March 7th's Maternal Instinct Overflows, Tragically Rejected by Limitless

March 7th pounced forward.

Her short pink hair swept through the air, carrying a faint, synthetic sweet scent.

An obsessive smile unique to someone seeing a stuffed toy graced her face, and both her hands were stretched out wide.

The camera at her waist clattered noisily with the movement, and its lens cap almost struck the metal cabin wall.

Su Chen stood in place.

He currently inhabited the shell of a seven or eight-year-old loli.

He wore a loose, black high-necked uniform, the collar almost hiding his chin.

Watching a grown young woman lunge at him without a care, his soul as an adult male made its first reaction: dodge.

Yet the moment he retreated half a step, his sole trod upon his overly long trouser leg.

The fabric tightened, his body skewed, and he nearly tumbled forward.

Fortunately, Limitless was fully automatic.

March 7th's arms were about to embrace that soft little body.

The distance shrank to a mere tenth of a millimeter.

"Thud."

A dull sound of flesh colliding.

Not crashing into a person, but hitting an utterly invisible wall.

March 7th's nose suffered first.

The tip of her nose was flattened right against the air, squished into a comical pig nose.

Her spread hands pressed desperately against that layer of invisible barrier.

Her fingers exerted force until they turned pale, and the veins on the backs of her hands bulged, yet no matter what, she could not touch that tuft of white hair sticking up before her eyes.

"Eh?"

March 7th let out a cry of pain laden with a heavy nasal tone.

Her immense momentum had nowhere to release.

Her whole body stuck like a frog to glass, sliding downward with a squeak along that unseen wall.

Her cheeks squeezed and deformed against the barrier.

Her knees slammed heavily onto the metal floor with a "thud".

Su Chen steadied his posture.

He reached out and adjusted the small round sunglasses sliding down the bridge of his nose.

The strawberry-flavored lollipop in his mouth was crunched to loud cracks.

"Useless, you know."

He spoke in that grating, crisp, childish voice.

A small hand reached out from his pocket and pointed at the slight gap between himself and March 7th.

"Between you and me, 'infinity' exists~"

The loli stuck out her tongue, a bit of red candy shell still staining the pink tip.

It carried an abundance of provocation.

March 7th rubbed her reddened nasal bridge, tears practically welling up.

She sat heavily on the ground, lifting her head with a face full of bewilderment.

The sourness in her nasal cavity made it hard for her to speak properly.

"What infinity? Did you bring a Foldable Shield Generator on you?"

Refusing to believe it, she extended a fair finger and cautiously poked forward.

Her fingertip stopped ten centimeters away from Su Chen.

There was neither resistance nor the sensation of touching a hard object.

It simply refused to go in.

As though those short ten centimeters had been stretched out into a distance of tens of thousands of light-years.

No matter how hard she tried, her finger slipped in place.

"Mr. Yang, Sister Himeko, there's something weird about this kid!"

March 7th turned her head to complain.

A trace of grievance laced her voice.

Welt did not reply.

The Former Herrscher of Reason stood outside the VIP Lounge door at that moment, the black cane in his hand trembling slightly.

The rubber tip pressed a white ring into the metal floor.

His breathing grew heavy, the rise and fall of his chest visibly magnifying.

The eyes behind his lenses locked dead onto the spot where March 7th's finger hovered.

"Don't touch her, March!"

Welt suddenly raised his volume.

A hint of sternness laced the voice, startling March 7th who sat on the ground and causing her to retract her hand in a hurry.

Himeko turned her head, her red hair sweeping across her shoulder.

She rarely saw Welt display such a posture of facing a formidable enemy.

Earlier, facing the Female Lord who could pluck meteors from the sky with a single hand, Welt showed wariness and the awe due to an ancient deity.

Right now, however, Welt's face was written all over with disbelief.

It was an astonishment born of scientific common sense being ground into the dirt.

"This isn't a shield."

Welt stepped forward two paces, grabbed March 7th's arm, yanked her up from the floor, and pulled her behind him.

Through his lenses, he stared intently at the white-haired loli licking a lollipop.

"Achilles and the Tortoise... Zeno's Tortoise."

Obscure terms tumbled from his mouth.

March 7th patted the dust off her skirt, utterly clueless.

"Mr. Yang, what riddles are you talking in? What tortoise?"

Welt's Adam's apple bobbed up and down.

A hoarse voice issued from his parched throat.

"The paradox has been materialized."

He pointed his cane at the patch of air before Su Chen, the tip trembling slightly.

"You thought she blocked the attack, but no, she didn't defend at all."

Welt's speed of speech grew faster and faster, as though he feared missing any single detail.

"She merely subjected the space approaching her to infinite division."

The cold wind in the corridor blew past through the shattered dome.

Welt's voice sounded somewhat trembling in the empty passageway.

"The closer you get to her, the slower your speed becomes. Because the space you must cross has been stretched to infinity in a physical sense."

