"No! I have to stop Yuno from making another move against you!"
Kiana had no intention of leaving, especially after going to so much trouble to climb in through the window.
"You should be worrying about yourself!"
Yuno, equally unwilling to leave, immediately retorted. Seeing what Kiana had done to Bai Chen earlier had nearly made her lungs explode with anger. She would never even dare imagine those moves, yet Kiana had done them so naturally!
"Unbelievable..."
Too sleepy to deal with them, Bai Chen ignored the two arguing girls, crawled back under the covers, closed his eyes, and went back to sleep.
The two who had been arguing also fell silent after seeing Bai Chen's breathing gradually steady.
After exchanging a glance, they actually each found a side of the bed and lay down!
"I'm keeping an eye on her!"
They both used the same excuse as they curled up beneath Bai Chen's blanket.
They were happy, but Bai Chen was suffering. Because he had forgotten to cancel his transformation, he spent the entire dream fighting!
Red visitors from beyond the sky, thousands of puppets, even some Flame-Chasers from the Previous Era...
The fighting never ended! What should have been only one night of dreams became incomparably long and vivid.
"? You seem to have grown weaker! Where's that arrogant look you used to have? Come on! Again! Try to defeat me one more time!"
The entire dreamscape had been swallowed by raging flames, leaving only the smell of sulfur and burning in the air.
If the Chijie Bai Chen had dreamed of earlier had merely been dream nonsense, then the one before him now felt utterly real.
"Hahaha! Again!"
Countless fireballs wrapped in rock came crashing down as Chijie swung his arms. Bai Chen only had enough time to use his longsword to draw several arcs of lightning, clearing out a safe area around himself.
Then Chijie hurled a massive lava pillar at him, its terrifying speed seeming to blast apart even the air.
Bai Chen transformed into a streak of lightning and left his original position, narrowly evading the attack.
As Bai Chen ran and dodged, he swung out several Lightning Blades at Chijie. Yet Chijie merely flicked his arm and effortlessly shattered those feint attacks.
"Hah!"
Having finally circled into Chijie's blind spot, Bai Chen condensed several Lightning Clones around himself and launched them at Chijie in waves.
Chijie only managed to destroy the first two clones before taking the rest of the attacks head-on.
"Tch! Is this all you know, using little tricks like that?!"
Apparently not seriously injured, Chijie roared again, as though his fury were endless!
Engulfed in blazing flames, Chijie crossed the distance to Bai Chen in almost an instant, grabbed him by the throat, and viciously smashed him into the ground.
At the same time, enormous amounts of lava erupted from the ground, scorching Bai Chen's body!
"You bastard!"
Burned by the heat, Bai Chen finally used his power. Pink-Purple Flames surged out in an instant and climbed onto Chijie's body.
Flames of that temperature meant nothing to Chijie, but as they burned, he felt as though his mind itself were being scorched.
With a pained grunt, Chijie immediately flung Bai Chen away like a trash bag. Bai Chen steadied himself in midair and landed smoothly on the ground.
Almost simultaneously, lightning and flames appeared around Bai Chen, circling his body and making his aura completely different from before.
"Interesting!! Now that's more like it! Let's slaughter each other until the very end!"
Chijie laughed madly and charged at Bai Chen again. But just as he was about to reach him, he suddenly halted, then leaped far backward as if wary of something!
Sure enough, almost the next instant, a huge pink crystal flower bloomed before Chijie.
"Elysia... I'm going first this time. You want to join my fight!"
As Chijie questioned her, a gap suddenly opened in the surrounding flames. A beautiful pink figure, fairy-like in appearance, appeared in the arena.
"? Two bosses?"
Bai Chen gripped the longsword in his hand nervously, watching warily for their next attack.
"Oh, Chijie, I didn't mean that. I only came to remind you that time is almost up."
Elysia twirled her hair in distress. She had not come here on purpose to cause trouble.
"Hmph, meddlesome!"
After saying that, Chijie turned around, preparing to leave through the sea of flames.
"Oh, and by the way, I'm going first this time."
Elysia followed Chijie's footsteps and mischievously stuck out her tongue.
Hearing Elysia's answer, Chijie suddenly turned back and carefully looked at the flames surrounding Bai Chen.
"Tch!"
Chijie stomped the ground in annoyance, making the entire dreamscape seem to tremble several times.
Then he accelerated and vanished from the dream.
"Not fighting?"
Unable to hear their conversation from so far away, Bai Chen relaxed in confusion. He only saw Elysia wave at him from the distance before she too disappeared.
Then Bai Chen felt a repulsive force push him out of the dream.
His chest felt so stuffy! So uncomfortable. He did not remember being hit in the chest in the dream, so why did it hurt so much?
In his daze, Bai Chen felt as though something were pressing down on his chest, leaving it numb and uncomfortable.
Bai Chen struggled to open his eyes and discovered that he was still maintaining Mei's ten-years-later transformation. No wonder sleeping had been so exhausting!
Also, why were the clothes from this transformation so messy? It looked as if someone had stripped them off!
