Chapter 96: Silver Wolf: Just This Once, There Won't Be a Next Time
March 7th tugged at the collar of her slightly modified outfit, trying her absolute best to project the icy, detached aura of a cosmic arch-villain. She narrowed her eyes and tilted her chin, but the sheer, chaotic thrill of their current heist kept betraying her. Every few seconds, her cold mask would slip, letting a goofy, irrepressible grin leak through.
Stelle, on the other hand, had completely abandoned all earthly restraint.
A glowing, translucent planetary ring hovered majestically above her head. She marched up to the top of an abandoned shipping container, planted her boots wide, and shoved her hands onto her hips. Striking a pose that screamed absolute, unrivaled arrogance, she threw her head back.
"Invincible under the heavens!" her booming voice echoed through the empty cargo yard, carrying enough dramatic flair to rival a seasoned stage actor.
"Tone it down a fraction," Rekka advised, leaning casually against a nearby rusted crate. "We still have to pull off some serious acting later. Those old foxes on the Luofu are razor-sharp. If they see us making this much noise with zero substance to back it up, they'll start getting suspicious."
Far above the chaos, within the quiet sanctuary of the Astral Express, Himeko stood by the parlor car's porthole. Her reflection in the glass was tight with worry. She couldn't stop thinking about the three youngest members of her crew, who had somehow managed to get themselves slapped with a planetary bounty.
Looking out at the vast expanse of space, Himeko's anxiety only deepened. The Express was currently anchored a long distance away from the Xianzhou Luofu, and flashes of light in the distant dark indicated that the giant ship was still actively exchanging fire with an unknown enemy fleet.
"Welt, it's been... almost three system hours," Himeko said, her voice tight. "Are they alright down there?"
Welt Yang adjusted his glasses, his brow furrowed as he stared at his phone. "It should be fine. Let me ask."
Welt: How is the situation now?
Stelle: Awesome.
March 7th: Awesome.
Rekka: We've gone to war with the Xianzhou Alliance.
Himeko:?
"At war?"
Himeko stared blankly at the glowing text on the screen for several long seconds. She slowly picked up her coffee cup, taking a long, deliberate sip in a desperate attempt to soothe her fraying nerves.
"This 'going to war'of theirs..." she began, her voice lacking its usual confidence. "It shouldn't be'war' in the literal sense, right?"
Welt's expression shifted into something deeply complicated. He stared at the screen as if it had personally offended him. "Judging by his previous track record... I am afraid it is exactly war in the literal sense."
Sitting across from them, Dan Heng leaned heavily against the back of the sofa and let out a long, silent sigh. He didn't feel at ease leaving them to their own devices, but his hands were tied. He was strictly banned from stepping foot on the Luofu.
"Wanted by the authorities in two system hours, and officially at war with the entire Xianzhou Alliance in three," Himeko murmured, setting her cup down with a soft clink. "Aren't they taking this a bit too far?"
"Himeko, I will go down there."
"Now?" Himeko looked up, surprised. "The situation on their end is still incredibly volatile. If you go over now—"
"It is precisely because the situation is unclear that someone needs to go and watch over them," Welt interrupted, his tone leaving no room for argument. "Don't worry, Himeko. I will properly educate the instigator."
Welt gripped his cane with both hands, his knuckles turning white as if he were wielding a god-tier weapon preparing to strike down a calamity.
It was Rekka again!
How on earth did that guy manage to lead the entire younger generation of the Express astray so quickly?!
If Rekka were here, he would undoubtedly gasp and shout, 'Oh no, it's the cane weirdo!'
Although Welt perfectly understood the tactical intentions behind Rekka's chaotic maneuvers, this method was far too flamboyant. A single slip-up in this high-stakes game could lead to their absolute defeat.
Meanwhile, deep within the Seat of Divine Foresight.
The sharp clack of jade against wood echoed through the quiet room. Jing Yuan picked up a chess piece and gently placed it onto the board. Half of a major starport had just been blown to pieces, and now, some lunatic claiming to be a Vanguard of Destruction had jumped out of the shadows.
Yet, the General's golden eyes remained calm. No matter what kind of theatrical play this rogue group was putting on, the logic remained the same: the muddier the water became, the easier it was for the true big fish hiding at the bottom to surface.
Back in the cargo yard, Silver Wolf's fingers danced across her floating holographic keyboard.
"Relinquish your resistance. I grant you an equal destruction."
Stelle's image, heavily filtered and projected outward under the stolen identity of Celenova, flickered to life across intercepted Luofu frequencies. That single, arrogant sentence instantly sent the entire Xianzhou population into a blind panic.
"How is that possible?! Isn't Lord Ravager Celenova supposed to be somewhere else?"
"If this is Celenova, then what in the cosmos is the thing facing off against the Yaoqing on the other side of the universe?!"
"No, don't forget—Celenova has the strength to command Legion battles across entire star systems simultaneously!"
Right as the panic reached a fever pitch, a second voice cut through the broadcast.
