"Whoa—"
Because the script had shattered into pieces, the future was now a haze of chaos.
The two Stellaron Hunters who had been carrying out their mission remained for the time being.
"My name is Kafka. Mm... you can consider me captured, I suppose."
"Elio said that from now on we can only rely on our own will to witness the future. Mm... what a troublesome situation."
Kafka sat off to one side of the Delve, casually flipping through the documents Grey had handed her while resting her chin in her hand, watching the coming and going around her.
There were Bulins and Angeloids busy at work, hauling equipment to study Stelle's Herta puppet, and an Emanator of Destruction locked inside a transparent holding cell.
She could not say she liked it, nor that she disliked it. She simply found the civilization of this other world remarkably fascinating.
They had shattered all of Elio's foresight about the future. The slave of destiny had lost the ability to write scripts. Perhaps that was a good thing... or perhaps a bad one.
But for the moment, she truly had nothing to do. Until she could determine what consequences her next move might bring, Kafka decided to do nothing at all.
She simply wanted to observe this Starsea Empire—and the sort of people who lived within it.
Crackle—pop!
Silver Wolf blew a bubble and sat cross-legged on the floor, tapping rapidly at a holographic interface.
She scrolled and searched at high speed, digging for the information she wanted.
Unfortunately, even after combing through the interstellar internet, she found no prior records whatsoever concerning the Starsea Empire.
"Ugh—"
The girl sighed, realizing she knew absolutely nothing about this nation from another world.
She continued trying to gather the information she wanted.
"Bronya, look—doesn't she look just like you?"
Not far away, Kiana poked Bronya.
A few of them huddled together, whispering.
Kiana, Mei, Seele, and the others looked at Bronya, then at Silver Wolf sitting over there.
It felt like that déjà vu moment when Himeko met Himeko.
The two shared nearly identical facial features and hair color. But Silver Wolf wore a cropped jacket with shorts and fishnet stockings, her hair tied in a single ponytail, giving her a distinctly sci-fi hacker vibe.
Bronya was slightly younger than Silver Wolf, smaller and softer in appearance—more adorably delicate.
"Uh..."
Bronya played with her hair.
"Is she this world's Bronya? But her name isn't the same as mine."
"Come on. If you two wore the same hairstyle and clothes and walked down the street, no one would tell you apart from twins."
Kiana egged Bronya on to greet Silver Wolf.
"Um... hello. My name is Bronya. I'm part of the Starsea Empire's vanguard unit."
"When we were at Herta Space Station, we didn't get a chance to greet you. Mm... it's nice to meet you."
Bronya stepped forward to say hello.
"?"
Silver Wolf stopped what she was doing and looked up.
"Oh. Hi."
She responded casually, then glanced at the gray-haired girl in front of her—and froze.
She blinked and stared for a moment.
How strange. Why does this person look almost exactly like me?
"...You..."
"Where were you born? Are you from Punklorde?"
"Bronya is from Siberia. She studied at St. Freya for a while and later joined the Starsea Empire."
Bronya shook her head.
"Huh?..."
Silver Wolf examined her curiously.
"What? So someone else is using my account? ...No, looking at it this way, it's more like someone created a character identical to mine?"
"Is there a bug in this universe's system?!"
"It's fate."
Kiana nodded solemnly.
"Just like how Teacher Himeko met Sister Himeko, Bronya meeting Silver Wolf is fate too. Mm, though it's a bit of a pity your names are different."
"But... according to Himeko, you could probably count as sisters from different fathers and mothers and different worlds, right?"
"... "
"...I don't remember much about my parents."
Silver Wolf shook her head.
"I grew up in a fast-food restaurant and an arcade. My name is just my gaming nickname. I thought it sounded cool, so I kept using it."
The two Himekos shared similar goals and life experiences. They both longed to become scientists and explore the boundless stars, even majoring in the same subject at university.
But Bronya and Silver Wolf had grown up along entirely different paths.
One had been a lonely little hacker growing up on a planet, climbing her way upward through her hacking skills to become a legend of Punklorde.
The other had been born on Earth, chosen at a young age by Schicksal to join St. Freya. After the Starsea Empire took over the world, she entered the Empire's homeland along with it.
"Oh... you're a Valkyrie? That sounds like some kind of warrior class."
Silver Wolf listened with fascination.
"So you're me in another class? Are there mage-class versions of me? Assassin-class me? Or maybe guardian-class me?"
Silver Wolf was accustomed to viewing the entire world as a game. The way she put it was surprisingly fitting.
"Interesting..."
She propped her chin on her hand and looked at Bronya and the others.
"If you have any questions about the Starsea Empire, you can ask the Commander—or ask Bronya."
"Oh..."
Talking with another version of oneself did feel oddly familiar.
Silver Wolf thought about it. She indeed had a mountain of questions about the Starsea Empire. Some answers could be found in the materials Grey had given her. Others remained complete mysteries.
