This time, the battle with the Soul Legion really exhausted Asho and the others.

Not only Asho, who led the battle from start to finish, but also Sonia and Diya, who spent most of the time as cheerleaders, were equally tired. They hid in the car, enduring the constant danger of sudden death, and had to resist the dizziness and impact brought by the speeding car, with no relaxation in their hearts… like a tightly stretched spring, even after releasing the energy, the aftermath of the thrilling battle had not yet subsided.

Although Asho and the others had experienced dangerous battles before, at most it was just ‘dangerous’, and the Artificers still had room to maneuver. But this battle with the Soul Legion left no room for error. As long as the car exploded, they themselves had no ability to resist the Soul Legion.

They had been testing the edge of death all along.

Setting traps using the terrain, poisoning and killing the Thousand Feather Bird Dragon in the midst of a thousand troops, wearing down the Snake Scorpion Star Swordsman, and fighting the Soul Legion to the last second… compared to this battle, killing the Fish Dragon was simply a relaxing leisure activity.

But after sitting for a while, Asho and Sonia basically recovered. But they still sat in the car, with no intention of getting up at all, like employees who took 15 minutes to start working.

Naturally, they were not too lazy to get up. Exploring the Virtual Realm was equivalent to working for themselves, and as hardworking entrepreneurs, they still had a lot of enthusiasm for their work. The reason they sat still was because they were waiting for the Witch to rest.

Sonia, who usually liked to chatter, didn’t say a word at this time. She lazily crossed her legs wrapped in black stockings and made a soft humming sound with her nose, as if lying in bed.

But she kept observing Diya with the corner of her eye, who was dressed in colorful clothes like a clown, with a hint of worry in her eyes.

Asho’s acting skills were not as good as Sonia’s, so he sat very stiffly, trying to observe Diya’s chaotic hair color with the corner of his eye. His left hand still held Diya’s wrist, as a precaution.

After killing the Soul Legion, Asho and Sonia reached a consensus through eye contact – the Witch’s condition was not good.

They saw it very clearly. As the battle became more and more critical, the Witch’s hair color became more and more chaotic, and even her voice changed. When the Witch spoke just now, it was like a quartet, as if four different people were speaking, and her hair was also constantly changing color. No matter how you looked at it, it was a very bad sign.

Resting was indeed a way to relax after a battle, but it was also a way to treat the Witch. They naturally guessed that the Witch’s strange situation must be related to her ‘sisters’, but the problem of the mind was completely beyond their ability. Their Artisan miracles were of no use.

Fortunately, both Asho and Sonia had a Silver-level mental faction realm. Even though they hadn’t read many psychological works, when encountering such special events involving mental changes, they could still have the correct intuition for action – don’t disturb the Witch, let her calm down slowly.

If it were the old Sonia, she would definitely ask the Witch about her feelings in a roundabout way; as for Asho, he would be even more powerful, and he would probably say, “Have you ever considered shaving your head?”

But because of the knowledge and intuition brought by the mental faction realm, they were able to snuff out those thoughts that would make the situation even more irreparable.

Ignorance is fearless, and knowledge will make people learn to be in awe.

Perhaps the atmosphere they created was really good, and the Witch lazily sat down next to the car and closed her eyes. Her clothes slowly turned back to black, and her gradually changing long hair also faded away from the cheap illusion, and in a while, it returned to the pure color of the secret princess.

She fell asleep.

It was the first time Asho and Sonia had seen someone fall asleep in the Virtual Realm. The two of them quietly surrounded the Witch, and for a while, they carefully examined the Witch’s eyebrows, lips, nose, eyelashes, and glasses. Not looking at her, they were startled. Although the Witch was usually very beautiful, the sleeping Witch seemed even more gentle, like a shy little deer, making people want to pinch her cheeks.

When Asho’s gaze tried to look past her neck to inquire about the curves inside her clothes, Sonia reached out and grabbed his chin, turning his gaze to meet hers.

