Toyokawa Shoko doesn't want to become a witch

end.

The Lost Story: The Lost Child: Chapter 440 Epilogue?

dong dong dong ——

Boom boom boom boom————

Xiangzi could clearly hear his own heartbeat.

Just as a camera lens above his forehead might suddenly zoom in to its widest angle using Hitchcock's zoom, Xiangzi felt the world receding into the distance. His heart pounded like a frenzied drumbeat, his breathing became rapid, the scenery before him became unreal, his blood rushed through his limbs like a torrent, his instincts urged his body to act, but his brain remained blank, his feet seemed nailed to the ground, unable to move, the whole world seemed to have become a huge void, and he stood in the center of that void, falling, falling, falling.

This is a state of heightened excitement that is triggered by extremely intense emotions, such as anger or tension.

But what Xiangzi felt at that moment was—

fear.

Why is this happening?

she thinks.

She had made countless mental preparations for the upcoming Witch's Night, but she never imagined that she would be facing something like this.

The Night of the Witch, the Night of Walpurgis, generally refers to the most well-known powerful witch who looks like a stage prop. Her arrival triggered a major earthquake ten years ago. However, that title is not exclusive to witches who "look like stage props," but only for the time being—for the time being, only she deserves that title.

Why are you suddenly saying all this?

That's because, of course, the "Witch's Night" that appeared before Xiangzi at this moment was not the "stage setup" he had expected, nor was it the torrential rain brought by the typhoon.

Instead, it's a different kind of "rain".

Xiangzi strained to raise his head, watching the countless "raindrops" fall from the sky.

Those were nuclear bombs, countless nuclear warheads, splitting into countless smaller missiles in the air, falling to the ground like raindrops.

A pure white figure floated in mid-air, her bright gold but lifeless eyes looking down at the earth. The countless "raindrops" behind her seemed to be a stage created for her, a stage for the "dance of destruction".

The figure that had troubled him for countless days and nights reappeared in his sight in an unexpected way.

It appeared over the reed plains, bringing destruction.

The world fell silent the instant the first nuclear warhead exploded.

A blindingly bright light burst forth in mid-air.

Thump th ...

Xiangzi's heart was pounding so hard he could barely keep up.

She opened her mouth silently, robbed of all ability to move by fear.

The sound of my heartbeat seemed to overlap with some other sound, a rhythmic thumping that grew faster and faster.

Until, the inconspicuous ticking sound began.

Boom boom boom boom————

The double strikes on the drumhead resembled the roar of a wild beast. The limbs took turns controlling the rhythm and speed, and all the muscles in the body participated in the performance. The movements were swift and the stamina was enduring. Sweat splattered everywhere, and beads of sweat slid down the cheeks, dripped from the chin, and fell onto the drumhead, where they were shattered by the impact of the vibrating drumhead.

Suddenly, Xiangzi realized that the scene in front of him had transformed into someone in the deepest part of a bar, playing the drums with abandon.

Her pupils shrank to their smallest size in an instant.

My dry throat couldn't produce any sound.

Toyokawa Shoko finds herself back on June 1st, the night she chatted with Meowmu in the bar.

At this point, there were still 27 days left before Nirvana arrived at the Reed Plain.

The endless June has begun.

=========

Chapter Three: The Tale of Reincarnation

Stay tuned.

The Lost Story: The Lost Child: End Summary

This volume contains a total of 440,000 words, making it the longest volume I've ever written. At the same time, this book has reached 1.1 million words, a level I've never reached before.

It's quite exciting to write a novel that's over a million words for the first time.

But as excited as I am, this volume is indeed a bit long. Although I originally planned it to be between 400,000 and 450,000 words and it didn't exceed that range in the end, it is still a bit... well... maybe I shouldn't have designed such a long volume in the first place.

The remaining part of this book is neither too much nor too little; it should end around two million words, I've already calculated. However, given my tendency to write more than I expect, the word count will probably be slightly higher.

Well, that's pretty much it.

The creative idea behind this volume is actually based on the cyber witch Su Shi and the various game easter eggs she played at home. Oh, to be precise, it's the games I've played; in this volume, Su Shi seems to only play mobile games.

This volume references many games, and you should be able to see that many maps reference elements from Souls, Bloodborne, and the like. I won't go into details; people know more about Dark Souls 5 than I do.

Another core element is the concept of sacrifice/redemption and offerings. These elements, including monsters like the Cerberus and the Pumpkin Lantern, all originate from the PS Vita game "Soul Sacrifice." Forbidden techniques such as the spine sword and gouging out eyeballs also come from this game.

The dwarfs' steam sky city comes from BioShock Infinite. I originally wanted to write about an underwater city, but I cut it.

The Divine Kingdom and Eternal Man are closer to the present day, inspired by the last map in Final Fantasy XIV's 7.0 version, "The Golden Light of the Fallen," including the final form of the Eternal Goddess, which is also a translation of the final boss, the Eternal Queen.

It seems no one noticed the reference in this post, which is a bit of a shame.

Well.

Because the storyline of version 7.0 was so disappointing, I always felt compelled to write it in my own way, which led to the creation of the Divine Kingdom of the Plain World.

This "memory of the golden age" not only represents the bubble economy era in everyone's mind, but also corresponds to the persistence of Su Shi's Crychic during that time.

Because the past was so wonderful, I want to stay in the past forever.

The Su Shi I remember is just like this.

