"Is this okay, Kevin? Letting it stay here?"
Elysia, uncharacteristically, neither smiled wryly nor made a joke. Instead, she looked solemnly at the still, empty room at the end of the corridor.
"It's only surveillance." Kevin still stood with his arms crossed, his expression as calm as still water. "If this is the 'sincerity' they demand, we have no choice but to accept."
However, given the previous example of the Starlight hacking Immer's computer, the network in that room had been completely severed. It was impossible for it to steal the Branch's data by hacking in reverse.
Furthermore, with at least twenty people arranged for comprehensive monitoring of the Starlight, even if it was transparent, it couldn't possibly act under so many watchful eyes.
Yet, even Kevin himself was not entirely confident in this arrangement.
"Alien lifeforms, Honkai, Planetary-class Honkai Beasts…"
The events coming one after another were simply too numerous. Any one of them was enough to overturn the worldview of all humanity.
Could the Starlight truly be trusted? Did they truly just want a refuge?
…
"Teacher, do you believe there truly are miracles in the world?"
The man, who was both assistant and student, suddenly asked the standing man a question in front of the operating table.
At this time, only he remained of the man's students.
And the man understood why he asked. Just yesterday, one of the man's only two remaining students had sacrificed himself in an experiment.
The last remaining student picked up a pistol and shot the head of the student who had turned into a Deadman.
A close-range, instantaneous Honkai energy erosion—even cutting out the diseased area and replacing it with machinery was too late.
"…" The man numbly put on his mask. Although such protection was utterly useless, others still tirelessly urged him to take precautions and even advised him not to personally conduct such dangerous experiments anymore.
Protection? What could block the erosion of Honkai energy at such a close distance?
A mask? A filter? A shield? Or perhaps a lofty and magnificent spirit of dedication?
Laughable.
"When I was little, my parents always taught me that even in desperate circumstances, I must always hold onto hope and look forward to a miracle happening," the student smiled peacefully, seemingly reminiscing about his childhood. "They said that the birth of humanity is an incredible thing, a great miracle in this vast universe."
"…So, you believe in miracles?" The man's cold, dehumanized eyes looked at the student whose eyes were shining brightly.
"Yes, I believe a miracle will surely happen."
Even though he had lost many people along the way, he was still looking forward to the future.
"Isn't the existence of a teacher like you for humanity a miracle in itself?"
…
The man lay listlessly on the hospital bed. Half of his limbs had completely lost sensation. Next, he would face the complete replacement of these limbs with machinery.
But he showed no expression, simply listening to the doctor's advice.
The man's last student died in the experiment.
The brilliant hope on his face vanished from the world before the experiment could even end.
Just like every person who had died, there was no difference, not a single superfluous word.
It was as if he was simply crossed out on a piece of paper.
The man didn't hear a word the doctor said. He didn't notice when the doctor left or when the pink-haired girl entered.
The emptiness in his eyes was like a black hole; nothing was inside, nothing could fill it, and nothing would flow out.
"Lin, are you alright?"
The pink-haired girl knew her question was meaningless, but besides that, she didn't know how else to communicate with this boy whom she had known for so long.
She watched him change from a person who often smiled and told strange jokes and opinions to someone who became numb to life, silent, and alienated from everyone, including her.
It was as if the person inside his body was no longer him, but an automaton named "Dr. Lin."
But this time, the man did not remain silent as usual: "The birth of humanity is not a coincidence, but a chain reaction from the conditions that give rise to life to the evolution of life itself. In other words, it is not a miracle, only an inevitability."
"…"
The pink-haired girl didn't know why the man was saying this, but at this moment, she only needed to be a perfect listener.
The man's tone was neither disdainful nor solemn. He spoke in the same voice he used for any subject: "Behind every perceived coincidence, there exist inevitable conditions. Just as when introducing a murderer, their history of trauma is always mentioned, allowing the audience to understand that their creation was not a story casually written on a whim by someone."
There are simply no miracles in this world.
"Isn't the existence of a teacher like you for humanity a miracle in itself?"
The man hugged his head. He breathed shallowly and painfully.
What a joke.
What kind of miracle was a failure like him?
Why did every single person look up to him, believe in him, and trust him with their lives?
Face reality. The achievements humanity has now were not miracles, but a mountain of corpses and a sea of blood stacked up through lives and sacrifices.
Stop praying for miracles to happen.
There are no miracles in this world. No god will descend to save humanity, and no human will suddenly unleash a burst of inner strength to crush the Honkai.
Every person who believed in humanity and chose to sacrifice themselves without hesitation was only spreading despair.
…
"Click."
The people sitting in the monitoring room watched the monitors intently. Even though it looked like an empty room, they dared not relax their vigilance for a moment.
The Starlight could not be observed using any detection methods, so they could only use their naked eyes to watch the screen for any abnormalities, to see if the Starlight, which was "seemingly" lying on the bed, remained inactive.
At least for now, after the Starlight entered the room and lay on the bed, there had been no movement.
Do aliens need to sleep too?
No one knew. The only alien they had ever encountered was perhaps the kind in movies, a creature with a shell-less brain who used toy guns to turn people into skeletons.
Hopefully, there would be no slip-ups.
At this very moment, one person silently opened her room door and walked toward the Shenzhou Branch's data library.
The helmeted girl stood expressionlessly in front of the data library door. She stretched out her hand and placed it on the lock.
"Clack."
After a soft sound, the lock automatically disengaged.
And the deep blue eyes inside her helmet emanated a mesmerizing, bewitching light.