“Why is it a stone?”
The sea breeze stung the eyes and wrists, making it hard to keep them open. While it was still morning in Brussels, it was already dusk in Indonesia.
Standing beside the world’s only Research Institute dedicated to the Daystone, Monrose couldn’t help but ponder this very question.
“Why is it that a stone carries all of this?”
He’d wanted to ask this question for a long time. He could’ve asked Professor Swina—after all, Swina was a professional—but the other party was always cold and aloof, never having time to pay him any attention.
“Because stones are the memory of this world.” Goriam gazed towards the edge of the great sea. The winds in the sky blew fitfully, and the currents of the sea changed their course easily. Yet only those things buried deep within the strata—tellurium and osmium—recorded the shifts of the earth and the epochs of life.
Those were the words of the lab supervisor. He had asked a similar question before and received this answer.
Monrose tugged at his somewhat tired necktie. “I get it. You’re talking about fossils, right?”
“Not entirely. Life can’t be explained that simply… But the way you understand it is good enough,” Goriam replied, unwilling to debate the finer points of what was or wasn’t a fossil. He had only one thought in his heart: to turn that person into a fossil.
“Alright, alright, impatient as always. Let’s not chat here,” Goriam said as he walked away. “I’ll have them begin the operation.”
“We’ll leave closely together, but once we engage the enemy, we must split up as quickly as possible, or we’ll hinder each other’s abilities,” Yu Yan, the only one in the team with experience in large-scale Three Defenses group battles, quickly arranged the tactics. She didn’t know everyone else’s specific skills, so this was all she could do.
Shen Ning instinctively stuck close to Xu Chuyao.
“Don’t stick that close,” Thunder Girl pushed her away. “If we stand side by side, we’re easy prey for AOE.”
The young girl had no choice but to silently step back. The four maintained a loose formation of two in front and two behind, not too close but not far apart, as they walked out through the airport gate.
Speaking of tactics, didn’t they have any support? By all reason, there should be someone analyzing the environment, someone focused on skills, and someone else… well, who knew what that person analyzed. But there should at least be some tactical support.
“This won’t do,” she muttered to herself, voice buried in the shadow. “I usually fight solo, never consider teammates, whether offense or defense.”
When fighting alone, you use everything at your disposal. But now, with several teammates—and Lianlian still behind her—she had to think differently.
A defeated reflection surfaced: “Your intuition is too strong to rely on predetermined skill deployments, but that’s also your greatest reliance now. You can’t abandon it.”
Only inspiration and a bit of luck would let her handle opponents of the same rank in greater numbers, or even higher-ranked enemies.
“I don’t know,” she whispered, tugging at her short brown hair. “I always follow my gut.”
So, what did Chuyao say about this?
“Chuyao says, if you can’t win, just mess around, as long as you hold out under the numbers,” she recalled.
“But what if I still lose?”
“Chuyao says, if you can’t win, don’t fight. Endure and wait for a better chance.”
The young girl fell into silent contemplation.
They had come this far; hiding was no longer an option.
“Honored guests, the service area is over here. May I ask if you’d like anything?” An airport staff member greeted them with an enthusiastic smile, as if nothing was amiss.
“We…” Yu Yan started, but then turned to ask, “Xu Chuyao, what would you like to eat?”
She was handing decision-making power over to the girl.
Xu Chuyao’s heart thumped. Today’s events were outside what she had foreseen; her predictive abilities weren’t working.
She could only rely on her wits now.
“We don’t have much time anyway. I’d actually like to go buy some souvenirs outside the airport,” she said cautiously, tilting her head, “May we go?”
“Of course, as you wish.”
The staff member was briefly dazzled by the girl’s cuteness, caught a bit off guard.
“But remember to return before departure. Boarding begins in forty minutes,” he reminded, pointing out the service area and the exit before leaving.
Xu Chuyao wrinkled her nose, turning to look at the others.
“We can’t be sure if the staff are in on this. They could be faking, or maybe they really don’t know. Since they haven’t restricted our movements, the real danger is probably outside.”
