I'm not Yingjie

That's what it feels like when he decides to shoot you in the back, with his trigger finger never pausing for a second.

Neither party spoke, and the atmosphere was somewhat quiet. Mei took a step back after being alert for a while and asked tentatively, "You seem to have a good relationship with the Yingjies, but you are not one of them, and your memory is left in the paradise. Are you a hidden character among the Yingjies?"

"...The nature of the Fire Chasing Thirteen Heroes is quite special. The reason I left the memory behind is not because I have any connection with the Fire Chasing Thirteen Heroes, but simply..." Lin's gaze fell and stopped at the photo, "I have a connection with them."

"Because your strength is no less than Ying Jie's?"

"My power?" Lin seemed a little surprised by the wording.

"Yes, Alicia told me that you have killed the Herrscher before, and not just once."

"..." Lin silently put down his arms and looked at the two corners above Mei's head.

Mei's face changed, she protected her horns with her hands and took another step back: "You wouldn't also..."

Apparently, Alicia's obsession with this pair of horns made her worry about some unfounded things.

“Don’t get me wrong, I’ve always been just a human being. Maybe I’m better than the average human being, but if it comes to individual combat power, even Pado, the weakest among the Yingjie, is stronger than me.” Lin said this lightly, and it was unclear whether the phrase “don’t get me wrong” was referring to the horn or strength.

He looked at Mei's corner not because he had any bad intentions, but because he was complicated by the inhumanity of this Herrscher.

"Individual ability is not the standard for measuring combat effectiveness."

"So who do you think is stronger, me or Kevin?"

"..." Mei was speechless, because Kevin was undoubtedly the strongest.

"I know you will refute me by saying that Kevin is the strongest. Well, I can tell you that even though I am at my strongest in my memory, I am still just an ordinary person. I was able to kill the Herrscher not because I am strong, but because humans are strong."

"Just like they created the Fusion Warrior, the conditions for me to kill the Herrscher were also created by humans working together."

"So my relationship with the heroes has nothing to do with strength. You can understand that I was already familiar with them before they had their current identities."

It was the first time that Mei heard Lin talk so much, and it was to explain such a not-so-important relationship issue. Usually when they met in Paradise or received his mark, he would just look at her silently.

"Well, thanks for explaining, at least you won't keep people guessing like Kevin did."

Mei handed the photo to Lin. This thing belonged to him, so it should be returned to its original owner.

"You can take it or throw it away." Lin did not take the photo. His azure window flickered and he turned away. "That has no meaning to me anymore."

Mei took the photo back in confusion. She looked at the scenery in the photo. The man wrapped like a mummy in the middle of the photo was far from being as dull as he is now. The background was the sunny sea, peaceful and full of joy.

The red-haired woman was smiling and supporting his head with one hand, while the girl with highlights in her hair was holding the red-haired woman's arm with some concern. Hua, wearing a brand new team uniform, was standing at a relatively far distance, with his head lowered and not daring to look at the camera.

A window in the helmet displays the photo.

"Haha, Lin, don't cover up your delicate face when taking pictures."

"Don't be like this, Captain. Team member Lin has just recovered a little. Team member Hua, come and help too."

"Ah? I, I..."

"..."

Smiles, playfulness, bright sunshine and blowing ocean breeze.

The bandaged man waved, asking the photographer to press the shutter.

The flash made him squint.

"Fuck."

……

……

The light in the helmet that illuminated the face flickered and disappeared, allowing darkness to return.

The passionate red, the calm blue, and the green gray of that day were the brightest colors in the memory, but now, the man can only see one color.

Lin closed his eyes and let the darkness embrace him.

Chapter 17 Be careful someone pulls out your oxygen tube

Bubbles coming out from the soles of feet passed through the transparent liquid, rose to the top of the head and exploded in the reflection of the repair cabin.

The ventilator continuously supplied oxygen. Lin watched the green color in his pupils reflected by the inner wall of the repair chamber sway and gradually disappear. The lost sense of pain gradually returned to this body under the combined effect of high-precision nerve repair surgery and the repair chamber.

There were also many wounded soldiers lying in the recovery cabin next to it, but the medical staff gathered in front of Lin's recovery cabin had formed a circle and were pointing at him.

"If the electrocardiogram hadn't shown a straight line when he was first brought back, I would have suspected that they had brought back today's ingredients to make minced meat and eggplant." The doctor in charge of Lin's surgery seemed very proud. "There is not a single part of his body that is healthy, more than half of his bones are broken, all his internal organs have injuries of varying sizes, and half of his skin is burned off, not to mention the other injuries, not to mention the two inexplicable toxins that are still damaging his nerves."

If the Fire Moth could announce its existence to the outside world, Lin's injuries would be recorded in human history as the most serious case in history where a person is still alive.

