I’m Going to Correct You!
8: Chapter 8 – An Adult Like You…
I’m Going to Correct You!
Hearing the voice on the phone, Mei pressed her lips together.
“The debt will be paid on time.” “…And you are?” Mei didn’t answer, simply hanging up the phone.
She looked at her father, still passed out and snoring on the sofa, and closed her eyes with a hint of pain, letting out a soft sigh.
Pain and exhaustion washed over her all at once, her expression turning incredibly complex.
“Lying at home drinking…
is fine too, I guess.” At first, Mei would get angry at her father’s degenerate behavior, but now, all that was left was self-consolation.
At least if he was drunk at home, he wouldn’t get into a brawl and end up at the police station, nor would debt collectors show up at their door because of gambling debts.
Sometimes, Mei couldn’t help but marvel at her own adaptability.
But she knew that, in essence, it was a form of numbness.
She had never imagined it would take less than half a year to adapt from the life of a young lady to one where she alone managed all the household affairs and kept the family afloat.
To take care of her father and maintain this fragile family, she had learned to use her knowledge to earn a living, learned to manage a household, and had even learned to cook…
Mei glanced at her father on the sofa, a look of nostalgia and pain in her eyes.
How did things turn out this way?
Mei had an excellent memory, so she clearly remembered the dividing line in her life, the point where it went from brilliant to bleak.
It was the day her mother passed away.
From that day forward, her father—once a rising star in the Far East’s scientific community, considered the most likely candidate to receive the highest scientific medal on the Mu Continent before the age of forty—completely fell into despair.
In a very short time, her father seemed to have become a completely different person, a stranger to Mei.
Binge drinking, brawling…
before then, Mei had never thought such words would ever be associated with her father.
Then, six months ago, his drunkenness led to a major accident in the lab, causing multiple casualties.
And so, this rising star, once seen as the hope of the Far East’s scientific world, had fallen.
Mei had thought that after experiencing such a dramatic rise and fall, her father’s mindset might change.
Unfortunately, her father did change, but in a direction Mei had never imagined.
—He took up gambling.
In a short period, the family’s once-substantial savings were completely wiped out, and he even racked up a massive amount of external debt.
Looking at her father lying on the sofa under the dim light, as if his very spirit had been drained, Mei would sometimes indulge in fantasy.
“If only all of this were just a dream…” Mei let out a silent sigh and turned to walk towards her room.
In the Far East, being in debt was a deadly serious matter.
The string of numbers Ryoma owed was enough to completely ruin an ordinary family.
But fortunately, in this most difficult of times, the knowledge in her head had given her a trump card to turn things around.
During this period, she had taught herself engineering and mechanics, improving upon the flaws of existing single-soldier armor designs, and then filed for a patent.
As long as the patent application was approved, she could sell it for a large sum of money, enough to pay off her father’s debts.
With these thoughts, Mei turned the handle and entered what used to be her father’s study.
And then she saw the manuscripts scattered all over the floor.
Mei froze for a moment, then quickly gathered them up.
These were the materials she needed for the patent application.
But upon inspection, she found that a portion of them was missing.
Mei’s face darkened.
“Were they stolen?” But the thought was dismissed as soon as it arose.
If someone had truly been after this patent, they wouldn’t have just taken a small part.
“And the house doesn’t look like it’s been burglarized…” Suddenly, a hypothesis flooded Mei’s mind.
She turned and went back to the living room, shaking Ryoma’s body to wake him.
“Father, where are the manuscripts I left in the study?” Ryoma groggily opened his eyes and slurred, “Mei?
You’re back from school…” “Father, did you see the manuscripts in the study?” “Man…uscripts?” “The stack of documents on the desk in the study.” Ryoma dazedly tried to recall for a moment, then it suddenly dawned on him.
“Oh, you mean that stuff on the desk?
I used it to wrap my bento this morning.” “…” After rummaging through the trash can, Mei found the missing manuscripts.
Looking at the oil-stained paper documents in her hands, Mei breathed a sigh of relief.
“Once the patent is approved, I can pay off Father’s debts.
And then…
I hope everything will get better.” —o— While Mei was full of hope for the future, she didn’t notice that from the moment she left school and returned home, a figure had been watching her in secret.
