Master of the Stars

Chapter 393: Errant

Translator: Strivon

Yue Qin was famous for being a cold-beauty in the circle, but this didn’t mean she was super serious all the time. Her family just had high standards, and her foresight was strong. She normally held a more reserved bearing.

But the more this was so, the deadlier it was for her to physically stick to someone like a spoiled child.

Mo Han’s plan became a bit shaky. She kept sneaking glances at Mo Peng, whose mouth had opened slightly and drifted his gaze away. His expression spelled, “I understand, but I can’t do anything about it.”

Fighting Dance was very popular among their age group. It was a combination of exercise and play. The lighting effects were cool and well-liked, and the action design was very beautiful as well. It was very popular among young women. The superb sounds and lighting effects of the luxury room made it hard for the girls to resist.

As for boys, how would they refuse such eye-candy activities?

After all, everyone had come out to play. Grudges had their limits. The embarrassment they gave Yue Zheng just now was enough. As Mo Han’s and Mo Han’s attitudes softened, the tense atmosphere was dispelled.

Luo Biyao gave Mo Peng a jab, and Mo Peng knew that he would end up carrying the burden if he couldn’t free Mo Han from this situation. He immediately adopted a different manner and said, “Okay, okay. We will first let loose before coming back. Everyone will have to go up on stage then. Especially you girls…”

How was this stepping on stage? This was clearly stepping down. Within the angry and odd laughter, all parties were finally given a way out, tidying up the atmosphere that was at near-collapse.

For Yue Zheng, the situation was the same as turning in full circle from the edge of a cliff. He was a bit dizzy. How did things come to this?

Once a group of people left the room, there was certainly no stopping the others. That meant he could only get in contact with Fan Qu quickly and tell him not to bring people over.

Yue Zheng felt agitated. Nothing was going his way; it was as if he was being sued. He had barely reasoned out what was important and what wasn’t when he felt something was off. He turned and saw the wooden kid named Luo Nan staring straight at him. His eyes shone, as if they were glowing.

Fucker, just one look and I can tell your contact-wearing eyes are looking at me making a fool out of myself!

Yue Zheng was angry at first, wishing to glare back, but then he felt an inexplicably diffident moment when he locked gazes with Luo Nan. He actually couldn’t bear it and shifted his eyes away.

Papercut was baffled, “What the heck are you looking at him for?”

“He is the worst example when it comes to destroying a system.” Luo Nan said it in a single sentence before turning his gaze to Yue Qin, “This girl’s not bad.”

He sized up Yue Qin, this tall and beautiful girl, as he spook. Perhaps his gaze was too direct, for Yue Qin had noticed within the chaos. She looked over, revealing a faint frown, before turning back again.

Papercut really regretted it over on this end. He had heard some stupid words that made his brain go crazy. However, this time he really was curious. He couldn’t help asking, “Destroying a system? You’re saying that…”

“Nanster, let’s go, go, go!” Mo Peng, who could be considered to be the overwhelming victor, was extremely excited. He wanted to drag Luo Nan and run to the reality battlefield, but it was extremely rare for Luo Nan to see Papercut take the initiative in talking about theory and research. How could he let go of this chance so easily?

He waved his hand at Mo Peng, “Don’t mind me. I have some things I need to talk about with Brother Papercut.”

Before Mo Peng could respond, Papercut timidly said first , “Actually, it’s not…”

His words were cut off by Luo Nan’s bright glare. He was utterly defeated.

Mo Peng did his best to drag Luo Nan away but to no avail. He then thought about how hard it was to make the reality battlefield plan and could only grumble as he switched equipment. He pulled Luo Biyao and Tian Qi out the door.

Tian Qi looked back every step, worried about his own little sister’s behavior. Tian Qi’s mind was completely on Luo Nan. She was completely ignorant of her little brother’s worries.

All right. This was quite more torturous already.

As everyone split into groups and left, the luxury room became practically empty. Yue Zheng’s ears echoed with Fan Qu’s complaints. The difference in treatment from back then and now was like the difference between heaven and earth. He had to endure it as he put his mind to wondering whether or not he should give those scoundrel friends of his a call as well.

It was in this moment that he saw Luo Nan lead the fatty over to the couch with the fatty whimpering all the way. As for Tian Si, she ran back and forth, providing drinks and refreshments.

FUCK!

Yue Zheng’s brain nearly exploded from the sudden rush of hot blood, but soon Yue Qin dragged him away.

The last bit of disturbances made Luo Nan face the brother and sister pair with his gaze. His eyes never left them until they were out of the room.

“I want to explode as well.” Papercut couldn’t quite stand Luo Nan’s blunt gaze. He could only pull Luo Nan and let him continue, “You said something about them being an example or something?”

“Destroying an already formed system.”

Luo Nan accepted a cup of juice from Tian Si, rubbing the cup a few times in his hand. He used this to organize his words, “The brother used the most straightforward method. He strongly manifested his own existence by using money and contacts. He forcefully cut inside, hoping to use his own gravitational force to make all the stars orbit around him.”

