It has been about two hours since the crew—mainly Welt—had decided to pressure me into revealing the Paths I follow.
Looking back, it was probably both stupid AND smart that I revealed all three. Stupid because, well, gestures vaguely at the concept of being an Emanator of multiple Paths, but smart because it avoids secrets festering into problems later. Trust is built on honesty, even if that honesty is "hey, I'm blessed by three cosmic entities and have no idea what I'm doing."
...Though that whole thing with March's eyes turning red is going to haunt me. Literally. I can feel it.
During these past two hours, Pom-Pom had shown up—adorable as ever—explaining Express rules with the kind of seriousness that only a rabbit-adjacent conductor could muster. Surprisingly, they'd given me an entire passenger cart to myself. Well, not entirely to myself—more like the cart had an easily adjustable layout, and since there were no other passengers at the moment, I got the whole space.
Apparently, this cart and a few others were a gift from Asta for saving the space station.
That girl is so rich she's lost all concept of relative value. She'd casually transferred me half a billion credits like it was pocket change. Half. A. Billion. I appreciate the gesture, truly, but this is just ridiculous.
For now, the space is empty—just basic furniture and floor-to-ceiling windows showing the cosmic sea outside. I won't be able to decorate much until we pass by either the Herta Space Station again or visit a few planets. My plan is to order a whole bunch of stuff to the station, then when we eventually visit, I'll make this cart actually feel like mine.
I'm standing by the window, staring out at the swirling nebulae and distant stars, when my vision flickers.
*Bzzt*
A notification window pops up in my HUD, accompanied by B.B.'s voice, dripping with theatrical flair:
"Ding dong, ding dong~ You've got a notification! Now open it or suffer the consequences~"
I pause, about to mentally pull up the notification, when something catches my eye. There—in the reflection of the window—a sliver of crimson, just at the corner of my peripheral vision. Not in the glass, but layered over it, like a glitch in reality.
My blood runs cold.
I whip around. Nothing. Just my empty cart, bathed in the soft light of distant stars.
When I turn back to the window, the red is gone.
...Right. That's not ominous at all.
Forcing myself to focus, I pull up the notification:
━━━ SYSTEM NOTIFICATION ━━━
Group Chat has been activated
as number of participants
reached the required amount
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
I stare at the message, processing.
Group chat? There was something about that mentioned on the screen B.B. had shown me before, but most of it had been blocked out. I hadn't bothered checking since it seemed... inaccessible.
Alright then, B.B. please show me the group chat.
Her giggle echoes in my mind, laced with mischievous anticipation. "With pleasure~"
The interface shifts, and a new window materializes:
━━━━━━ GROUP CHAT ━━━━━━
★ Traveler has joined
★ Lord Arbiter has joined
★ Male Kiana has joined
★ Group Admin status given to Humorous Prick
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
For a moment, I just... stare.
Blink.
Read it again.
"WHY THE ACTUAL FUCK IS MY NICKNAME 'HUMOROUS PRICK'?!"
My voice echoes through the empty cart, and I can feel B.B.'s laughter before I hear it—a full-bodied, unrestrained cackle that reverberates through my skull.
"I am NOT that bad! Right?! Right?!" I protest, then wince as the word slips out automatically. "Sorry..."
Oh my god, Senpai, your FACE— B.B. wheezes between giggles. I wish I could screenshot this moment and frame it!
The realization hits me like a freight train.
BB set my nickname to that... my fury building I mentally ground out - You. DID. THIS.
Guilty as charged~ she sings, materializing in my vision. She's sitting cross-legged on my bed, looking far too pleased with herself, a Cheshire grin splitting her face.
Out of sheer, unfiltered will, I visualize her form—make it solid in my mind—and lash out with my foot.
My bare foot connects with her rear.
THWAP.
B.B.'s eyes go wide—comically, almost cartoonishly wide—and she tumbles off the bed with an undignified yelp, hitting the floor in a heap.
I freeze.
She freezes.
We both just... stare at each other.
I'd felt that. The impact. The firmness. The slight give of—
B.B. scrambles to her feet, one hand clutching her rear, her face cycling through shock, fury, and mortification at lightning speed. Her cheeks flush a deep crimson.
You—! How did you—?! That was—! she sputters, unable to finish a single sentence.
My brain is struggling to catch up. B.B. is supposed to be an entity in my head. A digital ghost. Untouchable. She has access to my thoughts, my memories, my everything, but she's not supposed to have a physical form.
Yet I just kicked her.
And she felt it.
A slow, vindictive grin spreads across my face.
B.B.'s expression shifts to alarm. Don't you dare—
"Oh, this changes everything," I purr, savoring each word like fine wine. "You've been messing with my head since day one. But now? Now I can actually retaliate."
She points at me, furious and flustered in equal measure. This is—this isn't FAIR! I'm a digital entity! You shouldn't be able to—!
She cuts off, eyes narrowing with sudden suspicion. Did Aha do this? This feels EXACTLY like something that damn Aeon would find hilarious.
"I don't care who did it," I say, still grinning like a madman. "I'm just glad it happened."
The memory of that kick—the sensation, the surprise on her face, the satisfying thwap—crystallizes in my mind with perfect, HD clarity. I even replay it from a few different angles for good measure.
B.B.'s face goes nuclear. Steam might actually be rising from her head.
STOP THINKING ABOUT THAT!
"Thinking about what?" I ask innocently, leaning against the wall. "The firmness? The way you bounced slightly? The little squeak you made when—"
I! HATE! YOU!
And just like that, she vanishes from my vision entirely. I feel her presence retreat to the deepest, darkest corner of my consciousness, radiating a potent mixture of mortified fury and wounded pride.
I allow myself a moment of pure, unadulterated victory.
