What? I Have to Fight Rocks?

The battle ended, and the sea grew calm again.

Kokoro had already leaped from the water onto the deck.

She hurried over to Lin Nuo and looked him up and down, concern in her eyes. "Are you okay?"

Lin Nuo rolled his shoulders and smiled. "I'm fine. That was nothing."

"Everyone worked together well. That move where you dismantled their ship underwater was brutal. Even I didn't see it coming."

"You really made the most of being Merfolk."

At Lin Nuo's praise, delight flashed in Kokoro's eyes, but she kept her shrewd expression and merely raised her chin.

"Of course I did."

While the others cleared the battlefield and rounded up the prisoners, Lin Nuo focused his thoughts and opened the system interface only he could see.

The "portal" icon still shone brightly, light streaming across it as its edges spun at high speed.

But... it was just a fraction short of opening.

Damn system.

Giving me the silent treatment, huh?

Even defeating and "recruiting" someone as important as John apparently hadn't supplied that last bit of energy.

Ugh... Lin Nuo sighed inwardly and closed the interface.

Then he glanced at Kokoro, who stood beside him with a faint smile, and decided he needed to "try harder."

He leaned toward her and asked quietly, "Assistant, how do you think I did back there?"

His sudden closeness and out-of-the-blue question caught Kokoro off guard. "V-very well."

She didn't understand why he was asking.

Lin Nuo's smile deepened. He leaned closer still, almost speaking into her ear.

"Since I did so well... could my next reward be... a taste of your lip gloss?"

"L-lip gloss?"

Kokoro froze, then her cheeks turned bright red.

Before leaving Water 7, she'd bought some human cosmetics, including several shades of lip gloss to add color to