Can someone in MyGo stay in an adventure group forever?

Page 6

At least there are still loving parents there, and everything familiar to them...

------

Outside the enormous floor-to-ceiling windows of London Heathrow Airport, leaden clouds hung low, and the oppressive gray sky made it hard to breathe. Huge steel birds took off and landed, the roar of their engines coming through the glass, muffled and distant.

Chihaya Aine stood alone in the bustling airport terminal, dragging a pink and black suitcase that was half her height.

“Gate 3… Ugh!” Chihaya Aine was walking forward with her head down when she suddenly bumped into a pedestrian next to her.

"Sorry."

The woman with short blonde hair glanced back at him before hurrying away.

Chihaya Aine stood there, holding onto the box for a long time before finally coming to her senses.

"Ugh..."

After weaving through the bustling crowds, boarding the plane, and settling into her seat, the girl wearily closed her eyes.

If only all of this were just a dream.

------

Tokyo Haneda Airport, the familiar air, the familiar announcements. But Aine felt like an outcast, pulling her heavy pink and black suitcase, hurrying through the crowd of people waiting to pick up passengers.

Following the navigation, she walked out of the airport terminal, crossed the bustling main street, and turned into a quiet alley that seemed to have been deserted for a long time.

That's strange, is this the way to get home from the airport?

It's been so long since I've been to Japan that I've even forgotten the way home.

Otherwise, we wouldn't need navigation to even get home.

"Continue straight for about 500 meters along the current road, then turn left." The navigation voice was calm and even.

"Um... do we still need to go straight?"

Chihaya Aine kept her head down, staring intently at the small arrow moving at the bottom of her phone screen, and quickened her pace. The wheels of her suitcase made a monotonous rolling sound on the ground.

Why is this road so long? And why is the light getting dimmer? She looked up, puzzled.

Sometime during the journey, the dilapidated walls and telephone poles on either side of the path had transformed into rough, dark gray rock walls. The asphalt road surface had also turned into cold, hard rock riddled with tiny cracks. The streetlights overhead had vanished, replaced by a faint light seeping in from somewhere, illuminating the deep passage ahead.

The navigation system's electronic female voice continued to repeat emotionlessly: "Please continue straight along the current road..."

"It's broken?" Aine slapped her phone hard, looking around curiously. "Are there places like this in Tokyo? I've never seen anything like it before?"

She looked down at her phone screen, trying to relocate. But she found that the signal icon on the screen had vanished! The map had turned a chilling gray, with only the green route arrow stubbornly pointing into the dark depths of the corridor, as if possessed.

"Ugh?"

"Wait, why now of all times? There's no signal?!" Chihaya Aine shook her phone frantically, her voice filled with anxiety. "What kind of navigation is this? Where did it lead me?"

She looked back, but the place behind her, which should have been a dilapidated alley, had turned into a rock wall that was no different from the one in front of her.

A strong sense of unease suddenly welled up in her heart.

Could I have stumbled upon some urban legend or something? Like, a ghost or something...?

Chihaya Aine had no choice but to grit her teeth and continue forward. The rock walls on both sides widened, and the space in front of her became more and more open, but the light gradually became darker.

"Where am I...?!"

Chihaya Aine suddenly felt herself bump into something hard and staggered back a few steps.

"What's wrong with me today? Why do I keep bumping into things..." She hissed in pain, rubbed her numb arm, and turned on her phone's flashlight, shining it forward.

A faint white beam of light shone from the LED light on the back of the phone, vaguely illuminating the darkness ahead and the huge, angular silhouette hidden in the shadows.

"This is... a stone?" Chihaya Aine squinted her slightly nearsighted eyes, trying to step forward and examine it closely.

Just then, two crimson lights suddenly shone in the darkness.

Wait, that's not light, that's...

A pair of vertical pupils, seemingly cast from molten gold, clearly illuminated Aine's small, blank, delicate face under the pale beam of the flashlight.

"Roar--!"

The giant mouth opened, and an extremely deep roar, as if from hell, rang out right next to the girl. The spittle that splashed onto her face stung like acid.

A sense of instinctive fear surged over her like a dam breaking. Chihaya Aine felt her legs begin to tremble uncontrollably, and her phone slipped from her fingers with a "thud," the screen shattering into pieces.

The enormous dragon head slowly lowered, observing the tiny "prey" with great interest.

Chihaya Aine finally saw the true form of that enormous creature.

