Chapter 2606: Chapter 1746: A Strange Invitation
Fengming Xianshiling felt that ever since he met Duanmu Huai, he hadn’t been successful in accomplishing anything smoothly.
Just like now.
"Alright, so this little girl, I brought her back for you, along with the Bronze Snake Armor."
"..............."
I only tasked you with this in the morning, and you found it by the afternoon?
Isn’t that a bit too fast?
To be honest, Fengming Xianshiling began to suspect if Duanmu Huai and Hei Chuan Chi Yin were in cahoots with that mysterious attacker and simply had a falling out. Otherwise, how could they have found it so quickly? The organization had been sending people to investigate this issue all along, yet they hadn’t made any progress or found any clues... and you just took a stroll and brought back both the person and the artifact?
"How did you manage that?"
"It’s not that hard."
Duanmu Huai raised his eyebrow.
"We went to the place where you stored the Bronze Snake Armor, captured the signal of this Holy Relic, and then traced the residual aura to find it. By coincidence, we discovered this little girl was locked up with it, so I just brought them all back. Any problem with that?"
Alright, looking at it this way, there really isn’t a problem. Actually, the organization has this kind of technology too, but they can only detect activated Holy Relics; they can’t detect unactivated ones.
It seems the technology they have mastered is a notch higher than the organization’s... is it called the Tribunal?
Fengming Xianshiling silently noted this in his heart.
"Then, this child is up to you now, has nothing to do with us anymore."
Duanmu Huai didn’t mind at all, and even seemed to want to laugh at Fengming Xianshiling. After all, this time he delivered the little girl right under the organization’s nose, and if they still lost her... hahaha, by then Duanmu Huai would surely ridicule their stupidity and incompetence mercilessly.
"Well..."
"I’m not doing it."
Seeing that Fengming Xianshiling was about to say something, Duanmu Huai decisively refused. He could guess what the other party meant, obviously hoping that Duanmu Huai and Hei Chuan Chi Yin would be responsible for taking care of that little girl at first. But Duanmu Huai wasn’t going to do that. If he brought this little girl, his two-person world with Hei Chuan Chi Yin would be gone, right?
Besides, they’re not Yukine Chris’s parents.
Though saying this, Fengming Xianshiling wasn’t out of options either — for instance, the next day, Duanmu Huai and Hei Chuan Chi Yin encountered a very anime-like situation.
Yukine Chris transferred to the Saint Xiang Music Academy.
See, that’s quite anime-like, changing schools isn’t that easy in real life. School district, student status, household registration, and... oh, right, Japan doesn’t seem to care about that.
So let’s just say that’s how it is.
And on Duanmu Huai’s end, he also received a request from the students like Tian Tangzhen, which he didn’t care much about. So, the final answer Duanmu Huai gave was, we can perform for you, but what you can learn from it is up to you.
We will not kindly instruct you.
As for the performance, it was simple. Duanmu Huai had previously collaborated with Hei Chuan Chi Yin on a Tokyo Blade theatrical performance, so they just went with that.
After all, it was already there.
As for Yukine Chris, Duanmu Huai didn’t meddle, but he sent Nolan to monitor. In Duanmu Huai’s view, if that insider hasn’t given up yet, then they will definitely make a move on Yukine Chris again.
When it comes to intrigue and schemes, Nolan is the best at it, so if anyone tries to approach Yukine Chris with malicious intent, Nolan would definitely see it immediately.
So next, Duanmu Huai and Hei Chuan Chi Yin stayed at the Saint Xiang Academy.
Most of the time, they were idling, occasionally giving acting lessons to the girls in the performance class, and then heading out to deal with the Noise.
Duanmu Huai had to admit, this Noise indeed had a troublesome aspect.
Although their danger wasn’t as strong as that of Evil Dragons, their appearance was indeed without any forewarning, almost no signs beforehand, suddenly emerging from space.
Duanmu Huai had investigated several times during battles, but even Fureya couldn’t do anything about this bizarre spatial technology. The only solution she could think of was to create a barrier to block space, perhaps to prevent these Noise from tearing space apart. However, the materials Fureya needed to create a barrier were from her era, and that stuff has long vanished now.
For instance, the Divine Tool Fureya used back then was a Magic Wand made from a World Tree Branch, but now after so many eras, the World Tree has already gone extinct. Where could you find it?
So Duanmu Huai was very frustrated about this too. Even the demons from Subspace produce Spiritual Energy fluctuations and Subspace whirlpools when they emerge. However, those damned Noise appear with almost no forewarning, unless they are discovered accidentally, which would mean they have already entered this world and launched attacks on humans.
