Great, we're doomed now!

Liuli walked last, paused before leaving, and turned her head to look at Ye Shou.

Are you alright on your own?

The maid seemed to be expecting something as well, but both she and Carmilla were destined to be disappointed, and it all boiled down to one sentence—

"A rare moment of peace and quiet."

Life being fought over by beautiful girls may seem wonderful, but it is actually very draining. Ye Shou also needs time to be alone so he can rest and recuperate.

So he watched everyone leave with a smile, and the corridor fell silent, with only the faint sound of waves in the distance lingering in his ears.

He returned to his room, pulled out his portable VR device, connected to the hotel's quantum network, and settled into a comfortable position on the sofa.

It's been a long time since I logged in.

Recent events have been piling up, especially the appearance of Zigela, which means...

Ye Shou rubbed his temples to clear his mind of these distracting thoughts, then put on his helmet and entered the virtual world.

"Ok?"

After logging in, next to his username "Bayeli" was a row of small icons he didn't recognize. Ye Shou randomly clicked on one:

Challenge Shuyi

This is not surprising, after all, this is a mecha game where player-versus-player combat is more fun than PVE monster-slaying, and challenging others to rank up is the main fun for most players.

The problem is the sheer number... After opening my email, the entire screen was filled with unread emails—

More than a thousand challenge letters!

He didn't recognize any of the sender's IDs; they weren't his game friends at all, but rather strangers.

Ye Shou casually opened a few emails and glanced at them. The content was similar, with some being arrogant, some being childish, and some even carrying a hint of hatred, as if Ye Shou were some kind of wild BOSS in a public area, and that challenging him was a matter of course.

He blinked, opened the Battle Power Ranking, and sure enough, saw his name ranked first!

"Ok?"

He closed his email and fell into deep thought.

When was the last time you logged into this account?

It must have been before the Kayaba Akihiko rebellion. After that, he never went online again, and he didn't even read the automatically pushed weekly reports.

No matter how high his score was before, it's impossible that no one has surpassed him yet, not to mention that there were probably season restarts in between... Is someone using his account?

Thinking of this, Ye Shou's gaze fell on the image of "Bayeli," the aloof beauty with silver hair and blue eyes—

It wouldn't be surprising if it was "Bayeli" using the account!

He had vaguely sensed it before but hadn't paid it any mind. Thinking about it, it makes sense... In peacetime, the Silver Demon God could only stay in the hangar or Ye Shou's private space, so boredom was inevitable. And since it wasn't purely mechanical, as a being with intelligence and emotions, the machine spirit Bayeri naturally had to find something to do.

She's incredibly competitive, even a bit bloodthirsty at heart... I bet she went on a killing spree in the game!

Ye Shou smiled casually, flipping down the battle power rankings. Just as he was about to close his eyes, he caught a glimpse of another ranking list next to him:

Number one on the list of red-name killers.

Ye Shou frowned and clicked on the details, only to see that his "sin value" column clearly showed 6.66 million!

The text followed by a smaller line of text reads: "This value is accumulated from malicious player PK and has reached the system's default limit."

Did they kill off alt accounts?

No, judging from Bayeri's personality... it should be indiscriminate slaughter.

He stared at the number for three seconds to make sure he wasn't seeing things, then went back out and checked the system logs to find out just how many outrageous things his combat partners had done.

Up until now, Ye Shou had only been somewhat surprised:

drop!

A new message popped up on the screen; it was an invitation to play online from a friend.

Ye Shou glanced at the sender's ID, his eyes widening slightly, revealing a rare expression of confusion, even disbelief.

The chat interface popped up, and the other party's avatar was a black silhouette with no discernible features. Before Ye Shou could even type anything, messages bombarded him like a machine gun.

[Oh, you finally remembered to log on?]

I thought you were too scared to accept my challenge.

[You weren't this cowardly before. How come you've not only lost one of your holy swords, but you've also lost your guts?]

Ye Shou: "?"

[Speak up, are you mute? You should step down and make way for someone more capable; not just anyone can be his soulmate.]

Ye Shou stared at the text popping up on the screen, remained silent for a few seconds, and then typed a line.

"who are you?"

The other party paused for a moment, then posted a question mark.

[Bayeli, are you really suffering from Alzheimer's?]

"I was serious."

This time, the other party remained silent for even longer, with "typing" repeatedly displayed above the message box... Finally, a cautious, tentative message popped up.

[You...aren't you Bayeli?]

“I am Bayeli.”

Ye Shou leaned back on the sofa, his finger hovering above the input box for a moment before typing out a sentence that even he found inexplicable.

"And you are my alternate account."

【……ah!】

Three seconds later, the other party's status changed to "offline," and the chat interface became completely silent.

Ye Shou stared at the grayed-out profile picture, his brows furrowing deeper and deeper:

Theoretically speaking, if your alternate account suddenly starts chatting with you, it basically means your account has been hacked... But needless to say, how secure is his account? Would a hacker of this level just provoke him to play games?

Ye Shou switched out of the chat interface, used his permissions to bring up the IP tracking tool in the background, and the system began to reverse analyze the login node. He only glanced at it before his lips twitched.

