She had no warmth

Tony was sure his eyes were playing tricks on him, or perhaps hunger had made him hallucinate. Otherwise, how could he be seeing another little girl in a place like this?

The night wind was fierce, its howling gusts making the little girl sway from side to side.

"Hold hands... hold hands..."

Her frail little body rocked in the wind, and she looked about to topple into the deep sand pit below.

Startled, Tony hurried to his feet and caught her little hand.

He immediately shivered from the cold. The girl's skin was icy, without a trace of warmth. Holding her hand felt like holding a block of ice.

After pulling the little girl between himself and Yinsen, Tony hurried to ask who she was.

Remembering his first encounter with Paimon, Tony decided that anything was possible in this vast world. A little girl appearing alone in the desert wasn't entirely out of the question. Perhaps she was someone's lost child.

"Kid, what's your name?"

As the wind gradually died down, the little girl lowered the hand she had been holding over her head.

The ice-blue gem atop her head shone brightly in the darkness. By that rare source of light, Tony got a clear look at her.

She was short, looking about the same age as Paimon, or perhaps even a little younger.

The little girl's outfit was rather unusual. At first glance, blue and purple dominated her clothing. She wore a small, round purple hat with a brim around it. The frost-colored gem was set into one side of the brim, while a decoration braided from red silk cord hung from the center of the crown.

But the most eye-catching detail was the piece of yellow paper stuck to the front of her hat, above her forehead, with strange patterns drawn on it. The loud flapping Tony had heard earlier was the sound of that paper fluttering in the wind.

Tony didn't understand the designs on the yellow paper, but it clearly seemed very important to the little girl. Aside from the piece on her hat, he found more on her clothes, though those were a little smaller.

She also wore a string of large azurite-blue beads around her neck, hanging down over her chest.

She wore a short blue-and-purple dress patterned with geometric swirls, along with a cloud-patterned shawl with two little bells dangling from its ends.

Tony studied her carefully. When he looked at her eyes, he discovered that their color was remarkably beautiful: pale purple tinged with rose-red.

Her soft, fine, pale-purple hair was woven into a thick braid, and a round ornament slightly larger than a coin was pinned at her left temple.

The girl's large, unusually colored eyes gazed innocently at Tony, giving him a strange, absurd idea.

Had he encountered some sort of desert spirit?

He could hardly be blamed for thinking that. In the middle of the night, in such harsh surroundings, a strangely dressed little girl with almost inhuman beauty had suddenly appeared. Anyone would have let their imagination run wild.

Hearing Tony's question, the little girl slowly spoke. Her speech was very slow, her voice flat, with a halting quality to it:

"I'm Qiqi... I'm... a zombie."

(I'm Qiqi... I'm... a zombie.)

At the little girl's words, Tony's head rang, and a chill shot from the soles of his feet straight to his scalp.

"...What?"

Looking at the stunned Tony, the little girl continued in her somewhat sluggish voice:

"Because Qiqi... died once, I'm... a zombie."

"Ah."

Tony felt as though he was about to go mad. He had to be dreaming. Otherwise, how could something this outrageous be happening?

"Qiqi... died once."

The little girl's words weighed on his heart like a boulder, leaving him unable to breathe. For a moment, an absurd yet reasonable thought occurred to Tony.

Perhaps he was already dead. He and Yinsen had died in the desert, and the little girl before him was the messenger of death sent to take them away.

"So you've come to take us away?" The corner of Tony's mouth twitched.

Tony considered himself a materialist. He had never believed in God or ghosts, but the experiences of the past few days had completely overturned his understanding of the world. He had glimpsed another world and learned of the Traveler's existence, so a little girl serving as the messenger of death who guided departed souls seemed fairly normal.

"..." The little girl's eyes were blank. She didn't answer Tony's question, merely lowering her head in silence as though thinking.

Tony couldn't help wondering what she was thinking about.

What was on her mind?

Was she judging my life? Deciding whether I should go to heaven or hell?

At that thought, sorrow swept through Tony.

Before all this had happened, he had been confident that the good deeds he had done in his life would be enough to earn him a place in heaven after death. Now, however, he felt he had no right to enter that Eden beyond the grave. Hell was where he belonged.

How many innocent lives had the weapons he created taken? The weight of those lives was too heavy, and the Stark name carried far too much blood debt. Only by going to hell could he atone. Only in hell might he cleanse his sins. Only in hell might he wash away the stench of blood clinging to him.

Tony waited quietly for the little girl's final judgment.

"Huh?"

The little girl suddenly lifted her head from her thoughts. She blinked, her eyes full of confusion and bewilderment. Seeing Tony, she tilted her head, then looked around.

Everything around Qiqi felt unfamiliar. She couldn't remember why she was here, why there were two people in front of her, or why one of them was staring at her so intently.

