"Equilibrium… is eternal…"
After uttering these last words, the hooded man's figure gradually slumped, leaving only his hoodie on the ground, along with the Stellaron that had been behind him.
"Phew… That really wasn't easy…"
March 7th wiped the sweat from her brow, looking at the now-dissipated hooded man with lingering fear.
She had imagined many possibilities for the final boss, but she never expected that all of his skills would just be summoning minions! Three of them! He called in three incredibly troublesome bosses!
The first was called [Cyber Psycho], and the name fit perfectly. He chased them relentlessly like a madman, trying to kill them! Even after taking a dozen hits from Stelle's bat and getting stabbed several times by Dan Heng's spear, he just kept coming as if nothing had happened. Still, he wasn't the most difficult…
The second was called [Physical Ascension]. Not only could he fight Dan Heng to a standstill, but Stelle's baseball bat hitting his head felt like it did nothing! But while his physical defense seemed maxed out, his magic resistance was pitifully weak. Under the might of Himeko's wonderful toolbox, he too quickly showed signs of defeat.
The third was called [Mechanical Ascension]. Although he didn't look very durable, he had an invincibility phase! And he could trap people in illusions!
In short, after the arduous task of defeating these three, the hooded man seemed to have lost some kind of power. Though his mechanical eye betrayed no emotion, the disbelief in his voice was palpable…
For some reason, it felt like his final words were more of a release… Was that just her imagination?
"Himeko, this Stellaron… something's not right with it."
Stelle, who had approached the Stellaron, was observing it carefully. She couldn't quite put her finger on it, but she felt that the Stellaron before her was strange. It gave her a different feeling from the one she had seen before in Belobog.
"What's wrong?"
Seeing Stelle's contemplative expression, Himeko walked over and began to meticulously examine the Stellaron herself.
"This… is definitely a Stellaron. Are you sensing something unusual about it?" Himeko asked, a little puzzled.
"No… I guess… I must have been mistaken. Sorry…"
Stelle rubbed her forehead and shook her head, feeling a bit dejected. Had she been so exhausted these past two days that she was starting to see things?
---o---
"I'm back."
Wende said with a smile, looking at the two astonished faces before him.
"You… didn't you just go in?"
Jingliu gently pressed her index finger to her chin, as if she had thought of something.
"Could it be that the flow of time on the other side is completely different from here? How long were you over there?"
"I don't know."
Faced with Jingliu's question, Wende simply shook his head. He wasn't lying; he truly had no idea how much time had passed on the other side. He just knew that building the world at the beginning was so tedious that he had lost all concept of time.
"I feel that… Benefactor is a little different now, but I can't quite describe it…"
Tingyun looked at Wende with some hesitation. The aura about him seemed to have changed again, becoming somewhat more… mysterious?
"Really? I don't think I've changed at all."
He looked down at his clothes. They weren't even messy!
"Is that what Tingyun was referring to? If you do not wish to tell us, then you need not say anything. But please do not try to fool us with excuses. You will hurt our feelings…"
Jingliu said, her tone full of mock grievance, yet she sounded completely understanding.
"…"
"What have you been saving on your phone now? Some Xianzhou classical drama about Lin Daiyu doing a dry-land onion pull to break the sound barrier?"
"What is that?"
"Never mind…"
Wende shook his head helplessly. How could he expect Jingliu to understand a meme like some chronically online netizen?
"Anyway, we should get out of here soon. The space around us has already begun to recede. I don't know the principle behind it, but I feel like we'll be able to regroup with the others soon."
---o---
"What the hell is this boss! Is summoning minions the only thing you know how to do?! I dare you to show your face in the Forgotten Hall! If you do, I'll have no choice but to call you grandpa! You damn ghoulish thing! Tui!"
Back in the real world, inside Sister Guoguo's livestream.
Having just been tortured by Punklorde's final boss, and only managing to scrape by thanks to Wende's all-rounder support role, Sister Guoguo was now hurling abuse at the empty hoodie left by the boss.
Have the monster designers at Star Rail run out of ideas? If you're out of ideas, go bite a lighter! Who told you to design such a stitched-together monstrosity? So three phases just means three different guys, huh?! Turns out you're a legendary "Corpse-mon" trainer, right?! Using other people's ash urns as Poké Balls, are you!
Oh, right, they're called Aether Cartridges… well, it's not much different!
In any case, the Punklorde story ended right there. That's right, it was the classic miHoYo cliffhanger tactic. Just like after beating the Abundant Ebon Deer, the moment you win… the story is over!
As a long-time miHoYo player, she was already used to this sort of thing, but… why couldn't she just let it go this time!?
[Sister Guoguo has a meltdown every time there's a cliffhanger. You'll get used to it.]
[True dat.]
[It's just because the Yìfù storyline hasn't started yet! Aren't you guys curious about what's happening on his end?]
[My Wende got fired up and one-shot it. What's there to say?]
[You'd better hope your Wende got 'fired up' in the normal way.]
[If Wende, Jingliu, and Tingyun hadn't left, wouldn't this stage have been a total cakewalk?]
[This wave, ah, this wave is them forcefully nerfing the protagonist team's combat power!]
[March 7th: feels a chill run down her spine]
"Sigh, I'm tired. Mentally exhausted. So, so tired… Stream's over, stream's over."
Sister Guoguo, looking completely crestfallen, shut down her livestream. This feeling… it was like… never mind, better not to describe it.
---o---
"Before we leave, let us help this planet clean up the aftermath. If it is discovered by [Destruction], it will likely be plunged into the flames of war once more."
[Equilibrium] was still merciful. Although this planet had fallen into ruin because of "his" trial, since they had preserved the seeds of hope, they were worthy of continuing to exist. This was in accordance with [Equilibrium].
Simply losing a Stellaron, an insignificant Lord Ravager, and a small legion of old, weak, and disabled soldiers… it would not attract any attention.
"Hahahaha… Do you really think He won't notice? How amusing!"
"He will not understand. Instead, it will evolve into a new cosmic catastrophe…"
"No, the new catastrophe has already arrived… Hahahaha!"
---o---
The walls surrounding Wende and his companions dissipated as if a grand illusion had shattered, and the Legendary Tower revealed its true form to them for the first time.
"Is this place… modeled after the Curio storage room in the Herta Space Station?"
Looking at the various cartridges stored in containers all around them, Wende felt a strong sense of déjà vu.