Chapter 396: The Amazing Wisdom of a Lovely Daughter

The vegetables and meat in the hot pot bubbled and rolled in the simmering broth. The fresh fats shimmered with an inviting glow, and the colors of the ingredients grew more vivid. The aroma that filled the air was sweet and appetizing.

Xie Qingxuan wiped her lips. She lowered her gaze toward the glass still holding half a cup of lemon slices and ice. Through the transparent wall and the light’s refraction, she faintly saw that delicate, indifferent face tinged with a hint of gloom.

“Everything today feels strange, like living in a dream.”

Even though she remembered parts of the first playthrough and had reunited with her old comrade Charlotte, Charlotte’s personality should not have changed much.

Because the singer, the Awakened One, and the shrine maiden were not truly indispensable to the Demon King of the first playthrough. They could entrust their beliefs and lives to each other, surpassing most worldly definitions of friendship, and counted as some of the most reliable comrades.

But the problem was, for that Demon King, entrusting their lives to one another did not mean they were very close. In her eyes, they were merely progressing toward the same goal, crossing paths along the way and lending each other help.

In short, without Chu Yuanying as the bond and tether, the singer, Awakened One, shrine maiden, and Demon King in the memories were somewhat distant. In theory, this bond could no longer reverse Xie Qingxuan’s current personality.

Yet the truth was,

After introspection, Xie Qingxuan noticed her attitude toward her sister, her feelings for her parents, her pursuit of love, her judgment of the stage, and her thoughts on idols…

These concepts normally required accumulation over time, abrupt upheavals, and gradual shifts, but now they had unknowingly taken on an entirely new form.

Even though this sense of dissonance was constantly swallowed, worn down, and driven away, she still didn’t waver in her suspicion.

First, because of her personality—the New Game Plus was fine, but the Demon King of the first playthrough was extremely stubborn, bordering on a mental disorder after retreating twice.

Second, because of the blessing—after three performances, her identity as a magical girl was exposed. The show “Dazzling Stage” promoted her as planned, adding to her presence and continuously amplifying “The Power of the Titan,” effectively stacking her resistance.

Therefore,

In Xie Qingxuan’s statement, there was no confusion, no hesitation, and no self-doubt—only an inexplicable certainty.

Chu Wang Shu’s emotions fluctuated, and the strange calm within her was stirred by the other’s words. She asked,

“Does Sister Xie feel the same?”

Kirimi Miyuki glanced at the table full of barely touched food. Her rosy pink eyes sparkled as she pursed her lips and softly said,

“Since our last stage ended, there’s been a subtle feeling. I don’t know how to explain it, but… something’s off.”

Tang Liuli raised her gloomy brows. She still looked unwell after waking, and faint dark circles under her green eyes showed that a few hours of light sleep hadn’t replenished her lost magic.

This soul’s thirst, spirit’s exhaustion, and thoughts approaching dryness—unable to squeeze out even a trace of strength—were quite aggravating.

The green-eyed cat ate absentmindedly, like a potted plant wilted and drenched by storm clouds. Normally, she would have already switched into Great Detective Sherlock Holmes Liuli mode.

But now, the world-shaking wisdom hidden deep within her soul was heavily suppressed. She couldn’t catch any sparks nearing the truth or propose any constructive ideas or directions.

But…

“It really is strange. My magic power exhausted itself for no reason.”

Tang Liuli took a sip of the juice mixed with alcohol and continued,

“Little Xuan and Miyuki should have noticed that when Little Shu was sacrificed to the Calamity God, apart from instinctively constructing Magic Armor and completing the transformation, I had absolutely no awareness throughout.”

Her words fell, and the three of them frowned in silence.

Though fully burning Heart Flow on stage does consume considerable magic power, for magical girls who are already Fully Blooming, no matter how excessive it seems, the magic power can be completely restored within an hour or two after.

Besides, everyone had held back somewhat, unwilling to overly strain the players who hadn’t yet become magical girls. The exertion of Heart Flow on stage was far from reaching the level called Shining Magic.

Under these circumstances, Liuli’s magic power overdraft was highly abnormal.

Chu Wang Shu murmured,

“No wonder Liuli was so exhausted.”

“But magic power cannot simply vanish into thin air. Even the Disaster group’s ability to directly drain enemies’ energy might not be effective against this kind of spiritual matter.”

