After who knows how long, Huimengyi finally claimed victory thanks to her deck advantage.
Random, thoughtless moves definitely took longer than playing seriously.
“My deck’s just too trash now, huh…”
Ye Jinyi sighed helplessly, feeling like the game had changed too much while she was away.
The meta must’ve shifted several times already.
Dear devs, slow down for your players’ sake.
The two of them played a few more rounds.
By the time it reached noon, they finally stopped.
Ye Jinyi glanced at her phone and started to look anxious.
“Aren’t Uncle Hui and Aunt Xiang coming home?”
“Mom and Dad won’t be back for lunch.”
Huimengyi delivered the cruel truth.
No free hot meal today.
“…Alright then.”
With a sigh, Ye Jinyi packed up the laptop, placed it back in the bag, and handed it to Huimengyi.
“Thanks for playing with me, Sis.”
She smiled at her, hoping Huimengyi wouldn’t be so troubled anymore.
The way she’d been acting today had really scared Ye Jinyi.
Putting her clothes back on, Ye Jinyi stepped out of Huimengyi’s room.
Just as she crossed the doorway, she turned and waved goodbye.
“I’m heading back for lunch now.”
With that, Ye Jinyi turned and walked away.
A short while later, Huimengyi heard the sound of the front door closing.
That told her Ye Jinyi had left.
As soon as she was sure, Huimengyi grabbed her pillow, collapsed face-down onto the bed, and buried her head in it.
She couldn’t hold it in anymore.
She wanted to breathe but didn’t dare to.
She felt like a complete sinner—a vile, ungrateful wretch who had pushed her savior straight into the abyss.
“I deserve to die… I deserve to die… I deserve to die!”
“Someone save me—no, don’t save me! Don’t save me! I’m a sinner! A sinner who doesn’t deserve love!”
“Why… why couldn’t you have just said you hated the world, even just a little? That way… that way I could’ve lived with myself…”
A good person will always feel sorrow for killing another good person.
“No one really did anything wrong, so why… why does someone still have to die?”
Huimengyi didn’t understand.
Who was truly at fault?
She couldn’t see who was evil anymore.
“Everyone meant well… so why did things turn out like this?”
“Can someone tell me who the real villain is?”
“If there’s no bad guy… then why did it come to this?”
“Is it me? Am I the villain? But I only did what everyone wanted…”
“Is everyone the villain? But all they wanted was to protect the world…”
“It can’t be the world, right? The world doesn’t think. It doesn’t want anything.”
The weight of the pillow pressed down on her head.
Her face was buried against the sheets, like an ostrich burying itself in the ground.
Meanwhile, Ye Jinyi exited the elevator and left the building, walking toward her tiny apartment.
She followed the usual route, walking for a long time—yet never seemed to arrive.
Something felt off.
Ye Jinyi looked around, hesitating, but continued forward.
Eventually, she stopped at an intersection and looked up at the street sign.
Yunzhong Road, Section 2.
After confirming the street name, Ye Jinyi continued forward, dragging her weary body for quite a while.
Eventually, she found a bench by the roadside and sat down to rest.
Staring at the empty street, Ye Jinyi couldn’t shake a strange feeling creeping up on her.
“Is everyone just staying home today?”
A flicker of fear stirred in her chest.
She looked up at the sun in the sky.
It wasn’t particularly blinding, but it hung there unnaturally still, not moving an inch.
Feeling rested enough, Ye Jinyi stood up from the bench and resumed walking.
She didn’t know how much time had passed, but soon she found herself exhausted again and sat down on another roadside bench.
“Come to think of it, why does everything around here feel so familiar?”
She wiped the sweat off her forehead and turned to look at the street sign nearby.
Yunzhong Road, Section 2.
“…Eh?!”
Ye Jinyi froze. Hadn’t she already passed this place before?
Unbeknownst to her, a group of S-rank magical girls were seated inside a projection room, watching her every move through the large screen.
They were observing Ye Jinyi via a live feed.
Suddenly, a girl who looked around nineteen pushed open the theater door and walked in.
“Thanks to the help of all you seniors, we’ve been able to capture this dangerous entity with minimal cost.”
Her codename was Chidong, an S-rank magical girl.
During the pursuit, she had supplied the energy necessary to maintain the entire barrier.
Winter was her domain.
With a faint smile, Chidong walked beside the giant screen, leaving the center view unobstructed for the others.
She raised her right hand high, fingers pressed together, palm angled down and forward to the left, striking a formal salute.
“In the name of the people, we defend the will of the Republic, the safety of its citizens, and the future of humanity.”
As her speech ended, the other magical girls stood from their seats.
Each of them raised their right hand in salute, repeating the same oath.
Once the recitation was complete, Chidong continued, “Following orders from Guiyun City Magical Girl Commander Heiyang, I’ll now enter the barrier zone to assist her in maintaining its stability. During this time, please observe this subject carefully. Any critical data we lacked last time—must be collected now.”
With that, Chidong turned and exited the screening room.
Inside the barrier.
Ye Jinyi was now completely panicked.
She had definitely stumbled into something serious.
“Don’t tell me I’m caught in a looping road or something?”
“No ghost respawns allowed in broad daylight!”
She forced herself to act calm, but internally she was already in full-blown panic mode.
“I-It must be ‘cause I didn’t sleep well last night!”
Trying to convince herself, Ye Jinyi took off her coat, draped it over herself, and lay down on the bench to sleep.
She didn’t know how long she’d slept, but eventually her eyes fluttered open.
“Mmmph~”
She tossed the coat off her and sat up.
Looking up at the sun, still hanging in the exact center of the sky, Ye Jinyi completely lost it.
She pinched her cheek hard—pain exploded across her face.
That confirmed it.
This wasn’t a dream or hallucination.
This… was a full-blown crisis.
The whole world had gone weird.
There was no one around—not because people were simply resting, but more likely because… she was the only person left in the world.
