Release that Witch

Apparently, the Dream World had accepted all the losers in the Soul Battlefield, as no one in this world found it strange seeing their various hair colors and different facial features.

For example, Roland himself had long gray hair, light gray eyes and a straight nose with a high nose bridge, which would attract all the attention when he walked in the streets of the community where he had lived in modern times.

However, in this world, all these strange looking people lived just like the common ones. On their way to catch buses, young men were rushing about with their newspapers and briefcases under their arms, while chewing deep-fried dough sticks. Elderly people gathered in twos and threes on the open space in front of the apartment building. Some were moving their limbs and doing their morning exercises. Some laid out Chinese chess boards, ready to play with their friends.

The chirping of cicadas, the city noises and the sounds of morning reading, babies crying and hucksters shouting were all wafted to his ears by the morning breeze, creating a characteristic symphony of the tube-shaped apartment building.

Roland cherished the scene which was full of life.

Right at this moment, a woman running along the lane was getting near to him.

Seeing this woman, Roland nearly dropped his chopsticks involuntarily. To his great surprise, she was Garcia Wimbledon.

She tied her hair up and wore light sportswear, baring her white thighs and hanging a towel around her neck. Her sweat had soaked her collar and pinpricks of sweat covered her arms. She must have been running for quite a long time.

He was more surprised seeing all the people in the lane fixing their eyes on her and some even whistling at her. These people looked so excited as if they were looking at a star.

However, Garcia did not give a fig to the crowd. She continued running through the lane as fast as the wind and disappeared into the corridor entrance of the apartment building.

”That’s Garcia!” someone in the rice noodle restaurant exclaimed.

”Now you believe what I told you. If you get up early, you’ll get the chance to see her. As long as the weather is good, she’ll run for an hour here.”

”It’s the first time for me to meet a TV star.”

”She looks much better than on TV.”

”Oh yeah, Garcia will have an important match very soon.”

”I’ll support her anyway. I hope that she’ll win the final.”

”Of course, she will. She’s such a genius!”

Everybody was talking about her, leaving Roland dumbfounded. He wondered why all the residents here were so familiar with Garcia and what the match they were talking about was. He thought, ”is she a rising sports star or something?”

To confirm his guess, he took out his wallet after drinking all the remaining soup in his bowl and asked the owner when he came over to clean the table, ”what was going on? Is that woman famous?”

The owner looked at him in disbelief, saying, ”you’re not living here, right? Who in this Tongzi Street doesn’t know Miss Garcia?”

Hearing this, he became even more curious and said to the owner, ”I’ve just moved in recently. What does she do?”

”She’s a martial fighter!”

”Pfft.” Roland nearly spat in the owner’s face. ”Ahem... what?”

”Come on, go to watch TV by yourself. She’s the most famous person in this area, and it’s because of her that we can continue to live here.”

”Why?”

The owner pointed somewhere behind Roland and said, ”look there.”

He turned around and noticed something he had missed when he had come here. On the wall opposite to this restaurant, there was a big word saying ”Removal”.

”House removal?”

”Yes, some development company has long wanted to pull down the whole Tongzi Street to build a new skyscraper here. That company said that this block was too old and unsightly for a downtown zone. Bullshit, it’s clearly a cultural relic building!” The owner sighed while searching his bag for Roland’s change. ”Those guys want to relocate us all to the suburbs. If Garcia didn’t expose their plot on TV and gain wide support for us, the developer would start to drive us away at this moment.”

Roland’s mouth twisted. ”That’s really... an outrage.”

”That’s why all of us support Miss Garcia.” The owner smiled and tamped the change into his hand. ”Since you’re now a member of the Tongzi Street, you’ll become her fan soon!”

...

Roland understood that the Dream World might use some incredible methods to piece together irrelevant memory fragments, but what had happened just now was too bizarre to believe.

What’s a martial fighter? Some new Olympic event?

And demolition of Apartment of Souls? No kidding! All the doors connected to the memory fragments are here in the building, and so is the creator of this world!

And I have to thank my elder sister for making it possible for me to live here?

With complicated feelings, he returned to his No. 0825 apartment, and Zero happened to get out of her bedroom with sleepy eyes.

Her hair was in a mess and her dress was wrinkled. One side of the dress’s neckline dropped down, revealing half of her shoulder. She said, ”uncle, you get up? I’ll go to make breakfast right now.”

”No, I’ve had breakfast and I bring you something to eat.”

He put the omelet, steamed pork dumplings and milk he bought on the table and then turned on the television.

With a puzzled expression on her face, she sat by the table and asked, ”why do you get up so early recently?”

”I told you that I got a job, so I can’t sleep late in the morning anymore. You parents remitted your living expenses to me, and my company paid me my first month’s salary. We don’t have to worry about money for now.”

”Use your money wisely. Who knows how long will it last. Besides, we haven’t finished the food stored in the refrigerator yet.” Having said that, Zero still quickly devoured her breakfast.

Roland asked her, ”by the way, do you know Garcia?”

She twitched her mouth and said, ”of course, sister Garcia is such a talent. She joined Martialist Association at the age of 20, and I heard that she held an unbeaten record in the preliminaries. All my classmates regard her as an idol, but I think it’s boring to watch this kind of fighting matches on the stage. ”

Though he was a little bothered by the fact that he was called uncle while Garcia was called sister, he still put this aside and focused on what he wanted to investigate. Based on what the little girl had said just now, the martial fighters in this world even formed their own organization.

He asked, ”are there... many martial fighters?”

”There are only a few.” Zero darted a look of disapproval at him. ”Uncle, please stop thinking about it. Not everyone has such a talent. Only those awakening with Force of Nature will get the chance to become martial fighters, and awakening is just the basic requirement. Without determination and perseverance, even an awakened talent will become a puppet of some great power and bring troubles to the people. ”

”Uhm... how do you know so much about them?”

”Our teacher told us. He also said that as compared to imagining ourselves becoming martial fighters, we’d better do more exercises and try to become useful people for the community.” She went to the bathroom to get washed and then walked to the door carrying her schoolbag. ”I’ve got a full day today, bye.”

When Zero left, Roland opened his hand, feeling the strange power in it.

Is this Force of Nature?

His interest in the Dream World increased dramatically. The ”puppet of great power” somehow reminded him of a magic power bite. He wondered how this world integrated all the devoured memories and what the rules behind it were.

He had planned to go to the library of the school.

However, now he had a new idea.