The daily work hours were barely half an hour—pretty relaxed.
This way, even if the Interastral Peace Corporation came causing trouble, it wouldn't affect him.
Adrian wasn't worried about his milk tea shop getting torn down. After all, he had some connections.
If it got demolished, he'd just go to Jing Yuan.
If Jing Yuan couldn't handle it, he'd take it up with the Marshal.
And if the Marshal couldn't sort it out, then he'd have to settle things with Lan, the Aeon of [The Hunt].
If even Lan couldn't deal with it… well, that's a bit far-fetched.
A milk tea shop stirring up the Aeon of [The Hunt]? No matter how you look at it, that's impossible.
Adrian considered his relationship with Lan to be decent. As for why…
The [The Hunt]'s endless pursuit of [Abundance]—isn't that a form of [Eternity] in itself? With something this lively, Adrian had to join in the fun.
No half-measures. Adrian went all in and tied a red thread between [The Hunt] and [Abundance].
Not that kind of red thread. With Adrian's red thread, Lan could sense the Medicine Master's real-time location.
As long as the thread held, Lan could always find the Medicine Master.
And, believe it or not, this grand ceremony was conducted under the witness of [Elation] and [Remembrance].
Aha found it hilarious and came to watch.
Aha even wanted to tie a thread between itself and Adrian, but Adrian shot that down.
Sure, he had a bit of [Elation] in him, but compared to Aha, the god of fun, his concentration was far too low.
Fuli, the Aeon of [Remembrance], found the scene fascinating and insisted on recording it.
To ensure everything went smoothly, Adrian even set up a protective protocol on the Medicine Master.
Yup, he installed a black hole capable of absorbing an astronomical number of attacks.
No choice—when you're [Eternity], you go big or go home.
Anything less than absolute guarantees is meaningless.
The current situation?
[The Hunt] can always find [Abundance], but can never kill THEM.
Aha's review: Absolutely hilarious!
"Whatever I do is [Eternity]," Adrian said coolly, thinking it sounded pretty badass.
Repeating that line over and over? That's [Eternity] too!
As the saying goes, an Aeon must never drop their disguise.
To that end, Adrian gave himself a name that screamed "Aeon."
Names like IX for the [Nihility] Aeon or HooH for the [Equilibrium] Aeon—they had that vibe. A human name like his just didn't fit in.
It's like surfing the net: everyone uses a username, but you're the one using your real name.
Thus, Ite, the Aeon of [Eternity], was born.
The name had the right Aeon flair and rolled off the tongue.
Currently, only a handful knew his true identity: the geniuses at Herta Space Station, the Marshal and General of the Xianzhou Alliance.
And…
Pam, the conductor of the Astral Express.
Adrian used different identities in different regions. On the Luofu, he was just an unremarkable milk tea shop owner.
Elsewhere, he posed as a Pathstrider of [Eternity].
Being an Emanator was too lofty—not his style.
An Emanator's identity was too easy to expose, and dropping his disguise would be bad news. Look at Aha, the god of fun—hiding perfectly.
Adrian still hadn't seen Aha's true form. For all he knew, behind the mask, Aha could be a twin-tailed cute girl.
Hmm…
Why was he even thinking this?
Adrian began reflecting on himself again.
Beep boop beep boop!
Adrian pulled out his phone. Who was texting him this early?
[BadAtGamesButLovesToPlay (Note)]: You there?
Seeing the ID he'd noted, Adrian knew who it was.
Silver Wolf.
One of the Stellaron Hunters, a genius hacker.
Years ago, when he was spreading [Eternity] on Punklorde, he passed by a fast-food joint and ran into a young Silver Wolf.
The girl was gaming in a basement. Out of kindness, worried she'd get bored, Adrian played games with her for a few months.
Those months of gaming left a lasting impression on Silver Wolf.
Using a random [Aether Cartridge] he picked up, Adrian pulled a small trick, tweaking his game score to an astronomical number.
