Bengtie: My death fueled their madness.

Brooks and Green felt their hair stand on end, and both placed their hands on the gun handles at their waists.

However, what they saw made them instinctively hold their breath.

Xi Manning, who was perfectly fine just a moment ago, has now vanished without a trace, leaving the entire restroom empty.

The glaring blood stained the pristine white washbasin, trickling down the mirror and into the sink.

The blood spread rapidly across the ground, forming a horrifying pool of blood.

The air was thick with a nauseating stench of blood.

A perfectly healthy person vanished mysteriously in the blink of an eye as they turned around, leaving nothing behind but blood and screams.

"Oh my god..."

"A ghost!!"

Panic overwhelmed their reason, and they scrambled toward the apartment door, fleeing the terrifying space filled with bloodshed and the unknown.

The hurried footsteps and terrified screams in the hallway could be clearly heard inside the apartment building.

Only Black Tower remained in the room, standing at the edge of the corridor, staring intently at the blood-soaked floor, his brow furrowed.

I forced myself to examine the area around the sink, trying to find a clue, but unfortunately I found nothing.

How exactly does Death make its move?

Is it much more powerful than the Mirror Ghost in The Mirror?

Without further hesitation, Black Tower activated the mental connection in his mind and calmly inquired.

"Did you just see something?"

At this moment, Qi Zhimu, who had been lurking on the ceiling, was looking down at the crime scene with great interest.

The sudden bloodshed didn't frighten him at all; instead, he felt a long-lost sense of amusement.

"I did witness the entire process."

Qi Zhimu's voice echoed in Black Tower's mind.

"Death's method was actually very direct. After the woman tied her hair up and clipped it in, she revealed two scarlet eyes pressed tightly against the back of her head."

"That was probably the embodiment of death. I could feel it directly. The gaze of those eyes was directed at the mirror, and they saw Xi Manning."

"Perhaps Death also has limitations in its targets, and for Ximaning, the limitation is that the eye attached to the back of her head cannot see her."

"Of course, the above is just my guess. You're smarter than me, so figure it out yourself."

After hearing this, Black Tower's eyes showed a hint of realization, and he nodded slightly.

There are indeed restrictions on who Death can take away from the list, but the specifics of those restrictions are not explained.

It only says: It will harvest the lives of its targets in a way that is extremely easy to overlook.

"Mr. Creditor, what did Siemaning do and experience before we arrived?"

Qi Zhimu truthfully answered what he had seen and heard.

Upon learning that Ximaning had rushed back in a panic, Black Tower had a more plausible answer in his mind.

"...Has Mr. Creditor noticed the weather today? There's been a slight breeze outside."

Yes, there is.

"I guess when Sylvia Chang was running, her hair was all over the place and her eyes would occasionally show the back of her head."

"The faster you run, the more pronounced the feeling of impending death becomes... The hint is hidden in this sentence, which is too broad and really gives me a headache."

Who in their right mind would think that the Grim Reaper incarnate is lurking behind the target's mind? Normally, the first thing people would suspect is the shadow.

Qi Zhimu points out the contradiction:

"Simaning died in the last minute before his death. Assuming that not showing the back of Simaning's head is the answer to completing the mission, then—"

"If Ximaning doesn't gather her hair, wouldn't that be equivalent to you changing the first person's time of death without doing anything?"

As Black Tower pondered, a strong gust of wind suddenly rushed in from outside, blowing her long hair.

"!!"

She looked up at the open ventilation window directly opposite the restroom and checked the time again.

13: 35.

Suddenly, she understood everything.

Qi Zhimu is the same.

Even if Xi Manning doesn't gather her hair herself, as long as she remains in front of the mirror, a strong wind will inevitably rush in from outside at a certain time.

This is the method Death used to kill her, and also a limitation.

In hindsight, covering Siemaning's head with a tight hood would have ensured his safety during the moment of death.

The method is pretty simple.

However, the hindsight bias is characterized by the fact that one can never reverse time to verify whether something is feasible.

Black Tower shook his head helplessly, unless one could fully comprehend the science of time and combine it with space to achieve the reversal of individual time.

If given some time, perhaps she can make a breakthrough.

Unfortunately, she didn't have the time, and she no longer had the chance.

After sending the data back to Azure Star, she will keep her promise and calmly face her fate of death.

"What's next? Has the second NPC who's going to die appeared yet?" Qi Zhimu asked.

"Not yet." Black Tower shook his head.

"Your so-called temporary teammates all seem to be useless idiots. Can you really count on them?"

"...It's hard to say."

Before the eight people on the Grim Reaper's list are all dead, they will not become the Grim Reaper's target.

This prompt is quite clear, encouraging those carrying out the mission to stay on site to find out how Death reaps lives, analyze its methods, and make the right response plan afterwards.

The results of it?

When someone dies, the sight of blood prompts a frantic rush to flee the scene, devoid of any rationality and displaying a shockingly poor mental fortitude.

If it were Death himself who appeared and chopped the victim into mincemeat in front of everyone, wouldn't some people faint from fright or even die of fright on the spot?

Black Tower's phone rang.

Seeing number three displayed on the screen, I casually pressed the answer button.

"Officer Brooks."

"...Detective Black Tower, are you alright?"

"without."

"That's good. You haven't been keeping up for so long, I thought..."

"Death won't strike us until all eight people on the list die, so I don't think we need to worry too much during this period."

"But the Black Tower! At first, none of us believed it, thinking it was just a mischievous prank. But now you've seen it for yourself, a living person suddenly disappearing. Who knows if the so-called Grim Reaper will break the rules?"

"..." Black Tower didn't know how to explain.

The world where ethereal life forms are born—the setting absolutely cannot lie?

Or, speaking to those who are NPCs in Qi Zhimu's eyes, unaware that they are ethereal beings—

Are they actually characters created by someone from Azure Star?

"We'll be waiting for you at the intersection three kilometers away." Brooks hung up the phone.

Qi Zhimu jumped off the ground, looked at the phone she was holding, and his face was full of disgust.

"In my opinion, you should just fake your death. What help do you really expect from those NPCs? You have a powerful mage like me, that's more than enough."

Black Tower pursed his lips, about to say something, when the information of the next deceased appeared.

「杰迪，托登路圣尔斯街道11号-21层05，私家侦探，死亡时刻区间为当日14:40-14:50。」

After she finished speaking, she looked at Qi Zhimu.

"You're fast, so I'll have to trouble you to scout the location beforehand."

"Hmph, I don't need you to order me around, brat. I know what to do to keep my food supplies from dying here."

Qi Zhimu turned his head and strode away.

……

Haji Huan hasn't eaten a single meal since March and is starving. V-points are offering free electricity to help him.

There was a title quiz around 50 words. Do any of you talented readers have any good ideas? The new title should be no more than 15 characters long.

I hope you wake up to find Sister Ta lying on top of you, staring at you like this.