I'm Not a Flame-Chaser

"... Have you thought it through?" Lin reached out his hand. His confident demeanor towards Rita didn't make her lose her composure. She smiled slightly, took out the necklace, and handed it to Lin.

Feeling the coolness to the touch, Lin glanced down at the necklace and put it in her pocket.

"Then, please lead the way."

Without saying a word, Lin turned and left, with Rita following closely behind.

"Now that we have reached a consensus, sir, you can at least tell me your name."

Even now, Rita hasn't forgotten to gather intelligence; she wants to find out the details of anything that might cause unforeseen changes or threaten Schicksal.

The man, whose trench coat fluttered in the wind and who looked quite aloof, finally answered after a long pause, "Amu."

"Ah?"

"Amu, that's my name."

"That's really... a unique name."

Rita cursed inwardly that this fake name wouldn't even bother to fool her, but on the surface she remained respectful.

"You don't need to pry into my information." Lin saw through Rita's thoughts at a glance. "I won't have much interaction with you. If you want to eliminate danger for Schicksal, then my primary target is not me. And if you want to eliminate danger for humanity... then my primary target will not be me either."

Otto Apocalypse of the Intrinsic World did not have the ability of the Herrscher of Erosion to conduct experiments, but Lin had reason to believe that what he was doing was something even more dangerous and insane, and that awakening the Herrscher of the Void was his doing.

"Alright, then, Mr. Amu." The gray-blonde maid's smile was tinged with a dark aura. "You said it was to restrict my movements, so what is your purpose in restricting my movements and stealing my transport ship?"

"Or to put it another way, although you are not a member of the three major organizations, you do have choices and inclinations, right? Which side are you on?"

Lin doesn't belong to Schicksal, nor could he belong to the World Serpent, so only one possibility remains.

"... I told you, I won't have much interaction with you. There's no need to test me. I'll leave once you get the transport ship."

"Hehe, I hope so."

Lin glanced at Rita's smile and quickened his pace without saying a word.

He quickly brought Rita to the OT. He stopped and said to Rita, "I have ended the hijacking of the transport ship. You can manually start the transport ship and regain control. Our deal ends here."

Rita stepped forward and opened the hatch. After confirming that the transport ship was usable, a mysterious smile appeared on her lips.

"Very good, Mr. Amu. I hope our next meeting won't come so soon."

Rita stepped through the hatch, then watched it slowly close with a strange smile on her face.

As Lin's figure gradually disappeared from her sight, the heavy weight in her heart gradually lifted.

Didn't you notice...?

"Bass!"

The black blade pierced through the completely closed hatch, and the authority that should have been regained failed again. Rita watched in disbelief as the hatch reopened before her eyes.

A masked man stood at the door, holding a knife. His black pupils behind the mask were like bottomless abysses. He held the necklace in his hand and slowly crushed it into powder.

"Click".

Amidst the silver dust and fragments, some electronic components fell from his hand to the ground, flashing red light, and were crushed under his foot.

"..."

"..."

The necklace is fake.

Lin looked coldly at Rita smile had stiffened.

"It's you? What do you want?"

The purple-haired girl stood in front of the silver-haired girl she had just met, and asked the maid in front of her a question, unaware of the unnatural expression on the silver-haired girl's face when she saw Rita.

As for the red-haired doctor with glasses, he glared at the maid with gritted teeth, wishing he could bite her head off.

Rita smiled without saying a word and took two things out of her pocket.

"This is the artificial eye of the Gray Serpent that Miss Mei promised me. I came here to fulfill my promise."

"..." Mei was surprised that Rita could keep her promise so well. She was stunned for a moment, but then looked at the maid with renewed vigilance. "But judging from your appearance, this eye must have a price."

"Mei is a very intelligent person. I like talking to intelligent people. I do have a favor to ask, and it is not a difficult matter for Dr. Tesla."

"Me? Hey, what are you up to, you heartless maid? Kiana, we're not giving you back."

In response to Tesla's gruff tone, Rita picked up something else and smiled slightly.

