I'm Not a Flame-Chaser - Chapter 592

Now, seeing people from his own world reach out to him, a warm sense of belonging welled up in his chest.

However, he also felt a sense of panic about "belonging".

Going back would mean withdrawing from the Quantum Sea and leaving the Hyperion.

Lin found his way home, but what about the distorted World Bubble in the Quantum Sea that is about to be annihilated?

And Rita and the others... Will he, like the previous captain, also say goodbye to them, or even leave without saying goodbye?

"...We'll see." Lin grasped Welt's hand, but uttered a vague statement, which startled Welt. However, he didn't inquire further, as it was Lin's own business, and he must have experienced a lot in the Quantum Sea.

While they were exchanging information, Bronya and Seele walked over, both with red eyelids.

After hearing Seele's explanation that Lin had protected her and intended to send her back to her own world, the girl with gray spiral twin tails no longer looked at Lin with the same wary gaze as before. Even though her face remained expressionless, she still stood in front of Lin and bowed slightly to him. "Bronya thanks you on Seele's behalf for protecting and helping her."

"... No need, it was just something I did while verifying the idea."

Seele stood beside Bronya, her pretty face still wet with tears. When she noticed Lin looking at her expressionlessly, she burst into laughter through her tears, laughing for the first time in front of Lin.

Family...

Lin thought of Rita, the mysterious maid who seemed to never tell the truth.

The thought that he might have traveled to countless worlds with Rita before he lost his memory filled him with mixed feelings.

"Um... Brother Lin, I wanted to ask, were you asking me if I knew about Herrscher just to confirm if I knew Sister Bronya?"

Seele's question pulled Lin Cong brief reverie, and she stared at Lin with blinking eyes.

"No, I was originally planning to tell you something about the match, but since you know each other, let them tell you."

After saying these words, Lin walked to the side and silently pondered the Quantum Sea and his own world, while Seele gradually understood the "snake" and the "Herrscher Core" in the building through Bronya and Welt's explanation.

However, no one noticed that when Seele nodded blankly to indicate that she barely understood and followed Bronya toward the forest, she lowered her head and slowly curled a wicked smile at the corner of her mouth.

"It's nice to meet you again, Mr. Lin."

The black-haired man was soaked in the heavy rain when the maid, holding an umbrella, came to him and smiled as she shielded him from the rain.

"... Where is Einstein?" The black-haired man held a long, cylindrical container in his hand, its contents unknown. Beneath his dark hair, which was pressed against his cheek, a pair of dark eyes that seemed to absorb light coldly stared at the gray-blonde maid.

"It is a great pity that Doctor Einstein has been dead for fifty years."

"..."

"She spent the rest of her life peacefully in this World Bubble, and finally passed away smiling, surrounded by Armed Puppet." The maid pointed to a towering tree, "That's where she's buried."

"...Yeah?"

The man followed her finger and saw lush, towering Giant Tree, and cold rain dripping from his chin onto the soil at his feet.

New Testament: Afterword of the Dirac Sea: Chapter 111 The Beginning of the Journey

"This is what Doctor Einstein left for you."

After the rain, which had lasted for a full day and night, a faint rainbow appeared against the backdrop of towering trees. The man sat on the still-wet grass, gazing at the Armed Puppet living under the trees in the distance.

They have completely formed a small society. No Armed Puppet know that they were once produced as weapons. They just live carefree in this small World Bubble, just like the first intelligent humans in the world.

Perhaps this is what the doctor who lies buried under that tree hoped for. When she created these children, she was only making tools, but after giving them intelligence, the Armed Puppet became new lives through her unintentional gift.

She didn't return to her original world. Was it for the sake of these children, or because she was disillusioned with humanity? Or was it both?

The doctor could not answer any of these questions. Like everyone else who had slept in the graveyard of men's hearts, she had spread her soul and consciousness to every corner of the world.

The man did not return to the tree hollow that was so different from his memory. He simply watched from afar as those tiny lives, carrying the history of civilization, remained, the most perfect work left behind by a doctor who loved life.

The maid handed over a storage device that looked old; even with the maid's care, decades of time had left indelible marks on it.

What was left inside?

The man took the storage device, and at the top was the play button. His dark, deep eyes were fixed on the storage device, but he hesitated to press the play button.

After gazing at it for a long time, Higashide's twilight fell on the rusty shell. He silently put down the storage device and handed it back to Rita.

"Place it at Einstein's grave," he said.

