With the black technology blessings of the Honkai: Star Rail world, Titanfall 2 was quickly completed.
After all, the Space Station had the most advanced facilities in this world; making a game was no different from driving a tank to drop off your kids at school.
The gameplay was directly changed from classic keyboard and mouse controls to consciousness immersion, and the game's graphics quality was boosted by several levels.
Most importantly, the world was made a bit more complete, and a bit larger (Finger-Tip Universe).
So, playing this version of Titanfall 2 as an open-world game wasn't out of the question.
Fortunately, the AI voice acting in this world was very mature, so he didn't need to find a bunch of voice actors; he just had to keep tuning the AI until it sounded indistinguishable from a real person.
Doing all of this took Bai Luan a lot of time, but he had the Little Black Room. Excluding the time spent in the Little Black Room, it took him a total of five days.
The game was ready, but Silver Wolf's song wasn't finished recording yet.
It wasn't that it wasn't recorded well; she was just being particular about it.
It was like a game that could be cleared with an A rating, but Silver Wolf insisted on challenging for an SSS rating.
Anyway, Bai Luan wasn't in a hurry, so he let Silver Wolf take her time. He would release the game whenever she was satisfied and sent the song over.
This time, Bai Luan didn't even log into his BL account to promote it; he was just going to ambush his fans without any martial ethics.
Hey! Brothers, I've made something delicious again!
Eat quickly! Eat quickly! Eat, now!
After this meal, you'll be hungry for a while.
Because of Himeko's words, Bai Luan decided to go on a solo adventure to see for himself.
He didn't have much work recently, and if he missed this golden opportunity, he probably wouldn't get another chance later.
No sooner said than done.
After sending a message to all his friends, telling them he would be away for a while and to contact him by phone if anything came up, Bai Luan pulled out his Anywhere Door.
This time, he didn't use fixed-point teleportation but opted for random teleportation.
Bai Luan silently put on his mecha, as no one knew what situation awaited him once the door opened.
What if, as soon as the door opened, IX was on the other side?
Bai Luan took a deep breath, then, with a hint of excitement, opened the Anywhere Door.
"Whoosh—"
The biting cold wind, carrying icy snowflakes, instantly poured through the door, striking the Space Station's temperature-controlled floor and turning into rapidly melting water droplets.
On the other side of the door was a scene of ice and snow.
?
Could he have been randomly teleported to Jarilo-VI?
Could it really be such a coincidence?
With a hint of doubt, Bai Luan stepped into the snowy landscape.
The grey sky hung low, suffocatingly oppressive.
As far as the eye could see, there was only pristine white snow covering the undulating frozen ground.
Bai Luan used his mecha to scan the planet's atmospheric environment and found that, in addition to the cold, there was a large amount of residual radiation.
The environment here was no longer suitable for human survival.
Clearly, this was not Jarilo.
The mech synthesized the current situation, analyzing it, and finally came to a conclusion:
War had destroyed the planet's original ecological environment, turning it into its current state.
He was truly lucky; he arrived and immediately encountered a planet devastated by war.
He wondered if the civilization on this planet could still exist after such a blow.
Perhaps he could save a few people.
With this thought, the thrusters on the mecha's back ignited instantly, the faint blue afterburners tearing through the cold wind, propelling him towards the lead-grey sky.
As he ascended, his view expanded.
Soon, Bai Luan found traces of civilization, but unfortunately, they were only ruins.
What Bai Luan found was a city in ruins, countless skeletal high-rise buildings draped in white snow stood there, silently recounting the past glory and present desolation of the planet's civilization.
The life detector's scan beams swept repeatedly, but the feedback was only a chilling blank.
Muttering his regret, Bai Luan accelerated his flight, leaving the lifeless city.
Along the way, Bai Luan saw many things: enormous impact craters left by nuclear explosions, like festering sores on the earth.
The remains of gigantic abandoned war machines, half-buried in the snow, rusted and scarred, leaving only their grim outlines.
These things all proved the extremely high intensity of this war.
Judging by the residual radiation, several centuries had passed since the war.
After searching for most of the day, Bai Luan still hadn't detected any signs of life.
It seemed this planet was indeed one whose civilization had been destroyed by war.
The ecological environment was destroyed, no longer capable of nurturing civilization, and the current cold of this planet perfectly preserved these ruins.
