This World's Scapegoat—a special type of NPC that appears in many works of fiction.
A character born to take the blame.
A representative figure would be Konoha's Scapegoat from Naruto, oops, I mean Konoha's Root♂, Shimura Danzo.
"Orochimaru's human experiments? I, Danzo, supported them."
"The Uchiha clan massacre? I, Danzo, ordered it."
"The person who pushed the originally righteous Akatsuki organization to turn evil? It was also I, Danzo!"
...
"A sow from a Konoha villager's home is pregnant..."
Uh, if they can't find the corresponding boar, then it was probably, maybe, possibly also the work of Mr. Danzo of the Root.
In short, within a given fictional universe, any misdeed that cannot be explained or for which the true culprit cannot be found can generally be pinned on the head of a "This World's Scapegoat," as represented by Danzo.
And in the world of Honkai, who could shoulder this heavy responsibility?
The answer, naturally, is a certain Mr. O who wishes to remain anonymous.
The center of this current incident—Luna Kindred—can inject bacterial-type Honkai Beasts into a victim's body through the act of blood-sucking, transforming them into a half-human, half-Honkai beast within 48 hours.
The infected, parasitized by these bacterial Honkai Beasts, become puppets who share a life force with A-872 and possess an insatiable urge for blood.
The aforementioned Mr. O, in a sudden flash of inspiration, speculated that these bacterial Honkai Beasts might also be effective on the deceased. He thus had A-872 drink Kallen's blood, "reviving" her through this form of "vampiric pact."
And then—
The revived Kallen, in order to fulfill A-872's wish to "see the outside world," decided to escape the laboratory with Luna Kindred.
The certain Mr. O, who could practically achieve sainthood on the path of the simp, naturally wouldn't stop his goddess from running off with his test subject. He simply turned a blind eye as Luna Kindred and Kallen left the lab.
However, the human world triggered A-872's intense bloodlust. Once A-872, unable to suppress her urges, began sucking blood everywhere, numerous infected were created.
This was the crisis facing Canghai City.
It was also the problem that the long-absent system needed him to solve in this rare, newly issued mission.
Handling a task like this, one that couldn't exactly see the light of day and would damage Schicksal's reputation if exposed, was not something that should be known by too many people.
Therefore, Li Zihan had no desire to bring a teammate along and planned to act alone.
Yes, it was all to protect Schicksal's reputation.
It was definitely not because his usual teammates were almost all girls, and he was worried they would get jealous and call him to account after seeing him interact with his officially designated wife, Miss Luna Kindred.
With this thought in mind, the young man, who could be described as so shamelessly straightforward, bid farewell to Miss Rita. He then returned to Chaldeas alone and took a helicopter to Canghai City in Shenzhou.
But—
What was going on?
Standing on a street in Canghai City, the young man stared at the temporary teammate before him and fell into deep thought.
It was a girl who bore a strong resemblance to Yae Sakura.
She wore a white shirt and a pink plaid skirt in a very JK-style fashion.
Her eyes were blue, and she had long, sakura-pink hair tied into a ponytail.
The bangs were colored red.
Very beautiful fox ears stood erect on her head.
A fluffy tail swayed behind her, like a cloud blending pink and red.
"Ling, how did you get out?"
The young man's expression was slightly stunned as he looked at the girl who had suddenly used the power of the Core to erode reality and appear in the human world.
He had always kept the former Herrscher of Erosion inside the Herrscher Core within his body. But this big sister, who hadn't yet lost her intellect, had always been very well-behaved.
Why had she suddenly popped out today?
Hearing the bastard's voice, Ling's face instantly darkened.
Because she had previously tried to interrupt this scum from carrying Miss Mei to bed, she had taken a hit from Fenghuang Down...
She had been knocked completely unconscious.
If it weren't for the aura of another's power of Erosion in the outside world stimulating her, she would probably still be out cold.
"I just discovered something... that piqued my interest."
The little fox, awakened by the power of Erosion, looked at the bastard who had personally knocked her out and was now calmly chatting with her. She suppressed the urge to beat him violently and stated her reason for appearing.
She had sensed it.
In this city, there was the aura of her kin.
But—
Ling had never created any kin in this era.
She had barely even used the power of Erosion, so where would any kin come from?
That made the origin of this kin very suspicious.
"Hey, Scum-Li, did you use my authority to do something a human shouldn't do again?"
The girl, who couldn't understand when she had gained a kin, and a kin's kin at that, narrowed her eyes, staring at the bastard who treated troublemaking as a daily routine.
"What do you mean, 'not something a human would do'?"
The young man, bound by the hero system, was suddenly displeased by her words.
"Hey, hey, hey, I'm the Light of Schicksal, the reformer of World Serpent, an out-and-out hero, alright?"
"Hah?"
"A hero? You?"
Hearing his utterly shameless self-praise, Ling's azure eyes widened.
"Can you recall everything you've done before spouting such nonsense?"
"My heart and actions are utterly unclouded. They are all those of 'Justice'."
The young man, who had formulated a bunch of awesome-sounding plans, very naturally quoted the famous words of the President.
"..."
Ling fell silent.
Having spent a long time inside the Jizo Mitama and the Core of Erosion, she was actually the person in this world who understood Li Zihan the best.
Those plans he had made...
Were basically all for the sake of taking advantage of situations and farming favorability points with girls.
The Artificial Herrscher Project was purely an excuse to build his harem and to help the girls increase their strength.
Establishing Chaldeas was to get Divine Keys from Otto and to resolve the inner turmoil of several girls.
And the origin of the so-called Fire-Moth Project was simply because he disliked fighting and chose to sign a pact to recruit fighters and tool-men.
...
This guy had never once seriously resisted the Honkai from beginning to end.
Ling was certain of this.
He was an even bigger slacker than Otto!
But this master slacker was actually calling himself a hero...
Ling seemed to understand a certain saying.
A tree without bark will surely die; a person without shame is invincible.
"Forget it, let's not talk about this."
Ling, who was truly defeated by the thickness of his skin, sighed.
"We'll have to split up for now."
"I have to go find my kin."
As God's Herald, who symbolized Erosion, her kin would basically also possess the ability to erode.
If left unchecked, it would definitely cause a huge mess.
"You don't need to go to all that trouble, Ling."
The young man, who had a rough idea of who the kin Ling was talking about was, casually placed a hand on the shoulder of Ling, who had just turned around.
"I already have a good idea of how to find your kin."