"…It's okay now, Mike."
Looking at his colleagues in front of him, Lin Yu said to Mike.
"Rest assured. You are not combatants. Leave the following matters to me."
“…Ha, that’s right.”
"but......"
At this moment, Lin Yu saw an unconcealable fatigue in the eyes of Mike, who was already an acquaintance in front of him.
"The opponent is Lord Otto... Otto Apokalis, that old bastard."
"Can you really win?"
"You can win."
At this time, Lin Yu did not seem to be answering Mike, but rather talking to himself as if he was giving a self-suggestion.
"You can win."
"Because I'm the strongest."
"Well, then, I will rest in peace."
In the next moment, all the members of Sage, including Mike, punched him hard at the same time.
In order to prevent themselves, who were already weak, from continuing to cause trouble for the strongest knight, they all decisively knocked themselves out on the spot.
Looking at the actions of the people in front of him, Lin Yu felt that the anger in his heart was about to be completely suppressed.
They are all people who are willing to risk their lives to fight against Honkai. That is why they chose to knock themselves out during the civil strife so that they could not continue to cause trouble if they might hinder Lin Yu.
And the reason why everyone like this is desperate...
——Otto Apokalis, I will never forgive you, the traitor who played with the feelings of everyone in Tianming!
"Yeah, nice momentum."
Just after these colleagues had knocked themselves unconscious, a woman slowly walked out of the corridor and appeared in front of everyone.
"Xiao Lin, it seems that you listened to what I said in the bar that day."
Looking at his mentor who appeared in front of him, Lin Yu did not choose to respond to his words.
But facing Lin Yu's rude behavior, the ghost said expressionlessly.
"Now, do you know what you should do?"
Theresa, who had no idea what the two were talking about, could clearly feel that the atmosphere on the scene had become worse than before.
Xiola and Rita, who had vaguely sensed something, chose to shut up at the same time and left the scene to the master and apprentice Lin Yu and Ghost.
"Ghost teacher, you...are desperate."
"Yes."
After admitting this matter very frankly, Ghost said to Lin Yu.
"In order to fight against Honkai, all of us in Tianming have been busy for so long, and some of our comrades have even sacrificed their lives for it."
"And then, just today, Otto told us all that he had been letting the Honkai develop for five hundred years."
"The mission we risked our lives to complete may very likely be helping him to allow the collapse to develop. When you think about this, do you think I can still look at everything calmly and objectively as before?"
“…It’s difficult.”
At this moment, Lin Yu faced the ghost that was slowly walking towards him. After hesitating for a moment...
——He punched through the ghost’s body directly.
Following Lin Yu's action, he forcefully dug the core out of the ghost's body before the core escaped from his sight, and used the power of the Ruler of Constraint to temporarily inactivate the core.
At the same time, Lin Yu did not dare to be careless and used powerful healing techniques to immediately heal the ghost's body.
However, he still had some things he wanted to ask the ghost.
Therefore, while completing the treatment, Lin Yu activated the slide barrier, pulling his own consciousness and the ghost's consciousness into the illusion at the same time.
In the illusion, the ghost, who had regained his self-awareness, became obviously much more relaxed than before.
"Ha, Xiaolin, you little brat actually has such a strange ability hidden."
Looking at Lin Yu with a heavy expression in front of him, the ghost said to Lin Yu with a smile.
"You're not a good kid, you're hiding so many things from the teacher."
"Um, sorry, ghost teacher."
"Okay, no need to apologize, you did great."
After the playful expression on his face disappeared, a somewhat complicated expression appeared on the ghost's face.
"To be honest, I just thought you were a talented kid but had mental problems, so I wanted to correct the distortion in your heart by taking me as my apprentice."
"But now it seems...I am an unqualified teacher."
"Not only did I not realize that the problem in your heart has become more serious, but I was deceived by you, even until now..."
"——I have no choice but to let my disciple bear these responsibilities that he does not need to bear."
"...I took these responsibilities on my own initiative."
Facing his mentor's words that were a mixture of relief and regret, Lin Yu spoke calmly.
"I am now the strongest person in the destiny, and I am also a member of the tribe that holds the title of [Bishop-Apokalis]."
"Since I am the strongest person in the destiny and a member of the bishop clan, then I should naturally shoulder the responsibilities that the strongest person in the destiny and the bishop clan must bear."
"Otto is a piece of trash who has abandoned his responsibilities as a bishop. Now, I will get rid of this trash and get Destiny back on track."
"It's just that right now, I'm more curious than these things - Teacher, when did you start to have the idea of deceiving Houkai?"
Just as Lin Yu said, in Lin Yu's opinion, Ghost's previous actions were obviously intended to deceive Honkai.
Otherwise, once Ghost really becomes the Ruler of Rule, with her intelligence network and her own authority over destiny intelligence, she could easily cause a far more terrible turmoil than anyone else.
However, after Ghost became the Ruler of Rule, she was already "desperate" and immediately came to Theresa's office, ready to make this kind of surrender-like move.
This is obviously not something a person whose body and mind are truly controlled by Honkai would do.
"Ah, let me think... Let's start from the day when Otto's sneak attack on me failed."