You wake her up.

Why should I? You’re more suitable.

I just met her, you’re more suitable.

You’re a woman, you’re more suitable.

Why?

Are you a woman or am I a woman? Can’t a woman understand another woman?

You… damn, that makes sense.

Asho was completely defeated in this eye debate and had to perform the annoying alarm clock duty. But since the Sword Girl was so unwilling, he wouldn’t be polite!

Pinch~

Asho reached out and pinched the Witch’s plump cheeks, and the feeling was very good. It was said that the body in the Virtual Realm would faithfully reflect the real body, so it was possible to feel the soft and plump sensation. Leaving aside everything else, this touch completely cured Asho’s fatigue from the previous battle… so a girl’s cheeks are this soft!

“Hey!”

Sonia directly chopped Asho’s hand with her palm, “Are you harassing her?”

“I’m waking her up! According to relevant research, attacking the face is the most effective way to wake someone up. For example, a slap will definitely wake someone up.””Then you should slap her!”

Wow, the most foolish and iron-willed college roommate I knew back then wasn’t as ruthless as you. Only my brother could do such a thing.

“Huh?”

Diya, who was awakened by the pinch, subconsciously rubbed her eyes and looked at the two of them in confusion. “Huh? You guys… here… but how did I… Is this a dream?”

Sonia directly pinched her face into a pancake, “You fell asleep just now! Wake up, we’re still in the Virtual Realm!”

“Oh, oh, oh!” Diya nodded heavily. “Yes, I remember now. We defeated the Soul Legion… We actually won, yay, yay!”

The witch immediately became excited and hugged the Sword Girl to celebrate. Asho also tried to join the girls’ celebratory hug, but was pushed away by the Sword Girl. However, the witch noticed Asho’s actions and also came to hug him. “Observer, your driving skills are so strong! Super amazing! Even more powerful than the villain in a fairy tale! The Sword Girl is also super amazing, completing the final kill. Of course, I’m also very amazing, I grabbed that soul!”

“Yes, yes, yes, witch, you did great this time. Thank you for your hard work.”

Asho lightly rubbed Diya’s head with his right hand, pressing down her proud stray hair, and raised his left hand high to indicate that all his actions complied with the standards of a children’s channel. Sonia snorted, stood up and said, “Then we should go pick up the loot we deserve – hopefully they haven’t run away thinking no one wants them.”

By now, the poisonous mist in the cave had dissipated. They looked around and found that there was nothing to be considered as loot. They didn’t know if it was because of the way they killed the creatures or because those creatures were members of the Soul Legion, but after they died, they didn’t drop any experience orbs or even Artisans.

There were only three items on the battlefield, all dropped by the Soul Legion.

First, a manual, but when Asho picked it up, he found that it was not the Artificer’s Manual they had imagined—

“Demilo’s Commander’s Manual”

“Reading this will grant a reward (optional)——”

“Sword Command Technique – Basic: You will know how to coordinate the sword faction in combat and gain a large amount of sword faction experience.”

“Shooting Command Technique – Intermediate: You are skilled in using long-range units to achieve tactical intent and gain a huge amount of shooting faction experience.”

“Attack Technique – Basic: You will be more threatening when commanding an attack and gain a small amount of experience from each faction.”

“Logistics Technique – Intermediate: Your troops will march more quickly and gain a moderate amount of experience from each faction.”

How to describe the shock of this commander’s manual to the Artisans? Just look at the Sword Girl—after learning about the reward options inside, she blurted out ‘loudspeaker’ and was so shocked that she couldn’t even maintain her self-cultivation.

If the Artificer’s Manual is somewhat nutritious but difficult to eat vegetables, then the Commander’s Manual is a high-nutrition ice cream cake that defies the laws of matter with 0 calories, 0 sugar, and 0 protein. First of all, its rewards are not random, but can be chosen by oneself; secondly, in addition to the reward command skills, it also comes with faction experience, equivalent to an extra experience orb.

