Chapter 62: You Are My Best ‘Birthday Present’

Chapter 62: You Are My Best ‘Birthday Present’

“Congratulations to the two of you! Since you are the first lucky customers today in our themed restaurant to personally touch the white dolphin, the store would like to gift you two a pair of Jellyfish Amusement Park tickets. Please accept them.”

Not long after Tendou and Caroline finished lunch, a staff member—someone Tendou had arranged in advance—arrived right on cue and handed them two amusement park tickets.

Seeing this, Caroline suddenly broke into a bright smile.

Before Tendou could even play along, she directly switched to a voice she had never used before—an exaggerated, sugary “cutesy” tone—and said:

“Oh, really? Then we’re just soooo lucky today.”

“…”

Heaven and earth as witness—Tendou had to admit that Caroline’s way of scolding someone without actually scolding them was absolutely flawless.

She looked like she wasn’t saying anything, but in reality… she said everything.

Because unless she had already seen through the whole setup, with her eternally unchanging icy personality, there was no way she’d smile that flamboyantly and speak in such a silly sweet voice.

This was 100% her way of knocking on his head!

“What’s wrong, Tendou? Not leaving yet? These tickets are only valid for today~”

Caroline lifted the two Jellyfish Amusement Park tickets and playfully waved them like a fan in front of Tendou.

Seeing that, Tendou froze for a moment—then immediately stood up.

“Of course we’re going! Who’d pass up a free ticket!?”

Caroline laughed, then left the Sunken Ship Restaurant with him.

And even Caroline herself hadn’t realized something:

Today, she was far more lively than usual, and the smile on her face appeared far more often than before.

Sometimes, when a mask is worn for too long, people unconsciously forget who they truly are.

Perhaps Caroline wasn’t being unusually out of character today—perhaps this was who she was supposed to be all along.

. . .

Real World, Crustyroll.

After Tendou and Caroline left the Sunken Ship Restaurant and arrived at Jellyfish Amusement Park, the anime’s presentation shifted into a series of short, fragmented “clips.”

The Jellyfish Ferris Wheel, the Sea Serpent Roller Coaster, the Octopus Drop Tower—

With Tendou accompanying her, Caroline completely set aside her usual burdens today.

She wasn’t thinking about missions, wasn’t thinking about gathering intel—she simply immersed herself fully in a freedom that was ordinary to others, yet incredibly precious to her.

A cheerful BGM also began playing.

And every time they finished riding one of the attractions, the scene would briefly freeze with a soft click, followed by an album-like frame appearing, with their “photo”—their memory—embedded inside and preserved.

Little by little, as more of these “memories” filled the album, the once-empty book grew full and vibrant right before the viewers’ eyes.

And soon, some sharp-eyed viewers noticed something amusing:

Although the photos seemed to be only of Tendou and Caroline…

Chen Xing was always in them.

In the corner of the Jellyfish Ferris Wheel photo, in the back row of the roller coaster, at the edge of the Octopus Drop Tower…

It was clearly a memory of two people, yet a third person was always there.

Viewers laughed at Chen Xing’s sneaky, spy-like attempts to stay hidden in every photo, while also being touched by the pure joy reflected in Tendou and Caroline’s smiles.

Even though they knew the show was giving Tendou a “last supper” before tragedy, they still couldn’t help but be drawn into the sweetness of the moment—and quietly wished that this scene could be preserved forever.

“Uuuuuu, why is it that even though I clearly know this is a trap set by the production team, I still willingly jump right into it…”

“It’s an illusion, it’s all an illusion! Reality… reality isn’t like this!”

“Hahaha! I made it—I made it! I saw it, I really saw it! A perfectly happy, everyone-lives ending!”

“So good, so good… even if it’s a last-meal-before-execution, please let me take a few more bites. After I’m full, I’ll walk myself to the chopping block. (cry)”

“No, seriously, Stellaris production team—are you all demons? How can you grasp human emotions this perfectly?!”

What is a real knife?

A true knife is when you clearly know that the oasis ahead—symbolizing hope—is nothing but a mirage in the desert.

Yet even so, you still choose to walk toward it without hesitation, indulging in a hope that never existed.

