Chapter 69
"You know what?" Matilda's sudden voice broke the silence.
"What?"
"This is my first love." She lay on the bed, staring at the ceiling above her head, as if Jake should be there.
"Matilda, we agreed to talk about these things when you're older," Jake frowned and shook his head. "You're too young—you don't know what love is yet."
"I do know, at least... I can feel it." The girl's voice surprisingly carried a more mature tone.
"You can feel it? Where?"
"In my stomach." She stretched out her two small hands and touched her flat belly. "My stomach used to always feel tight and knotted, but not anymore."
"That's because you used to eat irregularly." Jake patted the girl's feet. "And congratulations, your digestive issues are resolved."
"No, it wasn't a digestive problem." Matilda suddenly sat up in bed, only to find that Jake had already disappeared from her sight.
"Looking for me?" A voice came from above Matilda's head. "Maybe we should focus on something else?"
At this moment, Jake was standing on the ceiling, seemingly defying gravity!
...
The next day, Jake called Matilda in sick from school, and the two disappeared for an entire day.
When they reappeared, they were wearing matching black suits—him in a tuxedo, her in a tactical dress—standing back to back, one tall and one short, with a large black rolling suitcase at their feet. Matilda was much shorter, but the stark height difference made it more visually striking, radiating an intimidating aura.
"How long are we going to hold this pose?" Jake secretly wiped the sweat from his forehead and asked quietly.
"Okay, fine," Matilda said, relaxing her stance. She looked at Jake with a smile. "At least we should maintain our cool factor when we exit, right?"
"Sure, whatever you say," Jake shrugged, releasing his stiff posture. He pressed a button on the watch on his left wrist, and with a beep, the pure black suit automatically detached, leaving him wearing only a pair of boxer shorts.
The tuxedo folded itself automatically and was casually tossed onto the bed by Jake.
He slipped on his flip-flops and headed toward the living room.
Watching Jake lazily walk to the refrigerator, grab a Gatorade, and chug it down, Matilda shook her head, seemingly exasperated. But a few seconds later, her eyes lit up with excitement as she looked at the large black rolling suitcase they'd placed at their feet during their pose.
Matilda, like a kid counting Halloween candy, opened the black suitcase. Inside were eighteen spray canisters—their haul from their first trip to a new world together. These sprays could instantly heal wounds, something Jake had been eyeing for a while.
With such rapid-healing medical spray, he could now enter many movie worlds he'd previously been too cautious to attempt.
"If we had helped humanity wipe out all the 'Souls,' or helped the 'Souls' capture the remaining humans, we could have gotten way more supplies instead of just raiding a few storage facilities," the girl pouted, somewhat dissatisfied. Then suddenly, she smiled.
This was the kind of Jake she liked—someone who could be mischievous in small matters, but had firm principles when it came to the big picture. Besides, this was just talk. The two of them couldn't possibly achieve either of those things in their current state anyway.
"Where are we going next?" Matilda zipped up her suitcase and carefully hid it in her bedroom before coming out to ask Jake, who was sprawled on the sofa.
"I've got things to handle..." Jake remained lying on the couch, seemingly exhausted from this trip to the new world. "As for you, don't you have finals coming up? Go to class."
"We just saved humanity and resolved the conflict between aliens and humans!" The girl huffed as she walked up to Jake, hands on her hips.
Looking at the girl standing in front of him, Jake reached out and, to her gasp, pulled her into his arms, holding her petite frame. He said, "Wearing that combat suit all the time will make you dependent on it." He remained silent about his actual experiences in the previous world. "It'll affect your natural development."
"Hey! You, you, you're going to..." Matilda stammered, her voice sounding like a scratched CD, a blush spreading across her cheeks and reaching her ears. "I, I..."
Held in Jake's arms, they lay down on the sofa together. The girl's body was tense, but when she looked at the person holding her, she saw he was already asleep. Her tension instantly melted away, and she sighed, "I knew it."
This time, the dimension-hop had been rushed. At the girl's insistence, Jake had taken Matilda with him.
The new movie folder's universes were much more dangerous. Going to a safer world wasn't impossible, but pointless dimension-hopping was a waste of time.
Matilda couldn't be sheltered forever. Given her personality, she would insist on going no matter how dangerous it was.
Moreover, with the black combat suit made from the modified tuxedo, Matilda was now virtually untouchable by even a dozen grown men.
To protect Matilda while ensuring this mission wasn't meaningless, Jake chose a movie that could be considered a box office disappointment—The Host—set against the backdrop of an alien invasion.
The aliens were incredibly fragile parasitic beings called "Souls," who gradually eroded human consciousness by infecting the nervous system, controlling and replacing human minds, living on Earth in human bodies.
Thus, the parasitic aliens became the new rulers of Earth, while humanity, the former masters of the planet, became mere hosts.
The storyline Jake and Matilda entered was precisely that world, where the "Souls" sent controlled "humans" as Seekers to hunt down the surviving free humans.
The movie had many plot holes, such as how an alien species already capable of interstellar travel could be so physically fragile that they needed to be stored in containment pods and couldn't withstand physical trauma—how could such beings survive space travel for so long?
Moreover, as a futuristic sci-fi world, its technology tree was even more imbalanced than Equilibrium. Biotechnology was highly advanced, exemplified by instant-healing medical spray—no matter the size of the wound, as long as the person wasn't dead, a little spray would revive them immediately.
However, their combat capabilities were pathetic. The "Seekers," besides wearing white suits and driving white SUVs, only carried small handguns!
Humans were even worse off, using farming scythes and shovels!
Jake and Matilda materialized in the room where the female protagonist had just been implanted with the Wanderer soul, where she was being held in isolation.
They didn't interact with her. Matilda didn't recognize her, and Jake simply didn't want to acknowledge her existence. Under the bewildered gaze of the disoriented protagonist, the two burst through the door and left. Upon encountering the parasitized humans with their distinctive glowing eyes, Matilda, newly equipped with her high-tech combat dress, became excited.
She single-handedly took on four or five burly Seekers, knocking them all unconscious with a spectacular spinning kick.
"What are you standing there for? Hurry up and go!" After Matilda finished dealing with all the Seekers, she looked at Melanie, who was standing at the doorway staring at her in shock, and said, "If you don't leave now, more of them will come."
Although Melanie possessed the glowing silver eyes that indicated she'd been parasitized, Matilda did not knock her unconscious at Jake's request, but let her go.
Even in her parasitized state, as the female protagonist, she undoubtedly possessed a formidable will.
Then, under the watchful gazes of Jake and Matilda, she nodded with difficulty and fled as if her legs were made of jelly.
At this moment, Melanie's original consciousness clearly had the upper hand over the Wanderer soul.
"Wasn't she also parasitized? Why let her go?" Matilda frowned and asked Jake, who stood at the doorway with his hands in his pockets.
"Because she's humanity's hope."
"Hope?"
"That's right. Humanity in this world can't be wiped out, but I don't think the existence of aliens is necessarily evil. They only want to survive by using human bodies as hosts, and they'll never start wars. Besides, the two of us can't lead a global revolution."
"But they're invaders."
"That's why I said she's humanity's hope. 'Souls' and humans, natural enemies originally, will eventually understand each other if they coexist long enough. And only if someone can convey this understanding to both humans and 'Souls' can true peace be achieved." That's how it worked in the original plot.
However, this philosophy sounded a lot like something from a shonen anime.
"Oh," Matilda nodded calmly, seemingly not fully understanding.
"Never mind, let's start the heist!"
"Hell yeah!"
Watching Matilda's excitement, Jake sighed and chased after her. This time, he was probably going to end up being her babysitter...
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