Bizarre Honkai, a Wife-Chasing Crematorium

Li Mo crawled out of the cave. He was already locked on. If he couldn't find a way to break the deadlock in three hours, he would die.

He wasn't afraid of dying, but when an Impostor occupied a target's body, it would gain all their memories.

It would be fine if it were just Otto's, but if it could peek into his memories, that would be a terrifying thing.

The eerie cave, the haunted mansion world, St. Freya High School, Mount Taixuan, the Previous Era, and many other worlds.

It might follow his memories to these places and start spreading directly.

Without dawdling, Li Mo strode towards the Kaslana family's territory. As he passed through the alleyways, many eyes fell on him.

Li Mo had no time to worry about whether these gazes came from living people. He had to get to the Kaslana family's territory immediately and do two things.

The first was naturally to eat. A living person's body was too frail. Even with enough sleep, he would enter a state of weakness without food.

Li Mo could clearly feel his thoughts slowing down, so when he arrived at the Kaslana family's territory, he would join them for a meal.

[Have you thought of a way?]

"I have. If it succeeds, I might be able to return to my original body."

"When that time comes, I'll come find you. Remember my tone of voice; you'll recognize it then."

"Of course, everything is predicated on 'that fact'."

Li Mo muttered to himself as he jogged.

He was jogging because he couldn't run anymore. Otto's body was too weak; even running for half a minute left him breathless.

[And if it fails?]

"If it fails, you won't be in any trouble. The worst-case scenario is just a few billion people dying, that's all."

[What about the Impostors?]

"Someone will take care of them."

[How? You said Impostors can't die. They just endlessly reincarnate into other people. Who can handle that?]

"Yes, Impostors and ghosts are both unkillable. The living can't contend with tireless ghosts, but ghosts can."

"Don't worry. Even if the Impostors reincarnate endlessly, there will be one person who will eternally hunt them down until the last Impostor is killed."

His words came to an abrupt halt. Li Mo stood at the gate of the Kaslana family's territory, putting on a harmless expression and clamoring to play with Kallen.

The guards recognized Otto.

Although the Kaslanas and Apocalypses were in a very delicate relationship, the children were innocent.

They had heard from their young lady, Kallen, that there was a frail but smart and capable child in the Apocalypse family named Otto.

Before long, Kallen was called over by the guards.

The moment she saw Li Mo, she excitedly ran forward and took his hand, her face beaming with smiles.

"Otto, you're here! What brings you here so late?" Kallen asked.

Li Mo hesitated for a moment, then nodded silently and leaned close to Kallen's ear, whispering, "It's about how to identify Impostors, but I'm a little hungry right now. Let's have a meal together. I also have some questions I want to ask Uncle Francis."

Kallen was overjoyed. She waved to the guard and led Otto into the main hall.

"Father! Can Otto eat with us today?" Although Kallen was asking, she turned and pushed Otto into a chair, clearly planning to act first and report later.

Seeing this, Francis smiled helplessly. "Of course, he can."

At the dinner table, the family was happy and harmonious. Besides Francis and Kallen, there were a few other white-haired men and women whom Li Mo didn't recognize. They must have been direct descendants of the Kaslana family.

Li Mo, with his golden hair, sat among them, looking out of place.

The conversation was normal.

But that was to be expected. There were different levels of Impostors. Some were easy to expose, especially those disguised as young children.

As for the reason, Li Mo wasn't sure.

Suddenly, Li Mo quickly turned his head and looked towards the door. The moon was bright and the stars were sparse. The world outside had fallen into darkness.

The Void Archives reminded Li Mo that it was now 7:15. There were less than two hours until 9:00.

"Hmm?"

Li Mo noticed that Kallen, who had been eating heartily, suddenly stopped. Her legs were trembling slightly, and her eyes darted around.

It seemed she was peeking at a figure that had already disappeared from the doorway.

"Uncle Francis, can I ask you a few questions?"

Seeing that the Kaslana family's conversation had died down, Li Mo raised his hand and spoke.

His every move, every word and action, was full of childishness.

He had waited a full ten minutes for this opportunity!

[Are you sure it's not because you were busy stuffing your face?]

