One day ago, in the evening.
Gloomy dark clouds filled the entire dome, leaving only a few gaps to accommodate the pouring skylight. The warm rays of the setting sun penetrated the glass, covering the surface of the pure white sheets in the room with a layer of gauze, and also dyed the ends of the young man's ice-colored hair with a hint of orange.
"——That is to say, you have investigated the northernmost end of the rift, right?" Carl leaned against the window and smiled at the blond boy on the other side of the screen, "Thank you, Takuma-kun. Did you find the black ship?" Any traces of him?"
When the people on the other side heard this, they suddenly became unhappy.
"Not yet." Takuma shook his head, "My super power is only good at finding people or Pokémon. It's hard to identify other things if they are a little farther away... I'm sorry, it's because I don't have enough training and I didn't consider detection. Ability has a more important meaning besides tracking down enemies. From now on I will..."
"Well, don't say that. You have already helped us a lot by finding us before." Even with Karl's calmness, he couldn't help but back away.
He and Takuma had only met a few times in competitions before, so they were not familiar with each other. Despite this... Carl also knew that if the young boy's lengthy introspection was not interrupted in time, he could continue reading until the moon rose above his head.
Takuma on the other side of the screen opened his mouth, and seemed to want to continue to arrange at least three ways to apologize - but it was getting late now, and it would be more difficult to investigate until nightfall, so there was really no time to delay any longer.
He and his fellow search team members explained the progress of the investigation in a few words, and then waved to the camera seriously.
"I'll hang up now. I'll contact you if I find anything new."
"Yeah, please."
After closing the phone, Karl looked up at the nurse who just walked into the room.
"Are all my companions okay?" he asked softly.
Thanks to the strong protection of the Pokémon, Carl only suffered a few superficial injuries in the thrilling battle at the bottom of the river - according to the standards of the southerners, "it can be cured without spraying medicine and letting Pikachu lick it" "Degree. But the other two people traveling with him were not so lucky. Recalling the blood mist that spread in the cold river water, Carl still feels frightened to this day.
"Don't worry, both of them are safe." The nurse replied with a smile, taking a bottle of energy-replenishing drink from the tray and throwing it to Karl, "Clive just suffered an electric shock and temporarily lost consciousness. With his physical fitness , if you sleep a little longer, you’ll be alive and kicking.”
"That's good - thanks, Sister Jenny." The young man caught the thrown vial with a familiarity, "Where's Beidou?"
"Well...that kid."
The nurse sighed, a look of worry flashing across her brows.
The afterglow of the setting sun gradually dimmed. The white walls of the hospital blended in with the snow, making people inside feel a bit chilly.
After confirming the physical condition of his companion with a familiar nurse, Karl walked to the ward next door.
Nurses are busy sorting medicines and bandages. He followed one of them into the ward, and at a glance he saw the masked adventurer sitting on the bed, with his braided hair sticking up messily, as if he had just woken up.
The young man looked at the other person's expression, which seemed unhappy, and said hello in a soft voice. Beidou, however, maintained his gloomy expression like the sky over the snow-capped mountains, and said——
"Hello, Mr. Carl. What time is it now?"
She paused and then added: "What month and day is it?"
Karl was stunned and couldn't help but laugh - after listening to the nurse's worried statement, he thought Beidou's face was tense because of physical discomfort, but he didn't expect that he was just worried about this.
"Don't worry, it's seven o'clock in the evening. We just slept for a few hours." The boy smiled.
After successfully escaping from the underground cave, looking at the miserable appearance of the three of them, the search team that responded to them was immediately shocked. Karl didn't even remember how he returned to Snow Mountain Villa - he was also from the Orange Islands, and the Himi tribe knew the temperament of southern children all too well. He and Beidou only had time to hurriedly briefly describe the cause of the disaster. As soon as they expressed that they wanted to track down the whereabouts of the mysterious black ship more than rest, they each received a slap in the face.
The kind of slap covered in hypnotic powder.
The two tough guys from the South - both physically and mentally - were unprepared for the blow and fell asleep on the spot for several hours. When the effects of the sleeping powder wore off, they were lying neatly on the hospital bed, with their wounds properly treated.
After making sure that he didn't sleep through the entire game, Beidou felt at ease and thanked the young man with a gentle expression.
"About today's encounter, I plan to talk to the lord." Karl said, "Would you like to go together?"
