Five hundred thousand Credits were now his.
It was the first time Lin Yu had experienced the sensation of money coming in so fast. It was equivalent to several months of backbreaking labor!
Stay calm! Stay composed!
In the future, he was going to break into the universal market and become a top-tier game developer. This bit of pocket change was nothing!
And yet... Lin Yu couldn't keep the corners of his mouth from twitching upward. Just the thought of never having to endure those bitter days again, never having to curl up in a derelict house slurping instant noodles... it made his heart soar!
The common folk are happy today, oh so happy!
Fortunately, the alleyway was dim. Guinaifen was entirely focused on Honkai: Star Rail and her livestream. Otherwise, she might have mistaken Lin Yu for some kind of creep.
By the time they reached the commercial street, Lin Yu had managed to compose himself. Guinaifen found a teahouse and booked a private room to make it easier to stream. Lin Yu, meanwhile, excused himself to go find something to eat. After exchanging contact information, the two went their separate ways.
Lin Yu looked toward the bustling night market. The mouth-watering aroma of roasted meat, grilled fish, and seafood wafted through the air. Tears nearly welled in his eyes; he wanted to dive straight into the crowd.
Damn it, I finally have the money to eat the good stuff!
On the other side, inside the teahouse.
The moment Guinaifen sat down, she whipped out her phone.
"Sorry to keep you waiting, family! Let's jump back into our journey through Honkai: Star Rail."
"Honestly, Little Gui has only just scratched the surface. Even if I have to pull an all-nighter, I'm going to show you guys what kind of crazy stuff this game has in store!"
On one hand, the game had already caused a massive stir in her chat. It was drawing way more eyes than her usual stunts, like smashing stones on her chest or the spear-to-the-throat trick. On the other hand, Guinaifen herself was deeply hooked on the content. She was desperate to see what happened next.
"Little Gui thinks the protagonist is most likely Kafka," she mused. "I mean, with skills that flashy, she has to be the lead. There's no way another character has a more gorgeous Ultimate than hers, right?"
The viewers were quick to chime in.
"Kafka is definitely the lead!"
"The dev team is probably some tiny, unknown company. They probably had no budget for marketing and poured every cent into Kafka's design!"
"I just checked. The developer is called Yu Ling."
"Yu Ling? Never heard of them."
"Witnessing the rise of a god-tier developer!"
"I want to see that 'Boom~' again!"
Guinaifen glanced at the scrolling comments; everyone seemed to agree. Kafka was the game's selling point. All the visual effects and budget had been funneled into her. It was even possible she was the only playable character. Given it was a new developer, the players were willing to be quite forgiving.
As the plot continued, Kafka efficiently dispatched the enemies in front of her. However, she was unaware that a new Voidranger had spawned behind her. It lunged forward, its blade aimed straight for her head!
Just as the blade was an inch away, it suddenly dissolved into a cluster of colorful pixels. Immediately after, the creature's entire body broke apart into countless tiny cubes. It was as if an invisible hand had deconstructed it. In an instant, it vanished from the space station.
"Cleaning up after others isn't part of my job description."
A young girl spoke nonchalantly while her fingers danced across a dazzling, complex system interface. She hopped down from her seat and cast a cool, indifferent glance to the side, blowing a pink bubble with her gum.
In any other setting, people would have called her "cool" or "cute." But everyone watching the stream knew better. This wasn't some harmless girl next door. She was a member of the Stellaron Hunters a top-tier hacker with terrifying methods. The voice that had been speaking through the monitors earlier was hers.
"Silver Wolf! It's her!"
"I didn't expect another Stellaron Hunter to show up!"
"She's a real heavy hitter. The Interastral Peace Corporation has a bounty of 5.1 billion Credits on her head!"
"And here I thought Kafka was invincible. There's always a bigger fish!"
"Can we play as Silver Wolf? I'm dying to see what her skills are."
"Dream on! Kafka's polish is already insane. There's no way Silver Wolf is a playable character yet."
"True. She's probably just here for a cameo."
Regardless, Silver Wolf's appearance turned the hype in the room up to eleven. Two Stellaron Hunters now! What were they actually planning to do?
The story moved forward.
"No matter how many times I see it, your methods are truly incredible~" Kafka praised.
"Just a little trick involving reality data manipulation. Nothing worth mentioning."
"What were you looking at so intently just now? Let me have a look?"
"Herta's toys. A catalog of the Curios collected on the space station. There's some interesting stuff in here."
"Like what?"
"There's a gun that can give a score to any creature that appears in its sights, ranging from 0 to 100."
"How is that interesting?"
"Aren't you curious what score you'd get? I kind of want to know."
"Sure. If it's on the way, let's go play with it."
The two of them chatted idly as if they were on a casual stroll, showing absolutely no sign of tension despite being in the middle of an invasion.
But suddenly, someone in the chat noticed something off.
"Wait, wait, wait! Streamer, stop!"
"What did Silver Wolf just say? Did she mention Herta?"
"Huh?! No way... is she talking about that Herta from the Genius Society?"
"Case closed! This space station is the Herta Space Station!"
"Space station, Herta, Antimatter Legion... oh my god! I think I've just stumbled onto some massive tea!"
"???"
"What happened? What's going on?"
"I'm anxious, tell me what's going on!"
"The news from a while back..."
"The Herta Space Station really was attacked by the Antimatter Legion, and the Astral Express went to help!"
"I remember now! It actually happened. It was all over the Interastral Peace News!"
"No way it's this big of a coincidence, right?!"
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