Leaving The Lost Beyond, it was once again dusk.
Noah teleported to the edge of the mountain peak behind Ragunna City. He sat down once more as the crimson burning clouds and the sea reflected in his eyes.
Everything was the same as yesterday, except there was no Phrolova inviting him to admire the scenery of heaven and earth together.
He suddenly felt a bit lonely.
A long time ago, he had read a sentence in a book: the feeling of loneliness itself is an emotional loss. If one does not expect anything, there will be no loss, and without loss, there will be no loneliness.
So what was he losing? Perhaps in the experiences of these past few days, he had also hoped that the person by his side was simply the one with a tragic background named Selene, and not the Fractsidus supervisor Phrolova.
Encore's fantasy manifestation was very strong, but it could not change facts that had already happened. Jinhsi's Time power was very strong, but it also could not rewind hundreds of years.
Although Solaris was vast, in the end there was no World Tree-like existence that allowed criminals to simply erase their criminal memories and then peacefully welcome rebirth.
Watching the setting sun slowly sink into the water surface and the night gradually envelop the sea, Noah let out a soft sigh:
"It would be nice if Rover were here..."
It seemed that every time he felt he hadn't done well enough, he would subconsciously think of Rover.
Letting out a long breath and casting away the troubling thoughts, Noah opened his panel, wanting to find something to do.
The quest list only had one daily quest for clearing Tacet Discords. Other than that, the entire panel was completely clean with no other pending tasks.
He opened his backpack and took out the Threnodian gem he had obtained earlier.
"Fish in prison, are you there?"
The gem remained motionless, suppressing all its fluctuations as if it were an ordinary, unremarkable stone.
"Leviathan, I know you're listening."
As soon as the words fell, the gem trembled weakly, then pretended to be dead again.
"Hey, ignoring me, huh?"
Noah flicked the Threnodian gem with his finger, brought it close to his mouth, and chanted in a low whisper:
"Le~vi~a~than~"
"Cartethyia betrayed you, Mya betrayed you, Fenrico betrayed you, and the Fractsidus betrayed you too..."
One heart-stabbing whisper after another pierced into its core. Leviathan was already cursing wildly in its heart.
What the hell, are you sick?!
What kind of normal person chats by specifically poking at someone's sore spots?
It finally understood what those people who had suffered its whispers for years felt like.
The key point was that it didn't dare make a single sound and could only hope Noah would treat it as an ordinary stone and throw it away.
"Fish in prison, let me tell you a joke. When I returned to Jinzhou earlier, I encountered Ovathrax."
Hearing this, Leviathan's heart skipped a beat.
"I told Ovathrax about your situation. Do you know what it said?"
Noah suddenly paused and did not continue. He simply looked at the Threnodian gem with great interest.
This kind of half-spoken behavior was the most effective at arousing curiosity. He refused to believe that Leviathan, who held authority over Assimilation and Secrets, could endure it.
Sure enough, Leviathan's dry and hoarse voice came from the gem:
"What did it say?"
Noah let out a cold laugh:
"I lied to you. I didn't actually tell it anything. I just wanted to confirm whether you were inside this stone. I didn't expect you to be so easy to trick. You got baited right away."
As soon as the words fell, the Threnodian gem immediately fell silent again. However, Noah did not quiet down:
"With that kind of intelligence, you shouldn't even be a Threnodian. You can't win fights, you can't run away, and you even got betrayed by your own subordinates. You've completely lost all face for Threnodians."
"Shut up!"
The gem began trembling violently. Leviathan roared in humiliation and rage:
"I'm going to kill you, Noah! You've gone too far! I will definitely kill you!"
Completely ignoring Leviathan's "tantrum," Noah casually opened his terminal, editing a message to Shorekeeper while teasing Leviathan:
"Listen up, Leviathan. There's a super luxurious prison cell in the Black Shores, but none of us will go in. Guess who's going to go in?"
...
Black Shores.
A petite figure with short blue hair suddenly pushed open the door and stormed into the flower room.
"Boss, this is bad! There's a huge ominous omen!"
Buling held a shattered black box with both hands, her face full of anxiety:
"Look at my Mystery Box. It just broke into pieces. The last time it broke was when Slaughterblade of Carnage fused with you! The Black Shores is about to face a great disaster. You have to believe me, Boss."
