Chapter 47: The Silver Crown

Chapter 47 The Silver Crown

"'Starcraft' interstellar cruise ship's internal system announces that you are currently on a completely secure route pioneered by the 'Beyond Heaven' Group. Please disembark with peace of mind and embrace a pleasant journey..."

Yi Fengchu only felt the scene before him blink out momentarily. By the time he regained his senses, he was already aboard the silver spacecraft that had captivated him at first glance.

However, unlike the advertisement, the ship he now stood on was pockmarked with gaping holes.

Red alarm lights flashed incessantly overhead, while half of the main door and two portholes opposite Yi Fengchu had vanished—as if a colossal beast had taken a massive bite out of the hull, leaving it suspended in the vast cosmos in a gaping, ravaged state.

"These advertisements have such an interesting activation protocol," Yi Fengchu couldn't help but remark.

Even the divine, psychic-attacking "Pandora's Heart" had failed to drag his consciousness into an illusion.

The only one who had ever succeeded in knocking him unconscious was his classmate Wang Lin—and that was only after Yi Fengchu deliberately lowered his defenses.

So why had this advertisement bypassed his perception and instantly immersed him in this scenario?

"It's almost as if... I didn't enter an illusion from reality," Yi Fengchu mused. "But rather, switched from one illusion to another..."

Setting this question aside for now, Yi Fengchu eagerly approached the porthole to examine his reflection—

In the polished glass, the High Priest's waist-length white hair and golden-red eyes, reminiscent of sunset's glow, were reflected.

Transparent threads coiled around the fingers of his left hand, their other ends attached to a gangly wooden marionette.

Yi Fengchu glanced down. The puppet's face was dotted with two cobalt blue eyes—clearly representing Chu Fu.

He found the imagery rather fitting: the High Priest, reanimated using Chu Fu's vessel, was no different from a puppetmaster concealed behind the scrim.

Beneath his fingertips, an uncannily realistic play was silently unfolding.

As he lowered his head, Yi Fengchu keenly sensed a strand of hair being lightly tugged, making him pause. "...Hm?"

Due to the High Priest's tall stature, the porthole couldn't reflect his full figure when Yi Fengchu stood straight.

So, he bent down toward the window, shifting his gaze upward—where a silver-white crown came into view.

The crown was forged from an unknown silver-white metal, cold to the touch like snow. Sinuous curves coiled upward from its base, their heads adorned with tiny gold-flecked gemstones, creating an irregular yet strangely beautiful design.

Yi Fengchu reached out to steady the silver crown. The gemstones at its peak refracted dazzling, starlit shimmer under shifting light, making the serpentine embellishments appear as though they were alive, their eyes gleaming with vitality.

Where did this crown come from?

He distinctly remembered that the High Priest's holographic projection hadn't worn this earlier... Could it be something inherent to his true form?

Yi Fengchu's mind raced through various artifacts and collectibles. After eliminating the impossible, a growing suspicion surfaced.

Staring at the inexplicable crown for a few seconds, Yi Fengchu tentatively called out, "Phone?... Is that you?"

The air remained silent for a moment before a familiar mechanical voice echoed in his consciousness: "I'm here."

Yi Fengchu examined it curiously. "So your true form is a crown? Looks far more regal than a phone..."

The phone chuckled. "If you'd like, I can stay in crown form on your head from now on."

"Trust me, you wouldn't enjoy being stared at everywhere you go, with everyone gawking at your head."

"Ahem, a phone does fit better in modern society," Yi Fengchu conceded casually before stepping through the ship's gaping maw.

Behind him, a faint buzz of static arose:

"Warning, warning... The ship has been attacked by an unidentified object. Hull breach detected. Oxygen systems completely disabled. Pressure imbalance detected."

"Please—*static*—proceed to emergency escape pods immediately. Evacuate the danger zone. Avoid cosmic exposure..."

The voice faded, swallowed by harsh static.

Soon after, the AI voice returned, identical in tone but starkly different in message.

Its words carried a hint of mockery, as if luring passengers toward death while cloaked in venomous courtesy.

"Reiterating—you are currently on an absolutely safe route pioneered by the 'Beyond Heaven' Group. After numerous tests by our exploration teams, we guarantee this area is entirely hazard-free."

"Now, please disembark without worry! A magnificent stellar panorama is about to unfold before your eyes..."

Yi Fengchu paused mid-step at these words, glancing back at the spacecraft that looked as though it had been ravaged as if by some cosmic predator.

If this was the "absolute safety" promised by the developers, he was at a loss for words.

For all ordinary lifeforms—humans included—unprotected exposure to the vacuum of space was undeniably fatal.

Even disregarding the invisible yet omnipresent high-energy radiation and cosmic rays, the pressure difference between the lungs and the vacuum alone would act like an invisible force violently expanding them, causing the lungs to expand uncontrollably until they ruptured.

