Bai Youyou snapped back from her daze. She blinked, and the line of text on the letter vanished, leaving only the man’s final farewell.
The contents of the letter hit her too hard. She was very sure that everything she had just seen was real—the truth about Oasis.
The place where she had grown up since childhood was not a virtual world, but a real space, parallel to another dinsion.
Bai Youyou suddenly felt a chill; everything around her turned unfamiliar in that mont.
"So, how is it, my child?"
Bai Wei’an stepped forward with a smile, took the letter from Bai Youyou’s hand, glanced at its contents, and set it on the table to the side.
"Do you need more ti to think? I’ll be here waiting for you."
"No need." Bai Youyou said, lowering her eyes.
A mont later, she raised her head, her gaze becoming resolute.
"I will take responsibility."
...
The familiar street, the familiar tavern. Night hung low, lights glimred faintly. Under the silver moonlight, the blue-haired girl stood still.
Tang Xin wore a silver-blue evening dress, a butterfly resting on her naturally cascading long hair. The side of her skirt was slit high, patterned satin ribbons crisscrossed, and the fingertips of her white silk gloves rested on an exquisite Conductor’s Sword.
"You’re here."
Seeing Xu Xiaoyou walk over, she nodded as she spoke.
Xu Xiaoyou, as usual, wore a black-and-white formal outfit with a cape. The flowered bow tie at her collar held a heart-shaped Ruby that burned with dazzling color. Her sleeves were bound tight with black leather straps, and she was slowly tugging down the edge of her black leather gloves.
"Ready?"
"Mm."
"Chairman, are we really going to do this?"
The voices of the Light Chasing Garden mbers ca over the comms channel, steady yet barely suppressing a hint of excitent.
"You scared?" Xu Xiaoyou chuckled softly.
"Scared?"
"Don’t joke, Chairman. We’ve been itching for this day for ages. Just thinking about it already gets us so hyped we can’t sit still."
"Exactly. All the Keys in Oasis are in your hands, Chairman. After tonight, the sky over Oasis ought to change, right?"
"Charging the main base of the Order Court—back then it was sothing we didn’t even dare imagine. We’ve been sick of those guys for a long ti. A bunch of permission junkies waving their access around and never doing human things. Tonight we settle old and new scores all at once!"
"Chairman." A bespectacled female analyst pushed her glasses up. "Three hundred and twenty-seven Guilds within Oasis City have already responded to us. Once we enter the city, they’ll throw themselves into the fight at the first mont."
"Fifty Saint Radiance-class Titans outside the city are already on standby. The Keys are mass-producing troops nonstop. Once the battle starts, our army will rapidly follow up and push into the garrisoned Oasis City."
"What’s tonight’s strategic objective?"
"To kick those old geezers of the Elders Council out!" soone echoed excitedly. "The farther they roll the better. Ideally, they crawl back into their turtle shells and stay there!"
"From now on, Oasis only needs one voice!"
"Everyone, listen to ."
Xu Xiaoyou spoke calmly.
Hearing her voice, everyone forced down their fervor.
"This will be Light Chasing Garden’s last battle."
Xu Xiaoyou took a deep breath. She didn’t deliver a stirring speech like she usually did, only cast her gaze toward the resplendent city in the distance.
"All of you, stay sharp."
"Tonight’s target is the Key."
On the comms channel, everyone responded in unison.
They understood that after tonight’s madness, the old order of Oasis would be completely shattered and reassembled. The future Oasis would no longer be what they had once hoped for. All accounts and ga data would be wiped. All instances and Guilds would cease to exist. Oasis would beco a machine existing purely to simulate crises.
The four great virtual warzones would be constructed on this land. Everyone in Oasis would be thrown into the battle against the Eight-legged Spider Race, until EVA collected enough data to deduce the one correct path.
So of them would go on fighting alongside the girl; so would bid farewell to this virtual world and return to real life.
They only wanted to be willful one last ti—together with these familiar strangers from the old days—cast off all concerns, and end this era with passion, engraving it as a milestone in their lives.
"Chairman Xu, I hope I’m not late."
Lu Shuhang’s steady voice sounded.
"If Assassin’s Creed missed this ride, that would be a real sha." Four-leaf Phoenix Tree added.
"Save a seat in the Elders Council later." Zhou Zhao hadn’t finished speaking when a hand pushed his face away.
"Don’t shove , don’t shove —Yu Lan, what are you doing!"
"Chairman Xu, don’t forget, Assassin’s Creed never lost!" Yu Lan shouted into the comms channel.
Laughter erupted in the channel. Yu Lan’s face flushed red; she had finally managed to work up the courage, because the other side’s brilliance was just too dazzling.
"Never thought there’d be a day when the Pilot Army would turn into a regular army." Nan Jiamu sighed.
He looked at the distant Gold rain, recalling that journey during the Golden Era season.
"Hang, I’m actually a little reluctant to see you go. Can’t you stay?"
"Stay for what? To be soone’s little fanboy like you?" Lu Shuhang chuckled.
Nan Jiamu imdiately broke down:
"Screw you, Hang, can you even talk like a normal person!"
"Killing bugs is fun, and it counts as contributing to humanity’s future."
"Before you say that, could a certain soone please adjust his pain index from 10% to 100% first?" Lu Shuhang drawled.
"Holy crap, Hang, you even know that!" Nan Jiamu was stunned.
The laughter in the comms channel grew louder.
"Getting to see this little couple bicker before we part." Klosolan, Guild leader of Heterogeneous Front, sighed. "We’re all back, all of us."
"Who’s a couple with him!" Nan Jiamu cursed.
"You people are really sothing!"
"They say Chairman Nan Jiamu’s room is filled with Dark Gold Rose figurines. Is that true?" Li Liujin asked, her small face scrunched in serious thought.
"It’s true, the cats have all seen it!" Yan An raised his hand.
"The cats’ intel is solid."
Fuming, Nan Jiamu tossed out a "Pilot Army will be waiting for you at the front" and then cut the connection.
"Haven’t had it this lively in a long ti." Soone sighed. "So warm and fuzzy. I still miss the league days when everyone was scheming, sinister, and two-faced."
"Who was it stabbing people in the back every day?"
The Guild leaders on the comms channel all fell silent.
They’d all done it.
Watching this scene, the expression on Tang Xin’s face softened a little, but she soon lowered her eyes again.
"Everything good on your side?" Xu Xiaoyou asked.
Tang Xin shook her head.
"People from the White Night Family are still looking for . What did Perseus say?"
"He’s just an executor. Lindong’s voice within Cosmos is stronger than before. The Patriarch’s faction wants Cosmic Heavy Industries to give them an explanation, while the older ones don’t want to hand decision-making power over to the company."
"If they want to kill , what will you do?" Tang Xin asked.
Xu Xiaoyou looked at Tang Xin. Those stunning eyes, calm yet carrying a hint of unquestionable resolve, reflected the girl’s figure.
"I will not allow that to happen."
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