Because while you cling to that hope, you also understand you’re stepping deeper into despair.

And yet… you do it anyway.

What is true angst?

It’s when, like a moth drawn to a flame, you fly toward that dazzling light, only to realize you will never reach its brightest core—this is true heartbreak.

Because you crave the fleeting beauty in the firelight, and yet, by drawing too close, you only hasten your own fall into endless darkness.

And still—you have no complaints.

Do the viewers from other worlds not know why the Stellaris production team arranged such a warm, happy birthday episode for Caroline here?

Of course they know.

But even knowing, they remain obsessed with this brief moment of happiness before them.

The future may be cruel, but the best way to reverse time and change fate has never been to run away from the future, but to cherish the present.

And so, whatever knives and heartbreak await later no longer matter.

They only want to treasure this moment, this rare and fragile happiness.

And just when the cross-dimensional audience thought the amusement park sequence was already overflowing with sugar, they didn’t expect the Stellaris production team to drop an even bigger sugar bomb.

Night fell.

Tendou was pushing through the crowd, carrying two half-meter-tall dolphin plushies tucked under each arm.

He approached Caroline, who was sitting in the rest area eating jellyfish ice cream while waiting for the upcoming fireworks show.

“Caroline, here.”

Tendou held out the pink dolphin plushie.

Looking at the chubby, adorable pink dolphin, Caroline reached out her free left hand and hugged it to her chest.

But noticing that Tendou still held another blue dolphin plushie, she asked curiously:

“Tendou, didn’t the booth owner say there was only one grand prize? Why do you still have another one?”

“Oh, that one?”

Tendou sat down beside her and explained with a grin:

“Because I threatened the booth guy. I told him that if he didn’t give me another grand prize, I’d just win every prize on his shelf.”

“He gave in.”

Tendou lifted the blue dolphin plushie like a victorious general proudly displaying his spoils of war.

Caroline hadn’t been there—she had gone to get ice cream—but after hearing Tendou’s explanation, she instantly imagined the booth owner’s dumbfounded expression and Tendou’s smug posture as he said those words.

To be fair, it wasn’t that the booth owner lacked backbone and caved just because Tendou threatened him once or twice.

It was because, with Star-Eclipse Eye and Vector Control,

Tendou playing a carnival air-gun game was basically the equivalent of having aimbot, auto-headshot, and magic bullets enabled in a shooting game.

Even if the air-gun pellets completely missed, he could adjust them mid-air with vector manipulation, changing their trajectory in an impossible arc to hit any target he wanted with absolute precision.

Facing someone blatantly cheating like that, if the booth owner didn’t want to lose his entire stock… In the end, the booth owner could only do exactly what Tendou told him to.

There was no helping it—Tendou was outright cheating.

Rather than let himself get completely wiped out by this walking hack, it was better to surrender early and save whatever profit he still could.

Surrendering means losing half. Not surrendering means losing everything.

Watching Tendou act so high-handedly, Caroline laughed and said:

“Tendou, using a Starbearer’s abilities to bully a normal carnival booth owner—aren’t you being way too mean?”

Tendou pushed up his sunglasses, completely unbothered.

“Bully? What bully? I clearly won with my own skills! I have abilities, so what, I’m not supposed to use them?” Doesn’t matter whether I cheated or not—I won, didn’t I?”

Seeing how he bullied people yet still justified himself with complete confidence, Caroline couldn’t stop herself from laughing.

She didn’t actually care whether Tendou bullied someone. She just wanted to tease him a bit.

Besides, forget bullying a normal person—even if one day Tendou stood against the entire world, she would still, without hesitation, stand at his side.

Because to Caroline, Tendou… was her entire world.

“Tendou, happy birthday.”

“At first, I thought about giving you something as a present. But then I realized you don’t really lack anything. So I figured I might as well find a way to let you have a whole day of fun.”

“But a birthday still needs a little bit of ceremony. So this dolphin plushie—consider it your birthday gift from me!”

Hearing that, Caroline hugged the pink dolphin plushie tighter.

She was just about to respond when the distant crowd suddenly gasped.

It was the 8 PM fireworks show of Jellyfish Amusement Park—starting at last.

