Stelle couldn't understand it.
'How could there be no Stellaron?'
The game gave players dozens of options.
Stelle glanced at the time. After quickly washing up, she climbed into bed with her Synesthesia Beacon in hand.
Too lazy to read through everything, she casually picked the first race on the list.
[You died.]
[The Empire has no "Swarm."]
Stelle's competitive spirit instantly kicked in.
She started selecting the races one by one.
This time, the system gave a different message.
[The Empire doesn't lack rations.]
Stelle: "???"
'What does that mean?'
She wasn't even qualified to be rations?
She tried many different options until she selected a race called "Starfish."
The system message changed again.
[You became canned food.]
[Permanent Talent Obtained: Delicious]
Stelle slowly lowered the Synesthesia Beacon in her hands.
'Who would want a talent like that?!'
'So "Starfish" were the Empire's food?'
'Silver Wolf, you lied to me!'
Stelle quit the game and checked their chat history.
[Stelle: ...This isn't one of those games where you die every few minutes, is it?]
[Silver Wolf: Of course not. Trust me.]
Stelle: "..."
She really hadn't lied.
Stelle couldn't even argue.
She patiently worked her way through the races, from "Starfish" all the way to "Human."
This time, she didn't die immediately and entered the next stage of the game, stat allocation.
She had twenty free attribute points.
Among Appearance, Intelligence, Constitution, and Family Background, Stelle decisively ignored Appearance and Family Background, putting every point into Intelligence and Constitution.
No joke.
You had to be strong yourself.
When gang members came to kill her, they didn't care about her looks or family background!
[Age 0: You were born.]
[Age 1: Your star system declared war on the Empire.]
[The Emperor's favorite subordinate gladly accepted the challenge.]
[Your star system was destroyed. No one survived.]
[You died.]
Stelle had only one thing to say.
Wasn't this supposed to be Empire Simulator?
How could she be born in an enemy nation?
Forced to start over, Stelle decided to try another race.
Then she saw one she'd never expected.
"Aeon."
Her eyes lit up, and she immediately selected it.
The screen went black again.
[The Empire needs energy.]
Stelle was speechless.
Even an Aeon became an energy source.
Was there any race besides humans that could survive?
She immediately gave up on options like "Mechanical Life" that she hadn't tried yet.
This time, she changed her stat build, maxing out Family Background and Constitution.
[Age 0: You were born.]
[Age 1: Your father was promoted to General.]
[Age 2: You displayed physical abilities far beyond children your age.]
["May the gods bless you."]
[Your mother said...]
["Believe me. You'll definitely inherit your father's legacy."]
Stelle suddenly had a bad feeling.
'What?'
'The gods?'
She was going to end up opposing the Empire again?
[Age 3: Your star system declared war on the Empire.]
[Your leader surrendered and then shot himself.]
[Your father hurried home, kissed your forehead, then covered your eyes.]
["Dear, go to sleep."]
[You died.]
Stelle tried several more times, getting different deaths each run.
In Simulated Universe, she was stabbed through the chest by her best friend's male subordinate and beheaded by the female subordinate.
In Empire Simulator, she got caught up in war, was killed by her father, and was sold by her own family because of the "Delicious" talent...
Stelle suddenly realized.
This was a game based entirely on luck.
If war broke out...
And she happened to be against the Empire...
Then what was the point of attribute points?
Whether Appearance, Intelligence, Constitution, or Family Background...
None of them could change the outcome of a war.
Stelle sped through another run to end it early.
[Age 35: You were promoted to Lieutenant Colonel.]
[You invited your superior to your son's ninth birthday party. Because your son failed to praise the Emperor continuously for three hours, you became a suspect.]
[You died.]
[Soon afterward, you reunited with your family.]
Stelle had thought her best friend's subordinates were already extreme...
Turns out there were people even worse.
Why wipe out the whole family?
Her son was only nine.
He was just a kid.
Did they really have to be this strict?
[Ending Achieved: You Were Not Loyal]
[You have earned one chance to draw a Talent.]
Stelle casually pulled one.
[Talent: SSR (Distributable Attribute Points +50)]
She opened her mouth in disbelief and immediately took a screenshot to send to Silver Wolf.
[Silver Wolf: ...]
[How many times did you die?]
[Stelle: Five or six, I guess.]
