“Whoo!”
Clara returned from the bottom of the sea to the shore, collapsing onto the sand and wriggling like a stranded squid.
Even wet sand had gotten between her swimsuit and her skin.
“What are you flailing for?”
Wearing a sexy, dark swimsuit, Fran squatted nearby, poking Clara’s back with a small twig and urging her,
“Get up, get up, the evening activities are about to start!”
Clara, exhausted to the point of collapse, turned her head to look at her and asked,
“Is now really the time to play games?”
After finally finding the rabbit warren, shouldn’t the first order of business be organizing its destruction?
Moon Rabbits are like cockroaches—if you let them be, they’ll be everywhere.
A crafty rabbit always has three burrows. That warren might not even be their only one.
“We already have the coordinates! Leave that to the others, hunting doesn’t need a hero to show up. Do you think the resort’s Security Department is just for show? You get back to your own job, which is streaming and gaining popularity~”
Fran hooked her arm under Clara’s armpit and, with a strong pull, lifted the limp Clara off the ground.
Both of them were in swimsuits, making this contact clearly more intimate than any they’d had before. Being hauled up by this high schooler—who was only pretending to be a high schooler—made Clara squirm with embarrassment.
Clara couldn’t shake the feeling she was taking advantage.
…But in reality, Fran felt the same.
Who was the winner here? Maybe they both were.
“Everyone’s here already. Do you really want to show the audience in the live room this look of yours?”
Clara patted her cheeks, then finally got the sand out of her swimsuit by gently lifting the fabric and sliding her fingers in to brush away the fine grains…
Fran teased, “Oh my? You sure can do bold things without even thinking about it, huh?”
But Clara didn’t sense anything improper about her actions.
“No one’s looking. It’s uncomfortable having sand in my clothes.”
Fran grasped Clara’s slender waist and went on, “Still, pay attention to where you are! Don’t think no one’s watching your figure—there are plenty of lolicons these days… The camera’s coming, so behave~”
Clara followed Fran’s gaze to the gathering spot not far away.
Four pits had already been dug, just waiting for people to hop in.
The four from the Sigma Series would jump in, then place watermelons next to them.
Finally, she would take a wooden sword and chop at the watermelons… or heads.
By the way, since the exoskeletons weren’t repaired yet, all they could wear were stainless steel bowls as helmets. Those things would still hurt if hit with a wooden sword, wouldn’t they?
To split a watermelon, Clara would need to use some real force.
If she went easy for their sake, the watermelons wouldn’t split.
The rules allowed for only one strike; if she failed to split the watermelon in one blow, she’d lose.
“They’re going to end up with bleeding heads, aren’t they?”
Clara muttered, and Fran agreed.
“Depends on your skill.”
So this is what watermelon splitting is really like—a ruthless game.
Clara felt a bit guilty (especially for Sister), but the viewers in the stream were thrilled, particularly Clara’s own fans.
They figured Clara had bottled up a lot of frustration from earlier, so venting now was understandable—even forgivable.
Naturally, this led to another round of crossfire in the chat between Sigma Series fans and Clara’s fans. Things got messy, but the topic was trending and traffic was off the charts.
“Is everything ready?”
As host, Okata Dharma approached Clara with a drone.
The stream had been running for a while.
Although she was so tired from escaping the rabbit warren and swimming that she could barely lift her arms, Clara still smiled for the camera.
She hadn’t put on makeup, and her long hair was still dripping wet.
But even bare-faced, her natural cuteness was more than enough to draw people in.
“How did it feel to swim in the sea before the event?” Okata Dharma interviewed.
“I ended up playing in the water a bit too long~ I’m very sorry, but the seawater here is super clean! The underwater ecology is amazing too!”
“It’s a shame the cameraman’s drone can’t go underwater, or everyone would love to see Miss Clara swimming… You’re just like a little mermaid!”
A squid could also be a mermaid. Calling Clara a little mermaid was perfectly reasonable.
“Hope you have enough strength left to swing the sword.”
Clara followed Okata Dharma to the edge of the field.
“Then, let’s begin the much-anticipated watermelon-splitting game!”
Okata Dharma handed her a wooden sword.
It was heavy; if used as a real weapon, it would definitely hurt.
“Absolutely no peeking or cheating, okay?”
Okata Dharma reminded her. From her perspective, a miss—hitting a person instead of a watermelon—would make for better show content. If Clara split the watermelon cleanly, it wouldn’t be as exciting as hitting someone…
“Time to blindfold you.”
A black satin cloth was tied over Clara’s eyes.
In addition, a tight, stretchy blindfold sealed off any gap between her nose and eyelids, making it impossible to see, or even open her eyes.
But, Clara had Nyx.
In theory, she could rely on Nyx’s scanning imaging to gauge the outside situation…
[No. Nyx does not recommend cheating during the game, and will not assist you in cheating. Such behavior is unethical. Please……]
Nyx, standing on moral high ground, refused her.
Next, the four Sigma members, blindfolded, hopped into their respective pits.
Staff member Lucia, full of enthusiasm, shoveled sand to fill the pits, leaving only their heads exposed above the surface.
Hmm, this felt like a live burial.
By the way, they weren’t completely unprotected; each wore a stainless steel bowl from the kitchen as a helmet, which offered basically no protection—being hit by the wooden sword would still hurt…
But it would make a loud noise.
Between each head sat a big watermelon—the true targets for Clara.
Clara spun around three times in place, losing all sense of direction, then shouted,
“I’m starting!”
“Clara-chan, don’t hit this way!”
That was the voice of Verdant Resonance, but that’s how the game was meant to be played.
They had to call out to help Clara avoid their own heads and hit the watermelon beside them instead.
But Clara quickly noticed another use for the stainless steel bowls: if they tucked their voices beneath the bowl, it muddled the direction, so all she could guess was a rough area…
Clara slowly walked forward.
“Little sister, that’s close enough! You’re kicking sand in my face!”
Red General Star yelled, so Clara stopped.
Clara gripped the wooden sword tight.
Azure Cavalry asked, “Where do you hear our voices from now?”
All three had spoken—it seemed none of them were straight ahead.
She could do this!
Clara raised the wooden sword high and brought it down in a swift chop.
Clang–!
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