"How could she be here?"
This was Lin Wei's first reaction upon seeing the distant figure of the young girl. It was extremely unexpected, even shocking.
Although he still didn't know the girl's name, he was not unfamiliar with her at all; on the contrary, he was very familiar.
Just a few months ago, he had chanced upon an acquaintance who wasn't exactly an old friend. Then, at his tearful, kneeling plea, Lin Wei had agreed to help him rescue his last remaining relative in this world—his biological daughter—from the hands of villains.
This matter was a cataclysmic event for that father, but for Lin Wei, it was merely a minor interlude.
Though just an interlude, Lin Wei's impression of this event was exceptionally profound.
It wasn't just because, during the investigation, he discovered this matter was related to World Serpent, and further implicated Schicksal, Otto, and a series of other troubles.
Nor was it just because Lin Wei had encountered the Valkyrie named Ana Schariac during this process—that foolish girl whose naivety was heartbreaking, yet whose sincerity and enthusiasm left Lin Wei helpless. In the end, he could only watch as she stepped, bit by bit, into the vortex of his own storm, while simultaneously pulling him, bit by bit, into the vortex called "Schicksal"...
Beyond that, the girl herself, the target of the rescue, also left a deep impression on Lin Wei.
Before seeing her memories, Lin Wei had never imagined that humans could be so selfish and frenzied in their pursuit of survival.
At that time, there were nearly a hundred survivors in that base. The humanoid machine in charge was responsible for screening out the most valuable among them—of course, this "screening" method was brutal, calling it hell would not be an exaggeration...
The girl who survived until the end was very smart. She, like the other nearly hundred "companions," was initially terrified. But when the first person died in front of her, the immense fear and horror paradoxically made her quickly calm down. She soon found a bug in the "manager's" operational logic—since the goal was to select the most valuable among these people, then becoming the "most valuable" herself would solve it, wouldn't it?
And the "simplest way" to make herself "most valuable" was, naturally—to eliminate all "competitors"...
Thus, by the time the humanoid machine, the base manager, reacted, apart from the dismembered corpses littering the ground, only one person remained alive.
As the final "victor," the sole object of protection, the girl who had rapidly adapted to the rules of hell successfully obtained the qualification to converse with the manager on equal terms, gaining a moment of limited freedom.
Then, she continued to frantically search for a way to escape, until Lin Wei and Ana arrived before her...
Reflecting on the past, Lin Wei had seriously considered that if their positions had been reversed, if he, not her, had been thrown into that hell, he probably wouldn't have done much better.
After all, in all honesty, he could never completely abandon his humanity. Therefore, although he would also actively try to save himself, he would more likely become one of the victims betrayed and ambushed to death by those who had cast aside their bottom lines even further...
It sounded rather despicable, but Lin Wei, after all, was not a direct participant, so he had no intention of judging the rights and wrongs.
After all, when one's "human" identity is stripped away, dignity trampled, and one is reduced to a beast in a cruel arena, demanding they adhere to the moral rules of a civilized world seems somewhat ridiculous.
Therefore, he simply chose to erase all of her terrifying memories, soaked in blood and tears, turning them into a nightmare she would forget upon waking. Then he sent her back to her father, allowing them to return to the normal life they should have had.
That's how things should have been...
Seeing that familiar figure appear again in a place she shouldn't be, Lin Wei was momentarily furious.
He suddenly realized how naive, how wishful his actions had been—how could prey targeted by World Serpent escape so easily?
Even he, who had sufficient understanding and vigilance towards World Serpent, had been tricked by Gray Serpent's repeated schemes. What resistance could an ordinary father and daughter, who had barely escaped with their lives from a Honkai disaster, possibly offer?
"If that's the case, what happened to her father?"
A chill crept into Lin Wei's heart. He already had a vague answer he didn't want to admit.
Lin Wei remembered that disheveled middle-aged man, that "old acquaintance" he wasn't actually familiar with.
He remembered the despair and remorse when the man knelt before him, pleading. He remembered the happiness and contentment when he embraced his recovered daughter...
