"Since birth, I've been curious about one question: what kind of creature is humanity?"
"Are they greedy? Yet selfless benefactors are commonly seen. Are they cruel? Yet protectors of life are constantly emerging."
"When the apocalypse comes, some sacrifice themselves for the greater good to protect the weak, while others sow chaos and add fuel to the fire. Both are humans, yet they are completely different."
"The protector might have been a thug before, and the instigator might have been a doctor. They are doing things contrary to their former selves, but they feel completely at ease with it."
"So, this question has not been answered until now. Perhaps it will never have an answer."
"After all, I am the same contradictory human being. Can the question itself answer the question?"
The man sat on the thick wooden bed, speaking a monologue that no one else knew to the empty room. He never said these words to anyone else. He himself wasn't sure whether it was to prevent exposing his weakness or for other reasons.
Humans are always like this, often changing their appearance without realizing it, doing things they would never have done before.
His eyelids drooped. It was as if there were flames burning in his eyes, but the flames quickly disappeared. Looking at Zero, who was still unconscious, the man's head drooped even lower, so heavy that it seemed about to fall from his neck.
Zero, in his sleep, remained expressionless. His flawless perfection made him look inhuman, but precisely because of this, the face seemed even more terrifying and hideous to the man.
"I did the same thing your parents did. Judging by the outcome, we are no different." The man mocked himself, pulling the pistol from his waist holster. Looking at the unmistakable Fire Moth symbol on it, his expression became complex and resolute, as if something had overridden his consciousness.
He opened the magazine, removed the bullets, leaving only the last one, and then...
"Click."
The man looked at the pistol. The coarse grip felt cold. He looked at the sleeping Zero. The tender skin glowed in the light.
He raised the gun expressionlessly, slowly aiming the muzzle at Zero's head.
"..."
With a single pull of the trigger, this man-made monster would die.
This was his responsibility. Even as a high-ranking official of the Fire Moth, he wouldn't care about a single life.
Sacrifice the few for the sake of the many. Sacrifice the wrong people for the sake of the right people.
Hadn't it always been done this way?
However, when the man's finger rested on the trigger, he felt a thousand-pound weight on it, unable to move even a fraction.
He slowly, slowly, slowly... turned the muzzle.
Looking directly at the weapon that had taken the lives of Zero's parents, the man actually felt a sense of relief.
"Lin, in the future, I will let you live in a place no one knows about. There, I will tell you the whole truth. By then, the choice will be yours."
There was no gunshot. The man did not take any life. He unloaded the last bullet and put it in the pocket close to his heart.
Then, he hid the pistol in the ceiling of the house.
"Who should this gun be aimed at, Lin?"
...
"Heave-ho."
She struggled to open the heavy door, fanned away the raised dust, and sneezed a couple of times.
It seemed that when the door was built, there was an intention for it to never be opened, otherwise, it wouldn't have been so difficult to open. But the fact that they didn't seal the door completely, but left a key, suggested the builder's feelings must have been quite complex.
After searching the entrance, she couldn't find the light switch, so she had to explore the basement in pitch darkness.
Carefully illuminating the front with her phone's flashlight, searching for useful things amidst the dust floating in the air, she quickly searched through the small basement and indeed found some interesting items.
"Experiment Log?"
After dusting off a layer of dust that was about a centimeter thick, she, with a dusty face, opened the ancient, yellowed log in her hand.
Most important documents are preserved in paper form, but it was clear that the reason for this one being paper wasn't just to prevent leaks.
"First experiment: The target's blood sample, cells, and brain all show signs of modification. It is confirmed that the blood sample and cells were modified during the embryonic stage, and the brain during early childhood... Cognitive ability and physical ability far exceed ordinary humans..."
"Second experiment: The scope of this experiment is the target's learning ability..."
"Third..."
"Fourth..."
She read the entire experiment log in one go. The insane content made her question whether it was a fabricated journal, but when she saw the Fire Moth stamp at the end, she confirmed the authenticity of the log.
All non-humanitarian experimental procedures had been tested on this child. If the contents of this log were revealed, it would cause a public outcry.
"But why do the people of the Fire Moth seem unaware of this? Is it too insignificant? Or is someone deliberately covering it up?"
She made up her mind, set aside the experiment log, and turned her attention to the other item in her hand.
A letter.
It seemed the key lay within this letter.
The letter was also quite old. The glue on the seal had lost its stickiness. She easily tore it open and poured out a piece of paper.
The paper's printing and texture seemed different from the others. It had a fragrance, and it didn't feel coarse or dry to the touch, suggesting it might not be very old.
An old envelope and a recent letter... It made one wonder what had originally been inside the envelope.
But that was a minor detail. She was quickly drawn to the neat handwriting on the letter.
"Zero, Lin, MSA-079. None of these names seem to fully encompass you, but that doesn't matter anymore. When you read this letter, I imagine either the Honkai has ended, or humanity is on the brink of extinction. But regardless of the situation, I assume I am already dead."
"I don't know if you have recovered your memories yet, but after reading the experiment log, you probably can guess what happened, hehe... After all, you have always been very smart, able to guess the ending of a novel from the beginning."
"If the history of humanity were a novel, I've always been contemplating a non-clichéd beginning. What kind of ending would do it justice?"
"My apologies, I've gotten carried away again. When I'm talking to you, I always have so much to say."
"What kind of person are you to me? And what kind of person am I in your eyes?"