Chapter Twenty-One: The Person in the Dream

  Now looking back, everything is still so vivid.

  Cold and abrupt electronic sounds, dazzling white ceiling, familiar yet somewhat nauseating smell of disinfectant, busy doctors and nurses, chaotic shouts in the ears, body feeling like flames burning, pain as if thorns tightly wrapped around the body, unable to move even a little.

  When I turned my head, I could see that slender figure quietly lying on the bed, eyes tightly closed, sweetly and peacefully like a sleeping beauty in a fairy tale, completely isolating herself from this world, as if everything had nothing to do with her.

  Gradually, the busy crowd began to disperse, leaving only two blurry figures kneeling in front of the bed, sobbing.

  The electronic sound began to slow down, the scorching heat on his body also started to gradually subside, the pain slowly receding, but there was no way to feel any joy. The only thing that could be done was to grab his head and stare at the figure, waiting for the dark and desperate reality to arrive.

  Finally, after a low and prolonged moan, the ward returned to its usual tranquility.

  At that moment, Rode felt as if his heart had also stopped beating.

  After that, Rode never felt this way again, but now he did once more.

  Standing in front of him was a young girl.

  Jet-black silky long hair, slender and weak, wrapped in a hospital gown, pure white skin, delicate, with a face almost identical to Lode's. In the dark shiny eyes, there was a lively and bright light that didn't match her appearance. The pale pink lips curved into a friendly arc.

  Although the two people's appearances are almost identical, the difference in gender reveals completely different personalities. Luo De is always serious and stern, with a calm and boldness unique to men. The girl, on the other hand, exudes femininity, whoever sees her will think she is the perfect embodiment of an ideal woman - intelligent, beautiful, gentle and lovely.

  "Brother......"

  The girl stretched out her right hand, with a hint of doubt looking at Rode in front of her.

  "Where is this place? How did you end up here?"

  “………”

  Luo De opened his mouth, but couldn't say a word. At the same time, the unease deep within him began to slowly dissipate. He didn't know why, but Luo De felt that in front of her, he didn't need to be on guard at all. After all, she was his sister, wasn't she?

  No!

  Rod suddenly shuddered.

  His sister had long since gone to the other world, this woman couldn't be his own sister.

  This doesn't match what I remember!

  For the first time, Luo felt a chill run down his spine. He had never encountered such a situation in the game before. Now that he thought about it, his unease might have stemmed from the subtle contradiction between the game's content and background description and his own personal experience. The NPCs in the game couldn't possibly pry into the player's innermost thoughts, so they could only resort to imitating a simulation. But now, Luo wasn't in the game anymore; he wasn't in that virtual world, so everything had changed!

  But soon, Luo De calmed down again, staring at the girl in front of him, silent.

  What should I do?

  In the game, the shadow was just a simulation of the player's reflection, so there were no obstacles to directly slash. But now? The one standing in front of him wasn't his own shadow, but his own sister. This made Rode feel somewhat awkward. Although reason told him that what he saw was just an illusion, a mere hallucination and not a real existence, the girl in front of him seemed too real, making it hard for him to treat her as a fake entity.

  "Older brother?"

  The girl took a step forward and stretched out her right hand.

  "Why don't you speak?"

  At that moment, her figure seemed to flicker, and Rode only felt the thick fog around him begin to fade away, the air growing heavier and heavier, making it even hard to breathe. He subconsciously opened his mouth, but the air rushing into his lungs was so icy cold that he couldn't help but cough.

  Just then, in the white mist that surrounded him, a deep darkness slowly emerged. It spread rapidly like ink dripping into clear water, and soon Rode's figure was completely shrouded in shadow.

  "Lord, I hope nothing has happened to Mr. Luo."

  Standing in the distance, looking at the fog that was getting darker and darker in front of him, Mais couldn't help but ask with concern. He held his travel bag tightly in his hand, his eyes constantly moving back and forth. Before, the fog here had always been a light white color, but now it suddenly turned so black. Even Mais, a merchant, could tell that something seemed to be wrong.