Of course, the most important thing is—it has no reading threshold!

Not every vegetable is suitable for the Artisans’ taste, but who can resist a 0-calorie ice cream cake? They don’t even need to open the manual to read the command experience inside, they can get the reward directly, so even Sonia, who has a relatively rigid moral bottom line, can use it!

Although this Commander’s Manual is not of much value, after all, it is just “a command skill that is not needed” + “experience orb” obtained from killing a creature, which is not much different from the loot they got.

But the appearance of the Commander’s Manual broadened their horizons, letting them know that the Artificer’s Manual is not the only difficult-to-eat vegetable, and there may be other flavors of Artificer’s Manuals in the Virtual Realm that are more nutritious.

If they encounter a similar mutated projection of the Soul Legion next time, the Sword Girl will definitely not stop Asho from venturing into danger. They bravely take a step into the unknown, and the Commander’s Manual is a positive feedback reward for the unknown, so their first reaction when encountering the unknown and danger in the future will not be to run away, but to explore and collect information.

Artisans who have tasted the sweetness will gladly lick any unknown secret, even if it may contain bitterness or even poison.

Quietly, the successful experience has influenced their way of thinking. Just as the Golden River nurtured their ambitions, hunting the Soul Legion also strengthened their greed.

There is no doubt that this Commander’s Manual is naturally for Sonia. After all, none of the three of them needs the shooting faction, and the most urgent task now is to feed Sonia’s sword faction to the gold level.

And Sonia also deeply felt her own powerlessness in the battle just now. Although she completed the final fatal blow, 99% of the credit for the entire battle should be attributed to Asho and his almost exhausted car.

The real MVP who deserves praise and hugs is the car!The sports car was a testament to Asho’s power, and by that alone, he far surpassed himself; the witch also possessed a golden-tier sorcery faction, the Aquatic Line, which boasted both offensive and control capabilities, and on top of that, witches could read most Sorcerer’s Manuals… Sonia reflected calmly and realized that she was unwittingly on the verge of becoming the team’s weakest link.

The Observer had made it clear that if she couldn’t keep up with the team, she wouldn’t receive a preferential share of resources, nor would she be favored. If the team needed to optimize its member structure, naturally, the weakest link would be the first to be optimized…

Therefore, Sonia didn’t hold back this time and took the Commander’s Manual for herself.

She was not the type to concede defeat easily. If she truly couldn’t keep pace with the team’s progress, then she would drain the Observer dry, consume all of his resources, and force him to continue investing more to avoid wasting his previous investments!

As long as she owed the Observer enough, the one panicking would not be her, but the Observer!

What was that called again… right, sunk cost, a term the Observer had explained when complaining about work, which Sonia found quite appealing.

The more one invests, the harder it is to let go.

Time, effort, emotions, experiences, everything becomes shackles influencing current decisions.

She set a small goal for herself in her heart—to become the sunk cost the Observer couldn’t afford to abandon!

Before using the Commander’s Manual, Sonia quickly skimmed through its contents, which, as expected, were incredibly dull, filled with experiences and examples of commanding battles, without a single piece of intelligence about ‘Demilo.’

No wonder the Commander’s Manual could be used by anyone; it bore no imprint of a sorcerer’s worldview, nor did it offer any opinion, just like a regular reference book, hence there was no reading threshold.

But wasn’t the Sorcerer’s Manual the culmination of a sorcerer’s life? Why was there not a trace of Demilo’s privacy?

The thought flickered through the farm woman’s mind and then vanished—probably a special mechanism of the Virtual Realm, she thought. If there’s nothing to see, then there’s nothing to see.

Turning to the last page, Sonia saw a somewhat familiar photograph.

It was a star chart, the profound night sky, twinkling stars, among which three stars were connected by lines, the bottom one labeled ‘Demilo,’ but the other two were nameless.

She showed the page to the others, and Asho made a precise comment:

“It looks like the information a victim gives about their murderer just before death.”