Inside the cold drink shop.
Young Joachim was startled by Lucius's sudden movement.
Just as he was wondering whether the big brother before him had some mental issues, Lucius suddenly sat up straight.
His face carried a smile as warm as a spring breeze, as if the unhinged state from a moment ago had never existed.
"I'm sorry, little Mr. Joachim. I got a bit too excited seeing you just now. Please forgive me."
"You know, I've always been a dedicated fan of Homu the Hero's Great Adventure."
"Is... is that so?" Joachim's face showed confusion, but Lucius had already steered the conversation in another direction.
"Joachim—I'll call you that, if you don't mind."
Lucius interlaced his fingers and rested them on the table, his face carrying a gentle smile.
"Why did you come alone? You should know that you're still a minor."
Hearing this, a look of sadness crossed Joachim's face.
"I couldn't reach Father. And Mother thought the rights purchase inquiry you sent was just a joke."
Listening to Joachim's explanation, Lucius more or less understood why he had come alone.
Unlike the explosive popularity the Homu series enjoyed in the post-civilization era, young Yang's manga had virtually no following in the pre-civilization era.
Or rather, no following at all.
If Lucius hadn't deliberately gone searching for it, this manga might not have been discovered even when the Final Herrscher descended.
Therefore, Joachim's mother didn't believe any company would be interested in the rights to such a manga. She assumed it was a prank.
"Joachim, would you tell me why you decided to sell the rights?"
Hearing this, Joachim lifted his head, bright light flickering in his eyes.
"I want more people to see my manga."
"I remember Father once said that manga that gets adapted can be seen by many people. I want more people to know about Homu the Hero!"
Seeing the longing on Joachim's face, Lucius couldn't bring himself to crush his hopes.
He had actually already read through Joachim's Homu the Hero series. The work wasn't particularly good—one could even call it poor.
Considering he was only around ten years old, this was perhaps only a debut work created purely from inspiration, perhaps filled with this child's imagination and heartfelt effort poured into Homu the Hero.
But the reality was, it was still poor.
He could certainly mobilize the resources at his disposal to make this work famous, giving it far more attention than it deserved. But what Joachim would receive then would most likely be a flood of abuse and mockery.
That would be devastating for a child still in the age of dreams.
After thinking it through at length, Lucius ultimately chose to share his honest assessment with Joachim.
And upon hearing Lucius's explanation, Joachim's face showed a crestfallen expression.
"So... that's how it is..."
Seeing the dejection on his face, Lucius offered comfort:
"Joachim, listen to me. Being able to draw manga like this at your age—you have talent."
"What's most important for you right now is to continue developing, continue improving yourself, until you create a truly explosive Homu series in the future."
"R-really?" Hearing Lucius's words, the dejection on Joachim's face gradually faded.
And Lucius flashed a brilliant smile, giving him a thumbs up.
"Of course. I'm a senior rights developer at Anti-Entropy Entertainment. Trust my eye for talent."
Though Anti-Entropy Entertainment had been established for less than three months...
After being encouraged, Joachim's whole being became excited. After bowing to Lucius, he prepared to leave.
"Thank you, big brother! I'll keep working hard!"
Watching Joachim about to leave, Lucius quickly called out to him.
"Wait, Joachim." Meeting Joachim's puzzled expression, Lucius said with a smile: "Would you be interested in being a real Homu the Hero?"
"A real... Homu the Hero?"
Watching the puzzlement on his face, Lucius beckoned him to sit back down, then produced the portion of the "Star Wars: Schicksal vs. the Sky People" script relating to Welt.
"I have a film here. One of the important characters happens to be named Welt. I see the shadow of Homu the Hero in him."
"And he happens to share the same pen name as you, Joachim. I feel this must be a destined connection!"
"So, would you be interested in playing this Welt?"
"Acting in a film?"
This was something far removed from Joachim's world. He instinctively wanted to refuse.
But he was also curious about this Welt in the script that Lucius described as similar to Homu the Hero. So he took the script from Lucius's hand after all.
He hugged the pages—which seemed large for someone his size—and lay across the table reading through them line by line.
A moment later, his eyes gradually lit up.
—I am Welt, the First Herrscher named after the world!
—Tyrannical rulers of the heavens! Behold the sight of stars being shattered!
—Power, belonging, ideals! I have obtained everything that person had... I have surpassed him!
"This... this is exactly what I've always imagined!"
"Joachim, what do you think? Interested in playing the role of this Welt?"
"Can I really?" Joachim looked at Lucius with anticipation.
"Of course you can. You absolutely must!"
"I will! I will!"
In the end, watching Joachim clutch the script and repeatedly recite lines like "Power, belonging, ideals," the corners of Lucius's mouth gradually curved upward.