  “…………”

  Lijie didn't respond to Mais's question, she just clenched her fists and placed them on her chest.

  There was a moment when she really wanted to rush in and see how Rod was doing, after all, her adventure experience was much richer than Mais, and naturally, she could see at a glance that the situation in front of her was absolutely abnormal. However, just as she was about to move, what Rod said before he left appeared in her mind again.

  "No matter what happens, you absolutely must not take the risk of rushing in, even if you see my shadow. Unless I come to your side, don't move a single step. The Shadow is an extremely cunning and dangerous creature. I don't want any accidents to happen to you, and to be honest, no matter what your motivations are, this will only bring more danger to me."

  Can't help but say, Rode's words combined with his calm and cold expression were indeed very hurtful, even Lijie felt a pang in her heart at that time. However, she was after all a professional mercenary and understood these things. After all, this was a matter of life and death, and nothing was more important than life itself.

  In the end, Lijie just let out a soft sigh and said nothing.

  But her hands gripped even tighter.

  At this moment, in the dark and dense fog, the girl's outstretched hands had already wrapped around Rode's neck.

  "Brother? Why aren't you talking?"

  The girl's smile is as sweet as the one in Rod's memory, although many years have passed, she still has that sunshine and gentle smile in her memories, she has always been like this, never changing.

  Rode took a step back, and he could even feel the girl's body temperature. Her face was already close to his eyes. In a daze, Rode seemed to have returned to seven years ago. At that time, she was also like this, sitting on the bed, holding him in a spoiled manner, asking him to tell her about things outside.

  "Like before, tell me about things outside, okay? How did you end up here? What is this place anyway?"

  The girl's voice was still so gentle, piercing directly into Rode's innermost heart.

  Just then, looking at the girl, Rode suddenly smiled slightly.

  If Liche saw this smile, she would be stunned with her eyes wide open, because since Rode arrived in this world, he had never shown a smiling face. But now, he smiled.

  And seeing Rod's expression, the girl's smile grew thicker.

  "Brother......"

  But this time, she didn't finish what she was saying.

  Because of the sharp blade's swift slash, it pierced through the darkness and penetrated the girl's body in the blink of an eye.

  “———！！！”

  A shrill whistle burst forth from the depths of her soul, and the girl's body began to twist uncontrollably as she rapidly retreated backwards. The blackness that had filled the dense fog also quickly withdrew with the girl, retreating backwards.

  "Ah..."

  Rod lightly took a breath, but the smile on his face didn't change at all. When Rod raised his hand, the black ring on his index finger could be seen, and it was emitting a magical glow at this moment.

  "Thank you so much, it allowed me to relive a beautiful dream."

  Looking at the girl who retreated backward, Rode's tone was still so calm, and it was impossible to hear what his true thoughts were.

  "Sorry, I'm in a hurry."

  Rode's mouth was still speaking, and his hands didn't stop, in fact, at the same time as the girl quickly retreated, his right hand had already swung out, and the shining Moonlight Blade shot out from Rode's sword, flying straight towards the target in front of him.

  As for the seriously injured girl, she simply had no way to dodge this blow. At this moment, her body leaned to the left, and a shocking wound on her chest extended all the way to her shoulder. If it were an ordinary person, they would probably be dead or seriously injured, but it was clear that the girl in front of him was not an ordinary person.

  Staring at the silver-white sword energy, the girl opened her mouth in despair, and along with the ear-piercing shriek that came out of her mouth, the black mist surrounding her immediately swirled and condensed in front of her, forming a misty barrier. And just as this happened, Rode's sword energy had already arrived.

  "Bang!!"

  The black cloud wall shook violently, and then thinned out a lot. The silver-white sword energy was also blocked by the fog and failed to hit the target. As she watched this scene, a hint of joy flashed in the girl's eyes - but soon turned into horror.

  One o'clock, two o'clock, three o'clock.

  The wall of cloud and mist that had withstood the moonlight once before finally collapsed completely after the fourth ray of light from the shattered blade, and then the beam of light shot through the collapsed cloud and mist, coldly and mercilessly piercing the girl's body again. This time, the seriously injured girl was unable to escape in time, let out a miserable cry, and fell to the ground.

