Using fingerprint recognition to unlock the third-floor elevator shaft, Luo Shu stepped inside, descending directly underground.
With a ding, the elevator doors opened.
Before him lay a futuristic, spacious room.
This was the heart of the Hidden Management Department—the Hidden Management Zone.
A prison designed to contain Abyss Artefacts and dangerous lifeforms.
Of course, this wasn't the true Hidden Management Zone Luo Shu was accessing now.
The real one lay even deeper underground.
At the far end of Luo Shu's vision stood a silver-grey door with no visible seams or joints.
Flanking this silver door stood two metal cylinders, each half a meter in diameter and one and a half meters tall.
Luo Shu stepped out of the elevator, approaching one of the metal cylinders and placing his hand on its surface.
Blue circuitry flashed across the cylinder as the semicircular metal top slowly opened, revealing a purple metal sphere embedded in the cavity.
"Haro, Luo Shu! Haro, Luo Shu!"
The purple metal sphere flapped its ear-like or wing-like mechanical appendages, emitting synthesised speech.
This was a small AI unit called Haro, its technology apparently originating from Lacus's world.
According to Kirika Tachibana's insider information, the source of those silly sound effects seemed to be none other than Lacus herself.
Listening to the repeated "Haro" sounds, Luo Shu couldn't help but comment:
"Somehow I feel Lacus wouldn't starve if she became a voice actress."
Luo Shu reached out to touch the Haro, and the round intelligent machine automatically opened, revealing a password lock inside.
He input his preset code and pressed confirm.
With a hum...
The silver-grey metal door trembled slightly before gradually retracting into the wall from the centre, revealing a vast space within.
At that moment, six red electronic eyes suddenly lit up.
Nearly 4 metres tall, with massive metallic armour and laser beam weapons capable of easily tearing through aircraft carrier armour.
"Mobile Suits, also called Gundams. Though they're small autonomous models, SDS actually managed to develop these~"
In truth, when Lacus first proposed using MS units as guardians for the Hidden Management Zone, Luo Shu had been momentarily stunned.
For a brief instant, he'd even wondered if Lacus had brought an entire group of Coordinators with her when crossing into this world.
Otherwise, it seemed utterly absurd that she alone could develop such advanced technology.
Despite his doubts, Luo Shu had accepted Lacus's proposal within seconds, even personally setting the password to access the Hidden Management Zone.
After all, what boy could possibly resist Gundams?
The six massive MS units activated automatically upon the door opening, their electronic eyes scanning Luo Shu and instantly identifying him.
"Life signature wavelength confirmed. Welcome to the Hidden Management Zone, Commander."
"If there's a chance, I should get Lacus to make a real one for piloting. Autonomous mobiles are somewhat boring."
Luo Shu reluctantly gazed at the six saluting MS Zaku units, even giving them a few pats, before walking past them towards the pristine white wall.
The next moment, he pressed his hand against the solid wall.
This was a synthetic metal block over 50 metres in diameter that Luo Shu had specifically requested Verde to manufacture.
According to SDS documentation, this metal block was currently designated as the Hidden Management Zone.
But the real Hidden Management Zone was what Luo Shu was about to deploy.
Pressing against the cool metal surface, Luo Shu murmured:
"System, overlay the Divine Kingdom space within this alloy steel block."
Indeed, the true Hidden Management Zone didn't exist in reality, but within what Luo Shu called the Astronomy Club's Divine Kingdom.
After all, in Luo Shu's view, wasn't the most secure place on Earth under his control precisely the Astronomy Club?
As Luo Shu finished speaking, no extraordinary phenomena occurred - just the system's matter-of-fact response.
[Area deployed. Please set the zone name and permissions.]
"Name: Hidden Management Zone. Permissions: Only myself, Lacus Clyne and Kirika Tachibana may enter."
[Naming complete. Permissions set.]
Receiving the system's confirmation, Luo Shu withdrew his hand and exhaled softly:
"Now we just wait for Operations to deliver the hazardous materials. Tsk tsk, Kirika will probably be heartbroken when I take so many Abyss Artefacts from her."
Shaking his head, Luo Shu dismissed these idle thoughts. He stepped out of the monitoring room and approached the metal pillar where Haro was stationed.
"Haro, close the door."
"Haro, Luo Shu, close the door, Luo Shu~"
The massive metal door slowly shut, accompanied by Haro's cheerful voice.
Once the door sealed completely, Luo Shu opened his SDS-issued internal phone and sent a message to Lacus's number.
"Nest placement complete."
'Nest' was the codename for the Hidden Management Zone. Sent to Lacus, Luo Shu naturally had no concerns about her understanding it.
Within twenty seconds of sending the text, his phone vibrated with a reply.
[Message received. I'm at Café LycoReco right now. Free to join?]
Beneath the message was an attached photo showing Lacus in casual clothes, holding up her phone for a selfie.
Luo Shu silently tapped 'save', then focused on the two figures visible in the background of Lacus's selfie.
One was a golden-haired beauty with a professional office lady hairstyle, the other a coldly elegant gothic lolita.
Kirika Tachibana and Natsuki Minamiya.
Recognising the two, Luo Shu immediately understood that this invitation wasn't a date, but rather a discussion about serious matters.
"So when will this date actually materialise?"
Luo Shu muttered to himself, pocketed his phone, and headed straight for the elevator shaft.
...
Akihabara's streets.
Eriri and Utaha, having just finished cleaning duties, were walking towards the subway line.
The golden-haired and raven-haired beauties walking side by side down the street attracted much attention.
"How infuriating! He said we were going to clean the underground area, but after just ten minutes, he came up saying he had matters to attend to elsewhere. That's definitely slacking off! Damn capitalist deity."
Hearing Eriri's quiet complaints, Utaha - who'd just finished cleaning and wasn't keen on becoming an emotional dumping ground - immediately said:
"Telling me this won't help. You should say it to him directly."
"He's too scary. I don't dare." Eriri replied with remarkable spinelessness.
'So you dare say it to me instead?' Utaha thought to herself before responding:
"It's not like he's actually done anything to you, has he?"
"Hah?" Eriri raised her voice slightly: "He's holding my secret over me, forcing me to join..."
"Join what?" Miss Utaha asked with a smile.
Only then did Eriri suddenly realise - the reason Luo Shu knew her secret was because of the mind reading performed by this gloomy woman beside her.
"N-no, nothing at all. I have absolutely no complaints."
Seeing Eriri backtrack, Utaha knew she was being made the scapegoat, but found Eriri's flustered state quite amusing.
"Sawamura-kun, you're actually allowed to have complaints, you know."
"No, I'm not." Eriri hastily covered her mouth in alarm, quickening her pace to overtake Utaha.
Seeing her so panicked, Utaha felt mischievous and prepared to speed up after her.
Just then, a slender wrist holding flyers blocked Utaha's path.
A female voice rang out the next second:
"Miss, would you like to learn about our maid café~"