Her consciousness woke up again.
The last time, she had turned into a gray-haired beauty. This time, she had turned into a cat. Since she had been born for less than three days and her mind was still a blank slate, Stelle very naturally accepted the fact that she was now a cat.
The only difference was that, compared to other cats, her luck was pretty good.
She did not become a stray. Her owner was a white-haired girl, a beautiful one at that.
Her owner even said that when the cat version of her fell asleep, she could return to the Astral Express as a Nameless One, and when her Nameless One self fell asleep, she could come back as a cat.
"Look, this is what you look like now." The white-haired owner took a photo of her with her phone and held it up for her to see.
Stelle: (O_o)
Gray fur, slightly longer than that of an ordinary cat, fluffy and adorable. A round little face, plump cheeks, and a pair of beautiful, glass-bead-like eyes.
"Stelle, you are so cute, hehe. I already poked you earlier, but can I poke your cheeks again?!"
The pink cat scooted closer, meowing excitedly. Her eyes were full of anticipation, and her fluffy paws reached out restlessly, startling Stelle Cat into backing away half a step.
"Ai Li, rein it in a little!"
Kiyono Inori poked Elysia Cat's cheek. "Stelle is even younger than Griseo. Do not scare her!"
Then she looked back at Stelle. "So, Stelle, how do you feel after seeing yourself as a cat? Super cute, right? If you have any questions, you can ask me now."
"Do not worry, Stelle. Even though she looks like a bad woman and what she did also looks like something a bad woman would do, like turning a pretty girl into a cat, Little Inori is actually very gentle and kind!"
Stelle Cat stayed silent.
Elysia Cat tried to soothe her emotions. Kiyono Inori, however, felt personally attacked. She had been forcibly bathed, and Elysia Cat clearly still held a bit of a grudge over it.
Do cats really hate baths that much?
She had looked quite comfortable while being washed, her meows turning soft and sweet, almost heart-shaped, yet afterward she sulked nonstop. Cat psychology was truly hard to figure out.
"I… I turned into a cat. What am I supposed to do?" Stelle Cat scratched her head with a paw and asked. "You summoned me as a cat. Is there something you need me to do?"
Kiyono Inori: (⊙_⊙)
Elysia: (╯⊙?⊙╰)
Wow. So this is the protagonist. Straightforward and honest. No wonder Honkai: Star Rail has endless quests. Former player Kiyono Inori sighed internally.
Right. What were we even summoning a magic cat for? Even though asking this now felt weird, I was too busy flirting with cute girls to pay attention at the time. Elysia Cat finally realized it and looked shocked.
Idiot. Kiyono Inori complained silently.
Leaving aside the rich exchange of looks between cat and owner, the most important thing now was how to answer Stelle's question.
"What is my objective? Defeat someone, or find something?" the Stellaron girl asked seriously.
Kiyono Inori's original goal was this:
In the Cat Shop, there was an item called the Scepter φ-ln7 Computational Coordination Unit. It was a creation of Genius Society No. 66, Rupert II, driven by the Anti-Life Equation, a massive system dedicated to simulating the destruction paths of countless civilizations. It was a killing instrument within the Scepter system.
Although it was only one unit of the Imperial Scepter, it still possessed computational power capable of overturning an entire star sector. Extremely dangerous.
She had originally planned to ask Lady Herta to cover her.
But now, things had changed. Her ten-pull on Stelle yielded a four-star Blessing: Throne of Meshing Gears.
A blessing bestowed by Nous, the Aeon of Erudition. Units equipped with this blessing gain administrator privileges (Tier 3) over creations of Erudition.
Tier 3 Privileges: Write, read, read and execute permissions over Erudition creations.
Read meant she could see what the Scepter was running.
Write meant she could add data, basically register her own account, but not modify existing system data.
Read and execute meant she could pause or run existing data and delete her own account, but she could not forcibly alter the Scepter's core logic.
In short, with Tier 3 administrator privileges, exploring the Imperial Scepter herself was no longer particularly dangerous.
The data lifeforms running the Anti-Life Equation might be something she could not defeat, but they also could not do anything to her. Laogus's permissions on Amphoreus were essentially Tier 3 as well.
The only problem now was this:
After getting a memory achievement and doing a ten-pull, she only had 1200 Cat Biscuits. She was still 400 short of buying the Scepter.
So…
"Objective? No real objective." Kiyono Inori smiled lightly. "Stelle, just treat this as a simple encounter. It does not have any deeper meaning."
"As for you, if there is anything you need help with, feel free to tell us. That pink cat is incredibly strong, even if she is a bit of a dummy."
Blasphemy against heaven itself.
Stelle was trying to get Kiyono Inori to hand out a quest. Kiyono Inori was also trying to use Stelle to trigger a quest. In a sense, it was mutual.
"Hmph!" Elysia Cat puffed up her fluffy chest when she heard the praise, only to be slandered immediately afterward. "Do not believe her. Lies, all lies, baseless slander, meow!"
"So you mean… I can do whatever I want?"
Stelle Cat stared wide-eyed, curiously observing this unfamiliar world. At less than three days old, everything felt new.
"That is right! Just follow your heart and explore freely. Miss Pink Fairy will cheer you on, meow!" Elysia Cat said energetically.
A scheme. This was the pink pig-cat's little trick.
Now there were two cats. As long as Stelle Cat got absorbed in free exploration, she could have Kiyono Inori all to herself for a while.
Stelle: (⊙_⊙)
Stelle looked left and right. There were no treasure chests in the room, no metal trash cans either. With nothing to do, she hopped back onto Kiyono Inori's hospital bed, stepped over her legs, and gazed out the window.
"So many tall buildings, meow."
She sighed from the heart.
Herta Space Station was a closed environment, extremely advanced. Jarilo-VI was an icebound apocalypse, its grandest structure being Fort Qlipoth. This bustling, oppressive, crowded city was completely different.
"Wow! This is the fireworks March talked about, meow!"
Stelle Cat shouted excitedly.
Kiyono Inori looked as well and saw pure white meteors tearing across the night sky, weaving through dense buildings before striking a distant, indistinct shadow with perfect accuracy.
Kiyono Inori: (⊙_⊙)
That was magical girls fighting monster executives, right? My dear Elysia, you witnessed this yourself before, you should know. Kiyono Inori turned to Elysia Cat, who was also staring out the window.
Ahahaha, probably? Something like that? I am not really sure. Elysia Cat, who had completely missed the magical girl and monster executive showdown that night, played it cute to muddle through.
…
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Let me know if I got a name wrong. I know basically nothing about MyGO.