Roccia's Impromptu Meeting

Evening was drawing near. With Sigrika's group...

"Yaya, the place Aemeath and the others mentioned is this place called... McDonald's, right?" Sigrika asked Dania beside her, looking at the large "M" sign in front of them.

"Mm-hmm... that's right, this is it." Dania carried a large bag of snacks in her left hand. After looking up to confirm the location, she went back to scrolling through her phone with her right hand.

Speaking of which, how did this little blueberry cupcake eat snacks all the time without gaining any weight at all?

"But this doesn't seem to be the meeting place we agreed on with Senior...?" Sigrika was a little worried that Xiao Ling wouldn't be able to find them.

"They wouldn't have gone out of their way to tell us about a change of location unless something unexpected had happened." Dania kept scrolling through her phone, not worried in the least. "As for Ling, I've already told him, so you don't need to worry too much, Xixi."

Hearing that Dania had already contacted Xiao Ling, Sigrika finally relaxed.

"Then shall we go in? I wonder what they need to discuss that made them change the location all of a sudden..."

Sigrika pushed open the door to McDonald's and pulled Dania, who was still scrolling through her phone, inside.

Inside McDonald's at that moment...

Roccia tapped her arm with her fingers. Before long, she heard a series of footsteps approaching their table from a distance.

Then she heard Sigrika speak in surprise, though she didn't dare make too much of a commotion:

"P-Principal Roccia, what are you doing here...?"

As soon as Dania heard Little Orange say Principal Roccia's name, she was jolted back from the online world to reality. Only then did she see Principal Roccia looking at the two of them with a smile.

"Uh... hello, Principal..." Dania: well-behaved.jpg.

"Oh, you two are finally here. Sit down, sit down!" Lynae beckoned them to their seats, taking the shopping bag from Dania's hand along the way.

"It's a little heavy. How much did you buy?"

Aemeath and Chisa crowded around like curious children, and the three of them began counting the snacks Dania had bought.

"Lay's, yogurt, Oreos, Pocky..."

Roccia listened to the three girls rattle off a list of snacks like they were reciting a menu, then looked at Dania in considerable surprise, as if asking whether she could finish all those snacks by herself.

Dania: Is it too late to find a hole to crawl into?

It wasn't that Dania had taken so many snacks because she was a foodie. She had never eaten well back in the Fractsidus, and at the academy, the food had only been a little better than what she'd had there. When she came to this world and saw the dazzling array of snacks, she couldn't resist and casually grabbed just a billion extra...

"As someone who's been there, I think it's better not to make meals out of convenient foods like snacks, you know?" Roccia offered a well-meant reminder, though she had more or less guessed that Dania had probably taken everything simply because she hadn't tried it before.

"Oh, okay..." Dania replied obediently.

It's fine. If I really get hungry, I can just act cute and wheedle Ling. He'll give me an extra meal.

Xiao Ling and Morning were the last to arrive.

Morning was clearly startled by the large bag of snacks on the table, while Xiao Ling seemed unfazed.

"Yaya, you're doing this again. What are you buying so many snacks for? Trying to put on weight?" Xiao Ling said irritably, giving Dania's nose a little flick.

All the girls except Dania: ?????

Dania's face turned beet red, an enticing blush spreading to her neck and the tips of her ears.

Come on, bro, look where we are...

Seeing Dania like this, Roccia immediately understood that the girl had fallen completely.

There was nothing wrong with that. In Roccia's personal opinion, Dania deserved to be treated this way, and Xiao Ling was worthy of her trust.

He just spoiled Dania a little too much. Roccia would have to give him a talking-to another day. Healthy living was important too.

And besides-

Looking at the varying expressions on the girls' faces around her, Roccia suddenly began to take pleasure in the Asura field he would have to face later.

But for now, it was time to return to the matter at hand-

Roccia clapped her hands, drawing everyone's attention to her.

"To be honest, I didn't expect to run into you here either." Roccia first explained that this impromptu meeting had come about unexpectedly. "But since we're all here, this is a good chance to share some necessary information."

"The first topic concerns you, Xiao Ling."

The student group: shocked.jpg.

They hadn't told Roccia Xiao Ling's name just now, but since Roccia could say the Rover's real name in this world, that meant-

"You're quite famous at your school now. Your peers are saying behind your back that you're a top-tier player who's dating five people at once." Roccia sounded a little helpless. "I've done my best to keep the rumors under control, but I didn't expect managing public opinion in this world to be harder than handling the documents that decide Star Torch Academy's future direction."

