Pandora’s mind was a jumble of random thoughts; she couldn’t help but start to recall past events.
To tell the truth, her memories of the past were somewhat blurry, making it hard to clearly remember what each day had been like.
She felt that this was probably because her previous life had been too mundane. There wasn’t much worth remembering in her daily routine, as each day was essentially a repetition of the previous one, which naturally made it difficult to remember clearly.
The only thing she could recall was Gregory moving her from place to place, from here to there, and then again to a different location. She didn’t know why Gregory did this, nor what he was hiding from.
On most days, she didn’t have anyone to talk to besides Gregory and had never seen any other companions. Sometimes, out of curiosity, she would ask why she couldn’t see any companions, but Gregory always remained silent. After a few such inquiries, she simply stopped asking and gradually spoke less and less herself. Back then, she came to believe that boredom might just be part of the life she was supposed to lead. The only break from the monotony was going into the forest to watch the little animals and then stepping in to discipline any that didn’t behave.
She remembered the first time she disciplined an animal was a black bear. It was very large, several times her size, and its open mouth was almost big enough to swallow her whole. But that was of no use. After being beaten by her for three consecutive days, the bear became extremely docile, lying on the ground and rolling over to beg for mercy whenever it saw her.
After that, she disciplined a cheetah that, relying on its speed, didn’t take her seriously and refused to follow the drinking order she had set for all the little animals. It would always rush to drink first, muddling the water in the pond and then swiftly fleeing.
After this happened several times and she grew tired of it, she followed and chased the cheetah right after its next premature drinking escape. She wasn’t in a rush; she simply kept following the cheetah, not letting it drink, hunt, or sleep. Two days later, the cheetah, exhausted, collapsed on the ground like a dead dog.
Without mercy, she dragged it by the leg all the way back to the pond and threw it into the water, letting it drink its fill. As soon as the cheetah dared to come up, she would kick it back down. After several times, the cheetah learned to behave.
Next, she disciplined a fat wild boar.
The boar was actually quite timid, and after being beaten by her once it behaved, but only superficially—as soon as it was out of her sight, it would start causing trouble again, either by cutting in line or by disturbing the other little animals.
A light beating from her would keep it in line for three days, a severe one for five days; but after that, it would repeat its mistakes, seemingly incorrigible, which really gave her a headache.
While thinking about these things, Pandora furrowed her brows in contemplation.
In her view, had there been no accidents, her life would have continued indefinitely. One day, she would have thoroughly subdued the wild boar, making it obediently wait in line to drink.
But before the wild boar had been completely tamed, Richard appeared—One day Gregory returned from outside and brought with him Richard, a stranger.
At first, she was somewhat resistant to Richard, as she had grown accustomed to being alone, and it was uncomfortable for her suddenly having someone like him around. It took her quite a while to get used to his presence.
Richard’s arrival didn’t have much impact on her life, as most of the time he silently did his own things, not disturbing her. Only occasionally when she sat nearby watching him work would he speak a few words to her.
That arrangement was quite agreeable to her.
What she hadn’t expected was that not long after she had gotten used to Richard, he was about to leave.
She wanted to keep Richard with her but evidently couldn’t.
Immediately following that, a drastic change occurred.
A wizard of unknown identity suddenly arrived and used horrific methods to kill Gregory. At the time, she was prepared to take revenge, but then Richard stopped her and spoke many words to her, devising a very intricate plan.
She did as Richard had instructed, harassing the wizard continually, until she watched him get drawn by Richard into a cave that had been dug out long ago, and with a "thunderous crash," he was buried inside.
After digging the wizard out a long time later, he was already dead beyond any doubt.
She had succeeded in avenging Gregory and, having done so, left the forest following Richard.
She wasn’t very clear on why Richard would take her with him; perhaps he thought she could be of some use during the fight. Regardless of the reason, she left the forest.
After leaving the forest, she followed Richard to the outside world, which was much larger.
To her, Richard’s life seemed very boring and monotonous, hardly involving any fun activities—his days were filled with nothing but research, which was not much different from her previous life.
Of course, there were still some differences.
Richard’s boredom and monotony were purposeful; he chose them in order to achieve his goals, as such an approach was more efficient. Whereas she was simply clueless about what to do, hence her boredom and monotony.
Thus, she stayed by Richard’s side, getting into fights when there was something to do, and sleeping when there wasn’t, living quite peacefully.
In this peace, she and Richard arrived at Cuijin City, sailed across the sea, and reached White Stone City.
If things continued , there seemed to be no problem.
But trouble arose again in White Stone City.
A sudden battle broke out, leaving her almost powerless to resist until Richard appeared and brought her to safety, then protected her as they left White Stone City.
It was only then that she suddenly realized she seemed somewhat useless, somewhat a burden. She might be a bit strong in a fight, but that was only enough to bully the small animals of the forest, nowhere near sufficient to take on any Wizard.
In order not to continue being useless, she requested Richard teach her something useful, something that could assist him.
Richard agreed and began to teach her various difficult things.
Really difficult, especially at the beginning, when she had to remember a lot of numbers, mnemonics, and formulas—far more challenging than fighting, which just required throwing punches without thinking about anything else.
Nevertheless, she slowly learned the multiplication table, the Four Operations, equations, the Pythagorean theorem, square roots, and many other things.
She didn’t understand the use of these things, nor did she know where to apply them, but she diligently memorized them because she felt that Richard would certainly not be wrong.
Now, learning these things and doing exercises had become much easier than before. In her view, she would learn more effortlessly and continue to learn more until one day, she could use what she had learned to greatly assist Richard.
There would be such a day.
Pandora thought to herself, slowly coming back to her senses, then became alert: Had she been lazy for too long?
She turned her head to look at the mechanical clock beside her and indeed, its hands had swept across a long arc. Richard had stipulated that she should complete the exercises on a scroll within two hours, and now time was almost up.
She picked up the Quill and was about to start working.
But then something occurred to her, and she stood up quickly, rushing to a control panel in the corner of the laboratory, where she pressed several buttons.
Outside the laboratory, a large section of the lights on the Crystal Wall surrounding Eden suddenly went out, followed by another large section lighting up, with slight changes in angle, brightness, and color.
This was her using the lighting control panel to adjust the light in Eden, simulating the external environment to prevent circadian rhythm disruption.
Pandora didn’t know what a circadian rhythm was, and she wasn’t very clear about mechanical clocks either, but she still remembered Richard’s instructions and carried out the task.
After completing the task, Pandora immediately rushed back to her worktable, ready to continue with the exercises, when suddenly she turned her head towards the outside of the laboratory, feeling like she’d heard some noise.