After she left Chiba Academy that morning, she had rented a cheap apartment near the school to serve as her temporary residence for the month. Since this trip wasn't being reimbursed by Schicksal, and she was unfamiliar with the area, she had wasted a lot of time negotiating with the landlord.
Something must have happened while she was away.
How did the unrestrained, carefree Li Wu from this morning turn into this state of "looking like it doesn't matter if he dies"?
Anna had seen this look before.
It was similar to the survivors she had seen in Honkai eruption zones. After being rescued, those survivors would continuously dig through the rubble with their bare, fragile hands, desperately trying to unearth their buried families. They didn't care what happened to themselves; whether they lived or died didn't matter.
But Li Wu was clearly just a student. For a student to act like this... could it be—
A broken heart?!
"How strange. No wonder Lady Cecilia arranged for me to observe you and emphasized that I must prevent you from doing anything dangerous. In this state... it is very easy to do something extreme."
She might lack common sense, but when it came to executing missions, Anna was a professional.
If kissing had been part of the mission, she could have cast aside all sense of shame and kissed him without hesitation.
Therefore, after their brief "contact" this morning, she had lowered her guard, judging that Li Wu had very little chance of "losing control." But right now, it was completely different. Li Wu's mental state was entirely off, perfectly aligning with the parameters of the private mission Cecilia had entrusted to her.
A night of torrential rain.
Li Wu walked down the street, letting the rain soak him completely.
Passersby cast strange glances at him. Walking in a downpour without an umbrella, looking so utterly drenched and pathetic—it was hard to understand.
The dim light of the streetlamps pierced through the curtain of rain, casting a blurry glow over him.
After leaving Anna, Li Wu walked home in a daze, carrying his plastic bag. The cold raindrops beating against his body actually made him feel much, much better.
Self-destruction.
For some reason, Li Wu suddenly thought of this word.
The system had prompted him with it many times before, but he had never thought about the root cause of that self-destruction. Only today, after Arga revealed the truth, did he finally understand.
His current situation was far better than what Raiden Mei had faced. At the very least, he had a way out. And it wasn't a bad way out; he just wouldn't get the ideal ending and would have to watch a tragedy unfold before his eyes.
But what Raiden Mei had faced back then was betrayal by everyone she held dear, the collapse of all her trust, and the malice of an entire city.
Just as Li Wu was drowning in the pain of learning the truth, the system's narration suddenly appeared.
[Raiden Mei has died.]
[Act I Cleared. Act II will begin in ten minutes.]
[Upon the start of Act II, your save point will be automatically updated.]
The moment the narration appeared, his brain was still stuck in that blank, buzzing void, but his body had already begun to move.
Li Wu didn't even realize he had let go; the plastic bag holding the salt dropped to the ground with a smack.
Ignoring the burning ache in his muscles, his breathing became ragged.
The streets, the streetlamps, and the blurry figures of people rapidly receded in the periphery of his vision. The cold wind scraped violently against his face, and the taste of rust gradually rose in the back of his throat.
When he finally reached the bottom of the apartment building, he pulled out his phone. Seven minutes had passed since the notification.
He had three minutes left.
Sprinting up the stairs, Li Wu quickly pulled out his keys, but his hands were trembling uncontrollably. He missed the keyhole several times.
The door opened.
The lights were still bright. A thick, nauseating stench of blood, mixed with the greasy aroma of fresh soup, seeped out from the gap in the kitchen's glass door and drifted toward him.
Without a second's pause, Li Wu threw open the glass door and rushed in. The air seemed to freeze.
The clay pot used for the soup was shattered at the kitchen entrance, spilling broth and ingredients everywhere.
The cabinets, the door panels, the floor, the stove... there was blood everywhere.
And right in the center of this mess—
Raiden Mei lay on the floor.
She was still wearing that slightly childish pink apron. In the center of her chest was a gruesome, gaping hole. The edges of the wound were frozen solid, and the Herrscher Core inside looked as if it had been brutally gouged out by a rough hand.
"Plasma Kagehide..."
Arga had said it before: If I delay my plan, the Plasma Kagehide will end up in someone else's hands.
Li Wu reached out a trembling hand and touched Raiden Mei's face. Her blood was still warm; it hadn't completely cooled yet.
Her eyes were slightly open, staring into the void, but her pupils were already dilated, retaining only a hint of the confusion she felt at the very end... as if wondering why he still hadn't come back yet...
Silence.
Dead silence.
The entire world seemed to have been submerged by the tide, falling deep into the abyss.
"Ah... AHH—!!!"
"No... if I had just come back earlier..."
Li Wu's vision was instantly dyed crimson. Trembling, he drew his service pistol and pressed the cold metal to his temple.
Then, he pulled the trigger.
After the spark burst from the chamber, the world wasn't swallowed by darkness.
Instead, it was like a videotape rewinding slowly.
...
...
The cold wind and rain once again poured into his collar. Without the cover of an umbrella, the downpour pelted him like a barrage of silver needles, stabbing into Li Wu's flesh.
He stood on the dim street, surrounded by strange looks from passersby.
The save point had updated.
He was on his way "home."
Just like the previous cycle, Li Wu dropped the bag of salt and sprinted toward his apartment with all his might.
But before he even reached the bottom of the building, the harsh narration appeared again—
[Raiden Mei has died.]
[Act I Cleared. Act II will begin in ten minutes.]
[Upon the start of Act II, your save point will be automatically updated.]
Li Wu gradually stopped running, drew his pistol from his waist, and pulled the safety catch.
Three minutes.
Li Wu's hollow eyes glanced at his phone.
From the moment of regression, there was exactly a three-minute interval before the system narrated Raiden Mei's death.
In other words, if he wanted to prevent her death, he had to reach home within three minutes.
Three minutes...
Li Wu looked at the distant apartment, his heart dead as ash.
No matter how fast he ran, it was impossible to reach the apartment in three minutes. He had to use other means...
After a brief silence, Li Wu pulled the trigger.
"A gun?! He just shot himself!!"
The crowd erupted in panic, fleeing in all directions, but this chaos quickly froze and began to rewind.
...
...
Returning once more, Li Wu didn't say a word and charged straight into the middle of the street. But luck was not on his side.
The driver of the oncoming car seemed to have been drinking. Not only did he not slow down, he mistook the gas pedal for the brake, and the car's speed instantly skyrocketed.
Like a marionette made of matchsticks, Li Wu was shattered to pieces by the massive impact.
...
...