Entering the swimming pool, the two quickly found their target.
There weren't many students in the building; there were still 6 minutes before Darlene's death interval began.
Detective Hei Ta received both good and bad news from Brooks and Green.
One dead, one alive.
Brooks' side failed, while Green succeeded.
Qi Zhimu couldn't help but be surprised.
"I didn't see that coming; they actually have some ability, at least enough to complete one mission."
Detective Hei Ta was also somewhat surprised, but that was all.
After finishing the call with Brooks, she and Qi Zhimu both realized where the problem lay.
The location for Brooks' mission was in the suburbs.
The target was a woman in her thirties who worked in customer service.
Due to high stress, she liked to lean against a willow tree in the Lakeside Park after work to take a nap and dispel the unpleasantness of her job.
Whenever the soft willow branches gently brushed against her face and she watched the clear, bright full moon in the sky, bathing in the moonlight, her mind and body would find much peace.
There weren't many pedestrians nearby, but there were at least some.
The three members of Brooks' team pretended to be strollers, observing the target from a nearby public bench and looking for a suitable opportunity to strike up a conversation.
They did manage to start a conversation, but unfortunately, no one noticed the extremely obvious warning.
At the time, the lake surface was calm, clearly reflecting the perfectly round moon.
The target leaned against the willow tree while talking to Brooks; her death interval lasted only two minutes in total.
The time was very short, so Brooks was in a hurry.
The more anxious one is, the easier it is to overlook the answer right in front of them.
The two minutes passed in the blink of an eye; the target was strangled by several willow branches, dragged into the tree trunk, and disappeared without a trace.
The hint was simple: it was the environment and climate of the lakeside at night.
The calm lake surface reflected the round, complete moon; there wasn't a breath of wind in the suburbs, not even enough to stir a ripple.
If there was no wind, then—how did the willow branches move?
The death interval only lasted two minutes because the environmental hint already existed before entering that window.
On the surface, Death deliberately gave such a short time precisely to provoke Brooks' anxiety, making him focus his attention on the person rather than the environment.
"Detective Hei Ta, I'm sorry... but we've only completed two missions so far. For the last one, please do your ut—"
Before the sentence could finish, the phone Detective Hei Ta was holding vanished.
She turned her head to look at Qi Zhimu and found the veins on the back of his hand bulging as he squeezed the object in his grip with force.
It was the phone issued by the mission for her to communicate with her temporary teammates.
"What kind of junk is this? It's actually so hard!"
Qi Zhimu's eyes twitched with irritation as arcs of lightning flickered between his fingers, quickly rendering the phone scrap. He then threw it forcefully out the window, where it turned into a streak of light and disappeared into the night.
Seeing Detective Hei Ta's puzzled gaze, he couldn't help but snort coldly.
"What are you looking at? You didn't need to take this piece of junk from the start. Teammates? Does it make a big difference whether they're here or not?"
"Since that idiot's mission failed, why bother listening to him spout so much nonsense?"
"With that free time, you'd be better off thinking about how to complete the last mission. Though it's fine even if we don't; either way, I won't allow you to be... wait, no—"
Realizing that saying it that way seemed a bit inappropriate, Qi Zhimu quickly changed his tune.
"What kind of bullshit Death is this? Where does it get the right to snatch food from me? If it pisses this lord off, I'll just destroy this world directly and see how it plays god then."
Detective Hei Ta tilted her head: "But if you do that, won't I die too? Unless you can find a protective suit for me to wear."
As for the phone being destroyed and thrown away by Qi Zhimu, she didn't have any particular thoughts about it.
After all, what he said was true.
Having Qi Zhimu was enough for her; she didn't need teammates who couldn't help much and were little different from burdens.
"You don't need to worry about that. My magic is very powerful, omnipotent."
Qi Zhimu raised his chin proudly, his tone certain.
"Letting you survive in the vacuum of space? A small matter, it would only require a small price."
A small one?
It was probably a massive one instead.
Detective Hei Ta didn't plan to expose Qi Zhimu's tsundere remarks; instead, she pondered another matter in her mind.
After all eight death intervals ended, the intensity of the hunt Death would launch against her hadn't been explicitly detailed.
