"Wh-what kind of outfit is THIS!?"
When Guinaifen took the package, she noticed it felt suspiciously light. She'd figured the outfit would be something on the simpler side — and simple it technically was, sure — but...
The moment it touched her hands, she was met with smooth, slippery lace, bias-cut ribbons, a waist sash studded with three rows of diamond chains that cinched to an hourglass, and a hem layered in organza that rippled like soft waves...
As a streaming personality, Guinaifen was considerably more worldly than the adorably clueless Sushang. No matter how she looked at it, this thing was lingerie. Actual, honest-to-goodness lingerie!?
"Am I — am I supposed to wear this?"
Guinaifen held the garment up and stared, wide-eyed. The whole design was semi-transparent — the kind of thing that, once on, would have the wearer's flawless skin half-visible beneath gossamer fabric, enough to send any male's blood pressure through the roof.
Meanwhile, Stelle fished her treasured golden trash bag out of her spatial ring, retrieved her snack reserves, propped her chin on her hand, and rubbed it for a few seconds. A lightbulb flickered on.
She scooped up a piece of Six-Phased Ice that had been pried loose from the ground.
"You can, though. I don't mind at all — it's mine, but I've never used it, so don't worry about that." Stelle stuffed three ingredients into the Universal Synthesizer, hit the green button, and turned to flash Guinaifen a thumbs-up.
"I — I..."
I mind!
What's even the difference between wearing this and wearing nothing at all?! And just now — you said used, didn't you? Used?!
Guinaifen had half a mind to just slam the thing on the ground to express her absolute exasperation, but after a moment's thought she realized she'd probably just end up bending over to pick it up herself afterward. She exhaled sharply, cheeks burning scarlet.
She was starting to suspect her Sensei was messing with her on purpose.
But she had no proof.
"Heh heh, thanks so much, Sensei and Stelle. I think I'll leave this for the two of you to... wear yourselves." Guinaifen smiled, a touch awkwardly.
Compared to that getup, she'd rather stay in her battered, half-destroyed outfit.
"Not a fan? I have other options."
Caelus tucked the white-gauze lingerie piece away.
"Oh — oh good, then."
Guinaifen let out a breath of relief and patted Little Pillow's impressively perky rear end.
That hopeful look in her eyes died a slow, agonizing death the moment she saw Caelus produce a second piece — even less fabric than the first, technically opaque but with a far higher exposure rate, a black lace construction that only covered the critical triangular areas.
This is STILL lingerie!!
(╯‵□′)╯︵┻━┻!
Guinaifen's expression was rapidly approaching critical meltdown — but before she could get a word in, her attention was snagged by the Universal Synthesizer, which had begun emitting a low, humming whir.
The machine had a sort of childlike, crayon-drawing aesthetic that had nothing in common with cutting-edge technology. Its chunky tubes writhed and churned, and within seconds a stream of golden ice cakes came rolling out along the conveyor belt.
"Wuhu~! Golden Legend!"
Spying the glittering gold ice cakes, Stelle bounced with delight.
"What is that?"
Little Pillow Sushang blinked her big, clear eyes, tilting her head curiously.
Earlier, when Caelus had used the Universal Synthesizer to fuse with the Heliobus, she and Guinaifen had ducked off to the bathroom — and then been dragged into the illusory labyrinth realm — so she'd never actually seen the Universal Synthesizer in action.
"Heh heh~ Behold: the Universal Snack-and-Toy Synthesizer!"
Perhaps a bit juvenile for a certain gray-haired individual, but for Stelle it was exactly right. She absolutely adored this machine!
"Universal Snack-and-Toy Synthesizer? Something like that exists?"
Haxxor Bunny, also encountering it for the first time, gaped in equal surprise. Her slender fingers traced a virtual screen in the air in front of her: "This world really does have interesting — hm?!"
She'd been about to use her Aether Editing to check the synthesizer's underlying data — but she froze.
"What's wrong?"
Caelus rested his elbow on Haxxor Bunny's shoulder with ease, taking full advantage of the height difference.
"This thing's data structure is absolutely identical to physical reality! That should be theoretically impossible!"
