Lucian's vision flickered for a moment before it suddenly shifted, and the scenery before his eyes became clear again.
Beneath his feet stretched the vast emptiness of space, and all around him, countless stars gleamed in the dark.
Yes, he was now floating in space.
Evidently, he had returned to the place where he had fought the 'battle of life and death' against Nous.
However, the projection of Nous was already gone, and instead, another familiar projection stood quietly in the void.
"Herta? What are you doing having your projection here?"
Indeed, the projection before him was none other than the projection of Herta herself.
Herta, who had seemed lost in thought, instantly snapped out of it the moment she heard his voice, then turned toward him and quickly moved closer.
"You! You're alright?!"
Herta asked hurriedly, her expression openly anxious.
"Oh? You're worried about me?" Lucian asked with a teasing grin. "I thought you'd be glad if I got beaten to death."
"Who's worried about you?! Don't flatter yourself!"
Herta's projection flickered sharply as she turned her head away at once, the wide brim of her witch hat nearly covering half her face and revealing only her graceful jawline and tightly pressed lips.
"I just came to see how your fight with Droidhead went. I wanted to check if you've been turned into a pile of binary code or something."
Hearing this, Lucian couldn't help but roll his eyes.
'Still as tsundere as ever, huh...' Lucian thought wordlessly, not bothering to expose her lies, before saying, "As you can see, I won."
"How did you win?" Herta asked, yet she kept her head turned away, refusing to look at him. "An Aeon can't possibly lose to a non-Aeon being."
"Well, after I sent you back, Nous descended personally. Because I split THEIR projection in half, THEY threw a tantrum—crying and screaming."
Lucian spouted nonsense on the spot and shrugged helplessly.
"I felt a little sorry for THEM, so I forgave THEM for THEIR rudeness. I told THEM to go home, reflect on THEIR behavior, and next time THEY see Herta, THEY'd better answer her questions politely, and THEY agreed."
All this nonsense rolled off his tongue with absurd confidence—ridiculous yet somehow funny—especially the last line, which actually made Herta silently chuckle in her heart.
"Hmph, what nonsense." Herta snorted lightly. "Droidhead is a cold machine. How could THEY cry and scream? At least make your lies sound believable. It's a shame you didn't die. Boring. I'm leaving."
Leaving these words behind, her projection vanished instantly.
Now that she had confirmed that Lucian was safe, there was no need to linger in this empty space.
If she stayed any longer, who knew what kind of teasing Lucian would throw her way?
Leaving early was definitely wiser.
Lucian looked at where Herta's projection had disappeared for a moment, then let out a relaxed smile.
"A woman who says one thing and feels another—guess she's still got a little emotion left in her, huh..."
He didn't mind Herta's rationality—he only feared the absence of any emotion at all. Now that he confirmed there was still a little emotion in her, it meant there was still a chance to get her heart.
Lucian crossed his legs and floated quietly in space, resembling a cultivator in cultivation novels.
He stayed silent for a moment, seemingly pondering something, before opening the System panel.
...
[Host: Lucian]
[Ability: Disarm, Absolute Hit, Godly Bandage, Immortal Kneel, Sham Diviner, BGM]
[Follower: Tribios 1, Mortis 1, Feixiao 1, Yueyu 1, Castorice 1, Polyxia 1, Jingliu 1, Baiheng 1, Fu Xuan 1, Robin 1, Serfina 0]
[Script: 0]
[Revive Follower]
...
"My followers keep growing, each with their own charm…"
In Lucian's eyes, every one of his wives shared a story with him that was theirs alone, making it impossible for him to rank them by importance.
He sighed sentimentally, then clicked on 'Revive Follower.'
In an instant, Serfina's 0 turned into 1.
"Now that the mama bird's back, the little bird should've recalled her script memories by now..." Lucian muttered, stroking his chin thoughtfully. "Well, time to keep my promise and go home ASAP."
He lingered for a moment, recalling the time he had spent with Robin in reality.
Back then, when Aha brought Robin to him, he remembered glancing at the Epsilon system's coordinates on her phone before sending her off there, but it had been so many years in the script that the memory in reality had grown hazy, so that he no longer quite remembered the exact coordinates.
A few moments later, after thinking for a while, Lucian finally remembered where exactly he had sent Robin in Epsilon.
Now that he knew the exact coordinates, he decided to go see Robin right away and check on her situation.
