Lin Wei was speechless for a moment, thinking that when this guy decided to be disgusting, he was truly quite disgusting.
"Hehe, Your Excellency is joking. If we were childhood friends who grew up together in Schicksal, and I wasn't a Kaslana or an Apocalypse, nor a member of Schicksal, it would probably be very difficult for us to cross paths even if I were born five hundred years ago."
Lin Wei smiled, offering a perfunctory reply. Then he couldn't help but let his imagination run wild along with Otto's words.
After thinking for a moment, he couldn't help but let out a sneer and a sigh. Looking at Otto's face, which he had already grown tired of despite not having seen it many times, he shook his head and said in a calm tone, "If such a possibility did exist in the river of time, and you, I, and Kallen were all born in that dark age where the old flames were extinguished and the new hope had not yet been born, and we truly met at some crossroads of fate—then, I probably would have become very good friends with Miss Kallen."
Kallen Kaslana, a somewhat rough warrior, a person with an overly strong sense of justice and principle, so much so that she hit a wall everywhere and was out of place in the world she lived in. Such a person, stumbling forward, would probably not refuse to be friends with someone who could help her fend off some of the external malice, right?
Although one was almost morally pure and flawless, and the other always did as he pleased, often doing very outrageous things—Lin Wei never felt that there was anything in his words or actions that she would find disgusting.
As someone who stood on the "borderline between black and white," although Lin Wei never considered himself a good person, and was often even more evil than real villains, he also didn't consider himself a bad person. He was not lacking in kindness to others or compassion for the weak.
That being the case, even if Kallen were resurrected and appeared before me, why shouldn't I be able to gain her approval?
"As for Your Excellency..."
Lin Wei paused, then his expression changed slightly. He looked down at Otto with a contemptuous gaze and sneered.
"Just as I was not worth a glance in Your Excellency's eyes a year ago, what makes you think that the you from five hundred years ago would be qualified to stand before me like this today?"
"!"
The air instantly fell silent.
The busy men and women around, some debugging functions, some checking equipment status, some testing communications, all stopped their work at once upon hearing Lin Wei's extremely rude and arrogant words.
They all turned their gazes to where the Overseer was—or more precisely, to the man standing next to him, the one who had just made such a bold statement.
"Who is he?"
Someone asked with their eyes.
"I don't know..."
Another person answered with their eyes. At this moment, no one dared to make a sound to break the seemingly frozen air.
In Schicksal, besides the Grand Overseer himself, the only ones who had had any significant interaction with Lin Wei were the Valkyries, who served as the combat units and mission execution department. And even among the almost self-contained Valkyries, not everyone knew Lin Wei, let alone these technical personnel.
But in any case, they were also very clear that a man who could walk side by side with the Overseer and dare to be so rude to him was definitely not a simple person. So at this moment, they were even more afraid to make any rash moves, lest they become the unlucky fish in a pond affected by a disaster...
"Hehe, it seems I've left another bad impression on Schicksal today."
Lin Wei's gaze shifted, and seeing the "innocent crowd" desperately trying to minimize their presence, he was amused.
"It seems I'm a bit in the way here. Shall we find another place to talk?"
"Not at all, not at all!"
Just as Otto turned his head away, the somewhat frail male technician closest to him broke out in a cold sweat and said, "We're just doing one last extra check before we start, just in case. We'll be done soon, and we can stop at any time!"
"Hehe, don't be nervous."
Otto smiled as if nothing had happened. He walked over, bent down, and picked up the notepad that had fallen on the floor. After checking to make sure there was no dust on it, he closed it and gently placed it back in his hand. He gave him a reassuring look with his gentle eyes, then swept the same gaze over the others and smiled.
"It's just a casual chat. I hope it won't affect your work."
"No, no, no, it won't, it won't!"
The few of them shook their heads vigorously, heaving a sigh of relief, and returned to their work.
But it was as if they had pressed the fast-forward button. They all quickened their movements, racing against time, all wanting to leave this "place of trouble" that made their hearts pound as soon as possible.
It could only be said that what Lin Wei had just said was truly earth-shattering...
Lin Wei quietly watched from the side as Otto easily handled this trivial interlude and smiled.
"Your Excellency is indeed deeply loved."
His tone was once again calm and composed, as if the contemptuous tone from before was just a forgotten illusion.
Otto also replied calmly, "Hehe, after being the Overseer for five hundred years, there are bound to be some changes."
A seemingly ordinary sentence, yet it was also an invisible response to Lin Wei's contemptuous words from before—five hundred years, there are bound to be some changes...
"What a pity."
Lin Wei said. This was the first time he had said this word, but it was unclear what he was regretting.
"Hehe, I'm afraid that the more glamorous it looks at this moment, the more ugly and unbearable it looks in Your Excellency's eyes, right?"
Otto spread his arms slightly and smiled.
"After all, a five-hundred-year-old clown, after performing on stage for a long time for his own amusement, will only become an even more ridiculous clown."
It was a vicious taunt that denigrated himself to the dust, yet he said it so frankly, so naturally, as if he were not the actor on stage, but a theater critic standing below...
"Yes, ugly to the extreme."
Lin Wei said faintly, then gave Otto a deep look and asked in an extremely calm tone, "Allow me to ask you out of curiosity—what does it feel like to achieve something five hundred years later that you should have done back then?"
There was no trace of sarcasm in his tone, yet it left Otto exceptionally silent for a moment.
"..."
