Chat Group: Starting by Swapping Bodies with Elysia?

Although his relationship with Kevin was exceptionally good, they were close friends who could talk about anything and compare sizes while using the restroom, he wasn't actually that familiar with Kevin's family situation—at least he had never heard Kevin mention that he had a younger sister.

But looking at the white-haired girl's eyebrows, which were identical to Kevin's, their incredibly similar demeanor, and that familiar tone, Su couldn't help but speculate whether the girl who looked like a gender-swapped version of Kevin was some kind of distant cousin.

He vaguely remembered Kevin saying that his family wasn't actually that small—it was said that they were nobles a long time ago. It was only after modernization that their family declined and scattered.

Under these circumstances, it wouldn't be impossible for a distant cousin to suddenly come visit his best friend.

And her familiarity could also be explained by Kevin mentioning Su's existence to his distant cousin beforehand.

Of course, these thoughts didn't alleviate Su's current embarrassment too much.

Even if the girl in front of him was indeed Kevin's cousin or something like that, the fact that he had seen her body completely naked was still a fact…

Trying his best to avoid letting his gaze linger on sensitive areas—but it was impossible to avoid thinking how great Kevin's cousin's figure was, suppressing the desire in his heart, Su carefully examined the white-haired beauty.

Although he started out with simple politeness, looking at that incredibly delicate face, those captivating eyebrows, he felt as if his heart had stopped for a moment, then it began to race like a runaway horse, unable to stop.

This strange feeling… could this be what Kevin called 'falling in love'?

Having never experienced such a wondrous and beautiful feeling since childhood, Su, who had a personality as calm as water, didn't have any expectations for love. He found it difficult to understand why his best friend was so immersed in it.

During the lonely nights, he sometimes wondered—maybe he wouldn't experience so-called love in his lifetime.

After all, with his intelligence, Su knew how low the probability of two people who truly loved each other meeting was. Meeting a best friend like Kevin who was worth entrusting one's life to was already incredibly lucky for him.

His next life, as a doctor with a benevolent heart, should be to help all living things.

However, at this moment.

He experienced and understood what Kevin had described to him—what it was like to fall in love at first sight with someone.

Well… it wasn't exactly love at first sight. But after closely examining the white-haired girl before him, Su indeed felt an uncontrollable surge of emotions.

There was a big opportunity!

She was Kevin's relative. With Kevin's introduction, it wouldn't be difficult for him to get to know her—as his best friend for life, he thought Kevin would agree with his pursuit.

The only problem was probably…

That he had impetuously seen her naked—of course, someone as reasonable as him wouldn't think that the girl in front of him was the 'you saw my body, so you have to take responsibility' type from novels.

Even if he thought his basic conditions were quite favorable, having good looks and a good personality, and although his financial conditions might not be as good as those of the wealthy, he had the talent to have an unlimited future, theoretically.

Giving up on the possibility of a 'sugar baby' relationship, Su's bigger concern was—would the girl think he was a lecher?

The white-haired girl, Kevin, who had been staring at him, could see Su's complex, uneasy, yet somewhat affectionate gaze. Although seeing such a thing on Su felt very strange to her.

Su, who was always so serious, was actually showing such an expression?

Of course, under normal circumstances, Kevin would definitely be in the mood to tease him—but now, she was simply feeling confused.

Why? Why was this happening?!

Her gaze moved down, the well-developed pectoral muscles blocking her view—of course, for Kevin, who had already seen the 'change,' this wasn't important.

The girl's beautiful blue eyes were filled with a hint of tearful helplessness.

Bro, oh bro, why did you turn into a sister!!!

Although Kevin was quite composed, it was still difficult to calm down after suddenly turning from a boy into a beautiful girl after taking a shower.

Furthermore, she was the type to follow others' leads. When such a bizarre thing happened to her, she didn't consider Su's strange behavior earlier and instead looked at her best friend with tears in her eyes.

"Su…"

In his current form, she looked at Su, her white-haired girl's eyes sparkling with tears, as she stared at him with a watery gaze. It made her appear exceptionally adorable, and with a pitiable quality—undoubtedly, such a pose combined with that soft voice was like a heavy hammer, striking Su's heart hard.

He looked at the white-haired girl in front of him, whose name he didn't even know, in a flurry—she was, she was crying…

It's all my fault! It's all my fault for not knocking before entering! Not being careful!