A sense of guilt for failing another's trust welled up in his heart, making Lin Wei even more annoyed. His pace quickened, so much so that the woman arranged by World Serpent to "guide" them felt increasingly strained, silently complaining.
But Lin Wei didn't care at all—he had been here once before; he didn't need anyone to lead the way to Gray Serpent's location.
"Bang!"
Lin Wei unceremoniously kicked open the door. The furnishings inside were exactly as he had seen them last time. Gray Serpent was also seated on the guest sofa as before, his posture as elegant as that of an old aristocrat of many years. However, this elegant posture looked somewhat incongruous with his actual appearance.
"Hehe... Mr. Lin Wei, we meet again."
Gray Serpent raised the wine glass in his hand, nodding slightly to Lin Wei, who had practically barged in, and Yuno, who followed closely behind him. He spoke calmly, unsurprised.
"Although it's revisiting an old place, compared to the cautiousness of our last meeting here, your presence today is even more surprising."
Gray Serpent sighed in his booming voice.
"The same place, the same scenery, even the people in the scenery are no different from the past—everything is so similar, yet merely a difference in state of mind makes everything seem like a completely different picture... Hehe, human emotions, truly subtle and filled with a unique aesthetic beauty..."
"Lord Gray Serpent..."
The guide woman rushed in, panting, then stood aside, ashen-faced, awaiting judgment.
"Alright, you've worked hard. You may leave."
Gray Serpent smiled faintly, unconcerned by the woman's "work error."
"Your job was completed when you safely brought the guests here."
"Yes!"
Hearing her leader's magnanimity, the woman let out a long sigh of relief. She glanced at Lin Wei with a hint of resentment, then lowered her head and retreated.
Lin Wei, however, didn't even look at her. He was preoccupied with the row of hooks on the corridor bridge by the entrance—the place where he had temporarily stored the demonic sword last time to show courtesy. Only after the woman had closed the door from the outside did he sneer.
"Truly, fate plays tricks on people, and things are no longer as they were..."
And now, the demonic sword was in his hand, and he wasn't in the mood to be polite this time. Lin Wei said this, seemingly with emotion, while turning his gaze to Gray Serpent, who was still seated on the other side, and asked meaningfully,
"How should I thank you for this gift you've given me, Gray Serpent?"
Hearing these words, heavy with accusation, Gray Serpent remained unoffended. He merely tugged lightly at the hem of his hoodie, making his posture seem even more elegant, then calmly retorted,
"Mr. Lin Wei's words seem to imply something?"
"Imply something? Of course! With Mr. Gray Serpent's omnipresent eyes, how could you not know what just happened?"
Lin Wei sneered, walking towards Gray Serpent unhurriedly. He then sat down decisively on the sofa opposite him, the smile on his face abruptly vanishing as he said coldly,
"Speak. What did you do to them?"
Yuno stood quietly behind him, her eyes fixed unfriendly on the strange, masked man before them.
She had been the first to spot the girl. Like herself, the girl had once been a student at Senba Academy, a survivor of that tragedy. Perhaps due to a sense of "shared suffering," Yuno's impression of World Serpent was not good right now.
"Merely allowing the serpent's offspring to return to the serpent's body, nothing more,"
Gray Serpent paid no mind to Yuno's gaze, which held both scrutiny and warning. He spoke slowly and proudly,
"You should know, the serpent's will has always been inviolable."
"The serpent's will? Ha!"
Lin Wei was so angry he laughed.
"That girl's father was just an ordinary person. How could he have offended you?"
World Serpent's punishments had always been severe and merciless.
The Obsidian Concord, wiped out by Raven, and Chen Tianwu, who openly betrayed them on Coral Island, both paid extremely heavy prices.
Even Cocolia, due to her open "betrayal," Gray Serpent decided on the spot to teach her a small lesson—making her watch as her two daughters were eaten alive...
But regardless, what did these matters have to do with an ordinary citizen?
Hearing Lin Wei's questioning, Gray Serpent fell silent, merely toying with the wine glass in his hand, watching the crimson liquid swirl and churn within it.
