Early morning.
"It'll be done soon... As long as I get that password for the SQL desktop overview..."
The sound of the keyboard was incessant, Hashida Itaru muttered to himself, his voice sounding very tired.
"tuturu—" Accompanied by Mayuri's iconic greeting, her figure emerged from behind the door: "Good morning~"
At this moment, Okabe Rintaro, who uncharacteristically wasn't wearing his white coat but was in his loungewear, wiping his wet hair with a towel, walked out.
"Ah, Mayuri, what brings you here so early?"
"I heard you two stayed up for two days straight, so I bought some 慰問品 ." Saying this, Mayuri took out the bag she was carrying and opened its mouth in front of Okabe Rintaro.
"Oh, ooh, oden in a can!" Okabe Rintaro exclaimed in surprise: "Thanks, remember to keep buying it next time, Mayuri."
"Mayushii's wallet isn't plump enough to treat people often."
Smiling, Mayuri reached into the bag and pulled out a box of cards: "I still need to buy Rai-Net card packs."
"Heh heh, upa again?" Okabe Rintaro also chuckled and said.
"So you two must savor them well."
After saying this, she looked to the other side and said: "There's some for Tonzuko-kun and Kurisu-san too."
As her words fell, Hashida Itaru's chair wobbled for a moment, and his very annoyed muttering followed: "I told you it's not here..."
"He didn't hear me at all," Mayuri said.
Okabe Rintaro sighed: "I told him to get some rest."
"The Super Hacker's spirit is burning brightly," Mayuri said with a smile.
But, this time, Hashida Itaru finally heard her.
His teeth were clenched, his face full of displeasure, as if he couldn't bear it any longer, or perhaps as an outlet for his emotions, he forcefully grabbed an empty bottle nearby.
"Don't say hacker!" Then, he suddenly struck Okabe Rintaro with the bottle.
[Damn, all-nighter war god]
[Tonz wouldn't really invade SERN for Okabe's nonsense, would he?]
[That fierce?!]
[Super Hacker!]
[What is Rai-Net?]
[An anime within an anime, probably]
[Is Assistant back?]
['I told him to get some rest,' Okabe Rintaro, Okabe Rintaro]
[Serves him right! Good shot!]
On the rooftop above the Laboratory, Okabe Rintaro and Mayuri sat on chairs; Mayuri sat under an umbrella, while Okabe basked in the sun.
"But, peeping isn't good, is it?" Mayuri said.
"This is to expose SERN's conspiracy."
"Even so... Kurisu-san must have gotten angry because of this and ran off, right?"
"No, that has nothing to do with the invasion. Assistant ran off on her own accord."
Sighing, Mayuri picked up her chopsticks: "Will she come back? Kurisu-san."
The oden was slowly brought to her mouth, the summer cicadas chirping incessantly.
Suddenly, a pair of chopsticks holding a potato appeared in front of Mayuri.
"?" Mayuri tilted her head.
"I'll trade my potato for your beef tendon," Okabe Rintaro said.
"Eh, in that case, I want a quail egg." Understanding the meaning of the childhood friend's exchange, Mayuri became interested and leaned forward towards Okabe Rintaro's oden.
But the stingy childhood friend would never easily satisfy her wishes.
"No, besides beef tendon, my favorite is quail egg."
"Mayushii likes quail eggs too, you know," she looked up and protested.
"Then let's switch to fish cake," Okabe Rintaro took a step back.
"Hmm..." Mayuri pouted: "Fish cake is much better than potato."
"Alright, negotiation successful." Saying this, Okabe Rintaro raised his hand and gave the fish cake to Mayuri.
"Then, Mayushii's beef tendon..." After accepting the fish cake, Mayuri intended to find the item to exchange with Okabe, but after searching for a long time, she couldn't find the beef tendon.
"It's already in my mouth," Okabe Rintaro said.
"Eh? When?"
Mayuri turned her head and looked at Okabe Rintaro.
She watched him put the beef tendon into his mouth, and while chewing, he said: "It's delicious."
Then, a smile appeared on Shiina Mayuri's face.
[So Assistant didn't come back]
[I thought another part of the story, where Assistant returned, was skipped]
[By the way, did the title Assistant just get set like that, out of nowhere?]
[What else?]
[Potato for beef tendon... I can't believe you said that]
[My delicious one I won't trade, I only want to trade the not-delicious for the delicious]
[Mayuri's expression, so happy]
[I think she probably just likes these useless but surprisingly comfortable moments]
[Mr. Braun... Never mind, I won't put it in this time]
[This is what you call childhood friends]
"—It's here!!!"
His hands briefly left the keyboard, Hashida Itaru's previous irritation gone, he shouted loudly with a beaming smile.
"It's here, it's here, it's here, it's here!!!"
"Surrender before me! Reveal your true form!" He shouted, extending his hands again.
The sound of the keyboard interwove into a dance, and like a declaration of victory, he raised his left hand high:
"It's here! ID obtained!"
"Did you succeed?!" Okabe Rintaro, who had been watching for a long time, quickly leaned in.
"Mission complete!" Hashida Itaru's face was full of smiles.
"That's amazing, even though I don't really understand." Mayuri also laughed happily and came closer.
"However, even though the intrusion was successful, the scope of what can be seen is limited without an administrator ID." Despite his slightly humble words, Hashida Itaru's smile was completely uncontrollable. As he spoke, he loosely clenched his left hand, revealing a lewd grin: "It's like 'limiting you to only see the chest,' you know."
Even though Mayuri, a woman, was actually right behind him, Tonz completely disregarded this, just as he had unashamedly asked Mayuri and Kurisu to repeat ambiguous phrases before.
Fortunately, Mayuri was already used to it.
"Tonzuko-kun is such a pervert," she smiled helplessly.
"The content!" Okabe Rintaro interrupted his continued perverted remarks and urged.
A large number of pop-up windows continuously appeared on the computer screen, and complex text appeared on the screen.
"Only a few emails have appeared so far," Hashida Itaru said.
But looking at the content on the screen, Okabe Rintaro's expression turned bad.
Because the content was all in English.
"English? It's time to bring out Mr. Excite!"
Excite was a portal website; in short, its function was to act as a 'search engine.'
However, in that case, one would have to copy the English text little by little, and then look up the translation sentence by sentence.
"I'm not doing such troublesome work!" Hashida Itaru unhesitatingly rejected such a foolish suggestion.
He moved the mouse to the word 'translate' and then clicked the left button.
Soon, the English on the screen was quickly translated into readable text...