Free Web NovelChapter 512: Turned Into Gacha?! - 512
Since it wasn’t a big deal anyway, Tatsumaki didn’t give it another thought, walking straight toward the refrigerator.
"Can Alice look around?"
Alice’s voice echoed from the hallway just outside the living room.
Seeing her scanning her surroundings with curious eyes and finally locking her gaze onto the second floor, Tatsumaki knit her brows. "What are you snooping around someone else’s house for?"
"Alice wants to see the details of Tatsumaki’s home!"
The girl walked back into the living room, looking at Tatsumaki with absolute sincerity. "That way, Alice can understand Tatsumaki a lot better!"
Understand me? So she really is here to gather intel?
Though she didn’t want to think of it that way, the possibility immediately crossed Tatsumaki’s mind.
Her scowl deepened, but she didn’t say anything to stop her. Instead, she said rather coldly, "Suit yourself. You’re going to be staying here anyway."
Besides, there were absolutely no "details" to speak of in this house.
Just as Tatsumaki thought, Alice couldn’t find a single trace of personal life within these walls. It felt exactly like a hotel room that got tidied up by staff every day—actually, it was worse than a hotel.
Watching the girl trudge back into the living room with a look of disappointment on her face, Tatsumaki said, entirely unsurprised, "Didn’t find what you were looking for, did you?"
"Ugh..."
Alice let out a muffled sigh. "There are no plushies, no flowers, and no TV or game consoles. It doesn’t feel like a ’home’ at all."
"Having those things makes it a home?" Tatsumaki scoffed at Alice’s lament.
"A place that makes you want to return to it is a home." The girl wasn’t stung by the other’s disdain at all, carefully explaining her own outlook.
"The flowers Lily gave Alice, Mountain Ape’s plushie, Eyelashes’ TV, Piko’s game console... Alice’s home is surrounded by everyone’s feelings, and that’s why Alice wants to go back."
"...Hmph! You’ve barely been out and you’re already homesick?"
Sitting at the dining table, Tatsumaki’s fingers twitched slightly before she crossed her arms, speaking with an arrogant air.
"Huddling together for warmth like that is just a foolish choice. Those guys are only using Fubuki’s name and yours."
"At the end of the day, they’re just a bunch of clout-chasers. Playing house with people like that will only drag you down."
"...Tatsumaki talks... kind of like a Demon King waiting to be defeated by a Hero."
Alice pouted, looking displeased. "Everyone is a really good person."
"You’re too naive, you..." Just as she was about to point out how ridiculous Alice’s worldview was, Tatsumaki remembered a second too late that this girl was just a robot.
How could someone change what had been hardcoded into her with just a few words?
And yet, she couldn’t help but recall the girl’s expression and tone when she mentioned "home."
Are robots really this realistic? She acts exactly like a real human.
I almost treated her like a person. Am I stupid?
At that thought, Tatsumaki forcefully suppressed the emotions in her heart, turning her attention back to the cake she had bought yesterday and left in the fridge.
Psychic powers required immense brain power; anyone who wasn’t smart couldn’t use them. Because of this, sugar was one of the most critical fuels for psychics.
Coupled with the fact that Tatsumaki truly did like cakes and pastries, she had developed a habit of eating cake whenever she took a break during patrols.
Alice also eyed the mille-feuille cake on Tatsumaki’s table.
"Alice wants to eat mille-feuille cake too. Are there any highly rated cake shops nearby?" Alice asked as she pulled out her phone to search.
"...Huh?"
Tatsumaki, who was just about to open her mouth to bite into the cake on her fork, froze.
You looked like you were ready to pick a fight a second ago, so how did you suddenly jump to this topic? Is this just how robots work?
Wait, do robots even eat food? It’s not like she’s a cyborg.
Tatsumaki didn’t suspect that Alice might actually be a cyborg in disguise. After all, the difference between a robot and a cyborg was huge—cyborgs possessed a normal person’s body, or at the very least, a human brain.
A robot, on the other hand, didn’t have a single scrap of human tissue.
Whether she was a robot or a cyborg was something the Association could easily determine with a simple physical exam; there was no way they’d get it wrong.
Still... treating her completely like a machine was proving to be rather difficult...
"We have to keep patrolling in a bit. Where would we find the time to go buy one right now?" A green psychic aura enveloped the refrigerator, and a box containing a strawberry shortcake was spat out by the appliance, floating gently over to the side opposite Tatsumaki.
"Hurry up and eat. We still have a lot to do."
With that, she ignored Alice’s reaction and lowered her head again to tackle the mango mille-feuille in front of her.
"Wow! Thank you, Tatsumaki! Alice will give Tatsumaki a gift next time!" Having received the cake, the girl naturally assumed their relationship had improved, so she naturally offered a return gift.
"No need. If I want something, I’ll buy it myself."
"But the back-and-forth between friends is very important, you know! Alice gave a gift to everyone in the Blizzard Group!"
"Huh?! Since when did I become friends with you?!"
"Hmm? Wasn’t it just now?"
"I already told you, I just don’t want to waste time on pointless things!"
"But Tatsumaki still gave Alice cake. If Tatsumaki didn’t want to, she could have just left Alice to starve."
"...I!"
Realizing once again the sheer impossibility of mutual understanding between herself and a robotic brain, Tatsumaki’s blood pressure skyrocketed.
She quickly shoved a bite of the cold cake into her mouth to cool her temper, forcing her brain back into gear. "I only promised Fubuki that I wouldn’t let anything happen to you, don’t get it twisted!"
No! Why am I explaining myself to a robot again! It’s not like she understands anyway!
"Forget it! Do whatever you want!"
Taking a deep breath, Tatsumaki chose to give up.
"Ta-da! Alice has made a new companion!"
"You don’t make companions just by exchanging a few words!"
"But everyone is an S-Class hero, so we are companions by default, right?"
"..."
Shaking all over, Tatsumaki finished her afternoon tea. She then took Alice along to start their final patrol of the day, dealing with another Mysterious Being and stopping a crime along the way.
However, the two of them didn’t head straight back after finishing their work for the day.
Thinking about how she would be staying safely at Tatsumaki’s house today, and remembering how bare Tatsumaki’s place was, Alice stated that she wanted to make a trip back to the Blizzard Group to pack up her game console and computer.
Knowing her own temper, Tatsumaki was well aware that going back would only lead to another unpleasant argument with her sister. She was clearly reluctant to agree to the proposal.
Couldn’t they just buy a new game console or computer on the way back?
But Alice didn’t see it that way. "Those save files are treasures created through Alice’s hard work! No other game console will have them!"
Tatsumaki really wanted to ask if that kind of stuff was actually worth caring about. But considering Alice was a robot, maybe those data files held some unique, profound meaning to a machine...
Fine, she couldn’t understand this robot brain at all. To think Fubuki had actually been living with a robot like this for over a month?
For the first time in her life, Tatsumaki felt a sense of awe toward Fubuki’s tolerance.
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T/N: If you want advance Chapters, you can find it at [email protected]/AspenTL