The adventurer nodded, "Okay."
She was always very mobile. She put on her coat and jumped out of bed, which actually startled Karl.
"Are you okay?" the ice-haired boy said hesitantly, "Can you still walk?"
The nurse had previously described to Karl that the scary-looking wound on the adventurer's back only bled a little more, but was actually not serious and would heal quickly after taking medicine. What was really serious was the injury to her right leg - the strong impact caused cracks in the young woman's leg bones, which were not yet solid, and almost completely broke them. Although it is not enough to require a splint, the severe bruising and swelling are enough to affect movement. The pain will be unbearable if I exert force, and I am afraid that I will not be able to walk for a while.
At this moment, the injured person who suffered a broken bone turned back with a puzzled expression, seemingly not understanding why Karl would ask this question.
"certainly."
The nurse's words before leaving, "Oh, only if your friend is not a native of the Orange Islands" played back and forth in Carl's mind again. The young man hesitated to speak, hesitated to speak, and finally put the autistic Clive far away from his mind. He couldn't help but ask: "Beidou, I remember you are from Kanto?"
The adventurer didn't hide anything and nodded calmly - since she first appeared in public in the Quartz Alliance, her origin in Kanto was naturally not a secret that needed to be concealed.
Karl: "..."
Beidou: "...?"
The adventurer saw that the always elegant and calm boy of the Himi family raised his eyebrows at him... and a big question mark popped up on his head.
When the two of them walked out of the hospital, it was already dark. There was only a trace of the setting sun's afterglow in the distant sky, while the sky above was already soaked in the dark colors of clouds.
Xiaoye stroked her mask and looked at the scenery in front of her that was no different from that of a modern city.
The smooth asphalt road leads straight into the distance, and the snow has been swept away, leaving only a few mischievous snowflakes; while the snow on the roof has not yet been cleared, and a corner of colorful paint paintings can be vaguely glimpsed among the white. The door of the dessert shop on the roadside was half-opened, and there was a faint aroma coming from it; the sound of music floated in my ears, as if someone was playing music and singing in the small square next to it.
"Welcome to Snow Mountain Villa - the other half." Karl said with a smile.
According to the young man, this place is not too far from the "Snowy Mountain Villa" in the competition script - or in other words, from the residential area. You can take the elevator more than 100 meters up to the entrance directly. Of course, in order not to ruin the atmosphere of the game, the elevators connecting the residential area and the commercial area were temporarily out of service, and the traces were carefully covered up.
Xiaoye raised her head and looked at the cliff a hundred meters above where even the power of the waveguide was struggling to sweep, and couldn't help but ask: "Wouldn't this be very inconvenient?"
As a small town in the mountains, Lieyan Valley has a mixed arrangement of residential houses and various small shops. People can conveniently buy daily necessities within two steps of going out. As for Fengxue Villa...not counting the walking distance, just taking the elevator will take a while.
"Yes, but it's very convenient during a snowstorm battle." Karl answered matter-of-factly.
Night:"……"
Is this what netizens are joking about "building a competition venue and housing people there"...
The two walked through the square and the green avenue planted with ice willows to the southwest of the villa. At the end of the road, perched on the edge of the cliff, is a tall stone building. The white stone tablet in front of the door is engraved with four characters - "Fengxue Library" with flying dragons and phoenixes.
Xiao Ye followed Karl's footsteps and walked into it, all the way to the top floor of the library. After opening the door, she paused in her steps, and there was a hint of surprise in her light purple eyes behind the mask.
What appears in front of you is a huge platform bordering the sky - the spherical transparent glass tightly covers the platform, blocking the cold wind from the outside. For some reason, there was no snow at all outside the glass, and it suddenly looked like an open outdoor platform, beautiful and spectacular.
It was already dark in Fengxue Mountain at this moment, it was pitch black outside the glass, and only the dark clouds floating slowly above the head could be vaguely seen. In the platform covered by transparent walls, a dazzling array of floor lamps emit light, illuminating the top floor as brightly lit as day.
Xiaoye saw a woman standing with her back to the two of them beside a table piled with books, seemingly looking at the dark mountains in the distance.
"Do you know? It will be a sunny day tomorrow, and you can enjoy the most beautiful starry sky in the entire Snow Wind Mountain here."
The woman standing at the table spoke up and said something meaningless.