Across from Ryoma’s apartment, Li Mu held a monocular telescope.
Through the window that Mei had opened, he had seen everything that transpired in the living room.
“Hiss…
that Ryoma guy, how did he end up in such a sorry state?” “And this plot…
why does it feel so familiar?” “A daughter supporting the family, a down-and-out dad…
this isn’t going to turn into some kind of prodigy band drama, is it?” As Mei closed the living room window, blocking the view from outside, Li Mu put away his telescope.
As the key character for the next check-in, Raiden Mei’s counterpart, Mei, was his recent focus of attention.
In this era, although Mei’s family was well-off, she wasn’t the daughter of some major corporation, and her father, Ryoma, was certainly not the president of MEI Corp.
Unlike his counterpart from fifty thousand years later, this era’s Ryoma had no family business to inherit, so he chose the path of scientific research, and he did seem to have quite a bit of talent.
Although he couldn’t compare to inhuman geniuses like the future Mei or Mobius, he had made a name for himself in the scientific community.
And the Mei of this era, unlike the Raiden Mei of fifty thousand years later, did not become an ordinary young lady who loved to cook.
Instead, influenced by her father, she developed a good habit of studying and eventually walked the path of a scientist.
The system’s check-in mission required “MEI Corp’s young lady Raiden Mei.” Since “Mei” was already her name, she didn’t even need to change it like Kevin did.
Therefore, the crucial point of this act was how to make Mei the young lady of MEI Corp.
Li Mu’s initial plan was to directly assist Ryoma in creating a MEI Corp, providing prop support for future scripts.
After all, there was still the famous scene of “Ryoma being imprisoned for financial fraud” to check in for later.
He could also use MEI Corp’s resources to set up other plot points, such as developing the storyline related to Anti-Entropy.
Therefore, establishing MEI Corp was very useful.
And Ryoma was Li Mu’s initial choice for a partner.
He had even planned to give the man a great opportunity, letting him live the good life as a CEO.
Who would have thought that after not paying attention for a while, he would have degenerated into this sorry state?
The current Ryoma was clearly useless.
Bringing a pig-like teammate like him onto the chariot was tantamount to feeding kills to the enemy.
Evidently, the script had run into another problem.
“Tsk!” Although Li Mu was a bit annoyed, he wasn’t too troubled.
After all, anyone who has ever written a book knows that outlines are made to be torn up.
The same was true for scripts.
“As long as the result is achieved, a convoluted process isn’t a problem.” With that, Li Mu turned his attention to the reward he had received for ‘achieving Kiana’s enrollment at Senba Academy.’ —An A-Rank Stigmata Option Box.
Li Mu had initially thought that the Stigmata from this box would be like the natural Stigmata possessed by the Valkyries fifty thousand years later.
But after careful examination, he discovered that wasn’t the case.
Apart from sharing the name “Stigmata,” they were fundamentally two different things.
The natural Stigmata from fifty thousand years later were more like a manifestation of some innate talent.
After all, even with natural Stigmata, one still needed to develop them through training to become powerful.
But the Stigmata from the option box was different.
As soon as one equipped the chosen Stigmata, they would gain all the corresponding combat skills and practical application experience.
Rather than “Stigmata,” Li Mu felt it was more appropriate to call it a “Character Template.” And the so-called A-Rank Stigmata Option Box only allowed him to choose Stigmata possessed by Valkyries rated as A-rank in the Current Era.
Susannah, Alvitr, Lewis, Shigure Kira…
chibi portraits flashed before his eyes, and soon, Li Mu found the one he needed.
—Wraith.
An A-rank Schicksal Valkyrie who only appeared in the Moon Shadow manga and had little screen time in the main story.
But her ability was exactly what Li Mu needed.
The power of her Stigmata was—Kaleidoscope.
As the Stigmata’s power loaded, Li Mu felt his own strength surge, explode, and intensify dramatically.
At this moment, he was equivalent to an A-rank Valkyrie.
With that, Li Mu looked towards Mei’s home, a cruel smile spreading across his lips.
“Ryoma, an adult like you…
I’m going to correct you!” —o— CREATORS’ THOUGHTS Aleph_02 show some support!