"Rita! I want all the information on this person!"
Durandal, who had returned to headquarters, pointed at a photo of only Li Mo's back with a look of grief and indignation. Her finger kept tapping, and her heroic face was full of depression and anger.
Rita shook her head. She could help get the information of other people, but Li Mo was an exception.
Overseer Otto had sent her to supervise Li Mo's every move, to monitor Li Mo within a reasonable range. Although Rita had stated that she could secretly lurk, follow, and spy, monitoring Li Mo twenty-four hours a day, Otto still rejected her idea.
"Her companion is not someone you can casually spy on," Otto had said.
Therefore, even if Rita could retrieve Li Mo's information and give it to Durandal, she would not do so.
And so the matter was left unresolved.
At noon, Li Mo sat in the principal's office, pinching a wisp of purple hair. As long as he projected his consciousness onto this wisp of hair, he could trigger the fantasy ghost's rule and temporarily restore his human emotions.
It had to be said that the integrity of the fantasy ghost was really high. Fortunately, the degree of pollution was not very deep, and the distortion time was too short. The effect after triggering the rule was very good and met expectations.
If the degree of pollution was too deep, triggering the rule would only drag Li Mo's own consciousness in, becoming chaotic and disordered.
Every time the rule was triggered, it would cause the fantasy ghost to awaken from its dormant state in advance.
"This thing is so weak, how did it obtain such high integrity?"
"The fantasy ghost's rule must make the other party produce rich enough emotions to cause fatal danger."
"But generally speaking, ghosts don't feel fear, and there is no such thing as emotion."
"To annex other ghosts is almost an impossible thing."
"Wait...?"
"Then why can I return to normal emotions when I trigger the fantasy ghost's rule? The fantasy ghost's own rule does not have this..."
Li Mo pondered, put the purple hair in his pocket, and the answer was already obvious.
Before the fantasy ghost annexed other ghosts, it "coincidentally" met a ghost that could make ghosts have emotions.
Then "coincidentally," that ghost triggered the fantasy ghost's rule and was killed, allowing the fantasy ghost to obtain its ability and rules.
Relying on the rule of being able to kill by detecting emotional fluctuations, and the rule of forcing the target to produce emotions, the fantasy ghost killed its way to St. Freya...
"No, there is still a problem with the logic. Ghost killing is not purposeful, it's just fulfilling the instinct of the rule. The fantasy ghost once came to me, which means its attack target is not limited to ghosts, but also living people."
"Of course, it could also be because my state was very bad at that time and I was judged as a ghost."
"But no matter what, it will definitely not be peaceful along the way. There will definitely be casualties."
"MEI's information did not mention this..."
Li Mo took out his phone and clicked on the document MEI had sent him. It was true that these things were not recorded on it.
If the fantasy ghost had killed people, he would definitely be able to find the corresponding cause of death, photos, and MEI's conjecture in the information.
"Phew... half a month. Staying here for half a month will completely silence the fantasy ghost? And why did the fantasy ghost's illusion of MEI say that?"
"It's hard to understand."
Li Mo sent a message to Shigure Kira, asking her to act as the inspector on his behalf and record various evaluations in the academy.
He himself was constantly triggering the fantasy ghost's rules in the office.
Calm, sober, then calm, then sober...
In a cycle, Li Mo kept testing where the fantasy ghost's limit was.
In the end, he came to the conclusion that the degree of pollution was really too low, but the integrity was very high.
Joy, anger, sorrow, happiness, love, hate, shame, and dignity... almost every emotion was included, and Li Mo felt that every emotion seemed to come from a different ghost. The sense of separation was very strong.
The most terrifying thing was—
Li Mo found that the fantasy ghost's killing rule had a wonderful reaction with another rule.
Originally, the fantasy ghost could kill by triggering the rule. What happened when the rule was triggered now?
The most important person in memory appeared, and after knowing that he was a ghost, he resolutely chose to die, which was no threat to the person involved. All he needed to do was to accept it silently.
If Li Mo was not mistaken, the most primitive rule of the fantasy ghost should be to transform into the object that "can definitely kill oneself" in the target's memory.
But this rule was replaced by another rule, turning into the object that was "the most important, willing to die for oneself" in the target's memory.
