Chapter 61: Cyber Heaven-Prison Finger, One Finger to Settle the Mountains and Rivers!
The Xianzhou Luofu.
Inside the Divination Commission, Qingque was currently draped over her workstation like a deflated balloon. Her chin rested flat against the cool jade surface of her desk, her eyes half-lidded and entirely devoid of motivation. Ever since the notoriously strict Master Diviner Fu Xuan had delivered her latest, exceptionally severe dressing-down, Qingque's golden age of blatant slacking had come to a tragic halt.
In the good old days, she would have already slipped out the back door by this hour, making a beeline for the nearest parlor to shuffle some Celestial Jade tiles. But times had changed. Just this morning, she had discreetly tossed a few jade abacus beads to divine her own fortune. The resulting hexagram had been glaringly ominous: if she dared to sneak out to play tiles today, she would encounter 'great terror.'A chill ran down her spine just thinking about Fu Xuan's wrath. So, she had to settle for the next best thing—covert slacking right at her desk.'Alright, first on the agenda: tune into Guinaifen's livestream. After that, I'll drop by Floating Life—Leon's account—to see what's new. Finally, I'll squeeze in a few rounds of online Celestial Jade... Perfect. A flawless itinerary.'
Qingque mentally mapped out her daily survival strategy, a smug little smile tugging at the corners of her lips.
The moment she tapped into Guinaifen's broadcast, a vibrant game interface filled her screen. The street performer wasn't doing her usual acrobatics; she was completely engrossed in a brand-new video game. Qingque leaned in, her boredom instantly evaporating. On the screen, a breathtakingly dangerous woman in a tailored coat—Kafka—was casually shoving a glowing, golden Stellaron directly into the chest of a gray-haired girl.
The live chat was scrolling at lightspeed.
[Holy crap? Stuffing a Stellaron straight into a human body? Is it really that simple and crude?!]
[That was completely unexpected...]
[My goodness, this is my first time seeing a protagonist 'born' like this. It's totally outrageous.]
[Wait, I have a serious question—does Kafka count as the protagonist's 'mom' now?]
[By that logic, what does that make Silver Wolf? The aunt? And is Leon the dad?!]
[Hold on, I feel like something's not right... Everyone saw the Interastral Peace Broadcast about the attack on the Herta Space Station, right? Could this plot be based on what actually happened back then?]
[How is that possible! It's probably just borrowing the background setting for flavor.]
[Even so, to write a script like this... the devs have some serious guts!]
[Did the guy above me not come from Zixuan's homepage? Don't you know the developer of this game is literally the 'Leon' in the game himself?]
[And the 'Stelle'and'Caelus' in the game actually exist in real life! You can see them all the time in the daily Astral Express vlogs posted on his account.]
[What?! So the protagonist we're controlling is a real person? This immersion is insane!]
[Does that mean this crazy plot actually happened?!]
[Wait, why can you only choose between the male or female lead in the game, but both exist in reality?]
[I can answer that! As long as the thought 'I want them both' flashes through your mind during the selection screen, it triggers a hidden option, and you get to keep both!]
[Holy crap! Then didn't I lose out big time by only picking one?!]
[No big deal, bro. You can just start a New Game Plus after clearing the main story to collect the other one.]
After all, the actual researchers aboard the Herta Space Station made up only a tiny fraction of the player base. The vast majority of the audience tuning in had absolutely no idea that this sci-fi epic was practically a documentary. They merely slapped their desks in awe, marveling at the sheer audacity of the developer. As expected of a Trailblazer! The man had zero fear!
Light-years away, bathed in the neon glow of multiple holographic monitors, Silver Wolf popped a bubblegum bubble.
"Kafka, looks like you're famous... half the player base is calling you 'Mom' right now."
The petite hacker was aggressively mashing buttons on her controller while simultaneously scrolling through three different gaming forums. Unsurprisingly, the newly released Honkai: Star Rail had already exploded into a universal hit.
In truth, the initial launch metrics hadn't been quite this astronomical. That was, until Asta had 'conveniently' tossed in a little extra pocket change for a promotional campaign. Somewhere on a space station, a certain pink-haired Lead Researcher had casually waved off her accountant, insisting there was no need to thank her, as it really was just a tiny bit of spare change.
Leaning against the wall, Kafka stared at the holographic projection. Her elegant eyes tracked the endless cascade of the word 'Mommy' flooding the discussion boards. For a long, deep moment, the Stellaron Hunter fell completely silent.
She had been born in New Babylon, a city on the planet Pteruges-V. It was a world deeply contaminated by the insidious influence of a Stellaron. The people born on that blighted soil were fundamentally stripped of the biological concept of 'fear.' Kafka was no exception. She did not know terror, and she rarely, if ever, experienced the mundane human emotion of shame.
But right now? Right now, a very strange, very unfamiliar heat was prickling at the back of her neck.
She didn't particularly mind when Stelle or Caelus called her that. She didn't even mind when Leon, with that infuriatingly teasing smirk of his, called her 'Mom' just to get a reaction out of her. She could even ignore the faceless masses on the internet blindly following a trend.