The pinkish-blue gradient in March 7th's eyes suddenly deepened, freezing over into an endless, abyssal void. Long Night Moon had taken the wheel. After all, March 7th's natural bubbly cadence was far too silly to pull this off.
"Celenova, how much longer must we wait?" Long Night Moon spoke, using March's vocal cords to produce a tone so ancient and chilling it seemed to drop the ambient temperature of the yard. "Resolve them as quickly as possible."
Stelle, perfectly in character, replied smoothly. "We still have a mission. Moment, it is not yet time for you to incinerate their memories along with them."
With a sharp crackle of static, Silver Wolf cut the projection. The broadcast ended abruptly, leaving nothing but dead air.
And across the Luofu, the metaphorical bomb detonated.
Moment.
Who was Moment?
The aliases of the Lord Ravagers were generally two characters long, and their names were always intrinsically linked to the specific aspect of the Path they targeted.
Moment... what did that correspond to?
Time. Moments. Remembrance.
Back in the cargo yard, the abyssal chill faded from March 7th's eyes, her pupils gradually regaining their warm, pinkish-blue luster. She shook her head abruptly, let out a massive, shuddering breath, and collapsed backward, sitting directly onto a blue shipping container.
"Wow... that just now was simply too domineering," March 7th gasped, patting her chest as she panted heavily. "I didn't even know I could speak in such a cold tone. I sounded completely like a cold-blooded Great Demon King!"
Stelle reached up and pulled the glowing, translucent planetary ring off her head, spinning it around her finger.
"It really was cool," Stelle agreed, her eyes shining with adrenaline. "Standing up there just now, I felt like I really came to destroy the Xianzhou. I completely understand now why those villains always like to shout dramatic monologues before they act. The intimidation factor is off the charts."
Silver Wolf spun her handheld terminal with a flick of her wrist, tapping the screen a few times to bring up a fresh stream of data.
"Had enough of showing off?" Silver Wolf asked, blowing a pink bubble of synthetic gum before turning to look at the two of them. "I just finished re-analyzing the Cloud Knights' defense network. They are withdrawing their forces on a massive scale. Many of the transportation hubs that were previously under tight lockdown now have huge surveillance blind spots. The Luofu management is clearly changing their strategy."
"Withdrawing the defense line?" March 7th tilted her head, thoroughly confused. "We just issued a literal world-ending declaration of war. Shouldn't they be strengthening their defenses and turning the entire ship upside down to find us?"
"It's a classic tactic called 'inviting the tiger into the house,'" Silver Wolf explained, the gum popping loudly in the quiet yard. "The General sitting in the Seat of Divine Foresight isn't stupid. He must have guessed that there are ulterior motives behind this sudden declaration of war, so he's simply opening the front door and waiting for us to walk right in. This fits the script's direction perfectly."
Stelle picked up her baseball bat, resting the heavy metal casually against her shoulder. "Then we'll just crawl inside exactly as he wishes?"
"No, let's add one more layer to this," Rekka said, his eyes gleaming with fresh mischief. He turned his gaze toward the hacker. "Silver Wolf, you come too."
"I have to be a Lord Ravager too?" Silver Wolf pointed a finger at her own chest, genuinely baffled, before scratching the back of her head.
"Yeah, come on. Be a Lord Ravager together with us," March 7th urged, jumping off the container and grabbing Silver Wolf's hand, swinging it back and forth.
"I'm a hacker," Silver Wolf deadpanned, pulling her hand back. "Hacking systems and peeking at security surveillance from behind the scenes is enough for me. I'm not doing it." She chewed her gum lazily, looking entirely unbothered, as if the grand theatrical production happening around her had nothing to do with her.
"Are you sure?" Rekka pressed, stepping closer.
"Sure."
"You really don't want to experience the absolute power trip of being a Lord Ravager?"
"Don't want to."
"Just think of it as playing a highly immersive, live-action role-playing game."
Silver Wolf paused. She stared up into Rekka's painfully sincere face for three long seconds. Her eyes flickered. She looked away, staring at the rusted metal of the container.
"...No."
"Why?"
"There's no why, I just don't want to." Silver Wolf crossed her arms defensively over her chest. "I'm a hacker, not an actor. Being responsible for technical support is more than enough. You guys play the public-facing stuff yourselves."
"But when you were watching those two act just now, your eyes were completely glued to them."
"I was not."
"You absolutely were," Stelle testified from the sidelines, leaning on her bat with a smug grin. "You were watching very seriously just now. I saw you."
Silver Wolf's cheeks dusted with a faint hint of pink. "...You guys."
"I'll take that as a resounding yes," Rekka declared.
Silver Wolf let out a long, defeated sigh, her shoulders slumping. "Fine, fine, I really can't do anything with you guys. Let's get this straight right now: just this once. No more."
"Great!" Rekka immediately flashed a bright thumbs-up. "Silver Wolf, then, from now on, you are Lord Ravager—"
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