Lantern Sister is still very capable.

Chapter 90 Embarrassment

Backstage at Tomorrow Stadium, Beijing.

Yan Mengqi looked tired as the makeup artist removed her makeup. She exhaled a breath of stale air and saw her manager, Miao Yuxuan, enter the room in the mirror.

Miao Yuxuan clearly saw the dark circles under her artist's eyes and said with heartache, "You, you, why did you have to participate in that physical fitness test? If you ask me, it won't affect your college entrance examination results, so why are you pushing yourself so hard? You came to rehearse right after the exam and sang and danced for more than three hours straight. Are you made of iron?" While nagging, she massaged Yan Mengqi.

"Ouch—Sister Miao, be gentle, be gentle!" Yan Mengqi's neck was both sore and pleasurable from Miao Yuxuan's strong massage, but she didn't forget to explain, "I can't help it, after all, it's related to that side."

She was referring to the superhuman base, something Miao Yuxuan also knew about.

Miao Yuxuan couldn't stand hearing about supernatural abilities. After all, Yan Mengqi was the only one among her artists who had become famous. She was unhappy that her most valuable artist wanted to leave, but she couldn't make decisions for Yan Mengqi. She could only sigh inwardly, "If you really want to join them, it won't interfere with your attendance at events here. You can always hold online concerts in the future. Didn't a singer have a pretty good one last month?"

"Hmm...it's not impossible." Yan Mengqi hadn't thought of that, but when it came to holographic concerts, she suddenly remembered the holographic games she had played before, so she casually asked, "Sister Miao, do I have any activities tomorrow?"

"No, you just finished your exams and then had a concert. I thought I'd let you rest for a day, so I didn't schedule any activities for you tomorrow."

"That's great, thank you, Sister Miao," Yan Mengqi said with a smile. She was thinking of playing some games to relax during her day off tomorrow.

"Don't mention it." Miao Yuxuan ruffled her hair and touched the metal earring on Yan Mengqi's ear. "...How was the exam?"

“It was a fierce competition, and many people got full marks.” Recalling the chaotic exam hall, Yan Mengqi couldn’t help but twitch her lips. “But I was lucky; my score should be in the middle to upper range.”

In Beijing, a city teeming with hidden talents, it's quite remarkable that she, with her part-time job taking up so much time, managed to rank in the middle to upper range. It was only thanks to her supernatural ability that her physical abilities were enhanced that she avoided a negative score.

"Are there many other test takers like you?" Miao Yuxuan asked curiously. She herself did not have any special abilities, but because she had been involved in a case involving special abilities before and was saved by Yan Mengqi, she would secretly keep an eye on things.

Yan Mengqi recalled for a moment: "Quite a lot? I bumped into at least five, but there should be more than that."

Moreover, they all seemed very experienced.

Yan Mengqi didn't mention this. She usually doesn't dare to use her special abilities much, and with the cameras around her, even the slightest thing she does can make her trend on social media.

However, she observed that some people in the examination room were very good at using their superpowers to avoid the surveillance cameras, especially the few who entered later. They were all quite strong and would stick to people all over the examination room like they were catching chicks, specifically targeting those with high scores. Almost all of those who were exposed were around 80 points, and they were forced to stick to people with scores of 50 or lower.

This allowed her to get a lucky break while playing hide-and-seek in the exam hall. Although her final score was only in the seventies, it still placed her among the top students.

The school will send emails to students to notify them of their scores the day after the exam.

Chu Deng spent the night with Chu Lin the day before. After switching shifts with Luo Xia in the morning, she didn't sleep after returning home from the hospital. Instead, she opened her personal computer to check her emails and saw her final score—56 points.

It was even noted that she was the fifth-ranked candidate in Examination Room No. 1 in Shanghai.

Yes, just right, not too much, not too little.

The main reason is that there were very few high scores in the exam hall, which made her ranking seem higher.

Chu Deng didn't get many points from running laps; the points he got later were only because of the bonus cards he accumulated in the early stages.

After the school sent the email, Jin Xiaoyue also reported good news: she got 51 points and ranked seventh.

The email was the same as Chu Deng's, with the last sentence congratulating her on entering Group A of the second phase of training.

After Chu Deng learned that she had successfully entered the second stage, she ate breakfast, put on the holographic helmet, and met up with Jin Xiaoyue in the game "Star Travel World".

"Dengdeng?" Jin Xiaoyue called out to Chu Deng from the location where she last logged in.

"Wait a moment." As soon as Chu Deng logged on, her eyes were hurt by the screen full of red dots. She spent some time finding the settings on the panel, adjusted the interface, and turned off the friend requests. Ignoring the 9999+ friend requests, she coldly cleared away the miscellaneous information.

[Iron Warrior: Light, wanna do a mission together?]

