When she saw her giant portrait pasted across the sky in Fireworks.
Onora herself couldn’t even put her feelings into words, but if Gong Qiying were to describe it for her—
Then it could be perfectly summed up with just one word: "hard to keep a straight face."
To be honest, there are situations where Onora really enjoys seeing her own face on banners or statues, like during parades and military reviews in the Great Demon City, or when the Soldiers under her command shout their loyalty at her portrait.
But right now, in the sky above the Sain Dungeon, her giant face suddenly popped up...
The feeling was seriously weird; beyond "hard to keep a straight face," there was actually a hint of embarrassment.
Just from the commotion this Fireworks kicked up, if anyone else were in the Sain Dungeon right now, they could see her portrait crystal clear even from the edge of the gathering area.
"Good thing there’s no one here but me."
Onora couldn’t help letting out a breath of relief.
"What the hell is that giant face over there, woman?"
The Mad Fire Cultists diligently chopping trees in Skyline Forest raised the question.
"That Fireworks is... Lady Onora!?"
Ulysses, who was aimlessly wandering around exploring at random in the gathering area, was dumbfounded.
"It’s that woman!"
General Jula of the Demon Rebel Army glared in anger, completely unable to figure out why that woman’s face was showing up here.
Even though seeing Onora’s portrait here was a seriously unlucky sight.
But the usually stone-faced Jula somehow felt this Fireworks was way too goofy, like some clown thread running wild on the internet—utterly "hard to keep a straight face."
"Pfft!"
He finally couldn’t hold it in and let out his first laugh in days.
"Why do I feel a bad premonition coming on..."
Standing by the bonfire, Onora tilted her head, feeling a random chill crawl up her spine.
The moment this Safe Zone formed that invisible link with her, she realized that connection could be used for a lot of things.
The Fran Fort Safe Zone felt like it had become part of her own body; she could sense the Safe Zone’s status in real time—its level of development, population, whether it was under attack, and so on.
It was like generating a second self somewhere far away.
For someone who trains in Spirit-type Magic, this kind of state would probably count as a rare insight, right?
"This is...?"
Along with the link to the Safe Zone forming, a lump of information appeared in Onora’s mind.
It was about the rules of this Small Safe Zone.
Onora was really interested in this way of having information pop directly into her head, and she read through it with genuine curiosity.
But the further she went, the more she felt something was off.
"After becoming a Safe Zone [Leader], you are responsible for Guarding your Safe Zone. Once the Safe Zone is breached by Monsters, you will lose your position as Leader. If someone else performs a [Seizure] by the bonfire, your Leader role will also be taken."
"Once your position is seized... the punishment is at least seven days of unconsciousness?"
Onora’s mouth twitched.
If she goes comatose for seven days, just that news spreading would be enough time for her army to get steamrolled by the enemy!
After all, the big weakness of the Demon King Army is that it relies almost entirely on Onora to make decisions; losing her is like a body suddenly losing its brain.
No matter what, she absolutely has to Guard this Safe Zone!
Besides, the only ones who can get into the Safe Zone are her own people. Who would dare come here to seize it?
Steady, the situation still looks pretty stable.
Because the punishment for losing the Leader position was such a huge shock, Onora’s first focus was entirely on that part. Now that she’d cooled down and gone back over everything carefully, she realized the benefits besides the punishment were unprecedentedly generous.
"There’s actually a chance to go to Ulashiro?"
Above the bonfire in front of Onora, several bubbles the size of human heads suddenly floated up, but under the sunlight these bubbles unusually displayed scenes of various regions.
Ulashiro, the gathering area, Little Longde Ruins, Fran Fort... one complete area after another was wrapped inside the bubbles, making people naturally think of a name like World Bubble. In fact, the Sain Dungeon does indeed call them that.
Every time you Guard a Safe Zone for a while, the Safe Zone will randomly add a new [World Bubble] that has some kind of link to the current Safe Zone, for everyone to freely explore.
Inside these World Bubbles are complete Sain Dungeon scenes. Most of them are already known to the world, but there are also maps that still haven’t been discovered yet. Onora knows very well the value of the treasure hidden inside.
Which makes her even more aware of just how insanely valuable the World Bubble is as a Safe Zone reward.
As the one among the entire Demon Clan who understands the Sain Dungeon’s value best, she’d been drooling over the resources in that Dungeon ever since she first heard about it. She just lacked channels to obtain them in bulk, so she’d had no choice but to keep "envy-only" mode on.
But now, with the appearance of the World Bubbles, it’s basically the Demon Clan getting handed a chance to farm resources. This is the kind of golden opportunity she wouldn’t dare dream about!
On top of that, there’s a chance to visit places like Ulashiro and Little Longde Ruins that also contain the Abyss, where the Four Kings of Little Longdu and Manus, Master of the Abyss, reside.