As the four of them stood puzzled, Jean's attire suddenly began to change. Her usual outfit seemed to morph, right before their eyes, into a swimsuit.
"Huh?"
Jean blinked in surprise, her cheeks beginning to flush. After all, her usual attire was her dignified, modest uniform; this swimsuit felt entirely improper for her.
"Don't look!"
Barbara instantly threw herself in front of Jean, spreading her arms protectively, afraid her sister might be glanced at by the man before them.
Yet, in the next instant, Barbara's priest robes also started transforming. In a matter of seconds, her familiar white dress turned into an adorable swimsuit.
"This is strange... What's going on?" Barbara murmured, examining the swimsuit. "I... it actually turned into a swimsuit."
Jean sighed, studying herself. "Doesn't this swimsuit look... odd on me?"
"No way!" Barbara shook her head earnestly. "It looks beautiful on you, Sis!"
Oddly enough, these swimsuits looked quite familiar—they resembled the "costume skins" from the popular game. However, unlike the conservative in-game designs, these versions had been strikingly altered, making them more daring.
Jean's swimsuit, for instance, now lacked the high neckline and had less fabric covering the front and back. Barbara's was even more revealing, with her one-piece suit removed entirely, leaving only a ribbon-tied outer layer, making it look especially airy.
The only thing unchanged for the sisters was the leg bands on their thighs.
Barbara's legs were slender, so the smallest leg band could barely stay in place, while Jean's were notably different. Years of training had left her legs muscular and toned, the leg band pressing into her skin and leaving faint marks—a detail adding to its unique charm.
"So that's what it means?" Lucas said with a bit of surprise. "That's... interesting."
However, Jean and Barbara were both glaring at him, their cheeks a deep shade of red, as if they'd just seen something terrifying.
Just then, Klee's voice broke the awkwardness. With a little hand over her eyes, she shouted, "Daddy, shame on you!"
Lucas suddenly realized why—he, too, had been forcibly changed out of his clothes. Though he now wore beach shorts, the earlier scene was vividly imprinted in the sisters' minds. And their thoughts were oddly in sync: It's exactly the same as the dream!
Klee, however, had avoided this embarrassing transformation. Her swimsuit had simply appeared on her, and the system even thoughtfully added a little duck floatie around her waist.
A definite double standard.
"Ahem..."
Jean was the first to break the tension. "It seems like this is just part of the game's rules. Such a straightforward approach... very much Alice's style."
"Well, since we're here at the beach anyway, a swimsuit fits the mood better," Barbara admitted, glancing helplessly at her own rather bold swimsuit. "Though... this style really doesn't suit me…"
She couldn't help but feel a little self-conscious, especially around the chest area, where things felt... emptier than usual.
At this thought, Barbara glanced enviously at Jean. The comparison was, unfortunately, painfully clear.
Noticing her sister's discouragement, Jean quickly encouraged her, "Barbara, you're still young. You have plenty of room to grow."
"Yeah, yeah!" Lucas chimed in with a nod, though his gaze had somehow drifted back to Jean.
Men, after all, often preferred reaching higher peaks.
"That's enough from you!" Barbara huffed, grabbing the dice and tossing it in frustration. "Anyway, let's just get on with it!"
The dice landed on three and six, moving Barbara's piece forward nine spaces.
The tile's prompt read: Stranded on an island, stomach empty. Roll a four or seven to escape hunger.
"What's this supposed to mean...?" Barbara had barely finished her sentence when her stomach suddenly emitted a loud, unmistakable growl.
Flushing crimson, she hurried to cover her stomach. "It's... It's not true! I'm not hungry!"
"No need to be embarrassed," Lucas said kindly. "Are you feeling hungry now?"
Barbara nodded, her expression bewildered. "Yes, but... how? I just had lunch!"
"It must be the game," Jean explained. "Until you roll a four or seven, it seems you'll keep feeling hungry. But... forcing someone to feel hunger—Alice really can do anything, can't she?"
Alice was certainly skilled, but the game itself had an almost omnipotent air to it. For cautious Jean, this kind of influence was naturally unsettling.