"Don't you want to hear what the doctor has to say?" the maid asked with a smile.

"...No need." The man stood up firmly, gripping the unknown container tightly, his eyes filled with only calmness.

He turned and walked in the opposite direction from the tree. After he had walked about ten meters, the maid called out to him, "Mr. Lin, I think you might need a guide in the Quantum Sea, don't you think?"

"..."

The man paused for a few seconds, then continued walking forward without saying a word.

The maid chuckled softly, looking wistfully at the storage device in her hand.

Inside is the last message that the doctor left for this pitiful man.

"Rita, if you ever see Lin again in the future, give this to him."

An elderly man lay in bed, his head full of dry, white hair, making a rustling sound like dried bamboo shoots.

"This is..."

The maid took the storage device from the old man.

"Hehe... It's just something I wanted to say as a friend... cough cough..."

"He's just another person like everyone else... Why does he always have to shoulder the burden of fate?... Cough cough... He's never done anything wrong... Yet he's always in pain and blaming himself..."

"As someone who ran away... I may not be qualified to say these things... but... Lin..."

"Life is very long..."

"May you no longer be alone on that road..."

The clouds, washed clean by the rain, are a boundless expanse of azure, like a mirror reflecting the state of human life.

"Clatter."

The maid placed the storage device in front of an unmarked grave, gazed at it for half a minute, and then turned and left.

Has he arrived?

A small figure stood behind her.

She was the last doll to know the truth about the Armed Puppet, and she had long since given up the name "Prometheus Unit 3". Now, she has a different name and a different appearance. In the eyes of the other Armed Puppet, she has always looked the same.

"Yes, he's here," the maid replied softly without turning around.

"Hmph, he still has the heart to come... So you're just going to leave like this?"

"Yes, I want to see if two similar but different people will eventually go down different paths."

"... Then you can go. I will take good care of these little guys. From now on, this World Bubble will only have Armed Puppet."

"Then until we meet again, Number Three." The maid turned around and chuckled. "Oh, no, you're called 'Chiyuan' now."

The maid left the tree hollow where she had lived for so long. She watched as the Armed Puppet transformed the place into a paradise. And so, she was about to embark on her journey. Behind her, she heard Chiyuan nagging and lecturing the other Armed Puppet. She couldn't help but sigh that even Armed Puppet could change without her realizing it.

"Teacher, I know everything from Tianwen to geography, I know five hundred years into the past and five hundred years into the future, I understand yin and yang and have Divine Machine power to control the universe. I am a master strategist and all-powerful. Back then, I led the first batch of puppets to build civilization here, and only later did I create you..."

Leaves fall on my shoulders, yet I gladly accompany you on your long journey.

"Is this the Hyperion...?"

The man stood in the ship's wheelhouse, surveying everything around him, while the maid behind him chuckled softly without saying a word.

"How... do I operate this?" The man stood in front of the complex control panel. The dense array of buttons and levers made the entire control panel look like the cockpit of some robot. No, even the cockpit of a Titan was far less complex than this.

"Hehe... Mr. Lin, didn't you even have a vehicle when you traveled in the Quantum Sea before?"

The maid stepped forward and handed the man a 20-centimeter-long instruction manual, casually making a joke at the same time.

Unexpectedly, the man nodded as he took the manual. "I have indeed never ridden in a vehicle before. What I did before was more like drifting than traveling."

"..." It was just a casual remark, but the maid didn't expect that the man had actually been drifting in the Quantum Sea for some time. She asked curiously, "Have you already been to other World Bubble?"

"I fell into a World Bubble and lived there for a thousand years before I found a way to leave."

"..."

The man's casual remark caused even the maid to show a surprised expression.

"I've finished reading it."

In just over ten minutes, the man had finished reading the entire manual filled with writing. Without hesitation, he stood in front of the control panel and began to move his fingers across it with the skill of someone who had used it countless times.

"Then let's leave here first and go check out the distorted World Bubble that the 'former captain' mentioned."

And so, the journey began.

"Hmm... Yae Kasumi, it has been a long time since we last met, but there's no need to look at me like that."

The bound ninja silently watched the smiling maid, exhaled, and said nothing.

"You know her?" Himeko looked at Yae Kasumi with suspicion, then turned to Rita and asked.

Rita chuckled but did not reply.

New Testament: Afterword of the Dirac Sea Episode 112: Wanting to Go Back

"I don't know how much time has passed for you, but from my perspective, it has been almost twenty years since we last met."

