Chapter 813 - 812: Dean Returns with a Pleasant Souvenir."

Continuing to sincerely enjoy the incredibly pleasant time spent in Aerith's company, Alex did not even think about what time it currently was. Time did not concern him at all—he understood perfectly that the other members of their group right now were either still sweetly catching up on sleep or unhurriedly going about their everyday affairs. However, what he was one hundred percent certain of was that the current and the following days would be unimaginably difficult and endlessly long for all of them.

Heavily sighing from these gloomy thoughts, Alex tenderly stroked Aerith's silky hair as she comfortably settled right on his chest. Hearing his heavy sigh, Aerith immediately raised her head and intently looked him straight in the eyes. Slightly rising onto her elbows, she affectionately squeezed his cheeks and slightly narrowed her eyes, with sincere care inquiring what exactly was troubling him so strongly.

Hearing her questions, Alex merely wearily shook his head and answered that he simply catastrophically did not want to move. Suspiciously narrowing her eyes at such an obvious evasion of the answer, Aerith again playfully squeezed his cheeks and relaxedly laid her head on his chest.

In the depths of her soul she likewise did not want to go anywhere in the nearest hours—she would have preferred with great pleasure to sit in this cozy room alone with Alex until the late evening. Hearing how Aerith again quietly began humming a pleasant melody, Alex thoughtfully stared at the ceiling, once again analyzing what exactly he might have missed in the upcoming key events.

But after short reflections he finally became convinced that for now everything was going exactly as he had planned—with the exception of a couple of insignificant discrepancies that in the original were supposed to develop a little differently. The only thing that truly caused him slight concern was the inevitable contact of different timelines that was soon supposed to take place.

Holding back so as not to heavily sigh again, Alex could not help thinking about how lousy it was to deal with worlds where Fate itself played such a significant and aggressive role. Fortunately for himself, Alex clearly remembered that this conjugation of temporal layers would pass practically imperceptibly and would not provoke any global catastrophic consequences—it would become noticeable only upon deep immersion and direct contact with the streams of the Lifestream.

"How lousy, incredibly complicated and tangled all of this is…" Alex quietly muttered, looking at the ceiling with a tired gaze and continuing to measuredly stroke Aerith's hair.

"What exactly is so complicated?" Aerith inquired, raising a curious gaze to him the moment she heard his unclear muttering.

"Just moving… For example, right now I desperately want to find myself at some tropical resort and do absolutely nothing at all," Alex explained with a sigh, lowering his gaze from the ceiling to Aerith.

"But we're going to end up there very soon! And you'll be able to enjoy the cool ocean water and the golden sandy beach to the fullest extent," Aerith said in a cheerful, encouraging tone, lightly tapping her index finger on the tip of Alex's nose.

"Okay, let's not use those tricks of yours—don't use upcoming plot turns as an excuse for my well-deserved rest," Alex responded with a laugh, playfully poking a finger right into Aerith's forehead.

"And I'm not doing anything of the sort! I'm simply stating the fact that we will definitely be there. But whether you'll be able to sincerely enjoy it already depends exclusively on you yourself, mister," Aerith answered with a light, mysterious chuckle, tightly squeezing Alex's cheeks with her fingers and beginning to comically pull them in different directions.

"I see that sometimes it brings you enormous pleasure to put on such a mysterious appearance. Does it amuse you so strongly?" Alex asked with a sincere smile, with a sharp motion rising on the bed and more comfortably transferring Aerith onto his lap.

"Only if, just a tiny bit! Sometimes it's really terribly fun, and sometimes… not so much," Aerith answered, placing an index finger to her lips and making a thoughtful face, slightly tilting her head to the side.

"Eh you, little lover of spoilers," Alex cried out, bursting into laughter, and began excitedly tickling Aerith in the area of the waist.

"Well only if just a tiny bit… And stop tickling me, mister! Or else I'll bite you right on the finger right now!" Aerith answered, drowning in loud laughter from the tickling, playfully trying to fight off Alex's tenacious hands.

"Oh, well you can at least try!" Alex teased her with a laugh, continuing to tickle Aerith with even greater excitement.

