Originally, Sirin didn’t have any objections to Stelle calling her “Auntie” every other sentence, or to her curiously stroking her hair and poking at her joints.
However—when she saw Stelle’s restless little hand cross the line and reach directly toward her left eye, which she had carefully and tightly covered with her bangs, the tension in Sirin’s heart snapped taut instantly.
(This won’t do.)
She didn’t want to “drop her mask” this early.
“Snap!” A crisp, soft sound rang out.
Sirin raised her hand and gave Stelle’s hand, which was attempting to “cross the line,” a firm but not heavy slap.
“Ouch!” Stelle let out a low cry of pain, instinctively letting go of Sirin.
Sirin landed lightly, stood steady, and looked calmly at Stelle, who was rubbing her wrist with a slightly aggrieved expression.
“Hmph,” Sirin’s tone remained devoid of waves, but if one listened closely, they could detect a faint hint of warning.
“Little one, you have quite a strong desire to explore, don’t you?
Don’t you know that some places shouldn’t be touched so casually?”
“Mmm…
Auntie~” Stelle pouted, attempting to use coquetry to get away with it.
“I was just curious…”
“Curious?” Sirin raised an eyebrow slightly.
“If you’re curious, go ask Herta for a puppet to study carefully.
Aren’t you testing the Simulated Universe for her?
As her partner, didn’t she give you any decent compensation?”
“She did!” Speaking of which, Stelle perked up, momentarily forgetting the pain in her wrist.
“She asked me what I wanted, and the first thing I asked for was a baseball bat!”
“And then?”
“And also—” Stelle puffed out her chest and announced quite proudly, “The right to explore every trash can in the entire Space Station!”
Sirin: “…”
She was truly stunned this time, and a rare crack appeared on her calm face.
“Huh?” Sirin looked at Stelle’s “I hit the jackpot” expression, momentarily unsure of how to respond.
“You’re actually…
that devoted to trash cans?”
“Of course!” Stelle nodded vigorously, her eyes shining brightly as if stating some profound truth.
“Trash cans can contain ‘treasures’!”
As she spoke, she pulled several shimmering pieces of stellar jade from her pocket as if presenting a treasure, holding them out in front of Sirin.
I found all of these in different trash cans!”
“Hm?” Sirin’s gaze shifted from Stelle’s excited face to the few pieces of stellar jade in her hand, then looked up at her again.
Then, to Stelle’s shock, Sirin flipped her wrist and produced a large handful of stellar jade from nowhere—at least several dozen, by a rough count—piling them into a small heap in her palm, where they emitted an alluring glow.
Stelle’s breathing stopped instantly, her eyes widening until they were round.
The light within them shifted from excitement to extreme longing, almost turning into something tangible!
“Auntie!
Give them to me!” She shouted, recklessly pouncing toward Sirin—or more accurately, toward the stellar jade in Sirin’s hand—like a big cat spotting a teaser wand!
Sirin had anticipated this and simply shifted slightly, easily dodging the chaotic “pounce.”
“Thud!” Stelle landed solidly on the ground, kicking up a small cloud of dust.
But she scrambled up immediately, not bothering to brush off the dirt, her gaze still locked firmly on the stellar jade in Sirin’s hand, her eyes screaming the word “want.”
Sirin looked at her eager expression, feeling both amused and helpless.
“Do you know,” she asked, tossing the small pile of stellar jade in her hand and creating a crisp, pleasant clinking sound, “what stellar jade is used for?”
“I don’t know.” Stelle shook her head honestly, her gaze moving up and down with the rise and fall of the stellar jade.
“Then why are you collecting them?”
“Because I feel,” Stelle tilted her head, struggling to organize her words, and spoke with an almost instinctual intuition, “that if I pile them together…
something good will happen!”
“Is that so…” Sirin nodded thoughtfully.
She looked back at Stelle and tightened her grip on the stellar jade.
“Do you want them?”
“Mm-hmm!!” Stelle nodded her head like a chicken pecking at rice, her gaze burning.
“Do me a favor, and as long as you succeed, all of these…
will be yours.”
“Okay!” Stelle agreed without a moment’s hesitation, not even asking what the favor was.
“What favor?
Tell me, Auntie!”
Sirin leaned in slightly, getting close to Stelle, and said in a clear, calm voice that only the two of them could hear: “Help me…
set up Bronya and Seele.”
Stelle: “…Huh?”
“I know who Bronya is,” Stelle scratched her head, looking at Sirin with some confusion, “but who is Seele?
How am I supposed to set up someone I don’t even know?”
“You will know her soon enough.” Sirin’s reply remained short and firm, as if stating an established fact. Follow the newest chapters on novelping.com.
“Well?” Sirin tilted her head slightly, watching Stelle calmly.
“Are you going to help, or not?”
“I’ll help!” Stelle’s answer held not a shred of hesitation.
Setting aside the temptation of that huge handful of stellar jade, the request from “Auntie” alone seemed to leave no room for refusal in her simple, straightforward mind.
As for how to help, to what extent, or what “setting up” meant…
well, she’d cross that bridge when she came to it!
“Catch.”
With a flick of her wrist, Sirin tossed the pile of shimmering stellar jade in her palm toward Stelle, like scattering a handful of little stars.
“Oh—!”
Stelle let out an excited cry, scrambling to catch them.
The cold touch and heavy weight of the stellar jade made her heart bloom with joy.
“Remember,” Sirin added indifferently, watching Stelle, who was beside herself with joy.
“Also, hurry back and get some sleep.
You all…
have things to do tomorrow, right?”
“Mm!
Okay, Auntie!
No problem, Auntie!” Stelle patted her chest with a resounding thud, her face overflowing with the joy of her harvest, and hopped all the way back to the hotel.
Sirin stood in place, watching the direction in which Stelle had disappeared, the moonlight outlining her calm silhouette.
Afterward, Selene turned the event that had just occurred into an Easter egg.
The trigger condition is: after meeting the members of Wildfire and learning that you need to have a detailed discussion with Wildfire the next day, instead of choosing to sleep and skip to the mission, you choose to go out and explore the trash cans in Boulder Town.
In the real world, in Black Cat’s livestream.
“Ah—!!!”
A shrill shriek, mixed with regret, heartache, and unwillingness, suddenly burst from Black Cat’s microphone, startling everyone in the livestream.
Just a few seconds ago, she had finished controlling Stelle, concluded her conversation with Oleg, decided to head to Natasha’s the next day to discuss the detailed plan, and had gone straight to sleep in the hotel they had arranged.
Then, she saw the bullet comments saying that if you didn’t sleep and went out to rummage through trash cans instead, it would trigger the Easter egg with Sirin.
It might not seem tempting right now but who knows what the future holds?
“And If you’re enjoying it, drop a Power Stone for me!”