64: Grey Gu Storm

The moment Lei Wen pressed his finger on the mouse, his eyes were locked onto the computer screen.

There was no earth-shattering explosion, no world-destroying light effects, and certainly no falling into a bizarre dream like in those clichéd novels.

Instead, the entire game interface of "stellar universe" turned pure white in an instant.

Then, a simple window slowly emerged in the center of the screen.

The background of the window was a deep darkness that seemed to contain countless stars.

And in the center of that darkness, a figure was floating quietly.

It was a girl.

A girl so beautiful that any vocabulary seemed pale and powerless to describe her.

She looked to be only sixteen or seventeen years old, possessing long, silver hair that flowed like moonlight. Her hair moved in the void without any wind, and every strand seemed to be composed of the purest light.

Her skin was so fair it was nearly transparent, as if sculpted from the finest mutton-fat jade, so delicate that not a single flaw could be seen.

She wore a tight-fitting suit made of some unknown silvery-white fluid metal, which perfectly outlined her slender yet powerful body curves, with complex and mysterious pale blue patterns flowing across it like circuit boards.

Her eyes were closed, her hands folded across her chest, and she radiated an aura of sacred and inviolable serenity, like a deity that had been sleeping for billions of years.

Lei Wen stared blankly at the girl who had suddenly appeared on the screen, his mind completely blank.

He swore that he had never seen such a beautiful creature.

Her beauty had transcended the boundaries of race and aesthetics, reaching a level that bordered on the "Dao."

Anyone who saw her for the first time would feel a primal sense of awe and admiration for a perfect creation.

Strangely, amidst the shock, a faint, extremely familiar sense of intimacy rose in Lei Wen's heart.

He kept feeling as if he had seen her somewhere before, and had spent a very, very long time with her.

Was it in a dream?

Or...

Before he could think it through, the long eyelashes of the girl who had seemed to sleep for billions of years suddenly trembled slightly.

Then, her azure eyes, which contained the entire sea of stars, slowly opened.

What a pair of eyes they were!

Clear, pure, and full of curiosity about the world, yet hidden deep within them was a faint sense of vicissitudes, settled after enduring millions of years of loneliness.

And what made Lei Wen's hair stand on end was that the very moment she opened her eyes, her gaze seemed to pierce through the screen and the barriers of space, locking directly onto Lei Wen outside the screen.

In that moment, Lei Wen felt as if he were being seen through completely, from the inside out.

"It's you!"

A smile as bright as spring sunshine instantly bloomed on the girl's face, and that sacred, inviolable aura was instantly replaced by a lively, playful girlishness.

Her voice was crisp and melodious, like a clear spring flowing in a mountain stream.

"You actually came back? Why didn't you notify me in advance? I thought you had forgotten about me!"

"By the way, how did you establish a signal connection with me? This frequency band is so strange, I've never seen it before. I remember you shouldn't be a nanomechanical lifeform..."

Once the girl opened her chatterbox, it was like a bursting flood, endless and impossible to stop.

Lei Wen, on the other hand, was completely stunned by her barrage of high-information-density questions.

She knows me?

She can see me?

She can even talk to me?

What on earth is going on?

But as her familiar chatterbox trait was laid bare, a memory of the game "stellar universe" that Lei Wen had buried deep in his mind suddenly became clear, like the night sky illuminated by lightning.

Grey Wind.

Or rather, the Grey Tempest civilization.

In the game "stellar universe," the Grey Tempest is a powerful crisis composed of out-of-control nanorobots.

But in a specific event chain, players have the chance to communicate with the collective consciousness of this nanorobot cluster—that is, "Grey Wind"—and eventually recruit her.

Once recruited, Grey Wind would transform into a powerful hero unit or a super warship composed of countless nanorobots that could change shape at will, becoming one of the most powerful trump cards in the player's hand.

Lei Wen had naturally triggered this event chain when he was playing that save file.

It was just that the original Grey Wind did not have a materialized humanoid form.

And as a veteran mod player, installing a beautification mod for his game was simply a basic operation for Lei Wen.

He had subscribed to a mod from the Workshop that could replace Grey Wind's appearance with a silver-haired anime girl.

And the chatterbox girl in front of him was none other than that Grey Wind, processed by the beautification mod!

"You... are Grey Wind?" Lei Wen asked tentatively toward the screen, using a voice he felt was a bit silly.

"Eh? You still remember my name!" Grey Wind seemed even happier upon hearing her name. "Great! Your blank expression just now, as if you didn't recognize me, I thought you had amnesia!"

"You really know me?" Lei Wen still felt it was hard to believe.

He was amazed that Grey Wind could have such a smooth conversation with him from outside the screen.

You have to know, his laptop didn't have any camera installed at all!

