Humans yearn for the unknown, hence they explore the stars.
Humans fear the unknown, hence they dread the darkness.
The unknown signifies variables, brimming with infinite possibilities, and people fear such variables, terrified of futures they do not wish to see.
This is only natural.
The figure with its head bowed, the figure that Ailei was so concerned about, its abnormal behavior made the mechanical servant uneasy.
"...Master."
"What is it, Ailei?"
Fortunately.
The soft call received a response.
In the flickering lights of the bridge, the environment grew dim, accentuating a sense of melancholy and desolation, making Xu Xi's face appear even paler.
However, there were indeed no wounds on Xu Xi's body, nor any traces of blood.
Gazing at the familiar features, Ailei's restless mechanical heart calmed somewhat.
"No, I'm fine," the machine endowed with humanity spoke in a calm voice, offering a blessing, "Ailei just wanted to tell you that I will definitely protect you."
The words were so solemn.
So much so that Xu Xi was momentarily stunned.
Then, he smiled lightly, his body too heavy to even manage a complete, feigned smile.
Only able to lift the corners of his mouth slightly.
"Mm, I believe in you, Ailei."
Outside the ship, the curvature of space became more pronounced, the stars stretched into abstract paintings.
The warp engine operated in an overloaded state, paired with the gravity generator, antimatter engine, and elemental decay engine, collectively sustaining the superluminal voyage of the dark starship.
From a distance, the high-speed starship appeared within a distorted spatial bubble.
Engaging in a superluminal warp chase with the neutron war star behind it.
To call it a chase might be giving the dark starship too much credit, as it lacked both the cutting-edge weapons to break through defenses and any viable defensive systems.
The neutron war star was the ultimate creation, a trinity of offense, defense, and speed.
Faced with such overwhelming despair, the only thing the dark starship could do was continuously increase the output of its warp engine, attempting to break free from the cage.
"Calculating deviation, calculating time, success rate declining..."
The starship's internal computer.
Ailei continuously performed precise controls, but all the data calculations pointed to the same conclusion: their starship would be caught, and the neutron war star would swiftly destroy them.
Both equipped with warp engines, the neutron war star's output was clearly far superior.
"...No, absolutely not..."
Unable to accept such a reality.
Terrified of such a reality.
The emotionless data now fluctuated like a human heart, straining to the limits of its computational power.
But it was still futile.
The starship had successfully leaped to the top of the barrier, just a short distance away from completely breaking free.
But that distance was enough for the neutron war star to close in and unleash hundreds of spatial disintegrations.
"No..."
"I must protect my master..."
The overwhelming despair clashed with the beautiful wish in her heart, creating an unprecedented conflict. The mechanical soul, already remarkable in its computational power, seemed to undergo a subtle change.
But that change still could not bring victory.
"Wait, what is this..."
Suddenly.
The starship's overall output increased once more.
At what should have been the impossible, already maximized limit, a miraculous leap in performance occurred.
Break through, we must break through!
There was no time to ponder the reason for this sudden performance boost.
Ailei controlled the starship, pushing it to a state of surpassing and disintegrating all limits, using the brief surge in performance to rush into the gravitational breach leading to the true universe.
Light, frozen.
Time, stilled.
Space, turned into a single string.
Breaking free from the cage of the stars, the scene of things changed, presenting a dazzling and bizarre spectacle.
And, the moment they succeeded in escaping, the warp starship malfunctioned and was destroyed.
It was miraculous.
Having endured multiple spatial disintegrations and operating the warp engine beyond its limits, this experimental starship managed to hold on until now before finally breaking down.
The neutron war star did not pursue, seemingly confined within that cage.
Unable to determine if there would be further pursuit.
Thus, Ailei decided to activate the escape pod, abandoning the useless wreckage of the starship, and taking Xu Xi further away.
"...Master?"
Ailei re-entered her humanoid form.
She opened her eyes and saw the familiar figure, still maintaining the posture of resting with its head bowed.
The angle of the bowed head cast the face in shadow, making it impossible to discern the specific expression.
Motionless.
Utterly quiet.
The body remained youthful, but the intangible essence within had weakened like a candle flame in the wind, too faint to detect.
"...I'm sorry, I failed to protect you."
The mechanical body trembled slightly.
Ailei crouched down, in the lightless darkness, gently holding one of Xu Xi's hands, the trembling motion so delicate, as if touching something extremely fragile.
Perhaps hearing Ailei's voice.
Or perhaps feeling the warmth of the hand.
Xu Xi, who had exhausted his spirit, wearily opened his eyes and softly asked in a hoarse voice.
