I'm Not a Flame-Chaser - Chapter 595

The rainbow-colored right eye silently took in everything before it. The city remained as lifeless as ever, unchanged even after the five participating teams had been fooling around here for four whole days.

It's like a strange "temperament" that keeps it in this state of solitude.

Unable to find Welt and the others, Lin returned to the ground and said to them, "Go find the last Poké Ball."

Two Poké Ball are in Welt's hands, and the rest, except for one Poké Ball that hasn't been obtained yet, are in Lin's hands. The most urgent task is to collect all the Poké Ball.

But Lin still felt that something was wrong.

But there are no other options right now. According to Rita, unclaimed Poké Ball will also emit a signal, but this last one has never emitted a signal, which is why no one has gotten it yet.

"Let's split up and search for the Poké Ball while also looking for Welt and Bronya."

They were grouped together like their respective teams, and agreed to meet here three hours later, regardless of whether they had found the Poké Ball or not.

Lin felt a strange, inexplicable feeling. He repeatedly looked at the tallest and most conspicuous central building in Changkong City.

There, it seemed, was a pair of snake eyes silently watching him.

The First New Testament: Afterword of the Dirac Sea)

This is the first time I've offered a reward since I started writing this book. I've never offered a reward before because I'm usually quite busy and a lazy person.

The bounty period will run from the 4th to midnight on the 11th. One chapter will be added for every fifty blades received, and one chapter will be added for every 5000 cat coins donated. There is no upper limit. As for monthly tickets and recommendation tickets, please spare this old thing. I don't understand how to climb the rankings.

New Testament: Afterword of the Dirac Sea: Chapter 117 The Door That Has Been Opened

"Brother Lin has so many friends."

Perhaps out of envy, Seele couldn't help but sigh as she followed the man whose clothes fluttered in the breeze.

At first, I thought Lin was all alone, but now I know that he already had companions who had walked with him through a long period of time, and he chose to be a pioneer in the long night to save life in the Quantum Sea.

It's probably this kind of personality that makes so many people willing to follow him.

"Don't you have one too?" Lin looked around at the messy street, searching for any people Poké Ball that might be there, and walked forward at a leisurely pace.

"Sister Bronya?"

"Um."

When Bronya was mentioned, Seele couldn't help but smile, "Yes, my Sister Bronya rescued me from kidnappers when I was little, and we've been the best of family ever since."

Lin glanced back subtly at Seele's smile, his steady voice echoing through the empty streets:

"... Actually, there's something I've always wanted to ask you."

"What?"

"Have you seen me before, or know me, like Stargazer and Yae Kasumi?"

"..."

As Seele looked on in bewilderment, the man stopped between the pebbles. A sliver of light from the misty sky fell on his shoulder. He didn't turn around, but continued looking ahead, saying, "From the moment we met, you've been observing me frequently, not with a wary gaze, but as if you were confirming something. Even after you recognized Welt and the others, you still followed me. Although it might just be my imagination... you seem to care about me a lot."

Lin's sensitivity to other people's gaze is far beyond imagination. It may be a matter of consciousness. Even if someone secretly glances at his back, Lin will feel like he has a thorn in his back.

Seele's undisguised gaze made Lin feel like she was being spied on, even though she thought she was being very discreet.

"Ah... th-that was..." Having her actions of the day exposed, Seele felt a burning sensation spread from her face to her throat. She gesticulated wildly as she explained to Lin's retreating figure, "I... I just felt that Brother Lin looked a little familiar. I didn't mean to hide it, and we didn't know each other before..."

"...Yeah."

Yes, yes.

It sounded like an excuse, but Lin didn't delve into it. It's difficult for someone to perfectly portray their expressions and actions. After observing Seele for a day and a night, Lin didn't see any trace of acting in her, including her genuine reunion with Bronya. So what she said probably wasn't a lie, but...

At the shop owner's place, her personality had completely changed, and it didn't seem like she was acting...

However, the most urgent task is to find Welt and Bronya. Lin wants to ask them more about the "snake".

"Brother Lin... Could it be that Sister Bronya and the others have already found the last Poké Ball and are observing the area near the central building?"

Indeed, instead of aimlessly searching everywhere, it would be better to try looking for clues near the central building.

His dark pupils swept across the map on the watch, but there were still no coordinates for Welt and the others. Logically, the watch should provide the coordinates of the contestants holding Poké Ball. Could it be that they had already left Changkong City? But leaving Changkong City meant automatic forfeiture, and they were not eligible to use Poké Ball to enter the central building.

