"Don't be so heartless, Miss Investigator," Xu Xiaoyou said.
"Ending tonight's time like this, don't you feel it's a bit of a waste of this moonlight?"
Bai Youyou subconsciously took the rose, the girl's words echoing in her ears.
Her gaze was pulled in by the gorgeous rose as if by a deep magnetic force, and her thoughts were wrapped in the soft petals.
She felt as though her entire being had fallen into these soft petals, her limbs entangled by them, and her waist bound by the stamen, dragging her downward.
Her body sank deeper and deeper into the fragrance of the rose.
Wait, this wasn't right!
"Player 'Natsume Yuzuri' has used the item 'White Rose's Heart-Whisper' on you."
"Your psyche value is below 2500, determination in progress."
"Determination failed, you have been charmed and gained the 'Withering of the White Rose' effect."
"You will temporarily lose control of your body, your resistance to charm-type skills will decrease, and you will gain a mental weakness status."
The soft petals completely pulled her into the flower bud, the girl's gentle whisper lingering in her ear as the entire world drifted away in an instant.
By the time she reacted and looked up, where was Xu Xiaoyou's figure to be seen?
The other party had long since taken the opportunity to leave the clock tower!
Bai Youyou's face twisted as she ground her teeth, snapping the rose in her hand into two pieces.
"Xu Xiaoyou!"
The girl's anger echoed over the city for a long time.
Under the escort of many guild players, Xu Xiaoyou successfully shook off the pursuit of the Oasis City law enforcement faction and reached the outskirts of the city.
It just so happened that Bai Youyou caught up at this moment, stepping outside the bounds of Oasis City.
"Don't you run!" The black-haired girl's breath was ragged, and her face was like that of a vengeful ghost.
After leaving the Oasis City area, her attributes dropped visibly to the eye, barely reaching the standard for a grade 3 level.
She no longer possessed the absolute dominance she had within the city.
The guild players naturally did not want to make an enemy of this harmonizer of the Order Court, so they moved aside once their mission was complete.
As Bai Youyou picked up her heavy hammer and approached, a silver-white lance tip shot out from nowhere, whistling through the air and reaching the girl's eyes in an instant.
Even though Bai Youyou immediately held Osiris horizontally in front of her to shave off most of the piercing spear intent, she still couldn't avoid being pressed back.
Bai Youyou forcefully deflected the lance, slamming her heavy hammer onto the ground to quickly stabilize herself.
Angelina walked out under the startled gazes of the players, kicking up the lance stuck in the ground and gripping it in her hand.
The spear tip brushed through the flower bushes, flipping them slightly as it traced an arc in the air.
Angelina glanced at Xu Xiaoyou before looking at the somewhat familiar white figure nearby.
"It's you."
The two spoke in unison after a brief gaze.
The players blinked, their eyes moving back and forth between the three as their gossip radars went off.
Instinct told them that there was definitely a hidden past between these three.
"So, what was your purpose in calling me here?" Angelina looked calmly at Xu Xiaoyou.
The latter shrugged. "Anya, do you really want to watch me be locked in a virtual consciousness prison for a few hundred years?"
Angelina clicked her tongue inwardly. "If I'd known such a good thing was happening, I wouldn't have come."
Then, she looked at Bai Youyou, her tone rising slightly.
"You crazy woman, it turns out you haven't been dismissed by the Association yet."
"Abyssal White Flower, I shouldn't have let you go back then." Bai Youyou stood up straight and wiped the dust from her face.
She seemed to think of something and chuckled. "What, does the little wolf pup need someone to pat her head now that she's grown up?"
Hearing this, veins popped on Angelina's forehead, and she glared fiercely at Xu Xiaoyou behind her.
Xu Xiaoyou shrugged with a completely innocent face.
"Perfect, I'll arrest you and this fellow together right now, saving you both from bringing trouble to reality."
"Try it if you have the ability." Angelina raised her lance, pointing it directly at Bai Youyou.
A formless scent of gunpowder spread between the two, and just as a battle was about to inevitably break out, a red-font server-wide announcement grabbed everyone's attention.
"Attention all players: The grade 3 main city 'Pangard' has triggered a world event — the 'Gnawing Parasite Miracle' advent event."
"The city is currently in a state of total fall. Main city functions, NPC modules, and teleportation permissions have been locked."
"Gnawing Parasite series creatures will spawn in the surrounding area, which has been converted into a PVP zone."
"The world dungeon 'Terminal Illness Patient' has opened."
"Dungeon type: Stronghold Exploration."
"Number of participants: Unlimited."
"Players can participate in the dungeon by heading to the city of Pangard."
"Exterminating 'gnawing parasite' series hostile creatures will grant individual points, and occupying strongholds will grant guild points."
"Exploring the dungeon world-view, reclaiming fallen areas, completing dungeon story missions, and eliminating the world boss will grant points for the Season 11 Visiting Battle by Overstepping Authority league."
"The void merchant, badlands quartermaster, and singer of the end have entered the 'plague-ridden city of Pangard.'"
"Registration for the dungeon is now open. Note: The maximum attributes of players entering this dungeon will be locked at grade 3."
"All players are encouraged to actively participate in this world dungeon. If the dungeon is judged a failure, the grade 3 main city Pangard will fall permanently, directly affecting the progress of this season's game!"
"A world event?" Someone frowned.
"Gnawing Parasite Miracle?" Another looked curious.
"Wait, the one that fell is Pangard?" Someone shouted while covering their face. "I haven't changed classes for this season yet!"
In an instant, the players were abuzz with discussion.
Clearly, some newbies who had just entered the Oasis world were still confused, leaning toward a weathered-looking veteran player to ask weakly.
"What is a world event?"
That veteran player lit a cigarette, his eyes full of weariness. "It represents that countless people have perished in reality."
"What does this have to do with reality?"
The veteran player shook his head and let out a long breath, the weariness in his eyes deepening amid the rolling smoke.
"Every city in Oasis can find its prototype in reality. Everything in Oasis is generated based on the database of the Miserere."
"Eva and the Miserere are essentially of the same origin. Before Eva appeared, the Miserere was responsible for monitoring the data of the entire world. Her gaze reached every corner of reality."
"Regardless of which city suddenly encounters a disaster, a powerful urban legend descends, or a miracle erupts, she will know before any of us."
"At the same time, a corresponding world event will erupt in the matching city within Oasis."
"It's just that in the past, most world events erupted in civilization gathering places that weren't as important, so it wasn't worth making a big fuss over."
"Often, people only found out after the event ended that a civilization had been silently wiped from history."
"But this time is different."
"I didn't expect the world event to erupt in a grade 3 main city this season. This has never happened before."
"Looking at the scale this time, it seems far beyond anything we've seen before."
"The last time there was such a commotion with a server-wide announcement was the 'Golden Mother Tree' advent event last season."
"Those fearless golden creatures left a very deep impression on me."
"It was precisely because of the failure of the players across the server in that world event that the progress of the S10 Golden Age season was greatly accelerated, leading to an early termination and settlement."
The veteran player's thoughts drifted further and further away with the slowly rising smoke.
The prototypes of the main cities in previous seasons were all famous cities or hive cities in reality.
They were places like the Kowloon ship, the nest of the mega-corp Kowloon Information Enterprise, or R'lyeh, the home of Universal Heavy Industries.
Only Pangard, the grade 3 main city of this season, was a place he had never even heard of.
He couldn't even find any information about this city in Eva's database.
Many people speculated that Pangard wasn't even located in a habitable zone for civilization but was built in the badlands, an absolute forbidden zone for life.
Why would such a city be chosen as a main city for a season?
Rate on N.U.
