Chapter 681: Chapter 58: Jumping Off the Cliff!
“Mia disappeared?” Aske asked in surprise.
“Yes.” Miel was also in a panic.
Of course, she had seen the future timelines, and on most of them, as soon as she released Aske’s “Book Page Theory,” Mia would immediately begin to grasp the Ripple Sword.
However, the future timelines were infinitely many, and no one could guarantee which one would actually collapse into reality. Could it be, another unobserved black swan event had occurred?
“Take me to where she disappeared,” Aske said gravely.
A few minutes later.
Aside from Mia, all eight members of The Azure Longsword stood at the spot where little Mia had vanished, staring blankly.
…
What to do now?
In terms of systems, The Azure Longsword’s battle system was undoubtedly very comprehensive. Mind type, time-related, Arcane, Space Type—various systems were in place, enabling them to cope with all kinds of mutant situations.
However, considering the team only consisted of nine people, this meant that almost every member had to perform multiple roles with very little overlap in functions. For example, since little Mia mastered the Space Type Black Hole Law, the others would not attempt to master Space Type Laws to avoid functional redundancy.
But now Mia had suddenly vanished while researching the Ripple Sword, leaving the team without a second Space Type Law Transcender to search for her. What were they to do?
Everyone was deeply concerned, even the highly intelligent Medea and Thira furrowed their brows at this moment, unable to think of a solution.
After all, the different Extraordinary Laws weren’t interchangeable, just as a philosophy professor couldn’t use philosophical knowledge to solve medical problems. Different fields might as well be worlds apart, leaving them at a complete loss.
Thereupon, everyone turned their gazes towards Aske again. Come on, Squad Leader! Use your invincible wisdom to think of a solution!
Aske pondered for a moment and then turned to Miel and said,
“Pull out a Mia. From a parallel world, not from the future or past.”
Everyone: …
Miel had been somewhat bewildered herself due to her best friend’s disappearance. Now, with a hint from Aske, she suddenly snapped out of it, albeit rather bemusedly, and quickly summoned another Mia from a parallel world using Fire Island as a coordinate in the void.
On most world lines, Mia at this point in time had just begun to master the Ripple Sword, and nothing like a disappearance had occurred. Thus, Miel’s summoning went smoothly, and the Mia from the parallel world was stunned for a while before flashing a smile at Aske, boastfully exclaiming,
“Aske, I’ve mastered the Ripple Sword!”
“Uh-huh, that’s great,” Aske said flatly, “Our world’s you disappeared while trying to understand the Ripple Sword. Can you help us look for her?”
“Oh no, I can’t, this is too funny. What’s up with this world’s Mia, managing to make herself disappear…” Mia couldn’t help but bend over, bursting into laughter, which left the other girls sweating profusely and speechless.
So, individuals from different parallel worlds, aside from completely random luck, wouldn’t they have the same personality, intelligence, and way of thinking? If Mia of this world made a fool of herself, wouldn’t that be embarrassing for you too?
Everyone was well aware of little Mia’s personality, so they were considerate enough not to say too much. Only Miel showed an anxious expression as she grabbed the parallel world Mia and pleaded,
“Mia, dear Mia, please help us find her quickly. Everyone is so worried.”
“Okay, okay, okay,” the parallel world Mia agreed, and then she began to sense the space.
Since she had mastered the Ripple Sword, Mia’s spatial perception had greatly improved. It was like how an ant crawling on a paper struggles to perceive dimensionality, and how people living in three-dimensional space find it difficult to observe from a higher-dimensional perspective; however, for Mia now, this was no longer a problem.
“Ha ha,” she suddenly burst into laughter, “I see her. She forgot to calculate during the spatial collapse and nearly got dimensionally reduced while passing through the wormhole… Mmm, mmm, mmm, fortunately, she’s okay, just teleported a bit too far.”
Hearing her say “she’s okay,” the girls all breathed a sigh of relief. Only Aske remained stern-faced, asking in a deep voice, “Can she be brought back?”
“Nope,” the parallel world Mia chuckled.
Everyone: ……
“Let me put it this way,” Mia explained, “Normally, jumping from one location to another is like building a bridge between cliffs and then walking across it.”
“The problem with your world’s Mia is that she stepped out before the bridge was finished. Naturally, she ended up falling to the bottom of the cliff.”
“I can easily take you guys there, simply jump down from the same spot. But to bring her back, which is like climbing up from the bottom of the cliff, is not that easy.”
“At the bottom of the cliff, where does that correspond to in the Main Plane?” Aske asked.
“Not in the Main Plane,” Mia replied, “It’s at the very bottom of the Shadow Realm, the Abyss.”
“Alright then,” Aske had grasped the situation and glanced over the girls, sighed, and said,
“The rest of you stay on Fire Island. Miel, you’ll come with me.”
This choice, of course, had its reasons. The Main Plane was restricted by the Magic Tide, but Purgatory, the Netherworld, and the Abyss were not, which is why Demigods liked to retreat to these three planes at advanced levels, and it’s easier to deal with illusions and mutterings there.
There’s no Level limit in the three planes, and players respectfully called them the “Divine Domain,” where all the big shots at Level 40 play and are extremely dangerous.
Now that everyone’s average level was between Lv.10 and Lv.17, entering would be like walking into the jaws of death. Taking too long to ask a friendly Demigod for help risked Mia facing danger in the Abyss and not holding on.
So, the safest plan was, of course, for Aske to rush to the Abyss alone and rescue loli Mia. As for bringing Miel along, it was to use her Fate Law to increase the survival rate in the Abyss.
Yes, survival rate. Even for a professional player, venturing into the Abyss at Level 15 required constant vigilance and caution, not recklessness.
So, the matter was settled… Of course not. Although Aske was the Squad Leader and could act on his own volition with a “leave no one behind, my mind is made up” attitude, the girls weren’t inexperienced newcomers to the Extraordinary Realm and fully understood the dangers of the Abyss as one of the three great planes.
Therefore, nobody objected, and as soon as the parallel world Mia had teleported Aske and Miel away, they immediately started frantically contacting every Demigod they knew. Soon, Apilius (Thira’s grandfather), the Enchanting Demon Queen (Medea’s mother), Otto (Eleanor’s ancestor), Agrippina (Peggy’s mentor), and others were all informed of the news.
The Lixini Family even made a call to the Observer headquarters in Milan to hire them for a rescue operation.
The Observer organization, known alongside the Night Watchman and Purgatory’s Jailer as one of the three major Extraordinary organizations, had rich experience in dealing with Abyssal invasions, and so they also hastily began to devise a corresponding rescue plan.