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

Iris maintained her original posture and looked down at her watery eyes:

"What is your wish?"

The witch hesitated for a moment, then spoke slowly:

"I don't want to be alone."

"What about your mission?"

"…I'll take you to the finish line."

"So 'accompany' is your personal wish and has nothing to do with our common wish."

The witch's hand trembled, and a faint breeze brushed her eyelashes:

"My wish... why is it so difficult to realize... why is your destination farther away, while mine is right here."

The first tear slid down her cheek.

Iris gently stroked her wet cheek with her hand:

“I also had many wishes, none of which came true.

"It is not my wish to travel with you. If possible, I would rather sleep in the room you prepared for me until everything is over.

"I sacrificed the chance to realize my wish for the sake of my mission, not because I like that mission, but because I can't afford the consequences of failure... none of us can afford it. Miss Witch, please look up and take a look at everyone."

The sweat from the high temperature mixed with the blood from the skin torn in the internal fighting and slid down the body surface, sticking to everyone's body. They surrounded the witch, and the emotions buried deep in their hearts were not revealed. Only the silent calm told of their waiting.

"You say you don't want to be alone - but you are not alone. You have dolls and a garden to keep you company, so why shouldn't you be content?

"Because what you really want is someone you can relate to, someone who shares some of the same things as you - a love of dolls, a dislike of loneliness, a desire for friends...

“There must be some connection point that connects two people into friends, and that connection point is the similarities between you.

"This 'sameness' will run from the beginning to the end of your friendship. In the meantime, the departure or even death of one party cannot end this relationship, unless someone deviates from this 'sameness'.

"For example, you and a person become friends because you admire each other's virtues. If one day that person does evil things, you will no longer want to be friends with him, because he has deviated from the 'goodness' that you originally believed in."

Iris placed the witch's pale hands on her palms, stared into her eyes and said in a deep voice:

"Why did we get together in the first place, Miss Witch?

“Because we have a ‘sameness’, which is to walk the same path.

“We became friends because of our common mission.”

In reality, the so-called common mission will be specific to a certain responsibility, an ideal, or an expectation of a specific object, such as promoting the same idea, building the same country, and realizing the same ideal social structure, but in the simple competition, it is concretized as a real road.

On this road, there is the warmth of mutual companionship, as well as the dangers of swords and fire, but those who walk together will firmly send each other to the end of the road.

"And now, you're telling me that you plan to abandon your mission and waste all of our efforts along the way in order to fulfill your own selfish wishes?"

At that moment, it was so quiet that Iris could only hear the witch's breathing nearby.

"It's windy outside."

Leland Viglas stood under the door and sighed.

To Iris, this meant that he still couldn't open the door. But this sentence touched Miss Witch for some reason, and the tears that originally only had a few drops suddenly flowed down like a flood, and in an instant she cried like a little cat:

"I'm sorry, I'm sorry - I shouldn't have forced you to stay here, I'm sorry..."

It was like a stuffy can bursting. Iris was slightly shocked by the other party's outburst of emotions. At the signal of the people around her, she pinched her face with both hands:

"Don't cry later, we don't have time--"

The witch raised her tearful face, and her tender and gentle voice contained an unconcealable sadness:

"When the pillars of the old world collapse, the door to the new world will slowly open to you."

Everyone breathed a sigh of relief at the same time.

Just wait until the countdown ends and the rain of knives starts, and then the door will open.

Ernest slowly wiped the blood-stained staff. He knew that leading the witch from the collapsing suspension bridge to the log, and pulling her back when she was standing on the drifting log and getting farther and farther away from the crowd - these actions were all concrete manifestations of the abstract "correction".

What supports both parties on the road of friendship is often the common beliefs - when you go against your beliefs, true friends will do their best to pull you back on the right path.

To be honest, it is meaningless for an individual to complete these actions. The object of this meaning is the whole group.

If the witch dies or disappears, no one will survive, but as long as one person brings the witch back in time, everyone will avoid the risk of being eliminated early - and is there any reward for the person who brings back the witch?

Ernest has not found any so far.

【Three, two, one...】

The one-hour countdown is over.

In an instant, the pillars supporting the cone-shaped top collapsed one after another with a continuous rumbling sound. The falling ceiling let in a dense rain of blades again. In the chaos, everyone rushed to the gradually opening door. Bright light leaked through the gradually widening gap in the door, like a hot fire that attracted moths.

Iris heard the blue-haired wizard whisper:

"Aren't you going to go?"

"I can't go there."

Miss Witch said so, but the look in her eyes as she looked at everyone clearly showed that she had a lot more to say.

She watched as Iris turned around once the door opened and headed for the door.

The moment she stepped through the door and saw the scene clearly, Iris's eyes were filled with overlapping prompt boxes:

[B-level task: "Unlock the stadium map" has been completed]

[Current task progress: 100%]

[Rewards have been issued: 100 points, one B-level item]

[B-level items are being randomly drawn...]

【Extraction completed】

[The B-level item "Farewell Reed Flute" has been added to your backpack]

[B-level item: Farewell reed flute]

[How to use: When he turns to leave, play a farewell reed flute for him! ]

[Effect of prop: After hearing the sound of the reed flute, the friend you are "saying farewell" will have his body pierced with densely packed blades, as if he were bathed in a rain of knives falling from the sky without any cover]

[Duration: 1 hours]

[Cooling time: 24 hours]

Iris paused slightly, and then continued walking quickly forward the next second.

[S-level mission: "Becoming Miss Witch's friend" completed]

[Rewards have been issued: 2000 points, one S-level item]

[Randomly drawing S-level items...]

【Extraction completed】

[The S-level item "Eraser" has been added to your backpack]

[S-level item: Eraser]

[Item description: Remember, this is a virtual world - you can use points to erase the virtual content of the designated arena. The amount of points consumed varies depending on the item being erased]

[The duration of the erase effect is permanent]

[This item has no cooldown time]

Just as Iris guessed.

The S-level mission actually did not really require the contestants to "make friends" with the witch. After all, sincerity was difficult to test, and this was a competition arena. The completion of the mission had to be verified in an open and unanimous way by everyone - equivalent to the standard answer on the test paper.

There is no standard answer to love, but there is a standard answer to the game - complete a building block game with the witch to pass the level; pass the door that the witch is trying to close at the end of the lava road to pass the level - successfully completing two levels is like a test paper that has been handed in and has been given a passing score. Once this quantified result appears, the task of "making friends" can be immediately judged to be completed.

The cold competition procedures cannot judge whether people have real feelings for NPCs, nor do they intend to require contestants to do this. Instead, the process of "making friends" is divided into several stages, which are presented in a procedural and concrete process - just like exams in school days. Teachers cannot test a person's academic level remotely, so they give scores based on the specific answers and use the scores to judge the students' level.

In this game of process-oriented emotions, the contestants ultimately won.