Small Talk

The band's first collective training seemed to achieve decent results. Although everyone except Chu Lian still appeared somewhat unfamiliar with the sheet music, and their coordination was full of mistakes, through repeated adjustments and understanding, they finally completed a relatively complete collaboration before school ended, at least avoiding missteps or slow beats.

Of course, these things can't be rushed. Today is Tuesday, and there are still three days until Saturday. Even with their abilities, trying to achieve the best coordination in such a short time with only one hour of training each day is quite challenging.

Therefore, this requires Li Xiuer and Chu Lian to communicate with the teachers to obtain more training time. Chu Lian is optimistic about this matter. Given the homeroom teacher's expectations for the school celebration performance and the school's educational policies, this shouldn't be a difficult issue to resolve.

As for academics, they are already ahead of most classmates, so even if they miss some classes, they can catch up, hence no need to worry.

However, this high-intensity training is still a considerable burden for these youngsters who are still growing.

But she believes that after this round of training, it will get better. Once they become more coordinated, they won't need to spend so much energy correcting or starting over.

After taking a bath and drying her hair with a towel, Chu Lian sat on the bed, reflecting on the afternoon's training. She slightly pursed her lips. A bit regretful, she thought that the school celebration was announced too late, and another day was wasted on various tasks, leaving them with insufficient training time.

Even if they spent the next three days entirely on band training, it wouldn't lead to significant improvements. By then, an inexperienced band, even with no coordination issues, would still lack the harmony, proficiency, and live performance impact compared to school bands or class performances that have trained for a long time. But there's no other choice but to keep striving.

However, she remains confident. In this school, there must be many who can compose and write lyrics, and long-established bands must exist. In these aspects, she doesn't have much of an advantage and might even be at a disadvantage.

But she has an advantage they can never match: her understanding of the song "Having You In My Life" rivals that of the original singer. Moreover, in another world, it was a song widely recognized and long-lasting, still considered a classic among school songs.

With these two advantages in hand, she can offset many of the disadvantages. Besides, although her teammates are young, in terms of potential and talent, they are undoubtedly the best in this school. Sometimes, time is powerless in the face of genius.

"Hoo, Ayase, if I don't help our class get the qualification for the study trip, apart from losing those three rewards, what else will happen?" Chu Lian thought about it. Even with these advantages, she wasn't sure if she could secure the study trip qualification, so she wanted to ask Ayase what she would lose if she failed.

"I told you before, once you complete five mainline and sideline system tasks, the dungeon space will open. You've already completed one mainline and one sideline task, and you're now on the second system task."

"You've also taken on the fourth and fifth tasks, so you'll soon reach the requirements for opening the dungeon. However, according to the system's previous settings, you wouldn't encounter rewards and tasks related to the dungeon until after four tasks. I didn't expect a dungeon entry ticket to appear this time; it's quite baffling." Whether she was truly surprised or Ayase didn't want to tell her, Chu Lian didn't know, but she could sense something unusual.

"Do you think it might be a system error?" Chu Lian thought and couldn't think of any other reason. After all, her understanding of the system wasn't deep enough, and she didn't know if such an obvious error could occur.

Comparing the rewards of previous special tasks, given her abilities and current stage, the side effects of the items exchanged from the system meant that completing a mission on Abyss difficulty only yielded a level 1 electric shock ability, which was really disappointing.

If not for the subsequent compensation of a level 4 spatial movement ability, she would have had nowhere to cry. Speaking of these two abilities, she wondered why they didn't show up when she checked her attributes before. Strange...

So, it shows that the system is not infallible. Things that were not included in the initial system settings can easily go wrong. However, the task system and the rewards after completing tasks are the most basic and core functions of the system, so there shouldn't be any mistakes there.

"As for what you lose if you fail, I think you will probably permanently lose the right to enter the 'Harry Potter' world normally. After all, the entrance ticket was given to you, and if you lose it, it's only normal that they blacklist you and close the door."

