"What's wrong with this girl?"
In the dream, Silver Wolf's projection narrowed her eyes.
A huge virtual screen floated in midair before her. The scene playing on it was from inside Clock Studios Theme Park, with a huge close-up of Stelle's face, full of smiles, surprise, and pride, right in the center of the screen.
Clearly, this genius hacker from Punklorde had already hacked into Penacony's system without anyone noticing. She was now using her own skills to conduct some sort of "live broadcast."
However, in this live broadcast, the performance of one of the main characters was rather... surprising.
As a hypermodern planet that was more advanced in certain areas, Penacony and Punklorde clearly had some similarities. Silver Wolf was quite happy to experience a game from the dreamscape.
Although she was together with Firefly on this operation, there actually wasn't much for her to do. She only needed to keep an eye on the other party's condition.
In Silver Wolf's eyes, this operation couldn't exactly be called unserious, but in a certain sense, it was indeed quite different from their past operations.
She had obtained much more information than the mecha girl beside her. From her personal perspective, this operation was more like preparing a surprise for Firefly. For this, they had even hired a Fool from the Tavern.
Of course, Miss Sam deserved such a surprise. At least it was better than falling into depression. Watching Blade fall into some kind of extreme tendency was also giving her a headache.
Moreover, Nero had appeared during this operation. This meant that Elio's carefully written script could already be used as toilet paper, just like those prompts in games that separately tell you that you can increase your level or that a collectible is available to read.
Thinking of this, Silver Wolf suddenly really did get a headache.
Blade seemed to have gotten a little extreme, with severe self-destructive tendencies and not much love for talking. Kafka was fine, but she was rather carefree when doing things, and a bit of a riddle-teller.
Miss Sam was certainly strong, but she was troubled by genetic problems, and then there was Elio... Ever since he encountered Nero, Elio's mental state had gradually begun to approach Blade's.
'Oh God, was there really not a single normal person among the Stellaron Hunters?'
Although Silver Wolf herself wasn't excluded from this group either, what could you say about the mental state of someone whose attitude toward life was to treat the universe as a game?
Speaking of Firefly's "genetic defect," namely Entropy Loss Syndrome, although that amazing gaming buddy had given her some kind of treatment, there was currently no sign that it had any effect. Perhaps they should wait until Miss Sam left the dreamscape before observing further.
On the other hand, her gaming buddy seemed to have disappeared...
Silver Wolf had used her own methods to investigate the inside of the dreamscape as much as possible, but unfortunately, she couldn't find Nero.
With the idea of working while playing, this genius hacker still really wanted to experience some of Dr. Edward's strange dreams with her rare gaming buddy.
After all, when playing games, they either had to be fun enough or interesting enough. For example, that something-or-other dream at Dr. Edward's... Tatalov's dream. Although the plot was clichéd, at least it was strange enough.
And Nero looked like the kind of kid who would enjoy this sort of thing. After all, judging from their interactions and her observations, he was usually pretty eccentric too.
The reason Nero and Silver Wolf became gaming buddies originated at the Interastral Peace Tournament Celebration in Belobog, when Silver Wolf looked at Nero's game account.
After confirming each other's commonly used accounts, the two of them discovered one thing: they had competed against each other in various games before.
Silver Wolf was an undisputed gaming expert, while Nero could go head-to-head with her. Aside from that inexplicable talent, he also had plenty to do with his good luck.
Unlike Aventurine's seemingly faint but ever-present overwhelming luck, compared to ordinary good fortune, Nero's luck was practically like some kind of rule.
Just like what Mr. Tail had once seen, other people picking up some money while walking down the street would already count as good luck, while Nero could pick up several wanted criminals who were completely unable to resist.
Things would inexplicably develop in a direction favorable to Nero, then collapse into reality. This caused all sorts of inexplicable incidents to frequently occur around him.
Using the situation Silver Wolf was most familiar with as an example, this genius girl had repeatedly been on the verge of defeating Nero, only for the device in her hands to somehow malfunction one second before she was about to win.
Then, after using her powerful technical skills to repair the device, even though the process took an extremely short amount of time, once the game restarted, she would discover that she had already lost.