The only guess was that for every mission completed, there would be one fewer corresponding death god incarnation.
But was that really the case?
She didn't feel there was any necessity to hide such a rule; it wouldn't have been improper to openly inform the mission executors.
She also didn't know who the protagonist of this work was, or if they were already dead.
Or perhaps... this was the Fog City where the protagonist had once executed a mission, but only once?
Human creations were truly too numerous: texts, films...
If the coincidence was great enough, even human obsession could use memory substance to create an entirely new world.
Therefore, it was fundamentally impossible for anyone to fully understand all these world settings.
Only the original settings would not change and could not be changed.
Was it that the settings for Death's hunt would only be announced after all the death interval missions ended...
"I have an idea, Mr. Creditor."
"Speak."
"Can you drain all the water from the swimming pool?"
"Tch, I get what you're thinking."
Qi Zhimu raised an eyebrow.
If it really was a water ghost, how would it drag someone into the water to drown them once the aquatic environment was gone?
He was also quite curious.
Darlene's death interval was 21:02-21:08, which wasn't long either.
The Staff swept out silently, dipping into the pool and beginning to gulp it down like a whale.
In just two breaths, not a single drop of water could be found in any of the pools within the building.
The girls who were swimming were stunned.
What happened?
Even if the waterproof layer beneath the pool had cracked, the rate of water loss shouldn't have been that fast, right?
There was a slight commotion in the venue, and Darlene walked down into the dried-up pool to check if anyone was injured.
The clock hands turned, officially entering 21:02.
Qi Zhimu's gaze remained fixed on Darlene, keeping an eye on the time and ready to act at any moment.
21:04...
21:05...
21:08!
As the minutes and seconds ticked steadily by, less than 20 seconds remained before 21:09.
During this time, Darlene never left the swimming pool, communicating with the relevant Staff about the bizarre situation just now.
"Planning to refill the water? Hmph, what do you take me for?"
He would drain every drop as soon as it was poured in.
If it weren't for the fact that acting directly on the target might trigger an unexpected chain reaction, he would have definitely let Darlene experience what it felt like to be a human projectile.
"5, 4, 3, 2, 1..."
With Detective Hei Ta's murmur, the time finally changed to 21:09.
Darlene didn't die, and there wasn't even a shadow of an death god incarnation. Detective Hei Ta confirmed the conclusion she had already reached: Qi Zhimu was her legitimate cheat. Letting him destroy the conditions set by Death at their source was the simplest and most direct way.
The next second, an emotionless prompt sounded in Detective Hei Ta's mind.
"Missions completed: 3/8. In 1 minute, those who died on schedule will become incarnations of Death, locking onto the mission executors' coordinates to begin the hunt."
"Before meeting the executors face-to-face, the incarnations of Death possess the same abilities as the deceased, but they cannot be killed."
"Good luck to all executors."
Detective Hei Ta repeated the final prompt in its entirety.
Several question marks popped up over Qi Zhimu's head, and his expression turned sour.
"Seriously? No duration for the hunt? Is it really going to keep looking for you until the end of time?"
"Explicitly stating Death cannot be killed... isn't this just forcing me to destroy the world? Interesting."
...
Did Haji Huan take too big a step and choose the wrong story direction?
I originally thought the Honkai: Star Rail world view was compatible with almost any original story theme; there are existing examples like the Simulated Universe and Amphoreus.
It might be because there are too few characters appearing; there's really no way around that.
After all, the only person with an Azure Star residency is Detective Hei Ta, and this is a timeline from before she became a genius. There's almost no related plot in the game, so even if I wanted to add people, there's no one to add.
The original planned style was: the first life missed, the second life has a summary, a regretful fate of mutual repulsion between love and hatred, destined to be unable to have each other. This life of Detective Hei Ta's is one of mutual redemption.
Some people have almost guessed the foreshadowing regarding the protagonist, but it seems no one has guessed Detective Hei Ta's.
At first, I thought about linking with the worlds of Honkai Impact 3rd and Genshin Impact, since the Space Station has related Curio easter eggs, but then I thought the length would be too long, so I reluctantly gave up.
The plot of the Yi Zhi World is already at its end, just a few days left, and then I'll start tying up the foreshadowing.