People Can't Even Empathize with Their Past Selves

"At least we're finally together again now."

The memories ended there. Aemeath gazed at the group photo, a crescent-shaped smile appearing on her face.

A-Yu was right. Home was wherever everyone was together, and it wouldn't be complete if even one of them was missing.

Now, the scars in her heart had been filled with overflowing happiness, and she was content.

"Oh, I should get to bed early. I think A-Yu said he was taking us out tomorrow."

With that, Aemeath quickly threw herself onto the velvet bed and wrapped herself snugly in the blanket. Before long, she drifted off to sleep with a sweet smile on her face.

Of course, not everyone could fall asleep the moment they hit the bed like Little Ai.

"I can't sleep..."

How strange. Wasn't Little Dania usually a little sleepyhead who loved nothing more than a nap? How was it that, for once, she wasn't sleepy tonight?

Dania didn't know either. She glanced at her phone. It was already past midnight.

"Could it be because I've been staying up late so much lately...?"

Dania looked back on her sleeping hours over the past few days. Good grief, she'd basically been sleeping during the day and playing at night. She'd really turned herself into a night owl.

Back in Solaris, she couldn't sleep at night. Here, she didn't want to sleep at night. Dania suddenly found it rather funny.

"I wonder if Ling's asleep... Though he probably isn't."

Since she couldn't sleep anyway, Dania threw back the covers and got out of bed. She didn't put on slippers, stepping barefoot onto the tile floor instead. It felt cool and comfortable.

With a faint click, Dania opened her bedroom door and stepped out, padding like a cat toward Xiao Ling's bedroom at the far end.

The door wasn't locked. Dania gently pressed the handle and quietly pulled it open a crack.

Sure enough, Xiao Ling, that seasoned night owl, was playing a game on his computer. He'd just taken a shower, and his somewhat messy hair was still damp. He wore a black tank top and a pair of loose shorts. His exposed biceps were well defined, and he looked like the type who worked out regularly. His black headphones hung casually around his neck as he focused all his attention on the game.

This was the first time she'd thought to take a look at Xiao Ling's nightlife. He told her to stop staying up so late gaming, yet here he was having a great time gaming himself. He really was a bad guy who held others to strict standards while giving himself a pass.

Dania wasn't going to let him get away with it. She was determined to cause a little trouble for his gaming session.

And so, as Xiao Ling was fiercely battling Dania's weekly boss, he found a little blueberry cake burrowing insistently into his arms.

Huh? When had she come in?

Xiao Ling thought Dania really was like a cat, coming over without making a sound. His attention had been on the game, but that didn't mean he couldn't hear a door opening.

So Xiao Ling stopped what he was doing and watched Dania work her way into his arms, then settle matter-of-factly on his lap.

"Didn't someone tell me to stop staying up late playing games?" Dania looked up and met Xiao Ling's eyes, then poked him on the head with a delicate finger. "And now you're secretly playing games in the middle of the night yourself? You didn't even notice me coming in?"

"I've been a night owl for years." Xiao Ling stroked Dania's hair. "I can't just change my sleeping habits overnight, can I?"

"Then we're not going out tomorrow?"

"I'll go to bed early. As for now..." The corners of Xiao Ling's mouth curved upward. "Neither of us can sleep anyway, so how about you keep me company while I play?"

Dania didn't answer. She just snuggled a little closer into Xiao Ling's arms.

Xiao Ling smiled helplessly and returned to his computer.

To be honest, if he really were the kind of virgin who had never seen much of the world, he probably wouldn't have been able to control his body's reaction by now.

Although Xiao Ling had often joked wildly with fellow fans about pumping this little blueberry cake full of cream, he knew perfectly well that those were just immature dirty jokes.

After all, being unable to control his desires in front of a girl he liked was the quickest way to ruin her impression of him.

Ever since they had truly arrived in reality, these sincere feelings were no longer one-sided, but a two-way street.

Enough with the feel-good talk. Xiao Ling continued controlling his character and fiercely battling Dania's weekly boss, while Dania quietly grinded through the map on her phone.

After grinding for a while, Dania looked up at the computer and saw that he was actually still using her to fight herself.

