Stelle: Buddy, I Knew I Wasn't Wrong About You!

It was Ruan Mei's intention. Although Derick was still unwilling to eat a person in his heart, it was clear that his thoughts couldn't sway Ruan Mei.

When Himeko and Welt Yang saw Ruan Mei say this, they also nodded in agreement. They were still clear about Ruan Mei's strength. As long as she went down, the matter would naturally be resolved. Afterward, Ruan Mei walked towards the outside of the train. Derick's Number Two Avatar didn't react immediately, but in an instant, it felt an invisible claw reach out, grab it, and pull it towards Ruan Mei.

"Remember to follow closely next time." Ruan Mei reminded it softly, then opened the train's hatch and headed down.

Derick closely followed Ruan Mei.

One person and one avatar were in freefall in near-Earth space. This kind of thing looked quite dangerous. However, with Ruan Mei present, it wasn't a problem. Derick felt his avatar being supported by some creature, slowly falling downwards.

Jarilo-VI.

Stelle, holding a baseball bat, was confronting a tall humanoid figure.

It was entirely pitch-black, its body covered in armor formed from condensed ice. Long, grayish-white hair flowed, and four hovering icicles floated behind its back.

'No way, how did the Supreme Guardian turn into such a monster?' Stelle inwardly clicked her tongue in amazement.

She felt that her first Trailblazing journey as a Nameless was full of thrills and excitement. First, she encountered a world of ice and snow. After much difficulty, she arrived in the city and had just made contact with the Supreme Guardian of the only city on this planet. As a result, before even a full night's sleep, the other party directly turned hostile. She and March, along with the others, fled to the underground Underworld.

Finally, after much effort, she managed to communicate well with the Supreme Guardian's adopted daughter, the next-generation Supreme Guardian Bronya, and prepared to counter-attack Cocolia.

First, they fought that extremely huge robot. After much difficulty dodging its attacks, she rushed in front of Cocolia, preparing to give her a fierce whack with the bat. But before her bat could even strike, Cocolia transformed into this state.

Although she didn't know its specific abilities yet, judging by the imposing aura emanating from Cocolia, Stelle felt this thing would probably be difficult to deal with.

'I wonder if this baseball bat will be any good for hitting ice,' Stelle thought to herself.

And at that moment, Cocolia's attack had already begun. She raised her arm and launched an icicle attack straight at Stelle.

Seeing this, Stelle quickly held her baseball bat horizontally in front of her to block the icicle's attack.

The icicle swiftly struck Stelle's baseball bat. This bat truly lived up to its reputation as a rare Curio obtained from Herta Space Station. Cocolia's fierce icicle shattered upon impact with the bat, while the baseball bat in Stelle's hand remained completely undamaged.

However, Stelle's current strength was somewhat lacking against Cocolia. The immense power contained within the icicle was transmitted, sending Stelle retreating a considerable distance. The metal under her feet was also scratched with two large marks by Stelle's shoes.

"Your weapon is not bad. I'll be sure to collect it later." Cocolia was somewhat surprised that her attack hadn't shattered Stelle's bat, but she could also see that Stelle's current strength was still no match for her own. As long as she relied on the Stellaron, she could eliminate all her enemies.

"This is the power of the Stellaron. Seven hundred years ago, it expelled the Antimatter Legion, and now it will help me erase all of you."

"Now, die!"

Cocolia's voice grew louder, and Stelle instantly felt the surrounding temperature drop significantly. The sky darkened, and Stelle saw a fierce blizzard appear around her and Cocolia.

Stelle felt her vision was greatly affected. Cocolia raised her hand, and attacking icicles appeared behind her once more. And this time, it wasn't just one or two icicles, but a dense multitude of them.

"Hiss, these things are terrifying! I'm done for!" Seeing Cocolia unleash such an attack, Stelle couldn't help but suck in a sharp breath. At the same time, she looked around, trying to find a way to dodge these icicle attacks.

But the surrounding cover was too far for her to reach in time; Stelle's situation was now extremely critical.

Stelle was racking her brain for a solution, but Cocolia's attack was already underway, the icicles shooting straight towards her.

Stelle still hadn't found a solution.

So, could she only endure it head-on again?

Stelle clasped her hands and prayed in her heart that her body's strength would be enough to withstand these icicle attacks.

Just as she braced herself for the pain, another figure descended from the sky, landing protectively right in front of Stelle.

Swish, swish, swish— Countless icicles pierced through.

Stelle had closed her eyes, bracing for the piercing pain, but felt nothing. Opening her eyes, she found Derick's Number Two Avatar standing protectively in front of her.

All those piercing icicles were blocked by the Number Two Avatar.

"Buddy!" Stelle exclaimed, both shocked and overjoyed.

