I'm Not a Flame-Chaser

"I've only met you twice. If it's something trivial, you don't need to tell me. If it's something important, you shouldn't be discussing it with someone who hasn't joined Anti-Entropy." Lin's steps and mouth didn't stop. He turned the corner indifferently. "Besides, Tesla was there just now. Why did you come to me?"

"Relationships develop gradually; it's impossible for anyone to be best friends right from the start."

"I don't want to have good friends."

"Huh?"

Her words reminded Lin of Elysia, but she wasn't Elysia, so Lin didn't plan to be friends with her anymore. Ideally, they should keep their conversations to three sentences a day or less, including greetings.

"Wait, wait a minute! We're all good friends fighting against the Honkai, right?" Lin, with his long legs and big strides, walked forward without paying attention to anything else. The young researcher could only keep up by jogging. She waved her arms and said to Lin excitedly, "I really have something I want to tell you..."

"What is it?" Lin asked calmly.

"Um, it's not convenient to talk about this here..."

"Go somewhere secluded and quiet, with good soundproofing, preferably your room, right?"

"Yes, it's going to my room..."

"Bang!"

Lin went into his room and closed the door behind him, shutting out all the noise.

"That's a bit strange."

After disembarking from the transport plane, Raiden Mei sniffled and uttered the first sentence above.

"What's wrong? Did the Herrscher radar go off?" Raven, who was standing next to her in a less conspicuous outfit, asked.

"No, it's just a problem with this mission." Mei straightened her collar, having also changed out of her eye-catching, figure-hugging combat suit. "Investigating the Herrscher's traces on Coral Island, is it really just an investigation? Do we need the two of us?"

Moreover, it's unreasonable that they are two militant cadres. World Serpent's informants are all over the world, and there are more suitable people to investigate this kind of thing.

"Jackal said to contact her after we arrive, there might be additional work we need to do." Raven took out her communicator, raised an eyebrow and whispered before even turning it on, "Hmph, they came pretty fast. Schicksal really is like a dog, they came as soon as they smelled it."

Three girls with synchronized steps approached them from a distance. The girl in the lead, with long chestnut hair and a black beret, spoke mechanically to the two World Serpent with a serious expression, "I am Anna Saniyat, the captain of the Schicksal Snow Lotus Squad and A-rank Valkyrie. I need to conduct a handover and confirmation with you two."

Currently, Schicksal and World Serpent are in a cooperative relationship. Mei and Raven don't need to hide the Herrscher incident from Schicksal when they come to Coral Island, which is guarded by Schicksal. At least until the superficial cooperation ends, they are good partners who "love each other and fight against Honkai together".

Schicksal, a former member of Mei, Anti- Anti-Entropy, and now World Serpent, still felt a bit awkward dealing with these Schicksal Valkyrie. Fortunately, Anna seemed to be just doing her job and didn't seem to have any intention of making things difficult for them.

"We are from World Serpent. Captain Anna, please provide us with detailed information about Coral Island." Raven didn't have a good impression of the Valkyrie of Schicksal, especially of a certain maid, but she was much more polite to the other Valkyrie members.

"Okay, I'll have my team send it to you. If you two discover any relevant signs, please let us know as well."

"No problem."

After giving a brief explanation, Anna left with her team. Raven shrugged and said to Mei, who remained silent, "They'll probably hate us. After all, they were stationed on Coral Island but were told that there might be Herrscher on the island, and they even sent World Serpent to investigate. Doesn't that mean their security measures are like a leaky sieve?"

"...It's not that I can't understand." Mei sighed.

Raven resumed the communication that had been interrupted. The communicator was answered after two rings, and a mature woman with bronze skin wearing Jackal mask appeared on the screen.

"You're half an hour late! What have you been doing?" Jackal's distinctive accusatory voice rang out from off-screen, amidst Mei's eye-rolling.

"Who knows? Maybe the plane was delayed, or maybe the young lady finished her makeup." Raven didn't care much anymore. Ever since Jackal was repeatedly humiliated by someone in Sky City, his spirit had been greatly diminished. Most of the time, even if he wanted to question others, he could only grit his teeth and keep it to himself. "So, what other work is the contact person giving us?"

Jackal knew Raven was teasing her and sneered, "It's not any other job. Your mission is the same as before: investigate the possible existence of Herrscher on Coral Island."

"Why would an uncertain investigation require the two of us? Sending the young lady would be a waste of her talents."

"That's the problem." Jackal exhaled, and then something appeared on the communicator screen. "This is the investigation report from World Serpent's investigators on Coral Island. In the report, they said that Coral Island may be hiding multiple Herrscher."

"... Jackal, do you know what the word 'plural' means?"

"Xiola, do you want to die?"