It was really "coincidence" that "coincidence's" parents opened the door for "coincidence," and "coincidence" arrived home.
"I can't sleep tonight. I have to see who the person who did bad things last night is."
Li Mo was already prepared to pretend to be asleep and stay up all night to catch the culprit who had made him lose face in front of Shigure Kira.
Night fell, and Li Mo lay on the ground just like last night, without even changing his position. He wouldn't feel sleepy, and quietly waited for the black shadow to appear.
But strangely—
The black shadow retreated today. Until the dawn of the next day, when the sun shone through the window onto Li Mo's face, Li Mo still couldn't catch that person from last night.
"Didn't come?"
Li Mo didn't know why the black shadow didn't come. He had perfectly replicated last night's scene. Except that he hadn't lost consciousness because he had triggered the fantasy ghost's rule.
"Let's go for a walk outside. Shigure Kira is in the simulation training room. What is she doing there?"
Li Mo was about to leave St. Freya High School and go for a walk outside.
He was trying to find some clues about how the fantasy ghost had completed its own rules. After all, the fantasy ghost did not appear in St. Freya High School, but in Nagazora City.
"If I forcibly restart the fantasy ghost and make her manifest, will I be able to see something that I can't see now?"
"Or... let the person transformed by the fantasy ghost help me find the answer?"
Li Mo pondered for a moment. This method was risky. If he accidentally restarted the other ghosts in the fantasy ghost's body and broke the original balance of the rules.
It was no exaggeration to say that Li Mo thought he would be selected by dozens of rules in an instant and die on the spot. So restarting the ghost had to be done with extreme caution.
"Rip!"
Li Mo immediately broke the wisp of hair. The next second, the wisp of hair escaped Li Mo's control, returned to the cleaned bedsheet, and turned into a young girl.
Her whole body was wrapped up tightly, with big long pants and a big padded jacket. Her hair was tied into a high ponytail with a pure white bow, and her shoes were the most common canvas shoes. She looked like an ordinary bookworm high school student.
But her appearance...
"MEI?"
This was MEI in her student days, just entering her first year of high school, her face full of immaturity.
A genius like her, when looking at Li Mo, her eyes were slightly timid and even self-abased.
Self-abased? MEI had this kind of emotion?
Li Mo had never seen it before. He thought it was very interesting, so he took the initiative to walk forward and reached out to lift the hair at her temples.
"Don't, don't do this... I'm just a fake MEI... even if you do this, I won't tell you the truth you want. You have to ask her yourself..."
MEI said tremblingly, her whole body trembling uncontrollably, just because Li Mo had touched her cheek.
"Are you really MEI? A fantasy ghost can completely simulate a person's personality, memory, and behavioral logic. The feeling you give me is not her. A genius's wisdom, a leader's ability, you don't have either," Li Mo commented objectively.
MEI bit her lip and replied after a long time, "I, I don't understand what you're saying."
"Because I have already..."
MEI suddenly closed her mouth and refused to say anything, just lowered her head weakly.
"Already what?" Li Mo immediately asked.
"..."
But MEI was silent, as if she had secretly made a decision in her heart.
"No matter if you are or not, come with me now."
Li Mo pushed open the principal's office door, patiently waited for MEI to get off the bed, his face calm, and he beckoned with his left hand.
"By the way, change into this outfit."
Li Mo used "Usurp" to get a set of MEI's daily clothes.
Although this set of "daily clothes" looked like a lab coat, on second thought, wasn't MEI's daily life just work?
"These clothes are so familiar, just like..."
The ignorant MEI looked at the clothes and couldn't help but murmur.
Her eyes were so clear that there was no trace of a genius scientist.
A true genius is a madman. They all have their own pride and personality. Perhaps some are kind and gentle, but they will never be as clear and foolish as a university student.
"Are you really MEI?" Li Mo asked again.
"Yes, I can be sure of that," MEI replied.
"...Never mind."
Li Mo had originally wanted to use "Usurp" to force her to tell the truth, to tell him what MEI had been hiding from him. But "Usurp" was just a defective version of "Wish." Although its function was powerful, its integrity was only half a ghost.
And this was based on the premise that "Wish" was a complete ability.