You can find the song "Bygone Senity" on QQ Music. It is the background music for "Living Memories," which is the prototype of the Reed Plain in Su Shi's mind. The entire theme of the Divine Kingdom is also based on the theme of this song.

The final battle in this book, the Annihilation Battle of the Eternal Goddess, corresponds to a variation of this piece, "Paved in Solitude." If you like this chapter, please be sure to listen to it.

The street singer featured in the "Tower of Flowers" chapter is the recently deceased Suanqian Girl, whose most famous work is "Tower of Flowers." Suanqian rose through the ranks from a street performer. The first time I heard her song was "New Moon" from the anime "Ranpo Kitan," and so many years have passed without me realizing it. This year, she announced her marriage, held a concert in Beijing, announced a break in July, and then suddenly passed away. Some people say that she knew she might not live much longer and did everything she wanted to do before she left. Based on this speculation, the "Tower of Flowers" chapter came about.

Having analyzed the Easter eggs and references, let's finally look ahead to the future.

Starting from the next volume, it will be the Reincarnation Arc, and the main stage will move to Kamihama. The five colors that appeared before will also reappear, and the characters from Magia Record will also appear, but their roles will not be very large, since there are too many characters and I myself cannot keep up with the writing.

The Reincarnation arc will run through the second half of the entire story, all the way to the end. It's a chapter I've been planning for a very long time.

I will maintain my consistent style while shortening the length. Although the fourth volume did not exceed my expectations, those expectations were already a bit too long. I will learn from this experience and the next volume should only be 150,000 to 200,000 words long.

That's it. I'll take two days off tomorrow and the day after, organize the outline for the next volume, and then update twice a day until the end of the month.

Love you guys.

Finally, let's do a satisfaction survey; it would be best if you could leave some feedback.

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The Tale of Reincarnation: The Shore of Oblivion: Chapter 441 June 1st, Whiplash

The black-and-white world, which had been paused, resumed its flow. The scene before him blurred as the focus shifted. Xiangzi clutched the hem of his skirt, his back soaked with cold sweat. The chaotic drumbeats merged into high-frequency cymbal sounds, buzzing incessantly in Xiangzi's ears like flies.

With a loud "clang—!", all the noise came to an abrupt end.

Xiangzi's heart seemed to stop beating, his legs went weak, and he sat down on the ground.

I had prepared countless ways to face the "Witch's Night," but why did the "Witch's Night" that appeared before me... turn into Nirvana?

Was the "Witch's Night" that had been foreshadowed for so long actually "himself"?

Xiangzi's head was already buzzing.

Wasn't Nirvana suppressed within the Soul Gem? Why... why is it appearing here...?

I had considered a million possibilities, but I never imagined that I would face rebirth again.

She thought those things were already in the past.

"Wow! So it's you, Xiangzi!"

The drum set made a loud noise—no, it should be the cat dreaming behind the drum set making a really loud noise.

"Why did you leave without a sound? Were you trying to scare me to death?!"

"..."

Xiangzi didn't hear Miaomeng calling her at all; the buzzing in her head continued unabated.

Miaomeng dropped her drumsticks, walked up to Xiangzi, grabbed her shoulders, and shook her violently, like shaking a puppet with its strings cut. Even so, Xiangzi didn't react at all; her two bright golden eyes lost focus, staring blankly at the ceiling behind Miaomeng.

"Hey, hey, are you okay?"

Miao Meng raised her eyebrows and then poked Xiangzi's cheek.

Still no response.

Miao Meng sighed, picked up Xiangzi's hand, and put it on her shoulder.

"What's going on? You came over without a word and startled me, and then you acted like I played you, staring blankly at me. If Hatsuko saw this, she'd probably tear me to pieces..."

She complained as she moved Xiangzi to the sofa next to her.

The bartender brought over a glass of water and placed it on the table next to Xiangzi, while she leaned against the edge of the table, looking over curiously.

"what happens?"

"You're asking me? Who should I ask?" Miao Meng rolled her eyes.

Putting aside why Xiangzi was here, she looked like she had lost her soul, and Miaomeng really couldn't understand what had happened.

She cupped Xiangzi's face in her hands and pressed her forehead against it to check his temperature.

It felt cool and refreshing, but I didn't have a fever.

But speaking of which, Xiangzi's skin is really good, so fine and smooth.

cough cough.

I really didn't mean to take advantage of you.

Perhaps because Miaomeng's actions were too unrestrained, Xiangzi's dilated pupils trembled a few times before gradually regaining focus.

Xiangzi vaguely remembered the scene before him; Miaomeng's selfless demeanor left a very deep impression on him.

The same dimly lit, deserted bar, the same meow dream playing drums with abandon.

She remembered them all.

The scenes were so similar, even the preceding and following plot points connected. She had heard some explanations about this.

This phenomenon is called the hippocampal effect, also known as déjà vu or the feeling of having experienced something or a scene before, as if one had experienced it at some point in time. It is a feeling that a person suddenly feels in a real environment that they have "personally experienced a certain scene or event somewhere before".

Simply put, it's a familiar illusion.

But Miaomeng was just beside him; she couldn't possibly run back to play the drums at such a critical moment.

Is this really an illusion?

What time is it now?

Where did Nirvana go?

In the end what happened?

Could it be that......

Xiangzi's pupils shrank to the extreme, and an unbelievable thought popped into his mind, one that he didn't know why had come to mind first.

"Meow Dream..."