“Dad my dear dad Dad?…. Where are you? Where the hell are you!?”
Luo Zining came back home, wanting to find that old man Deng to vent her exhaustion, but couldn’t find him.
Her tone grew increasingly irritable.
Not here!
She stood sullenly in front of the door like a demon.
In a daze, her mind drifted back to the invitation she received yesterday.
Yesterday, after subjugating the cross-border dimensional beast, she received an invitation from the Magic Alliance’s Jiuweng Sea branch, asking her to join their ranks.
It’s worth noting that the Jiuweng Sea branch ranks very high among all the Magic Alliance’s divisions.
Receiving an invitation from Jiuweng Sea means her strength as a magical girl has been recognized.
Of course, accepting the invitation comes with many sacrifices.
Although she could naturally enroll in a university there after this year’s college entrance exams, still…
“Drip drip drip—”
Luo Zining took out her phone.
It was her aunt, Ji Yue, calling.
“Hello? Auntie.”
“Zining, I’ve heard about it. No rush on this matter, it’s not like you have to go right away. You still need to undergo some training as a rookie, understand?”
“Yeah, I know, Auntie.”
“Good. I have some things to do here. If anything comes up, talk to me!”
Ji Yue seemed to have called in the middle of a busy schedule and hung up quickly.
“Sigh…”
Luo Zining looked up and sighed.
At times like this, she really wished for some useful advice.
If it were Old Deng, what would he say?
For some reason, Luo Zining suddenly hoped Luo You could give her some life philosophy.
Coincidentally, the sound of unlocking came from outside the door.
“Sigh, just make something to eat… Huh! You’re back too?”
“Yeah.”
Luo You entered, closed the door, and when he turned, he caught sight of Luo Zining’s arrogant expression.
“Math competition’s over?”
“Over.”
“How did you do?”
“Wait.”
“Alright, I’ll order takeout then.”
At the dinner table, Luo Zining suddenly brought up something with Luo You.
“Dad, I have an English competition next. I’ll need to go for training, probably for a week. I’m leaving this afternoon.”
Luo You’s mouth twitched.
Math then English, huh?
Is there Chinese after this?
Do Chinese competitions even exist?
Knowing Luo Zining had magical girl duties, Luo You didn’t bother to question further and said casually, “Okay, no problem. Go ahead.”
Luo You looked up and saw his daughter staring at him with displeasure.
He asked, “Anything else? Oh! Does the training cost money? I’ll pay.”
“That’s not the issue! (puts down chopsticks)”
“…Good luck then? (chewing)”
“Forget it! Nothing!”
Luo Zining clicked her tongue, thinking asking this old man for good advice was hopeless!
Math competition finished, then immediately English competition—after going out for so many days, he doesn’t even try to understand things more deeply?
With your emotional intelligence, if you ever get married, when your wife keeps being called out to do nucleic acid tests, you’ll still be home happily paying the rent for Old Wang!
Luo Zining rapidly shoved all the good food in front of her into her mouth, leaving Luo You only the scraps on the plate.
Sigh, really…
Luo You shook his head.
He completely couldn’t read the thoughts of his teenage daughter. Hadn’t he been keeping a low profile lately?
But recently he had been chatting a lot with Li Yun.
Since then, Li Yun had added him on WeChat and occasionally asked for advice.
Most often, Li Yun asked Luo You to help her practice speaking with the tone of that damn Elaera, so she could have more composure the next time she met her.
After some back and forth, the voice messages Luo You sent could be turned into ‘female brat ASMR’ for sale.
“But Zining’s been transferred around a lot lately. Those Magic Alliance guys wouldn’t be sending her to the front lines, would they?”
Luo You wondered.
He couldn’t not care about it.
Staying at home wasn’t an option, so he decided to visit Xue and give her one last round of hypnotic brainwashing.
“Ugh ugh!”
“Hey! Don’t move around!”
In the room, Xue struggled free from Luo You’s hypnotic brainwashing, nervously jumping up and down.
Luo You caught her again.
The usually obedient Xue actually broke free, which surprised him.
“What’s wrong with you?”
“Ugh… I just can’t calm down!”
Xue was like a cat in a bath—she just loved to move!
Luo You felt like slapping her bottom right then.
“Is it that… that really evil scent you mentioned?”
“Yeah, it’s getting stronger!”
Looking at it this way, the danger from the Boundary Sea hadn’t been blocked and was still threatening the mainland.
Luo You pinched her cheek, “You used to be a Light Hunter class, so why are you jumping around like that?”
“The scent’s disgusting! Makes me want to puke!”
“Then get used to it.”
“Oysters!”
“No oysters!”
Luo You put her on the sofa, “Come, watch TV with me. Forget about that scent for now.”
Beep——
“According to the official report, the Boundary Sea will soon experience a ‘tidal phenomenon.’ The Boundary Sea Observation Bureau predicts it at level one. The frequency of cross-border dimensional beast incursions will slightly increase. Citizens are advised to prepare for evacuation at any time.”
***
Listening to the news anchor’s report, Luo You was speechless.
The tidal phenomenon of the Boundary Sea was just like the ebb and flow of tides.
During low tide, few dimensional beasts appear; but when the tide rises, the direction of tidal flow acts like a guiding lighthouse, marking Earth’s position—this is the worst-case scenario.
Five years ago was such a rising tide period.
It was the highest level seven since humans began observing the Boundary Sea.
A large number of deep Boundary Sea dimensional beasts found their way to Earth following the tidal flow.
Even the massive Star Rings were ineffective, and human governments suffered heavy losses.
That tide lasted over three years, brought forth a Light Hunter class dimensional beast, and halted the war between the Paranormal Organization and the Magic Alliance.
“Is it really just level one?”
Luo You smiled knowingly.
At times like this, you just multiply the official severity by ten to guess the truth.
At least level two.
Luo You opened his computer, logged into the Inner World website, and found the ‘Free Consultation’ section, where most publicly known information was published. More scarce content required payment.
Coincidentally, Luo You was exactly one of those ‘missing’ people from the majority.
“Umm umm… let me see… multiple areas at the Boundary Sea border are under dimensional beast attack; the Moonlight class super-large Star Ring is damaged… wow~ this is really…”
Luo You thought to himself: should I go check it out?
If there’s time, definitely.
In fact, he had time right now.
Yes, he was very, very free.
Upstairs at the gym, Luo You was like an empty-nest coach, with no students to train.
He spent his days upstairs doing nothing, and even the usually slack-off Luo You was getting restless.
Just yesterday, he asked the manager for more students, but the manager dismissed him with one sentence.
—“If we add students for you now, what if a big shot comes and specifically asks for you… no, sorry, bad example. What if a large crowd comes upstairs? Anyway, you need to stay on standby, ready for guests to come and… exercise!”
At that moment, Luo You thought to himself, “Am I being treated like a delicacy for some big shot?”