The adventurer was stunned for a moment. No doubt she had heard this sound just a few days ago.
"Good evening, I hope I didn't disturb your reading." The ice-haired boy smiled, "Beidou, this is our lord of Fengxue Mountain——"
The woman slowly turned around. Looking at the familiar face of the housekeeper who drove to greet the adventurers, Xiao Ye suddenly fell into silence.
...Your lord can only be assigned the role of novice guidance NPC...
"Hello, Ms. Sandy. I'm sorry to interrupt you suddenly." After spending two seconds to get rid of the messy emotions in his mind, the adventurer respectfully saluted the top manager of Fengxue Mountain.
Before the polite words were finished, Sandy waved his hand, "Don't be so formal. This is not the first time we have met - Beidou, Karl has already told me about your matter. Thank you for your willingness at this juncture. Help."
The Lord of Fengxueshan's tone was very easy-going, but his facial expression was strangely stiff, as if his face alone was still immersed in the script of Sanwu Housekeeper and he couldn't act out. The strong sense of disharmony made Xiaoye's hair almost stand up.
Seeing Beidou's reaction as if he saw a big ice puppet in the second elder's room, Carl couldn't help laughing.
"Don't be afraid, Sister Sandy didn't mean to scare you. It's just..."
Hearing this, the young female lord calmly took over the conversation, "Oh, I'm not very good at speaking without expression. In order to play the role well, I just got an injection on my face."
Night:"……"
Is this what netizens are joking about: "Don't talk about going up mountains of swords and seas of fire for acting, it's also okay to take poison directly"...
After waking up, the adventurer was shocked one after another and the machine was stuck for five seconds before he finally allowed his brain to resume normal operation.
As the lord of Snow Mountain Villa, Sandy has no airs of elders at all—or rather, there may be no airs in the entire Snow Mountain Villa. After feeding the young man a few snacks, she contentedly invited them to sit down at the table and start discussing business.
Under the flickering light, Xiaoye and Karl told the lord all their experiences on that day: from going deep into the rift valley, encountering an ice puppet attack when they saw the mysterious black ship, to escaping from the underground cave.
After finishing the story, Sandy, who was deep in thought, did not speak immediately. Xiaoye looked at the stiff face of the female lord, hesitated for a moment, and then said: "Ms. Sandy, I wonder if you know what happened in the Valley of Flames a few days ago?"
She had had a guess as early as when she saw the dream of the ice and fire divine birds fighting.
The leader of the Fire People, Ye Zeng said, "What they want to destroy is not only the bond between Niwa-sama and his tribe, but also the human race. Perhaps there have been many mythical beasts that were once revered as faith, and the humans who believe in them have been "Inscribed on the target list" - So, maybe the Himi family and the God of Blue Feather are their second targets?
Although the current situation seems to have nothing to do with the divine bird, the figure of the frozen bird in the dream still makes Xiaoye unable to easily rule out this possibility.
When Sandy heard this, he suddenly raised his head, his green eyes staring at the adventurer for a moment, with a cold and hard look that was really creepy.
Xiaoye knows that as "Trainer Beidou", she cannot expose the connection between the two identities. Therefore, she considered her words again and again before continuing: "I happen to know a few Fire People and have heard some inside stories. Maybe..."
"——You want to say, could it be the same enemy?"
Before the adventurer expressed his hint as euphemistically as possible, Sandy tapped the pen in his hand on the table and said bluntly.
The lord's words suddenly shocked Xiaoye. However, the speaker didn't seem to want to explain why he jumped directly to the final conclusion after listening to the beginning, and he had no interest in exploring the adventurer's source of information. Sandy half-closed her eyes - Xiaoye guessed that maybe she wanted to smile - stretched out her hand and rubbed the trainer's soft purple hair randomly.
"Smart boy." The lord of Fengxue Mountain said with a smile, "Just as you thought. Just an hour ago, I already came to a conclusion."
"The guys who caused the ice explosion and caused you injuries are the same group of villains who troubled our friends not long ago."
Karl seemed to be used to the lord's unconstrained ideas, and he didn't look too surprised.
"Did you get any new information?" he asked curiously.
"That's right." Sandy said, "Thanks to the help of the child from Xia Yang's family, the search team found some interesting things in the mountains. It just so happened that our friend Huo Miao also called at that time."
The young female lord held her chin with one hand and twisted the pen around with the other hand.
