After finishing lunch outside, Eve Nightburn wandered the streets wearing a pixelated sunglasses and a mask.
Like an unemployed vagrant—oh, wait, she seemed to genuinely be an unemployed vagrant.
Colloquially known as a street loafer.
But what’s wrong with loafing around the streets? Loafing around the streets is also a dream, and Eve Nightburn was now chasing her little dream.
Arriving at Brightlake Park, Eve found a park bench to sit on, becoming a deep thinker on the bench.
“Speaking of which, what am I actually good at?”
Sitting on the park bench, Eve pondered.
Truth be told, her major in university was Computer Science, and later she got lured by the Celestial Corporation into doing server maintenance.
Fancy title: Network Engineer. Less fancy: Programmer.
Eve thought about it.
“Feels like… there’s no job market for me anymore!”
Eve felt that, given the current state of things, she might as well become a welfare girl.
Never mind whether the market is saturated or not, there’s no way a person without legal status like her could get hired anyway.
“Maybe setting up a watermelon stand would be better… Selling watermelons and throwing myself in as a bonus for free.”
“Speaking of which, didn’t I already give myself away?”
Yes, Eve had already given herself away to her traitorous disciple as a little sister to play with.
How did her life become so abstract?
Eve was somewhat speechless; no matter how she thought about it, there seemed to be no solution to her fate.
She couldn’t just risk her life to become a hacker, could she?
Not that she had the guts for it—she was a law-abiding person with no legal identity!
Assuming she could, though, if it’s just being a low-tier hacker, Eve felt like she could manage that.
After thinking for a long time, Eve still hadn’t figured anything out.
Watching the sun setting in the west, Eve felt like she had wasted yet another day.
“Ugh! Is there any loser association that could take me in?”
Eve let out a cry of despair.
She felt empty inside, unable to muster any interest in anything, incapable of accomplishing anything.
“Can someone tell me what the meaning of my existence is? Even if it’s worshipping a deity, even if it’s picking up trash—that’s better than doing nothing all day!”
“I just want to be acknowledged…”
Eve felt utterly defeated; not by life, but by herself.
It’s not that she couldn’t do things, it’s just that she wasn’t doing them. Eve felt like she was truly good for nothing.
Even if thrown into the trash, she’d be the non-recyclable kind.
“I feel like crying, I feel like eating something…”
Eve suddenly felt inexplicably sad, as if she didn’t belong in this world.
She wanted to bite onto something, as if that could distract her from her thoughts.
Eve tried biting her own arm.
“Ouch!”
Unsurprisingly, she only succeeded in hurting herself badly.
“Probably no one in this world is as dumb as me, biting themselves, huh?”
Today, Eve was feeling a bit melancholic.
Ding dong~
Just then, her phone suddenly chimed.
Eve opened her phone and saw a message from That Goose.
[Magical Girl Ellie-chan]: “You still owe me that promised card game with your sister.”
It was a message from Miri Dreamwell.
Eve recalled when she had said that and began typing on her keyboard.
“That was just me being impulsive and talking nonsense back then…”
Eve didn’t know how to explain it—she had indeed been overly impulsive back then, perhaps due to her brain not being fully developed yet, which caused her to blurt out random things without thinking.
Looking back now, Eve felt like that was…
Pure black history!
The most cringe-worthy kind!
“But come to think of it, is there anything more embarrassing than randomly adopting a sister?”
Well, Eve only realized now that she had inadvertently completely lost all her dignity.
“So embarrassing!”
Now Eve felt that dignity had completely left her.
“Whatever.”
Eve simply chose to stop thinking about it. Since she’d already lost most of it, there was no point in caring—might as well keep losing.
Ding dong~
Just as Eve was pondering, Miri sent another message.
“That’s still not acceptable. You have to keep your promises, even if it’s been delayed for so long. I can still fulfill half of it, right?”
Eve couldn’t be bothered to think too much about it.
She casually typed a response on That Goose and stood up from the park bench.
“Wait for me to get home. I’m outside now and can’t play computer games.”
After sending that message, Eve put her phone away and headed back the way she came towards her rented flat.
Returning to Warm Garden and reaching her building, Eve entered her apartment block.
Somewhere she didn’t know, a girl was staring at the screen at this very moment.
“You’ve kept me waiting for a long time, little cutie~”
The girl then turned and ordered the surrounding police officers: “Help me investigate her identity. Although I suspect you won’t be able to find anything.”
Back in her rented flat, Eve turned on her computer and sent a message to Miri via That Goose: “I’m back, let’s log in.”
After sending the message, Eve opened her game.
Once logged in, she collected the daily garbage rewards, and shortly after, Miri’s account sent a game invite.
The game officially began.
Drawing cards, strategizing, setting traps…
Both sides carefully executed their plans, though the random nature of the card deck remained uncontrollable.
Eve was indeed more skilled than Miri, but if luck was against her, even she couldn’t turn the tide.
At least this game was fair; Eve’s hand wasn’t too bad, but the main issue was that her deck was outdated compared to Miri’s new cards, which left her at a disadvantage.
It was the tears of a bygone era.
The power creep in this garbage game was always so efficient.
“I won!”
As the victory screen appeared, Eve emerged victorious.
It has to be said, this match was close—both sides were just a sliver of health away from defeating each other.
Luckily, Eve had set up her plan one step ahead of Miri, securing the crucial final card to win.
“Just one step behind.”
Miri replied helplessly. After all, your mentor is still your mentor; Miri had only learned the basics from Eve.
In the police station.
The girl stared at the screen repeatedly replaying the footage, the lollipop in her mouth now just a stick.
She tossed the stick into a nearby trash bin and looked at the officers still sifting through the data.
“Got the results yet?”
