Interlude: A Fantasy of Love

On the crowded street, Li Mo held a shopping bag in his left hand and grabbed Kevin's right hand, preventing him from reaching out to MEI. Kevin was not the target of the fantasy ghost. If he touched him, the fantasy ghost might undergo an unknown change. It was also very likely to trigger an unknown rule.

The fantasy ghost had eaten too many ghosts, which caused it to have many rules. If its inherent rules had not been triggered, suppressing other rules, Li Mo might have been brought into the illusion just by thinking, triggering the rule.

After sorting out his words, Li Mo thought that his previous words were wrong, so he added, "She's just a ghost, not MEI."

Li Mo's voice was calm, as if he were just talking about an insignificant matter.

"A ghost?"

"Not MEI?"

Kevin was stunned for a moment. He turned his head and looked at the crying MEI again. It was hard to imagine that she was the same person as the leader of the Fire Moth in the Previous Era.

At this moment, MEI, who was squatting on the ground and crying with her head in her hands, was too naive and simple compared to the leader who had led an era against the Honkai, had researched countless results, and had discovered five parallel truths.

Before joining Fire Moth, MEI had already raised her head to look at the bright starry sky. There was no romance or longing in her eyes that a young girl would have. She stretched out her hand, trying to touch that unreachable existence.

She said, "Every star in the sky is our enemy."

Recalling this, Kevin gave up the idea of bringing MEI back to World Serpent. He had originally wanted to let MEI enter the Elysian Realm to see everyone in the Elysian Realm, to see Elysia... wait... Elysia?

Kevin looked up and carefully looked at Li Mo, "You know Elysia."

"...This has nothing to do with you."

Li Mo's answer was still cold. He didn't want to get involved in the main storyline of the native world at all. He didn't have much time for vacation, and he didn't know when he would die in some paranormal incident.

Fighting against the Honkai... that wasn't his responsibility.

Li Mo passed Kevin and walked to MEI's side. He said with a blank face, "Get to work. Walk."

With that, he pulled up the crying MEI and was about to continue forward, trying to use the source to attract the derivative events of the fantasy ghost nearby.

Ghosts would subconsciously complete themselves, so MEI would definitely be able to find those ghosts related to her.

"Wait," Kevin called out to Li Mo.

Li Mo didn't understand, but he chose to stop, because things always needed to be solved. The first combat power under the end of the Honkai world suddenly talking to him was definitely not just to say hello.

Kevin quickly ran to a shop, bought a pack of tissues from the boss, and then came to Li Mo and MEI, who were holding hands, and threw the pack of tissues at Li Mo.

The small bag full of tissues was still in the air in an irregular parabola when Li Mo raised his hand and caught it tightly.

"What do you mean?" Li Mo asked.

"She's crying," Kevin's brows furrowed slightly. It was hard to understand why Li Mo would say such a thing.

Regardless of whether the other party was MEI or not, Kevin just couldn't accept her having a sad expression on that face.

Logically speaking, he suddenly threw out the tissues because he wanted Li Mo to help MEI wipe her tears. It was impossible for Li Mo not to realize this. But Li Mo's next answer made Kevin seriously doubt Li Mo's mental state.

Li Mo's face was calm, and he said carelessly, "So what? What does that have to do with me? She's the one who cried, not me who made her cry."

Kevin: "Do you know what you're saying? Tissues are for wiping tears. You're the reason she cried and broke down."

Li Mo: "You're wrong. She's crying because she has the emotions of a living person, not because of me."

MEI's essence was a ghost. In Li Mo's cognition, she shouldn't have cried. Crying was just because she had obtained everything from MEI. It was just a pity that this young MEI had not inherited MEI's wisdom and personality. Instead, she was particularly weak.

As soon as he walked away a little, she would squat on the ground and cry. He couldn't think of a reason at all. She was stupid. If she lived alone, she would not be able to take care of herself sooner or later.

"...Your answer disappoints me," Kevin's face was grim, and he stared straight at Li Mo.

"What does your disappointment have to do with me? She has nothing to do with you, and I have even less to do with you. You're the one who started this. If you feel disappointed, that's your own problem to consider, not to vent your emotions on me. I don't owe you anything."

"Let's go. Get to work properly before you completely fall into silence this time," Li Mo pulled MEI and walked out of the crowd.