She never would have thought that the 'buddy' she had 'befriended' back at the space station would, after helping her withstand an attack from the Doomsday Beast last time, now help her again by blocking Cocolia's icicles.

What a great buddy. From now on, if I get half a trash can, you get the other half, Stelle thought gratefully.

At the same time, she didn't forget to shout loudly at Derick's Number Two Avatar: "Buddy, are you okay?"

'My avatar doesn't have vocal organs. Even if you ask me like this, I can't answer you,' Derick thought helplessly, hearing Stelle's question.

Derick's Number Two Avatar remained silent, simply standing steadfastly in front of Stelle. Its over-two-meter-tall body blocked all of Cocolia's attacks.

Below the large robot, Dan Heng, March 7th, Bronya, and Seele saw Cocolia transform and unleash her terrifying attack, their expressions changing drastically, fearing that Stelle, who was directly facing her, would be in danger.

And when they saw Derick's Number Two Avatar appear, Dan Heng and March 7th were first stunned, then their expressions turned joyful.

"This time, our helper has arrived," March 7th said excitedly.

"This... this bizarrely shaped monster is your helper?" Bronya hesitated for a moment, then asked Dan Heng.

"In a sense, yes," Dan Heng nodded.

This pitch-black monster couldn't have appeared alone. Given its level of mystery, the only ones in the entire Herta Space Station who could freely bring it around were Lady Herta and Lady Ruan Mei, who hadn't arrived when they left but was already on her way. If either of them appeared, Dan Heng believed the current situation could be easily resolved. The caliber of a Genius Society member was, needless to say, extremely high.

"I just don't know why this monster has become even more bizarrely shaped than when we left. How many experiments has it actually undergone?"

Bronya and Seele silently looked at Derick's Number Two Avatar. A moment ago, looking at Cocolia, they felt she looked like a villainous BOSS. But now, with this pitch-black monster on their side, Bronya felt that their side might look even more like the villains.

"Is it okay after taking so many hits?" Seele asked March 7th.

Hearing her question, March 7th casually waved her hand. "It's fine. That fellow's durability is incredibly hard to compare. Never mind Cocolia's attacks; even Lady Herta can't truly harm it."

Seele didn't know who Lady Herta was yet, but she was about to witness the terrifying recovery ability of Derick's Number Two Avatar firsthand.

Derick controlled his Number Two Avatar to slowly pull out the icicles, and then all its wounds recovered completely.

Derick clearly sensed that Cocolia on the opposite side was starting to become flustered and exasperated.

Cocolia had originally thought her attack could one-hit kill the outsider before her. Her confident attack was unexpectedly blocked by a suddenly appearing pitch-black monster. All her attacks hit its body. 'I was aiming for a person, but all the hits landed on this thing instead.'

With all attacks landing on the monster, Cocolia's temper hadn't quite reached its limit. After all, her attack had achieved some result; the opponent could be considered one person down.

But then, the thing that truly made her lose her composure happened.

This monster nonchalantly pulled all the icicles out of its body, and the large holes pierced through it completely healed, good as new.

Cocolia's confident attack had ultimately yielded no results.

'The script shouldn't be like this! I've obtained the Stellaron's power; I should be on a killing spree against my enemies, easily slaughtering them. Then I'll destroy Jarilo's world and let it be reborn. That's how it was supposed to be.' 'Not like this, where my strenuous attacks achieve absolutely nothing.'

"Aaaah!!!!!!" Cocolia roared in fury. "I'm going to destroy all of you!" she said angrily, preparing to draw even more power from the Stellaron to eliminate the detestable girl before her, as well as this detestable pitch-black monster.

More ice and snow condensed around Cocolia.

Derick watched this, knowing that his Number Two Avatar's strength alone was insufficient to deal with her.

At this time, a specialist was needed.

Ruan is the name of a musical instrument. Its sound is flowing, mellow, and gentle, sounding tranquil and poetic. But at this tense moment of battle, a Ruan's sound suddenly drifted over, and everyone who heard it was instantly surprised.

'What's happening?' everyone wondered. Especially Cocolia; fighting as she was, upon suddenly hearing this sound, she instinctively felt something was wrong.

"Who's playing tricks!" she shouted, simultaneously increasing the force of her attacks on Derick's Number Two Avatar and Stelle. But before she could launch her attack, Cocolia suddenly felt a strong gust of wind, and her abdomen was heavily struck.

The attacks she was releasing all missed, and the condensed energy even exploded around her, severely injuring her body.

"Who!?" Cocolia shouted loudly again.

And just then, Ruan Mei, holding a Ruan, strolled over to Stelle and Derick's Number Two Avatar.

"Injecting Stellaron energy into the body? Such a crude method." Ruan Mei shook her head, appearing very disdainful of Cocolia's actions.

