CHAPTER 144: IT’S NOT OUR STAGE

Looking at the top 10 rankings, Carlotta’s expression changed several times as her gaze swept over the names, guessing their identities.

She could see their ranks.

1: Olivia Garcia, Middle tier Resonator.

2: Zorn Wilson, Middle tier Resonator.

3: Moon, Early Tier Listener.

4: Heimric Dalsheim, Early Tier Weaver.

5: Black Rose, Early Tier Resonator.

6: General Soul Reaper, Middle tier Weaver.

7: Sea King, Middle tier Weaver.

8: Glory, Peak Tier Resonator.

9: Fire, Early Tier Weaver.

10: Gibson, Peak Tier Resonator.

Among the top 10, she was the only Listener, and an early tier one at that. Everyone else was at least an early tier Resonator, and there were even four Weavers among the ten!

This made Carlotta secretly gasp, imagining how fierce the external struggles were at this moment.

Most importantly, these people likely had others with them. For example, Olivia Garcia, a royal member of the Brandon Kingdom, even though she was a Middle tier Resonator, she might have Weavers after her.

"A bunch of ruthless people."

Carlotta asserted to herself, then a look of unwillingness appeared in her eyes.

She already knew the rewards for the Sky Ranking in advance, knew how generous the rewards for the top three were, and how important the reward for first place was in the long run.

The reward for first place, she was determined to get it!

Although it looked dangerous outside and her strength was low, Carlotta knew she had to fight for it. Hiding alone was definitely not enough.

"Carlotta."

At this moment, Amelia noticed Carlotta and walked over, her gaze also fell on the Sky Ranking that was still displayed.

After a quick scan, Amelia’s expression became much more serious, "It seems the fighting outside is very fierce. In just one day, who knows how many have died."

She felt that their side was not qualified to participate in this level of struggle. A single misstep could lead to their complete annihilation.

Carlotta said seriously, "I still want to compete. I want to get first place. I know it’s very dangerous, but the opportunity is right in front of me, and I have no reason to miss it."

Amelia hesitated upon hearing this.

The strength of both of them was indeed very strong. Although they were just entering the Listener stage, it was already difficult to find opponents at the Listener level.

However, with such strength, it was still not enough to participate in the upcoming struggle. The stage within Sky Island was simply not prepared for people of their rank.

But seeing Carlotta staring intently at the Sky Ranking, Amelia couldn’t say what she wanted to say.

She saw Carlotta’s persistence, her unwillingness, and in those red eyes, it seemed like flames burning fiercely.

With a sigh, Amelia squeezed the Ten-Heart Pearl, which had transformed into a bracelet, and said helplessly, "Since you want to compete, then go and compete. But you still have to be as careful as possible, and don’t easily clash with Resonators."

Carlotta put away the Sky Ranking and said seriously, "I’ll go compete alone. Amelia, you stay here and don’t wander off."

Amelia immediately frowned, "You’re still going alone? Do you think I’ll be a burden to you?"

Carlotta quickly waved her hand: "I don’t mean that, it’s just..."

"If you don’t mean that, then don’t say any more."

Amelia interrupted Carlotta, her tone softening a bit as she said, "I will protect you. When we left the Wendell Empire, I said you didn’t have to worry about facing any danger alone."

Carlotta’s expression was a little subtle. Yesterday, Amelia had said she might not be able to beat her, but now she said she could protect her. Did Amelia have any trump cards up her sleeve?

Given Amelia’s extraordinary background, such a thing was indeed possible.

"I understand. Then let’s face everything together."

Carlotta pursed her lips, "Thank you for being willing to support my willfulness, Amelia. You really are the most, most, most gentle girl in the world."

Being praised like this, Amelia felt a little awkward and immediately changed the subject.

She said "Those people we sent out should have collected some tokens. We can have them bring them back carefully."

She was referring to those who had defected after Amber’s death. Five of them had entered the Soldier Roster and were sent out to collect tokens.

