A few days later.
Dan Heng had another nightmare.
In the dream, Dan Heng was sitting on the toilet, one hand holding tissue, the other supporting his forehead, deep in thought about the content he'd updated today. Suddenly—
"Hahahahahaha—(a hearty laugh)"
Hearing this nightmarish laughter, Dan Heng's entire body shuddered, a rare feeling of nervousness creeping in.
Normally, even if he couldn't defeat that man, he could rely on his Cloudhymn Technique to hold him off effortlessly for a while. But now… absolutely not!
"Of five people, three must pay a price—"
The sound of footsteps grew closer, finally stopping at Dan Heng's door. "I've finally found you."
Crack—
A black sword suddenly pierced through the wooden door, violently carving a gash in it. Then, a grinning face peered through the crack: "Here's Blade~ (superb bubbly voice)!"
!
Dan Heng's eyes snapped open, his body drenched in cold sweat, panting heavily.
…It felt awful.
Dan Heng glanced at his body. This time, his body had shrunk again, and his dragon horns and tail had fully manifested.
…Better freshen up first.
…
Stelle was sprawled on the sofa in the observation car, idly scrolling through videos.
Unsurprisingly, this world also had short video platforms. Stelle had only been scrolling for a short while when she spotted a familiar figure.
It was a golden-haired boy who looked barely in his teens, holding a longsword in front of the camera, promoting it: "Top-quality spirit swords, big giveaway! Maybe everyone still thinks of spirit swords as expensive, high-maintenance, or sword-shaped gold bars, but let me tell you—right now, in my live stream, you can take one home with free shipping for just three hundred strales!"
"What? You're asking if it can be stored in your dantian? Come on, this isn't some fantasy novel. We're talking science here. The dantian is only so big—how could it possibly hold a sword this large?"
"What? If I can store it in my dantian, you'll send a rocket? Alright, old buddy, watch this—I'll show you a sword-swallowing act… Ah—cough cough cough, help… (save me)…"
"…"
Watching the live stream abruptly shut down, a string of question marks and ellipses floated over Stelle's head. If she wasn't mistaken, that was Yanqing, wasn't it?
People really do laugh when they're helpless.
Stelle sighed and kept scrolling. Not long after, she saw another familiar figure—
"Kids, today your General is teaching you how to wield a spirit sword to soar through the skies. Underage viewers, please attempt this with a guardian's supervision—watch out for crashes!"
"What? My disciple? Oh, right, where's my disciple? Isn't my disciple… Oh, beans, beans, beans! Brothers, emergency situation—I'm going offline!"
Stelle numbly continued scrolling and soon saw another figure calling themselves the "Lone Wolf"—
"I strike! Company kung fu!"
"Hey, old man selling tea over there, let me ask you—who's the toughest fighter in all of Luofu?"
"Huh? Of course it's me! Who else could it be—Master Bai?"
"Let's go, brothers! As elite employees of the company, today we're going to experience the fastest fists in Luofu. Brothers, 8 PM tonight—see you in the live stream!"
…
Stelle lay on the sofa, her eyes vacant. In just a few minutes, she finally understood what the "indescribable" and "mental pollution" of the Cthulhu mythos meant.
It felt like Luofu was even crazier than Belobog.
—"Ahem, dear passengers, can you hear me? This is your conductor, Pom-Pom. Please head to the observation car within ten minutes. We're going to vote on our next destination, so please arrive promptly."
Heading to Luofu?
Hearing the announcement, Stelle perked up. Finally, after Belobog, was the real high-stakes mission about to begin?
To be honest, this Trailblazing journey in Belobog could only be described as a series of minor skirmishes. The process was so absurdly chaotic that she hadn't even unlocked her Flame Lance form. If they were going to face Phantylia next, her combat strength might not keep up.
No, she shouldn't think like that. After all, Belobog was already that chaotic—how much harder could the Xianzhou mission be?
Speaking of which, before heading to Luofu, wasn't there supposed to be a Kafka appearance in the storyline? She really hoped Kafka hadn't changed too much… At least, a slight change like Himeko's would be fine!
Not long after, everyone except Dan Heng, including Pom-Pom, gathered in the observation car.
"Oh? Passenger Dan Heng hasn't arrived yet? That's unlike him," Pom-Pom remarked.
Himeko, ever understanding, explained, "Conductor, you know about Dan Heng's special condition. He just asked me to request a leave of absence for him. Please understand."
"Oh, oh, oh, I see! Hehe," Pom-Pom chuckled softly, then cleared their throat and said seriously, "I hereby declare this train meeting officially started."
"For the train's next stop, we currently have two options. First, some time ago, we received an invitation from the 'Star of Festivities,' Penacony, where 'The Family' has invited the Astral Express crew to attend the Charmony Festival. There's still some time before it begins, so we could head there early."
"The second option is 'other choices.' Passengers can propose their own destinations, and the conductor will consider adopting them, pa!"
"I agree with going to Penacony," Welt said after a brief silence. "I hear it's a world of memoria, where anything can exist within a 'sweet dream.' I've been curious about it for a long time."
"Then Passenger Welt casts one vote for Penacony!" Pom-Pom announced.
"Heh, come to think of it, it's been a while since I've gotten off the train to relax. In that case, I'll also vote for Penacony," Himeko said with a smile.
"Alrighty, Penacony now has two votes, pa!"
March 7th thought for a moment. "Then I'll follow Himeko and Uncle Yang. I'll go to Penacony too. I hear they're very advanced in developing [Memory]. I want to see if I can recover some of my past memories."
"Penacony has three votes, pa! However, while our voting follows the principle of 'minority obeys majority,' we should at least give Passenger Stelle a chance to speak." Pom-Pom looked at Stelle. "What about you? Where do you want to go?"
"Me?" Seeing everyone's eyes on her, Stelle gave a wry smile. "I'm like March, aren't I? I've lost my memories too, so I'll just go along—"
Zzt zzt—
The lights in the observation car suddenly flickered unstably. Seeing this, Stelle's heart stirred. Was it finally time?
My Mommy Kafka?