Click.
"Aah!"
Pardo let out a shrill cry the moment Lin pressed his finger down. He remained unmoved, moving his finger to the next pressure point.
"Aah!" "Aah!" "Aah!"
Toward the end, Pardo's screams almost formed a melody. Lin simply stuffed a towel into her mouth to prevent her from shouting herself hoarse.
As for what he was doing?
Lin let go, and Pardo slumped onto the mat, completely spent.
He was giving Pardo a post-workout massage to prevent her from being lethargic and sore for days after such intense training.
It had to be said that while Pardo was terrified of exhaustion, she was surprisingly obedient; after the first day, she hadn't tried to escape again.
"Lin-ge... have you always been in Fire-Moth?" Pardo asked lazily, enjoying the rest time after the day ended. Lin plan and physical touch were heavy-handed, but the effect was undeniably good. After the massage, she felt her muscles and bones relax, leaving her feeling warm and comfortable.
What was especially peculiar was that Lin had a faint, pleasant scent that became noticeable whenever she was close, which put her at ease.
"Yes."
"Wow... that's nice."
Pardo felt that Fire-Moth was like heaven—no hunger, no cold, no mutual deception. Even the crippled Lin could be cured here. She wished she had come to Fire-Moth sooner.
"Then why are you so good to me, Lin-ge?" Pardo felt she could tell Lin looked after her. Many described him as a cold, helmeted man, but he was exceptionally attentive toward her.
Perhaps it was because Lin-ge knew she had taken care of him back then...
"..."
This time, Lin did not answer. He stood up and left the No. 2 Gym.
Lin had been a junior and a senior, a captain and a member. However, more often than not, he was the one being cared for rather than the one doing the caring.
Later, the senior vanished in ice and flames.
The junior found peace among white flowers.
...
"What if I gave you a chance?"
What?
Lin brain throbbed with a sharp pain.
But it was this slight pain, barely detectable to a normal person, that made him freeze for a few seconds.
Pain...?
This feeling, so foreign he had almost forgotten it, had actually reappeared in his body.
"You've read many novels, so you should know the trope where the protagonist travels back to the past to save a tragedy. What if I gave you a chance to 'go back to the past' now?"
Accompanying the pain was a vague, ethereal voice. His memory had some impression of this voice, but it was like a thin veil covering a clear object; other than giving him a headache, he couldn't remember who it was at all.
Lately, strange things were increasing. What exactly was going on...
His consciousness and brain were gradually slipping out of his control. Worse, he didn't even know the cause of these issues...
No...
Lin stumbled toward Mobius lab. He had to get there before losing consciousness to let Mobius investigate what was happening.
Ultimately, with only one corner left before the lab, his legs gave way, and he collapsed, unconscious.
...
"Once upon a time, there was a child born from the burden of hope. His appearance was that of a saint, flawless and rare; his thinking was that of a leader, absolute and rational; his ability was information processing, akin to a miracle."
"In this world, there exist gods who descend to become human, and there exist humans who were manufactured by men in an attempt to become gods."
"And you... try walking his path again. Will it be different this time?"
The voice, sounding like a confusing game tutorial or world-building introduction, disappeared after finishing its lines. Lin clutched his head and slowly stood up, but he staggered, losing his balance and nearly falling.
He only steadied himself by grabbing the leg of a nearby table.
Strange... why does my body feel so uncoordinated?
Wait, what was he holding onto?
Lin looked to the side and saw a massive dining table—it was actually taller than his current height.
Not just the table; everything around him was several times larger than normal.
What is this? A giant's kitchen?
But Lin soon realized it wasn't that the surroundings had grown; he had shrunk.
He pinched his skin, which was as soft as milk, looked at his palms which still had a bit of baby fat, and his short arms...
"I..." The sound coming from his throat was a completely different, milky, childish voice.
Unbelievable. Like the protagonist of a certain detective manga, he had been shrunk back into a child's body.
"You—"
At that moment, another voice as youthful as his own rang out. He turned his head.
Then came an eerie, silent stare-down.
This silver-white hair was far too recognizable.
A cute silver-haired girl, looking almost unrealistically beautiful, stood not far away holding onto a chair leg. Her eyes, filled with resentment, stared deathly at him.
...I see. Even in that manga, there was another female whose body was shrunk.
Yama seemed to be in a similar state to him, unable to adapt to a tiny, powerless body. She could only lean against the chair to stand. After a long stalemate with Lin, she spoke: "Did you do this?"
"No," Lin shook his head.
He had originally thought Yama was responsible, but seeing her current state, he realized she was no better off than him. If this were her plot, it would be unnecessary; he was no match for her anyway.
"Is the body... shrunk?" Lin examined himself; he looked no different from his memories of childhood.
"No, this is a problem with consciousness," Yama directly denied his guess. "Your previous body had no sense of touch, smell, or taste. Even if it shrunk, that wouldn't change. Moreover, I don't look the same as I did when I was a child."
"How do you know?"
There were no mirrors nearby. Even Lin couldn't be certain if he differed from his childhood self.
"...I just know."
Yama glanced at her silver hair, which remained brilliant even in this shrunken state.
"...Same as last time?"
"Yes. Temporary truce."
Yama was straightforward—or rather, she had enough confidence that even if she gave Lin a chance to breathe, she could still kill him. Right now, her abilities were unusable; she likely needed to cooperate with Lin.
"Then... first, where is this place? Do you have any clues?" Lin asked Yama. When he first met her, she could find him by breaking through the constraints of space, implying she was far more familiar with places like the Sea of Quanta and parallel worlds.
"It might be a Bubble Universe. But I clearly only have my consciousness..."
"Bubble Universe?"