As Pei Guang and Stelle continued their conversation, they added March 7th into the discussion group. After reading through their chat history, she felt as if her pupils were trembling.
If Pei Guang and Stelle had acted out of a desire to play pranks, she might have found it a bit amusing and would have just reminded them. However, seeing their replies brimming with positivity, and Stelle confidently taking a selfie after force-shutting down a robot, she swallowed back all the words she wanted to say.
She quietly contemplated, "These are the small service robots of the Herta Space Station, right? Does doing this really help? I should ask. If it helps, I can give them a 'mission' or something."
Being familiar with the way a gamer's mind works, she was now very aware that their logic could be quite off.
Meanwhile, on Asta's end, the network had just been restored, and she quickly emptied her shopping cart. Due to the appearance of the Antimatter Legion, the space station had suffered significant losses, but going through official procedures was too much trouble. She preferred to use her pocket money for matters that could be solved without the hassle and delay of official channels.
When she received the message from March 7th, she was momentarily taken aback.
"Heh, how amusing~"
As the head of the Herta Space Station, she quickly figured out the logic behind it all. First was Pei Guang's thought process: though she hadn't interacted much with him, she could tell that he was a good person.
Since that was the case, she decided to let him be and halted all maintenance work on the service robots. After all, these were just minor robots, and their temporary shutdown wouldn't affect much. Once Pei Guang and Stelle had turned off enough of them, she would have someone from the "maintenance department" contact them. She already had a script ready for them, confident that when she explained the situation, the reactions from these three, given their strong sense of morality, would be quite entertaining.
As for how they would feel at that time? Just imagining the expressions Pei Guang and Stelle would make later brought a smile to her face. These small bits of entertainment were like the perfect spice to her otherwise busy life.
So, Asta replied to March 7th: "Yes… it was indeed very helpful to me."
March 7th let out a sigh of relief. As long as it didn't interfere with the station's operations, she was more than happy to see Pei Guang so cheerful and confident. What can she say? Even though they hadn't known each other long, his enthusiasm was contagious, making her feel happy as well.
Pei Guang, noticing how happy March 7th was, asked curiously, "What's making you so happy?"
March 7th, still in high spirits, said, "I asked Asta about it, and she said shutting down those robots was really helpful to her. How about I handle the next one?"
Pei Guang gave her a thumbs up: "No problem! But will that raise your favorability?"
March 7th playfully replied, "Of course it will. Hmm… it makes me happy… I'd say that's worth a ten-point increase!"
Hearing this, Pei Guang felt that his progress towards completing the mission had taken a big step forward. Whether the full favorability was a million points or there was no maximum, he didn't care—what he sought was the experience!
So, as they continued helping with the space station's restoration plan, they also made it a point to shut down any small robots they came across.
In a spacious area, March 7th noticed the surroundings and thought it was a nice spot, so she suggested to Pei Guang, "How about we take a photo together?"
"A photo? Sure!"
Pei Guang came over, and March 7th urged, "Come here, let's take it with this little robot."
"Here we go~"
March 7th raised her camera with her right hand and pressed the power button halfway down with her left hand. "Say cheese~"
Pei Guang pressed the robot's power button with his right hand, leaning closer to March 7th. "Cheese~"
As the camera clicked, Pei Guang and March 7th completely powered down the small robot.
"How was that?"
March 7th proudly said, "It feels great! It's so nice to do something that helps others—it's super satisfying!"
Pei Guang smirked, feeling proud, "There's even more to look forward to. After we finish, we can go claim our rewards from the person who gave us the mission."
"Let's go, let's pick up the pace~"
Pei Guang and March 7th quickly moved on, helping clear out some Antimatter Legion soldiers from the space station while also shutting down three robots. Stelle had a similar experience on her end, receiving a mission and shutting down another robot during the task, making a total of three robots as well.
As Pei Guang and March 7th shared their progress over the phone, they exchanged information.
Pei Guang: "March 7th and I shut down three robots. Check this out~"
-A photo of the two of them.-
Stelle: "I shut down another one, and I took a picture too."
-A bright, smiling solo picture.-
Pei Guang: "As expected of us, the person in charge here is definitely going to give us big praise for our actions!"
Stelle: "Absolutely!!!"
March 7th: "It feels like such an accomplishment!"
As the three were exchanging messages, they suddenly got pulled into a group chat by a maintenance engineer.
Maintenance Engineer (alt account): "Hello, I wanted to ask you something. Recently, some of the small robots have been disconnected from the terminal. I checked and it seems like they were manually shut down. The security team told me you guys were nearby—did you see anyone suspicious?"
Pei Guang: "No, we didn't see anyone suspicious at all."
Stelle: "Uh, I'm not sure either. I was just passing by and didn't really notice."
March 7th: "I can vouch for us—we didn't see anyone suspicious."
The three of them initially didn't realize what was going on. But when they did, and saw their responses in the group chat, their expressions froze.
Maintenance Engineer (alt account): "Alright~ I'll check again. Maybe there was some misunderstanding? Someone probably thought these robots were useless and shut them down to save resources. You don't need to worry about it. The station chief has prepared some small gifts for you; you can pick them up from her whenever you're free."
After sending this message through an alt account, Asta used the monitoring system to locate the three of them. Even without zooming in, she could see that in their different locations, the three of them were frozen in place as if time itself had stopped.
Seeing this, Asta smiled.
She hadn't lied at all and had told March 7th the truth. Shutting down the robots didn't really affect the space station, especially during the restoration phase when people didn't have much time to browse the internet or log in for other activities. Moreover, their actions really did help Asta—she was feeling incredibly happy right now. Such happiness was too good to keep to herself!
At the same time, on the Astral Express, Himeko received a message from Asta. Upon reading it, she nearly spit out the coffee she had just sipped.
"Those three..."
Naturally, Asta would inform the Astral Express members about the antics of these three, not as a complaint, but simply to share something amusing. Knowing the full story only heightened the sense of joy.
Welt Yang, hearing Himeko's laughter, asked curiously, "What happened?"
"Those little ones have stirred up something quite funny."
Welt Yang had also received intel on the trio's actions. After seeing the video of the three of them, he too smiled. Even without seeing their faces properly, just watching the three go from smug excitement to complete dejection in mere seconds was enough to make anyone smile.
"It's indeed amusing..."
Now, he was curious to see what other antics these three might pull off during their three-day stay at the space station. Once they were back on the train, Himeko could tease them with these embarrassing stories whenever she had the chance, just to see what expressions they'd make.