"I've always wanted to say..."
"Don't." Yama cut the person off. Based on her experience, nine out of ten things that person said were biting remarks, and the remaining one was an excuse for the first nine.
Unfortunately, just because she said "no" didn't mean the other person would listen.
"If you hate someone, would you let them live a happy and joyful life cohabiting with a beautiful girl?" The person stroked their chin with a look of utter seriousness. "Can you hate me a little bit too?"
"..."
"You searched through so many worlds just to find the only one that neither had him nor had the Honkai broken out in yet. He just moved right in—it's enough to make anyone die of envy." The person laughed. "That world is simply a perfect world."
A perfect world, huh...
Yama rainbow eyes flickered incessantly.
Precisely because it is a perfect world...
...
"Lin, don't you think you have too few friends?"
Lin put down the morning paper, glanced at Elysia, who was feigning deep thought, and said coldly, "You have plenty of friends on the internet."
"That's me. But Lin, I've never seen you talk to anyone for more than a minute, and I'm the only one in your phone's contact list. Although that makes checking your phone a lot easier... it's not exactly a healthy lifestyle, is it?"
"What defines a healthy lifestyle?" Lin brought his coffee to his lips and countered calmly, "Treating the 'correct' labels of others as necessities that must be stuck onto one's own face—is that a healthy life?"
"...Lin, you actually have quite a punk spirit, don't you?"
Elysia wasn't surprised by this result. This was simply who Lin was. Over the past two years, he seemed to have changed a bit, yet also seemed not to have changed at all, merely hiding certain things deeper than before.
Two people who knew absolutely nothing about each other's pasts had managed to live together for two years as if it were the most natural thing in the world. Elsewhere, this might be considered a fantasy.
But Elysia felt that Lin acted this way partly for her sake. Two years ago, he said they must never let others know Elysia was living with a man; two years later, the audience was still completely ignorant of his existence.
When Elysia streamed, Lin would occasionally read a book in the blind spots of the camera. She streamed with sweet laughter while he read in silence, the audience none the wiser. This gave Elysia a... thrilling sense of transgression.
Could this be what they call... an affair?
"The traffic push crashed today; I can take a break." Elysia phone rang. She picked it up, took a look, and set it down again.
"Didn't you just take a break yesterday?"
"Force majeure~"
"..."
Lin was about to say something when his phone also buzzed. He went silent, put down his coffee, threw on his coat, and stood up.
"Hmm? Going out?" Elysia watched him put on his mask and sunglasses and asked, startled.
"Yes."
"I'll go with you—"
"No need."
Elysia eyelids drooped as she narrowed her eyes. "Is it 'no need'? Or 'don't want me to'?"
Lin hand, reaching for his hood, paused. He noticed the look in Elysia eyes. After a moment of silence, he said, "Don't want you to."
"Then I won't go." Elysia smile was brilliant.
...
If the root cause of the Honkai outbreak wasn't the lunar remains but merely a trigger, what was the most likely cause?
Since coming to this world, Lin had been investigating every clue that might help uncover the truth of the Honkai. This was a world where no Honkai had broken out, but that didn't mean Honkai energy didn't exist.
There was a massive amount of Honkai energy on the moon, which meant that regarding the "Honkai," Lin world and this world weren't fundamentally different. This wasn't a world immune to the Honkai; it was exactly as Yama had said.
So, Lin began searching the entire globe for places where Honkai energy might exist.
Today, he found it.
In an archaeological site in Mu, archaeologists had discovered an ancient civilization with a level of technology far exceeding the current one. They had also found a synthetic metal superior to all modern metals.
Through certain means, Lin contacted the leader of this archaeological team. He posed as a professional archaeologist to speak with him, and after some "persuasion," the man agreed to let him join the team and participate in the excavation.
An archaeological discovery that would shock the world had not yet been made public. What Lin was doing was against the rules and unethical... but clearly, the "offer they couldn't refuse" made the other party re-evaluate their rules and ethics.
Lin flight departed at noon and reached the destination by evening. Someone was there to pick him up the moment he stepped off the plane.
"Mr. Lin, correct?"
"That's me."
After a brief identity check, Lin got into the car. They switched vehicles four times along a complex route. It took four hours of travel through the dead of night to reach the excavation site.
"Mr. Lin, hello. It is truly an honor for my team to have you join us."
A bearded man had been waiting for a long time. He greeted Lin with an enthusiastic smile and moved to give him a hug.
Lin stepped aside to dodge the embrace, looking at the man with indifference. "No need. I don't even have a forged professional certification. You don't need to speak such insincere words."
The bearded man's face twitched as if his facial muscles had lost control.
Lin bypassed him and walked into the cordoned-off area. He took a gas mask and protective gear from a staff member, putting them on with a dexterity that didn't look like a novice. Once finished, he signaled his guide to leave, then beckoned the bearded man over.
The bearded man's face nearly twisted into a rag, but under Lin icy gaze, he had to take reluctant steps toward him.
Lin nodded and lowered his voice, speaking in cold tones only the two of them could hear. "I will leave as soon as I confirm what I need to confirm. As for your affairs with four different women while married and your embezzlement of the team's funds—I'll give you an accounting after we're finished."
"Give me an accounting? Mr. Lin, that's not what you said back then!"
However, Lin only spared him a glance. It was as if a blade forged of ice had lightly brushed against the bearded man's neck, sending a wave of nausea and dread through him.
"You can refuse."
But what the cost would be, the bearded man didn't dare imagine. Where this man—who had zero connection to him—got his info or how he found out about his absurd deeds, the bearded man had no idea. He only knew the other's sense of purpose and execution were terrifying. When he had shown the slightest reluctance to cooperate at first, photos of him and his mistress in bed had been mailed to his home.
Not to mention, the bearded man had even more secrets that couldn't be spoken of. How much did Lin know?
"I-I'm not refusing. But Mr. Lin, isn't what you're doing a bit too unethical..."
"Lead the way." Lin spat out two words, cold as ice.
"..."