"What will the world be like after liberation?" Roland asked tentatively, "And what benefits will you gain? Will you be able to escape the consciousness realm and become a physical being?"

"To be honest, I don't know," Lan laughed. "But no matter what, it's better than being trapped here, wasting away. At least—the future is full of endless possibilities."

Roland stared at her for a long time. Her expression was very natural, as if she had made a perfectly ordinary choice.

It seems there's little hope of finding Lan's weakness through dialogue, he thought. Unless he could bring Nightingale into the dream world as well. Subsequent probing yielded little either; any questions regarding gods were met with silence, and she couldn't offer any assistance in the War of Divine Will.

Even restricted by the rules of the dream world, she could only act as a martial artist here, and secretly passing on information was the limit. According to Lan, different areas of the consciousness realm have different rules, which even gods find difficult to tamper with. It was by taking advantage of this that she was able to catch her breath and secretly seek out a savior who could end the War of Divine Will.

But until all of this is completely over, she won't be truly free—the shackles that bind her still exist and may turn her efforts into nothing at any time.

When sending Lan to the door, Roland asked one last question.

"By the way, you said at the beginning that you didn't expect me to open a coffee shop myself. Does this city really have a place called Rose Cafe?"

"Yes," Lan smiled slightly. "In Prism City."

"But I clearly asked Garcia—"

"The cafe is located in the city's vertebral area, and only the senior members of the Martial Artist Association can enter there. At the time, I already knew that the association was planning to issue a hunting license to you. After obtaining it, you can pass through the vertebral area. But I didn't expect that you wouldn't be interested in the association at all, and you haven't been to Prism City for so long after obtaining the license." Lan paused. "By the way, the Hub Storage, which stores the Fallen Evils' core, is on the lowest level of the vertebral area. Usually, only the guardians and above can enter and exit it."

So that's what's going on... Roland finally understood why he couldn't find the agreed location all along. The Rose Cafe was a welfare facility exclusively for internal personnel, and it had to be for high-level personnel.

"Then next time we meet—I mean, if necessary, which cafe should we choose? After all, there are two Roses now."

"The old place is fine," she said softly, looking at the towering apartment building. "Garcia lives in this building, right? It's not bad to come and see her occasionally. Me... I might quite like it here."

Maybe? You don't even know if you like it? Roland raised his eyebrows and didn't respond.

After saying goodbye, Lan's figure gradually disappeared into the streets.

Roland leaned against the door of the shop, digesting the huge amount of information he had obtained from this conversation.

Whether it was the dream world or the real world, everything seemed to become clearer than ever before. Magic power, Divine Will, the consciousness realm, the Dawn Realm, the Bottomless Abyss... these words were no longer just simple concepts, but were connected into a whole through newly acquired information.

As he was pondering, he suddenly felt a strange tremor sweep through his whole body!

Roland suddenly raised his head and found a twisted ripple appearing in front of him, like a boundless transparent wall sweeping across the entire street, and rapidly expanding into the distance after passing him.

What's going on?

He looked at the others in the community in amazement, but the old men and women didn't seem to notice anything different just now, and were still doing their own things, chatting and laughing.

If he hadn't had a similar experience, he would almost have thought he was hallucinating.

No doubt, Roland clenched his fists. This was a change that only he could feel—and its fluctuation was quite like the heaven and earth induction produced when he recovered the magic power creature core. Although the former made him feel comfortable and his body was full of warmth, the latter made him feel a little uneasy.

Could it be that something impacted the dream world and caused such an anomaly?

Unfortunately, Lan had already left, and he hadn't gone to Prism City to receive the association's special phone, otherwise he might have been able to ask her something.

Roland suppressed his distracting thoughts, locked the coffee shop door, and returned to the apartment building.

He originally planned to disconnect from the dream this time and return to reality, but who knew that as soon as he pushed open the door of 0825, he saw Gero's sneakers still placed at the entrance.

