I'm Not a Flame-Chaser

With blood trickling from the corner of his mouth, Lin concentrated all his strength on the blade, gripped the hilt with both hands, and slashed down. He used his fastest speed, faster than thought, faster than light.

But he can't outrun time.

No one can outrun time.

Jizo Mitama cleaved into the right shoulder of the Herrscher of Binding, splitting him in two. Blood and internal organs gushed from the wound, and the white-haired man was almost completely cleaved in two by Lin.

But at the last moment, the gravity that had been suppressing him was released, and he dodged the most fatal blow.

The owl's head gently landed on the ground, and his hand fell towards the white-haired man.

A chain pierced his chest precisely, turning his heart into a bloody pulp.

The Imaginary Tree Divine Remnant had already surrounded them. The white-haired man, dragging his body which had almost been split in two, dodged the attacks of the Imaginary Tree Divine Remnant without the slightest hesitation and jumped into the Imaginary Singularity.

Lin, whose body was almost falling apart, heard the groans of his body and rushed to Night Owl. With a full-force strike, he cleaved down the Imaginary Tree Divine Remnant blocking his way. Rita picked up Yan Luo and Kiana and jumped into the Imaginary Singularity.

Lin Mo picked up Night Owl's body; it was completely still and cold.

Behind them, the Imaginary Singularity was just a step away...

Just one step...

"Brother, where are we going?"

"... Go to a warm place."

Where is a warm place?

"A warm place is... a place where we can live happily together."

The boy squatted down and patted his sister's head, revealing a warm, doting smile.

"When can we go there?"

"We'll get there someday, as long as we're together and keep going."

"Always... together..."

The boy took the hand of the bewildered girl and gently walked into the fog.

The "Rebirth" of the Sky: The Story of a Flame-Chasers Boy's Fiancée (Part 1)

"Fiancée?!!"

The deafening disbelief was mixed with an uncontrollable resentment. Even without looking at their expressions, Lin could imagine the crushed jealousy splattered on their faces like cheese on a pizza.

Lin sighed and said helplessly to the four people in front of him, "I only found out today. They suddenly called and said it was a childhood betrothal. He's a year younger than me and has reached the age to get married, so they're planning to arrange a meeting first."

"By the way... Kevin, don't you already have a girlfriend? What are you doing here?"

The four people shouted in unison, "That's not important!"

Lin covered his ears expressionlessly. He had expected this. After all, their boys' dormitory 616 was a notorious "scumbag gathering place" in the entire Changkong City. Not to mention that they were afraid of their brothers suffering and afraid of their brothers driving Land Rovers, all the members of dormitory 616 couldn't stand seeing others happier than themselves. They were completely the kind of dark goblins who couldn't stand the light of day!

"You... how could you... have a fiancée!" Kevin grabbed Lin's collar and shook him up and down, shouting through gritted teeth, "You, a guy with such a terrible personality, who by every means should be buried alone, with the epitaph on your tombstone reading 'Tomb of Lin, the century-old virgin,' how could you have a fiancée!"

Lin's right eyelid twitched. "Hey, hey, hey, that's a bit too much! I'm a handsome guy, you know!"

"I never expected that you would betray us like Kevin. I thought you would stick to your devotion to the God of Virgins until the very end." Su shook his head regretfully.

"What kind of god is that? It's tragic enough that such a god exists, but it's even more tragic to believe in it!"

Kevin's hand was forcibly released by another hand, and the white-haired man wearing a mask calmly said to the others, "Although it's surprising, that's enough. As friends, what we should do is wish him well."

"Chrono, you..."

"Yeah, no matter how much we mess around, we're still good friends." Kosma nodded in agreement, then smiled at Lin, "Go on your way, have a great date."

Although Lin felt a little strange, he didn't think much of it. His friends had finally done something decent. He happily went out on his date, imagining the wonderful life he would have with a girlfriend after the successful date.

"Sigh, seeing his happy face makes me want to stomp on his face." Kevin stood by the window, watching Lin's retreating figure, and sighed softly.

"How dark do you have to be to think like that?" Kosma could only manage a wry smile at the daily antics in the dorm. "Can't you learn from Chrono? Sincerely wish your friends happiness..."

"Happiness?!"

A low, chilling laugh interrupted Kosma's words. He shivered, turned his head, and saw the masked man staring intently in the direction Lin had left.

"What a joke! How could that scumbag find happiness! He deserves to die alone, get killed for his foul mouth, and have 'Scumbag Before Me' written on his tombstone!"

