Firefly

In the cold, lonely reaches of outer space, a faint point of starlight tore through the cosmos, traversed time and space, and headed toward an unknown destination.

"Where am I? Is this a dream? Shouldn't I already be dead?"

Liu Xing stared blankly at the meteors rushing past him, then looked down at his own transparent body, his face filled with confusion.

"Is this... a soul? Or did I turn into a ghost?"

"I don't have any grudges or lingering regrets! I died peacefully! How did I become a ghost?"

Liu Xing remembered it clearly. He had been lying in a hospital bed, peacefully closing his eyes amid the crowd of classmates and teachers surrounding him.

Although he was filled with questions, Liu Xing chose to go with the flow, following the principle of accepting what had come. He simply lay back and let the strange starlight carry him through the universe.

In the vastness of space, there was no concept of time. Liu Xing had no idea how long had passed, nor did he know whether he was still in his original universe.

Without a physical body, he felt no hunger whatsoever. He was merely a little bored. The starry sky was beautiful and mysterious, but even it became tiresome after staring at it for too long.

At that moment, the mysterious starlight carried him into an unfamiliar star system.

Countless fragments of meteors scattered in every direction, resembling the devastation left behind by a planetary explosion.

Amid the field of meteor fragments, a silver-haired girl floated naked in the lonely reaches of space. Luminous plankton drifting between the stars had been drawn to her and fluttered around her.

As the starlight drew closer and closer to the girl, Liu Xing hurriedly covered his eyes with his hands and muttered, "See no evil, see no evil."

But the curious gaze peeking through his fingers exposed the fact that he was no innocent little boy.

Liu Xing was indeed curious. He had no idea whether the silver-haired girl was alive or dead, but appearing in outer space, with no habitable planet or alien spacecraft nearby, clearly meant that something was unusual.

"Could she be a ghost from outer space?"

Liu Xing made the random guess, but his expression immediately changed. The starlight carrying him through the universe showed no sign of stopping and headed straight for the silver-haired girl.

"Wait, wait, wait! Hit the brakes!"

Liu Xing reflexively shut his eyes, unable to bear witnessing the silver-haired girl's gruesome fate.

He had no idea what this mysterious starlight was. During their journey through the universe, it had smashed through countless meteors. Liu Xing didn't believe the silver-haired girl's flesh-and-blood body could withstand a collision like that.

But contrary to Liu Xing's expectations, the silver-haired girl was not smashed to pieces by the starlight. Instead, she was enveloped by the mysterious starlight just like he was.

Liu Xing stared blankly at the silver-haired girl before him. Her exquisite face, high breasts, slender waist, snow-white skin, and long, shapely legs all assaulted his rationality. Liu Xing felt a rush of hot blood shoot straight to his head, and the tip of his nose began to itch as though it were about to start bleeding.

"Oh! I'm a soul, so I don't have any blood! Never mind, then."

Liu Xing sat cross-legged with his chin propped on his right hand, carefully examining the silver-haired girl before him as if admiring a priceless treasure.

There was no denying that the silver-haired girl was the most beautiful girl Liu Xing had ever seen in his life. None of his female classmates could compare to her.

As for those beautiful internet celebrities, Liu Xing believed their looks were all thanks to filters and makeup. They weren't worth mentioning.

Although the silver-haired girl was completely naked, the black ribbon tied around her silver hair gave Liu Xing an oddly familiar feeling.

But he couldn't remember where he had seen it for the moment, so he eventually gave up. Seeing no sign that the silver-haired girl was about to wake up, Liu Xing felt a little disappointed.

He was incredibly bored and desperately wanted someone to talk to. Otherwise, he would go crazy. Now that someone he could communicate with had finally appeared—and she was a silver-haired beauty who was especially effective against China—he couldn't help but feel excited.

Liu Xing considered himself a pure-blooded Chinese man. He was equally incapable of resisting white-haired beauties, so he secretly prayed that she would wake up soon.

What Liu Xing didn't know was that the moment the starlight carried the silver-haired girl away had been firmly etched into the eyes of a witness.

Aboard a small private spacecraft, an elegant and mysterious woman in a suit with long purple hair set down her coffee. She tilted her head and blinked in confusion. "Did Elio's script make a mistake?"

The purple-haired woman in the suit stretched elegantly, revealing an intrigued smile. She murmured, "Now this is... interesting!"

A gray-haired girl stopped rummaging through a trash can and turned toward the purple-haired woman, asking in confusion, "What's wrong, Kafka? Have we arrived?"

The purple-haired woman called Kafka smiled. "Darling, our little Firefly has been intercepted."

The gray-haired girl's eyes lit up, and she said excitedly, "Then Elio must be furious, right? This is so interesting! No, I need to prepare a camera and find a chance to take pictures when we get back. This is a sight you rarely get to see."

The purple-haired woman smiled and shook her head. Her eyes turned toward the direction in which the starlight had vanished, her gaze unfathomably deep. She murmured, "Having escaped Elio's script, I hope you can get what you wish for in the future. Goodbye, little Firefly."

"Mm, we should head back. The Interastral Peace Corporation recently released a new coat. Let's go take a look."

After glancing at the gray-haired girl, who was engrossed in the trash can, the purple-haired woman walked toward the cockpit. Although she was quite interested in Elio's script going wrong, a new coat was ultimately more important.

As for the gray-haired girl, Elio's script was clearly less important than the trash can.

Liu Xing poked the silver-haired girl's cheek with a finger, but unfortunately, he was a spirit and couldn't touch physical objects. He couldn't feel her cheek at all.

Liu Xing withdrew his hand regretfully and stared at his illusory right hand. His expression remained calm and unmoved. He had already died once, and being able to experience this miraculous journey across time and space through the universe after death was already the greatest gift heaven could have given him.

As the starlight continued onward, Liu Xing saw many familiar scenes: enormous Xianzhou ships sailing across the endless sea of stars; planets covered in ice and snow, where life struggled to survive; space stations attached to planetary orbits; and luxurious hotels suspended high above the pitch-black starry sky. The familiar sights left Liu Xing utterly dumbfounded.

"Holy crap! Honkai: Star Rail?"

Liu Xing's mind went blank. He stiffly turned his head toward the silver-haired girl sleeping beside him.

Several words surfaced in his mind: Firefly, my white moonlight, my wife.

The more he looked, the more familiar she seemed. Wasn't she his anime wife, the last Glamoth Iron Cavalry and Stellar Hunter, Firefly?

"So I intercepted one of the Stellar Hunters? Does Elio know? Is Kafka going to shoot me dead?"