“Perhaps I have made a bad decision.”
Walking down the street and looking at the broken walls around him, Rhode sighed helplessly. He hadn’t noticed it before, but after arriving in the city, he found that this place was no different from a war zone; shattered, crumbled walls and ruins were everywhere. He initially thought the war hadn’t started but now, he realized that the war had already begun, where the lower buildings were destroyed.
Karin told him that the towers weren’t simply magical towers; instead, they were the pillars of her mental world. If all of them collapsed, her mental world would crumble entirely. These mental pillars were also considered the last insurance of her mental world, which troubled Rhode quite a lot. It seemed like this wasn’t only a PvP map, but also one with a time-limit, which was quite problematic. Also, he learned from Karin that the city was quite huge, where it would take a long time for him to walk through it. Thus, finding 12 people in such a vast city wasn’t an easy task at all.
Not only that, but what left him speechless was that after he stepped into the city, Karin left right away. At the end of the day, he wasn’t able to figure out which personality of Karin’s was the one who just spoke to him. But now, he didn’t care about that. The most important thing for him was to consider what Karin said.
According to that Karin, there were now 12 mental projections in the city, including those of Eleanor, Catherine, Dona, and Little Five. Like everyone else, each of them had three mental projections respectively. In other words, in this place, apart from the three Karins who were natives, Rhode had to face a total of 12 mental projections. Moreover, according to Karin, to avoid accidents, they were all separated upon arriving at this place. In other words, even Karin wasn’t aware of who they would encounter. As for Rhode, he had an even lesser intelligence advantage.
And that wasn’t the only trouble for him. Most importantly, he didn’t know much about the remaining four card spirits. Even toward Shira, he was able to easily recognize which of the mental personalities was more alike to the core personality. After all, he spent quite a lot of time with the core personalities, so he more or less had an understanding of the other personalities.
But it was totally different for the rest. Although Rhode received Little Five for a while, he barely used her. Meanwhile, the other three card spirits hadn’t even been with him for more than three days. Under these circumstances, it was hard for him to tell which one of them was the core or sub-personality. This situation would be equivalent to fighting in a completely unknown situation, and if he were to make a wrong decision, how things would turn out—only God would know.
But come to think of it…
Looking at the ruined streets, cars on fire, and wreckage of tanks, Rhode couldn’t help but twitch the corner of his eyes. Then, he once again recalled the things that Karin told him earlier.
“For them to get to know their master in the shortest time possible, we have, thus, added dreams belonging to you to the scene, Master. We believe that through this way, you will get to know one another better, Master.”
Know one another better, my *ss!
At this thought, Rhode felt his head throbbing. In other words, apart from this place being Karin’s mental world, his dreams were also mixed in as well. Although he didn’t know how Karin did it, he was aware of the fact that everything was possible in the mental world, which was why he didn’t dwell on it any longer. The most important thing for him now was to look for the mental projections and… Ugh… See what he could do.
The city before him was eerily silent. All he heard was his footsteps and the sound of the wind blowing through and nothing else. At the very least, large advertising screens and bustling music were playing on the streets of his dream world. In comparison, this city was truly dead and lifeless. The fierce battle earlier had completely died down; there was no more movement and no way to know precisely who had fought with whom and what had become of it.
At this thought, Rhode had no choice but to embrace himself and head over to where he saw the battle take place. After all, there was at least some activity just now, so he might be able to find some clues if he went over there. In any case, it was better than wandering around like a headless fly as he was now.
The area where the earlier battle took place was just ahead, so he only crossed a few streets and found the battlefield without much effort. Although he knew that the battle was intense, after witnessing it with his own eyes, he was still astonished. The entire ground was as if bombarded by artillery fire and filled with potholes everywhere. The towers collapsed onto the ground in a massive mess of debris scattering everywhere. Although the specifics of the battle were unknown, one could tell that this place had experienced a great battle. Both sides were also compelling and it could almost be said that they were fighting at full strength without mercy. Otherwise, they wouldn’t have let these towers with magical protection meet their end in such a tragic way.