These five people were all Listeners. Even if they didn’t collect many tokens, the more tokens the better at this time. Who would complain about having too many?

Carlotta nodded: "They might bring some tokens, but we mainly have to rely on ourselves. Although Sky Island is very dangerous now, its area is also astonishingly large, so it’s not that easy to encounter others."

Her hope was her intelligence system. As long as the intelligence told her where she could more easily obtain tokens, she believed her ranking would improve rapidly.

Her only worry was that the intelligence system would provide too little information, and she was afraid it wouldn’t be enough.

So before that, she had to take action in this regard, show her attitude of seeking tokens, and increase the probability of intelligence appearing.

After eating two more magic bananas, Carlotta flew out, and Amelia quickly followed, putting away the Moonlight.

Outside, the scarlet moon hung high, and the mountain mist permeated, with a mysterious aura.

Carlotta looked around and saw many traces of past battles. The ground was pitted, trees had fallen in large numbers, and there were scorched marks in many places.

There must have been a catastrophe here during the day, leaving nothing behind. But correspondingly, there shouldn’t be any very strong individuals appearing here for a short period.

"Eh? Someone."

Carlotta’s eyes lit up.

Perhaps others also thought that strong individuals would no longer appear here. In a patch of remaining forest, Carlotta vaguely saw some light.

As a card magic practitioner, even from a considerable distance, she judged that it was the light from a light card. She could even tell that it was a weaker version of the light card.

Amelia glanced from afar and asked, "Should we go take a look?"

"Of course. If it’s someone we can deal with, I don’t think there’s any need to be polite. Everyone here is a competitor, and I must get any tokens that appear."

Carlotta said seriously.

Behind her, wings unfurled, propelling her to fly close to the ground, rapidly approaching the light source.

In a short time, under the cover of night, she silently approached the forest and saw a group of people gathered around the light emitted by the light card, communicating.

........

The cold night wind blew intermittently through the forest, leaves rustled, and the campfire flickered.

Carlotta slowed down as she approached, taking out her eagle eye card. When the trees ahead weren’t too dense, she finally saw clearly who was gathered around the campfire.

Then, she put away the long-distance card, grabbed Amelia’s small hand, and turned to leave.

"There are Resonators, let’s go," Carlotta whispered.

She had recognized the people and was somewhat surprised to encounter members of that adventure group again.

The Shadow Adventure Group had some conflict with her before entering Sky Island. They had challenged her when she was a seventh-tier apprentice, and she had become an eighth-tier apprentice during that process.

After entering Sky Island, in the external area, she had another conflict with Spencer and others from the Shadow Adventure Group, and had killed them.

Currently, several members of the Shadow Adventure Group are still on Amelia’s Soldier Roster. Due to their low strength, they were collecting various materials in the outer area.

However, the people Carlotta encountered in the outer area were not all the members of the Shadow Adventure Group. Those were the ones who lacked strength and had to remain in the outer area. Some powerful individuals had followed the strong members of the Shadow Adventure Group into the internal area.

When Carlotta was in Pine Town, she had obtained various information about the well-known adventure groups in the vicinity, including the Shadow Adventure Group.

The leader of this adventure group was named Rolf Frank, a Resonator. Therefore, upon entering Sky Island, he automatically arrived in the internal area.

Of course, Rolf did not come alone; he brought some team members who possessed sufficient strength.

Carlotta did not wish to clash with Resonators at this moment. Therefore, upon discovering that the targets’ strength exceeded her expectations, she and Amelia quickly chose to leave.

...

The campfire leaped, and a group of people gathered around, communicating with solemn expressions. This was because many disturbances had occurred in the internal area of Sky Island during the day. Many terrifying battles had broken out, and countless people had died. Even they needed to treat the situation with seriousness.

Rolf Frank, tall and thin, dressed in black, suddenly felt a premonition. He seemed to have sensed something and looked towards the nearby forest.

