Quadruple split.

Chapter 2634 Half a Step
"I'm a little curious."

Because she and Futaba were old acquaintances before she joined the [Clown Card], Ivy wasn't as reserved as the others. Instead, she casually grabbed a chair that was floating in mid-air, sat down, and elegantly crossed her legs before asking, "Why did you let Ai Vanye leave?"

"Look what you said."

Futaba glanced at Ivy and said indifferently, "That girl isn't mine, why should I keep her?"

"Because you admire her."

Ivy, a close confidante of Futaba, pinpointed the crux of the problem, took a sip from the teacup that floated over from a distance, and smiled, "I admire you more than I admire you."

"Sorry, sister, I don't know what made you think I admire you, but I think it must have been a really stupid prank."

Futaba sighed, casting a pitying yet sly glance at Ivy, and said slowly, "I don't deny that you are an excellent mage and maid, but unfortunately, my dear Ivy, you are not someone I can look at differently."

Ivy wasn't annoyed; instead, she asked with great interest, "What's the reason?"

"I cannot accept someone who has no future."

While flipping through the spellbook Ana had recommended to her, Futaba replied nonchalantly, "So no matter how glamorous you appear, you can't hide the fact that 'Evie Rayman is just a ghost trapped in the past.'"

Ivy tilted her head and laughed, "What are you talking about? To me, you look like a living, breathing person. Want to come over and feel my heartbeat?"

"Sorry, I'm allergic to bra sizes larger than B."

Futaba politely declined Ivy's generous invitation, saying calmly, "But you should know very well what I mean, right?"

Ivy didn't answer Futaba directly, but just chuckled and said, "I've always liked making friends with smart people."

"Or rather, you enjoy turning yourself into a tool in the hands of a smart person."

Shuangye frowned slightly and cast a cold, disdainful glance at Ivy, who maintained a polite smile throughout: "You like to give your strength, wisdom, and even more to others, just to achieve a purpose that is not so remarkable."

Evie shrugged and asked, "Is there a problem?"

Why be so humble?

Futaba sneered and said bluntly, "I know you want to completely destroy your main family, the Lehman family, which has a great influence in the field of occultism. I can also promise you that I will immediately start killing your whole family when the opportunity arises. So there is no need for you to continue in this half-dead state where you never treat yourself as a human being."

Evie maintained her polite smile and calmly said, "Thank you for your concern, but I just want to stay in a comfortable state, and it has nothing to do with those trivial matters."

"..."

Futaba opened her mouth, seemingly wanting to say something, but after seeing Ivy's left eye, which showed no confusion or wavering and was as calm and clear as a mirror, she finally shook her head and gave up, changing the subject: "I do admire that girl Xiao Ai, but now that I'm already in the Free City, it doesn't really matter whether she's here or not, especially in this period of rapid development. Not only can she not help, she might even distract me from teaching her things, so it's better for her to leave."

Evie nodded slightly and asked, "Aren't you afraid she'll become a formidable opponent? After all, those two children always follow the lead of a certain 'clown'."

"You think too much."

Shuangye sneered and shook her head, saying, "For me, there has only ever been one truly formidable opponent. As for the rest of us, they are not worthy of my attention. Instead of wasting time thinking about such nonsense, you should be keeping an eye on our target in a few days. You know our ace fighter is coming back soon. We're spending so many resources supporting him, he can't just slack off."

Ivy smiled and nodded, "Okay, then I'll go and make the preparations and arrangements now."

"Ah."

Futaba nodded, then casually said, "By the way, tell [The Clown] that from today onwards, he will be our public spokesperson. The work that Leisa Caworth and Ai Vanye were previously responsible for will be transferred to him."

Evie paused for a moment, then hesitated and asked, "Are you sure this is okay?"

"Why not? Leisa is just a pretty face anyway. I've taken over most of Xiao Ai's work. The rest are just some trivial matters."

