Because the Antarctic scientific expedition was already short-staffed, there were plenty of spare rooms in the base. Jhin and the girls were able to have a room each. Nymph had already applied cognitive interference to the large storage space beforehand, so most people believed the girls' luggage had been transported through normal channels.
In reality, Jhin took the luggage out of the large storage space one by one and placed it in the base's designated item area, then waited for them to come and claim it themselves.
The dormitory's floor heating and power supply systems were operating normally. Even though no one had visited the base for maintenance in three years, there were no major issues with the living facilities or other equipment. After all, it was used for Antarctic scientific expeditions, so the quality and safety were definitely not lacking.
Living alone again, Jhin actually missed the days of sleeping while holding Hitori Gotoh. Clearing the distracting thoughts from his mind, he hummed a Kessoku Band song while unpacking his luggage. Toiletries and changes of clothes went without saying; everyone would bring those.
He took a silver laptop out of the suitcase and placed it on the desk. Jhin didn't have any intention of using it for work—a personal terminal was enough for that. It was mainly used for playing games and pretending he was using normal tools to contact people.
The cardboard box used for luggage was emptied. Jhin folded it up and placed it outside in the hallway. Someone would come to collect these boxes; the intact ones would be reused, while the damaged ones that couldn't be used would be turned into waste to be processed, packed up, and stacked in the warehouse to be taken back during the return voyage.
"Knock, knock, knock."
"Master, I'm here."
Nymph walked into the room, her tender little feet wearing the pair of white little sheep slippers she wore at home on weekdays. She began to report the situation to Jhin: "The small signal base station has been set up, and the personal terminal has connected to the exclusive network. Is the test of the portable constant temperature device confirmed to take place during Kessoku Band's MV recording?"
"Yeah. They can't possibly play outdoors wearing clothes that make it hard to move, and the other musical equipment can't be used in this temperature either."
Jhin imagined the panicked expression on Hitori Gotoh's face if she wore gloves on her slender, dexterous hands and couldn't even press the guitar strings properly during the performance. He almost laughed out loud.
"Understood. Then I will schedule the energy device test for the MV recording as well."
"Mhm, sorry to trouble you."
"Master, let's go out for a walk."
"No problem."
Holding Nymph's small hand, Jhin walked with her to the snow-covered outdoors. The solid dark brown soil exposed on the small mounds in the distance looked like chocolate hidden in the center of an ice cream bar.
Satania, Gabriel, and the others were curiously touring the scientific expedition base. They hadn't experienced winter since coming to the Human World, and neither Heaven nor the Demon World had this kind of icy and snowy scenery.
"Ooooh! Is this snow? It's my first time touching the real thing."
Satania took off her gloves and scooped up the snow piled on the ground. It had a sandy texture but lacked the fluidity of sand. If forced to describe it, it was like the shaved ice sold in ice cream shops, but the touch was much finer.
Compacting the snow into a ball, Satania stood up in high spirits: "Gabriel, Vignette, Raphiel, let's have a snowball fight!"
"Sure."
The very next second after Gabriel responded, a snowball she had long been clutching in her hand smashed straight into Satania's face. Her sudden attack caught Satania off guard, causing her to slip and fall onto the snow.
"Satania, are you okay?" Vignette cried out in surprise, running over to help Satania up.
"Smack!"
A cold snowball exploded on Vignette's face, fragments of snow sticking to the hair on her forehead.
Satania laughed loudly as she ran away: "The snowball fight has already started! We are all enemies now. Vignette, you have too little guard up."
"Ah, is that so?" Vignette wiped the remaining snow off her face expressionlessly, the highlights disappearing from her pupils. "So there's no need for mercy."
Gabriel and Raphiel, who planned to watch Satania make a fool of herself, never expected Vignette to grab two handfuls of snow and backhand them into their faces, then flee the scene with a crisp laugh.
"As expected of a demon, changing faces just like that."
After speaking, Gabriel glanced warily at her companion beside her: "Raphiel, you won't sneak attack me too, right?"
"Gab, I'm an angel, you know. How could I do something like that?" Raphiel smiled cheerfully, not looking the least bit angry after getting snow plastered on her face.
Raphiel probably wouldn't do something like a sneak attack from behind. I'll trust her for now; getting revenge on Vignette is more important.
Thinking this, Gabriel molded a snowball, turned around, and walked aggressively toward the two demons in the distance.
"Smack."
"Gab, I'm going to attack you now~"
Raphiel's voice drifted slowly from behind, as if to indicate that her attack was open and aboveboard, not a sneak attack.
Gabriel turned her head to stare at the snowball that had fallen by her feet. She decided it was better to deal with this traitor to Heaven behind her first.
"Raphiel, you are digging your own grave!"
Gabriel constantly grabbed snow from the ground. A soft golden light flashed, and a perfectly round snowball appeared in her palm. She used this efficient method to launch constant attacks at Raphiel.
Seeing that Gabriel had used angel powers, Raphiel naturally wouldn't be at a disadvantage in this regard. She clasped her hands together and bowed her head in prayer. All the snowballs flying toward her changed their trajectories one after another, speeding past her side.
"You actually used defensive Divine Magic! You're too despicable!"
"Wasn't it Gab who used angel powers first? I only used Divine Magic for the sake of fairness."
"Fine, fine, fine, playing like this, huh?"
Gabriel didn't hesitate to cast a sure-hit Divine Magic on herself, then began throwing snowballs frantically.
They were locked in a stalemate. Gabriel's snowballs would always swerve away in front of Raphiel, while Raphiel had to maintain her current posture and continuously release Divine Magic to avoid being hit.
Just as the scene fell into a deadlock, Jhin and Nymph passed by. Gabriel's attention shifted to him for a split second, and her hand subconsciously threw the snowball imbued with the sure-hit attribute.
Crap!
By the time she reacted, that snowball smashed onto Jhin's head with incomparable precision, making him stop in his tracks.
Jhin shook the snow off his head. He caught sight of Gabriel frozen in place with a snowball in hand and Raphiel trying to stifle her laughter. Before he could even speak, Satania and Vignette each sent a snowball his way too.
"Hoho, actually attacking me proactively? Not choosing to run away, but attacking proactively?"
Jhin revealed a smile that was so righteous it looked evil. He swayed his shoulders left and right, striding toward Gabriel and the others.
"Well then, it's time to let you taste the true power of The World!"
"Master has entered a weird state again..." Nymph was already used to this.
"Time, stop!"
____
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