After canceling his transformation, Bai Chen suddenly realized something.
Both his arms felt numb, completely without sensation!
Looking to either side, he was stunned. Yuno and Kiana had each claimed one side, using both of his arms as pillows!
Judging from their positions, Kiana had her leg pressed on top of him, making it impossible for him to move at all.
Heading Out
As Bai Chen struggled to pull his arms free, he heard some movement outside the window.
It sounded like the roar of machinery?
When Bai Chen looked over, he saw a huge white robot hovering outside the window while supporting a silver-haired little girl.
Heavy Tank Rabbit 19c and Bronya!
When the normally expressionless Bronya saw Kiana in the room, the chill in her eyes seemed almost solid.
That gaze made Bai Chen feel as though he had fallen into an ice pit, rendering the warmth beneath the covers completely useless.
Then Bronya drifted into Bai Chen's room as lightly as a feather, without making a sound.
"Bronya..."
Ignoring the numbness in his arms, Bai Chen hurriedly pulled out his remaining hand. His violent movements also woke the two girls, who had been on the verge of waking up already.
"? Is it morning?"
Kiana, wearing cat-paw pajamas as she lay sprawled across the bed, rolled over and stretched like a cat. She did not care in the slightest about exposing a bit of spring scenery.
"? Bronya, why are you here?"
Only then did Kiana notice Bronya standing beside the bed like ice.
"Death penalty."
Without explanation, Bronya operated Heavy Tank Rabbit 19c and summoned a cannon, pressing its muzzle against Kiana's face!
"Whoa! Bronya, are you crazy?!"
With a cannon shoved in her face first thing in the morning, Kiana jumped in fright.
"Bronya came to see Bai Chen because she did not see Yuno coming to fight you today."
Bronya also knew she could not fire a cannon in the dormitory. She had merely wanted to scare Kiana.
"But Bronya did not expect that you would not be in your room either. Bronya has a complete set of criminal laws prepared for someone like you."
Bronya's flat words were filled with killing intent.
Bai Chen immediately broke out in a cold sweat. If they really had to be strict about it, he should be the one arrested! Kiana was an artificial human whose age was still in the single digits, while Yuno's body had only recently been reconstructed and was less than a month old.
Wow, how many bullets would that take?
"I will tell Mei."
After exchanging a few more meaningless remarks with Kiana, Bronya left those words behind with an icy expression and walked out.
"Hey! Don't!"
Kiana hurriedly tidied herself up and chased after her.
"So, last night I was too tired to ask. Why did you come in?"
After they had both left, Bai Chen turned to Yuno at his side and asked.
"?! It's time to eat!"
Without responding to Bai Chen's question, Yuno hurriedly tidied herself and ran back to her room, leaving Bai Chen standing there in confusion.
It seemed he would have to seal the window shut in the future, Bai Chen thought helplessly.
Bai Chen did not know that while Kiana had indeed come in through the window, Yuno had not.
Bai Chen spent breakfast under Bronya's death stare. Though it was only breakfast, it felt as long as an entire century.
"Little Bai Chen, we meet again."
While Bai Chen was on his way to class, he suddenly ran into Rita, whom he had not seen for half a day.
"Lady Rita? Is something the matter?"
Bai Chen asked, though he already knew the answer.
"Hehe, yesterday you said you would come with me on a mission, and now you've forgotten? Carelessness like that is not good for missions."
Rita covered her mouth and laughed softly. Though her words sounded reproachful, her actions conveyed no such meaning.
"? Today? I thought there were still a few days."
Bai Chen truly had not expected it. They had never settled on an exact time during their conversation yesterday, so he had assumed he would need to wait a few more days.
"No, of course not."
Rita's answer made Bai Chen sigh in relief. Then he could prepare some more.
"The situation has changed. It's now."
Rita tucked Bai Chen beneath her arm and sped off, leaving a cloud of dust behind.
"Hey!!!"
The sudden turn of events caught Bai Chen completely off guard. Before he could react, Rita had carried him to the vicinity of the air harbor. If Bai Chen had not known who Rita was, he would have thought he was being abducted by a human trafficker.
When they arrived at the air harbor for preparations, Bai Chen found that there did not seem to be many people around. There were only some familiar maintenance personnel.
"Lady Rita, is it just the two of us for this mission?"
Seeing that there truly seemed to be no one else, Bai Chen voiced the question in his heart.
"Of course. This is only an investigation mission. My squad members have matters of their own to handle... Little Bai Chen, are you embarrassed about going on a mission alone with me?"
With the maintenance staff's help, Rita finished arranging her equipment, walked over to Bai Chen, bent down, and teased him.
Embarrassed? He was scared!
Bai Chen rolled his eyes and quickly ran off, boarding the vehicle needed for this mission under the maintenance personnel's directions.
Not being prepared did not really matter. Bai Chen's abilities meant that he did not need to prepare too many things himself.
If knowledge like weapon maintenance were not tested, he would not even need to understand such matters.
Before you continue