The Beginning / The Second Meeting

"How do you think you should apologize to a friend who has been forgotten in a way that will make her feel better?"

"..." Elysia's smile almost faltered, and she forced a stiff smile, "That depends on who she is."

"Oh..." Lin pondered, "What if it were you?"

"How could I be angry with my friend?" Elysia smiled brightly. "Even if she forgot, I believe she was just too busy and it was an accident."

"What if it's just that you've simply forgotten?"

"..."

"And he remembers many people, but he forgot her."

"..."

Lin spread his hands and asked seriously, "Do you think... an apology will make them feel better?"

"I..." Elysia took a deep breath, and gradually the anger on her face disappeared. She wasn't stupid, of course she understood why Lin was asking her these questions now. "I'm not angry, it's not for any other reason, it's just because we are friends."

She gently curved the corners of her mouth into a smile, just like always.

Yes, even if she looks angry, Elysia wouldn't actually be angry with Lin over something like this.

But...

"Good."

Lin nodded and stood up.

"Since you're not angry, then I won't apologize. Goodbye."

"..."

This was the first time Lin had ever seen Elysia's face turn completely dark.

Chapter Ninety-Three Beginning

"Urban Legend?"

The boy in the internet cafe rubbed his frozen, red hands. The cold wind, blowing in gusts of wind that were almost unbearable even through the internet cafe door, made him shout at the manager to turn the air conditioning up a bit. Hearing his roommate gossiping while turning on the computer, he curled his lip in disdain. "How old are you? Still believing in Urban Legend?"

"But don't you think there have been some strange things happening in the world in recent years? Like the Australian bushfires last year, that affected the whole of Australia, how many people died? It's said that even half of the Western Ocean was illuminated by the fire. How could a forest fire be so fierce?" Another boy shrank his shoulders in fear as he said this. "And I have a distant relative in Australia. I haven't been in contact with him since that fire. I guess he's dead."

"Wasn't the report saying it was caused by a leak of some new energy source?"

"And then there's the coldest winter we've reported on before..."

"Stop talking about all this nonsense, it's all in the past now, isn't it?" The boy skillfully entered the login code and stared at the screen. "People always create anxiety for themselves like this, like ancient mural prophecies, famous people who died on the same day or were born on the same day, or another famous person being born on the same day a celebrity died... Please, so many people are born and die every day in the world, it's too far-fetched to treat coincidences as destiny. I could say that I was born on the same day as so-and-so."

"But aren't you curious? These Urban Legend are the same type as those cursed videotapes. If they didn't have a source, there wouldn't be such rumors, right?"

"... Curious." The boy turned his head, his deadpan eyes wide. "Curious, could you get me that video?"

"... It's really not possible."

"Then that settles it?"

The conversation ended there, but my gossip-loving roommate added, "But I heard that all the people who fainted after watching that video have one thing in common: they all watched the video at 1:15 a. m."

"So detailed?"

The boy was surprised for a moment, then said indifferently, "Whatever, I'm not going to make myself unhappy anyway."

For energetic students, staying up all night or even all night is commonplace. However, internet cafes can't be full of students, so while the two were engrossed in their battle, the internet cafe went from being noisy in the first half of the night to being quiet in the second half.

Is it 1:15?

The boy was bothered by his companion's words. He kept glancing at the time in the lower right corner. It was 1:10 a. m., and there were only five minutes left until 1:15 a. m.

The boy had a strange feeling, much like many people have an inexplicable sense of crisis before a disaster, which makes them feel inexplicably uneasy.

Then, distracted by his surroundings, his character in the game died. While waiting to respawn, he just stared at the bottom right corner as the numbers slowly ticked toward 1:15.

At 1:14:50, his character revived, but instead of rejoining the battle, he stared at the time as if possessed.

Three seconds...

Two seconds...

One second—

The time came to one fifteen.

But nothing happened. The boy breathed a sigh of relief and laughed self-deprecatingly, realizing he actually believed it...

