i Gui and I found ourselves on the fifth floor.
She moved to pull the door back open so we could et back up with the girls, but I stopped her.
"Didn't you want to know about...?" I didn't finish the sentence, purposely leaving what I ant out. i Gui, however, understood , possibly thanks to our telepathic connection.
"Master...you don't have to tell if you don't want to. Whatever you do, I will follow."
I sighed. "I was planning on telling you and the other girls anyway. It's only a matter of ti before you all find out anyway."
"In that case...we shouldn't talk here, Master," she eyed our surroundings. There were people at tables, reading. They would occasionally spare us a glance, wondering what we were doing, just standing there.
I followed her gaze. "I'll speak to all of you later, at the hotel."
i Gui nodded in return. "Understood, Master."
The two of us returned to the girls after that, pulling open the door and walking through.
"Woah, you're back...from the other side, no less," Feng Mian mused. "I take it you two beat the Gatekeeper?"
i Gui and I exchanged glances, and we shrugged. "It was harder than expected, but yeah."
"Well? What does the Gatekeeper look like? What are its attack patterns?" Xiang Peng asked.
I pretended to think for a mont, then smirked. "You'll have to find that out for yourself."
"W-Wha...but you two already beat it, so why can't you tell us to make things easier?" Yu An Yan asked, genuinely confused with .
I shrugged. "This is a good training opportunity, trust . If four of you go as a team, you can take the Gatekeeper down, no problem. That I guarantee...unless, of course, you do sothing stupid."
Of course, this was all just an act. The truth was, I had no idea what the Gatekeeper looked like, since I didn't have to fight it at all. But if I said that, it would lead to suspicion, and I didn't want that. I rember making an agreent with the girls not to hide anything from them, but...the Founders had asked not to share their existence with anyone else. i Gui, having t Sigil, was an exception. The Founders' power was practically limitless, and I wanted to avoid rousing their anger, if possible.
"...Nya...bwut, I always end up doing soting stupid..." Amane complained, looking down at the floor.
Patting her head, I chuckled. "Relax, Amane. You'll be fine. That's why there are three other people going in with you."
She seed to feel a little better after that, and wiggled her tail happily.
"Now then...the first group, Feng Mian, Qing Yue, An Yan, and An Xue," I said, turning to them. "You four have fought together before, back at the Advancent Exams in Shenzhen, so you have good synergy."
The four of them nodded, and swiped their library cards on the devices one by one. The door swung open, and they entered into the portal.
*****
Around 15 minutes later, they ca back, exhausted.
"Whew...we managed to beat it, sohow..." Feng Mian let out a deep breath, wiping sweat from her forehead.
"Yeah...hah...that really was difficult," Yu An Yan agreed, panting.
"Nicely done," I remarked. "So? Did the Gatekeeper co as a surprise for you?"
"Surprise? That's an understatent, Big Brother Xuan Kai!" Qing Yue complained, running over and hugging tightly. "You know I'm scared of spiders...and you still didn't tell what the Gatekeeper was?!"
She seed to be on the verge of tears, so I quickly hugged her back and rubbed her head gently. "Look...if I told you, wouldn't you just have been more scared? Besides, you managed to beat it. So everything's fine, right? All fears are ant to be conquered - you just conquered your own."
"..." she didn't respond, and instead just embraced even tighter. It seed that the boss was so kind of spider.
"I...I'm afraid of spiders...too..." Yu An Xue murmured quietly, blushing and looking away. I realized what she wanted, and patted her head gently too. She smiled happily as I did that, as the other girls looked on in jealousy.
I sighed. "Right...now then, the next group - there's only four of you left, anyway. Obsidia, Xiao Su, Amane, and Xiang Peng. It's up to you."
The four of them nodded determinedly, and headed inside after scanning their own cards.
*****
In the end, all of the girls managed to beat the Gatekeeper successfully, in teams of 4. We entered the fifth floor without bothering to let Four-Eyes and the others know. We browsed through the shelves, hoping to find sothing useful.
But alas, all we could find were books on various parts of Xenith, including non-Human territory. This was useful information to have, but not exactly what we were looking for.
As we read, we lost track of ti, and before we knew it, it was around ti we would have to retrieve the antidote from lvia.
We exited the Library, and when we passed by the fourth floor, we saw Four-Eyes and his group, still engrossed in reading. I had wanted to avoid confronting them since we were in a hurry, but-
"Oh, you're back!" Ling Ling jumped up and ran over to us.