Continuing to sincerely laugh from the unceasing tickling, Aerith with enormous difficulty managed to break free from Alex's tenacious hands and immediately excitedly attacked him in response. Grabbing his face with her little palms, Aerith without hesitation clamped her teeth right onto his cheek.

Considering that such modest revenge would clearly be insufficient, Aerith began enthusiastically and tangibly chewing Alex's cheek, intending no matter what to leave the most distinct and noticeable mark on his face. Once again feeling how his cheek was being appetizingly chewed, Alex merely quietly sighed.

After all, some of his wives had already more than once performed exactly the same "tricks" in their sleep, so he had long grown used to such manifestations of feelings to such an extent that he was simply too lazy to react to it in any way. Noticing that her actions were causing absolutely no turbulent reaction from Alex, Aerith decided to go even further. Stopping chewing his cheek, she instantly switched and with gusto clamped her teeth right onto his neck.

Already after a couple of minutes several very clear imprints of her neat teeth were displayed on Alex's face and neck. Seeing the results of her labors, Aerith nodded her head contentedly and joyfully, after which she tenderly and tremblingly kissed Alex on one of the fresh bite marks on his cheek. Alex himself could only sigh resignedly once more, allowing Aerith to amuse herself as her little heart desired—for she was far from the first girl in his life who had done something similar with him.

Rubbing with a little finger the place of her bite on his neck, Aerith suddenly thought that this was still catastrophically little. But when she was already reaching out to once again excitedly bite him on the neck, her own stomach unexpectedly emitted a rather loud and distinct rumbling.

Hearing this expressive sound that came from her abdomen, Alex turned his head toward her and looked at her with an incredibly cheerful, sly gaze. Aerith herself instantly flushed a deep red to the very tips of her ears and frantically covered her stomach with a hand, mentally cursing the fact that the treacherous hunger had manifested itself so untimely.

"Maybe we should then finally deign to go to 'Seventh Heaven' and eat properly? Who knows, maybe Tifa will take pity on us and feed us something tasty…" Alex said with a light, kind laugh, not taking his gaze from the deeply blushing Aerith.

"Ahem… Well, if you insist so strongly! Who would have thought that your stomach is capable of emitting such deafening and capricious sounds," Aerith began speaking with feigned, exaggerated indignation, without a twinge of conscience shifting all the blame for the embarrassment onto Alex.

"Well, at least now it has become absolutely clear to me why you just now so insistently tried to bite me. It was all about banal hunger," Alex said, chuckling, and slightly leaned to the side to look straight into Aerith's embarrassed eyes.

"Me? I don't remember anything of the sort at all! Maybe you're confusing something, mister? Because I'm one hundred percent sure: it was exactly your stomach that just emitted these terrible, loud sounds!" Aerith declared in bewilderment, proudly pointing a finger at herself and putting on the most uncomprehending appearance she was capable of.

Looking at how sincerely Aerith was pretending as if she absolutely did not understand what was even being talked about, Alex with enormous difficulty held back the approaching laughter. He understood perfectly: if someone else, less experienced, had been in his place, he would definitely have unconditionally believed those honest eyes. Aerith herself, continuing to maintain the most innocent expression on her face, calmly slid off Alex's lap and approached the wooden chair.

Throwing on her favorite bright-red jacket, Aerith turned to Alex and, impulsively grabbing him by the hand, began with a smile pulling him off the bed. Chuckling at her pressure, Alex not without difficulty rose from the bed and stretched sweetly with his whole body. No matter how much he wanted to continue lounging in the warm bed, he realized that it was already high time to get up.

Taking his thin black coat from the table and putting it on with a habitual motion, Alex extracted elegant pocket watches from the inner pocket and glanced at the dial. Seeing that the hands already showed practically three o'clock in the afternoon, Alex quietly clicked the lid shut and put the watches back. Approaching the doors together with Aerith, Alex simply turned the inner lock and calmly opened them, not even suspecting that several hours earlier Dean had tried to jokingly lock them from the outside.

