[Pointy-Hat Lady]: What kind of pose is that? And hey—this is my body. Don't strike weird poses with it.
[Want Some Campus Springtime With Mei]: Whoa. So this is what they mean by "fighting to deepen your bond," huh?
[Want Some Campus Springtime With Mei]: Since you already won, if you wanna play a galgame then just say so! Boss! This is the legendary "battle-damaged CG collection" segment, right? I get it!
[Heart Thief Crew Boss]: What galgame? Stop talking nonsense.
[Heart Thief Crew Boss]: I'm not interested in checking a "special CG" with zero emotional buildup. That kind of thing is no different from ordinary **. A soulless interaction is meaningless.
[Pointy-Hat Lady]: Do whatever.
[Pointy-Hat Lady]: Handle them however you want. They're your spoils of war—I'm not interested. Just don't dismantle my space station.
[Pointy-Hat Lady]: Or toss them in a corner. As long as they're not in the way, I don't care.
[Heart Thief Crew Boss]: Fine. Works for me.
Bai Qian closed the chat.
He turned around and swept his gaze across the wreckage.
Kafka was still half-reclined against the rubble, breathing a little hard. Silver Wolf had already sat up and was busy brushing dust off her jacket. The moment she noticed Bai Qian looking over, she shrank her neck on instinct and hurriedly hid her already-cracked handheld console behind her back.
A few minutes later, two figures lay in the corner of the corridor—hands and feet bound with heavy-duty ties made of some special material.
Bai Qian didn't know what they were, but if they came from Herta's space station, then even if they weren't a "curio," they had to be quality goods.
He crouched down until he was eye-level with Silver Wolf.
The "hacker prodigy" looked completely deflated now—like a gaming addict who'd just had her console confiscated.
"Hey. You. The gamer one." Bai Qian pointed out the shattered porthole. Beyond it, a massive shadow was creeping closer through the starfield: a Doomsday Beast, huge enough to blot out light, tearing into the station's outer defenses. "That thing—and the Antimatter Legion grunts—how are you dealing with them?"
"Don't tell me you two didn't prep a backup plan."
Silver Wolf lifted her eyelids to glance at Bai Qian, then at the beast outside.
She clicked her tongue. Her voice came out weak, stripped of its earlier swagger.
"The Astral Express will handle it."
She shifted, trying to sit more comfortably, but the restraints cinched tight around her wrists and ankles.
"The script says so. They'll come in like heroes and take down the big guy. We just… we just give it a little push along the way."
Then, as if wronged, she muttered under her breath:
"Who knew we'd run into you? This wasn't in the script."
"Huh? You're whining now?"
"I mean—" Silver Wolf swallowed, her throat bobbing once. "Normally, the crew reaches the main control zone any minute. That Doomsday Beast is their beginner tutorial… and it's also an 'awakening prop' for someone else."
"So you're saying if I do nothing, the station still ends up fine?" Bai Qian narrowed his eyes. "Then given our current situation, doesn't that mean I should start 'checking your special CG' now?"
Silver Wolf twitched hard—like she'd been shocked.
Wait, no, no, no!
Herta doesn't like girls… right?! How did this fast-forward to my special CG?!
That's not how galgames work! You're supposed to build affection first—give gifts, trigger special events in special locations, move my heart, raise the bond level—and then you unlock the special CG!
Bai Qian extended a hand toward her.
Palm up. Fingers curling in a beckon.
"Phone."
"H-Phone?"
Silver Wolf pressed herself against the wall, body curled tight. The ties dug into her skin, leaving deep red marks. She glanced at Bai Qian, then at that small hand that was currently "Herta's."
Not special CG—good. Anything but that.
"Left pocket."
Bai Qian reached into her shorts pocket.
The fabric was thin. His fingers brushed the warm skin along the outside of her thigh.
Silver Wolf's body went rigid for a split second—breath caught, thigh muscles tightening like a cat pinned by the scruff—yet she didn't dodge.
He pulled out a phone plastered in anime stickers.
The screen lit up. The wallpaper was a limited character from some game.
"Unlock it." Bai Qian angled the screen toward her face.
Biometrics approved. The home screen popped up.
Bai Qian flipped through icons. Within minutes, he'd found the credit transfer page. Then he took out his own phone.
"How do I transfer… oh, there. Make a burner account."
He typed in an account, entered an amount, hit confirm, and had Silver Wolf provide the payment password.
Ding. Funds received.
"I mean… Herta. Miss Herta." Silver Wolf stared at what he'd just done, her mouth twitching. "You're Genius Society's 83rd member. You seriously need to rob me for this many credits?"
"Pocket money," Bai Qian said without looking up. "Even geniuses have times they don't want to go through official accounts."