"I told you, it's not difficult."

The "Rebirth" of the Sky: Chapter Thirteen - The Coexistence of Sun and Moon

The necklace is fake; it's a counterfeit made of similar metal and contains a signal transmitter.

A layer of frost settled on Lin's dark eyes.

Rita not only planned to get something for nothing, but also wanted to use the necklace to track him. Her claim that she would leave Changkong City after retrieving the transport ship was definitely a lie.

The moment he plunged the knife into the transport ship, he regained control of the OT. Rita never expected that Lin could see through the fake so quickly and hijack the OT again.

How could that be...

After failing to close the hatch, Rita immediately pointed her scythe at the motionless masked man, her face grave.

Could it be that he wasn't acting alone, and there was another hacker keeping control of the OT at all times?

"... That necklace is useless to you, but it's important to someone else."

Lin remained motionless, simply holding the knife in his backhand, locked in a tense standoff with Rita.

"But you might not return it to him, would you?" The honorifics in the words had disappeared.

"..."

"Mr. Amu, let's make another deal. If you tell me what secret this necklace holds, I'll give it to you."

Lin Zhi sighed. He understood that it was no longer possible to get the necklace amicably.

"I don't know either."

"...Mr Amu, you don't know its secret, yet you want to get your hands on it." Rita chuckled, a breathtakingly beautiful feeling washing over her as the wind tousled her long hair, yet with a dangerous sting like a scorpion's sting. She stared at Lin, "Since you know me so well, do you think I'm someone who's so easily fooled?"

"..."

As expected, Rita probably won't believe anything he says now.

So, it seems that the next area is no longer something that language can interfere with...

"Bass!"

Lin and Rita attacked simultaneously without warning, both wanting to gain the upper hand. The black blade clashed with the rose-red and white scythe.

Rita, wielding a scythe, had the advantage in strength, so Lin didn't intend to engage her in a prolonged stalemate. He made contact and then disengaged, using the distance where the scythe's length advantage was ineffective to Jizo Mitama in close combat.

"Sizzle!"

The terrifying sharpness of the Jizo Mitama sliced open the entire hatch as Rita dodged. Rita, witnessing this, was terrified. This knife was definitely not ordinary as it looked. It was impossible for a regular metal blade to slice through the Schicksal's transport ship as easily as cutting tofu.

"Bang!"

The two figures collided in a dazzling display, and the ornaments inside the transport ship were torn apart in the storm of blades in the blink of an eye. After a fierce impact, Rita's armor storage device was cleaved open by the Jizo Mitama, and the real necklace fell out of the device.

Like a crescent moon, the blue necklace gleamed on the scarred floor.

Oh no!

Rita sensed something was wrong the moment she saw the necklace, and indeed, Lin quickly sheathed his sword and reached for the necklace on the ground after his successful attack.

She gritted her teeth, spun the sickle, and used the end to flick the necklace away, leaving Lin empty-handed.

None of them expected that at that moment, a blurry figure appeared out of thin air and rushed toward the necklace without hesitation.

Night Owl was not giving up. When Raven brought him back to the nest, he launched a sneak attack, using neurotoxin to knock Raven. Then he followed Rita's trail and caught up with her. Having learned his lesson from Lin, he was very patient this time. Even when Lin got the fake necklace, he did not rush to make a move.

When Lin and Rita were fighting over the necklace, causing it to slip from between them, he finally couldn't resist any longer. Now was the perfect opportunity!

Lin was still trying to use the necklace to turn Night Owl against him, but he wouldn't let Night Owl have his way. In the gap between his fight with Rita, he kicked Night Owl in the chest as he jumped up, sending him flying backward.

"Hateful..."

As the necklace receded further and further away, the owl reluctantly managed to squeeze out a sentence.

What surprised everyone even more was that someone else joined the fight over the necklace.

"Whoosh!"

An orange portal appeared behind Lin. The silver-haired girl grabbed Lin's shoulder with one hand and caught the necklace with the other, then tried to teleport away.

"Don't even think about it!"

