[Main Quest: Dreamcatchers in the Secret Gardens activated.]
[Task Description: The Dreamer seals their own heart, throwing themselves into an illusory ideal beyond the sight of the world, constructing a mysterious domain amidst sorrowful melodies, never turning back on the path of ethereal hope and tempting inducement.
Yet the dream that wishes to come true has long been entangled between darkness and lies. The seemingly all-powerful, arrogant leader is nothing more than a pitiful, hateful person indulging in illusory bubbles.
In the end, will this dream that blooms in withering be a beautiful dream or a nightmare?]
[Completing the main quest Dreamcatchers in the Secret Gardens grants the following rewards: Radiant Tide20, Lustrous Tide10, Astrite1600, Shell Credit100000.]
Unlike the short descriptions of previous main quests, Phrolova's main quest description was exceptionally long. However, Noah had no mind to pay attention to its content at all. His mind felt like it had been hit by a tsunami.
No — why did Phrolova just show up directly? It wasn't like this in wuwagame!
Phrolova should have opposed him more, increased his hatred toward her, occasionally caused him some trouble and added some chaos, and had special interactions with him in certain plot points.
Finally, in a certain main story event, she would fight him desperately. Then he would find Phrolova's fatal weakness and show her her own kill CG.
How could Phrolova just come straight to him like this? It wasn't like this in wuwagame at all. He refused to accept it!
"I actually... waited here for a very long time."
Phrolova on the bench lowered her head, not daring to look directly into Noah's eyes. She failed to catch the change in Noah's expression and continued speaking softly on her own:
"I kept hesitating whether I should seek help from you. I kept writing messages on the terminal, deleting and rewriting them, rewriting and deleting them. It's good that you came over."
Her lips trembled slightly. Her hands unconsciously clutched the hem of her clothes tightly, as if this could give her some courage:
"When we met before, you said: if I need help, I can come find you... is that promise still valid? I... really need you right now."
Phrolova finally raised her head. Her eyes trembled with a look that was almost pleading.
Repeated inquiries, small actions — all her behavior showed that Phrolova at this moment was extremely lacking in a sense of security.
She was weak. Extremely weak. With just a bit of perception, one could detect that the Resonance energy inside Phrolova's body was almost completely exhausted.
If he attacked her now, she would have no ability to resist at all.
Noah did not speak. He lowered his eyes, turned and walked away. His mind was a bit chaotic right now and needed to be reorganized.
No wonder he previously felt an inexplicable sense of familiarity with Selene's experience. It turned out Selene was Phrolova.
The playwright script that suddenly appeared for him was actually given to him by Phrolova right before he was about to step in front of the Color Window Mirror.
Then why didn't Phrolova's banner appear when he met Selene before?
The answer came the moment this question arose in his mind — it was a clone. The previous Selene was a clone created by Phrolova.
And this time, she had disguised herself and came to see him in person!
Thinking of this, Noah finally realized belatedly that the Color Window Mirror in Carlotta's companion story was Cristoforo's script.
In that case, wasn't Cristoforo originally planning to trap him or Carlotta to death?
Calculating this way, if he had not erased Rover's power at that time, in front of the unique frequency-sealing power of characters in the mirror world, the script Phrolova gave him might have been the only way to break the situation.
Although the script was not used during the Color Window Mirror incident, it proved extremely useful on Septimont's script.
But — why did she help him?
Seeing Noah turn and leave, Phrolova's hands tightly clutched her skirt. Her teeth bit hard on her lip as she tried her best to hide the disappointment on her face, but her heart gradually sank to the bottom.
Was it... still a rejection?
Were the words he said before all lies?
She was so stupid, actually believing someone again so foolishly. She and Noah were originally enemies anyway. Sure enough... other people were all unreliable—
"Hey, Little Cart."
Not far away, Noah finally stopped. He raised the terminal to his ear. Although his voice was soft, Phrolova's sharp senses caught it.
"Something suddenly came up. I won't be farming Tacet Discords with you today. That's it. Hanging up."
Hearing these words, Phrolova felt a surge of emotion like regaining something she had lost.
So he left to cancel his appointment with that Sentinel Threnodian dual-Resonator for her sake. So... this counted as agreeing to help her?
It was unexpected, yet secretly made her happy.
After hanging up the communication, Noah quickly walked back over. His gaze returned to calm as he pretended he had not noticed Phrolova's true identity:
"I did make such a promise back then, right — if you need my help, I won't refuse."
"You didn't forget." Phrolova felt an inexplicable joy in her heart.