That's not important.

Faced with young Li Mo's question, Francis put on a very kind expression, and the other Kaslanas at the table showed no signs of displeasure.

Most Kaslanas were rather straightforward and passionate, so they were quite tolerant of childish children.

This also meant he could play dumb and ask some secret questions bluntly. The worst that could happen was apologizing afterward.

"You're Kallen's friend, which makes you a friend of the Kaslanas. Ask whatever you want. I'll answer what I can," Francis said generously.

However, he was still reserved in his words. The implication was that he wouldn't answer some secret matters.

As the family head, Francis wasn't just a powerhouse in terms of combat strength. He had to be wary of whether this little guy was sent by Nicholas to pry into the Kaslana family's intelligence.

Li Mo nodded. After eating, his spirits had improved considerably.

Anyway, he was going to die today, so he might as well test the waters.

Francis was wary of him asking about things the Apocalypses shouldn't know, so he would go with the flow and put on a mask.

"Uncle Francis, can you still use the Judgment of Shamash?"

As soon as he spoke, Li Mo felt the gazes of the people around him turn hostile.

"Of course, I can, little Otto. How about I take you hunting next time?" Francis showed no obvious displeasure.

War was a contest between old men, but it was the young who were sacrificed.

"Oh, it's like this, Uncle Francis. I wanted to ask if you ran into any strangers in the forest. Someone in my family asked me to ask you."

He threw all the blame on Nicholas. If Francis had any suspicions, he could suspect Nicholas.

After all, I'm just a fourteen-year-old kid, right?

Francis: "Strangers... I did meet one, but he just asked us to take him away."

Li Mo: "..."

"Take him away? So... the day you picked us up, Uncle Francis, he..."

Francis: "He was in our group, at the very back. The one not wearing armor was him."

Li Mo: "..."

"Where is he now?"

"...I mean, our family head wants to know his identity."

Li Mo's mouth twitched. He hadn't noticed the Impostor at the back of the group at all.

This meant that the Impostor had recorded his identity information. After it died, it would be randomly reborn into someone in its memory...

Before long, the Black Death would spread to Vienna, and many people would die.

What did this mean? Impostors disguised as humans would also be killed like humans.

The priority for an Impostor's rebirth was likely: agreeing to the Impostor's request—spending a long time with the Impostor—not suspecting the Impostor's identity—existing in the Impostor's memory—having seen the Impostor.

He was in the second and third categories. Francis was the primary choice for the Impostor's rebirth.

What a terrible outcome. If Francis became an Impostor, he couldn't beat him. Even if he could, the next one to be reborn would be himself.

Never mind that for now. The most important thing to deal with right now is to kill the Impostor that set the trap in the cave.

Besides, according to his plan, he didn't care about the Impostor's rebirth at all.

To be born again from death, this was probably the ending the first page of the notebook wanted to see the most.

Wait a minute...

Li Mo fell into a long silence. Were all his current thoughts really his own?

Why was this pattern, this choice, so similar to the strategies on the first page of the notebook?

A strange feeling came over him. Li Mo suddenly realized something was odd.

Why did he cross over into Otto's body from the very beginning? And why was he sleeping in the primeval forest with Kallen?

When I followed Francis back to Vienna during the day, I didn't see any eerie caves nearby. It was completely unreasonable.

There were only forests nearby, and some hills, but that was dozens of kilometers away.

The eerie cave wouldn't send him so far from the source of the Bizarre Thing.

This meant...

I've lost a part of my memory.

It was highly likely that the first page of the notebook had a hand in this.

Did I encounter a fatal danger when I crossed over into this world, and was forced to use the notebook to survive?

Li Mo wasn't sure. He was just suspicious.

"I'm not too sure either. He should be resting now. You can come back tomorrow."

"Okay, thank you, Uncle Francis. I'll be leaving then," Li Mo said politely.

Just as he got off his chair to leave, Kallen grabbed his wrist.

"O-Otto, you haven't told me how to identify Impostors yet. Let's walk and talk outside."

Li Mo suddenly felt a wave of murderous gazes from behind him.

I didn't even get such sharp glares from you guys when I was talking about Impostors...

