"Oh, Lynelle, you're back!"
The moment she stepped into the passenger cabin, March 7th's lively voice called out from near the data room door.
"March? Stelle?"
Lynelle, clutching several bulky bags, looked puzzled. "What are you two doing here?"
"We were trying to get Dan Heng to join the route meeting," Stelle immediately replied. "And we successfully caught him sleeping in!"
"Hehe, that's just how us Nameless are," March explained with a giggle.
"We can pull all-nighters during adventures without getting tired, but the moment we're back on the train, we just crash and sleep it all off at once."
"If I ever end up in a situation like that someday, I bet I'd sleep for ages too."
"Uh..."
Lynelle felt as if a cold sweat drop was forming on her forehead.
Good heavens, Lady March 7th, are you actually predicting the future? Shouldn't Elio just step down for you?
"Hey, Lynelle, wanna come with us?" March 7th asked, one hand pulling Stelle along while the other was already twitching, eager to drag Lynelle into the fray.
"No thanks, I should go put my stuff away first." Lynelle lifted her numerous bags slightly.
"I bought a whole bunch of supplies from Herta Space Station before we left. I need to go get them sorted out."
"As for the route meeting... I actually already knew the destination from Uncle Welt ages ago. You guys don't need to wait for me, just get started. I'll come down as soon as I've dropped my things off~"
After bidding the two goodbye, Lynelle promptly carried her bags back to her room.
And then... she casually tossed the packages aside and sat on the bed to wait.
After all, she was the Herrscher of Corruption.
These electronic devices she'd bulk-purchased barely needed any setup; just by using her authority, she could make their machine spirits rejoice and obey obediently.
The main reason she'd made an excuse to return to her room was that Lynelle had a hunch Silver Wolf would probably hitch a ride over around now.
Sure enough, not long after Lynelle returned to her room, almost simultaneous with Kafka's arrival downstairs, a petite, shimmering figure also materialized in Lynelle's room.
"Yo, Silver Wolf, long time no see?" Lynelle greeted her with a smile. "How was your trip to Pier Point?"
Black lines seemed to streak down Silver Wolf's forehead just as she was about to speak.
"Smooth? It was way too smooth... Didn't you see those mails sent out yesterday giving ten stamina refills in all the games? That was actually me telling the IPC I'd won, you know?"
"Just making it back from Opal is impressive enough," Lynelle said, completely unfazed by Silver Wolf's bluff.
"After all, he's arguably the strongest among the Ten Stonehearts."
"Cut it out. I'm still Elio's strongest... uh, second... well, anyway, a very powerful comrade!"
Silver Wolf remained her usual self, not showing a hint of the dejection from losing their bet.
"Anyway, a bet's a bet. I brought those things you wanted..." As she spoke, Silver Wolf casually swiped a few screens in the air.
Then, a massive stream of data packets began rushing directly into Lynelle's body.
However, perhaps still a bit ruffled from Lynelle's earlier teasing, the slightly annoyed girl chose to shove all the data packets into Lynelle all at once, trying to "fill her up" until she became a data cream puff.
"Hmph, you little minnow, Silver Wolf. Even if you pour it all in, I can take every last drop without spilling a bit~"
Unfortunately, it seemed Lynelle wasn't having any of it.
She just smiled, licked the corner of her lips, and showed no sign of being overwhelmed by the hacker girl's assault.
"Tch..." Silver Wolf snorted softly and turned her head away.
"Oh, right." After just a few seconds of sulking, Silver Wolf turned back as if remembering something.
"Lynelle, that Honkai game cartridge of yours... are there any sequels?"
"Nope. First, it was just a trial version; I hadn't even fully figured out the method myself. Second..."
Lynelle guiltily averted her gaze. "...Due to certain special reasons, I'm not too clear on the later storylines myself right now... We'll need to wait a while longer."
"Oh, so it was just a trial version? No wonder I got stuck in some parts... ahem... but it's the usual delay tactic. Nothing to be done about that, I guess."
Silver Wolf sighed, but she didn't look very surprised. It seemed this hacker girl, addicted to all sorts of games, was already quite accustomed to sequels being delayed.
"Still, while I don't really mind, Fire... ah, no, Sam, is totally hooked on it." A slightly teasing look appeared on Silver Wolf's face.
"Even though you don't know who she is yet... if you ever find a giant mech tapping on your window in the middle of the night, don't be scared, okay? That's just Sam trying to hurry along the next update."
"Scared? Not a chance~?" Lynelle made a grabbing and 'instantly assimilate' motion.
"Just a little Firefly? I'd just scoop her up and take her with me."
"Firefly's pretty big, you know. She'd be more likely to scoop you up..."
Silver Wolf blurted out, then suddenly reacted, snapping her head to look sharply at Lynelle.
"Wait, you know about Firefly?!"
"Hmph..." Lynelle cleared her throat, imitating a certain 'Hachimitsu' character's tone. "I... know everything."
"Tch... If I didn't know how rare the Path of Finality is, I'd suspect you had another Elio on this train of yours." Silver Wolf snorted lightly and didn't press further.
After all, as the saying went, if Elio hadn't said anything, what did Silver Wolf have to worry about?
"By the way, I just heard Kafka upstairs saying our next stop is the Xianzhou?" Lynelle blinked, curious.
"Any other info you can share? Gimme some cheat codes?"
"Sorry, no dice." Silver Wolf spread her hands. "I bet Elio foresaw you asking this, so he didn't tell me a thing. Even if I wanted to give you some insider info, I've got nothing."
"But, the Xianzhou... gotta say, it's not exactly a lucky place. Don't be fooled by them having the Aeon Lan's protection; that Aeon only cares about slaughter."
"Up to now, the crash rate for the Xianzhou Alliance ships has already reached one-third, and it's almost heading towards four-ninths... You'd better be careful."
"Hmm... that's definitely true." Lynelle sighed. She did have some recollection of the Xianzhou ship crashes Silver Wolf mentioned.
According to the game's records, the Xianzhou Alliance originally had nine great ships.
Among them, Daiyu self-destructed in the war against the Viscorpuses in Star Calendar 1200.
Yuanjiao went out of control during the Three Sufferings Era—A civil war started when the Yuanjiao attacked the Zhuming—and in Star Calendar 3200, veered into a red giant star, and went missing.
Cangcheng, Jingliu's hometown, was devoured by the living planet, 'World-Devouring Rahu,' in Star Calendar 6300, and to this day remains trapped in some bizarre state, unable to truly perish.
"So..." Silver Wolf patted Lynelle's shoulder. "You gotta stay alive, okay? Otherwise, what'll happen to my Honkai sequel?"
"Heh." Lynelle gave a mischievous grin. "I'll just turn the next one into a souls-like, and use my Corruption authority to install a firewall so you can't cheat."
"Eh?!" Silver Wolf immediately let out a wail. "Please! If I can't add mods or use plugins, I'm done for!"
--+--
T/N: I have a Patreon! Webnovel will get 3 Chapters Every Day, and advanced chapters will be uploaded on Patreon.
It may not seem worth it now, but maybe in the future. Who knows!
[email protected]/AspenTL
If you guys wanna check it out.