Rescue Operation / A Beautiful Girl's Skirt Conceals a Gateway to Another World

No matter what the man said, Lin couldn't believe him... No, it was still unclear whether he was even human. Lin had already experienced his danger firsthand, and it was best to ignore such a guy.

But this time, Lin did not remain silent.

"I don't need you, or the past, to define who I am."

Lin's sharp, eagle-like gaze pierced the stunned man. "And what I do is none of your business. Either stay obediently in my mind, or wait for me to find a way to completely eliminate you."

Those two women both wanted to become "themselves," and they moved forward without hesitation toward the future they longed for, even if it was just smiling under the blue sky.

Lin carries their hopes on his shoulders, and he will not stand still.

"Is that so?" The man came to his senses, his figure gradually fading. He looked calmly at Lin. "Then we'll see, Lin."

The room returned to silence, as if the man had never been there.

Lin sometimes wondered if the man was just a figment of her imagination. But the truth was, that man had the real power to change reality.

"Hey, Lin, why did you save me? We don't know each other, do we?"

"..."

He thought he could finally get some peace and quiet, but to his surprise, Himeko, whom he thought was already asleep, started talking again, which left Lin Mo speechless for quite a while.

Out of the corner of his eye, he caught sight of the red-haired girl sleeping not far away, just a few fists' distance away, her golden-red eyes blinking as she looked at him. "You almost died too, didn't you? And now you..."

Disfigurement and blindness, even if not lifelong disabilities, are enough to break a person. But this person, after learning that he had permanently lost an eye, simply said "Oh".

"... There's no reason."

It was just a bodily instinct; by the time I came to my senses, my right cheek and right eye had already been split in two.

"You wouldn't happen to be..." Himeko looked curiously at his profile, "... Xi..."

"Your imagination."

Lin interrupted her without any hesitation.

Himeko wasn't particularly annoyed. Instead, she smiled and said, "That's right. We've only met by chance. Why should we doubt why you saved me?"

He's someone who can take things in stride and let them go easily.

Lin, however, did not dislike this kind of personality.

Would you like a drink?

"...Now?"

They are wounded, what's going on in this young drunkard's head?

"Don't worry about it so much. Come on, let's get up and have a drink. Let's talk about our lives and share our experiences."

Chapter Twenty-Seven: The Rescue Operation

"Come on, cheers!"

Lin, expressionless and reluctant, raised his glass and clinked it with the red-haired girls on either side of him, each carrying a bottle of beer. While they gulped down their drinks, he sipped his bittersweet beer.

You would never guess that the bold young woman in front of you, wearing only hot pants and a tank top, with one foot propped up on a small table and chugging straight from a bottle, is a mere nineteen-year-old woman who hasn't even entered the workforce yet.

"Goo-ha!"

She downed half a bottle of beer in one gulp, then smiled and shook the bottle at Lin, who was holding half of her head, making a clanging sound.

"Hiccup... Drinking alcohol can help relieve the pain, you know," Himeko said half-jokingly, but then she touched the wound on her neck. "But you should still drink less."

"..."

After finishing another bottle of wine, Himeko casually opened another bottle of beer. She walked to the window, drew back the curtains, sat on the windowsill bathed in moonlight, leaned against the window, and gazed at the tranquil scenery outside.

Everyone has their own worries, right?

Human thoughts are complex and profound, and it is best not to care too much about what others are thinking. It is very impolite to pry into their thoughts.

But Lin, by chance, caught a glimpse of something placed on a table some distance away.

He squinted and glanced at it; it was... a withdrawal certificate from Caltech...

"Well... generally speaking, being too interested in a girl's past won't make her like you much."

A hand reeking of alcohol picked up the expulsion certificate and put it in the desk drawer. She locked the drawer and smiled at Lin, shaking the key in her hand.

"A girl's secrets and her heart are usually unlocked by the same key, but it's not easy to do so."

"..."

Ambiguous?

No, those were very obvious words of rejection. After saying them, she went back to drinking in silence, a faint, melancholy smile playing on her lips.

