Although Twilight wasn't a mind-reader in Caelus's stomach, she had seen enough battles and experienced enough to guess roughly what this little guy, less than two months old, was thinking.
Isn't he just worried that his waifu will die before him? Don't worry, she definitely will~ After all, Twilight was a great philanthropist of the universe. If she didn't die, would she have to rely on killing people to explode gold coins when farming energy?
Although Shoko and Lee had experienced similar things, those were ultimately just means used along the way. The biggest gold coin harvest still relied on self-destruction… After all, no matter how strong an alt account was, it ultimately had to die.
If she really walked the path of a villainous bad woman and killed everyone, then no one would grieve for her when she died.
…Huh?
Suddenly, an idea popped into Twilight's mind—if she killed everyone and then found a way to resurrect them, could she farm wool twice after being redeemed?
She could even not explain after resurrecting them, wait until they killed her, and then be redeemed…
When they finally realized that the betrayer they hated was actually their comrade who had painstakingly tried to save them, only to find that she had been killed by their own hands, wouldn't the gold coins exploded at the moment they learned the truth be even more abundant?!
Hehe, hehehe—Twilight almost laughed out loud. And what delighted her so much wasn't the bright future of this plan, but her own astonishing wisdom in coming up with it~
Lee had implemented a similar plan back then, but at the final moment of executing the plan to eliminate herself, it failed due to Kevin, that indecisive man, forcing her to implement the alternative skewering plan.
This time, she would definitely learn from past experience, go one step further, and see which was the real gold mine: resentment towards others or regret towards oneself!
To execute such a grand plan within a year—no, within ten months, Twilight had to admire her own ambition.
Even without using her astonishing wisdom to think, Twilight could understand that the mental damage this plan would inflict on the Express crew and the players would definitely far exceed the ordinary lifespan argument.
But this way, the short lifespan that could have been used for angst became a burden to her grand plan… But it was fine, such a small problem couldn't stump her.
After all, conceptual things might be difficult to tackle head-on, but there were many ways to bypass them~
"Twilight, what's wrong?"
Twilight's silent, gaze fixed on the statue in front of her still attracted Caelus's attention. The statue before them was indeed magnificent, but was there something worth Twilight examining so closely? And she was actually… thinking?
Twilight was thinking—if he told March 7th about this, it would probably be treated as a new Express crew joke. After all, Twilight's fists usually moved faster than his brain…
"Will everyone forget me in the future too?"
Twilight's words weren't particularly emotional, seemingly just simple curiosity, but they made Caelus's mood, which had just lifted slightly, sink again: "Herta said I can live for a year, but everyone lives for many years… If I die, will everyone forget me?"
"Twilight is our important companion, how could we forget…"
"But didn't the companions of those original Great Guardians forget her?"
Twilight looked at Caelus curiously, her star-like eyes showing no fear of death, nor any accusation towards Caelus. But even facing such gentle emotions, Caelus still subconsciously avoided her eyes… because Twilight simply didn't understand yet.
How cold-blooded would someone have to be to watch a child who didn't even understand what death was talk about her own death?
At least Caelus couldn't do it.
But his subconscious act of avoidance seemed to cause some misunderstanding and contemplation in Twilight. As if believing she would be forgotten after death, she visibly drooped: "Then I don't want to die… I don't want Caelus to not remember me…"
"Twilight, I could never forget you." After a moment of silence, Caelus put on a smile and pinched Twilight's cheek. "But, since you don't want to die, then we won't die… There must be a way."
Of course, there's a way, but you probably don't have one. Originally, on Jarilo-VI, he could have gotten the gaze of the Amber Lord and obtained the power of the Preservation Path, but now he had nothing—uh, if he had to say, he barely managed to get the status of a local tyrant in Belobog, but unfortunately, there was no Colonizer Path or Slave Trade Path in the galaxy…
Wait, isn't the act of colonizing also a form of trailblazing new lands? Twilight felt like she had found a loophole.
From this perspective, their Express crew's actions this time could also be considered practicing the Path of Trailblaze… It's a pity the Trailblaze Aeon Akivili is dead, otherwise, maybe He would have actually glanced at Caelus.
