Volume 3, Chapter 8 – A Verification Experiment on Aila

“I’m hungry!”

Anran was carefully polishing the sheath for the mechanical switchblade when Aila, sitting on the small iron plate, suddenly spoke up.

“…”

Anran stopped what she was doing and set down the rod she had been using to grind the edge of the sheath.

Sometimes feeding a little girl was very interesting.

Sometimes it was not so interesting.

Especially when what Aila ate was anything but ordinary.

After stating her condition, Aila seemed to be seeking Anran’s permission.

Her gaze fell on the pile of metal stacked in the corner.

There was a “fierce glint” in her eyes.

That was all Aila’s food.

“Wait!” Anran sidestepped and blocked Aila’s line of sight.

Aila looked up at Anran, not understanding.

Being stared at by Aila, Anran felt an enormous pressure.

Her Strength was 12 now, but that still was not quite enough for her to pick Aila up with ease.

If she made Aila angry, Aila could subdue her very easily.

So Anran immediately explained, “That metal is pretty dirty.”

Anran paused a moment before continuing, “If you’re going to eat it, wash it first.”

“Oh.” Aila nodded.

“And wash your hands too, while you’re at it,” Anran reminded her.

She walked over to the corner and, based on Aila’s usual appetite, picked out a piece of steel of moderate size. She tossed it lightly in her hand. Solid. Heavy enough. Definitely filling.

“Let’s go.” Anran took Aila by the hand and led her outside.

She was afraid that if she let her guard down for even a moment, Aila would pounce on that pile of metal.

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Come to think of it, there was not much spare metal left in the workshop. She needed to think of a way to get some more.

But she had no money.

Blood-vomiting.

Entering through the front door, Anran looked around and did not see Colin or Gray anywhere.

She took Aila to the kitchen, then thought it over and went to the washroom instead.

Washing iron in the sink used for vegetables felt too weird somehow. What if it caused food poisoning? Though ordinary “toxins” were ineffective against Aila.

Come to think of it that way, Aila, who could eat to her heart’s content, was someone most people would envy.

Turning on the faucet, Anran had Aila wash her hands first.

Aila stretched out her small hands, which looked soft and fair, pressed them together, rubbed them back and forth, then pulled them back.

After Anran waited for her to finish washing, she started washing the iron.

First she rinsed off the dust on the surface with clean water, then used a brush to scrub away the grime the water could not wash off, and finally rinsed it again before handing it to Aila.

Aila’s eyes immediately lit up. She grabbed the steel with both hands and gnawed on it as if she were chewing sugarcane.

Crunch crunch…

Chew, swallow.

Crunch crunch…

Chew, swallow.

After watching for a while, Anran got bored.

She had already seen Aila eat a gun before. Eating an iron rod was nothing unusual.

She was just curious how Aila digested these metals, and what use they were to her at all.

If only there were some instrument that could let her see inside Aila’s body.

Right.

“Wait a second.” Anran suddenly patted Aila on the shoulder.

“Hm?”

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Aila looked up at Anran, puzzled.

“I need your help with a verification test,” Anran coaxed gently.

She was afraid Aila would refuse.

But the benefits brought by 53 favorability often exceeded Anran’s expectations.

“Mhm.”

Aila agreed and paused her eating.

That made things easy.

Anran took Aila to the workshop outside. The sky had already started to grow dim. The climate on No. 1886 was different from Earth’s.

Even in midsummer under bright sunshine, the temperature only rose to a bit over twenty degrees.

In the workshop there was a weighing platform.

“All right, right here.” Anran pointed at the weighing platform, then after a brief pause added, “Aila, just stand here.”

“Just like this?” Holding the iron rod, Aila carefully stepped onto it.

288.6.

Anran glanced at the display on the weighing platform.

She scratched her hair and said, “Aila, give me that first.”

She pointed at the broken piece of iron rod in Aila’s hand.

The moment the iron rod was mentioned, Aila immediately became wary. She shrank back and turned her face away as she said, “No!”

“…”

“Just for a second!” Anran said.

“No!” Aila remained unmoved.

“I’ll give it back to you in a moment.”

“No!”

What a headache.

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“I’m not going to eat it. Really, just for a second!”

“No!”

“…”

Reasoning had failed, and she could not win if she tried to use force. So it really was because her favorability was not high enough? But then how exactly was she supposed to raise Aila’s favorability?

Anran had a headache.

As someone bad at galgames, without a strategy guide it was basically very hard for her to reach a good ending.

RPGs really were more fun after all.

For example, the traditional kind of RPG where you just follow one road to the end: grind, grind, grind until you’re stronger than the boss and that’s it.

Or open-world ARPGs: if something ticked you off, you just went up and fought it head-on. So what if it was an NPC? Even if you chopped it down, it would just get back up again, so you could keep chopping.

Right, she was an NPC now too.

Forget it.

“You can just eat here.”

Anran gave up on her earlier idea.

“Oh.”

The moment food came up, Aila dropped most of her guard against Anran.

Anran did not dare court death by trying to snatch it away. Her gaze stayed fixed on the display.

Aila started eating again.

Under her biting and tearing, the broken iron rod was quickly swallowed.

288.6.

The number on the display did not change.

Anran’s gaze kept switching back and forth between Aila and the display.

What she had eaten had not disappeared.

But that was not scientific!

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Over the past several days, Aila had eaten at least dozens of kilograms of metal.

If that metal had not disappeared, then shouldn’t Aila’s weight have been getting heavier and heavier? No matter what, it should have gone over 300 by now.

Just as Anran was puzzling over it, something astonishing suddenly happened.

At the very instant she shifted her gaze away, the number on the display suddenly changed.

288.3.

It dropped?

It really dropped!

It dropped by 0.3 kg!

Startled, Anran circled around Aila several times, but did not find anything falling out anywhere.

That 0.3 kg of weight had vanished into thin air!

What happened to conservation?

Did the game just eat it?

Then what was the point of Aila eating all that metal?

A huge pile of questions swirled around in Anran’s head. She felt that if she could fully figure Aila out, she would be at least at the level of an intermediate Mechanic.

“What is it?” Aila asked in confusion.

Anran had kept staring at her, which made her feel a little uncomfortable.

“It’s nothing, it’s nothing.”

Anran shook her head. “Thank you, Aila.”

She turned off the weighing platform. “That’s it for now!”

“Mhm.” Aila stepped down from the iron plate.

The verification was complete, but Anran’s confusion had only deepened.

Aila really was unfathomable. With Anran’s current skills, there was no way she could probe Aila’s limits. She would have to keep honing her skills and working hard to improve.