In the evening, Lux was curled up on the bed with her Jade Sign resting beside her pillow.
Silver Wolf’s voice came through the speakerphone, accompanied by the background noise of a game loading.
Lux rolled over, clutching her tail to her chest.
“I’m telling you, Silver Wolf, I went out to buy groceries today and got bumped into by someone with pink hair.”
“Pink hair?”
“Yeah, she wasn’t looking where she was going while running.
She almost knocked me flying and even called me a little sister.” Lux’s tone carried a hint of annoyance.
“Do I look that young?”
Silver Wolf chuckled on the other end of the line.
“And that gray-haired person next to her was even weirder.” Lux frowned.
“She suddenly stopped when she ran past, looked at me, and said something like, ‘You have a familiar scent on you.'”
There was silence on the other end of the line.
“Silver Wolf?”
“…”
“Silver Wolf, are you still there?”
“I am.” Silver Wolf’s voice sounded a bit subtle.
“That pink-haired person…
did she look kind of silly?
Wearing blue clothes?”
Lux paused, then sat up from the bed.
“How did you know?”
The sound of Silver Wolf covering her face came through the phone, muffled.
“It really is them…”
“Who?
Do you know them?” Lux’s curiosity was piqued.
“It’s nothing.” Silver Wolf’s tone returned to normal, but Lux could detect something off.
“People from the Astral Express.
You don’t need to worry about them.”
Astral Express.
Lux silently repeated the name in her mind, feeling like she had heard it somewhere before, but couldn’t recall it for the moment.
“Alright, alright, let’s not talk about them anymore.” Silver Wolf’s voice became serious.
“Lux, I have something to tell you.”
“Hm?”
“The Luofu isn’t very peaceful lately.
You’d better not run around; just stay at home.”
Lux blinked, and then the corners of her mouth slowly curled up.
“Yo—” She dragged out the end of her sentence, “Silver Wolf, are you concerned about me?”
The other end of the phone was silent for a second.
“I’m just afraid you’ll die.” Silver Wolf’s tone was very flat, but her speech was slightly faster than usual.
“After all, I haven’t beaten that game world of yours yet.
If you die, who’s going to open portals for me?”
Listening to her feigned indifference, the arc of Lux’s mouth grew a little wider.
“Fine, fine, for the sake of your gaming experience, I’ll stay alive.”
“Good that you know.”
The two played a few more rounds of games, said goodnight, and hung up.
The next morning, Lux opened the Ink Store, intending to see if there were any cheap and useful spells she could trade for.
Then, the prices hit her in the face.
“Good grief—”
She stared at the store interface, her eyes wide.
A bottle of Epic Ink cost 1 netherite ingot.
A bottle of Legendary Ink cost 10 netherite ingots.
Lux glanced at her inventory.
Sixteen netherite ingots—her entire fortune, painstakingly mined by her and Silver Wolf.
Sixteen ingots, only enough for one bottle of Legendary Ink.
“Why don’t you just rob me?!”
Lux was so angry her tail puffed up.
She had originally thought she was a little rich girl.
Sixteen netherite ingots; a full set of equipment only needed four, and the rest would last a long time.
As it turned out, once the Ink Store opened, sixteen ingots wouldn’t even make a dent.
“Forget it, forget it, not trading.” Lux closed the store interface.
“Instead of trading ingots for ink, I might as well go back to the Nether and search a few more fortresses.”
She picked up her Jade Sign and dialed Silver Wolf’s number.
It was picked up after two rings.
“Hello?” Silver Wolf’s voice was lazy, as if she had just woken up.
“Silver Wolf, can you teleport people?”
“Yes.
What’s up?”
“Help me find an empty planet. Visit g.com for the full chapter.
I’m planning to build a permanent portal there.
I’m tired of building and tearing it down in Aurum Alley every time; it’s such a hassle.”
“Sure.” Silver Wolf’s voice immediately became energetic.
“Wait for me.”
Before Lux could say “Okay,” the call was disconnected.
She stared at the Jade Sign screen, stunned for a moment.
“This person…
was she just bored out of her mind?”
Less than three minutes later, the air in Lux’s room suddenly fluctuated.
Blue data light particles condensed in the center of the room, first the feet, then the legs, then the body, and finally that face with a faint smile.
Silver Wolf stepped out of the data stream, her short blue jacket open, hands in her pockets.
“Let’s go.” Her eyes were bright, filled with a hint of impatience.
“I’ve already found one.”
Lux looked her up and down.
“Are you that bored?”
“It’s alright.” Silver Wolf’s mouth curled up.
“No missions lately, everyone else is busy, and I’m the only one left on the spaceship just staring into space.”
“So you came to me to kill time?”
“Is that not allowed?”
Lux rolled her eyes at her, but the corner of her mouth couldn’t help but curl up.
“Fine, fine, let’s go.”
Silver Wolf reached out and grabbed Lux’s wrist.
Her fingers were cold, her knuckles distinct, and her grip was just right.
“Hold on tight.”
“Do you really have to hold me when you teleport?” Lux asked, somewhat confused.
“Of course.” Silver Wolf said with a straight face, “It’s a necessary condition for taking you with me.”
Before Lux could press for more, the world in front of her turned into a sea of blue.
She felt like she was wrapped in a bubble made of data streams; the scenery around her retreated rapidly, making it impossible to see any details.
The sensation of weightlessness lasted for about two seconds.
Then her feet hit solid ground.
Lux opened her eyes.
Sandstorms filled the sky.
She was standing in the middle of a wasteland, with cracked yellow earth beneath her feet and a gray, hazy sky overhead.
The wind was strong, blowing her hair and tail wildly, and her ears were filled with the howling of the wind.
In the distance was an endless wilderness, with no plants, animals, or buildings in sight.