Then, still grinning, I turn back to the chat screen, where several messages have already appeared:
Traveler: ???
Male Kiana: ???
Lord Arbiter: This is... something...
Before I can type anything, another window materializes over the chat:
━━━ SYSTEM TUTORIAL ━━━
This is a group chat between worlds. Through it, you can visit each other's worlds, give quests to each other, share abilities to the group chat, and earn points to redeem powers/items/servants from the shop.
Menu is the three lines in the top left corner and allows you to see and access the previously listed options.
Visiting worlds and giving quests will be unlocked after conditions specified for you and the group chat member count reaching 5.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
I read through it twice, absorbing the implications.
Between worlds. Multiple worlds. And apparently, I can visit them once certain conditions are met.
This is either the coolest thing ever or about to become a logistical nightmare of epic proportions.
The chat continues scrolling:
Traveler: Well, that's new. I don't think I've encountered a similar method to travel worlds previously.
Lord Arbiter: You can travel worlds??
Male Kiana: What are worlds??
I snort at "Male Kiana's" confusion. Poor guy sounds genuinely lost.
Deciding to take control of the situation, I quickly change my nickname:
* Humorous Prick changed their nickname to Lancer
Traveler: HAHAHA! 'Humorous Prick'—what kind of name is that?!
Male Kiana: ...That's an interesting name...
Lord Arbiter: ...right.
I can practically hear the judgment in Lord Arbiter's single word response.
Clearing my throat (mentally), I type:
Lancer: So... uh, hello there. My name is Mat. What's yours?
There's a brief pause before responses start trickling in:
Male Kiana: Oh, my name is Phainon.
Traveler: Just call me Traveler.
Lord Arbiter: Why should I give my name? Why should I trust you?
I wince at Lord Arbiter's bluntness. Fair question, though.
Lancer: There's nothing I can give you that will make you trust me.
Lord Arbiter: Then just refer to me as Arbiter.
Well. That's... something. At least they're willing to talk, even if trust is off the table for now.
Traveler: So, Lancer, you mentioned your name is Mat. Where are you from?
Lancer: Currently? The Astral Express. Long story involving quantum physics, bad luck, and cosmic entities with a sense of humor.
Phainon: Astral Express? Is that a ship that travels the stars?
Lancer: More or less. It's a train. That travels through space. Don't ask me how the physics work because I definitely don't know.
Traveler: A space train. I've seen weirder.
Arbiter: ...A train.
Lancer: Yes. A train. In space. Moving on—what about you guys? What are your worlds like?
I'm genuinely curious now. If this system is pulling people from different universes, then the variety could be insane.
Traveler: I'm from Teyvat. Seven nations, each governed by an Archon—gods, basically. I've been traveling for a while now, looking for my sister.
Phainon: I hail from Amphoreus, a land blessed by the gods of Olympus. We are a people of honor and oaths, sworn to protect our city from the forces of chaos.
Arbiter: ...I'm from Solaris-3. That's all I'm sharing for now.
Teyvat. Amphoreus. Solaris-3.
Those names mean something to me, tickling the edges of my memory, but the details are frustratingly hazy. Genshin Impact, maybe? And wasn't Amphoreus part of Star Rail's Amphoreus arc? And Solaris-3... Wuthering Waves?
My meta-knowledge is patchy at best, and I'm not about to out myself as someone who might know things about their worlds that I shouldn't.
Lancer: Sounds like we're all from pretty different places. This group chat thing is going to get interesting.
Traveler: Agreed. Though I have to ask—how did you all end up connected to this system?
Phainon: I do not know. I was in the midst of training when a voice spoke to me, offering a " gift." I accepted, and now I am here.
Arbiter: Same. Woke up with this interface in my vision. No explanation.
Lancer: More or less the same but i suspect something is just trying to mess with me.
Traveler: ...Right so?
Lancer: Long story, short I have suspicion, no evidence and so I don't care to explain.
I can feel the curiosity radiating through the chat, but thankfully no one presses further.
Phainon: This "system" mentioned we could visit each other's worlds. Does that mean we will meet in person one day?
Lancer: Apparently, once we hit five members and meet certain conditions. Could be cool. Could also be a disaster. 50/50 odds.
Traveler: I've traveled to plenty of worlds. One more won't hurt.
Arbiter: I'm not agreeing to anything until I know more.
Lancer: Fair.
The conversation continues for a bit longer—small talk, mostly, feeling each other out. Traveler is friendly but cautious, clearly experienced with this kind of thing. Phainon is earnest and genuine, asking questions with the curiosity of someone encountering something completely new. Arbiter remains guarded, offering only curt responses, but she's still here, still engaging, which says something.
Eventually, the chat quiets down, and I lean back against the window, exhaling slowly.
Well, that was... something.
No response from B.B.
...B.B.?
Still nothing.
I poke at her presence in the back of my mind. She's there, but she's sulking, radiating an aura of "I'm ignoring you and you can't make me stop."
I sigh. Come on, B.B., I'm sorry don't be like that—
The connection goes ice-cold, and I get the distinct mental equivalent of a door slamming in my face.
...Right. She's really mad.
Guess I'm on my own for now.
I pull up the system menu, deciding to explore while B.B. is busy plotting her revenge.
Time to figure out what the hell I'm actually working with here.
Figuring that since there isn't much to do in the group chat and BB is sulking I might as well go back to the main hall of the train.
Coming up to the bar I see a bartender robot, Shush, and with no one else around I feel like I need a drink, now for the record I have never been drunk, although I have tried alcohol it has always tasted poorly to me, So I never had an interest towards it.
Now? now I feel like I need something, maybe alcohol maybe not, first I'll try to drown out my thoughts with something else if not then.
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Note: if u happen to read this immediately on release then i'm letting u know that ch5 is 20 behind this ch (: