A month and a half is neither short nor long, and it passed in the blink of an eye. It was time for Lin to leave headquarters and execute his mission.
The investigation into Lin was nearing its end. Those in authority saw clearly that this young man did nothing but wander around with a girl all day, as if he had undergone a change in character, becoming harmless to an extreme degree. Mobius hadn't found any problems with his mental consciousness either; there seemed to be no sign of becoming a Herrscher of Consciousness.
But the issue arose with this "wandering around with a girl."
Why hadn't they noticed Lin fetish was so strange before? They had tried everything to coax and pressure this guy, all to no avail. Although after so many Honkai events, most of them believed Lin was genuinely fighting solely for humanity and thus didn't accept any attempts at flattery, they never expected Lin to like girls in helmets.
The reason the high-ups had no bias or opinion against Kevin was that his relationship with Mei was well-known. If they attended a meeting together, Kevin would only stand behind Mei, never opposite her, practically announcing: "Nominally, I'm under your command, but if my girlfriend tells me to cut you down, I won't hold back."
However, this also served as a reassurance to the higher-ups. Now that the abnormal person had become "normal," there was no longer any need to worry.
"Are you really going?"
Lin, preparing to leave, had his sleeve tugged. He turned around to face the drowsy-eyed young woman with loose hair. He simply nodded without saying anything.
They had been "married" for over a month. The relationship between Lin and the young woman hadn't changed... yet it seemed to have altered subtly in a way that couldn't be quantified. He could feel the daily increase in the young woman's emotional changes. Her initial curiosity and habit of asking about everything were decreasing as time went on, thanks to Lin willingness to answer every question.
Simply put, she was becoming more like a person.
This process was so fast it made Lin feel a little emotional. It took Prometheus Model I nearly three years to evolve from a monotonous AI in an iron shell into a sophisticated android capable of poker-faced malice and pranking him, while it took Lin twenty years...
"Okay... wait for me. I'll go out with you."
Lin sighed, sitting by the bed, listening to the rustling of clothes being changed behind him. His mind drifted to another place—
Lin walked out of the Spiral Workshop. He looked back, seeing that no one was emerging from inside. He then activated the camcorder in his hand, quickly skipping a large initial section of the footage and jumping directly to the part where the young woman entered the Spiral Workshop.
He observed the young woman's every move in the video, not missing details of her stiff expression, movements, or even the creases in her clothes.
Soon, their conversation reached the point where Lin asked for verification of her designation and badge.
At this point, Lin slowed the entire video down. Even though his information processing speed was already fast enough to see every detail of every frame clearly, he still chose to slow it down.
The young woman reached her hand into the neckline of her ball gown-like attire...
From Lin perspective at the time, he couldn't see inside the young woman's neckline. But from the camcorder's perspective, he could clearly see the young woman casually grabbing something from the empty neckline...
In her empty hand, a badge appeared through particle recombination.
"..."
The subsequent content was just the unchanging Spiral Workshop. Lin turned off the recording, holding the camcorder in his hand.
Lin didn't rewind. He wouldn't harbor the childish thought of "Did I see it wrong?"
The facts were laid out before him.
The most appropriate action he should be taking right now would be to notify Mei's Titan squad to be on full alert, sound the alarm, have all the headquarters soldiers grab their weapons to capture the young woman who was waiting for him, and then let Fire Moth decide whether to conduct live research or eliminate her directly.
The most appropriate action, indeed...
"How can one become human?"
Lin lowered his head, looking at the camcorder in his hand. He thought for a long time, so long that he nearly stood motionless like a cypress tree, before he made his decision.
This was the second time he had made this decision. The first time was when Mobius asked him to deal with "that thing."
Lin immediately snapped the camcorder in half, threw it into the nearby trash can, and resolutely turned to leave.
Returning to the present, the young woman finished changing faster than expected. He had barely finished his recollection when she was already sitting on the edge of the bed, swinging her little legs.
Lin stood up and helped retrieve her boots from the shoe rack. She took them, quickly put them on, and then picked up the nearby helmet and put it on her head.
"...Are you still going to wear it?" Lin glanced at the young woman standing beside him after putting on the helmet. "You can smile normally now."
"Yes, but I don't want others to see." The young woman shook her head. "It's enough for Lin to see."
"You will meet more people in the future. There's no need to keep wearing this helmet."
"Then we'll talk about that in the future," the young woman tilted her head, thought for a moment, and then corrected herself: "No, Elysia can see too."
"..."
Lin wasn't sure if becoming familiar with Elysia was a good thing or a bad thing, but it was clear that Elysia genuinely liked this girl with Lin style. For her, it must have been quite a novel experience.
Lin and the young woman walked out of the room together and headed towards the R&D Department. Mei had a few more things to brief them on before they executed their mission.
At the entrance of the R&D Department, Sakura, fully armored, had been waiting for a long time. Her armor seemed to have been updated with newer technology, and her ordinary standard-issue blade was replaced with a weapon similar in shape to an Eastern katana sword.
Lin and Sakura silently nodded to each other as a greeting.
Then Sakura looked at the young woman. She hadn't met Lin often, but the young woman was always by Lin side, so she was acquainted with her.
"Sakura, good morning," the young woman greeted calmly.
"Uh... hello," Sakura hesitated for a moment, then responded.
The young woman had no name; even Lin didn't know what to call her. If they had to address her, they could only use terms like "Hey," "You," or "That one." Her designation, MSA-970, could also be used. In short, such moments could be awkward.
"Let's go."
Lin led the way into the R&D Department, followed closely by the young woman and Sakura. They quickly found Mei, who was wiping sweat after just finishing a dangerous experiment.
"You're here... I still have some things to handle, so I'll get straight to the point."
This was probably Mei's most frequently used opening line recently.
She didn't look at Lin and Sakura but focused her gaze directly on the young woman: "Chrysalis Squad will proceed to Australia for the arrest and investigation of the hacker, as originally planned."
"MSA-970, you will temporarily join Thirteenth Squad and proceed to Shenzhou to execute the Guest from Beyond the Sky investigation mission."