Aside from sand and rocks, there was nothing.
“Cough, cough—” Lux choked on the sand and wind, covering her face with her hand.
“What is this place?”
Silver Wolf stood beside her, hands in her pockets, the wind blowing her long silver-white hair wildly.
“A frontier planet.
Because it’s all desert and no resources or life were detected, it was abandoned by the IPC.” Her tone was flat, like she was reading a report.
“There isn’t even a bug on this whole planet; no one will find your portal.”
Lux looked around and nodded.
“Alright, this is the place.”
She took obsidian from her inventory and laid it on the ground, block by block.
She was already familiar with building portals.
The obsidian was laid out block by block, and with a “click” of the flint and steel—
A purple vortex lit up in the wasteland like an abrupt scar, completely out of place in the gray-yellow environment.
“Let’s go.” Lux walked in first.
As soon as they entered the Nether, the Eye of Mystery started chattering.
“The air is filled with the pungent smell of sulfur, scorched earth, scorched corpses…”
“This is hell in the true sense of the word.”
“I’m asking, why don’t you talk usually?
You seem intelligent.” Lux asked curiously.
“I just can’t be bothered to talk.”
“Tch, stop acting high and mighty when you’re just a chatterbox.”
“…”
“Who are you talking to?” Silver Wolf looked at Lux talking to herself, somewhat confused.
“One of my accessories.
It talks, you just can’t hear it.” Lux explained.
Silver Wolf nodded and didn’t ask any further.
The two of them had much better coordination this time.
Silver Wolf opened the path in front, while Lux followed behind to open chests and kill monsters.
The efficiency was more than double what it had been last time.
The two looted the first Nether fortress for half an hour, killing a pile of Wither Skeletons and Blazes.
Lux’s Blaze Rods piled up to over thirty, and she had two stacks of bones.
Silver Wolf’s X-ray vision made a huge contribution.
Lux and Silver Wolf swung their diamond pickaxes and mined, managing to dig up another stack of ancient debris.
“This is called efficiency.” Silver Wolf folded her arms, leaning against the wall, her posture as relaxed as if she were strolling through a park.
The two found a second fortress, then a third.
After exploring all three fortresses, Lux had gained a lot; she had several spell-related items, though it was a pity she couldn’t find a single drop of ink.
She didn’t know if they had been looted or if she just had bad luck.
A Ring of Quick Casting, and two Arcane Rings.
Lux equipped the three rings into her accessory slots.
Her mana jumped from over a hundred to three hundred.
“Enough, enough.” Lux looked at her attribute panel and nodded with satisfaction.
She had ten ring slots, so she wasn’t worried about running out of space.
She also dug up a few scrolls from the chests.
Fire Wall (Level 6).
Giant Fireball (Level 5).
Bursting Flame Arrow (Level 8).
Tracer Round (Level 4).
Lux placed the scrolls one by one into the spell copying table.
With a flash of purple light, the spells on the scrolls were engraved into the villager bible.
Lux closed her eyes, sensing that she could cast these spells with just a thought, then she opened her eyes and looked at Silver Wolf.
“Want to try it?”
Silver Wolf raised an eyebrow.
“Try it, why not?”
The two left the Nether and returned to the desert planet, finding a random open space.
Lux took a deep breath, reached out, and channeled her mana.
Fire Wall.
An orange-red light lit up in her palm, growing brighter and hotter.
Then she waved her hand violently—
“Boom—”
A wall of fire rose from the ground in front of her, about three meters high and ten meters long.
Flames churned, heat waves rushed toward them, and the air around the fire wall was distorted by the heat.
Sparks flew everywhere, landing on the netherrack and making a “sizzling” sound.
Lux was forced to take a step back by the heat, her tail almost getting singed.
“Whoa—”
Silver Wolf stepped forward, reaching out her hand close to the edge of the fire wall to feel the temperature.
“Hmm…
about eight hundred degrees.” She pulled her hand back and patted off the non-existent dust.
“Not bad.
Can it be stronger?”
Lux nodded.
“I can increase the mana output to make it stronger; this was just cast with the minimum mana consumption.”
“That’s alright then.” Silver Wolf waved her hand.
The fire wall extinguished.
Lux’s mouth twitched.
Why did spells suddenly feel like they were just code?
“What kind of ability is that?”
“Aether Editing.” Silver Wolf’s tone was very casual.
“Just delete the data for ‘Fire Wall’.”
Lux looked at her nonchalant appearance and couldn’t help but grumble in her heart.
“Tch, acting all cool.”
“Just you wait until I get Overload, Echo Strike, Oak Skin, Heart-Stilling Art, and Abyssal Blessing.
Then I’ll either blast you or grind you to death.”
Silver Wolf seemed to sense something, turning her head, her purple pupils staring at Lux.
“Are you talking bad about me?”
Lux’s ears twitched, and she said with a straight face: “No, you felt wrong.”
“Is that so?”
“Yes.”
Silver Wolf stared at her for two seconds, then “tsk”ed and turned her head away.
“Whatever, can’t be bothered to argue with you.”
After testing all the spells, it wasn’t early anymore; it should be night on the Luofu by now.
Silver Wolf stood by the side and reached out her hand.
“Let’s go, I’ll send you back.”
Lux hesitated for a moment, then took her wrist, and the blue data stream wrapped around her once more.
The sensation of weightlessness lasted for two seconds.
Then she was back in her room.
Silver Wolf stood next to her and let go.
“Remember to call me next time you go to the Nether.”
“Got it.”
Silver Wolf nodded, her body turning into blue data particles, dissipating into the air.
It might not seem tempting right now but who knows what the future holds?
“And If you’re enjoying it, drop a Power Stone for me!”