"What is this supposed to be?"
Bai Ling stared at the pink-horned Vouivre in front of him—pure brute force incarnate—who had tied him to a chair like she was bagging a Riftbreaker.
The little dragon girl was cute, sure, but also… a bit much.
"Finding you was really not easy, Mr. Bai—Ling—"She spoke each syllable slowly, eyes carrying a complicated emotion. Then she stepped in close and pressed both hands onto his shoulders.
Her very impressive "presence" was practically in his face, leaving Bai Ling momentarily at a loss.
"Aha… ha… I only got back from the Dijiang to Valley Four recently…"
After Talulah left, Bai Ling had stayed on the Dijiang for a while, and he'd delivered Talulah's recorded message to Chen Qianyu.
He hadn't listened to it himself.
But that wasn't important right now.
What mattered was the tightly shut rolling door behind Yvonne—and the ropework on his body.
Today, he was… not getting out of this one.
Yvonne looked at the Bai Ling she'd finally caught. Her tail swayed slightly, the pink tip strangely eye-catching, and her face was full of smug satisfaction.
Bai Ling carried no contact device, so locating him electronically was hard. She'd gotten info from Qin Jiangchi and learned he had a residence near Endfield's industrial integration core.
So she lay in ambush for days, and finally grabbed him when he came to rest.
Why grab Bai Ling?
She wanted to thank him.
…but this situation looked less like "thanks" and more like "something unspeakable."
It started a few days earlier.
Yvonne had prepared parts, planning to upgrade Tata. But she didn't make it in time—she only arrived when the Riftbreakers launched their final assault.
She recalculated the over-domain rift's erosion conditions and Tata's status and reached one conclusion:
If Tata forcibly carried out the erosion cleanup, it would overload, possibly ending in mutual destruction.
In other words, she would have to watch the "child" she created—now awakened with emotions and memories—vanish right in front of her.
But Bai Ling prevented that outcome.
And Tata had returned to her side.
Even if that owl came again and said anything at all, Yvonne refused to send Tata away again.
Because what was inside… had become too precious.
As she spoke, Yvonne turned to look at Tata resting in the corner. The display showed three looping "zzz"s—sleep mode.
Yet the instant she looked, Tata's "eyes" brightened, tiny sparkles flickering.
Clearly, it was recording.
It didn't understand why saving these moments mattered, but its logic told it: this could be useful later.
"…So," Bai Ling asked carefully, "why did you tie me up?"
He strained a little, confirmed he couldn't brute-force free, and tilted his head back—using sheer willpower to keep himself from staring at the "soft pressure" in front of him.
"Ah! I forgot," Yvonne blurted. "I'm used to catching Riftbreakers."
The moment she realized you generally don't bind guests to chairs, she also realized exactly how wrong her behavior looked.
Hands that never trembled while assembling tech were now shaking as she untied the ropes.
And because she was so close, she could even feel the heat of the man's breath.
A faint pink crept onto her ears. The instant the rope came off, she sprang up and retreated two or three meters in a single step.
In the corner, Tata instantly switched its screen expression as if it had done absolutely nothing.
Bai Ling set the rope aside and adjusted his slightly disheveled clothing.
Only now did Yvonne finally get the chance to say why she had "invited" him.
"…About Tata. Thank you."
"Hm? Tata? Did something happen to Tata?"
Bai Ling didn't have much impression of the machine. He only knew it could, like him, observe erosion cores—but beyond that he hadn't noticed anything special.
"Tata's loaded Originium arts can reverse-infer erosion phenomena and solve them," Yvonne explained. "But that requires enormous compute. If you and that lady hadn't destroyed the over-domain rift, Tata would've had to take over. And if Tata took that role then… it would definitely disappear."
As she spoke, Yvonne looked at Tata again, her smile soft and gentle.
"I see," Bai Ling said. "If the ending is good, isn't that enough?"
"No," Yvonne replied immediately.
She turned, went to a small corner of the room, searched for something, then came back holding a box.
"What's that?"
"…A brand-new album. Limited edition. Not easy to buy."
"I've looked through the window at your place in Valley Four. Even if it's temporary… decorating it isn't wrong."
Bai Ling didn't have many words for how a girl's speech could feel, but he could say one thing clearly:
When Yvonne said it like that… it was different.
"I will," Bai Ling said. "The place I'm living now is called the 'To-Be-Developed Area.' It probably won't stay like this later."
"Mm…"
The room fell quiet again. Neither of them knew what to say.
After all, this should only be their second meeting.
And both meetings… weren't exactly "nice."
The first time, Bai Ling had been accidentally caught by a mechanism and sent into the research facility. Yvonne's controlled explosives deviated slightly, and the two of them ended up in an awkwardly intimate posture.
The second time… she tied him to a chair like a Riftbreaker, then leaned close to untie him.
Just thinking about it made Yvonne's face flush pink—the same cute tone as her room's palette.
To keep Bai Ling from noticing, she subtly turned her head away.
"Now that the over-domain rift's erosion is solved," she asked, "what do you plan to do next, Mr. Bai Ling?"
"…I'll probably stay in Valley Four a while," Bai Ling said. "There's still a lot of cleanup work. The Administrator and Perlica trust me to handle it."
"If there's anything I can help with, you can come find me…" Yvonne said. "It's just that your contact info is really hard to find, Bai Ling."
....
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