“This is just…”
Looking at this scene, Rhode shook his head and began his investigation. Judging from the wreckage, it was apparent that there should be two people fighting here. However, their fight didn’t start here because according to the wreckage ahead, which seemed to be crushed by gigantic monsters, it could be deduced that the two people actually fought their way over here. Then, they used their ultimate moves and it seemed like one of them suffered defeat, while the other left after achieving victory. However, Rhode had no idea where the winner went.
“Sigh… What a bother…”
Rhode took another look at the ruins of the collapsed towers in the distance. It could be seen that the other party had definitely dealt a rather powerful blow, while the other person wasn’t able to block it, so she got blown right into the tower. And because the impact was so great, the tall and sturdy tower crumbled entirely. As for that unfortunate one, perhaps she was buried in the ruins now.
Come to think of it, can she even die just like that? If that’s the case, wouldn’t that make me fail the challenge already? Then again, I won’t be that unlucky, right?
Boom!
While Rhode pondered, a blue light beam erupted out from the ruins all of a sudden. Along with the sound of whistling winds, debris from the thick walls scattered in all directions. Soon after, he saw a petite figure crawling out of the large hole that was blown out of the ruins. Looking at this scene, he felt relieved. It seemed like no matter what, his challenge wouldn’t be implicated by their death.
At this thought, he stepped forward with large strides and arrived next to the petite figure, staring at her curiously.
It was a translucent young lady crawling out of the wreckage. She looked like she was 12 or 13 years old, and on her back was a sword shrouded by wind. Perhaps due to her translucent body, Rhode wasn’t able to have a good look at her equipment, but judging from its outline and appearance, she should be wearing a long skirt. At that moment, she crawled on the ground without the slightest majesty. To put it bluntly, she looked like a abused puppy at first glance…
“Are you alright?”
At that moment, Rhode confirmed that this young lady was precisely the mental projection of the Queen of Blades, Little Five. After all, she was the only card spirit to emerge in the form of a pure soul. And he remembered that Little Five and Shira had a fetish for ‘killing each other lovingly’. What he also recalled most clearly about Little Five was the scene where Angelina complained to him; it was a terrible past that the poor vampire hated to recall… Well, her body was hacked into chunks countless times by Little Five, after all.
And now, this Little Five wouldn’t have the same interest, right?
At this thought, Rhode raised his guard, stared cautiously at the young lady, and asked. Of course, he also felt a little puzzled since Little Five was in a spiritual form but despite that, she was still ‘buried’ under the debris, which didn’t make much sense. But now wasn’t the time for that. After finally encountering one of the mental projections, Rhode naturally had to get some valuable information from her.
“Argh… Who are you?”
The Little Five, who hugged her head and appeared somewhat upset, lifted her head after hearing Rhode’s question and gazed curiously at him. After hearing her doubt, Rhode replied with a smile: “My name is Rhode. I am a traveler…”
But before Rhode finished his sentence, Little Five jumped up all of a sudden, reaching out her hands to grab Rhode’s collar and pulling him toward her. She widened her eyes in shock and stared at him with a look of utter amazement.
“T-Traveler? Are you also like me? Did you find yourself here all of a sudden after opening your eyes?”
“Ugh… I guess.”
Upon hearing Little Five’s question, Rhode twitched the corners of his mouth and nodded in response. Of course, he didn’t intend to lie to her. After all, he did find himself teleported to this place after opening his eyes… Meanwhile, she didn’t find anything odd with his answer. Instead, she let out a long sigh of relief, released her right hand that gripped on his collar, and patted her chest lightly.
“Whew… As expected. I knew there had to be someone else here besides me and that woman!”
“That woman?”
“Yes, Rhode. Just a minute ago, I was over there with her…”
Little Five extended her arm, pointed at where the battle began in the distance, and pouted.
