She didn’t reply for so long that Chase Shaw’s arms tightened a bit.

Zoe Pierce felt like Chase Shaw was about to lift her completely off the ground. She whispered, "Chase... I am happy... Just... let me go first..."

He had held her many times when he wasn’t lucid, but this was the first time they had embraced while both so clear-headed.

"I’ve wanted to do this since that day you were crying," Chase Shaw’s voice was also low. "I wanted to cheer you up, to make you stop crying."

"I’m not as eloquent as Miles Sherman."

"But... I also want you to know how I feel."

They were no less than anyone else’s.

He cared about her so much, he couldn’t bear for her to have even the slightest misunderstanding of him.

Zoe Pierce was stunned and uncertain. The man’s purely hormonal scent washed over her, his ambiguous words, and now this sudden, intense intimacy...

Zoe didn’t dare to let her thoughts go any further.

’If it’s really what I think it is, then how do I explain Miles and the others?’

’Do they feel the same way as Chase does?’

Zoe felt she was probably overthinking things.

But the recent moments of intimacy, not just with Chase, but with Miles Sherman, Nathan Lockwood, and Erin Xavier... the way the three of them acted toward her now was worlds apart from the beginning.

They were too close to her.

Erin Xavier’s sudden question about her ideal partner, the cuts and bruises on Chase Shaw’s and Erin’s faces... scene after scene from the past, things she had previously ignored, now clicked into place in her memory like puzzle pieces.

She suddenly felt a wave of panic.

She didn’t even dare to rest her fingers on Chase Shaw, afraid that one question would lead to an answer she feared.

Yes, Zoe didn’t dare to think. She didn’t dare to consider how she would face them if what she suspected was true.

She was certain she hadn’t tried to seduce them.

’I haven’t seduced them?’

As Zoe replayed her recent actions in her mind, her scalp began to prickle with dread.

’First, letting Miles Sherman mark her, then being marked by Erin Xavier?’

"What’s wrong?" Sensing that Zoe was motionless, as stiff as a post, Chase Shaw loosened his arms from around her and asked in a low voice.

The two were suddenly far too close, so close it seemed they were about to kiss.

Zoe Pierce and Chase Shaw both froze. Two seconds later, Zoe took the first step back, leaving Chase’s embrace.

"Go try it out." Chase Shaw lowered his gaze, stuffed his hands in his pockets, and jutted his chin toward her.

Once a person has an epiphany, everything looks different. Now, Chase Shaw’s specially prepared gift felt a little strange.

But refusing now would be even weirder.

Steeling herself, Zoe Pierce climbed into the Mecha. Chase Shaw operated the door at the other end of the hangar, which opened onto a vast, empty field.

The Mecha glided forward. As soon as it moved, Zoe Pierce clearly felt the difference. The link was silky smooth, her movements almost perfectly in sync, with none of the latency she’d experienced in her previous Mecha.

She piloted the Mecha into the testing grounds, and upon sensing its arrival, a target popped up nearly three hundred meters away.

The Mecha quickly locked onto the anomaly, and Zoe Pierce fired a precise shot at the target.

The first target was hit, and then seven or eight more targets shot up in its place.

Zoe Pierce hit them all in quick succession.

The next second, simulated artillery shells came roaring past. It was a test of the Mecha’s agility, but for Zoe Pierce, using her spiritual power was like being a fish in water. She moved with complete freedom.

After nearly half an hour of continuous testing, Zoe had passed every single trial.

Just when she thought it was over, a black, heavy-class Mecha shot up from the ground. It brandished a custom longsword, shaped like a Tang dao, and swung it violently toward her.

It was Chase Shaw.

He had come to test the new Mecha with her personally.

In the heat of the tests, Zoe Pierce had long forgotten her earlier awkwardness. She fought Chase Shaw for another twenty minutes, but neither could claim victory. Several times she was on the verge of winning with her spiritual power, only for Chase to dodge her in the final seconds.

Meanwhile, Chase Shaw found himself completely unable to handle Zoe Pierce, whose speed was on par with Erin Xavier’s.

This was already astonishing. In less than half a year, Zoe Pierce could now fight him, an S-Class Alpha, to a draw. Perhaps in just another three months, Chase Shaw would be completely outmatched by her.

He might even lose outright to her multifaceted spiritual power.

The moment she climbed out of the Mecha, Zoe Pierce sighed, "If only I could perfectly mimic Miles Sherman’s spiritual power."

Chase Shaw’s control over Gravity was so masterful it looked effortless. Several times, her Mecha had been affected, slowing her movements.

Of all the spiritual powers she knew, her mimicry of Miles Sherman’s was the worst.

Perhaps it was because the other spiritual powers were all geared toward enhancement, while only Miles Sherman’s was not. His power was about weakening things. Consequently, the more adept Zoe felt at "copying" other people’s spiritual powers, the greater the resistance she encountered when trying to "copy" Miles’s.

If she had perfectly copied Miles Sherman’s spiritual power, she would have been the one to emerge victorious just now.

Chase Shaw jumped down from his Mecha as well. He laughed at her comment. "Greedy."

She hadn’t felt it when she was facing Chase Shaw’s Mecha, but now, seeing his face, Zoe Pierce couldn’t help but be reminded of her earlier thoughts.

Her expression instantly became complicated. She failed to hide it, and Chase Shaw’s sharp perception caught it.

"Don’t you like this gift?"

’Is he kidding?’

’How could I possibly dislike a gift like this?’

The Mecha’s versatility and utility were worlds away from the one on Siren Star. Anyone could tell the difference just by piloting it.

But... it really felt like a hot potato.

She tried desperately to convince herself she was overthinking things, but once you’re awake, you can’t pretend to be asleep.

’In that case, should I test the waters a little?’

Zoe felt like she was playing with fire.

Because the potential answer was so terrifying, she didn’t dare to acknowledge it, no matter how she looked at it.

She had just managed to forget, but the moment she saw Chase Shaw’s face, it all came rushing back.

’Later, I’ll have to see Miles and the others. Am I supposed to just act like I know nothing?’

’What if it’s all in my head?’

’What if they really do just see me as a teammate, with purely platonic feelings? If I’m the one who’s overthinking it, wouldn’t that just prove Erin Xavier right? That I’m the one actively trying to seduce them.’

"Zoe Pierce." Chase Shaw’s voice snapped Zoe back to her senses.

"You’ve spaced out several times today." Chase Shaw frowned. "Is something wrong?"

Once would have been fine, but it had happened repeatedly, which was worrying.

His gaze then shifted to the nape of her neck. "Is your gland bothering you?"

At his words, Zoe reacted like a startled cat, waving her hands frantically. "No, not at all..."