Chapter 424: Talk About Later? Now is Perfect
Hearing March's exasperated sigh, Stelle spun around. There wasn't a single trace of remorse on her face for her previous antics. Instead, her golden eyes practically sparkled with an irrepressible, chaotic energy. She lunged forward, latching onto March's arm with a vice-like grip. "Oh, March! Forget about all that boring stuff for now! Look! Look quickly at the new items in the shop!"
She aggressively jabbed a finger toward the massive, glowing central screen. Her voice trembled, pitching up an octave. "We can officially invite friends to join this event now! Just like how Wise and Belle invited Anby and Nicole to get their ID tags! Look right there, there are two new options!"
Caught off guard by Stelle's sheer gravitational pull of enthusiasm, March temporarily swallowed her complaints. She followed the direction of that wildly pointing finger, her gaze landing on the glowing terminal.
Only then did she belatedly recall her primary mission for tagging along—aside from acting as Stelle's designated babysitter to prevent any reckless property damage, she needed to figure out the actual requirements behind that vague "invite friends" line in the system announcement.
The digital text scrolled across the display, crisp and clear. March muttered the descriptions under her breath, the reflection of the screen making her pink-and-blue eyes brighten.
'If we can use the [Bangboo Avatar]...'she thought,'even if they're stuck in a squishy Bangboo form, at least we could bring the rest of the crew over to adventure together and experience this crazy world.'
Three million Gear Coins wasn't an impossible hurdle; the haul from her recent operation alongside Dan Heng was already enough to afford one.
However, her gaze drifted down to the premium tier. The heart-stopping redemption requirements for the [Cordial Invitation] flashed in bold red text. The warm, fuzzy excitement bubbling in her chest instantly evaporated like water on a hot stove.
March sucked in a sharp breath. "This... how long are we supposed to grind for this?! You know exactly how we got that Heart of the Feral Ghost this time—that massive Bringer nearly tore the entire Epis Port Hollow apart!"
"I know, I know!" Stelle nodded vigorously, a blur of gray hair. The manic grin never left her face. She shook March's arm back and forth like a maraca. "But think about it, March! This is an actual physical avatar! It's almost the exact same as the bodies we're using right now!"
"A body that can fight, run, jump, and experience everything at one hundred percent! The shop sells them for two thousand points! Even though the materials are a pain to farm, at least we can actually get them just by fighting in this event. Doesn't that feel... I don't know, a lot more hopeful?"
"I guess that's true, but..." March groaned, her vision swimming as Stelle continued to rattle her skeleton. She planted her boots firmly on the floor, trying to steady her equilibrium. "Stop shaking my arm! Stop! Stop!"
Once Stelle finally released her death grip and quieted down, March patted her clothes flat, gathering her scattered thoughts. "Okay, but you're right. At least there's a clear goal now. And..."
A sudden realization hit her. Thinking back to the spoils of their previous life-and-death struggle, her tone lightened considerably. "After discussing it with Dan Heng, we figured that last Heart of the Feral Ghost was way too rare to just dump. We didn't trade it for Gear Coins, thinking we'd keep it as a weird collectible or a research sample for Herta. Who would have thought it would suddenly become a 'special currency'? That's a pretty huge stroke of luck."
"Wait, really?! You still have it on you? That's amazing!" Stelle practically launched herself into the ceiling. She pumped her fist in the air, acting as if the remaining nine Hearts of the Feral Ghost were already sitting in her inventory. "I knew it! The Trailblaze provides! This is our starting capital! The very first one!"
Watching her tall companion strike a heroic pose, looking fully prepared to conquer the sea of stars with a single, glowing monster core, March couldn't help but facepalm. "Hey, hey, reel it in. This is only one. We're still lightyears away from ten. And we need thirty Hearts of the Skeletal Remains too—absolutely none of this is going to be a walk in the park."
"A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step!" Stelle remained entirely undeterred. Her chaotic train of thought was already rocketing off the tracks toward a completely different destination.
Suddenly, she clapped her hands together with a loud smack. Her eyes widened as a supposedly brilliant idea struck her. "Right, March! Now! Isn't right now the absolute perfect time? The banquet is super lively, and everyone is already gathered! How about we pull Pom-Pom and Mr. Yang over too?"
