“Herta, is there any medicine that can temporarily block pain?
I’m afraid of pain.”
Kazuki shoveled a massive spoonful of egg fried rice into his mouth.
The dish, freshly prepared by the station’s culinary robot, was surprisingly decent.
He glanced up at the genius who was currently preoccupied at her sleek experimental bench, tossing the question out casually.
Herta didn’t even bother lifting her head from the glowing blood sample under her lens.
Her voice drifted over, laced with a casual but sharp warning.
“What do you want garbage like that for?
Blocking pain isn’t a good thing.
If you aren’t careful, you won’t even notice how you died.”
Hearing that grim assessment, Kazuki wisely lowered his head.
He stuffed two more bites of fried rice into his cheeks, puffing them out like a squirrel, and completely dropped the subject of painkillers.
A few minutes later, Herta caught a glimpse of his empty plate out of the corner of her eye.
She set down the sample, pulled a sterile wet wipe from a dispenser, and carefully cleaned her porcelain joints.
“That kind of over-the-counter junk is sold everywhere on the market.
Just go ask Asta.
I’m not your personal nanny; such trivial matters aren’t worth my time.”
“Oh~” Kazuki nodded obediently, swallowing the last of his meal.
“Then can I go out now?”
“No problem,” Herta replied, giving a brief, dismissive nod.
She knew the dynamics of their arrangement perfectly well.
They were currently in a cooperative relationship, not a one-sided supply-and-demand dynamic where one had to beg the other for scraps.
Besides, she had absolutely no intention of letting a once-in-a-century research subject feel stifled enough to run off.
Kazuki stood up, pulling out his phone to open the beta version of the Herta Space Station map he had downloaded earlier.
Just as he pivoted on his heel to slip away, a sudden thought struck him.
He stopped, turned back around, and adopted a rare, solemn tone.
“Herta, I said before that when I arrived at the space station, I would make you agree to one condition.
Now, I want you to fulfill it.”
Herta’s movements paused entirely.
She looked up at him, a flicker of genuine interest crossing her doll-like features as she raised an elegant eyebrow.
“Go ahead.
What condition?
As long as it’s within my capabilities.”
Kazuki stared at her steadily, his mind rapidly calculating her behavioral logic.
He knew it was inevitable for these alternate-timeline “if” route characters to appear in public eventually.
Finally, he gritted his teeth and made his decision.
“I need you to help me extend the duration my companions can stay in this current world.”
The statement was vague, and Herta hadn’t quite processed the underlying mechanics of his request before he acted.
As soon as the words left his mouth, Kazuki mentally grasped a specific card in his system and confirmed the summon.
A brilliant flash of white light streaked through the sterile laboratory.
Student Himeko materialized directly in mid-air, plummeting toward the floor.
Her signature high ponytail whipped wildly, a few crimson strands coming undone in the sudden freefall.
Fortunately, her reflexes were sharp; she braced her hands against the sleek floor tiles, gracefully breaking her fall before her head could meet the metal.
She blinked, looking around the unfamiliar, high-tech laboratory in a daze.
But the moment her amber eyes swept over Kazuki and the doll-like Herta, she instantly connected the dots.
Student Himeko scrambled to her feet and marched straight to Kazuki’s side, her expression a mix of dejection and fierce protectiveness.
Staring pointedly at the dusty footprint Herta had previously left on his clothes, she spoke, her voice bubbling with anxious anger.
“You were actually caught?
Why didn’t you tell me?
I have a black belt in Taekwondo!
I could have at least blocked a hit or two for you!”
Without waiting for his answer, she whirled around, lifted her chin defiantly, and shouted at Herta.
She looked every bit the fierce protector ready to go down swinging for her own.
“Whatever dirty tricks you have, come at me!
He doesn’t know anything; I know way more than he does!”
In reality, she didn’t know a damn thing.
From start to finish, she was completely in the dark about the cosmic inside story, possessing even less context than Kazuki did.
She was purely bluffing on sheer bravado to play the hero.
Hearing her impassioned defense, Kazuki immediately put on a deeply moved expression, dramatically wiping away a non-existent tear from his eye.
With a look of tragic reluctance, he turned to Herta.
“In that case, Herta, the condition I just mentioned is this: I’ll leave her to you.
If you discover any interesting research results, remember to let me know.
I’ll be taking my leave now.”
Student Himeko: ಠ_ಠ
She froze dead in her tracks.
Her head whipped back around to stare at him, her amber eyes wide with absolute, dumbfounded betrayal.
‘Kazuki, you really deserve to die!
Is this the loyalty and righteousness you keep harping on about every single day?
You just turned around and sold me out without a second thought!’
After spending a few minutes frantically explaining to the sputtering Student Himeko that it was just a joke, Kazuki finally managed to slip out and head toward the Master Control Zone.
As he handled the sleek, metallic corridors, he pondered his earlier idea of role-playing Emanator of Beauty Herta to tease Asta.