Because of this, Silver Wolf had gotten into a rivalry with Nero.
After all, losing normally was no big deal, but losing in such a baffling way really would make her furious.
However, what Silver Wolf was paying attention to now was still the major battle taking place inside Clock Studios.
"She really has way too little sense of tension. What do you think?"
Silver Wolf's projection turned her head toward Firefly beside her.
Miss Hunter, who had been kept in the dark, had been doing her best to improvise according to the script. After all, there were barely any lines on her script, and Nero had appeared as well.
However, after leaving the Dream Hotel, she had still tried calling Something Unto Death out to confirm her guess.
Although she had succeeded without Nero interfering, that Memory Zone Meme seemed a little... unwilling, as if it might have been beaten into submission.
After confirming her guess, Firefly prepared to return and tell the Astral Express crew everything. To her, directly dragging the truth out and making the Nameless interested in it was the most direct and simplest method.
However, something went wrong. The Memory Zone Meme responsible for picking her up refused to work, and she had no idea whether it had been beaten again or frightened by something.
Maybe some kind of terrifying legend had appeared among the Memes?
This caused Firefly's operation to take quite a bit more time, so she contacted Silver Wolf.
The genius hacker's Aether Editing could not only throw a target into random coordinates to become space junk, but could also function as a portal.
However, as soon as she returned, she saw such a scene. While Silver Wolf was in the mood to watch a movie, she also saw Stelle on the screen say those words, "Mom, I'm on TV!"
"This is obviously the scene where you're about to fight a boss in a game. She really has zero sense of tension."
The genius hacker girl's complaint rang in her ears, but Firefly didn't seem to think there was anything wrong with it. Instead, she smiled and said, "She has so much energy."
Silver Wolf, who had been preparing to hear her companion's complaint as well, "?"
'Is there something wrong with you?'
"Forget it. I'll send this video to Kafka and see what she says."
Silver Wolf stared at Firefly for two seconds, then sighed and packaged the information before sending it out.
She soon received Kafka's reply, "She has so much energy."
Silver Wolf: "..."
The genius hacker girl looked at Kafka's reply, then raised her head and glanced at Firefly.
"?"
'Is there something wrong with you two?'
'Are there really no normal people among the Stellaron Hunters?'
'When did we start sitting at the same table with the Knights of Beauty?'
———
[Clock Studios Theme Park]
March narrowed her eyes and looked at Stelle with a rather speechless expression.
Even she seemed to find Stelle's escape act rather exasperating.
"Allow me to remind you. This stage and her identity should have nothing to do with apprehending the real culprit."
Mr. Yang took over the conversation, glossing over Stelle's ridiculous behavior.
"No, they are related. Of course they are related. Otherwise, why would I work so hard to earn your trust and then invite all of you here?"
Aventurine said, "She will be the only person who has witnessed the scenes of both murder cases. She is the best candidate to prove that saying there are no casualties in the dream is nothing but empty talk!"
"Two murder cases?" Himeko frowned.
"That's right, miss. The second murder case is about to happen. Right here, in Clock Studios Theme Park... a truly grand death.
"You, you, you, and you... everyone will die, and all of this will be because of you, Miss Stellaron... You will personally become death here."
Stelle blinked and asked innocently, "What exactly are you talking about?"
"I thought my intentions were already clear enough..." Aventurine's voice continued,
"Let me put it more clearly, I will detonate the Stellaron inside your body and create a little accident in Penacony... Bang! The entire theme park will turn into a shattered dream. Then, before the Family can react, I will become the leader of the company's fleet."
As Aventurine began to "make his intentions clear," Noe in the back wore a panicked expression.
"Wh-Wh-Wh... What's going on? Why does it suddenly seem like we're about to fight? Weren't we here to exchange information about the cases? Huh???"
As it turned out, the most off-the-wall person in this group was neither Stelle nor March, but this knight lady.
Acheron took a deep breath. Her expression remained unchanged, and her tone was calm.
"Bluffing won't work on us. If you really could do it, you had plenty of opportunities earlier."
Hearing Acheron say this, Noe seemed to calm down again all at once.
