Stars See Me [Interstellar] | Chapter 22 | The Starstream Descends | Novela.app

Upton Onyé... ...Wait. Upton Onyé?? "The Federal Vice Speaker??" Lei Ting was stunned. He certainly hadn't forgotten one of the Federation’s most powerful men—a man he had offended from afar, and who had just as thoroughly offended him in return. "I heard he rarely makes public appearances, but his presence in the Federation is immense... I never imagined he’d done something like that back in the day." "Indeed..." Valen couldn't help but sigh. "What's wrong?" Lei Ting keenly caught the flicker of emotion in his voice. "Nothing." The black-haired whale-petting manager shook his head. He watched the screen transition to the 'Advent Mode' character selection interface and said softly, "I once thought his political views were quite decent." For some reason, Lei Ting felt those words were heavy with the weariness of a voter backstabbed by the candidate they supported. He subconsciously recalled Upton Onyé’s political ideology, only to realize with a pang of sadness that his previous home had been so remote that he’d never paid attention to the elites living in the Capital System. These past few days had been too hectic for him to research much. No... even if he wanted to check, he likely wouldn't find anything, considering he was currently completely disconnected from the Star Net. Thus, he could only remain silent for a moment before awkwardly changing the subject. "Which... character are you going to choose?" "That depends on who they let me choose." Valen took a sip of water, his blue eyes fixed on two commentators on a side-screen. Because the match was about to begin, their audio had already been muted for him. "It’s an exhibition match. It depends on the audience vote. Whoever gets the most votes is who I play." "They pick at random, and you take them all on four-to-one?" Lei Ting asked. "It’s all the same to me," Valen said nonchalantly. Lei Ting looked at his profile. That face, which usually looked somewhat listless, was now radiant with spirit. His clear, translucent blue eyes looked like a miniature oceanic landscape. Lei Ting had seen such things in books. After the destruction of the Origin System, they had been the most popular commodities in the New Solar System. In those days, when people lived in constant uncertainty, they turned memories of the past into jewelry, ornaments, and weapon charms. They carried them everywhere while alive, and when they died and their blood splattered upon them, scavengers would pick them up like a fallen tear. For some reason, he felt a sense of familiarity from those eyes. Like an ocean under the sun... But there was clearly no sunlight here. ... Lei Ting withdrew his gaze, acting as if he hadn't just been staring blankly into another man's eyes. Especially since that man wasn't exactly a close friend yet. "Voting... voting..." Valen’s fingers tapped against his thigh. He hummed a tuneless song. "I wonder which character it’ll be..." Lei Ting looked at the character selection interface. There were over fifteen hundred available characters, each with a life story worthy of the history books. Above them sat a row of multi-colored 'Hero Units'—forty-one in total, arranged by their birth dates. Scanning through them, he saw many figures he recognized from history books. Some had avatar frames with colors that Orion human vision couldn't perceive, so they appeared as transparent as diamond. There were characters with animalistic traits, characters with natural stone carapaces, a character that was essentially a mass of white, viscous mycelium, and an elderly figure whose eyes burned with literal fire... Lei Ting looked at them one by one, matching them to his historical knowledge. Finally, his gaze stopped on the very last avatar. That person’s avatar frame was a gold-inlaid red. He had golden hair and sea-blue eyes, and his gaze toward the viewer was as sharp as a blade. Fine white stardust floated around him, with occasional wisps of white light-mist churning through the dust. At a glance, it looked as profound and infinite as a flowing galaxy. "Who is that?" Lei Ting asked, his mind involuntarily recalling the person his teacher had introduced in the first class— "...Evenheiler?" Valen jumped, startled. "...Huh? What? Who?" He turned to Lei Ting with a look of utter confusion, managing to adjust his overly dramatic expression just before the other boy looked over. "What Evenheiler?" Lei Ting looked at him, his expression tinged with apology. "Were you thinking about something? Did I disturb you?" "No, nothing to think about right now." Valen waved it off. "What did you say just now? Evenheiler?" "Ah, yes." Lei Ting pointed to the last 'Hero Unit.' "That one... is he 'Starstream' Evenheiler?" Valen glanced at that familiar face. "..." "Yes." He nodded with a hint of helplessness and opened the character data card, which was simply titled 'Starstream.' "He’s been the most popular... 