Breakthrough / The Boy's Photograph

"The world is going to end." Anna said blankly as she put food into her mouth.

"..."

"The world is going to end."

"..."

"The world is going to end!!" Anna screamed, rolling on the ground, clutching her head. "What do we do! What do we do?!"

Lin Moran stared at her silently.

She jumped up, slammed her hands on the table, and stared at Lin with wide eyes, saying, "Uncle! You really don't have a girlfriend?!"

Is there any connection between the preceding and following text?

Seeing that Lin didn't speak, the chestnut-haired girl clenched her fists and put on a serious expression. "Okay! Uncle, will you marry me!"

"..." This sentence contained too many elements, leaving Lin momentarily at a loss for words.

"Damn it! I'm a dignified eighteen-year-old girl who hasn't even been in love yet, and the world is about to end! This is unacceptable!"

So those "what to do" questions were referring to this matter?

Anna's unusual thought process always manages to surprise Lin in some ways. After listening to Lin's general account of the Honkai, the first thing she thought of was that she had never been in a relationship.

However, this is similar to what she described as ordinary people who would calmly face the end of the world.

"First, the Honkai is not the end of the world. The Honkai is defined as an unpredictable natural disaster, but it is not that simple in all aspects." Lin corrected her mistake. "Second, the Honkai is not invincible. I always believe that humanity can achieve the final victory."

"Third, I refuse. If you want to date, wait until this Honkai is over and find someone of the opposite sex who shares the same interest."

After some time, when it was completely dark, Anna, having calmed down, sat at the dinner table and thought for a full half hour. Then, she picked up her bowl and ate all the cold food on the table, swallowing it down like a starving ghost.

A moment later, she sat down in front of Lin with her pretty face still covered in rice grains.

"Uncle, what can I do for you?"

"You don't need to do anything, just be yourself."

"No, I can't accept that."

"... Didn't you say you would live peacefully even if the world ended?"

"But that was when there was nothing I could do!"

"Why?"

Anna said very formally, "Because I love this world, is that reason enough?"

"..."

Lin suddenly realized that he saw something extremely familiar yet unfamiliar on her face.

"I love this imperfect world that hurts people, even if it leaves me all alone, what's wrong with that?" Anna's eyes were already brimming with tears as she spoke.

"...No."

After a long time, Anna sat on the bed with her knees drawn up to her chest. Wearing only white tights and a shirt, she had clearly forgotten about the electricity bill, or perhaps she simply didn't care anymore.

Moreover, what happened later was a result of Lin underestimating her resilience and her unique thought process.

"Uncle, could you consider what I just said?"

"...What?"

"It's about marrying me."

What is she thinking?

Even Prometheus couldn't help but ask a question. She thought that Vill-V's thoughts were strange enough, but compared to Anna, even she was a mere child's play.

"Do you think I'm joking? Or just finding someone to fulfill my wish?" Anna sat upright on the bed, her eyes constantly glancing at Lin. "I'm not a casual girl."

Lin felt that she was indeed not frivolous, but her brain might have been damaged by a high fever.

"Uncle, from the first moment I saw you, I felt it was destiny. We just happened to encounter hail, just happened to meet under the same roof, and just happened to bump into each other."

"And you're so handsome! Every move you make is so cool. Your posture when you save people, your cool attitude when you don't speak, and your occasional arrogance, plus you can even cook a great meal, all of these make me think you're just amazing!"

Judging from Anna's gleaming eyes, she didn't seem to be lying, which only made Lin more certain that her brain structure was different from others.

Because of the moths that chase fire, Lin's various behaviors are called "freaks".

"Look at me, I'm so clever and lovable, aren't I the embodiment of wisdom and beauty? I'm a perfect match for you, Uncle!"

"... If you had met my friend, you wouldn't say that."

Kevin is superior to Lin in every way. Among the men Lin knows, Kevin is a pretty perfect person. Unfortunately, Kevin has put all his heart into Mei.

Moreover, Lin did not have such thoughts, or rather, his thoughts had never changed from the beginning.

"Uncle, you really are stubborn!" Anna shrugged helplessly. "But that's part of your charm, isn't it? By the way, uncle, don't any other girls in your organization like you?"

"No."

"You're lying... wouldn't that make me seem weird!"

The only thing to congratulate her on is that she finally discovered this fact.

"Team leader."

Upon seeing Lin Cong outside, Immer respectfully handed him a towel so that Lin could dry off from the rain.

As for his body, only the helmet could actually dry the rain, but Immer probably felt that the helmet represented Lin's condition.

After learning the truth about Lin's physical condition, Immer and Hua were initially shocked, but did not show much emotion. However, compared to before when the three of them did their own things, they would occasionally have some simple exchanges.

"Did you have any success today?" Immer asked.

"No."

"Today, through the detection of Honkai Energy throughout the city, I found some anomalies."

Immer's report made Lin Cha's helmet pause for a second before he said, "What's wrong?"

"Plz follow me."

Lin followed Immer into the conference room, where Hua was waiting for him to return. Upon seeing Lin, she nodded to him.

"Captain, the reason you didn't get any results from the city-wide precise detection is that there's a problem with the frequency of Honkai Energy occurrences." Immer projected today's overall Honkai Energy monitoring map of Tran onto the screen. "At 4:15 PM, there was an abnormal increase in Tran's overall Honkai Energy for thirty seconds. The time was too short to pinpoint the exact location of the anomaly."

