TYMIMA Chapter 101

After the video recording was completed, Lance carefully reviewed it once, confirmed nothing was missed, then glanced at Dream Witch.

Dream Witch understood and flashed to the balcony to make a phone call.

Adrian remained in Li Bang’s body. His upright posture actually gave Li Bang some dignity.

He frowned in thought: “Ghost Eye knows quite a few Federation media outlets. Rapid spread within a day or two isn’t impossible, but we can’t guarantee the video’s spread speed in Tasman.”

Lily sat on the chair’s armrest, swinging her little legs. Hearing this, she proudly tossed her long braids: “Don’t worry about that. As long as there’s internet, it’s possible.”

On the balcony, Dream Witch stood with her hands on her hips, dialing the phone to the top floor of High Tower Building.

“…Hello.” A very soft voice came from the other end of the phone. Although it was just one word, it inexplicably carried a subtle gentleness, like silent rain nourishing everything.

Dream Witch was a bit surprised: “Eh, why is it you? Where’s Mad Clown?”

Oliver, recognizing the familiar voice, clearly relaxed. He glanced around the slightly empty living room and answered slowly, “Seems he went on a business trip. He left in a hurry, didn’t have time to say.”

Though he still spoke slowly, Oliver was no longer incoherent or stumbling. During his time at High Tower Guild, he’d been working with Fata on rehabilitation. He was naturally smart and worked hard, so both his body and mind were recovering at a pleasantly surprising pace.

Of course, besides Fata’s help, chatting with his teacher and occasionally tutoring Lily with her homework also greatly contributed to his language recovery.

Especially tutoring Lily—she forced Oliver to constantly practice organizing his language and to make his sentences as long as possible, because if he was too brief, Lily simply wouldn’t understand.

Naturally, Oliver wouldn’t tell Lily, who was aiming for Star University, any of this.

“That guy goes on business trips and doesn’t even tell me,” Dream Witch muttered. But she was always subconsciously gentler with Little Golden Retriever. Listening to Oliver’s delicate, gentle voice, she didn’t rush to assign the task, but instead asked, “You’re recovering well. Does it still hurt?”

Before they set out, Fata had performed a mark-cleansing surgery for Oliver. Ideally, he should have gained more weight first, but Oliver insisted on making a clean break with the past as soon as possible.

Fortunately, Oliver woke up quickly after the surgery and didn’t suffer any serious physical burden.

Oliver nodded on the phone, then realized Dream Witch wasn’t in front of him and chuckled softly before replying, “Fata is great, the medicine works, I’m much better.”

Of course, Fata’s medicine was still as terrible as ever. Sometimes Fata would bring food for anorexia and the medicine for mark-cleansing at the same time, and Oliver would feel like crying.

He thought that maybe if he stopped the medicine, his anorexia might get better.

“That’s good. By the way, where’s Duma?” Dream Witch asked.

Oliver tilted his head, looking out the glass door: “On the balcony, watching the snow. Should I call him?”

Dream Witch: “Mm, have him come get something.”

Oliver put down the phone for now, padded across the soft carpet in his socks, and walked to the large balcony. There, the little robot was resting his chin in his hands, watching snowflakes fall on his nose.

Duma’s bright eyes were drawn toward his inner eye corners, and the snowflake on his nose melted into a droplet in the warmth, falling off.

“Ah,” Duma exclaimed softly.

Oliver pushed open the glass door, and warm air from inside rushed out. Oliver exhaled a thin mist, bent down, and took Duma’s cotton-coated wrist: “Duma, Lan Qi is looking for you.”

“Okay!” Duma responded quickly, no longer staring at the falling snowflakes, and let Oliver lead him back inside.

He muttered softly, “Two Olivers, so dizzy.”

“You’re cross-eyed, that’s all. It’ll pass in a bit,” Oliver explained.

The phone was handed to Duma, the screen pressed to his cold-reddened cheek. Duma sniffled and said seriously, “Lan Qi, I’m here.”

“Good boy, come over to me in a bit to pick up a video. In two days, we need to spread this video to the center of the sea,” Dream Witch explained in a way he could understand.