"This isn't the time to worry about that," Lucas urged. "Hunger is no joke, and who knows what could happen if it goes on. Let's keep moving, alright? It's my turn now."
Lucas rolled the dice, and they landed on double ones.
"Ha!" Barbara chuckled. "You rolled the lowest possible! Looks like you're losing this round."
"Actually, there's a common rule in board games like this," Lucas said with a sly smile. "If you roll double ones, you get an extra turn."
"Where'd you hear that?" Barbara protested. "You're making that up!"
"Why don't we try it?" Lucas threw the dice again. "If it's not allowed, the game should stop me."
However, the game didn't stop him. This time, Lucas rolled a four and a five, moving his piece forward and pulling far ahead of the others.
"See? I was right." Lucas grinned, looking at the prompt on his new tile.
Before your next turn, you must perform a bad deed or miss a turn until you do.
Upon reading the mysterious message, the four of them exchanged puzzled glances.
"Do something bad?" Lucas murmured, perplexed. "But what kind of bad thing, exactly?"
"I know! I know!" Klee exclaimed.
Excitedly, Klee pulled out a bouncing bomb and declared, "Captain Jean said that blowing up fish is a bad thing! Daddy, why don't you blow up some fish too? It's the biggest bad thing you could do!"
In Klee's innocent view, Captain Jean's strict prohibition on "blowing up fish" had become the ultimate definition of bad deeds.
"Klee! Didn't you say you ran out of bombs for fishing?" Jean raised an eyebrow and scolded, "And yet here you are, hiding a secret stash! Once this game is over, you're facing half a day of confinement."
"Huh? That's not fair!" Klee turned her puppy-dog eyes on Lucas, pleading, "Daddy, please help me out here!"
"Well… Daddy can't really do anything about it," Lucas shrugged with a wry smile, "After all, Captain Jean is the boss here. We have to listen to her."
"Sigh… But it's a special situation right now," Jean said with a resigned smile. "Just give it a try. Besides, since we're in this strange world inside a gameboard, blowing up fish shouldn't be a big problem."
Lucas let out an awkward chuckle and accepted the bomb from Klee. The bomb was only the size of his fist, so he figured it wouldn't do too much damage.
"Alright, Go Pokeball!"
With a playful tilt of the newly manifested sunhat on his head, Lucas tossed the bomb into the sea.
With a thunderous "boom," the once-tranquil sea erupted, sending waves several meters high. Fish of all shapes and sizes began surfacing, flung into the air by the blast.
An endless shower of fish rained down like a cascade. Overjoyed, Klee darted around, catching as many as she could. She'd blown up fish plenty of times before, but never had she seen a haul this big.
But just then, a giant shadow loomed over Klee, cast by a colossal creature that had surfaced alongside the fish. It hurtled toward her, threatening to squash her flat.
Lucas leaped forward, snatching Klee into his arms and sidestepping just in time.
As the massive creature landed with a resounding thud on the sand, Lucas and the others finally got a good look at it—a black-and-white, lumbering sea beast… it was a killer whale!
"A fish! A huge fish!" Klee cried, her eyes sparkling with amazement as she rushed toward the massive creature. "Daddy, you're amazing!"
"Technically, it's an orca," Lucas replied, scratching his chin. "But why would an orca be here in these coastal waters?"
After all, they were in a "fantasy world." It wasn't shocking to see an orca—or even a tiger-striped shark—come flying out of the water.
"It's huge…" muttered Barbara, her eyes glazed over as she stared at the orca. "It looks… really delicious…"
Affected by the gameboard's strange power, Barbara seemed to be stuck in a state of perpetual hunger, eyeing everything as potential food.
Orcas, often called the "pandas of the sea," were known for their friendly demeanor toward humans. This one, having been blasted ashore, was still dazed, letting out pitiful "oooh-oooh" sounds as it lay helplessly in front of them.
"So, it's an orca?" Klee gently patted the orca's head and introduced herself politely, "Hello, Mr. Orca! My name's Klee!"