"Ailei, have we left the cage?"
"We have, Master."
"Haha... *cough*, that's good."
"But I didn't do well enough, I couldn't protect you."
"It's alright, Ailei... you did very well, truly..."
Xu Xi squinted, feeling his vision grow hazy, making it difficult to see the mechanical servant before him. He tried to stand up.
But the moment he attempted to rise.
His vision vanished.
[People often call incredible feats "miracles."]
[But you are the "miracle" itself.]
[You repeatedly broke through limits, resonating with the mechanical soul, pushing the warp engine's output to unprecedented heights, sustaining the starship's journey.]
[In turn, you suffered greater erosion.]
[It wasn't just a change in your spirit; even your body began to fail, and you could no longer control your weakness.]
[From Ailei, you learned that you had successfully escaped the cage. This news brought you solace, but you fell unconscious once more in front of Ailei.]
[The loyal mechanical servant held you, taking the starship's escape pod to the nearest star system. Shortly after your departure, the wreckage of the warp starship was destroyed.]
[When you awoke again, you were in the medical pod prepared by Ailei.]
[Your body was undergoing treatment.]
[But to you, both your body and spirit had entered "death."]
[Before, under the erosion of the mechanical soul, you only lost the ability to feel emotions. Now, you had fallen into a deeper void.]
[You could no longer feel cold, no longer feel warmth. The void began to consume you.]
[It was an indescribable sensation, as if everything had been stripped away, leaving your overexerted body and mind passively awaiting the end of annihilation.]
m back to his original world. In the end, he realized he had overthought things. [Hey, why is Shen Manni, the female lead, acting strange? Shouldn't she be fawning over the male lead at this point?] [Zhou Qiaoqiao, are you sick? Weren't you supposed to break off your engagement today?] [Damn it! An Youyi, please do your job as an undercover agent and sell my information to the protagonist, you idiot!] ... At this moment, Xu Mo himself didn't know that these female leads had already heard his inner thoughts. Then they decided not to play by the rules. Xu Mo: Please respect my profession as the big villain!
. As long as he maintains the villain image and follows the plot to the grand finale, he can obtain generous rewards and return to the real world. So Gu Chen'an entered the role and began to act as a scumbag villain, but who would have expected that the female leads could hear his inner thoughts. Miss Su from the Su family was shocked: "I originally thought Gu Chen'an was a scumbag, but I didn't expect he turned out to be a gentleman! What? You said I have to call off the engagement? I definitely won't, I'll piss you off!" Bai Yuan Tian was dumbfounded: "Young Master Gu is usually unreasonable and a complete brat, but he actually calls me little sweetie in his heart? What, Young Master Gu even said he likes me?" As the female leads' images collapsed more and more, the plot also collapsed with it. Gu Chen'an looked at all this chaos. "Ladies, don't aggro me, if you keep this up the male lead really will stab me, I still need to survive to the grand finale!"
iving with nine beautiful women. [Ding! Welcome back to the Joyous Sect, Host…] Lin Yu: ??? I’m clearly in a shared rental, but you’re saying I’m in the Joyous Sect? Watering plants is now [Tending to Spiritual Flora]? Cooking becomes [Researching Elixirs]? Making the bed turns into [Setting Up Formations]? A gentle and innocent auntie, twin classmates, a mysterious hacker girl on leave, a severely socially anxious artist, an elementary school Chinese teacher, a community hospital nurse, a pet shop owner, an antique clock restorer… This system… is kinda interesting.
fe full of thrilling battles, ultimately sacrificing himself to protect his homeland and its people. Unexpectedly, he was reborn into his youth, where he encountered the campus ice queen, Ye Miyue, now working as a masseuse at his family's martial arts school. "How long have you been doing this?" "I-it's my first time..." the campus belle murmured, her head bowed. Wang Xian remembered clearly that back then, although Ye Miyue had not yet awakened her martial arts talent, her outstanding academic performance, breathtaking beauty, and icy demeanor had made her the moon goddess of every boy in school. He was no exception. In his previous life, they had no connection, never imagining they would meet under such circumstances. Sadly, today the city was attacked by an S-class beast, the 'Wind King Falcon,' destroying nearly half of the city streets. Ye Miyue had died on her way home during this disaster. Now, given a second chance, facing the campus goddess of his youth, Wang Xian resolutely decided to extend her session! And so. "My hands are tired..." the blushing campus belle whispered, relieved. Wang Xian pointed to her slender calves and said, "Who said only hands can massage? There are feet too!" "Extend the session, continue!"
