"Uncle Welt."
After putting the girls' new clothes back in their bedroom, Wende nodded to Welt, who had been waiting for him in the main hall.
"Mm. Miss Tingyun is already waiting for us at the port. We'll head to the Alchemy Commission once you're ready."
"Alright. We can leave as soon as March and the others have changed."
It wasn't that they couldn't have gone in their new outfits, but March and Stelle were adamant about saving them for a special occasion, so he let them be.
Sigh~ As long as he couldn't see those players, he felt his life was still quite wonderful.
Although the Trailblazing journey was tiring and full of trouble, he had so many companions, especially Stelle and March, who could warm the heart that had been wounded by the players...
At this thought, the depths of Wende's eyes softened.
"You seem to be in a good mood," Welt remarked, noticing the smile on Wende's face.
"Mm... I am..."
[Ding... Detected that Player Favorability Value has reached maximum. Collaboration reward has been issued. Please select the next world to collaborate with, or store for later.]
"..."
Wende's face fell instantly. He suddenly felt his mood sour.
Now... he had reached a point where just hearing about an increase in Favorability made him imagine a horde of players going feral over him in various ways...
Damn it, is there any way to get this thing out of his head?!
"Sigh..."
Letting out a deep sigh, Wende unenthusiastically stored the collaboration reward. He hadn't decided where to go next, and he wasn't even sure if this "collaboration" was what he thought it was.
"Hmm..."
Watching the expressions on Wende's face shift from joy to sorrow, Welt silently sent a message to Himeko. He felt that Wende might be under a lot of stress lately; perhaps Himeko could help guide him through it.
[Ding! Announcing new progress quest. Collect 1,000,000 Player Emotion Value to unlock... the Path of [].]**
"?"
Wende looked around at the world, which had once again been paused. He frowned, looking at the words on the panel with confusion.
Favorability Value has changed to Emotion Value, and the reward Path... is unknown?
That inexplicable feeling of suffocation enveloped him once again... and strange whispers, from who-knows-where, echoed in his ears.
"Fate... Order... Restart... a world without **..."
A single, vacant eye stared intently at Wende, who was now trapped in the strange whispers, before quietly disappearing.
Thump... thump... thump...
Wende's eyes shot open. The only sound in his ears was his own heartbeat, followed by a dead silence.
And that bizarre whisper vanished as if it were a fleeting dream.
Now, laid out before Wende's eyes, was the [Universe].
The brilliant river of stars unfolded before him like a dazzling scroll, completely unguarded.
Tap...
Wende walked forward blankly. His footsteps echoed from beneath his feet where there was nothing, resounding through the empty yet crowded cosmos.
The sound was ethereal and uncanny.
"You..."
A voice echoed throughout the universe, and within Wende's mind...
The voice was like human language, yet also like the roar of a beast; it was like a man, yet also a woman; like a wizened elder, yet also a toddling child...
Birth, age, sickness, and death; a hundred reincarnations; all the phenomena of heaven and earth... were contained within that single voice.
What did It want? Wende had no way of knowing. After speaking that one word, It vanished without a trace.
But... Wende could sense that It still existed. It was omnipresent.
It... was the rules, It was the [Dao]...
But why? Why had It sought him out? Was it because of the system? No... probably not...
Wende's mind felt chaotic, his thoughts a tangled mess. But an unknown power gently swept over him, and he felt the clutter in his heart return to a state of calm. The Yin and Yang within his body began to circulate unconsciously, finally coalescing into a taijitu symbol within his consciousness.
Its purpose was unknown. Its methods were unknown. But It was everywhere, and It was everything...
The universe before Wende's eyes began to reconstruct itself. Light and dark began to intersect and merge, finally reaching a state of perfect equilibrium.
Before he could even begin to admire this new cosmos, time... began to flow again.
"What's wrong? You don't seem quite right," Welt asked, noticing the strange expression on Wende's face.
"No... Uncle Welt, I was just thinking about something," he said, shaking his head.
Seeing this, Welt didn't press further.
Wende sat on the sofa, his eyes tightly closed.
He was thinking, reminiscing.
That unknown existence he had just encountered felt both familiar and foreign. But he was certain that this was the first time he had ever heard that voice...
"Fate... Destiny... Paths... Aeons..." Wende recited silently in his heart.
"Wende... you are special..."
His master, on the verge of succumbing to the Mara, had held his hand and spoken to him with a faint breath.
"Sigh... Fate is preordained..."
---o---
"It has arrived."
In the Simulated Universe, [Yaoshi] of Abundance spoke softly, as if sensing something.
"Hmph..."
A cold snort from [Nanook] of Destruction.
"..."
The silence of [IX] of Nihility.
"Have you seen It?"
The inquiry from [Lan] of The Hunt.
"It is omnipresent."
The answer from [Nous] of Erudition.
"Hahahaha, communicating through this thing is no fun."
The laughter of [Aha] of Elation.
"It is within memory. Or perhaps, It exists in the past and the future..."
[Fuli] of Remembrance.
"It is dangerous..."
[Qlipoth] of Preservation.
...
Illusory, ethereal, incomprehensible, inexplicable, lost...
At this moment, these emotions tangled within Wende's heart. Ignorance... is often the greatest source of fear.
He didn't know what was happening, so he was panicking. But the Yin and Yang in his consciousness would absorb his uncontrolled emotions, allowing him to become clearer.
Although he could control it... he would leave it for now.
Maybe it was just the Star Rail programmers fixing another bug? In any case, it probably had nothing to do with him, right?
This feeling of unreality, of complete unknowing... it was truly disgusting.
Shaking his head, Wende got up and went to the washroom to splash his face with water. He looked at himself in the mirror, shook his head slightly, then turned to leave.
The "him" in the mirror watched his back, a faint smile appearing on its face.
"For the sake of... **"
The "Wende" in the mirror mouthed silently.
Then, its form vanished.
"Geez, you're finally out."
Little March stood at the door of the washroom with her arms crossed, looking as if she had been waiting for a long time.
"I just went in," Wende said with a helpless smile.
"Hmph, you made us wait anyway! As punishment, you have to cook us something delicious tonight!" March said, pestering him with an unreasonably expectant look on her face.
"Alright, alright. What do you want to eat this time?"
Wende would never refuse their requests.
"Hmm... how about some french fries?"