There was no point in thinking about it any further. After careful consideration, Lin led Seele toward the central building. It wasn't just to find Welt and Bronya; he had a feeling that grew stronger the closer they got to the Changkong City. He couldn't quite put his finger on it, but if he had to put it in a metaphor, it was something like...

Before a natural disaster strikes, there's an invisible sense of unease, a feeling that the sky and the ground are about to merge and crush him into a pulp.

Changkong City covers a large area, and it took more than half an hour to reach the center. However, there was still time to search the area and return to the meeting point. Lin looked up and stared at the towering building. From the outside, it did not have a single window.

What about the material?

Lin let Seele step back a distance, manipulated the Honkai Energy, and two golden chains extended from her wrist to wrap around her right hand, then slammed it heavily against the wall!

"Bang!"

After the muffled thud, Lin slowly lowered his hand. The wall was smooth and unmarked, without even the slightest scratch.

As expected, given Delta's personality, she must have already tried to break through the wall to speed through. The fact that she collected the Poké Ball so meticulously shows that the building's hardness far exceeded her destructive power.

Shaking his head, Lin didn't pay much attention. He led Seele to the other side of the building, observing as they walked. This huge box, like a giant coffin, had no gaps at all, and not even light could get in.

When the two arrived at the front of the building, they both stopped in their tracks.

There is a door.

A stone door, tiny compared to the entire building, has seven holes in its panel, presumably for holding the seven Poké Ball.

But that's not the point. The point is that three of the seven holes have already been fitted with Poké Ball.

The origin of these Poké Ball is probably self-evident.

"How did Sister Bronya's Poké Ball end up here?" Seele rushed forward anxiously the moment she saw the Poké Ball, but Lin grabbed her arm, shook his head at her, and then slowly walked forward to the gate.

It seems Bronya and Welt have been here before.

Lin's eyes followed his movements forward, judging the situation based on the footprints left on the ground. The last two people's footprints stopped in front of the gate, and there was no trace of them going back. This made him slowly frown and squat down to check if the footprints were too shallow for him to see.

But the result was that there were indeed no footprints returning.

He glanced at the tightly closed door, and an unrealistic idea popped into his head.

Have they already entered the building?

But how did they open the door?

"Brother Lin... I hope Sister Bronya and the others are alright?"

Seele sounded like she was about to cry. Seeing that Lin hadn't gotten up for a long time, she had already guessed the outcome. Her light voice trembled slightly, like a delicate string about to break.

"... Go back and find them first, then come back here together." Lin stood up decisively, turned around and left without any hesitation.

The girl with the inner highlights looked fearfully at the stone door inlaid with three Poké Ball, biting her thin lips, and then followed Lin.

Lin had planned to explain to Seele, but she didn't say anything, which surprised him a little. It seemed that Seele wasn't as weak as she appeared.

After returning to the meeting point and waiting for everyone to come back, Lin explained the situation to them.

"There's a problem." Stargazer spoke first, glancing at Seele almost imperceptibly. "My advice is not to open that door."

PS: I'm already adding thirteen more chapters. I'll start adding more chapters tomorrow, with a minimum of four chapters a day.

New Testament: Afterword of the Dirac Sea: Chapter 118 Forever

"Although we still don't know how those two met..."

He was about to say "murdered," but after Stargazer at Seele's tearful face and Lin's cold expression, he changed his words and continued, "... How they disappeared, but based on the information we have so far, it all points to the organizer of the Great Elf Tournament, namely 'Snake.' And collecting Poké Ball was something he asked us to do; that was his purpose. So we think we shouldn't follow his line of thinking."

What Lin has always been uneasy about is exactly what Stargazer said: collecting Poké Ball is "Snake's" goal, and it was accomplished by using them. Was it really just to let them make wishes, or was there some other ulterior motive?

"But even if we don't collect the Poké Ball according to the rules set by 'Snake,' we don't have any other ideas." Rita continued, picking up where Stargazer left off. They were the two quickest thinkers among them. She suggested to Lin, who was considering, "Captain, you probably don't want to abandon Mr. Welt and Miss Bronya, do you?"

Rita understood Lin's thoughts perfectly. She knew that Lin wasn't thinking about whether he should find another way to leave the World Bubble, but rather how to rescue Welt and Bronya.

Moreover, she also guessed what Lin would do next.

"... I'll go in."

With Rita smiling, Lin gestured for everyone to be quiet, then calmly announced.

"Wait... human, I'll go in with you." Before Theresa could speak, Yue took control of her body.

No one else spoke, but they all stared at Lin, who simply shook his head and said nothing more.