"Let them soak in the atmosphere and experience the otherworld... er, the local customs of New Eridu! It's the perfect chance to beta-test this invitation function!"
The more she spoke, the faster her words tumbled out. "Do you and Dan Heng have enough Gear Coins to exchange for a Bangboo Avatar? Let's buy one right now and test the waters!"
March blinked, momentarily suffering from whiplash at Stelle's erratic leaps in logic, but the idea was undeniably tempting.
"You actually thought of the exact same thing as me!" She nodded, a bright look of anticipation washing over her features. "However, the Gear Coins Dan Heng and I pooled together are only enough to buy one. Inviting two people at once isn't really mathematically possible right now."
"That's simple math!" Stelle declared impatiently. "We just go back and find Mr. Yang and Himeko! Between the two of them, they can definitely scrape enough together for a second one! That way we can pull two people over at the same time! Let's go, let's head back and ambush them with the plan!"
Before March could even process the suggestion, Stelle clamped a hand around her wrist and pivoted on her heel, preparing to sprint out the door.
"Hey! Slow down! The shop door is this way! Don't bump into the display Bangboo again!" March staggered, her boots skidding against the floor tiles as she was unceremoniously dragged along. She shouted warnings while her free hand frantically tapped away at her holographic group chat interface.
While Stelle hauled her toward the exit, dead set on returning to the banquet venue to corner Welt and Himeko, March had already snapped several rapid-fire screenshots. She captured the detailed information glowing on the Gear Coin Shop's main display—specifically the [Bangboo Avatar] and the [Cordial Invitation], making sure the functional descriptions and steep price tags were perfectly legible. With a swift flick of her thumb, she uploaded the images to the multiversal Chat Group, making sure to ping absolutely everyone.
[Honkai: Star Rail · March 7th]: "@All Members Everyone look! New things in the shop! Two types of avatars to invite friends over to play! Prices are attached! [Image]"
Almost the very instant the message hit the server, the chat exploded into life.
[Genshin Impact · Lumine]: "Saw it! Saw it! A permanent type! That's amazing! And the base price doesn't look too expensive either."
[Genshin Impact · Venti]: "Oho? It seems our little troupe will be able to grow even larger in the near future. How delightful~"
The responses flooding the group were swift and overwhelmingly enthusiastic. It was glaringly obvious that everyone had been secretly keeping an eye on the shop's updates.
But perhaps due to the previous mental preparation, or simply because they desperately wanted to avoid drawing another round of suspicious stares from their new friends in New Eridu, the group members currently mingling at the banquet venue kept their physical reactions in check.
Their polite smiles remained perfectly sincere, and their casual conversations flowed without a hitch. Yet, beneath the surface, a significant portion of their collective focus had already pivoted entirely toward the tantalizing possibility of 'inviting' someone.
The specific phrasing attached to those two items—"a non-group member friend"—was simply too broad. It left far too much room for interpretation.
Usually, the rules and functional descriptions released by the Chat Group System were rigorously worded, ironclad, and clearly defined. This time, however, the System seemed to have intentionally left a massive, incredibly tempting gray area.
That very ambiguity was the spark that ignited the deepest, most closely guarded longings and regrets buried within their hearts.
Across the banquet hall, Lumine's golden gaze drifted away from the lively crowd. The warm, festive lights of the venue no longer reflected in the depths of her pupils. Instead, her mind conjured the image of a familiar back—a silhouette so similar to her own, yet one that always carried a deliberate, agonizing distance and a cold decisiveness.
Brother.
She had chewed over that single word countless times in the quietest hours of the night. It was a title heavy with desperate longing, suffocating confusion, bitter unwillingness, and the lingering, childish grievance of being left behind.
If only... even if it meant dragging him here in that squishy, comical form known as a "Bangboo." She just wanted to bring him to a place that temporarily had no Abyss Order, no Heavenly Principles, no bitter opposition. A place with only good friends, warm food, and laughter. Even if it were just a short, heavily restricted reunion.
Her fists clenched at her sides, the fabric of her dress wrinkling under her grip. Even if it required exhausting every single Gear Coin she possessed, she had to try.
She needed to sit him down, look him in the eyes, and ask him in person exactly what those cryptic, riddle-like words at the Chasm had actually meant...
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