Maybe Next Time / Acheron: I Like a Wine Called "Like a Dream Awakened." Let's Drink It Together Sometime

"Are you okay?"

Acheron cast her a worried glance, while Lin Shuang waved her hand and continued tearing through the monsters' encirclement with her greatsword and flames, advancing toward the Stellaron.

Even as she charged forward, Lin Shuang did not forget to crack a joke.

"I'm fine. It's just a little noisy, but it's much better than the dead silence of Nihility."

Watching Lin Shuang weave and dodge through the monsters, pushing forward with agility, Acheron's worries eased by half.

At least the tempering she had undergone during this time had paid off.

Lin Shuang had made clear improvements in both her combat ability and willpower.

Of course, Lin Shuang's stamina was not infinite either.

By the time she had fought her way beneath the launch tower, her hands were already growing numb from all the killing.

The Stellaron's radiance shone beneath the collapsed launch tower, dazzlingly bright.

And as Lin Shuang drew closer, the buzzing voice in her head grew increasingly deafening.

Clang—

With the sound of a blade leaving its sheath, Acheron cut down all the monsters nesting here in one stroke and appeared at Lin Shuang's side.

"What are you planning to do?"

Lin Shuang winked at Acheron. With a flick of her small hand, a card appeared between her index and middle fingers.

"I'll give it a try first."

Volume One: Next Time for Sure

Holding the Storage Card, Lin Shuang walked toward the Stellaron while Acheron naturally took over the task of clearing out the monsters.

Though after Lin Shuang's earlier massacre, there was not much pressure left anyway.

She walked deeper into the launch shaft. The Stellaron gleamed brilliantly.

The Stellaron sat within a massive damaged machine, a piece of equipment that clearly did not match the style of this spaceport.

Perhaps it had been built to suppress and contain the Stellaron back then, only to be damaged later.

Within that shattered apparatus rested a Stellaron that continuously flowed with golden bands of light, gorgeous beyond compare, like a precious treasure.

Its brilliant golden light made the Stellaron look less like the Cancer of all worlds that brought ruin and more like a star that had fallen from the sky.

"It's so beautiful."

Lin Shuang ignored the temptation echoing through her mind.

She raised the Storage Card in her hand toward the Stellaron. Then, without Lin Shuang needing to activate it herself, the Storage Card seemed to sense her intention.

In a flash of white light, the golden Stellaron was swallowed up without the slightest delay.

The golden radiance quietly faded, followed by the white light.

An image of a slowly rotating Stellaron appeared on the previously blank Storage Card.

And whether it was expected or unexpected—

Once the Stellaron was stored away, the irritating noise abruptly stopped, and the discomfort vanished in an instant.

Acheron could even sense that the interstellar routes beyond the planet were beginning to reopen.

However, even with the Stellaron gone, neither the Fragmentum, the monsters left on this planet, nor the utterly destroyed ecosystem—

Could be restored in a short time.

Unless the Interastral Peace Corporation was willing to spend an enormous sum rebuilding the planet.

But the planet's civilization had already gone extinct. Unless it possessed some additional value, they probably would not invest many resources into restoring it.

"Did it work? I can feel that the Stellaron's power is gone, and the routes to other worlds will soon be open again."

Acheron approached from behind. She too saw the slowly rotating Stellaron symbol on the card.

Clearly, Lin Shuang's card was truly miraculous.

It had accomplished something even Madam Herta could not do.

After all, Herta needed an entire space station to suppress a Stellaron, while Lin Shuang's card far surpassed Herta Space Station in both portability and effectiveness.

Unfortunately, this was not the time for Acheron to breathe a sigh of relief.

Because Lin Shuang did not merely want to seal the Stellaron. She even had the audacity to use the Stellaron's power as her weapon.

Although at Acheron's level, something like a Stellaron was not particularly valuable.

That did not mean she could calmly accept someone trying to wield a Stellaron's power as an individual.

Especially when that someone was a person Acheron cared about.

"Mm. Now comes the most important part."

As Lin Shuang spoke, she flipped her hand and propped the greatsword diagonally before herself.

Her hand holding the card fumbled over the broad hilt and pressed a button with a click.

A slot appeared before Lin Shuang.

It was a slot for installing an energy source, and its original shape even resembled the kind used for batteries.

Though this energy core was installed in the greatsword, the greatsword itself had originally been manifested from the power within the Herrscher Core.

In truth, there was little difference between this and placing it directly inside the Herrscher Core.

As for why she had made it like this, Lin Shuang felt it was simply a similar sort of bad taste.

However, when Lin Shuang brought the card closer, the slot rapidly shifted and turned into the shape of a card slot.

Clearly, this sword possessed remarkably intelligent adaptive capabilities.

But this time, Lin Shuang did not insert the card directly. Instead, with a wave of her hand, she released the Stellaron she had just stored.

The familiar sticky sensation washed over her. Lin Shuang grabbed the Stellaron and stuffed it into the greatsword's slot, snapping the cover shut with a click.