"..."
Lin Wei understood. He didn't care.
Just a weed by the roadside, plucked without a second thought. Just as they could conduct a dangerous experiment with almost no hope of success using millions of people from an entire city without any psychological burden...
"Heh..."
Lin Wei felt stung by his dismissive attitude and sneered.
"Admitting it? Good..."
As he spoke, he rose from the sofa. A strangely shaped black pistol materialized in his hand, slowly pointing forward.
"Bang!"
A gunshot. The violent bullet shattered the thin wine glass in his hand and blew his head apart. The headless corpse thumped to the ground. The wine he had been constantly swirling in the glass spilled onto him, seeping into the black hoodie like blood, like bloodstains.
"A life for a life—"
Gazing at the lifeless, headless corpse, Lin Wei said coldly.
The reason he cared about that girl wasn't because she herself was special, but because she was that man's daughter.
He wasn't even familiar with the man himself, but that didn't stop Lin Wei from feeling it was an injustice to him, nor did it stop Lin Wei from venting his anger for him, and for himself.
"To lash out violently, this is hardly the way of a guest."
The door in the deeper part of the room slowly opened, and another Gray Serpent walked out. His booming voice was, as always, calm.
"Mr. Lin Wei, your actions force me to doubt the sincerity of your cooperation."
Seeing someone who was clearly dead reappear from another place, not far from the previous corpse, this bizarre scene made Yuno's hair stand on end. She couldn't help but want to eliminate this second Gray Serpent as well.
"Easy, Yuno."
Lin Wei raised his hand in a placating gesture, signaling Yuno not to be impulsive. Only then did he sneer at this newly appeared Gray Serpent.
"Sincerity? Heh, I merely killed one Gray Serpent and didn't use the Key of Corruption to destroy your entire Gray Serpent network. That in itself is my greatest sincerity. So, as I just said—"
Lin Wei repeated mockingly,
"Gray Serpent, you should be grateful for my mercy!"
Last time he returned to reality from the Elysian Realm, Lin Wei had been somewhat timid due to his uncertainty about the future. But this time, Lin Wei decided to be brazenly assertive.
He had figured it out. He and World Serpent were using each other. Neither of them were good people, so there was no need to pretend to be Mr. Nice Guy anymore.
I just returned to reality from the Elysian Realm and was on my way to see Gray Serpent. And at this exact time, in this exact place, I encountered the girl most capable of grating on my nerves—what a coincidence!
"Gray Serpent, what exactly are you trying to do?"
Lin Wei couldn't figure it out for the moment, but that didn't stop him from eliminating this Gray Serpent who was openly provoking him first.
Establish dominance when necessary. Chop off the claws that reach out to test one's bottom line. Make them clearly understand where the boundaries lie.
If Gray Serpent wanted to make an issue out of it...
Sorry, that's also Lin Wei's specialty—at worst, I'll wreak havoc in your World Serpent, and we'll go our separate ways!
"Hehe... After merely half a year, Mr. Lin Wei's prestige has certainly grown."
Although this new Gray Serpent's voice was still booming, his tone was subtly different from the previous one.
As he spoke, a troop of black and red constructs marched out neatly from the door behind him. They had clear divisions of labor: some were responsible for carrying the Gray Serpent corpse back the way they came, some efficiently cleaned up the glass shards and remnants of Gray Serpent's skull on the floor, and others replaced the carpet with a brand new one, identical to the previous...
It sounds complicated, but in the time it took Gray Serpent to say just a sentence or two, the entire room had been tidied up and looked brand new—except for the lingering, pervasive smell of red wine that refused to dissipate.
"..."
Lin Wei narrowed his eyes at Gray Serpent, waiting to see what tricks he was up to.
"Alright, Mr. Lin Wei; your anger has been vented, your revenge taken. We should discuss proper business now."
Gray Serpent walked over unhurriedly, sat down gently in the same spot the previous Gray Serpent had occupied, and said in his booming voice,
"Handing over the Second Divine Key to Schicksal without permission—shouldn't you also give us an explanation for this matter, sir?"