Finally, she managed to break free from 'Qingque's' clutches.
Qingque covered her flushed little face, glaring at her in a huff.
"I'm just a tiny diviner. I don't have to fight, and I'm not climbing the ranks anytime soon. Even Lady Fu Xuan's protection is more than enough—why would I need the protection of an Aeon?"
Though she didn't say it outright, Qingque had already completely confirmed the identity of the person standing in front of her.
At first, she had considered whether she should show some respect, but the moment this person came up, they started rubbing her cheeks like kneading dough, all while wearing a mischievous grin right in her face.
It was really hard to maintain any sense of reverence under those circumstances.
"And more importantly, I can't play tiles anymore!! Now the entire Luofu knows that the new diviner from the Divination Commission, Qingque, is actually Boss Que. There's nothing 'behind the scenes' about it at all!"
When it came down to it, Qingque didn't actually care about anything else.
Whether she had to work hard or become a boss didn't really bother her. Since it involved something she liked, she didn't mind spending the energy.
But now, after doing all that work, she had lost the chance to play cards with her friends at the card shop.
That was something Qingque simply couldn't accept.
She would rather give up the big company and powerful backing altogether.
All she wanted was to slack off at work during the day, play cards after work, and continue studying the art of being a seasoned workplace slacker.
Facing Qingque's resentful gaze, 'Qingque' simply smiled and shook her head.
"Sigh, young… far too young. I already told you—you've got backing now. For something this small, why not just ask me? I'd solve it for you."
"Huh? You can fix something like that??"
Qingque blinked in obvious surprise. She clearly hadn't really thought about what an Aeon could actually do.
Especially one who wielded the power of multiple Paths.
'Qingque' crossed her arms, lifting her chin proudly.
"Of course! You've still got a chance, you know. If you beg me nicely, I'll grant you a golden finger that lets you play cards without trouble."
Qingque really wanted to complain about what kind of ridiculous name "golden finger" was, but the moment she thought about returning to the card table, she shoved all those doubts aside.
With a smooth sliding motion, she dropped to her knees and hugged 'Qingque's' leg.
"Boss, I want to play Celestial Jade! Please, I'm begging you~"
So she could change faces that fast for the sake of playing cards, huh.
'Qingque' raised a finger and poked Qingque right on the forehead.
Thinking she had annoyed her with the leg-hugging, Qingque instinctively shut her eyes. But then she suddenly felt something soft and warm press against her forehead.
With a soft smack, a tile shaped like a salted fish stamped itself onto her forehead.
She felt her consciousness link tightly with the tile, and then two different streams of power flowed from her forehead into her body.
Qingque opened her eyes and watched as 'Qingque' withdrew her finger. The salted fish tile slid off her forehead under gravity.
She hurriedly reached up and caught the Celestial Jade tile.
The salted fish design on its face was the very tile pattern she was most proud of, and this tile had been imbued with power by an Aeon.
Just how strong that power was, Qingque didn't know. But she did know the special abilities contained within the tile were exactly what she needed to solve her problem.
One of them came from the Path of Elation—a clone ability.
The salted fish tile could split into four. Besides the one in her hand, the other three could each manifest a clone of herself. 'Qingque' had modeled this ability after Sparkle's cloning technique.
But unlike Sparkle, who used masks to split into entirely different personalities, Qingque's were just simple clones.
They could merge back together at any time, and the clones were very unlikely to develop their own consciousness.
The other ability came from the power of Remembrance.
It could subtly interfere with the perceptions of people around her. When someone recognized Qingque on the street, they wouldn't react with the same excited frenzy as before.
Instead, they'd just think, Oh, that's the famous Boss Que, and then carry on with whatever they were doing.
With this, Qingque could go out to play cards in the future without being surrounded by curious onlookers like today, unable to even sit down at the table.
Sure, she had wanted to tease little Qingque a bit, but 'Qingque' wasn't a devil. A little teasing for fun was fine—there was no need to take away the simple happiness Qingque found in her ordinary life.
As for the power level of the ability—
She hadn't given Qingque much. Mostly because Qingque herself didn't really care.
All she wanted was her laid-back daily routine of slacking off.
Compared to what Fu Xuan had received, the energy output was greatly reduced. At the same time, 'Qingque' added a trigger-type mark inside the salted fish tile.
If Qingque ever had the impulse to test things out recklessly, the tile would send her a message first.
At that time, depending on the situation, she might even promote Qingque to become her Emanator.
Looking at Qingque holding the tile like it was a precious treasure, 'Qingque' asked with a grin, "So? Still think it's bad?"
"Hehehe~ Thank you, Boss! Boss is the best in the whole universe! I pledge my loyalty to Boss!"
