The air in the carriage seemed to be sucked dry instantly, and the temperature plummeted.
Only Silver Wolf's gloating laughter in the communication channel remained as background noise.
March 7th also keenly noticed the strange change in atmosphere.
Seeing the purple-haired beauty's smile suddenly stiffen and her eyes deepen, her heart skipped a beat.
(Could it be... I guessed wrong?)
She scratched her head, once again trying hard to activate her "Himeko-brand brain" to search her memory bank.
It's not Sam... then who is it? Who else is in the Stellaron Hunters?
Blade? No, that's a man.
Silver Wolf? She seems like a small girl... She hesitated, then tentatively asked again: "Uh... could it be... Elio?"
"Pfft hahahaha—Elio! She thinks you're that cat! A cat, Kafka!!" Silver Wolf's laughter was almost choking.
Kafka felt her blood pressure rising sharply.
She watched as the other person opened her mouth, seemingly ready to continue guessing names from the Stellaron Hunters list, and finally, unable to bear it any longer, she interrupted expressionlessly with a slightly faster-than-usual tone:
"Kafka."
"Oh! Right, right! Kafka!" March 7th suddenly understood, immediately nodded, and showed a relieved expression, certain she was right this time.
Then, the carriage fell silent once more.
The two—the Stellaron Hunter, feared throughout the universe, and the Astral Express navigator with March 7th inside her body—just stared at each other across a short distance.
Kafka looked at the other person's bewildered eyes, and for the first time while executing Elio's script, she felt a deep sense of powerlessness.
(What exactly... is going on?)
Just as the awkwardness was almost solidifying, March 7th finally belatedly realized another crucial problem. She sharply gasped, exclaiming in Himeko's voice:
"What?! Kafka?! You're Kafka, the Stellaron Hunter?!"
This exclamation finally broke the eerie silence in the carriage and successfully carried outside.
"What's that sound?!"
"March? What's wrong?"
"Unauthorized projection detected! Pom!"
Hasty footsteps and inquiries quickly approached.
Xing was the first to appear at the door, followed by Himeko with March 7th's face, then the Conductor Pom-Pom scurrying on short legs, and Danheng, who had appeared on the other side, arms crossed, at some unknown point.
Everyone's gaze instantly focused on the uninvited purple-haired figure in the center of the carriage, and on the "Himeko" opposite her, who was pointing at her with a look of just having realized what was happening.
Kafka instantly regained her composure, as if the previous awkwardness had never occurred.
Facing their various gazes, she elegantly adjusted her collar, yet within her heart, she had a complex understanding of this "small change" in Elio's script.
(It seems this "disclosure" won't be so smooth.)
Cyrene followed the little girl Mobius into a room whose style differed greatly from other areas of the Paradise.
The air was cold.
The walls were cold gray alloy, embedded with many screens and pipelines she couldn't understand.
In the center of the room was a huge console, displaying various precise and cold instruments, with some containers holding indescribable samples immersed within.
In the corner, several cylindrical transparent cultivation chambers stood silently, empty, yet adding to the eerie atmosphere.
"Is this... where you live, Mobius?"
Cyrene looked around uneasily, curiosity mixed with an instinctive discomfort.
The gloomy environment gave her goosebumps on her arms.
"Yes, this is my 'little home,'"
Mobius, walking ahead, didn't turn her head, her voice still soft and sweet.
She walked straight to the console and leaned against it casually.
Just then—
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