Then—

Boom—

Flames surged forth. The massive blade suddenly began vibrating at high frequency, even releasing a piercing hum.

Bzzzz—!

Lin Shuang felt an extremely violent, uncontrollable force pouring out from the Herrscher Core.

Golden radiance began spreading outward from Lin Shuang's body.

This time, the Stellaron's violent reaction manifested directly on Lin Shuang herself!

"Aah—!"

The uncontrollable power began raging wildly within her body. If the Herrscher Core had not automatically limited its output to an appropriate level—

Lin Shuang's body would have been torn apart on the spot!

The instant Acheron heard Lin Shuang scream, she immediately realized something was wrong.

"Lin Shuang!"

Calling out Lin Shuang's name, she disregarded the raging flames, stepped forward, rushed into the fire, and grabbed the greatsword in Lin Shuang's hand.

She spun around and pressed Lin Shuang into her embrace, then forcibly snatched both the greatsword and the Storage Card into her own hands.

Crack—

Acheron opened the greatsword's energy cover. Without Acheron needing to do anything, the sword automatically spat out the Stellaron.

The flying Stellaron then crashed directly into the Storage Card and was contained once more.

Only after losing its energy source did Lin Shuang finally recover from her loss of control.

The violent energy rapidly dispersed into the air. Once it had faded to a certain extent, Lin Shuang regained control over herself.

"That was too dangerous."

One hand gripping Lin Shuang's greatsword and the other firmly pressing down on Lin Shuang's shoulder, Acheron lowered her head with a frown and looked at the girl in her arms.

Lin Shuang's face was somewhat pale at the moment. Clearly, the experience just now had not been pleasant.

Even with Acheron's good temper, she could not help getting angry now.

Why could this girl be so reckless?

Yet Lin Shuang merely rubbed against Acheron's chest and laughed.

"Sorry, sorry... I just wanted to test it. Ow↑ ow↑ ow↑ ow—! It hurts, it hurts! I was wrong, I was wrong!!"

Unfortunately, before she could finish speaking, Acheron only had to exert a little force with the hand gripping Lin Shuang's shoulder for Lin Shuang to let out a thoroughly deserved scream.

Acheron loosened her grip slightly. Lin Shuang raised a hand to rub her shoulder and bared her teeth at Acheron.

"You didn't have to use that much force..."

Seeing Lin Shuang's expression, Acheron felt a little guilty as well.

But before she could apologize, she saw Lin Shuang raise her hand and grasp the Storage Card containing the Stellaron again.

"Hey, I originally thought that if I put the Stellaron directly into the sword, maybe I could free up the Storage Card. Turns out it still doesn't work."

Seeing Lin Shuang still explaining herself, Acheron's guilt vanished completely.

"You should at least discuss it with me first."

"Okay, okay. Next time for sure."

Lin Shuang winked at Acheron, supported herself on Acheron's arm, and wriggled free from her embrace.

She picked up her greatsword again.

Volume One: Acheron: I Like a Drink Called "Awakening in a Dream." Let's Have It Together Sometime

"Don't worry. This time, I'll put it in together with the Storage Card. Even if it fails, at least what happened just now won't happen again."

Holding her greatsword, Lin Shuang made the promise to Acheron with a cheerful grin.

The Storage Card's sealing ability was excellent. The Stellaron's power was tightly isolated, and Lin Shuang did not know whether her Herrscher Core would still be able to draw energy from the Stellaron after it was put inside.

But at least the previous situation would not happen again.

Yet no matter how Acheron looked at her, Lin Shuang did not seem reliable at all.

After hesitating for a moment, Acheron finally nodded helplessly.

At this point, she could not exactly stop Lin Shuang now.

At worst, what had just happened would repeat itself. She could treat it as a lesson for this girl.

Yet this time—

The cover transformed into a card slot, and Lin Shuang smoothly inserted the card into the greatsword.

As the cover closed, flames ignited the greatsword once more and spread all the way over Lin Shuang's body.

A familiar power continuously flowed from the Herrscher Core before spreading through her limbs and bones.

The Stellaron's power still possessed the same violent nature, but after being suppressed by the Storage Card, it would not erupt all at once.

This gave the Herrscher Core sufficient capacity to convert the violent energy as it absorbed it.

What could not be converted would remain trapped within the Storage Card and could not be released. Only the portion fully controlled by the Herrscher Core would be delivered by the core.

By the time it reached Lin Shuang, it was more like the product of the Stellaron's energy decaying within the Herrscher Core.

As a result, although Lin Shuang still felt that this power was somewhat violent—

It had already reached a controllable level.

Lin Shuang controlled the inexhaustible energy filling the Herrscher Core, freely summoned a cluster of flames, and set off a firework before herself and Acheron.

"Acheron, look! I told you it would work, haha~ Now I can use fire to my heart's content too."

"Mm. Congratulations."