Honestly, that would have been fine.
He could have just felt his way forward, so long as he wasn't making things worse.
But things were different now.
That future was unstable—it wasn't even a matter of probability anymore; the timeline itself flickered between existence and non-existence.
To make matters worse, it was a future where Finality either vanished entirely or withered away into nothing.
This meant that Elio's observations were becoming dangerously erratic.
Until he could figure out which variable would stabilize that future, he didn't dare make a move.
For someone like Elio, whose every action relied on the Scripts of Finality, facing a situation where the script had utterly failed left him feeling completely hamstrung.
That was precisely why Elio had smashed his script-recording device to pieces.
He was acutely aware of his own cowardice and the sheer unpredictability of what was to come. Driven by a whirlwind of complex emotions, he had subconsciously destroyed every existing script he had.
Not only that, but because his work had ground to a total halt, Elio began hissing at the empty air:
"Meow-aaaaaargh—!"
Frustrated beyond belief, Elio began jumping all over the room, struggling, howling, and wailing, crawling across the floor like some twisted, shadowy creature.
At one point, he even stood up on his hind legs, paws raised, and unleashed a flurry of nameless punches at the e-book that had already been reduced to scrap metal.
"Drop dead! Drop dead! Drop dead!!! How could Bai Ming start something so important and then leave it half-finished?! I'm stuck in limbo here—how am I supposed to work like this?! Meow—!!"
Jingliu and Kafka exchanged a look, watching Elio throw a fit as he bounced off the walls.
Both simply shrugged in resignation. If it were anything else, they might have stepped in, but this concerned Finality; they had no way to help him.
Suddenly, Elio froze mid-motion.
"No, I have to go talk to her myself. If I don't find out what happened, I'm going to lose my mind!!"
With that, Elio bolted out the door and vanished.
Kafka took another sip of her coffee before suddenly speaking up. "So... are we still going to be able to keep the Stellaron Hunters going?"
She stared into her cup, a helpless, thin smile playing on her lips.
Elio's deal had been enticing, but if the future Elio saw became something even he couldn't be sure of, Kafka worried whether their mission could truly continue.
"Who knows..." Jingliu shook her head.
Unlike Kafka, she had remained with the Stellaron Hunters primarily to repay her debt to Elio.
If the group really did disband, she would either go to Baiheng, seek out Bai Ming, or perhaps... joining the Astral Express wouldn't be a bad idea.
She had heard Dan Heng ended up there. Besides, according to the information provided by Elio and Bai Ming, the Astral Express was a crucial piece of the puzzle.
"But if we really can't keep this going, the Express is worth considering."
"Hmm... I think I'd rather go find Madam Bai Ming," Kafka said after a moment's thought. Aside from Elio, Madam Bai Ming was likely her best chance at achieving her wish.
At that, Kafka let out a short laugh. "The boss is still back there hissing, and here we are discussing jumping ship. Isn't that a bit inappropriate?"
Jingliu allowed a rare trace of a smile to touch her face.
She didn't take the comment too seriously; unless Elio officially called it quits, they certainly wouldn't leave the Stellaron Hunters of their own accord.
"Oh, right. While you were out on your mission, Elio mentioned a new colleague to me." Kafka suddenly remembered the newcomer.
"Who is it?"
"A world-class hacker codenamed Silver Wolf. She's an Aether Editing user personally trained by Madam Bai Ming. The only issue is... she's currently not even ten years old. Her childhood isn't even over yet."
"..."
Jingliu was impressed by the first half of the description—she had heard of the power of Aether Editing.
Having such a versatile specialist would certainly make for a core member of the team. But by the second half, her expression completely crumbled.
She had assumed the person would at least be of age by human standards.
Instead, the girl hadn't even left the 'little kid' phase, let alone reached adolescence or a rebellious phase. Surely the Stellaron Hunters weren't resorting to child labor...
Jingliu's face twisted into an unreadable expression. "What did Elio say? Are we picking her up?"
"Of course not yet. It'll take time for her to want to leave Punklorde. We'll go when the time is right."
Kafka gave a little giggle and explained, "He said that if Madam Bai Ming hadn't interfered with her training, the girl would have joined us much later. Now, everything's been moved up by several years."
"..."
Madam Bai Ming, what are you doing... what on earth possessed you to train a girl under ten into a legendary hacker?
Hackers were, by nature, roles that defied rules, challenged order, and acted recklessly.
If you're going to train someone, shouldn't you aim for a network security officer instead of a hacker?
"And considering Elio's reaction today, whether she actually joins us is still up in the air." Kafka shrugged with a smile.
She was actually quite looking forward to the little hacker girl, but even if she did join, it wouldn't be anytime soon.