Haxxor Bunny's expression looked like she'd seen a ghost — even more baffled than Little Gui had been when she first laid eyes on a Heliobus. It was like how, no matter how sophisticated a program is, it's ultimately built from individual lines of code — yet through the lens of Aether Editing, this thing couldn't be broken down any further?
"Well," Caelus patted her on the shoulder, "that's what we call science."
Do you even understand what it means that this came from the First Grand Guardian?
Come to think of it, maybe he could use the Universal Synthesizer to tease Herta and Ruan Mei sometime. Not just the Genius Society members — even the Erudition Aeon Nous herself, if she came to analyze this thing, probably wouldn't be able to figure out how it worked.
"You're calling this science?"
Haxxor Bunny stared.
What the actual hell kind of 'science' is this!
"Come, come, there's enough for everyone."
Stellle efficiently scooped up ice cakes and called loudly to March 7th and Seele in the adjacent courtyard to come get some treats, then handed out the gold-boxed frozen desserts to Guinaifen, the two Little Pillow sisters, and Haxxor Bunny.
Xueyi, Hanyan, and Huo Huo had gone off to carry out their Judge duties.
"This young lady has arrived~! Where are the goodies?"
At the mere mention of cake, March 7th instantly forgot all about her bashfulness and her heart doing backflips, and came bounding over, dragging Seele behind her.
"Here."
Caelus handed two ice cakes to the pink-haired Samoyed and her adorably well-behaved little companion, but let his gaze drift toward Stelle and Guinaifen.
The Universal Synthesizer was not the System. The snacks and toys it produced came with no descriptions or footnotes — there was no way to know before eating whether a given snack would grant a positive buff, inflict a negative debuff, or trigger some random side effect.
Someone would have to be the guinea pig.
"Ahhh~! That hits the SPOT!"
Stellle let out a full-body sigh of pleasure.
It felt like being a dried salted fish baking under a relentless summer sun, finally crawling back into your own little nest, pulling the covers up, turning on the AC, and eating ice cream with your favorite soda.
As for side effects? Whatever, she didn't care. Nothing like direct HP damage would show up — anything else, she'd just bulldoze through it with her legendary constitution!
"Heck yeah!"
Little Gui tore in without a shred of ceremony, shoveling it down in huge, graceless mouthfuls, completely unbothered by appearances.
Not like she had any appearances left to protect at this point anyway.
Guinaifen had been starving ever since she'd arrived at Fyxestroll Garden — she'd been streaming from the very start, and after everything that followed: the possession by the Heliobus, the escape, the whole chaotic ordeal — her stamina, that of an ordinary person with only a smattering of mediocre combat skills, had long since hit zero.
"What brand is this synthesizer? The food it makes tastes absolutely fire — I should track one down for myself. Maybe get in touch with the manufacturer, see if I can score a sponsorship deal."
Thinking it was just a regular synthesizer, Guinaifen wiped the corner of her mouth and was already chattering away as she reached for a second box to tear open — but in the next instant, her movements came to a dead stop. Before everyone's eyes, she visibly stiffened, going rigid from head to toe.
"Little Gui, what's wrong?"
Little Pillow Sushang held her spoon mid-air, a scoop of ice cake halfway to her lips, and tilted her head in puzzlement at her suddenly silent best friend.
"I — I..."
Something irrepressible was welling up from behind her eyes. Guinaifen went cold all the way to her hands and feet, her body shaking with a trembling she couldn't suppress — like a severe trypophobe staring down the bat-swarm form of DanteMon.
"I can't take it ANYMORE~!"
As though she'd snapped past some last threshold of tolerance, Guinaifen suddenly screamed. She set down her food on the ice table and, to the dumbfounded stares of everyone around her, began pulling off her torn, tattered stockings.
"Little Gui, what do you think you're DOING?!"
Little Pillow Sushang stood frozen, eyes wide, absently licking the spoon she'd just raised to her lips — then caught herself, flung the spoon aside, ran over in front of Guinaifen, and grabbed her by the shoulders:
"I believe in you! You have the talent to make it as a big streamer on your own — you can't go down this path! Edging gets you views fast, but it won't last!"
