The Heartthrob Guide: Dodder of S-Class Sentinels

Chapter 288 His Picture
Lin Nan pressed her heart in discomfort. No wonder the higher the level of the sentinel, the more difficult it is to tame. Even though Hosen was already hers, this mental landscape that had been corrupted for many years still could not accept her for a while. She had just entered and had already experienced a rejection reaction!
Here, her mood would become very low, and every breath she took would be filled with heavy sorrow.

The surrounding air seemed to be stained with sorrow, making her heart grow even heavier.

Fortunately, Hossen has not been completely alienated, and these sad and depressed emotions are not an infection.

Cheer up!
Lin Nan slapped her cheeks hard. Her vision was blurry, and the gloomy scene in front of her was intertwined with the despair in her heart.

The wind still howled in her ears, as if mocking her overestimation of her abilities.

It was at this moment that she smelled the wind amidst the raging sand.

Lin Nan looked up and saw a tornado appearing at the horizon where the desert met the sky!

The tornado was black, like a vicious dragon winding its way out of hell, spinning wildly and snarling away, leaving dust and sand everywhere it passed, blotting out the sun and carrying an aura of world destruction.

Get out of here, don't stay here—

Before she knew it, the vines that had reappeared were issuing an urgent warning, urging her on one by one.

That was an emotional storm; if you got caught up in it, the consequences would be dire.

This won't do; she finally managed to get in here.

She must find the director here.

but--

How should she begin...?

In the instant Lin Nan was stunned, the black storm had already moved in front of her. Lin Nan lost her balance and was swept into the sky.

The wind, carrying yellow sand, brought a suffocating sense of oppression. She lost her footing and was suddenly lifted into the air.

The raging wind carried a pungent stench, along with countless fragments of his mind like trash—bloody scenes from his missions, painful memories of being electrocuted, and countless chaotic thoughts arising from the loss of control over his guide hormones.

These fragments, like sharp shards of glass, constantly scraped against her senses, causing her to furrow her brow and feel a stinging pain in her mental energy.

She tried to use her mental energy to stabilize her body, but found that the chaotic energy in the wind kept interfering with her.

Hosen's subconscious seemed to be resisting, or perhaps crying for help. The tornado would sometimes throw her high into the air, and sometimes pull her towards the center with a force, as if struggling repeatedly between "pushing" and "pulling". The yellow sand in her entire mental landscape began to churn violently.

Lin Nan gritted her teeth, enduring the discomfort in her senses, and tried to open her eyes in the howling wind.

She looked around at the dense, varied fragments of memories and took a deep breath.

Stay calm and don't let these things distract you!
Lin Nan kept reassuring herself that this was a spiritual world, and as long as she was strong enough, nothing could actually harm her!
She wanted to understand the director's past, to understand his true inner thoughts, and to get closer to him.

As soon as this thought arose, the surrounding storm seemed to lessen somewhat. She subconsciously reached out and waved her hand, and the spiritual energy in her palm spread out with her will.

The next second, those originally chaotic and flying gray fragments suddenly seemed to be drawn by an invisible force, spreading out layer by layer inside the tornado, gradually condensing into a faintly glowing staircase leading to the sky.

On each step, there were faintly imprinted fragments of images, like a microcosm of Hosen's memories. Was this... a signal for her to go up?
Lin Nan paused for a moment, then stepped onto the steps.

She climbed upwards step by step, as if walking on the long yet short road of Hosen's life.

Those past events that he had once kept hidden in his heart are now unfolding before his eyes little by little as she walks by, revealing both dazzling light and blood-soaked darkness.

There was his childhood, when he differentiated into two S-class students and was hailed as a genius; there was also his teenage years, when he was spirited and unruly, challenging older students...

But the higher you go, the heavier the hue of the memories becomes.

Most of the footage focuses on his days after he joined the army.

In the deserted city filled with yellow sand, he fought the aliens in close combat, his blade slicing through their shells, the dark green liquid splashing onto his blood-stained combat uniform, but it did not affect the speed of his sword swings at all; in the icy and polluted polar region, to cover his teammates' retreat, his back was torn open by the aliens' claws, blood soaking through his cold-weather suit, but he gritted his teeth and held on until the last teammate was safely evacuated.

Every memory is steeped in bloodshed, and even the air seems to be filled with the lingering smell of rust.

He was born into an aristocratic family and could have taken shortcuts by relying on his family's protection, but he insisted on starting from the bottom and earning countless merits and honors through hard battles and injuries.

When Lin Nan could see the person in the picture clearly again, the boy's immaturity had long since faded. The man was wearing a crisp military uniform, and his eyes and brows were filled with composure and sharpness. His aura had also become restrained yet powerful.

That was the first time she had seen him as "Director Hosen".

Lin Nan stopped on this step, her face slightly flushed as she looked at the man in the picture who was staring at her.

He's such an outstanding man, it's hard not to be attracted to him.

She reached out, wanting to touch that gentle silhouette of youth she had never seen before. But when her fingertips touched the image, they passed right through it, only touching a cool, ethereal spiritual fluctuation, grasping nothing at all.

Lin Nan felt as if the air around her was rippling, and the memory fragment was magnified, instantly engulfing her vision.

In the vast emptiness of her mind, a heavy, labored breathing sound drifted in, carrying a suppressed pain, and entered her ears.

She was stunned for a moment, then belatedly realized that she was no longer a "bystander" in the memory, but had truly entered into this past.

The surroundings were thick darkness, with only a faint sliver of moonlight seeping in through the cracks, illuminating the figure in the corner.

That was the young man, Huo Sen, who was just coming of age. He wasn't wearing a crisp military uniform, but only simple civilian clothes. He had curled himself up tightly, hugging his knees with his arms, and burying his head in his arms.

The heavy breathing was coming from his throat, as if he was trying his best to endure something.

Lin Nan approached quietly and noticed the cold sweat on his forehead and his clenched knuckles, which were white. His mental energy was fluctuating violently, clearly indicating that he was in some kind of painful disorder, but he did not utter a single cry for help, and was just enduring it alone in the darkness.

Seeing his clearly vulnerable yet stubbornly defiant appearance, Lin Nan felt a slight pang in her heart, but unconsciously blurted out a slightly teasing remark: "How pitiful, is the stray cat in heat...?"

She was stunned as soon as she said it.

(End of this chapter)