"Thirty seconds later, the Honkai Energy plummeted again, returning to normal levels. Apart from that, there were no other abnormalities throughout the day."

"..." Lin Mo stared at the suddenly protruding graphic.

Hua frowned in thought, "Could the sudden increase in altitude be a detection error?"

"It's possible, but there's another problem after that."

"Thirty seconds later..."

Immer a flick of his hand, another image appeared.

"The temperature in Trent has risen."

Chapter Sixty: The Boy's Photograph

After being notified, the teams gathered together to discuss the matter.

The temperature has actually risen, what's going on...?

"Is it possible to conduct more precise monitoring?" Hen asked Immer.

"This is the footage from the Third Branch's most sophisticated monitoring device."

"..."

Elysia has some unique insights. "Instead of assuming that the Honkai Energy in a certain place rises sharply and then falls too quickly to be monitored, it is better to imagine that the overall Honkai Energy of Tran rises so that the specific location cannot be monitored."

If the Honkai Energy level of a city rises, it can indeed explain the visual issues this time.

"But why did the temperature rise instead?"

According to the initial hypothesis, the continuous drop in temperature was a precursor to the birth of Herrscher, so the rise in Honkai Energy should also cause the overall temperature to drop again.

However, the opposite of what was expected occurred.

"Hmm... could we have made a mistake?" someone said.

"Could the continued drop in temperature be just a coincidence, and not a sign of a major Honkai? Think about it, no one expected it to get this cold before those record low temperatures were recorded."

There's some truth to that.

"So... there was a mistake?"

"Yes, I think so..."

Hen frowned at the whispering noises and raised his voice, "This is just one day's data! It doesn't prove anything. All teams, remain on alert! Have the surveyors conduct regular patrols!"

Soon, the conference room turned into a meeting of several team leaders.

"Lin, can you guarantee your theory is correct?" Hen looked at Lin, who was sitting in the corner with the window turned off, then shook his head in denial, "No, no one can guarantee that..."

"All we can do is wait." Elysia leaned against the wall and smiled helplessly.

Sudden rises and falls in Honkai Energy have occurred before and cannot be taken as factual evidence. On the contrary, the abnormal rise in temperature is a factor that would refute the conclusion that Fifth Honkai War will occur in Tran.

"Forget it, let's look on the bright side. Maybe it really is just a coincidence? The Fifth Honkai War wouldn't have happened here, would it?" Elysia patted Lin on the shoulder and smiled sweetly.

Coincidence...

Lin also hoped that the Fifth Honkai War would not occur in densely populated residential areas. The places with the highest number of casualties in the previous large-scale Honkai were the moment the Honkai broke out, and the inability to cope with the first wave of impact led to heavy casualties.

If the Fifth Honkai War truly occurs in Tran, where the residents have not evacuated, at least two-thirds of these tens of millions of lives will die from the Honkai outbreak, and nine-tenths of the remaining third will die from the Honkai zombie and Honkai Beast.

Hopefully, his speculation was wrong.

"Lin, don't put too much pressure on yourself."

As Hen walked out of the conference room, he turned back and reminded Lin.

He personally admired Lin, whose obedience, discipline, and ability were among the best in the soldiers, and his wife Bianca would occasionally mention the young man who had impressed her before she left the Mobius's Laboratory.

Whether the speculation is correct or not, Lin has taken action, and that alone is enough. To impose other pressures on Lin would be too domineering and cruel.

"I know," Lin replied softly, sitting in the shadows.

"It's getting colder..."

The cat-like girl crouched by the wall, clutching her shoulders and trembling.

Because of its geographical environment, the humidity and temperature of Dusk Street do not fluctuate much throughout the year, so it doesn't matter where she sleeps. Normally, she would wander around in various corners and crevices. Wherever the temperature is suitable, it doesn't matter where she sleeps.

But this winter feels like it's trying to freeze people into popsicles. The biting cold wind keeps blowing, weaving through the streets and alleys, climbing up your trouser legs and back.

Even the cats that usually come out to forage at this time of day are hiding because they're cold. Based on the girl's understanding of them, they're probably hiding inside the house with the fireplace and air conditioning.

She needed to figure out how to get through these difficult days; she didn't want to freeze into a dried-up corpse and have beggars dig her out of the garbage dump.

We need to find a place to hide.

This presented her with a difficult problem. Although she often dealt with certain people and traded things, those transactions were dishonorable, and their relationships were hardly friendly. It was impossible for them to be so merciful as to offer her shelter from the wind and rain.

"... So, that's all there is?" The girl's gaze drifted subtly in a certain direction.

The last time she caused such a commotion, no one came looking for her, so it seems she hasn't been exposed yet, and it doesn't seem like anyone lives there.

But what if we're actually exposed this time?

The girl thought to herself, if she didn't go, she would freeze to death; if she went, at worst she would be arrested, and if she was arrested, she could just go to prison and eat and drink, which was better than being outside.

Having made up her mind about her "free food and drink" plan, the girl headed towards the house.

Soon they arrived at the house that seemed out of place on Dusk Street. The girl used her superb skills to bypass the security system and fence, then pried open the lock and sneaked into the house.

"Meow... It's so warm."