Time neared early evening.
Sigrika’s group.
“Nia, the place Aemeath and the others mentioned — is it this…
McDonald’s place?” Sigrika looked at the huge iconic “M” sign before her and asked Denia beside her.
“Mm-mm…
yeah, this is it.” Denia carried a huge bag of snacks in her left hand.
After looking up to confirm the location, she continued scrolling through her phone with her right hand.
Come to think of it, how did this little blueberry mousse cake manage to keep eating snacks without gaining any weight at all?
“But this isn’t the same as the rally point Senior agreed on with us, is it…?” Sigrika was a bit worried that Xiao Ling wouldn’t be able to find them when the time came.
“If there hadn’t been an unexpected situation, they wouldn’t have specially notified us to change locations.” Denia continued scrolling through her phone without a shred of worry.
“As for Ling, I’ve already told him.
You don’t need to worry too much, Siggy.”
Hearing that Denia had already contacted Xiao Ling, Sigrika finally set her mind at ease.
“Then let’s head in?
I wonder what they need to discuss, suddenly changing the location…”
Sigrika pushed open the McDonald’s door and pulled the still-phone-scrolling Denia inside.
…
Inside the McDonald’s at this moment…
President Lucilla lightly tapped her fingers against her arm.
It wasn’t long before she heard the sound of footsteps approaching their table from afar, drawing nearer.
Then, she heard Sigrika, surprised but not daring to make too much noise, say:
“P-President Lucilla, what are you doing here…?”
The moment Denia heard Orange Elf call out “President Lucilla,” she instantly returned from the online world to reality.
Only then did she see that President Lucilla was looking at the two of them with a smile in her eyes.
“Er…
hello, President…” Denia: well-behaved.jpg.
“Aiya, you two are finally here.
Sit, sit!” Linae waved the two over to sit, and along the way took the shopping bag from Denia’s hands.
“A bit heavy.
Just how much stuff did you buy?”
Aemeath and Chisa crowded around like curious little babies.
The three of them surrounded the shopping bag and began taking inventory of the snacks Denia had bought.
“Lay’s, yogurt, Oreos, Pocky…”
Hearing these three little ones rattle off a string of snack names like they were reciting a menu, President Lucilla looked at Denia with rather astonished eyes, as if asking: can you really finish all these snacks by yourself?
Denia: Is it still too late for me to find a hole to crawl into right now?
Denia hadn’t grabbed that many snacks because she had a foodie side.
Back in the Fractsidus, she’d never eaten anything good.
At the Academy, what she ate was only slightly better than what she’d had in the Fractsidus.
After coming to this world and seeing the dazzling array of snacks, she simply couldn’t hold back and casually grabbed just a teensy bit more…
“As someone who’s been there, I’d say it’s better not to treat snacks and convenience foods as meals, okay?” President Lucilla kindly advised.
Though she had also more or less guessed that Denia had probably just grabbed everything because she’d never tried any of it.
“Oh-oh…” Denia replied very obediently.
No worries.
If she really got hungry, she’d just go act cute and coquettish with Ling.
He’d make her an extra meal.
…
Xiao Ling and Mornye were the last to arrive.
Mornye was clearly startled when she saw the huge bag of snacks sitting on the table.
“Nia, you’ve done it again.
What are you planning to do, buying this many snacks?
Want to get chubby?” Xiao Ling tweaked Denia’s nose in exasperation.
The girls aside from Denia: ?????
Denia, for her part, went directly bright red in the face — even her neck and the tips of her ears were painted with an alluring crimson.
Dude, bro, read the room…
Seeing Denia in this state, President Lucilla instantly understood that this girl had already fallen in completely.
There was nothing wrong with that.
In President Lucilla’s personal opinion, Denia deserved to be treated this way.
And Xiao Ling was worth entrusting her to.
It was just that he doted on her a little too excessively.
She’d have to give him a talking-to about it one of these days.
A healthy lifestyle was important too.
And besides—
Looking at the girls around her, each with their own distinct expressions, President Lucilla suddenly felt a preemptive schadenfreude toward the battlefield of love and war he’d have to face later.
But for now, let’s return to the main topic—
President Lucilla clapped her hands, drawing everyone’s attention to her.
“To be honest, I didn’t expect to run into you all here.” President Lucilla first clarified the unexpected nature of this impromptu meeting.
“But since we’re all here, we might as well share some necessary information.
The first topic concerns you, Xiao Ling.”
Student crew shocked.jpg.
They hadn’t told President Lucilla Xiao Ling’s name just now.
But since she could speak the Rover’s true name in this world, that meant—
“You’re quite famous at your school right now.
Your fellow students are all saying behind your back that you’re a top-tier playboy riding five boats at once.” President Lucilla was a bit helpless.
“I’ve been doing my best to suppress the rumors, but I never expected handling public opinion in this world to be even harder than handling the documents that decide Startorch Academy’s future direction.
That Advisor Yang you’re familiar with has also been held accountable for lax approval.
He’s stewing in anger right now.
