Elio, Was This Also in Your Script?

She was worried that after the other person left, they would find a new lover and abandon her.

"What's wrong, little one? Are you saying you want me to warm your bed? Could it be that you have feelings for me?"

Still the Kafka.jpg meme.

Meanwhile, on the other side, Kafka saw Kiana suddenly freeze and stare at her with a dazed, adorable expression. Thinking Kiana hadn't heard her clearly, she repeated herself.

Seeing that Kiana still didn't react,

the curve of Kafka's lips rose another notch.

She slowly stood up and approached Kiana, just as she had that time in Belobog.

Kafka's fingers gently pinched Kiana's chin, as if admiring a delicate piece of porcelain. Her movements were both gentle and carried an unquestionable force.

Seeing Kafka act like that, Kiana suddenly thought of her companion aboard the train—Stelle.

"Sorry, Stelle. Next time we meet, let's each use our own terms. You can call me Dad, and I'll still call you Stelle."

"Forget it, forget it. I'm not teasing you anymore. As for Silver Wolf's matter, let's not talk about it for now. Guess what? Why do you think I brought you here?"

"To be the bandit's wife?"

Kiana replied without thinking.

But seriously, if an outsider saw what the two of them were doing right now—

if they saw Kafka's knee pressed against the chair between Kiana's legs, while her fingers lightly lifted Kiana's chin, they might really think some villain was trying to harass an innocent woman.

Nearby, Silver Wolf had just finished her game. When she heard their conversation, she burst out laughing.

"Hahaha, the bandit's wife! Hahaha!"

"Kafka, so this was your goal all along?"

"Kiana, that means my promise counts as fulfilled too."

"Remember to call me when the feast starts. I'll bring the others."

But Silver Wolf's voice gradually grew quieter before disappearing altogether.

That was because Kafka continued smiling, but her entire expression had darkened considerably.

Realizing that she might have gone too far,

Silver Wolf hurriedly whistled, then tossed two pieces of bubble gum into her mouth and picked up her phone to continue gaming.

"Crap, did some weird thing infect me? This doesn't fit my image at all."

Silver Wolf thought this to herself.

For some reason, every time she interacted with Kiana, she felt that her emotions were becoming difficult to control.

If this continued, her image as a hacker of the universe would turn into that of a bratty girl.

After all, among all these familiar faces, if one only considered physical ability and not special powers, she couldn't beat a single one of them!

"Actually, I took you away partly to leak some clues and make it easier for the Luofu to find me, and partly to stir up the Express crew's enthusiasm. After all, not everyone has appeared yet. This game of chess can't officially begin just yet."

Kafka carefully explained their general plan to Kiana, without hiding anything.

For example, deliberately leaving some clues in the room,

making the Express crew worry before cutting off communications,

and getting four of the Cloud-Piercer Five to find a way to meet.

"Um, your plan is great, but something happened to Jing Yuan. Would Blade really attack a little girl who looks only a teenager old?"

Kafka: ?

"Um, Jing Yuan is gone. The general now is Jing Yuan Yuan."

Seeing that Kafka still looked confused, Kiana immediately took out her phone and showed her the photo of Jing Yuan Yuan she had secretly taken at the Divination Department.

Looking at the photo on Kiana's phone,

Kafka simply couldn't connect the person in it with the Luofu's general.

"Wait, can Blade still recognize Jing Yuan?"

"It's Jing Yuan Yuan."

Kafka rolled her eyes at Kiana for interrupting and hurriedly reached for her communications device to contact Blade, intending to tell him that Jing Yuan's appearance had changed.

But after picking up her phone, she remembered that Blade was currently imprisoned and had no chance to access a communications device. His own phone was in Silver Wolf's hands.

It wasn't as if she could break into the prison just to tell Blade this, then leave him there again.

In the end, Kafka decided not to change the course of their operation. As for Jing Yuan becoming Jing Yuan Yuan, would Blade be unable to resist interfering with the plan?

They could only hope Blade would recognize him.

Even if he didn't, it didn't matter. After all, this Luofu general wasn't particularly important. As long as the High-Cloud Quintet's dragon sovereign appeared, that would be enough.

Still, Kafka couldn't help asking,

"By the way, when can she return to normal?"

"I don't know."

"What about before? I remember the records from Herta Space Station. Your ability seemed to have activated several times. How long did it last then?"

"The shortest was probably a few minutes, and the longest was a week..."

Hearing that the longest duration was only a week, Kafka relaxed. A week was more than enough. By then, everyone would probably have arrived, and there would still be plenty of time.

But Kiana wasn't finished.

"But it seems like my ability upgraded? Because in Belobog, that Sampo guy seemed not to have changed back even by the time I left. I don't know whether it was my problem or his."

Chapter 64: Elio, Was This Also in Your Script?

Elio was resting and waiting for the script to proceed smoothly when he suddenly received a message from Kafka.

"Huh? It's Kafka. Did something happen?"

But when Elio opened his phone and checked Kafka's message, a large question mark appeared above his head.

Kafka: Elio, was the Luofu general Jing Yuan turning into Jing Yuan Yuan also in your script?

Kafka: [Image].jpg

Looking at the photo Kafka had sent, Elio remained dazed for a long while.

After quite some time, Elio only replied with a question mark.

Elio: ?