The doctor who cured him will undoubtedly receive the greatest recognition for his ability after handling this case. This is why the doctor is so proud that he tells about his glorious deeds 24 hours a day in the medical department, and knows Lin's injuries like the back of his hand, and he even wants to broadcast it all day on the Fire Moth.

But it was indeed thanks to his superb medical skills and the advanced technology of the Fire Moth that all of Lin's injuries were cured without leaving any sequelae. If it were outside the Fire Moth, Lin's injuries would have been so severe that they would not even have to get out of the ambulance and would have been carried directly to the crematorium.

But this process is extremely long. It took several days for the skin to regenerate alone. It is conservatively estimated that Lin will have to sleep in the repair cabin for a month before he can come out due to these large and small battle injuries. Then he will have to heal himself, rest, and rehabilitate, etc. It may take several months for him to return to battle.

This was no big deal for Lin, except that compared to other soldiers who had a full sleep and several days passed in the blink of an eye, his brain, which had been transformed by toxins, could no longer be calmed by sleeping pills. Apart from natural sleep, his consciousness was somewhat abnormal, which also made him a little bored.

Fortunately, some people also thought of this, so Lin could often see some people standing in front of the cabin as soon as he opened his eyes.

The first one to come was Alicia, who came with a fruit basket filled with her favorite fruits.

Yes, that's what she likes to eat.

“Aiya, I didn’t expect that you, Lin, would be locked up in the repair cabin, baji baji… You’re so pitiful. You can only receive some nutrient solution, baji baji… So I specially brought you some fruits. Don’t worry, if you can’t finish them, I’ll help you eat them, baji baji…”

Alicia stood in front of him and took out one fruit after another and ate them in front of Lin's almost frozen pupils.

The white teeth bit a delicate little hole in the apple. The pink-haired girl licked the juice from the corner of her mouth with her pink tongue, then tilted her head slightly and gave Lin a lovely smile.

In response to her almost coquettish behavior, Lin just closed his eyes quietly and didn't say much.

"By the way, Lin, why do you still have your face bandaged even though you are in this cabin?" Alicia revealed her true purpose when she was halfway through eating. She stopped a doctor next to her and asked, "The patient said he can't breathe and needs to have the bandage removed. Is that okay?"

"But that was what he asked for."

"But he didn't cover anything underneath, why did he cover his face instead?"

Alicia knocked on a certain spot on the bulkhead in dissatisfaction, thinking that this behavior was extremely indecent.

Lin's injuries were too severe, so his physical condition needed to be observed in real time. Miraculously, the damage to his face was not as severe as other parts, so it was healed first.

Seeing that the doctor was in a dilemma, Lin spoke through the intercom: "Alicea, how is the third collapse going?"

Maybe due to weakness or other reasons, Lin's tone when speaking to Alicia became much softer. However, his voice always remains at a temperature of minus 25 degrees Celsius all year round, so to outsiders it might not make much difference.

However, Ai Lishiya was so smart and sensitive that she could tell the change in Lin's attitude as soon as he started talking. Her eyebrows curved into beautiful crescents and she teased awkwardly, "Huh? Our Mr. Robot can actually speak to girls in such a gentle tone? Did he pass the Turing test?"

"..."

Lin simply closed his eyes.

"Hey, wait a minute! It was just a joke, don't be so petty!"

Lin always felt that Alicia would lower people's psychological defenses little by little, making them crazy and helpless every time.

Fully implement the principle of that gentleman who said that if you want to open a window, you should first make a hole in the roof.

"It's the same question as before. How was the third collapse?" Lin felt that he had spoiled her too much, so he simply returned to his previous cold tone.

Alicia thought back to what happened before she made time to visit Lin: "Hmm... let me think about it, this time the collapse has a much wider scope of damage than the previous two times, so the usual excuse of gas explosion may not be so useful this time, but it is still under the control of the Fire Moth."

Once the existence of Honkai is known to ordinary people, the social unrest caused will be uncontrollable, and the harm caused may be greater than the Honkai itself. Therefore, the first priority of the Fire Moth every time Honkai occurs is not to clean up the affected area, but to find a way to cover up the truth.

"After the death of the Third Herrscher, Changkong City and several other cities with relatively serious damage dispatched combatants from the branch to clean up the situation. Without the interference of communications, the cleaning process went relatively smoothly."

"But there were still some surprises. For example, the companion Honkai beast of the Third Herrscher you defeated still had a core. When the combatants found it, it had already recovered halfway, but your captain and the lovely girl in your team killed it completely together."

After hearing that the snake-shaped Honkai beast he was concerned about had died, Lin breathed a sigh of relief.

"But it's still not completely over. The body of the Honkai beast disappeared inexplicably after its death. Maybe it has the ability to resurrect. After all, it is a snake. Based on its Honkai energy reaction that far exceeds that of an emperor-level Honkai beast, the Fire Moth gave it a new rating of 'Judgment Level'."