Recalling what happened that day, the ghost said with a little emotion.
"Actually, I was feeling a little hopeless before you rescued me."
"The boss I once trusted betrayed me and everyone else, and we were just pawns in his hands to realize his ambitions."
"At that time, I kept asking myself - are the efforts and sacrifices of my comrades really meaningful?"
Listening to the ghost's words, Lin Yu did not interrupt the other party's plan.
Even a time traveler like him who knew Otto's true nature, almost became a Herrscher out of despair after seeing the reality in Changkong City.
Then it is natural for Valkyrie like Ghost, who has been working for Otto, and other colleagues of Destiny to feel despair after realizing what kind of person Otto is and learning the cruel truth.
"But I soon realized that I was almost getting carried away."
At this moment, Ghost's face was full of determination.
"I am not fighting for Otto Apokalis, I am fighting to fight the Honkai and save the world."
"He is a beast. He hindered us and betrayed us. We should do our best to defeat him - just like we tried to defeat Houkai."
"There's nothing wrong with our desire to fight the Honkai, so since we're on the right track, we just need to keep moving forward."
"As long as you keep moving forward, the road will continue to expand, so before you defeat the collapse..."
"——I will never stop."
After saying these words, the ghost immediately put on a relaxed expression and said to Lin Yu.
"Okay, don't be so serious. I don't know if you can use it, but I'll quickly tell you how I got this core."
"After realizing that Otto was unreliable, I began to wonder where the Herrscher would take action next."
"Then I thought about it for a long time..."
"——Except for Plague, the other three of the four great gems already have owners."
"And I definitely don't have the qualifications to become the Herrscher of Fire, otherwise Otto would have used me for experiments long ago."
"I don't have enough power, but I have a lot of information. If I become the Ruler of Rule, I can use the information I have and combine it with the ability of quantum entanglement to cause great disasters to the world."
"When I thought that I might have the qualifications, I started using the device that everyone in Tianming uses to watch past videos, and kept watching some images that made me feel uncomfortable."
"Then - I can consider myself successful. After all, after seeing so many unpleasant things, I have become even more 'desperate'."
"After sensing my despair, the Domination Core attached itself to me in the first place, probably because it saw my identity as the Chief of Intelligence."
"Under this situation, I have been hypnotizing myself all the time, and I don't know when I will really fall into despair. That's why I have to use this method to trap this core and rush to your side."
After listening to the ghost's narration, Lin Yu fell into silence.
In the original novel, Rialto also did this, using himself to lure the core of domination into taking the bait.
But in the original book, Otto came up with this idea after going through a lot of trouble.
Lin Yu really didn't expect that his mentor could come up with a similar method to trap the core of this moment just by looking at the information left in the Tianming headquarters.
Because the ghost herself was in despair, the core in her body did not escape before she fell into a coma.
But at the same time, although the ghost had some despair in her heart, these despair were more of a disguise, so she could still rely on self-hypnosis after "despair" to force herself to make the most correct choice and come to the vicinity of Theresa's office.
Even if Lin Yu did not arrive in time, Theresa could use the Key of Constraint to restrain a Ruler who had no desire to fight and looked very abnormal in the first place, thereby winning a core that could not escape for Destiny.
"As for what happens next... Haha, I still haven't adjusted my mindset, so in other words, I may still attract other cores out of desperation."
At this time, a sneer appeared on the ghost's face, and he said to Lin Yu very straightforwardly.
"And this situation will continue to occur in the Tianming headquarters, so Xiaolin, if you want to deal with the mess left by Otto, you must hurry up."
"Otherwise... maybe Rita will have to take your place and do something you definitely don't want to do."
"Yes, I know, teacher, you can rest in peace."
Before using the magic lantern barrier to make the ghost's spirit fall into a deep sleep, Lin Yu whispered to the ghost.
"Like I just said, I...will win."
"Because I am the strongest."
.......
As the conversation between Lin Yu and the ghost in the slide barrier ended, Lin Yu handed the ghost, who had fallen asleep in his arms, to Xiola, who had the weakest fighting ability among the crowd.
"Teacher Xiola, I'll leave the ghost teacher to you."
"Keep her safe, and after the task is completed——"
"Okay, no more words needed."
Seeing what Lin Yu was about to promise, Xiola said decisively.
"There's no need to promise anything. Now that things have come to this, you and I are in the same boat."
"You go and take care of Otto, and leave the rest to us. I just want a peaceful retirement, and I don't ask for anything else."
"Well, so good."
"Ayu."
Seeing Lin Yu staring at the Herrscher Core in his hand calmly, Rita asked with a little uneasiness.
"Have you not......"
"Don't worry about me, sis."
At this time, Lin Yu, amid the exclamations of the crowd, threw the core directly into his own mouth and released the seal of the core.
"It's a pity, but I have to face the reality now."
"Perhaps I am just such a fussy person. I am not able to be decisive in killing. If I don't deal with the cores in my colleagues at the Destiny Headquarters, I won't be able to fight with peace of mind."
“But you…!”
At this time, Rita looked at Lin Yu's behavior, which was almost suicidal in her eyes. Without saying a word, she took out Tianshuang's Skadi and put the sickle on Lin Yu's neck.
