Chapter 87: The Final “Farewell”

Chapter 87: The Final “Farewell”

One Hour Earlier · Eastern Beach of the Island

Tendou raised his fingertip toward the distant Star Monolith.

A profound, shadowy Dark Grey tore through the air. After piercing the Star Monolith’s protective barrier, it struck its inner core with pinpoint precision.

Crack, crack.

Crisp sounds of shattering rang out one after another.

On the surface of the Star Monolith offshore along the western coast—constantly summoning waves of beasts—countless spiderweb-like cracks instantly appeared.

Moments later—

BOOM—!!!

Amid the ear-splitting explosion, the Star Monolith above the sea turned into a dazzling firework, briefly illuminating Embers Island, now shrouded beneath dark clouds.

“Done.”

Tendou brushed his hands as if dusting off sand that wasn’t even there, a satisfied smile lifting the corners of his mouth.

But in the very next second, his expression suddenly froze, as though he had remembered something important.

He stared at the calm sea before him, a trace of complexity flashing through his pale blue eyes.

‘Sigh… I wonder how much longer it’ll be before Caroline wakes up. If only—’

The thought had barely surfaced when Tendou shook his head with a wry smile.

He knew all too well how naïve that thought was.

Unless he forcibly awakened Caroline from the quantum core, he won’t be able to meet and talk to her for quite some time.

But if he were going to do that, there would’ve been no need to go this far today.

Thinking this, Tendou let out a soft sigh, then turned and vanished into the rain-drenched forest.

In the end, he should still go and say goodbye to Caroline.

Even though… she probably wouldn’t be able to hear it.

And just after Tendou headed into the woods, the Embers' anime footage on Crustyroll slowly pulled back.

The once pristine eastern beach had now been completely transformed into a bloody purgatory on earth.

Thousands upon thousands of Starbeast corpses lay scattered across the sand in grotesque poses.

The stench of blood mixed with the distinctive rot of decaying seafood, forming a uniquely nauseating odor.

Among the horrifying corpses of Starbeasts slain by Tendou, there was a gigantic sea turtle with its head blown apart by a single punch, its upper body slumped against a palm tree.

A saber-toothed tiger shark with a perfectly circular hole blasted through its chest, frozen in a pouncing posture.

And others that had been reduced to countless fragments, strewn across the beach like a dismantled jigsaw puzzle—so shattered that their original forms were unrecognizable.

Although the anime cut away to other battlefields after Tendou instantly killed the second-order Sea Wolf Turtle, this blood-soaked, art-exhibit-like eastern beach was undeniable proof, from another angle, of Tendou’s almost cheat-like, terrifying strength.

And that strength became even more striking to the viewers, who had just watched Chen Xing’s four-person squad struggle repeatedly in bitter fights.

“As expected of the strongest^^”

“Chen Xing: Are we even the same species???’

“While Chen Xing and the others are still barely beating the entrance mob, Tendou already beat the last boss and the hidden boss.”

“Tendou: You guys keep fighting, I’ll go buy—uh, no—I’ll go one-shot the BOSS.”

“Did anyone notice that fleetingly complex expression on Tendou’s face just now? I have a bad feeling…”

“Hey, don’t say that. I’m not listening, I’m not listening, I’M NOT LISTENING!”

As Tendou left the beach, the anime scene transitioned like a movie cut, shifting to the underground quantum center of the base—the holographic simulation chamber.

Tendou stood before Caroline’s quantum computation pod.

Around the chamber, quantum data conduits pulsed ceaselessly with silver-white streams of light, flickering as they cast shifting highlights and shadows across his face.

Inside the holographic computation pod, Caroline was dressed in a specially designed Machina tactical suit.

Special quantum data cables were plugged into the signal interfaces at her back and the nape of her neck.

At the same time, her originally light-green hair had completely changed, becoming the same silver-white as his.

The reason for this change was that Caroline’s seemingly soft hair was, in fact, made up of countless slender and exquisitely precise quantum data conduits.

When quantum data was transmitted at superluminal speeds, its color would shift from calm emerald green to surging silver-white.

That was why Caroline inside the holographic computation pod now bore such a change in hair color.

Although this appearance of hers was quite rare, Tendou had still seen it several times over the years.

The most recent occasion was when Caroline had been tricked by him in Deep Blue Metropolis—mistakenly believing he had been done in by Crowmell—and had activated her Power Surge Overload.

Thinking of this, Tendou couldn’t help but curl his lips into a smile.

After all, not just anyone could toy with a Machina of exceptional intellect.

Especially not one as top-tier in talent as Caroline.

On that point, Tendou was rather “impressed” with himself.

After his brief moment of self-satisfaction, Tendou dragged over a chair from nearby and quietly sat down beside Caroline’s computation pod, using this final, precious stretch of time to begin his daily “work report.”

Though, he had to admit, Caroline in silver-hair mode really did give off the feeling of being his perfect partner!

