This was the "sneak attack" she had learned from Lin.
"You went easy on me." Mei did not show much joy. After steadying herself, she looked at Lin's "wound" and said, "With the reaction speed you demonstrated, there's no way I could have landed that move."
"No. I didn't dodge it. The electric shock paralyzed my nerves, that's all."
It was impossible to tell whether he was merely giving himself an excuse or whether his nerves had truly been paralyzed.
Either way, Lin had achieved his goal, and Mei had won, so he would give her the reward she deserved.
"This is the Signet of the Nameless. Your neural responses can withstand an instant, so this gift presumably will not place much more burden on you." Lin folded his arms, his cold gaze shifting away from her as he called out, "Pardofelis."
The cat-eared girl appeared exactly where she should have been. "Meow! Brother Lin, you called?"
"Take care of her." After saying that, Lin left without looking back.
"What did that mean?" Mei stared blankly at the "Signet" before her.
"Hehe, hello there. You're this time's guest, right?" Pardofelis's ears twitched as she smiled brightly. "My name is Pardofelis. You can call me Pardo or Phyllis, either is fine. No need to be polite. Brother Lin and Elysia both told me about your story—how you became everyone's favorite the moment you entered the Imaginary Tree, Elysia's designated target for teasing... oh, no, playing with..."
"Those two words... don't seem any different."
"Oh, don't worry about that. Anyway, I saw your fight just now. You were amazing! Brother Lin isn't a Flame-Chaser, but even if you put hundreds of me together, we still couldn't beat him. You actually beat Brother Lin, so I'll call you Sister Mei from now on."