Where's the promised Third Honkai?!!

"How is that possible?"

Teased by her like that, the faint melancholy in Fu Li's heart dissipated like smoke.

He muttered to himself, "Speaking of which, Prometheus, when you update this time, you absolutely must remember to load the recording function. Sure, you've shed the shameful title of 'system basement dweller' through the exchange/lottery feature, but not even being able to display your host's abilities is seriously pathetic. Of course, if you could whip up something like an appraisal skill, that'd be even better—like scanning to know an item's attributes at a glance. And the shop too; relying purely on lottery draws is too random, it'd be more stable to save up and buy outright... Prometheus? Prometheus?"

The young man, who had been rambling to himself for a while, froze, only then belatedly realizing:

After teasing him, the only AI who knew he was a reincarnator—that chatterbox—had already fallen into slumber.

Confirming this, Fu Li stood there in a daze for a long moment, his gaze gradually calming.

Calm to the point of deathly stillness.

A new day! Worker mode engaged...

Tying his tie, changing into his suit, dragging his body along, Muye looked at the well-dressed beast in the mirror, adjusted his glasses, slipped on his shoes, and walked out the door.

He'd slept well, because this morning, that damn landlady hadn't been banging on someone else's door with a racket.

Waking up late ruins the morning; waking up early ruins the whole day.

Muye didn't know how others experienced it, but for him, the half-hour of dozing before getting up was crucial.

That discomfort of being forcibly yanked awake was like some kind of withdrawal symptom, enough to leave Muye listless for the entire day.

Thankfully, something like that wouldn't happen again.

Last night, the sub-landlord who'd taken over the third floor had brought beer and barbecue to chat with the tenants.

According to him, Fu Li from Room BK202 would be moving out in a few days.

Once he left and the landlady's brother moved in, she naturally wouldn't bother banging on doors early in the morning.

"Tch!"

Recalling this, Muye clicked his tongue in annoyance.

He wasn't upset about the unfair treatment Fu Li had suffered, but about that anorexic brother who got to be neighbors with a Nordic beauty.

Who hadn't fantasized about developing a moving, beautiful romance with a white-haired girl who fell from the sky?

Of course, fantasy was fantasy; in reality, he still had to grovel and cower as usual.

It wasn't like he could go around all day claiming the girl was his fiancée and shamelessly cling to her like Fu Li did, right? Muye couldn't swallow his pride for that, and besides, it'd never work.

Speaking of Fu Li, that kid had finally wised up, realizing he should take a good look at himself in the mirror.

Stubborn persistence was a dead end! Women's hearts were far harder than men's—if they didn't like you, they really didn't like you!

With plenty of experience in this area, Muye sneered as he walked to the first floor, then froze when he spotted Fu Li standing in the yard, lost in thought.

Wasn't he packing up and leaving? Why was he still here?

The very person he'd been badmouthing in his mind now appeared before him, and even Muye felt a faint heat creep up his face.

Fortunately, his years of navigating society let him easily suppress that shame, and schadenfreude quickly took the upper hand.

Perhaps Muye himself didn't realize it, but 'someone who would go alone to a foreign country for a single girl, attending classes and working part-time while enduring the landlady's harassment without giving up'—that version of Fu Li was actually someone he envied.

Base people always love to destroy beautiful things, to witness the hysterical ugliness of others' failures firsthand.

And now, such a person stood right before him.

Time to 'comfort' him.

Muye unconsciously broke into a smile.

He quickened his pace, stepped forward, and patted Fu Li on the shoulder.

"Fu Li-kun, I heard you're—"

The reincarnator, who had just bid farewell to Prometheus, turned his head and calmly swept his gaze over him.

No deliberate stare, just that calm sweep.

Almost expressionless.

But precisely because there was no ripple in those eyes, it was the most silent, most telling look.

That glance sent Muye into a panic, as if plunged into an icy abyss.

Yet immediately, as if realizing who stood before him, Fu Li switched back to a slightly shy, clean smile.

He raised his hand in a harmless greeting: "Ah, it's Mr. Muye. Heading to work this early too?"

Too late, though.

"You! Don't come near me! Murder! Murder!"

The man who had fallen to the ground frantically kicked his legs, scrambling backward. The gradually spreading wet stain between his legs made Fu Li, the closest to him, frown involuntarily.

The apartment tenants, however, were in for bad luck. They'd thought no one would be banging on doors today and they could sleep in peace, only to be woken by this wailing cry. One by one, they opened their windows and stuck their heads out to see what was happening, turning the once-quiet morning into a lively commotion.

But the liveliness didn't last long, silenced by the landlady's sharp roar.

Still wearing a face mask, she walked over cursing, first glancing twice at Fu Li—who was thinking, 'Bro, is it really necessary? If you're not embarrassed, I am!'—then grabbed Muye by the collar and dragged him back.

"Goodbye."

Fu Li waved at their retreating figures, turned, and went back up the stairs on the other side to his second-floor room.

Fu Li checked the time and saw it was barely past eight in the morning.

He took off his coat, draped it over himself, lay down on the floor, closed his eyes, and fell into a deep sleep.

While he was recharging his energy, the BK201 room just one wall away was anything but peaceful.

The white-haired ball sitting cross-legged on the bed squinted, purring like a big cat that had spotted a mouse.

"Suspicious..."

Kiana was in a terrible mood. It wasn't just because that author with the surname Fu had only updated a measly 2,000 words yesterday—it was also what she'd seen through the window this morning.

