dognovel Chapter 567 Wherever I dream, I rub.
Chapter 567 Wherever I dream, I rub.
The Hero Association's intensive care unit was brightly lit.
The golden and crimson magical girl stood beside the hospital bed, in the same posture and seating arrangement as at noon, expressionlessly watching the two petite figures sleeping soundly on the bed:
The deep blue catgirl was sleeping soundly on her side on the bed, her cat tail twitching restlessly behind her head from time to time, making one wonder if the cat tail and the catgirl herself were two different beings.
If you were to approach and scratch its tail now, you would instinctively get a sharp slap on the palm from its powerful tail—Su Tianqing really wanted to say this to Chi Xue beside her.
But when her gaze shifted to the right and landed on another hospital bed, the complex emotions that Su Tianqing had been suppressing suddenly surged up again:
The pink-haired bunny girl lay peacefully on the bed, her bunny ears tilted to one side, also sleeping soundly.
Hellcat, Cheshire Rabbit.
"Did Garuda capture those two this time?" Chi Xue finally couldn't hold back her twitching eyes and asked Xin Yuehu beside her.
"Yes, you saw it all, didn't you?" Su Tianqing nodded gently.
"...Is it serious?"
"I can't talk to it, how would I know why it's so picky?"
Chi Xue was speechless. She stared at the two petite orc magical girls sleeping soundly on the hospital bed in front of her. Suddenly, a deep sense of powerlessness washed over her, and she leaned back in her chair helplessly.
Why did you, Garuda, have to choose these two of them?
Even though Akashi felt that her tactical skills had become somewhat outdated after retiring for more than ten years, it didn't mean that she had completely left the magical girl circle. After all, even the ultimate old-timer, Red Rose, was still surfing the internet at a high intensity. She was much more up-to-date with current events than the old-timers.
In the last ranking of villainous magical girls held on the magical girl forum, Mercury finally shed the title of the number one villain for decades. However, at her own request, the voting process for her was not included in this ranking.
The title of "Number One Villain" was given to the newly popular magical girl Kokoro, and the second and third places were also unsurprisingly occupied by Hellcat and Cheshire Rabbit, the two so-called villains who possess the Shadow of Stars.
One of the most-replied replies in the comparison thread reads: "Hey, since the Heart Moon Fox can summon witches, what's so special about the Hellcat and Cheshire Rabbit?"
The highly-rated replies below are all gems, and Chi Xue remembers them very clearly to this day:
The Hellcat has a unique characteristic: its left punch deals high damage, while its right punch deals high damage.
[The Cheshire Rabbit also has a characteristic: a powerful forehand smash and a strong backhand smash.]
If Xin Yuehu is a monster due to mechanics, then these two are monsters due to numerical values.
"Although I think Rabbit and Cat are reliable, let's try to find a way to go in and rescue them as soon as possible," Su Tianqing said to Chi Xue beside her, dispelling the memories in Chi Xue's mind.
After all, no matter how high the cat's stats are, she may not be able to unleash her full combat power in the mental world. The same goes for the rabbit. They both need time to adapt to the mixed, chaotic, and somewhat eerie mental rules created by Sasha's marigold.
It's really weird.
As someone who personally experienced the creation meeting of the Mindscape World in the afternoon and evening, Su Tianqing felt that she was the one with the most authority to speak on the matter.
The mass-produced version of Heart Image for newbies doesn't have the strict and reliable rules of the original Heart Image. It doesn't even have a so-called "buffer zone." It really does whatever Inari said, making things as chaotic as possible, with the main idea being to create whatever you want to dream about. I guess even the two designers themselves wouldn't know what it is right now.
Hopefully, Rabbit can use her intelligence analysis skills to hold out in the mental image with Cat for as long as possible, until I, the Fox, and Chixue arrive to rescue them.
"I'm ready," Akashi said, reclining the chair back slightly and grasping her wand.
Su Tianqing followed suit, finding a comfortable position to hug the tail and nodding in response.
"Yes, I can go in anytime."
"Same as at noon?" Chi Xue asked.
"...If you really want to split up and go in to rescue them, I have no objection," the fox girl replied with a shrug.
"No way. I'll count to three, then we'll go in together."
Chi Xue quickly raised her hand to stop Su Tianqing from continuing.
The magic of the mental world gathered on the wand. Su Tianqing leaned back in her chair and looked at the ceiling, wondering which illusory mental world the cat and rabbit had been dragged into by Garuda.
Are they mysterious adventure stories woven from a collection of storybooks? Or are they indescribable mysterious contraptions created from games? Or is something even more terrifying?
Anyway... let's go into the mental imagery first and see what's going on.
"The world of mental images——"
"Expand!"
……
……
……
A brief feeling of weightlessness and slight dizziness.
