Chapter 221 : Chapter 221 Habits Become Second Nature
"..."
"..."
Herta from different timelines felt the same shock in her heart.
Once, the boy who carried the girl home after school responded to her question with those words.
"As long as you call for me in your heart, no matter when it is, I will appear by your side."
Then, the girl gave a sweet smile.
"Then it's a promise. This is the second promise between Brother Mu and Little Ta."
Herta's pupils trembled.
She remembered... she remembered everything...
At the last moment of the crash, the name she subconsciously called out in her heart was—Qi Zhimu.
Qi Zhimu didn't know magic, but he was her teenage magician.
"Let's go home together, Little Ta."
"Mhm!"
"...My eyes... were injured a few years ago. My vision isn't great now, and I can't see far clearly, so I'll have to rely on you."
The Herta of the past agreed, her face full of concern.
While the Herta from the future clenched her fists tightly.
It wasn't an injury from a few years ago...
Just like that, Qi Zhimu carried her on his back as they stepped into the familiar world, Life-taking Mirror Shadow.
Unlike his magician self, who could blast enemies away with magic whenever he wanted if he wished.
The Original Human Qi Zhimu, facing attacks from Mirror Ghosts and duplicate shadows, could mostly only choose to dodge.
Only when he truly couldn't dodge would he find the right moment to kill the shadow with a single blow.
He clearly knew which work this world was based on and how to pass the first stage.
However, Qi Zhimu was not at ease.
Breaking the invisible mirrors at lower levels was one thing, but those high up in the air were completely out of reach.
There were no shortcuts in the original work; one had to find the brief gaps created when the mirrors rotated, avoiding the generation of duplicate ghosts while stepping on the low-level invisible mirrors to climb all the way up.
After shattering the highest mirror, one had to return the same way, breaking the mirrors behind them until finally reaching the ground.
Only then would the Mirror Ghost's true body of the first stage reveal itself, and killing it would clear the stage.
During the process, Herta noticed Qi Zhimu was quite skilled and guessed he had trained in the rebel army's headquarters.
But... being skilled didn't mean he could remain unscathed.
Qi Zhimu's current state wasn't good; his face was pale, and he looked exhausted from overexertion.
Not to mention he was carrying a girl who was also in poor condition and needed protection the entire time.
The duplicated ghosts weren't hard to deal with; the trouble lay in the decoys that would self-destruct after being killed five times.
To protect Herta, several wounds were left on Qi Zhimu's body.
Without bandages or emergency medicine, he could only stop the bleeding in his own way.
Before entering the next stage, Qi Zhimu hung a small, decorative coordinate transmitter onto the key necklace Herta was wearing.
"Stages two to four of Life-taking Mirror Shadow randomly feature teleportation stages. You should still remember that, right?"
"I do. The ghosts' combat power is the same as the fake duplicates. Don't worry, Little Ta will wait for you."
"I'll get there as fast as I can."
Despite saying so, Qi Zhimu couldn't hide the worry on his face.
This stage would 100% appear; it was just a matter of when.
Fortunately, the second stage was a psychological attack.
Qi Zhimu breathed a sigh of relief and switched to carrying Herta in his arms as they moved forward.
To keep her from being affected by the malicious words, he kept talking to her, discussing the famous cosmic catastrophe, the Swarm Disaster, explaining it in quite some detail from beginning to end.
After finishing, he even told a joke.
A pun that wasn't too bad, making the girl nestled in his arms chuckle.
The girl's reaction lifted Qi Zhimu's spirits, confirming that his method of distraction was working.
So, he racked his brains and told several more bad jokes.
Gradually, those malicious psychological attacks could hardly affect Herta anymore; only that familiar voice remained by her ear.
"Faced with objects that speak human words, a blacksmith's first reaction is that they're actually talking! Don't you think that's funny?"
The girl didn't care if Qi Zhimu's jokes were funny; she only cared about being able to hear his voice continuously.
His voice brought her peace of mind, and that was enough.
Before they were halfway through, Herta unexpectedly fell into a deep sleep, sinking into Qi Zhimu's arms with a smile of security on her lips.
Qi Zhimu wasn't unaware that she had fallen asleep, but he still insisted on doing something he wasn't good at.
All just so his voice could enter the only world the girl had left.
"..."
Witnessing the truth of the past, the Herta from the future bit her lower lip hard, her eyes turning red.
Qi Zhimu didn't trade insults with the ghosts, nor did he casually recount cold incidents.
That incident... was the actual truth of what happened...
It wasn't that no ghosts attacked Qi Zhimu's mind; in fact, after she fell into a deep sleep, all the verbal abuse fell upon him.
Facing the most vicious curses in the world, Qi Zhimu acted as if he heard nothing, his expression not changing a bit as he calmly carried her to the finish line and entered the third stage.
The moment he stepped through the door, he realized something was wrong; the girl's coordinates in his arms were moving away—she had been swapped.
Without hesitation, he killed the fake ghost and sprinted towards Herta's direction, shattering mirrors along the way.
Herta remembered that reunion.
The magician Qi Zhimu had broken through a side mirror wall and instantly killed the fake ghost with a single move.
But now, it wasn't like that.
Two identical figures engaged in combat; the duplicate's abilities were basically the same as the original, making it hard to determine a winner.
In the end, Qi Zhimu used a life-for-life technique, successfully killing his fake self, but he gained new wounds because of it, his face growing even paler.
Seeing the girl's pained and concerned gaze, he smiled and shook his head, a green fluorescence lighting up his body.
"During those years trapped in the Memory-Substance World, I stepped onto the Path of Abundance and became a Pathstrider. Small wounds like these can be healed quickly."
"But... Pathstriders aren't made of iron either..."
Even though she had been separated from Qi Zhimu for over five years, once he regained his Remembrance, he was still the same familiar person.
How could Herta not see that Qi Zhimu only said that because he didn't want her to worry?
Virtual Substance Lifeforms with special abilities have physiological limits, and so do Pathstriders.
To put Herta at ease, Qi Zhimu healed the wound on his arm in front of her, soon leaving only a scab.
While he had healing abilities from the power of the Path, his regenerative power wasn't much different from the magician Qi Zhimu.
"Brother Mu, I'm sorry... I'm tired and hungry now. Can we rest for a bit before entering the fourth stage?"
She wanted Qi Zhimu to rest a little longer, even if it was only for half an hour.
"Of course."
Qi Zhimu's expression immediately became tense. He fumbled around his person and only found a few candies, peeling one and putting it into the girl's mouth.
"...Sorry, I was in a hurry and left all the food on the spaceship. I only have lollipops."
A familiar taste.
"Did you make these recently, Brother Mu?" The girl looked up, naturally surprised.
Qi Zhimu nodded slightly and sat down beside the girl.
"Although I lost the relevant Remembrance and didn't know why I suddenly felt like making these candies one day, I know now."
"..." Herta choked up.
She also knew why...
Remembrance lost, yet habit becomes second nature.
He would make candies for the girl he cared about in his heart.