Qingyuan Pharmaceutical Factory

After returning home with Zhao Mou, Zhao Yijiu lived a peaceful life for a while.

Thinking back on everything he's done during this time, he feels a bit hazy about it, unable to recall the details clearly, as if he's already suffering from Alzheimer's.

Several years have passed in the blink of an eye... truly, in the blink of an eye.

In the blink of an eye, he had grown up and was packing his things to go to the abandoned Qingyuan Pharmaceutical Factory for his first simulation.

Wearing clothes that allowed for easy movement and a mask to cover her face, Zhao Yijiu prepared to go out, knowing that she would soon be entering the simulation again.

Zhao Mou has been very busy lately. There is an important matter that he needs to do for the Zhao family. However, after performing divination, Zhao Mou determined that tonight is the best time for Zhao Yijiu to enter the divination, and he has also identified the area in advance where the divination event will occur.

So, even though he was very busy, Zhao Mou still took the time to go home and gave his younger brother a lot of instructions. Then, Zhao Mou flipped his wrist, and a dagger appeared in his palm.

He adjusted his glasses and shoved the dagger into Zhao Yijiu's hand. "Keep the [Heartshatter] safe. With it, even if you face ghosts directly, you'll have a chance to escape."

Zhao Yijiu silently accepted it.

It's all too familiar... The Sacrificial Heartshatter is the precursor to the Stop Killing.

After he became a Deducer, Zhao Mou officially gave him [Heartshatter]. Heartshatter and his Persona Mask merged again, which became the later Blade of Stop Killing.

Can...

Why is this dagger... so strange?

Zhao Yijiu's face remained expressionless, but he secretly observed the dagger several times. The bright red gem on the hilt pulsated like a heart, and its appearance was still the same as the Heartshatter heart from back then. However, perhaps because too much time had passed, he was mistaken, and the aura emanating from the dagger felt strangely unfamiliar.

Strangeness.

After he received the script and was reborn, many things became particularly strange.

Zhao Yijiu squinted, cracking his knuckles. An idea, like a needle, gave him a slight headache, but before it could be fully formed, he was trapped in a heavy, stagnant atmosphere.

[What are you thinking? Today marks the beginning of the climax of the script. Your life will change from the moment you meet the second male lead. Aren't you excited?]

The narrator said.

It interrupted Zhao Yijiu's vague thoughts and successfully diverted Zhao Yijiu attention, but Zhao Yijiu then discovered another problem.

He's going to do a divination tonight. He met Yu Xing during their first divination. Back then, Yu Xing was a guy who liked to play the weakling, which made him feel very frustrated.

Even now, when I think back on it, everything from that night is still vivid in my mind.

Because he hadn't truly experienced the deduction process, he misjudged the cunning of the ghosts and the power of the rules, almost causing a disaster. It was Yu Xing who saved him in the darkness. He even said...

If given the chance, he would repay the life-saving debt.

However, he never had the chance to do so, and it was Yu Xing who helped him the most.

From the moment he emerged from the dark room until he entered the deduction room, he didn't seem to think about Yu Xing. What was he doing during that time?

Suddenly, a string in Zhao Yijiu's mind tightened.

This isn't right.

There must be something wrong with his memory.

During those years, even if he shouldn't have known Yu Xing, it was the original him who didn't know her, not the reborn him with the script.

How could he not have gone to see Yu Xing beforehand? And how could he have no memory of Yu Xing at all in his life, only to suddenly "unlock" his memories of Yu Xing when he was prompted to deduce this matter?

Furthermore, considering this, although he couldn't help Zhao Mou with strategies, he was still from the future, so why didn't he remind Zhao Mou of some important matters?

Impossible.

Are the memories from these past few years truly real?

A warning bell suddenly rang in his soul. Zhao Yijiu's gloomy eyes flashed, and he calmly accepted [Heartshatter] and headed to Qingyuan Pharmaceutical Factory according to the "script".

As before, he was the first person to arrive at the Pharmaceutical Factory.

The moment he stepped into the Pharmaceutical Factory, a flood of information rushed into his mind. This was the result of the forced alteration of their cognition during the simulation. They were clearly just "passersby," yet they were filled with memories of a livestreamer recruitment, making them believe they were conducting a job interview.

He was unable to resist this information before, and logically speaking, he is the same now, because he has been reborn and given a second chance at life, and his strength has also regressed.

However, Zhao Yijiu now clearly felt that his cognition was very clear, and that distorted information could no longer affect him. In the instant it tried to distort his cognition, it was automatically pulverized by his mental power.

Zhao Yijiu: "..."

His face darkened.

One person walked around the factory for a while, and soon the others arrived.

He couldn't quite remember these people's names, and he never intended to. He knew that all the people who came to him, except for a girl with long curly hair, were ghosts in disguise.

Assistant Hao, whose identity is that of a company employee, is an official personnel created by the Absurd Deduction system, probably specifically responsible for testing new deduction users.

Yu Xing arrived just in time.

Rain was falling outside the factory window, and a cold wind kept blowing in. A seemingly panicked but actually very steady sound of footsteps slowly approached from outside the door.

Zhao Yijiu looked up, her sharp gaze piercing through the darkness, ignoring the light emanating from the flashlights of other people or ghosts, and staring straight at the factory gate.

With a creak, the door was pushed open.

Amidst the lightning and thunder, that familiar face came into his view.

His stunning looks were tinged with panic and pallor. The conman, feigning shyness, his black hair still wet, ran over and greeted everyone.

Yu Xing's appearance never changed; only later did her black eyes turn into a deep blue.

Wait... when did his eyes turn a deep blue?

Zhao Yijiu frowned.

Because he realized that all he could remember was the icy glint in Yu Xing's deep blue eyes, as if she were carrying something unfathomable, but he couldn't recall what he and Yu Xing were doing at that time.

It must be in the process of simulation, right?

But what exactly was the content of that deduction?

It seems that... Yu Xing disappeared for a long time... and then suddenly reappeared in a simulation.

At that time, he was... looking for infected people?

Infected person? Virus?

Two keywords that had almost never appeared in his mind suddenly surfaced, Zhao Yijiu's pupils shrank, as if a glass wall was about to be smashed.

But just then, Yu Xing, who had finished greeting everyone, suddenly looked at him, her eyes filled with unfamiliarity, yet she walked towards him, stroking her chin, and said, "Why do I feel like I've seen you before?"