Bai Luan and Lars chatted for a few more moments, then Bai Luan appropriately stood up to bid farewell, careful not to overly disturb their rare rest time.
Although his relationship with Lars wasn't bad, ever since he started focusing heavily on Lars, the vast majority of the young man's workload had come from his own assignments.
Bai Luan felt it was best not to appear frequently when Lars needed to relax.
It's like a song you love; once you set it as your alarm clock, it won't be long before you become conditioned to feel annoyed every time it plays.
This feeling had nothing to do with how Lars viewed him or the closeness of their relationship.
It was purely a subtle psychological reaction.
As long as he appeared before Lars, he acted like a living reminder, inevitably making Lars think of mountains of work schedules and research problems waiting to be solved, which was no help to his relaxation at all.
As for why Bai Luan felt such empathy—he had to mention the terrible bosses he encountered back when he was slaving away.
Even during precious rest periods, those Old Geezers would always send untimely work messages, forcing their presence into his sacred, inviolable holiday time.
It was simply an open desecration of a wonderful life.
Sometimes he truly felt that such nosy, tactless bosses deserved a Withered Heart-Piercing Palm Strike to broaden their minds and stop obsessing over trivial performance metrics.
Ahem... I've strayed too far.
In short, Bai Luan did not want to become a superior like those Old Geezers.
Conveniently, the resentment he harbored because Lars had created the Instant Detonation for him had mostly dissipated through the process of repeatedly assigning him tasks.
"Let's give him a vacation."
Bai Luan thought to himself.
"Until he is fully rested and comes to find me, I won't assign him any extra work."
With Lars's matters temporarily settled, Bai Luan resumed his own work.
He continued to advance the Wall-E project and persistently tried to defeat the Equilibrium using metaphysical methods.
He had already exchanged memory with Black Swan for the specific coordinates of Amphoreus.
This meant that if he wished, he could set off for that mysterious place at any time.
But he absolutely could not rush there unprepared.
After all, Lygus was there.
His purpose in going to Amphoreus was not for a leisurely sightseeing trip, but for a clear and arduous mission.
His core goal was not to find a way to directly kill the Irontomb; under Elio's great hand, and through the efforts of Stelle and everyone else, it would be defeated. That wasn't his concern.
What he needed to worry about was how to minimize casualties and property damage during the process of defeating the Irontomb.
As well as how to safely and completely rescue all the data stored within Amphoreus, along with Cyrene, after the Irontomb self coronation, without affecting the Irontomb's demise.
Thanks to the system's advance spoilers, he could arrive at Amphoreus one step earlier than the Astral Express Crew and set up his arrangements in advance.
But the act of setting up arrangements in advance itself could not bypass a core problem—how to deal with Lygus.
Given the arrogance of the genius, anyone who interfered with their research topic without permission would inevitably incur their wrath.
Considering that the Chrysos Heirs, Screwllum, and Herta had jointly cornered him for a long time just to turn him into the XVI, his strength must certainly not be weak.
If he discovered Bai Luan's preparatory actions too early, it would inevitably cause serious and uncontrollable interference with the established plotline, making the consequences unpredictable.
Therefore, the current optimal solution was to utilize his Curious Foundry ability and attempt to forge a curio capable of perfectly concealing his whereabouts.
The goal was to complete all preliminary arrangements silently, with minimal action, and without Lygus noticing.
Of course, Bai Luan had also prepared other backup plans, but compared to this one, the process would be much more troublesome and convoluted, and the risks higher.
Bai Luan set a time limit for this curio forging plan.
If he failed to forge a curio with the desired effect before that deadline, he would activate the backup plan.
Time was still ample. Now, it was a test of whether his metaphysical luck would prevail, or if the stubborn Equilibrium was more indestructible.
This matter truly required brute force application of time and numerous attempts; it was a test of patience.
Regardless, spending some patience for one hundred percent stability was far safer than getting hot-headed, grabbing the coordinates, and excitedly running off to find Lygus to stage an intense confrontation.
Just like that, several days passed in a peaceful yet fulfilling manner, with Bai Luan simultaneously advancing the Wall-E project and hand-crafting curios.
That day, as Bai Luan was concentrating on injecting spiritual thought into a complex energy circuit, attempting to guide the material properties toward "concealment," the laboratory hatch suddenly slid open, accompanied by a faint depressurization sound.
Hearing the movement, Bai Luan's hand movements paused slightly, and the steady output of energy flow temporarily ceased.
There were only a handful of people who had the authority to open his laboratory directly.
Bai Luan's first reaction was that Lars had finished resting and had come to ask new questions.
"He's only rested for three days, right?"
He muttered to himself in surprise.
"Recharged so quickly?"
He raised his head and looked toward the doorway, but a clear trace of surprise flashed in his eyes.
The one who came was not Lars, but the plump auxiliary Robot—Jarvis.
It deftly floated into the laboratory, politely stopping nearby. Its circular sensor turned toward Bai Luan, bobbing slightly in a motion similar to a nod, and its synthesized mechanical voice carried an apology:
"Mr. Bai Luan, I apologize for interrupting your experiment. I will leave shortly. Please inform me of a convenient free time, and I will visit again then."
"It's fine, I just reached a stopping point."
Bai Luan put down the tools in his hand.
"What brings you to me? Did that kid Lars treat you poorly? Tell me what happened, and I'll go beat him up."
Meanwhile, in the Space Station lounge area, Lars, who had adjusted his seat into a recliner mode and was enjoying interstellar entertainment news, suddenly shivered without warning.
"Hiss... why do I suddenly feel cold, with a chill running down my spine?"
He rubbed his arm and looked confusedly at Olivia, who was diligently organizing data next to him.
"Olivia, do you have any idea?"
Hearing this, Olivia gave him a flat look, her gaze lingering for a second on his extremely relaxed, nearly melted, god-like lounging posture, and her tone was utterly placid:
"Is there a possibility that this is caused by your meager remaining conscience attempting to condemn you for slacking off so openly and shamelessly during nominal 'working hours'?"
Lars curled his lip:
"I threw that thing away centuries ago."
"You aren't even centuries old!"
...Back at the laboratory, Jarvis paused after hearing Bai Luan's words, then emitted a sound similar to human laughter:
"Thank you for your concern, Mr. Bai Luan. But I am not here to file a complaint against Mr. Lars."
"Oh?"
Bai Luan raised an eyebrow and leaned against the edge of the experimental bench with interest.
"Then what did you come to see me about? Has Lars's problem stumped you?"
"In fact."
Jarvis's mechanical single eye flickered with light. Its tone became slightly more formal, yet also carried a hint of confusion rarely displayed before.
"After accompanying Mr. Lars on his visit to First Truth University, I have encountered and observed more organic life forms than ever before... their behavioral patterns, emotional expressions, and social interactions."
It paused slightly, seemingly performing complex data retrieval and logical organization, its single eye's light steadily focused on Bai Luan.
"This has caused me to generate some... questions that are difficult to analyze using only my internal logic database. I wanted to consult you. Simply put..."
Its eye flickered, resembling the curious gaze of a student in a classroom.
"I am curious."