He had ultimately scrapped the plan after asking the alternate Herta why she had requested to exit the role-play so abruptly earlier.
The conclusion he received was simple but dangerous: the power of an Emanator is terrifyingly potent, and the passive impact it causes on the surrounding environment is equally massive.
If he were to wander around the Herta Space Station radiating the aura of the Path of Beauty right now, he would essentially experience the chaotic, overwhelming allure of a succubus.
Everyone would be irresistibly drawn to him.
“Woof!
Woof woof!”
A series of sharp, cheerful barks snapped Kazuki out of his internal musings.
He looked down and found himself staring at Peppy—the pampered pet dog belonging to the Lead Researcher, Asta.
It was a classic case of a dog living a life infinitely more luxurious than most humans.
also, this was a pet with remarkably high intelligence.
Usually, when it barked, it just meant normal dog things.
But if it had complex thoughts to convey, even though it couldn’t speak a human language, anyone equipped with a Synesthesia Beacon could perfectly understand its intent.
In the department of acting cute and milking its privileges, absolutely no one in the galaxy could compare to this little guy.
“Good dog,” Kazuki praised casually, stepping around the pup and continuing his brisk walk down the hall.
However, Peppy immediately snapped its mouth shut, trotting happily right alongside his heels.
The cold, pristine white light of the space station’s corridor illuminated the polished floors.
Among the passing researchers bustling about their duties, there were always a few sharp-eyed gossips who immediately spotted Kazuki—and more, the fluffy mascot following closely behind him.
It was as if a freezing spell had been cast over the hallway.
Footsteps halted in unison, and hushed, chattering gossip drifted down the corridor.
“Whoa?
Who’s that guy?
I’ve never seen him before.
An outsider?”
“Forget the guy, look at Peppy!
Peppy is actually following him?!
Last time I asked someone to import the highest-grade interstellar beef jerky, that dog didn’t even give it a sniff!
And now it’s actually wagging its tail and following a total stranger?”
“Doesn’t that dog aggressively ignore everyone except Lady Asta and Captain Arlan?
What kind of insane background does this handsome guy have?”
“Look at his outfit, it’s so strange.
It’s actually a bit like mine.
How come Peppy took a liking to him?
Why not me?!”
The muttered complaints weren’t loud, but in the echoing corridor, every single word drifted perfectly into Kazuki’s ears.
His footsteps paused.
He looked down at Peppy, who was currently trotting energetically on its short little legs, practically glued to his shoes.
It turned out that just by casually praising it as a “good dog,” this little guy had doggedly followed him for half the length of the corridor, and now he couldn’t shake it off.
Sighing, Kazuki stopped, turned around, and crouched down, waving a hand in a shooing motion.
“Go back.
Go find your station master.
I have things to do here.”
Instead of leaving, Peppy simply tilted its head, its big, fluffy tail wagging even more frantically.
Not only did it refuse to leave, but it trotted two steps closer, gently rubbing its furry head against Kazuki’s trouser leg.
It let out a series of soft, pathetic whining sounds from its throat, showing absolutely zero intention of moving.
Kazuki was helpless.
He couldn’t exactly get angry at a dog, and he certainly didn’t have the guts to forcibly drag away Asta’s precious darling.
He could only stand up with a resigned sigh, figuring he had better take a detour to Asta’s office and return the runaway pet first.
Just as he turned around to change his route, a rush of heavy, hurried footsteps echoed from the far end of the corridor.
It was accompanied by a male voice thick with anxiety, calling out frantically.
“Peppy?
Peppy, where did you run off to?!”
It was Arlan.
It was such a familiar routine; in the game’s plot, it was practically a law of the universe that Arlan would be out looking for this dog.
Before Kazuki could even react, a figure clad in the dark blue uniform of the Security Department had already sprinted right in front of him.
Arlan’s forehead was glistening with a light sheen of sweat.
His usual calm, tightly wound demeanor had completely vanished, replaced by a face full of undisguised panic.
His dark eyes first locked firmly onto the fluffy shape of Peppy on the floor.
After a rapid visual inspection confirmed that not a single hair on the dog’s head was missing, Arlan suddenly snapped his head up to look at Kazuki.
Instantly, his gaze shifted from frantic anxiety to full-blown, razor-sharp vigilance.
“Hello.
I am Arlan, the head of the Security Department for Herta Space Station and personal guard to Lead Researcher Asta.” His voice was kept deliberately steady, but the coiled tension and suspicion within it were impossible to hide.
His eyes scanned Kazuki up and down several times, rapidly assessing his threat level.
“May I ask who you are?
And why is Peppy with you?”
As the head of security, Arlan could recognize every single familiar face in the Master Control Zone with his eyes closed.
He had absolutely no impression of the young man standing in front of him; this was a purely unfamiliar, unregistered face.
also, Peppy was the precious darling that Asta held in the palm of her hand.
Seeing the dog happily following a complete stranger caused the protective string in Arlan’s heart to pull dangerously taut.
[Elysian’s Note:
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