But Qiqi was a good girl. Mr. Baizhu had taught her to be polite to strangers. That way, Qiqi wouldn't scare anyone, and they wouldn't dislike her.

And so.

"Hello... I'm Qiqi... I'm a zombie," Qiqi said earnestly.

"Uh..."

Hadn't I just heard that? Tony thought.

Tony looked at the little girl before him, bewildered. "If I remember correctly, Qiqi, you already introduced yourself a minute ago."

At Tony's words, the little girl seemed to understand something, and an apologetic expression appeared on her face:

"Ah... sorry... Qiqi doesn't remember. Qiqi's memory... is bad."

"There are lots of things... I can't remember."

Hearing that, Tony couldn't help feeling sorry for her. Qiqi had forgotten something that had happened only a minute ago.

Sensing the man's feelings, Qiqi remained calm:

"But there's nothing wrong with that... There aren't many things... I need to remember."

The little girl's sincere apology filled Tony with guilt. He felt like a terrible bully picking on a child.

A little flustered, he shook off all his earlier thoughts about messengers of death. She was clearly just an adorable child with a bad memory.

"No, no, you don't have to apologize. I just wanted to know... Qiqi, do you remember how you got here?" Tony asked tentatively.

The little girl's gaze moved to the dunes, then to the night sky above. Her expression was completely blank.

"Qiqi doesn't remember."

All right. Besides an unconscious Yinsen, he now had Qiqi, who couldn't answer a single question. Tony felt the burden on his shoulders grow considerably heavier.

He went on to ask the little girl many more questions, but Qiqi's answers were always the same: she didn't remember, she couldn't recall, she didn't know.

It gave Tony a headache.

If she couldn't remember, then so be it. It wasn't such a big deal anyway, Tony told himself.

Once they got out of the desert, he would see whether he could find out who the girl was.

"Cough, cough, cough."

The rapid coughing caught Qiqi's attention, and she looked toward the other person.

The wind earlier had been fierce, and Yinsen had inhaled some fine grains of sand. He clutched his chest and coughed violently, his mouth opening and closing.

Seeing this, Tony hurried over, supporting Yinsen with one hand and gently patting his back with the other.

"Yinsen, are you all right?"

Yinsen looked terrible, his skin unnaturally pale.

"Cough, cough, cough." Yinsen kept coughing. His face grew even paler, and his body shook violently.

Having taken on a five-star character, Lin Ze was now merged with Qiqi. Qiqi's memories contained nothing about missions or anything of that sort, but Lin Ze remembered.

He hadn't expected Yinsen's condition to deteriorate to this extent in the mere few hours since they had parted.

Under the character's influence, Lin Ze's ability to think and remember was little different from Qiqi's. Fortunately, when the bureau had designed their cheat abilities, it had etched the mission details into its employees' hearts, keeping him from being completely in the dark.

He had to treat Yinsen now.

While Tony was still checking on Yinsen, he suddenly noticed the light beside him disappear.

He raised his head. The little girl had already run off.

"Qiqi!! Come back!!!"

Frantic, Tony shouted at the top of his lungs and immediately gave chase. But Qiqi was too fast for him to keep up, and the light soon vanished. Worried about Yinsen's safety, Tony could only return to where he had been and silently pray that Qiqi would come back soon.

Thankfully, Tony didn't have to wait long before he saw Qiqi's light gradually approaching across the desert.

Qiqi carried a living creature on her tiny shoulder. Half its body dragged along the ground, kicking up a cloud of dust as she moved.

When the little girl reached him, Tony took a closer look and got a terrible fright.

On her shoulder was a sand snake nearly two meters long. It was so massive that its weight made Qiqi leave a deep depression in the sand with every step.

Yet there wasn't a trace of fear on Qiqi's face. She was perfectly calm, and had even wrapped the sand snake twice around her neck to make it easier to carry. The sight made Tony break out in a cold sweat.

Her cold little hands gripped the snake's head as it flicked its tongue at her, hissing threateningly.

"Qiqi!!"

Tony roared angrily. His shout made Qiqi pause briefly, and she turned to look at him with innocent eyes.

Tony pressed a hand to his forehead. He suspected that Qiqi's little head had even forgotten what danger was.

But just as he was about to take his time explaining to the little girl how to avoid danger...

Qiqi pulled a sword from somewhere. She dropped the sand snake from her shoulder onto the ground, and the instant it straightened its body and lunged, she swung the sword's hilt toward it:

"True name: Doom-Exorcising Adeptus."

Frozen crystals scattered through the air. Sword energy swept out with a whistle, piercing the sand snake's body. In an instant, its enormous body turned to dust and vanished without a trace.

Then Tony felt a pleasant coolness wash through his body. His fatigue and aches disappeared in the blink of an eye.

!!!

When he realized that Qiqi was responsible for all these strange occurrences, Tony's mouth gaped like a papaya pried open. For a moment, he lost the ability to speak.