I'm Not a Flame-Chaser - Chapter 585

"Brother Lin... do you know... that person from just now?"

"Um."

Why did she attack us?

"Have no idea."

That's right, Lin didn't know why Delta attacked, but at the time, the other party didn't seem to want to explain and just started attacking.

Even Yae Kasumi launched an attack.

"This competition is probably more complicated than I thought."

He lowered his gaze, staring at the setting sun in the distance.

P. S.: Sometimes when there are no updates, it's usually because I'm updating special features in the group chat. I apologize for that.

New Testament: Afterword of the Dirac Sea: Chapter 96 Sending You Home

Delta and Yae Kasumi's sudden attack without asking any questions left Lin, who was already confused, even more bewildered.

Titan slowly landed on the roof of a tall building. Lin was unsure whether the commotion had been discovered by other teams. Even Delta, whom he knew, had attacked him. The remaining teams would probably fight him as soon as they met.

The primary task at present is to figure out the truth of this match and why Delta is attacking him. Is it simply because of "wishes"? But Delta should know very well that there is no such thing as an omnipotent wish-granting machine in this world.

Holding Seele, whose face was probably red and swollen from the wind, Lin jumped off the Titan. After releasing Seele, he stood on the edge of the rooftop and looked around to see if anyone else was approaching.

"Brother Lin, do you have a grudge against that person?"

Seele seemed a little hesitant, but still asked the question.

"... Probably not."

Lin answered somewhat uncertainly.

"Should?" Seele was curious about the vague statement and the uncertainty in Lin's words.

"... Let's talk about it later."

Lin took a deep breath, stared at another small black dot rapidly approaching in the distance, and turned to walk towards the cockpit.

Seele's azure pupils gazed in the direction of Delta and Yae Kasumi, a flash of blood red appearing deep within her eyes.

Two minutes after their Titan departed again, a person came to their original spot, watched the gradually dissipating azure particles, and reached out to catch these ice-crystal-like particles of light.

Can you smell it?

She muttered to herself in a low voice.

This city has a very peculiar feature.

When there is no fighting in the city, it is unusually quiet, as if no one else exists in the city. Lin believes this is because everyone is lying in wait, waiting for the prey to appear. Everyone is both the hunter and the prey. The battle will start the moment the enemy appears in sight.

After the sun had completely set and the city fell into silence and darkness, things became clearer for Lin.

At this time, there were not many light sources in the city, and the few points of light that lit up were either members of other teams or people who were specifically there to help in the Great Elf Tournament.

"Brother Lin, what if everyone here refuses to cooperate with us, and we can't find a way back to our own world? What should we do?"

Seele's lonely murmur reached Lin's ears. She sat on the Titan with a sense of loss, it seemed that combat was indeed something she could not adapt to.

"... I will take you back."

"Really...?" Seele looked at the man's back as he stood guard around the corner in disbelief.

"Even if other teams don't cooperate with us, I will find a way to send you back." Lin stared at the shadowy street, which reminded him of the previous World Bubble, where vampires pounced on him in the pitch-black night. He closed his eyes, then slowly opened them again. "If there is no other way, we will grab seven Poké Ball and use that wish to send you back."

"But... why? Why are you helping me like this?"

"Because I can't find my way home."

Seele was stunned. She stared into the distance at the man who had uttered such a complex statement with such nonchalance.

"I can't find my way home..."

'Seele, I will definitely bring you back!'

Lin stood in the shadows, showing little emotion or loss. The iridescent light in his right eye emitted a faint glow as he calmly stated a fact. "I can't find my original world anymore, and I can't remember my past. So as long as you have a place to go back to, I will definitely send you back."

His tone didn't sound particularly passionate or resolute, but he said it and intended to do it.

"And what about you? Where are you going back to, Brother Lin?"

Seele murmured.

"... I'm not going back." Lin straightened up and dusted himself off. "I'll help you get back."

He sailed the Hyperion so that homeless people like himself could find their way home.

He didn't want others to have the same experience as him.

"Forest..."

For some reason, the image of Lin protecting her in the sunset flashed through Seele's mind.

Why do I keep feeling like this isn't the first time I've seen it...?

A lonely, scarred figure appeared in her mind, but she shook her head to dispel it.

The mere thought of that figure brought her immense sorrow, overwhelming her.

"Let's go," Lin whispered to Xi'er.

"Where to?" Seele asked in a daze, but she didn't know if she was asking Lin or the silhouette of a person walking forward in that memory.

"Go to a place where you can rest."

Where can I rest?

Seele suddenly woke up, and she stood there blankly with her hands behind her back, fidgeting with her fingers. She looked at Lin, who hadn't noticed anything amiss, and felt a surge of shame for the strange thoughts that had just crossed her mind, making her want to bury her head in the ground.

Brother Lin was clearly talking to her about normal things, so what was she thinking? Why was she thinking about these things? It's so strange...

It must be because of "her" influence; "she" is also acting very strangely today.

But as soon as this thought came to mind, it was met with ridicule from the "her" in her mind. The blatant sarcasm made Seele blush to her neck.

Lin was unaware of the sudden shifts in the young girl's thoughts and emotions behind him. His sharp gaze remained keen even in the night as he stared at the unmoving light source in the distance, estimating the time.

It should be close to 11 or 12 at night now, which means that when we get there, it should be exactly midnight, the time for the ceasefire.

After arguing with "her" for a while, Seele also felt that she was tired and hungry and really needed to rest.

"Are we going there?" Seele came to Lin's side and also noticed a light source not far from them. "But what if it's a trap?"

"At our walking pace, we will arrive at the light source at dawn, which will be the start of a truce."

How did he know it was early morning? There was no time marked on the watch.

But Seele didn't doubt Lin; on the contrary, she didn't know why she could believe Lin without any reason.

