The scene shifts to White Eagle headquarters. Wizard set down his phone, glanced around the spacious living room of the luxurious villa, and asked, "So, anyone interested in going?"
He sat casually on the sofa, legs crossed, his right hand adorned with five rings gently holding a stemmed glass of wine. He took a sip.
Besides Wizard himself, five translucent figures hovered in various corners of the room, each representing one of the White Eagle Eight. This remote connection had been established using Wizard's magic.
A hooded girl with a petite stature spoke up. "Completely uninterested. It'll just be pointless bickering with Sakura Nation and Dragon Nation—boring."
Another figure, his features indistinct as if experiencing a poor connection, chimed in. "I'm still cleaning up the mess Martyr left behind. No time for this."
It's worth noting that after Martyr's death, his territories hadn't been neatly divided among the remaining seven. Instead, White Eagle had initiated an internal competition to select a new member for the Eight—a kind of gladiatorial contest where those confident in their abilities could participate until the strongest candidate emerged to take Martyr's place.
With two members declining, Wizard turned to the remaining three. "Speaking of which, why isn't Prophet at the Eight-Person Conference again? What's up with her?"
"Who knows? That guy's always been secretive. Why bother with him?" the tall man said. "I'm more interested in the conference with the Dragon Nation. Will their Director be attending? I've heard he's as strong as any of our White Eagle Eight. I'd love to test my skills against him."
"So, you're going to a conference just to pick a fight?" the curvaceous woman quipped. "Still, I'm free these days. I could make the trip."
The third member remained silent, then abruptly ended the call, making their refusal crystal clear.
With that, the delegation to the conference was finalized: the tall man, codenamed Mad Lion; the shapely woman, codenamed Hunter; and Wizard himself.
Wizard spoke up, "Speaking of which, what do you make of Sakura Nation's report claiming Martyr was deliberately set up to die?"
Well, that was predictable. Sakura Nation actually delivered such a report to White Eagle.
Mad Lion shrugged. "Who knows? It could be true or false."
Hunter offered her take: "My bet's on Sakura Nation pulling some shady moves. We'll find out the truth when we get there."
-
In the Dragon Nation, the scene shifts back to Firefly. She had already left the Bureau of Anomalous Investigations and returned to her home, located in the same neighborhood as Robin's apartment complex.
Her eyes were fixed blankly on the Tarot cards spread across the table before her, a clear sign that her mind was far from the deck itself. Instead, her attention was focused entirely on the Chat Group.
She was studying the Chat Group's three core functions: chatting, sending and receiving items, and summoning Group Members.
At first glance, these functions seemed simple enough. But Firefly's situation was far from ordinary.
Consider this crucial question: was the Chat Group bound to the body or the soul? She already knew the answer: unequivocally, the soul.
The incident that revealed this had occurred recently. Robin had just finished dinner and returned home. Out of boredom, she idly tried summoning the Chat Group, and to her surprise, the interface materialized before her.
Even more astonishingly, she could use the Chat Group normally to communicate with others, naturally using the "Peace Dove" account. Thank goodness the Chat Group wasn't tied to real-name registration, or who knows what identity it might have assigned her.
After discovering that both versions of herself could access the Chat Group, she began her experimental journey. She sent private messages to herself, initiated item transfers between her accounts, and even attempted to summon a group member... herself.
To her surprise, all these actions were possible.
Firefly gazed at the pastry in her hand, the very one Robin had bought on the way home. Now, thanks to the Chat Group, it had been transferred to Firefly.
More importantly, Firefly examined the Chat Group interface:
[Invincible Bro sent a package to Red Cape Hero - Claimed]
[Shu Cat sent a package to Invincible Bro - Claimed]
[Today I Want to Eat Soup Dumplings sent a package to Peace Dove - Unclaimed]
It was clear that everyone else was also experimenting with the Chat Group, testing its capabilities. However, when Firefly sent items to herself, the transaction didn't appear in the group chat.
She speculated that the Chat Group might have recognized it as a pointless conversation with oneself and therefore filtered it out. What was truly absurd, though, was that the command had still been executed. Since Robin had issued the instruction and Firefly had received it, the sender and recipient were distinct entities at the time of execution, even though they were essentially the same person.
This meant Firefly could not only respond to summons from other group members to assist them, but also accept summons from her alternate self, effectively achieving instantaneous teleportation.
For example, if Robin ever found herself in danger, she could shout, "SAM, help me!" and in an instant, SAM, already transformed, could accept the summon request from her group member (herself) and teleport behind Robin. The thought sent a thrill through her.
(TL Note: Help Me Mr. Svarog!!)
"Come to think of it," Firefly murmured to herself, "even though Shu Cat is the owner of this super ability, I'm actually the one benefiting the most?"
After studying the Chat Group, Firefly finally turned her attention back to the deck of Tarot cards in front of her. There was no particular reason, really; she just had them in hand, and Robin had spent ages researching Tarot tutorials online, only to rush off to fight the Boss without ever using them. All that research couldn't go to waste!
So Firefly decided to test her "masterful" divination skills—acquired in a mere fifteen minutes of study—by giving herself a reading.
"Ahem!" She cleared her throat, rubbed her hands together, and muttered strange incantations. "Here we go! My turn! Draw cards!"
She was using the simplest card layout: drawing four cards, placing them in specific positions, and then flipping them over one by one. The real challenge lay not in the draw itself, but in what came next: interpreting the revealed cards.
"Alright, let's see what these things are..." she muttered, flipping over the Tarot cards laid face down before her one by one.
"The Fool (Upright), the Magician (Upright), the Hanged..." She checked the meanings of each card against the online annotations she'd found earlier.