March 7th's Maternal Instincts Run Wild, Only to Be Rejected by Limitless

March 7th lunged at him.

Her short pink hair flew up, carrying a faint, sweet synthetic scent.

She wore the besotted smile she got whenever she saw a plush toy, her arms spread wide.

The camera at her waist swung with a clack, its lens cap nearly striking the metal bulkhead.

Su Chen stood still.

Right now, he had the body of a little girl of seven or eight.

He wore an oversized black high-collared uniform, its collar nearly covering his chin.

Watching a grown young woman charge at him, his first instinct as an adult man was to dodge.

But as he stepped back, his shoe caught on his overlong pant leg.

The fabric pulled taut. He lost his balance and nearly pitched forward.

Fortunately, Limitless worked automatically.

March 7th's arms were about to wrap around his soft little body.

Only a tenth of a millimeter remained.

Thud.

It was the dull sound of flesh meeting something solid.

Not a person, but a wall no one could see.

March 7th's nose took the hit first.

The tip flattened against the air, squashing into a comical pig snout.

Her outstretched hands pressed hard against the invisible barrier.

Her fingers strained until they turned white, veins standing out on the backs of her hands, yet she could not touch that upturned lock of white hair before her.

"Huh?"

March 7th cried out, her voice thick and nasal.

All that momentum had nowhere to go.

Like a frog stuck to a window, she slid down the unseen wall.

Her cheeks squashed against the barrier.

Her knees struck the metal floor with a heavy thump.

Su Chen steadied himself.

He pushed up the little round sunglasses that had slipped down his nose.

The strawberry lollipop in his mouth crunched between his teeth.

"It won't work."

His bright, childish voice was insufferably smug.

He pulled a small hand from his pocket and pointed to the tiny gap between himself and March 7th.

"Between you and me lies 'infinity'~"

The little girl stuck out her tongue, its pink tip still stained red by the candy shell.

It was pure provocation.

March 7th rubbed her reddened nose, tears nearly spilling out.

She plopped onto the floor and looked up in utter confusion.

The ache in her nose made it hard to speak.

"What infinity? Are you carrying a Foldable Shield Generator?"

Unconvinced, she cautiously poked forward with one pale finger.

Her fingertip stopped ten centimeters from Su Chen.

She felt no resistance, no sensation of touching anything solid.

It simply would not go any farther.

It was as if those ten centimeters had stretched into tens of thousands of light-years.

No matter how hard she pushed, her finger went nowhere.

"Uncle Welt, Himeko, there's something weird about this kid!"

March 7th turned to complain.

A note of grievance crept into her voice.

Welt did not answer.

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

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

His breathing grew heavy, his chest rising and falling more sharply.

Behind his lenses, his eyes locked on the spot where March 7th's finger had stopped.

"Don't touch her, March!"

Welt suddenly raised his voice.

Its stern edge startled March 7th where she sat, and she snatched her hand back.

Himeko turned, red hair sweeping across her shoulder.

She rarely saw Welt look so ready for a fight.

Facing the Female Lord who could form a meteorite with one hand, Welt had been wary, awed as if before an ancient god.

Now, though, disbelief was written all over his face.

It was the horror of seeing scientific common sense trampled underfoot.

"This isn't a shield."

Welt stepped forward, grabbed March 7th by the arm, and hauled her to her feet behind him.

Through his glasses, he stared at the white-haired little girl licking her lollipop.

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

The obscure terms slipped from his lips.

March 7th brushed the dust off her skirt, completely lost.

"Uncle Welt, why are you talking in riddles? What tortoise?"

Welt's Adam's apple bobbed.

His dry throat produced a hoarse voice.

"A paradox made real."

He pointed his cane at the air in front of Su Chen, its tip quivering.

"You think she blocked the attack. No. She didn't defend herself at all."

Welt spoke faster and faster, as though afraid he might miss a detail.

"She simply divided the space approaching her without end."

Cold wind blew through the damaged dome and down the corridor.

Welt's voice trembled slightly in the empty passage.