After Kafka and Elio finished their conversation, Stelle discovered that the two people who had previously been at each other's throats were now lying together, each holding a phone and having the time of their lives.

"Got it? Hurry up and play it. I'm telling you, this game is super fun. The story is incredibly sweet."

"Got it, got it. Stop rushing me. But..."

After receiving the game Kiana had sent and finishing the installation, Silver Wolf was just about to open it.

But when she saw the game's logo, Silver Wolf wore an exasperated expression and stared straight at Kiana, who was sitting beside her.

Seeing that Kiana had already started playing, Silver Wolf, as a gaming enthusiast, knew that she shouldn't disturb her at a time like this.

But she still couldn't resist the urge to complain.

"Kiana, are you really this narcissistic? You actually used your own picture as the game's logo?"

Kiana's movements stopped. She watched helplessly as the character she controlled was defeated, her finger hovering in midair without coming down.

Kiana finally understood why Herta's expression had been so strange back then.

But Kiana could only pretend to be calm and say, "It's nothing. Recreating a character would take too much time. Besides, if I use myself as the logo, can anyone else fight me for the trademark and copyright?"

"True."

Silver Wolf didn't pursue the matter further. She simply entered the game and began playing.

Watching the initially heartwarming story and the intimate interactions among the three protagonists, Silver Wolf noticed that the Bronya in the game looked nine-tenths like her. Still, she assumed it was Herta's idea.

After she frantically pushed through the story and saw Bronya fall to darkness, controlled by the chip in her brain, Silver Wolf immediately shouted a string of curses.

"Fucking Herta! Fucking Cocolia!"

In distant Belobog and in the laboratory where Herta was staying,

Cocolia and Herta both sneezed at the same time.

"Achoo!" *2

"Silver Wolf, Kiana, do you want to go out?"

"No, we're playing games." *2

Looking at how in sync they were, Kafka was momentarily unable to understand whether the two had a good relationship or a bad one. They had looked ready to fight to the death just now, yet now they were getting along so harmoniously.

"Forget it. I'll go leave behind some more clues and buy some things while I'm at it. Do you need anything?"

Silver Wolf: "Buy some snacks."

This time, Kiana didn't synchronize with Silver Wolf. After all, she had no shortage of snacks in her space.

Thinking that gaming was impossible without snacks and soda, Kiana rummaged through her space and pulled out a large amount of snacks and pastries she had bought earlier, along with an entire case of soda.

But among the pile of snacks, something strange had been mixed in.

Watching Kiana use this ability, Silver Wolf felt a little envious.

Aether Editing was incredibly useful, but seeing that Kiana's space could hold so many things made her envious.

As a hardcore gamer and a top hacker of the galaxy,

Silver Wolf really wished she had a portable warehouse too. Then she could simply take out whatever she wanted to eat while gaming. Once she finished, she wouldn't even need to clean up—she could just toss it back inside.

Silver Wolf looked at the white-haired girl beside her and suddenly had a bold idea: she wanted to bring Kiana over to her side.

"Hm?"

"I mean the Stellaron Hunters. You wouldn't need to carry out any missions. You could just work as logistics support. You could even hold the position in name only."

"Uh..."

Not knowing why Silver Wolf had suddenly said that, Kiana thought about it. It seemed like there was no harm in it.

But while Kiana was still hesitating, Silver Wolf pulled a strange object out of the pile of snacks.

"Huh? What's this? Wait, a mask? Kiana, did you join the Masked Fools? That faction of people who are always looking for fun? When did this happen?"

"When did what happen?"

Kiana didn't understand why Silver Wolf had suddenly brought this up.

Although Aha had invited her in the Path Narrow, she hadn't given any response. Why was Silver Wolf saying this?

Kiana's gaze fell on the mask in Silver Wolf's hand. She realized it was the mask left behind by that mysterious girl in Belobog's Lower District.

The mask and a note had been left together back then, but after storing them in her space, she had forgotten about them.

"Wait, you're saying this is a mask belonging to the Masked Fools? Isn't it just an ordinary mask?"

"Of course it isn't. Other than those people who will do anything to seek amusement and often turn every place they visit upside down, nobody would leave this much energy inside a mask."

Silver Wolf realized that Kiana genuinely didn't know. Otherwise, she couldn't possibly have shown such a surprised expression.

"Wait, you really didn't know? I've never seen the masks of other Masked Fools, but the power on yours definitely isn't ordinary. I'd even believe you if you said you were an Emanator of Elation. Are you sure you didn't know?"

"Yeah. If you hadn't told me, I would still have thought this was just an ordinary mask."

"It's probably that person's idea of fun. But if it was them, this would be perfectly normal. After all, they're the kind of person who made a Noblesse Worm an Emanator, then tried to get a Noblesse Worm into the Genius Club just for a laugh."

But Kiana was no longer listening.

Kiana sank into thought. Jing Yuan had become Jing Yuan Yuan, and Aha had even wanted to make her an Emanator. Everything that had happened in the Path Narrow had merely been Aha's prank.

Without realizing it, she had already become one of Elio's followers, only to be forcibly suppressed by Aha.

The purpose might simply have been to watch the fun and see whether the other Aeons would try to recruit her.

And much of Kiana's guesswork was correct. At that moment, Aha was watching the actions of the three Aeons, laughing nonstop.