Wei Qing ultimately carried his so-called "daughter" out of that frozen, silent stretch of space.
Using the power of Abundance, he stabilized her condition for the time being. The faint life-support field surrounding her became noticeably sturdier under his interference—but she still wouldn't wake up.
He needed a temporary foothold, somewhere he could figure out what the hell was going on.
So he went to a remote star system far outside the Xianzhou Alliance's sphere of influence—Skaz, a backwater under the control of the Interastral Peace Corporation.
The IPC's tentacles reached across the cosmos. As long as you paid enough credit, those cheerful, evil capitalists were "happy" to provide services to anyone.
Which only made it more infuriating: the moment he defected, every credit in his old accounts got frozen.
In principle, the IPC shouldn't damage a client's interests just because of inter-faction politics—no matter how powerful the Xianzhou were.
But maybe the name Destruction simply stank too much.
His little nest egg still got nuked without mercy.
Thankfully, he'd prepared for that possibility long ago and quietly transferred a decent chunk of funds elsewhere in advance.
At the IPC branch on Skaz, he bought a small-to-medium starship.
Its performance was mediocre at best, but Wei Qing wasn't picky. If it could barely house a person, it was good enough.
Cradling the still-unconscious Firefly, he entered one of the ship's plain residential cabins.
He laid her flat on the bed, then pulled a thin thermal blanket over her.
After that, he sat down by the bedside and silently watched her sleeping face.
In the future Wei Qing knew, Elio's Stellaron Hunters would have four core members.
This "SAM" was originally supposed to be picked up by Kafka—except, at this point in time, Kafka hadn't even been born.
And Blade… honestly, with ShuHu killed early by Wei Qing, Blade might never exist at all.
If you looked at it that way, the future Stellaron Hunters were suddenly down two key members.
Two main combat assets, no less.
"Stellaron Hunters…" Wei Qing murmured, a hazy plan beginning to take shape.
Elio—"the Slave of Fate"—the mysterious figure said to see branching futures.
Setting aside whatever might happen to Yingxing back on the Luofu, the fact remained:
Firefly was in his hands right now.
If Firefly was truly destined to be an important piece in Elio's script, then her early disappearance would inevitably draw Elio's attention.
That could be an opening.
An opening where Elio came to him.
Wei Qing didn't need to know where Elio was.
He just needed Elio to know where he was—and what he had.
"Slave of Fate…" Wei Qing said softly, as if speaking to someone far beyond reach. "If you really can see every possibility… is this scene also within your script?"
He reached out and brushed a strand of gray hair off Firefly's forehead.
Her breathing was steady now, but only because Abundance power was sustaining the minimum threshold of life—like an animal in deep hibernation.
The system still hadn't marked the quest as completed.
So simply "finding her" didn't count.
Maybe he actually had to "recognize" her while she was awake.
Ridiculous—yet, somehow, he was already getting used to it.
"Looks like I'll have to wake you up first."
Firefly, a manufactured soldier of the Glamoth Empire engineered to fight the Swarm, suffered from a condition called entropy loss syndrome.
Maybe that was why she kept sleeping.
In the future, this condition still wasn't solved even centuries later.
And Firefly was supposedly recruited by Elio precisely because he used the syndrome as leverage.
But that "future" probably didn't include Wei Qing.
As an Abundance "heir apparent," his authority on the Path of Abundance—second only to Yaoshi—was far beyond ShuHu's.
If even he couldn't fix entropy loss…
then the Glamoth Empire really was the final boss of "authoritative nonsense."
Still, he didn't know for sure whether curing the syndrome would wake her.
But he could try.
Wei Qing lightly touched a finger to Firefly's brow.
A thin stream of emerald Abundance power—vast, yet impossibly gentle—flowed into her body.
He could clearly perceive something abnormal inside her: a flawed trajectory, like a defect constantly consuming her life force.
Is this the entropy loss syndrome?
It felt like a bottomless pit, forcing her body into a long-term state of near-depletion. That fragile life-support field around her was basically a cup of water poured into a burning furnace.
No wonder it remained unsolved in the future—Wei Qing didn't understand the mechanism either.
But that was fine.
He didn't need to understand it.
He was a mechanics abuser.
If brute force worked, then brute force was the solution.
He simply kept pouring Abundance into her.
The emerald vitality spread like a living spring, seeping into every corner of Firefly's body.
Wei Qing could feel it clearly: the defect devoured the incoming life force like a greedy black hole, desperately trying to maintain its sick equilibrium.
