Searching for Clues / An Error That Went Unnoticed

"Alright, let's go." Lin watched Kallen and Theresa disappear into the distance before pulling up his hood to cover half of his face.

Starting yesterday, he began to subconsciously cover his face, a behavior that appeared out of nowhere, as if it were his natural habit.

Where to?

"The Schicksal Branch".

A single, black eye, tinged with red, gazes at the massive building in the city center.

Himeko leaned back in her chair. It was rare for her to refrain from drinking during her free time, but she still held a bottle of ice-cold beer in her hand, swaying it and listening to the sound of the steam rising inside, while gazing thoughtfully out the window.

The reason this young alcoholic didn't drink was because Schicksal had given them the mission to capture Herrscher that day. In the end, the Herrscher escaped, and everyone went on high alert. Even she, a young woman who had only recently joined Schicksal and didn't need to participate in the Herrscher capture operation, had to pay attention to Canghai City at night and didn't even have time to continue investigating the recent series of vampire cases.

—For the average person, these are probably the very things that cause anxiety.

But Himeko was thinking about other things.

Some things... she shouldn't have known.

"Mugentou Himeko, you and Lycaon are on guard."

"Yes."

The Valkyrie unit from headquarters is temporarily stationed at the Canghai City branch. The unit's captain, A-rank Valkyrie Monica, was injured in battle and needs to rest for a while before continuing the search for Herrscher tomorrow.

What puzzled Himeko was that shouldn't the Herrscher deal with such individuals as soon as possible? Why would they allow a high-risk individual to move freely in a city full of residents?

But Himeko's rank wasn't high enough; she wasn't even qualified to ask a question.

She patrolled with another Valkyrie designated by her, but her mind was filled with jumbled thoughts, and she couldn't concentrate for the entire hour of patrol.

But at one point, she suddenly "senses" something, a faint connection, which makes her look up in one direction.

A wisp of her skirt disappeared around the corner in an instant.

Chapter 53 Searching for Clues

Previously, the people of the Schicksal branch did not pay attention to an ordinary person who had lost his right eye. However, they probably did not expect that this seemingly very young man had already figured out the layout of the entire branch complex by simply glancing at the internal structure of the branch a few times when Schicksal.

Lin probably knew more about the number of toilets and their locations than anyone in the Schicksal branch. He could easily sneak in and glue the toilet seat covers shut.

Lin calculated the time and distance between the patrolling Valkyrie, silently counting the seconds, and then swaggered past Yue, passing through their line of sight and the blind spots of the surveillance cameras, heading unimpeded towards what was likely the database.

"... Why should we cross the street like rats?" Even though Lin thought this was already a very bold and arrogant act, a certain Herrscher was used to being domineering was still dissatisfied with their cover-up.

Yue hugged her shoulders, her heels trembling as she followed behind him like a sewing machine, frowning as she watched him cautiously lead her through the complicated route. Her dissatisfaction was almost overflowing from her heart.

"Because they plan to capture you and slice you into pieces thinner than Kung Fu Potato," Lin replied quietly without turning his head.

"Get them..."

Yue was about to say she would kill them all, but then stopped herself. She glanced at Lin, who seemed not to have noticed what she was saying, and coldly shut her mouth.

Strange, why is she becoming more and more concerned about his reaction?

Before Yue's doubts could fester, Lin pulled her deeper into the area. He kept observing the rooms that might be databases. In organizations like Schicksal, each branch is equipped with a dedicated database, which is used to manage the data of the entire city and is connected to the data of the headquarters, making it convenient for different people to access the data.

After wandering around the Schicksal branch for about half an hour, Lin Heyue stopped in front of the tightly closed database door. He glanced at the lock that required identity verification and pondered how to obtain the identity documents of Schicksal members.

"... There's someone there."

"There's someone there."

Lin and Yue's perception far surpassed that of ordinary people. After sensing someone approaching, Lin pulled Yue into the shadows. He hugged Yue, shrinking his size, and held his breath, coldly watching the corner not far away.

"Da, da, da..."

After the other person turned the corner, Lin raised an eyebrow slightly. He had noticed that the other person was also in the patrol team, but he did not expect to run into them again.

A girl with fiery red hair scanned her surroundings as she walked towards Lin Heyue.