"That robot that popped out of your Astral Express earlier—what was that about? Uh... I tried to crack them, but I failed. Hope you're not mad?"
"Those are Angeloids. They aren't artificial intelligences in the strict sense. Mm... they're the product of combined Synapse and Starsea Empire technology."
"No one can break through a Sophon's information barrier, because you're not even operating on the same dimensional level."
"Oh?... I'll try again someday when I'm ready."
Silver Wolf sounded half-convinced.
She had discovered that even cracking the database of a small Astral Express was several orders of magnitude more difficult than hacking the IPC.
The Starsea Empire had many skilled hackers—and methods she had never seen before.
"So what about your games?"
After circling around for a while, Silver Wolf suddenly became interested in something else.
A super-empire spanning the cosmos should, in theory, have an extremely developed entertainment industry.
"Ah... the Starsea Empire's homeland has a variety of games, from classical styles to fully immersive holographic ones. There are even export versions. Our game operations are handled by Akashi."
Bronya helped Silver Wolf connect to the network and download several games developed by Akashi.
"Oh! Your tech level seems pretty solid. The graphics and everything are decent..."
Silver Wolf fiddled with it for a short while before suddenly sensing that something was off.
"Wait!!!"
"Can someone explain to me what '0.3% SSR rate, soft pity at 100 pulls, hard pity at 200 pulls, and pity not shared between different banners' is supposed to mean?!"
"And why are there nation-war buffs, PvP pets, and all kinds of paid features mixed in too?!"
"Hey?! Who designed your games?! I'm about to hack in and send server-wide compensation to everyone, you hear me?!"
...
Meanwhile.
Inside the Palace of Astrum on the Xianzhou.
Some time had passed since the delegation returned from the Starsea Empire. After completing their official report, they handled various affairs aboard the Xianzhou.
Naturally, plans for another diplomatic visit were placed on the agenda once more.
"Mm..."
"I must think carefully this time about what gift to bring the Sacrosanct..."
"After receiving such tremendous favor from the Sacrosanct, it would be improper not to repay it properly."
Tingyun wandered around Starskiff Haven and the Exalting Sanctum for half a day, then paid a visit to the Whistling Flames Guild, yet still failed to find anything suitable.
She had witnessed the prosperity of the Starsea Empire firsthand. Their abundance of resources had reached an almost inconceivable level.
Whether it was the weapons forged by the Artisanship Commission or the elixirs refined by the Alchemy Commission, she suspected none of it would truly catch their interest.
The foxian girl felt deeply troubled. After much deliberation, she went to the local station to find Grey.
"Mm... the Xianzhou is planning to reorganize a delegation soon to visit the Starsea Empire once more."
"Fu Xuan has taken a great interest in the Starsea Empire and wishes to accompany the delegation. In addition, Miss Sushang mentioned that a friend of hers would like to join us as well."
She carefully explained the new diplomatic plan.
"It is only that we lack suitable gifts. I wonder what the Sacrosanct typically prefers? Might Lady Grey offer some guidance?"
"Huh?"
Grey rubbed her chin and looked Tingyun over, then broke into a grin.
"You're being quite thoughtful. But there's no need."
"No need? But I was spared disaster only because of the Sacrosanct's grace. It is only right that I—"
"I mean you don't need to go at all."
"Ah?"
Tingyun froze.
"The Commander is coming here personally. If you want to see him, just board a ship later and head up."
Grey glanced at the time.
"Ah. Right on schedule."
Boom—
In the distant depths of space, bursts of blinding light flared one after another.
The warp engines tore open space itself as a colossal warship, majestic as a planet, slowly emerged from the void.
Behind it followed two massive formations of space battleships, spreading out like stars surrounding the moon behind the flagship.
Power from another universe once again disturbed the cosmos. Even the Aeons of this plane took notice of its presence.
Nous, who had already fallen into a dormant state, constructed computational models once more, attempting to incorporate this new variable into the calculation.
Ripples of thought surged through the universe, carrying with them countless complex formulas and symbols.
But the future of the cosmos had already become a blur of chaos. Even They could no longer extrapolate any further conclusions.
A certain mysterious Aeon of unknown true form sensed a subtle shift in the balance of the universe.
They observed the outsider, wondering whether he would disrupt the hard-won equilibrium—and what kind of weight They themselves should place upon the scales.
Click—
The Eternal Snowfall slowly swept across the sea of stars. Beneath the Empire's fleet, countless civilizations fell silent.
Fleets along the route instinctively cleared a path for it. On every planet it passed, people looked up at the sky in trembling awe, staring at that moving constellation drifting through the night.
Once, a mere small detachment of ships had annihilated the entire Interastral Peace Corporation. One could scarcely imagine what kind of might such a fleet now possessed.
The Eternal Snowfall reigned supreme over the void.