"I have my own rhythm."
In the Montelli Quarter, Carlotta was annoyed by Ciaccona's nagging:
"I've looked into it. That kind of personality is just slow to warm up. I can warm him up."
"No, sister."
Ciaccona was already so shocked she didn't know what to say. Her fingers unconsciously stirred the afternoon tea in front of the table as she once again acted as Carlotta's strategist:
"Think about it carefully. Is it possible that he really has no feelings for you? When he hugs you, he always pinches your armpits like he's holding a child. That's deliberately avoiding being too intimate with you."
"Oh, listen to me, he's different from other men!"
Carlotta argued confidently:
"See, isn't this exactly a very gentlemanly behavior? It means he also keeps his distance from other girls. Isn't that what a good man is?"
"You—I'm telling you he has no feelings for you, and you're telling me he's a good man. We're talking past each other... Ah, sister, wake up."
Ciaccona slapped her forehead, so anxious her words became incoherent:
"Think about it. If he were interested in you too, has he ever actively looked for you?"
As Ciaccona's words fell, Carlotta's terminal suddenly emitted a signal tone. She connected the communication.
"Carlotta, it's me, Noah. I'm downstairs at your place."
"Okay, coming right down!"
After hanging up the communication, Carlotta hurriedly smoothed her hair and skirt, quickly got up and went to the window. Sure enough, she looked down and saw Noah's figure below.
The moment she saw Noah, a strong feeling of joy and urgency surged through her heart. Carlotta couldn't wait even a second longer. She simply opened the window and jumped straight down from the third floor.
Behind her, Ciaccona saw this scene and slapped her forehead heavily again, her face full of numbness:
"No hope. Really no hope. She's actually being played around in circles by a man."
No way! She had to save her sister from the fire.
Ciaccona hurriedly stood up from her seat, left the tea room, and quickly went down the stairs. By the time she got downstairs, Noah and Carlotta were nowhere to be seen.
"No... where's my sister!"
...
The light doesn't get brighter if you don't pull it out; the more you argue a principle, the clearer it becomes.
Before talking with Ciaccona, Carlotta only felt that her inner emotions were still in a hazy stage.
But after detailed exchanges with Ciaccona and repeatedly recalling her shared experiences with Noah, Carlotta became increasingly clear about her own feelings.
He was like a cup of extremely high-quality tea. At first glance, it might not be stunning, but the more you savored it, the sweeter the aftertaste became, making one obsessed.
No matter what, this man—she was determined to have him!
Since Noah was slow to warm up, she would take the initiative. Pursuing a man is like a layer of gauze; with the Montelli family's momentum as her attack, taking down little Noah would be easy!
Thinking of this, Carlotta smiled knowingly. Beside her, Noah continued the conversation:
"For the mask, I can arrange for someone to custom-make one for you. But that way, we'll have plenty of time left."
"Plenty of time?"
Noah looked at Carlotta beside him in surprise:
"I thought after dealing with Capollo's matter, you'd be busy for a while."
"Then you've underestimated the family's efficiency."
Carlotta flicked her hair, pretending to say casually:
"Speaking of which, tomorrow is Carnevale. I'm a bit nervous right now. It would be great if someone could take me out for a walk to relieve the stress."
Like fighting some Tacet Discords... She remembered Noah loved fighting Tacet Discords the most. Penitent's End used to be full of Tacet Discords, but now there wasn't a single one left.
"Hey, speaking of that, I really do have a way to relieve stress!"
Noah raised a finger and made a suggestion:
"Want to go out of the city with me for some fun, Little Potato?"
"Let's go!"
Carlotta didn't ask where, because anywhere was fine.
...
[Chronicle Mission: [Overflowing Colors Painting] has been activated (0/10).]
[Task Description: The collapsed Echo is continuously devouring and absorbing the frequencies and energy from the surrounding land, causing the nearby flowers, plants, and ores to lose their colors. Please return the colors to the earth.]
[Completing the task will reward: Astrite *1600, Shell Credit *10000.]
Overflowing Colors Painting was a mini-game on the 2.0 map in Wuthering Waves, and it was Noah's favorite game when he was doing carry services.
You just needed to move your fingers to dye the picture in various colors, and with the game's vibration and sound effects, it was incredibly stress-relieving.
But now that it had become reality, the situation had changed a bit.
