“Ding. Ability Immortality has been triggered. Current remaining uses: 2.”
The System’s voice pulled Yuji, whose eyes had gone blank, back to his senses.
Even so, after experiencing the taste of death, he still could not help but feel a tremor in his heart when he looked at that egg fried rice.
Adaptability and Endurance kept activating, gradually reducing his fear of death.
“Ding. Side Quest: Kitchen Demon completed. Reward has been issued.”
It has already been issued… Eh!
Wait.
Yuji suddenly remembered that he still had a Talent Upgrade Card.
(Flash of Inspiration: I want to level up!)
“System, since red talents are special, if I upgrade one, will it turn into gold or something else?”
“Ding. It will not change color. Only the ability itself will change.”
No other colors, huh.
If I upgrade Flash of Inspiration…
“System, use the Talent Upgrade Card on Talent: Flash of Inspiration.”
“Ding. Usage complete. Talent Flash of Inspiration has been renamed Contemplation.”
Talent: Contemplation Description: There are many rules in the world, and you can precisely grasp the ones you desire.
(I contemplate that this skill is pretty strong?)
Is this the power of “I think so”?
Close, but not quite.
Either way, this power is very strong.
“Yuji? Yuji? Are you okay? Yuji!” MEI’s concerned voice reached his ears.
“Ah… I’m fine, I’m fine. I just feel a little dizzy… That egg fried rice tasted really good, seriously.” Yuji shook his head as if trying to shake the earlier sensation out of his body.
MEI was not blind.
She had seen Yuji’s condition just now with perfect clarity.
Besides, she herself knew that egg fried rice that had already turned into charcoal could not possibly taste good.
“Um, it’s getting late. If you don’t head back soon, you’ll have to walk in the dark. And the kitchen is in this state, so we can’t cook anymore either.”
Yuji also knew that MEI did not believe what he said.
But he still said it anyway.
This was called emotional intelligence!
Just as he was about to leave, Yuji suddenly felt the somewhat tattered corner of his clothes being pulled.
He turned and looked at MEI.
“Um, you also said it’s getting late. It’s so dark outside, and your current condition is because of me, so… why don’t you stay here tonight…” MEI lowered her head, making her expression invisible.
“But…” Yuji had not even finished saying the words of refusal when MEI had already arranged for someone to prepare a room.
“MEI, you doing this… what about your family…?” Yuji asked a little tentatively.
MEI only replied that she did not go home often.
“Doesn’t go home often…” Yuji muttered softly, his expression a little dazed.
He had already been in this world for some time… and he still had no idea what the situation was like on the other side with his family.
MEI had already made the arrangements.
If Yuji insisted on leaving, it would be impolite, so he simply stayed.
Do you think some kind of commonly enjoyed plot is going to happen?
Indeed, for MEI it was quite enjoyable, because MEI dragged Yuji into studying for the entire night, and even found time to research the solitary wave algorithm a little.
The next day, the still-unconvinced MEI blew up another kitchen and was strictly forbidden by Yuji from entering the kitchen again—at least until she finished reading that book.
According to the System’s standards, a normal person’s talent is 0.
MEI’s would be -10.
Beginner cooking skill is Lv.1, while MEI’s is Lv.-1.
Under the premise that she has not finished the book and raised it to Lv.0, the moment she enters a kitchen, no kitchen can escape MEI’s poisonous hands.
After nearly three days of studying with MEI, Yuji’s quantum mechanics level had already reached Lv.3.
He could now understand many papers.
Speaking of which, according to the System’s standards, MEI’s quantum mechanics level should be around Lv.4.
The one who truly reaches Lv.5 should be that world-famous Einstein.
“MEI, the food is ready.” Yuji, wearing an apron, carried the dishes to the table.
MEI was still sitting on the sofa calculating the solitary wave algorithm.
To be precise, it was more like the prerequisite formulas.
The current MEI could not even see the edge of the solitary wave algorithm yet.
“Got it. Wait for me a bit longer.” MEI did not even raise her head.
Yuji felt that the current atmosphere was very much like a father who had finished cooking calling a child who was addicted to games to come eat.
No, why would I have that kind of thought?
Yuji shook the idea away and sat down beside MEI instead.
Suddenly, MEI’s phone vibrated once.
MEI’s hands did not stop because of the phone.
Instead, she asked Yuji to check the message for her.
“MEI, it’s a comment on your paper.” Yuji opened the phone and saw that someone MEI specially followed had left a comment on her paper.
Looking at that profile picture, Yuji recognized it at a glance—it was Dr. Mobius.
“Help me take a look. I can’t spare the attention right now.” MEI was completely immersed in her own world.
“Alright. It’s a comment from Dr. Mobius. She sent you her contact information.”
Yuji read out Mobius’s evaluation from the phone, but looking at the wording, it did not quite seem like something Mobius would say.
On the other side, just as Yuji had guessed, Dr. Mobius’s hands never stopped moving as she ordered Klein, who had not slept for two days.
(Klein: Doctor, thank you so much!)
“Doctor, Miss MEI has replied.” Klein said weakly.
“Mm, good. I know, Klein.” Mobius heard him but completely ignored him, immersed in her research.
Her eyes were fixed tightly on the experimental data.
“By the way, Klein, help me record the experimental data over there.”
“…Understood, Doctor.”