But Wei Qing's authority over Abundance wasn't merely that of a typical Emanator.
It was closer to something beyond.
The "black hole" kept eating—
yet its appetite couldn't keep up with the flood.
Time passed quietly.
The chaotic, violent currents inside Firefly gradually calmed, as if an invisible hand were smoothing out tangled threads and guiding them back into orderly channels.
The defect etched into her genes—under the scouring, reconstructing tide of Abundance—began to settle.
In her sleep, her breathing became steadily stronger.
The pallor in her face faded, replaced by a healthy flush.
After an unknown length of time, Wei Qing withdrew his hand.
He watched the girl on the bed.
Her long lashes trembled.
Then, slowly, her eyes opened—still fogged with the dazed moisture of waking.
Her irises were an unusual pinkish violet.
At first her gaze was unfocused. She blinked, trying to bring the world into clarity.
Where… was she?
Wasn't she supposed to have… died?
She remembered losing all power.
So why was she—
She tried to sit up abruptly, but her body responded with an unfamiliar heaviness… and, strangely, an unfamiliar lightness as well.
The constant weakness and pain—the sensation of her life force steadily bleeding away like a slow hemorrhage—
It was gone.
Did she… succeed?
No. That was impossible. Entropy loss syndrome was Glamoth's inescapable fate.
As her mind reeled and she scanned her surroundings with sudden alertness, Wei Qing's voice came from beside the bed.
"You're awake."
Firefly snapped her head toward him.
"Congratulations," Wei Qing said warmly. "The surgery was a success. You're a cute girl now."
"…But I was already a girl," Firefly replied automatically.
Then she froze.
Wait. What?
Who was this?
Her body tensed instantly, like a startled animal.
Even though her internal state felt full and stable—absurdly good—years of being trained as a weapon left her unable to relax.
"Who are you?" Her voice was hoarse from sleep, but sharp. "Where is this? What did you do to me?"
Wei Qing looked at her defensive posture and couldn't help finding it a little funny.
"Are Glamoth veterans always this rude to their lifesavers? I'm the one who cured your entropy loss syndrome."
"…Huh?" Firefly's rigid body loosened just slightly.
He didn't even need to explain further.
Her mind, simple and direct in that particular way, accepted it immediately.
"…I'm sorry," she said quietly. "And… thank you. I was just too nervous!"
"So," Wei Qing said, "how do you plan to repay me?"
"Tell me what you want. As long as it's something I can do, I'll agree!"
"Then can you call me 'Dad'?"
"…Huh?"
Firefly stared blankly, a short, confused sound escaping her.
"Please," Wei Qing said. "It's a once-in-a-lifetime request."
Wei Qing sighed inwardly.
Damn that brain-dead system.
Still, this wasn't exactly a hard problem to solve.
"If you think that's too unfair," he added, completely straight-faced, "I can call you 'Mom' instead."
Then he delivered the finishing move with absolute sincerity:
"Mom, please call me 'Dad.'"
Join here to read ahead.
In Star Rail, Ultra-Beast Armored — Have I Caught "Equilibrium"? l (Chapter 80)
Uma Musume, But I Only Have Five Years Left to Live (Chapter 178)
Zenless Zone Zero: I'm a Doctor, Not a Bangboo (Chapter 115)
Ben Tennyson Wants to Join the Justice League ( Ending )
TYPE-MOON: Redemption Beginning with the Holy Grail War (Chapter110)
Yu-Gi-Oh! — Transmigrated into the White Dragon Girl (Chapter108)
"Is this chat group even serious?" (Chapter82)
I, Lord Ravager, Utterly Loyal! (Chapter144)
Can Playing Games Save the World? 65
Crossover Anime Multiverse: The Demon Hunter of an Unnatural World 70
From Junkman to Wasteland 66
Weekly Refresh of Overpowered 31
I'm Grinding Proficiency Like 46
From Kiana, Lord Ravager, Onwa 99
Honkai: Is This Still the Prev 42
Elf: My Starter Pokémon Is Inc 65
Warhammer: My Primarch Is Remi 95
From Demon Slayer to Grand Ass 99
The Way the Umamusume Look at 68
Uma Musume, but My Cheat Power 92
Naruto: Weaving the Future, Be 65
Zenless Zone Zero, but Kamen R 76
Multiverse Crossover: The Perf 66
My Cyberpsycho Girlfriend 65
Uma Musume: The Dark Trainer 47
Uma Musume: A Calamity Born fr 44
I, a Reincarnation-Loop Player 43
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