"If I were to kill it…" Lucas's eyes flickered with a hint of mischief. "Would that count as doing something bad?"
"No way!" Klee immediately stood protectively in front of the orca, waving her tiny fists. "You can't hurt Mr. Orca!"
"But orcas are living beings just like those fish," Lucas used the opportunity to teach her. "Why treat them differently?"
"Because I like Mr. Orca!" Klee replied with an expression of pure certainty. "As for the other fish… well, I like eating them!"
Indeed, children tend to think simply and directly. They don't rely on complex logic but instead make decisions based on pure likes and dislikes.
"Well then, let's work together to send Mr. Orca back home."
Lucas's hand summoned a large sword—a gift from Eula, known as the Song of Broken Pines.
"Wait a second!" Jean gasped. "Isn't that the Lawrence family heirloom?"
"Yes, it is," Lucas nodded, confirming. "Eula loaned it to me for safekeeping."
Jean's gaze grew complicated. That sword was a precious family treasure that only the Lawrences could wield… Could it mean Lucas had become a part of the Lawrence family? Is he gonna marry Eula?!?
Through her rose-colored lens, Jean saw Lucas as a talented, handsome young man who had single-handedly stepped into the Lawrence household to support Eula. It was only natural she'd admire him.
However, the next scene completely shattered Jean's illusions. Lucas took the great sword and started using it like a shovel, digging a trench in the sand between the orca and the shore.
If Eula were to see her family heirloom being used as a shovel, she'd probably do more than just hold a grudge.
Lucas channeled his Cryo abilities, freezing seawater into a slick surface beneath the orca.
Then, he and Klee worked together to push the giant orca along the icy path, finally sliding it back into the water.
After all, this wasn't some simulator where Lucas had to force himself to act like a villain.
Besides, committing a misdeed in front of Klee wasn't something Lucas could bring himself to do.
The orca, unaware it had been bombed out of the water, probably thought the humans on the shore had rescued it. It circled them in the water and playfully sprayed a few jets of water before reluctantly swimming off into the sea.
"Goodbye, Mr. Orca!" Klee waved enthusiastically. "Don't get caught again, okay?"
Barbara, on the other hand, wore a disappointed expression, as if it wasn't an orca swimming away but a prime cut of meat.
"Alright, we'll have to find another chance to do something bad," Lucas shrugged and said, "Captain Jean, it's your turn."
"Alright." Jean nodded, rolling the dice to land on a two and a three.
She moved five spaces on the gameboard, and a new message appeared—The party shall scatter; only when reunited may you proceed.
"What's that supposed to mean?" Lucas raised an eyebrow. "Did Kelsier design this game? Why is it so cryptic… wait, huh?"
Lucas looked up, stunned to find that the three people who had been with him… had all disappeared!
It was as though they'd vanished into thin air. Three living, breathing people—gone without a trace.
"Klee! Jean! Barbara!" Lucas called out, turning in circles as he shouted their names, but no answer came.
The text on the game board had been clear: The party shall scatter; only when reunited may you proceed.
So that's what it meant—this effect separated them all. They'd have to regroup before the game could continue.
The idea seemed absurd, yet, based on what had already happened, Lucas was almost certain that everything in this game—this "chessboard" world—was unfolding according to the game's own rules and will.
For now, he had one task: find the others.
If this was indeed a game, then there had to be a path to completion. His companions should have been scattered to random points across this island, but finding them alone would be a daunting task.
Then he heard a familiar cry: "Ar-ar-ar!"
Turning toward the sound, he saw the orca he'd helped earlier. It had returned, bobbing in the water as if it wanted his attention. The creature faced eastward, nodding its head repeatedly in that direction as if signaling him to follow.
Right—Lucas suddenly remembered that while orcas might not have a strong sense of smell, they had excellent vision. Perhaps this one had spotted something in the distance—maybe even his friends.
"Are you saying they're in that direction?" Lucas asked, taking a hopeful step toward the orca.
"Ar-ar!" The orca nodded enthusiastically.