Can the sadness that magic cannot take away be offset by love?

Iris retreated to the wall quietly and cast an anti-illusion spell on herself.

In an instant, all the footsteps disappeared. The strong smell of blood and the sudden all-pervasive terrifying pressure made her face change - the black shadow never left.

The sound of departing footsteps, the tentative sound of opening windows, the sound of opening doors, and the rustling footsteps were all illusions.

From beginning to end, no one was ever safe from exposure to the light of day.

The scream that reached her ears, which she didn't know whether it was real or an illusion, made her alert. She once again felt the defensive magic circle she had superimposed outside the house -

Well, I had already been permeated by the terrifying aura, and what really blocked the aura of the shadow in the end was the hut itself.

"The competition field mission module has been triggered. The mission module has been unlocked. The C-level mission partition has been unlocked."

"The stadium prop module has been triggered. The prop module has been unlocked. The C-level prop partition has been unlocked."

"The mission module introduction has been triggered: the missions in the exchange competition arena are divided into four levels: C, B, A, and S according to increasing difficulty."

"The prop module introduction has been triggered: the props in the exchange competition arena are divided into four levels: C, B, A, and S according to the increasing rarity. Please note that the props in the arena are only effective in the six arenas of the exchange competition. They are virtual props and cannot be taken out of the arena."

Iris was somewhat curious about which warrior was able to unlock a mission while dealing with the Battle Royale, and most likely obtained items of the same level as the mission.

There was no restriction on what items the contestants could bring in this round of competition. Iris took out a few monitoring devices and pressed them on the condensed snowmen, then drew a simple teleportation array to send them out of the house.

As soon as the finger-sized snowmen landed, they crawled towards the windows of the cabins, and soon, Iris found the suspicious target.

The feedback from a little snowman who was peeping through someone's window was as follows:

A short-haired young man was sitting in the room, with an earphone in each ear, which was glowing with an unusual light.

The snowman looked around and saw a black shadow walking at the other end of the village. He secretly pried open the window, quickly slipped into the house and then closed the window. The young man almost immediately discovered him. The snowman pressed his paw on the window, showing a clear threat.

Several lines of words made of ice appeared in the air:

"If you dare to do it, open the window."

"Bring the props here."

"Just look, don't steal."

Seeing that the other party was still hesitating, the next line of words quickly appeared:

"A snowman can't take your props away."

"But a shadow can get you out right away."

No one knew whether the shadow could come in if the window was opened, but the young man was obviously unwilling to do this experiment. He slowly approached the little snowman by the window.

Within a one-meter radius of the other party, the little snowman saw the prompt box appearing on the Bluetooth headset:

"C-level item: a pair of headphones that allow hallucinating creatures within a ten-meter radius to hear some real sounds. Once put on, the effect lasts for one minute, and the cooldown period is six hours."

Iris’s cabin happened to be within that range, and the scream that had just awakened her was probably the “reality” given to her by the headphones.

"One last question, in what mission did you obtain this item?"

In response to the little snowman, the young man with headphones suddenly rushed forward with a flame in his hand.

The little snowman dissipated on its own before it touched anyone. Nothing can be brought into this world and nothing can be taken away from this world.

The effective range of the headset was very small, and the other party was expected to lock onto her position quickly. Iris adhered to the principle of repaying a drop of favor with a spring of water, and organized the little snowmen to use ice knives to cut a hole in the other party's wooden door, trying to send the other party away directly so that he could go home early and have a good rest.

The "open" wooden door really attracted the attention of the black shadow, and the good neighbor was quickly eliminated. The black shadow seemed to have no interest in the props. He left the house after catching the person. The little snowmen took off the pair of headphones and placed them on the teleportation array that suddenly appeared in the house. Then, Iris got the first C-level prop in the arena.

I feel it's useless, and it overlaps with the function of anti-illusion magic, so I'll put it away for now.

Relying on the fact that the shadow couldn't get into the house and couldn't do anything to her, she organized the little snowmen to continue searching house to house under the shadow's nose.

The image fed back by a little snowman caught her attention—the way the magic circle was drawn around a certain cabin looked extremely familiar to her.

The little snowman knocked on the magic circle, and the owner of the cabin walked to the window to check the situation outside.

It was Ernest Ramirez.

He obviously recognized whose family the little snowman belonged to and calmly pointed the little snowman in a direction.

The little snowman stopped trawling his magic circle, and looked doubtfully at the hut in that direction, and then found another C-level item.

The snowmen used the same method to deliver the props to Iris.

"C-level item: a cute bone whistle. After it is blown, the witch can be locked in the whistle's location no matter where she is. The cooldown time is twelve hours."

