Lin Xi wandered alone inside the Apollo spaceship.

It's quiet here, but also quite run-down.

Everywhere there were loose pipes that had become rickety due to lack of maintenance, and instrument parts scattered haphazardly on the ground.

The lighting fixtures were covered in dust and had long since stopped working.

Alien golden-red light streamed in through the viewing window, leaving streaks of light on the mottled, rusty floor.

This place is deserted and has long been abandoned.

But this deathly silence did not terrify Lin Xi; on the contrary, it even brought him peace.

He wandered around the wreckage of the spaceship like a lost soul, and finally, with a slight thought, he stopped in front of a metal door that was almost completely buried by years of dust.

He looked at the sign next to the door, which read "Helios Indoor Greenhouse".

Lin Xi gently pushed the door, and the metal door, which should have stopped working, slid open smoothly and silently to one side.

Most of the plants from Sunu in the greenhouse had withered and died, their blackish-gray branches resembling the unwilling fingertips of a skeleton reaching out.

Right in the center of those withered branches and fallen leaves, the man stood there calmly, as if he had been waiting for Lin Xi there for many years.

I'm dreaming again.

Lin Xi thought.

He knew it was a dream; he realized it the instant he saw the man.

Because he knew very well that the man in front of him could never exist in reality.

Similarly, only in dreams would that man gaze at him with such eyes.

Ah, that's wonderful.

Lin Xi greedily traced the other person's face with his eyes.

His skin was as pale as marble, and the blue of his irises was mesmerizing.

His overly handsome face gave him a sense of unreality, but when he smiled, the irrepressible tenderness instantly pulled him back to reality.

Just as I remembered, the man was tall and strong, wearing an old shirt, and walked step by step toward Lin Xi.

Lin Xi stared unabashedly at the man's face, having avoided thinking about him for so long.

But since it was already a dream... Lin Xi allowed himself to be a little unrestrained. He was too tired, and all his self-control had collapsed.

At this point, it doesn't matter if this is a nightmare.

At least in this dream, he was finally able to see the other person again.

“Savill…”

Lin Xi called his name softly.

Saville winked at him, and he was already in front of Lin Xi. Then he leaned over and took Lin Xi's hand.

Lin Xi trembled the moment he touched her.

He thought he would touch the hands of a dead man... just like in those countless nightmares at the beginning, when he saw Savile, but when he touched him, he could only feel the cold, dry skin of a dead man, as inelastic as plastic sheeting.

Then he would wake up crying.

But soon, the warmth from the man's palm made Lin Xi relax.

These are the hands of a living person.

Even knowing it was a dream, Lin Xi couldn't help but feel her eyes well up with tears after realizing this.

Saville's hands were long and strong. He stroked Lin Xi's fingertips and then slowly pressed them into his palm.

Lin Xi felt a slight stinging pain.

He lowered his eyes and noticed a faint wound on his palm, a result of his frantic grip on the hammer earlier—Lin Xi vaguely thought.

His dream seemed to be getting more and more hazy, he thought to himself.

Because in his line of sight, Savile was looking down and carefully examining the wound on his palm.

Then, the man's expression turned worried.

He held Lin Xi's hand in his hands and pressed it against his face, as if he were comforting her.

Lin Xi's body trembled slightly.

He felt a sharp pain.

Ah, it was a dream.

Every move Saville makes now makes him realize this.

Because Savile would never do something so intimate and childlike to him.

Seemingly noticing Lin Xi's stiffness, Saville suddenly looked up at him.

"I want to...protect you...I...I love you..."

A hoarse, dry voice escaped from Saville's lips, like a phonograph that had been broken for a long time.

Lin Xi's breath hitched.

"What should I do... what should I do to make you love me?"

Gradually, Savile's voice became more and more fluent.

Behind him, something else was gradually unfolding.

"I love you, Lin Xi. What can I do to make you fall in love with me? What can I do to protect you?"

Soon, Saville spoke as if he were a normal person, without any awkwardness.

But Lin Xi had no way to answer him.

Lin Xi stared intently at the man in front of her—this was not Saville.

This is a... bug...

Lin Xi's eyes widened as he watched as the wings behind "Saville" turned into a strange and distorted color. In the unusually dim environment, the light spots on the wings were faintly shimmering with a scarlet fluorescence.

Immediately afterwards, pitch-black appendages emerged directly from both sides of "Savill's" ribs, their sharp, barbed tips piercing through the human's muscles and skin, and foul-smelling viscous fluid gushed out from the wounds.

And "Saville" was still giving him a gentle smile.

His cheek was slashed open, and a hideous mouth protruded from beneath his red gums.

"No, it's okay, don't be afraid."

The monster was still comforting Lin Xi, seemingly oblivious to the strange changes happening to it.

"You don't need to worry about anything... I will protect you, I will love you... I will always be by your side."

It said.

Lin Xi shivered.

He suddenly realized that "Saville" was not actually speaking human language.

Instead...

...