Her wrist was red and raw from being bound.
Su Mu tugged at her slender arm, but the other end was still firmly tied to the headboard.
“Have you done what you wanted to do? Can you let me go now?”
Dozens of hours.
Come to think of it, she had no memory of how she had passed that long stretch of time…
She should just sleep a little more…
Tang Nai was lying on top of her, a small figure like a pet rabbit snuggling against its owner, except their master-servant relationship was reversed.
She lazily narrowed her eyes, half-asleep, just like when Su Mu had first arrived in the Dream World.
‘What’s the point of sleeping in the Dream World? You just want to torment me, don’t you?’
Su Mu sighed helplessly, noticing the magic power within her body had become active again, no longer suppressed.
With a thought, the fine threads like violin strings appeared from her fingertips, greeting their master.
“Go, cut that ribbon.”
The threads moved in response.
Without disturbing the surrounding air, they flashed past both ends of the satin ribbon, severing it.
Su Mu rubbed her sore arm and struggled to extricate herself from Tang Nai’s entanglement.
“Ugh…”
A slight headache made Su Mu somewhat uncomfortable, but it was about time for her to wake up.
Just as she was preparing to leave this place, she felt a tug from Tang Nai.
“Don’t rush. If you wake up now, you won’t have another chance to sleep this well later.”
Tang Nai was indeed fully awake; she had just been pretending to sleep to find an excuse to cling to Su Mu.
As she said, she really liked soft and elastic things, so she was reluctant to let go of Su Mu’s body, especially that pair of large pillows that almost seemed to swallow Tang Nai whole.
“What do you mean?” Su Mu was slightly stunned.
‘Could it be that the Witch is already nearby?’
“Ning arrived yesterday. Right now, she’s probably following the Combat Division’s positioning to find this area, but she hasn’t concealed her tracks. So, it seems those Witches have also locked onto her and are trying to play a long game to catch a big fish.”
As she spoke, Tang Nai rolled over, yawned, and added, “By the way, it seems an uninvited guest has entered your home.”
She didn’t seem to have any intention of returning to reality.
Hearing this, Su Mu’s heart tightened slightly, and all sleepiness vanished.
She sat up from the bed and glanced sideways; Tang Nai was still sleeping soundly.
‘Cooking.’ At the same time, Su Mu heard movement from the kitchen.
It was Su Ya.
Because she had indeed been a bit indulgent last night, Su Mu’s pink hair was a complete mess.
But now she had no time to tidy up.
She hurriedly pulled on her clothes and quickly rushed to Su Ya’s side.
‘No matter what, I need to find a reason to send Mom away, the farther the better.’
‘If that doesn’t work, I’ll have to use a little force…’
However, when Su Mu walked out of the room, she first saw the uninvited guest Tang Nai had mentioned.
A petite, cute black-haired girl was standing dazedly in the middle of the hallway.
The moment she saw Su Mu, her dark pupils first contracted slightly, then immediately welled up with moisture.
She lunged forward, about to throw herself into Su Mu’s arms, but Su Mu pressed a single finger against her forehead, holding her at bay about a meter away.
“Mi Xian? What are you doing here?”
Su Mu was surprised not only to see Lu Shan but also by the surging magic power hidden within her.
Since her magic power had reached B-rank, Su Mu had become increasingly sensitive to its fluctuations, not to mention she had threads capable of detecting even the slightest tremors.
The current Lu Shan definitely had B-rank strength, even slightly surpassing Su Mu.
This made her somewhat frustrated.
‘Why is it that just as I finally get stronger, everyone around me shoots up even faster?’
Especially Lu Shan.
‘Why has this little girl become so strong?’ Su Mu had been paying attention to the forum’s activity these past few days and would occasionally check Lu Shan’s account.
‘Didn’t she stop posting a long time ago?’
Notably, Lu Shan seemed to have temporarily halted her online activities.
She had completely vanished, not even leaving comments, which puzzled Su Mu.
But since she currently didn’t have the authority to investigate the situation, she simply ignored it.
However, looking at Lu Shan’s teary-eyed appearance, there must be another story.
“Senior, I finally found you. Do you know how I’ve been these past few days…” Lu Shan spoke with a sob in her voice, crying to Su Mu.
Seeing that she was about to wipe her tears on Su Mu’s clothes, Su Mu quickly picked her up and placed her on the bed.
“Stop crying. Explain clearly first.”
Su Mu crossed her arms, scrutinizing Lu Shan up and down.
The latter immediately fell silent and finally calmed down after a while.
“It all started before you and Ye Qing were sent back to the past… It’s like this…”
Back then, Justice was still rampant, and Lu Shan was struggling under Su Ya’s authority, unable to use her magic power, feeling extremely anxious.
She was also watching the live stream.
Seeing that damned goat-headed figure about to strike again, Lu Shan felt a pang in her heart.
