"Hmph..."

Fu Xuan let out a proud, haughty snort before turning to face the members of the Astral Express.

"Lady Fu Xuan, although you didn't give the order for them to enter the Matrix of Prescience, I brought the guests over!" Qingque pointed at the group behind her, smiling at Fu Xuan.

Fu Xuan nodded slightly, then tilted her head, glancing sideways at Jing Yuan's projection behind her.

"The General is truly merciless when it comes to putting people to work."

"Haha, since they're already here, we must make the best use of their talents."

Jing Yuan shrugged, looking at the Astral Express crew with a helpless expression.

For some reason, Wende felt that the Divine Foresight's gaze was intentionally or unintentionally lingering on him.

Ignoring Jing Yuan behind her, Fu Xuan strode towards the Astral Express crew. Seeing this, Qingque tactfully retreated (to slack off).

"Although you entered the Matrix of Prescience without my permission, the situation is now special. If I were to hold you to the same old formalities, it would be rather unreasonable."

Fu Xuan addressed the group, then glanced at Qingque, who had turned her back to them and was fiddling with her Jade Abacus.

"That child, Qingque, may not be very reliable on a daily basis, but she still helps me solve problems at critical moments."

Fu Xuan shook her head and sighed.

"Child? Why do I feel like that Lady Fu Xuan is..."

March 7th discreetly compared Qingque and Fu Xuan's respective heights, whispering a complaint to Stelle.

"It's normal. This is the Xianzhou, after all," Stelle replied with a very clear head.

"Huh? It seems a little jolt really does clear the mind!"

March shot Wende a thumbs-up from the side.

"Ahem..."

Hearing March's careless comment about her height, Fu Xuan simply cleared her throat as a reminder. She didn't get angry, however, as she was in dire need of manpower at the moment.

"Therefore, I'll have to trouble you all with what comes next. Please restart the Matrix of Prescience. Only then can we use it to divine the true intentions of the wanted criminals. Don't worry, Qingque will be here to assist you."

Fu Xuan's gaze flickered over to the slacking Qingque.

"Ah? Me?"

Hearing something related to work, Qingque's little ears twitched. She stopped playing with the cards in her hand and looked at Fu Xuan in surprise.

"..."

Fu Xuan crossed her arms, staring at Qingque in silence. The meaning was self-evident.

"Sigh, alright, alright..." Qingque said, utterly dejected. If she had known this would happen, she would have just stayed in Changle to play cards!

"Ugh... why is it another one of these puzzles that requires brainpower, but not really brainpower..."

Sister Guoguo slumped into her gaming chair. Staring at the Matrix of Prescience on her screen, she really didn't want to try anymore! It was so tiring!

[Sister Guoguo, want to slack off for a bit? There's a ton of new, unhinged fan-made content out!]

[Yeah, yeah, and a lot of high-quality stuff too! You've been streaming Star Rail all day, take a break!]

[? What kind of conspiracy are you guys cooking up now? That eager tone... count me in!]

[No, really, it's a lot of normal fan content!]

[Trust him! There's absolutely nothing abnormal! I guarantee it!]

[The way you said that is what's abnormal!]

"Hmm... fan-made content? I suppose I could take a look."

Sister Guoguo sat up straight again. She pressed 'Esc' to pause the game, then rested her round little face in one hand as she opened AcFun. She navigated to the Star Rail fan works section and began to browse.

"Hmm... what's this?"

Sister Guoguo raised an eyebrow. She spotted a strange-looking MMD video. Seeing a shirtless Wende in the thumbnail, her interest was instantly piqued. She licked her lips lightly and clicked on it without hesitation.

[She still loves Wende so much.]

[Indeed. Who wouldn't love a Sworn Father who's skilled in both literature and martial arts, and can even cook and give massages?]

[Think of your free 120 Trailblaze Power every day! Think of those 200 Stellar Jades! I regard him as a god!]

[You're thirsty for his body! You're shameless!]

[I'm entangled with his body! I'll wrap myself around him completely!]

"Sigh..."

Looking at the bullet comments, Sister Guoguo shook her head. A bunch of small fry~

She started the video, found a comfortable position to lean back in her gaming chair, and switched the player to full screen.

She was going to properly appreciate the quality of this fan creation.

"Scrub... scrub... scrub..."

Inside a men's bathhouse, Wende, wearing large beach shorts, was scrubbing the back of Caelus, who was dressed in similar shorts.

[Bricked up.]

[OHHHHHHHHHH! Shirtless Wende and Caelus-bao!]

[The creator must have some serious connections!]

[Tsk, is it possible that...these two are guys?]

[What made you guys start thinking that shirtless men are hot?]

[It's the mosquito coil.]

[It's my infinite kinks, which have been twisted into a Mobius strip!]

[It's love!]

[But to be honest, it really is hot...]

[Tsk, a man-lover!]

[I'm not a man-lover! I just... I just have an appreciation for beauty!]

[The moderator must have fapped themselves into a coma, right?]

[The next day, there was news of a massive flood at AcFun headquarters!]

Caelus, who was enjoying Wende's back scrub, suddenly thought of something. For some reason, he looked up at the hard-working Wende and asked.

"Master, what do you do for work?"

"?"

Wende looked at Caelus, completely bewildered.

"I'm a driver," Wende answered casually.

Ten minutes later, a cooked lobster walked out of the bathhouse.

The scene changed. Having indulged in a hearty barbecue outside, Caelus was now joking around with Asta.

"Screeeech..."

"The car is here..." Asta said, bidding a reluctant farewell to Caelus. Then, under Caelus's longing gaze, she got into the car.

As the car started moving, Caelus began to chase after it.

"Asta! How can I live without you! Asta! Asta, take me with you!" Caelus screamed at the top of his lungs.

The camera cut to the inside of the car. Wende, who was driving, aligned the rearview mirror with Asta and flashed a devilishly smug smile.

"???"

Sister Guoguo stared at the end of the video, completely baffled. What just happened?

[My CPU is fried. I think we should just go back to the main story!]

[Unhinged fan creation... What category should this even be in?]

[Are you looking for... the 'Critically Ill' section?]

[What kind of Bollywood soap opera was that?]

[Three seconds. I want the source for this video on Bilibili!]

"Hmm... when did Bilibili start a fan creation contest?"

Sister Guoguo looked at the tag on the video, a little puzzled.

[I think it just started recently. I heard the top-ranked winner can get an official 648 top-up prize from miHoYo, and they can also choose a life-sized character standee!]

"Fan creation?"

Sister Guoguo mused. She had been pushing through the main story for the past few days, and it had been a while since she'd created any meme content of her own...

At the same time, streamers like Zhouzhou, Gouzi, Kakaya, and Lan Yu were also wondering if they should ride the wave of Star Rail's popularity to get some clout.