Fifteen minutes could feel both long and short. During those fifteen minutes, I witnessed a scene comparable to a futuristic sci-fi blockbuster, making me lose interest in Hollywood for the rest of the year. Meanwhile, the three unfortunate criminals completed their transformation from fierce bandits to idiots. Thinking about Pandora forcibly inserting a long metal probe into their brains earlier, I couldn't help but feel nauseated again...
With a very faint humming sound coming from Pandora's body, the Static Effect ended, and the crowd resumed their chaotic escape. Paper continued to swirl down from the air, and the dust particles that had been showcasing their effects resumed their role as background once more. At the same time, the silent world was suddenly filled with all kinds of sounds - the exclamations of students, the exclamations of students, and more exclamations of students...
In an instant, I felt like my head was about to explode! The contrast between before and after was just too stark.
But soon, the students' cries quieted down because someone noticed that the three previously arrogant armed thugs were now lying on the ground, drooling, rolling their eyes, and foolishly biting their fingers...
In fact, if anyone paid close enough attention, they would have noticed the incongruous nature of the scene. Although Pandora had tried her best to position the three criminals suitably, the discontinuity in time still made the scene appear disjointed, like a video where a small segment was cut out and then spliced back together, giving off a clear sense of frame-skipping.
However, everyone was too busy fleeing for their lives to notice this small inconsistency.
According to typical plot lines, this should be the moment the police come to clean up.
I wasn't interested in what would happen next; I just wanted to leave this chaotic place as quickly as possible.
So, I grabbed Qianqian's hand and walked swiftly towards the campus. At this moment, she was already somewhat stunned, stumbling along behind me. Though usually carefree, she hadn't yet reached the point of remaining unflustered in the face of a campus shooting.
No one noticed the pair of bright eyes in the group of noble students opposite us, watching us leave with a gaze full of suspicion and uncertainty.
After resting for a while under a teaching building on the campus, Qianqian finally came to her senses, let out a long sigh of relief, patted her chest, and said: "Phew— that really scared me. I never thought I'd encounter such a thing. I've only ever seen campus shootings on TV before. Ah Jun, when do you think the TV reporters will come?"
I forced a smile. Compared to you, what I just saw was even more impossible in reality!
"Hey, Ah Jun, why do you think those three people did such a thing? For money? Well, it makes sense since those were all noble students over there, so it's normal to be targeted. But why did they end up like that? Could it be simultaneous heart attacks?"
Seeing that Qianqian had recovered, I couldn't help but marvel: "Qianqian, your nerves are really thick! You can recover so quickly?"
"Of course, it was just a false alarm. Is it necessary to develop a psychological shadow? By the way, Ah Jun, you still need to take Lili to report, right? It's getting late... Lili, were you scared by what just happened?"
Qianqian's last sentence suddenly reminded me that I had forgotten something very important!
Pandora! Just now, I was only concerned about taking Qianqian with me and completely forgot about Pandora. So, she had been quietly following behind us all along?
I fixed my eyes on the little girl pretending to be blind, with a very complex look on my face.
Originally, although I knew she wasn't human, her appearance was entirely human-like. I always unconsciously treated her as a quirky little sister. But earlier, Pandora's form as a humanoid weapon roughly reminded me once again that the girl in front of me, called sister, was not human but a war machine from the distant Xyrin Empire.
For a moment, I didn't even know how to face her.
I didn't dislike her. On the contrary, facing the only one who knew my secret, this somewhat indifferent little girl often gave me a heartfelt sense of closeness. Perhaps it was precisely because of this that I found it difficult to accept that she was merely a weapon.
"Ah Jun, what's wrong? Zoning out again? Are you scared silly by what just happened?" Qianqian saw me stay silent for a long time, only quietly watching my sister, and spoke worriedly, as if already certain that I had been frightened out of my wits by the earlier incident.
This was a huge blow to my self-esteem. Also, miss, not everyone has nerves as thick as yours, okay?
"I'm fine. I was just worried if Lili got scared. You go to class first. I've already informed the teacher. I'll head over once Lili's settled in her new class."
Qianqian looked at me with a worried expression for a few seconds. Seeing that I seemed to be okay, she responded: "Oh, then I'm going first. Come to class soon."
Really... Even though she's younger by a few months, she always acts like the caretaker...
"Emperor..."
"Don't call me that anymore," I suddenly said firmly.
Pandora seemed startled by my words. Her expressionless face actually showed a hint of surprise, and her gray eyes widened slightly, looking even cuter.
After two or three seconds, Pandora came to her senses and said quietly, "Emperor is the Xyrin Empire's unified title for the highest authority individual. If you are not satisfied, I can follow this world's custom and add 'your majesty' after 'emperor.'"
"No, that's not what I meant... You should call me brother. Try to use this title from now on."
Pandora looked at me quietly. Then I heard a "zzz" sound, like high-voltage current passing through a transformer, coming from within her body. After a while, a wisp of white smoke rose from the top of her head...
Hey, hey, hey, did changing a title cause you to have a logic failure?
"Data comparison completed. Changing to this title does not violate Xyrin law. The default title set has been updated, but the original title will remain in combat mode."
Pandora quietly reported her conclusion to me, then suddenly pointed to her head and said, "Brother, I'm overloaded..."
This look is so cute!
Introducing Pandora to her new class went even more smoothly than I expected. The story of a strong blind girl who lost her parents early and overcame many difficulties to attend school to stay with her long-lost brother immediately triggered an outpouring of sympathy from the pure-hearted first-year students. For a while, Pan Lili became the darling of the entire class. Everyone couldn't wait to show their kindness to this unfortunate girl, and their heartfelt enthusiasm even left Pandora feeling a bit at a loss.
This made me feel very relieved. At least I didn't have to worry about some foolish student bullying Pandora, thinking she was a "blind girl," only to be blasted to smithereens by the Phase Impact Cannon. Pandora had previously told me that if some impolite carbon-based life-form tried to offend her, as a Senior General of the Xyrin Empire, she must protect the honor of the Imperial soldiers. And this protection could involve force— the upper limit of which almost scared the heck out of me. That even included the option of activating a Star Weapon!
Therefore, my greatest hope was that no brainless idiot would provoke Pandora.
Of course, given my near-zero remote command capability of the Xyrin Empire and the lack of support from the Xyrin Outpost Base for Pandora, the likelihood of activating a Star Weapon was low at most utilizing legion-level weapons...
So, Pandora's classmates, please don't be deceived by this harmless appearance of the little loli!