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"Eh?!
"What is Natsuki doing?!"
By the small stream not far away, Marin and Chika, who were huddled together whispering, saw Amamiya Natsuki's reckless behavior and their eyes widened in unison, then they simultaneously clenched their fists.
How dare he kiss another girl in front of us! It's too much!
At the same time.
After a one-second kiss.
Amamiya Natsuki, without a word, darted away, narrowly dodging Miss Ice Princess's murderous fist that was swung at him.
"You, you actually dare..."
Miss Ice Princess's chest heaved, and the bunny ear hair ornament on her head trembled uncontrollably from shame and anger. The cold aura emanating from her body almost froze one's body and soul.
However, Amamiya Natsuki was not flustered in the slightest.
After all, he was an experienced veteran and could clearly grasp Miss Ice Princess's depth.
Amamiya Natsuki stood calmly a short distance away, holding up three fingers.
"One."
"Two."
"Three..."
As the countdown ended, the ashamed and angry Miss Ice Princess suddenly froze in place. A look of confusion first appeared on her pretty face, and her eyes stared blankly. Then, her pretty face rapidly flushed red at a visible speed.
"Did you remember?"
Amamiya Natsuki asked.
Shinomiya Kaguya's gaze swept over Chika and Marin not far away. The temperature of her crimson, burning face rose again, almost dripping blood. She felt a dizzy spell in her mind, her whole body feeling light-headed, almost falling over.
She was, she was kissed forcibly again.
And it was in front of Chika and Marin... She couldn't face anyone anymore.
Amamiya Natsuki, quick as a flash, hugged Kaguya, and whispered:
"Don't faint. If you faint, I'll have no choice but to sacrifice myself and kiss you again."
"..."
Shinomiya Kaguya, hearing this, couldn't help but glare at him in embarrassment.
He actually wants to kiss me again, how could I possibly agree to that!
Thump thump thump.
Chika and Marin ran over together, both puffing out their cheeks as they questioned him.
"Natsuki, what are you doing?"
"How dare you do such a thing to Kaguya-chan, it's too much!"
Being the victim doesn't feel good at all!
"You two shouldn't slander my good name," Amamiya Natsuki said earnestly, "I actually didn't kiss Kaguya at all."
"Eh?"
Fujiwara Chika was stunned, her tone becoming hesitant, "Did I see it wrong?"
Kitagawa Marin, hearing this, also began to doubt: "We were a bit far just now; I only saw Natsuki make that kind of movement... Did he really not kiss her?"
Only Shinomiya Kaguya had no doubts.
Liar.
He clearly kissed me!
Whether it was last time or just now, that burning sensation was not an illusion.
"Don't forget, this is just a nightmare world," Amamiya Natsuki explained, "Our bodies are still in reality. Can kissing in a dream count as a real kiss?"
"...Of course it counts!"
Shinomiya Kaguya couldn't help but shout in her heart.
A kiss is a kiss, and it happened twice! Take responsibility!
The team successfully reunited.
Amamiya Natsuki looked at Kaguya and quickly got to the point: "Time has restarted, and... that's the situation."
"I see," Shinomiya Kaguya raised a hand to tuck the strands of hair behind her ear, letting out a soft sigh to calm herself, "After the restart, I wasn't under the tree?"
"No," Amamiya Natsuki said, "The time point after the restart is different from when we last met."
Shinomiya Kaguya mused:
"Marin and I also encountered restarts in the inn before, roughly once every hour. The current nightmare world might be the same."
"Very likely," Amamiya Natsuki nodded, "After discovering the different restart time points, I found a clock in the inn. If all goes as expected, the restart time should be between 8 PM and 9 PM."
Shinomiya Kaguya quickly said:
"What time is it now?"
Amamiya Natsuki spread his hands helplessly: "It's already 8:30."
First Marin, then Chika, and finally Kaguya—conquering three girls in a row, and having to rush around in between, half an hour was already quite fast.
"Eh?"
Kitagawa Marin put her right hand on her hip, realizing, "So, in another half an hour, the restart will begin again?"
Amamiya Natsuki nodded: "That's right."
Fujiwara Chika's eyes brightened: "We have to start all over again?"
"You're happy too soon," Amamiya Natsuki pressed his right hand, saying faintly, "Don't forget, the copied skills are all temporary. Miko's ability cannot be used indefinitely. Once her eyes close, all of us will be trapped in the nightmare and never wake up."
"How, how dangerous!"
Fujiwara Chika finally understood the seriousness of the crisis.
Shinomiya Kaguya crossed her arms over her chest, her expression serious:
"In other words, we need to find and destroy the nightmare within the next half an hour."
"Then let's get moving quickly," Kitagawa Marin turned her head and looked at Amamiya Natsuki, "Natsuki, where is the nightmare core?"
Amamiya Natsuki shook his head: "I don't know."
"Eh?"
Amamiya Natsuki said:
"I only know that the nightmare is constructed with a certain person as its core."
"What are the characteristics of that person?" Fujiwara Chika asked.
Amamiya Natsuki shook his head again: "I don't know."
"..."
It's, it's over!
Seeing Amamiya Natsuki say "I don't know" several times in a row, Marin and Chika immediately panicked, and even Shinomiya Kaguya couldn't help but frown.
There's only half an hour left.
They only knew that the Nightmare relied on a certain person; other than that, its height, weight, gender, and everything else were unknown.
To find the real target and destroy the Nightmare in such a short time was a hellish difficulty.
Shinomiya Kaguya bit her pink lip lightly: "Since that person is in the hotel, we'll just verify everyone in the hotel."
The most foolish method is often quite effective.