A... dragon?

How could there possibly be a dragon here?

"Pfft!"

She slumped heavily onto the cold, hard rock floor, her suitcase slipping from her hands and limply to one side.

His gray pupils shrank to their limit with extreme fear, clearly reflecting the approaching crimson behemoth. Tears instantly blurred his vision, and large teardrops rolled down his cheeks, hitting the rocks beneath him and spreading into small, dark, wet patches.

My mind went blank, with only one thought echoing in my mind.

Am I... going to die?

He just...died like that?

As the dragon drew ever closer, her last vestige of consciousness was a humble, almost ethereal plea, silently screaming from the depths of her broken heart:

Please, someone save me, anyone will do...

------

Time returns to the present.

The wind howled, slicing across my face like sharp blades.

The dragon's ferocious maw slowly opened to an exaggerated angle, drawing in the surrounding air. A massive amount of energy was condensing deep within its throat, radiating terrifyingly high temperatures capable of melting rocks.

The girl, who had fallen to the ground, struggled to lift her head. Her small figure trembled weakly, and her pretty face was filled with nothing but emptiness and despair, completely dominated by fear.

Arriving at the world's lowest city, a cave—it's so beautiful! Oh my, isn't this Anon?

Even in another world, is there no way to escape the fate of death?

Slightly Loved Zone, you win.

Koshimura closed his eyes and raised his middle finger forward.

Just as the destructive flames were about to erupt and wipe the two of them completely from this world—

Click.

A very faint, yet extremely abrupt, click, like the slight rattling of gears in an old-fashioned clockwork.

Time has stopped.

The scorching sulfurous gas stopped flowing, hovering in mid-air in a swirling motion. The destructive white light deep within the red dragon's throat seemed to have been paused, frozen at its most blinding moment. The flying stone chips, the billowing dust, the girl's empty, desperate eyes, and Koshimura's raised middle finger—all became frozen images.

"Huh? Why are you still here?"

A familiar voice, tinged with a hint of mockery and a touch of smugness, rang out.

You're slandering our Ming Dynasty again. Enough already. Do you want to ruin the future of the Ming Dynasty?

Koshimura Sawa stiffly turned his only still-movable eyeball, looking in the direction of the sound.

A giraffe floats amidst solidified waves of fire and dust particles, its back radiating a dazzling array of colors—a clearly fake holy light effect.

The resource library is free for a limited time, right?

However, its size seems to have shrunk considerably, about the size of a plush toy.

"Giraffe!!!" Yuecun Ze lunged forward, grabbed his neck, and shook him violently. "Where's my Girls Band? What's the meaning of this red horned lizard? Even my dad, Top Esports, wouldn't dare to take down Baron at level 1!"

"Top Esports fans? Then this is my life... Wait, stop shaking me, I'm dizzy—ugh—"

Before the giraffe could turn its head to one side and spew out a large, rainbow-like lump of stuff, Koshimura Sawa quickly let go of its hand.

"Ahem—" The giraffe raised its hoof to wipe its mouth. "Let me explain the current situation to you first."

Wait a minute, how does a giraffe manage to wipe its mouth with its hooves?

"The pre-set coordinates were fine, but during the teleportation, something happened that caused a slight deviation in your target direction..." The giraffe paused, "While it didn't send you to another work, it did transport you to a parallel universe different from the original Bondori world—"

"Welcome to the 'BanG Dream!' DLC expansion: Dungeons & Dragons Livehouse."

Koshimura Sawa: "?"

“To put it simply,” Giraffe pulled up the backstage information, “based on my initial investigation, the foundation of this world is indeed the original world of the girl band. The city, the school, the music… all of these are still there—at least before 1970.”

Koshimura Sawa: "???"

"Starting in 1970 in this world, the barriers between planes seem to have become exceptionally fragile. A spatial anomaly known as the 'Void' has begun to appear all over the world, like a rift torn open from reality. And the world connected to the other side of the rift, I believe you have already seen it."

"Another world?" Koshimura asked uncertainly.

"It includes the Forgotten Realms, as well as Dragonlance, the Forgotten Realms, Greyhawk, Eberon, and all other world settings."

"Farewell." Yuecun Ze bowed.

So he turned and crashed into the stone.

"Hey, no!" The giraffe quickly blocked his way. "I haven't finished speaking yet, why are you in such a hurry to restart?"

