Chapter One Hundred: A Dream of Violet Drift

Xie Liu, why are you standing there like an idiot? Come here and sit down.

A girl nearly half a head taller than him yanked him over and pressed him firmly into a seat. Xie Liu’s gaze drifted away from her face and slowly took in the rest of the room.

He was in a chamber that looked as though it belonged in a medieval castle, with torches burning all around for light.

He knew this place all too well. It was the cafeteria of the school he had once attended. Every time a holiday came around, everyone would gather here to eat and drink to their hearts’ content, to roughhouse and laugh in disorder. Was today another day like that?

After forcing Xie Liu into his seat, the tall girl threw back her head and laughed uproariously, like a proud rooster. “Ha ha, everyone’s here, right? Then I declare this year’s Christmas party officially begun!”

Xie Liu rubbed his eyes, and a smile spread across his face.

The easygoing girl beside him was named Gaia. She was a formidable woman, a real force to be reckoned with, though at the moment she should have been...

His gaze moved away from Gaia and to a tiny girl in the far corner, not even one hundred forty centimeters tall. She had white hair, white pupils, even white eyelashes. Quietly, she was eating the cake on the plate before her. Xie Liu shook his head slightly. This girl named Gotti was one of the two goddesses who, together with Gaia, had summoned Ragnarok. Right now, they should have been sleeping within the Crystal Pillar of Heaven, eternally holding up a world. So the girl before him who was called Gaia could only be a false existence.

“Have I entered an illusion?” Xie Liu thought with his head lowered.

There was only one explanation for the present situation: he had stepped into someone else’s supernatural ability, and it ought to be the power of a psychic-type ability user. As for when he had been drawn into it, he did not know.

“It seems they already discovered us when we entered the town,” he thought. “Their abilities may not be suited to direct combat, so they didn’t show themselves right away. Instead, they led us into the city and then attacked us with a psychic ability user.”

But where were Lin Yang and the others now?

His thoughts were interrupted by two different fragrances drifting in from either side, and then he felt soft bodies pressing close to him.

He immediately knew who they were.

“Teacher Sylvia, Teacher Soraka, why are you here too?” Xie Liu looked helplessly at the two women beside him.

One was a girl with pink twin ponytails, about thirteen or fourteen years old, almost entirely seated on Xie Liu’s lap. While making muffled “um-um” sounds, she gnawed on the turkey leg in her hand with enthusiastic little chomps. This was Sylvia, as Xie Liu had called her.

On the other side was a mature woman with somewhat darker skin, her figure as explosive as her attire. She held a glass of red wine, licked her rosy lips lightly, and exhaled a breath rich with the scent of wine. This was Teacher Soraka.

Do not be fooled by the fact that one looked like a child and the other like a grown woman; in truth, both were old monsters who had lived for more than a thousand years.

“Um-um, Xie Liu, you tell us. Where have you been these past few days? You still haven’t given us an answer. Between the two of us, which one do you like better?” The twin-tailed girl spoke with a childish lisp, her voice soft and babyish. As a legal loli of over a thousand years, she had never once possessed a mature heart.

Before Xie Liu could answer the legal loli’s question, the other woman leaned in and tugged his arm over. “Isn’t that obvious? That little troublemaker likes me, of course. Who would like a runway?”

“Who are you calling a runway?” The loli girl immediately bristled. “You want a fight?”

“Then let’s fight. Who’s afraid of whom? We’ve been fighting for over a thousand years already. Am I supposed to fear you?” Soraka snorted dismissively, flicking her purple hair. The two women began to glare at each other, neither willing to yield.

“This is really nice,” Xie Liu murmured with a smile as he watched the two of them stalk off to the side and stare one another down.

“Teachers, are you still arguing over who’s prettier?”

At that moment, the door at the back of the cafeteria was kicked open. To Xie Liu’s astonishment, Gong Hou came in with a group of people carrying countless dishes. Upon seeing Xie Liu, Gong Hou raised his eyebrows. “Xie Liu, where the hell did you run off to just now? Didn’t you know we were looking for you to help carry the food? Damn it, no food for you. Starve to death!”

After Gong Hou came in, the others poured in behind him—Lin Yang, Xu Xiong, Li Shizhu, not a single one missing. In the end, Xie Liu even saw Vladimir strolling in through the door with a grin on his face.

“You all...” Xie Liu stared in surprise as Gong Hou sat down beside him, squeezing Gaia aside and casually placing the roast whole lamb on his shoulder onto the table.

“What about us?” Gong Hou shot him a disdainful look.

“You all entered the dream too?” Xie Liu asked with a frown.

To his surprise, Gong Hou replied, “What dream? Xie Liu, are you still not awake?”

“Nothing?” Xie Liu understood. This Gong Hou was not the Gong Hou of reality, but the Gong Hou within his own dream.

Then that meant...

A sudden thought struck him, and he asked the Gong Hou beside him, “Fatty, are you real?”

“What did you say?” Gong Hou was gnawing on a lamb leg, looking bewildered.

Xie Liu turned away. “Nothing.”

The party continued. Soon all those who had gone out to fetch food returned, and they gathered together, laughing loudly.

Xie Liu took in every face and smiled silently. How many times had he longed to return here? Yet he could never go back.

A blonde girl danced barefoot upon the food-laden table, the white light around her making her seem ever more sacred and pure.

“Ah, Lilia is still so elegant.”

