The Vixen's Gambit: Tonight We Hunt

"Met an interesting person?" Mei raised her head in surprise. This was the first time Lee had talked about someone unrelated to their organization in front of her.

Moreover, it was also the first time she had proactively brought up a specific person.

Even when it came to people within the organization like Dr. Mobius, Lee only spoke about them after Mei inquired. In Lee's words, when she was with Mei, of course she wanted to know more about Mei.

But now she was actually mentioning a stranger, and seemed quite happy about it?

"Oh? How are they interesting?" Mei lowered her head and continued flipping through her book, asking seemingly casually.

"Feels a bit baka." Lee leaned back on the bench, stretching lazily with a chuckle. "When faced with an opponent they know they can't possibly win against no matter how hard they try, they actually don't obediently choose to give up, but instead continue to challenge them in vain."

"Smart people would choose to give up, like using a rock to challenge an enemy driving a tank. If from the start it's destined that no matter how much you struggle, you can't change the outcome, and you can only make your death more painful, then it's better to just die quickly in the beginning."

Mei was silent for a moment before speaking, "Indeed, if the ending is only despair, then giving up is also a choice… You don't like people who make futile resistance?"

"No, quite the opposite." Lee sat up straight and smiled at Mei. "Humans should have the courage to bravely draw their swords against enemies they can't defeat. The ode to courage is the ode to humanity, I really like people like that."

Mei closed the book in her hand, raised her head, and silently gazed at Lee. After a long while, she finally spoke.

"…You're a pessimist, Lee."

"Yeah, but I like optimists." Lee laughed nonchalantly. "It's precisely because I can't do it myself that I yearn for it…"

As she spoke, Lee held out her right hand, making a peace sign. "By the way, I also want to become that kind of person, so I'm working hard right now~"

A person should always leave themselves a way out, Lee deeply understood this principle.

If her persona was only sunshine and rainbows, then if Plan A succeeded and she led everyone to defeat the Final Honkai, that would be fine. But once it failed, transitioning this persona to Plan B would very likely cause a jarring disconnect.

Lee didn't want this to happen, so rather than patching things up afterward, it was wiser to leave herself a way out in advance.

"So, that interesting person you mentioned is an optimist?"

"Kind of, at least they do have the courage to know it's impossible but still try."

"I see." Mei nodded, calmly reopening her physics book. "Is it a boy or a girl?"

"A boy."

A boy? A boy shouldn't be a problem, right? After all, Lee likes girls…

Wait, does Lee really like girls?

Mei suddenly raised her head. She felt like she had been overlooking something all along.

It was already who-knows-what-century in this civilization. Anyway, homosexuality wasn't a big deal anymore, and yuri was even prevalent in this society.

Because Lee had asked her if she had a boyfriend on the day they first met, and also showed unusual enthusiasm towards her after coming to Chiba Academy, Mei had always assumed that Lee was interested in her and was pursuing her – but what if she had misinterpreted it?!

Thinking about it carefully, Lee was gentle to everyone, regardless of gender…

She defaulted to Lee's orientation being female, mainly because of Dr. Mobius.

Because at that day's meeting, besides asking some inexplicable questions, she was also indirectly inquiring about Mobius's emotional state, seemingly worried that Mei would make a move on her assistant, Lee.

Because of this reason, she also felt that Lee's orientation was likely the same as Mobius's, which was why the doctor was wary of her.

But Mei recalled slightly, and realized that Lee herself had never shown more enthusiasm towards any other same-sex person than towards the opposite sex…

Mei suddenly felt that the situation was not good.

"That person is also a student?"

"Yeah, should be about the same age as you, Mei. Looks a bit younger than me, but he's quite handsome~" Lee smiled. "I only realized he was actually a student at our school when I came over just now."

Handsome, quite handsome?

Lee, would actually use such words…?

[Energy +3500]

Excellent, it seemed the wall-digging plan had succeeded. At least Mei's side had indeed been dug down by her.

Kevin, oh Kevin, don't blame me for stealing your wife~ Although you probably don't care much about it yourself right now.

Lee happily opened the other involved party's affection level interface.

[Kevin, Current Affection Level: 8]

[Current Target Energy Recharge Efficiency: 800%]

Another 100% energy recharge efficiency, what else could she say?

Fifty thousand years of feelings really had weight. Even if he couldn't beat Elysia for the protagonist position, he could still stand at the forefront of energy recharge efficiency!

And most importantly, both he and Elysia were the type whose affection level instantly skyrocketed upon meeting.

However, Elysia just gave herself away without Lee doing much else, while Kevin was someone she had carefully planned for… So when it came to who to milk harder for energy, it was naturally unnecessary to say more.

"Speaking of which, are you going to see the concert of that superstar Eden next month, Mei?" Lee smiled and looked at Mei. "A friend gave me two tickets, VIP seats, you know?"

Although Elysia's intention seemed to be to have her use these two tickets to invite her, and then the two of them would go together… But her affection level had already been full for over a year, okay?

Rather than taking that noisy pink-hair to a concert, it was better to use her tickets to invite Mei to the concert, and by the way, milk some energy from Elysia.

She just didn't know if Mei would agree. If she didn't agree, she could only continue to grind Kevin's affection.

"I…" Mei usually wasn't interested in these things and was about to refuse subconsciously, but at the moment before refusing, she changed her mind again, "Going to listen might not be bad."

Plans had changed. Now, there was likely an interesting guy lurking in this academy that Lee found interesting.

Of course, it wasn't that she had to make Lee like herself, but as Lee's friend, Mei felt she at least had a responsibility to prevent those sneaky and bad-intentioned bugs from approaching Lee.

Yes, that's right, after all, Lee's personality was just too good, she didn't know how to refuse people… Just in case, it was better for her to keep a close eye on her.