Li Mo led Kallen out of the hall. When they got outside, he saw a man standing on a hill not far away. He had white hair and blue eyes, a member of the Kaslana family, and he was looking towards him and Kallen.

His arm was at a ninety-degree angle, waving.

It was all a very normal action.

But he wasn't waving from side to side, but back and forth...

Li Mo noticed that Kallen beside him was deliberately avoiding the other's gaze, hiding by his side.

"Otto, let's get out of here."

"Okay."

Li Mo replied, leading Kallen quickly away from the Kaslana territory.

But the person followed closely behind them. Li Mo glanced to the side and saw that it never took its eyes off them.

An Impostor that was extremely easy to expose...

This reminded Li Mo of the Impostor boy inside the bed, followed by an Impostor maid.

One was poorly disguised, and Li Mo recognized it at a glance.

This kind of disguise could probably only fool the foolish. But the Impostor maid was flawless in her words, actions, logic, and reasoning.

The two complemented each other.

Since a crudely disguised Impostor had appeared behind him, would there be another, perfectly disguised one?

However... it was all part of the plan.

Li Mo glanced at Kallen and said in a low voice, "Have you been feeling uneasy since you came back?"

Kallen nodded. "Mhm."

"Impostors are an omnipresent existence. They can go to any place in memory."

"Even the past or the future."

"Even if they are killed, they can enter another person's body."

"No one knows where they come from, or what their purpose is..."

The bushes around them suddenly began to stir, the sound of animals rustling through the leaves making a "rustle, rustle" sound.

There was no wind, but the trees on both sides of the road swayed uncontrollably.

A rain of leaves began to fall from the sky, landing on the path ahead of Li Mo and Kallen, eerie and terrifying.

Just like... the white flowers scattered by the living to mourn the dead at a funeral.

Except the white flowers in front of them had turned into green leaves.

"Otto, behind us..."

"I know. Just follow me."

Li Mo led Kallen out of the Kaslana family's territory, and the Impostor behind them followed.

Same old trick. Tie the Impostor to Judah and let the dead kids from the old manor torture it.

Just as Li Mo was thinking this, he felt a sudden tug on his left hand.

Li Mo quickly turned around and saw Kallen's ankles being tightly gripped by two arms that had stretched out several dozen times their normal length.

"Damn it!" Li Mo cursed. This was new information.

Impostors could stretch their arms?

Two terrifyingly twisted human arms were tightly gripping Kallen.

Thud!

The force was so great that even Li Mo was pulled to the ground.

"Save me!" Kallen pleaded.

"Void Archives! Mimic, Judgment of Shamash!"

A golden pistol appeared in Li Mo's hand. He rushed in front of the arms wrapped around Kallen's ankles, aimed, and pulled the trigger. A serpent of fire shot out, engulfing the Impostor's arms.

Soon, the Impostor was consumed by the flames.

As the fire burned its body, it stood there, motionless like a wooden dummy, only the eerie smile still hanging on its lips.

"Are you... okay?"

Before Li Mo could check on Kallen, one by one, people with distorted features walked out from behind the trees on both sides of the road.

"Heh," Li Mo let out a cold laugh.

Although everything was going according to plan, he couldn't help but feel a little scared when he saw all the Impostors hidden among the people come out.

Their limbs were particularly uncoordinated, their expressions strange, and they were all staring at him.

"Are you guys NPCs with modeling issues? Why are your bodies twitching like that? If you're sick, you should get treatment, you know."

Li Mo swallowed nervously. He was about to fight for his life.

"You are all Impostors. What, a certain Impostor reminded me in the cave, and now that I'm here, you won't stand up? Are you afraid of death?"

"I really don't know how you guys came to be..."

Li Mo's intimidation had no effect. One by one, the Impostors walked out of the darkness, continuously approaching him.

During this time, several dark figures flashed behind Li Mo, and he took them down with two or three shots.

"There are too many of them. If they get close and attack together, I won't stand a chance," Li Mo analyzed calmly.

He was somewhat nostalgic for Kanagawa Kimu. Her marksmanship could probably achieve a hundred percent accuracy.