It blew young Silver Wolf's mind.
When she grew up and mastered Aether Editing, she wasn't happy about it. Somehow, she hacked his contact info and demanded a rematch.
Since she genuinely wanted to compete, Adrian couldn't say no.
But back then, he was actually trying to lure Silver Wolf onto the [Eternity] Path.
So he showed her the true power of [Eternity].
She had no choice but to admit defeat.
Even cheating couldn't beat that.
Cheaters hate cheaters, and Adrian's cheats outclassed hers.
In Silver Wolf's eyes, the universe was just a massive game, and Adrian was like an unbeatable final boss.
He built a good relationship with Silver Wolf mainly so she'd help him forge identities later.
It's just gaming, right? Every game's protagonist has a different identity, and Silver Wolf was happy to craft them for him.
A genius hacker isn't to be trifled with.
[Adrian]: Not here.
[Silver Wolf]: We're heading to Herta Space Station soon. Wanna come?
[Adrian]: Stellaron Hunter business? What's that got to do with me?
[Silver Wolf]: With [Eternity]'s help, it'd be twice the results for half the effort.
Those walking the [Eternity] Path were among the strongest, and Adrian was at the top of that group.
Silver Wolf even suspected he was an [Eternity] Emanator—so powerful.
Most importantly, this Emanator was a gaming pro!
[Silver Wolf]: You know, Elio's [script] had a string of garbled code pop up.
[Adrian]: That's rare.
[Silver Wolf]: Forget that—wanna game?
[User has gone offline…]
[Silver Wolf]: ?
"Tch."
Silver Wolf rolled her eyes in annoyance. What's the point of life if you don't game?
Not gaming means you're doomed to a failed existence.
"Darling, why the long face?"
A woman in a leather coat, with reddish-purple hair and an air of mystery, approached Silver Wolf.
"Asked a friend to game, and he bailed."
"Don't you… usually game solo?" Kafka asked, slightly surprised.
"I do have people to play with sometimes," Silver Wolf said, chewing her bubblegum.
Say what you will, those days gaming with Adrian were pretty fun. At least she had a buddy.
"Hmm… he wouldn't be sneaking behind my back to duo with someone else, would he?"
Silver Wolf frowned, sensing something fishy.
"Could be?"
Kafka didn't game, so she had no experience with this.
"Hmm…"
The two fell silent for a moment until Silver Wolf's phone pinged with a notification.
"Message incoming!"
Thinking Adrian had changed his mind, Silver Wolf was about to type a reply when—
[Adrian]: Watch out for those 76 game accounts of yours.
[Silver Wolf]: …
[Silver Wolf]: Oh.
Game accounts?
Silver Wolf chuckled. Why was he worried about her game accounts?
As if all 76 of them could get banned.
No way that's happening.
Kafka glanced at Silver Wolf's chat with Adrian, deep in thought.
"[Eternity], huh…"
She hadn't expected Silver Wolf to have ties with someone from the [Eternity] Path. Kafka herself hadn't dealt much with [Eternity] Pathstriders.
But she knew the stories about their Aeon.
Funny enough, the tale seemed to have been spun by two Masked Fools.
You can't fully trust what the Elation faction says—half truth, half lies.
According to their tales, the [Eternity] Aeon once took turn devouring each other with [Voracity] Oroboros, and together with [Elation] Aha, they poured all their energy into a frail insect.
As for the outcome…
Naturally, it failed.
There were also claims that the Interastral Peace Corporation saw the [Eternity] faction as sworn enemies, all because their Aeon disrespected the Amber Lord by tearing down the painstakingly built crystal walls.
Mere [Eternity], completely unaware of who it was provoking—the oldest, longest-surviving Aeon known.
But… was that really the truth?
Kafka didn't quite buy it. If [Eternity]'s reputation was that bad, the Swarm Disaster would've been renamed.
It'd be called the universe-shaking [Aeon War] instead.