Xie Liu smiled. The blonde girl wore a radiant smile as she spun and danced, her every glance full of life and brilliance.

One familiar face after another passed before Xie Liu.

That small, slight girl who liked to keep her face covered sat alone in a corner, and only when she slipped food from her hand through the veil into her mouth could one glimpse the stars almost sparkling in her eyes. This assassin girl, whose face he had never known, would there ever be a chance now?

Beside the assassin girl was a blonde girl who shouted madly for her elder sister, wearing an infatuated expression as though she would gladly swallow Lilia whole while she danced. Nearby was also a quiet girl, and when Xie Liu looked at her he could not help thinking of Angela. The two girls were so alike.

“Hanon, are you still the darling of countless hearts?” Xie Liu had the feeling that this quiet girl was drifting farther and farther away from him. In truth, aside from Hanon, everyone else was the same.

That handsome boy with a mop of hair was playing with flame in his hand, laughing uproariously.

That old male teacher, with a tiny white mustache and round spectacles, was still endlessly expounding on the principles of human conduct.

There was also the girl who always fought with Gong Hou over food, smiling foolishly all day long.

And the female knight who wore her armor no matter the time, speaking solemnly of the knight’s code, taking one bite of steak and delivering one lesson in chivalric principle.

And the loli goddess Gotti, who wore a deadpan face and traded barbs with Xu Xiong.

Everything, everything, was so real, and yet so far away.

It was the story of another world, a murmur he dared not forget, and dared even less to recall.

“Being here is wonderful.”

Xie Liu once again wiped his eyes.

“Oh, my cherished people, are you all happy?”

The scene before him seemed to recede farther and farther away, stretching from something once within reach into a border he could no longer touch, moving from the reality before him gradually toward the end of memory.

Xie Liu knew it all: this was nothing but a dream.

The real him was still on the battlefield of the ranking matches in the Fantasy City. He could only ever be alone.

This was only a dream.

Xie Liu blinked, and suddenly felt someone tug gently at the hem of his clothes. He turned back, and then felt as if his heart had stopped beating in that instant.

If dreams had color, then it would surely be purple.

A little girl with purple hair and purple eyes was standing behind him. Shy and timid, she was clutching a stuffed bear in her arms, nearly as tall as she was. The moment Xie Liu turned around, the girl seemed startled and took a half-step back, holding the little bear even tighter.

“Illifa...” Xie Liu’s lips trembled as he spoke the girl’s name.

She was the nightmare of his entire life, impossible to let go, impossible to forget. At this moment, Xie Liu wanted to cry out, even though he knew that all language had already become meaningless.

“Illifa.”

He called her softly once more.

The little girl before him lifted her head. Her bright, spirited eyes blinked at Xie Liu. In that instant, the world seemed to grow still, leaving only the two of them gazing at each other.

“I just wanted to see you again. Though I know this is only a dream. But I still believe it, and keep searching without pause, because then my wish will come true.” Xie Liu slowly knelt before the girl. “Thank you, Illifa. My beloved. It was truly wonderful to have met you.”

Illifa did not speak. Just as in Xie Liu’s memory, she almost never spoke at all. As Xie Liu knelt there as though in confession, the purple girl laughed, innocent and pure. She lifted both hands and cradled the little rainbow-colored bear in her arms, its hues shifting ceaselessly.

The world seemed to turn entirely purple.

Xie Liu’s eyes reflected the girl, her smile, her face. At last, he gave a bitter smile.

“Unfortunately, you can no longer come back.”

The loneliness in his tone needed no imagination.

He stood. The little girl before him still wore a puzzled look.

“No matter how much you resemble Illifa—no, perhaps you are her, the Illifa in my memory—but in the end, you are not her.” With that, Xie Liu rose and looked upward. He let out a cold laugh. “Don’t you like peering into other people’s thoughts? Come then. Read my memories and see whether you can endure them!”

At that moment, Xie Liu closed his eyes and opened them again. The darkness in his pupils seemed to collapse inward, then erupt outward.

“Good. You’ve succeeded in helping me advance.”

He raised a hand and covered his eyes, sighing softly. “Every step of growth in level is a response to one’s own wish. And this time, my wish is actually this absurd?”

He lowered his hand, revealing a pair of purple eyes, just like Illifa’s.

At once, Xie Liu understood his sixth-level ability: Phantom Eyes.

It was a branch of psychic power, one that could make another person see false illusions through eye contact.

One might even call it a rather useless ability among sixth-level ocular powers.

But Xie Liu did not care, because this was his wish. Even if it was illusory, he still wanted to see the girl he had once loved most deeply. Behind him, Illifa waited quietly for Xie Liu, until he turned around and faced the little purple girl directly.

Then the world seemed to be struck by a comet and began to tremble violently.

Xie Liu sneered. “What’s wrong? Can you feel that pressure now? What you’re seeing is what I faced back then.”

“Get out of Illifa’s consciousness now!”

He bellowed suddenly. The purple little girl before him trembled slightly, and her whole body went limp. Xie Liu stepped forward and supported Illifa in his arms.

“Hiding inside the body of someone precious in another person’s memory, searching for their weakness—that’s truly despicable.” Xie Liu watched as the little girl in his arms slowly closed her eyes and drifted into sleep. He bit his lip. “Don’t worry, Illifa. In my illusion, there is no cold and no pain. Sleep well.”

He laid the girl down, then whirled around. In his purple pupils, boundless killing intent burst forth.

“I want you dead!”