The crowd began to boil. Although except for the young MEI, Li Mo and Kevin didn't care about the outside world's views, because they both had a grander blueprint in their hearts, which was far more important than the whispers of the marketplace.

"Oh, oh, oh, what kind of love triangle is this?"

"That black-haired boy is not good to the girl. He doesn't even bother to wipe her tears, but the girl still likes him and follows him. What is this? Why can't I find a girlfriend like this? Good-looking and sensible, having one of them is enough."

"The white-haired boy is very handsome and cares about the girl very much. He should like that girl, but he didn't get any response."

"I don't understand some of the conversations between the two boys, what about her, what about the emotions of a living person, they even brought up ghosts."

"Unrequited love, unrequited love, what a dog-blood drama. I'm going back to write a novel right away!"

Li Mo threw the tissues back and held MEI's hand as he walked away.

Kevin did not reach out to catch it. The tissues fell to the ground. He lowered his head, silent, thinking.

The people around him took out their phones to take pictures, but he didn't care. He just stood there quietly, slowly squatted down, and picked up the pack of tissues on the ground.

His handsome appearance and cold temperament soon attracted the attention of many passersby.

"Phew..."

He had indeed been a bit impulsive just now. That MEI might not be MEI, but why... did she give him a familiar feeling?

Also, that person...

Li Mo's figure appeared in Kevin's mind.

Abnormal.

From the conversation, Kevin could feel Li Mo's difference, but he was more inclined to think that the other party had a mental illness.

The young MEI had Stockholm syndrome. Even if she was bullied, she would only like the person who bullied her more.

As for the ghost Li Mo mentioned, it had been subconsciously ignored. After all, Kevin had never seen a—ghost—appear in the world he was in for fifty thousand years.

People always blindly believe their own judgments, especially when they receive absurd information beyond their cognition.

When disaster strikes, not everyone can stand up. Those who stand up may not become heroes. More often, they are just decaying corpses that no one cares about. When the wind blows, they scatter.

When happiness comes, not everyone can find their ideal other half. The one you find may not be the one you love. The one you love is often loved by others while also loving others.

"MEI... Elysia..." Kevin slowly murmured familiar names. Even if it was just a similar flower, seeing it with his own eyes could shake his state of mind.

"I'm going back."

"Anyway, not everyone is here."

Kevin put what had just happened to the back of his mind. He didn't want to recall it anymore. Now, he could only die with a clear conscience after completing the mission that the MEI of the Previous Era had given him.

MEI and Elysia were the two most important people in his heart.

At the same time, Pardofelis, who was sleeping soundly in her room with the window open and the bright sunlight shining on her cat's butt, suddenly woke up from a sweet dream and yawned heavily from a chill.

"Hmph..." Pardofelis sniffed. "I dreamed that I died when I opened the door in a parallel world. What a strange dream."

"But speaking of which, I'm a ghost. Why can I feel the cold? It's so strange. Whatever, it's such a good weather. It's a pity not to sleep. Let's continue to sleep!"

"Let Brother Mo handle the Bizarre things. With Brother Mo here, there will be no accidents~"

With that, Pardofelis stretched and continued to curl up and sleep on Elysia's big pink bed.

For a cat, the most beautiful thing was to have food to eat when hungry and to be able to sleep in the sun when sleepy.

Compared with her current life, the scarlet history of the past was simply a piece of shit. Although the pleasure of killing was indeed not bad, it was like taking drugs. It was easy to get addicted.

"Purr, purr..."

A low, faint sound came from Pardofelis's throat.

On the other side, Li Mo continued to wander with MEI, and finally found some clues that he could not find on his own.

A defective ghost.

That ghost was very well disguised. It seemed to have completely integrated into social life. Even the people around it couldn't recognize it and had no doubts about its identity.

If it weren't for the young MEI transformed by the fantasy ghost pointing it out, even Li Mo would have subconsciously thought that he was an ordinary living person.

After Li Mo was freed from this rule, he saw the true face of this ghost. It was a rotting, charred corpse.

All that was left was the flesh and blood that had been burned black. It flowed slowly like lava and then went back.

"So this ghost's ability is to make the people around it subconsciously think it's normal."

"It's a piece of your puzzle."

