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"I need your help."
"Wha-" *Cough* *cough*
In his shock, the Trailblazer struggled to keep his breakfast in his mouth. Given that she was right in front of him, the mixture of cereal and saliva flew towards Silver Wolf at a speed of 4.1 m/s. Fortunately for her, she was merely there as a hologram which only Caelus could see. This was however unfortunate for March, as the half chewed spoonful of cereal passed through Silver Wolf hitting her square in the face.
"Wha-!? Caelus!!!" She yelled whilst trying to keep the mushy mixture of food from entering her mouth.
"S-Sorry..."
"This was a new shirt as well... How are you going to make up for this?"
"Can't you just ask Dan Heng to use his cloudhymm magic?"
"...That'll just ruin my shirt even more."
With his honest suggestion rejected, he dejectedly conceded, "I'll try to wash it..."
...
...
...
After breakfast, Caelus snuck into his room. That in itself wasn't difficult. What was difficult was making it through breakfast while ignoring the increasingly annoying hologram of Silver Wolf which only he could see.
"You're alone now, so will you finally listen to me?"
"You haven't given me a good reason to."
"I have total access to your PC."
"At your service, my queen."
Though his memories only extend to about two years, his mind has been redeveloping rapidly in that time. Gone are the days when he was curious about every little thing he saw, he now possesses the mind of a healthy young man, suitable for his physical appearance. With that of course, comes a few things a young man would want to keep secret from others.
"Though, it's rare for you to need my help for anything other than gacha pulls."
Silver Wolf gives an annoyed look before explaining her situation.
"The IPC has been developing a game I've been looking forward to, but they're taking too long."
"Don't rush game developers if you want a good game..." Caelus recalls the image of a tired Mr. Yang as he presented a recreation of an anime from his home planet.
The self-centered Silver Wolf however had a hard time understanding such sentiment.
"I heard they were doing small scale internal tests, so I gave their internal servers a look, but they've been more cautious as of late. I couldn't find anything but a few empty folders."
"I see. So why did you ask for my help of all people?"
"I'm the best(only) hacker among the Stellaron Hunters. Who else could I ask?"
"You don't have any friends outside the Stellaron Hunters?"
"Naturally."
...
At first, Caelus wanted to mention how sad that sounded, until he remembered that Silver Wolf was a wanted intergalactic criminal. It was only natural she would have few genuine human connections.
"Wait, but since you trust me to help you, could that mean I was also an amazing hacker back then?" Caelus asked with a tinge of excitement.
"Pft, of course not."
Disappointing, but expected.
"Hmm, since it's the IPC, I guess I could use some of my internal connections, heh."
Though his smile was smug, he only had few connections he could rely on.
"Oh, I was right to ask for your help after all."
Not wanting to disappoint Silver Wolf, Caelus quickly pulled out his phone and texted away.
[[Topaz]]
Caelus: Topaz, are you there?
AI Reply: Greetings. Director Topaz is currently busy and unable to reply to your message.
No dice huh. That's fine, As one of the legendary Nameless and famous Galactic Baseballer, Caelus has more than one contact among the IPC.
[[Aventurine]]
Caelus: Are you There? I need your help for something.
Aventurine: Sorry a bit busy right now.
[You have received 10,000 credits]
Aventurine: Use this for now.
Caelus: Wait, that's not what I need.
Caelus: Aventurine?
Caelus: Hello?
[This user is currently unavailable]
Looking over his shoulder, Silver Wolf sighs dejectedly, "So much for internal connections. Do you really only know two people from the IPC?"
"Like you're one to talk..."
"Well, that's a bust..."
Looking at the disappointed Silver Wolf, Caelus couldn't bear to just leave her hanging. She must have swallowed quite a bit of pride to be willing to ask him for help given her personality. If she were to return empty handed now, would she ever be willing to ask for his help again? Though they're technically on opposing factions, they're still friends. If possible, he'd like to be able to help her as mush as he could.
"...Maybe you should try playing something else. Let me recommend a few."
The suggestion seemed to pique the interest of the hacker momentarily, before a sudden realization made her wary of the idea. "With what I've seen on your PC, I'm not really sure about that."
"T-That's a breach of privacy! Stop looking through my things will you."
"Whatever. So, what do you have in mind?" Inevitably, Silver Wolf decided to go along with it since she had nothing better to do at the moment.
"Heh, I thought you'd never ask."
From the corner of his room, Caelus excavated a large square machine with another smaller box on top of it. A CRT monitor and an old game console. Even Silver Wolf knows what they are, though their age meant even she found little interest in them.
"This is something Mr. Yang made for us a while back. There's a certain charm to these older games. Want to play together? Some of them have a two player mode."