"Bang!"

The sound of a head slamming onto the keyboard startled the boy. Then he noticed that his teammate's character was jumping around erratically and was quickly taken down by the enemy.

How...

He suddenly thought of something and turned to look at his companion.

The gossipy boy was lying face down on the keyboard, as if he were dead.

On his computer screen, a video that had already finished playing suddenly closed and disappeared...

Lin felt something was strange. Why did the person who had taken over her body prepare gifts for almost everyone, but not for Elysia?

This led him to give gifts to everyone else but forget to give one to Elysia. He thought he had already given it to her before he returned, but he had no memory of it. Elysia's attitude further confirmed to him that she was the "special case".

"Wait a moment."

Lin strode up and stopped the pink-haired girl who was walking out of the cafeteria with a dark expression. Her crystal-clear skin was expressionless. This time, Lin had truly angered this girl who usually teased others.

"Let me explain."

I don't want to hear it.

"I think I misspoke because that person was still stuck in my head," Lin said sincerely, enduring Elysia's suspicious gaze.

"My dear adjutant, do you know what girls hate most?" Elysia said coldly, arms crossed, "It's lying to her face."

There's a reason for that...

"Do you know what girls hate second most?" There seemed to be something new in Elysia's eyes. "Making excuses after being exposed."

"..." If Lin continues, there will probably be a third, fourth, and fifth thing that's annoying, and all of these can be summed up as people who hate him.

"Do you know what men like most?"

Lin calmly spread his hands and asked.

"What?" Elysia asked instinctively.

"Of course I like smart, clever, obedient, cute, bright-eyed, white-toothed, shy and beautiful girls."

"..."

This unexpected and rather direct "confession" made Elysia's face flush red. She felt that the person might not have really left, or might have left a bit of a smooth-talking element in Lin's mind.

"Don't get me wrong, it's not like I said I like you." Lin's next sentence made her feel like a bucket of ice water that Kevin had touched had been poured over her head, chilling her to the bone.

"..."

"But I really like it."

Lin felt a subtle sense of pleasure, seeing Elysia, who usually pranked others and herself, with such a change in expression, which was quite unusual.

However, Elysia should have said similar things to others quite often, so why does she react more strongly when she encounters the same situation?

"That's enough," Lin thought for a moment, then took out a small, roughly packaged box from his pocket.

Since no one had prepared a gift for Elysia, this was something Lin made himself using Aponia's hand tools, and it wasn't properly wrapped.

"... I'm sorry, you're right. If I forgot, I forgot. There are no excuses and I can't lie."

Lin's voice was calm, as usual, but Elysia could sense a different kind of reassuring aura from him. It was no longer sharp or dejected, but rather a calm and warm tone that he could control.

"It's just a handmade item, and my craftsmanship isn't very good... but since I've already forgotten about your gift, I thought I should make one for you myself..."

The box was opened, and inside lay a sparkling crystal flower, the same color as the girl's hair.

Chapter Ninety-Four: The Second Meeting

"Speaking of which, Lin has gone on missions with many people, but he's never gone on a mission alone with me, has he?"

"Um."

"Then why are we on this mission together?"

"... Probably because we're teammates now, and I'm still your adjutant." Lin leaned back expressionlessly against the corner of the sofa, trying to minimize his own space and stay away from the smiling face that was getting closer.

He glanced out of the corner of his eye at the delicate, transparent Crystal Flower pinned to the girl's chest. Judging from its shape and craftsmanship, it was as perfect as its current owner. This was also the result of Lin's afternoon of learning from Aponia.

Fortunately, Aponia usually buys some craft materials for backup, and there happened to be some he needed in there. However, he didn't know whether this crystal material was good or bad. Based on Lin's previous experience living abroad, this should be a relatively cheap plastic-like material.

However, the texture, hardness, and transparency of the material he processed were completely incomparable to those of plastic.