--+--
On the other side of things, Bai Ming had spent about half a day at the edge of IX's Nihility.
When the two of them left, Bai Ming gave Acheron a tuft of Phase Flame strengthened by the power of Permanence to make her travel easier.
After watching Acheron vanish into the flames, Bai Ming finally activated her 'Huohuo' character card.
As her stature shrank once again, the ears atop her head transformed into drooping fox ears.
More notably, the tuft of ghostly green heliobus fire behind her acted as a tail. However, this heliobus lacked the self-awareness of "Tail"; it was merely an empty shell that Bai Ming could manipulate at will.
"Hmm... looks like a consciousness doesn't just pop out of thin air," 'Huohuo' mused, thinking back to Divine Herta, who had split off from Hertatomb.
That one was a bit of a glitch compared to Tail; when she found her, Divine Herta was technically just an AI program. It was only after her self-coronation that she evolved into an independent lifeform.
'Huohuo' gave a small wave of her hand, and a talisman appeared.
The flames behind her obediently took the form of a fox, standing guard around her. It was as easy as moving her own limbs—and quite stylish, too.
Though, technically, heliobus fire wasn't "real" fire; it just looked like it.
Well, no point overthinking it. With a flick of her wrist, she recalled the flames and stepped into the Phase Flame herself.
--+--
Meanwhile, on the Xianzhou Luofu, inside the office of the CEO of Celestial Sparrow Entertainment...
Our young "winner at life," CEO Qingque, was staring with dead, fish-like eyes as she mechanically processed documents that required her personal approval.
There weren't many files that actually needed her attention. What truly exhausted her was her clones.
One clone was currently at the Divination Commission, working under the sharp, watchful eye of Master Diviner Fu Xuan.
Another had been "borrowed" by Jing Yuan for the Seat of Divine Foresight to study by his side.
Ever since Qingque became a CEO—or rather, once the high-ranking officials of the Luofu realized she had the potential to become a General of the Yuque—her days as a lazy rookie at the Divination Commission were over.
She had become Fu Xuan's personal protégé.
But that didn't mean she skipped her rotations.
Instead, Fu Xuan had pulled Qingque directly under her wing, rounded up every single department rotation she hadn't finished yet, and consolidated all that work into one giant pile for her.
The mantra was: With great power comes great responsibility.
And since the Master Diviner was well aware of the clones' capabilities... well, once Jing Yuan heard about it, he was thick-skinned enough to borrow one for the General's office.
Although the workload at the company and the General's office wasn't actually that heavy compared to the Commission, the mental strain of multitasking three different lives made Qingque feel like she was being drained dry every single day.
"Boss... oh, my dear Boss... when are you coming back to save poor little Qingque..."
Just as she was working with the aura of a vengeful spirit, eyes vacant and resentment high, a familiar-looking flicker of flame ignited across from her desk.
Dazed from overwork, Qingque's first thought was that her Boss had arrived. She blurted out instantly:
"Boss! I missed you so much! You finally—wait, who are you???"
As the fire died down, the figure that stepped out was neither another version of herself nor her Boss.
Instead, it was a green-haired Foxian?
"It's your Boss, obviously. Who else would it be?"
As she spoke, 'Huohuo' raised her left hand, showing the silver ring on her finger.
Although the ring was useless to her now—and she had even turned the little silver snake on it into a sentient mechanical lifeform out of boredom—she still wore it as a symbol of her identity in moments like this.
It saved a lot of explaining.
As for being doubted...
Again, she was an Aeon, or at least a being on par with one.
If you joked about being the Aeon Bai Ming, people might laugh it off. But if you actually tried to use that name to con people, you were practically begging for a death sentence.
After a careful look at the silver ring, Qingque quickly confirmed 'Huohuo's' identity.
And then—
Qingque practically launched herself into the air, spun once mid-flight, and landed in a perfect sliding kneel right in front of 'Huohuo'.
She grabbed 'Huohuo's' legs and began wailing her grievances:
"Boss—! You're finally back! Save your loyal Chief Employee! You have no idea what I've been through this past month! Waaaah~ if you didn't come back, your little Qingque was going to succumb to Mara at a tragically young age!"
"...Watch your image a little." 'Huohuo' stared at the tearful display, nearly speechless.
"I haven't even had time to play Celestial Jade! I'm on the verge of a Mara-struck meltdown! Who am I supposed to keep up an image for?!"
"You look fine to me. You've still got enough energy to play the fool; I don't see any signs of a meltdown."
"Ahem... Boss—" Qingque gave an embarrassed cough, and then—opted to act cute instead!
--+--
T/N: If you want advance chapters, you can find it at [email protected]/AspenTL