It was a message from Yan Mengqi. The two exchanged their real names the first time they met. Chu Deng knew that she was the singer that Jin Xiaoyue liked in real life, so he sent her his location and asked her to come and meet him. He also sent a message to Jin Xiaoyue to wait. She had left here in Neon Beach last time and would have to take a plane back to Haishi.

Because it was touted as a realistic simulation of reality, it took her some time to fly back to the city from the island nation.

Yan Mengqi happened to be going to Huaguo Longzu to submit her inspection mission, so I readily went to Haishi with her.

After the three met up smoothly, Chu Deng introduced the two to her: "This is my friend, Jin Xiaoyue, and this is Yan Mengqi."

Jin Xiaoyue's eyes lit up as she looked at Yan Mengqi's game name, "Iron Warrior." She was very familiar with this name; it was the catchy song that had forced her to stay up for three consecutive nights after hearing it.

"Hello!" Jin Xiaoyue excitedly shook her idol's hand.

Yan Mengqi smiled broadly, only maintaining her idol image for a moment in front of her fans, "Hello, just call me Mengqi." Then she turned to Chu Deng, "Deng, can we do that again!"

"What?" Chu Deng said as he walked through the crowd to the Dragon Group base hall to submit the mission and receive the reward.

Yan Mengqi also submitted the task, "It's the move where you turn into a phoenix! It's so beautiful, I want to watch it again. After watching it last time, I already had the inspiration for a new song, and it's almost finished. Can you help me?" She casually tossed her long, wavy hair and blew a kiss to Chu Deng.

Chu Deng crossed her arms to refuse the flying kiss.

"Yue, do you want to see your house lights transform into a phoenix?" Yan Mengqi changed her strategy and chose to win over Jin Xiaoyue.

"Is it okay, Dengdeng?" Jin Xiaoyue looked at her friend expectantly. She wanted to see her friend transform into a phoenix, and she also wanted to hear Yan Mengqi's new song.

"Okay, let's find a less crowded place, otherwise it'll be too conspicuous." Thinking of the 9999+ friend requests on the panel, Chu Deng didn't want to turn a game into a social activity, but in order to meet Jin Xiaoyue and Yan Mengqi's expectations, she made a request.

"Okay, okay, let's go to Mirage World Park! They have a private camping area there!"

Chu Deng had no objections, and the three of them set off on their own in the game. When they arrived at Tiandi Park, they rented a separate camping area. Yan Mengqi even specially chose a spot that was isolated by trees, so that no one could see what they were doing unless they entered the area they had rented.

"They're coming," Chu Deng said, standing in the middle of the open space.

Yan Mengqi protected Jin Xiaoyue. Jin Xiaoyue looked at the metal shield on Yan Mengqi's arm and suddenly remembered that she had a wood-type ability in the game, which was exactly the same as her real-life ability.

"How amazing!" Jin Xiaoyue sighed silently, then stared intently at Chu Deng, who was standing in the open space.

An invisible heat gradually rose, and crimson flames ignited around Chu Deng, engulfing his entire body.

Yan Mengqi and Jin Xiaoyue didn't dare to blink. Yan Mengqi wanted to see clearly how Chu Deng changed, while Jin Xiaoyue was so amazed by the scene that she didn't want to blink.

The dazzling firelight still stung the two of them. In the instant their eyelids closed and then quickly opened again due to the physiological reaction, the mythical phoenix appeared in the open space.

There's no need to doubt it; just one look and you'll be convinced that this crimson bird is the legendary phoenix, because no other bird can rival it.

Its magnificent, fiery tail feathers shimmered, and the beautiful, mysterious phoenix let out a long cry to the sky.

"call out--"

"So beautiful..." Jin Xiaoyue murmured, mesmerized as she looked at the fire phoenix.

Yan Mengqi was muttering something to herself, as if she were rapping.

But the next second, something unexpected happened.

Suddenly, the flames on the phoenix, which was circling and flying in the air, exploded, and then terrifying black cracks, like chains, covered the entire body of the fire phoenix.

“Swoosh—”

The phoenix let out a miserable cry and exploded with a "bang," disappearing without a trace like a fleeting moment.

Sparks flew and struck Yan Mengqi's shield, also rousing the two shocked onlookers.

The two looked at each other in bewilderment.

"Is this also part of the transformation?" Jin Xiaoyue, who didn't know much about the game, said in a daze, her voice still filled with shock.

"No way?" Yan Mengqi opened her friends panel with trembling hands, looked at the grayed-out "Lights of the Dimple" account, which was offline, and replied uncertainly.

Your character has died (note: cannot be resurrected). Please register a new account to start the game.

Back in the initial dark room, Chu Deng stared blankly at the pop-up screen, then laughed in exasperation.