Well now, where the heck did I end up?
Xu Zixuan was completely dumbfounded.
Just a moment ago, he was scrolling on his phone in his little room.
The next second, a truck smashed through the window and slammed right into him, sending him flying!
Just when Xu Zixuan thought he was done for, he found himself in a brilliant starry sky the very next moment.
The starry sky was like a painting, scattered with countless twinkling stars.
The night sky was like ink, the river of stars like a poem, incomparably resplendent.
Did I end up in outer space?
Well now, that truck really is something else.
It sent me all the way into space?
My place was on the sixth floor!
How did that truck even end up there?
Can you do that again please?
I knew it, those old driving school instructors always keep a trick up their sleeves!
But how am I able to breathe in outer space?
And I’m still not dead?
Just as Xu Zixuan was pondering the meaning of life, a machine head abruptly appeared in his field of vision.
Xu Zixuan fell silent.
“Nous, the Aeon of Erudition?”
Xu Zixuan sucked in a breath of cold air, making his own little contribution to global warming.
Holy crap, did it just send me straight into the world of Honkai: Star Rail?
And the Machine Head came in person?
Ah?
Oh no!
It didn’t come to collect me, did it?!
Xu Zixuan had watched plenty of content creators analyze the Machine Head.
The Machine Head didn’t exactly seem like a good guy.
The Machine Head possesses the ability to anchor moments.
In order to prevent the universe from marching toward destruction, it uses every possible method.
Of course, anchoring a moment is not the same as predicting the future.
For example, say you come to a fork in the road.
There are originally three paths you could take, each leading to a different ending.
But before you reach that fork, the Machine Head will block off two of those paths and find an assassin to chase you from behind, forcing you in the end to take the one remaining path, turning choice into inevitability.
This is the truth behind the Machine Head’s moment anchoring.
The Machine Head has never predicted the future.
It erases all other possibilities for the future, ensuring that the moment it anchors will definitely come to pass.
These are two completely different concepts.
And Xu Zixuan originally did not belong to this world.
Suddenly showing up here would certainly affect the Machine Head’s anchored moments.
This was also why Xu Zixuan figured the Machine Head would find him immediately.
Because his appearance caused an anomaly in the moment the Machine Head had anchored…
After all…
it couldn’t possibly be that the Machine Head sensed Xu Zixuan was a genius, right?!
Could it…
Nous stared at Xu Zixuan.
A ripple spread across the imaginary plane.
Moment anchoring.
This kind of ripple emanates outward from the anchored moment as its starting point, just like the ripples caused by a single drop of water hitting a calm surface, gradually expanding from a single point into a circle…
At the same time, the geniuses of the Genius Society could not help but look toward Nous’ direction.
“Has a new genius been noticed by Nous?”
Sensing Nous’ surge of imaginary energy, the real Herta couldn’t help but speculate.
Very strangely, Xu Zixuan also felt this fluctuation of imaginary energy.
Ah, this energy…
why does it feel like I can use it?
Oh, wait, right now I should be thinking about how to deal with this Machine Head.
If the Machine Head sends Polka Kakamond over here, it’ll be all over!
“Hello there, Nous.
I hold no ill will toward this universe.”
Xu Zixuan greeted Nous.
He definitely did not want to go up against the Machine Head.
Nous anchors moments and plans the future.
In a way, isn’t that just preventing the universe from marching toward destruction?
Thinking about it from that angle, Nous had no reason to make a move against him.
The world of Honkai: Star Rail is so much fun, with so many characters he likes.
How could he possibly want to destroy this world?
On the contrary, if the Star Rail world truly stood on the brink of destruction, then Xu Zixuan would certainly be the one to stop the world’s destruction.
Nous said nothing.
Its figure slowly faded away.
Xu Zixuan let out a sigh of relief.
Folks, who can relate?
Right after arriving in the Star Rail world, I get targeted by the Machine Head.
The pressure was immense!
But fortunately, no clash happened.
Crack…
Just as Xu Zixuan was feeling relieved, his sharp ears caught a cracking sound.
The sound was very faint.
If Xu Zixuan’s hearing hadn’t been so good, he wouldn’t have even noticed it.
Xu Zixuan turned his head to look.
Oh ho, wasn’t that the Peeping Tom, Fuli, the Aeon of Remembrance?
Fuli wore a crown upon its head, its body seemingly made of clear ice crystals, looking both majestic and all-encompassing.
“I cannot see your memories you are not a person of this world I am very curious…”
“Stop stop stop stop…
can you not just speak in one long unbroken string?
Use some punctuation, okay?”
Hearing Fuli’s voice, Xu Zixuan felt his head swelling to twice its size.
Fuli’s voice was fast and indistinct, completely continuous without any pauses for breath, leaving Xu Zixuan totally confused.
And also…
“Hey, Fuli, are you still alive?”
Xu Zixuan stroked his chin.
Xu Zixuan had also seen a lot of analyses about Fuli.
Namely, that Fuli had already shattered, turning into individual flawless pure motes…
Could it be that in the current timeline, Fuli has not yet shattered?
Crack…
Fuli’s body, right at the moment Xu Zixuan’s words fell, broke apart and then slowly faded away into nothing.
Xu Zixuan: …
If I said Fuli’s shattering has nothing to do with me, would you believe it?
Xu Zixuan’s face was full of doubt about his own life.
Could it be that Lord Fuli, at your venerable age, is also capable of staged accident fraud?!
Thank goodness, no one saw.
“Hahahaha, Aha saw it all!
Saw everything, every last bit of it!”
“You shattered Fuli.
Aha is very sad.”
“Wuwuwuwu, Fuli, your death was sooo miserable.”
Before Xu Zixuan could even snap back to his senses, he heard Aha’s roaring laughter.
Countless masks poured out like a swarm of bees, piling up to form the outline of a human figure.
Aha spun in a circle alone, arms suspended in the air.
It controlled the trembling of its knuckles with its muscles, its posture like a sculpture.
As the only one to have once climbed the high branches of the Tree of Existence, It had glimpsed the cold, abhorrent vacuum, the mechanical turning of the stars, the meaning of all things yielding to nihility…
It was precisely because of this that It had an epiphany.
It understood that joy is the unique right of sentient beings.
Stubborn rocks and stars are both incapable of perceiving the humor of life.
It sought a worthy opponent, a game to while away the hours, an ending regardless of victory or defeat.
It sought sidesplitting jests, misunderstandings caused by fate’s strange twists, songs that set the spirit soaring.
Through this, It ascended to become the Aeon of Elation, tearing through the cold, dead, silent universe with clear laughter that echoes throughout all worlds even now.
And today, It had finally met an existence from outside the Imaginary Tree, and had even witnessed the shattering of Fuli.
Today was truly a lot of fun.
“No, I didn’t.
It wasn’t me.
It broke all by itself.”
“Fuli pulled a staged accident scam!”
Xu Zixuan hurriedly denied it.
“Aha doesn’t care.
When Aha arrived, all Aha saw was you shattering Fuli.”
“Wuwuwu, Aha wants revenge for Fuli!”