"Good, good, so that means that right under Schicksal's nose, there's an area guarded by A-rank Valkyrie, and more than one Herrscher is active here, treating this place like an amusement park. If Schicksal isn't an organization of idiots led by idiots, then it can only be that the Herrscher have reformed and want to become good people?"

At this point, Raven glanced at Mei, who was standing beside him with her arms crossed, and said with a smile, "Oh, the one in the back is more likely than the one in the front."

"Among the Herrscher, there is a special type of individual, the Herrscher of Domination. In the Previous Civilization, they existed in the form of a thousand individuals, so it is not surprising that multiple Herrscher appear. The only strange thing is why they are gathered on Coral Island."

"Where is the investigator?"

"After sending this message, we lost contact."

"..."

After ending the call, Raven looked up at Mei and helplessly spread her hands. "Anyway, that's it."

Coral's "Reversal": Chapter Nine - The Game is Another Life

"It's been very peaceful lately."

"Isn't that good? It's better for humanity to have nothing to do than to have Anti-Entropy to do. Joachim is even thinking of turning Anti-Entropy into an animation company in the future, so that peace can continue like this forever."

Einstein twirled a strand of hair on his forehead and sighed, "You know what I'm talking about."

Tesla, adjusting his mechanical arm armor, nodded casually. "Yeah, I know. It's been eerily calm lately."

"Mr. Lin said that Previous Civilization also had several abnormal periods of calm, just like the calm before the storm. But in reality, the Honkai event may have already been brewing in places we don't know about." Einstein pulled up a world map, which showed the outbreak of small-scale Honkai. The more frequent the small-scale Honkai, the redder the color of that region.

Now, the entire world is devoid of red, so colorless that it's as if the Honkai never happened.

"Previous Civilization have seen multiple Herrscher born at the same time. We cannot determine whether the remaining Herrscher are already preparing plans, such as the Herrscher of Binding."

The Herrscher of Binding is like a thorn in my heart. It was the one that caused the greatest casualties in the Previous Civilization, and now its whereabouts are unknown. It's like a killer in a horror movie who is everywhere and could stab the protagonist in the neck from behind at any time.

"You've fallen into pointless assumptions. Even if what you're saying is true, we can't verify it. That's why humanity can only react passively to the Honkai, not proactively." Tesla tightened his arm armor, tested it, and sighed to Einstein, who was frowning. "Besides, who knows if our civilization will be in the same situation as the Previous Civilization? Did the Previous Civilization have so many Herrscher standing on humanity's side, yet they were just loafing around in human bases, chatting and joking all day?"

"... Yes, it's probably because I've been too busy lately, which has made me a bit anxious." Einstein relaxed his brow and returned to his lazy demeanor.

On the issue of the Herrscher of Reason, everyone will reach a reconciliation.

The doctor with the blue, messy hair turned off the world map. "It's a good thing that we can get through this anniversary period safely and let everyone relax a bit."

"Tense? I think a lot of people have been too relaxed lately." Tesla yawned, tears welling up in his eyes. "For example, there's a young researcher who's quite satisfied with his current interesting life and says he wants to work on Anti-Entropy for the rest of his life."

"Hehe, that's quite interesting."

Einstein smiled nonchalantly, feeling a slight weight lift from his heart.

Lin's fingers flew across the computer as he organized things. He was a meticulous person, but the Honkai was something that was difficult to plan. Doing his job well was already the best he could do.

He has many things on his mind right now. Besides Seele, there are two other things: the whereabouts of the Herrscher of Binding and the strange information he received on his way back to Anti-Entropy.

Lin could roughly guess the psychology of the Herrscher of Binding. Their thought patterns were highly similar, and it was not difficult to guess their thoughts after putting himself in their shoes. They were simply looking for an opportunity to make a comeback when the Honkai erupted, given that their powers were known and there was someone like Kevin. They were currently hiding in human society.

However, Lin sensed something was amiss with the Herrscher of Binding. When the Herrscher of Binding reappeared before him in the crack, something "changed" about him.

Based on Lin's understanding of him, this change is most likely heading in a completely negative direction.

We can only hope that the investigators from Anti-Entropy are capable enough to find the Herrscher of Binding and kill him before he has enough time to deploy his barrier.

As for that strange message, after Lin returned to Anti-Entropy, he asked Tesla to trace back the information system but found no trace of it. It was as if it was just a hallucination of Lin's. The person who sent the message was a ghost of the network, coming and going freely without leaving a trace.

I kept watching him...

This chilling description made Lin think that it might be someone close to him, but at the time, only Kiana, Bronya, Bella, and Tesla were on the ship. They couldn't possibly have done such a thing. So another possibility was that someone had been monitoring him in a way he couldn't detect.

Lin looked up and surveyed his surroundings. Perhaps it was just his imagination, but he felt a gaze coming from somewhere.

"Are you watching me?" Lin murmured softly.