What did it matter if he was only ten years old? The system never specified age requirements—who says a ten-year-old Welt isn't Welt?
No obstacle could stop him from pulling rewards out of the system inventory!
Hehe... no matter what, he was going to bring that Herrscher of Finality to their knees!
...
After resolving the Welt casting issue, Lucius didn't immediately leave the cold drink shop with Joachim.
Instead, he sent a message to his companions, inviting them to gather here. It was a good opportunity to let everyone get to know each other.
Not long after, Kiana, Bronya, and Shigure Kira arrived one after another, sitting around a spacious table.
"The preliminary work for filming is mostly ready." But Lucius's face showed some worry. "The only difficulty is that Mei seems intent on taking charge of the film crew's food..."
Hearing this, Kiana retorted: "In that case you might need to pay a substantial medical bill on top of everything else. It might honestly be better if I handled the cooking."
Hearing Kiana's comment, Shigure Kira beside her expressed surprise.
"Miss Kiana, you can cook?"
Kiana smiled confidently and proudly puffed out her chest.
"Not to brag, but I'm quite confident in my noodle-making skills."
Lucius raised his hand. "I can vouch for that."
Back in the day, whenever his good brother came to stay over, she was always the one responsible for cooking.
Come to think of it, Kiana's cooking skills overall weren't particularly impressive, but she had a real talent for boiling noodles. Lucius found it hard not to suspect she had put all her culinary talent points into noodle-making.
Soon, as conversation flowed, everyone gradually warmed up to each other and brought out the food they had each brought.
Yes—since this gathering had been rather spontaneous with no restaurant booked in advance, after a brief discussion they had each decided to just bring some food.
Besides, the point of this gathering wasn't the food anyway—it was for the members of this little group to get to know each other.
Shigure Kira had brought ice cream and a large container of yogurt.
Bronya had brought a big bag of military ration cans.
Lucius brought crème caramel.
Joachim's was a children's meal set from the KFC next door, bought for him by Lucius.
And Kiana—she pulled several cups of instant noodles from her bag.
Looking left and right, she felt as if only she was out of place. She simply slid the instant noodles in front of Lucius.
Then slid the crème caramel from in front of Lucius over to herself.
Lucius paid no mind to this white-haired creature's childish behavior and simply tore open the instant noodle packaging.
And Kiana, looking at the crème caramel before her—beautifully presented and giving off a sweet fragrance—felt her appetite surge.
She picked up a spoon, scooped out a portion of the crème caramel, and brought it to her mouth.
Chew chew chew.
Kiana's eyes instantly lit up.
"This taste... it's actually this delicious!!!"
"Lucius, where did you buy this?"
At this moment, Lucius had finished preparing the instant noodles and was about to take out a fork to mix them.
Hearing Kiana's question, he replied casually: "I made it myself, of course."
"You can make desserts?" Kiana was extremely surprised.
Lucius smiled noncommittally and answered: "There are many things I can do. Picking locks, armed robbery, kidnapping, extortion... I know a bit of all of these."
"That doesn't sound like the description of a good person." Shigure Kira retorted after hearing Lucius's words. "I keep feeling like I've been roped onto a pirate ship."
Then, looking at Kiana eating her crème caramel, a contemplative expression appeared on Shigure Kira's face.
Her gaze was quite direct, direct enough that the perceptive Kiana could clearly sense it.
Kiana swallowed the pudding in her mouth and looked at her with puzzlement.
"Miss Kira, why are you looking at me like that?"
"So similar, truly so similar..." Shigure Kira looked Kiana up and down, murmuring to herself.
"What?"
"That dazzling white hair keeps reminding me of my teacher."
"By the way, Kiana—do you know a lady named Cecilia?"
Hearing this, Kiana's little face froze. Her body went rigid, cold sweat instantly pouring out.
"N-no, I don't..." Kiana's face wore a forced smile, her eyes darting, her mouth firmly denying it.
"Oh... is that so." Shigure Kira sighed, seeming to have believed her.
Kiana quietly breathed a sigh of relief.
If her own mom found out that the son she had raised for over a decade had turned into a daughter... she would probably have no choice but to flee to the moon.
But fortunately, it looked like she had muddled through.
Still—running into her mom's student of all people, wasn't that a bit too much of a coincidence?
And Shigure Kira naturally... completely didn't believe Kiana's story at all.
This Kiana had "guilty conscience" written all over her face.
But it seemed Miss Kiana didn't want to delve deeper into this matter. Shigure Kira was skilled at reading the atmosphere and naturally wouldn't make things awkward.
When break was over, perhaps she could ask Teacher Cecilia about it...
The atmosphere once again grew lively and warm.
Lucius slurped his instant noodles and withdrew his gaze from Kiana and Shigure Kira, then looked toward the quietly composed Bronya nearby.