Rita was playing with the Poké Ball she had taken from Yae Kasumi. She stood in front of the beast-eared ninja, holding Yae Kasumi's mask in her other hand, her fingers lightly tapping the corner of the mask.

"... So, what do you intend to do with me?" Yae Kasumi, who hadn't spoken since being tied up, asked the smiling maid with a cold expression.

"Handle? Miss Yae Kasumi, you seem to have misunderstood." Rita couldn't help but chuckle at Yae Kasumi's extremely serious expression. "Although he did lose his memory and go missing in your World Bubble, that has nothing to do with you. It was just an accident at the time."

"..."

Rita grabbed Yae Kasumi, but what she really wanted to ask was something else entirely.

"Miss Yae Kasumi, I haven't seen you since we parted ways. So why are you here?" Rita's long, gray-gold hair swayed behind her, but beneath her smile lay something less than warm. "And you and Delta were collecting Poké Ball together, but your purposes must have been different, otherwise you wouldn't have each received one."

Instead of answering, Yae Kasumi asked in return, "And what about you? Why do you collect Poké Ball?"

"Hmm... This problem is actually quite simple. It was just a whim of ours on the Hyperion. While investigating this World Bubble, we also tried to fulfill our respective wishes."

Unlike when she was with Lin, Rita readily told Yae Kasumi the truth with a smile.

"The most suspicious thing in this World Bubble is the Great Elf Tournament, and the final reward of the Great Elf Tournament is, unsurprisingly, a wish that can be fulfilled using Aether Anchor. One of the Hyperion's objectives is to collect Aether Anchor, so completing the competition is also part of our plan. The captain must have taken this into account when he sent us into the World Bubble to act as participants."

"Then, we thought of using this wish to fulfill our own little desires. Miss Himeko and I were of the same mind, to play some pranks on the Captain. As for Ms. Delta..."

Rita smiled nonchalantly, a smile that held a dark, cunning edge.

"She probably just can't stand using external forces to do this kind of thing, so she's taken a stand against us. Miss Delta is indeed a very outspoken person, but she's actually quite shy about certain things."

That's right, their participation in the competition was exactly as Lin thought: the purpose was neither particularly important nor completely unimportant.

However, after meeting Yae Kasumi, Rita, like Lin, began to have doubts about the Great Elf Tournament. For the first three days, they were basically fighting Delta and did not see the ninja who was always hiding in the dark, waiting for an opportunity to collect Poké Ball. Therefore, they did not think that the entire Great Elf Tournament was related to Lin.

"So, Ms. Yae Kasumi, can you explain why you're here? You and the Captain disappeared together, and when I found the Captain, I couldn't find you. Now, not only have you appeared, but you're also collecting Poké Ball..."

Lin underestimated Rita's meticulousness; she had already become suspicious even before Lin handed her the Poké Ball.

She squatted down with a smile, looking directly into Yae Kasumi's azure eyes, her fingers repeatedly spinning the red and white Poké Ball.

What wish do you want to fulfill this time?

Himeko, who knew nothing about Yae Kasumi's affairs, stood a short distance away with a slight embarrassment. However, she was very curious about what had happened in the past, especially since it involved Lin, which fueled her gossip-loving heart.

After all, what humans love to do most is hide their own embarrassing past and eavesdrop on other people's embarrassing past.

"...Hoo," Yae Kasumi took a deep breath, moved her head a little away from Rita, and said in a calm tone, "The reason I am here is because someone brought me here and told me that if I collect seven Poké Ball, they will tell me where Lin is."

"Alone?" Rita first considered the most suspicious part of Yae Kasumi's words, then frowned slightly and asked, "But you've already seen him... I see."

Halfway through the conversation, Rita realized why Yae Kasumi was still collecting Poké Ball even though she had already met Lin.

Yae Kasumi believed that Lin was not the Lin she knew. She did not know that Lin had lost his memory after they parted ways. After testing Lin, she concluded that this was Lin from another world. Therefore, even when she met Rita Yae Kasumi never doubted that it was actually the Lin she knew.

"Wait... who is the person you mentioned who brought you into this World Bubble? In this competition?"

"Then it's decided. After entering the building with the Poké Ball, the Aether Anchor will be yours, Herrscher Core will be ours." Welt gazed at the building in the Changkong City. "Besides the three Poké Ball with your partner, we only have two Poké Ball left."