Li Mo glanced at MEI, "Let's make a deal. I'll help you subdue it and let you swallow it to complete yourself. You tell me the truth that MEI is hiding from me."

Against the young MEI, Li Mo could not use force, so he could only use a soft approach to persuade her.

"I..."

MEI cast a longing gaze at the ghost, swallowed her saliva, and instinctively wanted to swallow it.

This was a rule.

Rules at the level of consciousness could all be her puzzle pieces. She had many rules, but she had a huge flaw, which was that she couldn't make the chosen target subconsciously ignore her identity as a ghost.

If she could seize this rule... not only passersby, but even Li Mo would treat her as the real MEI! She might really be able to...

"..."

In terms of conspiracy and logic, Li Mo was naturally countless times more sensitive than he was in terms of emotion.

He had already guessed what the young MEI was thinking. Out of instinct, she would definitely ask him to help her suppress that ghost so that she could complete herself.

After she obtained the rule that made people ignore her true identity, she would use this rule to persuade him.

In this way, all she had to do was kill the real MEI to completely replace this MEI's identity.

But Li Mo had a trick up his sleeve. He couldn't let the fantasy ghost complete this rule. He just wanted to get out of her what MEI was hiding.

"Never... never mind... I don't want it anymore..."

MEI said so, although her eyes still couldn't hide the longing, her body was moving away, as if she had overcome the rule of completing herself.

Li Mo was stunned on the spot and asked, "Do you know what you're saying? I can give you a second chance."

"Yes." The second time, MEI's answer was more firm than the first, "I don't want to eat it."

"..."

It was "don't want," not "don't want to."

"Why?"

After thinking for a long time, Li Mo still couldn't come up with an answer, so he asked directly.

MEI shouldn't have said such a thing. Whether it was out of human selfishness or the rule of a ghost, she should have wanted to eat that ghost.

Faced with Li Mo's questioning, MEI lowered her head and did not dare to look Li Mo in the eye.

Her slender fingers reached out from the thick sleeve of her coat and held Li Mo's cuff tightly, pouting her small mouth.

MEI said in a voice as soft as a mosquito's buzzing, "Because if I say I want it, you will definitely kill me before I eat it... I don't want to die now. I want to spend more time with you... and die after you're done using me..."

Li Mo opened his mouth, but suddenly didn't know what he wanted to say.

The two stood on the street for a long time. The canopy above them blocked the sun. Li Mo and MEI stayed in the shadows, not covered by a single ray of light.

Li Mo did not take any action until the ghost gradually left.

He had already locked onto the aura of this ghost. The other party could not escape.

And what he needed to do most now was to figure out what the MEI transformed by the fantasy ghost was thinking. The young MEI had indeed inherited MEI's wisdom, but her personality made it so that this wisdom would not be easily shown.

"Even if you know, you shouldn't have said it. That way I wouldn't know your intentions," Li Mo said calmly.

For some reason, he took MEI to a milk tea shop and bought MEI a strawberry milkshake.

"Thank you," MEI took the milk tea and took a small sip. This was the taste she liked. Her heart was very sweet, even though Li Mo had not really done anything for her.

MEI knew that Li Mo just wanted to find out that truth.

"Because I don't want to hide it from you. I know you want to kill me, and you also know that I won't resist. I just want you to accompany me more before the end comes..."

As she spoke, MEI buried her head again and drank the milk tea to hide her shyness.

Li Mo just replied flatly, "As long as you know."

"Stay here and don't move. I'll go deal with that ghost."

"Since you know my thoughts, I don't need to hide them anymore. I can't let you complete yourself. You'd better give up that idea now."

"I'll be back before you finish your milk tea."

Li Mo touched his waist, confirmed that the Bizarre handgun was still there, and quickly walked into the crowd, chasing in the direction of the ghost's aura.

He didn't use any ability, because that ghost could communicate with normal people, so it was suspected of having the consciousness of a living person. Although this consciousness might not be its own, but was born from a rule.

But if that ghost sensed the Bizarre aura on him, then Li Mo would have to "kill" it in public.

After Li Mo left, the milk tea in MEI's hand suddenly fell.

Her whole body trembled uncontrollably. The sounds and scenes around her... gradually became blurred and distorted.

Strange sounds came from all directions, like the singing of a conch shell, or the cries of an unknown creature in the deep sea.

