Chapter 1716

NO．330：Clear String Sound

Return to a few minutes ago.

After parting with the truly clever Wen Zao, Aomo Lindun pretended not to notice and returned to his hotel room.

It was naturally quiet here.

There was no advance ambush by Xiao Qian or Huo'er Haiya, nor a midway visit by Yisha Mala and Qieliena, and certainly no sudden dream-coming warmth from Linglai.

Staying overnight in other rooms, then simply washing up, changing clothes, and adjusting in his own room.

The latter represents exactly this small itinerary at present.

This itinerary is so minor that even the few most clingy people wouldn't cling to it; it belongs to Aomo Lindun, who normally has plenty of stress in life, and now he can rarely have it to himself without others sharing it—it's his own freely allocated time.

Of course, although the summary is thus, the parties' own thoughts and viewpoints are the main measure of value.

In the world there are those who contend for every inch of 'their own freely allocated time', refusing to yield even a bit, not allowing anyone to touch it—highly independent people. There are also those who are dull to the adjectives 'belonging to oneself' and 'freely allocated', preferring to share a period of time with others rather than emphasize individuality.

However, those who truly reach the extreme are usually few; most people in the world are complex multifaceted beings showing different aspects in different directions, and Aomo Lindun is no exception.

He is undoubtedly also an office worker obsessed with 'rest time'; after the scale of interpersonal relations intensifies and expands, he also occasionally longs for 'time solely his own', but to say he is obsessed with such moments……

Only when driven to the point of dizziness and headache does he crave a breath like someone at the edge of drowning; most of the time he is as casual as letting his digital monster partner burst from the screen straight to the cup of water on the table.

"What nasty scheme are you hatching?"

After stopping the room AI's initial command to open the window for light, Aomo turned his head and saw the witch beast, who couldn't sit on the sofa and insisted on continuing to sit on her flying broom, just lifting the cup lid.

Seeing her and the black cat on her shoulder simultaneously stretch their necks to examine the cup, then wearing a look of deep thought, it seemed as if some astonishing wisdom was about to be unleashed.

"How is that a nasty scheme? I'm just thinking of a solution for you!"

"Want to try seeing if the digital monster drinking the medicine works?" Aomo asked with a smile.

"That's really the nasty scheme!" the witch beast said somewhat speechlessly, "Can we find out what this medicine is?"

"If we collect some samples and throw them at the analyzer to determine the ingredients, we could probably simulate the efficacy using strong computing power."

"What about the analyzer? Is it still in the school activity room?" the witch beast said, genuinely curious.

Moreover, indeed... considering this is a potion specially concocted by Ailisuzhi's gang after last night's experience to mess with Aomo, being able to restrain curiosity is rather rare.

"Don't think about it, we'll talk later."

Aomo picked up the water cup, made it vanish like magic, and then a tube filled with purple appeared in his fingers as a replacement.

"You're... administering the medicine backwards?"

"...? That's a constructive idea," accompanied by a voice with metallic tremolo processing, the demon pierced the bottle stopper with its claws, twisted and withdrew it steadily, "also counts as your closest approach to the concept of a witch."

"... You're not going to drink it yourself, are you?"

Seeing him turn back into a human, yet the test tube in his hand raised even higher, the witch beast was somewhat surprised.

"What effect does it have?"

Aomo didn't answer, just drank it all down, then, with an imperceptible prelude, the monster's computing power connected to the network and issued a command to the AI in the room.

"Do not look at what is improper, Miss Witch should avoid this for a moment."

"I'm a digital monster; what's there to avoid looking at?"

"Wait until you refute that you're not Miss Witch before speaking." The already somewhat shrunken Aomo raised his hand.

The slightly long sleeves didn't hinder the black data ring's data volume; it pushed the witch beast to repeatedly lean against the screen behind her: "Eee eee eee, I'm classified as a miss in your human culture—so what? I just live a bit longer, right? My appearance hasn't aged either!"

"First keep the young miss's mindset, then we'll talk." Youthful Aomo was ruthless and cold, his hand, wrapped in an oversized digital soul like a gauntlet, continually exerted force.

