Azura couldn't fit into the elevator.
Although she had squeezed in from the rooftop helipad into the building corridor, the passenger elevator simply could not accommodate Azura's bloated body.
And even if she did squeeze in, the elevator would definitely sound an overload alarm, wouldn't it?
Azura began bubbling anxiously.
"Glub glub, can't go down."
Despite having no face and being so huge, she somehow still seemed adorable.
"...Wait here. I'll ask the professor to come up."
As it turned out, the call wouldn't go through at all.
It was my first time calling the professor. I hadn't expected her phone to be off; that research-obsessed maniac was probably holed up in the laboratory, unwilling to be disturbed.
"I'll head down. Wait here."
Then I would have to personally go and invite her out.
I took the elevator down to the Research Level. The place was steeped in a feverish atmosphere of refusal to lose. Judging from the plans posted on the wall, they seemed to be tackling the technical difficulties of point-to-point teleportation.
Were they unwilling to accept falling behind a third-party partner in terms of technology?
"Professor, are you there?"
I knocked on the door, but there was no response.
"I'm coming in."
The bad feeling grew stronger. I pushed the door open and immediately saw a figure in a white lab coat collapsed in front of the workbench...
"Hey! Professor!"
She hadn't dropped dead from overwork, had she?
I hurried over to check. She was still breathing, and there were no external injuries. Her eyes were even moving beneath her lids, and she was smacking her lips.
The conclusion was obvious...
She was asleep.
"Professor, wake up?"
I patted her powdered cheeks. Though she was an old-man Monster, she looked quite pretty while asleep. With her light