Suddenly want to drink...

This reminded Lin of Delta on the Hyperion. Before leaving, he actually wanted to have a drink with Delta, since alcohol can make people lower their guard and unconsciously reveal their true feelings. He also wanted to see if he could let her vent her emotions in this way.

Throughout history, drinking has always been associated with relieving sorrow.

How many people are not drawn to the slightly spicy sensation in their throat from a sip of not-so-sweet liquor, but rather to the moment when their senses are gradually numbed, allowing them to temporarily forget the pain of reality?

Himeko, wanting to drink with someone, probably had something to say, so Lin just quietly drank his wine and waited for her to speak first.

"Although it's impolite to mistake one person for another, you do remind me of someone." After a few rounds of drinks, the smell of alcohol in the room became noticeably stronger. Himeko propped her pretty face up with the back of her hand, staring blankly out the window.

"You have already done something impolite."

"Haha... yes, so I'm sorry, consider it compensation, I'll treat you to a meal when I have time."

Lin picked up the wine bottle. "Eating in the cafeteria?"

"Oh~ you're quite knowledgeable~" Himeko couldn't help but shake her head with a smile. "Alright, enough joking. You risked your life to save me even though you had no power, which reminded me of my former teacher."

Teacher...

Thinking of the expulsion certificate stuffed into the drawer, Lin guessed that the "teacher" the other party mentioned must have something to do with her dropping out of school.

Himeko didn't seem like the type to excel at studying, but unexpectedly, she was a top student at Caltech, and she gave up a bright future to join Schicksal.

"Does the wound hurt?"

"...fine."

"Then don't prepare like that next time." Himeko took a sip from the bottle. "Other people's lives are not everything, yours is. For a long time, I have been troubled by how to be a good person."

"Why did I give up my studies? For higher pursuits? No, I just find it hard to accept the departure of some people."

"... Do you have a voyeuristic tendency?"

Yan Luo put down her book, glanced at the man who was watching the Moon Underneath World Bubble between Hayashi and Himeko on TV with great interest, and asked in a chilling tone.

"Hmm... Logically speaking, I do have a bit of a voyeuristic tendency, but when I think about it carefully, I'm openly watching a live stream, aren't I?" Zero waved his hand without any remorse. "I'm just watching Lin's adventure video. Do you want to watch it with me?"

"No need."

"You clearly care about how he is doing, but you never ask him. You're just as proud and aloof as Lin Yi."

Just as Yan Luo was about to unleash a torrent of profanities with a blank expression, Zero changed the subject. "He's doing very well now... If you consider complete amnesia as good, he not only has his own warship, but also maids to take care of his daily needs, and a little girl he rescued by his side. Compared to his previous life, he's doing just as well."

"It's just a pity that he maintained a certain degree of wariness towards both maids and young girls."

"When a person loses their memory, they often ask themselves what kind of person they were in the past. Lin is no exception. In just a few months, he began to pursue 'self'. Can you say that he is worthy of the fact that it took him several years to completely become human?"

"In short, he's physically healthy, mentally sound, and has a beautiful girl by his side... Hmm, he's truly enviable."

"Heh, so you have me with you now, don't you?" Yan Luo couldn't help but let out a series of cold laughs. A chilling wind swept over Ling like a cold tide. He coughed and said—

"Hyperion will automatically plan its journey and head there when it detects signs of distortion in the World Bubble of the Quantum Sea. The task I assigned to him is to repair those World Bubble."

"... You arranged this for him?"

Yan Luo's tone suddenly turned cold. Before, it still had a little bit of humanity, but now it was so cold that it didn't sound like a human being at all.

She stared intently at the man, trying to glean something from his indifferent face.

But he kept smiling, a non-human smile.

"Of course, he can enjoy and relive the process of saving others, and ideally, he can confirm in the process that he is a great hero who wants to save everyone."

Even without a past, we can look to the future.

"A pioneer who steadfastly walks his own path, I want him to become that kind of person... Hehe..."