Add to that organ failure from oxygen deprivation, rapid heat loss in the vacuum, and the boiling of bodily fluids due to low boiling points...

Any of these could tear a living organism asunder in an instant.

Had any other player been standing here, they would have violently decompressed without warning, becoming a fleeting spark in the endless cosmos.

—And the High Priest was clearly not part of that "ordinary lifeform" category.

Yi Fengchu strode through space as naturally as walking on flat ground, the long peacock tail trailing behind him instinctively splaying out.

Like a fish naturally knowing how to maneuver its fins in water, the tail feathers articulated precisely, swiftly finding the optimal balance.

The ocelli patterns along the feathers' edges slowly rotated, as if methodically scanning every detail of their surroundings.

The damaged spacecraft floated before a colossal planet.

The planet was an unsettling shade of dark red, resembling freshly cleaved flesh, its surface covered in spiral eddies like alien dermal patterns.

To Yi Fengchu, these dense vortices began to undulate and pulse—like the planet blinking its eyes or working its maw.

The "planet"—or rather, this planetary-scale unknown entity—stared back in confusion at the tiny lifeform that had emerged from the ruptured metallic shell, so insignificant it might as well have been cosmic dust.

It began to question its fundamental assumptions. Hadn't the other "people" who traversed this sector always needed to enclose themselves in small metal craft?

Why had they reacted with such visceral terror and despair when it accidentally took an inadvertent bite out of their craft?

...Ah, fear—

Why did this crowned being with a cometary train show not the slightest tremor of fear in its presence?

While the dark red creature observed Yi Fengchu, Yi Fengchu was also observing it.

He truly couldn't feel fear, but the Crowned High Priest's body seemed to activate some latent potential in the face of threat, as the locked-away power began to flow slowly.

This allowed Yi Fengchu to just barely sense the High Priest's power, yet it felt like there was a barrier between them, making it impossible to fully coalesce.

It seems further danger is needed for stimulation... Yi Fengchu thought.

"Hello."

He greeted politely, his white hair floated in the starry void like moonlight-woven silk. After a pause, he continued, "You seem to have far too many eyes. Staring so hard breaks every rule of common courtesy."

As he spoke, the peacock feathers trailing behind him lifted at the tips—much like how some snakes raise their heads before striking. The eye-patterned feather tips stared coldly at the dark red creature covered in swirling vortices.

The creature, somewhat provoked, accelerated the rotation of its dense vortices, enough to make you dizzy just looking.

Jagged teeth emerged from the depths of the whirlpools, as if ready to tear apart this disrespectful crowned man before it.

Amid this dangerous standoff, Yi Fengchu could clearly sense the locked-away power within the High Priest's body flowing faster and more violently, as if about to burst free. The peacock feathers at his tail also bristled slightly.

But it wasn't enough... just needed one last push of danger.

Having made this judgment, Yi Fengchu curled his lips and provoked further: "I don't quite like the look in your eyes. Allow me to teach you, on behalf of your mother, some manners."

...

Outside the screen.

The other players watched helplessly as the big screen glitched a few times before abruptly going black.

Neither did it display more advertisements, nor did it light up to signal the end of the test. It seemed the advertisement and Chu Fu were stuck in some bizarre standoff, unable to determine a winner for the moment.

This was a situation never encountered before in previous ad screenings.

"It's taking so long..." the office worker pondered. "Could it be that, unlike us, he didn't just choose self-preservation but directly confronted the danger source in the advertisement, going all-out against it?"

At these words, the others couldn't help but shift their gaze to the cover of this advertisement.

A spaceship, and the endless space...

No matter where the danger came from, it was hard to imagine what possessed Chu Fu to face it head-on—and how he could possibly overcome it!

"Real-deal space combat... is this what makes a top Ability user different?"

The bespectacled man looked bewildered. "In that case, I think staying at my current level is just fine. At least I'm a normal, ordinary person."

Meng Siyou shot a worried look at Chu Fu—not because he had any deep affection for this mysterious Ability user of unknown origins, but simply because he didn’t want to watch someone die in the dungeon. (Of course, the bald man, a bastard who got what he deserved, didn’t count.)

That glance immediately froze Meng Siyou in place.

In the darkness, Chu Fu's originally azure eyes now glowed with a layer of gold-red light, making him look downright deadly.

Just then, Chu Fu suddenly moved.

Sensing the gaze from someone else, those gold-red eyes turned toward Meng Siyou. Their hue reminded him of the last flames of sunset or the boundless expanse of a desert. Meng Siyou was momentarily stunned by the weight of ages in them.

The usual Chu Fu, though odd and standoffish, his lazy act hid his sharp edges—enough that Meng Siyou dared to interact with him.

But now, as those burning eyes locked onto him, Meng Siyou opened his mouth, only to find his voice completely gone.