"Li Mo... Li Mo... Li Mo..."

MEI suddenly squatted on the ground like before, holding her head with her hands, trying to block the Bizarre sound from entering.

Useless... useless...

When she covered her ears, she would find that the sound was not from the outside, but was reviving in her head. This sound was not loud, and MEI couldn't even tell what language it was.

The scary thing was that it was constantly guiding MEI to undergo an irreversible change. The thoughts of a living person in her mind were gradually being erased.

Emotions, memories, consciousness, logic... were like tall buildings. The glass of the tall buildings suddenly shattered, and tentacles of indescribable appearance extended from inside, clinging to every tile.

Where the tentacles spread, the normal tall buildings began to be corroded, becoming dilapidated, and gradually became a lost city.

"Ahhh..."

MEI felt her spirit begin to collapse. She couldn't see anything, and she couldn't hear anything.

She could only clearly feel her existence was like a deleted layer in a drawing board, her data being destroyed bit by bit.

"...Don't... don't!"

In her cognition, her body began to stiffen, rot, and crack. Twisted tentacles crawled out of the festering wounds and began to devour her whole person. First, every part of her body was completely covered by the tentacles.

At this time, MEI could no longer feel the existence of her body. It was as if only her head was left in the world.

The tentacles soon set their sights on the place where her consciousness remained and began to climb. They inserted their tentacles into her mouth, poured them into her throat, then her ears, and even her eyes were not spared...

Her mind was in a mess, and her memories and consciousness quickly rotted. This behavior could not be stopped by any means, because it did not exist in reality at all.

An absolute rule.

Her neck was covered, and most of her face was covered. MEI could no longer feel the existence of her head. Only her lingering consciousness was still struggling, persisting.

She couldn't cry for help. Her pupils in reality began to dilate, and her eyes gradually became turbid.

Am I going to die...

She was not afraid of death, but she was afraid of disappearing.

In the boundless nothingness, MEI stood in front of Him, a huge twisted thing.

MEI walked over uncontrollably, until...

"Get up. Don't think about slacking off. Keep working."

Li Mo pulled up the MEI who was squatting on the ground. As soon as he pulled her up, MEI pounced on him and hugged him tightly with her hands.

"What are you doing?" Li Mo didn't quite understand the young MEI's behavior.

He could hear the faint sobs of the girl in his arms, like a continuous drizzle in winter, falling on his clothes drop by drop.

"Li Mo... Li Mo..."

"You're back..."

The girl in his arms cried her eyes out. Li Mo pushed her away and said coldly, "Don't get too close to me. Remember your identity. You're just a ghost."

MEI nodded repeatedly and said affirmatively, "I won't forget, I won't..."

Li Mo continued to take MEI for a walk outside St. Freya High School. MEI honestly followed behind Li Mo the whole time, completely becoming a follower, not willing to leave half a step.

Along the way, Li Mo was also observing the young MEI's reaction. It gave him a timid feeling. If he put aside her identity as a fantasy ghost, the young MEI was a normal coward.

Heh, coward was a more appropriate description of the MEI transformed by the fantasy ghost.

He didn't know what the MEI in Nagazora City would think if she knew about her.

Li Mo had no intention of telling MEI at the moment, because the MEI there was hiding something. To find out the truth, Li Mo could only pry open the mouth of the fantasy young MEI and find out the truth from her mouth.

In the evening, Li Mo had already dealt with three ghosts outside St. Freya High School.

They were all pointed out by the fantasy ghost. As expected, it was more convenient to let the ghost find the ghost itself. After all, instinct would complete itself.

The three ghosts were all of the kind with extremely low integrity. The Bizarre handgun could suppress them with one shot and silence them with two shots. In order to make them fall silent for a longer time, Li Mo did not hesitate to waste bullets, firing with the largest caliber of bullets that could not be used.

At least it could make them fall silent for half a year. After all, the degree of pollution and integrity were pitifully low.

The young MEI also knew very well that she was not qualified to complete herself, and only begged Li Mo not to abandon her.

On the way back, Li Mo raised a question about this phenomenon:

"Ghosts don't appear out of thin air. If it was because I lost control in the haunted house before, which caused the pollution to spread when I returned to the native world, why would a ghost related to consciousness wander around St. Freya High School?"