Rita was surprised for a moment when she saw Kiana, then grabbed Lin's wrist and struggled with Kiana. At the same time, Night Owl had already rushed over again and pounced on the necklace in Kiana's hand!

"Whoosh!"

The portal closed, and everything that had been noisy fell silent.

"Forehead..."

What happened...?

Lin felt a long-lost sense of physical incoordination. It was as if his soul was pulling his body's nerves, lifting him up like a puppet on strings. He clutched his aching head and looked around.

This feeling... could it be that I've entered the Quantum Sea again...?

But when he opened his eyes, he realized he was wrong.

Lin had been adrift in the Sea Quantum Sea for 50,000 years and had an extremely high level of perception of it. Although the Quantum Sea itself did not contain anything that could be identified, the fact that he was in it and experienced sensations completely different from his Intrinsic World made him realize that he was in the Quantum Sea.

But now, he senses neither the Quantum Sea nor the Intrinsic World.

"Gurgle..."

Lin heard a soft moan from beneath him. He looked down and saw Kiana lying on the ground with her eyes closed and covered in sweat. His pupils contracted, and he immediately squatted down, pulled open her collar, and checked her neck.

The pinkish-purple lines left shocking marks on her fair skin.

Lin stared intently at these marks, which symbolized the further encroachment of Honkai upon her.

Kiana's ability to slow down the erosion was already quite remarkable. After absorbing a large amount of Honkai Energy in Sky City, she underwent high-intensity experiments at the Schicksal branch and even used her powers to traverse nearly half the Earth in one go. It was a miracle that she could still move normally under these circumstances. However, she then used the powers of the Herrscher of the Void, which intensified Honkai Honkai's erosion on her.

We must return to our Intrinsic World as soon as possible.

Lin took a deep breath, picked up the unconscious Kiana, and then picked up the Jizo Mitama that had fallen to the side. He tried calling the bell, but there was still no response, so he could only clip the Jizo Mitama to his waist.

The world before my eyes is somewhat perplexing, or rather... very abstract.

At first glance, the place where Lin and the others were located was a lush green meadow, full of life. However, less than a hundred meters away from them, there was a crack that looked like shattered glass. Inside the crack was a completely different desert.

Lin took a deep breath and looked up at the sky.

The sun and moon appear in the sky at the same time, and day and night coexist in the world.

What... where is this place?

The "Rebirth" of the Sky: Chapter Fourteen - Night Owl's Bad Luck

As a child, Lin read a lot of books for leisure under someone's guidance. As an adult, in addition to listening to music, he would occasionally read books that seemed to have little use in his mind. Some of these books had pretty good ideas and described some strange phenomena.

Lin now felt as if he were in a novel, where there was no alternation of day and night, and on a lush land like the Garden of Eden, he was heading towards what seemed to be a hell ruled by Satan.

Kiana was still asleep on his back, preventing him from asking her where she had opened the portal, but Lin thought Kiana might not know.

He suspected that when Kiana opened the portal, Schicksal also officially began its experiment, opening the Imaginary Singularity, causing the spatial structure of Changkong City to become disordered, ultimately leading them to this place... a place where it was completely unclear whether it was Intrinsic World.

Speaking of which, Kiana seemed to have grabbed the necklace before entering the portal...

Thinking of this, he turned to look at the jade arm dangling on his chest. Her right hand was tightly clenched in something. He reached out and pried open her right hand, which she had been holding tightly even when she was unconscious. The necklace was right there in her hand.

"Clang."

The necklace fell into Lin's hands. He silently looked at the "trophy" in his hand, then at the "price" on the girl's neck and the pained expression on her pretty face. He sighed softly, and the complex feelings he had for Kiana grew even stronger.

His plan led to Kiana's corruption being exacerbated.

Suppressing the guilt in his heart, Lin gently supported the girl's body.

Kiana was so light that I hadn't even noticed when I picked her up in Sky City. She was as light as a feather. Yet, within that petite body, the soul of a girl suppressed a demon that wanted to destroy the world.