"Corrupt binary codes infecting my mind (the disordered zeroes and ones corroding the consciousness)?"
In a voice sweet and cloying yet edged with a dash of swagger—like a pacifier-sucking little girl leading a pack of street thugs off to trash someone's turf—Miss Haxxor Bunny hummed a song she'd picked up from Caelus.
The song seemed to be called "Angel Reconstruction"?
Strangely enough, the melody had hooked Haxxor Bunny's ears the very first time she heard it; after just three loops on repeat she could replicate it perfectly, mimicking even its very essence to a tee.
"Come to think of it, I really feel this song would make the perfect BGM for an ultimate finishing move!"
Haxxor Bunny suddenly stopped in her tracks, tapping her chin with a fingertip.
Picture it: countless warships arrayed across space, their metal hulls reflecting the light of the stars like a war monument forged by the gods; when every cannon-muzzle blooms with light at once, that devastating cascade of light pours down—just like an angel spreading its wings to dismantle and reconstruct the entire world.
"—Insanely cool!"
Snapping her fingers with a crisp pak, immersed in the epic scene she'd cooked up in her head, Miss Haxxor Bunny unconsciously began shaking that pressed-duck rump worthy of being a treasure of civilization—her petite, dainty bottom, its rounded curves swaying left and right to the rhythm.
A pity—she was more than one energy level short of Bronita, who could conjure a whole fleet cluster with a wave of her hand!
And speaking of Bronita—the good stuff the other had left behind for her wasn't just a single "[Before the Novice Mission Begins]" Light Cone.
Humming her song as she swayed over to the doorway, Haxxor Bunny scanned left and right, and after confirming no one was around, swiftly slipped into the room.
The experience of fusing by wearing that earring was truly marvelous; Bronita wasn't a simple possession or personality-override, but a vivid, independent soul.
Haxxor Bunny possessed Bronita's memories and could vaguely sense the complete outline of Bronita's personality—in theory she retained absolute and permanent independence of thought.
But Bronita's initial memories were of Haxxor Bunny, Bronie, and Herta, so in practice her temperament would be influenced.
Before Bronita dissolved, she did something Haxxor Bunny had never anticipated: she made a special trip to find the Stellaron Hunter Silver Wolf.
At first, Haxxor Bunny assumed this was merely a continuation of the grudge between Herta and Silver Wolf—she'd heard from Caelus that Silver Wolf had once provoked Herta and ended up with 76 of her game accounts banned.
But when Bronita cracked open Silver Wolf's layer-upon-layer encrypted private database, the scene inside made Haxxor Bunny—watching that moment through the memories—go wide-eyed.
The entire database was, astonishingly, stuffed full of all sorts of candid life photos of Seele!
From the training ground to the snack street, from valiant battle poses to close-ups of her sleeping face—even the very instant Seele sneezed had been snapped crisp and clear!
The most incredible was that cat-ear cutesy shot, the angle so tricky that even Haxxor Bunny couldn't help wanting to give a thumbs-up to Silver Wolf's candid-photography skills.
The sheer number of photos, the comprehensiveness of the angles—you could practically open a 'Seele Photo Museum.'
Haxxor Bunny instantly branded Silver Wolf a perverted obsessive stalker—a candid-shot fiend who used her Aether Editing ability and hacking skills to track Seele and secretly photograph her daily life!
This criminal evidence must all be confiscated!
Miss Haxxor Bunny even wanted to give Bronita a thumbs-up: "Nicely done! Fused me."
Now, these gorgeous Seele photos were all hers, yesss!
Sprawled on the sofa, Haxxor Bunny leisurely flipped through the spoils Bronita had left behind, the glow of the holographic projection reflecting on her face, that satisfied smile exactly like a skeleton lying in some sunny, flower-ringed place, wearing a healing smile.
In short, every bone in her body was healed warm and toasty.
She finally understood why Silver Wolf had put so much effort into candid photography—Seele's beauty was worth treasuring with an entire database!
