I'm Not a Flame-Chaser - Chapter 622

"Kiana..."

Mei clutched Kiana's coat and ran wildly down the highway. Tears streamed down her face as she watched the silver meteor fall from the sky. Regret and helplessness filled her heart. She urged herself to run faster, to make her heavy body move a little faster.

"Bass!"

A silver-white spear from outer space flew at a speed invisible to the naked eye and pierced the ground. In an instant, a towering tree burst forth from the soil and caught the unconscious silver-haired girl as she fell.

"You..."

Mei stopped in front of the Giant Tree, tears streaming down her face. Then she watched as a blonde girl in armor emerged from the treetop, carrying the sleeping Kiana with her eyes closed, and looked down at the bewildered Mei.

"Raiden Mei, is that right?"

The other person said her name, without any curiosity or disdain in their tone, simply confirming it.

The other party didn't need Mei's reply. Before Mei could speak, she hugged Kiana, the armor's propulsion system roared, and she flew out as a streak of light, disappearing from Mei's sight.

The purple-haired girl knelt on the ground, staring blankly at the untouchable shooting star, tears welling up in her mouth with a bitter taste.

"Rita, I have captured the Herrscher of the Void. We can retreat now. Leave the rest to Schicksal Headquarters."

"Yes, Durandal."

Bianca, flying at high speed through the air, didn't take what had just happened to heart. She was simply following her mission and had no interaction with Mei. Kiana had prevented a crisis that would have caused the entire Sky City to Honkai, so she had a lot of goodwill towards this girl known as the Herrscher. At least Bianca felt that being able to bring Kiana back without fighting was a pleasant thing.

"Um?"

Just as the blonde girl was about to fly away from Sky City, she caught a glimpse of something out of the corner of her eye and stopped.

A person with a large hole in their chest and abdomen lay face down on the ground, looking utterly desolate among the surrounding wreckage.

Bianca stopped because the Black Abyss White Flower in her hand suddenly reacted, allowing her to sense that the lifeless, almost corpse-like body still had a trace of vitality.

This was unprecedented; she had never seen the Black Abyss White Flower react to anyone else since she took over it.

"Since you're not dead yet, then live on bravely."

Bianca approached the desolate body and activated the Black Abyss White Flower, causing it to emit a holy white light.

"Although we can't completely cure you, you should be fine until the rescue arrives."

Then Bianca took off again; for her, it was just a trivial act of helping others.

As for who that person is, there's no need to worry about it.

The Journey Begins in the Sky: Chapter Forty-Five - The Arrival of a Series of "Guests"

The dark clouds that had been hovering over Sky City finally dissipated. For the residents of Sky City, this was a "disaster" that came with extraordinary ferocity and ended with extraordinary speed: a meteor flying in reverse, a fierce battle, a city in ruins, and the cruel plan of Shencheng Pharmaceuticals being exposed.

The World Serpent left the city much faster than they intervened. The complete failure of the experiment—or perhaps it wasn't even a failure—made them give up on staying in Sky City. In fact, they could no longer control public opinion in Sky City as before and package themselves as a charitable enterprise. So even when a woman wearing Jackal mask shouted for another chance, no one paid any attention to her.

A day later, in the overcrowded hospital of Sky City, a man opened his eyes on his hospital bed and then quietly left the hospital without anyone noticing.

"..."

Lin stood in the empty Kiana's base, silently glancing at the bandages wrapped around his chest and abdomen.

This simple bandage could not possibly save Lin, who had lost many organs, but when he woke up, he found that his wounds were almost completely healed, except for one more serious injury that had not yet fully healed, and even his organs had regenerated.

It's important to understand that Lin's problem wasn't just those horrific injuries. He had forcibly used Artificial Collapse, causing his body, which was already like a rickety car, to begin self-destructing. Yet now, he's even able to jump around again.

Who did it?

In the darkness of his unconsciousness, Lin vaguely felt a warm current entering his body through the wound, which must be related to it.

Moreover, that warm current seemed familiar...

After briefly confirming the situation, Lin stayed at the base for a short while before getting up again.

