"Thump, thump, thump..."
Huge hailstones smashed onto the ground, blooming into ice flowers, and crystal-clear ice fragments scattered all over.
Lin stood under the eaves, his head bowed in silent contemplation amidst the clanging sounds.
He hadn't returned because he wanted to continue investigating, so he waited for this sudden hail storm to stop.
Perhaps because hail was unlikely to occur at this time of the season, most people screamed and ran to sheltered places to hide when faced with this unexpected hail.
But no one came near Lin. The aura he exuded and his overly eccentric attire were genuinely daunting.
Measurements confirmed that other areas of Mu had not experienced the situation in Trant, which partially validated Lin's speculation. However, the scarcity of samples meant there was inherent uncertainty, so he needed to continue searching for clues.
Was the Honkai truly a disaster without any warning signs?
Lin composed his thoughts and looked at the ice rain that showed no signs of stopping.
How much longer will it take...
"Waaahhh! What huge hailstones!"
A person running around with their head covered frantically bolted from the end of the street to Lin's side. Not watching the road, she directly crashed into Lin's shoulder.
With Lin's physique, he was naturally fine, but the person who crashed into him was like hitting an iron pillar. Dizziness combined with slipping feet caused her to fall straight to the ground.
Lin glanced over and casually grabbed her collar, lifting her up so she wouldn't fall into the mud.
"Ouch... Are you made of iron?" The chestnut-haired girl quickly broke free from his hand, covering her head with tearful eyes. "I think it's swelling..."
"..."
After smoothing out her wet, messy hair, the girl found a beret from her bag and put it on. She tilted her head to look at the helmeted oddity: "Honestly, are you really made of iron? You hit someone and didn't even say a word."
"...You ran into me yourself."
"I know. I brought it up to strike up a conversation." The girl's expression changed, and she chuckled proudly. "See? You're talking to me now, aren't you?"
"..."
"Oh, don't stop talking again. It's rare for it to hail, and we met here by chance. You also happen to be a cosplayer... Can I take a picture with you?"
"..."
"If you don't say anything, I'll take that as a yes."
Lin, arms crossed, denied her: "No."
This person's level of familiarity exceeded the average person, quite reminiscent of Elysia's style.
"Just kidding. By the way, who are you cosplaying as? I haven't seen you... Never mind, I don't really know much about it anyway." The girl didn't pay much attention. Her light pink eyes sparkled as she looked outside. "Hail... This is my first time seeing it. It's not as pretty as I imagined."
Hail did not possess the elegance of snow. It was a pure natural disaster. The current hailstones weren't that large. In severe cases, the size of the ice chunks could even exceed a pomelo, capable of smashing cars, destroying farmland, and causing fatalities.
After a period of silence, the girl clutched her beret and gave Lin a strange side-eye: "This is a rare hail, you know. Don't you want to say something?"
"...Annoying."
"But I think it's quite romantic. Even though it's neither beautiful nor pleasant, it still appeared in my life." The girl closed her eyes, pinching her chin and muttering earnestly. "It lacks the beauty of winter snow, and it's not the gentle autumn rain, but it possesses its own uniqueness."
She was indeed a girl who overly romanticized everything in her head. It wasn't surprising for someone her age to think this way.
From her appearance, the girl looked about two or three years younger than Lin. She had a blue-purple hairpin on the left side of her hair, wore a thick, plush-lined blue and white jacket, and thick white stockings. Her entire being looked full of youthful vitality.
"There's an old saying in Shenzhou that 'meeting is destiny.' Since we're coincidentally sharing the same eaves to avoid the rain, why don't we introduce ourselves?" The girl self-importantly pushed up her non-existent glasses and extended her hand to Lin, who was still contemplating his next move.
"...It's 'encountering is destiny.'"
"It's close enough~"
From the girl's previous statement, it was evident that she was someone who overly romanticized everything she encountered. She probably genuinely believed that their chance meeting was a destined arrangement.
Lin usually had no way to deal with people who were overly self-aware, resorting only to a cold treatment. However, if ignoring her could make her quiet down, she wouldn't be overly self-aware in the first place.
"Why are you not talking again? It's so boring. Talk to me quickly. Or should we start with self-introductions?"
No self-introduction was necessary. The moment Lin saw her, he automatically found her personal information from Trant's database. He knew everything from her date of birth to the schools she attended, and even where she had traveled.
"My name is Anna. What's yours?"
"...Lin."
"Lin... Are you from Shenzhou?"
"Far East."
"Oh~"
Anna's talkativeness exceeded Lin's imagination. She could talk non-stop to Lin, a complete stranger she had just met ten minutes ago, covering everything from complaining about school holidays to the recent unsettling world affairs. Most of the time, Lin just stood there without saying a word, yet it didn't make the constantly talking her feel awkward.
Perhaps what she truly needed was an iron pillar that wouldn't talk back.
After revealing even the embarrassing fact that the socks she was wearing today hadn't been washed since yesterday, Anna finally ran out of things to say. She could only look at the increasingly heavy hail with distress and lament: "Ugh... Why hasn't it stopped yet? It's so cold. I want to go home."
Even though she was wearing thick clothes, the coldness of the weather still made her shiver uncontrollably. Her two shapely long legs trembled non-stop in the cold wind.
It was indeed abnormal for the hail not to stop after half an hour, and it showed signs of getting heavier.
Lin could walk back through the hail, but that would be too conspicuous. He thought for a moment and decided to contact his squad members to explain the situation.
The moment he opened his communication, Anna cried out—
"Danger!"
Lin suddenly looked up and saw a small car speeding towards them. It had lost control due to hydroplaning and appeared unable to steer, heading full speed towards an old man hiding under another eave.
Anna was about to rush out, but her collar was yanked back, and a black blur she couldn't clearly see darted ahead of her towards the slow-moving old man.
Anna watched in horror as the car sped toward the helmeted man, but what happened next was beyond her imagination.
Lin caught the old man with one arm and took a small step backward. The car narrowly sped past him. Then, with a hand speed that an ordinary person couldn't perceive, he pulled the driver out through the open car window.
"Boom!"
"You! Are you... alright?"
After a loud crash, the car slammed into the wall, smoke billowing from its rear. This sudden accident drew the attention of many onlookers.
Under Anna's wide-eyed, astonished gaze, Lin safely set down the bewildered old man and the driver.