Chapter 402: The Knight’s Awakening, the So-Called Virtue

Zhelong Town.

This was the biggest film and TV base in Sea City. Since the truth about “Dazzling Stage” was revealed, the country had enacted policies to severely limit its throughput. The media dogs that had once been omnipresent all fell silent, and tourists were no longer allowed into the core area.

At present, only highly paid mentors, producers, top musicians, and a series of professionals responsible for designing images, integrating teams, preparing debut songs, and planning promotions for the little idols could gain entry.

However, because entering the underground base required signing an extensive array of agreements, most teams opted to work online. With advanced projection technology, being physically present onsite wasn’t crucial.

Currently, the little idols in the Daxia competition zone were mostly training within the underground bases of Sea City and Kyoto, preparing for their debuts.

This was partly for safety reasons.

After all, since Charlotte’s Shining Magic had been publicly announced with great fanfare, if the Disaster group had any hidden countermeasures, their first reaction would surely be to snuff out these nascent seeds, just like the Ideal State incident. Therefore, staying inside the base was undoubtedly the safest option.

On the other hand, nowhere in the world could match the Dazzling Stage base for idol training. Even disregarding the shelters and base zones, the level of research and development poured into idol training in particular blocks reached into the trillions, a true crystallization of civilization.

At this moment, the nation’s top musicians, producers, and related resources were all being amassed here without regard to cost.

Though this might sound abstract, it was truly equivalent to the war preparations deciding the survival of civilization. Even if the Dazzling Stage did not pay a single cent, no one could shirk this responsibility when driven by such an overwhelming sense of righteousness.

However, constrained by each competition zone’s nationality and fairness, most could only draw resources domestically. Mobilizing foreign resources required multiple layers of approval, and quotas were limited.

Thus, to some extent, the quality of each zone’s debut was related to national power.

Daxia’s territory was enormous, home to tens of billions of people—covering about a quarter of the Donghong Federation’s area. Entertainment flourished massively because of this immense base, so these problems posed no worry. However, for other smaller border countries, resources were somewhat scarce.

In this context, the excess, unused resources from Daxia’s players would be allocated to other countries’ zones as appropriate, balancing the little idols worldwide and elevating the entire civilization’s “idol power” in preparation for the final Dazzling Stage project.

At this moment, in the underground base, Area A1.

At 7:30 p.m., after a busy day, Chen Yining, Ji Shuzhu, Lin Baor, Ruan Wutong, and Liang Xiaoxiao hurried back to their dormitory, starting to wash up and eat.

The young girls looked weary and lethargic. Had it not been for the thought of their precious free time afterward, they probably would have just collapsed back into bed and fallen into deep sleep.

Lin Baor wore a miserable face, tears brimming in her eyes as she said,

“Beelzebub’s Feast and Holy Communion are just too perplexing. I never want to run that dungeon again in my life!”

Ruan Wutong poked at her rice with chopsticks, her cheeks puffed up like a hamster as she ate. After chewing, she took a sip of chilled juice and mumbled,

“Yggdrasil is terrifying too. Our spells couldn’t break through its defenses. When it swung its tail, everything went black, and the whole city was destroyed. We failed the protection mission, and because we performed so poorly, our battle points were directly deducted.”

Ji Shuzhu remained composed and analyzed calmly,

“The last time we attracted Yggdrasil’s attention was because we exceeded the mission time limit. It was basically a plot trap.”

“If we turn off free mode, the boss won’t attack us beyond its zone. We still have to start by hunting the lower-level disaster beasts to get accustomed.”

Liang Xiaoxiao didn’t join the conversation. She kept her head down, eating. Her bangs covered her eyes. Her neat white teeth chewed on tiny bones that dissolved in her mouth like clouds. The spiral swirl in her pupils twisted; her distorted appetite surfaced and retreated, filling her nostrils with an alluring fragrance.

The girl remained silent and picked up another piece of scallion-braised pork ribs. This sweet Sea City dish, when swallowed, broke down into sour and rotten flavors, difficult to swallow like a quagmire. Her alienated senses gradually detached from herself, then returned again through resolute willpower to their original state.

If one could see through her increasingly graceful body, they would notice that beneath her loose short sleeves and long pants, blade-like scales were arranged in undulating rows, moving back and forth like waves, evoking restless patterns.

Liang Xiaoxiao reined in the beastly nature in her eyes. Her nostrils fluttered as she breathed gently. The light in her soul, once extinguished, blazed again with her focused contemplation, instantly entering a concentration state beyond [Heart Flow], enabling everything to connect.

