You're Awake, and You're Already a Proper Girl

His consciousness felt as though it had sunk into the deep sea, only to be forcibly dragged back to the surface by a force.

When Bai Luoming came to, the first thing he noticed was a faint fragrance. Unlike the smell of disinfectant in the medical section, it was more like the scent of flowers.

He opened his eyes. Several handmade, glittering decorative stars hung from the ceiling.

The bed beneath him was soft, and the blanket covering him was exceptionally comfortable.

He immediately realized this wasn't the empty room he had just chosen.

He didn't sit up right away, instead sweeping his gaze around him.

Photographs covered the walls: the starry sky beyond the train, scenery from different worlds, and, more than anything, selfies of March 7th. Camera lenses and cleaning tools lay on the desk, and several brightly colored plush charms hung from the wardrobe door.

Clearly, this was March 7th's room.

But why was he here?

"You're awake."

Stelle, who had been keeping watch by the bed, noticed him stirring and immediately leaned forward. She solemnly extended both hands and took Bai Luoming's hand in hers.

Her expression was utterly serious, and her tone was filled with sorrow.

"Now, you're already a proper girl."

Bai Luoming's mind, which had only just emerged from the fog, took another heavy blow.

He stared blankly at Stelle, then turned to look at March 7th, who was standing beside her with a distinctly awkward expression.

His expression changed drastically. "Wait, Himeko's coffee has a hidden effect like that?"

He even began to wonder whether Herta's oral examination in the office had anticipated something.

March 7th finally couldn't hold back and rolled her eyes at Stelle.

She reached out to separate their joined hands, but the moment her fingertips touched the back of Stelle's hand, she felt the gesture was too deliberate. In the end, she could only give it a moderate smack instead.

"Don't talk nonsense the moment he wakes up! We Nameless would never do anything so disgraceful!"

As she spoke, her gaze unconsciously fell on Stelle's hands holding Bai Luoming's, then quickly shifted away.

Bai Luoming still wasn't entirely reassured.

He quickly pulled back the blanket and glanced down.

Only after confirming that he was still wearing the same clothes and that his little brother was still there did he finally let out a long sigh of relief. "Good, all the parts are intact. False alarm."

Stelle released Bai Luoming's hand and gave him a thumbs-up.

"Exactly, bro. That's how you check."

"You!"

The tips of March 7th's ears instantly burned red. She spun around, turning her back to the bed. "Don't do anything that weird in a pretty girl's room!"

Bai Luoming asked in innocent protest, "Wasn't Stelle the one who started spreading rumors?"

March 7th was momentarily at a loss for words. Unable to find a rebuttal, she could only place all the blame on the real culprit.

"It's all Himeko's coffee's fault!"

After confirming that his body was unharmed, Bai Luoming sat up and looked around the room, which was filled with a girlish air. "How did I end up here?"

March 7th had clearly prepared what to say long ago, but when Bai Luoming actually looked at her, the words caught in her throat, and a faint blush spread across her cheeks.

She lowered her head, her fingers unconsciously winding around the strap of the camera hanging against her chest, and still didn't give him a direct answer.

Stelle had no intention of giving her time to gather her words and exposed her on the spot.

"This is March's room, and March's bed. After you collapsed, she firmly objected to leaving you on the parlor car sofa and even volunteered her own room."

March 7th immediately turned and glared at her, her face turning even redder. She wished she could stuff her camera straight into Stelle's mouth.

"That's not true!"

She hurriedly explained, "My room is closest to the parlor car, so bringing you here was the most convenient option! Besides, Dan Heng usually sleeps in the data bank. You can't even find a normal bed there."

She got it all out in one breath, then emphasized again, "I just considered everything! It wasn't because I was worried about you!"

Bai Luoming didn't pick up on the awkwardness in her tone. He only thought his new companion had been very considerate.

He thanked her sincerely and, while he was at it, straightened the blanket and pillow, putting them back as they had been.

All the objections and explanations March 7th had prepared were rendered useless. In the end, she could only suppress a smile and mutter, "Good, as long as you understand."