"Even, the killing rule was completely twisted into another rule..."

Li Mo began to think about this problem. Most ghosts had a tendency to kill. If he encountered one or two that didn't, he could attribute it to luck. But if he encountered three in a row like this, Li Mo had to consider whether there was a human factor in it.

What's more, the three were of the same type of ghost.

"You have MEI's memory. Answer me, were these ghosts created by MEI?"

"Only a Bizarre rule can interfere with a Bizarre rule. In this world, besides us, I can't think of a second person who is willing and able to control the Bizarre."

"Those who are capable are unwilling to be contaminated because of fear."

"Those who are forced into paranormal incidents are mostly dead. Even if they survive by luck or strength, they don't have enough foundation to control or even transform ghosts."

"This has nothing to do with talent."

MEI had this ability, not only because she was a genius, but also because the team had accumulated countless experience and enough experimental samples over the years.

The young MEI did not respond.

Li Mo continued, "So you were transformed by MEI. She used the rules of ghosts to distort the rules of ghosts, and finally created a nondescript existence like you."

"You're clearly a ghost, but you can't kill people. Even if you trigger the rule, you'll only commit suicide, which is no threat to living people at all."

The trigger rule of the fantasy ghost was no longer just emotional fluctuations. MEI had lied to him.

"MEI is trying to use the rules of ghosts to eliminate the harm of ghosts. You don't need to answer me the detailed content, just say yes or no."

Li Mo stared at MEI, waiting for an answer.

At the gate of St. Freya High School, students came in and out. After seeing Li Mo, they all stayed away from him.

The two walked to the principal's office.

MEI stood there, not saying anything.

Seeing this, Li Mo was too lazy to ask anymore.

If she didn't want to say, then so be it. He didn't need to waste time on uncertain things, so he was about to leave MEI and leave by himself.

"You can stay here until twelve o'clock at night. Then kill yourself. Don't make me do it myself."

With that, Li Mo was about to leave.

He was going to deliver the sky-blue butterfly hairband in the bag to Shigure Kira.

"Wait... don't go!"

MEI suddenly rushed over and hugged Li Mo from behind, who was about to open the door and leave.

"You're wrong. I never had that intention. I just... don't want you to die..."

In the dim little room, MEI's voice went from loud to soft.

"Everyone will die, whether it's from old age or being lost in longevity."

"Even I am just a pile of rotten meat. My seemingly perfect body is already riddled with holes."

"You will die tonight. I will die in some paranormal incident, and then... MEI, Elysia, Pardofelis, will all deteriorate and be distorted in the long river of time. What awaits us is a life worse than death."

"We have been exposed to too much pollution. After we die, we will only become new ghosts. All we can do is to deal with the companions who have become ghosts before we die, without any sympathy or pity, without exception."

"This is originally a road with no return. No matter how fast you walk, you can't reach the end. You can only hope for a successor."

"Alright, this is not what you should know..." Li Mo suddenly closed his mouth. He remembered that the MEI in front of him had all of MEI's memories, so she must also know these things.

She already knew, so saying something like "this is not something you should know" seemed ridiculous.

Li Mo roughly knew the bottom line of this mission. The next step was to confront the real MEI and ask her what she was thinking.

Li Mo took out his phone, but the lights in the principal's office suddenly went out.

By the time Li Mo opened the lights according to his memory, MEI was already asleep on the bed, her smooth white upper body exposed.

Her clothes, pants, and even more private clothing were all on the floor.

"What do you mean by this? You're just a ghost," Li Mo's face was cold.

"...But you've slept with a ghost, and more than once!" MEI said stubbornly.

"What does that have to do with you?"

Li Mo turned to leave, but the next second, his head was dazed, and his emotions completely recovered.

"Ngh... what are you doing?! What rule did I trigger?"

Just as Li Mo was stunned, MEI stood up and lifted the quilt on her body, revealing a large area of white.

"Hey, don't use MEI's body to do this kind of thing, okay..."

Li Mo immediately lowered his head and closed his eyes, constantly reciting in his heart, "See no evil, see no evil."

"Thump... thump..."

The sound of footsteps was getting closer and closer. Bare feet stepped on the floor, step by step.

When the sound stopped, Li Mo felt himself surrounded by softness and warmth.