He couldn't help but be stunned. The conversation with Lan had taken at least an hour, and it was long past school time. Why hadn't Gero left yet?

Looking towards the living room, Roland was surprised to see the little girl lying motionless on the floor, with two broken glasses next to her.

"No way..."

He strode to her and squatted down, holding her wrist.

Her pulse was still beating.

Looking at her face again—Gero's eyes were tightly closed, her eyebrows slightly furrowed, and her cheeks were flushed, as if she was enduring some kind of pain.

Roland tried to touch her forehead, and a wave of heat came from his palm.

This is... a fever?

Judging from the posture in which she fell, she probably lost her balance suddenly while tidying up the coffee table.

Damn it, she was fine earlier.

However, Roland's high hanging heart also fell a lot. Getting sick is always better than being attacked by Fallen Evils. When he saw the little girl fall, he almost thought that a minion sent by a god had come to seek revenge.

Roland didn't hesitate to pick her up, ran down the building in three steps, and got into the van.

Probably the bumps caused Gero to regain some consciousness. She opened her eyes and murmured in a low voice, "I broke the table's... cup..."

"I saw it."

"I'm sor...ry, I'll pay... you back, don't send me... to the countryside."

This guy... is she delirious?

Roland placed her in the passenger seat and then helped her fasten her seat belt. "Shut up, don't say anything."

As he got out of the car to start it, Gero suddenly reached out and grabbed his sleeve, "Uncle... don't go."

This look, for the little girl who almost always scowled at him, was the first time he had seen it. Looking at her almost pleading expression, Roland couldn't help but think of the words she wrote in her diary. The high fever probably made her consciousness blurred, revealing her most vulnerable side. He didn't know how her family had treated her in the past—thinking of this, he couldn't help but sigh, "Don't worry, your rent hasn't been paid yet, I won't let you go."

Hearing these words, Gero slowly closed her eyes, but that hand still didn't let go.

After sending her to the hospital, there was another round of fuss: registration, diagnosis, hospitalization, IV drip... By the time it was all done, it was almost afternoon. Although the condition was still unclear, the little girl's condition had stabilized.

It wasn't until the evening that the attending doctor found him.

"Are you really a martial artist?"

"That's right, what's wrong?" Roland asked.

"Please don't make fun of us next time." The other party said unhappily, "That girl isn't sick at all, but has awakened her natural power—although this situation is not common, there are always one or two unsuitable people out of a hundred or so. Hasn't the Martial Artist Association ever told you about this?"

"Huh?"

"Awakening. Really, if a martial artist in the hospital hadn't noticed this situation, I would have thought it was a rare disease." The doctor's tone was full of impatience. "You can go through the discharge procedures and take her home."

...

Roland, who had been busy for most of the day, carried the still sleeping Gero back to the apartment building.

Looking at the white-haired little girl curled up in his arms, he sighed for a long time... Awakening? He didn't expect that even in this world, she who was once a Pure One would still not be able to escape the favor of magic power. This can only be said to be destiny. But at least he's watching her in the dream world, so she shouldn't repeat the mistakes of her previous life.

At this time, the sky was already covered by night, and the long corridor was only left with the dim yellow light emitted by a row of old chandeliers, and the flying insects that occasionally crashed into the lights. When he approached 0825, he unexpectedly saw another familiar figure—Garcia. She was leaning against his door, sitting blankly in the corridor.

What's going on today? One after another, they're all coming to cause trouble. Nightingale said she would only sleep for a little while, and now it's probably almost dinner time over there.

"Yo," Roland squatted down in front of her, "Why are you in the mood to wait for me here? Could it be that you lost your keys and want to spend the night at my place?"

Garcia didn't sneer at him right away, which made him feel a little uneasy.

And when she raised her head, Roland suddenly couldn't say a word.

He saw that she was already in tears.

"Prism City... was attacked by a large group of Fallen Evils... According to those who escaped, my master... my master, in order to stop the enemy and protect everyone's retreat, was killed by the Fallen Evils..."