Seeing that Bai Luoming had fully recovered, Stelle extended an invitation. "Come on, let's go back to Herta Space Station. I'll take you trailblazing."

She had already planned it out: first, she would take a few commissions posted by the space station and earn some spending money. Then she would conduct a thorough exploration of the trash cans she hadn't had time to check last time, hoping to prove to the whole universe that trash cans could contain lost cultural relics too.

"Um, I'd better pass."

He declined Stelle's invitation to join her.

"I've only just boarded the train, and my room is completely empty. I need to get my living space in order first. Besides..." He touched his chest, still shaken. "I just took a direct hit from Himeko's coffee. Today really isn't a good day to face any more unknown risks."

"Ah, what a shame. Looks like I'll have to blaze a trail through the space station's trash cans alone."

Stelle thought trash cans were much safer than Himeko's coffee, but seeing how firm he was, she had no choice but to give up and set off on her treasure hunt alone.

March 7th had wanted to stay and help Bai Luoming tidy his room, but she worried that being too forward would seem deliberate.

So she bundled up the train's purchasing and package-receiving procedures, along with instructions for setting room permissions, and sent them all to Bai Luoming at once.

"If there's anything you don't understand, you can ask me anytime," she told him. Then she pretended to casually adjust her camera strap before continuing, "And if you don't have enough money, I have a little I can lend you."

With that, she pushed Stelle from behind, ushering her toward the door.

Before the door closed, March 7th couldn't resist looking back.

Bai Luoming was standing beside the bed, waving and thanking her again.

She immediately looked away and quickened her pace, pulling Stelle along.

Stelle saw every one of her little gestures, but instead of exposing her as she had before, she merely gave a meaningful "Oh."

March 7th responded with a punch, embarrassed and angry.

Bai Luoming returned to his room.

His room was exceptionally bare. Aside from the terminal in his hand, he had almost no belongings.

He made a simple plan for his living space, opened his terminal and the Blue Planet's online shopping portal, and began buying daily necessities.

Toiletries, changes of clothes, a four-piece bedding set, everyday odds and ends...

When choosing clothes, he deliberately picked several outfits in vastly different styles that looked sufficiently abstract, intending to gradually fill his new home with traces of himself.

While he waited for the delivery robot, a message from a friend popped up on his terminal.

Bai Luoming opened his contacts and found that a stranger's account named "Great Love Wolf Venerable" had appeared in his friend request list at some point.

Immediately afterward, another message arrived with a game invitation.

When had this friend been added? And how did she know his ID?

He had no recollection of it.

Bai Luoming stared at the name "Great Love Wolf Venerable" and fell silent.

Although the avatar, ID, and profile had all been disguised, this deliberate concealment of identity, the practiced way she used a game to make contact, and that highly distinctive naming style...

He was almost certain that the person on the other end was Silver Wolf.

What he didn't understand was that he and Silver Wolf had apparently never met, so why had she added his terminal?

Could it be because he had disrupted Elio's script, and the Stellaron Hunters had already noticed something?

Meanwhile, inside an unknown Stellaron Hunters base.

Silver Wolf sat before the multiple screens surrounding her, her face slightly red. Her quiet, affectionate greetings to Herta echoed continuously through the room.

After returning to the base, she had found Bai Luoming's terminal using the ID she remembered. She had thought it would be easy, only to discover that the woman Herta had implanted an active detection mechanism for unfamiliar contacts in Bai Luoming's terminal.

Whenever a stranger added Bai Luoming's terminal, it would immediately trigger an alert and report directly to Herta herself.

Silver Wolf dismantled three layers of masking protocols in succession and repeatedly erased and altered her own data traces before she managed to bypass Herta's monitoring and add Bai Luoming as a friend.

Only after confirming that Herta hadn't received any notification and that Bai Luoming had accepted her request did she finally relax completely, the corners of her mouth rising uncontrollably.

She decided that, in this life, she wouldn't rush to reveal her identity.

She would first rebuild their relationship through the field she knew best: games.

In the corner of the screen, the data logs left by her many rounds of attack and defense against Herta's security system were still there.

She looked at Bai Luoming's message on her terminal and hummed softly, her fingers typing out a reply on the keyboard.