'Qingque' had spent the last few days adding several new games to the Originium.
After that, she found herself with nothing left to do.
The Interastral Peace Corporation was rushing to provide funding, and the Xianzhou Luofu, under Jing Yuan's instructions, had sent personnel to manage the operations.
There were also renowned designers arriving from all over, drawn by the project's reputation.
With the real Qingque sitting right there to oversee things, there wasn't much else for 'Qingque' to do except continue enriching the Originium with more games.
Of course, she had come here purely for a vacation. She never intended to keep the wheels spinning relentlessly every single day.
So, having nothing to do was perfectly fine; 'Qingque' wasn't in any hurry to leave just yet.
Besides, the atmosphere on the Luofu was quite comfortable. Every day, she could head to the parlor to play some tiles, or hop online for a few rounds of Hearthstone and some Pokemon battles.
While a life of complete mental vacancy wasn't sustainable forever, it felt pretty good to just space out for a while.
Naturally, since no one except herself and Aha could modify the current internal programming of the Originium, 'Qingque' had to leave something behind at Celestial Sparrow Entertainment before she departed.
She needed to ensure those designers could continue with regular updates.
But that was a story for later.
For now, 'Qingque' decided to pull some gacha.
Thanks to little Qingque's recent emotional roller coaster, she had provided 'Qingque' with a substantial amount of Mood Points.
--+--
[Roleplay System]
[Name: Bai Ming (Qingque)]
[Lifespan: ∞ + 14 days (Roleplay)]
[Transformable Characters: Big Herta, Acheron, Celenova, Jingliu, Ruan Mei, Sparkle, Hertatomb, Lord Ravager - Jingliu, Young Herta, 'Robin', Artoria, 'Cipher', Georios, Cyrene - Fuli (Charging: 23.5%), General of the Yuque - Qingque (Active Roleplay)]
[Available Pulls: 11 (38.2%)]
--+--
The number of pulls had risen from eight to eleven.
The Mood Points provided by Qingque were roughly a fifty-fifty split with those harvested from other sources.
It was a classic win-win: 'Qingque' got her entertainment, and she got her points.
This time, she planned to start with a single pull to test the waters.
As for which character to set as her Path next...
Originally, 'Qingque' had planned to pull for Aglaea to get her hands on the Beauty Equation.
But recently, a new idea had taken hold: Hysilens, representing Nihility.
While Nihility already had an Aeon, that particular Aeon was a complete hands-off type.
Even if 'Qingque' used the Nihility Equation to completely seize that Path, that big dark shadow—IX—probably wouldn't even bother to acknowledge her.
The reason for choosing this Path wasn't because 'Qingque' coveted the power of Nihility.
In fact, she had always gone out of her way to avoid it.
What she really wanted was to set Acheron free.
Acheron's life story was simply too bitter.
She was all alone, yet she had burdened herself with the duty of guarding the horizon of Nihility.
'Qingque' understood that these actions were Acheron's way of resisting the void, but if possible, she wanted Acheron to be completely free from its influence—to actually enjoy life for once, rather than forever walking a path destined for sorrow.
Then again, while Acheron's personality seemed easygoing, she could be quite stubborn when it came to matters of the Path.
Acheron might not necessarily accept 'Qingque's' help.
She'd have to discuss it with her later.
But again, that was a story for another time.
She still hadn't finished the Abundance-related content within the Permanence Equation she currently held.
'Qingque' figured she'd wait until her vacation ended before starting on that.
Going to consult with Acheron would be a matter for next month at the earliest.
But for now?
Let's just see what this pull brings.
With that thought, 'Qingque' selected the gacha.
The familiar star rails and the Astral Express appeared, bathed in that unmistakable golden light as it sped toward her.
As the gold faded, the character standing before 'Qingque' was a grey-haired girl with pixel-style accessories and a single drill-ponytail.
"I actually pulled Silver Wolf? Wait... how old is she even supposed to be right now?"
'Qingque' fell into thought as she looked at the youthful character art.
If she remembered correctly, Silver Wolf was quite young when she joined the Stellaron Hunters, though that happened after she grew up and reached the peak of Punklorde.
But considering her talent, she probably cleared all the leaderboard records in that basement long before she hit adulthood. Conquering the rest of Punklorde likely didn't take her many years after that.
Otherwise, she wouldn't have caught Elio's eye.
Elio was very picky about his recruits.
Furthermore, given how Kafka and Blade treated her—almost like they were looking after a kid—'Qingque' guessed that while the game never explicitly said it, Silver Wolf was probably in her early twenties during the main story. Maybe even younger.
Working backward from that...
At this point in time, Silver Wolf was likely still gaming in the basement of that tiny fast-food joint.
She might even be a little pipsqueak.
"Well... let's put her aside for now. Maybe I'll swing by Punklorde when I have time; little Bronie should be pretty cute."
