"Ah, sorry partner."
Phainon scratched his head, "Every time I see this guy, he has to take a jab at me. I even forgot what I was about to tell you."
Xu Qiong sighed, finally turning his gaze to Phainon.
"Oh, I remember now." Suddenly, Phainon looked into the distance, his expression filled with worry, "Everyone in Amphoreus has returned."
"But the spreading Black Tide Creation haven't disappeared. And what you mentioned before about the Iron Tomb blooming, that thing called a virus, seems to be spreading."
"But honestly, it all feels a bit unreal. We actually did it, partner."
Phainon explained to Xu Qiong what they had witnessed outside the city earlier.
As expected, the Iron Tomb virus had scattered. Inorganic matter, organic matter—Amphoreus, being closest to the battlefield, was directly affected.
The good thing is, after the Iron Tomb was blown apart, everyone came back.
This aligned with Xu Qiong's understanding.
However, when it came to feeling unreal, things got a bit awkward.
He had used [Mystery] to deceive the gods, even toying with causality. In reality, everything right now was still fake.
But Xu Qiong walked over and patted Phainon on the shoulder:
"It's fine, take a deep breath. Feeling unreal is normal, because the true Amphoreus is about to be reborn!"
"We will also step into the true starry sky!"
Even so, Xu Qiong was prepared to tell a well-intentioned lie.
He still had time, didn't he?
Actually, Xu Qiong had considered many methods before. Besides buying time through fiction, he could also look for Sister Quan to see if she could sever Amphoreus's causality with a single slash.
Or he could even obliterate that Nanook, which would completely dissipate the Iron Tomb. He could even pull out a flawless vessel to replace Cyrene.
But in reality, Huang Quan was drifting everywhere, and Xu Qiong simply couldn't find her. As for the latter option, forget it—him, fight a Star God?
Utterly helpless.
Xu Qiong looked down at the scenery of Okhema, feeling he could only drag things out one more day at a time.
At least he still had 'as i written' in his possession. If all else failed, he could just follow the original plan and stuff everything into the book...
Thinking this.
Suddenly.
[Ding!]
"What was that?!"
[Detecting the player's strong conviction, the system is activating...]
Wait.
For real?
Xu Qiong abruptly raised his head, an expression of regret for not meeting sooner overflowing on his face.
Three years! Do you know how he lived through these three years of transmigration?!
It wasn't in vain that he persevered until now.
In this world where mysterious forces coexisted, terrifying factions of Star God believers were everywhere, and ordinary people could barely survive two days after landing!
But now, everything had changed.
"What could it be?"
"Something that directly connects to Star Gods, or something that lets me start climbing the tree?" Xu Qiong had already made plans.
It must be a system.
At the very least, even if it only allowed him to become an Emanator of Erudition, he'd be willing to research the topic of life's origin with Ruan Mei!
[Ding! Game Development System binding successful. Your experiences have been automatically logged!]
[Ding! Detecting the host's urgent need, congratulations on generating the new 3.0 version of the game 'honkai: star rail.'
Xu Qiong: "¿"
Time seemed to freeze for a few seconds. At this moment, Xu Qiong felt as if he had been glanced at by Ⅸ, a question mark popping up incessantly above his head.
Uh, what?
Are you saying the system function you gave me is to make games in a world where Star Gods run rampant, terror spreads, and technology ascends... make games?
Make games, for heaven's sake?
Answer me, you jerk!
Could this thing be sent by Aha to mess with him?
I'm about to start a god war, and you're telling me to make games?!
The hope that had just ignited was instantly extinguished. Xu Qiong seemed on the verge of becoming a Self-Annihilator out of helplessness, feeling this thing might as well not have come.
Giving him hope only to plunge him into despair? How interesting.
But then, the system's voice echoed in Xu Qiong's ears once more.
[Ding! Publish the game, gather players. Convert data such as online player count and player spending into Cosmic Shards.]
[Cosmic Shards can be exchanged in the system Event Shop for the abilities, items, materials, etc., that you need.]
[They can also be continuously exchanged for the next version update.]
"..."
Xu Qiong paused for another two seconds, then his expression gradually turned peculiar.
"Huh?"
So it wasn't just about making games?
Collect Cosmic Shards, exchange them for all sorts of abilities in the Event Shop, even ascending to godhood was possible?
That sounds great!
But speaking of which, what is this game?
"Making honkai: star rail within the honkai: star rail world?"
Xu Qiong checked the first version of the game content provided by the system. Whether it was the mechanics or the models, it was indeed identical to 'honkai: star rail.'
But that's okay.
Because the first version's content seemed to start from version 3.0. At this point in real time, probably not many people were paying attention to this planet yet.
Xu Qiong suddenly remembered: the ability of 'as i written' was to record Amphoreus's data.
As long as it was spread across the starry sky, letting everyone know, Amphoreus and all the data within it could potentially ascend into a real planet and real people!
Besides spreading it through methods like printing books, wouldn't spreading it directly through a game be faster?
Wait, this actually aligns?
In an instant, Xu Qiong seemed to know what to do. This way, he could not only provide a safety net for the Chrysos Heirs and Amphoreus but also give Xu Qiong a path for advancement.
After all, he wasn't like the Astral Express Crew, who, aside from a second-playthrough perspective, had no special identities.
"partner?"
Phainon's puzzled voice interrupted Xu Qiong's fantasy.
"partner, what are you spacing out for?"
"Haha, you're right. We defeated the creations of Destruction. Amphoreus is about to be reborn. We should be even happier at a time like this."
Phainon raised his head to gaze at the sky, as if he could already see the not-so-distant future—the true dawn about to rise and the starry sky he had never seen.
In contrast, Xu Qiong patted his shoulder again.
The difference was, this time it wasn't a lie.
"There's still a long time before Amphoreus is reborn. During this period, it's not just the virus left by the Iron Tomb; we also need to ensure Amphoreus ascends completely."
"But don't worry, I already have a way to spread the story of Amphoreus!"
Xu Qiong's words drew everyone's attention simultaneously.
No one wasn't looking forward to this day.
But obviously, defeating the final boss Iron Tomb, even destroying Lygus, still couldn't make Amphoreus be reborn directly.
But the next second, they saw Xu Qiong take out his mobile phone.
"Moving Bricks?" Mydei crossed his arms and frowned, "Just with this? How are you supposed to do it with this?"
The others also exchanged bewildered glances.
Xu Qiong, meanwhile, wore an utterly speechless expression.
To put it bluntly, Amphoreus was a cosmic backwater; its civilization hadn't connected with the starry sky. Plus, the Xuanfeng People's dictionary didn't even have the word for it, so of course they didn't know how many uses a mobile phone had.
"This isn't some brick-moving tool. Where our partner comes from, it should be called a mobile phone."
"Right?"
Beside him, Cyrene, with her hands behind her back, slowly stepped forward.
Then, after explaining, she playfully winked at Xu Qiong, a sparkle in her eye.
Xu Qiong nodded, then snapped his fingers:
"That's right, exactly what Cyrene said. We just need to use this thing to make a game. It can spread all the memories of Amphoreus."
"Come on, everyone, take a look at this."