"Dang dang dang dang dang~!"
"Trianne, makes her grand entrance!"
Okhema, Bath Palace.
Trianne jumped onto the sofa and flopped back, muttering with a listless air: "Ah, Trianne is so exhausted."
"Little Ash, you have no idea, it was almost exposed! Xiao Bai had to come kill me, while also being ready to come back and find Trianne at any moment. All that running around, but thankfully we made it in time."
Trianne glanced to the side.
Xu Qiong was holding a mobile phone, browsing the live footage captured by Aglaea and the others to ensure the 'script' hadn't deviated.
However, as he watched, Xu Qiong felt the corners of his mouth were akin to Caesar's—so hard to suppress, truly too hard to suppress. How could they rise so high?!
"Heh heh, ha ha..."
Seeing this, Trianne wore an expression of speechlessness.
So, in the blink of an eye, she was already standing on the sofa, hands on her hips, facing Xu Qiong: "Little Ash! This is not funny!"
"Trianne is still alive, watching a whole crowd of people cry over Trianne's doll, and the key point is they were crying their hearts out!"
"Do you know how Trianne feels inside?"
"Sorry about that, Teacher Tiresias... ha ha."
Snapping back to reality, Xu Qiong looked Trianne up and down, genuinely feeling a bit sorry.
Because seeing Trianne made him want to laugh even more!
Perhaps he understood Aha now—happiness truly is built upon the suffering of others.
And seeing Little Ash laugh even more heartily, Trianne was furious!
She planted her hands on her hips again, adopting a pouting, sulky posture.
"However," Xu Qiong said, bringing up some good news, "this way, Trianne can rest first."
"Tribbie and Trinnon will probably need some more time before they can return."
"That's true too."
Hearing this, Trianne tilted her head, finding it somewhat reasonable.
Was she the first one to wrap up filming?
Of course, if Tribbie and Trinnon hadn't returned yet, there was no way to change back, but operating in this state for a while was also fine.
Once they finished the content for version 3.1, they could pretty much return anytime.
"Then Trianne will temporarily stay in this state and indulge in a bit of nostalgia."
"Thank you, Little Ash~"
Trianne gave Xu Qiong a thumbs-up gesture.
But, to be fair, Xu Qiong had been deeply bonded companions with Stelle on the Astral Express before.
To push the script as much as possible and prevent any bugs or the like from appearing in the universe, which led to making the other party cry, he felt his conscience couldn't help but suffer a bit.
However.
Thinking that this was for Amphoreus, and even the entire galaxy, Stelle would just have to endure a bit of grievance for now.
After all, the person would actually live on later.
She would definitely be happy to see it too!
Meanwhile, in the game community.
[Tonight Eat Roast Chicken: The honkai: star rail animated short: "That Restful Long Night" has been released.]
The animated short, prepared long ago, was something Xu Qiong chose to release at this moment.
After all, on the main story side, Guinaifen had already finished it.
And the players who finished it alongside her in the first wave numbered in the tens of millions, even hundreds of millions, quickly sweeping across major platforms.
[I saw this game on the charts and came in to mock it, thinking it was just an ordinary fan-made mobile game, but how does it have an animated short?!]
[Holy crap, what an epic journey. How did the Author depict this planet so vividly, making it feel more epic than the planet I live on?]
[The quality of the animated short is too strong—the direction, music, coloring... the moment that fantasy-colored painting appeared, I really shed little pearls!]
[Just so you know, Castorice can only hold hands with her reflection in the mirror and her own shadow...]
[Damn, even if I were nitpicking, I couldn't come up with something like that, person upstairs?]
[I declare today's honkai: star rail invincible!]
[Newbies are still marveling at the game's high quality, shocked that a turn-based game has this kind of world-building, but veterans are already starting to feel dread.]
[Shaoji, tell me what demon are you trying to summon? Do you know I've been crying the whole time?!]
Not just the community.
In Guinaifen's livestream, shortly after the animation ended, it was completely taken over by question marks.
Following closely behind were massive amounts of comments that caused network latency.
[chiming online: About to shed little pearls~ Tell me where Castorice is! Watch this young lady cure her of this ailment!]
[Real-Name Surfing: Ah, fate truly shows no mercy.]
[Who said honkai: star rail rose purely on fanworks? At this moment, I feel Castorice is in no way inferior to Ms. Herta! Castorice's image feels more real than a real person.]
[The short has too many details. Just this composition—holding the branch as if shaking hands with her reflection in the mirror on the left, while the branch on the right seems to be shaking hands with her shadow on the right.]
[Wind Rain Rainbow 7854: 'Raising my cup, I invite the bright moon; facing my shadow, we become three people'—is this what that means?]
[And the beginning, especially the deer at the beginning and the end, should symbolize death and rebirth!]
[So, Shaoji, tell me, this time Castorice will be reborn, right?]
After finishing Castorice's personal animation, Guinaifen was also moved to speechlessness.
Initially, upon seeing Castorice and hearing her talk about her abilities, she hadn't felt particularly touched.
But only after delving deeper through the story and the short...
So, a thousand years of being unable to touch others was this heavy?
Guinaifen wiped her tears but wasn't ready to give up: "Don't be sad, folks! Let's hurry and find the 'death' Ember!"
"Castorice has been looking for Thanatos all along. As long as we can reclaim Thanatos's Ember, Little Butterfly can break the curse and be able to hug."
That's right.
Sushang also fully agreed with Guinaifen's judgment.
"Cheer up, Guinaifen. Thanatos has already appeared. Castorice can still be saved!"
Continuing to look into the story.
Shifting away from the earlier sadness, after Castorice finished recounting her past to Stelle, she indeed began comforting her again:
"Embraces in this world were meant for reunions, yet my hands can only speak of farewells. At that time, I too had reason to believe this fate would run through my entire life..."
"But now things have taken a turn. Since I can finally have an audience with Thanatos, I still have a chance to write a different interpretation for that destined prophecy."
Hearing Castorice say this, the players in front of their screens were all invigorated.
[At first, I couldn't understand the weight of this oracle, until this short ended.]
['At the end of the flower sea, the souls of the living will warm thy fingertips; after the embrace, comes eternal parting.' Hasn't this prophecy been Castorice's portrayal for a thousand years?]
[But if Castorice says so, could it be that this time the oracle will finally be rewritten?!]
[My Stelle is going to be revived, hahaha—!]
Full of anticipation, Guinaifen officially prepared to set off.
Moreover, to leave no regrets, Castorice seemed to have prepared a gift, filling Guinaifen with eager anticipation.
However, following honkai: star rail's pattern, if nothing unexpected happened, then something unexpected happened.
By the time Castorice and Stelle arrived, only a Zagreus coin and a stone slab remained.
"Lord Sai Feier, the demigod Zagreus that Aglaea mentioned earlier," Castorice explained.
"What the heck? Sai Feier?"
Guinaifen pondered for a moment. Had Aglaea actually mentioned this?
So she clicked to view the message.
It began with—
To the esteemed 'Woju Princess'!