The World Serpent has now left, and Lin will likely continue to interact with them in the future. Moreover, Kevin's goal is to complete the Stigmata Project, so experiments similar to those in Sky City will definitely happen again in the future, and he needs to gather relevant information.

Secondly, Kiana's whereabouts are unknown. According to Lin's speculation, she was either taken away by World Serpent or by Schicksal. Rescuing Kiana is one of the things Lin needs to do next.

Finally, there's one more thing.

"Huh? Someone beat me to it..."

When Rita returned to the Gray Serpent's stronghold to destroy the many traces of the spies that had been left there, she found that the place had already been dealt with. She was only slightly surprised by this, but it saved her some trouble.

Just as they were preparing to evacuate Sky City, Rita suddenly noticed a familiar item in the ruins of the base.

"The Gray Serpent's eyes? How did they get here?"

Rita picked up the eye and frowned as she looked around, but found nothing. The eye seemed to have grown out of the ground.

The person who dealt with the facility couldn't possibly have missed this eye, meaning someone returned here after dealing with the facility and placed the eyeball here, anticipating Rita's arrival.

"... Hmph, Mr. Thief, or Robin Hood? You've certainly encountered quite a few interesting things in Sky City." Rita put the eyeball into her pocket, her wine-red eyes gazing meaningfully into the deserted alleyway. "However, at least I've given Miss Mei an explanation."

The prosthetic eye and the necklace she found, placed together, emitted two completely different kinds of light.

"How much longer...?"

"How much longer... do we have to wait..."

The sound, from an unknown source, was distant and lonely, like a weeping voice from another world.

Who?!

Lin Wuran woke up with a start. He covered his mind, which was churning with memories, and tried to calm his heartbeat in the quiet environment.

After a few breaths, Lin's previously slightly unfocused eyes returned to normal. He leaned back in his chair, silently watching the rosy sunset outside the window. The person sleeping next to him did not notice his unusual behavior.

At that moment, he was on an airplane over the Far East.

After deciding on a plan focused on investigating World Serpent, Schicksal, and Anti-Entropy, as well as rescuing Kiana, Lin used his disguised identity to fly to the Schicksal branch, which he had found in the database of Shencheng Pharmaceuticals and the intelligence network of Gray Serpent. He planned to start from the branch to find information about several organizations and Kiana's whereabouts.

His initial idea was to track Rita, but it was clear that he didn't have the means to do so. After Rita obtained the Gray Serpent's Eye, he left Sky City on the Schicksal's transport ship.

Mei also disappeared without a trace, leaving Lin momentarily without a target and ultimately forcing him to resort to the most rudimentary method.

Lin exhaled, took one last look at the sunset outside the window, and closed his eyes.

There are still a few hours before the plane lands, let's rest a bit more.

"Drop----"

A sudden, piercing, bright red alarm sounded on the plane.

Everyone around was awakened by the noise. They stared blankly at the fallen oxygen mask, not knowing what had happened.

Lin opened his eyes again, calmly put on his mask, and then reminded everyone around him to do the same. For him, this was no big deal; he just needed to follow the safety guidelines and wait for the flight attendant's explanation.

However, something unexpected happened.

"Howl----"

The terrifying roar, accompanied by the violent shaking of the aircraft, caused everyone to scream.

"W-What's wrong! I hear something shouting!"

"Monster! There's a monster outside the plane!"

"No! Help! Someone, please save us!"

Lin Ba, his mask on, darted to the man who had said there were monsters outside, pulled him aside, and looked out the window. The scene reflected in his dark eyes made his heart skip a beat.

Honkai Beast.

A Honkai Beast with wings that blot out the sky, accompanied by lightning and hurricanes, resembling a mythical dragon, swept past the plane, emitting a deafening roar.

"Howl!!!!"

This is... Upper-class Honkai Beast!

Lin never expected that an Upper-class Honkai Beast would suddenly appear right in front of him.

Has a large-scale Honkai occurred nearby? No, if a large-scale Honkai had happened, the alarms would have been raised by now. What on earth is going on...?

There's no time to think about it. The existence of Upper-class Honkai Beast is a natural disaster in itself. If this Honkai Beast continues to get closer, even if we don't crash into it directly, the lightning around it alone will be enough to crash the plane and kill everyone on board!