“Oh, and one more thing. Remember to give me yesterday’s experimental data. Also, communicate with Miss MEI first, and then…” Mobius kept talking without pause.
Poor Klein was still desperately trying to remember every single sentence she said.
Back to the protagonist’s side.
“MEI, if I don’t go back home now, I really won’t be able to leave.” Yuji looked helplessly at MEI, who was holding onto him.
“I know, but…”
“But?”
“Hah… I’m sorry. I investigated you…”
Yuji was not surprised.
After all, even in the Previous Era, MEI was a young lady from a wealthy family.
A person with no background and no power approaching her—she would not just sit there and do nothing.
Even if it was not something MEI herself had actively ordered.
“It’s fine. I can guess…”
“No, this is very important to me! Although this matter was not ordered by me, as a friend, I believe I should take responsibility!” MEI tightly grabbed the corner of Yuji’s clothes (the new clothes).
“Uh… the responsibility you mean is… letting me live here?”
Hearing Yuji’s words, MEI’s serious expression suddenly collapsed.
She did not dare to look at Yuji and turned her head, her cheeks slightly red.
“No. What I mean is, even though it wasn’t intentional on my part, I still found out about your family situation. It must be very lonely being alone, right? In that rental apartment, there’s only you…” MEI said in a small voice.
Yuji was stunned for a moment.
He suddenly remembered that the Random Identity had not only given him the identity of a transfer student at Chiba Academy, but had even directly provided a household registration, and the setting was that of an orphan.
“So… MEI is pitying me?” Yuji said in a joking tone.
“That’s not it! I just… just as your friend, don’t want you to be all alone…” When MEI heard Yuji’s voice, she did not treat it as a joke at all.
While refuting him, she also explained why she was doing this.
Looking at the completely flustered MEI, Yuji suddenly found it very funny.
Although he did not know why MEI’s favorability toward him had risen so quickly, this feeling was not fake.
“Ah~ So that’s how it is. But I’ve already paid the rent to the landlord. If I don’t live there, it’ll be a big loss.”
“I can give you…” As she spoke, she was about to transfer money to Yuji.
“Wait, I don’t need it, really!” Yuji hurriedly stopped her.
In the end, after some back-and-forth, Yuji still moved into MEI’s home.
After taking a bath, MEI and Yuji sat by the window, looking at the stars together.
(There is no bathroom scene. MEI’s house has more than one bathroom. Don’t ask me how I know.)
“MEI, today you were acting very strange.” Yuji thought about it.
Apart from the fact that he had previously known a little about MEI’s background and therefore felt somewhat familiar with her, the reality was that MEI and he had known each other for less than three days.
“I know.” After bathing, MEI had returned to that relatively calm state.
“You know, and yet?”
“Because I’m curious.”
“Curious?”
“Yes, curious. Normally I shouldn’t be like this. Or rather, in the past, no one could make me enter such an irrational state.” MEI kept looking at the stars, but her tone was very serious.
“Until I met you. For some reason, when I see you, I feel a sense of trust. This trust is the belief that you are a good person and that you will not harm me. At the same time, you also have a special kind of attraction toward me. I don’t dislike this feeling. On the contrary, I like it very much, and I’m also curious about why.”
“Hm? Attraction?” Yuji looked at MEI in confusion.
Freshly bathed, with her hair still wet, MEI possessed a charm different from usual.
“Yes, like… like that!” MEI pointed at the moon.
The glowing moon was especially full tonight.
“The light of the moon comes from the reflection of the sun’s light.”
“People often talk about moonlight, but when moonlight meets sunlight, it is like a counterfeit meeting the genuine article.”
“This attraction is the same. It is the pull of the real upon the false.”
MEI did not know why she had this feeling, but this feeling made her not want to lose it.
Even the false has the dream of becoming real.
So MEI wanted to stay by Yuji’s side at every moment.
She did not want this “real” to leave.
“Counterfeit and genuine… false and real…” Yuji looked up at the sky in a daze, murmuring to himself.
Then he looked at MEI, and MEI was also looking at him.
But is moonlight not also a form of sunlight… Yuji thought in his heart.
“By the way, MEI, I need to go back once tomorrow.” Yuji suddenly remembered that his things were still in the rental apartment and planned to go back tomorrow to pack them up.
“I know. I’ve already arranged everything.” MEI had long thought of this problem.
Already arranged everything?
Doesn’t that mean MEI has even cut off my way out?
Yuji muttered in his heart.
So if I had insisted on going back today, I would have found an empty home and then been forced to come back again?
“Speaking of which, school starts the day after tomorrow (don’t ask why the holiday is so long). Have you made preparations, MEI?”
“Not yet.”
“Eh? I thought you were the type who plans everything in advance.”
“How could that be, dummy. I’m also just an ordinary person, an ordinary student.”
“Ordinary?”
The corner of Yuji’s mouth twitched.
As one of the most famous, most talented, and most outstanding scientists of the Previous Era, if MEI was considered ordinary, then the vast majority of people would not even qualify for the word “ordinary.”
Although she was not that person yet, just the quantum entanglement paper she had published was already enough to be called a “once-in-a-century genius.”
Yuji suddenly thought of the approaching Third Honkai Eruption.
It gave him a faint sense of unease.
“MEI, from now on, train with me!”
“Eh? What?”
MEI could not quite keep up with Yuji’s sudden jump in topic.
They had just been talking about school starting, and now it had suddenly shifted to training.