Initial stronghold
"Good fellow, we were fighting tooth and nail outside, and you were eavesdropping behind us!"
Morina waved her fists and cursed with laughter, but the flying mecha insects did not respond and soon dispersed again, each returning to their own places.
"Since you've come to call me, let's go back first."
Ximu didn't think these little bugs could get in first and hear them talking. Ruixia must have seen from the images they sent back that they wanted to go deeper, so she tried to stop them.
"He really is worried about you."
The priestess girl tilted her head and looked at her with a hint of smirk in her teasing.
Ximu blinked, not suspecting anything, and replied with a serious and somewhat upright expression: "Yes, this person just loves to worry."
When she first met him, she thought that this person was inexplicably nosy.
But as they spent time together, and their bond grew stronger, she slowly realized that not everyone in this world only cared about themselves.
Talking to each other, supporting each other, facing difficulties together, and surviving together will really build trust and bonds little by little.
At first, if Ruisha and Morina showed any threat, she could easily break their necks.
But now...
She moved her fingers subconsciously, but instinctively didn't want to imagine how they would die.
No, it won't.
If they were to die in this treacherous place, she should be the first of them.
But when she moved and looked up, she was inexplicably met with a roll of the eyes from Morina.
Huh? What's wrong?
Why did she have that helpless look on her face that said, "You're really hopeless"? Was there something wrong with her answer just now?
With a lot of questions in their minds, Ximu and Molina climbed up the stairs. The journey was unusually peaceful.
Just when I was wondering if those magicians had just gone somewhere else for a stroll, I discovered that many combat puppets were walking back and forth at the stairs and in the corridors. Some even returned to the ceiling, guarding the view farther away.
Ximu instinctively stood in front of Molina, but he actually had a premonition in his heart.
——When the combat puppets completely ignored their presence and walked past them without hesitation, this premonition was indeed fulfilled.
"It seems these puppets have been completely incorporated. They've even been released on patrol."
Morina poked her head out from behind Ximu, obviously realizing this as well.
It seems that Ruixia did make some arrangements around the base during the time they were away.
Then... wouldn't it be dangerous to open the door rashly?
Not knowing whether Ruixia had set any traps behind the door, Ximu thought about it and was about to knock on the door when the door in front of him suddenly opened by itself.
The room was still the same room, but... it was completely different from before they left.
The biggest change was in the original office area. Perhaps to accommodate the densely packed screens of various sizes, the heavy-looking desk was lifted into the air. Using several bookshelves originally in the room as the base and some clicking mechanical bearings, a very high workbench was built.
Under the original chair, a long mechanical arm had been installed at some point. If you looked closely, it felt like something that had been disassembled from some combat dolls and then reassembled - and the boy sitting on that chair, calculating something rapidly, was Ruixia, whom I hadn't seen for a while.
"Are you back?"
Ruixia greeted him, but her eyes did not leave the screen. She seemed to be working on a critical point.
Ximu did not make any noise to disturb him, but just quietly looked at the serious and focused figure.
For some reason, Ruisha's hair was loose.
The black hair that was originally tied high behind her head fell down softly, almost covering her entire back, and even a few strands fell along the edge of the armchair.
So beautiful, just like a girl.
But Morina was obviously not as considerate. After watching the mechanical puppets repairing themselves on the assembly line, she strolled over with her hands behind her back and started to tease, "Oh, the beauty knows how to enjoy herself. She can even lift the chair so high."
"Otherwise, standing to work is so tiring. Also, the crown and hairpins that I use to tie my hair are made of special metals. I used them to do something else and didn't have time to fix my hair. What a beauty."
Ruixia responded, and when he looked down and saw Ximu staring at him intently, he began to feel a little embarrassed.
Since he was a child, once he immersed himself in the ocean of mechanical technology, he would forget about eating and sleeping and would not pay attention to trivial matters such as tidying up instruments.
I had thought of tying my hair up before Ximu and the others came back, but after I turned around and recalculated the relevant procedures for the fortifications, I completely forgot about it.
"Come to think of it, you're a boy with such long hair, but your family members don't say anything to you? They didn't raise you as a girl, did they?" Molina grinned.
"How is that possible!"
Ruixia was really not in the mood to work now. Perhaps because she didn't want her to continue to tarnish her image in front of Ximu, she hurriedly explained, "I've been studying mechanical engineering at home for the past few years, so I didn't have time to trim it!"
In fact, before going out this time, he did think about cutting his hair shorter to make it easier to move around. But his sister, who happened to be at home, strongly opposed this, and the reason she gave was -
"If you cut your hair, wouldn't that mean I'd lose a model to try out new hairstyles? No, you're just going to take a test, and it won't be long. Don't cut it!"
So... he really didn't cut it.