Futaba waved her hand and said with a look of disgust, "So it's decided. If he can't even do this little thing right, then he's not worthy of being that bitch's eyes watching me."

Ivy, who had no intention of challenging Futaba's authority, nodded. Before she could say goodbye, she found herself back on the balcony, where there was nothing but the bleak night wind and the cold starry sky.

"That's really scary."

After trying several times but still unable to detect even a trace of magic, Ivy sighed softly and stopped searching for the space that was clearly all around her but showed no signs of existence, as if it had never existed in the first place.

The barrier that Futaba named "Infinite Circuit" was the craziest, most unique, and most unreasonable magical barrier that Evie Rayman had ever seen in her more than twenty years as a spellcaster.

In fact, it's more accurate to describe it as a portable [mage tower] that can be deployed at any time rather than a magical barrier.

The reason why Futaba was able to accomplish this feat was mainly because she lost in an almost humiliating manner to a fellow spellcaster in the [Debate on Guilt - Individual Battle], but her proficiency was much higher than Futaba's, and she even broke through A-Sang's domain head-on.

In that individual battle that temporarily determined the 'strongest mage player in the innocent realm', Futaba accomplished an unprecedented feat, but ultimately fell to Asang, whose talent was far inferior to hers, but who was forever struggling between life and death due to being caught up in the pseudo-space-time flow, and who almost had to desperately enrich himself in order to survive.

If Futaba was a genius who used her self-developed "Magic Control" as a cheat to bring the entire magic system into her comfort zone and create a programmatic combat mode, then Asang was the kind of academic genius who frantically studied reference books and practiced questions until she turned herself into an encyclopedia.

There is a decisive difference between the two: when both are stuck at a certain bottleneck, Asang's fundamental skills, honed through countless life-or-death crises, can overwhelm Futaba, whose foundation is built on her talent, from every angle. This is precisely why Futaba lost that match.

It has to be said that Futaba lost fair and square. After all, she had gained control of the magic power of the [Mystic Tower] in that match, and at the same time, she had demonstrated her [Unique Marble] and unprecedented [Legion-level Spellcasting]. So, even though she had given it her all, she was still outmaneuvered by her opponent until the very end, Futaba did not feel humiliated.

She was just a little annoyed that she had been outmaneuvered by mediocre people.

Admittedly, it's satisfying and exhilarating to see ordinary people surpass or defeat geniuses through hard work and dedication, but the geniuses in these examples certainly wouldn't be happy about it.

Just like the inspirational tortoise and hare race, it's always used to encourage the 'tortoise' rather than the 'hare'.

A rabbit watching the story of the tortoise and the hare would only feel annoyed.

So although Futaba accepted her defeat wholeheartedly, she was extremely unhappy. After all, from a certain perspective, she wasn't even the rabbit watching the story, but the rabbit involved who lost to the tortoise in the competition.

Can we tolerate this?

This is absolutely unacceptable!

Having learned from past mistakes, Futaba resolved to build a base for herself.

Just like the proverb 'Never challenge the master of a mage tower,' the so-called 'territory' enhances a mage in a way that is far more than just 1+1=2. On that day, it was precisely because of the 'Shadow of the Time Tower' that Asang personally created that he turned the tide of the battle. Not only did he also use a legion-level spell that was astonishing, but he also laid the foundation for the final victory.

Not only that, Ah Sang even shared some insights with Shuang Ye during their conversation. Although the content was incomplete, for someone with Shuang Ye's level of comprehension, applying what she learned to other situations was a piece of cake.

Thus, after the "Debate on Guilt" and with guidance from Ana and Kenneth in the City of Miracles, Futaba, who had memorized a large number of basic mechanics in a haphazard way, finally completed her territory shortly after arriving in the City of Freedom.