Su, who wasn't good at interacting with girls, scolded himself internally. Then, a little nervously and carefully, he said, "Miss… It was indeed my fault for barging into the bathroom without saying anything."

"Although I accidentally saw something that I shouldn't have... I won't shirk my responsibility. No matter what, I will take responsibility to the end."

"…"

The white-haired girl was stunned for a moment.

"Huh—?"

She glanced at herself, then at Su, seeing that sincere, serious look, she instantly realized what had just happened.

She was a girl now, and Su didn't seem to recognize her.

Kevin knew his best friend's personality very well…

He had just seen her naked—well, although she understood the situation, Kevin actually didn't mind it that much, due to their relationship.

After all, they were good brothers who had compared sizes and taken showers together before.

What did a mere body count as? They had seen each other's bodies countless times before.

Thinking this, Kevin felt a little amused, but then suddenly remembered Su's eyes just now—they seemed so familiar…

Like himself from the past… wait, himself from the past?

A trace of shock flashed in her blue eyes, followed by a look of indignant disbelief as she stared at Su—I treated you like a good brother, but you were actually lusting after my body?!

Miss Kevin, feeling that the ship of friendship was about to sink, was furious.

But she quickly calmed down.

If Su found out that she had turned into a girl… he would definitely tease her endlessly—just thinking about Su's expression after knowing that she had turned into a beautiful girl made Kevin feel uncomfortable.

No! She couldn't let Su find out about her identity!

That thought flashed into Kevin's mind, who had originally wanted to seek help from Su.

After all, although she was quite anxious about her turning into a girl, such a bizarre thing had suddenly happened, and she knew Su well enough to know that he wouldn't be able to help her with it.

If that were the case, then wouldn't she just be made fun of if she revealed her identity to Su?

Moreover—

Although she felt a little disgusted by Su's admiring gaze, looking at her best friend who was a little shy and blushing like someone in first love, Kevin directly recalled her past conversations with him.

She remembered when she told him about meeting a girl who stirred her heart in the Far East, this guy had made fun of her for quite a while. At the time, she was focused on getting closer to MEI, so she didn't pay attention.

And now, she had been dumped by MEI and had even turned into a girl…

—A curve slowly formed at the corner of the girl's lips.

On the other side—

At the temporary accommodation that the fifth research division had prepared for Elysia.

The pink-haired lady, teasing the ELF Elysia in a luxurious hotel, puffed up her cheeks, not very happy—damn it, that bad Jiang Qiao had actually created a 'mini Elysia' and kept it by her side without her knowing.

Looking at the ELF Elysia, she couldn't help but think back to herself when she was a child… Of course, Elysia didn't have a good impression of ELF Elysia.

After all—ELF Elysia referred to herself as the 'crystallization' of Jiang Qiao and Elysia… Hmph, what crystallization! Isn't it just another clone!

And using such an elaborate phrase, did she think that Elysia hadn't gone to school?

Elysia was the real Elysia! That bad Jiang Qiao wasn't! What he created was anything but a crystallization of Elysia!

To not have told her about such an important matter—

…Hmph.

Just you wait. The advantage that you took from Elysia, Elysia will make you spit it out sooner or later!

The annoyed pink-haired lady thought to herself—until a dark shadow broke into the room through the window.

She didn't feel wary, because the intruder was none other than Sakura, who was in charge of the reconnaissance mission—she was holding a squirming Pardo in her hand.

"The progress is smooth."

Sakura's voice was cold and monotonous—she always did things so decisively, which was why Dr. MEI and the others liked her.

But for this, the pink-haired lady revealed a hint of confusion in her eyes:

"Uh… I can understand that, but why not use the main door?"

"…"

The atmosphere in the room fell into a brief silence because of this question.

"See, I told you, Sakura-san, just use the main door, why did you have to climb in through the window!"

"…Habit."

"Never mind, never mind."

"What information did you collect, Sakura?"

Although she was quite different from 'Elysia,' the pink-haired lady was still very reliable when she was serious. She went straight to the point.

"There's a lot."

Sakura paused for a moment.

"I met someone."

Her memory returned to the day—

"Please stop for a moment, miss."

"…"

The voice that rang in her ears was slightly immature, which made Sakura pause.

Turning her head, she saw a silver-haired girl wearing a small top hat like an ornament, holding a magic wand with a parrot at the tip, staring at her with a playful smile on her face—Sakura didn't like this kind of smile. To be honest, based on her past experiences, people with this kind of smile usually had very deep schemes.

Of course, this usually didn't concern her.

