Journey · Magic City Arc (IV): Pillow Slumber Hunter (II)

At the entrance of the villa.

After the broadcast, Xiao Ling looked at the large black icons of Lupa and Mia on the terminal, feeling a sense of both surprise and inevitability.

What was unexpected was that this duo was eliminated first, but what made sense was that it was only a matter of time before their bloodhound-like tactics led to someone else reaping the rewards.

With their combined strength and teamwork, they should have had a good chance of winning, or at least making it to the final group. But they were the ones who got eliminated first.

"This is getting interesting... Who will be the two cuties in the end?"

"Little Ai is amazing... I never thought there was such a way to break the deadlock..." Mia exclaimed, her mind probably still replaying the Aemeath breaking the deadlock.

"Yeah, now I can say I've truly accepted my defeat," Lupa said cheerfully. "But Little Ai, wasn't that kind of movement dangerous? Are you sure you're okay?"

Just as Lupa and Mia attacked Aemeath, the latter immediately chose to bend over at almost a 90-degree angle, causing their combined attack to miss instantly. Then, with the help of Hajipiao who arrived at the scene, she carried the two of them away with a pillow each while they were still recovering from their attack.

Now, Lupa and Mia have volunteered to join Little Ai and Hajipiao's team as helpers.

"Actually, it's fine... I practiced a while ago, and I'm quite flexible!" Aemeath said with a smile, "So it's perfectly okay."

(Don't ask how I practiced it.)

"The first safe zone is about to shrink, hurry up, we need to move to a new location," the Rover reminded him.

"Clear!"

The Fruit Team encountered a small problem.

They had originally planned to rest and recuperate outside and then enter the safe zone when the time was right, but their opponents preemptively blocked them outside the safe zone.

"Hey, you two, timing is everything. We just arrived." Iuno sat on the door, twirling her hair with her index finger, her two smooth, jade-like legs swinging back and forth. If Hajiling saw her, she would definitely shout, "I'll take over!" and then inhale like a whirlwind.

Augusta stood like a gatekeeper at the entrance, clutching her pillow tightly, looking ready to pounce.

"We've run into someone tough..." Dania said timidly.

"But things have come to this, so we have no choice but to go for it!" Sigrika said resolutely.

"Hey, hey, hey, those are Governor Septimont and the genius Lady Yu on the other side... Do we really want to go head-to-head with them?"

"Didn't Yaya tell me back at the academy that I shouldn't run away from things? Now that I have something I want to fight for, I can't run away from it now!"

"Well said!" Iuno clapped twice in approval. "To be honest, if you had chosen to run away at this moment, I wouldn't have blamed you. For the sake of final victory, temporary forbearance is also a strategy."

"But you still chose to solve the problem like a warrior, and that courage deserves the praise of this genius oracle."

She leaped down from the gate, landed gracefully, and confidently tossed her long hair with her hand.

"However, I'm sorry to say, I'm determined to get today's prize, so I'll have to ask you to give it up willingly."

Sigrika did not reply, but her gaze toward the two people in front of her became even more resolute.

"Hmm, not bad eyesight, that's what a warrior should look like," Iuno nodded. "Looks like the fortune I told you back then wasn't a waste."

"Yes, Sister Iuno's predictions are really accurate," Sigrika said softly. "So, I'm going to try again today."

"Stop with the empty words, show me what you've got." Iuno tossed the pillow, then gracefully caught it with a backflip. "Let's settle this like warriors!"

"Similarly, we will fight with the attitude that warriors should have," Augusta nodded solemnly.

"Yaya, will you fight alongside me this time too?" Sigrika looked at Dania with a slightly expectant gaze.

"Ha, you've put it that way, how could I, as your best friend, not give you a push?" Dania chuckled, then went into battle mode.

"Just so you know, if I accidentally get eliminated, don't blame me for being bad, okay?"

Meanwhile, on the other side

"Hearing Miss Roccia say that, being a school principal really isn't an easy job..." Carlotta said with a sigh, hugging her pillow.

"Right? But seeing these kids find their own dreams and fight for them makes it all worthwhile," Roccia nodded.

Roccia, Crimson Snow, Carlotta, and Cantarella walked side by side, chatting and laughing as they prepared to move to a new location.

You might ask, so peaceful? Shouldn't they be fighting?

In fact, they had already fought, and in the end, neither could defeat the other. You have your dream in the sea, and I have my memory palace. Carlotta's ability was completely immune to Crimson Snow's Prevision. So the four of them could only sit down, shake hands, and make peace, and go to the next safe zone together.

"Speaking of which, there's something else I'm curious about," Cantarella asked. "That girl named Dania, I sensed the aura of the Lament Leviathan from her. Do either of you have any clues about this?"

There was no way around it; as the Lament that had influenced Rinascita for hundreds of years, His aura was deeply rooted in the very marrow of the Rinascita people, making it difficult not to notice.

"That child was an experimental product created by the Fractsidus, born as a vessel for the Lament," Crimson Snow said softly. "The power of the Lament Leviathan that you speak of is precisely the insurance mechanism the Fractsidus left for that child."

"I think you all know this: a Resonator can only have one Resonance Source at most, but that child received Aleph-1's Resonance while also being influenced by Leviathan's frequency, inevitably causing her body to experience frequency exhaustion," Roccia added. "That's how they destroy their tools."

"That's really vicious... it's disgusting just to hear it," Cantarella spat.

"But the child seems perfectly fine now?" Carlotta countered. "She looks lively and happy to me."

"That's because Little Ling intervened. He used his power of separation to separate Leviathan's power from the child's body, preventing the situation from worsening," Crimson Snow replied.

"Even so, we still couldn't save the child," Roccia sighed. "She chose self-exile to prevent the Lament from making a comeback. Now that we can see her living happily here in peace, it would be a lie for us elders not to be happy."

"It's too cruel to burden a child with all this," Cantarella said, shaking her head heavily.

The four chatted idly, and they were about to enter the safe zone.

"Wait, why are there so many people standing at the door?" Carlotta asked, puzzled.

The other three followed Carlotta's gaze and saw a three-way standoff forming at the entrance.

The Yang Sui sisters, Cart and Phoebe, the dragon and phoenix master and apprentice, and Lynae and Liang Yu.

"It seems we're about to face a fierce battle." Crimson Snow's voice was calm, as if stating an impending fact.

"I couldn't be happier." Roccia, unusually competitive, exclaimed, "It would be best if we could settle this all here!"