That is—[Barrier·Infinite Circuit]

Like Asang's [Shadow of the Time Tower], this thing is a simplified portable mage tower with a significant reduction in functionality. However, compared to Asang's deformed mage tower, which requires a lot of the caster's energy and cannot be successfully controlled without [Combat Meditation], Shuangye's position can definitely be described as energy-saving and environmentally friendly.

As its name suggests, the barrier called "Infinite Circuits" is mainly composed of an exceptionally large number of magic circuits. These circuits were calculated one by one by Futaba using her talent "Magic Control". Although the calculation process is very complex and tedious, the advantage is that once several magic circuits are completed, Futaba can use "Magic Control" to instantly map and unfold them in reality.

Next comes the most terrifying part: once these meticulously calculated magic circuits are completely connected, they will become a complete system. One of the basic functions of this system is to replace the 'energy-saving' effect of Assona's [Combat Meditation] and the magic storage pool in ordinary mage towers.

That's right. Although there was no way to replenish magic power, Futaba completed a terrifyingly efficient energy-saving method through extensive calculations and optimizations. As a result, after all magic circuits were fully deployed, her regular spellcasting consumption was only a few tens to a hundredth of the usual amount.

In addition, [Infinite Circuit] can also perform multi-attribute synchronized spellcasting and extremely powerful legion-level spellcasting while Futaba uses her elemental clones. However, these two abilities are still under testing, and at present, their cost-effectiveness is not as good as her Reality Marble.

The most important point is that the center of the [Infinite Circuit], which is the area where Futaba, the host, is located, is a sinking space that is superimposed on the main plane and the sub-plane. The principle is to infinitely lengthen the process of crossing the other plane, so that the entire space centered on Futaba slowly 'sinks' or 'rises'. After this process is lengthened from an instant to tens of seconds, it means that she has tens of seconds of 'invincibility' every instant.

In terms commonly used in many games, this is called 'unable to select target'.

Of course, this safe zone also has limitations and loopholes. For example, it can currently only be activated on the rooftop of the Caeves Manor; for example, if more than 25% of the magic circuits are destroyed in a short period of time, the process of 'sinking' and 'rising' can be forcibly terminated; for example, it can be attacked the moment when Futaba completely enters the main plane or fixes the other plane.

In short, any standard epic-level powerhouse has a way to deal with this move, and this effect will last until Futaba truly advances to epic level.

In conclusion, the current Shuangye is no longer what she used to be. Like Mo, Xinglong, and others, after the baptism of the [Questioning and Debate], her combat strength has made a leap forward.

however……

"This is completely useless."

After finishing her debriefing, Futaba smirked, lazily sprawled out on a pile of soft velvet cushions, and rolled her eyes dramatically.

Unfortunately, although she has indeed become much stronger than before, and is even confident that she can fight Ah Sang again, the problem is that once she leaves the circle of 'players' and returns to the [Innocent Realm], these highly praised ranking big shots are immediately outmatched in terms of strength.

Take Shuangye, who has replaced Mo Tan as the head of the [Clown Card] headquarters at this moment. With her strength that is not even at the epic level, it would not be an exaggeration to say that she has 'no ability to protect herself' in the Free City.

Putting aside everything else, the two-headed ogre, who is one (or two?) Lorenzo's bodyguard, is already at a near-legendary level, not to mention the countless epics in this small world.

But there's nothing we can do; life has to go on.

I need to become stronger, the [Clown Card] also needs to become stronger, and even that bastard is probably secretly working hard to become stronger somewhere right now.

"Ah, that's fine too."

The girl, who had just been feeling frustrated, smiled slightly, her mood having clearly brightened considerably.

"A bigger stage makes things more interesting when things get lively."

Futaba, who was rapidly evolving and transforming with her charitable organization, licked her lips, and her previously anxious state of mind instantly became clear and calm.

Then, naturally, he took that crucial 'half-step', surpassing Xinglong and Anonymous to become No. 3 on the individual combat power ranking.

Chapter 2625: The End