When the four of them could open their eyes again, they were sitting on the floor in a room.
Looking around, there was nothing besides a bunch of walls and a cloaked figure standing by the window.
"You guys awake?"
Hearing the voice, Alex immediately realized it was the same voice that broke into Katherine's room last night.
"Thank you for saving us."
Luqing immediately bowed down in gratitude, with the three kids doing the same.
"No problem... Do you know where is Fredrick?"
"He was fighting the emperor, and they went to some sort of dimension to fight instead."
"That's a shame... How about the other mage standing next to him?"
"Grandma? I... I don't know. She just vanished alongside Grandpa... I think she's inside the dimension as well."
Hearing Alex's answer, the mysterious woman doesn't seem to be very happy with his answer.
"He promised me that he was supposed to help me guide this city... Why does all the building look so weird."
As the mysterious woman complained, the other three thought of the same as well.
"I have competed a few times now. This is the first time the Guardian used this weird layout." Luqing pointed out.
"So our guardian decided to make these abstract glass buildings?" Sophia curiously asked.
"You could say that... Miss, what should we do now?" Luqing asked, turning her attention over to the mysterious woman.
"I assume we should just hide here until the zone closes to whatever the middle is at..."
As the mysterious woman took off her hood, everyone was a little stunned by how she looked underneath.
Her cultivator background made them expect her to be similar to Luqing's Eastern look.
It wasn't just similar. From side to side, they almost looked like twins, and there was no way of telling the differences if it wasn't for the clothing.
"Also, don't call me Miss... Luqing. I had finally found you."
"Huh?"
---
Back in the empty street, the group of five mage had finally returned to the archmage.
"You guys eliminated those two?" The archmage asked as they could feel the tense atmosphere.
"Yes, professor. They both were eliminated from our spells." The senior looked mage answered.
"Good... Why is it taking so long——"
Just as the archmage was about to wonder how the fight on the other side was going, three figures suddenly appeared.
The emperor's cloak was almost all torn up, revealing the armor he wore underneath.
Meanwhile, Fredrick was mostly unscathed, but everyone could tell he was beyond exhausted from needing Ava to hold him up.
"Frederick, I have to give it to you. An old man like you being able to push me this far is impressive."
"You're not bad either. It's only a matter of time before you'll beat me in the future."
"A shame I won't be able to beat you by then... I really wish you could live longer than this."
Luqing's face blushed a little as she immediately understood what Meiya was trying to imply.
"Ahem, let's go find somewhere else better to hide. I need some time to beat that turtle shell."
The four of them quickly followed Meiya out of the house, heading towards the center as they tried to find a better spot.
Meiya instantly eliminated every person they ran into within seconds.
They thought of telling her about the unspoken rule, but her kill count above was already well in the thousands.
Suddenly, they all heard the zone closing again. But this time, they didn't need to go anywhere.
They were already in the zone, but it was not a good news as they stood in the middle of an empty street block.
The closest buildings were a few hundred steps away, and it was already blown up into pieces.
"Crap... Where could we hide?"
As everyone tried to look for somewhere to stall out time, Alex suddenly had an idea as he saw the street floor.
"We can go into the sewer drain down below."
"Sewer drain?" Meiya asked in confusion, with the other three looking just as confused.
They all wondered where the sewer drain was until he walked over to the car road and tried to lift a giant metal grid cap.
"Can you snap it open? I can't lift this thing."
Meiya walked over and then held onto the cap before easily lifting it into the air.
The loud bang sound with the broken bolts and lock showed the damage that she had done to it.
A ladder and a dark tunnel underneath were revealed. There was no weird smell or dirty stuff inside.
"Thank god this simulation didn't copy everything," Alex murmured as he quickly took the lead and entered the room.
"What simulation?" Sophia curiously asked as she followed Alex down the ladder.
"And what copy?" Sophia curiously asked next, following right behind Mary.
"Just saying this competition feels so realistic. Come on, you guys can come down."
Luqing didn't hesitate for a second as she flat-out jumped into the dark tunnel without even using the ladder.
Meiya, meanwhile, hesitated for a second before jumping down as she reattached the cap.
With the tunnel now completely dark, Sophia lit up a small light to see what was their surrounding.
As Alex expected, there was no sewage or any kind of water besides a long, empty tunnel.
"Why is it always empty?" Alex thought to himself as he began to realize something was off.
For a second, he thought that the Guardian of his family must have been from the Earth.
But seeing everything that the city copied was purely based on his memories.
Things that he had no memories of were all blank, from the houses to the skyscrapers.
He had already walked past and even entered several of them when trying to find Sophia and Mary.
A chill suddenly ran down his spine as he realized that the person who had made this simulation might have read his memories.
All of his secrets that even Katherine and his sibling didn't know about were now in the hands of someone he hadn't even seen before.
"Ahem, I completely forgot to ask this earlier. What is your guy's name?" Meiya asked, making Alex snap out of his thoughts.