Among the apartment residents, Kiana was undoubtedly the most well-liked.

If even Muye, an ordinary office worker you'd see anywhere, could learn that Fu Li was leaving, of course she could too.

When she first heard the news, Kiana froze, her emotions as tangled as Zhen Guanxi's fist had knocked Lu Tixia flying—salty, sour, spicy, all splashing out at once.

That's how people are. A lot of the time, what's scary isn't liking someone—it's getting used to them.

It's like that crazy admirer of yours. You're absolutely sure you don't like them, you might even look down on them, but the day you hear they're getting married, your heart might ache like crazy.

Kiana didn't look down on Fu Li, but the girl admitted that over the past four months since last year, she'd gotten used to having someone always tagging along.

Hearing he was leaving, she actually felt a little reluctant to let him go.

Luckily, Kiana was a good girl. She wouldn't hold back someone else's future just because of a little reluctance on her part.

She quickly sorted out her emotions and wondered whether she should give Fu Li a farewell gift.

But in less than a second, the girl dropped that idea.

He's finally faced reality and decided to go back to his country. If you give him a gift now, what if those feelings flare up again?

The Honkai side and the real side—people from different worlds shouldn't be tangled together in the first place.

Better to cut it cleanly with one decisive blow than to drag things out!

But just now, Kiana changed her mind.

No, "changed her mind" is misleading. To be precise, she'd spotted a problem.

Muye's crying earlier had woken up Kiana Cat, who hadn't been sleeping well anyway. She'd stirred groggily, her bedhead sticking up, and looked out the window like the other tenants.

Thump!

Fu Li smiled brightly, harmless as could be, and Kiana's heart skipped a beat.

Don't get it wrong—this wasn't some cheesy love at first sight, nor was it a flutter of the heart at seeing a reformed, sunny young man. Okay, fine, there was a little of that, but it wasn't important!

People who've killed look at others' shoulders first when greeting them, because any movement starts from the shoulders. When they meet someone, they immediately assess the risk—whether that person might see them as prey. Their eyes instinctively narrow, a murderous glint flashing.

People who've killed look at others the way they look at prey.

That was exactly how Fu Li had looked at Muye, and that was why Kiana's heart had skipped a beat.

Even if it only appeared for a split second before being completely suppressed, the girl was sure—that was the look of a killer.

In her four years of wandering, she'd seen that kind of gaze in too many people.

But none of them had been fiercer than Fu Li's just now!

"What happened to him?"

Kiana frowned, thinking.

From what she remembered, the last time she'd seen Fu Li was two nights ago, when he'd come to confess to her as usual.

Then yesterday morning, she'd set out to hunt Honkai Beasts, came back, slept soundly at home, went out for food in the evening, heard from a neighbor that he was moving, and spent the whole night overthinking it, barely sleeping at all.

That was less than twenty-four hours! Could twenty-four hours really change a person that much?

Or maybe—

"Could A Li have been possessed by some wandering ghost from who knows where?!!"

Miss Kiana, well-versed in Shenzhou web novels, had subtly arrived at a certain wrong answer that was actually quite close to the truth.

March 26, 2014, P.M. 4:50—

Dusk. The sun was setting in the west.

The soft glow of the setting sun spilled through the half-open window, adding a hazy touch to the empty room.

Fu Li, lying on the floor, opened his eyes and stared at the familiar yet strange quantum-superposition ceiling.

"Prometheus? Apu? Little Bao?"

He called out tentatively, but as expected, got no response.

He propped himself up, organized the gear in his backpack, placed the combat items where he could grab them quickly, picked up his baseball bat, and walked out the door.

In the hallway, Fu Li turned back for a long, deep look. After all, this was a place he'd lived in for months. Thinking that it was about to fall in the Third Honkai, he—

"Alright, nothing much to miss."

"Out with the old, in with the new."

The boy tightened his backpack, turned, and headed downstairs.

"Hey!"

A familiar, crisp shout rang out behind him.

Fu Li turned around to look at the slender figure who had called out to him.

Her azure eyes were clear as washed glass, like a pure fragment plucked from a cloudless sky; her fair skin flushed with a hint of pink, brimming with a playful and lively youthful spirit.

A white shirt accentuated the girl's exquisite figure to perfection, while the long legs beneath her shorts were wrapped in black stockings, making her silhouette all the more alluring.

"That hairstyle—I guess only you, Kiana Kaslana, could pull it off."

His gaze swept over the twin braids of pure white hair woven into her head, then Fu Li lifted his eyes to meet her delicate, pretty face: "What's up? Something wrong?"

Just as I thought!

Kiana's heart tightened.

Even when facing her, someone he knew well, Fu Li's first point of focus was still her shoulders (or hairstyle), and only then her face.

That instinct, embedded in his DNA, was something no ordinary person living in a peaceful world could possess! In the twenty-four hours she hadn't seen him, he must have gone through something to end up like this!

If that's the case...

At this point, Kiana hadn't yet joined St. Freya. After four years of wandering, her intellect and reflexes were closer to those of her Void Drifter period.

She rolled her eyes, careful not to act rashly and alert him. Instead, she planted one hand on her hip and steadied her tone: "It's only been a day since we last met, and you've already turned into such a smooth talker?"

"Just speaking the truth." Fu Li shrugged noncommittally. "So, what did you stop me for?"

"I want to know what you're planning to do after you leave."

"Plans? Of course, I'm going back to my country."