"There are thousands of fantasy, stories, and movies in the world that can generate dungeon spaces. Losing one isn't a big deal. Overall, it's not really a punishment," Ayase said insightfully. The 'Harry Potter' world, strictly speaking, is a low-magic, high-fantasy world with few valuable things. Losing it isn't significant.

However, Chu Lian didn't think so. After being deceived multiple times by the "reward system", she decided not to be easily misled by the tasks and information released by the system.

Since she was given this reward in a seemingly difficult task, it indicated that there must be something worth exploring and obtaining. What could it be...

Seeing her falling into deep thought again, Ayase frowned, "This is not the time to let her think about these things. I need to divert her attention elsewhere, or it will be troublesome." She glanced at Chu Lian, then looked around. There was no water, no food, and not much noise outside. It seemed this was the only way...

With a "smack," her palm landed on the back of Chu Lian's head, startling the deep-in-thought girl.

"Ah, Ayase, why did you hit me? It hurts, okay?" Chu Lian held the back of her head with both hands, her eyes brimming with tears as she looked at Ayase, accusingly.

It wasn't that she was weak; it's just that Ayase hit quite hard. Although Ayase didn't use much force, she applied a strange energy that transmitted a slight stinging sensation to her.

When she was jolted awake from her contemplation, her thoughts collided with these stinging elements, causing her to feel as if she had hit a wall.

This unexpected and sudden stinging sensation made her tear up uncontrollably, which is why she reacted this way.

"If you didn't want me to know, just say so. Did you have to hit me? Ayase, you're so mean..." She sobbed for a while. After the stinging sensation subsided and a warm energy enveloped her body, Chu Lian gradually calmed down.

"There are some things you shouldn't think too much about. If it's not for you to know, thinking about it won't help. Just remember that the system will never harm you no matter what. Everything else can be taken one step at a time."

Ayase only wanted her to remember this sensation and didn't mean to truly harm her. So, after the stinging sensation, the energy she infused transformed into a gentle energy to soothe her pain.

Ayase did this to prevent her from arriving at any bizarre conclusions through peculiar reasoning. If those conclusions were wrong, it would be fine, but if they were correct and certain entities found out, it would cause big trouble. Since this trouble could be avoided in advance, it was better to do so. Chu Lian would understand and forgive her because it was for her own good.

"Hmph! Go away, I don't want to talk to you. I hate you, I hate you, I hate you!" Chu Lian pouted and said.

"If you don't want to talk to me, then don't. Let's see what time you get up tomorrow. Yawn..." Ayase was amused by her, glancing at her sideways and yawning.

These words immediately frightened Chu Lian. There was no denying it—she loved to sleep in, and Ayase was also a heavy sleeper. But without her parents around, the alarm clock could never wake her up. It was because of this woman, who always seemed to be sleep-deprived, that she was able to get up on time and avoid being late or making mistakes.

If Ayase didn't wake her up, she would only get up in a panic, barely having time to wash up and change clothes, let alone eat breakfast, and then run to school. She definitely didn't want that.

Chu Lian, who had been hit in her weak spot, instantly transformed into a clingy little kitten, hugging Ayase's arm with a pleading look, her eyes full of hopeful stars, appearing incredibly cute and pitiful.

"Pfft, alright, I'll wake you up tomorrow... seriously, goodnight." Ayase tried to ignore her at first, but eventually couldn't help but laugh out loud.

"Oh, and remember to check your video on the site. I think there will be a surprise for you." After saying this, she yawned again, then flashed back into the system space to sleep.

Chu Lian instinctively reached out to grab the air in front of her, but caught nothing. Blinking in confusion, she muttered, "Site? Video? Ah, I haven't checked it yet. What's the commotion that Xiuer mentioned?" Remembering the unfinished task, she jumped off the bed, ran to her computer barefoot, and turned it on.

Even Ayase mentioned the word "surprise." What kind of commotion did her video cause? She couldn't wait to find out!