"I Became a Witch, but Now Everyone's in Love with Me!"

Chapter 79: Arrival at the Fragment Zone
 
The fragment zone.

If the front-line battlefield embodies the bloodthirsty, fanatical side of the witches as a war-born race, then the fragment zone is the romantic expression of their love for freedom and adventure.
Here, hundreds of thousands of witches came and went. Some wore radiant smiles after striking it rich, while others frowned bitterly at empty hands. Yet even the disappointed couldn’t hide their fascination—because the thrill of adventure itself was intoxicating.
The environment was strange beyond words.

From afar, the so-called fragment field resembled a vast asteroid belt, empty of planets and worlds. Most landing points were little more than giant asteroids or artificial witch-islands. But the moment Jiang Cha stepped inside, she immediately sensed something different.
“Isn’t it amazing? This entire place was formed by the compression of countless worlds,” Misa whispered by her ear.
For witches, world travel and space travel were two entirely different things.

A world referred to a wholly separate realm—reached either through precise coordinates and a stable portal, or by sheer luck and fortune-hunting in the fragment zone.
By contrast, space travel meant navigating the cosmos of the witches’ own world: vast, dotted with civilizations, but still comparatively dead and lonely against the infinity of other worlds. To most witches, it lacked romance.
The fragment zone was a special anomaly—born from the compression and collision of countless worlds in high latitudes of reality. It resembled the narrow area where Jiang Cha had once been found, though far safer, for it still existed in real space.
For nearly a century, witches had adventured here. But they weren’t the first. Dragons, angels, and countless other advanced civilizations had once explored and plundered this place. Even so, the treasures never seemed to run dry.

Fragments of worlds. Relics of civilizations. Strange regions.
When worlds collided, shards and artifacts sometimes survived and drifted into this place, inexplicably preserved. Such events were impossibly rare in theory—but with infinite worlds colliding, the improbable became commonplace.
And so, witches kept coming.

“Where’s our destination?” Jiang Cha asked.
“Pretty deep,” Daisy answered. “Right on the edge of the developed zone. Half a day by special aircraft.”
“Ehh—so far?” Jiang Cha sighed.

Decades of exploration had carved a wide swath through the fragment zone, radiating outward from the airport beneath their feet.
For newcomers, there were only two ways forward:
Search the safer, explored regions, hoping for scraps left behind—or venture into the unmapped unknown, charting new star maps and gambling on ancient accumulations.

The former was safer, but the gains slim. The latter promised glory, but at great risk.
Daisy’s team had only just begun. They had spent some time in the safe zone, learning the rules, and only two days ago had gone deeper—where they stumbled upon a ruin.
“We were lucky,” Daisy sighed. Though she said lucky, her tone betrayed disappointment.

Level 2 or 3 ruins yielded treasures only fit for combat witches in their third year. For her team of Great Witches, such gains were a drop in the bucket, barely worth the time.
Yet etiquette demanded they cut Jiang Cha in for 20%. No wonder Daisy felt the find almost useless.
But that was the price of hiring outside help.

A little witch like Jiang Cha came cheap. Invite a deputy master, and they’d claim at least 50%—and that was a friendly price. Even a mid-level alchemist with a smattering of knowledge would demand 30%.
By comparison, Jiang Cha was a bargain. Cost-effective enough to keep Daisy’s team hopeful of breaking even.
As for combat strength? If three Great Witches couldn’t handle a level-3 ruin without endangering outside help, they might as well disband.
“That’s not bad,” Jiang Cha consoled her with a smile. “I’ve heard unlucky teams sometimes go a whole month before finding anything.”

Such was the nature of adventuring—always a game of luck. Some struck worlds the moment they set out, others bled time and coin chasing phantoms.
This uncertainty was exactly what made it so alluring. The front lines promised stability, routine wages, and predictable battle. But the fragment zone promised the unknown—and the romance buried in every witch’s bones.
“Mm. At least it’s something,” Daisy exhaled, regaining her spirit.

Ordinary starships couldn’t navigate here. Shattered meteorites, warped ❖ Nоvеl𝚒ght ❖ (Exclusive on Nоvеl𝚒ght) laws of reality, and twisted void zones formed a natural blockade. Some areas even nullified magic.
Only small, specialized crafts could pass—vehicles able to exist in two dimensions at once, slipping through subspace while still observing the outer world. Such technology was expensive, millions apiece. But for witches, pooling resources was nothing unusual.
“The scenery here really is beautiful,” Jiang Cha murmured, gazing at the monitors.

Where was the beauty?
Perhaps in the eternal unknown.
Behind them lay a fragment of a lush forest world. Ahead, a stretch of land once belonging to an undead realm. To Jiang Cha, it all felt impossibly close, as if the spacecraft bound two entirely different heavens together.

Bizarre. Wonderful.
“We’re here,” Daisy interrupted, pulling her from her reverie.
Jiang Cha steadied her heart and looked outside.

Amid the shattered asteroid belt, a silver wizard tower pierced the void, standing silent and proud.
Waiting—for witches bold enough to enter.