[In Siberian Duck's Livestream Room]
The animation finished playing at the moment of the explosion. After everyone caught Nero's body as it was sent back, the character could already be controlled freely.
But on the livestream screen, the character Star, who should have been controlled by the player, had already been standing in place for nearly ten minutes. During this time, Siberian Duck hadn't made any input at all.
This cyber "brother" seemed to just be sitting in the chair, staring blankly with eyes open, not making a sound, her brain completely stuck in a crashed state.
Only the barrage was scrolling rapidly.
[Dan-heart Eternal: Nero is gone!]
[Alice of the Lost Country: This is way too sudden, Nero just rushed up like that?]
[I Fell in Love with Jump Slash: Wait... wasn't everything supposed to be calculated? Why does someone still have to sacrifice?]
[Pom Pom: Exactly, this is the reaction.]
[Wind-Boy Solo-stan: "Only Silence"]
[Dawg of the Jump Slash Immortal: Delicious, absolutely delicious!]
Finally, after a few more minutes, the character on the screen moved slightly.
After taking half a step forward, the audience heard the sound of someone forcefully blowing their nose.
"Wait... why... why is this... not... how could it be like this... sniff..."
Siberian Duck's voice grew thicker with a nasal tone. What she said came out broken, repeating those few phrases, as if she was still in shock.
Meanwhile, the character in the game just spun in place.
Dozens of seconds passed, and Siberian Duck fell silent again. She seemed to have finally made up her mind, controlling the character to walk forward and begin interacting.
She first found Jing Yuan, "The Xianzhou general, who strategizes everything, remained silent. He glanced at you, and from those flickering golden eyes, you sensed a heavy and painful atmosphere."
"At that moment, your heart suddenly tightened. You subconsciously raised your hand and placed it on your chest. Neither you nor Jing Yuan spoke."
Siberian Duck took a couple of sharp breaths. The audience in the livestream heard the sound of tissues being pulled.
Then the game screen moved again. Siberian Duck controlled the character and found Dan Heng:
"As in the past, Dan Heng still remained silent, but this time he was no longer so composed.
"He didn't seem to notice you. His eyes were unfocused as he stared at Nero, as if he had fallen into some kind of memory.
"In the past on the train, you often looked at that child too, as if just seeing his smile could make your mood better...
"But now, you can't help but want to avoid his gaze."
Siberian Duck took a deep breath, then let it out tremblingly.
The frequency of her sobbing seemed to increase.
She controlled the character to move again and quickly found Mr. Yang.
"..."
"I've already checked. Nero... isn't showing any normal signs of life."
"After saying this, Mr. Welt fell silent again. Has this knowledgeable man confirmed Nero's current condition? Is there any way to restore Nero to normal?"
Siberian Duck's sobbing grew louder. She seemed unable to hold back the emotions surging up.
Going past Mr. Yang, she found March 7th, "Nero will get better, right?"
"Mr. Yang said Nero is already dead in the conventional sense. That's not true, right?"
"Nero has a lot of amazing things about him. He even said it himself, he's a fragment of Pure Beauty, right?"
"Aeons wouldn't be so fragile. Nero's body is still intact, he'll wake up, right?"
"March looked at you, seeming extremely eager to get an answer from you. But looking at the tears welling up in her eyes, you couldn't answer any of her questions."
"What is this... miHoYo... why... why like this... sob..."
Siberian Duck choked as she spoke to herself. She circled around here a couple more times, and finally came to Nero's body and chose to interact, "The boy lay there quietly, just like when he usually fell asleep."
"The light of the explosion bloomed overhead, the thunderous roar filled your ears, and you could hardly hear what others were saying. After the explosion, it felt as if the entire world had fallen into silence."
"Maybe quiet is better, that way it won't wake the boy who is sleeping. But perhaps what you truly hope for is that he wakes up?"
"You felt your heart beating. Your brief encounter with the boy replayed again and again in your mind."
"Just like that explosion, the boy passed through your life. After an extremely brilliant moment, everything returned to silence."
After talking to everyone, the main quest updated.
Siberian Duck, still sobbing, walked toward the quest location. The main quest triggered automatically, and the screen once again entered an animation.
Everyone looked at Nero's body in silence for a few seconds. Suddenly, a projection appeared.
The projection was a foxian... it was Yukong, the helm master of the Sky-Faring Commission.
"General! The Xianzhou..." Yukong's expression was extremely serious. In fact, everyone could catch a trace of fear in her eyes.
And in the flustered voice of the helm master, the people who had just survived the explosion received a shocking piece of news: "The Xianzhou Luofu... has gone out of control!"
At that moment, the game screen zoomed out. The Xianzhou Luofu appeared in the illuminated deep space of the universe.
The surrounding stars floated, moving at what seemed like an extremely slow speed.
At the top of the starry sky, the light of the explosion was still blinding, and streams of radiation were spreading wildly.
And within that light, a phantom-like Stellaron slowly rotated, carrying a faint dark purple hue, continuously expanding outward, brushing past countless planets, and then slowly enveloping the Xianzhou.
———
The dazzling starry sky was spreading everywhere, looking like the reflection of another universe projected outward, dyeing the pitch-black deep space with a layer of dark purple.
Countless stars flickered and flowed, pouring down like a great river from an immeasurable height, forming a grand and magnificent waterfall.
One of the giant ships of the Xianzhou Alliance, the Luofu, slowly emerged from that waterfall of stars.
Under the washing of the sea of stars, the Luofu appeared extremely stable, showing no terrifying shaking under any kind of impact. This giant ship was so healthy and full of power.
The furnaces spewed flames, the levers and gears inside the Xianzhou moved with precision and strength, pressure pumps hissed, turbines spun, flames burned, and surging power filled every corner of this ancient giant vessel.
A dull vibration and humming sound came through the hard hull, like whispers from an ancient life.
As the purple starry sky wrapped around and covered it, the speed of the Xianzhou Luofu was increasing more and more.
When that beautiful tide of the starry sea submerged this massive vessel, Nero seemed to hear it let out a cheerful cry, like a sailor who had unexpectedly gotten a whole crate of rum.