“You two… Sure are reckless.”
Gazing at Mini Bubble Gum and Icy Snow, Rhode let out a helpless sigh and shook his head. He was in quite a shock because when Icy Snow reported to him the situation through the spiritual communication earlier, it got cut off all of a sudden. He thought of rushing back to the Void Territory to check on the situation, but was afraid of the emergence of the Chaos Eye on the other defensive line, which was why he had no choice but to hold back his deepest insecurities.
It was only after combing through all the fronts and making sure there were no problems and Chaos had retreated again that he eventually headed back. Fortunately, the loss in contact happened the same moment Icy Snow became unconscious. She immediately regained contact with him after she was rescued by Mini Bubble Gum, which put his mind at ease. Otherwise, he might not have been able to wait for Chaos to retreat before returning.
At that moment, Icy Snow and Bubble stood in front of Rhode with their heads lowered as if they were reflecting upon their mistakes. Rhode couldn’t help but feel like he was caught between laughter and tears. Honestly, he wasn’t particularly angry at them. After all, when he made this arrangement, he knew that accidents were bound to happen. It was normal for things to go wrong with Bubble’s temperament and the fact that Icy Snow wasn’t able to control her. Besides, everything turned out well in the end, so he didn’t reprimand them further. But still, he put up a face and lectured them. Bubble was already used to his lectures and naturally didn’t react. On the contrary, Icy Snow seemed really upset. She had always listened to his words obediently since she was a child and never did anything wrong. But this time, Bubble implicated her to be scolded by Rhode and that left her rather aggrieved. But she lowered her head in silence and didn’t push the responsibility to Bubble even when Rhode chided them.
“Well, this time you guys made up for your mistakes. It’s considered a great achievement to injure the Chaos Eye, so I won’t punish both of you.”
“Haha! I knew it!”
After hearing Rhode’s words, Bubble shed her ‘good-girl’ disguise instantly and jumped up with her hands held high in joy. And although Icy Snow wasn’t as exaggerated as her, she also stretched out her hands to hold her chest and let out a long breath. For Icy Snow, she was rarely scolded for such matters. She also wasn’t as cheeky as Bubble. Even though Rhode only said a few words, Icy Snow felt wronged and tears had already welled up in her eyes. Rhode looked at her aggrieved expression and let out an inward sigh, before extending his arm and patted her head gently.
“Alright, Little Icy, don’t be upset. You did well this time. But you must be more wary. I’ve told you earlier that your space and time abilities are really demanding. Before you master them, you’d be better off not doing anything risky like that again.”
Of course, Rhode knew how Icy Snow rescued Bubble. Ever since her first successful attempt in using the Arrow of Time and Space from the floating warship, Icy Snow had become more masterful in it. Therefore, she naturally began thinking about how to use the ‘time’ and ‘space’ ability. After listening to her ideas, Rhode had to admit that her concepts were indeed really clever and at the same time, threatening.
Icy Snow’s ‘time’ ability could make all affected objects appear, while her ‘space’ ability could send selected targets to another place at will. In other words, if it were theoretically possible, she could project herself from ‘0.1 second ago’, ‘0.1 second later’, ‘0.2 seconds ago’, and so on. If Icy Snow possessed sufficient powerful strength, she could rely upon her time and space attributes whenever she launched her attack and the enemies could possibly face up to tens of thousands of Icy Snow at the same time.
Besides, unlike Rhode’s shadow clones, all the other Icy Snows on the same time line were real. In that case, her power wouldn’t scatter, but would be superimposed on one another instead. If Icy Snow mastered this ability, her strength would surely go up another level. As the time and space attributes were rather rare, once she mastered it, perhaps no one would be able to defeat her except for the seven deity wardens, Rhode, and his younger sister.
But it was a pity that it wasn’t easy for Icy Snow to master this move. It wasn’t just a matter of how much power it required, but a matter of many profound disciplines involved multi-dimensional space, for instance, which Icy Snow wasn’t familiar with. No matter how smart she was, she was just the best student in her age group and it wasn’t like she was a genius who skipped grades to go to college straight away.
Meanwhile, even though Rhode and Canary were university students, they were humanities students and didn’t have much understanding in that field. Although Rhode had become the Void Dragon, his ‘space’ ability was different from his younger sister’s. That was why regarding Icy Snow’s ‘time’ and ‘space’ abilities, he couldn’t come up with too many suggestions and could only let Icy Snow figure things out herself.
Of course, Rhode watched a lot of sci-fi movies and knew that this field was rather dangerous. That was why after a discussion with his younger sister, he advised Icy Snow to be more cautious, lest ending up like the tragic heroes in those sci-fi movies. On the other hand, Icy Snow was really obedient too. If it were Mini Bubble Gum, she wouldn’t hold back before crashing into a brick wall. Of course, with Mini Bubble Gum’s personality, she had a higher chance of smashing through the brick wall.
