After a brief yet gentle round of "family discipline," Rover was lightly drenched in sweat, her faintly fragrant breath continuously brushing against Zane's forehead.
The two were connected in heart and mind, their pain linked.
When her fists landed on his body, his body felt the pain. Just like love…
'Alright, I can't keep that going.'
"Tyranny, this is tyranny!"
Zane's wail echoed through the Bottom of Tethys, reverberating like a cry in an empty valley, lingering and fading. Truly, those who heard it felt entertained, those who saw it burst into laughter.
The Shorekeeper felt a bit of sympathy and wanted to step in and stop them, but Stelle directly held her back.
"They… are always like this?"
Stelle waved her hand casually, completely unconcerned, signaling the Shorekeeper not to worry.
"Hey, you don't get it. This is how young people play these days. It's called SM, a kind of fun game for young people."
"Fun… I see."
The Shorekeeper pressed her lips together and nodded firmly, while recording the term into her database, "Zane likes SM"
———
On the other side, facing Zane's accusation, Rover crossed her arms and let out a cold laugh, still sitting on top of him without any intention of getting up.
"Go on, what did you do just now?"
At this moment, lying on the ground, Zane could feel the soft pressure pressing down on him. For a moment, he didn't know whether to move forward or back.
"What do you mean what did I do? I didn't do anything."
Seeing him still trying to brush it off, Rover pouted and flicked his forehead hard.
"What exactly was that black thing you threw at the Tethys System? Why did it react so strongly?"
"Oh, that…" Zane scratched his head. If he'd known that's what she meant, he wouldn't have resisted earlier. Would've saved Rover the effort of "rewarding"… ahem, punishing him.
He shifted his body, finding a slightly more comfortable position.
He'd thought she'd discovered that he stuffed outdated little adult comics into a garbage bag and threw it at the Tethys System.
Since Rover had already "rewarded" him like this, he couldn't exactly keep it hidden.
As Zane pulled his hand out from under Rover and waved it, a black object appeared in front of her.
But when Rover saw it, her brows lifted slightly, her delicate face full of confusion.
Whether judging by appearance or smell, it was just an ordinary bag of "trash."
Zane seemed to see through her confusion. He raised his hand, cupped her face, and met her gaze.
"Remember this. It's not ordinary trash. It's accomplished trash. It's trash that's beaten a boss.
Other than Stelle, no one here is qualified to fight it one-on-one."
"…"
Rover's face went blank. For a moment, she didn't even know how to express her urge to beat him up again.
After thinking about it, she decided not hitting him wouldn't satisfy public outrage. She immediately chopped him on the head with her hand.
But based on her understanding of Zane, she grasped what he meant and tested, "You're saying this 'trash' seriously injured the Tethys System?"
"Exactly."
The Shorekeeper, who was listening, kept her calm expression, but inside, waves were crashing.
'How did Rover understand what Zane meant?'
'Why can't I?'
'Or is there some special method to help one person understand another?'
The Shorekeeper quietly recalled what had just happened, and suddenly her eyes lit up. She immediately recorded in her database, "A certain level of force applied to the head helps empty thoughts, stop thinking, and makes it easier to understand others."
Of course, Zane and Rover had no idea what was happening on the Shorekeeper's side.
"This 'trash' has that kind of ability?"
Rover raised a brow. It wasn't that she didn't believe Zane, it just… using "trash" to hit people sounded a bit ridiculous.
Hearing that, Zane immediately felt dissatisfied. He grabbed a piece of "trash" and threw it straight at Stelle.
Why not throw it at Rover?
Because he cared, obviously.
If Rover got hurt, wouldn't he be the one taking care of her?
And the Doctor looked so soft and delicate. Who could bring themselves to throw trash at a cute little emperor penguin?
As for the Shorekeeper…
Would you really throw trash at someone who's both your daughter and your wife?
After thinking it over, only Stelle fit the bill.
"Zane!"
Instantly losing 15% of her health, Stelle yelped and jumped up from the ground, raising her flaming lance and charging at him.
Watching the star-core girl rushing closer, Zane wasn't nervous at all. If anything, he almost wanted to laugh.
Just look at who's sitting on him.
The great Emperor of Jinzhou, the leader of the Black Shores. How could she be afraid of a mere star-core girl...
But in the next second, Zane suddenly felt lighter. Looking again, Rover had already stuck out her tongue and slipped behind the Shorekeeper.
After the hot spring incident, seeing Stelle's personality that ignored all boundaries, didn't care about gender, and had no taboos… honestly, Rover was a bit scared.
"Damn it, no loyalty…"
Before Zane could finish, a fiery red lance stabbed down right beside his head.
"Zane, I'm going all out with you!"
The Shorekeeper only glanced once before quickly looking away. That kind of scene was still too stimulating for someone who had only just developed human awareness.
"Zane likes being pinned to the ground."
———
Before long, Zane, covered in bite marks, set off back to the surface with the others.
Rover had resolved the Tethys System issue, the Doctor had witnessed data developing human traits, Stelle had taken the chance to grope Zane, and a world where only Zane got hurt was achieved.
"By the way," Zane rubbed the bite marks on his face and asked Rover the question that had been bothering him.
"How exactly did you modify the Tethys System? I think I heard it shouting things like 'it's going in' and 'there's too much.'"
"Don't tell me you injected your genetic material?"
Thinking of that awkward moment, Rover's cheeks flushed slightly. Who knew what weird things Zane had stuffed into that "trash." She rolled her eyes at him.
"Do you remember how the Threnodian controlled the Retroact rain to create afterimages when we fought in Jinzhou?"
Hearing that, Zane's eyes lit up.
"You mean the Threnodian used the Retroact rain to recreate the echoes of fallen soldiers, and those echoes are essentially the emotions they had before dying?"
"Exactly." Rover tilted her head slightly, a sly smile appearing on her face. "So I stuffed that emotion-based Aberrant into the Tethys System."
"After all, aside from being the Threnodian's creation, that thing is an afterimage formed purely from emotions. And it can continuously absorb emotions to grow stronger."
Seeing her smile so happily, Zane suddenly felt like the Threnodian might have it even worse than him.
Just think about it. The Formless Tacet Discord had just been born and immediately got beaten up by Rover out of nowhere.
Finally, when Rover disappeared and it tried to come back to stir trouble again, it ran into a suicide truck that dragged it down with it.
After a few years of recovery, just as it regained strength, the same Rover who beat it before showed up again.
Not only that, she took its proudest afterimage and stuffed it into the Tethys System as a worker…
Thinking about it, that's really tragic.
A moment of sympathy for the Formless Tacet Discord.
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