"Please all passengers remain seated..."

As the flight attendant's legs trembled as she made the announcement over the loudspeaker, trying to reassure herself that nothing would happen, someone rushed past her at lightning speed and strapped her to the flight attendant's designated seat.

"What... what are you going to do!"

The man said nothing. He skillfully opened the machine door, a gust of wind whipping his black hair as his dark eyes, sharp as swords, stared at the gigantic beast roaring to the sky.

Then.

Without hesitation, he jumped out of the hatch towards the dragon-type Honkai Beast.

The Journey Begins in the Sky: Chapter 46 Is This Still in China?

Thousands of meters in the air, the gale seemed to tear his body apart, and the howling wind made his eardrums vibrate. The man brought his hands and feet together and rushed toward the approaching dragon-type Honkai Beast.

"Whoosh—"

Lin grabbed the protruding horny part on the Honkai Beast's body, flipped over, and straddled it. The Honkai Beast noticed that there was a human on its body, so it twisted its body wildly like a giant snake, trying to throw him off.

Lin's goal was to keep the Honkai Beast away from the plane. He used all his strength to hug the Honkai Beast's protruding, rough horn. In the wind pressure that made it almost impossible to open his eyes, he could vaguely see the wounds on its wings not far away.

This is a wounded Honkai Beast.

Although he didn't know the cause and effect, this created an opportunity for Lin. He slowly crawled towards the Honkai Beast's wound from the wing root. After seeing the purplish pink flesh inside, he desperately gathered a little Honkai Energy in his palm.

Since waking up, Lin has been unable to control Honkai Energy as freely as before. The reason is unknown, but he speculates that it was because he placed the Honkai Energy generator with himself, exposing him to an environment with extremely high concentrations of Honkai Energy.

So now, he can only gather a little bit of Honkai Energy and then strike the Honkai Beast's wound with a palm!

"Howl!!!"

The dragon-type Honkai Beast, in pain, flipped in the air, moving away from the plane. Then, electric currents began to surge across its body, forcing Lin to let go and separate from the Honkai Beast.

As he free-fell rapidly toward the ground, Lin's bones trembled, and the still-healing wounds on his chest and abdomen throbbed with pain. He finally breathed a sigh of relief as he watched the plane recede into the distance.

However, the dragon-type Honkai Beast had already been enraged by him. After letting out a loud roar, it swooped down at him.

Oh no!

"Roar!"

Lin had nowhere to dodge. He put his hands on his chest to protect himself, and then the Honkai Beast opened its blood-red maw and swallowed him whole!

After devouring the man, the Honkai Beast's body flashed with lightning, then let out a final, unwilling howl before plummeting straight down.

"How much longer... do we have to wait..."

The babbling of the stream, the gentle breeze, and the dappled sunlight filtering through the clouds.

A call from an unknown source quietly faded into silence on the tranquil riverbank, but this ethereal sound, which couldn't even stir a speck of dust, caused a person to open their inky eyes and awaken.

"..."

When Lin woke up, his awakened senses told him that his whole body was enveloped in a refreshing coolness, indicating that he was in a shallow stream.

"Splash."

He propped himself up from the water, clean river water flowing from his wet hair, his water-drenched face turning to the surroundings.

The wind spirits stirred the man's hair, playing near his ear. He silently surveyed the surroundings, which resembled a deep mountain forest. Smoke rose from distant chimneys, indicating that people lived nearby. Downstream, he saw a man-made wooden bridge, suggesting that people frequently traveled through the area.

Where is this?

After making a preliminary assessment of the surrounding environment, this was the first thought that came to Lin's mind.

After the Great Honkai of the world, how could there still be small villages living alone? Moreover, Lin clearly remembered that there should have been a city below where he jumped from the plane, but now only the groves of cherry blossom trees made Lin realize that he was still in the Far East, and not some forgotten corner.

Oh right, he was eaten by that Honkai Beast, so why is he here...?

"Hmm..."

"..."

Did he hear something?

Lin quickly looked down and found a person lying in the shallow water that barely reached his ankles.