In the Simulated Universe, she had been injured by the same method many times, and had even died twice.
Fully prepared to receive the attack, that terrifying offensive instead vanished in an instant.
The Propagation Emanator's replica let out a few shrill hisses before its body began decomposing on its own at an extremely rapid pace.
"This…"
Stelle's face was filled with deep confusion. The flames enveloping her gradually died down.
From the window of the high passage, Dr. Ratio had witnessed the entire process.
"After 56 seconds, it becomes unable to maintain its own existence and completely annihilates, as if it had never been born. Heh…"
"The threat has been eliminated. No need to stay here any longer."
With that, Dr. Ratio turned and left.
On the platform, Stelle's gaze swept across the ground and the decomposed remains of a sting bug corpse. Her brows furrowed.
"…I have to go back and ask Ruan Mei for clarification. I hope her meeting with Herta and Screwllum has already ended."
Stelle sprinted at full speed toward the elevator and headed straight for the agreed meeting spot.
Aside from Ruan Mei, the area was empty.
The moment Stelle approached, Ruan Mei turned and spoke.
"The geniuses' meeting has ended. Regarding the future of the Simulated Universe… the conclusion isn't important. What matters is your side of things."
Seeing the tension in Stelle's facial muscles, Ruan Mei lightly pursed her lips.
"From the looks of it, you're angry, aren't you?"
Stelle: "Angry? If that thing had gotten out, you know exactly what the consequences would've been, right?"
"Sorry. I have nothing to defend myself with. Up until today, my experiments have failed countless times, and the outcomes have always been within expectations."
Ruan Mei sighed.
"I created a replica, but the distance between it and that true Propagation Emanator… is ultimately unreachable."
Stelle's voice turned slightly cold. "You could have told me the truth. This isn't the Simulated Universe. If someone dies here, they're really dead."
Ruan Mei fell silent for a moment.
"How should I explain it to you… I'm not good at communicating with people…"
"The replica's outcome matched the calculation results exactly: 56 seconds, not a single moment off."
"Constrained by time and the venue, its life composition could only be considered a semi-finished product."
"Although I can reproduce the moment of its birth, it will soon dissipate into particles."
"Like all life forms, it gradually moves toward its end and welcomes its conclusion. I don't reject that."
"But even a brief life should have meaning. I wanted to know what it could accomplish. That tells me how far I've come in fields I still don't fully understand."
"The conclusion is: an insignificant step. The same answer I expected."
Stelle rolled her eyes. "So this is the real reason you asked me to be your assistant. I almost got eaten, you know."
Ruan Mei replied seriously, "If you encounter an insurmountable danger, I will step in and eliminate it. You won't be in any life-threatening danger."
Stelle wasn't pleased with Ruan Mei's attitude. Just as she was about to sharply criticize her, a familiar voice suddenly rang out without warning.
"But in the end, you still hid the possible hidden dangers from her and made her take the risk herself, didn't you?"
The camera slowly panned, finally settling on Leon, who had appeared at some point without anyone noticing.
Ah Xian's eyes instantly lit up.
He's here! My favorite Leon brain hubby!
Stelle was also quite surprised. However, upon seeing Leon's calm expression, she tacitly chose to stay silent.
"…It's you…"
Seeing the extra figure standing behind Stelle, Ruan Mei couldn't help but freeze.
The players understood that reaction at a glance—
As expected, Ruan Mei knew Leon.
Leon: "Assume the Lord of Silence or Dr. Primitive timed their arrival to cause you trouble, and Stelle couldn't hold out for 56 seconds. What then?"
"..." Ruan Mei remained silent for a moment before asking, "What do you want?"
Leon smiled but didn't answer. Instead, he turned to look at Stelle.
"She said she would give me a reward. I thought it over many times before agreeing to help her," Stelle told the truth.
"That's easy to handle—"
A stone suddenly appeared in Leon's hand. He casually tossed it up and down while playing with it.
Any Star Rail player would instantly recognize what that stone was.
"—Give her all the ones you've collected. Anyway, to you, they're just test subjects that don't count as precious."
Ruan Mei looked somewhat surprised. "Just these stones of little value?"
"Just these. As long as Stelle likes them, their value becomes great," Leon said lightly.
Ruan Mei nodded.
The next second, the player's game screen displayed the reward settlement.
[Obtained Stellar Jade x1600]
[???]
[wut?]
When it comes to what players most look forward to in rewards, aside from free powerful 5-stars, it's large amounts of gacha resources.
Even for some players, receiving a 5-star main DPS isn't as good as being given ten Special Passes directly.
After all, main DPS characters only get stronger with each new version. Tickets saved in hand never lose value.
[I'm sour. I chose to report Old Yang's name, so Ruan Mei here won't give any Stellar Jade at all.]
[Although Father managed to get us ten pulls, which is great, the sense of disparity is too big. This basically forces people to choose him. Fans of other characters are going to have opinions.]
[What opinions? Even if you choose another character's branch, Leon will still get these 1600 Stellar Jade from Ruan Mei for you later.]
[How do you know?]
[Because I'm playing both at the same time. I watch the stream on my computer while playing the game on my phone. For plots with no choices, I just spam through them. I've already finished the second stage quests.]
Seeing this prominent danmaku comment, the live room audience suddenly understood.
Most streamers who broadcast 2D games don't skip story or dialogue. Even if they can finish reading a character's lines in one or two seconds, they still wait for the character to finish speaking.
On top of that, Ah Xian had auto-dialogue turned on, so her plot progression was much slower than players who could skip everything.
That explained it.
[This is Leon. Even if you didn't choose him, the moment he finds out you were wronged by Ruan Mei, he'll still protect his own and demand justice for you.]
[Otherwise, why call him Father? He absolutely won't let you call him that for nothing.]
Afterward, Ruan Mei explained some of her motives and her own vision. The plot concerning her thus came to a temporary end.
She left the space station.
Leon remained standing at the platform entrance.
Ah Xian went up to interact with him.
There was an option to ask Leon why he had come to the space station.
The answer left the fans feeling somewhat helpless, yet moved, and unable to hold back their laughter.
"The unknown big hand still doesn't allow us to go to Penacony. Since I had nothing better to do, I came along to deliver some novel items to Herta on behalf of Himeko."
"Then I wanted to check whether Herta had been bullying you during the Simulated Universe tests. She called you back, so I figured that must be the reason."
It was helpless because Leon was clearly playing tai chi.
It was moving because, even while playing tai chi, everyone knew he actually cared about his companions to an extreme degree and couldn't stand seeing them suffer even the slightest bit of injustice.
As for wanting to laugh—naturally, it was that line about the unknown big hand…
The official team was roasting themselves.
Back when they were heading to the Xianzhou, they already said they would go to Penacony. And now?
Six versions later and they still haven't gone. Isn't that exactly the unknown big hand?
Fortunately, the next version would finally bring Penacony.