DEG - Chapter 10
Chapter 10: Dreamed of Her
Luo Nanqiu was afraid her choked voice would give her away. She lifted her head slightly and turned off her Optical Brain.
Not getting an answer, Jiang Xun was utterly bewildered. She moved her head closer to Luo Nanqiu, struggling to open her drowsy eyes, her face full of confusion.
Luo Nanqiu covered Jiang Xun's eyes with her hand.
Jiang Xun grumbled in dissatisfaction, “Did you have a nightmare?”
“Scared to the point of crying?”
“…Of course not!” A trembling, tearful tone leaked into her annoyed voice.
…She'd rather it have been a nightmare.
She would rather this experience be fake, that Jiang Xun's future would never involve any of this.
Jiang Xun fell silent.
A warm palm covered Luo Nanqiu's slightly cool fingertips.
She sat up, reached out, and pulled Luo Nanqiu into her arms, patting her trembling back.
“What could be so scary? I'm still here.”
Luo Nanqiu clenched her fists, listening to Jiang Xun's voice, which was slurred with sleepiness.
She knew Jiang Xun didn't mean it the way she was thinking. Jiang Xun was actually saying: Don't be afraid, no matter what kind of Star Beast it is, she can defeat it.
No matter what kind of enemy, she can handle them.
Jiang Xun didn't want her to be trapped by the nobles' scheming. She desperately wished Luo Nanqiu would just flip the chessboard and send her out to beat up all those idiot nobles.
Jiang Xun had always believed that brute force could overcome any scheme. She thought that as long as one had absolute martial power, there would be no scheming, and life would be bright and sunny.
But Luo Nanqiu couldn't help but think, What if I lose you? What will I do if you're not by my side?
But the words got stuck in her throat, and she couldn't bring herself to say them.
The air fell silent for a moment, but soon, Jiang Xun's incessant guesses and her grand promises of "I can definitely solve it for you" filled her ears.
With such absolutely reassuring comfort, Luo Nanqiu's emotions gradually returned to normal.
She snorted lightly, pulled Jiang Xun off her, stuffed her back into the quilt, and said resentfully, “Go to sleep!”
“I already told you I didn't have a nightmare.”
Her tone, however, softened.
“I just saw a very sad story.”
Jiang Xun was a little puzzled. What kind of story could make the Eldest Miss so compassionate?
But Luo Nanqiu clearly didn't want to share. After suppressing her curiosity and trying to act pitiful again to no avail, she didn't get an answer from the Eldest Miss.
She tightly gripped Luo Nanqiu's hand and fell back into a deep sleep.
Meanwhile.
On the distant Capital Star of the central galaxy.
It was early morning here.
The alarm clock rang three times but failed to wake the person in bed.
The personal assistant was terrified that her master had ended her own life last night.
Without a second thought, she directed the nanny robot in the room to check the master's vital signs.
The checkup report came back quickly.
Vital signs were good, even too good, leading to active Ability fluctuations.
And the cause of all this—an overly bright mood.
The assistant stared at the report, momentarily lost in confusion. She even double-checked it. Because of this, however, she could see that Luo Nanqiu was still asleep.
Did she have a good dream?
The assistant wondered, looking at the urgent report in her hand, unsure if she should wake her.
After all, in the past six years, she had rarely seen Luo Nanqiu's Ability fluctuations so strong or her mood so good.
Did she dream of her...?
After much hesitation, she still couldn't bring herself to knock.
Instead, the person in bed was awakened by the pouring sunlight.
The robot assistant dutifully lit up its optical screen and began its report, in Jiang Xun's voice.
“Good morning, dear Miss Luo Nanqiu. According to scans, the Star Battle game shows no obvious abnormalities. The Imperial ministers are still arguing endlessly over the ownership of the territories conquered by the Descenders.
His Majesty the Emperor is still thinking of you very much today in the crystal mines.
Your personal assistant, Zuo Si, is standing at the door and seems to have an urgent matter to report…”
Luo Nanqiu sat up. Her black hair cascaded down, and the sunlight struck her porcelain-white cheeks. Her violet eyes, perhaps due to her good mood, had a rare translucence.
Opening the curtains revealed a sun-drenched garden. A sea of white roses swayed in the wind. A white snow leopard lying in the garden heard the sound. Its fleshy ears twitched, and it turned its head, rose, and leaped to the window like a flash of lightning.
Its huge paws patted the window.
Luo Nanqiu opened the window, letting the snow leopard enter the room carrying the scent of morning dew. Seemingly sensing her good mood, it even jumped onto the bed and nuzzled against her.
Luo Nanqiu stroked its fluffy head. Uncharacteristically, she wasn't in a hurry to get up and handle work. The corners of her lips curled up as she murmured to herself.
“I think I dreamed of her last night.”
“A chaotic dream. I was eighteen, she was twenty-four. She was disguised, doing a mission for the military. She was so happy to see me smile.”