Papercut finally understood. He laughed and said, “He thought that he was a star, but in the end, he wasn’t even an asteroid?”

“Indeed.” Luo Nan didn’t laugh; he held quite a serious attitude, “The people who came to this party tonight can be considered as part of a two-star system. There were two main proposers to this event. Me, and Mo Han and Mo Peng. We are the two stars. Brother Papercut, you, Xue Lei, and Senior Sister Tian are affected primarily by my pull. The others are primarily affected by Mo Han and Mo Peng’s pull. There is also a mutual family pull between Mo Han and Mo Peng and I.

“This sort of structural system isn’t stable, but Yue Zheng used the stupidest and most inappropriate method of all. His money and contacts are absolutely meaningless to people like you and I. From Mo Han and Mo Peng’s friends’ perspective, they lack sufficient force. Yep, Mo Han and Mo Peng have decent friends. Yue Zheng was taught a lesson by our system.”

“But his little sister understood that she needed to begin from within the system. She used her friendship, the attractive force that is fixed with Mo Han, within the system to help her brother escape from his bind.”

“Yes, the easiest way to break through a fortress is to attack from the inside.” Papercut laughed as he leaned against the sofa, his head looking at the ceiling, “From this perspective, it seems that you understand things quite well. So you just pretended to be naive all this time…Leister, and even Little Tian, were all able to tell as well. Be careful!”

Xue Lei chuckled, and Tian Si smiled. The atmosphere was quite relaxed.

Luo Nan merely shrugged, “Well, we had nothing to demand. If conflict occurs between our demands and Mo Han and Mo Peng’s demands, then the resulting clashing force could possibly overwhelm or bypass the form of gravitational force of the two-star system — family affection. In this case, the two-star system would most likely collapse and have an unbalanced split at the very least.”

Papercut’s smile suddenly stiffened on his face. The fuck are youngsters these days thinking?

He suddenly realized something. Everything that Luo Nan said was actually not particularly esoteric. He just used different vocabulary to make his ideas more suitable for universal situations. Strictly speaking, the result was still not particularly comprehensive.

But the fact that it was ‘universal’ made Papercut a bit uneasy.

Was this something that teenagers thought about?

Was this something a normal person should ponder over?

The core of Luo Nan’s thinking was not brought into discussion due to today’s matter. Instead, it formed into a universal and feasible truth from Luo Nan’s perspective.

Looking at things from this angle, perhaps Luo Nan had already formed a sort of abstract system between his surrounding environment and human connections.

What the hell! It was fine to deal with theory, but Luo Nan was just a fifteen, sixteen year-old kid. Was it good to ponder over this sort of abstruse and abstract topic of life and society?

It was certainly not good! Papercut believed it to be so.

If one were to ponder such topics from youth to adulthood, the complicated and ever-changing interpersonal relationships would turn into rigid gravitational lines. Vivid and lively characters would turn into ice-cold symbols. This was a large step toward becoming inhuman.

Papercut hadn’t witnessed such matters personally in the past, but he had heard quite a few instances of them. Those who opened up to first class supernatural powers early on, the gifted ability users that simply became Extraordinaries, and especially those leaders of secret orders, would merely leave behind a few legendary words. Most of those words involved topics like this.

Right now Luo Nan really had this sort of trend going on.

Luo Nan continued to talk, but Papercut was unable to hear even half of his words. He stared, fixated on Luo Nan from the side, observing this delicate fifteen, sixteen year-old kid. With a calm and detached attitude, Luo Nan stated his findings one by one, doing his best to filter his ideas to give them universal significance. A scene that would normally fill one with admiration made Papercut’s back burst into a cold sweat.

Papercut suddenly opened his mouth to interrupt Luo Nan, “The brother and sister you’re talking about, what are their names?”

“Huh?”

“The brother and sister. Their names?”

“They’re…” Luo Nan gaped, unable to think of the answer for a time.

Screwed!

Papercut closed his eyes, he was now somewhat confident that Luo Nan was advancing on an enviable yet terrifying road. Maybe a new Extraordinary would emerge in Xia City in a few years, but this Extraordinary would be largely different from Ouyang Chen and Her Majesty Empress Wu who both had many years of tough experience…

Papercut had this premonition!

Papercut really didn’t know what he should do. After all, he was way too far from the level of Extraordinary. Everything he knew was only on the surface level. He didn’t have the ability nor qualifications to have a say on this matter, let alone have the qualifications to criticize Luo Nan about his choices.

He would have to ask the Secretary when he gets back. No…maybe President Ouyang would be better.

Papercut’s silence didn’t affect Luo Nan’s excitement. All Luo Nan needed right now was merely a listener.

Actually, Papercut had somewhat misunderstood. Luo Nan’s thoughts on whole systems only emerged today. The source was none other than the sensing ability system he learned from Ink.

This ability allowed him to see the active effects of a completely closed system. His train of thought naturally shifted to this topic when he encountered similar situations.