Shorekeeper's fingers paused on the piano keys. She glanced down at Buling and the door that had been forcefully pushed open behind her:
"Buling, if possible, please knock on the door next time before entering. As for the ominous omen you mentioned, I'm sorry. As a Remnant lifeform, I don't really understand this kind of mysticism..."
Before she could finish, Shorekeeper paused slightly upon receiving Noah's message.
[Noah: I captured Leviathan alive. Can you detain it on your side?]
[Shorekeeper: I need to conduct research before giving you a definitive answer.]
On the other side, after receiving the reply, Noah was about to use teleportation to head to the Black Shores when the red, burning-hot gem in his hand suddenly shook violently.
Bang! The Threnodian gem exploded.
The Threnodian consciousness contained within it turned into a streak of flowing light and fled into the distance, vanishing at the horizon in the blink of an eye.
"Want to run? No chance!"
Noah immediately switched to Encore and continuously visualized the appearance of the Threnodian gem in his mind.
Shape, material, color... This color looks like Astrite. A strange thought suddenly appeared in Noah's mind.
The next second, an Astrite appeared in his hand.
[Obtained Astrite*1.]
Oh no!
Looking at this Astrite, Noah's expression instantly stiffened.
Several error messages almost immediately appeared in his vision.
[Detected illegal hack intrusion. Performing self-check... Removing illegally obtained Astrite*1.]
[Character "Encore" has been restricted due to the use of hacks and illegal plugins. Remaining time: 6 days 23 hours 59 minutes.]
This is bad. He overdid it.
Noah reacted urgently and switched to Jinhsi, activating Time power to its maximum range and rapidly rewinding time.
However, the Threnodian gem remained broken, and the character Encore could not escape the ban penalty.
"I really overdid it..."
He stood frozen in place.
....
Black Shores.
One minute later, Shorekeeper received another message from Noah.
[Noah: Never mind. Leviathan ran away.]
[Shorekeeper: I don't quite understand what happened. Do you need help?]
[Noah: No, you can continue with your work.]
Withdrawing her consciousness from the message, Shorekeeper looked at Buling, who was performing divination in person to show the severity of the situation.
"Boss, look. I'm doing a reading right now. The result will definitely be a great omen of disaster. I've done it more than ten times before, and every time it was a great disaster."
Buling vigorously shook the turtle shell and poured out three copper coins, all landing heads up.
"It looks like a great auspicious omen." Shorekeeper glanced at the copper coins. Her beautiful eyes half-lowered as she stared at the embarrassed Buling.
Logically speaking, someone at Buling's level as a Bloom Bearer should not have the right to burst directly into the flower room.
"Boss, I..."
"No need to explain." Shorekeeper spoke gently: "You are also worried about the safety of the Black Shores. I won't blame you. You may leave."
"Thank you, Boss."
Buling left as if escaping.
Inside the flower room, Shorekeeper's thoughts moved and she sent out a message asking Buling's superior to come over.
...
Whisperwind Haven, Noah stomped his foot in frustration.
"What a disaster!"
How did he let Leviathan escape?
But the matter had already happened. He could only comfort himself:
"It's fine, it's fine. Only one strand of Leviathan's consciousness escaped. Without Cristoforo helping it, it will take at least several decades to fully recover."
With some toothache, he opened the panel.
Sure enough, a red dot was lit up on the mailbox icon.
[Mail: Game Vulnerability Compensation (1600 Astrite).]
He claimed the compensation for Encore's ban.
Eh—there was another mail?
[Mail: TGA · Wuthering Waves Nomination Thanks.]
[Dear Rovers: Wuthering Waves is honored to have received a nomination for the Best Mobile Game of the Year award at this TGA. We will distribute rewards to all Rovers across the servers.]
[Attachment: 1000 Astrite.]
"Yahoo——"
Noah, who hadn't received such an official mail in a long time, was first stunned, then overjoyed.
Free rewards. No reason to refuse them.
He clicked to claim it. A full 1000 Astrite arrived. Because of this mail, his thoughts briefly drifted to the distant Blue Star.
If those god-like players found out that Wuthering Waves won a TGA award, what kind of reaction would they have?
The moment this thought emerged, he immediately had the answer:
"I know this one—TGA is also for cool dogs."
...