Chapter 29

After Pei Xi and the others were chased by the flood to a large square, the ferocious flood surprisingly receded slowly like the tide. Pei Xi gasped for breath while looking around and spotted several familiar yet unfamiliar faces.

"Lin Xingxing?"  

Pei Xi stared uncertainly at a brown-haired boy lying on the ground panting.

The drenched and disheveled boy suddenly jumped up from the ground. Pei Xi confirmed it—this was Lin Xingxing, captain of the upper district's first academy. They had last met at the Crown Prince's banquet.

"P-Pei Xi? In person?"

Lin Xingxing pushed back his soaked hair, glaring at the people around him with a gritted-teeth smile. "And a few from the Divine Academy are here too? Great."

He excitedly slung an arm over Pei Xi's shoulder, then landed a not-too-light punch to his stomach. Pei Xi grunted.

"Do you know what I've been through these past few hours? The shadows of you two teams took turns tormenting our poor, helpless team. Our academy only ranked seventh in the last stage—who did we offend?"

Though the upper district's first academy had "first" in its name, its strength was mediocre in the upper district.

Unlike the Royal Academy, which required both family background and ability, this academy was for rich kids who could buy their way in. The team's fighting spirit was average too—in Pei Xi's view, they seemed like they were just there for credits.

Pei Xi touched his nose. He finally knew whose screams he had heard earlier. Before they reached that place, it had been the first academy's people dealing with his shadow as well as Bai Muqing and Yinkong's shadows.

He let Lin Xingxing vent with a few painless punches. Just as he was about to speak comfortingly, his brows suddenly furrowed as he realized a problem and began scanning the surroundings.

There were several white figures on the square—clearly Divine Academy uniforms. Besides Bai Muqing and Yinkong, the other Divine Academy members had suddenly appeared here too.

He recognized the first academy people and counted—they were all present. As for his own team... Pei Xi's expression darkened slightly. Where was Zhao Mei? Had something happened?

Pei Xi knew Zhao Mei had hidden trump cards, but Zhao Mei had already expended himself staying behind to cover them earlier. And he looked physically frail—always making people worry about him involuntarily.

Though Zhao Mei was also a water-type ability user, could those streams protect him in that massive flood?

Pei Xi held his head in frustration. Strangest of all, the black shadows had vanished too.

What exactly was the purpose of that flood? Everyone who entered was a contestant—their goal was to destroy the aberrant realm for points and seize the championship.

But the person who caused the flood—Pei Xi couldn't discern their intent. That familiar feeling of things going off-track washed over him again.

"Roy, Lu Qi, Kyle, let's go find Zhao Mei now. He's miss—"

Pei Xi stopped mid-sentence.

He looked up. The white light dome covering the area had vanished at some point. The evening sky displayed a brilliant fiery red.

The usually steady and calm boy showed an incredulous expression, his blue eyes widening as he stared at the restored normal sky.

"Holy crap! The aberrant realm disappeared?"

"What happened? Did the knight order come in?"

"Another team entered besides us! Playing mantis stalks cicada, oriole behind?"

The young people on the square all noticed this shocking discovery. Pei Xi's surroundings filled with voices of surprise, anger, and clamor.

Pei Xi's mind buzzed. Besides Zhao Mei, all the contestants were here. So who had just destroyed the aberrant realm?

If he was right, destroying this domain required eliminating all black shadows. Even someone like Bai Muqing with her 【Divine Domain】 couldn't do it in such short time—and Bai Muqing had been acting with them all along.

An absurd guess surfaced in his mind, but he quickly suppressed it. Even if Zhao Mei hadn't been present, it couldn't be him.

Even if Zhao Mei's ability combined healing and attack, powerful healing couldn't coexist with powerful offense—like how a seasoned doctor couldn't simultaneously be a battle-hardened general.

Powerful healing relied not just on talent but massive time and effort in practice.

Given Zhao Mei's proficiency in healing, his main focus was healing—his attack power at best comparable to Lu Qi or Kyle's.

Pei Xi silently clenched his fist. Even for him with dual abilities, his commonly used 【Metal Aberration】 was far stronger than the other, despite secretly putting much effort into training it.

Gradually, the boy exhaled. It could only be Sykes. Perhaps he had entered this aberrant realm too. Only the strongest of the empire's younger generation could eliminate so many replicas in such short time.

"Everyone, are you all okay?"

Amid the noisy chatter, a gentle, concerned voice sounded light and somewhat abrupt. Many paused their conversations, turning unanimously toward the source.

The aberrant realms destroyed, the hazy white dome overhead gone, the warm evening sunlight poured unrestrained onto the black-haired, green-eyed boy. Bathed in the brilliant sunset, he seemed more ephemeral than the glow behind him—like a mere warm illusion.

Pei Xi's expression was somewhat dazed.

Only when Zhao Mei's hand touched the wound on his shoulder, the stinging injury itching as it healed, did Pei Xi snap back to reality and feel grounded.