"Ling Ling...we're in a library..." Cherry reprimanded.
"Ah, right, sorry..." Ling Ling giggled in embarrassnt.
"So? Did you guys manage to beat the Gatekeeper we couldn't?" Four-Eyes asked curiously, with a serious expression.
"Yeah, we did," I replied, as our representative. "It was pretty difficult, but we managed to do it."
"Hm...looks like you're stronger than we are then," Cherry said, sighing. "Well, it can't be helped."
"Hmph. Stronger?" Shi Yan scoffed, eyeing with disdain. "Nah. if we didn't have such a dimwit on our team, we would've already beaten it."
"Who's the dimwit you're talking about, I wonder?" Four-Eyes said, narrowing his eyes dangerously.
"Who do you think, dipshit?" Shi Yan stood up, and grabbed Four-Eyes' collar. But the glasses kid was not fazed in the least.
"Break it apart already, the two of you!" Cherry slamd the table and yelled in an unusually loud tone.
"Um...Cherry, we're in a library," Ling Ling added quietly from beside.
"H-Huh? Ah, right...sorry," she cleared her throat, and apologized to everyone around. "Anyway...we aren't going to get anywhere if you two keep fighting like this. And in front of our friends too. Shaful."
I waved her concerns off. "Don't worry about it. Now then, we're in kind of a hurry, so we'll be off."
Cherry nodded. "Got it. See you."
"Aw....I kind of wanted to ask for tips, but..." Ling Ling murmured, dejected.
"We'll be back here tomorrow, if you're willing to wait until then," Feng Mian spoke up.
"Oh, sure!" Ling Ling's eyes brightened up imdiately. "We're here everyday until the preliminaries!"
"Speaking of, when are the preliminaries?" Yu An Yan asked, frowning.
"Hm...today is the 2nd of February...so the preliminaries are in exactly 1 week," Four-Eyes analyzed calmly.
"I see..."
"Let's have a good fight at the prelims then," I said, concluding our conversation.
"Yeah. Looking forward to it."
*****
We headed for Old Man Leng's shop after that. lvia was already there, waiting for us.
"My, you made wait for a quite a while, little boy," she said upon spotting us.
"She's lyin'," Old Man Leng quickly interrupted ruthlessly. "She literally just got here."
lvia sent him a glare, but he just shrugged it off.
I cleared my throat. "In any case...do you have the antidote?"
"Oh yes, right here," she said, taking out a vial from sowhere inside her robe. Truly fascinating.
I reached out for it, but she then moved it away from . I narrowed my eyes.
"...What?"
"Before I give you this...how's getting that Starflower going?"
I sighed, and retracted my hand. "Look...first off, I have no way to verify that the antidote in your hands is really an antidote, and doesn't have so kind of poison attached to it. Second, I will get you what you want. I thought we already established that consensus yesterday. Why are you questioning my progress?"
"Mm...I suppose that's true. I shouldn't doubt in my cooperators' abilities," she said after so thought, then handed the flask containing the antidote to the 1 Year Curse over to .
I accepted it gratefully, and then passed it on to Lan Xiao Su.
"One more thing," I said.
"Hm?"
"Do you know of a way to send packages outside of The Fortress?"
"Huh...I see. So the antidote is for soone not inside here, is it?"
I nodded. lvia smiled, then looked to Old Man Leng mysteriously.
"What. Oh, no no no. Don't you even think about it, lvia. I quit doin' that kind of shit a long ti ago."
"Oh c'mon, Old Man Leng...these poor children need your help," lvia argued in an overly dramatic tone.
Old Man Leng glanced at us, back at lvia, then at us again. He sighed. "Alright...fine. But this will be the last ti I'll ever be doin' sothin' like this, ya hear ?"
"Of course. Your wife wouldn't be happy about this, though..."
"I'll...keep it a secret from her," Old Man Leng said after a short hesitation. "And you kids too. Don't go leaking the word if you want to get that antidote sent."
We all nodded imdiately in agreent, unable to argue.
"Alright. I'll...hit up so of my old buddies in the industry," he said, retreating to the backroom of the store.
lvia, with a playful grin on her lips, let out a breath of admiration. "Ah...how nice to see...the 'Silver Mailman' back in business."
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