His whole body, broom and the black cat on his shoulder, were simultaneously half-pressed into the screen by the demon-shaped digital monster, which screamed: "Eee eee eee! Don't squeeze hard, ouch ouch ouch! Obviously the young miss wouldn't mind seeing these things, right? Those reference videos you kept are just like that——

"The talk is too dense, go in."

His figure shrank further, yet the small Aomo, whose hand continued to exert force, fully pressed it into the screen and issued a standby command to dispel the dark screen.

At the same time, the butler who had been waiting a few seconds already handed over child-sized swim trunks, shirt, and jacket, as well as a set of regular clothing that Aomo had requested as backup.

Of course, Aomo was already quite skilled at changing clothes, and changing was swift, so in reality the witch beast was merely stuffed into the screen for a dozen seconds before seeing daylight again.

He also received the astonished gaze of his partner, who had become quite small.

"I had prepared for you to transfer to the room butler system to counterattack, yet you've been honestly hammering the screen all along?"

This remark actually embarrassed the witch beast: "Ah… I just forgot."

"Life is too comfortable, isn't it? Many digital monsters living alongside ordinary human workers also gradually lose their combat instincts and flexible thinking."

"Even a cricket-like kid partner dares to lecture me like this!" The witch beast leapt out of the screen again, but before it could fully bounce out, the small meat palm covered in digital soul pressed its forehead and pushed it back half a meter.

"But your spellcasting profession, in physical manifestation, can even be suppressed by a juvenile demon."

"You clearly still used the enhancement of the digital soul!"

"Don't make excuses; the enhancement effect of the dark system is not ideal, after all it's not the courage and banchō specialized system."

"Perhaps you should also try writing some strength-related content into your digital core, after all you inherently possess a surplus of data that most of your kin have failed to accumulate."

Little Aomo said, examining the bracelet on his raised small forearm, and with a grasping gesture held the real water cup that appeared.

The water cup that had been tampered with by Ailisuzhi and the symbol of Sirius.

Obviously, little Aomo and big Aomo can share memories but do not share a uniform style.

Therefore, regarding this same cup of water, they should also hold different views.

But after that eight‑second stare, Little Aomo also chose to store and process it, not directly pouring it into the mouth of the witch beast that had secretly flown out, floated to the side, and kept muttering.

「I don't want to; that data volume is what I use for my evolution—why would I use it for this kind of dangerous experiment that easily makes oneself mutate? Your recent obsession with experiments is also getting worse; this is just life being too easy……」

「Witch beast, you're not coming along? 」

Seeing her keep muttering without end, Little Aomo had already walked to the door before turning back to ask.

「Eh? Wait a minute, first tell me why, even though you saw through the drug, you still drank it yourself! Could it just be because you didn't rest enough this time? 」

As for that vial of reagent, the witch beast didn't recognize it at a glance, but upon seeing Little Aomo it went 【Now I know】, and simultaneously restored was the memory of its effect—it was a drug specially tailored for the physique of demons, able, under extreme mental exhaustion, to balance the spirit‑body scale using the energy saved from rewinding the body's state.

In other words.

Aomo's degree of rejuvenation after taking the medicine depends on how sleepy he is.

And right now, this appearance of a boy under ten doesn't look like just having stayed up all night.

But she had already laughed at this from the start; she can no longer be called an inexperienced witch beast, and even without relying on this medicine, she can still notice this through some of her partner's 'shut down the terminal early and only turn it on early in the morning' behavior, which is an utterly unfathomable anomaly to a data idiot.

Moreover, she has known Aomo for quite a while, and occasionally she can still learn from his partner's manner to observe the partner on the screen, and even more notice that he deliberately cuts off topics in his conversation with the True Machine Spirit early in the morning.

Just by watching from the side, there are really many doubts, each one being loadable word-bullets, and to some extent one can understand the partner's kind of fun.

But these are not really related to her question.

She still cannot understand her partner's actions after figuring out the problem, even though the other party gave an answer at this moment:

"Just expressing an attitude; proving that I've figured it out, I'm still willing to make some concessions, which can make both of us more at ease, and even if someone remains dissatisfied, they must accept that the medicine has had the effect of a youth potion."

"This is just a technical adjustment; there's no need to be so obsessed, right?"