March 7th thought about it for a moment, then glanced over at Yuki beside her.
Everyone in the chat group had already thrown out their suggestions, but Yuki hadn't said a word yet.
That got her curious, and she couldn't help but want to ask for his opinion, hoping he could help her figure it out.
When Yuki heard March 7th's question, he didn't just jump in with advice. Instead, he asked why she was suddenly so eager to use her points.
"Isn't it obvious?"
"Come on, we're officially boarding the train tomorrow and heading out into space!"
"Who knows what kind of dangers we'll run into out there! Of course I need to get stronger!"
"Otherwise, if you're always the one having to protect me, that just won't cut it!"
March 7th said it like it was the most natural thing in the world.
Hearing that, Yuki gave a small nod.
"Seems like you've got a pretty clear head about it."
"Obviously! I'm not the type to just leech off others forever!"
March 7th lifted her chin proudly, striking a pose like she was just begging for someone to compliment her.
"Well, okay, hehehe..."
"If I do run into something I can't handle, I'm definitely still counting on your help!"
She scratched the back of her head with a cheeky grin, looking a little sheepish.
Yuki just shrugged, unbothered by how the girl's independence only lasted a few seconds.
"The points are yours. What you do with them shouldn't be up to someone else—it's your call."
"Whether you go for an upgrade or try the gacha, both are solid options. At the end of the day, the choice is yours."
Yuki said it flatly, then glanced at the time.
"Alright, Pom-Pom should almost have dinner ready. I'm gonna go get Himeko to come down and eat. The rest is up to you."
With that, Yuki got up, put his book back on the shelf, and left the train.
March 7th, hearing this, sank into deep thought.
She pulled up her own info panel, staring at her power level and abilities, really mulling it over.
Over the past few days, she hadn't just been sitting around, she'd actually been trying to understand and master her own power.
Right now, all she could do was shoot ice arrows with her bow.
When Himeko first saw March 7th conjure those special ice arrows out of thin air, she was totally amazed.
She was so curious about this weird ice that she even ran some tests on it. But this ice was strange. Aside from figuring out it contained some kind of Imaginary Energy, Himeko couldn't find anything else.
Even though Himeko kept calling it "ice," March 7th knew full well it wasn't ice at all—it was crystallized memory.
But March 7th always just called it crystal and never brought up the whole "memory" thing with Himeko. After all, she was still hiding her connection to Fuli, the Aeon of Remembrance, so she couldn't exactly spill those details.
Anyway, back to the point.
Right now, March 7th wasn't happy with just using a bow.
She thought, Since when do big shots use bows? In books and stories, they all rock cool swords!
And besides, if she could shape crystal into arrows, she should be able to shape it into a sword, too.
With that idea in mind, she'd tried tons of experiments.
But they all failed. With her current power, she just couldn't will the crystal into whatever shape she wanted.
That really bummed her out.
So now, with the points at her disposal, her mind naturally leaned toward using them to boost her strength.
After a moment, she decided—she'd use the points to get stronger.
But when she opened the upgrade screen, she hit another roadblock.
The screen showed she could upgrade two abilities.
One was Crystallized Memory. The other was something called the Imaginary Core.
Which one to upgrade—that was the new question.
The first was the power she already used. The second was totally unfamiliar—she didn't even know how to use it.
"Upgrading Crystallized Memory would definitely make me stronger, no doubt."
"But this 'Imaginary Core' thing... it's gotta be like one of those hidden abilities the main character in a novel has."
"Like, a total trump card or something."
March 7th rested her chin on her hand, analyzing the situation with all the seriousness of someone who'd been binge-reading novels lately.
"Okay, so if I'm supposed to be Fuli's daughter, it totally makes sense that I'd have some kind of special talent, right?"
"So obviously, upgrading this talent should give me the biggest payoff."
With that logic locked in, March 7th decisively picked the Imaginary Core to upgrade.
But when she actually went for it, she saw the price—a whopping 20,000 points.
Her jaw practically hit the floor.
After a moment of stunned silence, though, she nodded to herself.
"Alright, fair enough! In the novels, the really powerful abilities always cost a ton to unlock. This is just like that!"
"So I'll save up my points for now, and when I have enough, I'll go for it!"
In the end, March 7th didn't spend her points on anything. She decided to save them instead.
As for the gacha? She wasn't about to gamble.
She shared her decision with the chat group.
Everyone heard her out and respected her choice. And the ones with plenty of points even offered to share some with her if she needed it, so she could hit the 20,000 mark faster.
The offer was tempting—really tempting.
But since she was still new around here, she felt awkward accepting handouts. She told them she wanted to earn the points herself.
Seeing that, nobody pushed it.
....
Meanwhile, with Yuki.
After taking the underground elevator back up to the surface, Yuki found Himeko in the living room.
Himeko was holding a stack of documents.
The papers were all about the bizarre deaths of the planetary higher-ups.
Clearly, she already knew—some of them had turned to ash in the monitoring room.
And from the footage she'd gathered, the monitors showed Yuki and March 7th.
Himeko had obviously pieced it together. Those deaths had Yuki's name written all over them.
"Yuki... who exactly are you?"
Himeko's eyes locked onto him, her voice heavy.
There was no doubt about it—Yuki's strength was beyond anything Himeko could have imagined.
She'd already reconstructed how those people died. The way they'd vanished was so strange, even she—a scientist—found it hard to wrap her head around.
And the one behind it? Yuki. His power was terrifyingly deep.
Himeko had to question his identity.
In her understanding of the world, power like that belonged only to Aeons or their Emanators—beings granted absolute strength by walking a Path.
This wasn't the kind of power some ordinary Pathstrider could ever hope to have.
"Does it really matter?"
"Or are you saying you want revenge for them?"
Yuki didn't flinch at being confronted. He just chuckled lightly and sat down across from Himeko.
Himeko shook her head.
"No."
"Look, I'm not saying killing people left and right is okay—that's just my personal take."
"But moral rules like that? They don't mean anything to someone on the level of an Emanator."
"If those people provoked an Emanator and got wiped out, they brought it on themselves."
She'd seen the whole story—watched the footage of those same people threatening Yuki behind his back.
If Yuki killed them for it, they had it coming.
And honestly, Yuki only went after that specific group. Everyone else in the room that day walked out just fine.
That alone told Himeko that Yuki wasn't the type to kill for no reason.