Why play in a band if you don't form one for life?

She looked at the remaining jade slip on the table.

She had an inexplicable premonition: out of the five jade slips, it couldn't be that none of them were normal...

With a trembling heart, she reached for the last one.

After listening for a while, her face became serious.

She closed her eyes and thought for a long time.

Then he stood up and went out with the jade slip.

Chapter 48 Black Tide

When Shizi arrived at Hongxia's room, no one was inside.

She frowned and turned to Yuki's room, Chu's room, and Kasumi's room, but no one was there.

She seemed to understand and went straight to the command room.

Sure enough, as soon as I got closer, I heard a conversation coming from inside the door: "...It was around last night..."

Shizi knocked on the door casually, opened it a crack and looked inside.

Nijika, Yukina, Chuu, and Kasumi, the four of them gathered in a circle, listening to Kasumi's report. When they heard the door open, they all looked over.

"Ah, Shizi," Hongxia greeted Shizi, "You're just in time. We need a real-time map."

Shizi nodded without asking any more questions. His mind dived deep into his consciousness and checked the map.

At first glance, I found something inconsistent.

After a careful inspection, she found that in the center of the map, where the Tower of Babel was marked, there was a black patch. There was no ups and downs on the 3D map, no additional annotations, it just silently painted a normal area black.

To the naked eye, the black area showed no signs of expanding.

But Shizi already knew it would expand and knew what it represented.

She regained consciousness, updated the sand table on the table, and took out the jade slip: "I'm sorry, Kasumi, I secretly copied your Star Inspiration, I already know about this."

Kasumi immediately came up to her excitedly: "Can you copy this? How is it? Isn't Star Inspiration awesome?"

Shizi's expression looked a little strange.

"That's good since you know," Yuki had expected this and pulled Kasumi, who was about to stand up, "But Toyama-san, just to be on the safe side, you should say it again."

Kasumi sat back on the ground and nodded, "I heard this last night. I wanted to come find everyone at that time, but everyone was asleep and this matter was not urgent enough to race against time, so I waited until now."

"I heard that the filth of the entire world will begin to run wild," Kasumi's eyes became clear, as if she had returned to the state of hearing the beating of the stars, "our abilities will be greatly weakened, including this airship itself. The airship will be destroyed and exploded, and I don't know what will happen after that."

She pointed to the black area on the table: "This should be the area where the filth is running rampant."

Shizi thought back and made sure that the black area had not appeared when he last checked the map regularly.

It should have appeared around the time when Kasumi almost heard the beating of the stars.

"I'm sorry, I didn't notice it right away." Although Shizi did not fail in her duty according to the established rules, she still felt that she should at least apologize.

"That was the rule back then, you didn't do anything wrong," Youkina shook her head, "and didn't Toyama-san say that just now?"

"Yes, yes," Kasumi nodded quickly, "Based on what I heard, we still have at least a week to prepare."

"One week...ah." Shizi looked at the sand table again. They had already bypassed the position of Shengxiang and the other seven people, and were in the northeast corner of the sand table, about to turn and head south.

Taking into account the distance the airship could travel in a week, they were expected to be at the border of the desert and the plain by then, having not yet reached the plateau, and still some distance away from the lone light spot on the map.

CHU? He said, "A week is not too long. Let's discuss what to do. Uh... if we want to name it, how about calling it the Black Tide?"

No one objected.

So, the others made room for Shizi, and Shizi conjured up a chair and sat between Hongxia and Kasumi.

"Xiao Xiangcheng, can you tell me more specifically what you heard?" Hong Xia propped her chin on the table, "The more detailed the better."

"Hiss... How to describe it... Anyway... It's the beating of the stars!" Kasumi tried to describe it for a long time but couldn't, so she turned to Shizi, "Little Shizi, can't you copy it? I'll copy a few complete copies for you, so that everyone can listen to it for themselves, okay?"

"Let me try." Shizi pulled out a few blank jade slips and found that Kasumi had closed her eyes, looking nervous as if she was waiting for an injection.

She couldn't help but laugh out loud: "Just activate your ability normally, you won't feel anything."

After hearing this, Kasumi breathed a sigh of relief and her face relaxed, while Shizi found that the light in his jade slip began to gradually light up.

When the starlight stopped changing, Shizi tried to stick one of them on the forehead of Hongxia next to her. Hongxia immediately entered a state similar to that of Kasumi before.

So Shi Zi was satisfied and gave each of the others a jade slip. After confirming that they could use it normally, he put the remaining one on his own forehead.

In an instant, the gradually familiar feeling came again.

Shizi heard the sound of filth surging and the sound of sunlight disappearing.

From all directions, I could hear the flapping of monsters' wings, like a tidal wave.

The dying wail of the airship was heard.

I heard its skeleton breaking piece by piece, and its shell shattering under the overly intense attack.

After that, nothing happened. Shiko didn't hear the ending of the people in the airship. But since Kasumi said before that they would be annihilated in the final battle, there shouldn't be any sacrifices in this crisis.

Putting down the jade slip, Shizi found that the others were already thinking with serious expressions.

"First," CHU raised a question, "How did you sense the exact time when this happened? I didn't feel anything. I could only hear the general course of events."

Kasumi looked confused, "Huh? That's how I feel?"

CHU? looked at Shizi. Shizi waved his hand, indicating that he had done his best. She recalled that the jade slips she had heard before also failed to reveal the time of the incident.

"It seems that Toyama-san is the only one who can hear the complete 'Pulse of the Stars'," said Yukina.

Kasumi looked a little regretful.

Hong Xia, who had been silent, suddenly straightened her back: "Ah!"

The others looked at her.

