“Achoo!” Luca rubbed his nose, staring at Sophia, who stood atop the iceberg like a goddess. He said, “Senior, I think we should stop for today. I’m catching a cold from the freezing weather.”
“Swoosh!” A sharp ice blade answered him.
Luca shifted slightly, and the blade grazed his nose, slicing through the air before plunging into the sea behind him, sending up a spray of water. Before the water could even settle, it froze into a delicate ice flower.
Just as Luca was about to turn around, a flash of blue light darted across the ice surface, and Sophia was already in front of him.
Her eyes glimmered like water, her ice-blue hair flowing in the wind, sparkling with a faint glow under the sunlight.
At the same time, the ice sword in her hand was brought down forcefully toward his head, gathering frost and radiating immense power.
Luca sighed inwardly, and suddenly, silver light flashed at his feet. In an instant, he disappeared, reappearing behind her. Sophia furrowed her brow, reacting swiftly. She twisted her wrist, reversing her grip on the sword and thrusting it toward Luca’s abdomen.
But she struck only empty air.
Realizing something was wrong, she tried to pull back, but suddenly felt a sharp pain at the back of her neck. Her vision went black.
“I told you to finish quickly. Why didn’t you listen?” Luca muttered to himself as he reached out to catch her waist, preventing her from falling to the ground. He then skillfully lifted the unconscious senior in his arms.
Silver light flashed again beneath his feet, and in the blink of an eye, they disappeared from the sea and reappeared in the hallway of the ship—right where they had left earlier.
“Luca, Sir, Miss Sophia… what happened to her?” Nicholas happened to be passing by and, seeing their condition, was immediately surprised, thinking they had encountered some accident.
“She’s fine. She just fainted,” Luca casually explained before carrying Sophia back to her room. The two rooms were next to each other, so he wasn’t worried about finding it.
Entering the room and turning on the lights, Luca placed Sophia on the bed and covered her with a blanket. After a quick glance, he noticed her complexion was a little pale, likely from overexertion.
Her naturally translucent skin appeared even more crystalline under the light, almost as if she were made of glass. A strand of hair clung to her face, and her brow was slightly furrowed, her expression showing a hint of fatigue. The usual coldness in her eyes was gone, replaced with a trace of warmth. For the first time, she looked somewhat vulnerable.
He reached out and gently brushed the strand of hair from her face. As he did so, his gaze involuntarily shifted.
His eyes fell on the gentle curve of her chest, hidden beneath the covers.
It wasn’t large, but it was firm and perky, so white it seemed to glow.
He’d never really noticed it before…
“Is it pretty?” A calm voice suddenly sounded in his ear. Luca instinctively nodded.
When he came to his senses, he realized that Sophia had somehow woken up without him noticing.
Her cold, beautiful eyes were now staring straight at him.
“Yes, it’s pretty,” Luca blinked, then quickly pulled the blanket higher up to cover her chest, giving her an unapologetically cheeky smile. “Senior, you should rest early.”
As he turned and fled, he caught a glimpse of Sophia’s expression, her lips pursed and her gaze complicated.
“Do you like this kid?” A flash of purple light appeared, and a figure identical to Sophia materialized in the room. The only difference was that her hair was purple, and the aura surrounding her was completely different, far darker and more sinister.
“Mm.” Sophia responded calmly, without hesitation or embarrassment. She simply admitted it.
“What’s so special about him? He looks decent, but without divine talent, he probably can’t even compare to the lowest-level gods.”
Zenobia sat on the bed, her tone full of teasing.
Sophia thought for a moment and then asked, somewhat puzzled, “Is there necessarily a connection between the two?”
Zenobia didn’t reply immediately. She stared at Sophia for a while before slowly saying, “Did you tell him about my desire for the Celestial Pearl?”
Sophia fell silent.
“Idiot.” Another cold voice rang out in the room.
A flash of black light, and a woman dressed in a black gown appeared. She looked just like Sophia, but with an even colder demeanor—one that radiated a deep, intrinsic indifference.
The moment Sophia saw her, her eyes flickered. She said, “You’re not dead?”
This woman was none other than Pandora, the Desire Demon from the Abyssal Demon Realm, who had been killed by Luca. She had died at his hands, but to Sophia’s surprise, she was now back in this world.
Pandora sneered and said, “Do you really think so little of the power of ‘Desire’? As long as the Abyssal Demon Realm’s core remains intact, I will be immortal!”
Zenobia also curled her lips into a mocking smile, her eyes fixed on Pandora. She said, “If I can’t obtain the Celestial Pearl, you think you’ll have the freedom to live out your life with your little lover? Do you really believe that?”
“You’ve forgotten, haven’t you? You’re nothing more than a divine soul I left behind all those years ago. When the Ancient Gods emerge from the Abyssal Realm, I will die, Pandora will die, and you will die as well.”
“We are one and the same. Help me, and you will have everything you desire. Help him, and what will you gain?”