"What are you doing?" Dania poked his cheek in displeasure. "Why do you keep beating me up?"

"So now you admit that's you?" Rather than explain directly, Xiao Ling pointed at the weekly boss Dania, whose stagger bar had been depleted and who was drawing circles on the ground, and asked her a question of his own.

"She is me, but she isn't," Dania answered ambiguously.

"What did it feel like back then?" Xiao Ling brought it up casually.

In truth, Xiao Ling really did feel sorry for Dania. She had no past, much less a future, and the leader of the Fractsidus was utterly inhuman, determined not to stop until he had squeezed every last bit of value out of this good girl. In the end, she could only choose to exile herself, atoning for her mistakes while also protecting the friends who meant so much to her.

"My mind was completely clear, but my body hurt like it was on fire. I knew exactly what I was doing, but I couldn't do anything about it." Dania described how she had felt at the time with complete nonchalance as she played her game.

But even if the leader of the Fractsidus hadn't controlled her, she still would have stood in front of the anchor then, all to get an answer she wanted.

She suddenly felt Xiao Ling's breathing grow a little faster behind her, so she stroked the hand he had on the mouse with her delicate, soft one, as if to comfort him.

"Didn't Chisa say it? The story in Solaris is in the past now." Dania raised her hand and flicked Xiao Ling's nose with a smile. "The present and the future, moving forward together with our friends, are more precious."

And the time I spend with you, too.

Xiao Ling froze for a moment, then smiled gently again. "Would the head coach like to take the field herself? You can treat it as saying goodbye to your past self."

With that, he relinquished control of the computer entirely and handed the stage over to Dania.

Dania smiled knowingly and took the keyboard and mouse.

After getting familiar with the keyboard and mouse under Xiao Ling's guidance, she opened her weekly boss fight again, ready to properly say goodbye to her former self.

(The head coach is warming up.jpg)

"Lightwing mode, activate... This night, the sea of stars shines clear! (Aemeath)"

"Now, meet your end! (Chisa)"

"Don't blink-this is the most dazzling moment! (Lynae)"

"I shall question the stars! (Morning)"

"I'll be officiating your funeral! (Lahai-Roi)"

"I'm going to swing all the way to the stars! (Sigrika)"

"Radiance... melts away here... (Dania)"

Behind every character's Resonance Liberation voice line was an executed weekly boss Dania.jpg.

Dania found that beating up her former, disappointing self was indeed quite a good way to relieve stress. No wonder she'd seen so many videos on Bilibili of characters fighting their own weekly bosses.

After finishing the weekly boss one last time, she handed control of the keyboard and mouse back to Xiao Ling, but he didn't take them right away.

"I'm done, you know?" Dania reminded him in a soft, sweet voice.

"Isn't there one character you haven't used yet?" Xiao Ling teased. "Our Lady Blazing Sakura Shrine Maiden is really strong in the game."

"Uh, never mind... I know that Crimson Snow Shrine Maiden is really strong..." Dania said, her face reddening slightly with embarrassment.

Xiao Ling, do you have any tact at all?! Getting slashed by Crimson Snow was what gave me PTSD in the first place, okay?! Dania screamed inwardly.

Seeing that his little scheme had worked, Xiao Ling didn't tease her any further. He took the keyboard and mouse and logged out.

"Not playing anymore?"

"I'm switching games."

Dania nodded and picked up her phone to continue grinding the map.

"How many pulls have you done?" Xiao Ling asked about Dania's gacha pulls while the game was starting up.

"A hundred and something, I think. I'm only ten pulls away now." Dania tapped her cherry lips with a finger, looking thoughtful.

"Did you hit hard pity?"

"I'm almost at full chain."

Damn it, I hate lucky people! Now it was Xiao Ling's turn to get upset.

A series of dun-dun-dun-dun-dun sounds came from the computer, briefly drawing Dania's attention to it.

"Delta Force?" she asked curiously. "What kind of game is that?"

"I'll play a round and show you," Xiao Ling said with a chuckle.

He entered the game, geared up, selected top-secret aerospace, and then, charged in!