“Caroline, you wouldn’t believe it—Liuli made a fool of herself again today. She—”

Halfway through his sentence, the anime suddenly cut to a montage-like sequence of memories.

The memories began from the very first day Caroline entered the quantum computation pod.

In the gray-white fragments of recollection, whenever night fell and the base grew quiet, Tendou would come alone to stand before Caroline’s pod.

He would tell her about the interesting things that had happened around the base that day.

For example, how Jing Liuli, that idiot, had been flying along when she suddenly crashed straight into one of the base’s pillars.

So furious was she that she wanted to tear the pillar down on the spot—only to be caught before she could act by a passing Tachibana, who pointed at her head and gave her a harsh lecture.

Or how Chen Xing had overestimated himself and came to challenge him to a duel, only to be effortlessly defeated yet again.

Of course, in those memory scenes, Tendou didn’t actually speak very much.

Because the unchanging routine of daily life was the dominant theme of the past month for him.

Thus, more often than not, the Tendou in those memories simply sat quietly beside the computation pod, silently gazing at Caroline inside.

Yet no matter how dull the events of the day had been, Tendou would still arrive at the simulation chamber on time every night, carrying out this tedious and repetitive “work report” with Caroline as usual.

Only, as time passed, the amount he spoke during these daily “work reports” grew less and less, while the moments of silence grew longer and longer.

It’s as if he had already sensed something in advance.

As the carousel of memories flashed one after another across the screen, the dimensional viewers on Crustyroll gradually fell silent along with the Tendou in the footage.

Because although the Tendou on-screen appeared no different from usual—still wearing his signature confident smile whenever he spoke—they could clearly perceive a side of him that was rarely known to others.

A side called “loneliness.”

This man who constantly called himself “the strongest,” who claimed unrivaled supremacy under heaven and above earth—in reality… was also deeply afraid of being alone.

The anime scene returned to the present.

“So anyway, Caroline, I’m telling you—Liuli definitely won’t be cut out for business in the future.”

“She can’t even handle addition and subtraction within a hundred, yet she keeps shouting about becoming some kind of world’s richest woman. That’s just daydreaming taken too far—pure fantasy, hahahaha!”

Tendou was still laughing when a shrill alarm suddenly blared.

Blood-red warning lights flooded the underground base.

Cold electronic voices echoed endlessly between the metal walls.

And their appearance, at this very moment, completely tore apart the warm, peaceful routine Tendou had been sharing.

【Warning. Warning. An unidentified Starbearer intrusion has been detected.】

【According to Embers Base security regulations, Defense Mode: Infinite Maze has now been activated. All units are to strictly follow Embers Base safety protocols and assist security personnel in expelling the unidentified intruder as soon as possible.】

Tendou looked at the quantum center—the holographic simulation chamber—that is now bathed entirely in crimson light.

Listening to the piercing alarms resounding beside his ears, he immediately braced his hands on his knees and slowly rose from his seat.

“Well, even though there’s still so much I want to say to you, since the guests have already come knocking, I should go out and properly receive them.”

“This was originally Yume-nee’s job, but I told the Doctor that, well… Yume-nee really doesn’t understand what hospitality means at all.”

“So I took the initiative to ask him to hand this task over to me.”

“After all, when it comes to entertaining guests… I believe I’m far more experienced than Yume-nee.”

“Rather than letting her go, it’s obviously better for me to handle it.”

As he spoke, Tendou took an old, worn little dolphin plush from his coat and placed it beside the pink dolphin plush—about half a meter tall—next to Caroline’s holographic computation pod.

And just after Tendou finished doing this, the Stellaris Production Team deliberately gave a close-up shot of the two dolphin plushies—one big, one small; one new, one old.

It’s as if they are silently hinting at something.

“Caroline, I don’t know how long this reception is going to last, but considering there might be some small ‘unexpected incidents’ along the way…”

“When I came back today, I went to your room and brought this little thing out as well.”

“That way, when you wake up, you’ll be able to see them both right away.”

At this point, Tendou lifted the Deep Blue Resonance necklace around his neck—the gift Caroline had given him—and revealed a “confident” smile.

“All right, Caroline. I’ve said everything I needed to say. Now I should go outside and properly receive those guests.”

“Don’t worry. With the charm you gave me, I think that even in pitch-black darkness where you can’t see your hand even when it’s right in front of your face, I won’t get lost.”

“And… Well, if you don’t see me when you wake up, there’s no need to rush out to look for me.”

“After all, that just means I was delayed by something on the way—and I’ll be back very soon.”

“So, goodbye… my best partner.”

With that, Tendou carefully tucked the necklace away, turned around, and walked out of the quantum center—the holographic simulation chamber.

Leaving Caroline alone, quietly lying inside the computation pod.

What Tendou failed to notice, however, was that at the very moment he stepped out of the simulation chamber, Caroline, lying inside the holographic computation pod, lightly twitched her fingers.

And this, too, meant that Caroline—who had already been in the “quantum space” for a full fifty days—was not far at all from the moment her consciousness would return from the quantum realm to reality.

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