"How about this..." Hong Xia said, "We didn't hear the exact location of the airship at that time, right? It was pitch black everywhere, and we didn't know where we were. Can we land the airship in advance, at least to avoid falling from the sky?"

Youshina thought about it and said, "That's right. By then, the density of monsters in the sky and on the ground will not be much different. It will be safer on the ground."

"Also, will there be any safer place by then?" CHU? asked.

Kasumi shook her head: "At least I didn't hear it."

“It’s not marked on the map either,” said Shizi.

"Then we can only try our best to find a relatively safe place and fight on." Youxina looked at the map again, trying to find some suitable terrain.

Hong Xia suddenly thought of something and poked Shizi: "Little Shizi, didn't the giraffe give you this map? It also marked this area, right? Can we contact it?"

"I can't guarantee that I'll be able to make contact."

Although he said that, Shizi still calmed down and gave it a try.

Chapter 49 Where the Giraffe Goes

The call turned into ripples, echoing in the deep sea of consciousness.

No living creatures were touched.

Shizi's figure appeared on the platform in mid-air, stepping on the steel, making a hollow echo.

Another self is still sleeping here, sleeping in the crystal coffin and flower field given to her by Shizi.

Shizi glanced at her and found that there was still no change from last time.

She shook her head and looked around, but the giraffe was still nowhere to be seen.

She had almost begun to get used to the fact that the giraffe would come when it wanted to and would never see it if it didn't want to. However, recently, when she couldn't find it again, Shizi always felt a little uneasy, as if the giraffe was hiding something from her - although this was also the giraffe's usual style.

Besides, it would be annoying if Shizi kept trying to find it but couldn't.

She stood on the edge of the platform, looking down at the still city below.

The giraffe was probably not there.

But why not look for it?

She stepped out onto the platform, held her skirt with both hands, and jumped down.

The strong wind tore her clothes, her long hair fluttered, and she fell straight down from a height of thousands of feet.

Her sight swept across countless streets and tall buildings in an instant.

Shinjuku, Shibuya, Chiyoda... We went through area after area and found nothing unusual.

Shizi landed steadily on the ground, between the still crowd and traffic, and the wind around him raised a cloud of dust.

"As expected, not really."

Shizi raised his head, and the illusion of the city around him disappeared like a bubble.

"But where will you be?"

Shizi walked in the corridor in silence.

The meeting was over long ago. They had made some preliminary plans with the goal of "doing everything possible to protect everyone's lives after the airship was destroyed."

However, Shizi still had doubts in his heart.

She had never thought about it before - why couldn't she find a giraffe in her mind?

Because of the pure stream-of-consciousness presentation in the animation of his previous life, Shizi once thought that it was completely reasonable for him to not be able to find a giraffe.

But, it was my brain after all. Theoretically, under the premise that my other self was already asleep and I was the only main consciousness there, I should have absolute control over it. Just now, I was able to search the entire city in a short period of time, which was proof of that.

However, after searching every inch of the place, no trace of giraffes was found.

But it said that it needed to stay in its own mind, because that was the border between the "stage" and the "wilderness". Only by staying there could it have a chance to escape and bring them back to reality. She didn't think the giraffe had other purposes, maybe it did, but the reason it told her must be one of the purposes, because the giraffe's attention to the stage girl was beyond doubt.

Thinking of this, she thought of the prediction of their ending by the Star Movement. She frowned and pushed the thought out of her mind. In order to concentrate, she looked back at the map in her mind. The black area seemed unchanged. That's right, since Kasumi said they still had at least a week of free time, and looking at the scale of this world, the expansion of that area on the map must not be visible to the naked eye.

However, as she looked at the area, she suddenly had an idea and stopped.

The area expands outward with the tower as its center.

The reason for the filth's rampage is unknown.

The giraffe disappeared.

Filth is an extension of the power of the demon wolf.

She felt that she was very close to the answer at this moment.

When she opened her eyes, Hinata was standing in front of her without her noticing.

Hinata's eyes seemed to see through everything: "How is it? Do you want me to tell you?"

Shizi forced himself to keep a straight face and not show any urgency at all.

Seeing this, Hina sighed, "It's boring~ That's why you're just not as interesting as Xiaocai."

"Forget it, I'll tell you. This matter has something to do with me anyway," Hina stood beside Shiko and walked side by side with her, "The giraffe is here."

Shizi was not too surprised, but just sighed: "I should have thought of it earlier. LAYER came into this world by herself, and the giraffe did something to her. And you came in by yourself, too."

"Hmm~ When I was watching little LAYER's memories before, I was curious whether something had happened to me," Hinata said as they walked, "but I only found out what was going on not long ago."

"Do you know why I can function normally even though my soul is filled with filth?" she suddenly asked.

"Is it okay to tell me?" Shizi asked back, "Don't you still want to find my weakness? Just tell me the secret like this?"

"That's all for the future. This crisis is somewhat related to this incident, so it's good for everyone if I tell you about it." Hinata really didn't care. "The problem lies with my mental power. A part of my original brilliance was used to clink with my mental power, giving it some 'inhuman' properties. As a result, my mental power can restrain and even corrode filth to a certain extent."

"So, I can use my abilities through this layer of filth, and I can control monsters that are almost entirely made of filth." Hinata said, "I have already consumed all the filth on me now, but it will still be dangerous when it goes berserk, so I will choose a time to 'reproduce'."

"What does that have to do with this?" Shizi asked, "Can your erosion of filth trigger a worldwide rampage of filth?"

"That's right." A voice that did not belong to Hina appeared in Shizi's mind.

Shizi's expression remained unchanged: "Finally appeared..."

That's the sound of a giraffe.

"I need to integrate the power of the stage into the wilderness." The giraffe was still the riddler as always. After saying this, it stopped talking.

Shizi could only guess on his own.