Looking at the square screen erected in the center of this gray-white area, Noah was momentarily at a loss for what to do.
In the game, you just needed to move your fingers, but encountering this kind of puzzle in reality, he instead didn't know how to proceed.
"I know how to do this."
Carlotta reached out and probed toward the wide screen:
"Resonators just need to condense their perception and sort out and subdivide the chaotic frequencies formed by the collapsed Echo inside the screen. The most common way is the Overflowing Colors Painting method."
As her words fell, the wide, turbid screen immediately became clear, scattering into various colored blocks.
"So, there are other ways?" Noah became interested.
"Yes, if it's a Resonator with strong perception abilities, they can also process these chaotic frequencies in all sorts of ways."
"Let me try."
In terms of perception ability, the one unlocked by his panel was top-tier—even Jiyan and Yangyang, those Aero-attribute Resonators, were no match for him.
Noah's playfulness surged. He closed his eyes, extended his hand toward the screen, and released his perception.
Inside the screen, the gray matter formed by the collapsed Echo was continuously absorbing the energy frequencies from the surrounding plants and ores.
The normal approach was to extract and sort the frequencies belonging to the plants and ores, restoring the colors to the corresponding areas, but that was only treating the symptoms, not the root cause—after all, the gray matter would continue to absorb frequencies.
Plants that lost their colors, collapsed Echo devouring frequencies... A sudden flash of inspiration hit Noah's mind!
Soon, with a thought from Noah, a 2D animated farmhouse yard appeared on the screen, with five rows of lawn smoothly laid out.
"Little Potato, let me introduce you."
Noah pointed to the various plants above the screen:
"This is called Sunflower, it can produce sunlight. This is called Peashooter, it can spit out bullets. This is called Potato Mine, it can explode..."
"Huh?"
Carlotta stared intently at the Potato Mine pattern, feeling inexplicably familiar.
A woman's sixth sense made her keenly aware that this Potato Mine had a lot to do with her nickname?
"By reasonably planting plants, you can eliminate the gray zombies formed by the collapsed Echo. I'll play one round first to demonstrate for you."
Noah skillfully planted Sunflowers in the back row, collected sunlight to plant other plants, and soon eliminated all the gray zombies.
The screen gradually dissipated, and endless colors returned to the surrounding gray-white world centered on the screen.
"Did you get it?"
"I did, but I have a question."
Carlotta pointed at two plants on the screen with an unfriendly expression:
"This Tall Chestnut and Potato Mine—are they related to our code names?"
"No!" Noah perked up and flatly denied: "Absolutely not!"
As if!
So the nickname Little Potato was describing her petite figure... even a bit short? You're the short one!
Fine, she'd note this grudge in her little book for now. She hadn't caught Noah yet, so she'd endure for the time being. There would be plenty of chances to settle old scores after confirming their relationship.
Carlotta secretly clenched her fists, forcing a strained smile on her face:
"Okay, I'll believe you."
After some casual chatting, the two deployed their Gliders and soon landed beside another river that had lost its colors.
Noah skillfully edited the scene inside the screen into a Plants vs. Zombies setup. Unlike last time, this scene had two extra rows of pools in the middle.
"Come on, this one's for you to play."
Noah stepped aside, letting Carlotta take over. She quickly filled the screen with all sorts of plants.
The plants on the lawn outside the pools were standard, but inside the pools, there was a large coverage of Potato Mines.
"Strange, why did you plant so many Potato Mines in the pools?" Noah was a bit puzzled.
Carlotta chuckled lightly, with a meaningful tone:
"I think this Little Potato loves swimming, you know what I mean?"
It was almost a direct hint—he should be able to understand her meaning, right? Little Potato loves swimming—short love swim!
Under Carlotta's expectant gaze, Noah rubbed his chin, and suddenly his eyes lit up:
"I got it. This is called blanching potatoes!"
As soon as the words fell, the expectant look on Carlotta's face vanished completely. She stomped her foot hard, angrily deployed her Glider, and left:
"I'm not playing anymore. You play by yourself!"
"Hey, Little Potato."
In mid-air, she suddenly heard a call and immediately slowed her Glider speed, wanting to hear what Noah had to say.
"Don't forget to attend tomorrow's Carnevale performance on time."
One sentence made Carlotta's vision go black, nearly causing her to fall from the sky.