"This is a terrifying ability that manipulates the origin of space."

"There is not a single sign of energy fluctuation, nor does it even require hand seals or chanting. It is as if... this is her innate breathing instinct."

Welt took a deep breath, the veins on the back of his hand twitching twice.

"As long as she stands here, even a direct bombardment from an Interastral Peace Corporation mainstay ship's main guns will never 'touch' her clothes."

The fingers Himeko used to grip her cutting torch tightened abruptly.

Her nails dug into her palm, bringing a trace of stinging pain.

She re-examined the little loli whose height had not yet reached her waist.

The Seventh Seat.

The Seventh Seat of the Imaginary Divine Court, a child who looked entirely non-threatening and only knew how to act spoiled.

Had actually treated a divine-tier authority like the control of space as a passive skill akin to a toy.

How many more monsters did this organization hide?

The eyes behind Su Chen's sunglasses lit up.

Old Yang truly was a good man.

This analytical capability, this reading comprehension level, was simply the perfect straight man to his comedy act.

He himself could never have dreamed up such high-end lines even if he wrung his brain dry, yet Old Yang rounded it all out in just a few words.

And even voluntarily added special effect descriptions.

On his retina, blue system prompt boxes began popping up frantically.

[Shock Points +1800!]

[Shock Points +1500!]

[Shock Points +1200!]

The golden numbers danced in a dazzling display.

Su Chen blossomed with joy inside, a muffled sound of suppressed laughter issuing from his throat.

He accidentally choked on his own saliva.

"Cough, cough."

The loli suddenly coughed, her fair face turning red from holding it in.

March 7th had just been frightened by Welt's words, but her maternal instincts were overflowing somewhat once again at this sight.

Subconsciously, she took half a step forward.

"Is... is she alright? Did she get choked by the candy?"

Su Chen hurriedly waved his hand and patted his chest vigorously with his small hand.

"Fine, fine."

He pulled his sunglasses down a bit, revealing a pair of azure eyes.

Those eyes looked as though the sky and stars were flowing within them.

Ethereal, profound.

Yet devoid of a shred of emotional warmth belonging to humanity.

Stared at by those eyes, March 7th shivered.

The bit of sympathy that had just welled up froze instantly.

Silently, she retreated back behind Welt.

"You adults' minds are truly complicated."

Su Chen shoved the lollipop back into his mouth, his left cheek bulging into a small pouch.

"This young lady merely felt that the space station's air was a bit dirty and didn't wish to soil her clothes, that's all."

He turned around, his little leather shoes tapping crisp sounds out on the metal floor.

"Let's go, let's go, take me to see that toy called a Stellaron."

He waved his hand as though ordering about a few disobedient servants.

His tone was a matter-of-course.

Welt and Himeko exchanged glances.

Both saw the heaviness in the depths of each other's eyes.

This Imaginary Divine Court possessed unfathomable foundations.

The Fourth Seat could shatter stars with a single hand, while the Seventh Seat toyed with spatial paradoxes.

What on earth did they want to accomplish in this universe?

With his hands behind his back, Su Chen strolled with a swaggering gait toward the depths of the corridor.

Every step he took, he silently chanted "hit the jackpot".

Harvesting this wave of shock points was enough for him to draw several more blind boxes.

Should he save up a massive wave and summon Lord Madara directly?

Just as he was delightfully planning for the future.

The half-broken emergency light overhead suddenly burst forth with a string of blinding electric sparks.

Immediately following that, the entire space station's alarm wailed shrilly once more.

"Woo—woo—"

The high-frequency air-raid siren pierced everyone's eardrums like an awl.

The red strobe lights spun crazily, dyeing the corridor to resemble a slaughterhouse.

Startled, Su Chen tripped underfoot, nearly face-planting into a dogfall on flat ground.

He hastily steadied his balance and straightened his posture, pretending nothing had happened.

The lollipop in his mouth collided heavily against his teeth, causing him to draw in a sharp breath of pain.

"What is it now?"

March 7th covered her ears with both hands and shouted aloud.

Her voice appeared thin and powerless amid the alarm.

At the corner at the end of the corridor, a figure stumbled out in a rush.

It was Arlan, the head of the space station's Security Department.

The bandages on his body had unraveled, and the wound on his shoulder that had just been treated was seeping blood outward once more.

Blood flowed down his arm, staining the communicator he clutched tightly in his hand.

Arlan gasped heavily for breath, his chest heaving violently.

Running too hastily, he collapsed face-first right before Himeko.

His knees slammed heavily onto the metal plate, emitting a dull thud.

"This is bad!"

Arlan ignored the pain and gripped the communicator, its screen half shattered. His voice cracked.

"Outside the space station!"

He swallowed a mouthful of bloody saliva and pointed with a trembling finger toward Outer Space.

"A huge Wormhole has opened!"

"The Antimatter Legion's fleet..."

"It's coming through!"