Vill-V, and me, no one can stop us."

What role will you play?

"I'm doing my best as a beautiful girl, being pretty and cute to be the face of the group! I'm acting as the second leader when Kevin isn't around. Of course, if Kevin wants to step down and give me the first position, that's fine too. Everyone definitely prefers a beautiful girl to a cold, icy leader."

Kevin said casually, "Take it if you want."

"Just kidding~" Elysia turned her head and squinted at Lin with a flirtatious look. "But we are the Thirteen Heroes, not the Fourteen Flame-Chasers, which is a bit of a pity."

"According to the duties Mei assigned me, I am your monitor," Lin Yun said to her casually. "Others need such an explanation, and besides, I am not Flame-Chaser."

"I'll add it to you secretly later..."

"Do as you please," Lin Fuxiu sighed. "You haven't changed at all over the years."

Mischievous, carefree, narcissistic... traits that might be flaws in others seem commonplace in her, shrouding her in mystery.

"Aren't we going in?" Kevin shook off the ice shards from his clothes. Rainy days were just like that for him, and he said to the two of them, feeling uncomfortable.

"You go in first, I have something I want to talk to Elysia about alone."

"Huh? What? What? Is something good happening?"

Lin remained silent, and Kevin, oblivious to anything amiss, walked towards the cabin, hearing a voice from behind him—

"Kevin, let's go to Eden's concert together sometime."

Kevin paused, then turned back in confusion. "But she's right here."

"Yes, so we won't need tickets next time." Lin's voice, amidst the rain, was like a kite string about to break. "Let's just go together, a few of us men."

"...good."

Finally, only two people remained.

The man squeezed the rainwater in his hands.

I looked up at the sky filled with dark clouds, and then at the surging sea.

In the end, he looked at the pink-haired girl with a smile on her lips.

Her favorite pink hair clung to her skin in the rain.

"Is there anyone in this world who is born with the kindness of everyone?"

Lin asked a question that seemed to have no beginning or end.

His tone remained calm, unmistakable by the sound of the rain, as he gazed at the girl before him, a girl whose identity had remained a mystery for over a decade.

Every smile and frown of hers can be clearly reflected in my mind, like an old movie that is clearly remembered and then replayed until it is completely frozen in time.

"I believe that someone will be born into this world who is enveloped in kindness and love." Lin asked himself, seemingly speaking to himself, "She is warmed by humanity and then passes that warmth on to others."

"..."

The girl did not reply; she seemed to have already anticipated what Lin would say, and simply smiled serenely.

"I consider myself quite stupid, and Mobius often said that I have a slow, wooden brain."

Lin pondered for a moment, pinching his chin and gazing at the girl in front of him, who was as beautiful as a flower wet with clear rain. He kept talking like he had a tap on a gramophone. "The men around me are attracted to me. I don't know how I attracted them. Then I suddenly thought of something."

"I entered their lives, and even if it wasn't my intention, I changed them."

"As Vill-V said, this kind of thing cannot be controlled by reason. Even she, who can clearly analyze the reasons, will be defeated by emotion, because that's human nature."

"Life is a process of planting flowers. The colors that bloom depend on how many spring rains nourish them."

"To me, you are the one who brought me warmth and changed me."

The pink-haired girl's smile suddenly froze. The man in front of her spoke so calmly and directly, saying something she hadn't expected. There was no falsehood in his words; he was simply stating a fact.

"So I think, from 'Lin's' perspective, I should like you, not the kind of friendship I have with other people, but a unique feeling I have for you."

She was stunned.

Rain was still dripping from the man's face. His figure seemed to instantly return to ten years ago, to that peaceful afternoon when she knocked on the training room door and a boy wearing a helmet came out.

Perhaps it was her playful nature that led her to always find various excuses to appear beside the boy who wouldn't even show his face.

All the sorrow and joy began from that moment on.

She witnessed the boy, who didn't understand human emotions, suffer, break down, blame himself, despair, and grieve. His life was filled with misfortune and loss, as if he were the protagonist of a beautiful story, never associated with him.

So she stood beside the boy, always helping him up when he was in so much pain he could barely walk.

Sometimes she felt like a bad woman, appearing at just the right time to be by his side and helping him when he was in the most pain.

Fortunately, the boy never showed his feelings or emotions, which, apart from occasionally making her feel lost, maintained an indescribable, hazy balance between them.

They're friends, right? She treats him the same as everyone else, no different, right? After all, she's Elysia, and she loves everyone.

Lin, too, loves everyone; he wouldn't be so selfish as to focus his attention on just one person.

They are unclear.