Could it be that he said he would take her home, so now...

Feeling her face burning, Lin lifted her leg, and Seele hurriedly followed. As if afraid of disturbing Chang'e on the moon, she whispered, "Aren't you taking Titan with you?"

"No need, just leave it here."

Just as Lin said, when they arrived at the store marked "Hotel", the "truce song" of midnight rang out in Changkong City. At the same time, he also encountered two acquaintances who were even more unexpected.

"Hey, Lin, we've been looking for you for ages!"

Her long, fiery red hair danced wildly like flames in the light.

Mugentou Himeko, in a strange pair with a smiling maid who had her eyes narrowed, appeared before him.

New Testament: Afterword of the Dirac Sea: Chapter 97 The Origins and Development

"Oh my, are you that surprised to see us? By the way, who is this girl? Why do you always seem to have girls with you wherever you go?"

A barrage of questions prevented Lin from speaking, even though he had intended to. Instead, he wanted to ask why the two women weren't surprised to see him. Shouldn't they think he was already dead?

Rita, true to her usual composure, narrowed her eyes slightly as she sized up Seele, who was hiding behind Lin.

Her gentle expression failed to give Seele a sense of security, and the only thing visible beneath her bangs—her wine-red right eye—made Seele stiffen, as if she could see through everything about Seele, including her deepest secrets.

"What... is going on?"

Lin looked at Rita seriously, hoping she could explain it to him.

He wasn't surprised that Himeko would be traveling with the people on the Hyperion, since he was the one who gave Himeko the way to contact Rita and let her board the Hyperion. But why did all the members of the Hyperion end up in this World Bubble and participate in the Great Elf Tournament? And why was he completely unharmed?

"Huh? Didn't you tell us to come into this World Bubble with you?"

Himeko and Rita exchanged a glance, then Himeko asked with a strange expression.

"I?"

Himeko's words made the already confused Lin even more bewildered.

"Please, our captain, have you lost your memory again?"

"Etc."

Rita interjected into Himeko and Rin's conversation. She looked thoughtfully at Rin, who was frowning and pondering what was going on. She glanced at the dark night, put her hand down, and smiled gently, "Why don't we get a room first and then continue talking? It's not very appropriate to stand outside."

The Great Elf Tournament provides hotels for participants to rest, which are located throughout Changkong City. They only need to swipe their wristwatches at the counter to be assigned a room. After each of them received a room key, the four of them gathered in Lin's room.

Seele took off her shoes and sat on the bed wearing stockings. Himeko and Rita sat side by side on the sofa, while Lin sat opposite them, with a coffee table between them.

The girl with the highlights looked nervously at the three of them. Judging from their conversation, they should know each other, but didn't that person also know Brother Lin? What was going on?

"I'll make it short." Lin hesitated for a moment, then fell into the silence like a block of ice into a lake. "What happened after that? Did I survive? And what did I do after I survived? Why did we end up in this World Bubble?"

In fact, Lin had already guessed the general idea from Himeko's few words.

After using the power of the Aether Anchor to mend the rift, Lin's consciousness did not die. Instead, he returned to the Hyperion with Himeko. Then, they came to this World Bubble directed everyone to enter it.

The problem is that he has no memory of this period.

Was the series of amnesias caused by the projection of consciousness? Or did something unexpected happen during this period?

These are questions that Rita and Himeko need to answer.

Rita was not surprised by Lin's questions. She calmly began to answer them one by one, "Captain, you successfully repaired the rift in Miss Himeko's World Bubble and stopped the Hunter's invasion. However, your consciousness was on the verge of breaking. You should know very well why your consciousness broke, right?"

Lin nodded silently, the iridescent color in his right eye standing out starkly.

His consciousness was damaged for some reason he didn't know, which made it impossible for him to bear the use of Herrscher Authority that were not human.

So he wanted to know how he was saved. It wasn't some external injury. Even if his consciousness was prevented from shattering, the fundamental damage to his consciousness should be incurable.

Rita gazed at Lin's right and said softly, "Regarding how your consciousness was restored... do you remember 'that thing' beside you when I found you?"

"... That device that can't be opened?"

When Rita said that, Lin also remembered that at that time, all he had on his body was that thing whose purpose he didn't know, and whose shape looked like some kind of high-tech container.

Neither he nor Rita knew how to open or use the thing, but Lin believed it was related to his past, so he kept it in his room, hoping that one day he could find information about his past on it.

"You used it to heal me?"

"Yes, during your time in the World Bubble, the former captain found me and told me how to use that device." Rita told Lin everything truthfully, without any concealment. When talking about the person from her past who had become a shadow in her heart, her expression remained unchanged.

Former captain...

Lindo glanced at Rita a few times, but instead of asking any more questions, he nodded to Rita and said, "Go on."

"Although we don't know how the device works, it did heal your damaged consciousness. After that, you woke up, and then we brought Miss Himeko to the Hyperion as well. After successfully resolving the distortion of the previous World Bubble, we came to this World Bubble."

"You initially tried to enter the World Bubble using consciousness mapping, but after half an hour you returned to the Hyperion and then had us all enter the World Bubble."

"Finally, after we had been immersed in the World Bubble for three days and three nights, you appeared before us."

Rita has a strong ability to summarize, and she presented the whole process to Lin in just a few words, but there are still many details that need to be answered.

Why did Lin return to the Hyperion and have everyone enter the World Bubble half an hour after entering it? Is the World Bubble a distortion that requires all of them to resolve?

Why did he lose his memory of this period and only wake up after being in the World Bubble for three days and three nights?

The key point is probably what happened during the time after he entered the World Bubble through consciousness mapping.

"There's one more question."

Lin solemnly crossed his arms and glanced at the red-haired girl and the gray-blonde maid.