"Heh, sorry, partner."
Phainon scratched his head. "Every time I see that guy, he has to needle me. I totally forgot what I was going to tell you just now."
Caelus sighed, his gaze finally turning toward Phainon.
"Oh, I remember now." Phainon suddenly looked into the distance, his expression somber. "Everyone in Amphoreus has returned."
"But the spreading Black Tide Creations haven't vanished. And that thing you mentioned before, the 'virus' that appeared after the Iron Tomb bloomed—it seems to be spreading."
"But to be honest, it doesn't even feel real. We actually did it, partner."
Phainon explained to Caelus the scenes they had witnessed outside the city earlier.
The Iron Tomb virus had indeed scattered, affecting both inorganic and organic matter. Amphoreus, being closest to the battlefield, was directly impacted.
The silver lining was that after the Iron Tomb was smashed, everyone came back.
This aligned with Caelus's understanding.
But speaking of it feeling "unreal," that was a bit awkward.
He had used [Mystery] to fool the gods and even causality itself. In reality, everything at the moment was still an illusion.
But Caelus walked over and patted Phainon on the shoulder.
"It's okay, take a deep breath. It's normal for it to feel unreal, because the true Amphoreus is about to be reborn!"
"And we will also head toward the true starry sky!"
Be that as it may, Caelus still intended to weave a white lie.
He still had time, didn't he?
Actually, Caelus had considered many methods. Besides stalling for time with fabrications, he could also look for Sister Quan to see if she could sever the causality of Amphoreus with a single strike.
Or he could just smash Nanook out of existence, so the Iron Tomb would completely vanish. He could even pull out another immaculate to replace Cyrene.
But in reality, Acheron was drifting everywhere, and Caelus couldn't find her at all. As for the rest, fighting an Aeon?
It was truly a helpless situation.
Caelus looked down at the scenery of Okhema, feeling that he could only stall for as long as possible.
At least "as i have written" was still in his hands. If all else failed, he would have to stick to the original plan and pack everything into the book...
As he was thinking this...
Suddenly...
[Ding!]
"What was that noise?!"
[Detected strong player conviction. System activating...]
Wait.
For real?
Caelus suddenly looked up, his face filled with an expression of "where have you been all my life?"
Three years! Do you know how he spent these three years after transmigrating?!
His struggle to hold on until now hadn't been in vain.
In this world where mysterious powers coexisted, where Aeon cults and terrifying forces were everywhere, a normal person would barely survive two days!
But now, everything had changed.
"What will it be?"
"Will it lead directly to an Aeon, or can I start Climbing the Tree?" Caelus was already calculating.
It's a system, no matter what.
At the very least, if it could make him an Emanator of Erudition, he'd be willing to study the origins of life with Ruan Mei!
[Ding! Game Development System successfully bound. Your experiences have been automatically recorded!]
[Ding! Detected host's urgent need. Congratulations on generating the brand-new version 3.0 of the game "honkai: star rail."]
Caelus: "¿"
Time seemed to freeze for a few seconds. At this moment, Caelus felt as if he had been glanced at by IX, a question mark hovering over his head.
Uh, what?
You're saying the system function you gave me is to... make games? In a world where Aeons roam, terror is rampant, and technology has ascended?
Making games, my foot?
Answer me, you bastard!
Could this thing be something Aha sent to toy with him?
A divine war is about to break out, and you're telling me to make games?!
His newly ignited hope was instantly extinguished. Caelus felt as helpless as a potential Self-Annihilator. He felt it would have been better if the thing hadn't shown up at all.
Giving him hope only to crush it? How interesting.
But then, the system's voice echoed in Caelus's ears again.
[Ding! Release the game and attract players. Data such as concurrent users and player spending will be converted into Cosmic Shards for you.]
[Cosmic Shards can be exchanged in the System Event Shop for abilities, items, materials, and more.]
[They can also be used to redeem future version updates.]
"..."
Caelus paused for another two seconds, and then his expression gradually became peculiar.
"Huh?"
So it wasn't as simple as just making games?
Collecting Cosmic Shards and exchanging them for various abilities in the Event Shop—he could even ascend to godhood.
Well, that's great!
But then again, what is this game?
"I'm making honkai: star rail inside the world of honkai: star rail?"
Caelus checked the content of the first game version provided by the system. Whether it was the mechanics or the modeling, it was indeed exactly like "honkai: star rail."
But that was fine.
Since the content of the first version seemed to start from version 3.0, and in the current real-time period, not many people should be paying attention to this planet yet.
Caelus suddenly remembered that the ability of "as i have written" was to record the data of Amphoreus.
As long as he spread it to the stars and let everyone know about it, Amphoreus and all the data within it could potentially ascend into a real planet and real people!
Instead of spreading it through something like printing books, wouldn't it be faster to spread it directly through a game?
Wait, this actually matches up?
In an instant, Caelus seemed to know what to do. This would not only provide a safety net for the Golden Descendants and Amphoreus but also give Caelus a path to ascend.
After all, unlike the Astral Express Crew, he had no special identity other than his "New Game Plus" perspective.
"partner?"
Phainon's puzzled voice interrupted Caelus's daydreaming.
"partner, why are you spacing out?"
"Haha, you're right. We defeated the creations of Destruction, and Amphoreus is about to be reborn. We should be happier at a time like this."
Phainon looked up at the sky, as if he could already see the near future where the true dawn would rise and the starry sky he had never seen before would appear.
In contrast, Caelus patted his shoulder again.
The difference was, this time, it wasn't a lie.
"There's still a long time before Amphoreus is reborn. In the meantime, it's not just the virus left by the Iron Tomb; we also have to make Amphoreus ascend completely."
"But don't worry, I already have a way to spread the story of Amphoreus!"
Caelus's words drew everyone's attention at once.
No one didn't look forward to the arrival of this day.
But clearly, even defeating the final boss, Iron Tomb, and even destroying Lygus, still wasn't enough to make Amphoreus reborn immediately.
But in the next second, Caelus took out his mobile phone.
"A brick?" Mydei crossed his arms and frowned. "Just with this? What are you going to do with that?"
The others also looked at each other in confusion.
Caelus had a look of utter speechlessness.
To put it bluntly, Amphoreus was like a cosmic backwater; its civilization hadn't connected with the stars yet. Plus, the Xuanfeng People didn't even have a written language, so of course, they didn't know how useful a mobile phone could be.
"This isn't just a 'brick.' In my partner's place, it's called a mobile phone."
"Right?"
Beside him, Cyrene stepped forward slowly, her hands behind her back.
After explaining, she gave Caelus a playful wink.
Caelus nodded and then snapped his fingers.
"Exactly, Cyrene is right. We'll just use this thing to make a game, and we can spread all the memories of Amphoreus."
"Come, come, everyone, take a look at this."