Although we can lock the location, it doesn’t mean the witch will definitely come.

Iris silently drew an equal sign between the black shadow and the witch, and then put a question mark above the equal sign.

She was not surprised that Ernest could understand what was happening outside the house even though he was inside. In a sense, his space magic was much freer than her teleportation array.

A spatial water curtain opened in front of the little snowman, spit out a small note, and then closed silently.

"There are two missions to the northwest. One for each of you? You pick first."

The little snowman used his wooden stick hand to draw a hook in the air.

Then it wrote in the air:

"How do I accept the mission?"

The space water curtain appeared again, and this time it spit out a small note with a piece of clothing attached.

"When you get close, it will show you whether to accept the mission. Just choose to accept it. My clothes can represent me when you accept the mission."

The little snowman hugged the piece of clothes that was a little too big for him, and staggered towards the northwest.

He even swaggered past the shadow's feet.

The shadow glanced at it and bent down to catch it.

The space water curtain quickly swallowed the snowman, and then spit the snowman out at a distance.

Space magic can ignore the distance within a certain range and place monitors in every corner, but his monitors obviously do not have hands and feet like the little snowman that can run. Without daring to go out, he can only stay at home and stare at every corner through the monitors.

Although the little snowman can run around, if he runs too far away from her, it will affect the effect of the teleportation array. When he encounters something he wants to steal, he can only be anxious.

The two did not communicate much, but they reached a temporary cooperation tacitly.

Iris would not refuse something that was mutually beneficial. The meaning of that snowflake was that the "cooperation" he wanted was not necessary for her but it would be okay to do it out of convenience.

After running for a while, the little snowman finally saw something that might be related to the mission -

It raised its head and looked at the two golden leaves hanging high in the dark tree.

It lowered its head and examined its short wooden arms and legs.

The space water curtain opened in front of it very sensibly.

The little snowman jumped in and landed steadily on a tall branch the next second, with two golden leaves just within its reach.

It randomly touched one of the pieces, and a prompt box appeared:

"Do you want to accept the mission?"

It didn't say what the mission was.

It touched the other piece and got the same result.

So the little snowman chose the golden leaf he touched first and accepted the task.

The golden leaves instantly turned into spots of light and disappeared.

Checking the mission was not the little snowman's mission. It pushed the corner of its clothes in its arms against another golden leaf, and the other golden leaf soon turned into nothingness. The flame from the water curtain in space carefully burned the corner of its clothes cleanly. The little snowman could not stand such a temperature, and the dripping snow water wet the place where it stood.

A sharp little iron sword appeared in its arms. It swung the little iron sword swiftly and pretended to jump into the water curtain in the space.

The space water curtain closed indifferently before it jumped in, and the little snowman holding the iron sword fell from the sky to the ground shiningly.

With a "pop", it fell into small snow mud.

The iron sword next to the snow mud was swallowed by the space water curtain. Ernest picked up the iron sword which was only the length of his finger, looked at it, and then put it aside.

Will she equip every snowman with such a "weapon"?

"B-level mission partition has been unlocked."

"The points module has been unlocked: you can earn points by completing specific tasks, and the points can be used to redeem items in the arena starting from the second round. In some arenas, a sufficient number of points is a requirement for advancing to the next round."

The electronic broadcast sounded in the stadium.

Iris looked at her tasks:

[Mission level: B level]

[Task content: Unlock the stadium map]

[Current progress: 12%]

[Completion Reward: One B-level item, 100 points]

The upper right corner of the field of vision shows the task bar and the maps she has unlocked - most of which were unlocked by hanging out with the snowmen during her escape.

The shadows outside were no longer catching people, but snowmen instead. Iris asked a passing snowman to kick the protective shield in front of Ernest's door, and then mobilized the snowmen who had appeared to gather together and run out of the village.

The black shadow really followed them. The snowmen couldn't outrun it, but the space water curtain helped them flash and escape.

Not long after leaving the village, the snow people lost contact with her, and the last image sent to her was a black shadow's grinning mouth gradually getting bigger.

At the same time, the radio sounded again:

"The S-level mission partition has been unlocked."

A new task popped up in Iris's vision:

[You have unlocked a new S-level task]

[Unlock condition: Complete a game with Miss Witch (2/1)]

[P.S. Miss Witch really likes this "chasing" game! ]

[Mission content: Become Miss Witch's friend! ]

[Task Reward: One S-level item, 2000 points]

Next to the taskbar is an avatar of "Miss Witch" - a pitch-black shadow, vaguely visible long hair, and two red lights in the eyes.