In that instant, she felt the presence of magic power for the first time in a long while.
Not just one or two insignificant streams of magic power, but an ocean of it surging within her body.
This sudden change almost made Lu Shan’s jaw drop.
It took her a good while to process it before she gradually connected with the magic power inside her.
Feeling this unprecedented power, Lu Shan inexplicably recalled the last words she heard when parting with Su Ya that day: “Just one step away from a breakthrough? Before I leave, I’ll give you a little gift.”
In that moment, all restraints and discomfort vanished, replaced by an incredible sense of clarity and smoothness.
However, before Lu Shan could adapt to her new abilities, Justice activated his shadow-manipulation power, which was now far stronger than before, drawing her attention.
After that, Lu Shan remained in a powerless state until just now.
What scrolled before her eyes were no longer simple numbers or the data streams she could barely see as a Strange Person online, but countless tangible masses of darkness.
That darkness bred from all directions, converging towards the bright red characters for “Guilty.” In just a few moments, it swelled to a terrifying degree.
Seeing this, Lu Shan tried to manipulate her magic power to restrain their movement.
The instant she had this thought, the darkness could no longer move, as if gripped by an invisible giant hand in mid-air, utterly unable to converge towards the endpoint.
Surprisingly, the vote count correspondingly stopped increasing.
Instead, the “Not Guilty” votes instantly skyrocketed, as if thousands of people had voted incorrectly at the same time, leaving Lu Shan slightly stunned.
‘Did I just save someone by accident?’
Regardless, Lu Shan’s first thought was to go find Su Mu.
That pink-haired woman claimed to be the senior’s mother, so the senior must know something.
With this in mind, Lu Shan transformed into a shadow, swiftly traversing the city, and arrived at Su Mu’s home in no time.
When she appeared in Su Mu’s bedroom, what she saw was Tang Nai activating her authority.
Lu Shan’s heart tightened.
She instinctively rushed in front of Su Mu, transforming into a shadow barrier to obstruct Tang Nai.
But perhaps her presence was too concealed; Tang Nai didn’t notice her at all and included her within the range of her authority’s influence.
Just like that, Lu Shan was inadvertently sent back to the past.
The moment she woke up, just like Su Mu and Ye Wanqing, her strength had severely regressed.
But unlike Su Mu, both Lu Shan and Ye Wanqing had mastered an authority.
Although she didn’t understand this authority, it didn’t stop the authority within her from absorbing magic power on its own.
In just two days, Lu Shan regained her normal strength.
However, what troubled Lu Shan wasn’t the issue of strength, but the incomprehensible situation she found herself in.
At that time, the fifteen-year-old Lu Shan should have been peacefully enjoying her vacation, continuing her cross-dressing antics as a Strange Person while living a comfortable little life.
But the Lu Shan from the future had no interest in going on trips with her girlfriends.
After regaining her power, her first thought was to find Su Mu, so Lu Shan found reasons to decline her friends’ invitations.
The next day, when Lu Shan opened her eyes again, she found herself back at yesterday morning.
Whenever Lu Shan declined an invitation, she would be sent back by a mysterious force to relive that day.
“I’m stuck in a loop!”
Try to delay?
Penalty: go back and do it over!
Accept the invitation but stand up your sisters?
Penalty: relive the day again!
Stay up all night at an internet cafe without sleeping?
Laughable.
The moment midnight arrived, Lu Shan’s vision blurred, and when she opened her eyes again, it was the familiar ceiling.
It was maddening.
The only benefit was that the internal cooldown for “mining” would also reset.
With a Strange Person’s physical constitution, Lu Shan could probably maintain a continuous… ahem.
Unfortunately, she didn’t have such interests.
After falling into the loop several times in a row, Lu Shan gave up struggling and followed her girlfriends on a nostalgic trip under the blazing July sun.
As a shadow-controlling Strange Person, she felt she was just one step away from being baked into a cat jerky.
‘Do I have to relive the past three years exactly as they happened? I absolutely refuse to let that happen!’
After much contemplation, Lu Shan decided to rush to Su Mu’s side during one loop cycle to find a solution.
And during this process of searching for Su Mu, the second problem arose.
Although Su Mu was quite active online, her privacy protection was actually quite good, so much so that Lu Shan had to put in considerable effort to locate Su Mu’s position.
Upon discovering that Su Mu was in G City, over a thousand kilometers away, Lu Shan’s heart sank.
‘How am I supposed to get there? If I rush all the way using my abilities, won’t I definitely be stopped by the Combat Division…’
Public transportation was all monitored by the Combat Division, so it was definitely unusable.
The only option was to grit her teeth and run there.
To escape the loop, Lu Shan steeled herself and went for it!
‘Even if my legs break from running today, even if I have to crawl with my hands, I’ll crawl to Su Mu’s home and make her see how I got here!’