Lin returned to that laboratory.
The stark white walls, the unchanging scenery outside the window, the researchers constantly asking him questions while holding various items.
He sat in a chair, illuminated by surgical lights, under the gaze of countless surveillance cameras. Nothing about him could be hidden.
He lowered his head. In his hand, resting on his thigh, he held a pistol that had accompanied him for many years.
A person pushed open the door and walked in.
As Lin looked up, the person stood before him and looked down. Heterochromatic iridescent eyes met his in a quiet stare. The silver-white hair looked so sacred... and so alien.
"Fire it," the person said expressionlessly. "Who will this shot hit?"
"..."
"This is the only way now. Otherwise, it is impossible to fight the Herrscher of Void."
"..."
The person's head pressed against the muzzle of the gun, and a seductive whisper entered Lin ears.
"Come on. Fire."
...
"Wake up, now!"
Lin suddenly took a huge breath, coughing up large clots of dried blood as he doubled over.
He had passed out? What was the situation now?
"You're finally awake!" A small figure stood in front of him, constantly fending off the charging Honkai Beasts. She shouted urgently, "Can you still move? Get to the back, quickly!"
His body felt sluggish. Lin looked down to see the puncture wound in his abdomen still bleeding profusely. He forced himself up, picking up the spear from the ground.
Because he had no sensation, he didn't know how many places he was injured or which ones were particularly severe.
But as long as his limbs could move, he could continue to fight.
No. 3 shot down a Ballista-class Honkai Beast, but the Honkai-infused explosive it held in its arms had already been tossed. No. 3 raised her gun to detonate it, but two Knight-class beasts rammed her from different directions at that moment.
Damn it...
No. 3 shattered one with a shot, then slammed her gun butt into the other to send it flying, but the explosive was already within lethal range!
At that moment, a spear pierced the explosive, carrying it backward where it detonated in the air!
Wind pressure and black smoke pressed down from above. Lin propped up his wobbling body. A single glance around revealed a vast ocean of Honkai Beasts. The Armed Puppets were forming defensive lines one after another to block the onslaught. High above, the second round of battle between Bianca and the Herrscher of Void was underway, but Bianca was clearly at a disadvantage, covered in wounds and unable to hold out much longer.
Suddenly, a hundred-meter-tall portal appeared on the battlefield. A thick, clawed arm stepped through; the moment it landed, the earth began to shake violently.
A hundred-meter-tall Chariot-class Honkai Beast emerged from the portal, blotting out the sun and bringing a vast shadow.
Seeing this, Rita instinctively looked toward Lin, then snapped out of it. she performed a flexible backbend to dodge a Knight-class beast's thrust, then suddenly charged toward the hundred-meter-tall monster!
"Run, get moving!" Seeing Lin still dazed, No. 3 shouted in a fit of rage, "Go to the Doctor! Find a way to activate the Stargate and leave!"
"..."
Lin glanced at Bianca struggling in the sky, at the Armed Puppets who were dwarfed by their enemies yet charged forward regardless, and at Rita, who had already begun fighting the colossal beast.
He held his spear, took a step, and collapsed to his knees again.
His legs were not under his control. His vision was blurry, a symptom of excessive blood loss. Lin could only try to breathe deeply, suppressing the fog that threatened to knock him unconscious.
"Dammit..."
No. 3's gun was knocked away by a Honkai Beast. She pulled out a dagger that was disproportionate to her size and stabbed it into the beast's single eye. She then ran quickly to Lin side, slinging his arm over her shoulder and dragging him along.
"Don't die... If you die, No. 1 will definitely be heartbroken..." No. 3 couldn't use too much force, or the wound in Lin abdomen would be torn during the dragging. She struggled to dodge the beasts. "I don't actually understand what love is, so if you like that many girls, just marry them all... Hey... are you still alive...?"
"Cough, cough..."
Lin clutched his chest and abdomen. The taste of blood in his mouth didn't bother him. That impulse coursing through his body had been stimulating his brain ever since he woke up.
"...Don't always... treat everything as love..." Lin gagged. He wasn't sure how much blood he had left, but he was reaching his limit. He spoke weakly to No. 3 to maintain his dwindling consciousness. "I actually find those things... very troublesome..."
"If you find it troublesome, then don't reject people!"
"I can't do that..."
He couldn't reject the kindness of others. No matter what kind it was, he didn't want the person expressing it to receive a disappointing answer.
Lin consciousness began to drift, and those whispers gradually occupied his thoughts.
What should I do...
"Fire the gun."
Fire...
Who was the pistol loaded with the Magic Bullet aimed at?
If he used the Herrscher's power, all problems would be solved.
The moment that phrase appeared in his mind, the impulse became even more frantic. His body began to twitch abnormally, the whites of his eyes filled his sockets, and a low growl issued from his throat.
Whack! "Wake up!"
Lin was jolted awake by a headbutt. He had no sense of pain, but the impact of No. 3's head against his brought him back to reality.
No. 3's eyes were brimming with tears. She was an Armed Puppet, a man-made object—perhaps she didn't even count as a living being—but her eyes shimmered with crystalline tears.
"Are you going to use the Herrscher Core now?! Are you just going to give up?! What did the people you know do it for? What have you been fighting for until now?!" She continued to drag Lin, roaring through her tears. "My family and friends are dying... just so you all can live... You must live..."
Dazed, Lin was dragged through a battlefield littered with Honkai Beasts and the wreckage of Armed Puppets. He heard the desperate cries in his ears—the screams of the puppets who had lived here carefree.
He saw an Armed Puppet who liked to nap in the sun jump onto a Honkai Beast's back. Before she could fire, she was swept off by a Templar-class beast's lance. She reached out toward her companions, only to be crushed into fragments by the swarming beasts a moment later.
One after another, they stepped toward death without hesitation, just for humanity... just for him.
Why could these manufactured puppets die for the humans who had once used them as tools?
Why did humans themselves try so hard to kill their own kin?
Just as Rita was about to strike the giant beast's core with her scythe, several beams of light converged on her. The pinnacle of lower-class beasts, the Honkai Emperor, emerged from a portal. Unable to dodge, she was hit and fell to the ground, blood dripping from her arm.
Two Armed Puppets ran to her side, dragging her toward the back of the line while others shielded them recklessly.
A weakened Rita turned her head and met Lin eyes. He didn't know what he saw in her gaze, but a piercing pain struck his heart.