"... Huh?" Kosma's brain didn't process what he was seeing for a moment. After a long period of blankness, he finally came to his senses. "Wait a minute, Chrono, didn't you say..."

"Of course, you want him to lower his guard and lie to him. Ugh, just thinking about it makes me want to throw up."

Chrono, Kevin, and Su simultaneously let out sinister low laughs, causing Kosma to shudder.

"What... what do you want to do?"

"What do you want to do? Is that even a question?"

Chrono cruelly curled the corners of his mouth.

"Of course, we must prevent scum from achieving any happiness."

"Is that Lin's fiancée? She's so beautiful."

In a corner of the coffee shop, Kosma and Kevin sat at a table, using the menu to cover their faces as they observed two people chatting and laughing not far away. Kosma stared wide-eyed at the girl with short, blue-streaked hair sitting opposite Lin.

"Watch your eyes, you're too conspicuous," Kevin reminded her. "You really are beautiful..."

Kosma glanced at the girl a few times, but whether it was his imagination or not, the girl seemed to be glancing in their direction a few times, intentionally or unintentionally.

It must be her imagination; she doesn't recognize Kosma and Kevin.

"So, how do you plan to ruin Lin's happiness?" Kosma couldn't help but sigh at the mention of this. He took the coffee from the waiter, blew on it, then put in two sugar cubes, stirred it with a spoon, and pointed at Kevin before asking.

"Hmph... We won't make things difficult for him. Let's not consider making him humiliated in public like having his pants pulled down..."

So, have you even considered making him take off his pants? These people are hopeless.

"We'll show this ignorant girl what kind of true face lies beneath Lin's despicable mask!"

Just as Kosma was still thinking about what they should do, a waiter walked up to Lin. Kosma immediately saw Chrono's conspicuous mask and spat out his entire cup of coffee.

"Cough cough..."

This guy, dressed in a waiter's uniform, managed to look somewhat presentable thanks to his physique, but the moment that ridiculous mask appeared, even a scream would turn into a shrill laugh.

Lin recognized Chrono at a glance. He had a strange expression on his face and his eyes were full of suspicion. He was obviously thinking of some possibilities that made his heart race.

Chrono casually placed the coffee on their table and secretly gave Lin a thumbs up.

"This is..."

"Hmph, Lin's true nature will be exposed with just a little provocation. Do you think he can stand it when we openly tease him?"

"..."

Well, Kosma had to admit it was a dirty trick. Lin was indeed the type who didn't hold grudges overnight. He didn't believe in the saying "a gentleman takes revenge even after ten years," and he couldn't even tolerate a grudge for half a second before taking revenge on the spot.

"Just watch, there's a whole mustard stick in that coffee. When he drinks it, he'll spit it all out in one gulp, right onto that girl's face..." Kevin chuckled coldly, and Kosma couldn't help but show a look of pity.

Lin was still suspicious, but when he thought that Chrono was one of only two people who spoke to him, he lowered his guard.

Maybe they just happen to be working here.

He picked up his coffee, wanting to project a gentlemanly British image in front of the girl, but before he could even bring the cup to his lips, she reached out and smiled as she took the coffee from his hand.

"Senior, I'd like to try your coffee. Can we switch?"

"Huh? Okay."

Lin was puzzled, but he happily accepted the coffee that the girl had already taken a sip from and drank it with relish.

The girl took Lin's coffee but didn't drink it. Instead, she placed it on the table, glanced at Kosma and Kevin, and gave them a strange smile.

Kosma and Kevin were both startled.

We've been... discovered?

The "Rebirth" of the Sky: The Story of a Flame-Chasers Boy's Fiancée (Part 2)

To be honest, Lin thinks his roommates are all great. When they need to be loyal, they'll rush to his aid even if they're in the bathroom and he sends them a message to make them feel better, and when they do something silly, they'll use pure silliness to make people laugh, just like the humor in a superhero movie.

But there are also bad times. For example, Kevin always makes lame jokes about his butt sticking to a chair or toilet, Chrono's mask is mentioned repeatedly, and Sue's image with her eyes closed. These overused jokes are as vivid as the garlic-smelling watermelon in the refrigerator of childhood memories, but they don't make people feel nostalgic.

Okay, we've gotten off topic. Lin didn't actually want to criticize their character settings, but rather that when these people use themselves and Lin to create humor, they're just like the Minions—simple-minded, impulsive, and muttering completely incomprehensible language. It makes you wonder if God only had "scum" and "idiot" in his palette when he created them.

