"Where should I start... Since this is the end of humanity, let's start from the beginning of this brief final history."
Lin pressed the table. The center of the table opened outwards, and a cup of steaming hot coffee, topped with cream, was delivered to Lin on a tray.
"Don't be shy. This is a coffee device I personally designed before I turned myself into this state. I'm quite confident in my craftsmanship. Unfortunately, everyone opposed me using resources to make this device, saying it was pointless, so I only reassembled it after I was the only one left." Lin smooth mouth likely couldn't taste anything, but he watched Lin, who picked up the coffee, with keen interest. "You are the first and the last person to taste this cup of coffee."
Lin silently lifted his helmet slightly, brought the warm coffee to his lips, and took a small sip. The mellow, fragrant, and rich flavor instantly filled his mouth.
"...It's good." Lin spoke his truest feeling. His own coffee-making skills were decent; he would brew a cup for Mobius when she wanted one. But compared to this technologically perfect coffee, precise down to the temperature and every ingredient, he had to admit the taste was superior.
"Hahaha, right? Actually, I have many other things I'm proud of, but sadly no one to test them for me."
Lin put down the cup. He silently watched the openly laughing machine man. The joy simulated by the device on Lin smooth, poreless face was completely unfeigned, Lin purest delight.
Could this person smile so easily in an apocalypse where he was the only one left?
"Ahem, I got off track. Back to the main topic. You must know, the starting point of the collapse of the human world, the outbreak called the 'First Eruption.'"
"..."
"At that time, ignorant as we were, we faced the descent of the Herrscher of Thunder, who commanded the electromagnetic field like a god of thunder, and the deaths of three-tenths of the world's population. So, the day the First Eruption broke out was also called the Day of Divine Punishment."
After hearing this, Lin abruptly interrupted: "The First Herrscher... was the Herrscher of Thunder? Not the Herrscher of Reason?"
"...What are you talking about?" Lin machine eyes looked at Lin, his tone matter-of-fact. "The First Herrscher was, of course, the Herrscher of Thunder. And... how do you know the code name Herrscher of Reason? That's the code name I just came up with for the Twelfth Herrscher. She was the one who destroyed this last stronghold of humanity. After I killed her with the Honkai energy satellite conversion cannon, I was the only human left."
"..." Lin nodded thoughtfully. He didn't refute further, instead allowing Lin to continue.
"At that time, to cope with the continuing Honkai and Herrschers that would appear, the organization called 'The Falling Star' was formed, composed of one hundred and twenty-three nations worldwide. The world's top talents gathered, fighting for one common, great goal."
"Embarrassingly, the one who eventually stood out among those top talents was a person who was still just in high school—me."
Lin spoke without much pride, merely stating a fact. The fact that he was the last human alive proved his status within The Falling Star was indeed extraordinary.
He raised his head, exhaling a breath, as if recalling the past, that history of human prosperity where tall buildings crumbled in an instant, and after the disaster, nothing would remain.
"I continuously manufactured various weapons and technologies to fight the Honkai: the Second, the Third, the Fourth... I calculated that the total number of major Honkai Eruptions was thirteen. This meant that if humanity survived thirteen major Honkai Eruptions, we might be completely free from Honkai's harassment. But... no matter what technology I produced, Honkai always managed to become stronger, and each offensive was more ferocious."
"Later, I utilized Honkai energy. Human technology saw an exponential increase, but what awaited us was... zzz..."
Lin heart jolted. He stared at Lin, who had made a distorted sound just now without noticing it.
Was this data corruption preventing the crucial part from being simulated? Utilizing Honkai energy led to human technology skyrocketing, but what did it cause?
What did that mean? Did utilizing Honkai energy attract something even more terrifying?
"What did you just say?" Lin demanded sharply.
"Hmm? You don't even know that? That was the turning point in the war between humanity and Honkai, the [zzz—] ah."
No, this data segment was corrupted!
