After finally escaping from the infirmary, Mo Wang's troubles showed no signs of disappearing.
Right now, he was sitting alone in the Hyperion's captain's office, a steaming bowl of freshly made instant noodles in hand, processing paperwork.
How should he put it?
The boomerang he had thrown had finally come back to smack him in the head.
The miHoYo-style boomerang... not only does it come back when others throw it, but it also comes back when you throw it yourself. It was truly something else.
He had just been mocking his Kivotos self for having to work until the dead of night, and now here he was, processing his own paperwork.
"A bowl of braised beef noodles in hand, without a single sausage in sight."
Mo Wang slurped a mouthful of noodles.
He could only say that braised beef noodles still tasted the same as ever.
Knock, knock, knock!
Just as Mo Wang was contemplating whether to take a nap after finishing his noodles and get back to work later, a knock came from the office door.
"Who is it? Wait, don't tell me it's Kiana again?"
Mo Wang frowned, subconsciously stashing all his snacks under his desk.
The last time that white-haired rat had stolen a whole bunch of his snacks, it had broken his heart.
This time, he couldn't let her come and freeload off him, no matter what.
But when Mo Wang opened the door, he was surprised to find that it wasn't the white-haired Tuna standing there at all.
It was a pair of gray twin-drills.
"Bronya? What are you doing here?"
Mo Wang scratched his head. It was one thing for the white-haired Tuna to show up last time, but what was Bronya doing here?
Mo Wang looked at Bronya. She was wearing a pair of bright yellow Homu pajamas, the edges slightly curled up. They looked a bit loose on her slender frame, as if they might slip off at any moment.
She was holding a Homu plushie of the same color, the fluffy doll looking exceptionally small in her tiny arms.
Against the backdrop of the night, Bronya's figure seemed particularly frail.
Her face was devoid of expression, but her cheeks, flushed red from the cold wind, gave her an unintentional cuteness.
Her small, delicate nose was slightly upturned, and from the cold, a tiny droplet of snot hung from the tip, like a small icicle in winter, adding a touch of life to her doll-like face.
Mo Wang had no idea how Bronya, a top-tier Russian operative who could go full Solid Snake in Siberia, was so cold she had a runny nose.
"The Bronya has insomnia, so I came to play games with Mo Wang," Bronya said, her reason very direct.
This time, Mo Wang was the one who was stunned.
He glanced back at his desk. Although he did want to slack off, this wasn't right, was it?
Since when had his office become the Valkyries' personal arcade?
"Forget it, just come in."
After wracking his brain and still not understanding why Bronya would come to him to play games, Mo Wang looked at her flushed face and ultimately decided to let her in first.
Bronya, upon entering, didn't stand on ceremony either.
She walked straight to the sofa and pulled out the game console Mo Wang had hidden, along with another batch of snacks.
She skillfully turned on the console, tore open a bag of chips, and began to munch on them as she logged into Mo Wang's account.
"Mo Wang, it seems you have been slacking off recently. You've only reached the third stage in Honkai Impact, and you haven't even gotten the platinum trophy for Valkyrie Apocalypse..."
Bronya scrolled through his game list, severely condemning Mo Wang for neglecting his gaming duties.
"What can I do? I'm swamped with all this," Mo Wang said helplessly, pointing to the mountain of files on his desk, which was nearly half his height.
"Just processing this pile is already burning me out."
"And by the way, more than a third of these files were caused by you lot."
Hearing Mo Wang's words, Bronya's expression remained unchanged.
Or rather, even if it had, Mo Wang wouldn't have been able to tell.
"The Bronya also has a lot of homework to do. But The Bronya never misses any game events. This only proves that you, Mo Wang, are not devout enough to the god of gaming. You have betrayed the game."
Bronya said to Mo Wang flatly.
"You call that 'not missing'? It's obviously Project Bunny doing it for you!"
Mo Wang couldn't help but retort.
Poor Project Bunny. At St. Freya, it had to do Bronya's homework, help in battle, and sometimes even clean up Bronya's messy room.
Later on, it would not only have to serve as a mode of transport but also handle all sorts of company affairs. It was truly the workhorse of all workhorses.
Even after becoming an ELF, it never got a day off. Its daily workload was enough to make an American cry.
To this, Mo Wang could only say: Dear Seele in the Sea of Quanta! Please get me one of those too!
But Mo Wang figured that the current Seele was probably still playing with her other self and wouldn't hear his prayers.
Even if she did, she probably couldn't get him another Project Bunny, so he just gave up on the idea.
Maybe next time he could ask the ZZZ crew to send over a couple of Bangboos.
They were both bunnies, so it wouldn't be a big deal.
After entering the game, Bronya immediately began to clear the stages with astonishing speed.
Some levels and bosses that had stumped him for days, which he considered to be completely anti-human in design, were speedrun by Bronya in just a few minutes.
Sometimes, Bronya would even play with one hand while drinking soda with the other, making it look incredibly easy, which made Mo Wang feel like a complete gaming failure.
"As expected, what the pros say is true. You really need talent to play games."
Watching Bronya clear a stage in minutes and even start playing on Hell difficulty, the thoroughly demoralized Mo Wang decided to just go back to processing his paperwork.
Mo Wang sat back down at his desk. The noodles he had just taken a bite of were now completely cold.
It was a good thing the office had heating. Otherwise, with today's outdoor temperature, they probably would have turned into a block of ice.
Mo Wang disdainfully tossed the instant noodles into the trash and picked up a file to start working.
But the moment he put pen to paper, he suddenly felt a gaze fixed on him.
"What's going on?"
A confused Mo Wang looked up and found that Bronya had stopped playing her game and was staring straight at him.
A sense of dread washed over Mo Wang.
No way! You too, Bronya? So my office isn't just your arcade, it's also your therapy room now?!
Should I bring in a couch for you?!
No longer able to even complain, Mo Wang felt like he was on the verge of a breakdown.
At this rate, when was he ever going to finish this pile of documents?