Previously, Icy Snow was the one who saw the urgency of the situation, which was why she used her unpracticed time and space skill in a hurry to project herself from a few minutes ago to travel through space and save Mini Bubble Gum. A few minutes later, she aimed and attacked the Chaos Eye. As she used her abilities three times in a row and overloaded herself, she eventually passed out. It was also fortunate that the effect of Bubble’s spiritual spell was impressive and if she weren’t around, there would have been no way for Icy Snow to run and jump around like she was now.
These two little rascals…
Gazing at Bubble, who had already taken off and escaped, and then at Icy Snow in front of him, Rhode shook his head with a bitter smile. Of course, he knew why Bubble left. If Icy Snow weren’t present back then, Bubble would definitely be dead. But if Bubble also weren’t there, Icy Snow wouldn’t have recovered so quickly. Moreover, they were unpleasant in each other’s eyes and now that they had this whole thing going on, it wasn’t surprising they didn’t want to meet each other.
“Alright, Little Icy, don’t blame yourself. It’s not your fault either. You just lack the experience.”
Looking at Icy Snow, who was still lowering her head in silence before him, Rhode offered some advice. Of course, he knew what the real problem was. The disagreement between Icy Snow and Bubble was only one of the reasons and not the most important one. The reason they had gotten into such a situation this time was precisely because neither of them had any experience in commanding battles.
Bubble was Rhode’s dedicated cleric, so she had little to no experience in large group battles other than following him around. Furthermore, she preferred to fight solo, or at most join smaller parties, which was why it was still too hard for her to command an army.
Meanwhile, Icy Snow was also in a similar situation. She was an archer who was proficient in long-range attacks like a sniper. If the mission involved getting a special force to carry out an assassination of some sort, she would naturally be a very good choice.
But if the two armies were engaged in a head-on battle, her abilities wouldn’t be of much use, unless it required a shot to assassinate the opposing commander. Even so, what honorable commanders did the Chaos creatures even have? Although the shot could take out Chaos Lords, the Chaos creatures were unconcerned in the slightest and would simply treat it as if nothing happened. Moreover, Icy Snow was young, after all. And it was only natural for her to be overwhelmed by such situations.
Looks like we’ll have to find someone to sit in…
Rhode shook his head at that thought. Players were mostly brave, but they were rarely capable of being commanders. That was why Starlight was able to fight invincibly under the command of Orchid Heart. It was that most players were ordinary people, where not many of them had the talent to command. And even Rhode wasn’t good at leading an army in battle either. In this world, he left the affairs of the army to experienced generals and commanders, while he stuck to leading elites to infiltrate, destroy, and flank. In fact, in the past, he used to be curious as to why Orchid Heart was so talented in this field. In the end, after transmigrating back to Earth, he found out that she was precisely in this line of work and commanded real armies in battles. The commanding standard of players in the game as if ‘playing house’ was naturally unworthy of a mention to her.
But it was a pity that there were too few talents like Orchid Heart. Although Rhode was also interested in promoting a few generals from the natives to lead his army, he was worried that the players wouldn’t obey orders. The cohesion of the Starlight was strong, but the stronger it got, the more troublesome it became.
Most of the elites who followed Rhode in Starlight had a sense of pride. Moreover, Starlight was famous for hacking NPCs under his leadership, and the natives’ orders were almost useless to them. That was why Rhode matched each front with a few of his own henchmen, just in case those players got arrogant and wouldn’t listen to commands. On the other hand, the players more or less listened to the orders of people like Erin and Lydia, who had a high reputation among them. However, they didn’t care about the other commanders in the slightest.
It was easy raising an army of 1000 men, but tough to find a good general. This saying had been passed down since ancient times, so naturally there was a reason for it.
At this thought, Rhode shook his head and stopped thinking about the matter. He didn’t have a good solution right now. At the very most, he could transfer Lesa over for the time being. Although she was just a psychic and never experienced war, with her presence, Icy Snow and Bubble wouldn’t quarrel. In that case, things should be fine once they worked with the natives and his player army.
But what concerned Rhode was what the sudden appearance of the Chaos Eye meant. Could that be a prelude to the final battle? If that were the case, things would be bad. According to Bubble and Icy Snow, the Chaos Eye weakened their men and increased the power of the Chaos creatures at the same time, which made the battle simply impossible.
After all, not everyone had the ability to cast a single buff on their entire army like Bubble. Although Icy Snow managed to batter the Chaos Eye, Rhode couldn’t be sure of how many Chaos Eyes there were in total and to what extent that particular Chaos Eye was wounded. What if it were just a test and soon, it would cooperate with the Chaos creatures and skeletal dragons to launch a full-scale attack on them?
Even though Rhode successfully grasped the battle style of the three attributes of the Holy Sword Barrier, it would be too demanding for him to fuse all the 10 holy swords together. After all, his strength was weakened now and most of his power was spent on the player projections, which would inevitably be more or less problematic in terms of controlling the holy sword cards.
Rhode couldn’t help but knit his brows, look at Icy Snow, and ask.
“Little Icy, is that Chaos Eye strong?”
