Wu Xiaomi didn’t know how to use a blade.
Especially not this one— it was obvious at a glance that it had a history, that it was powerful, and that it was massive.
The only thing she could do was pour all her spirit source and the blood from her wrist into the blade.
Her bare feet pushed off the basket, launching herself down from the sky despite still being high off the ground.
“Unite.”
In midair, she unfastened the scabbard from her back.
Then reattached it to the hilt.
Rumble—
It was thunder in the silent night, tearing through the endless darkness of the wild.
The full form of the zhanmadao was revealed!
Surging lightning struck the blade again and again, its branches crackling outward to connect with the earth, using every mirror demon within a hundred meters as conduits.
Black Lichtenberg figures appeared beneath the sigil tattoos on their bodies.
“Good. Night!”
The zhanmadao wasn’t stylish or elegant, but in this moment, it was the perfect weapon to cut down the beast-faced clan.
The blade sliced down from top to bottom, starting at the head of a beast-face and ending at its feet.
It finally stopped right at Kang Jie’s nose.
[Mirror-night beast-face slain. 2000 strategy points earned.]
With two muffled thuds, Kang Jie felt a sudden lightness. The beast-face split in two, left and right, and he was freed from beneath its massive foot.
“You… why are you here?” he stared at Wu Xiaomi in disbelief.
A goddess descending from the heavens? Yes— at that moment, that’s exactly what Wu Xiaomi looked like to Kang Jie.
“What else was I supposed to do?”
Kang Jie looked up and saw the hot air balloon.
“I see… things that fly are hard to drag into mirrors, so mirror demons usually can’t fly. And hot air balloons are the simplest and most material-efficient way to get airborne.” Kang Jie gave a bitter smile. “Was that your own idea?”
“It was Han Nuo’s.”
“Han Nuo had a change of heart?”
“No, he got knocked out.”
“……”
Kang Jie didn’t know whether to laugh or cry.
“So, why’d you come down here? You were safe up there. You could’ve spent the night without any danger…” he asked, puzzled.
Wu Xiaomi leaned on the long blade, panting, and gave a tired smile.
“If I didn’t have you as a neighbor, this post-apocalyptic world would be really boring~”
Kang Jie hadn’t expected that answer.
He wiped his eyes.
So… I am still useful, huh…
“Get up. I brought something good. We don’t have to sit here and take it anymore.”
The girl, completely drained, plopped down on the ground and held up the Resonator.
The Resonator was a halo.
Which meant that from now on, every attack from nearby strategists could actually harm the mirror demons.
[Team Channel – Vice Leader Announcement (Ah Lei): Draw your swords!!! Counterattack!!!]
……
The reason mirror demons were so terrifying was because they could hurt strategists at will— while the strategists couldn’t fight back.
But once the demons had physical form, the game changed completely.
“Pick up your weapons. Fight.”
Nurse An moved through the crowd, signaling to even the non-combatants to take up swords.
Soon, he saw the man who made him sick to his stomach.
“This is your last chance to prove yourself. Not to me,” Nurse An said coldly, patting the man’s sword, “but to the world— to prove you deserve to survive.”
“Ha… ha…”
The man forced a laugh and glanced at the battlefield.
Nurse An ignored him and walked away.
As soon as he left, liquid began to drip down the man’s pant leg.
Annoyed, the man shook his foot and scurried to the wall, crouching down and holding his head.
But he didn’t notice— the liquid pooling at his feet was forming a puddle.
In that puddle, his reflection stared back at him.
And the face in the water began to twist.
“?!”
By the time he realized something was wrong, it was too late.
A hand reached out and grabbed his ankle.
“Help! No… help me! Somebody help! Aaaahhhh—!”
His body was yanked down into the puddle.
In a matter of moments, he vanished from the world entirely.
……
[Time remaining until return: 3 hours.]
“So they can feel fear.”
“Bully the weak, cower before the strong— some instincts don’t change, even in death.”
The mirror-night tide had surged forth, but once the strategists gained the power to fight back, the tide receded just as fast.
No new monsters approached.
The strategists swept the severed limbs of the mirror demons to the edges, forming a new barricade in place of the old walls.
At last, the night found a moment of true peace.
“Xiaomi, check the livestream— they’re all praising you,” Kang Jie said with a grin.
