Xyrin Empire-Chapter 669: Are You Awake?

Wandering aimlessly for nearly an hour in Shadow City, which had practically become a market, Bubbles, who had already been working intensively all day, finally began to yawn after buying a heap of knick-knacks from those strange Otherworldly Merchants whose origins one could only guess.

"Alright, it’s getting late, let’s go back and rest."

I took from Bubbles’ hands the Magic Crystals, Flying Swords, Talisman Cards, Shining Stones, Spirit Cores, and Master Balls that she had excitedly purchased for everyone. Gently pressing on the head of the otaku girl, who despite her continuous yawns, stubbornly clutched the corner of her own clothes unwilling to go home, I said, "I’ll hold these treasures for you and will distribute them to everyone else once we get back."

"I’m not sleepy... I’m not sleepy at all," Bubbles yawned again with her little mouth wide open before muttering to no one in particular, "It’s such a shame to have to sleep without even a little time to play after finally finishing work."

That’s such child-like logic, isn’t it? Any unsuspecting person hearing a young girl say that would surely feel deeply sympathetic. Just like when I was first fooled seeing this girl with her eyes tightly shut being "sealed" in a crystal prism. But now, knowing her true nature, all I could do was give a helpless, bitter smile, "If you didn’t spend each work session opening ten or twenty million little accounts to play games, watch anime, download movies, read novels, and slaughter Baidu, you wouldn’t be this tired."

"Hmph! That only takes up a few percent of this mainframe’s abilities!" Bubbles glared and waved her tiny arms at me, her hardware’s violent tendencies clearly showing. However, she soon couldn’t sustain her mental defiance, and after a couple of comfortable rubs under my big hand patting her head, this dead-set otaku snuggled up to hug my legs (the tragedy of her height), "Mmm, I’ll go back to the Mother Nest to rest. You should get some sleep early too and don’t night raid anyone, okay?"

What kind of déjà vu-inducing statement is that? Bubbles, do you dare let people see what exactly you’re using those several TBs of bandwidth for daily? No wonder you thought Gilgamesh’s English name was ’galgames’!

Suppressing my inner sarcasm, I sent off the tired child-Ugh, her mom-after which, I took a deep breath.

Now, there really isn’t anyone around me.

How long has it been since it was this quiet?

As I watched the crowds around me, yet without the usual bunch of noisy girls jumping around, I suddenly felt quite emotional.

Normally, I’m surrounded by those ever-troubled beauties or a bunch of unscrupulous Imperial Officers, and I had almost gotten used to that lively atmosphere that totally didn’t match my go-with-the-flow personality. Now, suddenly back to wandering alone, it surprisingly felt refreshingly quiet.

...And also a bit boring.

I have to admit, wandering down the streets alone isn’t as fun as being with that joyful gang.

But after a brief spiritual connection and finding out that Qianqian was trying to haul an "Infinite Stratos" (IS) back home, I decisively abandoned the idea of going to find those overly cheerful girls for now.

Compared to the boredom of walking alone, the thought of going to Qianqian and shattering my own worldview seemed even more terrifying.

Let’s just aimlessly stroll for a bit, look at this city that has unknowingly risen and flourished under my watch, look at this place that I’ve always guarded, and look around at the thousands of people who for various reasons have gathered around me unknowingly. It seems, rather nice.

I always felt I must have been a poet in my last life, always slipping into a bewildering literati state under unfathomable circumstances.

Perhaps, innately disliking overly bustling places, when not led astray by the jovial crowd around, I would unwittingly find myself in secluded spots, and only when I looked up and surveyed my surroundings did I realize I had already reached the outskirts of the gathering area.

The assembly area, bustling during the day, was now utterly silent, with only a few craftsmen preparing the necessary arrangements for the next day’s activities in their respective areas. Occasionally, someone recognizing me would stop their work to bow their respects, or a voice would suddenly shout from some dark corner, "Long live the Emperor!" walking this path startled me time and again.

I said, although I’m aware that Dead Souls have minimal light requirements, considering there are so many Races around that depend on their eyes, couldn’t your Dark City construction crew light some lamps at night?

Due to their tireless nature and large number of low-level workers with no interest in the city’s nighttime markets, a majority of the craftsmen employed by the Azeroth delegation were the Forgotten. This is the new racial structure gradually formed in the Azeroth world after peace was achieved: Humans, representing the most creatively pioneering, Elves, serving as the finest artists and magic scholars, Dwarfs, indispensable master forgers within the vast family of Azeroth, and the Forgotten, symbolizing the most efficient and manageable massive workforce. These varied roles together formed the current Azeroth Salvation Army: a fraternity-like legion.

