Story Reader / Festival Event Story / Fortune of Spring / Story
More wooden signs show up every few meters. The messages on them also keep changing.
Turn left here. Don't get it wrong.
Red means stop, green means go... Run! Now!
Go straight! Don't stop!
There are a few twists and turns, but you follow the signs and manage to arrive at the destination safely.
Welcome home
The walls are about two meters tall and are painted bright red. On top of the walls are blue bricks and tiles with complicated patterns.
The two-door panels aren't the common steel type, but are made in timber with beautiful patterns.
Looks like we have arrived.
It's a Kowloong style residence.
The New Year is one of the traditional Kowloong festivals. I'm not surprised.
Huh? Is this incantation also a Kowloong tradition?
Liv points to an ink-wash painting on the door. The painting is highly abstract and not limited by mere techniques. It is full of emotions.
Huh?
Nanami once drew your portrait with a similar style, so you immediately recognize this painting.
Is that... me?
...
This must be Commandant then.
It's quite difficult to tell.
Meow—
Tiger rubs against your palm.
Meooooow!
Tiger bumps into your chest.
It then rises into the air and points its large eyes toward the painting. A red light quickly scans through it.
Beep
After the sound, the doors gradually open, making a squeaky noise.
In front of you is a Kowloong-styled mansion.
There are individual buildings on the four sides inside the vast mansion, which are connected through corridors.
The buildings are made from green bricks and tiles, decorated by a rock garden. In the center is a giant pagoda tree with a shiny marble table under it.
At the entrance are the three Constructs' equipment and... a broom?
It's our equipment.
Meow... Meow...
Tiger, do you want us to go in?
Meow... Meow...
Tiger urges you to cross the wood threshold. The moment you step into the yard, something happens.
Squeak!
A lot of gray-black balls swarm out from all the corners: wall corner, bricks and tiles, under the tree... They soon take up almost half of the yard.
Corrupted?
No, I can't detect any Punishing reaction on them.
No radar signal outside the mansion. They only show up here.
Lucia nods at you, but still clenches her weapon and looks at the front vigilantly.
Their number keeps rising, but they don't seem aggressive.
Is this also Nanami's gift?
No. Look around us.
The walls... are deteriorating.
The tree is also withering. The more balls there are, the faster it dies.
Let's get out of here just to be safe.
...The door is blocked.
The door has been engulfed in a mist. When touched, it feels like steel instead. You cannot seem to go through.
More gray-black balls continue to appear, leaving less space for Gray Raven.
Meow!
Tiger starts to attack the balls, probably because it is annoyed by the decreasing space.
With no limbs available, it rams them with its strongest face armor. The balls are knocked away and disappear.
As Tiger gets more involved, the number of gray-black balls continues to decrease. The deterioration of the surroundings has also slowed, and even started to reverse.
It feels like Tiger is removing dust from the environment.
Seeing what has happened, you have figured out how Nanami set her trials.
Dust and clean?
It's a spring tradition. Put it simple, we need to clean the house before New Year arrives.
After last year's incident, you looked up some information, but didn't expect it to come into use here.
Dust and clean... So are these balls the dust?
The mission is clear then. Let's clean this place together.
Lucia and other members soon join the "battle."
With no gun around, you look at the lonely but unmissable broom—
Pick up the broom and embrace the "battlefield"—