Xiao Ling had queued with randoms, and the three of them each chose the character they were best with before entering the match.

"Are you going to rob someone?" Dania's curiosity was piqued.

"You could put it that way?"

It had to be said that Xiao Ling really was a gaming expert. Even in a game that required concentration, he could hold a girl in his arms while directing the battle and dancing circles around the enemy.

The other two players on his team had it rough, though. Hearing that extra soft, sweet little cake's voice through Xiao Ling's mic, they were green with envy.

After Xiao Ling single-handedly wiped out three squads with his two random teammates, he was preparing to loot the bodies and extract when he suddenly heard the classic truce signal of FPS games.

Xiao Ling ran his character over to take a look. It was a little butterfly rat, and when he saw her, she was dancing with a "Happy Birthday" sign raised over her head.

Xiao Ling gestured for her to follow him and led the cute butterfly rat over to pick through the leftovers.

"You let her go?" Dania asked, puzzled. She had just seen Xiao Ling deal with everyone else by shooting them twice in the chest and once in the head without a word.

"It's kind of one of the game's features, I guess?" Xiao Ling explained patiently. "We usually let players who ask for a truce like that go. Even if we killed them, we wouldn't necessarily get anything good off them."

"Robbing the rich to help the poor?"

Girl, how did you make an extraction shooter sound like some ancient outlaw righting wrongs?

In the end, though, Xiao Ling let her interpretation stand. After he led the butterfly rat to the leftovers, she used a keycard to open a room for them in return.

Finally, the four strangers who had met by chance prepared to happily pull the lever and extract.

But not every story could have a perfect ending.

With thirty seconds left before they could extract, the poor butterfly rat was sent back to the operations center by a surprise shot from the garden.

"Oh, she died." Dania froze for a moment as the butterfly rat, who had just been interacting enthusiastically with Xiao Ling and the others, was taken out in one shot. Then she took the opportunity to fan the flames.

"So what would you like me to do?" Xiao Ling asked for Dania's opinion with a smile.

Dania said nothing, merely drawing a hand across her throat.

Xiao Ling understood immediately. He turned to the two teammates already raging over the mic and said, "We'll extract at the next lever. First, let's offer those rats who took the potshot as a libation to the butterfly rat."

"Time for my bid!"

"Deploying a bomb!"

"Trust my professionalism. I never miss!"

That was how simple men's understanding could be. In an instant, all three activated their skills and went after them.

Dania now knew that the suffering she had endured had all been part of a script someone else had written for her.

A predetermined fate always left one feeling powerless. That was probably why she had wanted to give up on herself and walk to the end of her life back then, wasn't it?

Although in the end, Rover had saved her.

She always felt that her life now was so wonderful it seemed unreal, and had even begun to doubt whether she deserved it.

But Ling had simply told her:

"Would the head coach like to take the field herself? You can treat it as saying goodbye to your past self."

The solid embrace behind her was real, the friends she shared meals with were real, and this world's kindness toward her was real too.

In that case, she had no reason to keep dwelling on the scars of the past.

That Fractsidus test subject was a thing of the past. Now, she was just an ordinary girl named Dania.

She could make friends and eat delicious food to her heart's content.

She could also allow herself to try liking someone.

The person she liked would resonate with her past self, treasure her present self, and want to walk into tomorrow together with her future self.

There was nothing happier than that, was there?

That was why people could never empathize with their former selves: one day, they would grow up and look back on their past selves with a smile.

But right now, she seemed to be getting a little sleepy.

She thought she might as well fall asleep like this. That idiot Ling would just chuckle helplessly and carry her back to her room anyway.

And so she really did fall asleep, curled up in Xiao Ling's arms.

It wasn't until Xiao Ling pulled himself away from the game that he noticed Dania was sound asleep in his arms.

"Hey, this girl. She got sleepy and didn't even go back to her own room," Xiao Ling grumbled with a helpless smile. Then he scooped her up and carried her back to her room.

He gently laid her on the bed and tucked her in. After saying "Good night," he quietly left the room.

This lovely girl, who had once never believed happiness existed, had finally found happiness of her own.