Chapter 59: I Am a Stellaron Hunter Trainee With Two and a Half Years of Practice
Firefly didn't choose to rush through the game on her first playthrough. Instead, she patiently followed the steady progression of the plot.
Immersed in this digital world, she felt as though she were trailing behind Kafka and Silver Wolf from a god-like perspective. Every minor detail of their mission felt incredibly fresh and novel.
Wait, eh?
Kafka and Silver Wolf were actually playable characters.
Driven by curiosity, Firefly selected them to give their combat mechanics a try.
On the screen, Kafka spun with lethal elegance, dual pistols gripped firmly in her hands. Countless silver shell casings cascaded down like a torrential rainstorm, clinking against the floorboards around her pristine high heels.
The digital Kafka nodded slightly. Her right hand, clad in a sleek black glove, rose with a gentle, deliberate grace before snapping open. Her eyes suddenly widened with a dangerous thrill.
"Boom."
With that casual, breathy whisper, a chaotic web of ballistic trajectories instantly materialized, piercing through the surrounding Void Rangers and tearing their anti-matter bodies to shreds.
Wow, this combat style is exactly the same as the real Kafka! Firefly thought, her eyes sparkling with excitement.
But this damage type... is it Damage Over Time (DoT)?
She switched characters. Silver Wolf's "Aether Editing" lit up the screen with neon pixelated glitches. So this was what it felt like to actually operate the universe's greatest hacker.
Firefly spent a good chunk of time just controlling the two Stellaron Hunters in battle. Every skill activation, every ultimate animation felt incredibly fresh and amusing to her.
[Firefly: (Image: Kafka_Combat_Screenshot.jpg)]
[Firefly: (Image: Silver_Wolf_Skill_Screenshot.jpg)]
[Firefly: You guys have been made into game characters! This is so interesting!]
A moment later, her communicator buzzed.
[Silver Wolf: Not bad. My skills are designed quite flashily. The pixel effects are spot on.]
[Kafka: Indeed...]
Firefly smiled and returned her attention to the screen. The plot unfolded methodically, right up until the moment she saw Leon descend from the sky. He landed squarely in front of Kafka and Silver Wolf with a thunderous crash, smashing a massive crater into the space station's metallic floor.
[Firefly: Oh! Is that how he appeared back then?]
She quickly snapped a screenshot of the crater and sent the image straight to the Stellaron Hunters' private group chat.
[Silver Wolf: It really is... Actually, I'm quite curious. He clearly only appeared at this specific point in time, so how does he know exactly what happened before he arrived?]
[Silver Wolf: Especially the part where Kafka plays the invisible violin—how did he know about that? There were no cameras in that corridor.]
[Kafka: It really is quite intriguing~]
Firefly continued progressing through the plot, keeping one eye on the game and the other on the rapid-fire messages popping up in the group chat.
When she reached the abstract, highly chaotic conversations between Leon, Kafka, and Silver Wolf, she couldn't help but laugh out loud. Her shoulders shook as giggles filled the room.
Of course, Leon hadn't perfectly replicated the actual dialogue when programming the game. At the very least, his own lines had been heavily adjusted for maximum comedic effect—but the sheer "fun" injected into the scene was already brilliant enough.
Firefly completely lost her composure when she reached the cutscene where a theatrical mask casually fell out of Leon's pocket.
This guy is just too much of a Masked Fool!
Even if he wasn't a card-carrying member of the Tavern, he absolutely must have stepped onto the Path of Elation. Otherwise, that grinning mask could never have appeared in his pocket so naturally.
A new system notification popped up on her device.
[System: Silver Wolf has added "Leon" to the group chat.]
[Silver Wolf: @Leon, care to explain?]
[Silver Wolf: (Image: Screenshot of Leon accurately recounting Kafka playing the air violin in the game.jpg)]
[Leon: Hehe! Is this the Stellaron Hunters' secret group? Hello everyone, I am a Stellaron Hunter trainee with two and a half years of practice, specializing in singing, dancing, rapping, and basketball!]
[Leon: (Image: Classic "Little Blackie" Iron Mountain Lean 9-grid photo collage.jpg)]
As soon as this carefully arranged nine-grid image was posted, the usually active Stellaron Hunters fell into a very subtle, very deep silence.
At first glance, the individual pictures seemed to be nothing more than ordinary pet photos and scenic landscapes. But if one squinted and looked from a distance, the cleverly composed silhouette formed by the negative space was clearly a figure performing a ridiculous shoulder-check dance move—the infamous Iron Mountain Lean.
Far away, having just released the game and currently lounging while watching Stelle, Caelus, and little March 7th progress through the new content, Leon blinked at his holographic screen. He was quite surprised to be suddenly yanked into the "Stellaron Hunter Family" group chat by Silver Wolf.
So you guys actually have a group chat too!