“Okay,” Duma agreed, then asked, “Anything else for Oliver?”

Dream Witch laughed: “Tell him to rest well. Next time, I’ll take both of you out to sea to play.”

“Mm!”

After hanging up, Duma dutifully passed on the message to Oliver: “Lan Qi said next time she’ll take both of us out to sea.”

He pointed at himself, then at Oliver.

Oliver just smiled gently and patted Duma’s head.

He was a fugitive Federal criminal, not knowing when he could freely appear in public and enjoy the sunlight without worry.

Duma didn’t know about the longing in Oliver’s heart. He sat cross-legged on the carpet, hugged his computer, and sent his consciousness through the network to Lan Qi’s location.

He searched through the blue sea and all kinds of Little Golden Retriever photos, finally finding the large video file.

Inside was someone he didn’t recognize, with a scarred, ugly face.

“So heavy.” Duma carried the video on his back and slid along the network all the way back to High Tower Guild.

After instructing Duma, Dream Witch turned and went back inside, finding Chen Shun’an bowing solemnly to everyone.

“Thank you all.”

Adrian comforted him softly: “You don’t need to worry. When all is settled, the truth about Minister Chen’s murder will naturally come to light.”

Chen Shun’an nodded heavily, tears welling up in his eyes again.

Lance quietly reminded Abaddon: “If someone could stand up during the engagement ceremony and publicly expose Selarl’s conspiracy, things would go much more smoothly.”

Chen Shun’an sighed: “I’m being watched. I’m afraid I can’t go to the seabed. Besides, those young fanatics wouldn’t listen to me anyway.”

Lance shook his head: “It needs to be someone more persuasive, preferably someone who was harmed by them, and smart enough to cooperate with our video statement.”

Chen Shun’an gave a bitter smile: “That’s probably impossible. Those who were exiled are like me—pretending to fall out with the king to leave the seabed. As for those still by the king’s side, they’re closely watched by Selarl. Contacting them would be very risky, and a slight mistake would alert the enemy.”

Lance glanced meaningfully at Abaddon: “They’re indeed not suitable. Having them take the lead wouldn’t be shocking enough.”

Abaddon finally got the young master’s hint. He quickly raised his broad hand and rumbled: “We can have Minister Chen cooperate with our plan, as long as we have one of his personal belongings.”

Chen Shun’an’s eyes widened in astonishment, and the members of Ghost Eye Guild also looked at Abaddon in surprise.

Lance tilted his head, pretending not to understand: “What do you mean?”

Zhan Pingchuan helpfully explained to the little fox: “This Liao Wuliang’s ability is related to spirits. He probably has a way to summon Minister Chen.”

Lance’s eyes widened in delight: “That’s amazing?”

His round, sparkling eyes showed obvious curiosity about this ability, and Zhan Pingchuan wished he could take a picture of his adorable look: “Yeah, baby, I thought it was amazing the first time I learned about it too.”

Lily: “……”

Abaddon: “……”

Chen Shun’an didn’t know what expression to make. He gripped his pant leg tightly, as if afraid hope would shatter, and cautiously asked: “You mean… I can see my son again?”

Abaddon couldn’t bear to see Chen Shun’an’s anxious, hopeful look, so he explained in a muffled voice: “I can summon the spirits of the deceased, but they can’t stay in the human world for long. And… each summoning requires a personal item. Without one, I can’t summon them.”

For the deceased, the things they leave behind are always limited. Each use means one less item, and in the end, there will still be a final farewell.

For the living, counting down the number of times they can meet, experiencing heartbreaking partings again and again, is perhaps also a kind of pain.

Abaddon had three abilities: first-tier, 【Return of the Underworld Soul】, which summons human spirits using personal items; second-tier, 【Requiem of the Fallen】, which turns mutant beasts he personally killed into his own; and third-tier, 【To the Yellow Springs】, which inflicts soul damage on enemies.

Of these, 【Requiem of the Fallen】 summons mutant beast spirits without a time limit, but commanding mindless mutant beasts consumes a lot of stamina, so even this ability has its limits.

