Energy Conservation, A Healthy and Long Life

"Dan Heng, little March, you two did a good job this time. When you encountered danger, you didn't rush forward, but learned to retreat."

When the group of four finally arrived at the Master Control Zone, the one who greeted them at the elevator entrance was the well-figured red-haired big sister and Astral Express navigator, Himeko. At this time, she was looking at March 7th and Dan Heng with a teasing smile: "Unfortunately, your reaction was still a bit slow. You'll have to practice this move more in the future."

"Himeko~!" March 7th's face suddenly flushed red, and she argued, "Can a Trailblazer's actions be called retreating? I was… I was preparing to protect Caelus behind me, but I accidentally took two steps back! And since you saw it, why didn't you help us…"

"I was planning to help, but who knew your battle would end so quickly?" Himeko, who had been watching them through the space station's surveillance, initially planned to go down and help them, but before the elevator door even opened, the three Tramplers were down to only half a leg…

"Caelus and Twilight, right? Nice to meet you, I'm Himeko, the navigator of the Astral Express." Himeko looked at Caelus and Twilight, who was still clinging to him, a thoughtful glint flashing in her eyes.

The curio Herta had asked her to find seemed to have been found. The Stellaron's reaction was now within this child named Caelus. It was truly amazing. He clearly looked like an ordinary human on the outside, yet he harbored the Stellaron, nicknamed the cancer of all worlds, within him.

As for the other child…

Himeko's gaze lingered on Twilight for a moment, even making eye contact with her for a bit, but she didn't detect anything unusual. Short blue hair, lake-green eyes, wearing a tight-fitting suit like she'd just walked off a mecha anime set… her eyes even seemed a little vacant, giving the impression of not being very bright.

If she hadn't personally witnessed this girl smashing the Antimatter Legion to smithereens with her bare hands, Himeko probably wouldn't think she had anything special about her besides her beauty – ah, if someone said she was tricked into piloting a mecha or being an experimental subject, Himeko might believe that…

But Twilight was clearly not such a simple character. The reason she couldn't see through her was probably just one thing: her strength far surpassed her own… This small Herta Space Station had unexpectedly produced two such hidden dragons and crouching tigers at the same time.

As expected of the territory of Genius Society members, it was truly full of talent.

"Haha~"

"Himeko, what are you suddenly laughing about?" March 7th tilted her head in confusion, looking at her boss, wondering why she was laughing.

"It's nothing, I just suddenly thought… coming to different places, meeting different people, seeing all kinds of unknowns – this is perhaps the charm of Trailblazing." Himeko twirled a strand of hair around her finger and smiled, "Little March, you didn't cause them any trouble on the way, did you?"

"Me causing them trouble…?" March 7th widened her eyes, looking at Himeko in disbelief, wondering how such cold words could come out of her warm body.

She pointed at herself tremblingly, then pointed at Twilight clinging to Caelus, "Himeko, do I look like I would cause them any trouble? Caelus, you should know, right? Say something!"

She didn't think her head was harder than a Trampler's shell!

Caelus thought for a moment and nodded in agreement: "She chattered non-stop along the way, with witty remarks, a natural talent for crosstalk!" [Crosstalk is a traditional form of Chinese comedic performance.]

"Hehe, I'm not that good – wait, are you speaking up for me?"

"March was indeed very quiet this time." Dan Heng behind March 7th nodded in rare agreement, clearing her name, "At least after seeing half a Trampler, she stopped talking."

"Half a Trampler? Seriously?! And making me be both the victim AND the tsukkomi? Talk about overworking someone!" [Tsukkomi: The "straight man" in a comedy routine, the one who points out the absurdity.]

"My, my, young people get along so easily, becoming so close so quickly." Himeko covered her mouth and chuckled, then looked at Twilight, "This child, can't she speak?"

She hadn't spoken when Himeko saw her asking Caelus to hold her on the surveillance, just extending her hands, and she remained silent now as well, which made Himeko couldn't help but wonder about this aspect.

