"Hello, my name is Xin Yu. I'm from Earth."
Xin Yu looked at the Moon person before him and decided to introduce himself first. Come to think of it, could his getting lost all the way to the Moon be this Moon person's doing?
"Ah? Oh! I'm Kiana Kaslana. I'm from Earth too."
Kiana snapped back to reality, smiling as she put the instant noodle bowl aside. Seemingly sensing Xin Yu's suspicion, she said, "Nope, I didn't teleport you to the Moon. You just suddenly appeared. I didn't sense anything unusual at all."
"Is that so... Then I understand."
Xin Yu seemed to grasp something suddenly. His gaze shifted away, looking towards a corner where a string of bright red numbers resided.
[201:55:08]
The time increased. I checked it while I was lost earlier, and there was no increase. But after appearing on the Moon, the time suddenly jumped, even exceeding the initial time I first saw... So, was this sudden incident orchestrated by that mysterious entity? Why? Did it want me to interact with this person...
Xin Yu looked back at Kiana and said, "Hello, Kiana. You seemed surprised by the time I mentioned earlier. Why? Is the time you know different from what I said?"
"Mm, it's October 5th, 2018. Exactly five years difference. It might be hard to believe, but you may have time-traveled."
Kiana expected to see shock, panic, suspicion, or even anger at being tricked on the youth's face, but unexpectedly, he remained completely calm.
"I see. Did I transmigrate again? To five years later in the same world?"
Xin Yu thought inwardly. He looked at his phone, at this navigation app that had somehow fully charged itself and then navigated him to the Moon five years into the future...
What would happen if I used the navigation again?
This thought suddenly popped into Xin Yu's mind. At the same time, the feeling called curiosity overwhelmed his rationality, prompting him to try it immediately. He entered his home address.
[Navigation commencing. Please fall backwards.]
Hearing the mechanical voice from the phone, Xin Yu, under Kiana's astonished gaze, didn't hesitate and fell backward.
This time, Kiana saw it. As Xin Yu fell back, his body blurred for an instant, and then he vanished as if deleted, leaving no trace in this world. Even the patch of grass where he had just stood, the blades that should have bent under his weight, remained upright.
An ordinary person might think it was all a hallucination, but Kiana knew how powerful she was now. She knew what just happened was definitely not an illusion.
Yet, she tried for a while, using various powers, but couldn't detect anything from the spot where the youth had stood.
Just as Kiana was puzzled, her eyes widened in disbelief. Because just now, she suddenly recalled a forgotten memory—a memory from five years ago, when she met a youth named Xin Yu.
"...Th-this... How is this possible..."
An opportunity a certain man had spent a full five hundred years searching for, committing countless inhuman atrocities to obtain...
She had just encountered it directly...
...
"Ah!!"
Xin Yu suddenly heard a girl cry out behind him. He snapped out of his momentary daze, quickly stood up, and turned around. He saw a white-haired girl looking painfully at some fried chicken on the ground, tears welling up in her eyes.
This girl looks like Kiana, just less mature, and her eyes are different.
"You owe me for my chicken!"
Kiana was furious, her frustration and grievance almost overflowing. She didn't know what was wrong with her day; she'd encountered a heap of bad luck. Stuck in traffic five times during deliveries, five vendors late with the food causing her to exceed delivery times, stopped by security guards five times, plus various other unlucky incidents—it all added up, and she was close to tears.
Finally, after finishing a long day's work, she was about to eat some fried chicken to console her wounded soul when some guy popped out of nowhere, falling right onto her hand just as she was about to eat. Completely unprepared, she got knocked by this guy.
She was fine, but the chicken was knocked to the ground by him. Inedible.
Xin Yu looked at the fried chicken on the ground, nodded, and said earnestly, "I'm sorry. This is my fault. I will compensate you."
Seeing Xin Yu apologize so sincerely, Kiana's frustration dissipated slightly.
"Fine. This young lady accepts your apology."
"My sincere apologies."
A short while later, inside a fried chicken shop, Kiana wolfed down a burger, completely disregarding any concerns about a girl's image. Her manner was very unrestrained, making her initially stunning appearance seem less important.
Xin Yu gnawed on a chicken leg. Still no taste. So it wasn't because I didn't add enough seasoning earlier. Do I lack a sense of taste? That shouldn't be right, I can taste the metallic tang of blood. Or perhaps... I only have a sense of taste for blood?
Kiana finished her jumbo meal set at lightning speed. Looking at the pile of wrappers and bones in front of her, she said embarrassedly, "Um, I ate too much. You don't need to compensate me this much, just for one box of chicken nuggets."
"It's alright. You seemed very unhappy earlier. If this meal can make you feel a bit happier, that's enough."
Seeing her look like she was about to cry earlier, Xin Yu felt she must have encountered something terrible and was in a very bad mood. Knocking over her chicken at that moment could have been the last straw.
The two chatted for a while. Mostly, the girl talked while Xin Yu listened quietly beside her. The girl had traveled all over the world, met many people, experienced many things, and even learned about various unique customs of ethnic minorities.
According to her, the reason she ran around the world was to find her irresponsible old man who had suddenly abandoned her in childhood.
A white-haired middle-aged uncle named Siegfried Kaslana.
For some reason, upon hearing "white-haired handsome middle-aged uncle," an image popped into Xin Yu's head: an uncle in a red trench coat, carrying a large sword on his back, yelling "Yahoo!"
...Who is this guy?
"You're actually quite nice. My name is Kiana Kaslana. What about you?"
"...Xin Yu."