"The closer you get to her, the slower you move. That's because the space you must cross has been stretched to infinity in physical terms."

"It's a terrifying ability to manipulate the origin of space."

"There was no warning in the form of an energy fluctuation. She didn't even need a hand sign or an incantation. It's as though... it's as natural to her as breathing."

Welt drew a deep breath. The veins on the back of his hand twitched twice.

"As long as she stands there, even a direct blast from an Interastral Peace Corporation capital ship's cannon could never touch her clothes."

Himeko's fingers tightened sharply around her cutting gun.

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

She took another look at the little girl who barely reached her waist.

The Seventh Seat.

The Imaginary Divine Court's Seventh Seat looked harmless, like a child who only knew how to act spoiled.

Yet she wielded godlike authority over space as casually as a passive toy.

How many more monsters was this organization hiding?

Su Chen's eyes lit up behind his sunglasses.

Welt really is a good guy.

That analysis, that grasp of what's going on—he's the perfect straight man.

I couldn't come up with lines that grand if I racked my brains, and Welt made it all sound convincing in a few sentences.

He even threw in an explanation of the special effects.

Blue system notifications began popping up across his vision in rapid succession.

[Shock Points +1,800!]

[Shock Points +1,500!]

[Shock Points +1,200!]

The flashing gold numbers were dazzling.

Su Chen was delighted. A muffled snicker escaped his throat.

He accidentally choked on his own saliva.

"Cough, cough."

The little girl began coughing, her pale cheeks flushing red.

Welt's words had frightened March 7th, but her maternal instincts were already stirring again.

She took half a step forward without thinking.

"I-Is she okay? Is the candy stuck in her throat?"

Su Chen hurriedly waved a hand and thumped his chest with his small fist.

"I'm fine, I'm fine."

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

The sky and stars seemed to swirl within them.

Ethereal. Deep.

But without a trace of human warmth.

March 7th shivered under their gaze.

The sympathy that had just welled up in her froze at once.

She quietly retreated behind Welt.

"You grown-ups think too much."

Su Chen put the lollipop back in his mouth, puffing out his left cheek.

"I just think the air on this space station is dirty. I don't want to get my clothes filthy, that's all."

He turned, his little dress shoes clicking crisply against the metal floor.

"Come on, come on. Take me to see that toy called the Stellaron."

He waved a hand as if ordering around a few disobedient servants.

His tone made it sound like the most natural thing in the world.

Welt and Himeko exchanged a glance.

Each saw the weight in the other's eyes.

The Imaginary Divine Court's power ran unfathomably deep.

The Fourth Seat could crush stars with one hand, while the Seventh Seat toyed with paradoxes of space.

What did they want from this universe?

Hands behind his back, Su Chen strode down the corridor with an exaggerated swagger.

With every step, he repeated to himself, I've hit the jackpot.

The Shock Points he had harvested this time were enough for several more blind boxes.

Should I save up for something big and pull Lord Madara outright?

Just as he happily planned his future,

the emergency light overhead, already half broken, suddenly spat a burst of blinding sparks.

Then the space station's alarms wailed to life again.

"Woooo—woooo—"

The high-pitched air-raid siren stabbed at everyone's eardrums.

Red warning lights whirled wildly, turning the corridor into a slaughterhouse.

Su Chen jumped. His foot caught, and he nearly fell flat on his face.

He quickly regained his balance and stood straight, pretending nothing had happened.

The lollipop knocked hard against his teeth, making him suck in a sharp breath.

"What now?"

March 7th clapped both hands over her ears and shouted.

Her voice sounded thin and feeble beneath the alarms.

A figure stumbled around the corner at the far end of the corridor.

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

His bandages had come loose, and the freshly treated wound on his shoulder was bleeding again.

Blood ran down his arm and stained the communicator gripped tightly in his hand.

Arlan gasped for breath, his chest heaving.

He had run so hard that he collapsed in front of Himeko.

His knee struck the metal floor with a dull thud.

"Something's wrong!"

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

"Outside the space station!"

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

"A massive Wormhole has opened!"

"The Antimatter Legion's fleet... it's coming through!"