Iris closed her eyes and wanted to die on the spot.

This mission really respects her.

What does "2/1" mean? She and Sombra have played the game twice?

The chasing game played by the little snowmen just now counts as one time. Does the black shadow chasing everyone here in the beginning also count as one time?

Doesn’t that mean that everyone in the arena has received this S-level mission?

To be friends with Black Shadow - Miss Witch, does it mean that I have to play games every day, especially the "catch me" game that she "likes very much"?

How many lives are there to squander like this?

She arranged for the little snowmen to guard various places and be on guard against the return of the shadow at any time, and she took the initiative to open the door of the house.

The snowmen couldn't do everything for her, and micro-magic was very energy-consuming. She didn't have the ability to keep the snowmen running around outside all day and unable to return home.

While wandering around the village, Iris took the time to look at the number of survivors in the arena.

【】

There are still more than three million... This small village certainly can't accommodate so many people.

So, there will be other "villages" in other directions?

At this time, only a few people went out, including Ernest. As for other acquaintances, she didn't meet any of them along the way.

We need to reduce the number of personnel to 500,000, but there is still time to waste...

After searching the village inside and out, the map unlocking progress finally stopped at 37%, and she didn't find any other tasks.

Suddenly, the number of survivors, whose change rate had already slowed down, dropped sharply.

Miss Witch ran off to another safe zone to play?

Iris walked to the gate of the village and found Ernest standing near the entrance. He turned his head and saw her approaching. He raised his hand and star-like flames leaped out of his fingertips.

She stood aside and watched coldly. The flames suddenly grew larger, like a tornado that swept away the small safe zone in front of them completely. The flammable materials all over the ground fueled the rampant flames. In a blink of an eye, the flames illuminated half of the sky red.

Everything in sight was burning. Some people ran out of the cabin screaming, some cursed loudly, and some cast water spells on the cabin to try to save their shelter.

However, the Ramirez family has always been known as "the endless black flame burning in the eternal night", and their unique blood magic will not dissipate until the burning object they can rely on is completely destroyed.

This place haunted by the evil spirits in flames, along with those whose hems or sleeves are accidentally caught by sparks, will burn until the end of their lives.

Under the watchful eyes of the public, the culprit and bystanders simply turned around and left, setting out to find other safe areas.

The two of them were silent along the way. If the threat of the black shadow had not been so clear in their minds and they had no other choice at the moment, the two of them would never be willing to get so close - so close that they were only twelve meters apart.

Although the width of this road is only twelve meters.

And the gap between the front and the back? No one wants to admit defeat and fall behind the other.

That's what Iris thought.

They came to the entrance of a "city".

Looking forward, high-rise buildings are lined up one after another, with various lighted signs, shops lining both sides of the street and residential houses interspersed among them.

It seems like a completely different world from the primitive village we just saw.

At this point, their map unlock progress is shown as 41%, thanks to the fact that they did not pass through here when they escaped.

Any area that can be seen by the eyes will be directly judged as an unlocked area.

This city is much larger than the village just now, so it can naturally hide more people, but the streets are empty at this time. Thinking that the black shadow may be wandering somewhere here, the two became a little cautious.

Iris sent out a team of little snowmen to explore the way. As soon as they landed, they scattered and ran in all directions. After roughly exploring the nearby main roads, they found no trace of the black shadow.

But it was unusually quiet here. They didn't meet a single person along the way. Judging from the chaotic arrangement of the surrounding facilities, the overlapping fresh footprints and the bloodstains everywhere, Iris guessed that the shadow had been here.

When it was dark, they walked to the back of a dilapidated wall with limp ivy clinging to it. Next to it was a residential house that looked a little tidier than the other buildings.

Ernest saw her walking towards the residential building, so he walked towards a shop opposite it. After walking a few steps, he heard her sighing behind him:

"Ivy is a plant that is born to be pathetic, as if it is born to rely on something to survive. If the wall collapses, they will be crushed and destroyed, and may never see the sun again."

Just like a fire without fuel, losing support is equivalent to losing strength.

Ernest paused, and immediately turned around to see her standing leisurely at the foot of the wall, looking up at the ivy on the wall. After a while, he curled the corners of his lips:

"The wall has fallen, and except for the plants on the wall, the people under the wall are not much better off."

Iris didn't look back, and uttered these words casually, with a light tone and lazy posture:

“So when you first choose where to stand, you should be careful—especially to avoid becoming a poor victim.”

He frowned undisguisedly:

"What do you mean?"

Iris laughed, opened the door nonchalantly and walked into the room, leaving him only her back and a door that was slammed shut.