"Although we don't know who revealed our plight to the Fire People, and we don't want to make them fearful, we can't lie to our friends." Sandy shrugged, "In short, after exchanging their respective intelligence, we found that these two The masterminds behind these incidents have surprisingly many things in common. The most critical one is this."
As she spoke, she took out an inconspicuous object and placed it on the table.
It was a translucent round stone the size of a ping pong ball. It looks very much like the Soul Gem, but the inside is gray, without a trace of light or color.
For Saya, who had personally participated in the Battle of the Valley of Flames, it was too familiar - after the fake Haruna disappeared in the flames, what was left behind in the charred clothes was exactly the same round stone.
Karl looked at the object on the table that looked like the Soul Gem and couldn't help but frowned, "You mean, the same thing was found in the Valley of Fire?"
Sandy nodded, "Yes. Since the identity of the enemy is traceable, the problem is much simpler."
The young female lord put down her pen and her eyes fell on the surface of the heavy books on the table.
"If, as Mr. Ye said, their purpose is to make the gods we believed in in the past hostile to humans - if they want to accomplish this under the eyes of so many ability users and trainers, there are very few strategies available. , but it’s easier to guard against.”
The young man looked at the piles of old books on the table with a clear look on his face, "Sister Sandy, do you mean it has something to do with ice puppet technology?"
"That's right." Sandy narrowed his eyes and made an abstract smile, "Now that things have happened, I'm really looking forward to how they are going to drag over the frozen bird with a terrible temper."
The boy with ice-colored hair also laughed, "Indeed, it's very curious."
Although they were talking about matters of life and death, the faces of the Himi clan members were not serious. After chatting for a while, Karl brought the topic back on track, "So, does tomorrow's game need to be suspended or the live broadcast suspended?"
"Of course it's business as usual." Sandy replied without hesitation. "Stopping the game now is no different from showing weakness. You will only get beaten up if you take advantage of your weakness."
Karl nodded knowingly. As she said, many players and staff are gathered on the mountain right now, and it will be difficult to move away for a while. If you act rashly to alert the snake, innocent people may be put in danger.
"We have to wait for them on the final stage with dignity - just come over if you want to take action."
Finally, the Lord of Fengxue Mountain said firmly.
In order to deal with possible troubles tomorrow, the three people briefly exchanged strategies.
Since the methods the enemy will use are temporarily unclear, all actions are based on adaptability. They added a dedicated combat channel to the headsets they wear to facilitate communication at any time. As the more reckless group among the southerners, Sandy naturally included Xiao Ye into his own fighting force camp, and had no intention of dissuading the foreigners like Ye did, which immediately made the adventurers heave a sigh of relief.
After the conversation ended, the young female lord seemed to have something important to attend to, and quickly left in a hurry. Less than half of the mountain of books stacked on the table had just been browsed, and the task of searching for information related to the ice blast was rudely left to Karl and Xiaoye.
The two unlucky children watched the lord's figure disappear quickly and looked at each other - finally they had no choice but to sigh and accept their fate and picked up the heavy ancient book.
The cold wind blew against the transparent wall, as if stones were colliding with the glass, making a crackling sound. Under the bright yellow light, the yellowed paper was turned page by page, casting shadows on the soft carpet.
There is no doubt that this is a dull and boring job. Fortunately, they had good luck - two hours later, the adventurer stopped moving.
"Mr. Carl, look."
"Well?"
The Himi boy's eyes swept over the words and pictures on the page. Then, he and the adventurer looked at each other, showing the same aware expression.
====================
Memories flashed through my mind, and clarity soon returned.
--Yes. Whether it was the Himi clan and Pokémon being frozen together, or the giant elephant appearing in the blue lake, it was all one of the possibilities of "unexpected events" in that combat meeting.
Then there is no doubt what she should do.
In the fierce snowstorm, the adventurer faced the huge ice elephant in front of him and slowly drew his iron sword.
Crystal blue light clings to it, shining like stars.
====================
small theater:
--Yes. Whether it was the Himi clan and Pokémon being frozen together, or the giant elephant appearing in the blue lake, it was all one of the possibilities of "unexpected events" in that combat meeting.
Sandy: Everyone was fighting at the altar, and no one paid attention to me. I was just about to take the opportunity to sneak a cookie and was frozen in this position... This is a possibility that I never thought of! (sad)