If Aha could take a look at Caelus for his good friend, that would be fine too. At least give him a buff, otherwise, the protagonist would lack coolness… Twilight felt quite tired inwardly.
She was the female lead, yet she had to worry about the protagonist's treatment for the sake of the players' feelings. She was practically being a wife and a mother, and in the future, she would even have to be a savior and a mortal enemy…
Whatever, let's do something big first.
Looking at the huge statue before her, Twilight decided to pull off a big stunt here that the people of this planet wouldn't forget.
——
The Everwinter Monument, this statue built to commemorate the great builders, had stood in this city for hundreds of years. Waking up every day to see the huge crystal stone in the central plaza had become a part of the Belobog people's lives.
But today, those who woke up early found that the situation seemed a tiny bit off…
"Blasphemy, absolute blasphemy…!"
The heartbroken, chest-beating, and foot-stomping lamentations of the Belobog people could be heard everywhere. Even the hastily arrived members of the Express crew couldn't help but fall silent upon seeing this scene.
And the reason for all this was only one thing: the huge structure—or rather, stone pier—that had appeared in the center of the central plaza at some unknown time.
"What, what is this thing…?"
Standing at the entrance of the plaza, March 7th desperately tilted her head up, trying to see the top of this stone, but unfortunately, this object was too huge. Not only did it occupy almost the entire plaza, but it was also taller than Belobog's outer city walls.
Standing next to it, one simply couldn't tell what it was at a glance.
"Everything was normal here yesterday. To conjure up something this big overnight…" Welt sucked in a cold breath. Even if he, as the former Herrscher of Reason, were to reconstruct something like this, it would tire him half to death—of course, this had nothing to do with whether he himself was weak!
"It wasn't conjured up. It seems a nearby mountain has disappeared…" Himeko sighed softly. As soon as these words came out, everyone's eyes landed on Twilight in unison.
No further explanation was needed. The culprit seemed to have appeared.
"Generally speaking, there's only one person on this planet capable of doing such a thing." Dan Heng silently looked at Twilight.
Twilight was a child, so everyone on the train naturally cared for her. But no matter what, children still needed guidance and couldn't be allowed to run wild. Although Twilight had always behaved very well before, they couldn't let her continue doing things like harassing the residents of Belobog for no reason like this.
Otherwise, the well-behaved Twilight might turn into a bratty child later… A bratty child with terrifying power, just thinking about it was alarming.
"Twilight, why did you do this?"
Himeko looked at Twilight, her expression rarely serious: "This is a very important place for everyone on Jarilo-VI. As Nameless, we should respect their culture, not cause destruction here… Why did you move the stone here?"
Being stared at by Himeko, Twilight shrank her neck, subconsciously lowering her head like a child caught doing something wrong by their parents. But even so, she still mumbled in an almost inaudible voice: "Not a stone…"
If it wasn't a stone, what could it be?
Caelus looked up at the towering stone block before him, lost in thought—indeed, calling it a stone was too unfair to it. This was clearly a mountain.
"It's a statue… I carved it myself…"
A statue? And she carved herself?
The Express crew members were stunned. How could the stone block before them be related to a statue? This abstract style, this twisted shape, no matter how you looked at it… hmm, it did seem to bear a striking resemblance to the abstract patterns Twilight drew in her notebook.
"Although everyone forgot the builders back then, this stone has always been here. When people see the stone, they can still remember some things about them…" Twisting her toes uneasily, Twilight said with little confidence, "I, I carved myself into a statue, so that everyone can remember me when they see the statue in the future… I just don't want, to be forgotten by everyone…"
"Sigh, little Twilight, I understand you so well—this feeling of wanting to leave a mark on history, I occasionally have it too!" March 7th let out a long sigh after hearing Twilight's explanation, as if she deeply empathized.
"Especially when you've worked so hard to solve a big problem on a certain planet, only to have to leave quietly… Although we're Nameless, after doing such a great deed, you still hope your name will be passed down—what if in the future you have the chance to visit that planet again, and someone exclaims in awe that you are the legendary great hero March 7th? That feeling must be amazing!"