At that moment, Cheng Chen moved closer and whispered, “Why didn’t you ask that person why there’s no signal in the airport?”
He glanced at his phone—still no connection.
Before Xu Chuyao could speak, Yu Yan said directly, “Don’t alert the snake.”
After that, she turned to the girls: “My suggestion is to charge out quickly and fight outside, because—”
She subtly pointed upwards.
Xu Chuyao immediately understood. As an important transport hub, the airport had more than just one lightning rod.
And not just rods—other things, too.
To any onlooker, it looked as if they were discussing sightseeing plans, but in reality, they were finalizing tactics while keeping a careful eye on their surroundings. At this hour, there were no other passengers in the airport—just their small group and the staff.
They couldn’t blend into a crowd, so they had to grit their teeth and head out.
As they walked, Xu Chuyao kept up a conversation with Shen Ning about what gifts to buy for their classmates and the local specialties. Thunder Girl did most of the talking; the silver-haired girl chimed in now and then.
The atmosphere was strangely relaxed, and Shen Ning even felt, for a fleeting moment, that maybe it wasn’t all that serious, maybe her girlfriend was just being sensitive…
Then she saw two men standing at the airport exit.
“Dearest Xu Chuyao, we meet again. Are you in such a hurry to leave?” said Bill, chewing on a leaf, with Professor Swina beside him.
The airport lobby seemed to empty out in an instant; only a few people with grim faces came out. Some had bizarre hairstyles, others wore bone decorations, and still others chewed leaves—most likely given by Bill.
Clearly, they weren’t airport staff. If they showed up to work like that, they’d have been thrown out ages ago.
“So we meet again, both of you,” Professor Swina spoke calmly. “Last time you escaped with your lives, but fortune does not always favor you…”
He hadn’t even finished when a loud explosion went off. A ball of fire shot toward the main entrance.
Yu Yan made her move. Her fireball seemed aimed at the two men, but in truth, her real target was the door and the glass windows adjacent to it.
Bang! The fireball exploded. Bill and Swina dodged immediately, but the entrance was not so lucky—the glass nearby shattered completely, and the once-sealed place was now open to the outside.
Without any need for signals, the group instantly spread out according to the previously discussed tactics, each person covering a sector.
Yu Yan, who had acted first, ended up facing Professor Swina. Flames leapt across the stone walls, refusing to die down.
Bill engaged Cheng Chen, his sharp-edged leaves slashing rapidly, but new shoots kept sprouting just as quickly.
Shen Ning and Xu Chuyao each faced an opponent, though their adversaries were not at peak Third Rank—mid to late stage, manageable for the young girls.
Only Chuyao was having a harder time.
“Net!”
With a flick of her wrist, a blue lightning bolt struck the ground, but missed its mark.
The two in front of her worked together seamlessly. The one who just dodged her attack was wind-elemental. Unlike Shen Ning’s wild, powerful gusts, his style was agile and rapid, quick to strike, quick to evade—like a snake. Xu Chuyao was surrounded by lightning, but since he didn’t dare attack directly, he kept hopping about her, helping his teammate by keeping her on edge.
His teammate, a fiery man reeking of sulfur, was a mid-stage Third Ranker. He couldn’t match Yu Yan, but could hold his own against Xu Chuyao for a few exchanges, especially with cover from his partner.
The airport’s exit area was lined with walls, but those quickly crumbled under the crossfire, the battlefield soon opening up to the outside world.
“Lord Billy, now I’ll… uh… begin hypnotizing—I mean, helping you sleep…”
Barf sat at a rickety old desk, his hands trembling uncontrollably.
Monrose glanced at him with some annoyance. “No need to panic. Now’s not the time for an interrogation. And you should know, I already showed you mercy last time. Others wanted to just lock you up.”
“Yes, yes!” Barf wiped sweat from his brow. “Thank you for your kindness.”
But in reality, whether that had really happened or not, only Monrose himself knew. The real problem was that Barf’s anxiety now had little to do with the past, and everything to do with the present.
He averted his eyes, only to see Mask Man watching him with a sly smile—a silent warning written all over his face.
“Then I’ll begin. Please relax.”
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