"Sorry, wait a moment, I need to go relieve myself!"
Stella felt a bit overwhelmed by Stelle's burning gaze and March 7th's persistent "roundup" of Mem; she urgently needed a quiet space to clear her head (mostly to study that 254 stellar jade that appeared out of nowhere).
She hurriedly waved her small hand at the two of them and trotted off on her legs, rushing toward the restroom in the space station's public area.
"Got it! Hurry back! Don't fall into the toilet!"
March 7th shouted without looking back, her attention still focused on trying to lure the dodging Mem with an energy bar.
Running into the empty restroom, Stella locked the door behind her and let out a long sigh of relief.
With a single thought, a pale blue light lit up beside her—the AI avatar of [March 7th] was summoned.
"Ta-da! Stella! Calling me out so suddenly, is there something fun going on? Or have you finally decided to upgrade me?"
As soon as [March 7th] appeared, she was full of energy, her face wearing a brilliant smile identical to the original's as she stood with hands on hips, looking ready for a surprise at any moment.
"We'll talk about the upgrade later."
Stella waved her hand, lowered her voice, and asked the core question with a serious face.
"[March 7th], do you know how stellar jade increases? I just found out that my stellar jade increased by 254 points!"
"Of course I know! Such a basic question!"
[March 7th] immediately puffed out her chest, her expression full of confidence.
"It's... uh... that... the specific mechanism is..."
Her confidence lasted only two seconds before her eyes began to wander, and her finger unconsciously scratched her cheek.
Under Stella's increasingly suspicious gaze, [March 7th] finally let out an "Aha!" and quickly pulled out a palm-sized booklet from behind her titled "User Guide (Simplified & Castrated Version)," flipping through it rapidly.
Stella: "..."
So where exactly did that confidence of yours come from just now, hey!
"Ah! Found it!"
[March 7th] pointed to a certain line in the booklet and read aloud.
"Core energy 'stellar jade' acquisition method: Absorb external emotional feedback! When other living beings produce relatively strong emotional fluctuations toward the host, whether positive or negative, they can be converted into small amounts of stellar jade based on intensity! Many a mickle makes a muckle, this is the way to get rich... oh no, the way to become stronger!"
"Emotions? Strong emotional fluctuations?"
Stella was a bit dazed.
"For example?"
"For example, surprise, happiness, admiration, anger, embarrassment, shock... and so on!"
[March 7th] closed the booklet and resumed her expert posture.
"Simply put, you need to cause more trouble... ah, no, interact more! Make people feel emotions because of you!"
"I see..."
Stella rubbed her chin, lost in thought. No wonder the stellar jade suddenly increased; it was likely that when they were taking photos earlier, Stelle's shocked and envious eyes, as well as March 7th's excitement at seeing Mem, all counted as 'emotional feedback'.
She continued to ask, "But how do I know in real-time how much I've gained? I can't just check the balance after the fact every time, right?"
"You can turn on the system notification sound!"
[March 7th] spoke naturally in a 'you didn't know this?' tone.
"Just turn on 'stellar jade Acquisition Prompt' in the settings. Every time there's an entry, there will be a slight notification sound that only you can hear."
"Ah—?!"
This time Stella was truly dumbfounded, her voice rising an octave.
"When I asked you how to use it last time, why didn't you say so sooner?!"
She remembered the days she spent staring blankly at the system panel and making all sorts of guesses; she felt like she had missed out on a fortune!
"You didn't ask..."
[March 7th] blinked her large eyes, her face full of innocence, even carrying a hint of confusion as if to say, 'Isn't this common sense?'
Stella: "..."
She felt her blood pressure, no, her 'Stellaron pressure' rising slightly.
Looking at this AI March 7th with her 'I'm innocent, I'm just following regulations' face, an 'evil' thought popped up.
"Very well."
Stella folded her arms and revealed a 'kind' smile.
"In view of your 'excellent' guidance and 'perfect' service, I've decided—your next upgrade materials are gone. Priority goes to Clara and Dan Heng."
"Ah—?!!"
The smile on [March 7th]'s face froze instantly, as if she had heard the news of the universe's destruction.
She froze in place as if struck by lightning, even that always-perky cowlick of hers seemed to droop.
The next second!
"No way—!!!"
[March 7th] let out a shrill wail and went straight into a standard sliding kneel. The movement was so smooth she could have entered an interstellar sliding competition. With a 'whoosh,' she slid to Stella's feet and tightly hugged her thigh!
"Even though I'm just an AI! I'm an AI with dreams! I also want to upgrade and become stronger, I also want to wear beautiful new'skins,' and I also want to experience higher-definition graphics and a smoother physics engine!"
[March 7th] looked up, eyes teary, pleading with great emotion.
"Stella! Original! Boss! Please give me another chance! Please be sure to upgrade me! Please use me a lot! I can do anything! Warming the bed... ah no, warming the machine! Chatted! Be a wingman! Mimic the original to scare Pom-Pom!"
"Let go, hey! What kind of wild words are you saying! Who wants you to warm the bed! And what the heck is a wingman! Let go of my leg!"
Stella's scalp tingled, her face turned bright red, and she scrambled to pull her leg out of this'sticky candy AI's' embrace.
Just then—
"Stella, why are you taking so long? Is your stomach upset? I have..."
As luck would have it, the real March 7th, seeing that Stella had been gone for a while, came looking for her.
As she spoke, she naturally pushed open the ajar door of the restroom.
The moment the door opened, March 7th's words came to an abrupt halt.
Her gaze accurately captured the scene inside the restroom:
Stella stood there with a flushed face, at a total loss.
And, a "March 7th" who looked exactly like her, with no difference in clothes or hairstyle, was kneeling on the ground, death-gripping Stella's thigh, with suspicious tear stains on her face, and her mouth seemingly still muttering terrible lines like "use me"...
Time seemed to freeze at this moment.
The expression on March 7th's face went from concern to confusion, then to extreme shock and bewilderment, and finally, she completely crashed.
Her eyes widened more than ever before, her mouth slightly open, but she couldn't make a sound. Her brain's CPU was clearly overloaded from being unable to process this overly absurd, information-heavy, and identity-challenging scene.
"M-March 7th!"
Stella was scared out of her wits, nearly kneeling down herself in fright.
"Wait! Let me explain! It's not what it looks like! This is... this is..."
She was so panicked she was incoherent, wishing she could turn back into her original form and dig a hole to crawl into.
And the AI [March 7th] on the ground also seemed to finally realize the "original" had arrived. Her action of hugging Stella's thigh froze, and she quietly turned her head, giving the petrified real March 7th an awkward but polite silly smile in an attempt to act cute and get away with it: "Hi... hi?"
At the same time, in Stella's mind, a soft "ding-dong" notification sound that only she could hear rang out clearly, accompanied by a line of small virtual text floating up:
[Detected strong emotional fluctuation (extreme shock, confusion, self-doubt), Source: March 7th. stellar jade +20]
Stella looked at this prompt, then at the completely petrified March 7th who seemed to have had an out-of-body experience, and then felt the "restraint" on her leg that still hadn't let go...
She suddenly felt that this stellar jade was earned in a way that was a bit... too hot to handle.
No, it was brain-scorching!