“I had a conversation with her and found that she also arrived here unknowingly like me. That was why we agreed to work together to find out the secrets of this place and exactly why we were sent here. But I never expected her to be an enemy! I was too careless! I can’t believe I overlooked that! We ended up fighting hard, but I didn’t expect her to be so powerful. If it weren’t for my quick reflexes, I would have been dead by now!”
But you’re already dead…
Looking at the spiritual form of the young lady before him, Rhode criticized inwardly. Then, he gazed at her curiously and realized that she wasn’t defensive against him at all, which was considered somewhat odd for someone who was just defeated in battle. However, he wasn’t going to dwell on that. Instead, he sized her up and asked.
“By the way, why are you sure that the woman was your enemy?”
“…”
Upon hearing his question, Little Five’s face sank, and a murderous intent erupted from her body. And after feeling her ice-cold aura, Rhode couldn’t help but feel his heart tremble. He thought that there could be an ending where everyone got along in harmony. But now, it didn’t look like things would be so easy. As a fighter with hundreds of battles under his belt, he keenly sensed that the murderous intent emanating from her was genuine. He was sure that there must be an unresolvable conflict between her and that mental projection! And while he was concerned, he saw Little Five gnash her teeth and yell.
“During our conversation, I realized that woman ate watermelon with sugar on top! Can you even eat watermelon without salt?! In the end, she mocked my style of eating! How can this be tolerated! How can this be endured?!”
As she grumbled, she clenched her fists and looked up at Rhode with seriousness.
“Mr. Rhode, what do you think about it!”
“…”
In response to her question, Rhode remained silent for a long while, before extending his hand and holding her shoulder heavily. Then, he lifted his head, his dark eyes glinting with an unwavering will, the never-changing steadfastness even in the face of death and courage to march on in the face of the king’s path. He took a deep, long breath and gave his answer.
“Long live the salt party; the sweet shall die.”
After having a common topic, an incomparably deep bond was formed between them. They had a robust, detailed, and lengthy pleasant exchanges, and finally reached a peaceful and friendly consensus on the belief of ‘long live the salt party; the sweet shall die’. Thereafter, Rhode invited Little Five to ally. For the latter, who had a hard time finding one in the same trench as her, was delighted to accept his invitation. The two of them took up companionship and headed toward the direction where that woman had left, as stated by Little Five.
In the process of chatting with Little Five, Rhode somewhat figured out the true identity of that ‘woman’. If he weren’t mistaken, that woman who fought with Little Five should be Eleanor. However, Rhode didn’t expect a Grim Reaper and a specter who had the same attribute to fight over this ‘issue’.
This went to show that the conflicts between the salt and sugar parties were not only in terms of taste, but also involved a deeper influence on society and families… And here, Rhode called upon everyone to set aside differences in parties and fight for a peaceful and better future. People shouldn’t smear one another for their own selfish interests and all parties should live in harmony with one another.
And of course, tofu must always be eaten salty!
In the meantime, Rhode wormed facts out of Little Five. It turned out that she was just like the other mental personalities; she only had a vague understanding of the other personalities in her mental world and didn’t even know who they were. Judging from that, it could be seen that this Little Five was definitely not the core personality. Of course, Rhode wasn’t sure of that judgment. After all, he and Little Five basically had minimal contact, so he could only rely upon the impression in his head to reason. Of course, if this Little Five enjoyed chopping people up into chunks as soon as she showed up, Rhode could almost be certain that she was the core personality… But he also wondered if this method would be too unreliable.
“Someone seems to be ahead!”
After the two of them walked down the streets where Eleanor went, Little Five suddenly came to a halt and spoke with a frown. In fact, Rhode had already noticed a powerful aura from around the corner. That was why he slowed down his pace and at the same time, stretched out his hand to press the hilt of his sword at his waist, keeping a vigilant eye on the street corner ahead.
Soon, under their gaze, a glowing figure emerged before their eyes.