"Yes!" Noah nodded heavily:
"Let's go. I will help you, Selene."
He put slightly more emphasis on the last three words, but Phrolova, immersed in joy, did not notice.
...
"My relatives, my mother, everyone I knew — their lives were taken away by a natural disaster."
"But they did not truly die. My Resonance ability can connect to the other shore of another world. Their Remnants and their frequencies live on in my other shore."
"Through certain methods, I will bring that other shore into this world. I can let them live again in the form of Tacet Discords."
Riding a gondola all the way north, Phrolova seemed to have found a rare person she could confide in and recounted her experiences.
Listening to Phrolova's words, Noah's eyes narrowed slightly.
As expected — Phrolova had still obtained a Threnodian gem through some method he didn't know about.
No. This kind of thing could not be allowed to fall into the hands of the Fractsidus again. He had to find a way to get the Threnodian gem, and complete the main quest while he was at it.
After completing those two goals, he would kill Phrolova.
With thoughts racing, Noah finally spoke, acting out his confusion at just the right level:
"Since you can help them resurrect, why did you come find me?"
"This..." Phrolova lowered her head again and spoke the script she had already prepared:
"After parting with you last time, I went to Jinzhou once. I heard that you are very capable... and their frequencies have been dissipating and becoming incomplete under the erosion of time. I have no way..."
"You want me to help restore their frequencies to completeness, then transfer them onto Tacet Discords?"
Hearing Noah's words, Phrolova immediately nodded heavily, full of expectation and nervousness.
Great. He understood her meaning right away. But such a task that sounded very difficult and laborious — would he agree?
"I can't resurrect a person and turn them into a Tacet Discord." Noah shook his head, then continued:
"How about this? Let's work hard to resurrect them as normal living people. It doesn't matter even if it takes more time. What do you think?"
Upon hearing this, Phrolova's eyes instantly lit up with brilliance, full of gratitude. Even her breathing became heavier.
"Really?"
To Phrolova, frequencies in the world were common. There was no boundary between human and Tacet Discord for her and Hecate, and the same could apply to her relatives.
But — she was indeed afraid that her relatives would be resurrected as Tacet Discords only to be killed and refined into Echoes by slaughter machines right after.
If they could be resurrected as humans, that would absolutely be the best choice.
"I'm not sure if it will succeed. Let's try first."
Noah shook his head slightly.
Shorekeeper had previously said that the dead cannot be brought back to life — it was Solaris's iron law. When a person dies, their frequency dissipates and cannot be revived.
But Phrolova's relatives' frequencies were preserved by Phrolova on the other shore.
They were dead, but not completely dead.
So there was still hope!
Just like when he revived Imperator before — first restore the frequency, then imagine a body, and stuff the frequency back into the body. It was as simple as putting an elephant into a refrigerator.
The only difference was that Imperator was too strong and consumed a lot from Encore, while Phrolova's relatives were almost all ordinary people.
As if remembering something, Noah suddenly asked:
"By the way, how many relatives do you have in total?"
Hearing this question, Phrolova, who had been secretly rejoicing, stiffened. She stretched out one finger and said weakly:
"One... thousand... plus..."
Hearing this number, even though he had some mental preparation, Noah still inevitably felt his heart tremble.
Wasn't the Nightmare Nest only 36 Tacet Discords? How could the other shore contain over a thousand people?
This was a massive project.
Before starting work, he should pull the banner first.
In terms of strength and versatility, even Cartethyia was slightly inferior to Phrolova. Noah strongly recommended that any player pull for Phrolova.
If he had pulled a six-chain Phrolova back in Jinzhou, he would have been happily playing through both Jinzhou and Rinascita long ago.
Noah glanced at his resources after pulling for Augusta.
[Current inventory: Radiant Tide0, Astrite23080.]
144 pulls? With his luck as an emperor, he should be able to get two-chain, right? It was fine, two-chain was already strong enough.
With sincere belief, eager anticipation, and patient waiting, Noah tapped the ten-pull summon!
20 pulls. No Phrolova.
40 pulls. No Phrolova.
60 pulls. No Phrolova.
80 pulls. Gold. No Phrolova.
"Black Shores Encore, reporting for duty!"
Looking at that proud little face on the panel, Noah knew he had pulled Encore two-chain.
No big issue. With his luck, eating the guaranteed pull meant at least double gold next!
100 pulls. No Phrolova...
144 pulls — she didn't come.
Noah's defense was completely broken.
"Goddammit Kuro, farming whales again!"