At the same time, the lights in the park briefly dimmed.

The commotion naturally caught Tendou’s attention, and he instinctively looked up toward the sky.

As the fireworks shot upward one by one, the multicolored lights illuminated the side of Tendou’s face even before the explosions followed.

BOOM!

Using the deafening blast as cover, Caroline whispered a sentence she wanted to say—but didn’t want Tendou to hear.

“Thank you, Tendou… and I don’t need anything else. Because you are already the best birthday gift I could ever have.”

At that moment, Tendou—one hand covering his ear—suddenly turned to her and shouted:

“Caroline, did you just call me?”

Caroline’s face instantly turned bright red.

And for the first time in her life, she lied to Tendou.

“No!”

Click!

A shutter sound rang out.

The scene froze—capturing the confused boy under the fireworks, the blushing girl beside him, and a certain “female agent” in the corner eating ice cream.

This moment solidified into a precious “memory photo,” added to the very last page of the now-complete album.

The album then began to flip its pages:

—The two of them baring their teeth on the Sea Serpent Coaster

—Caroline screaming her lungs out on the Octopus Drop Tower

—Tendou making a victory sign at the shooting stall

—and finally, the two silhouettes standing shoulder-to-shoulder beneath the fireworks

At last, the album named Memories was filled to the brim with beautiful moments.

And as the final photo settled into place, the album that carried countless wonderful memories slowly closed its cover, and gradually faded away from the screen under the reluctant gazes of the viewers.

In the real world, on Crustyroll—

“AAAHHH, they’re locked in! Tendou x Caroline is officially locked in!”

“99% pure rare sweetness!”

“If this is what I get to eat before execution, then I die with no regrets!”

“This! This is art!”

Just as the viewers were still drowning in the sugar rush from the previous scene, the episode suddenly cut to the villa—to Chen Kong, who was home alone.

He looked at the table he had painstakingly prepared with a full spread of dishes.

Then he looked at the two empty seats across from him, frowning in confusion.

“Strange… Didn’t Tendou say they’d be back tonight? Why aren’t they home yet?”

Seeing Chen Kong sitting there like a lonely old man waiting at home, the viewers felt both pity and uncontrollable laughter.

“Busy, busy—let them be busy!”

“Chen Kong: So the combat plan was real… except I WASN’T IN THE PLAN?!”

“Bro, everyone else is out having fun and the MC’s the only one defending the base from super minions.”

Fortunately, Chen Kong’s loneliness didn’t last long.

Just as he was about to turn off the lights and wrap up the dishes to reheat them later when the others returned—the front door of the villa opened.

“Yo, Kong! Our operation today was a massive success!”

Tendou walked in carrying a blue dolphin plushie, using his shoulder to push the door open. 

He placed the plushie on the sofa and handed Chen Kong a box of specialty takoyaki.

“Here, this stuff was pretty good, so I made sure to save a portion for you.”

Before Chen Kong could even open the box, Tendou had already thrown an arm over his shoulder and pulled him toward the living room.

“Come on, come on! I’ve been busy the whole afternoon and barely ate anything!”

Behind him, Caroline and Chen Xing stepped into the villa as well, each carrying bags upon bags of items.

With everyone finally home again, the once quiet villa quickly returned to its usual lively atmosphere.

Meanwhile—on the other side of Deep Blue Metropolis,in the president’s office of Burdean—

“What?! You want us to hold that monster off for a full minute?! That’s basically sending us to our deaths!”

Yong Amsan shot to his feet, flames bursting uncontrollably around him from the shock and fury.

Thankfully, Claude pressed a hand onto his shoulder, forcing him to calm down quickly and preventing the president’s office from turning into a literal inferno.

Seeing the agitated Yong Amsan, Burdean spoke reassuringly:

“Relax, Yong Amsan. Thanks to the video Claude recorded earlier with his electronic eye, we’ve already found a way to restrain Masamune.”

“And it won’t just be you and Claude. Everyone will be there to help hold him off.”

“So don’t worry, Yong Amsan. You won’t die.”

Yong Amsan’s mouth twitched violently.

Relax?

You want me to relax?

You want us to face that monster, and you tell me not to worry?!

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