"Wouldn't her identity document suffice?" Himeko, nestled in his arms, said in a chilling tone as Himeko drew closer.

"..." Lin understood Yue's meaning; right now, they could use Himeko's identity to open the database.

However, this raises a question: if they use Himeko to secretly access information, will she be held accountable by Schicksal afterwards?

Sure enough, let's just knock Himeko. That way, even if it's discovered later, Himeko probably won't be punished.

"Why are you rolling up your sleeves?" Yue looked at Lin's actions strangely, and she grabbed Lin's hand. "You're not thinking of hitting her, are you?"

"...right."

"Didn't you tell me not to hurt humans? How come you're completely indifferent to it yourself?" Yue frowned and accused Lin.

"..."

Lin felt that the world was sometimes quite magical.

The Herrscher had killed him countless times was now accusing him of knocking Himeko unconscious, and in a very... natural tone.

It's as if she wasn't the one who killed so many people before.

"Forget it then." Lin put down his hand and sighed. "I'll think of another way, but it might be very troublesome."

"Wait a minute, were you planning to knock her unconscious and get her identification?"

"Yes."

"Okay, let's get started."

"..."

In short, Lin didn't know whether the final outcome would be good or bad. This pair of formalistic master and servant were finally going to join forces for the first time, and their target was Himeko, who had once helped Lin and fought against vampires with him.

The world is truly bizarre.

There was no time for Lin to sigh. The moment Himeko stepped into the darkness, Lin moved in a flash. Before Himeko could react, he slammed her against the wall. Yue, who was behind him, stepped on his shoulder and leaped up, rushing to Himeko's wide-eyed face like lightning. She covered her mouth and then bit her neck!

"——"

The red-haired girl's struggles vanished instantly. Lin gently released his grip on her hands, and before he could even speak, Yue, whose mouth was full of blood, had already moved her mouth away from Himeko's neck. On Himeko's smooth neck, there were two small, bloody gashes.

"Don't worry, it was just a little bit of her blood and some sleeping pills injected. She'll have a good night's sleep."

Yue wiped the blood from the corner of her mouth. She didn't seem to have the same blood thirst symptoms as Theresa, nor did she seem to be fascinated by the taste of blood. She probably preferred candied apples to blood.

Lin confirmed that Himeko was still breathing and that her breathing was very stable, so he searched her pockets and found her communicator and identification.

They used their identification to open the database door and dragged Himeko inside to prevent them from being discovered by the patrolling officers.

With one less patrolman, someone should notice soon enough. Before that, Lin needs to find what he's looking for in the database.

The database of Schicksal is very complex, but fortunately Lin has outstanding comprehension skills. After a short period of adaptation, he was able to use the database system proficiently.

Yue stood obediently behind him, her blood-red eyes fixed on Lin's back.

Lin first searched for information about Theresa, and sure enough, there were no search results. Theresa was probably a secret of Schicksal, so it was normal that she wasn't in the database.

Then he started looking for Kallen, and this time, he got results.

Kallen, the Holy Maiden of Schicksal from nearly five hundred years ago, a warrior of the Kaslana family, and also... a traitor.

Traitor...

Lin quickly memorized this passage. The historical fate of Kallen made him silent for a few seconds, but soon he began searching for information about the "Herrscher of Erosion".

And this time, as expected, there were no results.

There is relevant information about the Herrscher, but there is no record of their specific identities as Herrscher and their former human identities.

However, this was all within Lin's expectations. In the end, he started looking for the list of internal personnel of Schicksal, and soon, a name came into view.

"Otto Apocalypse".

Chapter 54 An Undetected Error

"Otto Apocalypse, the current Archbishop of Schicksal, is also the de facto ruler and inventor, possessing the power to command all the Valkyrie ..."

The condensed fluorescent light made Lin appear deathly pale. He read the displayed information word by word. He had already made some guesses about what kind of person the leader of Schicksal, this huge organization that fought against the Honkai, was.

The information gleaned from Theresa and Kallen, along with what was found in the database, gradually coalesced into a complete image.

At the end of this message, a photo of a face made him pause for a moment.

This person... he'd seen him before.