After all, most of the people she met had already been buried in the dirt.

Not feeling any threat—Sakura didn't lower her guard, simply placing her hand on the hilt of her sword.

Her rich work life taught her not to underestimate anyone based on their appearance, because doing so could very likely lead to her demise.

"Haha, I understand, I understand, but please don't mind it."

"How about I introduce myself?"

"Marlene—of course, you probably haven't heard of this name, after all, I'm just an insignificant small fry." Noticing that Sakura was slowly exerting force on the hilt of her sword, the girl named Marlene didn't tense up, and slightly lowered her hand with a smile to signal:

"But I roughly know your purpose—information, right? Don't be nervous, perhaps I just happen to have the information you need?"

"Information about—the Fifth Science Division."

The silver-haired girl revealed a mysterious and subtle smile.

And this was what they were looking at, through Sakura's retelling.

Then, Pardo added, "I asked around. The person named Marlene seems to be a famous information broker in this place, but almost no one knows her background. They only know that she appeared out of nowhere."

The catgirl wasn't simply a mascot—she was quite talented in integrating herself into local information networks.

"The Fifth Research Division seems to have some connection with the Apocalypse Church that is prevalent in Eastern Europe."

"But the more important information is—the 'Herrscher of Reason' core that was stored in the Fifth Research Institute seems to be gone."

"Huh?"

Hearing Sakura's information, Elysia was instantly stunned.

From Jiang Qiao, she knew that the purpose of this trip was not only to rectify the Fifth Research Division but also to recover the Herrscher of Reason's core—but it was gone?!

"No wonder…"

The pink-haired lady suddenly understood something.

When she contacted the head of the fifth scientific division, SPACY, during the day, she directly stated that she wanted to see the 'First Herrscher' core, and the latter had readily agreed—but when they went to the Fifth Research Institute where the Herrscher core was stored, everything was fine, but when they talked about wanting to see the Herrscher core, the institute director's face instantly changed, and they were rejected.

Later, after SPACY communicated with them, Elysia's response was that—the people at the Fifth Research Institute had reached an extremely important point in their research on the Herrscher core, and in order to ensure that the experiment wouldn't be disturbed, they couldn't access the Herrscher core for the time being.

As for how long it would be before it was open, they didn't say.

Elysia didn't pay much attention to it at the time—after all, the Herrscher core couldn't just grow legs and run away, right? She didn't really understand things like research, so she could only compromise and go on an inspection tour of the fifth European base.

"Say… is this information reliable?" The pink-haired lady was somewhat concerned.

She didn't doubt Sakura and Pardo's abilities—but the source of this information was that stranger named Marlene. Although she was a famous information broker, they didn't know whether her information was actually reliable, or if she had ulterior motives.

"I don't know about the connection with the Apocalypse Church, but regarding the latter…" Sakura glanced at Pardo, who scratched her head and smiled embarrassedly: "Hehe, Elysia-san, it really didn't seem like the Herrscher core we were looking for was in there."

Having learned about the purpose of the trip, Pardo had taken the time to visit the Fifth Research Institute during her free time—although she returned with a large haul and had a lot of fun, she unfortunately didn't find any traces of the so-called 'Herrscher core.'

Thinking about the situation Pardo reported to her and the 'goods' she had in her hands, which also had labels from the Fifth Research Division, Sakura sighed with a hand on her forehead.

Her teammate's ability in this aspect seemed to be… a bit too outstanding.

At least if it were her, she admitted that with her own stealth abilities, she wouldn't be able to infiltrate the Fifth Research Institute without being discovered, then leave easily… uh, actually, it doesn't seem impossible?

"Aba aba aba."

It was obviously a bit difficult for the pink-haired lady to understand the problems within, but it didn't stop her from thinking:

"Pardo is really amazing."

"Hehe, I was just wandering around."

For Pardo, the most joyous moment was undoubtedly when she received praise from Elysia—after all, it meant she hadn't disappointed Elysia.

But…

The catgirl glanced at Elysia without being obvious, her mind wandering.

She didn't know if it was her imagination, but she felt that Elysia had become a little clumsy after getting off the plane. Although she still had the same taste, she was much more distant, like she was imitating someone—Ah, it must be my imagination.

The catgirl, who was rather slow on this topic, didn't pay too much attention to it. After all, it wasn't like Elysia was pretending to be Elysia, right?

"What are we going to do next?"

"Next… oh… what's next…" Elysia, snapped back to reality, said, her eyes displaying a clarity that hadn't been contaminated by knowledge.