[Silver Wolf: ???]
Grinning happily, Stelle switched back to the game and distributed the attribute points evenly.
This time, she was born as the child of an Imperial Lieutenant Colonel.
At age five, a countdown appeared.
One minute.
Within that time, she had to type one hundred words praising the Emperor.
Holding her breath, Stelle cleared the challenge perfectly.
[Age 5: You praised the Emperor using different words every time.]
[For three straight hours without stopping.]
Just like that, Stelle safely reached adulthood, graduated from the Imperial Military Academy, and traveled with her classmates to a vacation planet for their graduation trip.
During the trip, she accidentally entered a tavern on the beach.
[Age 40: You finally received the chance to meet the Emperor.]
[Your identity was replaced.]
[It took your place, met the Emperor, and swore loyalty.]
Stelle's eyelid twitched as she carefully tapped the screen.
New text appeared.
She let out a sigh of relief.
'Good... good...'
[The Emperor smiled happily.]
["I'll be looking forward to it."]
After that, Stelle watched the unknown being that had taken her identity rise through the ranks like a rocket.
In just ten years, it became an official who could meet the Emperor whenever it wished.
It entered the most mysterious office area in the universe, reserved exclusively for the Empire's highest-ranking officials.
It saw colleagues casually ignore rank while following behind the Emperor, chatting about amusing things that had happened after work the day before.
Like... children telling their parents everything that had happened at school.
It saw a colleague kneel before the Emperor, rest their head on the Emperor's knee, and cry about their grievances.
The Emperor gently rubbed the person's head.
Stelle, outside the screen: "..."
Why did this feel like someone teasing a cat?
Soon afterward, both Stelle and the in-game character discovered that the Emperor had one fatal weakness.
Whenever he became absorbed in his own thoughts, he ignored everything around him.
Even while walking, he would stare blankly into space.
It looked at the colleague lying flat in the hallway, apparently trying to fake a workplace injury, then looked at the absent-minded Emperor and reminded him.
The Emperor snapped out of it, stopped walking, crouched down, gently nudged the colleague, and said, "Don't sleep in the hallway."
His tone sounded exactly like someone telling a cat,
"Don't knock the cup over."
"...Sorry."
The colleague apologized while glaring angrily at it.
It fell silent.
Was everyone in the Empire a masochist?
Was there even one normal person?
Unless...
It suddenly understood.
'So I was the normal one all along.'
After that incident, Stelle noticed the character she controlled seemed to completely let loose.
It repeatedly tested the Emperor's limits, constantly asking strange questions.
Sometimes the Emperor showed surprise or confusion, but in the end he always chose to tolerate it and answered seriously.
During one gathering of senior officials, it found an extremely blasphemous post on the galactic network.
It immediately used its authority to investigate the poster's identity and even said, "Come have a drink with me."
[Option 1: Put away the Synesthesia Beacon.]
[Option 2: Of course, hand it to the Emperor!]
Stelle immediately picked the second option.
[It almost laughed out loud, staring without blinking at the Emperor's profile.]
[This was the first time it had seen... confusion appear on that face.]
The next day, the Empire held a social gathering.
Soon, Stelle encountered the first UR character in the game.
This person held extremely high status, the same rank as the Emperor's favorite subordinate whom she had met in her very first simulation.
[Option 1: Win them over.]
[Option 2: Talk behind your frontline colleague's back.]
Stelle had no expectations.
After playing this far, she had already figured out the Emperor's personality.
He simply never got angry.
Even if all his subordinates lay scattered across the floor, he would only gently say, "The floor is cold. Please get up."
But if players didn't stir up trouble, were they really players?
Remembering the disaster of her first run, Stelle decisively chose to badmouth the enemy.
[It smiled and said, "I heard a joke. A man went to war and told the civilians who surrendered that he wouldn't harm women or children."]
["In the end, no one survived."]
["Why? Because wives aren't children, and sons aren't women. Hahahahaha!"]
[The usually quiet colleague calmly replied,]
["You're wrong. In some countries, wives are also children, and sons are also women."]
Stelle couldn't help thinking, 'That's way too free.'
She tapped the screen.
The next moment, the system prompted her to save the game.
She followed the prompt, then checked the time.
It was already past midnight.
She immediately turned off the screen, pulled up the blanket, and went to sleep.
