After Wende's group stated their identities and purpose, they were received by members of [Phantom Light] and led to a temporary tent.
"You are honored guests who have come to help Punklorde. Please rest here for now. When your companions arrive, we will bring them here."
After saying this, the [Phantom Light] member responsible for receiving them rushed back to the front line to continue participating in its construction.
They had just captured this easily defensible location. As long as they could fortify it, aside from the threat from the Scrapyard, there would be nothing in the vicinity of the Neon Metropolis that could endanger the Old District.
Compared to the pressure on the New District's side, the pressure on the Old District's defensive line was manageable. They had repelled several small-scale monster attacks. During this window of opportunity, they should be able to build a solid defense, right?
Everyone's heart was filled with uncertainty, but when faced with those monsters of flesh and machine, they all fought with exceptional bravery.
The Old District was right behind them! They had no path of retreat!
---o---
"The progress here is much faster than I imagined. Did they only just take this place yesterday? That's incredibly fast..." Wende remarked with another sigh, thinking back to the crude but constantly improving defensive line he had just seen.
"It reminds me of The Builders... a pity none of them are here," Jingliu said, sitting upright in her chair and shaking her head slightly.
"Indeed. Logically speaking, most planets under the Corporation's jurisdiction would have a presence from The Builders, but it's quite surprising that we haven't seen any sign of them on Punklorde."
"Tingyun" also voiced her confusion, though on second thought, perhaps this planet simply wasn't part of The Builders' plans. After all, across the galaxy, the most famous things about Punklorde, besides the legend of that [Galaxy Ranger], were the notoriously infamous [hackers].
Living life like a game, changing reality through code—that didn't seem to align with the Path of Preservation at all, did it?
However, looking at Punklorde's current state, and considering Miss Himeko's previous assessment... it was likely that once the Astral Express had retrieved and sealed the Stellaron, both the [Corporation] and [The Builders] would descend upon this planet.
"I hope... it doesn't end up being a situation where we are the ones forced to make a choice," Wende said placidly, slowly closing his eyes.
---o---
"Sigh, why do I feel like Stelle has gotten even more violent than before?" Himeko asked March, looking perplexed as she watched Stelle single-handedly chasing a group of monsters. Could this be the legendary impatience she had heard about?
"Has she? She was like this on the Luofu too, wasn't she?" March, completely oblivious, scratched her head. She hadn't noticed any change in Stelle at all.
"Is that so? I still feel that the Stelle from when she first boarded the Express was cuter..."
For some reason... I feel like Wende has been raising this child in a progressively stranger direction...
---o---
"ROAR! I'M A NATURAL-BORN WARMONGER! NO ONE CAN STOP ME! I WILL BE REUNITED WITH HIM!!"
Dogzi's eyes were red as she smashed one Ultimate after another into the monsters before her. Witness her Kafka-Wende DoT team for high-speed mob clearing!
Then! One Flame Lance to take you all away!!!
[Hello? I remember Fire Trailblazer is Preservation now...]
[Can you explain why your one Ultimate deals more damage than my main DPS?]
[Oh, all her Trailblazer's relics rolled into double crit (sour)]
[Right, right, all your protection characters get double crit, while your DPS characters get HP and DEF, is that it?]
[Hello? Why are you opening my old wounds?]
[Even with all double crit, that damage is still not right!]
[TL;DR: Crit DMG body, ATK boots, Fire DMG sphere, ATK rope... look, her HP is not even three thousand...]
[Heretical build! A purely heretical build!]
"Wahaha! Didn't expect that, did you! I equipped all the relics I farmed for Godfather that rolled the wrong stats! Ah they still have Godfather's scent on them Snnnffff~~!!! Intoxicating!"
Dogzi took an ecstatic sniff of the Wende pillow in her hands.
[Tsk! Cringe!]
[Super cringe!]
[Well, the relics I gave Wende were stripped off Himeko, so does that mean...]
[Hiss...]
[Oh no, Godfather wearing Himeko's clothes... why am I having this dream!]
---o---
"Version 1.1 update... is it tomorrow? By the way, when did this official account appear? How come there was no warning? And what platform is 'HuyouCom'? Has that always been a thing?"
At St. Freya Academy, Theresa hugged her phone, leaning against Himeko with a strange look on her face.
"It seems the Principal is still getting used to it. The appearance of this game is already unreasonable in itself. Isn't it normal for its related infrastructure to be a little abnormal too?"
Himeko placed her cold beer gently on the coffee table, her face flushed, and spoke without a care in the world.
"Ah! You big drunkard!" Theresa scrambled off of Himeko with a look of disgust.
"But it's the weekend. After working for a whole week, taking a little break now and then is perfectly normal, no?" Himeko said, completely unconcerned.
"Instead of worrying about me drinking, the Principal should be more concerned about what that 'Wende' in the preview livestream means."
"Huh? Wende? What Wende? Isn't he a 4-star character?" Theresa scratched her head in a daze.
"The Version 1.1 preview livestream. Look, the host is Wende. It says there's a reward of 300 Stellar Jade..."
Himeko leaned closer to Theresa and, a little drunk, tapped on her phone. On the HuyouCom platform, the official Star Rail livestream announcement revealed that the host for this event was none other than the 4-star character, Wende.
"How strange... could it be that this Wende is a real person?"
"Who knows," Himeko shrugged, a thoughtful glint in her otherwise hazy eyes.
---o---
"A preview livestream? HuyouCom? Right, this damned game can't go a day without pulling some new stunt. What? The host is a character from the game? It's not going to be one of those where it's just a VA voicing over, is it?"
Tesla looked puzzled. She then tried to bypass the backend of this app called "HuyouCom," but just like with Honkai: Star Rail, she couldn't analyze a single thing!
"It seems we can only wait for the preview program to begin," Welt Yang said, shaking his head.
Over the past two days, under Tesla's coercion, he had been forced to complete all of Star Rail's story... Every time he saw that face during the Dan Heng storyline on the Xianzhou... he... he felt the urge to smash his phone.
In fact, he had already smashed several, but in the end, for the sake of the bigger picture... he had obediently used his powers to repair them.