However, there was no warmth in Zero's smile that could be described as "human".

In those murky eyes, an unknown cruelty flowed.

"But... can he really save everyone?"

"This world is never generous. What do you want to save? And what do you have to give in return?"

Chapter Twenty-Eight: The Beautiful Girl's Skirt Connects to Another World

"You probably think I'm ridiculous, living in the past." Himeko climbed down from the windowsill, finished the rest of the wine in the bottle, casually threw the empty bottle into the trash can, and opened another can. "But someone once told me that a person's life is often made up of their childhood, so most people are actually living in the past."

"..."

"I wasn't very familiar with that person, haha. To be honest, it was just a coincidence that I, a newly recruited... well, a newly hired junior officer, was able to meet him. But we sat down and chatted for a bit. When I told him that I didn't join the force to protect social stability but gave up my studies for someone, he said that I did nothing wrong."

"Human emotions are what distinguish him from other creatures, and the power that emotions can unleash far exceeds human imagination."

"I was really surprised that the person would say something that sounded like 'love can save the world,' but he didn't seem to be joking at all."

"But when I saw his calm eyes, I suddenly understood."

Himeko put down the wine bottle, braced her hands on the edge of the windowsill, and her beautiful, fiery red hair seemed to come alive in the wind, swaying gently.

"He didn't praise my decision on this matter, and he may not have approved of my approach, but he still gave me encouragement."

"That person may have experienced many things I don't know about, but since then, I have stopped thinking about whether my decision was right or wrong. Once you've made a choice, just keep going firmly."

"To a place where no one can catch up with you."

"... Slap."

Himeko was startled by the sound beside her. She turned around and found that Lin had walked up to her and handed her the beer she had put down. She smiled nonchalantly, took it, and the two clinked glasses.

"Smack."

"I'm sorry for letting you hear so many strange things."

After they finished their drinks, Himeko didn't take out any more. As she enjoyed the cool evening breeze, her thoughts drifted back to the past.

"Fine."

Lin took a deep breath, shook his head, and didn't say anything more.

Are you bound by the past...?

Perhaps due to the massive blood loss, Lin slept for a full ten hours this time. He was awakened by the pain from the wound on his face, and after getting up, he looked around the empty room with a dizzy head. The blankets next to him were already folded, and it seemed that Himeko had left early.

There was a note on the table, in which Himeko instructed, "I'm going out on patrol. You can eat in the cafeteria or go out to eat, just don't go too far away."

Strange, is she really that diligent? Didn't she only go out to search at night before?

However, this also made things easier for Lin. He left the Schicksal branch without anyone stopping him. He didn't know if Himeko had given him instructions or if these people simply didn't care about him.

Losing an eye means losing a significant portion of your field of vision. Since humans rely on both eyes for spatial orientation, losing an eye can occasionally lead to missteps on stairs.

Fortunately, he entered the World Bubble through consciousness mapping, so as long as he is not severely damaged, he will be fine after leaving the World Bubble.

However, as mentioned before, the more times consciousness is mapped, the easier it is to lose sight of one's own consciousness.

Perhaps one day in the future, after he ends the mapping of consciousness, he will be unable to regain himself, and these accumulated "damages" may truly rob him of his vision.

But not now.

Lin braved temperatures high enough to fry an egg on the spot and began searching in the darker parts of the city. Although it was unrealistic to find nocturnal creatures in such scorching weather, Lin still wanted to try and see if he could encounter the vampire girl.

The scorching sun shone on the bandages, and the wounds seemed to be bleeding again. The people around looked at this person, whose head was half wrapped in bandages, with a strange look in their eyes. Lin ignored them and turned into a small alley.

He met Theresa here last time.

The black-haired man's remaining single eye flickered. He didn't feel any nostalgia, but for some reason, he still thought of the silver-haired vampire girl's ferocity, vulnerability, coldness, and curiosity.

Last night, when she viciously sliced half of his face open, the shock mixed with her brutality was clearly visible.

"..."