It seemed his first exploration was to witness the corpse of a civilization.
Tsk…
How unlucky.
Bai Luan landed on the ground, just about to open the Anywhere Door and randomly teleport away from this planet again.
Just then—
On the edge of his vision, a tiny, moving silhouette caught his eye.
Instead of joy at discovering life, Bai Luan felt more a sense of eeriness.
Something was wrong; his detector clearly hadn't found anything. If there were living people... why couldn't it scan them?
With curiosity, Bai Luan walked towards the human he had seen.
Upon closer inspection, Bai Luan's confusion was dispelled; what stood before him was not a human, but a robot with a human-like appearance.
Its clothes were worn, and the human-like skin layer all over its body was damaged, revealing the mechanical structure within.
Well, at least it was better than nothing.
Bai Luan stepped forward and stopped the robot.
"Hey! Hello?"
After being stopped, the robot showed a confused expression, but also a mechanical stiffness.
It then stared at Bai Luan for a moment, and soon a scanning light beam shot from its eyes, scanning Bai Luan's entire body.
"Organic life form detected! Master has returned! Master has returned! Synchronizing message in network…"
Streams of data flashed in the robot's eyes, then it looked at Bai Luan and showed a smile:
"Welcome home, Master."
Bai Luan's mouth twitched under his mecha's visor. Who calls someone 'Master' right off the bat?
"I am not your Master; I am just a passing traveler."
Facing Bai Luan's denial, the robot in front of him presented data evidence to refute:
"Scan results have been compared to the database. Your genetic similarity to the gene bank data is over 90%. You are the returning Master.
Rest assured, Master, I have uploaded the information to the network, and the service robots still in operation are on their way here."
"…"
It seemed the robot's intelligence was not beyond logical constraints; everything could only proceed according to its programming.
"What is your name?"
"Unit 756489, service robot. I will do my best to fulfill all your needs. Do you require any assistance?"
"Tell me what happened on this planet?"
"Understood."
The robot in front of him nodded.
"Master, this environment is not comfortable. Please allow me to take you to a more comfortable place. I can answer your questions on the way."
The term 'Master' sounded awkward, no matter how he heard it, so Bai Luan said to the robot:
"Change my address from Master to Bai Luan."
"I understand. The modification instruction has been synchronized to the information network. From now on, we will address you as Bai Luan."
That felt better now.
Satisfied, Bai Luan followed the robot, heading towards the comfortable place it mentioned.
Along the way, the history of this planet gradually unfolded: wars fought over resources, gradually escalating into a world war.
The world war destroyed the ecological environment, and the remaining humans began to seek ways to save themselves.
They struggled in the ruins of war, barely surviving, and after centuries of effort, they finally flew into space and left this planet over two hundred years ago.
The departing humans took away a large amount of resources they could carry, leaving behind only a scarred planet and redundant robots that couldn't be taken.
The remaining robots were given the directive to await their Master's return, and they had been waiting here for over two hundred years until now.
Until Bai Luan's arrival, his high genetic similarity to the humans of this world caused the remaining robots to misjudge him as a returning human.
"So…?"
Bai Luan looked up at the grey sky of the planet and the constantly falling snow:
"I am the only human here?"
"Historical records show that some Masters failed to board the ship and remained here…"
756's electronic voice paused, seemingly retrieving more precise data.
"…Confirmed. The last remaining Master's vital signs disappeared 124 years ago."
It turned to Bai Luan:
"Therefore, yes, Bai Luan. You are the only returning human. And the only human currently existing on Beta-7."
Immediately, on its damaged bionic face, that programmed "smile" reappeared, carrying a mechanical, yet strangely unsettling, "sincerity":
"Thank you for coming back."
Bai Luan looked at 756; that smile reminded him of Xiu.
Their true Masters had not returned.
They hadn't returned for over two hundred years, and when they left, they took away a large amount of usable resources, and their final instruction was not to restore the environment, but to stand by.
Perhaps…
They never intended to return.
756 led Bai Luan to a small shelter, which was indeed better than the icy, snowy exterior.
Bai Luan sat inside, looking out the window into the distance, where figures were steadily approaching through the falling snow.
They were all robots, just like 756.
What should I…
…do with you all?