Of course, this dangerous thought was quickly flung out of her mind:
"No, no, I mustn't turn into that kind of pervert—though this profile shot really is well taken; setting it as my wallpaper should be fine, right?"
Haxxor Bunny pressed a fingertip lightly to her cherry lips, her eyes narrowing to a slit.
It wasn't some trivial matter like which gorgeous Seele photo to set as her wallpaper that she was mulling over—though she had indeed spent three minutes agonizing over whether to use that cat-ear shot—what truly sank her into thought was this:
That Bronita character, before withdrawing from Silver Wolf's database, had not only left behind her signature Haxxor Bunny graffiti, but had also brazenly left provocative words: that they would settle things with Aether Spirits at the Interastral Showdown Gala.
Only the strong deserve to possess Seele!
For Bronita, the word 'brazen' couldn't really apply—as an Erudition Emanator-level hacker she could suppress Silver Wolf, but this little bunny of hers hadn't yet grown into her complete form!
At the thought that the Seele photo-library in her hands might be snatched back by Silver Wolf, Haxxor Bunny suddenly felt the strawberry milk in her hand no longer tasted sweet.
"I can't just sit here waiting for death."
She was certain Silver Wolf would definitely come back to Jarilo-VI—after all, she could already imagine how furious that pretty face would be when Silver Wolf discovered her 'Seele Photo Compendium' had been plundered clean.
"I absolutely must defeat Silver Wolf at the Interastral Showdown Gala!"
According to intel from Caelus, her sensei-slash-good-buddy, Silver Wolf was both trash and a try-hard.
After all, for Silver Wolf, who had Aether Editing in hand, tweaking data to run a little cheat was utterly effortless—and with that many cheats running, how could her skills ever improve?
Fantasizing all day that she was a gaming pro.
Verified by Dingzhen across a hundred million cases—diagnosis: she's started seeing hallucinations.
Haxxor Bunny sat cross-legged in her gaming chair, spinning an Aether coin between her fingertips.
If it came down to pure technical operation, and if Caelus's intel wasn't exaggerated, she could torment Silver Wolf into questioning her whole life with a single hand.
But the underlying tech of Aether Front was Aether Editing, the signature trick of Punklorde hackers, so what they'd be competing in was more than just gaming skill.
An Aether Spirit battle?
No—this would be a battle of immortals!
Haxxor Bunny flicked up the Aether coin in her hand and activated it.
With sufficient resources and adequate funding, Belobog had entered a stage of rapid, day-by-day development; the Aether Front equipment had been fully installed, and the locals of Belobog all eagerly signed up to join the game.
This Aether coin sealed within it an Aether Spirit sourced locally on Jarilo-VI, the Battle Machine Soldier—one of the starter Aether Spirits offered to participating players to choose from.
Even though this was Haxxor Bunny's first time activating it, she still had to shout a line:
"This is our bond—evolve!"
Aether Editing, activate!
That machine with a chainsaw-sword fitted on its right arm—the Machine Soldier Fangwolf—underwent a total sci-fi transformation across its entire body just like a Transformer, with weapon after weapon being reconstructed via Aether Editing and loaded onto it.
The originally two-meter-plus-tall machine soldier rapidly grew—four meters, eight meters… sixteen meters… thirty-two meters…
...
"Wah? Wha—what's going on here? When we came over the day before yesterday it was still a barren wasteland!"
March 7th gazed at the Interastral Showdown Gala stage before her—refashioned from an abandoned weapons testing ground—and let out a dog-dumbstruck exclamation.
A colossal ring-shaped structure; the IPC's designers had cleverly fused the cold, hard texture of military facilities with the retro aesthetics of steampunk, creating a performance venue with tremendous visual impact.
The spectator seats encircled the main stage in tiers, the deformable chairs employing gear-driven mechanisms, the landmark structure soaring hundreds of meters high.
"The company has always valued efficiency in how it does things."
Topaz flicked up a gold coin: "After all, efficiency is time, and time is money."
"As expected of the Honkémon World Championship under Cousin Mickey's banner!"
Stelle, wearing her classic red-and-white peaked cap, planted her hands on her hips.
