Jiang Yu looked at Stelle too. Freeing one hand, he held his thumb and index finger close together in front of her, making a pinching gesture.
"Just a little. Xianzhou natives all love it! There's lots of good food on the Xianzhou. If we ever get to go together, I'll treat you to Soda Douzhi."
The boy grinned, his gray eyes narrowing to slits. His lashes, as snow-white as his hair, fluttered like ice crystals.
Looking at that face, Stelle nodded dazedly. She felt something like the first thaw of snow and ice spreading through her heart, completely unaware that she had already fallen into a trap.
"Hehe... it's a promise, then. No backing out when I treat you!"
Jiang Yu's smile grew even brighter.
Stelle smiled too, patting her rather flat chest and declaring that she was the Galaxy Bat Hero-she never turned down an offer!
Then Jiang Yu looked down at the Warp Trotter in his hands again. Grabbing the little creature's legs, he gave the creature a couple of shakes and said regretfully, "What a shame. You can't eat space piggies."
Stelle gave a helpless smile.
Just then, several beautiful, crystalline stones fell off the Warp Trotter.
Stelle noticed them, picked them up, and examined them in confusion.
That indescribable feeling appeared again. These were what she had sensed earlier-the things on the Warp Trotter that had drawn her so strongly!
A powerful intuition prodded at Stelle's mind, telling her that these stones could make her stronger.
Jiang Yu hugged the Warp Trotter and took a deep sniff. He recognized the stones as Stellar Jade at a glance, but Stelle suddenly froze as she stared at them, so he asked, "What's wrong?"
Stelle shook her head. "Nothing. I just... feel like these things can make me stronger."
"Oh! Then keep them."
Jiang Yu acted completely unconcerned, while thinking that this was how Stellar Jade worked here.
Thinking it through, players strengthened their accounts by pulling characters to build up their teams, too. It actually seemed pretty reasonable.
Unfortunately, he couldn't directly withdraw his own allotment of Stellar Jade from the system and give it to Stelle. Once he set up missions or events, the system would distribute that Stellar Jade directly to the players.
After taking another sniff of the Warp Trotter, Jiang Yu tossed the space piggy aside.
The moment the Warp Trotter landed, the creature fled at top speed, then plunged headfirst into the Rift Dimension.
But just as Stelle was about to put away the Stellar Jade, she suddenly froze. She sensed power flowing-a kind of spiritual energy from outside the Stellaron was pouring into her body.
Before Jiang Yu and Stelle's eyes, the Stellar Jade slowly melted, then dispersed into light. Finally, every last wisp of stardust flowed into Stelle's body.
"What the Aha? It works that fast? How do you feel now?"
At Jiang Yu's question, Stelle frowned slightly, stretched, and hopped a couple of times. Her body didn't feel any different. She hadn't become lighter or heavier, nor did she feel any stronger.
So she shook her head. "It doesn't seem like anything changed..."
Jiang Yu raised a hand to rub his chin. Remembering how much Stellar Jade a pull cost, he said:
"Maybe there wasn't enough. Let's catch more Warp Trotters when we run into them and try again."
Stelle nodded, wholeheartedly agreeing with Jiang Yu.
The Warp Trotters had no idea that two big bad villains had set their sights on their entire species...
After confirming that absorbing Stellar Jade had no negative effects on Stelle's body, Jiang Yu and Stelle continued toward the records room. This time, there were no further interruptions.
They followed the space station's corridors, rounded a few corners, and crossed several Repulsion Bridges before entering an office.
At that moment, the only person in the office was a young staff member who looked not yet thirty, hard at work.
Noticing Jiang Yu and Stelle enter, the young staff member immediately stood up. Exhaustion was written all over his face, and he had severe dark circles under his eyes. Most importantly, despite his youth, he already had a bald patch on top.
The balding fellow didn't seem particularly concerned about his appearance. His eyes lit up when he saw Stelle and Jiang Yu, and his gaze, dulled by long hours of work, immediately regained a little spark.
He slid up on his knees and grabbed Jiang Yu's hand, hoping Jiang Yu would give him an autograph.
The balding fellow's behavior left Jiang Yu a little stunned, but he still had the man fetch a pen and paper and signed his name. As he signed, he murmured to Stelle, "Looks like I'm a big celebrity now!"
Stelle watched from the side, itching for her turn. Yet after Jiang Yu finished signing, the balding fellow didn't pass her the pen and paper.
This left the Galaxy Bat Hero feeling decidedly unhappy.
"What about me?" Stelle asked.
The balding fellow stopped, looked at Jiang Yu, then at Stelle, and muttered, "Wen Shiling didn't tell me to get anyone else's autograph..."
Still, he handed Stelle the pen and paper and said, "You sign too, you sign too."
Thoroughly satisfied, Stelle signed the illustrious name of the Galaxy Bat Hero on the paper.
After getting the autographs, the balding fellow carefully put them away, then fiddled with the computer for a while. Finally, he returned with a sheet of paper and handed it to Jiang Yu.
"Wen Shiling told me you'd be helping retrieve the Horrific Maze. This is the complete file on it."
"Thank you." Jiang Yu accepted the file and thanked him politely.
"Hehe, you're welcome. Hehehehe..." The balding fellow clutched his few remaining strands of hair and chuckled foolishly.
Jiang Yu glanced at the man, feeling that he was just as strange as Wen Shiling.
So the boy reached out and tugged on the hem of Stelle's clothes. "Let's read this outside."
Stelle nodded in agreement.
Although she was a little puzzled by Jiang Yu's choice, the sunshine-scented kid surely had his reasons.
After leaving the records room and returning to the corridor, Little Grey Hair and the little white-haired boy squatted in a corner and read the file together.
"Curio name: Horrific Maze."
"Curio number: #1145."
"Description: The Horrific Maze is a pale cyan cube measuring 10 × 10 × 10 cubic centimeters that floats in midair. It possesses self-awareness, can move independently, and is capable of communication. The Horrific Maze scrambles the 1,000 × 1,000 × 1,000 cubic meters of space surrounding it and all matter within, creating an enormous maze to protect itself. Individuals within the maze experience mental interference, typically manifested as a loss of direction and sightings of monsters or other frightening entities inside the maze. Imaginary Energy weakens the Horrific Maze's effects on spatial matter and living individuals."
"Containment procedures: The Horrific Maze must be contained in the designated Imaginary Overflow Storage Container developed by Ms. Herta. Retrieving the Horrific Maze requires at least five agile combat personnel who are highly confident in their own abilities and exhibit no pronounced fear response toward any particular object or phenomenon. All five combat personnel must be injected with Mental Interference Suppressant before entering the maze to begin retrieval. Once within 500 meters of the maze's center, retrieval personnel may install and activate the Imaginary Overflow Interference Field to weaken the Horrific Maze and commence retrieval."
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