Xu Xiaoyou dropped those words and turned to run without looking back. A graceful white figure followed closely behind, rushing out of the building and scanning the area, her gaze fixed tightly on that fleeing golden back.
"Um..." Akabane raised her hand weakly.
"Don't touch me. Stay away from me."
Bai Youyou shot her a cold glance, frightening Akabane so much that tears welled in the corners of her eyes. She shrunk her shoulders as she watched the black-haired girl disappear into the distance.
Ugh, so scary...
"Natsume Yuzuri: Come to the outskirts of Oasis City right now. It's urgent, as fast as you can."
"Angelina: Beg me."
"Natsume Yuzuri: [Voice Message 1s]."
A request, slightly breathless, drifted through the air. Angelina silently listened to it again.
"Angelina: ...Where are you now?"
While sending her intended location to Anya, Xu Xiaoyou glanced back. The shadow of death fell from the sky to the earth. Thick black smoke rose from the charred ruins, and raging flames melted gold, the air warping like a swarm of twisting snakes. Amidst the debris of iron and fire, a flash of red light flickered through the smoke. The black-haired girl slowly stepped out,
Lifting her heavy hammer, every step she took made the earth tremble and the molten iron clash.
"Keep running. Why did you stop?" Bai Youyou casually choked out the life of a player she was holding and launched him like a cannonball into a nearby building.
"I missed you too much, Youyou. I wanted to turn back and see more of you."
As Xu Xiaoyou spoke, her Hand of Silence slammed into the space above a skyscraper, embedding itself deeply. With a slight surge of strength, she propelled her body toward the distance.
"Argh!"
"Don't be in a hurry, young man. Take it slow."
"Why did it get dark? Who turned off the lights?"
Boom! Boom! Boom!
A series of explosions harmonized within Oasis City. Wherever the two went, ruins followed. A scene of total chaos played out across the city as one magnificent building after another collapsed, deconstructing into a flood of data before they even hit the ground.
Well, Xu Xiaoyou had somewhat overestimated her current combat power. With a ten-fold difference in stats, the current Bai Youyou could even sense the existence of the Hand of Silence.
Was she cursed by some foul thing?
At least let her finish showing off before she got eaten, right?
Xu Xiaoyou felt a wave of sentimental sighs in her heart. The Hand of Silence smashed heavily against the ground, and the moment her toes touched the surface, she leaped again.
Bai Youyou was like a meteor falling from the heavens, striking the spot where Xu Xiaoyou had been just a second prior. The ground within a hundred-meter radius of her impact shattered and caved in, spreading out like a giant spiderweb.
"Ding-dong! Your guild, Light-Chaser Garden, has been successfully created!"
Xu Xiaoyou nodded, stomping an automated land-air vehicle into a flood of data while simultaneously sending a guild invitation to the Bai Youyou behind her.
Seeing the prompt box pop up in front of her, the veins on Bai Youyou's forehead bulged. She suddenly reached out and grabbed the prompt box, squeezing it in her hand until she actually crushed it into pieces!
"Do you want to die?"
Xu Xiaoyou sighed helplessly. "Work is work, life is life."
"Youyou, isn't your Order Court sending anyone to compete in this year's league?
"At least the families should have plans for it. You can't just stand by and watch the Sovereign Key for the Omniscient Mode fall into the hands of outsiders. Am I making sense?"
As she spoke, Xu Xiaoyou arrived at the golden tower bridge. The Hand of Silence gripped the steel cables, and she leaped hundreds of meters to the top of the bell tower in the center of the bridge. She struck the giant bell hard, letting all the players in the city know her current position.
Bai Youyou landed and demolished the front of the entire tower bridge. The hundreds of meters of bridge span crumbled inch by inch, and the tightened steel cables snapped one by one, hissing through the air like screaming snakes. Countless vehicles driven out of the virtual world plummeted toward the dark, cold sea below.
She remained silent.
Seeing an opening, Xu Xiaoyou quickly struck while the iron was hot.
"Isn't it a coincidence? You need a team, and I just happen to have a vacancy in mine..."
"You talk too much." Bai Youyou raised her heavy hammer.
A massive magic circle expanded beneath the girl's feet, its silver lines tracing and connecting to one another. As the heavy hammer hit the ground, the magic circle condensed simultaneously, radiating a dazzling light!
The energy of annihilation expanded and exploded, and the heavy air surged into a storm that swept across the entire world!
The gravity within a radius of several hundred meters flipped instantly. The cars that had fallen into the sea seemed to have a rewind button pressed on them, floating up toward the sky. The black-haired girl leaped across these vehicles in succession!
Boom! Boom! Boom!
Several explosions rang out in the air. The firelight of the blasts dyed the sky a golden red, threatening to shroud the entire world in burning light.
The black-haired girl leaped out from the swirling fiery winds and stood atop the bell tower with Xu Xiaoyou. She brushed the flames from her shoulders. Aside from a few black marks on her pure white uniform, she appeared unharmed.