Wu Xiaomi raised an eyebrow, puffed up her cheeks, and replied in mock arrogance, “Not interested.”
“Then let me read it to you…”
“Don’t bother.”
Too embarrassing, seriously.
Stuff like that is obviously meant to be read secretly under the covers after we get back…
“‘Wu Xiaomi, flower of the apocalypse, thunder goddess descended.’” Kang Jie read aloud despite her protests. “‘Ahhh I love you Wu Xiaomi!’— well, of course we all do. ‘Wu Xiaomi, the savior goddess!’ And then…”
Thunk—
A little foot lightly tapped Kang Jie’s chest.
“Argh—”
His ribs still hadn’t fully healed, and he winced in pain, gasping.
“No. More. Reading!”
“‘Hahaha Xiaomi-mi looks so cute when she’s flustered!’” Ah Lei took over and read aloud in an exaggerated voice.
“…”
Even under the dim night sky, the flush spreading across Wu Xiaomi’s cheeks was impossible to miss.
She clamped her hands over her ears.
Not listening! Not listening!
Climb, all of you!
Bai Xiaozhi wrapped an arm around Wu Xiaomi and shot a glare at a few men.
Only then did the group fall silent.
“Ah Lei, have you done a headcount?”
“Yeah, we’re missing one.”
Even though they had lost someone, considering the deadly situation they’d just faced, this was nothing short of a miraculous victory.
“We’ve got three hours left— get some rest, but stay alert.”
The darkest hour is always before dawn.
“When sunlight hits the upper atmosphere, it scatters the starlight. But because the upper atmosphere is so thin, it can’t carry the light down through the denser lower layers to the surface. That’s why it’s always darkest before dawn… Still, I didn’t expect the details here to be exactly like Earth’s,” Kang Jie said, amazed.
“There’s plenty of strange stuff about this place. Like how the length of day and night is the same as ours— 23 hours, 56 minutes, and 4.09 seconds. In other words, one full rotation is nearly 24 hours. But the known regions here are over 500 times the size of Earth— maybe even more…
With such a massive planet, it should also have far greater mass. Logically, we’d be crushed under hundreds of times Earth’s gravity, trapped in a thick, light-blocking atmosphere…
The atmosphere might even be liquefied or solidified.
That much mass collapsing inward would generate immense energy, turning the whole planet into a ball of molten fire— like the sun. That would actually make more sense.”
But clearly, the Nerrifa Continent before them was nothing like that.
“This place even has magic. Of course its laws differ from Earth’s. Still, if we had the chance to study it… maybe it could help us rebuild Earth someday,” Kang Jie said with a deep sigh.
“You’re still thinking about rebuilding?” Ah Lei teased.
“You don’t seriously want to spend the rest of your life fighting mirror demons, do you?” Kang Jie shot back.
Fair point.
Though honestly, if going back just means being a corporate drone again, then forget it— let it all burn.
I choose the mirror demons.
“No matter where you go, work always sucks,” Ah Lei said, looking up at the sky with a long sigh.
“Can’t argue with that.”
The crowd around them nodded in agreement.
Before the disaster, they were working to support their families.
After the disaster, they were still working themselves to death. And all the points they earned? Practically nothing— because they hadn’t joined any main missions.
A single pack of instant noodles had to be split in two for separate meals.
“Don’t live like that anymore. Join the main quests,” Kang Jie said, looking at the crowd with satisfaction.
At the beginning of the night, most of them had been completely useless.
But during the recent battle, at least half had picked up weapons.
Not a bad start.
……
Rustle, rustle. The wheat stalks began to sway.
“Looks like they’re coming out again.”
Just as they were beginning to recover, the sound returned around them.
“Judging by the footsteps… beast-face clan. And more than one.”
That alone would’ve been manageable.
But then, a man and a woman emerged from the forest.
Their faces looked normal— beautiful, elegant— not like mirror-night creatures.
But both of them wore the ceremonial robes of the Harvest Village shamans.
Wu Xiaomi knew there were only two shamans in Harvest Village now: herself and Nanalia.
So who were these two?
“Eh?!”
The pair spotted Wu Xiaomi in the crowd at once.
“…Mentor Ah Fu? Why are you so small now?”
They called out in surprise, staring directly at Wu Xiaomi.