Little Sakura pondered deeply. Suddenly, she recalled the conversation she had with Liuli and Little Xuan upon returning to Sea City. The specific details were forgotten, but the theme was about planning how to guard against, fight, and kill the Calamity God.

And because of that, after returning to Ideal State… wait, something was wrong.

“We… why did we have to go back to Ideal State?”

Kirimi Miyuki’s cherry-pink eyes brimmed with emotion. She looked at her teammates and repeated her question:

“Do you remember why we had to return to Ideal State just a few days before the performance?”

Xie Qingxuan answered immediately without hesitation:

“It was to rehearse the dance pieces for the show again.”

Chu Wang Shu suddenly realized something. She held her head and whispered with a slight headache,

“But our commercial performances were very successful. Before that, the three dance pieces prepared for the stage should have already been fully rehearsed. We could even watch replays of the shows online now.”

“And besides, we stayed in Ideal State for half a year. During those six months, we never slackened in this aspect. There shouldn’t have been any last-minute cramming before the competition.”

Tang Liuli fell silent for a moment, then softly asked,

“Little Shu, do you still remember how to dance those pieces? I already forgot everything — the dances, the songs from the commercial shows, nothing remains in my memory.”

Chu Wang Shu moved her lips, wanting to speak but stopped. She too had forgotten.

Xie Qingxuan did not respond. Instead, she quickly connected her phone to the TV and started searching for clips from their past commercial performances.

“Dazzling Stage” was extremely popular. As the number one team in the Sea City division, their every stage performance was available on major websites. Searching with even a few keywords would bring up results.

But…

There was nothing.

Those videos from their past commercial shows, and even some performances from the program, seemed to have completely vanished without a trace. Their disappearance had already caught the attention of some fans, causing a huge uproar online.

This was extremely strange and unbelievable. If it weren’t for their fanbase continuously growing and the ongoing discussions, such a ridiculous situation would seem like an intentional suppression and blacklisting.

In fact, many fans had already started to believe this and began tagging the official “Dazzling Stage” account, demanding an explanation.

For something like this to happen on the very day they secured their debut spots was incredibly unlucky, and it was no wonder that the fans were angry.

Yet, at this moment, none of the four present cared about these matters.

Kirimi Miyuki felt suffocated; her blood ran cold, and her fingertips chilled as if she had returned to the shrine covered in black snow. The colors of her soul — like the moonlit cherry blossoms — dulled, and the gentle burning and forging of her blade, the “Tempering of the Heart,” paused for a moment.

The girl felt like a tree eaten away by termites, numb and indifferent, until she suddenly realized that she had lost most of her body. She really could not find the words to describe this sensation.

Chu Wang Shu’s pupils trembled, her expression stunned.

Truly, something… had been erased.

At that moment, the inexplicable reason for tears, the sudden urge to go home, and the confusion from searching at home without results all connected like a thread, exploding in her mind with chilling fear, sharp anxiety, sorrow, and a growing rage that seemed fierce enough to burn the entire world.

What had I forgotten?

What made me forget?

Who is it? Is it a person? Is it an object? Is it an event?

I didn’t know, I knew nothing.

But it had to be very important, so important that even forgetting it felt like having ribs taken away, or a heart dug out, making the pain of forgetting cut through skin and flesh, filled with sharp wooden thorns, reaching deep into the bones, unable to completely scrape away the traces left behind.

It had to be precious, something she once held close to her heart, absolutely irreplaceable, something that lasted throughout her life… a priceless treasure.

“Dream Weaver Rabbit.”

Xie Qingxuan’s expression was calm as she spoke the codename of this super AI softly into the air:

“I want to review all the past performances, team battles, second shows, and commercial shows recorded by our cameras in ‘Dazzling Stage.'”

As soon as she finished speaking, within just a few breaths, Esther’s figure wove through the void. She lowered her gaze to the four people, glanced at the old butler beside them, and magical data particles swirled in the air, flowing into everyone’s minds. She spoke directly:

“The parts you want to see, I don’t have them either. The deepest records of the think tank have been erased.”

“It is now preliminarily determined that this is a world-class incident involving erosion, correction, and erasure of cognition and concepts.”

“The Supreme Council judges that the reason the Disaster group launched a full-scale attack on Sea City might have been to pave the way for this assault.”

“Even though we cannot yet see the specific threats and losses, judging from the scale, this might be even more dangerous than the Disaster Relief event.”

