Before this, Silver Wolf hadn't quite understood why Elio had acted the way he did—neither explaining the script nor stopping her, just wearing this complicated, hard-to-describe expression.
Now, Silver Wolf got it. At least, she got part of it.
No wonder it couldn't be written into the script! They'd never get it past the censors!
"So… this is what Elio meant by 'a companion very close to Stelle'? They really are intimate… But usually, Firefly seems… mostly pretty calm, right? She probably wouldn't overreact to something like this… I hope?"
"Hmm, maybe I'll hint at a little bit of it once I'm back. Not sure if there's still time, but Firefly has to put in some effort too… Should I secretly add Firefly's contact to Stelle's phone?"
Miss Silver Wolf, whose entire knowledge of romance came from galgames, decided to stop overthinking it.
Sure, she was a galgame pro, but she wasn't foolish enough to think that qualified her to guide a friend's love life.
In matters like this, she believed things should unfold naturally.
"But isn't this a case of 'childhood friend can't beat the sudden new arrival'? Fits pretty well, huh… Ah, Firefly is just too Firefly-less…"
With thoroughly mixed feelings, and prompted by Prometheus, Silver Wolf left Lynelle's room.
And then…
Lynelle 'drifted' right out of the Honkai Impact 3 game cartridge on the desk.
"I knew she wouldn't be able to resist copying a game she'd never seen before—especially one owned by a skilled player like me who's never used cheats… Hehe, now my Corruption powers can hitch a ride hidden within her data projection via this cartridge."
A smug, 'just-as-planned' smile spread across Lynelle's face.
As for whether she'd ever cheated… Well, let's just say, if you are the cheat, why would you need to use one?
"But… oof, seems like Silver Wolf stumbled upon some… not-so-great stuff. Did I just corrupt a minor? This kind of thing might be a bit much for her age… Ah, whatever. Probably not a big deal."
Considering Silver Wolf's vast gaming experience, Lynelle figured she wouldn't short-circuit over it.
And judging from the girl's muttering, the whole situation probably involved Firefly and Stelle, right?
Not that Lynelle was worried about Firefly finding out about her and Stelle. Frankly, she'd be thrilled if Firefly showed up.
Everyone knew Firefly put on this soft, sweet act in front of Stelle. And as it happened, Lynelle had just the thing that might give her an edge against Firefly…
As the saying goes, when two bottoms meet, one must top! Lynelle was going to seize this chance to prove herself!
"Now that Silver Wolf has taken the specially prepared game cartridge, my mission here is pretty much complete. All that's left is to wait for this whole situation to blow over, and for Herta to send me the data from Silver Wolf's accounts…"
Lynelle casually switched on the room's air circulation, wiped off the doodle of a sweating face she'd drawn on the Herta puppet, and finally pressed the 'auto-clean' button she'd forgotten to activate that morning.
Now, she could leisurely wait for the good news from Herta.
--+--
Meanwhile, since the 'security measures' Herta and Screwllum had prepared for Silver Wolf were essentially no measures at all, events unfolded much like they did originally.
The [Aether Cartridge], which Silver Wolf had obsessed over and gone to great lengths to copy, actually hadn't been protected by Herta at all.
In other words, the thing was basically open source.
Taking advantage of Silver Wolf's infiltration into the Simulated Universe, Herta performed a quiet counter-hack, pinpointing all 76 of Silver Wolf's interstellar network accounts… and promptly had the IPC freeze every single one of them.
Of course, at Lynelle's request, Herta also made a backup of all the account data and handed it over to her.
Herta wasn't sure what Lynelle planned to do with them, but… if she wanted them, Herta was happy to oblige.
She was generally pretty accommodating towards her allies, especially when it was Lynelle.
Just as the commotion at the space station was dying down, far, far away, on the rooftop of a skyscraper…
"They're gone… All of them, wiped clean… Not a single one left… This is too much, just too much!"
"Alright now, no more crying and carrying on. You're not a kid anymore."
Beside the grey-haired girl, a mature-looking woman with purple hair sat perched on the rooftop railing, watching Silver Wolf with an expression of pure exasperation.
"I am not crying and carrying on."
The emotional tremor in the grey-haired girl's voice was unmistakable.
"Sure, sure… So, what's the plan? Hack into a local branch of the IPC?"
"Sigh. A couple of accounts, maybe. But this was a total massacre. A branch office won't cut it. I'll have to go to Pier Point in person."
Silver Wolf let out a deep sigh and materialized two game cartridges from her terminal.
"But… at least I got the [Aether Cartridge]… And through the whole mess, even though Lynelle was definitely on the station, she didn't make a move. I guess that's one piece of good news in this disaster."
"Oh, that's the cartridge you've been pining for, isn't it? But what's the other one?"
"I have not been pining."
Silver Wolf held up the second cartridge. "I found this in Lynelle's room. It's a game I've never seen before, so I made a copy… Not sure if she'd mind sharing, though."
"Of course I don't mind~"
A voice suddenly chimed from the very cartridge in Silver Wolf's hand, startling her so badly she nearly dropped it.
Then, a data projection flickered to life in front of Silver Wolf.
"Hey, long time no see~"
Lynelle, wearing a sweet smile, waved at Silver Wolf and Kafka. "This data projection ability of yours is pretty neat. Very handy~"
"It seems…" Kafka pressed down a faintly twitching smirk, looking at the utterly dumbfounded Silver Wolf. "…Lynelle didn't not make a move. You just failed to notice it."
"You…" Silver Wolf's face was a picture of pure, stunned disbelief. "How did you bypass my security protocols?"
"You forgot, didn't you? The first time we met, I already got a good look at your terminal's security protocols~"
Lynelle cited a date that took Silver Wolf completely by surprise.
"So, I made a complete copy of your security protocols, took them home, studied them for a while, and eventually cracked them."
"Huh?!"
Silver Wolf's face clearly read, 'Seriously, dude?'.
"You're telling me you copied my entire security setup without breaking through them first, and then did your research? How could you copy them if you hadn't broken in?!"
"Hehe, sometimes brute force is the best force~ If you can't pick the lock, just take the whole house. My powers don't really play by the rules, what can I say~"
Lynelle reached out, grinning, to pat Silver Wolf's head, but the girl dodged with a grumpy scowl.
"So what do you actually want?"
"Simple."
Lynelle purged all traces of her Corruption power from the game cartridge and tossed it back to Silver Wolf. "I want to make a bet with you."
--+--
T/N: I have a Patreon! Webnovel will get 3 Chapters Every Day, and advanced chapters will be uploaded on Patreon.
It may not seem worth it now, but maybe in the future. Who knows!
[email protected]/AspenTL
If you guys wanna check it out.