Of course, that explanation was just to explain why I was startled by sixteen Dead Souls craftsmen working in the dark within a mere distance of under three hundred meters.

Crossing this assembly area, I made my way to the Totem Area.

During the daytime, this place had attracted far more visitors than I had anticipated, the number of transmigrants from the Macro World interested in the heroic deeds of Empire vassal Civilizations considerably exceeding everyone’s expectations. Countless people came to this place crowded with monuments, admiring the historical depictions of Hero Races defying fate, and even now, with the assembly activities entirely halted, groups of transmigrators still stood under the enormous holographic projections, gazing up at those events now frozen into history.

Stopping in my tracks, I looked up at the nearest holographic projection, its continually replaying scenes reminding me of many things. It was one of the monuments from the Kepulu Star Zone, now displaying the scene of the entire Kepulu Wisdom Race starting their collective exile just before the Hot Restart. The projection showed a massive exile fleet obscuring the light of constant stars, sweeping past their home planet like a flock of birds startled by gunfire, tragically helpless. Images of Raynor and Zeratul alternated against this dim starry backdrop, realistically reenacting the resolute expressions of these two leaders who had played a part in shaping history at that moment. Around the monument, a fixed sound field cyclically played the announcements once made public by me and Sandora about the impending doomsday.

Then, the scene shifted—the exiling fleet landing on their desolate new homeland, beginning to establish their second home. A white wave from the Hot Restart flashed over the top of the projection, symbolizing the instant annihilation of their former homeworld, surrounding it were the echoes of the famous speech delivered by James Raynor on the desolate Gobi terrain of Capital Star in the New Eden Federation, "We Are Still Alive."

Just like every monument’s recorded scenes, these had not undergone any form of post-production. They were the raw historical records captured by either Xyrin Apostles or probes using on-site recording equipment, yet they were already more poignant than any post-produced "documentary." In the corner of my eye, I saw several girls covering their faces and weeping in front of a monument: they had seen the valiant scene of the last thirty-seven Knights charging toward a tide-like army of Demons at Holy Light’s Wish Church.

"I feel... I really don’t deserve to be recorded in these monuments alongside them."

Suddenly, a gentle, slightly sentimental young female voice reached my ears.

I gently shook my head, "Lola, just speak Chinese—or even English if you really can’t."

A certain eternally seventeen-year-old female bishop: "..."

"Don’t you think it’s boring to tease girls?"

After a moment’s thought, I spoke the blunt truth, "Actually, I’ve already excluded you from the category of girls."

"...Well, it seems I’m indeed not cut out for actions like those close to you," Lola spread her hands, resignedly sighing, then looked up at the monument of the Kepulu Star Zone, "This is still the first time I’ve directly faced the history of these Heroes. It feels completely different from the dry text I once saw in your archives. Although I participated in some events, compared to these figures who truly shaped the world’s trajectory, I feel somewhat negligible." freēnovelkiss.com

"How did you suddenly start belittling yourself?" I curiously looked at the ageless bishop beside me, dressed in a pink gown, her long hair nearly touching the ground, feeling today’s performance by Lola was odd, "And it seems you don’t usually wander out at night, do you?"

"Just felt restless even after praying and wanted to come here, but I didn’t expect to run into you." Lola wore a mask-like smile, but I knew this expression was just habitual and meant no harm.

"To be honest, you should include your name and address when you pray, because God is a scatterbrain."

Finally, a genuine change of expression appeared on Lola’s face, now gloomy, "That’s really nasty, I hold you in reverence as I would the Lord, yet you scorn this."

"God knows what your real thoughts are, but you seem a bit lost," I gave the blonde "young lady" across from me a knowing smile, "I once thought you wanted to find guidance for human self-redemption through the Xyrin Apostle or seek a strong and just being to entrust your long pursuit of an absolute existence. Initially, that’s how I understood it, but now something seems to have troubled you."

Although I always knew that information projection would greatly affect the "plot" and "setting," seeing an individual like Lola diverging so greatly from the original was still rare, and together with her inherently high intelligence attribute, I really couldn’t quite see through this woman who appeared to have a stubborn objective, especially compared to someone like Gilgamesh, who was also vastly different from the "original."

It was only Little Baobao’s caregiver, with intelligence below average, who I could see through at a glance.

Lola quietly looked at me, her expression so neutral it was hard to read her emotions, "You’re right, I’m just pursuing an answer. Perhaps it’s humorous to you, but I hope to find the future for humanity. The divine power of the Xyrin Apostles, a Race now considered god-like, is desirable. The traits demonstrated by your followers might be the only path forward humans can find, the only one confirmed feasible. Perhaps you’ve already considered this: not just me, but every leader of the vassal worlds gathered around the Empire shares this thought. Everyone is trying to find a path forward for their own civilizations from beings like the Xyrin Apostles who have reached the truth. For worlds as weak as ours, this is particularly true."