“Think carefully about the suffering and hardships we’ve endured, the torment the gods and the Ancient Gods inflicted upon us.”
“Do you really want to go through that again, Frost Cassiel?”
Sophia frowned slightly. “That god died 100,000 years ago.”
“Stubborn fool!” Pandora scoffed, and her figure disappeared instantly, seemingly too tired to continue the conversation.
Zenobia’s gaze lingered on her for a moment longer before she said coldly, “I hope you really think about it. Otherwise, don’t blame me for erasing your consciousness and making you vanish from this world forever.”
The next moment, Zenobia vanished as well, leaving the room silent once again, as if the two women had never been there at all. Everything felt like a mere illusion.
Sophia stared out the window at the vast sea, lost in thought for a long time. Finally, she exhaled slowly and murmured, “Annoying.”
…
Meanwhile, in the real world…
Luca had just returned to his room when a sharp, urgent alarm sounded in his ears.
His heart skipped a beat, and he thought something might have gone wrong in the real world.
However, when he stepped out, he discovered that it was only Susie, excitedly tapping on his gaming pod.
“Luca, Luca, come quickly!” Her face was flushed with excitement, her eyes sparkling as she eagerly beckoned him.
“What are you looking at…?” Luca rubbed his brow, and only then did he notice the silver-white hamster in Susie’s hands. Its big, watery purple eyes were staring at him unblinkingly, and perched on its head was a tiny crown.
“Holy crap! A monster!” Luca jumped, immediately sitting up in his gaming pod. He almost hurled a Divine Flame at it. The little hamster, startled, quickly burrowed into Susie’s already modest chest, leaving only its fluffy little backside exposed.
“Eagle mouse?” Luca stared at the hamster’s rear for a moment before finally recognizing it. This was the same Elite eagle mouse he had seen before.
It had appeared in the real world?!
“Look, look! Doesn’t it look just like the little white one in the game? Even the crown is exactly the same!” Susie was overjoyed, eager to pull the eagle mouse out of her chest so Luca could get a better look.
However, the little creature seemed to be traumatized and refused to come out, burying its head deeper into Susie’s chest.
Luca’s lips twitched. He wanted to say, That’s your pet from the game. But the kind of monster aura it emitted left no room for mistake.
However, he figured he’d end up explaining for ages, so he simply asked, “Where did you find this eagle mouse?”
Susie was still teasing the little creature, gently prodding it. “It was right by my bed. When I woke up from the game, I found it asleep on me. It scared the crap out of me at first.”
Luca’s eyes widened slightly. “Did you come across an Abyssal Node? You know, one of those rifts with a lot of monsters?”
Susie paused for a moment, then replied, “Actually, I did. Didn’t you ask me to meet you in Seaway City? On the carriage ride, I passed through a town that was overrun by monsters. I overheard some nearby players and PNC talking about a node appearing there. How did you know?”
“That’s it then. This is the monster from your game.” Luca said, understanding now, before explaining further: “You must have gained the abilities from the game as well. Players who get close to an Abyssal Node often receive this kind of feedback.”
“Game feedback?” Sophia blinked, surprised. She had heard Luca mention this kind of feedback before, but she never expected it to happen to her.
Luca grabbed the silver-white eagle mouse by the tail, pulling the overly curious and cowardly little creature out of Susie’s chest. The eagle mouse immediately started squeaking frantically. “Stop squeaking. If you don’t, I’ll cook you,” Luca threatened.
The eagle mouse immediately fell silent.
“How did you get out of there?” Luca wondered aloud. These summoned creatures seemed a bit different from the typical player feedback. He could feel it.
This eagle mouse’s power was at least Diamond-level, and it was probably even stronger than him at the moment. That meant this eagle mouse had somehow brought its full in-game power into the real world, thanks to Susie’s summoning abilities!
This eagle mouse’s power was at least Diamond-level, and it was probably even stronger than him at the moment. That meant this eagle mouse had somehow brought its full in-game power into the real world, thanks to Susie’s summoning abilities!
Now that was interesting. Even with Luca’s current strength, he was still only mid-tier in the real world. Quagmire and the others were even weaker.
But this eagle mouse? It had brought its full strength with it. Luca had never encountered anything like this, even with his two lifetimes of experience.
A thought flashed in his mind. If this was possible, maybe his own monster from the game could do the same. And not just any monster—he had a Transcendent-level King-class monster!
If he could somehow bring Jörmungandr, the stupid serpent, into the real world… wouldn’t he be invincible in the early stages of the game’s arrival?
“Squeak squeak!!!” The white eagle mouse could understand Luca’s words. Many high-level monsters had intelligence on par with humans.
However, after a lot of squeaking and flapping around, Luca still couldn’t figure out what it was trying to say.
In the end, Susie played the role of translator, explaining what the little creature meant.
And what it meant was…
It had no idea either. It had just fallen asleep and woke up here.