There are many sensations associated with fainting. Some people feel that a meaningless span of time has passed with just a close and open of the eyes. Some feel abnormal sensations like drowning, running, or falling while unconscious. And there are others...
Who feel like they can reach out and touch the sky.
Lin drowsy consciousness awoke in a pitch-black space. He had experienced this sensation of physical and conscious mismatch during simulation training.
Therefore, after a second of contemplation, he figured out his current state.
He had fallen into a deep coma.
His memory was clear, and his consciousness was wide awake. This situation was somewhat like a lucid dream, but he surmised that severe physical injuries were preventing him from waking up.
But it was still strange. He had experienced deep comas many times before, yet this was the only time he had fallen into this state. Was it due to Mobius's pharmaceutical modifications? Or was it... the change in his consciousness after entering the Herrscher Core?
The residual effects of entering the Herrscher Core were already greater than Lin had anticipated, but consciousness is an extremely difficult concept to define. Even though he could sense a change, he didn't know what kind of change it was.
On another note, why was everything pitch black, with no visuals? This was supposed to be his own consciousness, so why couldn't he even move in this dark place?
Perhaps his contemplation was effective. Like the sun breaking through the clouds, the environment gradually began to change.
"How is Su doing?"
That was his own voice.
The floor beneath his feet was gradually replaced by the metal floor of the Fire Moth Headquarters. He stood on the solid ground, the realistic sensation making him slightly uncomfortable, as if he had genuinely returned to the Headquarters.
The two people standing outside the lab were him and Mobius. Lin immediately noticed that Mobius, wearing a lab coat stained with blood, had just finished a surgery. She leaned against the wall, slightly tired. Upon hearing the question from the person in front of her, she waved her hand impatiently: "It went smoothly. The smoothest Project Soldier Surgery so far."
Project Soldier Surgery...?
The Lin outside the scene searched his memory for this unfamiliar term but found nothing matching it. And was he and Mobius talking about Su? Kevin's friend whom he had only met once?
What was going on? Wasn't this supposed to be a scene from his memory? Why did he have absolutely no recollection of it?
"...What about the side effects?"
"Side effects, heh heh…" Mobius scoffed coldly at the question. She didn't answer directly, but instead stared at Lin with a malicious smile in her pale gray eyes.
Wait a minute... pale gray?
Lin concentrated on observing Mobius's eye color, confirming that it was pale gray mixed with a faint, fluorescent green, similar to what you might see after injecting a chemical, and exactly the same as his current eyes.
Mobius's original eye color was slightly blue. This change was definitely abnormal.
Moreover, Mobius's eyes... were now completely serpentine eyes.
It wasn't a hallucination. Before, Mobius merely gave the impression of a snake. Now, her pupils had literally become vertical slits like a venomous snake's.
What in the world is this...
Mobius chuckled: "Are you really so concerned about the side effects? I recall you were desperate to get on the operating table yourself."
"…" Lin neither denied nor confirmed.
"Hmph, how boring. Don't worry, he won't experience the problems of us 'first-generation' subjects... at least not severe problems like you and Kevin." Mobius seemed unwilling to tease Lin further, or perhaps she didn't want to continue the topic. "And Spaciel has the same attitude as you... If you were so worried, why send Su to the operating table of a 'butcher' like me?"
"...Thank you."
"…"
Lin sincere thank you completely wiped the expression off Mobius's face. Faint anger flickered in her eyes, even causing her entire pupils to emit a faint green light.
"Why are you thanking me?" She questioned him in an impolite tone, seeming to suppress her disgust. "Do you think I expended a lot of effort to make the surgery successful? Or did I 'accumulate' enough experience and 'skillfully use' that experience to ensure success? Let me tell you, it has nothing to do with any of that; he was just lucky."
"I understand."
"You understand? You say you understand every time! Do you really understand?! Did you hear what I said? You..."
"…"
Perhaps seeing that Lin didn't talk back and that she was only getting angrier, Mobius could only grit her teeth and swallow her anger after shouting two lines of frustration. Finally, she said coldly, "It's because of people like you that I find humanity hopelessly foolish."
"…"
"Is Gray Serpent active near you recently?" Mobius tried to change the subject, turning her head away, not wanting to look at the cold, rejecting shell of Lin helmet.
"Yes, I... I'm teaching him some things."
"That's certainly your forte. But I think he'd rather observe things firsthand than have someone teach him."
"His birth determined the underlying foundation of his initial values. I can only guide him; I cannot decide who he becomes."
Mobius was choked by Lin serious lines and couldn't think of anything new to say. Her impatient expression worsened. Lin knowing but indifferent reaction further fueled this accumulation of emotion, ultimately leading to...
"Get lost. I don't want to see you right now."
Lin watched, speechless, as Mobius angrily walked away with her hands stuffed in her pockets.
The real Lin, watching from the side, was frowning, still unable to comprehend where this scene originated.
If anything, it didn't seem like a memory of the past. It felt more like...
"Who?"
Two overlapping questions sounded in unison. Lin was shocked to see the "Lin" standing in the scene suddenly turn and look at him.
What was going on? Where exactly was this place?
And the other "Who?" came from behind him.
A cold, malicious "greeting."
The scene in front of him instantly vanished.
...
Lin looked at the empty corridor behind him. He silently observed every spot. Any anomaly in this critical period could not be ignored.
But the sensation of being watched appeared and vanished in an instant, making even him wonder if it was a hallucination.
Occurrences similar to this sometimes happened after the Project Soldier Surgery, but neither he nor Mobius, who performed the surgery, could figure out what they were, only attributing them to surgical side effects.
Naturally, this time also led to an inconclusive end. He fixed his gaze on the door of the operating room.
In the end, they only reached the same destination by different paths.
He thought to himself silently.