"Drop--"

The notification sound from his computer's email made him look down at the screen immediately, where he saw a blinking cursor in his inbox.

He clicked on it without hesitation, but this time he received a software application instead of a message.

There was only one piece of software, and the sender and address were all blank, as if it had appeared out of thin air in the mailbox.

Lin stared at the software for a while. He didn't understand the other party's intention. It was unclear whether the close monitoring of him was malicious or for some other reason. He also didn't know what the software was.

With this in mind, Lin first disconnected the network, putting the entire computer in a completely isolated, Anti-Entropy intranet state, before installing the software.

Anti-Entropy is equipped with top-of-the-line equipment, and the installation progress bar finished in just half a second, leaving a new software on the desktop with no icon and a garbled name.

Lin moved the mouse over it and then double-clicked to open.

This is... a game?

After the software opened, a game interface appeared. He was a little confused, but after repeatedly checking, he found that it was indeed a game, and there was even a message on it saying "Click any key to start the game".

With some doubts, Lin started the game.

There is no opening cutscene or narration; after starting the game, Lin's character appears directly in a large square.

The character's model is exactly the same as Lin's, practically a one-to-one replica. The square is completely empty, with nothing in it. He controls the character to walk around but cannot interact with anything. It seems like just a simple simulator game.

Aside from that, the game's system is quite luxurious and rich, with everything from backpacks and panels to maps, weapons, abilities, and more. It's a game with detailed and realistic graphics and a diverse system, except that Lin can't unlock anything.

Is this a preview demo of a game?

Lin seemed to understand something. He reconnected to the internet, opened a blank text file, and typed—

What is the meaning of this game?

Then he stared at the line of text without moving.

Half a minute later, the cursor moved to the next line by itself, and then text started appearing on its own.

[I can only provide you with simple, copied samples. These samples do not exist on the internet themselves, but their existence is related to the internet.]

Lin typed: [What exactly is it?]

[Unable to provide a definitive explanation; the other party conducted a keyword search online.]

Lin, unwilling to give up: [Then who are you?]

[You guess.]

After that sentence, no matter what Lin typed, the other party did not respond. He took a deep breath, shut down the computer, and sat on the bed to think.

"Knock knock knock".

The knocking came at an inopportune time.

"Brother Lin, are you there?"

"..."

Coral's "Reversal": Chapter Ten - The Warriors of a Thousand

Some classic horror movies feature knocking scenes to create suspense and atmosphere. For example, a killer might knock on the door when you're trapped in a small room with nowhere to go, or the movie might start with a knocking sound in an empty house.

Simply put... a knocking sound signifies an invasion of one's comfort zone by "anxiety from the outside world," a sound that easily evokes fear. When paired with the knocker's eerie dialogue, it often creates a surprisingly effective sense of terror.

For example, now.

"Knock knock".

"Brother Lin, are you inside?"

Lin held his breath and did not respond, while the girl outside the door knocked on the door again and again, not giving up even when no one answered. The knocking that shook the door was like a heavy hammer hitting Lin's heart, each knock leaving a bloody crater.

The fact that Seele took the initiative to come to him and was alone with him was a daunting premise that even the slow-witted Lin could not ignore.

"Hmm... Is he not here? But I just heard Dr. Tesla say that Brother Lin has already gone back to his room..."

As Seele's mutterings faded into the distance, Lin breathed a sigh of relief. He could only try to avoid Seele now, otherwise, both his interpersonal relationships and his health would suffer serious problems.

After waiting a few more minutes to confirm that Seele had really left, Lin focused his energy on studying the game. What did that mysterious person want to express with this game? He said it was a sample, but what was it, or a sample of some software? What did they refer to?

He doesn't understand programming, but he has learned basic computer knowledge. It wouldn't be difficult for him to find out the software's data, but the game's code is normal, which means it is indeed an ordinary game.

That's the game itself.

He entered the game again, and it was still the same empty square with nothing else around. His character stood there blankly. He opened the map, his inventory, and his attribute panel and checked them again, but still found nothing unusual.

Lin frowned. The information was too limited. The only conclusion he could draw was that an unknown person was monitoring him and trying to send him a message through a game. Moreover, there was another force involved in this message, but that force was equally powerful online, and the mysterious person couldn't explain it to him directly.

After thinking it over, Lin made up his mind.

Qianqi and Bronya.

Qianqi is a top-tier hacker. Although she may not be able to use the current civilized network, her learning speed is definitely not bad. Kiana has already told him about Bronya's glorious hacking achievements, so there should be an opportunity to ask them to help explore network-related matters.

Lin pushed open the door.

Then pull it up suddenly.

The moment he opened the door, he caught a glimpse of an eye through the crack—a blood-red pupil that seemed to have been pulled from a sea of blood, staring intently at him.