Besides, this was already well past 'edging' territory. This was the kind of content that would get you banned immediately!
"What are you even talking about, Shangshang — I'm not streaming! I just can't control myself!!"
Crying out in muffled protest, Guinaifen yanked and tugged at her outfit — scorched black and fire-red by the Heliobus spirit-flame, caked with dust — exposing the delicate, porcelain-pale strip of skin above her waistband.
"What do you mean you can't control yourself?"
The transparent sincerity of Little Pillow Sushang's bafflement was absolutely incapable of concealing the utter blankness in her eyes.
"Could it be residual monster influence? Is some lingering creature trying to possess Little Gui's body?"
Li Sushang furrowed her brow and immediately deployed the Fenghuang Down to check — only to find that Guinaifen's readings were completely normal. Everything she was doing was entirely of her own free will.
"Could it be the ice cake's effect? Making beautiful girls actively take their clothes off?"
Stellle's eyes instantly blazed with dazzling light.
That comment made Haxxor Bunny, March 7th, and Seele — each with spoon in hand — simultaneously freeze, looks of alarm and terror spreading across their faces.
"Waaah, help — someone please help me!!"
Unable to hold out against her own unbearable awareness of the filth on her, Guinaifen was on the verge of actual tears: "My skirt — the skirt is coming all the way off!!"
"I ate that delicious box of ice cake and suddenly I felt so dirty — every bit of dust and scorch mark feels like centipedes, rats, and bugs crawling all over me — if I don't take it off I'm going to die from the grossness~!"
She cried out in panic, fighting against the compulsion to strip even as she was losing the battle.
"Well... that explains it..."
The group exchanged glances.
"So the ice cake's effect seems to be keeping the consumer in a state of personal cleanliness — or more precisely, giving them a temporary, extreme case of mysophobia?"
Caelus turned to look at Stelle.
Transforming into Goss for combat naturally kept her clothes immaculate, but Stelle had been rummaging through trash cans and opening treasure chests earlier — her bright green hoodie was a bit dirty too. Apart from Guinaifen, she'd eaten the fastest and the most.
"Emmm..."
Stellle looked down at the stains on her hoodie, shrugged, then without much hesitation pulled it off and tossed it into her spatial ring. She fished out a qipao and slipped it on.
It was a modified short-ruqun cut in indigo-glaze blue, with an asymmetric water sleeve falling from the right shoulder like a startled swan skimming the surface of a lake. The sleeve was embroidered with blue-and-white intertwining floral scrollwork, its edges trimmed in wave-arcs that rippled with every step like ripples over celadon.
It was, simply put, a work of art.
Especially the high-slit lower skirt, which perfectly embodied both the ancient Xianzhou aesthetic and a certain captivating allure — less purely seductive than purely ethereal, with an airy, refined elegance layered on top.
Don't ask why she hadn't just given this to Guinaifen in the first place — Stelle had been saving it to subdue Caelus-cub tonight.
"Heh heh, well~? How do I look, Caelus-cub?"
The gray-haired girl in her qipao posed with both hands on her hips, thoroughly pleased with herself.
"I cannot deny it — right now you are objectively superior!"
Why did this damned Stellaron spirit have to be so utterly irresistible?!
"Wuuwuu, will someone please help me~!"
Unable to endure the filthy skirt a moment longer, Guinaifen finally ripped it all the way off, exposing her red underwear and bra.
As bad luck would have it, her bra was dirty too.
She was taking things off while inching steadily away from Caelus — after all, he was the only male on the premises, and being seen by the other girls wasn't really a big deal.
"Is there another qipao? Give Little Gui one."
Caelus shrugged — his attention was mostly fixed on the qipao-clad Stellaron spirit, because honestly, Little Gui just couldn't compete.
"Little Gui, here — take this qipao."
She'd have to go buy a few more later. Stelle was noticing that Caelus had quite the thing for Xianzhou fashion.
"Thanks!"
Guinaifen grabbed the garment and bolted, and not long after, a scream of pure anguish echoed from the neighboring courtyard.
"You call THIS a qipao!?"
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