To proceed with the plan, he had to kill all the Impostors present and ensure that the one he had agreed to the request of was also buried here.

"My marksmanship is indeed not very good, but I can risk my life."

"This world has no need for eternal things; dreamlike bubbles, fleeting and impermanent, are the true reality. First Divine Key, Seventh Plural Mimicry—Void Archives: Amrita of the Heavens..."

So what if his body was weak? He was going to die anyway, so who cared if his body was overloaded.

Hundreds of thousands of golden Judgment of Shamashs emerged from a black hole, their sights aimed at every moving target present except for Li Mo and Kallen.

In a flash, dazzling firelight erupted one after another, blasting all the Impostors in front of him into a puddle of blood and mangled flesh.

After using this move, Li Mo's body went limp, and he knelt on the ground.

[Kidney deficiency, always after overexertion...]

"Hah... No one will think you're mute if you don't talk."

"I..."

His words came to an abrupt halt.

A strange smile appeared on Li Mo's lips, but his eyes were motionless, staring blankly at himself in the puddle of blood.

In the reflection in the pool of blood, Li Mo got up with uncoordinated limbs, like a baby just learning to walk.

He stumbled and fell several times, but finally, after dozens of attempts, Li Mo managed to stand up steadily.

[Sigh... has it come to this? I hope your judgment is correct, outsider.]

The Void Archives proactively released its power, writing a sentence on the ground.

Li Mo noticed this and instinctively read the words on the ground aloud, his voice extremely unfamiliar: "Ki, a, na... I, don't, love, you, anymore?"

After speaking, he entered a state of shutdown, as if pondering the meaning of the sentence.

Kallen witnessed Li Mo's strange behavior and took two steps back in fear.

"O-Otto?"

While Kallen was still confused, the moonlight suddenly condensed into a solid form.

The full moon in the night sky was quickly dyed red, becoming dim, with a dark golden cross pattern in the center.

A white-haired girl with all the characteristics of a Kaslana appeared before Kallen.

The most striking feature was her long hair, several meters long, scattered messily on the ground.

The silver-white hair dragged on the ground, stained with filthy blood, but she paid no mind, walking step by step, unwavering, towards the Otto whose body was now occupied by an Impostor's consciousness.

"You are not him..."

With just one glance, Ghost Kiana recognized that the person before her was not her beloved.

That one and only soul, she had searched for it for a long, long time in the long river of time.

How deep was this love? The naive Li Mo and Kiana didn't quite understand.

Ghost Kiana only knew that on the night she came home, Li Mo had helped her dry her wet hair, wipe away her tears, and holding her face, told her for a long time that he liked her.

Crack—

The sound of bones breaking rang out. The Otto in front of Ghost Kiana was crushed into a pulp under ten thousand times the force of gravity.

In Kallen's astonished gaze, Ghost Kiana reached out her pale hand towards the puddle of blood on the ground.

Under the scarlet moonlight, even the frost seemed to be stained with a strange crimson.

The world was frozen, falling into eternal silence.

Then, the blood and mangled flesh began to reverse, like a slide show in reverse, reassembling into one after another, eerie-looking Impostors.

At the same time, Otto was also restored, but his expression was still strange.

A few seconds later, Otto's expression became normal, and he was even joking playfully:

"I..."

"Hah... No one will think you're mute if you don't talk."

Ghost Kiana reached out, wanting to touch the Li Mo of this time and space, but then pulled her hand back.

She saw black impurities in Li Mo's soul that did not belong to him. A strange black light, like a centipede, was tightly wrapped around the already tattered soul fire.

The flame was fragile, on the verge of extinguishing at any moment.

"Not here... not you... not you..."

Ghost Kiana's strange logic made her deny that the person who had triggered the Impostor's rebirth rule was Li Mo.

Time reversed, second by second, back to the point where Li Mo and Kallen were sleeping in each other's arms.

Faced with the newly reborn Li Mo in Otto's body, Ghost Kiana still denied Li Mo's existence.

But she miraculously entered this time and space, coming before Kallen and Otto.

And then...

"Ugh—!"

Kallen struggled desperately, grabbing Ghost Kiana's wrist with both hands, trying to shake her off.