I fell silent for two seconds, looking conflicted, "I honestly hadn’t thought of that."

Lola, "... Could you just pretend you had?"

"Alright, back to the initial topic, why did you suddenly start feeling emotional?"

"Just feeling that my life’s actions compared to theirs..." Lola said, stretching her hand out towards those other world heroes on the monuments, "seem a bit insignificant. When their worlds faced destruction, each of them resisted vigorously. Even when facing death, they did not back down, and though they may have eventually been defeated, at least they had fought alongside you against fate. We, on the other hand—now that I think about it, when the doomsday arrived, we were still busy with internal disputes among our Race because of ideological differences, allowing such a small world to be torn apart by various forces. When the meteorite fell from the sky, we were only scattered in flight, merely waiting for a savior. Such a Race, it’s indeed regrettable..."

"Crack!"

A hand chop landed squarely on the head of the top bishop, who was caught in a baffling gloomy state. Then both of us froze for a moment.

Damn, I’m used to this.

Suddenly realizing the bishop lady has a fundamental difference from the girls under my command, I hurriedly jumped back half a meter, then started a stern critique, "The situations were different, what could you have resisted then?"

"So those were just personal emotions," Lola rubbed her head, "I’m not so disillusioned with my own Race over some subpar performance. It’s just, thinking about how among all the vassal worlds, I represent one of the weakest forces, and comparing to other worlds, it’s just like a child, that’s what’s making me a bit depressed."

That was indeed the case, don’t mention comparing with interstellar civilizations like the New Eden Federation or Civilization Community, even compared to the Magic Civilization of Azeroth, which could use arcane power to explore other planets, the power from the Magic Prohibition World’s magic side that Lola represented seemed quite weak now.

This sudden realization that popped into my mind made me start pondering, it seems... the current vassal forces of the Empire still leave something to be desired, but... how should this deficiency be rectified?

An event like a carnival might play some role, facilitating the exchange of advanced power theories between worlds, perhaps uplifting some weaker civilizations, but this alone might not be enough.

Lola noticed the contemplative expression on my face as if her own purpose had been achieved, and a faint smile appeared on her face, "Then, I will not disturb your thoughts."

"Yes," I nodded, and then called out to her before she turned to leave, "Lola, speak directly in the future, you should curb your habit of playing mind games when you’re with me."

"Uh... very sorry..."

After Lola left, I began to ponder the issues concerning the Empire’s current vassal worlds, like how to enhance their strength without hindering their normal development. That fox woman probably did meet me by chance here, but her words surely had some purpose, perhaps to seek some benefits for her own world.

This was hardly surprising. As the number of the Empire’s vassal worlds increased, countless races served as the Empire’s servant army participating in battles against various world-threatening forces, and they too received tangible benefits through the support from a civilization that reached its apex. For wisdom civilizations prioritizing development and progress, this guidance that could save them centuries, if not thousands of years, was unimaginably beneficial. However, with more than one vassal world in the Empire, the issue of who gets more attention becomes a concern.

Powerful races adept at fighting naturally use their illustrious battlefield contributions as their greatest capital, but the relatively backward worlds with weaker power must seek other ways. Lola’s words today clearly aimed to remind me of something: not to neglect those weaker "children."

Perhaps due to our positions, Sandora and I had never focused on this, but Lola had realized that if the power of the Magic Prohibition World she represented continued like this, they would eventually fade away on the stage of realms built by the Empire: when compared to magic civilizations with histories of tens of thousands of years or interstellar civilizations that have colonized the universe, a civilization not even past Earth and barely a few thousand years old truly lacks lasting power.

I don’t know how long it passed; suddenly, a burst of footsteps interrupted my thoughts.

Noticing the footsteps were headed towards me, I looked up in confusion, only to see a silver-haired girl smiling at me.

"Silvia?"

I greeted her somewhat surprised, "Why are you wandering around at this time?"

I remember Silvia as a well-behaved baby who regularly closes her shop and goes to bed at ten o’clock. Could this girl be lost again?

"I was just curious, such an event has never been held by the Empire in my memory, it seems quite interesting."

The silver-haired girl in front of me said with a quiet smile, looking into my eyes.

(For some reason... subscriptions have been weak recently, yeah, especially weak.

The previous line was just a sound check, now the main topic: overtime is starting, so I can only update in the office from now on. Considering the boss’s patrol route and movement speed and angular velocity, the update timing will be quite erratic, please everyone stay calm.)(To be continued. If you like this work, welcome to QiDian (qidian.com) to vote for recommendations and monthly tickets, your support is my greatest motivation.)

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