"Is that so..."
Sitting beside Nero, Huohuo let out a tiny murmur, seemingly unconsciously glossing over his comments about grabbing a Memokeeper to work for him.
The foxian girl lifted her head and blinked lightly, turning her gaze toward the mirror once again, toward the direction where she had vaguely sensed something earlier.
In the corner of her vision, shadowy clumps suddenly seemed to appear. Right after that, the shadows turned into blurry lines that twitched without stop.
But in the next second, all those strange visual distortions vanished, and Huohuo noticed something happening in her field of view, something strange that only she seemed able to perceive.
She saw faint ripples and distortions appear in the space before the mirror, as though the flowing memoria within space itself were trembling and warping before gradually solidifying into the outline of a person.
It was as if some unknown force was analyzing and stripping away the Memokeeper's concealment methods.
Yet this change was not aimed at the Memokeeper, but at Huohuo herself. In other words, she alone could perceive this abnormal phenomenon.
The cluster of memoria condensed into a humanoid form in Huohuo's sight, spinning continuously before suddenly collapsing into reality at some unnoticed moment, finally turning into a figure dressed in a "strange spacesuit."
After a brief moment of confusion, Huohuo became certain that she really had seen a Memokeeper. Everything Nero had said was true.
But Huohuo failed to realize that she was the only one capable of seeing this transformation. She simply assumed the Memokeeper had overheard her conversation with Nero and voluntarily revealed herself.
The Memokeeper herself had done no such thing. She did not even know that she had already been completely exposed within Huohuo's sight.
After confirming that there really were no space ghosts aboard the Astral Express, Huohuo finally relaxed, the tension in her heart easing away.
"That's great... As long as it's not a space ghost."
"Even if it were a space ghost, what would it matter?" Nero said to Huohuo. "You've already received my blessing. Even if there were space ghosts, they definitely wouldn't come after you."
"Besides, there's Mr. Tail too! Don't tell me he can't handle a mere space ghost?"
"Hehe! Now that's the kind of talk this old man likes to hear!" Huohuo's tail swayed proudly.
On the other side, Stelle took out her phone. She had just received a message.
It was from someone named Wilder.
[Wilder: Hello!]
[Wilder: May I ask if this is Stelle?]
Wilder: (Pom-Pom sticker)]
[Stelle: It is. Who are you?]
[Wilder: That makes things easier.]
[Wilder: First, let me introduce myself.]
[Wilder: I'm Wilder, an employee of the IPC Strategic Investment Department.]
[Stelle: Topaz's department?]
[Wilder: That's right. The reason I'm contacting you today is because I'd like to recommend a video game to you.]
[Stelle: Games are great. What game?]
[Wilder: The game is called Aetherium Wars. It's a massive universe-level cultural franchise jointly created by the IPC Market Development Department together with the Interastral Internet and IPC Pictures.]
[Stelle: That impressive? No wonder Nero likes it so much!]
[Wilder: Haha, it is one of our company's flagship projects, after all. Boss Nero can definitely be considered a veteran player of this game.]
[Wilder: Aetherium Wars focuses on collectible card battles and uses the company's cutting-edge Aether Copy technology to replicate and print any lifeform you've encountered, creating Aether Spirits that battle against other players.]
[Stelle: Nero already explained that part to me, but... he recently ran into a problem.]
[Wilder: Please, go ahead.]
[Stelle: Why can't you copy Lord Ravagers into Aether Spirits?]
[Wilder: Huh?]
The Wilder currently chatting with Stelle froze in silence after a moment of shock. His brain, already accustomed to "meetings at work, then more work after work" every single day, seemed to finally stop functioning at this exact moment, sinking into eternal stillness.
'Printing a Lord Ravager into an Aether Spirit?'
'What an unheard-of idea!'
If anyone else had said this to Wilder, he would have dismissed it outright.
But the issue was that the person relaying this question to him was a Nameless from the Astral Express, and the one who had truly asked it was Boss Nero, a business partner of the IPC who also had excellent relations with many high-ranking figures inside the company.
Even though he had never met him in person, Wilder still knew a little about Nero.
The strongest impression he had of Nero was that he absolutely had to be an exceptionally good-looking kid.
After all, Martin, the man whose promotion speed after returning to the company had shot upward like a starship launch, had described Boss Nero this way, "I've never seen anyone better-looking than that kid. The moment I saw him, it felt like I'd returned to the carefree days of my childhood."
And then there was that Knight of Beauty, Argenti, who also held Boss Nero in extremely high regard.
That was a Knight of Beauty they were talking about. If even someone like him praised a person so fervently, it was hard to imagine what kind of person Boss Nero really was.
If it was someone like that, then saying he'd met Emanators and things like that probably wasn't impossible, right?
After a brief period of thought, Wilder finally snapped back to reality and began organizing his words.
Until now, nobody had ever considered the shocking idea of printing Emanators into Aether Spirits. But thinking about it carefully, the company's technology and equipment probably couldn't achieve something like that anyway.
A few seconds later, Wilder finally replied to Stelle, [Uh... that's certainly a surprising idea, but unfortunately, our current technology has difficulty supporting something like replicating Emanators. As you know, Emanators are a very special group of people.]
[In any case, besides recommending this game to you, the reason I contacted you today is to inform you that the Boulder Town Commercial Plaza on Jarilo-VI will soon be hosting an offline Aetherium Wars fan gathering, a grand event known as the Interastral Tournament Festival.]
[Stelle: ...]
[Stelle: I heard Belobog was holding a festival. I thought it was to celebrate driving back the Eternal Freeze or something. Turns out it's a gaming festival?]
[Wilder: Those two things don't conflict at all. Whether it's fireworks and firecrackers or flowers and delicious food, there are always countless ways to celebrate, so why can't games be one of them?]
[Wilder: A festival is meant to let people feel joy and happiness amidst a grand gathering, allowing them to steal a bit of pleasure and leisure from their busy lives. As long as it fulfills that essential purpose, the form it takes isn't all that important.]
[Wilder: Besides, Aetherium Wars seems to be introducing brand-new gameplay this time, so we look forward to your arrival. Of course, if you're interested, you absolutely should get into this game!]
[Wilder: Boss Nero really likes it, and as Boss Nero's companion, don't you think playing games together with friends is an incredibly happy thing?]
Stelle fell silent as she stared at the messages Wilder had sent.
Even though every word in Wilder's final messages practically radiated his desperate desire to drag her into the game, Stelle had to admit that he was right.
There was no denying it.
Playing games with friends really was something that made people happy.
Thinking that, Stelle turned to look at Nero. The boy was hugging Pom-Pom while chatting about something with Huohuo, and all three "little" ones had smiles on their faces.
"Decision made. I'm getting into it."
A determined look appeared in Stelle's eyes.