Thinking about it won’t help; just get it done.
Kazuki moved his mind, his consciousness diving straight into the System space.
Familiar with the routine, he tapped the card he had just drawn.
The next second, his soul was dragged into a campus filled with cherry blossom trees.
The previous otaku card also had an exclusive space, but it was tiny.
The territory of this card, however, was much wider.
He followed the System’s guidance and finally found the young version of Himeko in an empty classroom.
Judging by her appearance, she was clearly waiting for him.
Seeing him enter, Himeko stood up, resting her hands on the desk, her eyes curved into a smile.
Her high ponytail slid down her shoulder, and she wore a JK uniform with a bowtie, radiating an unstoppable youthful energy: “Should I call you Master, Lord…
or Shujin?” “I have to say, you are truly beautiful.” Kazuki swept his gaze over her with appreciation, then shifted the tone to get straight to the point, “But you know it yourself, you are just a card.
There is no need to play these mind games with me.” Himeko’s amber eyes stared straight at him, and she suddenly covered her mouth and laughed: “Of course.
Being able to turn into a card and be drawn by you, I certainly know that I am no longer alive.
But I can’t just wail and beg you not to let me disappear, right?
Optimism is engraved in my bones.
Even if my wish isn’t fulfilled, I have nothing to regret.” Kazuki closed his eyes, crossed his arms, and shook his head: “Your mindset is a hundred times stronger than that otaku from the last card.
But I came here today mainly to ask one thing—what exactly do you mean by that ‘feeling of being alive’ written in your wish?” Himeko stepped on her leather shoes and walked to the window, gazing at the cherry blossoms drifting across the sky outside.
The bright sunlight covered her, yet when she looked up, she couldn’t see a trace of the sun.
“The feeling of being alive…” Her voice softened, carrying an unconcealable melancholy, “It’s just wanting to taste what it’s like to be a living person again.” “To leave this world that couldn’t be any faker, to open my eyes and see the real universe properly again, to feel the joys, angers, sorrows, and happiness of the people around me, and to…
truly live once more.” She paused, looking at the fake skylight that hung forever outside the window without a source, and softly recited a line from Tagore: “The sunset is like a miser, hiding its last gold.
It seems like…
I lost the ray of light that belonged to me a long time ago.” Listening to the loneliness in her words and watching her drooping eyelashes, Kazuki spoke, continuing with another Tagore poem: “When you cry for missing the sun, you also miss the stars.” He paused and nodded with a firm tone: “Understood.
There are still two empty slots in the Himeko card slot.
I will keep you.
Maybe I’ll have to borrow your identity later to transform.” With a thought, he exited the System space, and his consciousness dropped back into his own body.
The time in reality was exactly the same as before he entered; not a single bit had moved.
Kazuki coughed twice and couldn’t help but curse in his heart: Damn it, why does this broken System make the people in these cards so realistic?
The lingering loneliness in Himeko’s eyes just now would make even a stone heart ache.
He took a deep breath, raised his hand to tap the otaku card he had drawn from the Void Ranger, and selected delete.
The space in that card was tiny, and the man inside had long since suffered a mental breakdown and couldn’t hold on anymore.
He had seen the if-line of that Void Ranger.
In that world, he wasn’t the unlucky guy who got transformed into a Void Ranger; he had loving parents and a younger sister who would cling to him.
But why his life turned into a card, the System hadn’t told him a single word about it.
Kazuki didn’t know if deleting this card counted as killing, or if it was a release for that man.
But at least, the sense of guilt in his heart about “imprisoning someone for a lifetime” could be lightened a little.
He wandered aimlessly through the cabin.
Every researcher he passed had an irrepressible panic hidden in their eyes, and low sobs drifted from the corners from time to time.
These people were all outstanding geniuses on their own planets, carrying the hope of an entire planet, but upon arriving at the hidden-dragon-crouching-tiger Herta Space Station, they became just ordinary members.
Now, what they feared wasn’t anything else, but dying so plainly at the hands of the Antimatter Legion.
The feeling of being alive…
Kazuki was still chewing on these three words in his mind.
When he looked up, he saw the team leader researcher who had brought him into the safety cabin earlier, gesturing in sign language to a female researcher, smiling brightly.
It was completely out of place with the chaotic alarm sounds outside, as if nothing had happened out there.
The female researcher beside him pursed her lips, not saying a word, but the corners of her mouth couldn’t help but curl up, and the panic in her eyes dissipated by more than half.
He was a bit curious and went over to talk: “Big brother, what a coincidence!
What are you doing?” The researcher glanced at him and recognized him immediately.
He didn’t mind his bloody and messy appearance at all; instead, he gripped the female researcher’s hand tightly and explained with a smile: “This is my fiancée, a researcher from the Department of Immersia.
Her race has a natural defect; she is congenitally deaf and mute.
Even with a Synesthesia Beacon injected, she can’t speak or hear normally.” “When the Legion rushed in just now, she could only see the alarm lights flashing everywhere and people running around.
She couldn’t hear the roars and explosions, so she was actually less panicked than us, but she was still scared.” “I was just using sign language to tell her: Don’t be afraid, I am here, we will definitely be fine.” As he spoke, he tightened his grip on his fiancée’s hand.
The two looked at each other and smiled.
Boom, it was as if something exploded in Kazuki’s mind.
The “feeling of being alive” that he had been struggling to understand just now suddenly became clear.
Suppressing the excitement in his heart, he smiled at the two and said: “Sister-in-law is so gentle.
I wish you two a long and peaceful life!” He also casually asked if he could borrow a set of cosmetics, saying it was for Ms.
Himeko.
The researcher didn’t hesitate at all; he rummaged through his fiancée’s bag, took out a set, and handed it to him.
He thanked him and turned around, running off to a place with no one around.
Kazuki ducked into an empty storage corner, scanned left and right, and confirmed there were no cameras or people.
Only then did he move his mind and tap the [Student Himeko] card.
The next second, his figure wavered, and he transformed into the appearance of [Student Himeko], with cascading red hair and a lithe figure.
Almost simultaneously, the voice of [Student Himeko] rang directly in his head, with an irrepressible sense of novelty: “Is this my perspective after transforming?
I can actually only see things through your eyes…
By the way, where is this?” Kazuki didn’t rush to answer her; his hands moved with lightning speed as he started applying makeup in front of a small mirror.
Drawing eyebrows, blending eyeshadow, applying lipstick…
his hands didn’t stop, and he replied slowly with his mind: “This isn’t the solar system.
In this universe, there are countless brilliant civilizations.
In the place I am now, if I want to look at the starry sky, I just have to lift my head.” As soon as these words fell, the sound of Himeko gasping came into his mind, like a boiling steam engine, puffing and panting, as if she were about to faint from sheer happiness.