130: Chapter 130 The remaining warmth

Eleven minutes after the lights went full bright, the private lounge backstage at the Staples Center finally grew truly quiet.

The commotion outside the door—the running of staff, cheers, excited discussions, and noisy instructions over walkie-talkies—was mostly filtered out by the thick soundproof door, leaving only a dull, reassuring background hum.

The air still held the lingering scent of disinfectant sprayed by the staff earlier, mixed with faint traces of sweat and cosmetics.

Alex slumped into the large leather sofa, his head tilted back, resting against the cold backrest.

His eyelids felt as heavy as lead, and every breath pulled at a dull ache deep in his temples—the void and exhaustion left behind after an overload of 'Rule Perception', as if a layer of his soul had been scraped away.

'Mental Pillar' could keep his consciousness clear, but it could not eliminate this exhaustion stemming from a deeper level.

He was too drained to even spare the strength to lift a finger.

The system interface automatically popped up at the edge of his vision, the ghostly blue light appearing somewhat harsh at this moment.

【Historical Cumulative popularity】 103,950,221 points (slowly increasing)

【Available popularity】 18,530,030 points

【Status Alert: Rule Contact Perception module overloaded, forced cooling in progress. Estimated recovery time: 71 hours 59 minutes... 58 minutes...】

【Advanced Exchange List (Deep Unlocked State) available for preview】

The list expanded, no longer just simple names and prices as before.

Behind each ability appeared a brief but information-dense "description" and "load assessment."

【Group Emotion Guidance (Elementary)】: Can weakly guide the tendency of collective emotions within a specific range, requires using oneself as a medium, and bearing the corresponding emotional backlash. Load: Medium.

【Causal String Vision (Elementary)】: Briefly glimpse the fragile causal connections ("strings") between events; what is seen is extremely blurry and consumes a massive amount. Load: High.

【Information Reality Coating (Elementary)】: Perform an extremely subtle enhancement or weakening of the "sense of presence" for specified non-living information, affecting others' perception; the range and effect are extremely limited. Load: Medium.

...

These were no longer simple, crude "superpowers," but more like "rule tools" that required precise control and inevitably came with a price.

The popularity points needed to exchange for them were followed by a long string of zeros; with his current available balance, he could barely touch the edge of the most basic items, and after exchanging, he might immediately fall into an even deeper state of depletion.

He closed the interface. Now was not the time.

The door was gently pushed open, and Taylor walked in, closing the door behind her, cutting off the last bit of outside noise.

She had already changed out of that dazzling red performance outfit, wearing a simple gray hoodie and sweatpants, her wet hair wrapped in a towel. Her makeup-free face bore the flushed look unique to post-performance, a mix of excitement and exhaustion, but her eyes were bright.

She was holding two drinks, one a cup of steaming light tea, the other some kind of green fruit and vegetable juice that looked complicated in composition.

She placed the tea on the coffee table in front of Alex, held the green juice herself, curled up on the other end of the sofa, and let out a long sigh, as if she had finally unloaded a heavy burden.

Neither of them spoke first. The lounge was filled only with the faint sound of the air conditioning and the subtle noise of Taylor sipping her green juice.

A full two or three minutes passed before Alex slowly opened his eyes and turned his head to look at her. His movements were somewhat sluggish.

"That drink," his voice was severely hoarse, "looks like it was fished out of a pond."

Taylor glared at him and held the green juice higher. "This is the drink of winners. It replenishes electrolytes, vitamins, and... well, anyway, it's good for the body."

She paused, looking at his clearly off-kilter complexion and unfocused eyes, her tone softening. "You look... worse than if you'd played a whole tour. That last bit, was it..."

She didn't finish the question, but the meaning was clear.

Alex twitched the corner of his mouth, trying to give her an "I'm fine" smile, but didn't quite succeed.

"A bit... too much effort. Need to sleep."

He told the truth, omitting the parts about the "probability strings" and the "three seconds."

The system's secret was a cross he had to bear alone; even with Taylor, he could only stop at the level of "overuse of ability."

He picked up the tea, the warmth soothing his palm through the ceramic cup. He took a slow sip, the warm liquid sliding down his dry throat, bringing a trace of real comfort.

