"Lin, do you have any dreams you want to achieve in the future?"
Sakura placed the rice bowl on the table and handed the silent man the chopsticks. He took them, pondered for a few seconds, and shook his head: "Defeat the Honkai."
"That's not your dream, that's humanity's." Sakura sat opposite him, also picking up her chopsticks. "If you don't have one yet, you should think about it now."
"...It's meaningless. If humanity doesn't defeat the Honkai..."
"I know. If humanity doesn't defeat the Honkai, there is no future to speak of."
"Then why are you still..."
"But preparing for the future first is also the human way, isn't it?" Sakura smiled and put some food into Lin bowl. "You always used to say you wanted to just live out your life casually. Now you are different from before. Do you have a new idea?"
Hearing Sakura say this, Lin silently pondered. After eating most of his rice bowl without realizing it, he finally looked up again: "I guess I still want to... live out my life casually."
"...Pfft, agh, cough, cough."
Sakura couldn't help but laugh out loud at Lin serious statement, nearly choking on her rice. She stopped coughing only after drinking three cups of water, but still couldn't stop smiling.
"Is that wrong?"
"No, no, I didn't mean to mock you." Sakura denied Lin assertion. She said without hesitation, "I think it's excellent."
"…"
"Because those weren't words you casually said to humor me, Lin. You only speak this way after serious consideration. The fact that you can still articulate your former dream is quite remarkable."
Sakura stared at Lin expressionless face, as if seeing the person who always smiled before: "Humans don't all need to have grand ideals and dreams. If they did, they wouldn't be human anymore."
Her words were a bit convoluted, but Lin knew what she meant.
Humans are mostly a species that can only see what is in front of them, rarely considering the distant future. The vastly different thinking abilities of each individual mean that humanity will always be in this state, unable to evolve into a more perfect organism.
Even two people raised in the same environment, of the same gender, and with the same opportunities, would have fundamentally different ideologies.
Great things are for great people to do, and small things are for small people to do. Many people think and act this way.
"...Someone once proposed a hypothesis."
Lin did not respond to her statement, instead switching to another seemingly unrelated topic.
"If the minds of humans were integrated into a single mind, transforming from a varied plural entity into a super-individual with the thinking capacity of seven billion minds, would that be considered the ultimate evolution?"
"And after this hypothesis was proposed, after a period of development, a new hypothesis emerged: if humans removed the emotional center and implanted identical thought processes, would that be considered the completion of the transition from collective to individual?"
"This hypothesis is known as the Giant Hypothesis. The individual formed by the unification of human consciousness is the perfect being that overlooks the entire planet, the 'Giant.'"
Lin calmly explained this arguably insane hypothesis. He shoveled two mouthfuls of rice into his mouth, chewed, swallowed, and met Sakura gaze.
"What do you think... of it?"
"...What do I think?" Sakura tilted her head, raising an eyebrow. "The unification of human consciousness... does that mean no distinction between you and me?"
"The knowledge of a child and a scientist would be exchanged equally. Every human would use the same logical framework and possess the same knowledge base." Lin scooped chicken meat from the soup into his bowl. "Rather than being a creature, it is more like this bowl of soup. Every drop of the liquid constitutes the entire bowl of soup, but we don't separate every drop. We view the soup as a whole."
"There would be no barrier between individuals. Those who were once unable to understand each other could reach consensus. Efficiency would increase, and flaws would be corrected... Because only when there is only one human left in the world can that person be a genuine good person."
Lin narrated coldly. Every word he spoke seemed devoid of emotion, and his tone suggested he didn't merely treat it as a hypothesis.
Should one choose the burden of a majority that is largely superfluous, riddled with countless contradictions and various undesirable differences, or choose perfect uniformity?
As a scientist, and one who seeks to save humanity from suffering, he couldn't view this choice from a personal perspective. He had to stand from the perspective of "humanity."
In that case, the answer was obvious.
"Lin, I wanted to ask, did you propose this hypothesis..." Sakura sighed softly after scrutinizing Lin for a long time.
"It has a more ancient prototype, which can be traced back to myths... But if you are asking about the Giant Hypothesis, then yes, I proposed it," Lin ate the dishes in his bowl, his speech clear. "I believe... humanity can complete the evolution part of the Giant Hypothesis. At that time, perhaps the Honkai wouldn't even need to be defeated; it would simply disappear."
"Does it sound cruel?" he asked.
However, unexpectedly, Sakura shook her head with relief, covering her mouth and chuckling: "How can something that won't happen be judged as cruel?"
"...I might have done it."
"But by asking if it is cruel, you have already acknowledged that it is a cruel thing. Otherwise, you wouldn't call it a hypothesis; you would call it a 'plan.'"
Sometimes, her understanding of him was too deep. It didn't seem to be an entirely good thing.
However, she was right. Lin did not intend to do that.
"Redefining humanity and then allowing that redefined humanity to survive—such an approach is no different from the Honkai." Lin looked out the window, as if searching for the thunder of Nagazora City. "Humans are all different individuals. After the unification of consciousness, they might be a perfect being, but they would no longer be human."
"Alright, alright, my kind-hearted Dr. Lin. Now, eat quickly."
"...Of course, if consciousness were unified, I wouldn't be able to eat your cooking, nor would I have the ideal of living a casual life. Based on this alone, I wouldn't do it." Lin smiled, a rare expression that he exhibited only a handful of times since becoming the leader of Falling Star.
A creature without emotion might travel very far, reaching a shore beyond human reach.
But the beings he wished to save were not such creatures. They were simply human beings.