"O-Oh... So it was a joke. You scared me. I thought we were suddenly going to start fighting."
The knight lady seemed to have misunderstood what was being said. She clearly looked like a smart person, but her brain seemed unable to keep up with the current train of thought.
This left everyone else present, including Stelle and March, who had gradually realized something, somewhat speechless.
But that wasn't the end of it.
After taking a long breath of relief, the knight lady asked again, "By the way, does detonating a Stellaron really have that much power? The ones I've seen before didn't seem that impressive... Could it be that these things come in different varieties, with some varieties having weaker explosions and others having stronger explosions..."
Faced with the knight lady's confusion, the tense atmosphere suddenly became awkward, and the scene fell into a long silence.
The knight lady's words made everyone curious about what she had experienced in the past, while at the same time, they had no idea how to comment on the rather realistic analysis contained in her words.
At the same time, Aventurine felt that things were a little troublesome. This knight lady seemed to be a little too formidable.
But it wasn't a problem. Knight or "Galaxy Ranger," it made no difference who took action. As long as it was eye-catching enough, that was fine. Such a straightforward crisis would definitely draw away all the attention that had been focused on the Nero.
Considering his objective, Aventurine wisely and decisively decided not to respond to the knight lady. Instead, he replied to Acheron, "You're betting with me again? Fine. I'll bet with you too. I bet I can win a complete victory and prove with an unprecedented explosion that the Harmony's oath is nothing but a complete joke."
Although this "Galaxy Ranger" lady was strange too, at least she was much more normal than Noe.
"...You can't do it," Acheron said.
"Of course I can. It's just another gamble."
But Aventurine was very confident.
"I came from the deserts of Sigonia. For sixty red copper coins, people branded me, put shackles on me, sent me to the gallows, buried me in the yellow sand... But the sun could not kill me."
"Instead, the quicksand sent me into the arms of the Society and the company. Remember, I didn't just win once by chance. I have never lost.
"Let me share a proverb with everyone: sleep is a rehearsal for death. Why does life slumber? Because we are not yet prepared to welcome death."
"Every night, entering a dream is no different from going to our deaths, just like you and me at this moment, carrying the will to die and hiding in dreamland. And death... will also come in response to our dream murmurs."
"Friends, the game has already begun. You cannot refuse, with no reason and no room to do so."
As Aventurine's voice fell, the entire lighting of the film city suddenly darkened.
Almost in an instant, everyone prepared for battle. The three adults stood calmly, their gazes serious and focused, their hands resting relatively casually on their weapons, while the two younger ones, Stelle and March, summoned the lance and bow, taking up a battle-ready stance.
Only Noe was still standing foolishly in the back, her eyes filled with wisdom as she exclaimed, "Wow, did the power go out!?"
It was difficult to make any comment about Noe, because everyone was already somewhat speechless over her, including the Hidden Nightthrush that had somehow infiltrated the film city. The bird watched every movement below from a high place, and even its feathers had stiffened because of Noe.
Aventurine's voice slowly rang out, "The dice have been cast. Everyone, are you ready to reveal your cards?"
As Aventurine's voice sounded, in the dim illusion inside the film city, the enormous screen in front of everyone suddenly lit up, and Aventurine's figure appeared there.
In the image, Aventurine saw everyone already prepared to draw their weapons, and his gaze briefly lingered on the lance.
"The Architects' inferior stone... Hehehe, worthless."
Aventurine casually threw down three dice. They rolled toward the group and slowly came to a stop.
Spade!
Spade!
Spade again!
"I place my bet, I gamble, I win."
A beam of light slowly descended. At some point, Aventurine had changed his outfit, or perhaps his body had undergone some kind of change after he activated his power.
"I let fate turn the wheel, stake everything on one throw, traverse the land of death and return to life."
The Aventurine Stones that Aventurine had personally smashed apart and then reassembled were held in Aventurine's hand.
They had once been stored in that bag of gift money, and now, the power within them belonging to the Emanator of Preservation was surging!
"Everything for the Amber Lord!"
With the transformed, crafty Aventurine making his entrance, a battle seemed unavoidable.