Seeing Qingque act like this—as if anyone who let her slack off and play cards was automatically the greatest person in the universe—
'Qingque' simply smiled.
Though honestly, Qingque's attitude toward life really was quite healthy.
"Alright, go have fun. Oh, right—later on, recruit more people for the company. I'll be putting a few more games into the Originium. Future updates will depend on them."
"Got it, Boss! I'll definitely find the most reliable designers for you!"
Up to this point, their company only had two people.
They definitely needed to hire more.
Qingque planned to test out the abilities of this new role—leave a clone here to recruit workers while her main body went to the Artisanship Commission to oversee the production lines.
Judging by the traffic at the card shop, if she went back now, there was no way she'd get a seat at the table. She'd only be able to play online.
But for Qingque, playing online Celestial Jade would only ever be something to do while slacking off during work at the Divination Commission.
If she truly had free time to play cards, she would absolutely choose to play face-to-face with her card buddies, not queue alone online.
"But besides Celestial Jade, Boss, do you have any other interesting games?"
"A few. You'll find out later."
'Qingque' felt that since the company had officially been established and the gaming platform had begun developing, having only one game sitting there would look a little shabby.
So she planned to handcraft a few more games to upload.
Thinking back to some event modes she had played in games during her previous life, there was one involving capturing creatures and battling them.
'Qingque' decided to recreate the entire Pokemon series inside the Originium.
Follow the story, capture creatures, and battle other players.
The battles would be high-realism, real-time combat—not purely turn-based.
Among the achievement rewards in the Pokemon series, the more unique ones were redesigned by 'Qingque' so that players could manifest their favorite partner as a real living being.
At the same time, she also planned to include the accompanying Pokemon trading card game.
And besides the Pokemon card game, she also intended to add Hearthstone as a separate standalone game.
Of course, the amount of content she remembered from the Pokemon and Hearthstone games in her past life was limited.
Once she finished recreating everything she remembered, future expansions would have to rely on designers in this world.
That was exactly why she had Qingque go recruit people.
After all, she didn't plan on spending every day making games.
Though for her, creating a game was extremely simple and fast.
She only needed to extract memories, use them as a blueprint, materialize them through the power of Elation, patch up any gaps, and then load them into the Originium.
Compared to the original versions from her previous life, 'Qingque' naturally made some small adjustments to the games.
But those were mainly improvements to the gameplay experience. The overall framework remained unchanged.
--+--
Elsewhere.
While 'Qingque' continued uploading Pokemon and Hearthstone into the Originium and thinking about additional achievements, Fu Xuan finally began to slowly wake from her deep sleep.
The throbbing pain in her body was gone, and after such a long-awaited, incredibly comfortable sleep,
she found herself momentarily dazed and confused when she opened her eyes.
For a moment, she even thought she was still dreaming.
After all, in Fu Xuan's subconscious, the constant ache in her forehead had always been proof that she was awake.
But as her awareness gradually sharpened and her rational mind returned,
Fu Xuan slowly remembered everything that had happened the previous night and realized it hadn't been a dream.
She had truly become the Emanator of the Arbiter of Myriad Distinctions. Not only had the hidden dangers within her body been resolved, but the power of her Third Eye had been greatly enhanced.
Curled beneath the blankets, she stretched lazily and wriggled around in the sheets.
The unfamiliar comfort was almost impossible for Fu Xuan to resist, but just as she was about to get up, her body suddenly froze.
Her hand brushed through her loose long hair, then touched her body—now clothed in nothing but her undergarments.
Fu Xuan's face instantly turned bright red.
And the Third Eye on her forehead, strengthened by the power of Elation, quickly gave her the answer.
Last night, after Fu Xuan had fallen asleep, so that she could sleep more comfortably, 'Qingque' had personally removed her outer clothing, leaving only her undergarments untouched out of courtesy.
Even so—just thinking about how her idol had taken care of her like that, even helping undress her, leading to such an unintentionally intimate moment…
Fu Xuan felt like her brain was trembling, her pupils shaking, her entire face burning hot.
Thankfully, 'Qingque' had been polite enough not to sleep in the same bed.
If Fu Xuan had seen, through her Third Eye, that she had spent the whole night sharing a bed with the person she admired…she probably would have had an even harder time staying calm.
Even so, because of her admiration and longing for 'Qingque', Fu Xuan's emotions were impossible to settle anytime soon.
…No wonder she helped me take the entire day off. In my current state, there's no way I could face anyone.
Blushing furiously, Fu Xuan pulled the blanket back over herself.
This was definitely the kind of emotional turmoil that needed some time to sort out.
Either way, there was no way she could go outside and see anyone today.
--+--
T/N: If you want advance chapters, you can find it at [email protected]/AspenTL