Lin's right eye was a blind spot. Accustomed to binocular vision, he tried his best to adapt to the narrow field of view of only his left eye. But it was also a blessing in disguise; having half the information to process naturally eased the pressure on Lin's information processing, and maintaining his usual high-intensity thinking pattern was not necessarily a good thing in his current state.
Standing at the highest point of the amusement park, he took in the entire view below the Ferris wheel. As the scattered crowd gradually dispersed, Lin quickly found the target he was looking for.
Standing in the deserted feeding area, a pair of deep crimson eyes, like settled impurities, stared intently, breaking through the distance of over six hundred meters to meet his gaze.
Her mere presence created a profound sense of unease. The biological instinct for survival warned everyone to stay away from her. Perhaps it was because of this that ordinary people subconsciously avoided her location, creating an eerie hundred-meter no-man's-land around her.
However, the no-man's-land didn't mean there were no "people" around her.
Zombies.
A frightening mass of over fifty special-type zombies gathered, monstrous creatures wandering behind her.
This terrifying number of special zombies was enough to give any squad a headache, and this was probably far from the Sixth Herrscher's limit. The moment Lin saw this army composed of special-type zombies, he realized that the Sixth Herrscher's Authority was not merely Decay.
She could also create.
Both of them spotted the target simultaneously. She did not immediately attack Lin but spoke something to the zombies beside her, as if talking to herself.
"Please, do it."
Lin read her lips. She said this sentence.
A blue-purple zombie holding a bow stepped out from behind her. The bow was drawn into a crescent moon. With hardly any aiming, under the cold flash of its single eye, it released the arrow, which shot toward Lin like a flash of lightning.
The arrow crossed the seemingly distant distance in less than a second. Glass shattered. Lin quickly tilted his head, dodging the arrow. The lightning from the arrow burned the bandage on his face, leaving a scorched mark that smelled of burnt flesh.
Seeing Lin evade the attack, her expression seemed somewhat surprised. Then she said something else to the zombie, making it draw its bow again, aiming toward Lin.
But this time, it wasn't aiming at Lin himself. Based on the angle of the previous shot, he could calculate that this arrow was aimed at the connecting axle of the Ferris wheel carriage Lin was in.
She retained a considerable degree of intelligence and could command zombies in battle.
Lin saw the shadow of the Fourth Herrscher in her. The Herrscher of Wind also had a very high degree of intelligence, but commanding zombies directly through dialogue was a first.
"Gawk—"
Lin opened his communication and reported to the Fifth Branch Command Center: "I have found the Sixth Herrscher. Please evacuate the personnel in this area immediately. I will delay the Sixth Herrscher's advance until headquarters support arrives."
"Lin? Hey, you—"
"Thud!"
The axle above his head snapped. The feeling of weightlessness and the disappearance of Spaciel's voice occurred at the same instant.
Inside the falling carriage, Lin closed his eyes, surrendering his body to gravity as he plummeted toward the ground.
…
"I got him."
She smiled triumphantly.
The seemingly somewhat special zombie dodging the first attack had genuinely surprised her. It was likely a speed-specialized zombie, but she quickly figured out a countermeasure. Even if a zombie falls from a hundred meters up, it will still splatter like a pile of fat. All she needed to do was shoot down the axle of the carriage he had foolishly trapped himself in.
Wait, how did that zombie get up there?
Forget it, it didn't matter. He was dealt with anyway.
She told herself this, yet she couldn't stop her right hand from trembling. She looked down in confusion at her unconsciously trembling arm. This feeling was like…
"Bang!"
Before she could think of the descriptive word, the loud gunshot was accompanied by the person beside her collapsing. Blood splattered onto her front, causing her pupils to contract.
She stared disbelievingly at the corpse beside her. An indescribable feeling surged in her heart.
Again… taken away.
"No…" She clutched her head, quickly suppressing her gasps. The crimson blood deeply stung her vision.
"A zombie… it must be that zombie!"
But quickly, another emotion called anger crept onto her face, causing her to snarl, grinding her teeth as she looked toward the direction the gunshot came from. There was nothing there, but she knew that zombie was definitely watching her from the shadows.
A zombie with intelligence!
"Let me handle it," the former captain of the Seventh Squad stepped forward and said, not even sparing a glance at the corpse of his comrade on the ground, as if he were a complete stranger.
"No! I can't let you go! It's too cunning! I can't let you risk it!"
She glared fiercely at him, forcing him to step back.
"If it were Lin, he would do the same! He wouldn't let his comrades take on dangerous tasks; he would lead from the front to complete the most dangerous part. He would definitely…"
Mid-sentence, she suddenly remembered Lin was right beside her. So she looked expectantly at the silent "Lin": "Squad Member Lin, if it were you, you would do the same, right?"
"…" There was no reply. "Lin" merely nodded silently.
Receiving "Lin's" affirmation, she immediately joyfully began searching for the zombie's whereabouts.
…
She is protecting… zombies.
Lin watched the entire process from a distance, from her human-like resentment to her joy. Only the extreme shift in her emotions matched the characteristics of an inhuman entity. Other times, she was exactly like Seele.
One more thing: she seemed to be treating herself as a human.
This wasn't a delusion. A Herrscher, after Herrscherization, could use some basic abilities, such as anti-gravity flight and Honkai Energy shields, but none of these were manifested in the Sixth Herrscher. She walked on the ground just like an ordinary human, using reconnaissance methods from memory to search for his location, and held that massive scythe.
This wasn't far from Lin's conjecture, but it was even more…
Terrifying.
With his physical condition deteriorating rapidly, engaging the Herrscher head-on was clearly inadvisable. Lin decided to exploit the Herrscher's self-perception as a human to delay her, waiting for support from the headquarters to arrive for a full-scale annihilation of the Sixth Herrscher.
Full-scale annihilation…
Lin's hand gripping the handgun was unwavering.
"Danger!"
As Lin prepared to find an opportunity to attack the cluster of zombies again, a flash of pink darted out from behind him, seizing his arm.
And just then, the scythe, wrapped in the aura of death, sliced down in front of him, stopping exactly where he had been standing before he was pulled away…