He stared blankly at Kevin and Chrono, who were disguised as plastic mannequins in the shop window of a passing clothing store. They had painted themselves all white and were standing there like door gods with their eyes wide open in anger.

What are these idiots up to now?

"Senior, what's wrong?" The girl with the inner highlights, who was clinging to Lin's arm, turned her head and glanced at the two guys who had just come out of a comedy film set. "Nothing to see, right?"

"Ah... there's really nothing to see."

Lin glared at the two door gods, hoping that the door to the mental hospital hadn't been closed properly and they had been let out. Otherwise, if they dared to ruin his plans and scare the junior girls next to him, he would have to put them on dog leashes and tie them to the dormitory door as real door gods.

However, he didn't see that the moment he turned around, the obedient and lovely "yuri" beside him instantly transformed into a "man-eating flower," sneered at the two people in the shop window, and then turned to follow Lin.

"... Why do I feel like it's not like lambs are being led into the tiger's den, but rather like a tigress in sheep's clothing is about to kill a male tiger?" Kevin watched the two figures walking away.

"If even Lin didn't notice, then she's not a tigress, she's a Godzilla." Chrono snorted and took off his clothes, leaving only a mask. He turned around and walked into the clothing store openly. Amid the clerk's screams, he picked up a set of clothes and casually threw two hundred on the cash register. "Keep the change."

The shop assistant stared blankly as the two guys, who had painted their buttocks white, walked out of the clothing store, putting on their clothes as they went, and then looked down at the two hundred yuan in her hand.

"Shirt, pants, socks, hat... you don't need to look anymore. You each have a set of clothes that cost three thousand, so you still owe me four thousand eight! Get the hell back here!"

"So, it's not just Lin who's acting, that girl is acting too? And she seems to be warning us not to disturb her and Lin's duet?" Su summarized the information from the group and complained, "What kind of situation is this, like the Big Bad Wolf meeting the Happy Sheep?"

"What?" Kosma stammered, bewildered.

"A two-person play?"

"No, I meant Grey Wolf and Pleasant Goat."

"Oh, look, even after thousands of episodes and special episodes, Grey Wolf still couldn't eat Pleasant Goat. There's no other possibility besides them acting together, right? Oh, and another possibility is that they're actually gay..."

"Smack."

Kosma put his hand on Sue's shoulder to stop him from continuing, and sighed, "... Next time watch Tom and Jerry or Boonie Bears, no, next time don't watch cartoons about catching things."

Kevin asked the pensive Chrono, "So, what do we do now? Proceed as planned?"

"What do you think Lin's reaction would be if he found out that the girl was actually pretending to be a good girl and was just waiting to devour him?" Chrono asked seriously.

"Afraid?" Kosma raised his hand.

Su shook his head, denying Kosma's statement. He stroked his chin and asked, "Happy?"

How would we feel if Lin were happy?

Kevin immediately replied, "I'm not happy."

Do you want to be unhappy?

"In no mood."

"Then we'll just have to make Lin unhappy."

The answer was clear: Kosma hadn't colluded with them, but they had all tacitly excluded him, for which he felt only relief.

"What a perfect couple, hated by everyone and even dogs! Would you two be interested in visiting the newly opened amusement park?"

"..."

Lin was genuinely confused about his roommates' thoughts. The bespectacled, squinty-eyed man in front of him, trying to appear refined, was undoubtedly Su. What were they all trying to do by coming out of the room like this? To make him laugh? But he wasn't Bao Si; what good would it do to make him laugh?

Or has this group of scumbags, who would kick even a stray dog if they were alive, suddenly changed their ways? They spared no effort to help him have a perfect date, even booking a top-tier suite for him so he could check in right after the date and then drag him to the marriage registry office to get his fingerprints done the very next day?

"Soul, do you want to go play?" Lin decided to respect the lady's opinion, and the girl he called Soul smiled slightly and shook her head.

"I don't want to go to the amusement park, senior. Let's go to the aquarium instead."

The girl flawlessly defused Su's offensive, rendering all his subsequent plans ineffective. However, he showed no disappointment; instead, he pushed up his glasses and revealed a confident smile.

Upon entering the aquarium, a smiling waiter wearing a baseball cap, whose face was obscured, handed them two bottles of mineral water. Lin and the girl took the water and walked inside, while the waiter nodded to his companion hiding in the shadows, indicating that the plan had succeeded.

The water has laxatives added that will make you vomit your intestines out, hehehe, strip out in public, Lin!