Calling Her Mama?

"Beep—"

"Beep—"

Vast darkness swept across the depths of the universe like a boundless curtain.

Countless stars hung against it, mere specks of light scattered across black velvet. Their faint light drifted silently through the void, too distant for their radiance to reach one another.

At the very heart of the darkness.

A colossal mechanical head stood silently.

Its length had long surpassed the limits of measurement on a cosmic scale. The head alone, all that was visible, resembled a silent Stellaron, its contours flowing with a cold, hard mechanical aesthetic.

At the center of the giant head, an "eye" that took up most of the field of view slowly turned.

A scarlet point at the heart of its pupil pulsed with exquisite precision.

It simply stood there in silence, and the surrounding stars instinctively kept their distance, not daring to approach in the slightest. They hovered far away, as if paying silent tribute to a supreme being.

"Beep—"

"Beep—"

A muffled sound echoed inside the giant head, impossible to distinguish as mechanical transmission or electronic synthesis.

"An anomalous computational entity containing a paradox has been detected..."

"Activating the system-wide verification and correction program..."

"Verification test—begin."

"Beep—"

The scarlet point of light flared for an instant, then resumed its steady rhythm.

Lin Feng's eyelids felt impossibly heavy, as though he had fallen into a deep sleep for the first time in his life and had an endlessly long dream.

The dream had long since faded, but his mental exhaustion was piercingly real.

"Time to get up~"

"Darling~"

A soft, gentle woman's voice reached his ears. Most of his exhaustion faded, and his eyelids felt much lighter.

Lin Feng concentrated and struggled to open his eyes. A sliver of light slipped through the gap, making his nerves tense.

His body instinctively raised a hand to shield his eyes from the glare.

"Come on~ Look into my eyes and say it with me. One~ two~ three~"

The woman spoke again, and this time Lin Feng finally got a clear look at her.

Her long, wine-red curls were loosely tied behind her head, with a few strands falling by her cheeks and setting off her snow-white skin.

Sunglasses rested atop her head, revealing luminous violet-red eyes that tilted slightly upward at the corners. When her smile spread, her gaze was gentle enough to drown a person in.

She wore a sharply tailored black leather outfit that traced her graceful figure. The red silk scarf tied at her collar stood out, adding a vivid splash of color to the cool tones.

The slight curve of her lips and her lovely face made it impossible to look away.

"Kafka, is something wrong with the Stellaron? Why is he so dazed and stupid?"

Beside her, a girl in a techwear-style jacket covered in metal chains and badges glanced at her digital watch, then at Lin Feng. Pouting, she urged:

"Hurry up. The Astral Express Crew will be here soon."

Kafka pressed her red lips together and murmured a response. Her gaze returned to Lin Feng, filled with indulgence.

"Feeling more awake? Repeat after me. One~ two~ three~ four~ five~"

Lin Feng opened his mouth in bewilderment. Suddenly, a dialogue prompt appeared before his eyes like subtitles—

"One~ two~ three~ four~ five~ Silver Wolf can dance!"

That was not what he had meant to say, but his body spoke the words beyond his control.

He could clearly feel that his mind was free, but his body was being controlled by an outside force. The subtitles before him were like a fixed dialogue box in a game.

Kafka froze for a moment, then raised a hand to cover her mouth. Her smile deepened, and she shot Silver Wolf a teasing look.

Silver Wolf had naturally heard it too. She raised an eyebrow, frowned, and spat out two words: "How boring."

"All right, all right." Kafka looked away. "You're awake, so it's time for us to go."

As she finished speaking, the indulgence in her eyes turned to reluctance. She looked Lin Feng up and down before turning to leave.

Lin Feng watched helplessly as his body was made to stand, a whimper escaping his throat.

The next second, a dialogue box with options appeared before his eyes:

1. Call her mama and ask her name.

2. Call her mama and leave with her.

3. Call her mama and make her stay.

The choice was not in his hands at all.

Lin Feng could only stare helplessly as he heard the body call out, "Mama."

Both women froze as they turned away.

Only Silver Wolf looked back and tossed out a line:

"Good kids don't play Valorant."

Then she walked into a curtain of data and light with Kafka, and they vanished completely.

Lin Feng raised a hand to touch his face and walked over to a glass mirror nearby.

Reflected in it was a face he knew all too well—Stelle!

He understood in an instant.

This was the beginning of the story. That had been the moment the protagonist, Stelle, first met Kafka.

But he had clearly entered the Simulated Universe. How had he ended up here?

Could this all be the Simulated Universe's doing?

A chill ran through Lin Feng's heart.

The Simulated Universe was supposed to be an adventure instance that simulated the relationship between Aeons and Paths. But his current situation was nothing like an instance. It was clearly a story reset—

Like starting an alt and playing through the story again!

In his previous life, he had lost count of how many alts he had started. He had played through the story so many times that he was numb to it, even sick of it.

"Forget it. I'll see what's going on first, then find a way out."

He had just settled his thoughts when a heavy whimper came from behind him.

His body turned around beyond his control. At some point, a pitch-black Voidranger had appeared behind him and was glaring at him hungrily.

Lin Feng froze for a moment. As a Cat Cake, his instinct was to back away.

But this body of his refused.

"He" reached to his waist with his right hand, deftly pulled out a gray bat, and held it across his body.

At the same time, a resounding cry of "Rules are made to be broken!" burst through his mind.

"Hiss—"

Before Lin Feng could get a clear look at the Voidranger in front of him, a baseball bat swung out heavily, sending it flying.

Watching that, Lin Feng could not help praising it in his heart:

Whoa!

The galactic baseballer!

As for this body, after dealing with the Voidranger, it smugly swept the hair back from its forehead.

And the next moment—

One, two, three...

A fifth Voidranger tore through space and charged out. The last one, a centaur-shaped Voidranger, even charged to within a few meters of "him" before stopping.

The blades in the Voidrangers' hands gleamed sharply as they slowly advanced and surrounded "him."

Six against one?

That's against the rules of martial virtue!

Lin Feng spat inwardly and began to worry about the body's predicament.

One or two would have been fine, but a whole group had appeared at once, including an elite monster. How was he supposed to fight that?

He even began to suspect he was dreaming.

The Simulated Universe should mostly generate Aeons and the evolution of Paths. A story reset like this, if it wasn't a test bug, definitely meant something had gone wrong with the Simulated Universe itself.

Unfortunately, he could only think, not act, so he could do nothing but watch.

"Whatever. Bring it on. This is definitely still the Simulated Universe anyway, so I'm rather curious what will happen next."

"Will it keep following the original story from the protagonist's perspective?"

"It's just another playthrough of the story. I have to say, actually being there feels pretty novel."

The Voidrangers gave Lin Feng no time to react. The next instant, a huge black shadow engulfed him.

Pfft—

His vision vanished, and Lin Feng fell into darkness once more.

His thoughts, however, were still working.

"The Astral Express Crew didn't come? It didn't follow the original story?"

Soon, the familiar gentle woman's voice rang out again in the darkness.

"Time to get up~"

"Darling~"

Immediately afterward, a sliver of light slipped through his eyelids and into his eyes.

With his earlier experience, however, he adjusted to it this time and quickly opened his eyes.

Seeing Kafka and Silver Wolf in front of him, Lin Feng froze for a second.

A loop? Or the Infinite Tsukuyomi?