The next day, the Astral Express headed toward its next destination.
Stelle was still thinking about what would happen next in the game.
When she took it out again, the countdown appeared once more.
Without another word, she shoved it into Dan Heng's hands.
"Dan Heng, I'm counting on you!"
Dan Heng was her best friend's citizen.
He had to be good at praising people!
Looking confused, Dan Heng asked, "What is this?"
Stelle urged him, "Hurry. You have to praise the NPC as much as possible before the timer runs out..."
Hearing that, Dan Heng tapped the screen and began typing.
Stelle gasped.
"Wow! As expected of someone from the Xianzhou..."
Dan Heng wanted to say that this had nothing to do with being from the Xianzhou.
Then he thought about it.
Actually... it did.
Besides the Xianzhou, who else made students memorize essays over ten thousand words long?
Dan Heng submitted the task.
The next moment, another countdown appeared.
He instinctively started typing again.
The two of them sat on the Astral Express sofa and spent the entire day progressing through the game's story.
After dinner, Dan Heng thought back to the Emperor in the game.
For some reason, he felt strangely familiar.
He thought of someone.
Dan Heng had many questions, but he couldn't ask them.
In the end, he could only ask an extremely foolish one.
[Dan Heng: Zero, why don't you become Emperor?]
[If you did, how would you treat your subordinates?]
[Zero: ?]
[I suggest you come back and have Yingxing check your pulse.]
[When are you coming back to the Luofu?]
[Dan Heng: We'll probably arrive around Thanksgiving.]
[Zero: Got it.]
[I'll definitely prepare a grand welcome banquet for you.]
If it had been Hua or Guanliang, they would definitely have held up signs outside the train window.
'Run!'
'Don't look back!'
Unfortunately, Dan Heng knew nothing about Zero's strange sense of humor.
He pressed his lips together and typed a reply.
[Dan Heng: No need.]
[That would waste too many Patrol Marks.]
[Zero: Don't worry, it won't.]
Meanwhile, Zero smiled as he slowly put down his jade communicator.
Yingxing wanted to complain but held it in.
Then he noticed Dan Heng's message on the screen and immediately became anxious.
With a pained expression, Yingxing said, "Zero, doesn't your conscience hurt?"
Zero crossed his arms, his smile unchanged.
"As the saying goes, repay a drop of kindness with a spring."
"Back then, Dan Feng arranged thirty-two attendants for me."
"I'm arranging sixty-four attendants to welcome Dan Heng."
"What's the problem?", Jing Yuan said nothing.
At a time like this, the more you said, the more mistakes you made.
Once Zero made up his mind, only their master could persuade him.
The problem was, their master was currently in the training grounds just beyond the wall.
Besides, whenever Zero wanted to do something, their master almost never stopped him.
Just as he was thinking that, Zero suddenly looked enlightened.
"Yingxing, I get it."
"You also think that's too few, don't you?"
Yingxing stared at him in complete disbelief, unable to say a word for a long time.
Zero nodded and continued talking to himself, "You're right. That's the High Elder of the Vidyadhara."
"How could only sixty-four attendants be worthy of Dan Heng?"
"Yingxing, I'm thinking of inviting one hundred and twenty-eight attendants. What do you think... would that suit Lord High Elder's status?"
Grinding his teeth, Yingxing answered, "I think sixty-four is enough."
Zero frowned slightly.
"How could that be?"
"If word got out, people would think I'd neglected the High Elder."
Yingxing argued with him until he was practically hoarse.
After enjoying Yingxing's anxious expression for a while, Zero finally relented.
"Since you insist, I don't have a choice."
He said regretfully, "I'll just have to prepare sixty-four attendants for Dan Heng."
Jing Yuan looked at Zero, then at Yingxing.
'Was it possible...'
'That Dan Heng didn't need any attendants at all?'
'Brother Yingxing had been completely led around by Zero.'
By the end, he was actually the one persuading Zero to settle for sixty-four attendants.
Zero was in an excellent mood.
Catching sight of Jingliu, he picked up a drink and a handkerchief before quickly walking over.
The two of them hurriedly said goodbye to the two friends left behind.
Watching them leave, Yingxing let out a bitter smile.
Jing Yuan quickly walked over and patted him on the shoulder.
"Yingxing, I know."
"You really did your best..."