"What Honkémon? Wake up—these are Aether Spirits!"
March 7th grabbed Stelle's shoulders and gave them a couple of shakes.
"Miss Topaz, what a pleasant surprise—you've come to inspect the project's progress in person?"
A man in a formal men's dress suit, with short grayish-white hair and wearing a mask, came walking along the long stairway; as his gaze swept over the companions behind Topaz, the voice beneath the mask grew lively:
"Oh! A handsome gentleman who could make maidens cease their singing, and three young ladies before whom even roses would wilt in shame!"
The three were, respectively, Stelle, March 7th, and Little Seele.
Rand-Duck had been so busy these past two days that he hadn't even gone home, working until the small hours nearly every day to handle the surge of government affairs; Pela, as the Grand Guardian's secretary, naturally had to keep him company, and even Natasha and Big Seele had been conscripted.
Little Duck had confidently gone off to other planets to collect stronger Aether Spirits.
It's time to show off some real skills!
Let the title of Metal Gear Bronya Fang resound throughout the Galaxy!
During a chat with Sister Silver Wolf last night, Seele had inadvertently let slip the existence of Sister Haxxor Bunny, prompting Silver Wolf to whip her horse into a frenzied dash to come and battle Haxxor Bunny.
"Mr. Giovanni, long time no see. I just came with some friends to check out the finals venue, and to bring a newbie into the fold along the way." Topaz smiled.
"And this is?"
"Permit me to introduce myself. I am Giovanni di Giorgio da Epsilon, one of this Interastral Showdown Gala's sponsors, and a vulgar merchant chasing the stink of copper coins."
The silver-haired man bowed with one hand pressed to his chest, introducing himself politely.
Caelus extended his hand quite gentlemanly:
"Hello, I'm Jonathan Joestar—my friends all call me JoJo."
Stelle jabbed a thumb at herself, baring her gleaming white teeth:
"Kono Dio Da!"
"Hahaha, that name sounds a little like a relative of mine?"
Giovanni's laughter came from behind the mask; in an instant he reached back and clasped Caelus's hand, shaking it with extreme enthusiasm, exactly like an old friend not seen in years:
"My friend, from the very first glance I had a special feeling about you! It seems we share the same type of aesthetic—I welcome your arrival from the bottom of my heart~!"
March 7th: "..."
It's one thing for these two not to use their real names, but why are they so casual about picking the names!
She wanted to play along with a fake name but didn't even know what to call herself!
Just as March 7th was firing up her brain to think of a fake name, Caelus, with a sidelong gesture of his hand, introduced her to Giovanni.
"This is Jolyne Cujoh."
"Uh-hahaha… hello."
March 7th scratched her head and laughed it off, pondering what meaning this name might hold.
"I sincerely welcome you all to participate in this Aether Front. Have you all learned to use the player terminals?"
Giovanni asked with a smile:
"I can offer you all some help—oh right, which one is the newbie joining the fold?"
"It's me."
White Seele stepped forward a little shyly.
"A beautiful young lady."
"Um… my name is Seele."
"Miss Seele, hello. Have you learned to use the player terminal?" Giovanni asked gentlemanly.
"I have already; Brother Caelus taught me." White Seele said in a sweet, soft voice.
"Mm, next is receiving your starter Aether Spirit companion."
Giovanni waved his hand and summoned several phantom images of Aether Spirits. "These are popular Aether Spirits I brought from other planets, suitable for beginners."
"Miss Seele, choose one as your starter Aether Spirit."
As he said this, he pointed to the first one, an orange lizard-shaped creature with a flaming tail:
"This is Charmander."
Then a green-skinned frog with a seed on its back.
"This is Bulbasaur."
Finally a blue-skinned turtle that looked rather dopey.
"This is Squirtle."
"Hsss~"
Caelus drew in a slight breath and asked: "Can the Legal Department over there hold up under this?"
Giovanni gave a chuckle: "Heh heh, should there be any infringement-type disputes, I'm sure the IPC's professionals will resolve them for us, right? Miss Topaz."
Topaz: "...?"
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