“It’s very strong. Bubble can’t handle it either… Back then, she used up a lot of her power and couldn’t evade its attack in the end. If it weren’t for that personality of hers…”
Icy Snow said and curled her lips, apparently dissatisfied with Bubble’s reckless battle style. But now, Rhode wasn’t concerned with these trivial matters, but more important issues instead.
“Did you injure the Chaos Eye… badly?”
“I’m… not too sure either.”
Upon hearing Rhode’s question, Icy Snow puckered her brows and pondered for a few moments, before shaking her head helplessly.
“Big Brother, that Chaos Eye is really hard to deal with. I only managed to hit it with my arrow while it was fighting Bubble. If it weren’t for Bubble who attracted its attention, perhaps I wouldn’t even have had the chance to attack.”
“I see. Okay then, I understand now.”
Upon hearing Icy Snow’s reply, Rhode nodded again. It seemed like it was purely coincidental that Icy Snow managed to injure the Chaos Eye and it couldn’t be replicated. After all, her arrow crossed over space and time to attack the Chaos Eye. Meanwhile, the rest didn’t have the ability to strike over such long distances.
Seems like we need to think of another way to do it.
At this thought, Rhode smiled at Icy Snow, reached out his hand, and gently stroked her hair.
“Alright, Little Icy, you must be tired; go and have a good rest. I don’t think Chaos will return anytime soon. By the way, I’ll send Lesa over during this period. With her providing support, your defensive line shouldn’t face much of a problem.”
“Lesa is coming? Great. It’s too much of a headache for me to deal with Bubble by myself!”
When Icy Snow heard the news, she displayed an excited smile. She got along well with Lesa. Perhaps due to the fact that Lesa also seemed like a good girl, Icy Snow was closer to her than she was to Bubble. She was also glad to hear that Lesa was coming. Unlike Icy Snow, who would still be fooled by Bubble, Lesa was as steady as a rock and wouldn’t react to Bubble’s teasing. From that perspective, she was considered Bubble’s natural enemy.
Just as Icy Snow fantasized about how Bubble would make a big fuss over Lesa, she suddenly recalled something, lifted her head, and looked at Rhode curiously.
“By the way, Big Brother, I have something to ask you.”
“Hmm, what is it about?”
As a matter of fact, Rhode spoiled Icy Snow a lot. After all, she grew up with him and his younger sister and was considered a childhood friend. That was why he had always been good to her. The moment he heard that she had a question for him, he was prepared to tell her everything he knew. Upon hearing his response, Icy Snow stared at him with wide, curious eyes.
“Bubble asked me to call her a big-sister-in-law earlier. She also said that even though you and her aren’t husband and wife on paper, you two are husband and wife in reality. What does that mean, Big Brother?”
“Pfff——!”
Upon hearing Icy Snow’s innocent words, Rhode spat out a mouthful of tea before he had the chance to swallow. At a loss for words, he looked at the young lady who gazed at him curiously. He immediately realized that Bubble was definitely up to no good.
Unlike Icy Snow, Bubble learned many terms on the Internet. Rhode was certain that if Bubble were to tell Icy Snow the truth, she would surely describe the situation using words that Icy Snow was embarrassed to hear. And now, for Bubble to actually use such erudite words to tease Icy Snow, it was obvious that she deliberately set her up!
“Big Brother, what exactly does that mean!”
Staring at Rhode, Icy Snow revealed a curious and determined expression. Facing her innocent gaze, he felt a sense of guilt. He knew that he shouldn’t speak of something like this so indiscriminately, especially toward her.
Although it wasn’t that he hadn’t laid hands on young ladies with smaller stature, they had all given consent, after all. For Angelina, who lived for centuries, such happenings were common occurrences for her. Meanwhile, Lesa, as a psychic, was cultivated in this direction and naturally incredibly knowledgeable about it. However, Icy Snow was different from them. He was better off leaving the heavy responsibility of sex education to his younger sister.
“It’s… too hard for me to explain. You should ask Big Sister.”
In the end, Rhode decided to use another means to prevent his own loss and left the responsibility to his younger sister. Anyway, Icy Snow also had a close relationship with her. So if something happened, the younger sister could take care of it. Well, he couldn’t possibly take the blame for everything, right? But what he didn’t expect was that this time, Icy Snow didn’t nod her head like he thought she would, but continued to stare at him with wide eyes instead.
“Big Brother, why don’t you tell me? Bubble even said that it was a secret between you and her. What kind of secret is that exactly? Can’t you tell me what it is?”
If it were any other matter, Icy Snow might have listened to his words. However, she wasn’t willing to lose to Bubble just like that. Although she didn’t understand what Bubble meant, the thought of Bubble acting all superior earlier as though she scored full marks, looking down upon her who scored 99 marks, made her furious.
No matter what, I can’t let Bubble surpass me!
At this thought, a thought cropped up in Icy Snow’s head as she recalled another statement that Bubble said.
Could being husband and wife in reality mean sleeping together? Bubble and Big Brother slept together? Yeah. Mom and Dad sleep together too. Could it be that sleeping together makes us husband and wife?
At this thought, Icy Snow lifted her head, looked up at Rhode, and said.
“Big Brother, I want to sleep with you!”