  Just then, Roderick's figure also appeared in front of her.

  For the monster Shadow, Rhode is very familiar with it. It's not strong in itself, and in the game, it's because it copied the player's abilities and skills that made it difficult to deal with.

  But in reality, although the shadow's invasion of Rode's inner sanctum to seek spiritual projection was a bit of a setback for Rode, it lost its power from the game - originally in the game, this was a BOSS that people practiced and farmed, now it didn't even have the ability to copy player skills, it's easy to imagine what kind of performance it would put on.

  At this moment, Rod's heart also sank slightly, fortunately he opened the Will Ring in time, otherwise it would be hard to say what kind of harm the shadow would cause to himself. It was indeed not a powerful monster, but every word the shadow said to him seemed to have hit his heart, every question made Rod hesitate and even doubt whether the person in front of him was really his sister. Fortunately, Rod had experienced many such BOSS scenes in the game after all, so he still felt that this was a bit fake in his subconscious, if it were someone else, they would probably be completely trapped.

  From this point of view, the Shadow is indeed a very dangerous monster, but all spiritual monsters have one biggest weakness - physical strength is generally weak.

  At this moment, the shadow on the ground had completely lost its original appearance. The girl's face began to distort, her features becoming blurry and unclear. When she opened her mouth, a deep darkness could be seen inside, and even her limbs showed signs of dispersing and disappearing. As Rod walked slowly towards her, the shadow filled with fear raised its head to look at him, then it opened its mouth again and let out a heart-piercing scream.

  “———！！！”

  A fierce attack that was invisible to the naked eye flew through the air, but it turned into a harmless breeze in front of the transparent barrier beside Rode.

  The barrier of the Will Ring is not something that can be overcome by just going through the motions.

  Seeing the attack was ineffective, the shadow let out a desperate scream, it scrambled to its feet, trying to retreat and escape again. But before it could blend into the thick fog, Luo De raised his long sword once more, his figure flashed, in just the blink of an eye, he arrived at the shadow's side, one sword stabbed down.

  The snow-white blade pierced through the shadow's body without any hindrance, and the intense pain caused the shadow to let out a sharp scream. Its mouth was wide open, where its eyes used to be were now just two black holes, and inside its open mouth was also nothingness. Along with this distorted face, it looked particularly terrifying.

  But seeing this face, Rode's heart settled down. After all, the shadow had been using his sister's face before, and although he was protected by the Will of the Seal, he hadn't gotten into any trouble. However, just looking at that face still made him feel uneasy, but now seeing this twisted face instead strengthened Rode's conviction.

  Just then, the screaming specter suddenly stretched out its right hand, and its arm, which was originally about the same length as a human's, suddenly grew violently long, whipping towards Rode like a lash.

  However, Rode was clearly prepared for this. At the same time as the shadow stretched out its hand, he took a step back and barely dodged the shadow's attack. Then, Rode's figure turned into a flash of lightning and charged straight in.

  Facing Rod, who had activated Shadow Flash, the shadow didn't even have time to react. Its right arm had just swung out when Rod was already in front of it, which terrified the shadow. It reflexively stretched out its left hand to block in front of itself, but unfortunately, it was too late.

  Stellar beacon, activate.

  A point of star-like radiance suddenly burst forth on the snow-white sword tip, tearing through the darkness and leaving a trail of exceptionally bright light in the air. In an instant, even the originally dense and impenetrable fog seemed to be sliced apart like butter by a sharp knife, dispersing to both sides. And just as the radiance reached its peak, the flashing sword edge swooped down.

  “——————！！”

  The silhouette that was split in two finally stopped struggling, its body trembled and let out a desperate howl. Then, its blurry body suddenly contracted, and just as it was about to be compressed into a bright ball of light, it burst forth and expanded wildly. Intense ripples mixed with sparks flew in all directions, even the originally dense fog retreated and opened up. After that, they disappeared like melting snow.

  It wasn't until then that Luo De lowered the long sword in his hand.