But Aponia just smiled mysteriously and didn't say anything, telling him to use it as he pleased.

Aponia also suggested that she make it, since her crafting experience and skill level were much higher than Lin's. Aponia could make it for him no matter what he asked for. However, Lin insisted that he make it himself. If Elysia didn't receive a gift as soon as others did, then he would have to give her something more special.

He hoped that this gesture would be special enough for Elysia.

... In conclusion, she definitely felt his feelings and thought they were incomparably special. The evidence was that she had been glued to him since yesterday, as if she wanted to stick them together and become one person.

Even now, when we go on missions, it's still like this.

Lin's biggest wish right now is that Elysia can keep a little... a little... distance, and that Prometheus can stop her instead of pretending not to see her.

Perhaps noticing Lin Wusheng's request, Prometheus stood stiffly in place. "Visual system under maintenance."

"..."

Lin shook his head helplessly and could only change the subject to the mission: "The mission is to investigate 'urban legends' in Knox on the Mu Continent."

"Urban legend? That's interesting~" Elysia's interest was immediately piqued. "But why would the Fire Moth be so idle as to investigate urban legends?"

But in fact, Moth Chasing Flames had done similar things more than once. For example, Lin initially thought the investigation on Dusk Street was just a search for traitors, but he sensed something was amiss in the ambiguous attitudes of the High Council afterwards.

Lin reviewed the events on Dusk Street again, and one thing in particular caught his attention.

That was the sanatorium on Dusk Street, the sanatorium where Aponia was located. There used to be a song that was outdated before he got involved in the investigation. However, according to the information from various sources, the time when the Fire Moth began to investigate the traitors on Dusk Street was when that song was popular. It was only after that that they found out that the Speaker had been active on Dusk Street.

It might just be a coincidence, but it got to Lin's nerves. Did he want to know why the Speaker would choose to buy property on Dusk Street?

Because the area was disorderly, chaotic, and inconspicuous, the moths that chased the flame noticed Dusk Street for no apparent reason. Was this really just a coincidence?

Then Lin found the ballad in Aponia and from the information he had gathered.

"That day, it fell from the sky. People on earth looked up and saw the starry sky..."

What is the meaning of this song? If the fire-chasing moth was indeed drawn to the fire-chasing moth because of this song, what undercurrents within the fire-chasing moth caused it to react?

This urban legend is even more difficult to describe.

"The footage is from 1:15. That's the name of that urban legend." Lin transferred the compiled data and Knox's topographical map to Elysia's terminal. "These are the places we need to investigate after we arrive at the branch..."

"Hi! Teacher Lin! I have a question!" Elysia raised her hand to ask.

"Elysia, I hate being interrupted when I'm lecturing," Lin said calmly, crossing his arms. "Disobedient students need to be disciplined."

"But shouldn't students be praised for being diligent and inquisitive?"

"I'm different from other teachers. Sometimes, if necessary, I'll let those students who call their mischief 'hard work' show them what it's like to be an adult." That's what Lin said, but Elysia was, after all, his captain. "...So, is there anything you want to ask?"

Why were the team divided into so many groups for this investigation?

What Elysia was referring to was that her 13th squad had been divided into many groups. She and Lin were in one group that came to Knox to investigate, while the other groups had other missions.

"Similar situations have occurred elsewhere...that's why Moth Chaser wants to get involved in the investigation."

Because these events are potentially related to the Honkai, some branches without armed forces can only intervene in the strange events in their areas by requesting headquarters to send investigators.

However, the current situation is not serious enough to warrant attention, so only the Squad Thirteen squad is carrying out the mission.

"The video at 1:15 AM is part of an urban legend that if someone sees a video on their computer or phone screen at 1:15 AM, they will lose consciousness and fall into a coma."

"It has been confirmed that the person currently in a coma is real, but whether the video exists and what its contents are are unknown."

A thoughtful glint flashed in Elysia's eyes. "Something like a cursed videotape...?"