I'm Not a Flame-Chaser - Chapter 606

The alloy standard longsword flipped over, like scissors cutting through fabric, and before the Jackal could even see what was happening, it sliced through the weakest point of the mechanical limbs, leaving a cut as smooth as shredded tofu!

"Clang!"

He stepped on the stomach of the Valkyrie Hunter, who had fallen to the ground without the support of the mechanical arm, and kicked it back into the cylindrical body from which it had emerged.

This creation was designed with a monotonous set of operational logic; its existence was solely for hunting humans, but for Lin, it was nothing new.

Fifty thousand years have passed, and it seems that nothing has changed.

What happened in the past is still happening now.

The Honkai is still raging, and humanity is still killing.

Like an inescapable Mobius Ring, it replays the blood-soaked past and future time and time again.

And he continues to do these things.

Lin glanced coldly at the location of the hidden camera, then walked towards the tightly closed door behind him. When he was using Honkai Energy, his right eye would emit some light, and at this moment, he planned to use Honkai Energy to break through the barrier and leave.

That hooded woman is definitely not simple. She's probably on her way back now, and since he's on someone else's turf, he needs to leave as soon as possible.

"Interesting. How could someone with such formidable combat power suddenly appear out of nowhere? Schicksal? Anti-Entropy? No, wait..."

The Jackal's mutterings resounded again, and just as Lin was about to break down the door, it opened by itself.

"Whoosh."

"However, none of that matters. A strong individual is truly rare, hehe... Perhaps you can become the most precious specimen in the Exhibition Hall."

This time, Lin's pupils dilated slightly.

Two people walked out from the other side of the door.

They had similar appearances, the same height and build, and the same hair and eye color. Compared to the Valkyrie Hunter from before, they did not have any obvious modified features.

They each held a standard-issue longsword in one hand and a specially made pistol in the other.

Their faces were expressionless, only blank, like two walking corpses being manipulated by the woman behind the screen, dancing like puppets on strings in her hands.

Lin saw his own reflection in their faces.

These two men were almost twins; their faces shared some similarities with Lin's, while their black hair and black pupils were exactly the same.

"Rejoice, you little thief, to witness firsthand the shadows of heroes from the previous generation beneath their glory." Jackal laughed gleefully, lifting a corner of her mask, her smile filled with chilling sarcasm. "These 'shadows' have poor Honkai Energy Adaptability and do not support my improvements, yet they are extremely adept at killing humans without any additional modifications."

"Then, let's continue the experiment."

As soon as she finished speaking, after she entered her command, two "shadows" from the previous generation of "heroes" raised their knives and guns and charged at the man who had his head down.

"Hmm..."

Kiana, as if waking up with low blood pressure, clutched her dizzy head and got up from her bed at her base. Her disheveled silver hair looked rather dim under the light.

She was at the base...

Kiana, you're awake.

Fu Hua appeared before Kiana, her expression as stern as ever, gazing at the slightly bewildered silver-haired girl.

"Class President... I... huh?"

Upon seeing Fu Hua, Kiana's memories returned, and the image of the hooded man stabbing her in the chest in the darkness flooded her mind. She gasped for breath and pressed her hand to her chest, where she touched the bandages that had already been treated and wrapped around her wound.

She's not dead?

"After knocking you unconscious, the man took you back to the base and treated your wounds."

Kiana then noticed that she wasn't wearing any clothes on her upper body at all; only a few bandages covered her vital parts. The gunshot wounds on her shoulder and thigh were also wrapped in gauze. She tried to move around and found that she was fine.

"But he almost killed me. What was he trying to do?" Kiana grabbed a coat from the side, put it on, and asked Fu Hua with a frown.

Fu Hua shook his head, about to say something, when his expression changed. "He's here."

"Bang!"

A person stood by the window, and darkness and coldness silently seeped into the room from behind him.

The Journey Begins in the Sky: Chapter Thirteen - Severe Injury and Coma

"You!"

Kiana's first reaction upon seeing the hooded man was to reach for the gun on the bedside table.

She didn't know what this unpredictable man was up to, but she knew he was indeed as dangerous as Fu Hua had said, and could be stabbed at any moment.

"Thump..."

However, before she could even pick up the gun, the man in front of her swayed and then fell to the ground.

"..."

Kiana's hand, which had touched the cold gun barrel, froze in mid-air. She stared blankly at the hooded man lying motionless on the ground, unsure whether this was his new scheme.

