After confirming what he needed to do next, Steven finally let go of the worries in his heart.
At first, he thought this was going to be so kind of high-magic, high-power world. But based on what he had learned, most characters in Arknights were only at a level where they could cause so street-level destruction.
In other words, with his current physical abilities, he should be able to handle quite a few incidents even without using any of those random mods.
Of course, expecting Steven to act like an arrogant, overpowered protagonist was a bit too much. To be honest, he didn't have a deep understanding of this world. Plus, the world-building in Arknights was a bit vague—who knew if there were so hidden monsters lurking around, just waiting to surprise him in an unpleasant way?
It was better to keep a low profile.
"Grrr..."
A strange noise pulled Steven out of his thoughts. He first looked down at his own hunger ter before shifting his gaze to the girl lying on the bed.
...
It seed that before sneaking into that Rhodes sothing-or-other, he should probably deal with his so-called adopted daughter's situation first.
Flipping through his inventory, Steven only found a few raw potatoes, scratching his head in frustration.
There wasn't a furnace here to roast them, and while he was used to eating raw potatoes, feeding them to a sick girl felt a little too cruel.
He should check if this village had any other edible food. Worst case, he could trade for so coal and roast the potatoes himself.
It was also a good excuse to try out this world's cuisine. Back in the Minecraft world, he had been eating nothing but potatoes and steaks every day—just the thought of them made him want to vomit.
Just as he was about to get up and look for the village elder, Steven realized that his hand, which was currently being used as a pillow by Gladiia, was firmly trapped.
Even though the girl had lost her mory, her grip strength seed to be innate—her small hand clutched his so tightly that he couldn't pull away.
It wasn't that Steven was weaker than her, but forcibly yanking his hand free might end up hurting her.
Since he preferred to avoid unnecessary trouble, he decided to let it be.
Besides, being relied on like this...
For soone like Steven, who had lived alone in Minecraft for who-knows-how-many years, it had been an awfully long ti since he last experienced sothing like this.
If he's told to describe this feeling, then it's not bad at all.
With no other choice, Steven squatted down and gently patted the girl's slightly panicked head as she sensed his movents. The corners of his lips curled into a faint smile.
If this girl ever regained her mory and found out he had been patting her head like this, she would probably want to kill him, right?
Steven didn't know what kind of personality this "Gladiia" originally had, but judging from her bold, dashing outfit and the proud, aloof look in her eyes when she was 'awake', it was safe to assu she wasn't the soft, dependent girl she seed to be right now.
"Oh, right. I need to find her so new clothes. This outfit... how should I put it?"
"It's sexy, sure, but wearing it as casual daily wear... feels a bit out of place."
Looking at the tight-fitting dress hidden under her stylish cape and the pure white leggings that looked more like sothing out of a lingerie catalog, Steven could only sigh at how modern mobile ga character designers were getting better and better at their craft.
Wearing sothing this revealing as everyday attire—didn't anyone feel self-conscious about it?
At the very least, Steven had no intention of walking around with the most eye-catching person in a crowd.
Just as he finally managed to calm down the clearly security-seeking girl and was about to pull the blanket up for her, his movents suddenly froze.
It wasn't that Steven suddenly had so impulsive, beastly thoughts. It was just that, due to the girl's curled-up sleeping posture, her collar had shifted slightly, revealing not only her slender, snow-white neck and the graceful curve of her ribs but also an unexpectedly eye-catching area.
Beneath what should have been her flawlessly fair skin, several patches of scales—resembling fish scales—had grown abruptly. Their pale gray color looked almost like a sign of so strange infection, ugly and unsettling.
Fortunately, if there was one thing Steven wasn't concerned about, it was sothing like this. So after the initial surprise, he reached out and gently touched the peculiar scales.
They felt smooth to the touch, not unlike the scales of a regular fish or lizard. But growing on a human body, they naturally seed out of place.
Then again, considering how this world seed full of people with all sorts of bizarre physical traits, a few fish scales didn't seem all that strange.
Steven originally planned to leave it at that. After all, this was technically the girl's private matter. Taking advantage of her mory loss to poke around and make judgnts felt a little rude.
But then, sothing clicked in his mind—why did these scales feel so familiar?
No matter how he looked at them, they bore far too much resemblance to the ones he had personally seen—and cut down—on those monstrous creatures from the ocean.
And on top of that, those creatures had addressed this girl as their "kin."
It was hard not to start connecting the dots.
For example, a certain favorite trope in card-based gas—the "enemy and ally originating from the sa source" cliché.
Would this girl he had casually picked up as his "adopted daughter" eventually turn into one of those creatures? That would be a real letdown.
"I should wait until she regains her mory before thinking too much about this. It's her body, so it's up to her to decide what to do about it."
Steven wasn't without solutions for these scales. In fact, as long as soone was still breathing, nothing was beyond fixing for him.
Of course, that was assuming he activated all of his various mods.
For now, he could only set aside his suspicions and keep his thoughts to himself, waiting until the girl regained her mories before discussing the matter with her.
After all, he was the one who had knocked her out and caused her mory loss. That ant he was responsible for her—owning up to his actions was a principle Steven always upheld.
As for what would happen after she woke up?
Well, that wasn't his problem.
He had only knocked her out, after all. Anything beyond that had nothing to do with him.
With that, Steven adjusted her collar back in place, covering the strange scales, then finally stood up, turned toward the door, and stepped out of the room.
First things first—he needed to find food. Everything else could wait.
But the mont he opened the door, his gaze locked directly onto several suspicious figures sneaking toward his room.
A brief silence fell before them.
Then, Steven raised an eyebrow and casually asked, "Do you need sothing from ? Or would you like to co in for a chat?"
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