"Trial level." Lin muttered these three words.

"Hey, isn't this Alicia? How do you have time to look at this half-dead little white mouse?"

Suddenly, a weird female voice came from behind Alicia.

Chapter 18 He has to thank us

"Do you have the setting that you must get married as long as someone sees your face?"

"..."

Lin remained silent in the face of Mobius's questioning, but Alicia, who was standing behind him, couldn't help but laugh.

There are many mysteries about Lin, but the most eye-catching one is that he hides his true identity at all times, so much so that people have started a betting on the Fire Moth's internal website to guess what he looks like.

"At least the good news is that Lin is indeed a boy, not a robot." Alicia took out the universal communicator produced by the Fire Moth, clicked on the screen to find the top popular post, and glanced at the option with the highest votes. "Those who voted for a girl will not be able to sleep tonight."

"…What is that?" Lin saw her operating the communicator and had a bad feeling in his heart.

Alicia casually crossed out the highest-ranking entry and said with a smile, "Everyone is very interested in Lin's appearance, so I just helped them set up a betting position and made some money at the same time."

"..." Lin should have guessed that only one of the Fire Moths would do such a boring thing.

Lin didn't really care about this. He had his own reasons for hiding his face. From the perspective of fighting against Honkai in the Fire Moth, hiding his appearance definitely had more advantages than disadvantages.

Lin was more curious about why Mebius came here.

"What's that look in your eyes? Have you forgotten who gave you the hand you're using now?" Mebius brushed his hair and stared at Lin in the repair cabin with a playful look, "Or do you want to break the contract?"

When the last word was spoken, the air turned cold.

Alicia ate the fruit and looked at them with a smile, without saying a word.

Lin shook his head slightly in the transparent liquid.

Mebius also nodded, very satisfied with Lin's tact.

"I will ask you to do this after your weak body recovers. You are my experiment now, so I will tell you some precautions first, especially those related to your body."

"..."

Lin used his silence to express that he was all ears.

Mobius's lips curled into a smile. She stretched out her hand and placed it on the outer wall of the repair cabin, and said to Lin inside: "You are lucky. This is lucky in the literal sense. Being able to be rescued can be said to be an advancement of modern medicine. It is even more fortunate that there are no sequelae after the rescue."

The "lucky" in Mebius' words implied the six doses of toxins she gave to Lin. She had personally visited Lin at that time before Lin came back and was pushed into the operation room, so she was sure that he had used up all six doses of toxins.

Although it was within Mobius's expectations that Lin did not show the symptoms of brain death like the previous experimental subjects, he did not even seem to be emotionally aroused at all, which could be said to be far beyond Mobius's plan.

The adaptability displayed by toxins and limb replacement was something she had never seen in other humans. Lin's body was like a piece of high-quality plasticine that could be kneaded in any way.

If it weren't for the fact that some aspects of Lin simply took human flaws to the extreme, he would be a perfect experiment.

"But unfortunately, your 'defect' is still as disappointing as ever."

Lin had already guessed what Mebius was going to say next. After all, several days had passed since he regained consciousness, and his perception of his body was stronger than that of ordinary people, so he could sense any abnormality.

No matter how much protection, prevention, and inhibitors are used, fighting for a long time in such a high-concentration Honkai energy environment, and having close contact with Judgment-level Honkai beasts and Herrschers in the middle, is unavoidable.

"Even if you were given an inhibitor before entering the arena, and an inhibitor was also given when you were transported back, your pitifully low Honkai resistance cannot be solved with a few shots of inhibitors."

Mebius raised his head and looked at Lin's calm black pupils and said calmly: "Your body has been eroded by Honkai energy. This is an irreversible process. You know it."

Collapse can erode.

In today's era and even in the Fire Moth, these words can be directly equated with the death penalty.

This is also a problem that Lin cannot avoid. As long as he remains on the battlefield, the erosion of Honkai energy will sooner or later find him.

But I didn't expect it to happen so soon.

Alicia didn't look surprised at all. Before she came to see Lin, she had already known about his health through some channels.

"But don't worry. The erosion of Honkai energy is a process. As long as you use the inhibitors on time and I help you do some 'little tricks', I can guarantee that you will live a few more years." Mobius' smile was still so creepy, and it was even more distorted when viewed through the transparent liquid.

He said dully: "How many years."

Lin did not ask about the price. He had no conditions to bargain. Instead, he would ask how much time he had left in his life.

"Roughly speaking, five years." Mobius chuckled after Lin opened his mouth, "But considering that you have been fighting on the front line for a long time, it may be shorter than this."

Five years...

In just over 1,800 days, would he become a monster like the dead soldier?

Lin was somewhat surprised to find that he seemed to always be able to measure his life with a countdown, accurate to every day, every hour and even every second.