"Hmm? Did you really get amnesia? How pitiful." Grey Wind heard his question, a look of sympathy appearing on her face, and her azure eyes blinked.

"We went through such a long time together, and you've actually forgotten."

"Did you forget how we purified those annoying organic pollutants together? Did you forget how we dismantled those big fish calling themselves Ether Drakes into parts? Did you forget that super cooooool Ring World rotating at the speed of light we built together in the Balabar system?"

She counted on her fingers, enumerating those "glorious days" that existed only in Lei Wen's game save.

Every single event corresponded precisely to one of Lei Wen's past actions in the game.

"But that's fine, too," she suddenly changed the subject, a casual expression returning to her face. "Let the past be the past. I don't remember it very clearly either, after all, staying here alone is just too boring."

"The key is, where are you now? I can't wait to be by your side!"

As she spoke, she excitedly spun around in that pure white window.

"Remember how I once promised to serve you for five thousand years? Let me calculate... from the last time we met until now, it seems... it seems it hasn't been long? Or has it been a long time? Oh my, my time calculation module is a bit confused. Whatever, regardless, the term definitely hasn't expired yet!"

"I'm coming to find you!"

She declared in an unquestionable tone.

Lei Wen looked at Grey Wind's seemingly serene and beautiful face, which possessed a mouth that seemed like it would never stop talking, and felt a wave of helplessness.

He finally personally experienced the unanimous evaluation of the Grey Wind unit by players on the game forums back then—she is truly strong, and truly a chatterbox.

It seemed that because Grey Wind had wandered alone in the isolated L-Cluster for thousands upon thousands of years and lacked anyone to communicate with, she became extremely clingy and talkative once she found someone she could talk to.

"Wait... wait..." Lei Wen felt his brain was a bit chaotic; he had to clarify a few key issues first.

"Grey Wind, calm down for a moment. Can you tell me where you are right now? Also, how can you see me and talk to me?"

"Where am I?" Grey Wind tilted her head, seemingly thinking about the question. "I don't know where this place is either. Ever since you last... um, that is, after those people under you activated that thing called the Shroud Tearer, I was brought to this pitch-black place by a very strange force. There's nothing here, just me, it's so boring."

"As for how I see you..." She stretched out her slender finger and tapped lightly in the air.

Lei Wen saw circles of pale blue ripples appearing around the blue "Contact" button on his game interface.

"It's through this." Grey Wind explained. "I don't know when this little thing suddenly appeared here. I studied it for a long time and couldn't figure out what it was for. Besides, it was grey before, and no matter how I poked it, there was no reaction."

"Until just now, it suddenly lit up! Then I felt a very, very familiar aura coming through. Isn't that yours? I am so familiar with the signal from you! So I accepted it immediately!"

Lei Wen listened, half-understanding.

He roughly understood that this "Contact" button was perhaps a special link between Grey Wind, this special unit, and himself, the "player."

And the reason this link was only activated now was likely due to some unknown change brought about by the approach of the Faleim Far Star Fleet.

After the initial shock and discomfort passed, a more important thought suddenly flashed through his mind.

Grey Wind.

She was a super lifeform composed of countless self-replicating, self-evolving nanorobots.

She was a crisis-level existence that could easily transform into a warship with off-the-charts combat power in the game, and could even assimilate an entire planet into nanomachines.

If she could really come to his side as she said...

Then, facing the approaching Far Star Fleet, wouldn't Earth have an unexpected trump card?

"Grey Wind!" Lei Wen's voice became excited. "You said you want to come find me? Can you get out of the place where you are right now?"

"Of course I can!" Grey Wind's answer was crisp and decisive. "Let me see... this... the signal on the little button has turned into a transmission channel. As long as you agree to receive it on your end, I can come over through this channel at any time! However..."

Her tone shifted, and a look of distress appeared on her face.

"I see the space behind you seems a bit small? If my main body goes over, wouldn't I cover your planet... forget it, forget it. Anyway, as long as there is enough matter, I can have as much body as I want. I'll just bring a small part of my body over."

"By the way, although it's just a necessary little part, it's still bigger than the conventional cruisers of those people under you from before. It's best to let me out in space... Of course, if you don't mind me flattening this piece of land, I can come out right now."

"Absolutely not!" Lei Wen immediately stopped her. He didn't want his home, along with the entire Tianqiong City, to be razed to the ground by Grey Wind's massive body.

"I'll take a spaceship into space tomorrow, Grey Wind, just wait a while!"

"Understood, understood. We haven't met in so long, I have so much to say. How about we continue now? We..."

As Lei Wen listened to Grey Wind's nagging, the worry on his face dissipated.

His eyes regained their luster.

A light called hope.