Going out into the fresh air of the second-floor balcony, Alex unhurriedly lit a thin cigar and looked at the poor streets of the Slums of the Seventh Sector spread out below. Thinking about how very soon this entire lived-in space would simply cease to exist and only smoking ruins would remain here, Alex could only gloomily sigh, raising a heavy gaze to the gigantic metal Plate towering over the Sector.

He understood perfectly: if he did not allow this heavy construction to fall right now, then the Shinra Corporation or the Gray Whisperers who were always sticking their noses in would certainly decide to collapse the Plate in some other Sector already. And all of them would not give a damn whether that other Sector would be evacuated or whether thousands of innocent people would die there.

All that concerned the top leadership of Shinra was to shift all the blame onto the radicals from "AVALANCHE" and hang as many bloody corpses on them as possible. And the Gray Whisperers were concerned only that the canonical event that was destined to happen would occur under any, even the most improbable, circumstances.

"Did you see something interesting there? Since you're looking so intently and for so long at the Plate," Aerith inquired, softly standing next to Alex and tenderly taking him by the hand.

"Something like that…" Alex answered with a light smile and together with Aerith began unhurriedly descending the steep wooden staircase.

"Really? And what could be so interesting there? I've been looking at this Plate for many years already, and somehow until now I haven't noticed absolutely anything remarkable," Aerith said in a thoughtful tone, again raising her gaze upward to the massive metal structures.

"I just thought for a second that I'd never agree in a million years to service all this equipment right under the Plate. As they say, one wrong step—and you're finally out of the game," Alex answered, exhaling a gray streaming smoke from his mouth, and slightly pointed with the thin cigar at the hanging platforms under the Plate.

"Well, you can't argue with that for sure… Although, honestly speaking, I wouldn't refuse to jump down from there with a parachute one day! Yuffie recently boasted about how insanely fun it was," Aerith said with a sincere smile, narrowing her eyes and turning to Alex, slightly swinging his palm in hers.

"Oh, I can easily arrange that. We can without problems borrow a parachute from Biggs. And then jump down together if you really want to feel that unforgettable sensation of free fall on yourself," Alex answered, stroking his chin with his free hand, and lightly tapped a finger on Aerith's palm.

"Hmm, maybe another time… Right now somehow the mood is completely not for jumping with a parachute," Aerith answered in an incredibly cute tone and affectionately leaned her shoulder against Alex's arm while they walked along the street.

Hearing her answer, Alex nodded his head with a smile, not even intending to insist. He understood perfectly that in the current situation they simply had no time for such entertainments. And that by no means meant that in the future they would not have a chance to jump from such a height. The only thing about which Alex preferred to remain silent was that next time such a jump would most likely have to be performed already absolutely without a parachute.

Continuing to smile warmly, Alex walked toward "Seventh Heaven," tightly holding Aerith by the hand. However, passing along the lively little streets of the slums, he began to notice that the local residents were somehow too strangely and with obvious amazement looking at him. Seeing all these intent gazes, Alex even began seriously suspecting that he had accidentally removed in his sleep the spell that forced strangers not to pay special attention to him.

But, hearing quiet giggling next to himself, Alex turned his head and looked at Aerith, who was cheerfully covering her lips with her little palm. Noticing his questioning gaze, Aerith with a smile pointed a finger at his cheek, giving a clear hint why the passersby were looking at him so intently. Taking the phone out of the coat pocket, Alex glanced at his reflection in the dark screen and immediately noticed the bright, very distinct bite marks on his cheeks and neck.

Fully realizing the true reason for such intent attention, Alex merely wearily sighed and decided to put on the most imperturbable appearance as if everything had been planned that way. Completely ignoring the bewildered gazes of the people passing by, Alex and Aerith safely reached "Seventh Heaven." Climbing the wooden steps to the establishment, they unexpectedly heard loud, absolutely unfamiliar voices coming from inside. Exchanging glances with Aerith, Alex carefully pushed the massive door and entered inside.

