Can someone in MyGo stay in an adventure group forever?

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The rain relentlessly washed over her, as if trying to cleanse her of something, but only bringing a deeper chill and despair.

Just then, she suddenly felt the raindrops falling on her disappear.

No, it's not that the rain has stopped. It's that—

"Shiina... Tatsuki-kun?"

A clear voice, tinged with a tentative tone, sounded beside her.

Shiina Riki raised her head somewhat blankly and slowly turned it around.

A girl with blue twin tails stood quietly beside her.

The girl had exquisite features and an air of nobility and elegance, but at this moment, her golden eyes revealed genuine concern.

She held a transparent umbrella, with most of the canopy tilted towards Lixi, shielding her from the cold rain, while half of her shoulder was exposed to the rain and soaked.

"Are you alright?" Toyokawa Shoko asked. "Today was the day we were supposed to meet, but you haven't shown up. Everyone's been looking for you anxiously... Ah, I need to call Suze and Mutsumi back first—"

"Looking for...me?" Shiina Tatsuki murmured, repeating the same question.

"Huh? Isn't that right?" Toyokawa Shoko tilted her head slightly, a hint of doubt in her eyes, but she quickly added with certainty, "I remember that's her name...long black hair, purple eyes..."

"It's me." Shiina Ritsuki felt her voice was a little hoarse.

"Ah, that's great." Toyokawa Shoko seemed to breathe a sigh of relief, a very faint smile curving her lips. "I remember when I asked that senior member of the band, she recommended you to me, saying that you were the best warrior in the central part of Haneoka Province."

Band...?

Shiina Riki was stunned for a moment.

“So—” Toyokawa Shoko’s words pulled her thoughts back to reality.

The rain pattered softly against the umbrella, and the streetlights cast dim, fragmented halos of light on the wet ground.

Xiangzi leaned forward slightly and extended a hand to her.

Her gaze was earnest and sincere, as if piercing through the rain curtain and revealing something hidden within her.

"We are forming a new adventure team and now we need a reliable warrior who can stand firm at the front."

"Could you... join us?"

Shiina Riki stared blankly at the hand reaching out to her, then looked up at Toyokawa Shoko's golden eyes, which seemed particularly bright in the rain.

Without almost any hesitation, she heard her own answer, trembling slightly, yet exceptionally clear:

"...good."

Chapter Thirty-Seven: Echoes (Part 2)

"So, Li Xi, could you please introduce yourself?"

The girl with blue hair in pigtails said.

"My name is Shiina."

Shiina Ritsuki removed the towel from her damp hair and casually placed it on the table in the cafe.

Fortunately, the rain didn't last too long, so I wasn't completely soaked; only the ends of my hair were still dripping slightly.

"Lixi's older sister is amazing! While serving as the head of the band, she also founded the adventure group 'Magutopia,' and they won second place in the National Middle School Prodigy Competition!"

A girl with long brown hair, wearing the Moon Forest school uniform, smiled and naturally took over the conversation.

“That’s true… but that’s not why I invited Riki, you know?” Toyokawa Shoko quickly interjected. “Riki’s older sister is a mage, and she’s a warrior, so I don’t think it’s related… I just happened to meet Riki through her… Ah, my apologies.”

Toyokawa Shoko paused, stood up, and her expression became serious.

"Thank you all again for gathering here today. I have been looking forward to meeting you all." Her gaze swept over everyone present. "From now on, we are an adventure team, a group that fights together and shares a common destiny."

“Fate…” someone seemed to repeat softly.

"What kind of music do you want to play?" the green-haired girl, who had been silent all along, suddenly asked.

Her voice was soft, but just loud enough for everyone to hear.

“That’s a good question.” Toyokawa Shoko turned to look at them. “Do you and Tatsuki know about an adventure group called Morfonica?”

"do not know."

"have no idea..."

“It’s an adventure group formed by the senior students from Moon Forest.” Toyokawa Shoko explained earnestly with a look of longing in her voice, “What I want to form is an adventure group like theirs, with mages at the core, using a variety of spells to deal with all kinds of complex situations and steadily advance.”

In short, it's a four-protect-one ironclad formation.

How wicked is Toyokawa Shoko! She actually revealed her intention to devour all three lanes and leech off her teammates right from the start?

No wonder you guys are always rehearsing with RNG...RiNG.

Fun fact: Toyokawa Shoko and Jian Zihao have never appeared on screen together.

"I hope that in the future we can forge a strong team spirit, and even... create songs that belong to us..."

"A complete manual of spells?" Nagasaki Motoyo asked in surprise, propping herself up with her hands and leaning forward slightly.

"We haven't even had a tryout together yet, aren't we setting our expectations too high?" Shiina Tatsuki raised a concern.

“No.” Toyokawa Shoko shook her head. “I will be in charge of composing the music.”

Her gaze shifted to the gray-haired girl sitting quietly in the corner, like a small animal.

"And this student, surnamed Deng, is a lyric-writing genius..."

At Yuze Cafe, five girls gathered around a small table and began their little journey.

And so, the gears of fate began to slowly turn.

------

Crychic.

The adventure group's name was given by Xiangzi.

It means "an elegant shout".

Shiina Tatsuki didn't seem to care much about it.

Whether the name sounds nice or not is not important; what matters is that this seems to be the only place she can join, and the only place that will accept her.

The mage Toyokawa Shoko, the druid Wakaba Mutsu, the priest Nagasaki Motoyo, the warrior Shiina Tatsuki, and... the bard Takamatsu Akari.

The lineup was simply luxurious—four level 9 spellcasters, which theoretically guaranteed late-game strength... but it resulted in weakness in the early game.

