MEI's Home.
Having prepared a table full of food, MEI was waiting for her father to return.
Checking the time, MEI knew her father should be arriving soon.
So she took out her communicator, pulled up Kiana's contact in the address book, and subconsciously wanted to invite her over for dinner.
But just as she was about to press dial, MEI paused.
"Never mind. The number of invitations this month seems a bit too high. If this continues, Kiana will probably feel troubled, right?"
MEI put down her communicator, deciding not to invite Kiana today.
At this moment, the sound of the front door opening came through.
MEI stood up to look and greeted him simultaneously.
"Father... Kiana?"
Seeing the people entering, MEI was stunned. Because the first person to step through the door was Kiana, her face a mix of awkwardness and misery.
And only behind her was her father, Ryoma.
"I bumped into my eldest niece on the way and brought her along for dinner."
After explaining briefly to MEI, Ryoma ushered both MEI and Kiana to sit down and eat.
It was still the usual home-cooked meal. Aside from potentially sending someone straight to the afterlife to meet their ancestors, everything was fine.
Dinner passed little by little in a harmonious atmosphere.
Kiana picked up a piece of tofu covered in a cyan-green sauce with her chopsticks. The sauce emitted an unsettling green glow.
Looking at MEI's expectant gaze, she steeled her heart and swallowed it in one gulp.
BOOM!
Spiciness instantly spread through her stomach and simultaneously rushed straight from her taste buds to her brain.
Kiana felt a mushroom cloud explode in her mind. Her pupils began to lose focus, and the hand holding the chopsticks trembled constantly.
Forcibly suppressing the churning in her stomach, Kiana put down the chopsticks and gave MEI a thumbs up.
"D-delicious... MEI's cooking... has improved again..."
Hearing this, MEI looked extremely happy.
After resting for a moment, Kiana finally had the spare energy to look elsewhere. Then, she saw Ryoma gorging himself.
For an instant, a sense of admiration spread through her chest.
However, as she kept looking, Kiana frowned.
For some reason, even though they were two people with completely different appearances, she strongly felt a sense of deja vu from the "Ryoma" in front of her.
No, rather than deja vu, it was a sense of familiarity. It gave her the feeling of facing her good bro, Mu.
If she didn't know this person was MEI's father, she would have suspected that it was Mu disguised as Ryoma to prank her.
Feeling Kiana's gaze, Ryoma looked over. Kiana smiled and shifted her eyes away.
How could it be my good bro? He can't possibly turn into MEI's father...
As she thought this, Kiana suddenly froze and stared intently at Ryoma.
She remembered the various strange abilities Li Mu possessed... was it really impossible for him to turn into another person?
Kiana looked suspiciously at Ryoma, and the more she looked, the more he resembled her good bro.
Just then, she felt another gaze fixed on her. Kiana looked over and found MEI looking at her.
Only then did she realize that staring constantly at someone's father was indeed impolite, so she hurriedly averted her eyes.
But thinking of the outrageous speculation rising in her heart, a sense of curiosity kept scratching at her little heart, making her glance over again and again.
So weird.
Let me take another look... still so weird.
Is it that guy Mu or not?
What Kiana didn't know was that her actions fell completely into MEI's eyes.
Watching Kiana steal glances at her father from time to time, MEI's small face turned pale, and the chopsticks in her hand trembled.
Just as Kiana was wondering if the Ryoma opposite her was her good bro in disguise pulling a prank, a terrifying thought also rose in MEI's mind.
She thought about how her father had been constantly urging her to invite Kiana over for dinner lately. She originally thought her father was just afraid she was too isolated and wanted to use this to help her bond with her classmates.
But looking at Kiana—who thought she was observing Ryoma covertly, but in MEI's eyes was incredibly obvious...
And thinking of her father's abnormal enthusiasm for inviting Kiana to dinner recently...
Snap!
A crisp sound caught the attention of Ryoma and Kiana. The two looked at MEI and found that the chopsticks in her hand had actually snapped in half.
Meeting their gazes, MEI smiled unnaturally.
"Sorry, the quality of these chopsticks isn't very good. I'll go get another pair."
With that, she stood up and walked into the kitchen.
And after entering the kitchen, MEI's small face instantly turned ashen, as if all her blood had been drained.
"Is Father inviting Kiana over really to help me improve my relationship with my classmate? Or is it..."
A terrifying image surfaced in her mind.
One day, she brings Kiana home for dinner, and her father suddenly tells her: "From now on, you two will have separate terms of address. She'll call you Classmate MEI, and you'll call her Mom..."
MEI suddenly clutched her head, a look of horror on her face. Just thinking of this image made her feel like her brain was trembling.
"No, that's not right..."
MEI shook her head vigorously, throwing this terrifying thought out of her mind.
"Kiana is my best friend. She wouldn't be that kind of person. How could I think of such a disrespectful thing!"
"But... I still can't help but care..."
Soon, MEI returned to the dining table with a new pair of chopsticks. Everything seemed as usual.
However, whether it was an illusion or not...
Kiana felt that MEI's gaze towards her had grown deeper. But looking closely, she found MEI was still smiling as gently as before.
Kiana shook her head, chalking it up to her own imagination.
Soon, the meal was finished.
[Check-in completed: Raiden Mei's Dinner. Reward: 10 Crystals]
[Crystal Balance: 3000]
Counting the Crystals given by missions and the Crystals from eating MEI's cooking three times a day, after deducting the Crystals used to purchase knowledge and technology for MEI Corp's development, the balance had finally reached the 3000 mark.
And with 3000 Crystals, he could purchase the trial card for any Herrscher, except for Finality and Origin.
Looking at the Crystal balance on the System interface, Li Mu revealed a smile of pure bliss.
Heh! Hehehe!!!
Excellent. I, possessing world-shaking wisdom, now finally have world-shaking power.
Now, he lacked nothing.
...
After dinner, having sent Kiana back, Li Mu started browsing the news out of habit.
Soon, Li Mu's expression turned strange.
Because he saw:
[Breaking News: The framework of the newly built experimental building of the First Research Institute of the United Government collapsed today, causing multiple casualties.]
[Councilman Nicholas expressed shock and indignation, demanding law enforcement agencies immediately conduct a thorough investigation to give citizens an explanation.]
[...]
Looking at this news, Li Mu knew it was time for him to go meet Mobius.
Only this woman knew where the thing he wanted was.