"That Counselor Yang you're familiar with was also held accountable for being lax with his approval. He's stewing over it right now, and I doubt it'll be long before he comes looking for an explanation."

"Principal Roccia, don't tell me you're the new principal of our school that Brother Yang mentioned?" Xiao Ling asked Roccia in return.

The day after Dania had crossed over, he'd heard from Brother Yang while requesting leave that an exceptionally beautiful new principal had come to their school. Now it seemed that was Roccia.

Roccia gave a slight nod, confirming what he'd said.

"If you and the others want to attend Xiao Ling's school later on, Aemeath, I wouldn't mind pulling a few strings for you. You could also experience the customs and culture of an academy in this world while you're at it." Roccia extended an offer to the student group. "Consider it... a special academic exchange?"

Dania looked completely uninterested, but the other girls were a little excited to hear they could attend Xiao Ling's school and seemed to be looking forward to it.

"The second topic is about how we crossed over," Roccia said, introducing the next subject.

"Although it's only speculation, based on the information I currently have, the people affected by this crossing weren't chosen entirely at random. There was a selection process." Roccia tapped her fingertips rhythmically on the table as she slowly laid out her theory. "Everyone sent here has a fairly deep connection to the Rover-that is, Xiao Ling."

Aemeath had heard A-Yu tell stories before about his adventures in Jinzhou and Rinascita, so she counted the people he'd mentioned on her fingers.

Come to think of it, there really do seem to be quite a few.

"As for why I came to that conclusion..." Roccia took out her phone and showed them a file. "You'll understand when you see this."

The others immediately gathered around in a circle to examine the file.

"Wait a second?! Isn't that Sister Shorekeeper?!" Aemeath immediately recognized the person in the file.

"Correct." Roccia snapped her fingers. "Shorekeeper, the nominal supreme commander of the Black Shores, has crossed over too. And I think you know better what the Rover means to Shorekeeper, their leader."

With the facts laid out before them, no one questioned the credibility of Roccia's theory any further.

"The final topic concerns our resonance abilities." Principal Roccia's expression grew noticeably grave when she brought it up.

"This world hasn't deprived us of our resonance abilities. Rather, it's placed a lock called cognition on them." Roccia presented her hypothesis. "The limits of what people in this world can comprehend are the limits of what we can do with our abilities."

"Aemeath, how much of your resonance ability can you use now?" Roccia chose to give an example.

"Me? I can still use data interference abilities through digital devices, but I definitely can't summon and fuse with my Tacet Discord Armament like I did before."

"Sigrika, can you still use your resonance ability?"

Sigrika tried to use it, but even after her little face turned red from the effort, she still couldn't use it at all. She could only lower her head dejectedly.

"Dania, what about yours?"

"I can't use it at all." Dania had already tried when she was in danger. She hadn't even been able to protect herself then.

"You should understand what this cognition lock means now." Roccia continued her explanation. "Aemeath can use data interference because similar things already exist in this world. But she can't summon or fuse with her Tacet Discord Armament because, in their eyes, that's something that only happens in movies and anime."

"As for Sigrika's and Dania's abilities, they can't be explained by what people in this world understand, so they can't use them at all."

"In other words, as long as the public believes their resonance abilities can be explained through this world's knowledge, their powers can be unsealed to some extent," Xiao Ling summarized.

"Correct. You're as quick-witted as ever." Roccia highly praised Xiao Ling's ability to understand.

"But you don't need to think about unsealing them completely. You only need enough power to protect yourselves. Compared to Solaris, this world is very peaceful, and it also has institutions that use force to maintain social stability. Under normal circumstances, there's no need for us to intervene," Roccia added.

"This world placed this cognition lock on us to help us integrate into this land, not to let us stand above it."

At this point, it was clear who urgently needed to unseal their powers.

Sigrika and Dania were undoubtedly the ones who most needed to hurry and unseal a small portion of their powers.

Even without her weapon, Chisa could use the Unbound Strings to find an enemy's weak point and kill them in a single strike.

Aemeath and Lynae had both undergone long-term training. If anything, they should be more worried about accidentally injuring someone severely.

There was even less reason to worry about Roccia and Morning. They should have already proven their value to the higher-ups here, so they would naturally be given more importance than the others, and might even have the authority to provide their own explanations for certain phenomena.

"All in all, just treat this trip to another world as an unexpected vacation. You don't need to worry too much about anything else." Roccia brought the impromptu meeting to a close with a brief summary.

"What the students need to do is enjoy the vacation. Leave everything else to us adults."