Shiina Tatsuki now understands why Toyokawa Shoko said they needed a reliable warrior.

Two d6 life dice (mage, bard), two d8 life dice (priest, druid). If it weren't for this relatively tanky warrior tanking in front, an AoE attack would probably have killed half of them when they went down into the cave.

They are all junior high school students, which means that they have all become professionals on their own initiative without going through the school's standardized awakening ceremony.

Everyone tacitly refrained from exploring the reasons for each other's awakening.

To become a professional through self-awareness, one needs to experience strong external stimuli or intense emotional fluctuations.

A 15-year-old working professional, that's bound to have some psychological issues.

However, Shiina Tatsuki didn't care about that.

After all, she herself seems to have long been considered a "problem child".

What she cared about more was... she seemed to have made an impulsive decision on a whim.

A seemingly confident but actually quite erratic mage, a taciturn druid, a priest who always smiles in agreement no matter what the mage says, and a bard who always keeps his head down, seemingly lost in his own world...

Can such an adventure team really last?

------

The outcome was just as she had imagined.

The druid was very skilled at casting spells, but she only cared about casting spells herself and had no coordination with her teammates at all. She would often attack when Shiina needed to control the enemy, and heal when Shiina needed to attack.

The priest was always rushing around healing his teammates, but he often ended up neglecting some and trying to heal everyone, ultimately failing to save anyone.

The bards were even more outrageous; either they couldn't cast spells, or they cast buff spells on the enemy instead...

It's just like playing house—

No, at least playing house has clear rules, but this hastily assembled adventure team doesn't even have the discipline of a game of make-believe.

The only one who was different was Toyokawa Shoko.

Just as Shiina Ritsuki thought... she's a genius.

Because geniuses always shine and unconsciously inspire others.

If it weren't for her... I doubt anyone else could have brought together this group of very different people.

Unlike her sister, her talent lies not in creative spell designs and destructive power, but in her terrifying insight and ability to control the overall situation.

From which treacherous angle will the enemy attack? What kind of monsters might lurk in the next section of the hollow? Are there any insidious traps set in the passage ahead...?

She always seemed to know the script in advance, calmly pointing out what would happen next.

However, even with Xiangzi's command, it couldn't change the fact that Crychic was a disorganized mess.

Whenever Shiina Riki followed her command and stood at the forefront, trying to advance steadily forward, she would look back and find that her teammates had long since fallen behind for various reasons, either entangled by suddenly appearing monsters or simply lost their way.

Of course, without the magical support from the back row, she would soon be overwhelmed by the monsters swarming in from all directions and beaten to death.

After the soldier fell, the first to be rescued was Nagasaki Motoyo, followed by Wakaba Mutsumi and Takamatsu Akari, and finally Toyokawa Shoko, who was left to fend for herself.

Reality isn't like an adventure anime where a belated protagonist arrives at the last minute to save the day when you're in trouble. The only people you can trust are yourself and the companions standing by your side.

You must entrust your back, your life, and everything to them without reservation. Only then will they trust you in return.

This is the true meaning of "community of shared future".

But they... are far from qualified.

And so, the same scenario repeated itself again and again. After more than a dozen failed simulations of emptiness, Shiina Tatsuki finally couldn't take it anymore.

"Hey, do you want to sing or not?" She looked at Takamatsu Akira, who was once again staring blankly at his notebook.

"Ugh?"

Like a startled little animal, Takamatsu Akari suddenly raised her head, put down the notebook in her hand, and looked at Shiina Tatsuki, who had made the sound.

“Tachikawa-chan,” Nagasaki Motoyo quickly stepped between the two, trying to smooth things over, “She can at least cast spells now, which is a big step forward, you know?”

“I clearly sang it on the overpass earlier…” Toyokawa Shoko also tried to explain.

"Overpass?"

"Were you too nervous in the simulation training room?" Nagasaki Motoyo looked at Takamatsu Akari with concern.

“Hmm…” Takamatsu Akari nodded, then shook her head vigorously. “I… want to try.”

“Alright.” Toyokawa Shoko looked down and operated the control panel for a moment. “In that case, today we’ll try simulating the [Lost Dragon's Nest] void.”

"Wait a minute." Shiina Tatsuki quickly interrupted her, "Weren't we still not fully familiar with the previous [Dark Region]? Why are we suddenly switching to such a difficult void?"

“Because everyone doesn’t seem very motivated… even after trying many times, there hasn’t been any significant progress.” Toyokawa Shoko explained with a hint of helplessness, “I was wondering if we lack a sense of urgency? So I wanted to try a different environment, maybe it will inspire something different.”

“Okay…” Shiina Riki didn’t argue anymore.

After all, Toyokawa Shoko is the leader of the adventure team. All she has to do is fulfill the tasks assigned to her and do her job well.

She nodded silently, lay back on the bed, and put on the connection glasses with everyone else to start the simulation.

Then... unsurprisingly, they were all wiped out.

The only difference was that she wasn't the first to fall this time—because the remaining three people were standing too close together and were instantly killed by a breath of acid from the black dragon hatchling inside the nest.

How many times have I told you not to stand together? So many times, haven't you remembered what Brother Gao said?

Top Esports lost today because both of their carries recalled to base at the same time.

"Hello." Ignoring the hiccuping black dragon hatchling, she turned to look at Takamatsu Akira, who was standing behind her, head bowed, timidly holding the microphone. "How about we just back out—"

"Taki-chan..."

Takamatsu suddenly looked up and called out her name softly, yet with unusual clarity.