Finding themselves in the premises, Alex and Aerith encountered a rather strange and tense picture: in the middle of the bar were four unfamiliar people, from whom the frightened Yuffie was warily hiding behind Barret's broad back. The moment Alex and Aerith appeared on the threshold, absolutely all those present immediately turned around and stared at them.

Yuffie, for her part, upon seeing the familiar pair, instantly jumped out of her cover, in two leaps ran up to Alex and frightenedly hung on his back, tightly wrapping her arms around his neck. Completely confused about what was even happening here, Alex shifted a questioning gaze to Tifa standing behind the counter, who alone could give him a clear answer.

"I see you're already much better… And what, if I may ask, happened to your face?" Tifa began speaking with a sly smile, barely noticing the appearance of Alex with Aerith and especially making out the fresh tooth imprints on his cheek.

"A good and solid sleep sometimes works real miracles. And what are these four Pokémon that have shown up here?" Alex answered with a light smirk, shifting an evaluating gaze onto the foursome of uninvited guests.

The moment Alex's caustic words rang out, Barret could not hold back and laughed deafeningly, slamming a heavy palm on the wooden table with full force. Tifa tried with all her might to maintain the same benevolent smile, but her lips slightly trembled while she with difficulty held back the approaching laughter. Yuffie, for her part, still hanging on Alex's back, outright laughed loudly throughout the entire bar, boldly pointing a finger at the confused group of people.

The foursome of strangers themselves, who had become the unexpected target of Alex's joke, embarrassed and bewildered exchanged glances among themselves. Alex, meanwhile, carefully and tenaciously examined the guests, who with every second seemed more and more familiar to him. Shifting an evaluating gaze between the three guys and one girl, Alex finally fully understood why their faces were known to him.

These four were those very members of the main wing of "AVALANCHE" with whom Yuffie was originally supposed to make contact in Midgar. And this meeting was precisely supposed to take place on this specific day. However, because of substantial changes in the course of events, Yuffie had arrived in the city several days earlier than the previously agreed deadline.

Having fully figured out what was happening, Alex unhurriedly walked toward the bar counter—still with the same Yuffie hanging on his back. Finding himself again in the immediate vicinity of this foursome, Yuffie began warlike hissing at them, like a disturbed cat, making it clear with her entire appearance that she was not going anywhere with them.

Such open hostility from Yuffie's side caused obvious confusion among the guests. When Alex approached closer to the counter, Tifa was able to examine much better the distinct bite marks on his face and neck. With a sincerely interested and teasing gaze she looked at Aerith standing nearby, who in response merely smiled cunningly and teasingly showed her the tip of her tongue.

"So, who are you all anyway? Depending on your answer I will either throw you out of here to hell or we will calmly talk," Alex said with the most cute and good-natured smile, while Yuffie with picturesque curiosity poked a little finger into the fresh bite marks on his cheek.

"You're… joking right now, right?" the girl in glasses inquired embarrassedly, warily looking at the smiling Alex.

"Well, except for you. But those three—absolutely for sure," Alex answered in a cheerful, casual tone, pointing a finger at the three guys.

"Okay, let's do without extremes, no need to throw anyone out! These four are also from 'AVALANCHE'," Tifa intervened in a soft, conciliatory tone, not wishing to allow the development of a senseless conflict.

"That still changes absolutely nothing. Why would members of the Headquarters of 'AVALANCHE' come to visit you—those whom they themselves consider dangerous radicals?" Alex said, rhythmically tapping a finger on the tabletop, intently looking at the foursome and forcing them to involuntarily get nervous from just his gaze alone.

"We came here exclusively because of Yuffie. And I'm not a Pokémon at all, as you put it! My name is Zhijie. These two are Billy Bob and Polk, and the girl is Nayo," Zhijie began speaking in a restrained and calm tone, with dignity introducing himself and his loyal friends.

Nodding his head, Alex calmly introduced himself in response and with a smile suggested that Zhijie continue explaining exactly why their cell needed Yuffie. Exchanging glances with the other members of his group, Zhijie unhurriedly began telling about the prior agreement to meet an agent from Wutai. Alex merely nodded understandingly, knowing perfectly well what deal exactly was being talked about.

