"He's wearing that helmet again."
"I've never seen him take it off. Aren't they betting on the internal network whether there's a Honkai Beast or a robot underneath?"
"Ah, yeah, I bet a hundred dollars that he's a robot..."
The ceiling was not unfamiliar. He had seen it many times during his physical examinations.
The fragmented discussions nearby were irritating. Perhaps making personal judgments was the unique characteristic of Mobius's lab.
After Lin woke up, his entire body was filled with a sense of weakness. Every cell in his body revealed an unsettling disharmony—a contradictory sense of physical incongruity that his flesh reported to his nerves, signaling that something was wrong with his body.
It was most pronounced in his left leg. The feeling of disharmony traveled along the root all the way from his spine to the back of his head. A wave of nauseating sickness surged up his throat, nearly causing him to vomit inside his helmet.
What happened? His memory stopped right before he pressed the switch.
"Hi~ How are you feeling?" A soft voice, familiar enough to almost trigger a stress response in Lin, rang in his ear. He sharply turned his head—
The light spilled onto her shoulder. The fair skin at the corner of her mouth curved slightly, like an angel bowing its noble head.
More than a blooming flower, Lin wanted to describe the smile he saw as a splash of water dropping into a pond.
In a trance, Lin saw Kevin smiling at him, the feeling of pure friendship washing over him.
"Hmm? What's wrong? Are you mesmerized?" Lin's rare moment of stillness was quite gratifying to Elysia. Did this count as him admitting she was a beautiful girl?
"No. I'm checking the records of what happened after I lost consciousness," Lin replied calmly.
"..." Even Elysia was uncharacteristically silent for a short while. "Lin, sometimes I genuinely feel frustrated, you know."
"Is that so?"
"Yes~ You don't know how much effort the R&D head and I spent just to get Mobius to make you a new leg, but you didn't even say thank you. Waaah... that's so heartbreaking..."
Lin quickly scanned all the records, lingering for a few seconds on a couple of important points. He paused, then whispered almost imperceptibly, "Thank you."
"See, you always... wait, what?"
Elysia stopped mid-sentence, looking at the seemingly unbothered Lin with an expression like she had seen a ghost.
What did he just say?
"You..."
"Don't bother asking me to say it again."
Having spent so much time with Elysia, Lin knew exactly what she was about to say. To prevent the situation from evolving into a clichéd light novel scene where one person says thank you and the other says do it again, he directly spoke up and broke the classic trope.
The Phase Transfer Device had likely been taken away for further adjustments. Lin surviving this time was purely luck. If the severance point had been above his waist, he wouldn't need new parts; he'd just need to choose which patch of dirt would be easiest to sleep in.
"I need to go train." Lin couldn't stand being here for another moment. He forced himself to bear the numbness in his arm, stumbled off the bed, and laboriously struggled to his feet by holding the edge of the bed.
Elysia quickly circled around and supported his arm: "How are you going to train like this? Wounded soldiers should rest and recover."
According to Mobius, although the manufactured leg was identical to Lin's original, the body would still experience rejection during the initial adaptation period. Especially for someone like Lin with superior body awareness, it might be even more uncomfortable than having no leg at all.
"Wow, they feel like they have great chemistry."
"So even that headless monster who supposedly doesn't associate with anyone couldn't resist Elysia's advances? That makes sense, even the Doctor couldn't resist..."
Lin turned his head, his fierce gaze penetrating the helmet's viewport, fixating on the faces of the two girls who had been whispering since the beginning.
"Eek—H-he looked over!"
"D-don't be scared. We've seen the Honkai Beasts the Doctor brings back."
"But he's killed more Honkai Beasts than we've seen..."
After warning the two not to speak carelessly with his eyes, Lin withdrew his arm from Elysia's support. He adapted to his still-uncoordinated body. His lower left leg was exposed, and his entire state was dizzy and staggering, making him look exceptionally pathetic.
Elysia felt Lin was not well. She reached out to help him again: "Let me help you back..."
"Beep—" The communicator at his waist chirped.
Elysia paused, realizing she had a mission assignment.
Lin glanced at her. Seeing she hadn't picked up the communicator, he said casually, "Go on. I'll contact my teammates to help me."
Thinking that it would be impossible to convince Elysia given her personality, Lin reluctantly added: "You don't need to worry about me."
Hearing this uncommon sentence, Elysia's smile returned. She nodded: "Lin is unexpectedly sensible today."
Lin saw her smile—a genuine warmth that lacked any trace of pretense. He subconsciously asked the question that had been lingering in his mind.
"...Elysia, why are you so interested in me?"
Is it because he's strong? No, even with his rumors spreading, the Moth of the Flame-Chasers had many warriors comparable to or even stronger than Lin: Himeko, Hua, and Elysia herself.
Is it because of the mystery of him wearing a helmet? Lin hadn't believed that line of reasoning from the start.
He thought Elysia would, as usual, laugh it off and brush him aside. This time, however, she turned her back, exhaled a plume of white mist, and whispered, "Because you are a kind, lovely, and strong child."
"..."
With that, Elysia's figure disappeared through the door, leaving Lin confused.
Lin quickly cleared these useless thoughts from his mind. He slowly turned his head to face the two trembling figures nearby.
"Fuxi, quickly check the One Hundred Questions of the Silent Helmet! What should we do now?" One of the girls was shaking violently. She grabbed the hand of her twin sister next to her and exclaimed.
"...?"
What is the 'One Hundred Questions of the Silent Helmet'?
The girl called Fuxi frantically took out a book and flipped through it, sweating profusely: "Don't panic, let me check... Got it! When the viewport on his helmet is blue, he's in a normal state. Dimmed and low-frequency flashing mean stable emotions. It's fine."
"Just communicate normally..."
"You two."
"Ah! Don't let the helmet possess me!"
"..."
Lin looked speechlessly at the two energetic girls, who had already started chanting an exorcism spell from Shenzhou. He began to wonder what kind of creature he had been rumored to be in the Moth of the Flame-Chasers.
An urban legend?
Having no choice, he asked directly: "I just want to know if Dr. Mobius left any instructions for me."
"Instructions? N-no."
"Good... who wrote that book?"
"I don't know, but it suddenly became popular a few days ago. It must have been written by someone internal... It wasn't me! Don't look at me!"
"..."
Lin had already guessed who was bored enough to write it.