"I'm about the same." Taylor rested her chin on her knees, gazing into the void. "By the end of the singing, I felt like my soul was about to fly out of my throat."

"It's not tiredness, it's... being hollowed out by something, and then filled with something else."

She recalled the moment when the resonance reached its peak and the light rain fell; her body trembled slightly. It was a shock on a soul level, impossible to accurately describe in words.

"We really... did it, right? I'm not dreaming, am I?"

"The ticketing system has been overwhelmed, and Marcus's phone probably hasn't stopped ringing."

Alex twitched the corner of his mouth, this time more naturally. "Probably not a dream."

Taylor smiled, a smile containing a sense of relief and childlike pride, which then slowly settled into deep emotion.

" 'half-step echo'... they really accepted it. Those 'imperfections'."

To her, this was perhaps more important than any box office record.

"What they accepted was the 'perfection' you created with it," Alex corrected, his tone certain.

Another silence followed. But this time the silence was not filled with exhaustion, but a peace and tacit understanding that needed no words after sharing a huge achievement.

They had just, together, in front of the whole world, accomplished an incredible thing. Any words seemed superfluous at this moment.

Alex's private phone vibrated in his pocket, a special frequency.

He pulled it out with effort; it was an encrypted message from Rex, containing only one line: "Power failure point analysis confirms man-made induced overload. Trigger mechanism highly precise, remotely activated. Traced signal to overseas server proxy, path cleaned by professional means. The opponent is very clean."

As expected. A highly professional sabotage attempt that had been beautifully neutralized.

He replied: "Archive the evidence, maintain monitoring. Security review for all core personnel after the holidays."

Putting down the phone, he looked at Taylor and found she was also looking at him, inquiry in her eyes.

"A bit of a technical... follow-up issue," he said lightly, "it's been handled."

Taylor didn't press for details, just nodded.

She knew this "follow-up issue" would never be as easy as he said, otherwise his complexion wouldn't be so poor.

But she chose to trust, just as she trusted his guidance on stage.

"What's next?" she changed the subject. "People from Universal are probably already waiting by some champagne pool. Celebration? Interviews? A party?"

Alex shook his head, moving slowly.

"Let Marcus and Lauren handle it. I need..." he glanced at the 71-hour countdown on the system interface, "at least three days of quiet. You, too. Is Director Zack Snyder urging you to return to New Zealand again?"

"He sent the final version of the 'city of instantaneity' soundtrack demo, saying to listen to it when I 'return from the universe'."

Taylor smiled, but there was a hint of imperceptible confusion in her smile.

After a huge success, it is often accompanied by a feeling of emptiness, a "what now?"

She knew that life would soon be filled with various invitations, negotiations, and new projects, but this peak tonight would likely be hard to replicate.

"Then come back first," Alex looked into her eyes and said earnestly. "Return from the universe, step on the ground. Then, we'll see what fun things there are on the ground."

His words dispelled the mist in Taylor's heart.

Yes, after the peak is not the end, but standing at a higher starting point.

The future still has infinite possibilities, especially... with him.

"Alright." Taylor stretched, her bones making a slight cracking sound. "Then I'll go find my soul first. Do you still want your 'pond water'?"

She pointed to the green juice.

"No, thank you."

Taylor smiled and stood up, walked to the door, then stopped and turned back to look at him.

Under the warm yellow light, her silhouette was soft, her eyes clear.

"Alex."

"Hmm?"

"Thank you," she said, her voice very light, but heavy as a thousand catties. "For everything."

Then, she opened the door, walked out, and gently closed it.

The lounge returned to silence.

The tea on the coffee table had gone lukewarm.

Alex sat alone, listening to the subtle changes deep within that only he could perceive after the internal clamor faded—the system was slowly self-checking, 'Rule Perception' was faintly hot during cooling, and the popularity growth curve was leveling off but not stopping.

He had succeeded. He had survived. He was standing before a new, even more incredible threshold.

But at this moment, he just wanted to sit here, finish this cup of warm tea, and then sleep for a very, very long time.

Outside the window, the night in Los Angeles was deep.

And the legendary night belonging to "Alex Su" had just come to an end; its lingering warmth would long scorch this world, as well as the trajectory of his own destiny.