"Nonsense, what am I, an ordinary goblin—no, someone who might not even be able to beat a goblin, doing here in this kind of world? I'd rather just start over and be reincarnated." Yuecunze pushed him aside, looking at which rock would make his death easier.

“Look, you’re in a hurry again,” the giraffe said hastily. “Although the world has experienced an anomaly, this change has also triggered a self-defense mechanism that I don’t know whether it’s the Alaya consciousness or some other world will.”

"As the appearance of cavities becomes more frequent, more and more people are spontaneously awakening as 'professionals,' possessing various class templates under the D&D rules: warriors, mages, priests, rogues... Because if a cavity isn't cleared within a certain timeframe after its appearance, the monsters within will 'overflow' into the real world, causing unimaginable disasters. Therefore, 'professionals' have spontaneously formed groups, entering cavities together to destroy the core or kill specific targets, thus harmlessly neutralizing the cavities..."

"Wait, wait, wait," Koshimura interrupted him. "Then who's going to fill the gap in my girl band?"

"Oh, that?" The giraffe gave him a "you finally got to the point" look. "Otherwise, what do you think magic is cast in this world?"

"what?"

"Times have changed, and girls chasing the 'shining' stage naturally need to keep up with the times. Forming an adventure team to explore dungeons, clearing out voids, and protecting the city—isn't this a more hardcore 'LIVE' that better reflects bonds and passion? Imagine performing in a dungeon, using music to defeat monsters, and the cheers of the audience turning into the monsters' wails—isn't that awesome?"

"...What do you mean by 'cool'? Why don't you say Nagasaki Motoyo pulled out her chainsaw and shouted 'For the Emperor!' before charging at the alien?"

"That's just how it is," the giraffe sighed helplessly. "With so many people reincarnating every year, it's normal for a few minor accidents to happen."

"Then hurry up and send me back to my original Boom Boom world!" Koshimura Sawa asked excitedly. "I'll fight the young red dragon, really?"

You might as well go fight Su Nuo; at least you'll die a quicker death.

“Um…” The giraffe turned its head away, its eyes somewhat evasive. “The key to this problem is to find the key issue. As for the specifics of the situation, we’ll have to see what happens.”

Hearing your words is like hearing a profound truth.

"To put it simply, you can't go back," the giraffe added.

"What?"

"I can't help it. Do you think reincarnation doesn't require energy? Everyone is allocated only one portion beforehand. You want me to send you back? I can't do that." The giraffe sounded a little guilty.

After a moment's thought, Koshimura Sawa turned and crashed into the stone.

"No, no, no, bro!" the giraffe quickly stopped him. "If you die, I'll lose my performance bonus!"

"No way, what kind of reincarnation service is this?!" Yuecunze was on the verge of tears. "It's a one-way ticket, and there's not even any after-sales service?"

“Let me finish. Although I can’t send you back, this is a completely new world that’s not recorded in the records. In other words, we can get subsidies for exploring this place in order to expand the company’s business coverage,” the giraffe said confidently.

"Once we plant beacons at the key nodes, we can archive this world and take over its reincarnation and other related services. Considering that we also bear some responsibility for this teleportation incident, I still need to make sure your funeral arrangements... I mean, that the follow-up issues are handled properly."

"So, since you can't go back either, let's just join forces and do something big. Let's open all the seven statues of the gods in this world... I mean, all the beacons. That way, I'll have a chance to apply for a second reincarnation qualification and send you back."

"Couldn't you just apply directly?" Koshimura glanced at the frozen red dragon. "Besides... shouldn't you be thinking about how I'll get out of here alive first?"

“You don’t need to worry about that.” A transparent screen of light appeared in front of the giraffe. “Anyway, this doesn’t violate the rules of this world, so just now when we were talking, I took a spot as a professional from the world’s will.”

"And who told you—" The giraffe broke free from his grasp, floated in the air, and landed on Chihaya Aine's shoulder, "that sending you back to the original BanG Dream World would make that world disappear?"

His gaze followed the giraffe downwards. Chihaya Aine remained kneeling, like a fragile doll that would fall apart at the slightest touch. The tears that slid down her cheeks seemed to hang in mid-air as time stood still.

Suddenly, Koshimura felt something explode in his mind, leaving only a blank.

That girl who would secretly practice hard for the band, always take the initiative to integrate into the group, could gently tolerate everyone, and was a little vain, is about to turn into a handful of dust that no one will remember in the rolling flames.

But he couldn't do anything.