What should they do next?

She subconsciously wanted to call out to her external brain or seek help from MEI.

"Sakura, did that woman named Marlene give you any other information?"

A childish voice rang in the room—that familiar voice undoubtedly belonged to Elysia. The pink-haired lady, hearing this voice, thought that bad Jiang Qiao had appeared. But after subconsciously looking over, she found that it was actually ELF Elysia who was speaking.

That's right! ELF Elysia was a clone of the bad Jiang Qiao!

The pink-haired lady instantly felt relieved, a hint of joy showing on her face—but then, it immediately turned into annoyance.

Damn it, even after she had taken her body back, 'Jiang Qiao Elysia' was still the one in charge.

Not using her body anymore, and now using her childhood form to continue to be a clone, huh… The pink-haired lady puffed out her cheeks, looking at ELF Elysia, somewhat dissatisfied.

Bad Jiang Qiao! You deliberately made her look like me when I was little. Don't tell me you aren't trying to humiliate Elysia!

After all—how could any adult be worse than a child?

She was very angry and wanted to fight back—take back the right to speak for 'Elysia.'

But with no knowledge in her mind and her external brain not present, the pink-haired lady could only puff out her cheeks and watch ELF Elysia take charge.

—Just you wait. See if Elysia doesn't use you as a body pillow tonight!

"She gave me a contact method."

"If that's the case, ask her if she knows the gathering place of the Apocalypse Church in Europe."

"Sakura, Pardo, you guys also try to investigate from other directions. When you have any results, go explore it." Holding her magic wand, ELF Elysia began to give commands in an old-fashioned manner—ruthlessly abusing the dumb Elysia.

"That's it for now, get some rest."

Sighing, ELF Elysia shook her head, glancing at 'the dumb me' without being obvious.

—Her creation was actually a safeguard that 'Elysian Realm Elysia' had given to the pink-haired lady, who might be sent back to her 'hometown' after learning about Jiang Qiao's 'sudden switching' event.

Precisely for this purpose, the 'data' injected into ELF Elysia was that of 'Elysian Realm Elysia' herself, instead of a pure and innocent Elysia, like the one working as the typewriter administrator.

That night—the pink-haired lady attempted to get revenge on the 'Jiang Qiao clone.'

It ended with—

'Fairy Flying Kick—!'

ELF Elysia (disgusted face): You're not even as fast at replenishing my energy as a reliable me! Stay away from me, you idiot!

Miss Elysia, who had been struck hard, was full of resentment.

She sent out another powerless rage on the chat group

Bad—Jiang—Qiao—!!!

Her friends held a watching brief on this.

And Jiang Qiao was completely oblivious—because [She] was on the road, taking her partner out for a ride.

According to the 'if you don't drive according to the rules, your loved ones will cry' principle, 'Miss Chen' perfectly adhered to the traffic rules that didn't exist in the Sea of Quanta.

Feeling the girl's arms around her waist, [Bronya] stepped on the accelerator—out of curiosity as to what it would be like to take a girl out for a ride, she had even deliberately rejected Su's assistance.

The conclusion was—it was really great.

It was even better to take someone else's girl.

It was even better to take someone else's girl with someone else's body.

However, there were obviously some disharmonious existences on this road of taking a girl for a ride.

For example—

The big guy that appeared in the road ahead.

"Tlaloc."

Sitting astride the wide motorcycle with her legs covered in white silk, [Bronya], looking through Project Bunny's goggles, could immediately see the data of the Honkai beast in the distance. She recognized its true form at a glance.

It was a product of the Chimera Project—a familiar of Kevin's.

A powerful creature that was equivalent to a Judgment-class Honkai beast in terms of Honkai energy.

Its appearance didn't surprise Jiang Qiao—after all, Kevin wouldn't let them leave so easily.

The reason why Seele was able to escape the black box was all thanks to the power that Kevin gave her. Helping Kevin escape was the purpose of this transaction.

And now, a Herrscher of Reason had appeared. How could Kevin, who was increasingly anxious about the situation in the Current Era, watch the key to leave slip away right before his eyes?

However—with Su doing his best to imprison him, and Kevin himself unable to take action, how could a mere Tlaloc possibly stop a Herrscher?

During a brief contemplation, [Bronya] seemed to have thought of something interesting, and a curve formed at the corner of her mouth.

"—To deal with Kevin, this should be the most appropriate thing, right?"