After swallowing, Ruan Mei gave a very earnest critique: "Among all the coffee I've tasted, this has an extremely perfect flavor: rich and balanced in both aroma and temperature. The bitter aroma blends with the sweet cake, the two scents dancing between the lips and teeth."
As she spoke, Ruan Mei elegantly took another sip. With the second mouthful, a curious idea popped into her head—about the relationship between life and the universe.
She naturally had her own theories about it, but while she was thinking, she couldn't help but drink the final sip.
As she swallowed the last of it, Pei Guang smiled. Seeing his smile, Ruan Mei suddenly realized something was wrong: she'd been set up.
Here's a joke: The genius Ruan Mei, who had cultivated countless forms of life in the Genius Society, got taken down by a cup of coffee. If word got out, the whole universe would probably die laughing.
And why did Pei Guang make a move? Simple. Because when he ate the cake Ruan Mei had given him, his player system log issued a notification:
"Player Pei Guang has consumed a special dessert containing an anti-truth serum. The player will be unable to speak about certain restricted topics."
Seeing that system message, Pei Guang cursed under his breath. He never expected to get drugged on this space station, his home turf. How could he let that slide? So he whipped out his original coffee cup and gave this beautiful woman a taste of a player's cruelty.
Pei Guang had originally considered whether or not to go rough, but seeing how gentle and graceful she was, he decided to show some mercy: he let her experience something not even regular folks could: the original brew.
Looking at the unconscious Ruan Mei, Pei Guang expertly pulled out a trash can and stuffed her in. She would become the first genius of the Genius Society to undergo the "bucket ordeal," but definitely not the last.
After sealing Ruan Mei in the bin, Pei Guang extended his sinful right hand. As a player, he wasn't exactly a saint, but rather than her beautiful body, he was more interested in whether this person would drop any loot.
And wouldn't you know it: he really did fish something good out of her pocket. A white container marked with a big red X and filled with some mysterious substance.
"Huh? She actually dropped something?"
Pei Guang stared at the system description, completely stunned. The item that dropped was just too good—gold-grade material?
[Chemical X]
[A mysterious chemical substance. When combined with different materials, it can create life based on the characteristics of the material and the user's intent. The higher the quality of the material, the more perfect the created life will be.]
[Note: The created life will inherit some traits from the material provider. Please explore more on your own.]
At that moment, Pei Guang was at a complete loss for words. He had casually taken down someone who had tried to drug him, and it resulted in a drop? And a gold item, no less? One that could create life?
Good grief, Pei Guang could only mutter "good grief."
His gaze toward Ruan Mei softened considerably: this was like getting a second Sampo!
After running through so many maps and defeating so many enemies, aside from Sampo, Ruan Mei was the second person to ever drop a gold item for him.
Though he still didn't know what this girl's name was, Pei Guang had already decided to forgive her for what she had done to him. But in exchange, he intended to squeeze a little more benefit out of her.
Thinking this, Pei Guang took out his phone and sent a message to Asta: "Hey, you there? Does your space station have any empty rooms I can use?"
Asta responded almost instantly: "Yes~ just use this room!"
She sent Pei Guang the location of a room. He then grabbed the trash bin and, like a child, skipped and hopped through the space station's corridor: three small hops, five big leaps.
Just thinking about getting another gold drop, Pei Guang even spun around joyfully while holding the bin.
Meanwhile, the Herta puppet on standby in a corner took notice of Pei Guang arriving at the station. Watching him spin around with the trash bin so gleefully, Herta, who was controlling the puppet, was dumbfounded.
Did her space station really have anything that could make a player this happy? Even the Simulated Universe hadn't made him react like this before!
Curious, Herta pulled up the surveillance footage from inside the space station.
Luckily, the area where Pei Guang had been was under surveillance, so Herta easily saw everything that had happened over the past while.
After watching the footage, Herta was silent for a long time. Finally, both her real body and the puppet simultaneously uttered a single word: "Nice."
She honestly had no idea what to even say anymore. Just minutes earlier in the footage, the two of them had been chatting just fine: and then Pei Guang suddenly made a move on Ruan Mei?
And not only that… how did he manage to pull such a massive bucket of stuff from her?
As for the logic behind all of this, Herta couldn't be bothered to dwell on it. Ever since Pei Guang showed up, she'd noticed her workload increasing nonstop.
Thinking too much about it might actually kill her.
As for the fact that Ruan Mei got taken down? If she were to write about it, Herta already had a title in mind:
"Five Minutes After Meeting, Genius Ruan Mei Goes Down"
Because of Ruan Mei's capture, Herta had also shelved her plan to have another Simulated Universe exchange session with her and Screwllum: after all, this unfolding drama was far more entertaining.
As for Ruan Mei's identity? No one had told Pei Guang, so how would he even know?
Herta was truly curious: what kind of sparks would fly between Pei Guang and Ruan Mei?
Meanwhile, in a room inside the space station, Ruan Mei gradually regained consciousness from her sleep. As she woke up, she discovered something quite interesting.
She had been tied up and stuffed into a bin by Pei Guang.
Normally, this level of restraint wouldn't even be a problem: she had her own methods of breaking out. But strangely, while bound inside this bin, she found herself completely unable to use any of her powers, not even the techniques she had developed herself.
Everything had been completely sealed away by a mysterious force—the same one she had seen Pei Guang use in the Simulated Universe.
Scared? Ruan Mei really wasn't. After all, she had originally sought Pei Guang out for a few small experiments...
Sensing that she was awake, Pei Guang walked over and looked down at her. "Beautiful lady, I'm just curious: why did you try to drug me?"
Ruan Mei replied calmly, "My apologies. I used an anti-truth serum on you. It poses no harm to your body, it just prevents you from revealing any information about me. I have a mission for you, but I didn't want you leaking anything about me, so I used a tiny little trick. But rest assured, it's completely harmless. From the looks of it, though, you've already purged it, haven't you?"
Pei Guang nodded in understanding. "Just a debuff. I took a status-removal item and it was gone."
After bringing Ruan Mei to this room, he had already checked the debuff on himself. Just like she said, it was completely harmless.
Considering she looked quite defenseless and seemed to work on high-level research projects, Pei Guang's cautious reaction was totally reasonable. She drugged him; he took her down and brought her here: now they were even.
Still, since they were "even" now, Pei Guang figured he might as well seize this chance to squeeze a bit more benefit out of her.
Ruan Mei looked at him as he explained. "Since you know my intentions now, may I ask that you untie me?"
Pei Guang replied, "Of course… not."
With a smile, he said, "I can take on your mission, but I have one condition: before I complete it, you have to accompany me for some experiments."
Ruan Mei remained silent. She could feel the utterly pure emotion coming from Pei Guang—an emotion that seemed intent on extracting something from her.
It wasn't a desire born from greed, but a feeling of absolute certainty. As if there was something on her that rightfully belonged to him, and he was simply taking it back.
"Alright~ What kind of experiments do you need me to cooperate with?"
Pei Guang untied the ropes on Ruan Mei, then pulled out ten bottles of coffee.
Seeing that much coffee, Ruan Mei had a bad feeling about this.