'Hero' in recent years. He’s of our race, and technically, he’s your alumnus. I haven't used this character much in matches. Er... well, there are quite a few characters I haven't used." The voting was almost over. As Valen spoke, Lei Ting quickly scanned the data card. *War hero against foreign aggressors, Energy-type...* An impressive man, he thought. He had definitely seen this person. Just yesterday. He was certain it wasn't a hallucination. He had truly seen this man. Through the gaps between the man's fingers, he had seen that face, and those ocean-like eyes beneath the sunlight. 'Starstream' Evenheiler. This man was still alive, and right now, he was very likely on this massive ship called the 'Sun.' Why hadn't he reported to the Federation if he was alive? Why did Lei Ting see him after being taken by the drones? Had he been on this giant ship all along? Was the school the one covering his tracks? Uncertain. Everything was uncertain... Lei Ting frowned, crossing his arms and leaning back into his chair. He wouldn't judge the man's true identity based on appearance or other factors that were easily changed in this era... No, he *couldn't* judge. If the man was there, it was surely a classified matter. Furthermore, given the Headmaster's power, there was no way she didn't know 'Starstream' was on her ship. *Don't seek to know what you shouldn't; if you do find out, pretend you didn't.* He could not take the initiative to explore this secret. Lei Ting exhaled, making his decision. Then, he noticed the man's full name: Evenheiler Kang. "Kang..." Lei Ting murmured. "...Corn?" "..." Valen kept a straight face. "He was originally the younger brother of the current head of the Corn Factory." "Oh..." Lei Ting recalled Lucas, who had not long ago parted ways with him. "In that case, Lucas should be his nephew..." Valen’s mind raced through various subject-changing techniques. He was just about to speak— "Yes..." At that moment, a line of text suddenly flashed onto the light screen: [Live voting complete. Characters locked!] He fell silent, feeling relieved, and looked at the screen with Lei Ting. In his nearly ten years of work and life, no one had mentioned that name to him from time to time, even though it had once echoed throughout the stars. [The current character list is as follows:] [Challenger - (Boiling Rain)] — ['Emperor's Blade' Thayne Tane] In the arena, the audience erupted into thunderous applause and cheers. The mysterious armored figure turned around. Beneath the gradient visor, the sharp lines of his lower face were faintly visible. Simultaneously, above him, a tall figure clad in a tight-fitting uniform manifested with a low *hum*. It descended upon him, rapidly transforming his physique into its own likeness. "..." Valen raised an eyebrow. "Tane?" "What is it?" Lei Ting asked. "'Tane' is the unified surname for a humanoid race in interstellar society. That race once seemed to have a prosperous civilization, but it was later destroyed. The survivors migrated to a new planet..." Valen spoke with his usual scholarly depth. "...However, that planet’s temperature is so high that it rains boiling water from the sky. The living conditions are extremely harsh. Consequently, they evolved various abilities and developed diverse environmental adaptation technologies... "But there's no point in saying too much. The issue now is that 'Boiling Rain' is himself a Tane. He got his own race's Hero." *A Hero of his own race...* Lei Ting tilted his head. It made sense. Compared to characters with all sorts of bizarre life forms, every player would prefer to become a powerhouse of their own race. After all, initial adaptation wouldn't be an issue. [Challenger - (Yan Miao)] — ['Silent Kingdom' Bayer Comist] An even louder cheer erupted in the arena. The girl with white clothes, white hair, a white dress, and white skin unfurled her white umbrella. A pale, paper-thin, exquisite face was silently displayed before the camera, her hollow white eyes staring into the lens. In that moment, Lei Ting realized with a shock that all those white parts seemed to be mimetic structures 'crafted' from the same white active substance. Then, the mycelium ball phantom he had seen earlier appeared, descending from the sky to merge with the pale girl. "..." Valen sat up straight. "This is...?" Lei Ting observed with curiosity. "Is this... a fungus?" "...Yes. A gestalt consciousness fungal sapient. He is an