Gravity returned to her body, and Su Tianqing opened her eyes, immediately checking her surroundings.
Unexpectedly, she found herself in this situation—having to carefully observe her surroundings even when entering her own mental image. Su Tianqing could probably understand the profound shock that others felt when they were first drawn into an unfamiliar mental world.
But upon seeing this scene, the golden-haired fox girl still stared wide-eyed and uttered a suspicious sound:
"...What's this?"
Standing on a lookout tower, looking down, there was a rather spacious stadium, or rather... a large building similar to a stadium.
The stands were packed, an elevated road running through the stadium was brightly lit, and a large screen hung from the dome, seemingly broadcasting a fierce competition live.
Sunlight streamed down from the sky, falling on the inexplicably elevated road in the center of the stadium, but it couldn't obscure the several ribbons of light flowing along both sides of the road. Looking left and right, one could see the elevated road stretching into the far distance, with no end in sight.
At first glance, it looked like a sports event venue, with the enthusiastic cheers of the audience rising and falling, reminding Su Tianqing of a World Cup match she had once attended.
However, this is not the World Cup. In the mixed-up mental image, nothing is likely to be as one would normally think. For example, there is absolutely no way that an elevated road would run through the middle of a regular stadium, not even in a mountain city.
So what exactly is this place—
"Boom!!!"
The roar of engines rose from the end of the road.
The scorching heat created a rumbling sound that echoed throughout the arena, making the already enthusiastic shouts of the audience even more intense. People raised their hands and cheered loudly for the athletes who were about to arrive at the arena.
So this is a racetrack stadium. Filled with surprise and curiosity, Su Tianqing turned her head, casting her gaze towards the end of the elevated road, towards the source of the roaring engines—
"……what?"
Fox looked closely.
Fox felt like she was hallucinating, and rubbed her eyes with her little hands.
Fox wasn't mistaken.
Those were two oddly shaped race cars that were almost side by side.
The leading race car had a striking cat paw pattern painted on its front. The catgirl, dressed in a lithe rider's outfit and wearing a dark blue riding helmet, gripped the steering wheel and drove the steel beast at high speed on the brightly lit elevated road.
Beside her was another all-white race car with an even more streamlined and elegant design, but the driver was not the pink-haired bunny girl as expected, but a figure that surprised everyone:
She wore a pure white magical costume, had a petite figure, and her face was full of fear and bewilderment at not being able to figure out what was going on. She only knew to subconsciously grip the car control stick tightly and dare not relax, for fear that she would fly off the track and become a bright white comet at the next turn.
"My turn, draw a card! Now it's time for the final blow, Lily!" the catgirl said.
"What do you mean by 'final blow'?! Can't you concentrate on driving and stop playing cards while stepping on the gas pedal?!" the petite, fair-skinned girl shouted in a panic.
The two race cars sped through the stadium without slowing down at all. Su Tianqing even saw a white dragon monster, formed from magic, following closely above the two cars, leaving two trails as it disappeared at the other end of the elevated road.
...What is this?
The question she had asked when she first entered the world of mental images popped into Su Tianqing's mind again.
I have this strange sense of familiarity, but I'm not sure if it's the thing that gave me that feeling of déjà vu.
"Ahem..." A soft cough broke the silence on the observation deck.
Su Tianqing turned her head and met the gaze of the pink-haired bunny girl who was still wearing her signature special bunny girl outfit for some reason.
"Peach?"
"It's me. Do you need me to... um... explain what this mental image is all about?" Seeing that Su Tianqing was quite confused about this mental image, Cheshire Rabbit smiled wryly and spread his hands, saying something quite reliable.
"I just did a brief investigation into this mental state and summarized a few key points."
"Then I'll leave it to you. Please try to keep it as simple as possible."
"In 2077, my city was voted the city with the best card-playing skills, with things like unscrewing screws and printing cards on the spot happening all the time..."
"Stop, can it be any simpler? No backstory needed." Su Tianqing quickly raised her hand to stop her.
The rabbit girl slightly opened her mouth, then gently closed it again, tilted her head back to look at the sky, and organized her thoughts before giving a concise explanation:
"This was originally a mental world centered around racing, but for some reason, card game elements were added to the racing base. It's the 'Magical Girl Yu-Gi-Oh!' game that Alice and Fenrir played. Fox, you seem to have played a round or two too."
"And it wasn't just me and the cat who were dragged into this dream by Garuda, but also the one you just saw..."
"BOOM!!!"
A loud explosion came from the distant racetrack, interrupting Xia Taotao's explanation. The two of them looked in the direction of the explosion.
She could vaguely hear the cat yelling and shouting, like some kind of melodramatic line like "Destructive burst jet!" A hint of helplessness and pity flashed in the rabbit girl's eyes.
"...Magical Girl, Lily White. She's been arrested too."