Although she was silently gnawing on her beef can, Lucius could still sense that hidden within her silent gaze was a bloodthirsty light.
—This Assembled Duck seemed to be craving rivers of blood.
And as each of them was absorbed in their own thoughts, all mutually aware yet unspoken, none of them had noticed that another gaze had been fixed on them from beginning to end.
On Kiana's plate, beside the crème caramel, a little black blob was using a tiny knife and fork to cut off a piece of crème caramel and toss it into its mouth.
"Mmm mmm mmm... delicious."
This black blob was the individual named "Brown Sugar," who had descended from the Sugar's Outer Key—the Candy House—to Earth.
Its mission was to find the fellow aliens who had sent the signal.
And after descending to Earth, it had quickly located the other party based on their consciousness fluctuations.
Brown Sugar looked toward Shigure Kira, who was eating ice cream. From this human individual it sensed an extremely familiar consciousness fluctuation.
This consciousness fluctuation was highly similar to its own—or rather, completely identical.
If it were any other alien individual, upon seeing the other party, they might have assumed the symbiote within her was themselves.
So its mission was to clarify the other party's origins.
But alien individuals themselves had very little inherent power. To exercise power, they had to find a suitable symbiotic host.
Brown Sugar thought of the elder's admonition before it had set out for Earth.
"Brown Sugar, as a newly born individual, you are still a blank slate."
"The first host you symbiose with will have an enormous influence on shaping your personality, so you must choose carefully."
"Don't choose those with overly calculating minds. Don't seek out those with excessively negative emotions."
"The best host to choose is a human as pure as a blank slate, just like you. That's what's most beneficial for both you and your host."
The elder's admonition flashed through its mind. Brown Sugar cut off another piece of crème caramel and swallowed it, then looked at the several candidate hosts before it.
The detector's assessment results told it that all the individuals before it had truly remarkable physical potential—uniformly SSR-grade.
One could even say they were special existences that might not appear even among tens of millions of people.
But now, these SSR-grade individuals had actually all gathered together.
Brown Sugar, whose mind was still pure, didn't sense anything amiss about this. It simply marveled at its own good fortune and began selecting its first symbiotic host.
First, it looked toward Shigure Kira, then immediately passed.
"No good. Although compatibility is very high, she's already in symbiosis with another alien. If I entered as well, her consciousness would shatter."
Then it looked toward Bronya, but quickly passed on her as well.
"No good. She's practically a born Dark Empress. Her heart yearns for rivers of blood. Symbioting with her, I feel I'd become a very unpleasant blob."
After eliminating two candidates, Brown Sugar looked up at Kiana, who was gnawing on her crème caramel.
"This individual has UR-grade potential—truly unbelievable."
"But she doesn't seem particularly intelligent. If I symbioted with her, I'd probably turn into a foolish blob?"
After some deliberation, Brown Sugar withdrew its gaze and looked toward Lucius, who was slurping instant noodles.
Immediately, crimson warning bars flashed across the detector.
Brown Sugar hastily averted its gaze.
"No good. Of everyone here, this one absolutely cannot be my host. Otherwise, I feel something quite unpleasant would happen..."
After surveying the whole table, Brown Sugar finally fixed its gaze on Joachim, who was quietly and peacefully eating his children's meal.
"SSR-grade physique. A mind as pure as a blank slate. And goodness buried deep in the heart that cannot be erased."
"This... this is practically the ideal host candidate!"
Brown Sugar was thrilled. It prepared to choose the still-young Joachim as its host.
But just as it was about to head over, it found the scene before it was receding.
And soon it realized—it wasn't the scene that was receding. It itself was moving.
Because before it, a face was drawing closer and closer, along with white teeth and a nimble tongue.
Only at this moment did Brown Sugar realize—it had been so focused just now that it hadn't noticed Kiana scooping it up together with the pudding on a spoon.
"Wait! I'm not pudding..."
"Ahm~" Kiana brought the spoon of pudding to her mouth.
Chew chew chew.
Then her throat moved, and she swallowed it.
Lucius was slurping his instant noodles when he suddenly noticed something going wrong with Kiana beside him.
Ink-black liquid materialized from thin air, instantly crawling across half of her face.
Those ocean-blue eyes had turned completely crimson, as if blood were about to seep through.
Her previously pure and saintly aura came to an abrupt halt, replaced by an intensely sinister presence.
In this moment, everyone noticed the change in Kiana and turned their gazes toward her, alarm rising in their eyes.
After sensing Lucius's gaze on her, Kiana scooped another spoonful of crème caramel into her mouth.
Chewing away, she looked at Lucius with puzzlement.
"Mm... Lucius, why are you looking at me like that?"
"Good brother, it seems you've gone a bit dark..."
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