Bengtie: My death fueled their madness.

"!!!"

Black Tower suddenly opened his eyes wide, sat up from the bed, and stood there stunned.

I raised my hand to touch my cheek; it was wet.

She cried.

It's like I had a dream, a dream about my childhood, a dream about some things my mother said to me.

But why can't I remember the specific details now?

"Sweating profusely, did you have a nightmare?"

A familiar voice came from inside.

Hei Ta turned his head and saw Qi Zhimu sitting on the single sofa next to him.

"...I wonder if it was a nightmare."

Black Tower answered instinctively, his thoughts drifting back to last night.

After talking with Qi Zhimu, I fell asleep not long after. Could my dreams during my sleep be related to the content of our conversation...?

No one can answer that.

Forget it.

I glanced at the time; it was a little past nine in the morning.

Hei Ta wiped the moisture from her cheeks, lifted the covers, and quickly took off her nightgown and changed into regular clothes in front of Qi Zhimu.

Qi Zhimu glanced at it openly, then turned away with a pout.

This kid really doesn't guard up against him at all...

After Heita finished washing up and stepped out of the room, she smelled a familiar aroma coming from the kitchen.

Upon entering, I found breakfast laid out on the dining table.

Fried eggs, grilled steak, tomato salad, milk, and a fruit platter.

"You did this?" Black Tower blurted out.

"ha?"

Qi Zhimu gave him a very familiar look, and Hei Ta knew immediately what he was about to hear.

"You mean I, a dignified magician, make you breakfast? Dream on! It was just something I bought for free, a few minutes' time spent outside. Take it or leave it!"

"oh."

Black Tower silently thought to himself, "Just as I expected," and nodded obediently, his gaze inadvertently sweeping over certain areas of the kitchen.

The cutting board is wet.

There were still water droplets on the blade.

The apron was placed in the wrong position, and... well, never mind.

It's best to see through things but not say anything.

It's hard to believe that Qi Zhimu can make breakfast, and it's even the kind of food she's been eating since she was a child.

I'm getting more and more curious about who created it.

Unless it's a work related to cooking, it's unlikely that a ethereal being would have cooking skills by default; it wouldn't be mentioned in the setting at all.

High intelligence can be learned later in life, but the problem is... Qi Zhimu doesn't seem like the kind of person who would be idle enough to learn such things.

I can't figure it out, and I don't expect him to explain it to me, so I simply don't want to think about it.

After breakfast, we waited for noon to pass.

With ten minutes remaining, Black Tower received more detailed rules and supplements.

"Sir, I will be teleported away shortly."

"What's going on?!"

Qi Zhimu's lazy gaze instantly sharpened.

"Don't worry, we're just heading to the common starting point of the mission. The supplementary information mentions that Death won't come after us until everyone on the list is dead."

Hei Ta brushed a strand of hair from her temple, where a simple black hairband that Qi Zhimu had given her was tied.

"You can find me through this, right?"

"right."

Qi Zhimu's expression softened slightly.

I had forgotten about that. When I saw the hairband I had used, I subconsciously lifted the key pendant hanging around my neck.

Some time ago, Black Tower gave this to him.

"Just remember what I said: once we disappear from each other's sight and perception, the key you gave me can serve as a locator."

"Hmm... I'll add an instant messaging spell too."

Before the Black Tower could speak, Qi Zhimu joined two fingers together and brushed them over the key and the hairband respectively.

"You should be familiar with this. It was used in Deadly Mirror, commonly known as in-game voice chat."

"Not unfamiliar."

"That's good. Is there anything else you want to say? Speak up."

"There's no need to say it..."

"???"

Qi Zhimu was just about to glare when he heard the next sentence, and he couldn't help but smile.

"I trust you won't let me die prematurely."

"Let's keep things separate. At least give me the information on those eight people on the list, right?"

"We don't know who it is yet; we'll have to wait until the mission begins to announce it," Black Tower replied.

"Tch..." Qi Zhimu crossed his arms.

The fact that it cannot be known in advance makes its significance self-evident.

It's simply to prevent those carrying out the mission from taking self-protective measures against people on the death list in advance.

"By the way, what kind of lock is this key you gave me for?" Qi Zhimu asked.

"...A birthday present from my mother when I was seven years old."

"A key to a longevity lock?"

"...People in Chongqing don't have the custom of wearing longevity locks. My mother gave me this as a blessing that I could open the door to the world of knowledge and become a respected scholar."

"Blessings... Interesting." Qi Zhimu suddenly smiled.

"What's interesting about it?"

"A blessing is giving you the choice, not choosing for you. The two words that deprive you of the right to choose are hope."

Qi Zhimu stared at the key hanging on his finger, as if he could see a gentle mother giving a gift to her child.

"Perhaps your mother had high hopes for you and wanted you to inherit the mission and embark on the path to save the Blue Star."

"But in the end, she chose to respect her child's choice and leave you room to maneuver."

You have a wonderful mother.

Black Tower was stunned.

To be honest, she never thought that her mother's gift would have such a deeper meaning, although she couldn't rule out that it was just Qi Zhimu's guess.

However, recalling his childhood experiences, this conjecture makes sense.

From the age of four, she was required by her father to learn all sorts of obscure knowledge that even adults found difficult to understand.

I hardly have any free time to myself every day.

You need to learn at school, and you need to learn at home.

While her peers could play carefree as children, she could only hold thick books.

Each month, I only have 12 hours to myself.

Her mother often looked at her with an extremely gentle and loving gaze.

It's normal to have love, but pity...

"Yes, Mother was a good person, but like Father, she died in the labyrinth area of ​​Azure Star."

Hei Ta suddenly stared directly into Qi Zhimu's eyes.

Qi Zhimu felt a little uncomfortable under her gaze, his eyes twitched, and he became annoyed.

"What are you looking at? You want to see me as your father? Ha, dream on!"

"Even tigers don't eat their cubs, so you can only ever be my food reserve, forever!"

"...Sir, I just wanted to let you know that time is almost up. I will contact you immediately after I get the information about the deceased."

"..." Qi Zhimu's face froze.

Before he could even speak, the black tower in front of him suddenly vanished.

"snort."

With a cold, nasal tone, Qi Zhimu sensed her current location.

Just as I was about to rush over as fast as I could, I heard a familiar voice ring in my mind.

「席曼宁，菲尔丁路柯文街道35号-14层02，全职作家，死亡时刻的区间为今日13:25-13:35。」

"The information for the first person is 79 kilometers away from our current location."

"Okay, I'll come find you later. Contact me immediately if anything urgent comes up, remember?" Qi Zhimu instructed.

Black Tower: "I've got it."