Chapter 99: The Realm of Dreams

The battle between Franny and Chiba Tenwa had come to an end. No matter how fiercely Chiba Tenwa attacked, he couldn't break through Franny's defenses; conversely, he knew there was no way he could withstand her assault. The disparity in strength was absolute.

Above the entire virtual battlefield, red alarms flashed incessantly. After their clash, the arena itself seemed to grow unstable. At the heart of the battleground, a quarter of the core city had been destroyed, with the aftermath of their fight reducing the area to ruins. Chiba Tenwa descended from the sky and collapsed, exhausted, onto the shattered ground. “Ah, a complete and utter defeat.”

“You held back, didn’t you?” he asked, lying on the ground as Franny floated down from above, smiling as she extended a hand to him. Franny did not deny it, merely gazed at him with that gentle smile. “You’re already very impressive.”

“I knew it!” Chiba Tenwa grasped her small hand and let her pull him to his feet. “Miss Franny, you truly deserve your reputation. I admit my defeat wholeheartedly. I think you should try challenging Master Lei Tian now.”

“I already did. Lost in a single move,” Franny replied softly, as if she were merely stating a fact. Chiba Tenwa’s body trembled. “Really? Even you couldn’t withstand a single blow?”

“Our journey is still a long one,” Chiba Tenwa said, brushing dust from his clothes. He glanced back at the portion of the city that had miraculously survived their rampage. “I don’t care much about this match. I’m withdrawing. Oh, and let Deadeye know—I’m rooting for him.”

With that, the young man shoved his hands in his pockets, looked up at the sky, and shouted, “I forfeit!” A golden light bathed him, and Chiba Tenwa vanished, as if evaporated.

Franny understood—Chiba Tenwa was making way for Xie Liu and the others. She, too, was prepared to step aside for them, but for now, she could not leave; she still needed to observe the battlefield.

In the recent fight with Chiba Tenwa, Franny hadn’t even used half her power. Half her mental energy was scanning the entire arena, monitoring everyone’s vital signs. Though Vladimir had employed external chassis technology in this competition, the system was highly unstable.

First of all, the technology was not as miraculous as Vladimir claimed. Franny could feel it—both her own abilities and Chiba Tenwa’s had been weakened to some extent. Otherwise, the destruction would not have been limited to a corner of the city; the entire virtual battlefield would have been obliterated.

Yet this weakening wasn’t noticeable among lower-level espers; even Wendy and her group showed no obvious signs of decline. Only the powers of several tenth-level elites were diminished, suggesting that this technology could not yet replicate the strength of the highest tier.

Moreover, Franny sensed another instability: the neural network of the external chassis was flawed and could even be attacked remotely through the neural transmission system. For a technology intended for real combat, this was still a distant prospect. But such concerns were not Franny’s to bear. She descended from the sky, landing amid the battle-scarred ruins.

“All right, my task is done. The rest is up to you.” With that, Franny turned and walked in Wendy’s direction.

...

Xie Liu and his group crawled out from the weeds, having been thrown into a mess by the recent tremors. Looking up, they saw golden light streaking overhead—a sight they recognized, since Xu Xiong had used a similar ability before, but never at such a scale.

“This is insane,” Xie Liu muttered. Even Gong Hou and the others were stunned; such power rivaled a small nuclear explosion. “So this is the strength of a tenth-level esper?”

There was simply no comparison. The overwhelming force left Xie Liu and his group breathless. Even Xie Liu fell silent. Though they had angrily challenged the Godslayer Team, they now realized how childish their actions had been.

This was not a gap that tactics alone could bridge. Though they had only witnessed the battle between Franny and Chiba Tenwa, it was easy to infer the power of Oda Nobunaga and Rommel from this.

“With our current strength, we don’t stand a chance,” Xie Liu said, shaking his head. “We need more advanced weapons that can turn the tide.”

Unlike Xie Liu’s group, those occupying the city center were all powerful espers who disdained using technological weapons. But for Xie Liu and his companions, who were genuine weaklings, they had to fight in their own way. No one understood that better than Xie Liu.

“Let’s head to the town,” he said, seeing everyone’s spirits were low. He was about to encourage them when a broadcast sounded overhead: “Thirteenth place determined: Team Revelation.”

“Why did that team suddenly get eliminated?” Xie Liu wondered aloud. But seeing the thoroughly devastated battlefield in the distance, he burst out laughing. “I see—Team Revelation must have had rotten luck.”

In fact, Team Revelation had been accidentally struck by Chiba Tenwa’s railgun. Their position had coincided with Franny’s change in firing direction, leaving them no chance to defend themselves. The plasma swept through, and the entire team was reduced to ash.

Several other teams fared little better. Though not wiped out, they suffered significant losses.

It was truly a clash of titans—mortals just happened to get caught in the crossfire.

But such matters were of little concern to the audience. After a moment of stunned silence, they erupted in thunderous applause. A battle between tenth-level espers was simply too spectacular—the dazzling psychic powers, the horrifying destruction, all drove the crowd wild.