entire civilization unto himself." Valen’s expression was conflicted. "And this 'Yan Miao' is actually one of Bayer Comist's sub-strains... This is too much. Everyone is supposed to be switching accounts to play, but logging into your main is just unfair..." Lei Ting looked at the mass of mycelium. To be honest, if one took a photo with her, it felt like either she would be overexposed or everyone else would be too dark to see... [Challenger - (Wolf-Biter)] — ['Dragon-Slayer' Voronya] "..." Amidst the audience's cheers, Valen leaned back into his chair again. This time, the strong woman wearing a bull-horn mask grinned, appearing somewhat excited. Directly above her, a phantom of an even more robust woman appeared. That phantom also wore a black mask, with heavy horns held high like a crown. As they merged, Lei Ting didn't bother asking about the relationship between the two, but Valen explained anyway: "They both come from a matriarchal warrior race whose life goal is to hunt powerful creatures. Their titles are formed by combining the name of the strongest creature they've killed with their rank within the tribe. I've... er, dealt with this 'Wolf-Biter' before. The wolf she killed could bite a building in half with one snap." "..." Lei Ting was silent for a moment, then suddenly asked, "Didn't you say the character selection was based on a live vote?" —Why was it such a coincidence that all your opponents got Heroes of their own race? "Maybe everyone just wants to see me get beaten up..." Valen rubbed his nose sheepishly. "After all, my arena win rate has stayed above 95% for years." ... Lei Ting felt like he had just been hit by a humblebrag. But at the same time, he lamented in his heart: *What a pity Valen is an ordinary person.* Only in the Star Net, where everyone's combat power was limited by upload speeds, could he defeat powerful opponents... In reality, as an ordinary person, it would be difficult for him to step out of the role of the 'protected.' By the time the final specter merged with an even larger ghost wielding a massive phantom scythe, neither of them was surprised anymore. Valen smiled, accepting the reality that his four opponents were all logging into the biggest 'accounts' they could to pummel him. Lei Ting... Lei Ting silently went to get him another bottle of water. "In that case, your popularity really is quite high..." He said slowly as he placed the water next to Valen. "It looks like everyone wants to give you a beating..." The number of people was truly more than just 'a lot,' to the point where they could directly manipulate the voting results. Valen smiled politely and nodded to him, but his fingers subtly stopped their tapping. *Voting?* No. He didn't believe for a second that this was just the result of a 'vote'... In interstellar society, people who lived only for a good laugh were everywhere. He absolutely did not believe this lineup—which was guaranteed to produce a spectacular visual feast—was the result of a public vote. Someone had manipulated it all, whether it was public opinion or the calculation system. Or perhaps they had directly modified the conclusion reached by the game company's official AI. Given the semi-official nature of this game, there weren't many people in the entire Federation who could pull that off. 'Enan Valen' knew exactly who the other party was. And he understood that person's goal perfectly. If things were truly as he suspected, then the Advent character for the player 'Half-life' should be... A line of text appeared in the center of the screen. The beautiful, shimmering golden font lingered for a moment before dissipating. Simultaneously, the selection cursor flew past the list of dozens of 'Hero Units' and landed on the very last person. Messy golden hair, sea-blue eyes. The handsome young man—familiar yet strange to both people before the screen—smiled slightly upon being selected. He leaped up, transforming into a phantom that descended upon the silver-haired cowboy. A suit of pitch-black Superpower Mech Pilot uniform was so dark it seemed to swallow the light. The 'Seventh Legion of the Orion Human Federation' insignia on the chest sparkled. The tall, upright figure stood under the lights like a celestial being. Then, the character selection phase concluded. As everyone simultaneously struck their combat readiness poses, the golden-haired youth reached behind his back and drew a long blade sheathed hilt-down. He flourished the sword with a whistle, pointing the stardust-trailing, ringing blade straight toward the blinding light ahead. [The Challenged - (Half-life)] — ['Starstream' Evenheiler Kang] In that instant, the entire venue erupted in thunderous screams and cheers. ---