"All passengers, please remain in your seats! We are about to begin the first warp jump!"
Pom-Pom's voice echoed through the car. They were about to follow the star rail to the "anomalous" node.
March 7th, who usually tried to challenge herself by walking around during a warp jump, was now sitting obediently on the sofa. She was chatting listlessly with Stelle, looking utterly exhausted.
It made sense. She had spent the previous day accompanying Wende, exploring every single shop in the Central Starskiff Haven. By the time they returned to the train, it was already two in the morning. Although the Starskiff Haven was a city that never slept, they still had to maintain a basic sleep schedule on the train.
As a result, a drowsy March 7th had none of her usual excitement for visiting a new place. Instead, she was happily lazing on the sofa, content to just slack off…
Should I have some lemon juice later, or maybe some milk tea? I haven't had any of Pom-Pom's drinks recently, I kind of miss them…
"March, it looks like a new game just came out."
Stelle, who was fiddling with her phone, suddenly said to March.
"A game? What kind… don't tell me it's another massive open-world game? Or one of those unoriginal PVP ones? That stuff is from several Amber Eras ago! Why are they still making them?!"
March waved her hand tiredly, looking completely uninterested. Currently, the biggest game developer in the universe was under the Interastral Peace Corporation. Although the incident on Punklorde had caused many games to become unplayable, even if they were available… those games weren't very interesting! Aetherium Wars was fun, but not every game was Aetherium Wars!
Especially those PVP games… they were extremely unfriendly to her!
"Uh, but this game looks pretty cool. The character art is really good! It's just…"
While browsing the new game's character art, Stelle rubbed her chin with a puzzled expression.
"This character has the same name as Bronya, but her 3D model is exactly the same as Silver Wolf's… But now that I think about it, Bronya and Silver Wolf do look a lot alike. Could Silver Wolf be Bronya's long-lost sister?"
Looking at the Bronya Zaychik with spiral drill pigtails on her phone, Stelle made a perfectly logical connection.
"Hmm?"
Welt, who was sitting nearby, seemed to have thought of something and frowned slightly. However, given the nature of the people at the Interastral Peace Corporation, it was common for them to casually use other people's images and names. After all, they would actually pay to buy your likeness… such was the financial might of the IPC. This kind of "act first, ask for permission later" behavior wasn't rare.
"Oh! Really? Let me see…"
Her curiosity piqued by Stelle's words, March immediately snuggled up to Stelle to look at her phone screen.
"It's true! Bronya's name, and that little hacker's image… it looks exactly like her! Do you think she'll get all flustered and angry and hack into the game because of this?" March thought, her train of thought taking a quirky turn.
Nearby, Wende, who had been looking at his own company's product, Honkai Impact 3rd, suddenly froze. If Silver Wolf found out, she might actually try to hack it.
But a creation of the system… surely it couldn't be hacked that easily, right?
The release of Honkai Impact 3rd in the Star Rail world hadn't actually caused much of a stir. The system hadn't engaged in the kind of viral marketing it had used in the Honkai world.
Furthermore, no one had yet discovered the extra planet in Belobog's star system. Perhaps the IPC was still busy cleaning up the mess on Punklorde and didn't have time to monitor the situation over here.
As for the people of Belobog… any professionals involved in astronomical research would certainly discover the phenomenon. He felt a little bad for the already busy Bronya, but it couldn't be helped.
---o---
"Damn it! What company is this? miHoYo Interstellar Inc.? Don't they know that infringing on someone's portrait rights is a serious crime?! Even if I'm a fugitive, I still have portrait rights!"
On some unknown planet, Silver Wolf stared at the other version of herself on the screen, gritting her teeth and shouting in indignation.
Sure, she was a wanted Stellaron Hunter and her image was plastered all over the web, but you couldn't just blatantly put her in a game! Were they pretending she didn't exist?! This was the ultimate provocation to a hacker!
Silver Wolf decisively connected her phone to Prometheus. She was going to extract this game's data and teach its developers a lesson.
"Hee hee, who knew little Wolfie could be so cute in a game? You even have a big robot behind you. Don't you like it?"
Kafka looked at the Bronya on the phone and teased the fuming Silver Wolf with a smile.
"Hmph! Don't you stand there making sarcastic remarks. Be careful or someone will steal your image and use it to make some R-rated stuff!" Silver Wolf retorted sharply.
Blade, who was nearby, was already used to their bickering.
At that moment, he was grinding the newly released game. Heh heh heh, this time, if I get a head start, there's no way Dan Heng will surpass me in this game! Heh heh heh!
"Hiss… why is he having another episode? Didn't you say his Mara was suppressed?" Silver Wolf whispered to Kafka, looking at the suddenly cackling Blade.
"Mm, it is suppressed. But that doesn't suppress… other things."
Kafka looked at the delirious Blade with a sense of helplessness. They couldn't exactly make him quit his gaming addiction, could they? It would be better to just let him have his fit. At least it would save them some operational funds.
"Strange. The registered address for this company is so weird… And why can I only find a single folder? There's nothing else! The folder doesn't even have anything in it but the game icon!"
Staring at the completely stalled hacking procedure, Silver Wolf was momentarily stunned. It was like she had thrown a furious punch, only to have it absorbed by a ball of cotton…
This… this was too strange! Could this company be one of those legendary void corporations? How did the IPC's game review process even work? How dare they release a game made by such a shady, unlicensed company?!
Getting shut out before she could even begin, Silver Wolf's rebellious streak was successfully triggered by the game. She would download the virtual reality version right now. She was determined to see what this game was all about!