“She misses me a lot.”
“She held my arm and gripped my hand the whole time we were sleeping.”
The somewhat intelligent snow leopard tilted its head, let out a confused "meow," and its tail swept back and forth against her leg.
It vaguely remembered that she hadn't said that in previous years.
It seemed to be that dreaming of her meant the other person was forgetting her.
Not dreaming of her was a good thing.
“Meow.” The snow leopard didn't understand. It shook its fur and lay down quietly by Luo Nanqiu's legs.
Luo Nanqiu didn't indulge in the memory for too long. Suddenly, for a moment, the hand stroking the snow leopard's fur paused, and a self-deprecating smile touched her lips.
She got up, washed up, and changed into a gauze skirt she had taken a liking to recently.
It was black. Although it made her skin look as white as snow, a gloominess had already begun to settle in her eyes.
While she was eating breakfast, her personal assistant, Zuo Si, began to report on the urgent matter.
“Your account was hacked last night, but the intruder only looked through your memos.”
Luo Nanqiu's soup spoon accidentally clinked against her teacup.
“After analysis, we suspect it was a Descender on the Emperor's side, attempting to dig up your background story and analyze your weaknesses, hoping to succeed in a rebellion in one fell swoop.”
Luo Nanqiu's long, thick lashes lowered slightly as she gave a small nod.
A slight smile played on her lips.
“Mining is still too idle a job for him.”
“I recall a robot on N-95 Star broke down. Are they short on labor for shoveling Star Beast dung?”
Zuo Si's eyes lit up.
“As you command!”
Blue Star.
I Heal Your Whole Family logged out of the game.
After browsing the forums for a bit and enjoying a few popular CPs, she felt something was missing.
They weren't as good as the CP she'd started shipping today.
She put her game helmet back on, imported the story playback to her phone, and decided to rewatch their interactions from a third-person perspective.
She even discovered that after they had logged off, Luo Nanqiu had come out of the card on her own, saw Jiang Xun sleeping, paced around the room a few times, and was about to return to the card when an assassin suddenly appeared.
The plot that followed was just the two of them toying with the assassin.
Huh?
How did they recognize each other?
These two NPCs actually know each other?
Huh?
What's this about their ages?
Could it be that the Star Battle game's world has a resurrection and rebirth plotline??
It's a bit weird.
But it's so good.
Unfortunately, she and Berry Milkshake were the only ones who had discovered this CP.
And Berry Milkshake was someone who didn't even know how to ship.
I really want to share this and ship this CP with other people!!
Because the Star Battle game system was so vast, with rich main and side quests, the storylines of some minor characters were completely unique.
Luckily, the system automatically saved recordings of the plots they experienced, otherwise they wouldn't even have the chance to review the details.
After watching the follow-up plot with satisfaction and finding no information about Jiang Xun on the forums.
I Heal Your Whole Family poked Berry Milkshake.
“Do you mind if I post the game plot on C-Station?”
“I really think this CP is so shippable.”
“Go ahead and post it.”
Berry Milkshake didn't care at all.
So many people shared their daily interactions with Star Battle NPCs on C-Station every day.
Every person encountered different NPCs, and everyone's experiences were different.
Berry Milkshake didn't think this video would go viral.
Nor did she think this CP would become a hot, top-tier CP.
But this wasn't the time to dampen her friend's enthusiasm.
What if?
This CP did have the potential to become a popular one.
Although probably not many players would recognize the NPCs in it.
Amen.
Hopefully, I Heal Your Whole Family could find someone to ship the CP with her.
Full of confidence, I Heal Your Whole Family uploaded the video to C-Station. She edited the most exciting part, the suspected reincarnation/rebirth scene, to the beginning, chose the most suitable cover image, added appropriate background music, and gave it a clickbaity title.
【Can Star Battle NPCs be reincarnated? Can they reunite with their past-life lover?】
Unfortunately, everything went just as Berry Milkshake had expected. A few hours passed, and the video seemed to have sunk like a stone in the ocean, with only a few hundred views.
I Heal Your Whole Family looked at the darkening sky, not understanding why it wasn't popular.
After thinking it over, she decided maybe it just hadn't had enough time to gain traction.
She put down her phone, decided to go to sleep, and would check the stats again tomorrow.
Nighttime, the perfect time for night owls to be active.
The video was almost perfectly targeted at the "omnivores" who enjoyed all kinds of content and shipped all kinds of CPs.
Of course, there were some exceptions.
This was a Star Battle game livestream.
But the streamer wasn't in the game right now. Instead, she was screen-sharing, diligently scrolling through videos, looking for new information on her quest.
Such a boring stream should, by all rights, have few viewers.
But the number of viewers in Breaking Waves Riding Wind, Kill! Kill! Kill!'s stream was unexpectedly high.
The reason was simple.
She was riding the coattails of Star Battle's top celebrity: the extremely mysterious and extremely powerful Imperial Regent.