Well, no wonder ordinary armies can’t deal with them. In such a situation, unless you deploy soldiers on every street corner throughout the city, you just can’t manage it.
If only Frieren and Lani were here, Fureya was a genius Magician, but Duanmu Huai also found her similar to himself, more of a combat type. Frieren and Lani are of the research type; if they were here, they might have made some discoveries.
But relying solely on Duanmu Huai and Fureya, it really gave them headaches.
Nolan was intelligent and wise, but unfortunately, she had no Magic Talent, completely clueless about it.
So now Duanmu Huai and Hei Chuan Chi Yin were only able to rush around, wait for a Noise to launch an attack, and then rush over to eliminate it.
As for capturing a live one—there’s absolutely no need for that, these creatures aren’t even as good as an Upper Dragon, you could say they have no self-awareness at all, completely like autonomous killing war machines. Even if Duanmu Huai captured them, he couldn’t get any useful information out of them.
But it’s not like there were no gains at all.
The whole neighborhood was silent.
Duanmu Huai "bang" plunged the Chainsaw Sword in his hand into the ground, looking around coldly. Just now, a large number of Noise suddenly appeared at the intersection not far from here, though an alarm was issued, and most people escaped in time, quite a few were still attacked by the Noise and died.
"The frequency of attacks seems to be getting more frequent lately."
Hei Chuan Chi Yin walked to Duanmu Huai’s side, vigilantly scanning the surroundings as he spoke.
"It’s been six times this month, whereas last month it was only three."
"Are they planning to apply pressure on us? They don’t really think this level of attack would bring us down, do they?"
Duanmu Huai supported the sword hilt with both hands and sneered.
"Speaking of which, Nolan hasn’t found anything unusual on his end."
"The other side wouldn’t show their hand so easily. Let’s head back."
Duanmu Huai put away his equipment, glanced around, and then turned to leave.
"Ding-dong ding-dong ding-dong..."
However, just as the two were about to leave, a strange sound suddenly rang out. Hearing the sound, Duanmu Huai and Hei Chuan Chi Yin exchanged a glance, then reached out and took their phones out of their pockets.
These were their original phones; in this world, of course, their phones were useless. But for some reason, their phones received a message today.
Moreover...
"What is this?"
Frowning at the spinning giraffe symbol on the screen, Duanmu Huai was sure that he had never seen such a strange thing on his phone. What on earth was this?
Thinking of this, Duanmu Huai pondered for a moment and nodded at Hei Chuan Chi Yin.
Then, the two reached out and pressed the rotating giraffe icon on their phones.
Immediately the next moment, their view changed dramatically.
The previously damaged streets disappeared without a trace, and the broken buildings completely vanished. In their place was a theater.
"Pa!"
The spotlight suddenly turned on, illuminating the empty stage in front of them.
At the same time, a voice rang out.
"Welcome to the stage of fate."
"?"
Duanmu Huai and Hei Chuan Chi Yin turned their heads towards the direction of the voice, and they then saw—a giraffe standing beside them, staring ahead.
"A giraffe?"
Even though Hei Chuan Chi Yin had seen quite a few things while following Duanmu Huai, seeing this talking giraffe surprised her nonetheless.
The giraffe looked forward and spoke again.
"Surprised, aren’t you? I understand."
"?"
You understand nothing!
"What exactly is this place?"
Duanmu Huai silently tightened his grip on the chainsaw sword and asked again.
"This is the stage woven by songs and dances, a charming platform showcasing the path to TOPSTAR for those who present the most dazzling REVUE."
"Speak plainly."
Duanmu Huai stared at the giraffe, this thing reminded him of a certain white rat — is this not speaking plainly some speechcraft common among pyramid scheme leaders? Clearly straightforward things, yet they insist on making it convoluted; this is clearly an old scammer trick.
Did you guys get the same handbook?
"TOPSTAR?"
"Those who step onto the stage of fate will have all their talents blossom, emit infinite radiance, and become the eternal protagonist shining beyond time."
"Then what can you gain?"
"Anything you desire."
Facing Duanmu Huai’s inquiry, the giraffe turned and looked at him.
"As long as you become the TOPSTAR, then you can step onto any stage, any world you desire..."
However, the giraffe’s words stopped there.
The roaring chainsaw sword swung out at this moment, tearing through the theater’s silence and striking directly at the giraffe’s head, simultaneously erupting with Duanmu Huai’s roar.
"Die, heretic!"