Otto remained silent. Lin Wei's casual words were undoubtedly the greatest affirmation of him, but at the same time, they were also the greatest negation of him.
He could finally do what he should have done five hundred years ago, but in the end, it was five hundred years too late...
No, it wasn't five hundred years, not even five. Just a few short years after Kallen's death, he had gone from being a lone exile to holding the banner of Saint Kallen, leading the rebel army into Kolosten, overthrowing the corrupt and stinking old Schicksal, being crowned as the Overseer of Schicksal, and continuing to this day.
And the five hundred years since then had been more of a retribution for himself. The greater his achievements, the more he looked like a ridiculous and laughable clown...
If he had learned from his shame and then become brave, completely shouldering the responsibilities of the Overseer of Schicksal, wholeheartedly paving the way for the future of humanity, and atoning for his past mistakes with a hundred times the effort, then the deceased Kallen would have been extremely gratified, and Lin Wei would naturally have thought more highly of him.
But unfortunately, he had taken a completely opposite path—using everything he had seized to frantically fill the tiny, yet bottomless, void in his heart.
He wanted Kallen to return to his side, but his actual actions were making him drift further and further away from Kallen.
What a pity...
"Mr. Otto, you disappointed Kallen to the extreme back then. In her heart, you, with whom she grew up and spent her days, were not even as important as a mountain girl she met by chance when she was wandering in the Far East."
Lin Wei no longer even called him "Overseer," and said in a thunderous tone, "If you really think that I am qualified to be friends with Kallen, then what makes you think that this person, who is qualified to be Kallen's companion, would be able to look up to you?"
"..."
The surrounding staff finished their work one after another, hastily, and then fled this place as if escaping a disaster. They didn't want to stay for a second longer next to these two "big shots" who were clearly not right in the head and were very likely to cause a major incident. They cried out in their hearts, "I'm going to die!"
"Heh, so I've started to make others wary of me without even realizing it?"
Lin Wei suddenly burst out laughing. He looked at his hands, which were no different from usual, and smiled.
"Not long ago, I was no different from them, even far inferior. At least I wasn't even qualified to enter the gates of Schicksal from birth."
"...Hehe, yes, in just one short year, Your Excellency has gone from having nothing to being able to openly despise the Schicksal Overseer. This is indeed an amazing progress."
Otto's expression had already returned to calm and his usual smile, but he sighed again.
"What a pity..."
What they were regretting seemed to be completely different, yet also completely the same.
"If the you from five hundred years ago had met the me from a year ago, there probably would have been a time when we would have had some common ground, and even walked a not-so-short path together."
Lin Wei no longer looked at Otto, but raised his head to look at the distant sky and said calmly and firmly, "But that would just be huddling together for warmth. As time goes by, as we embark on our respective life paths, one day, we will completely part ways."
Two souls lacking confidence would encourage each other for a while.
But, a person who only looks to the future, and a person who is forever trapped in the phantom of the past, will eventually go their separate ways—like the irreparable break between Kallen and Otto back then...
"Hehe, yes, you're right."
Otto smiled and said, "You are a radiant hero, and I am just a despicable villain. How could a hero be willing to associate with a villain?"
It was just unclear whether he was thinking of the resolute back of the person who had left him with the box five hundred years ago, or the grateful fist that had knocked him to the ground in New York. Or perhaps he wasn't thinking of anyone, just wanting to mock himself, to mock others.
The person with the highest achievement in this world is just a ridiculous clown, a villain who has persecuted heroes time and time again—is there a more ridiculous drama in the world?
"A hero? Hehe..."
Lin Wei sneered and said, "The most absurd thing about this world is that so-called 'justice' is not a weapon, but a chain that binds one's hands and feet, a sword that allows others to hurt oneself at will."
The sneer on Lin Wei's lips did not diminish.
"Good people are always held at gunpoint, scrutinized with a magnifying glass, even a microscope. Once they do something that doesn't meet expectations, it's 'losing their ideals,' 'disappointing.' The higher the banner of 'justice' is raised, the easier it is to become a target for attack, the fewer means and tools you can use, and the higher the probability of being defeated."
At this point, the mocking smile on Lin Wei's face became even more unrestrained.
"And the most desperate thing is that all of this does not affect 'bad people' at all—because, whatever bad things bad people do, it's all natural, expected, and not surprising in the slightest."
Just like Lin Wei, he could sit down and talk business with the World Serpent, who truly treated human life as grass, but he would also seize upon Anti-Entropy's moral flaws and look down on them. It was because the fools of Anti-Entropy could really be held at gunpoint...
But even so, when enraged, Lin Wei would not hesitate to use guns and blood to demand an explanation from the World Serpent. And when it was not necessary, Lin Wei would not let himself appear in Anti-Entropy's field of vision, keeping a relatively distant and safe distance from each other.
Compared to being a good person and a "hero" who is bullied, it's better to be a not-so-bad bad person. Or rather, a good person who is worse than a bad person...
"Hehe, but even so, Mr. Lin is still unwilling to associate with a villain like me. It's inevitably regrettable."
Otto said.
"A villain? Hehe, the word you use to describe yourself is indeed appropriate."
Lin Wei raised his hand and pointed to a floor-to-ceiling window three stories high behind him and smiled.
"On the one hand, you speak with sincere emotion, repeatedly saying 'regret'; on the other hand, you use your own Valkyries as hostages to threaten—Your Excellency's every word and action is indeed worthy of this evaluation of yourself."