Of course, Luo Nan pondered it quite deeply. From this matter, he was able to tell that the system should possess centripetal force, otherwise the dual core system wouldn’t work. When it comes to the acting relationship, the more hidden it was, the better; the stronger it was, the better; the higher the level, the better.

Yue Qin’s method was an excellent example. It was able to deal with Mo Han, but it was meaningless against Luo Nan’s side, a system built upon the ability user society, friendship, comrade-in-arms, and other elements.

But when these elements were compared with religious relations, then there seemed to be some difference. It made Luo Nan think of secret orders.

Luo Nan talked nonstop for quite some time, but he still held back thoughts that involved with the deeper secrets of Formatting Theory. The rest he talked about, not caring whether or not Papercut or Xue Lei would understand him or praise his ideas. Everything came spilling out of his brain. By framing his thoughts in language, Luo Nan was able to sort through the logic and re-examine his self-understanding.

This lasted until he finished the cup of juice completely, but Tian Si smoothly handed him another cup of juice, “Do you want another cup of juice?”

“Yes, thank-you.”

Papercut mentally groaned to himself. He finally found a chance to interrupt, and he no longer cared about Luo Nan’s happiness. He waved his hand and said, “Let’s take a break, okay? Did you come to the gaming center just to chat? You might as well have gone to a coffee shop!”

“Didn’t this happen by chance? Otherwise, I would have certainly found a coffee shop instead. Plus, we need to wait for Cat Eyes…” Luo Nan looked at the time. It was just past seven. “Let’s chat a bit longer. There’s still an hour.”

Papercut would undoubtedly prefer dialogue that was lively and fun. He immediately shook his head and said, “Don’t tell me anything about systems anymore. I’m dizzy.”

“Then let’s switch topics and continue the one we left off at the cold beverage shop.”

“The cold beverage shop?”

“The matter about Worker Zhai. The matter about the Condensation Ring.” Though Luo Nan lacked the insight back then, he still wanted to discuss with Papercut. From his perspective, there were far too many things that needed to be discussed and researched right now. Any one of them would make him exhilarated.

At the time, Tian Si delivered a hot drink into Papercut’s hands.

Upon seeing this, Papercut had a good excuse to change the topic. “Properly learn etiquette, okay!? You called Little Tian over, then you had her serve tea and drinks to you?”

Luo Nan went, “Oh.” Indeed, he had made a mistake. He had taken Tian Si coming over here for granted. It was a bit hard to let this senior sister go, but it was also hard for her to integrate within this circle.

But Tian Si had a flowery way with words. She saw the situation and frowned slightly, “Don’t mind me. I like hearing you all talk. Well, if it’s not convenient, I can go outside and walk around.”

“No way, there’s nothing inconvenient at all.” Luo Nan felt that after the incident at Ocean Sky Cloud City, Tian Si could be more than half considered to be someone in the know. It really didn’t matter for her to know about the matters of a few ability users.

Papercut could tell that Tian Si had the idea of ‘advancing through retreating’. She was doing her best to integrate into Luo Nan’s core circle and making every effort to get Luo Nan to have a good impression of her. Papercut didn’t bother thinking about her intentions. He just liked that her actions gave him a chance to manipulate the situation.

“Exactly, there’s nothing inconvenient. The main thing is that there’s something wrong with the kid, Luo Nan’s, brain. He came to a gaming center to talk theory…I’m annoyed listening to him. Little Tian, do you have any place you want to go? I’ll keep you company!”

Papercut stood up upon speaking.

Tian Si first looked at Luo Nan, who finally realized that his etiquette was lacking. He was an obedient student in this regard, so he also stood up. “Then let’s go have some fun. Last time senior sister went to area C?”

Tian Si looked at the three males in the room and shook her head, “Area A is quite nice too.”

“Then area A it is!” Papercut reclaimed the authority of being an etiquette teacher. He clapped his hands upon reaching a verdict and turned to face Luo Nan, “Let me teach you one more thing. If you feel that you lack experience in this, you can use the HexaEar to execute the guide function. Check the homepage of the branch’s gaming area for the concrete instructions…”

The group of people left the room.

Area A was just outside. Their minds weren’t on this place at all. They just hung out and walked around.

Relatively speaking, Xue Lei was more engrossed than the others. He followed Papercut’s pointers and learned a few setup methods from the branch’s gaming area. He set it into his helmet and saw the effects.

“Wow, this is really useful!”

Papercut smirked, “So you came to get your muscles moving.”

“The sensation I’m feeling isn’t bad. Normally, playing this sort of thing is quite boring…”

Having solved the ‘disease’ that plagued him for many years, Xue Lei grew all the more interested in reality technology. He looked around him and a “whoa” slipped out of him as he found a certain place of interest. He grabbed Luo Nan and said, “Wait a moment. We’re all here now. You’re not going to play a round?”

Luo Nan didn’t quite understand, “Play what?”

Xue Lei’s mouth cracked into a smile, revealing white teeth under the helmet that covered half his face. “Ten Days in the Wilderness.”