Rita, who knew Lin best, knew that once he made a decision, he would not change it, so she could only maintain her composure and let out a soft, complicated sigh.

It's always the same.

The man's figure was like walking in the dappled sunlight of a tree, appearing and disappearing as if he might vanish completely at any moment.

When he disappeared in Yae Kasumi's World Bubble last time, Rita was more confused than ever before. Her long-held assumptions came true, and she felt as if her whole body was frozen by a cold air. It wasn't until the previous captain sent her a message informing her of Lin's location that she recovered from the suffocating feeling that was almost like dying.

He stubbornly walked forward, as if being pushed by the spirits of the dead following behind him, never retreating.

"Brother Lin, let me go in with you." At this moment, Seele's clear voice broke the silence, drawing everyone's attention to her.

Under the intense gaze of so many eyes, the girl with bright, inwardly dyed eyes swallowed hard, but still said firmly, "I... I know Brother Lin is worried about our safety and doesn't want me to go with you, but I... I don't want to just wait for Brother Lin and Sister Bronya."

"..."

"And Brother Lin said he would definitely take me home."

Seele held up her wristwatch and waved it at Lin.

Clearly, she was trying to say that they were on the same team.

Rita couldn't help but chuckle, then she said to the silent Lin, "Captain, the rules of the Great Elf Tournament are that only one team can get the Wish Machine. In other words, even if you wanted us to go with you, it might not be possible. And as a member of the Riding Fish Team, Seele is most likely a necessary condition for entering the central building."

"...I see."

On the way to the central building, a maid with long, gray-gold hair walked gracefully to Lin's side, her hands behind her back. The fragrance of her hair gently caressed his nose. She turned her head and smiled at the pensive Lin, causing him to look up and stare at her.

"What's wrong?"

"It's nothing, I just remembered that Captain once asked Rita if I considered you a replacement for the former captain." The golden rays of sunlight covered the maid's smooth, white shoulders, and her left eye was faintly visible under her bangs. She smiled with her eyes narrowed, "And I asked you again if you considered me a replacement."

Did Lin, who had almost lost everything, treat her as a substitute for his deceased companions, or as a source of psychological comfort?

Rita, thinking this way, had complex feelings toward Lin. She realized how selfish she was. On the one hand, she didn't want Lin to treat her as a source of psychological comfort or a substitute. On the other hand, she couldn't help but compare him to the former captain.

Even though she knew they weren't the same person, she wondered if the former captain had had another choice, would it have been the current Lin?

But that was just imagination. Rita knew that all she had ever longed for was the "person" who saved her, a perfect person she imagined who didn't exist. But the former captain wasn't that kind of person, which was why she had hated him.

I hate that he isn't the person I imagined, I hate his weakness, I hate his escapism, I hate his ego.

But Lin was exactly the person she had imagined.

It wasn't until she actually met the person she admired that Rita realized the cruelty he carried. From that moment on, she stopped hating her former captain who had left.

He is him, and Lin is Lin; they are not the same person who took different paths.

Just as Lin wouldn't see her as a replacement for anyone, Rita wouldn't see Lin as a replacement for the former captain.

Thinking about this, Rita couldn't help but chuckle at her past anxieties. Now she realized that Lin hadn't treated her that way because Rita shared similarities with her former partners; he simply treated everyone the same.

Forever stubborn, forever gentle, forever never looking back even after being told "thank you for your patronage".

"At this point, I no longer need answers."

Rita tilted her head back, and just as she always smiled at Lin, even though he always suspected her smile was malicious, she would still smile at him with the most sincere smile, revealing her inner joy.

"I didn't tell you about our past travels together. I just wanted to know, without your memories, would you still be the same person you were before?"

Once, in the Quantum Sea, after drifting through countless World Bubble to save them, I returned battered and bruised, bandaging their wounds, washing their clothes and cooking for them, sitting with them on the deck humming songs in the wind, and standing at the door smiling as I bid them farewell, saying, "May you have a safe journey."

Whenever I think back to it, I can't help but smile. But when I come to my senses, the smile on my face in the mirror is always overly warm.

"... Is it the same?" Lin asked softly, gazing at the smile on her lips.

"I assure you, Captain, you have never changed."

"...Yeah?"

"Yes."

So it turns out that whether he has amnesia or not, he's the same.

"Perhaps you will return to your own world with Mr. Welt and the others. I will not stop you. In your original world, there must be important people waiting for you."

A gentle breeze ruffled his bangs, and his wine-red eyes reflected his features with tenderness.

"But Rita will always wait for you, even if you lose your memory again and forget me."