Although the dream was constantly restarting, aside from Amamiya Natsuki and a few others who were 'awake,' everyone else was merely repeating their lives over and over again.
However, the only problem was that Miko's eye power might not last much longer.
Once her eye power was exhausted and the dream restarted, everyone would sink into the dream and never wake up again.
"Actually, there's one more method we can try…"
Amamiya Natsuki spoke while taking out a mysterious coin, drawing the attention of the three girls.
"Isn't this the Lucky Coin?" Kitagawa Marin recognized it at a glance and asked curiously, "What is Natsuki doing with it?"
Amamiya Natsuki said:
"We need luck at a time like this."
"What if we have bad luck?" Fujiwara Chika expressed her concern, "The probability of it landing on heads is too low."
"Exactly." Kitagawa Marin nodded in agreement, "It's hard to get heads even once out of ten times."
"With Miko's eye technique enhancement, my eyes can temporarily see different things," Amamiya Natsuki explained, "This coin isn't actually 'random,' nor can it bring us good luck out of thin air. Instead, it first absorbs a portion of our luck, and once it's full, the next toss will 100% trigger a lucky effect."
He hadn't mentioned this before, mainly because there wasn't a suitable opportunity; Amamiya Natsuki couldn't just say he could see all sorts of hints.
Now the time was right, so he naturally spoke about it.
"I see." Fujiwara Chika suddenly understood, "No wonder I always have bad luck after tossing the coin; it turns out it was absorbing our luck, so naturally, we'd have bad luck."
Shinomiya Kaguya's eyes lit up slightly, having already guessed Amamiya Natsuki's intention, and asked expectantly:
"Can this coin be tossed to the lucky side now?"
"Correct answer."
Amamiya Natsuki smiled, flicked his thumb, and sent the coin flying into the air.
The three girls all looked up, watching the coin tumble.
Clap.
The coin landed steadily on Amamiya Natsuki's hand.
Without any surprise, it was heads up.
From encountering the movie ticket in the Park to entering the game the next day, there was a full day of preparation time. Amamiya Natsuki naturally wouldn't miss out on special items that could increase luck, like this coin. He had already charged it himself, preparing for any eventuality.
Now it came in handy.
"Eh, that's strange." Kitagawa Marin suddenly noticed a blind spot, "We're in a dream, right? Why can we still use items and skills?"
"I'm not sure." Shinomiya Kaguya guessed, "It should be related to the game. Real-world items can't be put into the game inventory. In other words, all game items should have some special quality."
Amamiya Natsuki looked at Kaguya and said:
"Take out the Divination Eraser."
Shinomiya Kaguya nodded lightly and took out an unremarkable eraser.
[Item: Divination Eraser]
[Attribute: This is an ordinary eraser, but because its owner frequently uses it for divination, it has gained a hint of mysterious power. When you toss the eraser for divination, there is a certain probability of getting the correct answer.]
[Note: Divination carries risks; guessing answers requires caution.]
This item was also obtained from the Midnight Mall script, a reward from opening the ride-hailing service. It was just an ordinary eraser, giving the first impression of being used to guess answers during exams, and even then, the guessed answers weren't 100% accurate.
So, what if someone with extremely high luck used the eraser for divination?
Amamiya Natsuki didn't waste time and immediately began his first attempt.
He took out a pencil, wrote 'East, South, West, North' on the four sides of the eraser, and then tossed it casually.
Thud.
The eraser fell to the ground, with the East side facing up.
Amamiya Natsuki's expression was steady; he calmly picked up the eraser and tossed it again.
Three times in a row, each time it landed on East.
"That must be it." Shinomiya Kaguya pursed her lips, "Go east."
"East…" Fujiwara Chika looked around and quickly pointed, "It's this way."
Guided by the Divination Eraser, the four of them proceeded.
When they encountered a fork in the road, they used the eraser to divine the direction. To be safe, they would divine several times each time. Under the super luck bonus, the eraser never gave a second answer.
"That's amazing." Fujiwara Chika exclaimed, "If I use this eraser for exams in the future, won't I be able to become the top student in my grade?"
Amamiya Natsuki looked at her: "How would you divine those objective questions?"
"That's why it's such a pity," the Secretary said with regret, "If only all exams were multiple-choice questions."
"…"
A moment later.
Amamiya Natsuki stopped in front of a building: "The divination result shows that the target is inside."
"It's a hot spring bathhouse!" Kitagawa Marin exclaimed, "It's a hot spring bathhouse! Is the mastermind taking a hot spring bath?"
Kaguya nodded: "It should be."
"What are we waiting for?" Fujiwara Chika waved her hand, "Let's go in quickly."
Amamiya Natsuki said:
"This is the women's bathhouse."
"It's just a dream, what does it matter?"
"You can still get beaten in a dream." Amamiya Natsuki looked at Kaguya, his tone subtle, "My ribs still ache faintly."
Shinomiya Kaguya glared at him when she heard that, pursed her beautiful lips, and said:
"The lucky time has just run out, so the eraser's divination results can't be trusted anymore… Let's go in first and see what the situation is."
After walking and stopping, the lucky time had indeed run out, and the Lucky Coin could not be used again for the foreseeable future.
Fortunately, the effect was obvious, successfully pinpointing the target to the women's hot spring bath.
There shouldn't be many people taking a hot spring bath at this time.
"Then we're going in." Kitagawa Marin put her right hand on her hip and whispered, "Natsuki, wait for our news."
"…"
The three girls lifted the curtain and walked into the women's hot spring bath together.
Amamiya Natsuki stood alone outside the door, silently waiting.
Time quietly passed.
A moment later.
A girl quietly poked out her pretty face.
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