Night, somewhere on the Xianzhou.
Slurp—
In a pitch-black room, a silver-haired girl fiercely slurped a mouthful of instant noodles, her eyes glued to the screen. The moment she noticed someone refuting her comments, she would immediately set down her plastic fork and unleash a frenzy of sharp retorts laced with mockery.
Click—
Kafka flicked on the light switch. "Yo, Silver Wolf, still going at it with the trolling? Got that big of a grudge against this uploader?"
"Mind your own business," Silver Wolf replied without turning her head.
She had completely taken over the comment section of the latest video by the uploader "An Ordinary Purple Researcher," furiously accusing them of being an AI for not showing their face.
As for why Silver Wolf harbored such intense animosity toward this uploader, it all started a few years ago.
Back then, Silver Wolf was a veteran gaming streamer from Punklorde. In a world entirely dominated by "information," "data," and "networks," the profession of a gaming streamer had become so common it was practically everywhere. One could only imagine how much effort and dedication Silver Wolf had poured into reaching her position.
Originally, she could have happily lived her life as an internet-addicted girl. But that idyllic dream was shattered one night by an unexpected incident.
At the time, Silver Wolf was attempting to break the high score of the galaxy's top-selling game. If she succeeded, she would become a gaming streamer renowned across the cosmos, reaching the pinnacle of her "wolf" life.
She could still recall the billions of viewers watching her livestream.
But at that critical moment, under the gaze of countless eyes, a pop-up suddenly appeared on Silver Wolf's streaming screen: [The Herta Anti-Cheat System has been activated. Your account has been flagged for abnormal data and has been urgently banned.]
Boom!
That pop-up was like a bolt of lightning, shattering Silver Wolf's dreams into pieces.
[: What? The streamer's a cheater? 666, not even bothering to hide it!]
[: Yo, streamer, where's your paddle?]
[: Streamer, you're a poet, huh?! Cheaters deserve the worst!]
[: Yo, brothers, I've already doxxed her. She's using cheat effects in her streams to look like a 1.7-meter-tall cool older sister, but she's barely over 1.5 meters in real life. And her chest? Total flat board, yet she photoshopped it to a B-cup, tsk tsk tsk…]
[: …]
In a haze of confusion, fear, and anger, Silver Wolf shut down her stream and fled Punklorde like a fugitive.
Cheating in a game… did it really warrant being cursed out like a dog?!
Sure, she admitted it wasn't exactly ethical and that it did ruin the experience for other players, but… but! She was genuinely bad at games!
She remembered playing some obscure game called Honkai Impact 3rd back then, where she couldn't even beat a regular elite enemy. She didn't want to be like this!
Was being bad at games something you could only fix by grinding? Couldn't persistence and effort count for something?!
And, to take a step back, she didn't even buy the cheat scripts from someone else—she wrote them herself! I cheated with my own skills, so why the hell did they ban me?!
But thinking about all that was pointless now. The important thing was that Silver Wolf had been branded the "Galaxy's Number One Cheater." Fortunately, the internet had a short memory, and since the gaming account she used back then wasn't under the name "Silver Wolf," her infamy was quickly forgotten by the masses after she went silent for a week.
But Silver Wolf would never forget. She would never forget that damned anti-cheat program that came out of nowhere!
Finding the author of that anti-cheat system was a piece of cake. It took Silver Wolf less than a second to guess the scriptwriter's real name.
Herta!
It was you!
Back then, Herta wasn't the timid, introverted person she is now. At Asta's suggestion, she had created an account called "Magical Girl Herta" and was actively posting about her various scientific achievements. The "Herta Anti-Cheat System" was one of her creations from that time.
And so, Silver Wolf's campaign of revenge began.
From a certain day onward, Herta suddenly noticed a user named "Anonymous User Wolf" appearing under her video account. Their comments were venomous, typically following this formula:
[LOL, after watching the uploader's video, I feel like my brain's regressing. You call this level of code impressive? What a joke, you little cutie uploader. Let me show you what real code looks like!]
Since Herta's expertise didn't lie in this area, and the so-called "Herta Anti-Cheat System" was just a casual side project, she was caught off guard when this "Anonymous User Wolf" nitpicked and actually found several minor flaws in her work.
What was even more infuriating was that a bunch of clueless outsiders, after seeing these comments, started praising "Anonymous User Wolf" with remarks like, "You've got the most words, I'm siding with you," "The real pro is right here," and "The uploader's trying to show off but just looks like a clown." All sorts of comments belittling Herta while hyping up the anonymous user kept pouring in!
At first, Herta, backed by her massive fanbase, didn't take it too seriously. Sure, she'd get annoyed sometimes, but it wasn't enough to shut her down. But for some reason, her fans gradually started unfollowing her and stopped defending her (thanks to Silver Wolf doxxing them). That's when Herta truly started to panic.
Later, Herta tried reaching out to Silver Wolf privately, begging her to be less harsh. But how could the cunning Silver Wolf agree to that? She even tricked Herta, saying, "Alright, I'm not unreasonable. How about this: tell me where you are, we meet up offline, bury the hatchet with a smile, sound good?" She used words like that to coax Herta into revealing her location.
The kind-hearted Herta, in an attempt to reconcile with Silver Wolf (and mostly because she was too naive), didn't hesitate for a moment and handed over her coordinates. Even Silver Wolf, on the other side of the screen, was stunned by how quickly and decisively Herta responded.
But Silver Wolf, now a Stellaron Hunter, was no saint. Revenge was non-negotiable. Armed with her "Aether Editing" ability, Silver Wolf hacked into reality itself, following the network cables straight to Herta. She pinned Herta down and playfully humiliated her (rubbing her face, patting her head, spanking her), taking "mockery" to its absolute peak.
After that, the once pure and kind Herta, battered by online criticism and harassment, gradually lost her confidence. Silver Wolf's "online-to-offline" real-world stunt became the final straw that broke the camel's back, turning Herta into the socially awkward, pitiful beauty she is today.
End of flashback.
Watching Silver Wolf, who was still engrossed in her online feuds, Kafka shook her head helplessly. Oh well, let her be. She decided to go take a hot shower and then "bother" Stelle a bit. Heh, I wonder what Stelle's up to in the middle of the night? I'm so looking forward to it!