After all, he remembered excellently that the headquarters of "AVALANCHE" had concluded a rather large-scale and ambiguous alliance with the government of Wutai: in exchange for full military assistance in the war against the Shinra Corporation, as well as regular deliveries of modern weapons and explosives. "AVALANCHE" had recklessly promised that they would hand over all the valuable Materia that they managed to obtain in Midgar right into the hands of Wutai.

Zhijie also confirmed that Yuffie herself had told them about her mission right after she temporarily joined their squad—that she had arrived in Midgar with the sole goal: to obtain that very rare and unique Materia that was stored in the secret laboratories of Shinra.

Alex did not even manage to explain aloud that Shinra had long since no longer had this Materia when Yuffie did it for him—bossily thrusting a little hand into the inner pocket of his coat. And the moment her fingers found themselves inside, Yuffie with amazement felt there three spherical Materia at once instead of the two she had known about previously. The moment Yuffie with a triumphant appearance pulled out three sparkling Red Summon Materia, the entire foursome from "AVALANCHE" stared at Alex in silent shock—they clearly had not expected that treasures of such a level could so simply lie in the pocket of an ordinary coat.

Seeing the absolutely stunned physiognomies of the guests, Barret merely proudly and loudly snorted, making it clear with his entire appearance that his small group had managed to do for the common cause many times more than the entire main cell of "AVALANCHE." Shaking his head, Alex with a light smirk took the Red Materia from Yuffie's tenacious little paws before she managed to claim rights to them out loud for all to hear.

"Where… where did you even get this Materia from?!" Zhijie inquired with unconcealed shock, staring at Alex with wide eyes.

"Well, one of them the head of Shinra's Space Program, Palmer, personally exchanged for a small service from the now safely deceased Don Corneo. I sincerely hope that this fatso is right now thoroughly enjoying himself in hell," Alex explained with a bright and incredibly wide smile, sacrilegiously folding his palms in a prayer gesture.

"As far as we know, after the untimely death of Don Corneo all management of the Wall Market was taken over by the Big Three and the former right-hand man of the Don—Leslie Kyle. How did you manage to get from them what belonged to Shinra?" Billy Bob asked with burning interest, burning with the desire to learn the juicy details.

"Ah, that… Well, this slippery fatso categorically did not want to pay us the deserved prize for victory in the tournament. And I, as a deeply outraged and honest participant, simply went to demand my hard-earned money. And so, to my great regret, it turned out…" Alex uttered in a distressed tone, virtuously wiping a nonexistent tear from the corner of his eye and artistically portraying an innocently deceived person.

"He simply unexpectedly collided with incredibly cruel gravity and completely by accident rolled a couple-three times down the steep wooden steps!" Aerith picked up in an incredibly cute tone, joyfully and ringingly clapping her hands.

"Is… is this some kind of joke?" Zhijie muttered, heavily swallowing the accumulated saliva, looking at the shining Aerith with a slightly twitching and nervous gaze.

"Nope, not once! When we found him later, the poor guy was catastrophically unlucky. First a heavy wooden door completely by accident collapsed on him, then he twice at high speed rolled down the steps… And then…" Alex began listing with an absolutely serious appearance, unhurriedly bending the fingers on his hand and detailedly explaining what other "misfortunes" had suddenly fallen on the head of the unfortunate Don Corneo.

The more Alex with relish described the unimaginable series of "catastrophic failures" that Corneo had had to face, the more clearly the foursome from "AVALANCHE" realized simple things. This entire black streak in the Don's life had begun exactly at the moment when this fat fool had recklessly decided to screw over the guy calmly sitting right in front of them on a chair.

And the more intently they peered at Alex, the more distinctly they developed a firm sensation that they had already seen him more than once somewhere. And only after several seconds did it finally begin to dawn on them with silent shock: before them was sitting that very crazy guy who had staged a grand, unforgettable performance in a plush Bear mask right in the first Mako Reactor, and then more than once pulled similar stunts before the eyes of the entire city!