"Kiana, he's injured." Fu Hua reminded Kiana at that moment, and Kiana also saw the blood seeping from under the black trench coat.

Are you injured?

Kiana's first reaction was, "He's actually injured?"

The man's domineering, mysterious, and ruthless demeanor over the past few days had left a deep impression on Kiana. Subconsciously, Kiana, who was almost completely manipulated by him, even felt that he couldn't possibly be hurt.

But the fact is that he was injured, and it's very likely not a minor injury.

Should we save him?

Kiana thought about how this bastard had been hitting and pinching her ever since they met, putting chains around her neck, not letting her sleep, making her watch him eat while she was hungry, and finally stabbing her without saying a word. It was hard for her to have any good feelings towards him.

But...

She touched the bandage on her chest.

After his serious injury, he didn't go anywhere else, but came to her place.

Of course, even if she didn't think so much, Kiana definitely wouldn't leave him alone; her personality had already determined what she would do.

The silver-haired girl, with a stern face, walked to the man's side, grabbed his hand, lifted him up, carried him to the bedside, and settled him on the bed.

Then, when Kiana turned him over so that he was face up, her heart skipped a beat, and she was slightly startled by what she saw.

"The injuries are severe," Fu Hua said solemnly, standing to the side.

He had a knife wound across his chest, running from his right shoulder to his left abdomen. The muscles around the gruesome wound were deathly pale from blood loss. In addition, he had injuries of varying degrees on his arms and legs. If it weren't for his all-black clothes absorbing most of the blood, he would probably be covered in blood by now.

"This injury is too serious." Even Kiana, whose chest had been pierced, dared not say that her injury was more serious than his. The gruesome wound on her chest revealed the white bone. She hurriedly grabbed a bandage and pressed it on the wound. "Let's take him to the hospital."

"No, he could only have been injured like this by Shencheng Pharmaceuticals in this city. And Shencheng Pharmaceuticals has access to all the medical records of hospitals in Sky City. In that case, not only him, but you will also be discovered through the investigation." Fu Hua rejected Kiana's suggestion. Then she looked at the medical kit in the corner. "Kiana, let's stitch up his wound first. His self-healing ability should be pretty good. Just stop the bleeding."

"Me... me?"

Kiana scratched the back of her head, slightly embarrassed. "But I have no idea how to stitch up a wound. I'm afraid that I'll not only fail to heal him but also make him worse."

"Now only you can do it."

"Alright, then we can only try anything as a last resort... No, this guy isn't dead yet."

Kiana took a needle and thread from the medical kit, and after preparing, she tore open the man's upper body clothes, making the bloody gash even more obvious. She hesitated to use the needle, but finally gritted her teeth and forced herself to prick it.

"Kiana, keep your eyes open, don't close them."

"You sewed it crookedly, don't sew it that way... never mind."

"You're not sewing shoelaces or a rag doll, so stop stabbing into your veins."

After struggling under Fu Hua's guidance, Kiana wiped her blood-covered hands, sweating profusely, put the needle and thread back, and stared silently at her messy chest, which looked like a ball of yarn chewed by a dog, her face flushed.

"..." Even Fu Hua didn't know what to say. She remembered Kiana saying that she used to sew up her own wounds when she was adventuring alone.

"This is also the first time I've ever helped someone else, and I... I don't know why, but I keep smelling a fragrance that makes my hands tremble." Kiana explained embarrassedly, "I feel like I've smelled it in my dreams too, but I don't know where it came from."

However, at least the most critical wound was stitched up, and after wrapping it with a hemostatic cloth and bandage, there was basically no major problem.

"Class President, although I hate to admit it, this guy is really strong."

Kiana tapped her fingers lightly on the chain around her neck, looked down at the mask on the man's face, and said seriously.

"But he was almost chopped into several pieces. Shencheng Pharmaceuticals may be even more terrifying than we thought."

It was able to control a city as an experimental field and do all sorts of things right under the nose of Schicksal, without even being noticed by Schicksal before.

"Not necessarily. The key to victory or defeat is not the difference in strength on paper. Kiana, how do you think your strength compares to this person's?" Fu Hua flicked her sleeves and put her hands behind her back, exuding an ethereal aura.

"... Class President, he's beaten me down so many times, there's no need to be so sarcastic."

"No, what I mean is, in terms of demonstrated strength, you are much stronger than him."

Fu Hua made a conclusion that surprised Kiana, and then walked up to Fu Hua, spreading out her hands.