[Leon: Wait a minute! You guys have had a group for so long and you're only just adding me now? Do you not trust me? (Image: Crying cat pointing fingers.jpg)]
[Silver Wolf: I forgot, okay? Haven't I added you now?]
[Silver Wolf: Don't change the subject! Tell us, how did you know about this opening animation?]
[Leon: Hehe~ If I said Fuli the Remembrance whispered it in my ear, would you believe it?]
[Kafka: Hmm~ That's a very interesting way of putting it. I believe you~ (Image: Kafka elegantly playing with a dagger.jpg)]
[Firefly: Mr. Leon, it's nice to meet you...]
[Leon: Is this Miss Firefly? I'm also glad to meet you~ (Image: Sam's mechanical helmet photoshopped onto Firefly's cute body.jpg)]
[Firefly: Eh?!]
Seeing that cursed "Sam-headed, Firefly-bodied" mashup meme, Firefly's eyes widened in sheer, unadulterated shock. A blush crept up her neck.
[Silver Wolf: Nice meme. I'm taking it.]
Leon chuckled, his fingers flying across his holographic keyboard in a blur of motion. Instantly, a full set of exclusive, highly cursed Stellaron Hunter memes flooded the group chat, scrolling faster than the eye could track.
[Silver Wolf:???]
[Silver Wolf: Where did you get so many of these?! (Image: Silver Wolf looking utterly dumbfounded.jpg)]
The memes Leon sent were vivid, lifelike, and dangerously accurate.
There was an image of Kafka smiling elegantly with the bold caption: "Time to silence them."
There was Blade, sporting an incredibly gloomy face with the text: "The Mara-Struck state is acting up again."
There was even a picture of Elio's black cat head, dramatically photoshopped with glowing eyes and the words: "Heaven's secrets must not be revealed."
[Kafka: It seems Leon knows us very well; he even included Elio's "majestic figure."]
[Firefly: Ah... that, that meme of mine... (Image: I will set the seas ablaze.jpg)]
[Leon: Don't be nervous, family! This is all just an expression of my deep love! My admiration for the Stellaron Hunters is like a torrential river, endless and unstoppable like the flooding of the Yellow River!]
[Silver Wolf:...Really? I don't believe you.]
[Kafka: I believe you... (Image: Kafka holding a submachine gun with a sweet, threatening smile.jpg)]
[Blade:... (Image: Dripping blood from the cracked edge of the Shard Sword.jpg)]
Leon smiled with immense satisfaction as he leaned back in his chair, thoroughly enjoying the chaotic meme war he had just triggered in the universe's most dangerous group chat.
"Bro, this plot is a bit off! Why is it a choice between the two?"
Just then, Stelle's loud, complaining voice echoed from the nearby sofa.
Her game progress was incredibly fast. She had already reached the critical juncture where Silver Wolf projected two synthetic bodies for Kafka to choose from—the male and female receptacles.
Since both she and her brother Caelus existed in reality and had appeared here together, it shouldn't have been a "choose one of two" dilemma at all.
Why isn't there an option for "I want both"?
Stelle vigorously protested!
Can't we just choose both?!
Of course... you can!
Stelle's fervent wish seemed to transmit directly into the game's code, and the in-game version of Leon immediately took action.
"Wait, wait, wait," the digital Leon interjected on the screen, waving his hands frantically. "Can't we choose both?"
"What nonsense are you talking about?" Silver Wolf's tone dripped with exasperation. "There's only one Stellaron, so how could we possibly..."
She stopped mid-sentence.
On the screen, Leon simply rubbed his hands together in the empty air. A second Stellaron—completely identical to the one currently hovering in Kafka's hand—materialized out of thin air in his palm, emitting a soft, familiar, pulsating golden glow.
"Well... hand-crafting a Stellaron isn't that hard!" Leon said casually, shrugging his shoulders. "Are you kidding me? If the other factions saw this, they'd think we couldn't afford to choose both! How embarrassing would that be?"
He casually tossed the newly crafted, universe-destroying artifact up and down like a baseball.
"One more Stellaron, one for each person! Problem solved!"
[System: Silver Wolf: "..."]
[System: Kafka: "..."]
The in-game Silver Wolf and Kafka fell into a stunned, absolute silence. But outside the game, Stelle was practically vibrating with joy.
"Bro is so awesome!" Stelle shouted excitedly, pumping her fist into the air. "I knew we could choose both; this is exactly how it should be!"
The Astral Express Crew couldn't be missing even a single person!
To Stelle, Caelus was a partner who had walked by her side since the very moment she opened her eyes. He was an existence that absolutely could not be missing from her journey.
In this altered timeline, Stelle and Caelus had been together from the very start. If the game had forced her to leave him behind, even in a digital recreation, it would have made Stelle feel incredibly uncomfortable and hollow.
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