"Beep beep beep beep! Beep beep beep beep!"
A sudden, urgent, sharp electronic sound rang out, interrupting the group's casual conversation.
Zane froze, pulling a constantly flashing, red, cyberpunk-styled device from his seemingly ordinary belt. After just one glance, his brows furrowed tightly.
"What is it? Did your pressure cooker explode?"
Jesse leaned over and asked curiously.
"More serious than that."
Zane shook his head, his expression grave.
"Something happened in Mondstadt. Emergency communication—Albedo has been identified as a murderer."
"What?! Albedo?!"
Lumine and Paimon exclaimed in unison, their faces filled with disbelief.
How could Albedo, that calm, gentle scholar who was obsessed with alchemy all day, be linked to a murderer?
"So that's it..."
Jesse, Elliot, and Matt, however, seemed to suddenly understand something, showing expressions of realization.
"We've already reached the 'Paradox' storyline..."
Elliot stroked his chin, looking like a veteran spoiler enthusiast.
"Speaking of which, what exactly was this part? I'm getting a bit confused; let me check the script."
Under the dumbfounded gaze of Lumine and Paimon, Elliot naturally reached his hand into the Akasha outside the frame, and as if taking something from a bookshelf, he forcefully "pulled" in a book whose cover flashed with the words "Teyvat Continent Script: Top Secret" and was as thick as a brick.
He flipped through the pages with a rustling sound, and the others, accustomed to the sight, gathered around, craning their necks to look together.
"Let me see, let me see..."
Elliot's finger traced the page.
"Oh, this part! It says that Durin's remains on Dragonspine, influenced by some kind of power, formed special monsters capable of perfectly disguising themselves as humans. They try to imitate Albedo's actions to frame him. Then... the Knights of Favonius will turn the tables, set a trap, and capture all the invading monsters in one fell swoop."
"Wait a minute!"
Elliot suddenly seemed to discover a key point, abruptly raising his head and looking at everyone in shock.
"Speaking of which, according to this timeline, shouldn't it be during the Windblume Festival now? And the 'Teyvat Fairy Tale' storyline has already passed? Little Doolin has already been born?!"
"...Could you stop discussing this so seriously while looking at the script! And where did this script even come from?!"
Lumine and Paimon, who knew the true nature of this "script," rubbed their foreheads and complained, silently pressing off the flashing "allogene" icon on the phone screen and stuffing it back into their pockets.
"Speaking of which... there seemed to be a lot of controversy about that 'Teyvat Fairy Tale' event at the time."
Matt scratched his massive head and interjected innocently.
He usually took a simple approach to the storyline and was easily influenced by various voices on the forums.
"That was purely a bunch of contrarians and haters stirring up trouble."
Zane immediately retorted, his tone carrying undeniable certainty.
"The core of the storyline itself was excellent."
He rarely began a serious analysis: "In the Blessed Forest, the Sacred Relic didn't acknowledge the protagonist, so the Momonga Princess directly tossed the relic aside and said, 'Let it stay over there; I will acknowledge my hero.'—What does this mean? It means value is defined by oneself, not by external objects."
"In Star Rail Royal City, the Block Person eventually asked the Goddess of Destiny to reclaim fate, refusing to follow the predetermined path.—This is resisting an arranged destiny."
"In the final day's storyline, Ah San said to Durin: 'No one can define who you are, and no one can deny your heart.'—That was the absolute highlight!"
Zane concluded, "The entire story, from beginning to end, emphasized one theme—'Break free from the definitions and identities others give you, and walk your own path.'"
"It even deliberately included 'Rotten Pages' in the World Quest to satirize the rigid mindset of those who mechanically accept definitions given by others, believing that only heroes who have been assigned an identity are worthy of saving the world."
"So, don't be misled by those stirring up trouble; the storyline itself has no issues, and its intent is very profound."
"I see, I understand!"
Matt nodded in sudden realization; his straightforward personality required such clear and direct explanations.
"Regardless, since something happened in Mondstadt, we need to hurry over."
Jesse clapped his hands, pulling everyone's attention back.
"Wolf King, take us there!"
"Understood, Masters."
The Wolf King responded with a low voice. The next moment, the sound of complex, precise machinery started up, and the silver-white armor rapidly unfolded and reassembled. In the blink of an eye, the majestic twenty-meter-tall "Barbatos Imperial Throne Sirius Type" Gundam stood once again on the land of Fontaine.
The hatch opened, and everyone skillfully took their positions.
As the thrusters erupted in a fierce blaze of light, the massive mecha transformed into a silver shooting star, tearing through the clouds and speeding toward Mondstadt, the City of freedom and Pastorals, leaving a crowd of Fontaine citizens on the ground, still reeling from the massive influx of information they had just processed.
Neuvillette and Furina exchanged glances, both seeing unconcealed shock in the other's azure eyes.
On the ground, the "Teyvat Continent Script," which Elliot had pulled from "outside the frame" and carelessly tossed aside, slowly dissipated into specks of light, like snow melting under the sun, as if it had never existed.
Arlecchino crouched down, her red eyes fixed on the vanishing specks of light. Her usually calm voice held a subtle tremor as she murmured, "A script... the destiny of the world... Was it fixed and written down somewhere from the very beginning? Are all our struggles and choices merely... performances following a schedule?"
She suddenly lifted her head, looking toward the horizon where the Wolf King had vanished, a sharp glint flashing in her eyes: "Are they... using this 'script' to forcibly change the predetermined trajectory of destiny?"
Meanwhile, high in the sky, on the back of the rapidly flying Wolf King.
"Eek—!!!"
Jesse, Elliot, Zane, and Matt, clinging to the Wolf King's external armor, simultaneously shuddered violently without warning, catching a massive chill and almost collectively slipping and falling off.
"Hey! What's wrong with you four now?!"
Inside the cockpit, Lumine, who saw the scene via the external monitor, quickly opened the communicator to ask.
Paimon also nervously pressed herself against the window: "Wow! Don't move around! If you fall, you'll turn into Hilichurl Pancakes!"
"I—I don't know why!"
Jesse clung desperately to an armor plate, his voice trembling.
"I suddenly felt a chill down my spine! It's like someone is talking about us behind our backs! And it's the kind of talk that's... extremely profound and carries a huge misunderstanding!"
Elliot chimed in with a twisted expression: "Exactly! That's the feeling! It makes no sense! It's like we were just going out for a meal, but suddenly the whole world handed us a 'Hero Who Saves the World' good guy card! And it's mandatory, the kind you can't refuse!"
Although Zane didn't speak, his trembling mask showed that he was also undergoing the same supernatural experience.
Matt added, "I... I also feel like someone threw a heavy burden onto my back from a great distance..."
"Huh???"
Lumine and Paimon looked at each other inside the cockpit, both utterly confused.
Paimon scratched her head: "I have no idea what they're talking about... Are they getting altitude sickness?"
Lumine sighed helplessly, looking at her four teammates on the monitor who seemed to have collectively run into a ghost: "Forget it... Wolf King, fly steadily. Also, when we reach Mondstadt, first find them a doctor... No, maybe we should find a fortune teller?"
The Wolf King's steady mechanical voice replied: "Understood. External cabin pressure and temperature have been automatically adjusted."
"Furthermore, based on database analysis, the symptoms described by the four Masters have a 67% similarity to the folk legends of 'Causality Passive Perception' or 'Forced Plot Elevation Adaptation Syndrome.' Observation is recommended."
Lumine/Paimon: "..."
What kind of strange database is that!