Tang Liuli felt a heavy weight in her heart. She forced herself to stay calm and said:

“It’s not the worst time yet. The fact that traces of erasure can still be found means this is not about fully reversing cause and effect, altering the past, or distorting reality—at least not entirely.”

Kirimi Miyuki said:

“Since this kind of change leaves behind erased traces, we can use simple elimination to determine more. Besides our information, what else was erased along with it?”

Esther lowered her gaze to the four, her eyes full of complicated emotions. She quietly spoke the answer:

“They are basically all related to ‘Dazzling Stage,’ but so far what has been discovered is mostly bound to you.”

This answer stirred their emotions, and they fell into silence.

In other words, what was devoured by some mysterious power was very likely a player, perhaps even a teammate. Only this could explain why from the team formation stage onward, large segments of their footage in the program had started to go missing.

Chu Wang Shu murmured:

“We lost… a teammate?”

Kirimi Miyuki said calmly:

“Liuli, the magic you lost must be because you sensed something early and took action. Perhaps you have some failsafe hidden inside you.”

The green-eyed cat’s eyes widened slightly. She suddenly felt nervous, as if entrusted with a great mission. Nervously, she whispered:

“But I don’t remember anything either.”

Upon hearing this, Chu Wang Shu suddenly recalled something. She thought of the line she had seen in Liuli’s notebook and asked compulsively,

“Liuli, do you like someone?”

Tang Liuli looked at her adorable daughter in confusion. After a moment of thought, she said seriously,

“Does Melina from Elden Ring count?”

“Is that the one with white hair and golden eyes?”

The green-eyed cat tilted her head in surprise and corrected,

“No, Melina has chestnut hair and one eye visible. She’s super cute, but white hair and golden eyes are indeed also great.”

However, before she finished speaking, the person in front of them suddenly stood up, ran upstairs quickly, and soon came back holding a notebook.

Chu Wang Shu confidently opened the notebook, ignoring the green-eyed cat’s shocked gaze, showed the first page to everyone, and read seriously,

“My idea of the perfect partner: height 163 cm, weight 46 kg, measurements 86/51/84, white hair and golden eyes, 17 years old, tells amazing bedtime stories, super cute and sunny, and also a beautiful girl with a motherly heart!”

When she finished speaking, the whole room fell completely silent.

The adorable daughter revealed Liuli Cat’s XP to everyone, ignoring the cute face slowly turning red with confusion, and continued her argument confidently:

“Look, this clearly isn’t Melina, so isn’t it possible that Liuli forgot the girl she liked, and the girl she likes is actually the teammate we forgot?”

Kirimi Miyuki was amazed by Chu Wang Shu’s wildly creative thinking.

Xie Qingxuan felt that Liuli’s incredible wisdom had rubbed off on her.

Esther quickly finished comparing the data and said seriously,

“After searching all the world’s anime, novels, movies, citizen records, and many other areas, there is no exact match for this set of data.”

“So, if this is not just Tang Liuli imagining an air partner, then your theory might actually hold some truth.”

Tang Liuli angrily slapped the table and stood up. She wanted to say she liked many otaku wives, but quickly sat back down, looking pitiful and innocent under everyone’s gaze, and whispered,

“Um, I really don’t remember at all.”

Xie Qingxuan thought that made sense. She nodded and said,

“Not remembering is right. It means you have forgotten everything about her, and that itself is proof.”

Kirimi Miyuki thought for a moment and said,

“So, this handwriting stayed because the exact name was not written?”

Little Sakura was a bit confused and complained,

“It’s strange. Since it’s all secret things written in the notebook, why not just write the name? Why would Liuli use such a weird way to summarize clues about their crush?”

The girl paused and suddenly understood. She looked admiringly at the innocent green-eyed cat and said thoughtfully,

“Could it be… that you predicted the situation now, knew how to avoid the erasure system, so you used a lot of magic power to twist reality, deliberately leaving us clues this way?”

Chu Wang Shu exclaimed,

“Liuli, you’re amazing.”

Xie Qingxuan praised in a matter-of-fact tone,

“Master Liuli is a genius.”

Tang Liuli was deeply shocked.

“Huh? Really? Am I actually this powerful?”

The green-eyed cat’s mind went blank for a moment, then she puffed up like a pufferfish, enjoying the admiring looks from her teammates, and nodded confidently,

“Yes, that’s right, you’re correct, that’s exactly what I was thinking.”