If that was really the case, it shouldn't be a big problem. After all, it was now the two thousand one hundredth something of the Amber Era. Treating aphasia wasn't a difficult task.

"No, she can talk, she called my name at the very beginning…" Caelus looked down at Twilight, equally puzzled, "But I don't know why, she hasn't spoken since then – maybe she doesn't like to?"

"Talking… is tiring…"

Unexpectedly, almost the moment Caelus finished speaking, Twilight's voice immediately rang out with an answer. After she finished speaking, she didn't forget to adjust her posture slightly so that she could be held more comfortably.

These words were Twilight's true feelings.

Speaking required one to consider wording, sentence structure, and making the other party understand the meaning one wanted to express.

This required a very complex thought process – in that case, it was better to simply not speak and let the other party guess her meaning. That way, she wouldn't have to think about communicating with the other party.

If the other party couldn't understand, then it was their comprehension that was at fault.

However, she would give Caelus some special treatment, because if he couldn't understand her meaning, it would be a big problem… He was related to countless players behind the screen!

Just so happened this special treatment should also gain her a lot of favorability.

And not only was talking tiring, walking was tiring too, wasn't it?

Since having Caelus hold her could both increase favorability and save her a few steps, why not do it? You should know that any creature, whether walking or talking, consumes energy… She only had a one-year lifespan, maybe by speaking less and walking less every day, maintaining an energy-saving and emission-reduction mode, she could live a few more days in the end.

Although her goal was to die in the end, compared to dying quickly by running around, she would rather choose to live slowly for a few more days before dying…

"Caelus, this child really likes you at first glance. She answered immediately when you asked her a question." March 7th's eyes widened slightly. She had tried many times to talk to Twilight on the way to the elevator, but basically all she got were replies in sign language.

Sigh, it's truly blatant favoritism…

"Hehe, anyway, let's go see Asta first, she's very worried about you." Himeko's eyes narrowed with a smile. She was really lucky today. Although they encountered an attack from the Antimatter Legion, she met two very interesting children.

It's decided, as long as they're willing, she'll bring both of them onto the train – regardless of whether Herta agreed or not, she would protect these two children! If it really didn't work, trying to be a space pirate was also part of exploring the unknown…

[Detected an increase in target Himeko's favorability, current favorability: 2]

[Current target charging efficiency: 180%]

That's the benefit of acting with the righteous protagonist group – their favorability was generally easy to come by.

Twilight glanced at Himeko's figure leading the way, then at March 7th and Dan Heng beside her.

She hadn't deliberately tried to gain favorability from anyone other than Caelus, not even saying a word. But just by walking together for such a short time, their favorability was no longer at the stranger level of zero.

Himeko's favorability reached level two in less than ten minutes after meeting her, and even March 7th, who seemed to be quite afraid of her, already had level three favorability towards her – although part of this was due to the bonus for defeating the Tramplers and protecting them.

Currently, the one with the lowest favorability towards her was Dan Heng, only at level one. Perhaps this was the nature of a reliable male.

And the typical representative of an unreliable male was obviously Caelus, who was happily holding her, one person equivalent to the other three combined…

Twilight felt that if she was a little more diligent and learned from Shoko's meticulous and personalized offensive towards Denji, or Lihua's towards Otto, it wouldn't be a problem to turn Caelus completely lovestruck.

After all, leaving aside personality and other factors, Caelus was currently starting with amnesia and a blank slate, without any defenses. Tricking him was even easier than tricking Kallen back then.

But she was just too lazy… But it doesn't matter, Caelus will take the bait himself.

Thinking of this, Twilight decided to set a small goal for herself – to max out Caelus's favorability before leaving the Herta Space Station without taking the initiative to do anything!

It sounded easy, and in reality, it wasn't difficult at all, because, as everyone knows, 2D player characters were always easy to please.

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