But if some random stranger actually dared to walk up to her on the street and call her that to her face? Kafka's fingers twitched toward her submachine guns. She honestly couldn't guarantee she wouldn't do something drastic.
Naturally, not a single trace of this subtle internal crisis showed on her perfectly composed face. Silver Wolf, entirely oblivious to her partner's shifting mood, simply assumed Kafka was bored by the topic and went back to her game.
Finding no entertainment in teasing a silent Kafka, Silver Wolf pulled up her private chat interface and pinged Leon directly.
[Silver Wolf: Not bad, bro. You actually turned that whole Space Station mess into a full-fledged game.]
[Leon: You bet, bro, you bet! What, did you blitz through the story already?]
[Silver Wolf: Not yet. I'm currently experiencing it using my own character.]
[Silver Wolf: But seriously, we need to talk. Why the hell is my character's role classified as a Support?!]
Silver Wolf was currently multi-tasking like a true sweat, running two separate accounts simultaneously—one tackling the classic turn-based mode, and the other tearing through the real-time action mode.
Yet, to her absolute dismay, she discovered that in both modes, the playable 'Silver Wolf' was hard-locked into a support role. Her entire kit revolved around the weakness implant mechanic.
She slumped into her gaming chair, genuinely depressed. How could this be? She was Silver Wolf! The universe's greatest hacker! How could she be relegated to the backline as a mere support instead of a hyper-carry main DPS?!
[Leon: Skill issue. Just grind out an S5 Light Cone, max out your E6 Eidolons, farm a top-tier Quantum Relic set with perfect crit values, and you'll absolutely hit like a main DPS!]
While Leon had mercifully purged the predatory gacha mechanics from his version of the game, he hadn't entirely scrapped the progression systems. Light Cones and Eidolons were still very much a reality.
The catch was that everything could be earned purely through free-to-play grinding. Of course, for those who lacked the patience of a saint, paid acceleration was fully supported. Drawing inspiration from the countless mobile games of his past life, Leon had applied high-value monthly passes and battle passes. They offered incredible convenience, but he made absolutely sure they were never forced upon the player.
A moment later, another message popped up. Leon, apparently struck by a sudden, overwhelming wave of chuunibyou inspiration, sent a massive block of text.
[Leon: Known early on the hardships of the Quantum path, yet still we form a fleet to sail the starry sky.]
[Leon: Amidst the cold wind, the body drifts like willow catkins; in Pure Fiction's chaotic tides, the single-target strike is heavily constrained.]
[Leon: The Quantum Wolf King is ignored by the masses! Who shall step up to lead the team? Who shall claim the throne of the main DPS?!]
[Leon: Today, we point directly at the enemy! Pointing at the monsters, pointing at the people, and pointing at the very heavens themselves!]
[Leon: —Cyber Heaven-Prison Finger! One Finger to Settle the Mountains and Rivers!]
Silver Wolf stared at the screen. Her fingers hovered over the keyboard, completely paralyzed.
[Silver Wolf:...What the hell are you getting all fired up about?! Why are you suddenly sending me this ridiculously flowery poetry?!]
Despite her aggressive typing, a surge of inexplicable, second-hand embarrassment washed over her. A furious blush crept up her neck, heating her cheeks. It was so incredibly cringe-inducing! The sheer overwhelming chuunibyou energy radiating from the screen was so potent she could practically dig out a three-bedroom apartment in the floorboards with her curling toes.
Desperate to change the subject before she died of embarrassment, she quickly typed out another complaint.
[Silver Wolf: Anyway, aren't there way too few characters in your game right now? I checked the data index, and there are only a dozen or so in the entire roster.]
[Silver Wolf: Kafka's kit is designed as a Damage-Over-Time detonator, but there isn't a single dedicated DoT teammate available for her to synergize with.]
[Silver Wolf: And I'm supposed to be the core support for a mono-Quantum fleet, but you haven't even released a single Quantum main DPS yet...]
[Leon: Can't be helped. The main storyline only covers the Herta Space Station arc right now. It's perfectly normal for the roster to be a little thin.]
[Leon: Once the Astral Express officially trailblazes its way to the second planet, the character pool will naturally expand.]
He wasn't lying. The current build of the game only encompassed the initial crisis aboard the space station. Countless gameplay mechanics, factions, and synergies had yet to be unveiled.
Leon leaned back in his chair on the Express, a visionary glint in his eye. He knew exactly what he was doing. Once the roster swelled to a respectable size, he could start rolling out massive updates. He could launch limited-time event mini-games like Aetherium Wars, or perhaps even develop a full-blown MOBA mode using the game's engine... But those grand designs were strictly reserved for the future roadmap.
For now, the playable cast was undeniably small, but Leon wasn't the least bit worried about player retention. After all, this wasn't just some fictional fantasy—it was a carefully crafted recreation of reality.
When the storyline eventually progressed to the climax of the prologue, plunging into the Abyss of the Path, the players would finally bear witness to the truly shocking cinematic set-piece: standing face-to-face against Nanook, the Aeon of Destruction.
For the ordinary citizens of the cosmos, the mere opportunity to personally experience such an extraordinary, mind-shattering encounter—to virtually brush against the untouchable world of the Aeons—was an absolute, irresistible attraction all on its own.
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