The thought that current Silver Wolf might be at that "bratty kid" age made 'Qingque' hesitate to visit.
Especially given her environment, the odds of her being a little terror were much higher than her being a little angel.
Later, then.
'Qingque' quietly tucked the character card away, having no immediate plans to use it.
Aha hadn't done much lately.
Mainly because whenever THEY wanted to do something, 'Qingque' caught THEM and shut THEM out.
Aha had been quite frustrated that THEY hadn't managed to assimilate 'Qingque' into THEIR own kind last time.
If THEY failed then, the difficulty of turning her in the future would be on a completely different level.
Still, THEY had been keeping an eye on what she was up to.
Aha didn't quite understand why she was using the Originium to build a gaming platform.
If it was just to give those mortals a bit of hope—dangling a carrot, so to speak—there were obviously much more efficient ways to do it.
But not understanding was exactly the point!
If Aha could easily understand her, THEY wouldn't appreciate 'Qingque' nearly as much.
As for the fact that 'Qingque' was constantly trying to get the beings of the universe to analyze the Path of Elation...
Aha felt she had the right idea, she was just a bit too restrained.
The Phantasmoon Games was only in Planarcadia, and its scale was limited to a single planet. Plus, they only picked eight contestants, so the scale of conflict shrank even further after the preliminaries.
In contrast, 'Qingque's' games invited the whole universe to play, and the rewards were bold.
To Aha, the only issue was that there were too many rules.
There wasn't enough room for "creative expression."
Specifically, there wasn't enough room for cheating.
This made Aha feel that 'Qingque' was still too young.
If it were THEM, THEY guaranteed things would be a hundred times more chaotic than they were now.
Regrets aside, Aha continued to monitor the leaderboards.
THEY even tried to sneak a few "spices" into the mix, only to be punched by 'Qingque'.
Aha expressed THEIR disappointment, then proceeded to tweak and fiddle with THEIR Simulated Aha avatar, slapping on a fresh disguise.
THEY planned to have THEIR "mask" join the fray once 'Qingque' stopped watching so closely.
'Qingque' was naturally unaware of whatever scheme Aha was cooking up.
She was just living her leisure days on the Luofu.
Eventually, she set up an input port at the Celestial Sparrow Entertainment headquarters, plugging it into the IPC servers.
This way, after the other designers created content, they could upload it directly to the Originium through the company port.
It saved 'Qingque' from having to be the delivery girl every time.
Once she confirmed that the company could run normally without her, she became a total hands-off boss.
Not that she had been much of a manager to begin with.
With her remaining time, she occasionally visited Fu Xuan at the Divination Commission, harassed Hyacine at the Alchemy Commission, or teased Little Ica.
When she was truly bored, she researched the Permanence Equation.
The frantic mindset she'd had before had finally smoothed out into peace.
Right up until the time limit for her roleplay was about to expire.
"Boss, are you planning to leave?"
Qingque had somehow developed a sharp intuition; even though it had never been mentioned, she suddenly brought it up.
Looking at Qingque's serious gaze, 'Qingque', who had intended to make a joke, could only nod and smile.
"Pretty much. Things are on the right track here anyway. You can contact me anytime if something comes up—use your phone or your Celestial Jade tiles."
"Sigh, it's just not the same. When you're here, Boss, I feel like no matter what happens, you've got it covered. But if you go back, it's just going to be me."
Qingque sighed, looking a bit uneasy.
"Listen to yourself. You're the CEO of Luofu's Celestial Sparrow Entertainment now. Everyone in the world knows the famous CEO Qingque. You have starskiffs clearing your path and reports guarding your flank, with billions flowing through the company every minute. What's there to worry about?"
"...Oh, please stop. It's cringe even when I hear it."
Qingque covered her face with her hands.
When her boss started hyping things up, it was truly embarrassing. When did she ever have bodyguards?
And this company didn't even have a proper profit-making project yet—the cash flow was just the IPC swiping their cards. Does that even count?
So, Qingque decided to change the subject immediately.
"But Boss, since you're about to leave, is there any chance I could see your real face?"
"You haven't seen it? Isn't there video footage on the Luofu?"
"That's different. Plus, you were wearing a mask."
Qingque smiled and mimicked a mask over her face.
She had seen the recordings of the other's ascension to godhood, of course, but the mask had covered half her face.
Besides, how could a video compare to seeing it in person?
'Qingque' thought about it and realized she was right.
This was her number one employee, after all; it wasn't right for her to have never seen her boss's face.
And so...
Glancing at the few seconds left on the countdown, she chose to cancel the roleplay.
And then, Qingque watched in despair as her boss's height suddenly shot up by a good few dozen centimeters!
--+--
T/N: If you want advance chapters, you can find it at [email protected]/AspenTL