But being able to bring a complete mutant beast into the human world is already astonishing.

After all, the reason humans and underground cities can remain balanced is because that iron gate keeps mutant beasts inside—they can’t break through alive, so they can’t rampage in the human world.

“……I see.” Chen Shun’an murmured, taking a long while to come back to his senses. “Yes, I have my son’s belongings.”

Dream Witch locked the balcony glass door and brushed the sea spray from her shoulders: “Good. A coordinated attack will catch Selarl off guard. But there’s still one problem—what if Selarl gets desperate and stages a coup on the spot?”

Mudeli: “This…”

Fulunla looked at Chen Shun’an. They might need more information about Selarl.

Chen Shun’an shook his head: “I’m ashamed to say, I only know Selarl’s first-tier ability is 【Voice Print Simulation】, which is an inherent talent of orca form. As for his other abilities…”

When Selarl applied for the underwater guard position, he had concealed his abilities.

Lily asked curiously: “Then how is he called the strongest underwater?”

Chen Shun’an said: “Once when the guards were patrolling underwater, they suddenly encountered a volcanic eruption in Ubi Trench. At that time, massive amounts of seawater were boiled, with smoke columns and steam breaking through the surface straight into the clouds. Everyone thought that patrol team was done for, but Selarl brought them back alive. In all fairness, no other S-level underwater could have done that.”

If underwater S-levels couldn’t do it, land S-levels wouldn’t be confident about stopping a volcano either.

Moreover, some of their abilities would probably fail completely underwater.

For instance, Wu Peng’s lightning couldn’t reach the seabed, the mutant beasts Abaddon could summon were all landlubbers, Lily’s 【Words Become Reality】 had range and event size limitations and required time to write, etc.

“Abilities aren’t about strength or weakness—the key is being able to counter them. Not knowing the opponent’s details puts us at a disadvantage.” However, after Adrian finished speaking, he glanced meaningfully at Zhan Pingchuan.

Compared to their ability attributes, spatial-type was the bug that transcended the strength hierarchy—it’s just that the eldest young master was still too young.

Zhan Pingchuan noticed Adrian’s gaze, raised an eyebrow, and looked down at his palm.

If it really came to a desperate situation, his third-tier ability 【Void Realm】 might be able to turn the tide regardless of circumstances, but…

That mistake in the underground city still haunted him. At his current age, he couldn’t control 【Void Realm】 well yet, so if he made an error, the damage would be irreversible.

Lance lowered his eyes slightly, looking at the carpet’s pattern.

He had naturally thought about this problem long ago, but hadn’t mentioned it because he still had a final line of defense—the outer god.

Whether on land or sea, no S-level could compare to the outer god. He could easily kill insignificant humans.

But once Lance displayed this ability in public, it would cause global panic. Moreover, when he handed his body over to the outer god’s control, he couldn’t control the outer god’s thoughts. Who He wanted to kill, what He wanted to do—Lance couldn’t stop any of it.

Only when this body was exhausted and drained of energy would the outer god leave in disgust.

So unless absolutely necessary, Lance wouldn’t let the outer god manifest outside underground cities, because with his stamina, he definitely couldn’t last until killing all the mutant beasts in an underground city.

This was also why that bastard always complained he was too weak and needed constant training.

But Lance still spoke, his tone calm: “It’s fine. There will be a way.”

Dream Witch immediately understood Lance’s meaning, but remembering Lance’s pain each time the outer god occupied his body, she felt reluctant: “You—”

Before Dream Witch could finish, Zhan Pingchuan looked at Lance in surprise: “Eh, baby, how do you know I have a way?”

The air suddenly went quiet.

Lance looked at Zhan Pingchuan and blinked twice quickly: “.”

Little idiot, was I talking about you?

But—

White Pharaoh indulgently encouraged his confident little wolf cub: “I believe in you, husband. You’re the strongest S-level in my heart. Tell us your method.”

Adrian: “……”

Dream Witch: “……”

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 (advanced chapters available on kofi)