Sirin looked at the three girls, a faint smile appearing on her pretty little face. She then looked up at the sky and silently used a skill: Summon Mount.
The next moment, a massive dragon roar echoed out of nowhere. A giant red dragon abruptly appeared ten meters above her head, its wingspan making it look like a moving mountain.
This red dragon mount had been hatched from a dragon egg Sirin had obtained, and it had accompanied her step by step to where she was today.
As for how she got such a super-rare dragon egg, one that hadn't seen a second of its kind appear to this day?
Emmm...
Sirin jumped onto the red dragon's head, then looked down at Asuna and the other two girls, smiling and giving a gentle nod.
"Come on up, we can't let Eriri and Kaguya steal all the spotlight."
After she spoke and saw the three girls jump onto the dragon's back, she commanded the red dragon to dive toward the bosses in the sky.
...
Compared to Eriri and the other girls who had various anti-air methods, the rest of the players, aside from Rikka, could only chase after the bosses and wait for them to land.
This included Anshera and the demons.
But since it was an event, the bosses would eventually lower their flight altitude after scattering to various locations.
Therefore, it wasn't long before basically all the players who participated in the event started reaping rewards.
However, the players who had gained some loot suddenly realized that the number of bosses wasn't decreasing from their slaughter; instead, they were becoming more and more numerous.
Even when these bosses landed, they didn't attack the players. Instead, they silently marched in a specific direction. If a boss heading in a certain direction died, a new boss would appear to continue their path.
The players were thrilled about this. Aside from not feeling the massive amount of experience promised by the event and wondering if the boss drop rate was a bit too low, almost everyone obtained varying amounts of Christmas points.
Time flew by, and soon the event reached its end.
Players who had harvested a large number of Christmas points happily went home with their companions.
Some of them were still living in inns.
Some rented lower-floor rooms with their friends.
Others lived in grand mansions, enjoying a quality of life they could never experience in the real world.
On the fifty-fourth floor, Sirin and the other five girls, having finished the event, chatted and discussed with each other in extremely cheerful tones.
"Hey, hey, everyone, did any of you get any special reward drops?"
Chika Fujiwara looked at the group with a face full of anticipation, only to see them all shake their heads.
"Eh?! I thought I was the only one with bad luck. You mean none of you got any reward drops? Isn't the drop rate for this event way too terrible?"
Hearing this, Sirin nodded with an expression of utmost agreement.
"I told you guys a long time ago, the mastermind behind this game is a stingy, grudge-holding bad guy! You should believe me now, right?!"
"Yeah! This is way too stingy!"
"I wonder if anyone else in the guild got any high-tier rewards."
Eriri: "..."
Looking at Kaguya and the other three nodding in agreement, Eriri silently apologized to Chen Changsheng in her heart, though she also started to feel a bit of resentment herself.
Never mind the others, she had just killed thousands of bosses! Aside from a slight increase in experience, she hadn't received a single reward. Brother Changsheng really was being a bit stingy.
Despite their verbal complaints, the girls were actually quite satisfied in their hearts. After all, they had obtained a lot of points this time. The Christmas gift box redeemed with points surely wouldn't be empty, right?
Plus, with so many points, they might even open a grand prize.
"Everyone, I'm going back to rest first. You all should rest early too. Tomorrow we can go find the Christmas tree together and see who has the best luck, how about that?"
"Hehe, when it comes to drawing prizes, I, Chika Fujiwara, hold absolute authority!"
"..."
After the girls made their agreement, they used their teleport crystals to return to their respective homes.
Sirin watched the fading silhouettes of the girls before teleporting back to her own home as well.
Upon returning to her room, she casually operated the game interface. The equipment on her body transformed into ordinary, casual pajamas. They were very cute, black-and-white panda pajamas with fluffy ears on the hood.
These pajamas were actually hand-made for her by Ai Hayasaka. They were incredibly comfortable to wear, and lately, she had gotten used to falling asleep in them.
After casually washing up, Sirin went to her bedside. Her gaze then caught sight of the large, snow-white stocking that had appeared at the head of her bed when the Christmas event notification first started.
Compared to how it looked initially, the stocking was now bulging, as if something had been stuffed inside.
Seeing this, Sirin opened the stocking with some curiosity and found a Christmas gift box with a note attached.
She picked up the note and read it.
"Wishing the lovely Miss Sirin a Merry Christmas, make sure to be happy every day O(∩_∩)O — Miss Sirin's exclusive Santa Claus 297 (*^_^*)"
"A Christmas present? What is it?"
Sirin subconsciously opened the gift box. Immediately, the box transformed into three streaks of light: one white and two gold. The white light was the box automatically dissipating, while the two gold lights were two rare items that entered her inventory. All that was left in her hand was the blessing note with the two cute emoticons.
Looking at the sign-off and that strange numerical designation on the note, Sirin couldn't help but feel that something was a bit weird.
...
The next day, a giant, interactive Christmas tree appeared in the main towns of every floor, set to exist in reality for just one day.
By the time Sirin arrived in front of the Christmas tree, many guild players had already gathered there.
"Sachi, did you receive a gift from Santa Claus? He actually gave me a pink-grade weapon selection box! Too bad it's bound to me, so I can't trade it to anyone else."
"I received one too. My gift is a level-up ticket that can only be used today; it can raise my level by one. But it's so weird, why did the note on my gift say 'Miss Sachi's exclusive Santa Claus 471'? Isn't this number way too strange? Silica, did your Santa have a number?"
