Tang Shifu had already consumed a significant amount of Mental Power using her pendant, so it was normal for her to rest with her eyes closed.
No one expected her to lose consciousness without a word.
This caught Mo Cha completely off guard.
“Fufu, Fufu…”
Mo Cha grabbed Tang Shifu’s shoulders and shook her.
“The Fierce Ghost… has it awakened?”
Tang Shifu asked as she struggled to open her eyes.
“No, only a short while has passed. What happened to you?”
Mu Bai stood up and approached, her eyes full of concern.
They were about to fight a boss, yet at the critical moment, one of their heavy hitters had passed out.
Although the Little Spirit Flame Talisman was the primary weapon against the Fierce Ghost, the difficulty of clearing the stage would definitely change if they were missing one person.
‘This is unsettling…’
“I… I don’t know.”
Tang Shifu’s head felt like it was splitting apart.
Her vision was a blur, making it nearly impossible to see the faces of the people around her.
“Open your Personal Panel. See how much Mental Power you have left,” Ye Yuan suddenly suggested.
She had checked her own panel earlier and knew that observing the Fist Manual consumed Mental Power.
Tang Shifu forced herself to comply, but she couldn’t make out the data on the panel at all.
Mo Cha quickly leaned in to look for her.
“Her Mental Power… it’s turned into a negative number, and it’s still dropping!”
Mo Cha said grimly.
On the pale blue screen, the Mental Power column displayed a negative value.
Even as Mo Cha watched, the digits after the decimal point ticked down further.
Mu Bai and Ye Yuan exchanged a glance.
Ye Yuan shook her head, indicating that she wasn’t experiencing a drop in Mental Power herself.
Seeing that Tang Shifu had almost completely lost her ability to move, Mu Bai stopped overthinking.
Hardening her heart under the gaze of the other two, she knelt on the ground and embraced the semi-conscious, pink-haired girl leaning against the pillar from the front!
“Can you move? Hold onto me,” Mu Bai said, suppressing her embarrassment.
Her voice was flat, but her slightly uneven tone betrayed the fact that she was not as calm as she appeared.
Even if Tang Shifu was an indisputably beautiful girl—someone who wouldn’t be unpleasant to hold—this was only the first day Mu Bai had met her.
Having to hug someone so intimately right after meeting was a bit too much for her to handle.
‘If the physical contact isn’t enough, I’m afraid my Talent won’t work well… This is so unfair.’
Tang Shifu still possessed a basic level of consciousness.
More importantly, after Mu Bai hugged her tightly, she truly felt the pain radiating from the depths of her soul recede significantly.
The hallucinations that had begun to take shape before her eyes vanished, and her vision cleared up quite a bit.
Finally, her processing speed returned to normal levels.
Tang Shifu immediately realized what Mu Bai had just said.
Knowing that her condition had improved because of the other girl, she didn’t ask questions.
Instead, she reached out and returned the embrace.
“Mo Cha, look at the Mental Power on the panel again. Has it improved?”
Feeling the scent of Tang Shifu’s hair and neck near her nose, Mu Bai asked the question to alleviate the awkwardness.
“It improved! The decimal place that just dropped has gone back up!”
Mo Cha said in surprise.
And it didn’t stop there.
After a while, the Mental Power continued to rise by another decimal point.
If it continued like this, it wouldn’t take long for the Mental Power to return to a positive value.
Seeing that Tang Shifu was out of danger, Ye Yuan averted her gaze.
She let out a soft huff.
She wasn’t particularly happy that the Power Bank that usually belonged only to her was now charging someone else.
However, Mu Bai was doing the right thing.
They couldn’t afford to lose Tang Shifu’s combat strength.
***
The fire had been replenished with firewood several times, and the fuel was running low.
Ye Yuan sat to the side, eyes closed as she rested.
Mo Cha rolled up her sleeve and checked the time on her watch.
It was past 10:00 PM.
Speaking of which, the watch Mu Bai was currently wearing belonged to Tang Shifu.
If Mo Cha hadn’t possessed one as well, Tang Shifu wouldn’t have traded her own watch away so easily.
Tang Shifu’s mental state had fully recovered.
Initially, more than half of her Mental Power had been consumed by the pendant.
Looking at the Fist Manual had drained three points, leaving her with less than two points.
Then, when she put the Scroll away, she had accidentally caught another glimpse of the manual, causing her stats to drop below zero.
She hadn’t expected Mental Power to go into the negatives.
Once it fell below 0, it couldn’t recover on its own and required external replenishment.
Otherwise, her previous condition would have persisted.
Tang Shifu felt a lingering fear just thinking about it.
If not for Mu Bai, she might have met a disaster before they even left this Station.
No one knew what the consequences would be if her Mental Power continued to drop.
Mu Bai had changed her position a while ago.
Kneeling on the floor to hug was too uncomfortable, so it was easier to just sit in the other girl’s lap.
The reason Mu Bai was still “charging” Tang Shifu was because they still needed to use the pendant later.
According to Mo Cha, the pendant could barely produce an effect on a Fierce Ghost.
At the right time, it could create a perfect opening for the four of them to attack, and affecting a Fierce Ghost would inevitably consume Mental Power.
Tang Shifu would still be the one handling the pendant.
“My Mental Power has recovered to its maximum value,” Tang Shifu said.
“Oh, then I’m getting up.”
Mu Bai stood up and returned to her original spot.
Ye Yuan opened her eyes.
“There are only ten minutes until midnight. The Fierce Ghost could appear at any time after that,” Mo Cha reminded them.
“The next part might be very dangerous. Let’s discuss our tactics before the battle.”
“This is the enchanted Special Dagger and the unused Little Spirit Flame Talisman. I probably won’t be much use, so you and Ye Yuan should distribute them…”
Mu Bai placed the dagger and the talisman she carried in front of them.
“No…”
Ye Yuan immediately tried to protest.
“I can’t fight in close quarters. The dagger only has one Enchantment, so keeping it in my hands is a waste… As for ranged combat, I can’t operate the Compound Crossbow very well either.”
Mu Bai wanted to avoid being a burden as much as possible, but the fact that her combat strength was low was undeniable.
Her Agility: 4 was right there.
It wasn’t as if she attacked faster just because she was smaller.
The single Enchantment on the dagger would be better utilized by someone else.
As for ranged combat… the Compound Crossbow would be much more effective in Ye Yuan’s hands.
“Then let’s swap daggers first,” Mo Cha said with a smile.
She gave her own dagger to Mu Bai and took the enchanted one.
Even without the help of the pendant’s effect, she could reliably land a backstab on the Fierce Ghost.
Mu Bai nodded.
Giving the enchanted weapon to Mo Cha was indeed the safer bet.
As for the other Little Spirit Flame Talisman…
Mu Bai suddenly had an idea.
“Before we deal with the Fierce Ghost, can you lend us the gun first?”
Mu Bai asked, her eyes shining.
“Well…”
“Yes.”
Tang Shifu hesitated slightly, but Mo Cha answered immediately.
“Thanks…”
Mu Bai took the handgun and handed it to Ye Yuan.
“See if the Little Spirit Flame Talisman can be attached to a bullet.”
Ye Yuan understood instantly.
She removed the magazine, took out the topmost bullet, and pressed a Talisman against it.
In the next moment, the paper turned to ash, leaving an orange-red incantation etched onto the bullet.
Seeing this, Mu Bai beamed.
It worked!
This way, she could stay further back to avoid being caught in the crossfire, while Ye Yuan could rapidly fire two enchanted bullets.
With Tang Shifu and Mo Cha each wielding an enchanted melee weapon, they could land four Enchantments in the shortest amount of time possible!
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