At that moment, her flesh and bone, energy, will, thoughts, and cells seemed to construct a complete network through her breathing, all tied into one entity. Then she resisted, repressed, controlled, and suppressed the agitated Disaster Beast Gene, sealing it back into her body.

The girl had forgotten who taught her this technique. It was simply that when her mind grew more dangerous, with the risk of harming friends at any moment, she suddenly recalled from the depths of memory the instinctive act of breathing.

— Breathe.

— You needed to breathe.

— You needed to breathe the right way.

This thought filled her mind. In a daze, it felt as if someone was gently guiding her, helping her endure increasingly difficult days. She continued in her usual calm manner, pushing forward with the plans for her debut.

— She could not lose.

Everyone had waited too long for this day to come. She could die or abandon becoming an idol, but she could not trample on her friends’ dreams, nor destroy the public’s beautiful illusions of magical girls.

So, with each breath taken under immense pressure and a determined will to protect, she grew increasingly skilled. Now, she had crossed barriers she once thought unimaginable and touched the preliminary form of the Perfection Realm.

Otherwise, without Holy Glory’s mercy and Chu Yuanqing’s remaining Mercury Blood, even with the empire’s alchemical blockade, she would not have been able to continuously suppress the rejection reaction caused by the Disaster Beast Gene.

Chen Yining did not notice her teammates’ abnormalities. Her spirit was vibrant, completely undampened, still maintaining a proud and enterprising heart as she earnestly encouraged:

“Baor, don’t be afraid. Next time, you will definitely succeed.”

“We will sooner or later step onto the real battlefield. The simulation battlefield is just a stepping stone. There’s no need to fear or be anxious. Let’s all work hard together.”

As the captain, Chen Yining naturally understood the pressure everyone had been under lately.

Since the performance ended, they not only had to prepare for their debut but also had to continue training as magical girls. Every day, they had to pass through the core base of the Dream Weaver Rabbit and enter the simulation battlefield within the Astronomical Instrument to conduct team battles.

The first part required no further explanation; the workload was mainly handled by the production team and professionals. They only needed to propose opinions and requirements, while the rest was regular idol business.

The main pressure lay in the latter.

After Holy Sophon had packaged and provided the principles behind the Tower of Mirrors and the “source code” of the Morpheus system, the simulation battlefield within the Astronomical Instrument had been iteratively upgraded. Its realism was no less than the Tower of Mirrors and even more flexible.

Even though the Pure White Emperor’s data model had completely dissipated with the Devouring Void and was not copied into the simulation battlefield to become a boss tormenting the little idols,

the Countermeasures Bureau never lacked templates for bosses. The bishops who had appeared in the Ideal State, and even the Disaster groups that attacked Sea City last week, were all uploaded and formed into dungeon levels.

The Ideal State chapter and Sea City chapter were divided into two huge worlds, each with numerous sub-dungeons. They could fight at the empire’s border or against the Disaster Wave, or experience life-and-death escapes after bishop attacks.

Going even further back were prototypes of magical girl documentaries.

In most of these prototypes, they did not know the story or the key tasks, so it was an unfiltered first-person experience of a series of unexpected disasters and widespread crisis involving disaster beasts.

For instance, one happened to be a mission Xie Qing Yu had once executed. In terms of difficulty, let alone “Fully Blooming”, even if the entire team were [Lighting Up], there was only a chance to complete it without loss.

The key was that teammates must not be corrupted by the Disaster Debris—the flesh and blood of Beelzebub. Once entering this branch, unless they went [Full Bloom] like Little Yu, 90% of the time it would end in total annihilation.

Chen Yining and Ji Shuzhu were among the stronger members in [Lighting Up]; Liang Xiaoxiao could fake some talent akin to a captain level [Fully Blooming]; as for Baor and Wutong, they were rookies whose transformation devices—the Artificial Lanterns—had just been adapted.

Together, this team could cause scenes of street destruction and collapse building frames, but when placed in the simulation battlefield’s dungeon…

it could only be said that Dream Weaver Rabbit was somewhat hurrying things.

If this team was already like this, other little idols had it far worse.

The only “fortunate” thing was that currently only full magical girl teams needed to participate in subgroup missions collectively; others took on solo expedition tasks, simply killing monsters and sharpening experience.

Lin Baor whispered dully,

“…Doesn’t the thought of really fighting those monsters in the future make you even more scared?”