It probably won’t be long before he comes looking for you to demand an explanation.”
“President Lucilla, could it be that you’re the new chancellor of our school that Brother Yang mentioned?” Xiao Ling asked in return.
On the second day after Denia crossed over, during his process of requesting leave from Brother Yang, he’d heard from him that his school had gotten a stunningly beautiful new chancellor.
Looking at it now, it was President Lucilla.
Lucilla nodded slightly, confirming his statement.
“If Aemeath and the rest of you later have plans to attend Xiao Ling’s school, I don’t mind opening a back door for you.
You could also take the opportunity to experience the customs and atmosphere of this world’s academies.” Lucilla extended an olive branch to the student crew.
“Think of it as…
a special academic exchange?”
Aside from Denia, who looked completely uninterested, the other girls were all a little excited hearing they could go to Xiao Ling’s school.
They seemed to be looking forward to it very much.
“The second topic concerns our crossing over.” President Lucilla brought up the second subject.
“Though it’s only speculation, based on the information I currently have, the selection of victims for this crossing-over event was not entirely random.
There was a selective element to it.” President Lucilla’s fingertips tapped rhythmically against the table as she slowly laid out her conjecture.
“The people who were sent here all share a considerably deep connection with the Rover — that is, Xiao Ling.”
Aemeath had previously heard A-Yu tell stories of his adventures in Jinzhou and Rinascita, so she counted on her fingers the people he’d mentioned.
Now that she thought about it, it really did seem like quite a few.
“As for why I’ve come to this conjecture.” President Lucilla took out her phone and showed them a file.
“You’ll understand once you look at this.” Enjoying the story? Read on at g.com.
The others immediately crowded around in a circle to examine this file.
“Wait a second?!
Isn’t this Shorekeeper?!” Aemeath immediately recognized who the person in the file was.
“Correct.” President Lucilla snapped her fingers.
“Shorekeeper, the nominal supreme commander of the Black Shores.
She has also crossed over.
And I imagine you all know better than anyone what the Rover means to a leader like Shorekeeper.”
Having seen the evidence laid out before their eyes, the group no longer pursued the credibility of President Lucilla’s speculation.
“The last topic concerns our Resonance abilities.” President Lucilla’s expression was clearly more solemn when she brought up this subject.
“This world hasn’t stripped us of our Resonance abilities.
Rather, it’s placed a lock — a lock called cognition — on them.” President Lucilla proposed a hypothesis.
“The cognitive scope of this world’s populace is the limit to which we can exercise our abilities.
Aemeath, how much of your Resonance ability can you currently use?” President Lucilla chose to illustrate through example.
“Me?
In my case, data interference-type abilities can still be activated through digital devices.
But summoning and fusing with Exostrider armaments like before is definitely impossible now.”
“Sigrika, can you still use your Resonance ability?”
Sigrika tried to activate it.
Even though her little face turned red from the strain, she still couldn’t use it at all.
She could only hang her head dejectedly.
“Denia, what about yours?”
“Completely impossible.” Denia had already tried during the earlier crisis.
She hadn’t even been able to protect herself back then.
“Now you should understand the meaning of this cognition lock.” President Lucilla continued her explanation.
“Aemeath’s data interference can be used because similar things already exist in this world.
But your Exostrider armaments cannot be summoned or fused because, in their eyes, that’s something that only exists in movies and anime.
And Sigrika and Denia’s abilities fall into the category of abilities that cannot be explained by this world’s cognition — hence they are completely unusable.”
“In other words, if we can make the public feel that their Resonance abilities can be interpreted by this world’s knowledge, then their powers can be unsealed to a certain extent.” Xiao Ling gave the summary.
“Correct.
You’re as sharp as ever.” Lucilla expressed high praise for Xiao Ling’s comprehension ability.
“However, you don’t need to think about completely unsealing them.
It’s enough to just satisfy the most basic self-defense capabilities.
Compared to Solaris, this world is still very peaceful.
There also exist institutions of force that maintain social stability.
Under normal circumstances, there’s no need for us to step in.” Lucilla added.
“This world placed this cognition lock on us to help us integrate into this land — not to let us stand above it.”
Having said this much, who urgently needed to unseal their powers was very clear.
Sigrika and Denia were without a doubt the ones who most needed to urgently unseal a small portion of their power.
Even without her weapon’s support, Chisa’s ability of Eye of Unraveling could still help her find an enemy’s weak point and strike a fatal blow.
Aemeath and Linae were already people who had undergone long-term training.
If anything, they should be more worried about accidentally beating someone into a severe injury.
President Lucilla and Mornye needed even less worry.
They had probably already proven their value to the higher-ups here.
They would naturally receive more attention than the others, and might even hold their own interpretive authority over certain phenomena.
“In summary, just treat this otherworld journey as an unexpected vacation.
You don’t need to worry too much about other matters.” President Lucilla finally gave a simple summary of this impromptu meeting.
“What students need to do is enjoy their vacation.
Leave the other matters to us adults.”
Comment it and let me know.