"Whoosh..."

In Fu Hua's right palm, a large amount of energy condensed into a white sphere, while in her left palm, half of the energy from her right hand condensed into a cone shape.

"I told you about the principle of breaking through the surface with a point when we were in school, but unfortunately you didn't listen at the time and always thought that using force to overcome skill was the right solution."

When Fu Hua brought up her embarrassing past from school to criticize her, Kiana smiled sheepishly. Now, she no longer dozes off in class or ignores the Class President's lectures.

However, the past life can never be returned to.

"When these two energies collide, the one with less energy will actually win." Fu Hua clashed the two energies in his hands together, and the white sphere was instantly pierced with a hole and dissipated. "Similarly, this person didn't use much power when fighting you. He just appeared at the right time and place, and then defeated you like popping a balloon with a needle."

"He is indeed teaching you how to use your power most effectively."

"Is making me stand as punishment also a form of punishment?"

"Um... this..."

Fu Hua couldn't explain it either; in her view, the punishment of standing was simply stirring up the anger of the Herrscher of the Void's consciousness within Kiana.

"You even took off my clothes, you're a pervert!" Kiana huffed, rarely showing such a coquettish side since she started her life as a wanderer. As she repeatedly glanced at the man's mask, her curiosity was already getting the better of her.

As the saying goes, the more you forbid people from doing something, the more they find themselves unable to control themselves from doing it.

Under Fu Hua's strange gaze, she furtively reached for the man's mask...

The Journey Begins in the Sky: Chapter Fourteen - The General

When the hooded woman rushed back to the headquarters of Shencheng Pharmaceuticals in the city, she was met with a scene of utter devastation, as if the land had been plowed by some heavy machinery. She wondered if she had gone to the wrong place or fallen into another timeline.

"Sizzle... sizzle..."

Standing in front of the patrol robot that had been smashed to pieces, she remained silent for a few seconds. The image of Jackal flashed a few times on the screen next to her.

"Cleo, you dare to use 'Shadow' directly? Don't you Venerable Lord?" She turned to look at the two mangled corpses in the distance. "Snake only asked you to study the artificially modified parts of MSA-079's genes to improve the vaccine. Are you afraid of being discovered or being betrayed by me?"

"Hmph, Xiola, you should first think about the consequences of your own trickery, which allowed the intruders to move freely in the snake's territory and cause losses. As for these 'shadows,' they are just byproducts of research. As long as I don't use the genes specifically for Honkai Beast experiments, the snake won't care about these trivial matters."

"Heh, I hope so. You've met that guy 'there,' and he must have given you a good scolding back then."

"Oh? What? Are you going to repeat the same old tune? Let's finish our mission first, Raven. That little thief is quite capable, just like you. You'd better catch him before he discovers and interferes with the experiment, otherwise... I'll let you know the consequences of failure."

Raven's lips curled up as she twirled the sharp, wine-red finger cot on her hand and said with a smile, "Didn't you always say that the will of the World Serpent is unstoppable? Well, just wait and see... Hmm? You even used HSN-B46 serum?"

Her tone was tinged with surprise. The serum made by the scientists of Schicksal could deactivate the Honkai Energy in people's bodies. Even Valkyrie modified by Schicksal would become as powerless as ordinary people after inhaling the serum. Under such circumstances, how could that man have defeated the Valkyrie Hunter, 'Shadow' and even the patrol robots and left safely?

Jackal's tone showed no remorse for his failure. "That's why I told you to catch him; he's very valuable for research."

"I think inviting him to join might be a good option."

Raven's sharp fingernails rubbed against the chin with a beauty mark, revealing a wicked grin.

"Kiana, what are you going to do?"

Fu Hua stood behind Kiana, glancing worriedly at the bright moonlit night and the unclosed windows, then watched as the silver-haired girl reached out like a thief towards the man's mask.

"Class President, aren't you curious about what this guy who doesn't like to show his face looks like?" Kiana, now showing some of her former spoiled nature, gripped the edge of the man's mask with her fingers, her eyes wide as she intently stared at the slit she'd lifted. "Anyone who likes to cover their face is no good. I'm going to see what's under his mask..."

Beneath the removed mask, a chin he had seen before while eating came into view.

It couldn't be her imagination...

Kiana's hand paused, her eyes fixed on the chin that only extended to the lips.

These lips look like jelly, glossy and delicious...

The room felt a bit stuffy.