Caelus seemed enthusiastic about finally having someone to play this old game with. Aside from Mr. Yang, none of the other crew members were particularly keen on playing it. Dan Heng would prefer to be holed up in the data bank all day, Himeko wasn't all that great at video games, and March just didn't vibe with it. Even Mr. Yang who was a massive fan of these old titles opted to sit back and watch due to his older age. In the end, only Caelus found himself enjoying the old classics, though even he got bored playing alone for so long.
"Hmm, I guess I could give it a go."
And so, the two enjoyed a few classics from one of the first platformers, scrolling beat-em ups, action adventure games, RPG's, fighting games, puzzle games... etc.
For all of half an hour.
The reason they switched between various genres was because Silver Wolf wasn't good at any of them and thus asked to switch games. Her attitude was childish, but the bigger question was how could a cosmic gamer such as Silver Wolf be bad at games? Simple. The console they were playing on was so old that she had no way of hacking it. Skill? Reaction time? Game knowledge? Such concepts might as well be foreign to Silver Wolf who could only enjoy games through hacking.
"This sucks..."
"...More like you suck."
"Want me to leak something about you to Firefly?"
"Sorry, these games weren't that good after all."
Sorry Mr. Yang...
Just then, Silver Wolf seemed to remember something relating to her time in Penacony.
"Speaking of Firefly, didn't you guys talk about romance games that one time?"
"Erk..."
Romance games. A guilty pleasure of the young Trailblazer. Given the nature of Trailblazing, it's difficult to get into any romantic relationships. As for members of the Astral Express, he couldn't really imagine it. And so, he has to satiate his desire for romantic relationships through the magic of online media.
"I didn't think you'd be interested..."
"Well, that's true. But, I am bored enough that I could give it a try."
"It's a lot of reading though..."
"What do you take me for?"
"There's barely any gameplay..."
"It's about time I rested my fingers for a bit."
Any attempts Caelus made to deter Silver Wolf from finding out about this secret hobby of his proved unsuccessful. Eventually, he had to give in.
...
...
...
"So this is the kind of stuff you're into..."
"..."
Since it was Silver Wolf's first exposure to this kind of media, Caelus decided on one of the tamer titles from his library. Though, even that proved peculiar for her.
It was typical game about a boy and a group of girls. The player could pick who they wanted to hang out with and and raise their affection levels. That in itself was innocent enough. However, any innocence was put into question when one looked at how the characters were drawn.
Despite the warning at the start of the game stating that all characters were over the age of 18, the art style made them appear younger than that. Cute round eyes, petite bodies, and cutesy voices. Just having this in his library painted Caelus in a suspicious light.
[Ahh, not there Onii-chan!!! Kyah~!]
Change of verdict. Caelus was guilty on all charges.
"...Were you really thinking of teaching Firefly about these kind of games?"
"I mean, she never followed up on it..."
They sat there in silence as the scene kept playing out, sounds of wet flesh smacking together and high pitched moans. If it weren't for the hologram of Silver Wolf next to him, he wanted to pull his pants down right this instant.
...
...
...
4 system hours later.
"Pick the first option. She's obviously the type to run away if you give a sudden confession."
"Since when did you become an expert at romance?"
"Like you're one to talk. With your current memories, the only knowledge of romance you have is from these weird games."
"And yet you seem to be enjoying these so called weird games."
"...I'll relay this information to Firefly."
"Please don't..."
As someone who struggled to form proper human relationships, Silver Wolf was unexpectedly drawn to these romance games which simulated social interactions she could only dream of. Though the contents of some of them were slightly dubious, she was willing to sit through those scenes.
"Uooohhhh! Hotaru-chan!!!"
As long as Caelus wasn't gushing with lust that is. Unfortunately for her, she was only there as a hologram, and had no ability to stop him from his degeneracy. Luckily, she sensed something that might work in her favor to discourage him from his current behavior.
Just then, the door to the room swung open, revealing an annoyed March 7th.
"Keep it down will you! I can hear you from downstairs. And when will you get to washing my clothes you ruined this-" Her words were halted by a perplexing scene of Caelus practically hugging the screen with some questionable content on it. Of course, she couldn't see Silver Wolf laughing in the corner.
"M-M-March... I can explain!"
"..."
"..."
"You can explain to Himeko later."
"...March, please."
Wanting to convince his friend to spare him, he attempted to close the distance for a more productive conversation.
To which March saw as a threat and retaliated a violent kick, "Stay away from me you pervert!"
Later that day, Caelus was given a talk about his interests and some possibly long overdue talk about the birds and the bees. There weren't really any notable consequences, but safe to say, he was very embarrassed. Silver Wolf on the other hand gained a newfound interest that she would indulge in during her free time.