From here, one could take in the entire magnificent sight of Oasis City. Floating golden droplets formed the skyline circling the city, and the skyscrapers piercing the clouds looked like stacked gambling chips, with traffic flowing like gold between them.
The darkened stars could be seen in the sky right between their fingertips.
The breathtakingly beautiful scene seemed to say, 'Look, how big the world is. It can be quite romantic.'
The two girls, who had been chasing each other just moments ago in a life-or-death struggle, stared at each other in silence.
A float-car from some guild rose up behind them. The roaring engine kicked up a gale, blowing the girls' long hair, and a brilliant white light illuminated their faces.
Someone on the float-car seemed to be shouting for her to hurry up and get in, but Xu Xiaoyou couldn't hear clearly. She was enjoying this brief moment of tranquility.
The ignited float-car turned into a rolling ball of flame and plummeted into the night.
The fire on Bai Youyou's palm gradually faded away.
At this moment, Xu Xiaoyou sent the guild invitation to her once again.
"Think about it carefully. Don't let your emotions make you do something you'll regret. One thing is separate from the other," Xu Xiaoyou said with a lift of her eyebrows.
"You can arrest me and only release me when the league starts. After the match is over, you can lock me back up."
"Pfft."
Silence melted into the night. This time, Bai Youyou didn't refuse and clicked accept.
"Is it because you know you can't escape that you've given up struggling?" Bai Youyou's tone was cold as she dangled a pair of handcuffs from her fingertip.
"Maybe," Xu Xiaoyou answered ambiguously.
It was good. Anya and the little raccoon had already joined the guild during the chase just now. Light-Chaser Garden was only missing its final piece.
Xu Xiaoyou had no self-awareness at all; in this moment, the figures of four girls surfaced in her mind simultaneously.
She took a quick look at the forums. Unsurprisingly, the events that had just occurred had sparked another wave of heat. Thousands of people were discussing the events in Oasis City, shouting that they would rescue the Dark Gold Rose from this executive's hands.
Xu Xiaoyou turned around, her back to Bai Youyou. A camera appeared out of thin air in her hand. She aimed it at them, made a peace sign after confirming both of them were in the frame, and pressed the shutter button.
A white flash went off. Bai Youyou reached out to cover her face, her brows furrowing low. She looked at the golden-haired girl who had her back turned and was editing text in an input box, seemingly completely unguarded, and wondered what she was thinking.
She casually threw the photo and the recruitment post for Light-Chaser Garden onto the world forum. As expected, this action reignited the forum's heat, which had barely calmed down. Hundreds of comments refreshed without interruption, and a dense cluster of 'membership application' prompt boxes popped up in front of her.
": Ha, what's the deal with Miss Dark Gold Rose? I look away for a second, and you two are on a date?"
": 666, as expected of the great Dark Gold Rose. Converting a harmonizer NPC into a subordinate in the newbie dungeon, and flirting with a harmonizer executive out here."
": Sigh, that's just how succubi are."
": Is there a possibility that the great Dark Gold Rose has already been caught, and she's actually using hand signs to call for help?"
With a gentle wave of her hand, Xu Xiaoyou put all the prompt boxes into her inbox. She planned to find some time to properly review the quality of these players. The first batch of veterans for the guild would be its future foundation; she couldn't just let them in randomly.
"Have you played enough?" Bai Youyou dangled the handcuffs on her fingertip, her tone calm.
"Mm-hmm."
With a curve in her eyes, Xu Xiaoyou reached out her hands in a manner that suggested she was at her mercy.
"Go ahead and arrest me, Miss Investigator."
Bai Youyou stepped forward with a cold face. Just as she was about to lock the handcuffs on the girl's hands, a sudden change occurred!
Xu Xiaoyou's lips curled up, and she snapped her fingers. Like a magic trick, an item appeared in her moving hand, which she extended upward.
Bai Youyou's expression shifted violently, and she instinctively summoned Osiris. "You cunning crim—!"
To her surprise, the golden-haired girl leaned in close, pulling her into an embrace. Her eyelids lowered slightly, and her fingertip brushed against Bai Youyou's lips. The item she had produced revealed its true form under the romantic moonlight—a Moonlight Rose.
"Shh."
A soft voice lingered by her ear, her breath warm.
The moonlight flowed quietly over the pale, soft petals. The rose's thorns pricked the girl's finger, and bright red blood flowed down her distinct knuckles, trickling over the dark green stem and stroking the scorching moonlight on the roots. The gentle moon hung behind the two of them, unwilling to break the beauty of this moment.
Xu Xiaoyou turned her head, her eyes also brimming with silver moonlight, as countless stars silently went out within her gaze.
At this moment, more beautiful than gold were the girl's eyes.
If you were to touch me at this moment.
You would know,
I am certainly no reflection in a mirror,
Nor a moon's shadow in the water.
"Look."
"How beautiful."
Rate on N.U.