"Ah! Now that you mention it, I remember my note had a special number too. I think it was 621."
Sirin had heard quite a few conversations like this since leaving the guild.
And when she walked under the Christmas tree in the fifty-fourth floor's town, she noticed that the surrounding players were all looking at her with strange expressions.
Some of the players even looked like they were furious but dared not speak out upon seeing her.
What happened?
Sirin looked at everyone's strange expressions in confusion. After all, the fifty-fourth floor was their guild's headquarters. More than half of the players here belonged to their guild, and the other half were basically casual players who had no intention of fiercely competing, peacefully waiting for the game to be cleared.
These players had always gotten along so well with their Number One Guild in the World, so why did it feel like everyone suddenly had a huge problem with her?
It wasn't until she walked up to the Christmas tree and chose to interact with it that she finally understood why everyone was giving her such weird looks.
Floor 45 Santa Claus Kill Leaderboard.
NO.1: Sirin — Kills: 4396!
NO.2: Eriri — Kills: 1479!
NO.3: Kaguya Shinomiya — Kills: 1319!
...
NO.10: Kirito — Kills: 67!
Looking at her own name sitting in the first-place spot on the kill leaderboard, with a kill count higher than the next nine people combined, and then recalling the conversations she had overheard from other players earlier, Sirin suddenly had a very bad feeling.
And when she saw the Christmas tree's exchange list—where the only redeemable item, a Christmas gift box limited to one purchase per person, required zero Christmas points to exchange—that bad feeling in her heart grew even stronger.
ine. During your journey, you save an abandoned baby girl and become her elder brother】 【You rely on each other, becoming each other's support】 【At the end of the simulation, you shield the now-grown girl with your life, sacrificing yourself to block numerous demonic cultivators. You die, and the light in the girl's eyes fades】 …… 【Second Simulation: You are transported to a world where steam and magic coexist】 【You immerse yourself in the study of magic, obsessed with its research. One day, while out, you encounter a half-blooded demon girl wandering the streets. You take her in as your student】 【You teach the demoness what it means to be human, show her the beauty of the world, and nurture her into a miracle that surpasses even the gods】 【At the end of the simulation, you die of old age in front of the nearly immortal demoness due to your mortal lifespan】 …… One simulation after another, one encounter after another. Xu Xi suddenly felt something was off: "Wait, you said you're coming to the real world to find me?"
ut it can buy an entire year of absolutely perfect training results! Su Yu stared at his empty wallet and decisively opened up various online loan platforms. “Borrow a thousand bucks! Recharge my vitality!” Boom! His vitality broke a hundred points, shattering the limits of the human body! “Borrow ten thousand bucks! Recharge my combat skills!” Boom! A basic punching technique so common it was everywhere instantly maxed out, revealing the ultimate assassination technique of Five Elements Unity—Inner Force! When a rich kid hired assassins for a midnight ambush, aiming to break both of his legs, they instead ran headfirst into a monster—a human-shaped tyrannosaur, brimming with dragon-like vitality. With just two fingers, Su Yu snapped a steel staff reinforced with alloy. Staring at the killer’s stash of stolen cash—a staggering quarter-million dollars—he showed a corporate-sincere smile: “Thanks for the pre-exam gift pack, Mr. Zhao! I’m gonna go re-invest this!” Three days later, at the National Martial Arts College Entrance Exam, while everyone else struggled just to reach the passing line, Su Yu threw a single punch—and more than a thousand vitality points literally detonated the entire arena!
] [Lone Wolf, No Male Gaze] [Protagonist is pursued early on; extreme protagonist-stans, stay away!] The "Carnival Paradise" descends and slowly devours the real world in the form of a game. By chance, Zhu Yan awakens the talent [Roleplay], becoming one of the first beta players. He thought he could develop safely, but after clearing the first instance, he is branded by humanity as the chief culprit behind the game's spread—a traitorous villain. A villain? Who would ever... become one! He'll be the villain! From then on, Zhu Yan is not only a player but also a lackey for the Carnival Paradise. Between the straight path and the crooked path, he chooses the con. With his left hand, he dons the villain's mantle, staging scenes within instances, infuriating players who decry him as a despicable traitor, all while the game happily promotes him. With his right hand, he joins the non-human organization "Fangcun Mountain," which opposes the Carnival Paradise, transforming into a mysterious player who slaughters game bosses, earning cheers of "Long live the expert!" from fellow players. Gradually, Zhu Yan rises to become an S-rank human player in Fangcun Mountain's archives, while also being the Carnival Paradise's certified top game Boss. But when the final war erupts and both major factions place their hopes in him— Players tag his various aliases: "Experts, this offensive depends on you." The Carnival Paradise's supreme Boss throws an arm around his neck: "Bro, you're the iron, I'm the steel; you can't let me down again!"
ing gift was a patch of barren land, and disciples were all picked up along the way. He spent fifty years diligently building three "ramshackle little sects," thinking he could finally live a carefree life relying on his disciples. But right at the fifty-year mark, he was suddenly swept away by a spatial rift and exiled to the Chaos Desolation, the Disorderly Ruins. There was no spiritual energy there, only slaughter. Relying on the cultivation feedback from his disciples, Gu Changyuan hacked his way through a sea of blood for eleven hundred years. When the system finally fished him back out, he discovered the ramshackle little sects he'd built back then had developed a rather... unusual style. Hold on... I vanished for a thousand years, so how did my ramshackle little sects become holy lands?!