"I actually wanted to erect a statue of myself before, but I was worried that such a small statue would be forgotten in three or five hundred years, or even lost somewhere… But little Twilight, yours definitely won't have this problem." March 7th clicked her tongue looking at the sculpture before her.
"Let alone three or five hundred years, even if the city of Belobog disappears, this statue probably won't disappear. It's just that the shape is a bit too artistic, unrecognizable as you… Remember to call me next time, I'll help you design the shape, and carve one for me too—"
"Ahem, March, stop leading Twilight astray." The helpless Dan Heng interrupted March 7th. If she continued like this, perhaps at the next destination, she could really trick Twilight into carving two mountain-sized statues for her.
What kind of behavior was this? They were the Nameless of the Astral Express who practiced the Path of Trailblaze, not some wrong evolutionary branch of the builders called the Statue-builders—
"Since we're carving, why not just carve everyone next time? Bring Dan Heng and Caelus too?"
"And Uncle Yang and Himeko." Dan Heng calmly added the remaining members for March 7th. "Everyone on the train is one entity, of course, no one can be missing."
"Heh." March 7th looked at Dan Heng with a speechless smile. After knowing him for so many years, how did she not know when Dan Heng's bottom line became so flexible… Sigh, he must have been corrupted by Caelus.
"Then, then should this one be dismantled now…?" Twilight cautiously looked at March 7th, and unsurprisingly, was pulled into her arms and rubbed again.
"Dismantle what? Such a huge statue is quite a spectacle! From another perspective, we're helping Belobog prepare for the tourism industry in advance~ Uncle Yang, Himeko, don't you agree?"
Facing the excited three youngsters, Welt could only helplessly adjust his glasses: "Although the Stellaron has been sealed and suppressed, its impact cannot be eliminated in the short term. The current Jarilo-VI is still waiting to be rebuilt… Isn't it a bit too early to prepare for the tourism industry at this time?"
"It's fine, anyway, things carved in stone can be preserved for a long time~"
Towards the optimistic March 7th, Welt could only smile and say nothing else. After all, carving in stone was indeed an excellent choice for preserving information.
Even those Aeons with infinite power had recorded histories of only hundreds of thousands or millions of years, but a small pebble might have already existed for billions of years… If there were no accidents, the time a carved statue could last might even exceed the lifespan of an Aeon.
Of course, it might be weathered beyond recognition—but as for the statue before them, even without being weathered, a normal person wouldn't be able to recognize what it was.
"…Since that's the case, let's leave it." Finally, after looking at the stone statue before her for a long time, Himeko also shook her head with a light smile. "Let's just treat it as a trace left by our train passing by—but it's best to move it outside the city first, so as not to damage Belobog's own cultural environment."
"Okay, I'll move it now—"
Seeing Twilight preparing to carry the stone mountain she had moved overnight back outside the city, March 7th hurriedly stopped her: "Hey, stop, stop! Twilight, don't move it yet. Such a shocking scene, let's take a picture together first!"
"Take a picture?"
"Yeah—tada! My camera~" March 7th cheekily took out the camera from her waist. "If the statue is the memory left here, then the photo is the memory we can take away. This is Caelus and little Twilight's first trailblazing, and it's a rare occasion for everyone to be out together, super memorable, okay? How can we not take a family photo!"
"Come, come, everyone stand together, say cheese on my count—"
The people of Belobog watched the inexplicably strange outsiders strike peculiar poses in front of the stone.
Someone adjusted their glasses to catch the light just right, someone produced a coffee table out of nowhere, someone wielded a baseball bat like a sword, someone sighed with their hand on their forehead as if having a headache, someone clung to another person like a sloth…
And in the very center, the girl whose expression was originally somewhat blank revealed a slightly shy smile.
Strange people, but they seem really happy—the nearby crowd thought.
"Hmph, the photos I take are always so artistic~"
"Will you take more in the future?"
"Of course, after all, our story is still long, isn't it!"