The spiral in Liang Xiaoxiao’s eyes disappeared as she smiled,

“I’m not afraid. By then, Baor will be strong too, just like those captains. Besides, the main reason Dream Weaver Rabbit wants us to cooperate as a team is actually for Shining Magic, isn’t it?”

“We still can’t use Shining Magic flexibly on the battlefield. Even if the disaster control units hold the line, we don’t need to worry about disaster beasts for a few minutes. But counting today, we have already failed seven times in a row.”

It was clear that the core of the Dazzling Stage project was why Dream Weaver Rabbit sent these young idols into the dungeons—not to fight monsters, but to learn how to use Shining Magic smoothly and steadily.

For that reason, even in free mode, before their stage ended, no disaster beast could get past the team’s circle of defense. It was like a pure beginner’s match.

But even so, in this kind of environment, wanting to keep an idol’s heart and use the same passion, joy, and focus as before to sincerely create a stage that gives back to fans and elevates oneself was still hellishly difficult, requiring a considerable time to adapt.

Hearing this, Lin Baor felt life was even more arduous.

Only Heaven knew how complex her feelings were the first time she entered the dungeon and was told to sing and dance in front of a group of terrifying monsters. She barely restrained her trembling legs and stumbled through the entire performance.

She had stayed in the Ideal State for half a year and her mentality had been somewhat tempered; otherwise, she would have burst into tears on the spot instead of dancing.

But…

The little girl felt inexplicably happy recalling Xiaoxiao’s compliments. For a moment, she forgot her fear, her mind only lingering on the phrase “Baor will be amazing too.” She couldn’t help but tap her chin and seriously said:

“Next time I will definitely succeed. I’ve already gotten used to entering the Heart Flow in battlefield environments. This time, I’ll make it!”

Liang Xiaoxiao saw the girl’s adorable subtle expression. The corner of her lips lifted, and she instinctively wanted to reach out and touch Baor’s head, yet in the instant of nerve impulses, she restrained herself, merely continuing to smile and looking at her friend with affirmation:

“Yes, you will.”

Lin Baor jumped up with joy. She served Liang Xiaoxiao a pair of chopsticks with some boiled green vegetables and immediately became full of energy, fully embodying the idealistic nature of a magical girl. At this point, she proposed:

“Shall we all watch a movie together later?”

Ruan Wutong raised her hand in agreement, expressing a desire to watch WALL-E.

Ji Shuzhu said either was fine, but The Legend of 1900 was also good.

Liang Xiaoxiao and Chen Yining had no objections.

After some discussion, they ultimately decided to watch Flipped, a fairly classic romantic film.

After finishing their meal, they placed the dishes in the dishwasher. The little idols squeezed onto the sofa, turned off some of the lights, and started the movie.

It’s worth mentioning that Ruan Wutong sat at the very edge, followed by Liang Xiaoxiao, Lin Baor, Ji Shuzhu, and Chen Yining in order.

This seemingly inconspicuous seating arrangement did not feel particularly intimate today.

The reason was Liang Xiaoxiao deliberately avoided any physical contact with Lin Baor. The playful Miss Choreographer also refrained from teasing her childhood friend because Lin Baor was sitting right beside her.

Lin Baor did not think much of it. Since the Void swallowed the formidable rival Honey Qing, her memory lacked the stages of jealousy, discovery of feelings, panic and confusion, solitary digestion, and recognition of reality.

So now, in her eyes, Xiaoxiao was still a steadfast friend whose friendship was as solid as steel.

Liang Xiaoxiao had reasons to avoid Lin Baor. Yesterday, when she instinctively touched the girl’s hair, all the Disaster Beast Gene within her surged wildly.

That overwhelming malice, entwined with a soul-washing disaster aura, suddenly gnawed at her internal organs, altered her bones and flesh, and sought to directly devour and kill the person in front of her. By doing so… it aimed to breach the calm of her breathing and shatter this prison.

Liang Xiaoxiao exhaled softly. Her gray eyes were tinged with red as she calmly watched the movie scene where a boy planted his beloved’s favorite fig tree, quietly whispering to herself:

“Hold on, Xiaoxiao.”

“Hold on.”

“When the people sent by the Dream Weaver teacher arrive, I will be… free.”

This morning, sensing her impending limits, she had reported her situation to Esther, requesting the deployment of magical girls to capture, contain, or, if necessary, execute her.

And the reason she hadn’t left immediately and had stayed until now was because leaving these familiar and important friends would cause her spirit to collapse even more severely, with a risk of innocent casualties.

But it was alright; tonight, everything would come to an end.