As for Sunday, he would handle him later.
"Even if Sunday doesn't have his script memories, he still recognizes his mother and sister, so there's no way he wouldn't recognize his old man, right?"
Lucian shrugged lightly, then activated Absolute Hit and vanished instantly.
===
Epsilon, Golden Theater.
In the dream-like center of the stage, Robin remained motionless in an untouchable state, while the entire stage was already surrounded by security staff, keeping everyone else at a distance.
Now, the theater had been completely locked down, and every suspicious person was under investigation.
"Catch him! He's a wanted criminal!"
Even though they hadn't caught the one who caused Robin's current situation, they had arrested a bunch of fugitives. All of them were on Epsilon's bounty list—criminal fans who loved her so much that they came to see her concert despite the risk.
Honestly, who could've expected things to turn out this way?
Because of the incident, they were swept up in the chaos and arrested on the spot.
"Still, getting caught after seeing Robin live—totally worth it!"
"Didn't expect you to be such a die-hard fan."
"No kidding. If I weren't, would I be here getting caught with you?"
Of course, these little incidents did nothing to cool the uproar over Robin being targeted by the Masked Fools.
"Damn those Masked Fools! If I ever see them, I'll avenge Miss Robin!"
"I'll never forgive the Masked Fools!"
"I know a place where they operate!"
"Guys, they hurt our goddess! What are we gonna do?!"
"Burn the Masked Fools! Burn the Masked Fools!"
Across the cosmos, Robin's fans could truly be said to be everywhere.
Now, some of them had even gone completely insane, already making plans to hunt down the Masked Fools with everything they had.
===
At the same time, in a certain tavern, several masked individuals were chatting with each other—their tones were excited.
"Who did it? Not gonna lie, this is hilarious."
"Yeah, one idiot causes trouble, and now we're all taking the blame! What a riot!"
"What a joy!"
===
As many star systems descended into chaos because of Robin, and as the chaos almost reached its peak, she finally woke up.
Robin slowly opened her eyes, gradually regaining consciousness.
Her beautiful manager, who always stayed by her side, immediately rushed to her front when the manager noticed her eyes slowly opening.
"Robin, are you alright?! What happened?!"
Meanwhile, the surrounding crowd, upon noticing Robin awake due to the manager's loud voice, was sent into a frenzy. Especially the reporters—they tried to rush the stage like madmen for the first scoop.
Luckily, the security staff held the line and stopped them all below the stage.
"I… I think I had a dream… no, maybe it wasn't a dream… I can't tell anymore..."
Robin muttered absent-mindedly as her mind filled with countless warm, happy images—her mother, her brother, and her father.
In the end, after countless twists and turns, her father, Lucian, became her lover, but unfortunately, he left not long after, never to return for a very long time.
However, what was most important was that his figure actually perfectly overlapped with the man she had seen on Jarilo-VI, who was also apparently named Lucian.
'It was him... but why does he act like he doesn't know me? And the woman in purple beside him—what is she to him? Has he abandoned us for that woman?'
Robin's mind quickly spiraled into chaos.
Half of her mind was lost in the happiness and sorrow of her life with Lucian, in the pain of their separation, while the other half was stuck on Jarilo-VI, where the man who shared the same appearance and name as Lucian treated her like a stranger, while another woman stood at his side.
As the two memories—one from reality, and one from the script—collided, they shattered Robin's reason completely.
"Hiks..."
Robin began to cry without warning.
Crystal tears streamed down like broken pearls, rolling from the corners of her eyes in heavy drops as she cried as though nothing else mattered, pouring out years of longing, sorrow, waiting, and fear all at once.
Everyone—whether those present in the theater or those who were watching the live stream—was instantly stunned upon seeing her suddenly crying.
"Wh-What happened...? Why is Miss Robin crying?"
"Oh my god, she looks so heartbroken… that hurts to see..."
"It must be those damn Masked Fools! Their damn cruelty must've scared her! We must avenge her!"
"Fuck those Masked Fools! I'll make them pay!"
At the same time, Sunday, who was also watching the live stream, had just breathed a sigh of relief when he saw his sister wake up, only to have his heart tighten instantly when he saw her suddenly burst into tears.
In the next moment, veins bulged on his forehead.
"Damn those clowns!"
===
[A bonus chapter for every 500 Power Stones.]
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