This Regent had never even shown her face, only her back in a previous cutscene, but her immense and intimidating presence had already attracted a large group of fans who admired power.
In addition, traces of the Regent were everywhere in some high-level game plots. Some people worshipped her, while others resented her.
But no matter how strong the NPC, they all warned players with an almost unified voice: Do not provoke her.
She is on a level you cannot touch.
This Regent's Ability level seemed to be among the strongest. According to the story, she was extremely domineering with a strong desire for control, exuding the aura of a powerful and beautiful villain in countless plotlines.
Some NPCs even thought that the players were an external manifestation of this Regent's Ability, so many NPCs didn't dare to provoke players lightly.
Hmm... how to put it?
Of course, they continued to borrow the tiger's might!
In short, because of this Regent's power, mystery, and villainous vibe, she had always been a top-tier topic on the player forums.
Even though she had never even shown her face.
And Breaking Waves Riding Wind, just by getting a quest that was vaguely related to the Regent, had been pushed into the spotlight by the players.
Even if her quest was: Help the Imperial Emperor rebel against the Regent.
Even if it was an old quest, and one that players widely acknowledged as impossible to complete.
Even if her quest was only slightly different from others'.
But players still flooded the stream.
Originally, she had been doing the quest normally. Perhaps after failing too many times, the Little Emperor had grown exasperated and even revealed that the Regent's weakness was on a remote planet.
Breaking Waves Riding Wind, Kill! Kill! Kill! had naturally gone to that planet to find information and do the quest.
But after losing the underground match, her quest got stuck.
Breaking Waves Riding Wind was extremely confused.
Weren't people saying this quest was easy to fail?
That it wouldn't take more than a day to complete?
So how did she get stuck on the quest?
So she took her confusion to her game group chat and asked.
After learning the specific details of her quest, her friends in the group chat exploded.
Because her quest progression was really different from everyone else's!!
They suspected that the Emperor, after failing so many times, had started to act recklessly out of desperation and was beginning to leak real information!
Unfortunately, many of her close friends had already taken this quest and couldn't accept it again.
Desperate to know the quest's progress, they begged Breaking Waves Riding Wind to stream for them, so they could advance the quest together, in a way.
Breaking Waves Riding Wind couldn't resist her friends' pleas and started a game stream.
But after wandering around in the game for a day, she hadn't found any more information.
She had to resort to the dumbest method: watching the personal side stories of various strange NPCs in the game one by one, trying to find more clues.
But while she was tediously searching for clues, the news that the Regent's weakness had been exposed spread like wildfire, and half the Star Battle game community exploded.
【So is the Regent finally being implemented?】
The stream's chat scrolled wildly.
【I have a lot of weird NPC plots here, not sure what kind you're looking for, streamer?】
But Breaking Waves Riding Wind didn't see any of this.
She rubbed her tired eyes and sighed.
“I still don't think this quest can be solved that easily.”
【Shut up! Any progress is good progress!】
【Regent, my mysterious Regent, I've waited for you for so long!】
She simply rubbed the bridge of her nose and clicked on the next video.
Seeing a familiar figure, her spirits lifted slightly.
But the title was a bit strange.
“Rebirth?”
“Star Battle has rebirth?” she asked, puzzled.
【Uh... it's probably just edited like that by people who want to ship a CP.】
【But I gotta say, this cover really has that shippy vibe.】
The cover was a screenshot taken by I Heal Your Whole Family.
It was from the scene where the assassin came to kill them, Jiang Xun overacted, and Luo Nanqiu, annoyed by her cowardice, turned to leave.
On the left side of the image was the stunningly beautiful Luo Nanqiu, bathed in moonlight, but her eyes were cold as she was about to turn away.
And on the right side of the cover, Jiang Xun was slumped on the floor. Moonlight hit one side of her face, and you could see the hand on her neck about to strangle her. The assassin was hidden in the shadows, giving Jiang Xun an incredibly fragile, dying, dangerous, and utterly decadent aura.
But there was no fear on her face. Instead, the expression of feigned weakness was starting to crack, revealing a flamboyant yet helpless smile that belonged to her true personality.
She reached out a hand to Luo Nanqiu, trying to win her back.
Under the moonlight, half of their bodies were bathed in its glow, while the other half sank into shadow.
The wind lifted the curtains, and the luxurious room served as their backdrop.
It was an image with a great atmosphere and a strong sense of CP chemistry, along with a strange sort of sexual tension.
No wonder I Heal Your Whole Family was so confident.
It looked shippable at a single glance.
It's just…
【This kind of shipping video usually doesn't have any clues, better to just skip it.】
But Breaking Waves Riding Wind still clicked on it.
“To be honest, I lost today's underground match to these two.”
【???】
After a barrage of question marks in the chat…
【Watch it!! We have to watch it! It's related to the underground match, I suspect this is where the quest clue broke off!】
Comments
Post a Comment