Chapter 44: I Think I Still Need to Be Rescued

Dorothy’s clown act didn’t last long; she quickly forgot about it, as Zhai ’s naturally optimistic personality was just that carefree.

After all, the past can’t be changed; no matter how much you regret now, it only harms your health with no real benefit—so why torture yourself? Better to spend that time reviewing the knowledge in your mind and aim to do better on the upcoming rank exam.

She turned her head and glanced out the window.

At this point, the beast-drawn carriage had officially arrived at the port; the teleportation hub she’d seen from afar now lay directly before her.

Although she’d known from a distance that the teleportation channel was enormous, actually standing before it and looking up at the massive circular vortex—over a kilometer in diameter—made the awe far more unforgettable.

Compared to this colossal teleportation channel, Dorothy’s beast-drawn carriage was like an ant; those other witches who didn’t even ride carriages but flew on brooms were less than ants.

Hmm, a teleportation channel of this scale surely wouldn’t have traffic jams or congestion.

A thought suddenly popped into Dorothy’s head, and she even chuckled at herself for such a pitiful idea.

At first glance, building such a massive teleportation hub seemed wasteful—like building a twenty-lane superhighway for ants.

But in reality, the current scale of this teleportation channel is just the minimum power output; if fully activated, it could expand several times larger, since its original purpose was never civilian use but military.

Every ultra-long-range teleportation hub in the witch world has one mandatory design requirement: it must accommodate the teleportation needs of a fully manned witch fleet.

And the standard size of a fully manned witch fleet is...

One ten-kilometer-class flagship equipped with a world-destroying main cannon, three to five five-kilometer-class escort battleships equipped with planet-annihilating cannons, ten to twenty one-kilometer-class assault ships equipped with continent-sinking cannons, plus several auxiliary supply vessels...

Hmm, that’s why few outsiders dare cause trouble or rebellion in witch territories—if things escalate, the lord just calls in a full witch fleet and asks, “Still feeling brave?”

Thanks to the global teleportation network, witch fleets can reach any battlefield at maximum speed; without first severing the teleportation hubs, there’s simply no such thing as a surprise attack on witch territories.

Yet each witch territory’s teleportation hub is protected at the core of its domain; the giant external channel is merely a manifestation of the hub’s power—it can be quickly restarted if damaged. The true hub core lies at the center of the witch territory’s floating island, guarded personally by the witch lord.

That said, although a fully manned witch fleet is terrifying, very few witch territories can afford one; most can barely manage one or two one-kilometer assault ships, which would drain their entire treasury, since witch warships are the ultimate weapons of the witch world, embodying its most advanced magical technology, each worth a fortune.

Thus, ordinary witch fleets are usually makeshift: a major lord provides the flagship, several mid-level lords contribute escort battleships, minor lords pool together assault ships, and new lords handle logistics—such a fleet is already enough to easily conquer most other worlds, after which spoils are divided according to contributions.

But these cutting-edge war machines are far beyond the reach of a novice witch like Dorothy; she’d never even seen a real witch warship in her life.

Haiyuedao does possess one ancestral one-kilometer assault ship, but it’s the heart and soul of the Haiyue Witch, never displayed to outsiders; for the past decade, the Haiyue Witch has been obsessed with economic development and peace, avoiding new territorial expansion—so Dorothy naturally never got to witness the legendary witch warship in action.

Still, there are plenty of witch fleet games on the magic web, and Dorothy once played them, serving as a witch fleet commander for a while.

Hmm, a witch fleet with a whole crew of spirit-summoned shipgirls who turn into sexy big sisters? So awesome.

Too bad games aren’t real; in truth, only legendary warships can become spirit-summoned, and the witch world has barely any legendary warships at all. A full fleet composed entirely of spirit-summoned shipgirls? That’s pure fantasy—only possible in dreams. To see such a dream fleet, you’d have to wait for the Sage Council to order a massive military exercise.

Hence, that witch warship game has always been mocked as pure fantasy, pandering to otaku, a garbage game with zero realism.

Still, talk is talk, criticism is criticism—the game is genuinely good. Though its realism is still only 99% of reality, its campaigns based on historical witch battles are thrilling and strategically solid; rumors say the game company even has military backing.

So if a young witch wants to experience commanding warships in battle, with thousands of cannons roaring in unison, this game is a must-play.

At least Dorothy, as an ordinary witch, had fun playing it back then—until one day, while using her hard-earned dream fleet of fully spirit-summoned shipgirls to bully weaker players, she suddenly faced a real top-tier player who crushed her. That day, Dorothy once again felt the terror and humiliation of being dominated by a master.

Her max-level main account was completely annihilated by an ordinary fleet, with dragonships closing in, defeating her despite nearly a tenfold equipment advantage—her entire fleet was crippled. After that battle, even Dorothy’s optimistic nature couldn’t sleep for weeks.

Eventually, overwhelmed by rage, she stormed the game forum with a torrent of curses: garbage game, broken balance, do you even understand real battlefields? Do you know what equipment superiority means? F*** you, refund my money—and then uninstalled and quit.

Hmm, firing fleet cannons at each other? That’s for girls. Real men should duel witches, fists flying, flesh meeting flesh.

But as Dorothy reminisced about her youthful glory days, she suddenly remembered something important.

That is, in fifty years, her mother will launch a lord battle against her. Lord battles are a special duel format used only when witch lords compete for rankings.

A lord battle doesn’t just test the witch lord’s personal strength—it also factors in the number of strong individuals in the territory, military equipment, economic strength, and the populace’s loyalty.

Of course, it sounds complicated, but in essence, it’s just a war between two witch territories.

But real war brings casualties, and such internal conflicts are always forbidden by the Wizard Association; yet rankings sometimes require a fight, so the current millennium-scale Witch Lord Ranking Battle was born.

This is the grandest event in the witch world, where all participating witch territories can unleash their full destructive urges on the battlefield, because this spectacle is personally arranged by the World Mother.

All participating witch territories are replicated into a mirror world, where even if the world is destroyed, reality remains untouched—so you can play freely, build wildly, with zero concern for internal damage.

Yet even for the World Mother, such a level of miracle event is a massive energy drain, hence the thousand-year cooldown—she needs a millennium to gather enough energy for one round.

Since the average witch lifespan is a thousand years, this event is called “a once-in-a-lifetime indulgence.”

Now, calculating the time...

Shit, exactly fifty years from now.

Oh no...

Dorothy froze.

If this were normal circumstances, then in fifty years, Euphelia would surely not go all-out in the lord battle—after all, she’s her own mother, not an enemy; it’s just a symbolic test.

But in this no-consequences lord Kuanghuan event, do you think the Dragon Witch will go easy on her just because she’s her daughter?

A lord battle is war—on the battlefield, no one plays fair one-on-one. Everyone just blasts everything they’ve got. So here’s the question:

“Mom, may I ask—do you have any witch warships?”

Dorothy forced a nervous smile and asked the Dragon Witch across from her.

“Warships? Why are you asking that?”

Euphelia, pleased by her daughter’s affectionate “Mom,” relaxed her brow. She looked at her daughter curiously—why the sudden question? But since her mood was good, she had no reason to hide it; she simply raised one hand calmly.

“Five ships.”

Seeing her mother’s five fingers, Dorothy’s brow twitched, her expression grim.

No wonder the Dragon Kingdom’s witch lord is so extravagant—just hands out a whole small fleet. I wonder if they’re five one-kilometer assault ships or five five-kilometer battleships.

But it’s fine—over fifty years, even if I sell everything, I might still be able to resist.

Dorothy calculated the gap and thought it might still be bearable.

“Five fully manned witch fleets, miss.”

Beside her, the angel witch delivered the final blow; Sophilya cleared her throat and formally introduced the clueless daughter:

“You may have some misconceptions about your mother. Let me give you a brief overview: the woman before you is the representative of the Dragon Kingdom’s new elite, the Dragon King bloodline heir, Lord of the Radiant Domain, newly appointed Prince of the Dragon, current Commander of the Annihilation Legion, holder of the title ‘The Dragon Queen Who Proclaims Annihilation,’ and Peak Witch, Euphelia.”

“Yeah, that’s about it. I won’t list her other minor achievements—you can learn them slowly later.”

Dorothy: “......”

Actually, she didn’t remember any of Sophilya’s long list of titles—her mind was entirely filled with five fully manned witch fleets.

What the hell is this? Even in my game I wasn’t this overpowered—how can someone be more extravagant in real life than in a game?

May I ask—fifty years from now, I’ll be facing five full fleets blasting me point-blank. Is there still any hope of saving me?

Online, waiting—urgent.

Dorothy lay limp on the sofa like a salted fish, her eyes dimmed.

I’m done. Mom, do whatever you want.