"Kevin..."
Elysia suspected Kevin might be carrying a bit of an 'idol burden'—whenever he appeared in public, he completely slipped into the role of [Kevin the Founder].
Look, even the way he spoke was exactly the same.
"Do you have anything else you want to say?"
Still, she clearly wasn't giving up so easily.
"No," Kevin's tone remained flat.
"Sigh... Kevin, you acting like this really kills the mood. At least say something like, ahem…"
Elysia cleared her throat: "『Now there are two dead men in the stream』~"
"I think..." Kevin's tone shifted slightly, "That's something Otto would say, Elysia."
"Have you been hanging around Otto too much lately? Has he influenced you?"
"Mhm, for some reasons, I have been learning from Mr. Otto recently," Elysia admitted honestly.
"No wonder."
Watching the stream, Hokuto inexplicably felt a pot was being dumped on their head.
Hokuto: ???
...
After a few exchanges between Elysia and Kevin—
Though the topic briefly derailed, she still tried to get Kevin to share his thoughts on the story.
But whether it was because Kevin didn't know the upcoming plot, or because he just wanted to match the Kevin in-game, he remained enigmatic.
In the end, he revealed nothing.
Seeing this, Elysia had no choice but to patiently continue progressing the story.
At that moment, Chapter 29 ended.
The main story moved into Chapter 30: "Marcia Funebre".
???
Marcia Funebre?
Wasn't that chapter title already giving off extremely ominous vibes?
["Marcia Funebre"? With a title like that, surely someone's going to die this time?]
[Don't panic. Look closely—it says "heroes," not "Flame-Chasers." That means the Flame-Chasers' wishes will come true. It'll definitely be a wholesome, positive story. (Starts praying.)]
[A glorious send-off after wishes are fulfilled, right?]
[Okay, okay, stop with the hell jokes.]
["Wholesome, Positive, and Uplifting"]
["We've Been Through Worse"]
As the audience debated—
Elysia also clicked into the main story with a sliver of anxiety.
The story began not by continuing the "Kevin's death" cliffhanger from last chapter, but shifted instead to reality.
Raven was carrying out the "Only She Can Do It" mission previously mentioned in the Elysian Realm arc.
She met up with Gray Serpent #10426.
What was surprising was—this Gray Serpent #10426 and Raven were old acquaintances.
And this Gray Serpent #10426 didn't speak like a typical Gray Serpent at all. Instead, he had a strangely flamboyant tone.
Even while on a mission, he wanted to wear a Hawaiian shirt.
Gray Serpent + Hawaiian Shirt?
Just imagining it made your eyes hurt.
Raven was clearly speechless as well and told him to cut the nonsense.
Seeing her reaction, this Gray Serpent fell silent and signaled to begin the operation.
Together, they infiltrated the Neville Industrial Laboratory under aliases.
That was all for the World Serpent storyline for now—but it wasn't hard to see that while Mei was searching for the truth in the Elysian Realm, the outside world was also brimming with turbulence.
Although the story hadn't explicitly told the players what exactly was causing these undercurrents—
After a brief real-world segment, the game returned to the Realm.
Back to the main plot.
Mei received the news of Kevin's death, and just like the players before her, fell into a short-circuited state.
At the same time, distrust and tension among the Flame-Chasers persisted.
Su and Hua had left with the exiled Kalpas. Left behind were Mei, temporary leader Eden, as well as Griseo and Kosma.
Oh, and Pardofelis, who had been hiding nearby.
Eden turned to the bushes beside her: "Then—Felix, if you have no objections, come on out."
"Eh—??"
A patch of roadside shrubs suddenly trembled.
After a brief and slightly awkward silence, Pardofelis reluctantly emerged.
"Sorry, Sister Eden... I just saw Brother Kalpas get that mad and got really scared! So I panicked and hid..."
[In my head, I automatically heard: 'Brother Kalpas, noooo!' lololol]
[Catcat survived a full-map AoE (not really)]
[Never underestimate Catcat—her luck is MAX.]
[Speaking of Pardofelis' luck, remember long ago, when the real-world Miss Pardofelis helped viewers pull for a gear set and—]
[One pull soulbound?]
[No, no, go check Miss Elf's pilipili stream highlight "****" and you'll see what a true luck god looks like.]
...
Setting aside the veteran viewers of Elysia's stream encouraging the newbies to look up stream highlights on pilipili,
and eagerly waiting to see their shocked expressions after realizing what true luck looked like—
Back in the story, after Pardofelis stepped out of hiding—
Though her tone was timid, she still firmly stated that she didn't believe there was a traitor among the Flame-Chasers.
"I heard everything you all just said, and I think—Sister Eden is right! This isn't the time for infighting!"
"Aren't we the [Thirteen Flame-Chasers]? Everyone's clearly very united—uh, maybe not that united—but at least we've fought side by side!"
"Let's not make the atmosphere so tense, maybe... it's just a [prank]? Or maybe it's Snake-sis's experiment… or Vill-V's magic trick...?"
Speaking of Vill-V's magic tricks...
[Do you guys think there's a chance this is all just one of Vill-V's 'great human transmutation' illusion shows?]
Transmutation?
In a sense, maybe—except it was more like turning "has" into "had."
[You guys are just lying to yourselves at this point.]
Even Pardofelis seemed to realize she was grasping at straws.
She muttered an apology: "Sorry..."
Poor Catcat. So pitiful.
Kosma reassured her: "You don't need to apologize."
Pardofelis shook her head: "I just don't believe there's a [traitor] among us… What happened to Boss Kevin can't be what it looks like! There must be something we're not seeing…"
Kosma, however, simply reiterated: every Flame-Chaser has secrets.
They're fully capable of acting differently from usual.
It's true.
Each of the Flame-Chasers has their own secrets.
But the reasons they keep them… aren't nearly as dark as people think.
Elysia hid her identity as the Thirteenth Herrscher out of fear of being alienated—because she loved everyone so much.
Kalpas would never voluntarily explain the real reason he always carried his fury...
And Kevin… well, maybe he just really likes being cryptic.
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