"What’s wrong, Frank?" someone beside him asked.

The people here were not only members of the Shadow Adventure Group. During their exploration of Sky Island, Rolf had also encountered and cooperated with people from a trading company.

This trading company was called Sunset Trading Company. The president of the company was also a Resonator, named Marshall Regan, who was the one asking Rolf.

Marshall Regan, holding a pipe and puffing smoke, looked at Rolf with his greenish eyes.

Rolf whispered, "I feel like I’m being watched... I’ll go take a look."

He moved directly, streaking into the forest. His speed was astonishing, as if he had completely merged into the night.

In a short time, Rolf passed through the forest and looked into the distance. Vaguely, he saw two figures moving away. He couldn’t see their exact appearances, only judge that both were female, one with red hair and the other with silver hair.

"Red hair and silver hair?" Rolf’s expression immediately changed.

Two days ago, due to a shortage of personnel, he had specifically gone to the junction between the internal and outer areas. He had sent those around him who had not yet reached the Resonator level to the outer area to find the remaining members of the Shadow Adventure Group, intending to have them explore for him.

However, he eventually received devastating news: the people of the Shadow Adventure Group in the outer area had encountered problems, and Spencer had been killed.

The culprits were two young girls, one with red hair and one with silver hair.

He hadn’t seen those two for quite some time in the external area. Some people in the external area suspected that those two had entered the internal area.

Seeing the two blurry figures from afar now, Rolf almost instinctively thought of this matter, and his expression immediately sank.

"Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh!"

Figures followed him out of the forest.

Marshall exhaled a smoke ring and asked, "Did you find anything?"

Rolf said with a grim face, "I saw two enemies. Chase them."

He flew directly, quickly pursuing the two blurry figures.

However, the situation that followed made Rolf’s expression less than pleasant. He found that as he flew, not only did he fail to close the distance, but the distance between them actually increased, until the two figures completely disappeared from his sight.

"What a joke?"

This situation made Rolf somewhat unable to accept it. He couldn’t catch up to those two?

According to the news from the outer area, these two were still apprentices...

"No, were they flying just now?" Rolf suddenly frowned again. How could apprentices fly?

Due to the distance and the almost transparent nature of the elven wings, he hadn’t seen the pair of wings. He felt as if the two were flying out of thin air.

Could he have mistaken them?

Red hair and silver hair were relatively common hair colors. Was he being too sensitive?

For a moment, Rolf was also unsure of the situation.

...

When Rolf pursued them, Carlotta also noticed it immediately.

She immediately grabbed Amelia’s hand, a blue circle surrounded her, and she took out the speed card and chose to use it, rapidly increasing her flying speed as she moved away.

"It looks like they can’t catch up," Carlotta glanced back and relaxed a little.

Then, she felt a bit helpless. She hadn’t expected that the first people she encountered after coming out would be Resonators.

When did Resonators become so common?

However, upon reflection, it wasn’t strange. The internal area could forcibly bring Resonators in, indicating that this was originally a stage for Resonators. She and Amelia were forcibly entering a higher-level stage.

"Let’s go. We’ll explore other locations. I don’t believe that all the Listeners we saw earlier could just vanish into thin air," Carlotta said seriously.

In her mind, the sky ranking reappeared. Thinking that she had already dropped to third place, she couldn’t sit still.

If she didn’t gain anything else, she wouldn’t even be able to maintain her top three position.

However, the next few hours were very disappointing for Carlotta.

She and Amelia traveled to various locations, crossing mountains and rivers, but they didn’t encounter many people. The vastness of Sky Island’s internal area was surprising.

The few people they did see all happened to be Resonators. They could only leave after judging the opponent’s rank from afar.

Were the Listeners all hiding like they were during the day?

Carlotta felt it shouldn’t be just her; she believed she was simply having bad luck.

But regardless, time finally pointed towards midnight. From now on, they could only rely on intelligence.