Everyone who saw this scene instinctively closed their eyes—except for Himeko.
"Sparkle's move is way too ruthless!"
Himeko coughed lightly a couple of times. "Ahem, everyone, open your eyes. It's me, Himeko. The people have already run off."
"Run off?!"
In an instant, the revenge squad immediately opened their eyes.
Sure enough, Sparkle and Su Chen had long since vanished.
"What do we do?" Acheron asked weakly.
"Chase them, of course. Let's see where those two plan to escape to!" Black Swan snapped her fingers. "I believe both of them are the culprits behind this incident. Let's clean everything up!"
Bronya and Seele were the first to speak up. "Agreed!"
The rest followed suit one after another. "Agreed!"
——
"Huff, ha, huff, ha..."
"Hurry up and figure out a way to unlock these handcuffs! I don't want to die together with you!"
Su Chen was dragging Sparkle along as they sprinted wildly down the street.
"Then let's stop for a moment and properly look for the key."
"Good idea."
Su Chen and Sparkle halted. He truly hated himself for being so impulsive earlier—why did he have to cuff the other end to Sparkle's wrist?
"Let me tell you, if you don't find a way to unlock these handcuffs, neither of us is getting out of Interactive City alive!"
"You think I want to be cuffed to you?" Sparkle carefully felt around her entire body. "Where's the key? I remember I had it~ No good! If I can find something sharp, I could pick the lock too."
"You should've said that earlier! Didn't you have that paperclip before we ran?"
"I was only focused on escaping—who had time to think about that?"
"Shh!" Su Chen suddenly made a silencing gesture. "Quiet down. I think I hear something..."
Sparkle immediately fell silent and focused. "It sounds like a girl's voice. Is it Ely?"
Following the sound, the two discovered Ely sitting under the shade of a tree.
Her arms hugged her knees, her body trembling with occasional sobs.
"Woo♫ woo♪ woo♫..."
"Why are her musical notes going all over the place?" Sparkle asked, puzzled.
"It looks like she's not the real Ely. This is Eroded Ely."
"Eroded Ely? Oh, you mean the one who caused trouble with me a while back, right? What's her deal?"
Su Chen sighed softly. "She used to be a fan of Ely's livestream. She always admired Ely a lot. Coincidentally, she naturally resembled Ely a bit, and after some minor cosmetic adjustments at a beauty clinic, her appearance became almost indistinguishable from Ely's.
The problem was with her mindset—she came to believe she was the real Ely.
In the end, she somehow picked up some half-baked hypnosis techniques and dared to cause chaos at miHoYo.
Still, thanks to her, quite a few people managed to fulfill their wishes through this opportunity."
"I see. So why is she crying?"
"You'd understand if you spent a night alone with the real Ely."
"Forget it, forget it. Hey, do you see that hairpin on Eroded Ely's head? I can use that to pick the lock." Sparkle pointed at the hair accessory on top of Eroded Ely's head.
"Let's go, quick."
...
At that moment, Eroded Ely had curled up into a ball, her body shaking nonstop. "So scary♫, so scary♪!"
"Hey, Ely!"
"Ah♪♫♫♪!" Eroded Ely jolted in fright like a startled bird.
"It's me, Su Chen." Su Chen held down Eroded Ely with one hand as she tried to flee.
"Is it the boss?" Eroded Ely looked up and saw it really was Su Chen. "Wuwuwu~, I was wrong. Please save me♫♪"
"Sigh, what exactly happened to you? It looks like the real one eroded you instead—your musical notes are all glitched out."
"You have no idea what I went through. Please think of something to save me. I'll do anything♫♪"
"Really?"
Su Chen exchanged a knowing smile with Sparkle. "Give me your headpiece, and I'll reluctantly think of a way."
"Okay♫♪" Without any hesitation, Eroded Ely immediately removed her hair accessory. "Hurry! Just keep me away from Ely♫♪!"
Sparkle took the accessory and inserted it into the keyhole on her wrist. "I'll unlock mine first, then yours."
"Wait!" Su Chen grabbed the accessory. "Unlock mine first, then yours!"
"No way, Su Chen. You're clearly distrusting me! Do you think I'll unlock mine first, then hang you from a tree and run off?"
Su Chen gave a wicked grin. "You misunderstand. I want to sacrifice myself to give you a chance to escape. How about it?"
"Really~?"
Neither Sparkle nor Su Chen would yield; they gripped the hair accessory tightly.
"Let go, Sparkle! Once I unlock it, I'll definitely create enough escape room for you."
"Boss, you have to trust me. I'd definitely go through fire and water for you too!"
Just then.
A furious shout came from not far away.
"Su Chen, Sparkle! Where are you? Get out here right now!"
...
"Holy crap!" Su Chen tightened his grip. "Better a dead daoist friend than a dead daoist. They won't do anything to you! Unlock mine first!"
Sparkle gritted her teeth. "Let go! Their target is you. If this keeps up, we'll both suffer!"
"Hurry up and let go! Don't drag me down. One death is enough!"
"You let go. You're the boss—you have the duty to protect your employee's safety."
"I think neither of you needs to fight... let's do it together!" Black Swan emerged from the trees, looking at the two with amusement.
"Hahaha, hahaha..." Su Chen and Sparkle watched the approaching group and laughed foolishly.
"Hurry up and act! Sparkle's already under my control—she can't escape!"
Sparkle refused to back down. "Don't you trust Sparkle~? Actually, Su Chen wanted to play my fan-made content, but he suddenly changed it to this new one at the last minute. It definitely wasn't my idea.
Since I'm cuffed to him right now, hurry up and deal with him!"
"No need. Both together!" Acheron looked at the two with murderous intent. "Today's team-building activity—I'm really enjoying it!"
"Don't come over! Don't come over!"
"Ah!!!!!!"
The screams of Sparkle and Su Chen ultimately echoed through the entire miHoYo.
——
The next day.
"Hello everyone. Recently, some issues occurred internally at miHoYo, but they've now been standardized. We guarantee no similar situations will happen again!
Now, Season 7 is being broadcast early, with multiple character-exclusive movies released for free simultaneously.
However, we also have some unfortunate news: Season 8 will be delayed. Please look forward to this romantic story♪"
"Welcome to Yunli's exclusive movie 'Swords to Plowshares'!"