Moreover, literally yesterday evening he had staged yet another shocking show, and the leadership of Shinra had even officially accused him of somehow being directly connected with the appearance of two huge monsters over Midgar.

Finally fully realizing with whom exactly fate had brought them together, Zhijie, Billy Bob, Polk, and Nayo stared at Alex with frozen shock. Noticing these stunned gazes, Alex merely slightly tilted his head to the side, sincerely wondering what strange glitch had just occurred with this foursome. Blinking in surprise, Zhijie shifted a lost gaze to Barret in search of at least some confirmation of his crazy guesses.

Barret with a contented, wide smirk nodded his head and proudly raised a thumbs-up, making it clear that everything was exactly so—not forgetting at the same time to once again effectively demonstrate and boast about his new technological cyber-arm. Having received official confirmation, Nayo was the first not to hold out. She lightning-fast extracted a small notebook with a pen from her pocket and embarrassedly but very insistently asked Alex for an autograph—as it turned out, she was insanely fond of his spectacular performances and especially how amazingly he sang.

When Nayo voiced her unexpected request out loud for all to hear, absolutely all those present first stared at her in surprise, and then shifted intrigued gazes to Alex, awaiting his reaction. Seeing not a single reason to refuse the cute girl such a trivial request, Alex was already reaching for the notebook when at that same moment the heavy doors of the bar widely and noisily swung open.

"Whoa, what have you set up here—an official meeting with your devoted fans or something?" Dean cried out with a mocking smirk, crossing the threshold of the bar together with the imperturbable Claudia and immediately spotting the foursome of newcomers.

"Not exactly. And where have you been disappearing all this time?" Alex answered with a shrug, calmly leaving a sweeping signature in Nayo's notebook and turning his head toward the entrants.

"Well, here and there. In general, quite successfully hunted the local aggressive wildlife… Oh, right! Almost completely forgot—just look what I got as a trophy and payment for the work," Dean said with an excited smirk, approaching the bar counter and with a dashing appearance taking stylish futuristic glasses out of the inner pocket.

"A portable version of the combat simulator… And where did you even manage to get this crap from?" Alex asked with sincere interest, instantly recognizing the gadget brought by Dean.

"Well, some strange gray-haired kid named Chadley paid for the completed work with this thing. He first tried to push some Materia on me, but why the hell would I need it? So in the end he gave me these glasses. What do you say, can you do something useful with them?" Dean answered with a shrug and bossily reached across the bar counter to snatch a cool bottle of beer.

"It's a full-fledged combat simulator, what do you think I should do with it?" Alex asked with a chuckle, pointing at the glasses that the curious Yuffie had already managed to deftly pull onto her forehead.

"Whatever your heart desires! You're the main smart guy here, not me. You can install a couple of cool video games there or invent something else. The main thing is don't break the damn thing, and otherwise I couldn't care less," Dean said with a contented smirk, with a deft snap of his finger knocking the metal cap off the beer bottle.

Staring at Dean and hearing his completely absurd request, Alex felt an irresistible desire to properly hit him on the head and clearly remind him that right now he clearly had no time to mess around with these VR Combat Simulator glasses.

Dean himself completely ignored Alex's heavy gaze and with lazy interest inquired of Barret who this foursome of newcomers even was and what exactly they had forgotten in the bar. Learning that before him were sitting members of the main wing of "AVALANCHE," Dean merely cast a rather doubtful gaze over the guests—he clearly sincerely doubted that these embarrassed guys were capable of being stern terrorists.

Deciding not to bother himself once more over this riddle, Dean finally sat down at the bar counter and continued with pleasure sipping beer, observing Yuffie who was already fully mastering the interface of the VR Combat Simulator. From the pile of fancy scientific terms with which the gray-haired Chadley had generously showered him, Dean had understood absolutely nothing except the fact that these were "cool VR glasses."

Tifa and Aerith also showed sincere interest in the virtual gadget and now with curiosity observed the emotions on Yuffie's face. Rhythmically tapping a finger on the tabletop, Alex through the mental link directly asked Dean what specifically he wanted to achieve from these glasses. And when Dean answered mentally, Alex desperately wanted to hurl the first beer bottle that came to hand at him.