There was no need to say much about the integrity of the fantasy ghost. It was rare to see a ghost that almost completed all the rules it lacked. Even if the pollution time was not long, because the integrity was too high, Li Mo's "Usurp" could not successfully act on it.
Even if he risked restarting, it wouldn't work.
So he could only adopt the worst strategy, taking the MEI transformed by the fantasy ghost to find clues outside St. Freya High School.
Soon, Li Mo took MEI to the commercial street. The shop windows on both sides of the street displayed fashionable clothes. The crowd was like a shuttle, and the noisy sounds of transactions and merchants' promotions were one after another.
In the coffee shop at the corner of the street, passersby could taste the aroma of freshly ground coffee beans.
"Ngh... wooooah!"
MEI followed closely behind Li Mo in the crowd, but because of her small body, she was bumped around.
She had no thought of resisting at all. Others just passed by and accidentally bumped her lightly, and she almost lost her balance and fell to the ground.
To avoid unnecessary trouble, Li Mo held MEI's hand and walked in the bustling commercial street. He exuded an aura of not wanting to be approached by strangers. No one dared to get close to Li Mo, and the two of them walked very smoothly.
Suddenly, Li Mo noticed a butterfly hairband in a clothing store window. Li Mo took a fancy to a sky-blue butterfly hairband on it. Although he didn't particularly like or desire it, from a rational analysis, he had to do something for his wife. Shigure Kira would definitely be happy if he bought a small gift back.
"You stay here and don't move. I'll be back soon."
Without waiting for MEI to agree, Li Mo left MEI at the shop door, not far away, and turned to walk into the clothing store.
"Ngh... Li Mo... Li Mo... Li Mo..."
Looking at the endless stream of people, MEI clenched her pink little fists and pulled her clothes tighter. It was clearly a hot summer, but she was wearing two layers of clothes and felt extremely cold.
The blood in her body seemed to be freezing.
She could only repeat, over and over again, in a calling way, to remind herself that she was still alive.
If she hadn't been transformed by the fantasy rule, she would definitely not be like she was now, still having the wisdom of an eight-year-old.
But what came with her childish mind was endless loneliness and fear.
Whenever she thought of the terrifying and desperate future in her memory... the sky was gloomy, the corpse was cold, the blood was filthy, and her sanity was broken.
Everything was fake.
Only delusion, and her, were real.
「 ▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄」
「▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄」
The dreamlike whispers from the source of the Bizarre, an existence that humans could hardly touch in their short, firefly-like lives.
But... the source of the Bizarre was fair. It still followed a certain "origin" rule. She and it had made a deal.
"Wuwu..."
The sixteen-year-old girl MEI squatted on the bustling street, her head resting on her knees, her hands covering her eyes from the outside world.
Just like that, she sobbed unguardedly, like a flower battered by wind and rain, swaying precariously, as if it would break in the next second and lose its vitality.
The crowd on the street was discussing animatedly. Looking at MEI's disheveled and sad appearance, all kinds of conjectures emerged.
"Did she get dumped by her boyfriend?"
"What a pity for such a beautiful girl."
"That's not right. She's wearing a lab coat. Was her research project rejected?"
"You're all wrong. I guess her experimental results were stolen by some second-generation."
After a while, the crowd gradually formed a circle.
The next second, the temperature of the hot weather suddenly dropped, and frost even began to spread from the distant ground.
MEI, who was squatting on the ground and crying, did not notice at all that a white-haired man was standing in front of her.
"MEI, are you... MEI?"
Kevin squatted down excitedly, his pupils contracted into a wheat awn, his azure eyes twinkling, and that originally dead heart suddenly started beating again.
MEI looked up, looked at the white-haired man in confusion, and sniffed, "Who are you?"
The moment Kevin saw MEI's face, the heart that had been frozen for fifty thousand years instantly melted. No matter if the other party was MEI or not, he wanted to take her back to the World Serpent and ask clearly. Even if she wasn't, she must have a thousand threads of connection with MEI. After all, he would never mistake these clothes.
"Come with me," Kevin reached out to grab MEI.
But he was held tightly by a dry and pale hand that suddenly appeared beside him.
"What are you doing? She's my person."