Ye Xiaobei, standing to the side, reluctantly set the gun down, a hint of confusion on his face.
Just as Su Mu was feeling smug about her brilliant wisdom, Ye Xiaobei thought, ‘The senior’s hidden weapons are good, but… this is a bit different from the chivalrous warrior I imagined.’
His gun had jammed.
The next day, when Su Mu went to find Ye Xiaobei again, she was surprised to discover that, although she could fire powerful magic bullets from the same gun, no matter how hard Ye Xiaobei pulled the trigger, only some black smoke sputtered from the muzzle.
This confused Su Mu.
After circling Ye Xiaobei twice, she finally reached a conclusion.
Ye Xiaobei didn’t have enough confidence in the gun in his hand.
“Senior, I’m afraid this still doesn’t suit me.”
Seeing Ye Xiaobei hand the gun back, Su Mu had no choice but to reluctantly take it.
In a way, could this be considered a sign of “ordinariness”?
Then that’s a good seedling!
“Stop. You’ve already taken me as your master, so call me ‘Master,’ alright? Don’t rush to return this thing. How can I take back something I’ve already given?”
Hearing this, Ye Xiaobei paused for a moment, then hesitantly withdrew his hand.
Faced with this situation, Su Mu couldn’t help but feel conflicted.
Since things had come to this, she might as well open a brocade pouch.
Of the three brocade pouches, after Su Mu’s unrestrained squandering, only one remained. But Su Mu wasn’t worried. After all, Tang Nai had personally promised that she could open a pouch whenever she ran into trouble, so naturally she had no reason to hesitate.
The pink-haired girl showed no restraint. Under Ye Xiaobei’s dumbfounded gaze, she pulled out the lonely, pitiful brocade pouch.
As soon as she opened it, Tang Nai’s somewhat teasing note came into view.
“Little Su Mu, if I’m not mistaken, this is already the third time you’ve opened a pouch~”
‘Nonsense. The third pouch is obviously opened third.’
Su Mu’s mouth twitched, and she continued reading.
“Actually, I can’t interfere too much in this matter. Things like this are similar to that final exam of yours before—I can’t help even if I want to.”
This referred to an incident that happened before Su Mu was sent back in time.
Even though she was a Magical Girl, Su Mu was also a student, and she inevitably faced every student’s nightmare—the final exam week.
As for how Su Mu managed to pass… well, she basically never attended class afterward. She hadn’t learned a thing, and reviewing felt no different from studying for the first time.
What annoyed her was that Tang Nai had demanded she not fail a single subject, and she would act as the examiner, supervising Su Mu’s test.
“I’m not saying you can’t cheat—just don’t get caught by me.”
Would Su Mu try? Of course not. Because the punishment for being caught by Tang Nai was far more terrifying than getting caught by the school.
But just as Su Mu was cursing under her breath, Tang Nai switched to being the good cop.
“Ah, although I can’t pull strings for you, I can still help you a little. For example, these hard-to-get old exam papers…”
What Tang Nai was doing now was very similar to back then. She wouldn’t directly interfere with Su Mu’s decisions; she could only offer a little guidance. If she helped any further, she might as well take the exam for her.
Thinking about it this way, the hints in Tang Nai’s previous pouches had all been trivial and hadn’t been much help.
“But, to help you perform better, here’s one last tip. Although this dream is very close to reality, you can think of it as an RPG with a high degree of freedom, and you are the protagonist inside.”
‘The protagonist inside…’ With that, Su Mu quickly understood what Tang Nai meant.
She had a mission. Unlike the others here, she had a “main quest.”
Since Tang Nai had said so, that mysterious main quest must have a path to follow.
In other words, Tang Nai had told her the final goal of the main quest from the very beginning. Under normal circumstances, this would already count as cheating, and to a certain extent, it influenced Su Mu’s judgment.
Rushing definitely wouldn’t work. Or rather, Tang Nai wasn’t too sure either. But if she groped forward bit by bit, she could carve out her own ending. The clues were supposed to be collected by herself. Relying entirely on Tang Nai for help—she should have been looking for NPCs, triggering plotlines, and following the clues.
She had even arranged for Tang Yin to be her assistant.
Thinking of this, Su Mu couldn’t help but pout. But no matter what she thought inside, she put on a dissatisfied expression on the outside.
“Hmph. Actually, you’re just out of ideas, you small fry. I can handle this kind of thing easily by myself.”
She said something very mesugaki-like, and right in front of Ye Xiaobei at that. Clearly, Su Mu had no sense of masterly dignity.
But after dropping that tough talk, Su Mu still felt troubled.
‘Easier said than done. Finding the right NPC isn’t easy either…’
‘Come to think of it, who were the nine most important “NPCs” in this dream world?’
As she pondered, Su Mu suddenly understood.
‘Oh, right. I forgot about my cheap father.’
Tang Nai had repeated several times in the story background that she had the script of a false heiress, so she should have gone to claim her kinship long ago.
Thinking this, Su Mu curled her lip.
‘I don’t want to do something that cliché. Better not let things develop that way.’
‘Besides, isn’t Tang Yin an important NPC too?’
Since she had no confidence in this gun, she should go back and give Tang Yin a thorough grilling.
Soon, Su Mu returned to the poor “First Princess.”
Tang Yin was enjoying the sunshine comfortably on the eaves, not caring at all about her master’s plight, even as Tang Yin was being chased around the room by Su Mu.
“I’ve already optimized it to perfection. If you want it even stronger, you’ll have to find me better materials.”
“It’s really not my fault. The stuff I made is definitely fine, but then…”
Su Mu grabbed Tang Yin by her reed-thin ankle and held the little girl upside down. Under several times the sensitivity, Tang Yin screamed in terror and started babbling incoherently.
“I don’t know either. Those earlier materials were already the best from the palace. Although I wanted to purify them, in the dream, I can’t follow the real-world methods. If you want powerful materials, you need to find something famous…”
“You’re babbling on and on—how am I supposed to understand?”
Su Mu grabbed Tang Yin’s other foot and swung her back and forth. Tang Yin grew dizzy again and quickly rephrased.
“I mean, you need to find those things that are hyped up to be ridiculous—something like Sky-Ore from beyond the heavens, or Cold Iron from the Celestial Mountains… those are definitely tough enough!”
“Why didn’t you say so earlier?”
Splat!
Tang Yin was dropped directly, landing in a daze. Su Mu thought for a moment and quickly found a target.
‘If I remember correctly, the prize for the last martial arts tournament was a piece of extraordinary Sky-Ore… and the winner was my cheap father, wasn’t it?’
Su Mu rubbed her hands together, a smile unconsciously curling at the corners of her mouth.
‘Hehe, it’s all family property anyway. She shouldn’t mind if I borrow a bit~’