The transfer confirmation vanished. Bai Qian's finger didn't stop; it slid to the other end of the screen and hovered over an app icon—one of those anime-face logos you see in endless ads.
Silver Wolf's drooping head snapped up.
"Hey." Her voice was dry—shaking. "You already took the money, so… that, that doesn't need to be opened."
Bai Qian tapped.
A familiar startup jingle echoed down the corridor.
"TiMi—"
Nope. Different game.
The loading bar finished. The main menu appeared, and in the top-right resource display, the paid currency number was absurd.
And by pure coincidence, that currency was also called Stellar Jade.
Bai Qian whistled softly.
"You saved a lot. All grind, huh? If you just swipe nonstop, you'll lose interest in the game."
He opened the warp menu. His finger passed all the flashy limited banners and went straight to the far right.
Standard banner.
The one only newbies and suckers touch.
"What are you doing?" Silver Wolf's voice shot up an octave. She tried to straighten, but the restraints only allowed a pathetic wiggle—like a worm on the floor. "No—are you a demon?!"
Bai Qian's finger hovered over Ten-Pull.
The distance was only a few millimeters.
Silver Wolf's breathing turned ragged, chest rising and falling fast. She stared at his fingertip as if it were a guillotine blade. Tears gathered at the corners of her eyes; her lips trembled, the cocky hacker aura utterly gone.
"I already have E6 standard characters! Y-you—no, you can't do this, okay?!" Her words tumbled out, fast and near-sobbing. "Don't press it. Please. Don't."
"But I refuse."
His finger fell.
"One of my favorite things in this world is telling smug people 'NO'—right when they still think they can win, or when they think there's room to negotiate!"
The screen exploded into animation.
Gold light? No. Not even purple.
It was the miserable blue glow of a ten-pull all blues, accompanied by that cutscene that shattered a million unlucky hearts.
"Aaah—!!!"
Silver Wolf wailed.
Her upper body jerked up as she tried to snatch the phone, but the special ties limited her range. She could only watch, helpless, as the results displayed… and then saw another finger poised to strike.
"Again."
"No! That's a fully-set weapon banner! I'm not rolling standard!"
"Again! I wanna see how many pulls you've got!"
"That's my guarantee for a limited character! Don't touch it! That's my LIFE!"
Bai Qian's motions never hesitated.
Tap. Skip. Results.
Tap. Skip. Results.
Hundreds of thousands of Stellar Jade drained like water, turning into a pile of three-star light cones that weren't even worth feeding as fodder.
He cleared the first game.
Then he closed the app.
His finger hovered over the next icon.
"Next."
Silver Wolf's eyes went unfocused. She stared into empty space, lips quivering, throat producing a meaningless clicking sound.
"I just want to see that expression!"
Bai Qian tilted the screen slightly so she could watch the loading bar more clearly.
"That face where you can only watch me pull—the resources you saved up, your hundreds of pulls, those numbers you calculated for strength and for XP night after night…"
"Right up until the last second before I hit confirm, they still thought it was their owner—you—doing the clicking."
"And now?"
"They're all in my shape."
Silver Wolf's body spasmed once.
A login chime rang out—new game, successfully entered.
"D-Don't… don't say it…" Her voice was tiny, pressed out of her chest like air through a crack. "The account… the account's yours… just don't… don't melt my artifacts…"
Bai Qian ignored her.
Right in front of her, he opened the inventory and selected several fully-upgraded, god-tier relics.
Unlock.
Dismantle.
"NO—!!!"
With lightning-fast reflexes, Bai Qian snapped a photo at the exact moment her expression collapsed.
On the phone screen, Silver Wolf's face—drained of all light—looked eerily hollow.
Bai Qian opened the group chat. Swiped. Tap.
Image sent.
Silver Wolf lay there, limp, not even reacting to the camera shutter.
Her soul seemed to have drifted away with those dismantled golden relics.
[Heart Thief Crew Boss]: Exclusive limited "Defeated CG" of a bratty genius hacker—one copy only.
[Want Some Campus Springtime With Mei]: Uwaa! So this is a hacker master? Why does she look like she got totally broken—Boss, what did you DO?!
[AAA Customer Service Saki]: Um… I've seen that face on people who missed their repayments and got visited by debt collectors. That's brutal.
[Dragon Sis Is Dragon]: This is the punishment after defeat? Where I'm from, we'd just give them a quick death.
[Legendary, Fireproof King]: If this battle was for collecting runes… I don't understand it, but I choose to respect it.
[Rin Tohsaka]: Is it really okay to post photos like this?! I hate losing too, but this is… this is psychological warfare!
[Pointy-Hat Lady]: Stop messing around. Time's about up—get ready for the group raid.
-------
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