How could he have forgotten at all that Dean always remained true to himself in absolutely any situation? And, having received into his hands such a high-tech thing as Shinra's combat simulator, he was first of all interested only in whether one could run porn on it or something of that sort. Trying with all his might not even to imagine this picture, Alex heard the enthusiastic and loud cries of Yuffie who was in complete ecstasy from testing the device.

"Wow, that was simply incredibly cool!" Yuffie cried out with the widest smile, tearing the glasses off her head and literally sparkling from the emotions that had overwhelmed her.

"Really? And how did all of this look from the inside?" Tifa asked with genuine interest, gazing in fascination at the futuristic gadget in Yuffie's hands.

"At first it was terribly unusual and strange… And also this simulator somehow right away recognized absolutely all my super-cool combat moves! Only… at the end I got a little motion-sick," Yuffie began telling with enthusiasm, but at the end talkatively covered her mouth with her little palm, feeling a slight dizziness.

"That almost always happens the very first time. The internal sensors instantly scanned your brain impulses to collect full data about your individual combat style. Such simulators technologically differ little from a real battle… With one pleasant exception: it's impossible to die in them," Claudia explained in a calm and knowing tone, slightly turning on the bar stool.

"For 'AVALANCHE' such technology would be simply an invaluable resource…" Zhijie muttered thoughtfully, instantly evaluating the strategic benefit from the glasses.

"Well then you can quite go and first steal analogous ones from Shinra, and then give them to your talented programmer. Who knows, then it will become many times easier for you to train your cute boy-scout squad," Alex began speaking with a cheerful smirk, deftly taking the glasses from the hands of the slightly greenish Yuffie.

Prudently ignoring Alex's next caustic comment, Zhijie seriously thought about how he definitely needed in the near future to talk with the leading members of the Headquarters in order to discuss in more detail the question of acquiring the VR Combat Simulator for full training of the "AVALANCHE" squads.

Turning his head to his comrades, he began quietly finding out their personal opinion on this matter. Observing their animated discussion for a couple of moments, Alex could not help thinking that they should have been conducting such a discussion in some more suitable place, and not at all in the middle of an open bar. Shaking his head, Alex extracted his phone from the deep pocket of the coat and through a special cable quickly connected it to the VR glasses.

Seeing on the phone screen a dense, continuous stream of loading data, Alex instantly understood that the processing and decoding of such a colossal array of information stored in this portable device would take a certain amount of time. That was precisely why he decided not to waste minutes in vain, but calmly drink a cup of hot coffee and finally fully have a snack—especially since the caring Tifa behind the counter had already fully begun preparing a hearty breakfast for Aerith who had managed to get quite hungry.

Jumping up to Alex on tiptoes, the curious Yuffie with unconcealed interest peeked over his shoulder. However, seeing only continuous endless green of running digital data and lines of code, she instantly lost all interest in the gadget and quickly ran off to look for herself a more entertaining occupation in order to somehow while away the time until food.

Awaiting his freshly brewed coffee, Alex thoughtfully narrowed his eyes. A simply genius and at the same time diabolical thought came into his head: he was quite capable of making this combat simulator hundreds of times better and more effective if he began directly loading into it digitized combat data and styles of some of his extremely strong acquaintances—both from Valhalla and the legendary masters from Ryouzanpaku!

Instantly catching fire with this grand idea, Alex rubbed his palms in anticipation, with sincere malice imagining the frightened expressions on the faces of those "lucky ones" who after such a hard modification would try to enter the virtual arena of this simulator.

To be continued...

(So, we continue to drift steadily toward the impending collapse. Fortunately, I remembered just in time that I still needed to bring things full circle with AVALANCHE—specifically, the encounter Yuffie was supposed to have. What's next on the agenda? Well, there are a couple more events I've planned. After all, Corneo won't be able to reveal that the Plate is going to fall, so someone else has to do it. I have an idea for that, but I'm not saying what it is. Now, it's time to eat and rest. Peace, love, and—seriously—when is someone going to start cooking for me?)

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