He had two login IPs. The larger one was logged into the third basement level of TPC headquarters, where he had his own private hangar. The smaller one was logged into the basement hangar of the Kuze Mansion, where he stored spare parts and his personal collection.

No, Bayeri logs in to TPC normally, but this alternate account is...

TPC headquarters underground hangar.

Rows of cold fluorescent lights illuminated the dome, making the entire hangar as bright as day. The silver aircraft stood quietly on the central platform, its armor plating gleaming with a cold metallic luster under the lights in a streamlined arc. Its wings were folded back, its posture relaxed, like a raptor resting.

Inside the cabin, where no one knew, the main control screen suddenly lit up.

"……what?"

Soft particles of light surged from the bulkhead, floating and coalescing in the air like fireflies, gradually outlining the silhouette of a silver-haired woman. She appeared from nothing, first her long legs and waist, then her sculpted shoulders and neck, and finally her face, which never revealed any other expression.

—Bayelly.

The personality projection of the machine spirit, dressed in a modified German-style military uniform, lay on its side on the main seat in front of the control panel, one hand supporting its head, the other hand casually waving in the air to bring up the email interface.

Her movements were languid, as if she had just woken up and wasn't fully awake yet, but her pale, almost transparent blue pupils narrowed slightly as they swept across the screen, their color suddenly becoming much richer, clearly indicating that she had been forcibly awakened.

What's wrong with this guy...?

【Oh no! This is terrible! We're doomed!】

The moment the image popped up, a beautiful face with tears on its cheeks filled the entire screen.

With short black hair and delicate but slightly immature features, she could even be described as having a childlike face, looking no more than fourteen years old. However, when her face was pulled back, her body, outlined by the black bodysuit, revealed curves that were completely out of place for her age.

Her style of dress is very different from Bayeri's. If Silver Machine Soul is the "Queen of Military Uniforms", then she is the "EVA Compatible Person". Her anti-G suit with a latex-like texture even gives people a kind of color... well, not a very good feeling.

She was originally supposed to be very flamboyant and proud, but at this moment her big eyes were wide open, her voice was trembling slightly, and her whole face was filled with the words "something bad is about to happen".

"Bayeli!" her voice was urgent and shrill. "What should I do? What should I do? What should I do? My life is over if this continues—"

Bayeri looked at her expressionlessly, utterly unmoved: "Our relationship isn't close enough for us to have life-changing discussions, is it?"

Strictly speaking, their relationship was even one of mutual sarcasm and sarcastic remarks, almost to the point of wanting to engage in a real-life offline competition.

"He found it!"

"Hmm?" The silver-haired machine spirit raised an eyebrow. "I see, no wonder..."

The girl spoke at breakneck speed, like a barrage of gunfire: "What should I do? If he keeps investigating, he'll definitely find out I exist! Absolutely not... pretending to be a hacker? No, no, no, no!"

"I don't understand you. Why don't you just go ahead and be honest?" Bayeri said, her voice not loud, but the girl immediately shut her mouth.

The cabin was quiet for a few seconds, and the silver machine spirit changed its posture, silently watching the other party through the screen, its blue pupils showing no emotion.

“Bazaar, you can’t keep this a secret forever, you know that.”

Perhaps unable to bear her gaze any longer, the girl known as "Bazaar," the mecha spirit of the Berserker Armor, bit her lip and turned her head away.

"But just appearing in front of him like this... isn't that a bit too ordinary?"

What they want is for someone to descend upon their master like an angel when the master is facing a life-or-death crisis or falling into the lowest point in his life, and to tell him, "I've always been there for you..."

What a pretentious guy—Bayeli's face showed disgust.

She had played against Basha online so many times that she knew very well that this seemingly harmless and cute little girl was actually a vicious creature who enjoyed torturing her enemies, just like a feline.

Basha's sharp tongue far surpasses Bayeri's. Whenever the two clash, if Basha is at a disadvantage, she will use all sorts of words to provoke Bayeri and induce her to make a mistake... Of course, many times this will cause the Silver Mech Soul to go into overdrive and give her a good beating.

Interestingly, once she's been thoroughly trampled underfoot, Basha becomes docile and might even feign pitifulness and beg for mercy—only to come back even more arrogantly to provoke her the next time!

In human terms, this would be called a female imp or something, right?

Bayeri isn't a shut-in and can't be attracted to that kind of trait, so he simply enjoys beating her up to relieve stress.

But there's one thing that Bazaar will always target as her weakness:

He originally possessed two holy swords, one of which Ye Shou gave to Basha.

Even though Ye Shou later gave her the "Emperor's Blade" with better materials, she still couldn't quite let it go.

"You'd better just let Ye Shou find you, then accidentally expose your awful personality, and be so ashamed under his disgusted gaze that you'll be completely humiliated!"

A cold, mocking smile appeared on Bayeri's lips: "That man hates killing AIs like you the most... arrogant and conceited, he's seen plenty of brats like you."

"Bayeli, are you... trying to take the Holy Sword back from me under this pretext?"