With his long golden hair, frail figure, and a subtle yet profound smile on his face, Lin still couldn't forget the man who had left such a deep impression on him, even though he had only met him once and thousands of times since then.

A connection formed in his mind, and something he had been ignoring surfaced. Lin instantly realized something was wrong.

So far, there is only one mystery left that has not yet been solved, and it is also the most difficult to understand.

That is... why is there Three-Day Cycle?

In the previous cycles, he clearly had no memory of it, so why did he behave differently?

He overlooked what was "different" in those nearly identical experiences.

That man... Otto, he appeared on the rooftop where I was investigating Theresa. Was he there before? Doesn't that mean he already knows about Theresa and Kallen, including everything that happened afterward, and the Great Honkai caused by Light? But why didn't the Valkyrie squad deal with Light before? And this time, even though Light hasn't killed anyone, why is the Valkyrie squad here to capture him?

Even from the other party's behavior patterns, the Valkyrie knew that Yue would not retaliate.

The slight differences experienced within the "sameness" resulted in different outcomes, giving Lin a very familiar feeling.

This is...

"To make the results different by changing the variables, that is, experimentation."

"..."

The screen in front of him turned black and white, flickering like the static on an old-fashioned television. A head peeked out from the screen in horror, its haunting rainbow eyes meeting Lin Yi's black and gray eyes.

The white-haired man, whom we hadn't seen in a long time, appeared in an eerie way, with only his head peeking out from behind the screen. He spoke calmly, "Theresa, Kallen, and this... Moon, do you know what their experiences and their existence are called?"

"Experimental subject." He pointed coldly at the silver-haired girl's face.

"..."

"I used to think that Herrscher were superior beings, far superior to humans. How could weak humans possibly be a match for Herrscher? In the eyes of Herrscher, humans were not worth taking seriously at all." The white-haired man snapped his fingers. "But I was wrong. Humans' thinking is far more unpredictable than any other creature, something that even Herrscher cannot match."

"Herrscher are nothing more than slightly fierce... pets that humans can play with at will."

As he said this, the white-haired man's eyes flickered slightly, and then, seemingly unwilling to continue, he changed the subject back.

"Remember what I said? You've experienced this situation before, more than once, and one of those times you even conducted a 'test' with controlled variables yourself."

This man, who possesses Lin's past memories, seems to reveal some information about the past to Lin every time, but... for some reason, Lin is very resistant to what the man says.

"... So, what do you want to do?"

The white-haired man, who had been silent for so long, suddenly appeared and revealed information to Lin. Even without careful consideration, it was clear that the other party must have his own purpose.

The white-haired man said slowly, "This is the last chance I'm giving you. Let me do it. Otherwise, even if you beg me to help you later, I won't agree."

"..."

"Looks like there's no point in talking. Good luck, Lin."

This time, the white-haired man didn't linger. After taking one last look at the silver-haired girl, he slowly dispersed.

"Hmph... Do you know him?" Lin wasn't bothered by the white-haired man's words. That person often appeared and said some inexplicable things. Most of the time, Lin simply ignored him as a hallucination in his mind. He pretended that nothing had happened and asked Yue, who was staring at Otto on the screen.

"No... I don't remember."

Yue shook her head, which surprised Lin slightly. After all, this person was the creator of Theresa and Kallen, so she should be related to Yue in some way.

But Yue has never lied until now. Even though most of her words are inhuman and cold-blooded, she has never told a lie.

The clues we finally found have gone cold again...?

Lin disagrees. Just because Yue doesn't know Otto doesn't mean she has no connection to Otto. The fact that she and Theresa look exactly alike speaks volumes.

Since I saw Otto in Canghai City before, he should be in Canghai City now.

"Let's go." Lin stood up and placed Himeko's identification on the table, but put the communicator in his pocket.

"Are we just going to leave her like this?" Yue gazed at Himeko, who was still fast asleep. "You two knew each other before, right? She even saved that imposter at the end."

This young woman, who has a strong "uncle-like" air about her and loves to drink, is now as quiet as a flower blooming in the night.

"..."

Lin doesn't fully understand Himeko, just as he only has a superficial understanding of Theresa and Kallen.

Therefore, he didn't want to involve Himeko in this matter. His subconscious was telling him that the events in this World Bubble were far from over.