Listening to March 7th's words, Dan Heng fell into a brief moment of thought.
After a moment, the calm young man slowly opened his mouth, "Maybe joy isn't what we usually think of, laughing loudly and watching others make fools of themselves.
"Just like how Aha helped the Mourning Actor... if you only fixate on happiness and laughter, that's too petty. Joy makes people feel pleasure, and the deepest source of human pleasure is when meaning is affirmed and when they gain a sense of satisfaction from the outside world or from themselves."
As he said this, Dan Heng raised his head, glanced at the red-faced boy arguing with Herta, and continued, "And someone with Nero's personality clearly has been enjoying life all along. He doesn't look like the type who worries about every little thing, right?"
Then Dan Heng spread his hands, "March, there's no need to discuss questions like this. Paths aren't Aeons. A Path is a very abstract concept. We just need to know that Aha is interested in Nero, and that Nero isn't in danger right now. That's enough."
March 7th nodded, then frowned slightly at Dan Heng, "Teacher Dan Heng! You usually talk so little. Why are you willing to say this much today?"
Dan Heng looked at March 7th, then turned his head away, shifting his gaze elsewhere, and fell silent again.
"Hey!" March 7th stomped her foot angrily. "So your fellow townsman gets you to talk more? This double standard is way too obvious!"
While March 7th was complaining about Dan Heng, a voice of dissatisfaction also came from beside them, from Nero.
"How can you be like this? This isn't fair! Is Aeon information really not worth as much as your tiny little space station? Why do I still have to compensate you with credit points!"
The young sword immortal from the Xianzhou sounded very wronged.
Herta immediately replied, as righteously as ever.
"I said I would waive your compensation, not all your compensation. You should be grateful. I'm very interested in information about the Aeons. I originally planned to make you stay here for your whole life, but now you only need to pay three hundred million credit points."
"If it weren't for me, if it were someone else from the Genius Society, you'd be sold off and still have to say thank you. I'm looking forward to the new communication you'll have with Aha. Remember to send me the news in time."
"Other than matters related to the Aeons, don't contact me. When you've saved enough credit points, just go find Asta."
Herta left, but her puppet remained.
Nero's small face was flushed red, as if he had been made extremely angry, but in truth he wasn't that upset.
Herta had tossed the right to decide to Asta, and he had already confirmed that he wouldn't have to stay at the space station and sell himself to pay off the debt.
After all, Asta was rich, and her personality wasn't as awful as Herta's. And he had saved Arlan and the station. Later, if he brought along the Stellaron Kid who had protagonist halo and pleaded together, things would surely work out.
With all the research data on the station, with so many people's lives, which one of those isn't far more important than the station itself?
Seeing Nero's furious expression, March 7th immediately ran over. "What happened? What happened? I heard Herta say three hundred million credit points."
Nero pouted, "That's the amount I have to compensate her. Compared to the parts I actually damaged, it's already a lot less. It's all my fault for being careless and letting that woman fool me. The story wasn't wrong at all, the prettier a woman is, the better she is at tricking people."
"Three hundred million!?" March 7th exclaimed.
"I can't take out that much, but… I can help you cover a little..."
Dan Heng stood behind March 7th and also nodded slightly.
"No need, I already have a solution," Nero waved his hand. "Do you guys have a way to contact Stelle?"
Stelle had just finished testing the Simulated Universe and was heading toward the platform.
After waking up, she had met with Himeko and Herta. She could choose whether to stay at the space station or board the Astral Express to begin the journey.
This should have been something Stelle needed to seriously consider as soon as possible, it concerned her future and her life. But right now, she couldn't focus her attention on that choice at all.
The Simulated Universe felt incredibly immersive, real yet unreal. Not to mention that during the test just now, she even saw Aeons inside it.
Although the experience still wasn't as shocking as seeing an Aeon in reality, it was still awe-inspiring from a human perspective.
Inside, Stelle had seen the Preservation Aeon, Qlipoth, and had also seen the Remembrance Aeon, Fuli. Fuli spoke a long string of sleep-talk-like whispers that she couldn't understand at all, but under Fuli's flickering light, she saw Kafka melting and… herself being stretched into the form of the Destruction Aeon, Nanook.
This experience left Stelle still feeling dizzy even now.
At that moment, her phone suddenly vibrated. She received a message.
The tall, gray-haired beauty who was not even one year old took out her phone. When she opened it, it was from an unfamiliar account.
[Stelle, it's me, Nero.]
———
[Real world]
Yesterday, Siberian Duck streamed Star Rail up to the Doomsday Beast fight, then helped fans clear two runs of Genshin's Abyss before logging off.
She stayed up all night editing a video titled "Sun-Flavored Kid, the Young Sword Immortal from the Xianzhou." She submitted it afterwards.
She used the moment of their meeting as the opening, then inserted lots of cute little actions from Nero taken from the cutscenes, and finally ended with the scene of Nero sacrificing himself to suppress the Stellaron, making it an AMV-style video.
Star Rail had just launched, and its popularity was skyrocketing. Siberian Duck's video quickly gained tons of views and "three-links" (like, comment, share).
Players didn't dislike this slightly airheaded new character, in fact, they liked him.
Everyone started sharing their thoughts in the comments.
[Flowing Sand River: Sun-flavored kid? How did the uploader come up with that? It's way too accurate!]
[Extreme Cold: True! When I played yesterday, Nero gave me such a warm, sunny feeling!]
[Pom-Pom: Nero is too cute. I want to pick him up and hug-sniff him.]
[My Pee Is Yellow: I already sniffed him for you. Nero is small, soft, dry and refreshing, smelling just like sunlight falling lazily on me! My pants turned yellow, but let's not talk about that.]
[It's Okay Let's Talk for One Dollar: Pee-Yellow Bro remains stable as always.]
[Ate Two Sea Cucumbers Today: I want to know how Pee-Yellow Bro supplements his health?]
[Grey Fish: Pee-Yellow Bro's pants are yellow today, tomorrow they'll be red. Nero may be cute, but he's also strong, he's a real young sword immortal. Anyone wanting to sniff him better think about whether they can take a jump-slash. If you can't, then let me do it. I've trained Iron Body since childhood.]
[I Use Pantene: Nero is so tiny. If he dares jump-slash at me, I'll grab him with one hand and push him onto the bed and k*ss him like crazy. A person this cute was born to be k*ssed by me! Ahahaha!]
The comment section gradually shifted from praise to pure unhinged madness.
But undeniably, thanks to Siberian Duck's video, Nero would gain even more fans and popularity, and his power would once again grow.
———
The next day, Siberian Duck started her livestream again, continuing Star Rail's missions.
She first completed the first Simulated Universe test. The roguelike tower-climbing gameplay was extremely satisfying.
During the process, players also got their first relatively detailed understanding of the concept of Aeons.
Right after finishing the Simulated Universe, a message popped up in the game.
After entering the phone chat interface, the game didn't use some random avatar, instead, it used a picture of Nero smiling brightly.
"Guys! Nero messaged me!"
This was also new story content, and Siberian Duck was very excited.
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