Late at night, Roland recounted the day's meeting to Anna beside him on the pillow.

"...Considering the strength and stability of the God's Punishment bullets, this specialized weapon might need further adjustments—finding a balance between power and practical application, and only you can do that. Its priority is temporarily higher than other projects. During this period, I will have Andrea and Agatha fully cooperate with you."

"It feels like the work will never end," Anna said, leaning her head on his shoulder. "The machine tools for processing aircraft parts, the improvement of internal combustion engines, the rails for the front lines, and many projects recorded in the *shuji*... I'm a little envious of Pasha and Celine. Although Blackfire can also be used as hands, it's not as flexible as tentacles after all, and the number that can be controlled at the same time is also very limited."

"That won't do. I don't want to sleep with a big meatball. Besides, you are not only the Minister of Engineering, but also the Queen of Graycastle, and you often have to appear in front of the public," Roland laughed. He knew that Anna was not complaining, but sharing her happiness with him. Since taking the initiative to serve as the Minister of Engineering, her spirit has become much richer, and she is no longer the expressionless person she used to be in front of others. The only thing that hasn't changed is her original earnestness. "Of course, I am also helping you find suitable people. If everything goes well, the Ministry of Engineering may soon be filled with people."

According to the timeline, Rex of the Materials Association should have arrived in the Fjords. He wondered if *A Summary of Buoyancy*, which served as a reward, would attract the attention of those people. What he drew at the very end was based on *Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea*. For "quasi-inventors" who had never been exposed to science fiction concepts, such a grand and magnificent vision could be considered the best object of resonance.

"Is that so?" Anna stretched and gently hugged him. "I'll be looking forward to it. But now... I want some other rewards."

Well, it seems that there is more than one person to reward today, Roland thought with a smile, gently stroking her smooth back.

...

After Anna fell asleep contentedly, Roland closed his eyes as well.

When he opened his eyes again, the ceiling had turned into the style of the Soul Building, and the morning sun was seeping into the room from a corner of the curtain.

Washing up, eating breakfast, sending Xiluo out—everything was the same as usual. Roland leaned on the railing of the corridor, overlooking the crowded streets and alleys below. Students with bags, hurried office workers, and elderly people doing morning exercises formed a busy scene of life, chaotic but full of vitality.

The city looked as peaceful as ever, no different from when he first entered it, but he knew that the world had changed. In places invisible to ordinary people, a force was changing it, as if the dream had gained self-awareness.

Unseen memory content, that old red book, and the note clipped inside were all proof of the change.

Since reading *The Reason for Existence I*, Roland had become concerned about the place name Rose Cafe, but whether it was searching online or witches searching street by street, no clues were found. There were forty-six cafes in the city, but none of them were called Rose.

It wasn't that he hadn't considered the possibility of a prank, but as he learned more about the real world, he found that the content of the book was becoming increasingly difficult to ignore, and he felt that the note was also meaningful.

A completely disappeared alien.

Not the first outbreak of war.

Unstoppable awakening and erosion.

All of this seemed to find shadows in the real world, especially the discovery of the Radian Clan battling the Match Men, which made the content full of déjà vu.

What puzzled him most was why a book created in the dream world could subtly correspond to reality and also use the term "Battle of Divine Will." Unfortunately, according to Garcia, the author of this book did not leave any information, and the only breakthrough seemed to be the note.

However, before finding the Rose Cafe, he could only hide the many doubts in his heart.

He returned to the living room and waited until about nine o'clock. A rhythmic knock came from outside the door—"Bang, bang-bang," one light and two heavy, which was the signal representing the hallway being empty.

Roland quickly opened the door and let the knocker into the room.

"Your Majesty, good morning," three petite and cute witches saluted him, one of whom was Tong'en, the "Veil of Darkness" who was the first to enter the dream world.

It really is... "high school students." Roland couldn't help but want to facepalm. He knew Tong'en very well. With the ability to erase the traces of her teammates, she joined the Holy Guard in the second year after her awakening. She was twenty years old when she accepted the soul transformation. She had rich combat experience and was good at using short knives, *bishou*, and other weapons for infiltration operations. However, due to her small size and the slow-aging effect unique to magic, she looked no different from a young girl in her teens.

And so were the other two.

He couldn't help but recall his conversation with Celine—

"School? I remember the average age of the God's Punishment Witches is around twenty, right? According to this age group, the corresponding school is university, but their knowledge level is at most around junior high school. If the age doesn't match, it may lead to exposure of their identities."

"Please rest assured, Your Majesty. If it's just about looking younger, there are still many of us who can manage that."

Judging from the fact that the other two looked even younger than Tong'en, Celine was not exaggerating.

It could only be said that he had entrusted the daily eating, drinking, and playing to Phyllis, Faltie, and others, and had indeed paid less attention to the God's Punishment Witches. After all, the team of more than 300 people was divided into dozens of groups that rotated. If he had to lead the team every time, where would he find the time to collect and remember various academic materials?

In this regard, Roland believed that his self-discipline was still quite high.

"My name is Sheng Milan, and my ability is posture imitation. As long as someone is connected to my magic, I can perfectly imitate any action. This is my second time in the dream world, and I look forward to your guidance."

"My name is Duoduo, and my ability is the non-existent pocket. Simply put, I can put items into invisible packages made of magic. Uh... It's not very useful, but I won't let down Celine-daren's instructions and the reputation of the Mystery Society!"

The two introduced themselves respectively.

Judging from their abilities, they were indeed not combat witches. Such witches, because they cannot join the Holy Guard, usually work harder in other areas. Ability influences character—this seems to be confirmed by the card-playing trio.

As for Tong'en, she was probably chosen by Celine to protect them, after all, the dream world is not without danger, especially with the increasing number of Fallen Evils.

Roland nodded and looked at the three of them. "Celine should have told you about this mission. Later, try to talk as little as possible and just cooperate with me when the other party asks."

"Yes, Your Majesty."

After solving the age problem, the next challenge was "how can an unregistered person go to school."

In fact, not only schooling, but the identity of the witches of Taquila had always troubled Roland, so much so that he had to sneak out to rob Fallen Evils every time, choosing late nights when he would not attract attention.

If it weren't for the witches' abilities to cover it up, the warehouse where different people were always coming and going would probably have been exposed to the enthusiastic residents of the Tongzi residential area.

After thinking about it, there was only one person who could solve this problem once and for all.

Roland took out his phone and dialed Garcia's number.