"Zhao Mei, where did you go just now? We were about to look for you."

"Sorry, there were many ordinary people injured earlier, so I went to take care of them first."

The black-haired, green-eyed boy smiled apologetically. Very in line with Zhao Mei's style. Pei Xi had more questions, but a teammate jumped in and interrupted.

"I thought you'd been swept away by the flood! That flood was terrifying—I almost couldn't outrun it..."

Lu Qi was always the most energetic in the team. She suddenly hugged the boy's arm, complaining lightly in a cheerful tone. Pei Xi watched them, feeling no place for himself.

He sighed. The first battle of the third stage had so many mysteries. They could only wait for the competition officials to investigate the truth.

Pei Xi waved to his companions. "You guys go rest first. I still need to submit the records to the committee."

He looked down at his collar. Pinned there was a small badge. Even after intense fighting, it remained securely attached—a mandatory item for every team captain. It recorded everything in the aberrant realm for official scoring.

"Pei Xi, I might need to leave for a bit tonight."

Pei Xi looked at the somewhat pale boy, his tone concerned. "Are you too exhausted from today? It's fine, Zhao Mei. Rest more if you're unwell. You've already done us a huge favor by helping."

Hearing the captain's considerate words, gentle laughter rippled in the boy's green eyes. "How could that be? Being with you all is my greatest gain."

Several teammates gathered around too. The atmosphere turned warm and lively for a moment. Amid everyone's caring gazes, the boy smiled and waved goodbye, soon vanishing even from sight.

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『The 200 action points from 20,000 popularity are all spent again... You're not even a moonlighter , you're straight-up a daylighter.』

[T/N- Moonlighter (月光族): Someone who spends their entire monthly salary by the end of the month, leaving nothing for savings. ("Moonlight" because their wallet is empty/"illuminated by moonlight" before the next paycheck.)

Daylighter (日光族): An exaggerated, humorous escalation — someone who spends all their money on the same day they receive it. Even worse than a moonlighter; they can't even last a full month.]

"Hm? You're okay?"

Ye Zheng nimbly and lightly shuttled through the alleys, twisting and turning like a traceless black cat.

『Why does it sound like you're hoping something happened to me?』

"I was even prepared for your absence. Welcome back, system."

At first, the system thought Ye Zheng's words were touching, but on second thought, that "prepared for your absence" probably meant purely ready to lose its golden finger, right?

Soon, Ye Zheng stopped in front of an unremarkable house, took out a key to open the door and enter, then collapsed onto the sofa as if suddenly drained of strength, her posture completely devoid of etiquette.

Seeing Ye Zheng like this, the system knew she was truly exhausted. This girl usually kept up appearances even when alone—sleeping with hands crossed over her abdomen.

『So what plot did you change with those 200 action points? You burned through them all at once.』

"Ah, just wiped out all the black shadows. Didn't leave a single one for the others."

Ye Zheng's tone grew drowsy as she murmured with eyes closed. The system raised its voice in disbelief.

『Sis, you're way too OP! In the original plot, it took three teams in a group battle to finish those shadows!』

『No wonder you spent all the action points—you erased highlight scenes for several important characters! 』

"Mm, I didn't expect that either. With the dragon bone's boost, I could go that far."

Ye Zheng slowly rolled over on the sofa, shifting from side-lying to supine, opening her eyes to stare at the ceiling.

"The legends never mentioned that besides deterrence, dragon bone had this kind of effect."

At the time, she discovered the overflowing power from the dragon bone seemed absorbable. For research purposes, she tried absorbing it, then accidentally... killed all the black shadows she had marked with water streams.

Recalling the sensation, overwhelming power had rapidly filled her body. She felt she might burst the next second, yet the unprecedented strength brought a floating euphoria. The arrogance from power even made her feel at that moment that killing Sykes would be no issue.

Even now, she hadn't fully recovered from that dangerous yet addictively fascinating feeling.

She lay on the sofa, holding the black bone up with both hands, examining it closely again under the light.

Such a small piece of bone—even just an incomplete-power replica—held such strength.

The royal family and Church were lying. They had woven deceiving legends around the dragon bone, but the truth and purpose behind the lies remained shrouded in fog.

But Ye Zheng was certain: those people absolutely hadn't merely buried the dragon bone underground to protect the masses, as the legend claimed. With power like this, she refused to believe those high-and-mighty elites weren't tempted.

"Looks like I need to pay a visit to Sykes's team."

Ye Zheng sighed softly. She placed the dragon bone beside her, then crossed her hands over her abdomen and slowly drifted to sleep on the sofa.

The system had wanted to remind her that the manga updated and the forum was buzzing about her again, but seeing her quiet like this, it stayed silent.

It glanced at the popularity value—Ye Zheng's spent action points had been replenished by the rapidly rising popularity—and felt reassured letting her rest.

Strange. It seemed to have lost any impulse to question Ye Zheng, as if it could forever trust that everything was under this girl's control.

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Authors Note

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Having a host like this, count your blessings!