The two still didn't go back to Sirin to confirm her condition. After all, their only goal was to be present and see what kind of experiment Sirin was undergoing.
Sirin's condition... it was best not to complicate matters.
Sirin skipped ahead, clearly in a good mood.
She hummed a happy little tune, a stark contrast to the two gloomy figures behind her.
"The song she's humming sounds familiar..." Shu listened for a while, then whispered to Joyce beside him, "Is it the theme song from that Homu movie?"
Joyce listened intently for a moment, then shook her head. "No... I've never heard this melody... It's probably a local folk song, or some unreleased new song."
"Really?" Shu's eyes widened. "But it sounds familiar even to me. It should be some really common song, right?"
"Impossible. Are you questioning my database?" Joyce shook her head firmly. "And why would a song familiar to you necessarily be common? Is your usual entertainment that lacking?"
Shu fell silent. He thought about his entertainment in this world...
Being chased by Honkai zombies, then being able to fight Honkai zombies.
Being chased by Honkai beasts, chased, chased, damn it, that cursed Chariot... then being able to fight Honkai beasts.
Being chased by Herrschers, then defeating Herrschers...
Being chased by Herrschers again, then deceiving... persuading Herrschers...
Being chased by characters controlled by Bronya Zaychik... still can't beat that, and it's getting harder and harder.
It seemed his only legitimate form of entertainment was one viewing of Homu Brave Fights the Evil Dragon... and it even ended on a cliffhanger!
Shu's gaze instantly fell upon Joyce beside him, the author of Homu Brave Fights the Evil Dragon.
"What's wrong?" Joyce didn't understand why Shu's attention had suddenly shifted back to her. Shouldn't Shu be reminiscing about his past entertainment right now?
"My only entertainment experience is Homu Brave Fights the Evil Dragon," Shu said seriously. Joyce's eyes instantly widened.
"Wait, you're a one-trick pony?" Joyce asked in surprise. "There are so many Homu movies. Even if you don't like Homu, there are still those that aren't about Homu..."
"No time," Shu shook his head, his tone very sincere.
Joyce shut up.
Based on her experience, Shu should be an adult by now.
At least eighteen years of life... and his entire entertainment history consisted of watching Homu Brave Fights the Evil Dragon just once?! How bleak was your childhood!
If a person had no entertainment, what did they do with all their free time?
Joyce glanced at the fragment of Imaginary Space in her arms and found her answer.
He must have spent it on relentless training, day and night! Indeed... such powerful strength cannot be obtained easily!
Shu possessed such immense strength and achievements, along with such simple determination and such a grand ambition. Behind all this, he must have put in an unimaginable amount of effort!
Joyce's gaze towards Shu instantly became complicated. If Shu hadn't been lost in thought at that moment and had carefully observed Joyce's eyes, he would have definitely recognized her current state.
This was classic chunibyo... She was already an adult, yet still indulging in these nonsensical thoughts, concocting such unreasonable backstories for others...
...Actually, transmigration seemed even more unreasonable...
Right now, Shu was contemplating how they would leave this place.
Clearly, this was a world independent of that dreamscape, but whether it was a bubble universe or an entirely new dream remained unknown.
Judging by the piece he had torn off, this place leaned more towards being a new world. At least, everything here didn't feel as unreal as in that dreamscape.
If this was a dream, such a realistic dreamscape must have memory components mixed in. Using the Key of Remembrance would easily determine if this was a dream.
But the Key of Remembrance wasn't with Shu... He had taken the Genesis Key from Kiana, but Kiana and the others also needed a means of self-protection.
So, the relatively much safer Key of Remembrance was left with Kiana.
Although it was just a recording notebook, in actual combat, its effectiveness was still somewhat higher than their individual battlesuits.
At least it could buy time until Shu arrived.
Maybe... I should try to imitate it?
He needed to reserve at least a third of his [Hope] to open a passage out of here. To be safe, increase that to a forty percent reserve.
And he had already consumed a third earlier. That meant he had less than a third of his [Hope] left to replicate the Key of Remembrance...
Things were getting a bit tight... Even if Joyce's plan didn't require him to expend much [Hope], the goal of that plan was merely to escape the dreamscape.
What about after escaping? They might have to directly face a Herrscher, face Sirin whose dreamscape had been destroyed.
That wouldn't be enough then!
"Joyce, do you have a way to determine if this place is a memory space or another independent world?" After much thought, Shu finally considered asking Joyce.
Joyce, who had been fantasizing about Shu's second mission where his team leader sacrificed themselves, entrusting the team to Shu, snapped back to reality in an instant. After a moment's thought, she shook her head.
"I can't do it right now. I don't have any equipment to measure spatial data. Without data, I can only guess to get an answer."
"Equipment..." Shu calculated. "Can you build that equipment?"
Joyce paused, looking at Shu. "It's possible... but what about materials? Many parts of that equipment are specialized and unique... You can't assemble them with general-purpose parts."
"To make those parts, you need specialized machine tools. And the manufacturing of those machine tools requires another set of specialized machine tools... You have to go up several layers like that before you get to general-purpose equipment..."
"It would take me at least a month alone to..."
"It won't take that long." Shu reached out and took a metal ornament from a nearby wall, clenching it in his palm.
[From Joyce: Manufacture *** parts]
After a faint shimmer of light, Shu opened his palm, revealing a small, oddly shaped component.
This time, Joyce's eyes widened incredibly, wider than ever before. Her entire head practically pressed against the small component in Shu's hand.
She looked at the component, then at Shu, then, refusing to believe it, picked up the component and examined it repeatedly. Finally, with trembling hands, she put the component down and took a deep breath to calm herself.
"Hoo..." Joyce clutched her chest, then remembered her current body was female.
She looked at Shu. After an internal struggle, Joyce spoke.
"Shu, have you ever considered switching jobs? The benefits at our Future City are very good. Would you like to learn more?"