Lin sensed something was wrong. He immediately asked, "Besides the Herrscher of Reason, Herrscher of Void, Herrscher of Thunder, Herrscher of Wind, Herrscher of Ice, and Herrscher of Death, what authorities do the remaining Herrschers possess!"
"What are you talking about..."
"Tell me!"
"Fine, zzz—zzz—"
But just as Lin prepared to record everything Lin said, Lin body began to suffer data corruption. The surrounding tower scenery also began to collapse to varying degrees, and Lin words turned into static.
This phenomenon undoubtedly sent Lin heart plummeting.
He understood that this simulation was likely data left behind by the Pre-Civilization, possibly Lin legacy to help future civilizations. However, this data might have been corrupted over the long expanse of time.
Realizing this, Lin gave up pursuing the situation of the Pre-Civilization. Sakura was somewhere in this place, and if the data simulation collapsed, she could be affected too.
People in the simulation device could view each other's coordinates. When Lin checked Sakura coordinates earlier, they showed as garbled errors. He could only try again to see if he could find Sakura location.
This time, Sakura coordinates appeared on the dialog box, located inside the tower, on the third floor from the top. He immediately left Lin and dashed out.
He quickly reached that floor. The tightly closed door in front of him opened automatically. He walked in, but the scene before him made him freeze for a moment.
Sakura was here.
Her data hadn't been heavily reconstructed; she essentially maintained her original appearance, only her equipment had been transformed into normal clothing.
But now, she lay in a transparent rectangular container, her eyes closed, her face devoid of color.
It looked like she was resting in a transparent coffin.
"Tap, tap, tap..."
Lin, who had followed at some point, walked past Lin and approached Sakura. His mechanical jointed hand rested on the edge of the container, and a gentle expression appeared on his cold metallic face.
Lin saw the tenderness on the robot's face and understood.
He looked at Sakura left hand. On her ring finger, there was an inconspicuous ring with no adornment, only a name faintly etched on it.
LIN.
"Beep————"
A piercing alarm sounded in the tower. Lin suddenly looked up. A display screen lowered in the room. Far outside the tower, a small, distorted figure floated in the air, slowly flying toward the tower.
"Herrscher of Reason... It seems I didn't completely kill her." Lin calmly watched the figure on the screen. He shook his head and lowered his gaze to Sakura.
He didn't reach out to touch his wife. His fingertips could no longer even feel the cold.
And what Lin saw was the frantic flashing and error reporting of his own simulation data. He realized that the cause of the simulation error likely stemmed from the Herrscher of Reason of this Pre-Civilization.
The simulation room was prohibited from simulating Herrschers. Lin had once asked Delta to try simulating a Herrscher, which resulted in the simulation device being scrapped at the time. The immense amount of data could not be simulated by the device.
Her appearance occupied most of the data usage for this simulation, also corrupting the original crucial information.
Lin glanced at the figure that symbolized destruction, then at the motionless Lin. He said solemnly, "In the 'end,' you chose to do this..."
A person who couldn't feel body temperature couldn't embrace his dead lover?
"What did you say?" Lin didn't understand his meaning.
"I will subdue the Herrscher of Reason."
Before Lin could react, Lin shot out of the room, slamming his knife into the elevator door to force it open, then leaped down the elevator shaft.
The rushing wind pulled at his clothes, and the rapidly approaching ground pressed down like a heavy hammer.
"Boom!"
Before the smoke from his landing could dissipate, a dark shadow charged out, a short dagger in one hand, pulling the nameless broken blade stuck in the ground outside the tower with the other.
Lin stood in front of the screen, the pale fluorescence reflecting off his silver, metallic skin. His mechanical eyes watched the resolute figure.
This place was fake. It was a finished past, a tragedy buried in history.
Merely a piece of corrupt data.
But Lin didn't hesitate. He knew he would definitely do this. Even if he were the only one left in the world, he would still do it.
Whether the real Lin finally embraced his wife or not, the current Lin would give the fake him time to embrace the fake wife.
So...
The man in the helmet leaped up, swinging the broken blade toward the God of Destruction in the sky.