"Kallen!"

The awakened Li Mo had not yet gained self-awareness, subconsciously believing he was Otto.

Seeing Kallen being strangled by a strange woman, he rushed forward in a fit of rage, trying to push Ghost Kiana away.

After several unsuccessful attempts, he took out the small knife from his bag and repeatedly cut and stabbed her.

"..."

Ghost Kiana's pupils trembled slightly. "Why?"

Her question was like a rootless duckweed, not accepted by anyone, not accepted by him.

Li Mo repeatedly stabbed the knife into Ghost Kiana's heart, ferociously cutting open her chest, severing her blood vessels, and cutting off her limbs.

Although the Bizarre Thing had no reaction to pain, and the wounds healed quickly, her healed heart suddenly skipped a few beats, feeling only pain and loneliness.

She vaguely remembered... A-Mo had clearly told her—

No matter how long it took, he would find a way to save her. He would bring her back to his side and make her smile happily like before.

At that time, everyone would be by their side, blessing them. They wouldn't have to worry about the Honkai anymore, and the two of them would have a small home...

A-Mo had said... he wouldn't make her wait too long...

But what about now?

A trace of disgust and resentment finally appeared on Ghost Kiana's calm face, and her fingers suddenly tightened.

With a "crack," Kallen's neck was broken, and her head was separated from her body.

Thump, thump! The head fell to the ground, bounced a few times, and then came to a stop beside Li Mo.

Li Mo opened his mouth, dropped the knife, and picked up Kallen's head, crying loudly, letting out a heart-wrenching roar.

Gradually, Li Mo stopped crying. He was confused by his own actions and threw Kallen's head away.

"How could I... wait, Kiana?!"

Before Li Mo could finish, the disheartened Ghost Kiana made time reverse again.

This time, it was the point where Li Mo used the notebook.

"Tell me, what do I have to do to survive?"

Li Mo asked the notebook, and the first page quickly showed content—

[My name is Li Mo. When you see this sentence, my name is: Li Mo.]

[I encountered an Impostor when I left the eerie cave. I did not agree to its request, nor did I get too close to it.]

[My intuition was very accurate. I judged that it was a ghost, so I didn't hesitate to pull out the Bizarre pistol and kill it with a shot to the head.]

[I was wrong.]

[MEI was right. I can't rely on the Bizarre pistol so much.]

[He was smiling, a very strange smile.]

[His eyes were wide open, like a clown with a playful smile.]

[At that time, I still hadn't realized that my death was imminent, until the sharp curse of the Misfortune Ghost sounded in my head.]

[I was about to die, a death where my consciousness would be replaced.]

[I tried to kill myself to Restart, but after the death Restart, the Misfortune Ghost's curse didn't stop. Instead, it became sharper and more ear-piercing.]

[I knew my consciousness was about to be replaced, even fade away.]

[Restart couldn't help me. With no way out, I used the notebook and opened the first page.]

[My name is Li Mo. When you see this sentence, my name is: Otto Apocalypse.]

[I named this kind of ghost: "Impostor".]

[To survive, I hid under the moonlight as much as possible to prolong the Misfortune Ghost's rule.]

[I found the young Otto who was collecting wild fruits at night to fill his stomach and went up to him, asking him to agree to a request of mine.]

[So that I wouldn't hurt Kallen, little Otto agreed.]

[I let him go and performed the final step in the primeval forest.]

[The Misfortune Ghost's voice was sharp but getting quieter. I knew I was going to die.]

[According to the first page of the notebook, I opened the notebook to the last page.]

[It was filled with: I am Li Mo, I am Li Mo, I am Li Mo...]

[The notebook reminded me that the cave and the mountain cave were forbidden places to stay. I couldn't let my body enter them.]

[I found a large tree, peeled off the bark, and put myself inside.]

[In the darkness, a幽blue nether fire burned my whole body, although it didn't kill me immediately.]

[At 9:06 PM, I pasted the last page of the notebook on my face.]

[At 9:07 PM, the Misfortune Ghost fell silent, and an Impostor was born in me.]

[At 9:08 PM, I died.]