Anyway, it’s not a big deal. If he really gets into trouble, his sister will pin him to the ground and beat him again... It’s a little more troublesome to comb his hair in exchange for peace at home. After thinking about it carefully, he still feels that this is a worthwhile deal.
I just didn't expect that even after being in such a predicament, the girls would still make fun of this matter.
Ruixia lowered the high armchair and went downstairs along the wooden ladder attached to the bookshelf. Seeing Ximu standing there safe and sound, her mood improved a lot. She skipped the last step and jumped down.
The already loose hair fluttered in the air with the movement, and fell down in an instant, but a strand of it happened to brush against Ximu's cheek.
Then, she took it in her hand.
Smooth and soft, the hair quality is good...
Looking at the black hair in his hand, Ximu even subconsciously touched it with his fingers.
Come to think of it, she herself actually has waist-length hair.
She had asked her mother before, why didn't she just cut her long hair when short hair was obviously more suitable for the mission. Her mother then made an ambiguous remark, saying that if she couldn't even overcome the difficulty of a few strands of hair, what was the point of being a killer?
No... Is this a question of whether it's difficult or not? There's no need for that.
But after reading the rejection in his mother's eyes, Ximu never mentioned it again.
After coming back to her senses from her past recollections, she found that the young man in front of her was looking at her, his eyes full of helplessness, his cheeks flushed, and his hands hesitating between raising and lowering.
Xi Mu was stunned for a moment, then reacted and immediately let go of the hair in his hand.
"What's wrong? Is there something wrong with your hair?"
Ruixia, who is usually articulate, stuttered for the first time, and Ximu also became inexplicably nervous.
"No……"
Perhaps she felt that this answer was too dry, so she quickly added: "My hair is very good."
An awkward and strange atmosphere spread between the two of them.
What was even stranger was that this remark somehow amused Morina, who immediately burst out laughing "hahahaha", then hooked her arm around Ximu's and playfully encouraged him, "What do you mean by 'nice hair'? Hahaha! - You should ask him if he needs help, whether you should help him comb his hair..."
“No, no!”
Before Ximu could say anything, Ruixia was startled and took a step back.
Seeing that there seemed to be some inquiry in her eyes, he quickly refused. He gathered his hair and looked around. Seeing that he couldn't find anything to tie his hair, he simply twisted his hair around and used the hair-tying technique to skillfully fix his long hair into a simple ponytail on top of his head.
"Oh my, you have such a deft hand! It seems like if I have a daughter in the future, I won't have to worry about her hairstyle. After all, Ximu doesn't look like the type to comb her hair... Wow!"
Morina's jokes became more and more outrageous. Ruixia became angry and embarrassed, and directly threw the things at hand at her. The gentlemanly demeanor he showed when they first met was long gone.
Of course, this little thing definitely didn't hit anyone - because Ximu just reached out and intercepted it.
"alright."
Seeing that they were just playing around, Ximu glanced sideways at Morina who was hiding behind him and making faces, then returned the small parts in his hand to Ruixia: "Enough with the jokes, it's time to get down to business."
"She has always been... Oh, forget it."
After all, the girls were natural allies, so Ruixia didn't argue any more. She sighed and immediately unfolded a screen. After a few operations, she lowered the raised desk and asked the mechanical puppet on standby nearby to move two other chairs into the room.
The three of them sat down, and Molina placed some diaries and documents she had collected on the table, and then they began to share their experiences and achievements with each other.
Ruixia has also done a lot of things during this period. In addition to rewriting the program of the combat puppets, she also used the mechanical insects released by Ximu in various places to initially build a small monitoring network.
"I've witnessed some of your battles, but unfortunately my 'Zerg' is primarily for reconnaissance and lacks combat capabilities, so I can't be of much help to you."
"It's okay. I can handle the current intensity of the battle."
Ximu spoke up, hoping that he wouldn't be too stressed out by her absence, then asked, "Before, the mechanic bugs would wear out in the mist. Now, will they slowly malfunction again?"
Speaking of this, Ruixia's eyes lit up noticeably. "Much better. The interference in this academy is much smaller than in the dense forest before. As long as we don't deliberately touch those very obvious spatial distortions, there will be basically no problem."
"Do you have any new ideas about these distortions?" Morina interrupted at the right time.
Ruixia usually hesitated when asked about something he wasn't entirely sure about. But after listening to Ximu and the others' experiences and speculations along the way, he seemed to have gained some confidence.
"As you said, perhaps it was due to the magic going out of control, or perhaps it was due to some other reason, a very terrible change definitely occurred here.
"I suspect... this academy, and even the entire surrounding environment itself, may be a phantasmagorical interweaving of reality and illusion! And these vortices, these phenomena that seem as if space is being torn apart, are the manifestation of the distortion and destruction of the laws of this place!"
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