Chiba Tenwa’s crushing defeat did not tarnish his reputation; on the contrary, it earned him even more admiration. His strength was undeniable. The media had hyped his achievements in Hokkaido, and though some had doubted, those doubts were now erased. A tenth-level esper truly lived up to the legend.

Yet amidst the celebration, some lamented that the premature clash of two geniuses meant one would exit the stage early, sapping the later rounds of excitement. But few cared—one dazzling battle had already left the audience fully satisfied.

No one paid attention to the off-road vehicle carrying six people, driving toward a small town near the city about ten kilometers from Franny’s battlefield.

“Once we pass through this town, we’ll reach the main city,” Xie Liu analyzed. “But I’m certain other teams have arrived ahead of us. Some may even be holed up there.”

Ye Ling, ever curious, asked, “Why wouldn’t they head for the main city? From what we’ve seen, the gear gets better the closer you get.”

“It’s not that they don’t want to—it’s that they don’t dare,” Lin Yang explained. “The city center is obviously controlled by several powerful teams. Right now, those teams are wary of each other and unwilling to start a full-scale fight. Any weaker team that tries to sneak in would just be asking for a beating.”

“After all, not everyone has the guts to pick a fight with Franny.”

They parked in a copse of trees outside the town and crept to the edge, peering ahead. The sky behind them was dimming. “We’re entering the next phase. The battlefield will probably shrink again,” someone muttered.

Xu Xiong poked his head from behind a haystack, squinting at the town. “I can’t make out what’s going on. Xie Liu, you check.”

Xie Liu’s head appeared as well; he scanned the town, then frowned. “They’re hiding. Wait, I’ll use my fifth-level ability.” His eyes glinted silver-gray.

“There are four people in the town, each in a different spot—so, not a single team. There are a few others lying nearby—probably already out. There’s definitely been a fight in there. But I can’t be sure which rooms they’re in,” Xie Liu explained.

“Otherwise…” He pointed at the sniper rifle slung behind him. “I’d just take them out from here.”

“Are we still going in?” Lin Yang asked seriously.

Xie Liu thought for a moment. “We have to make a choice. First, we go in—but as you can see, there’s nothing but open ground. We’ll be spotted before we even reach the town. The advantage is, we can get a lot of gear we need. Without tech support, facing the Godslayer Team would be pure fantasy. Second, we skirt around the edge. The next shrinking shouldn’t cover us completely; we can stick to the outermost circle and sneak into the city from there.” He pointed at the ravine left by Franny’s battle. “No one will go that way. We can use it to enter.”

“But if we do, we’ll have no chance to fight the Godslayer Team,” Xie Liu said, laying the options before them. “Lin Yang, you’re the captain—you decide.”

All eyes turned to Lin Yang, a strikingly beautiful boy. After a moment’s silence, he nodded. “We go in. We have only one goal, right?”

“Yes, only one,” Xie Liu replied, gazing meaningfully at the looming silhouette of the main city in the distance, where his greatest foe awaited him. “We have at most ten minutes before night falls. We go now.”

...

As Xie Liu predicted, night descended a few minutes later, followed by a great rumbling behind them—the world’s edge was breaking apart, dissolving into nothingness. From the edge of the woods, they watched as the land behind them, churned like pulp, crumbled into void as the energy curtain swept forward, leaving only a black abyss.

“If we get caught in that, it’s over,” Xie Liu sighed. The curtain took just five minutes to move from several kilometers away to within a hundred meters of their position.

“Next time it shrinks, it’ll be on the other side of the town. We have no choice,” he said. Lin Yang was already marshaling the group when a prompt sounded from above: “Twelfth place determined: Team Fury.”

“Probably didn’t run from the toxic zone fast enough,” Xie Liu said, forcing a smile. They, too, had barely skirted the edge.

Using the cover of night, the six of them jogged across two or three hundred meters of waist-high grass, which concealed them well, and reached the edge of the small town.

“We’re going in,” Xie Liu whispered. “First, secure a building.” He led the way, racing down the road and darting through the first few houses, finally pressing against the corner of a wall. Activating his fifth-level ability, he confirmed the house was empty before pushing the door open.

And then—

Xie Liu stared in astonishment at the scene before him.

It felt as if it belonged to a previous life.

A group of once-familiar faces surrounded a long dining table heaped with food, candles flickering softly.

“You…” Xie Liu’s eyes widened at the sight of those people, long buried in the deepest recesses of his dreams, whom he dared not recall even in sleep.

That year, he had forsaken all his splendor, exiling himself for the sake of a peaceful future.

In that life, he had bid farewell to each one, reversing time, treading the border of life and death.

Even so, though he had set aside the world itself, he had never let go of them—these people so close, yet so distant.

He did not know when tears began streaming down his face. He nearly collapsed, head bowed, murmuring softly, “God, even if all this is an illusion, at least grant me the time for one dream.”