"What right do you have to say that?" Hearing the mockery in Ruan Mei's tone, Cocolia grew even more furious. She clenched her fists, preparing to attack Ruan Mei again.

But she once again felt a strong gust of wind, and her back was similarly heavily struck by an invisible force.

"What is this?" Seeing this turn of events, Stelle, standing next to Derick's Number Two Avatar, asked curiously.

Derick's avatar couldn't give her an explanation.

Ruan Mei naturally wouldn't personally engage in any attacking actions; that would be too insulting to her status as a Genius Society member. Ruan Mei didn't need to act; there were many creatures specifically for defense around her. Anyone who saw Ruan Mei as seemingly frail and decided to attack her would then witness the biodiversity Ruan Mei had cultivated.

She didn't even need to make a move. The current Cocolia was being completely overwhelmed by Ruan Mei in this manner.

"You, what kind of attack is this!?" Cocolia was just about to say something when her body was attacked again.

After being hit several times consecutively, Cocolia finally had a chance to react, setting up defensive measures around herself to block the attacks.

Cocolia shouted at Ruan Mei: "What exactly is this attack of yours? Why can't I see it at all?"

"It's just simple principles of optics and spatial application," Ruan Mei 'kindly' explained to Cocolia.

Cocolia was stunned by Ruan Mei's words. And just then, she suddenly heard a shattering sound. Then she violently felt the ice defense on her back being smashed by the qipao woman's attack. She felt an invisible claw press down on her back, pinning her firmly to the ground from mid-air.

"Dealing with defenses formed by Stellaron energy does indeed require some effort, so I employed the simplest method: distract you, and thus, take you down," Ruan Mei explained with a smile.

Using trickery was nothing to her at all.

"…" Heavy pressure bore down on her. Cocolia wanted to roar at Ruan Mei, but her chest was so tightly suppressed she couldn't shout.

Why is it like this! She had clearly done everything that needed to be done, yet in the end, she failed because of a group of suddenly appearing outsiders.

Looking at Cocolia, Derick also felt her fate was truly unlucky. Whether the Astral Express had arrived a bit earlier or a bit later, Cocolia wouldn't have ended up like this. If the Astral Express had come earlier, Cocolia wouldn't have reached her moment of despair. Seeing someone help Belobog, she would naturally have been very happy to assist the Astral Express in resolving the Stellaron crisis together. And if the Astral Express had come later, Belobog's local forces alone would have been completely unable to stop her. She would have already accomplished everything.

But it was precisely at this moment that the Astral Express arrived. Then Derick's Number Two Avatar and Ruan Mei also came. Cocolia's power was simply no match for Ruan Mei.

She was easily suppressed. All her dreams, all her thoughts, had now turned to nothing.

"Yay! We won!" Stelle shouted happily.

And below the large robot, Bronya, Seele, Dan Heng, and March 7th, seeing this situation, also quickly ran up towards the top of the robot.

Bronya ran at the forefront; she wanted to question her mother. At the same time, in her heart, she also harbored the thought of wanting to save Cocolia's life. From beginning to end, Cocolia had always held motherly feelings for Bronya. Although Bronya opposed her, she still didn't want to see anything happen to her. For Belobog's sake, she was willing to sacrifice Cocolia. But now that Cocolia was subdued, Bronya wanted to save her life.

But just as they were running upwards, Ruan Mei's actions surprised everyone present.

She ordered the invisible creature guarding her to grab Cocolia and send her towards Derick's Number Two Avatar.

"You, what are you doing!? No, don't!" Cocolia instinctively felt fear.

Anyone about to be sent into a monster's mouth would react this way. She instinctively wanted to resist, but Ruan Mei flicked her fingers lightly, and a few drops of an unknown liquid splashed onto Cocolia. Cocolia instantly felt her connection to the Stellaron weaken considerably, and she couldn't resist the claw behind her at all.

Seeing this, Derick also knew it was best not to resist Ruan Mei's feeding. Besides, Derick was also somewhat covetous of the Stellaron power Cocolia carried.

'Later, I'll try my best to only devour the Stellaron energy attached to Cocolia's body without harming her. But if I can't, then don't blame me. It would be best if I could obtain it, naturally,' Derick thought.

He was still kind-hearted; he definitely couldn't get over the hurdle of eating a person. As his strength grew, Derick increasingly thought about maintaining his humanity, not truly believing himself to be different from ordinary people. So he tried his best to use gentle means, attempting to only devour Cocolia's energy.

He controlled it to open its great maw, becoming as tall as a person, so it could swallow Cocolia.

"No, don't!" Cocolia screamed distortedly, but she couldn't stop Ruan Mei from stuffing her into Derick's Number Two Avatar's body.

"!?" Bronya rushed to the top at this moment. Seeing this, she couldn't help but shout loudly: "What are you doing!?" She instinctively tightened her grip on her spear, subconsciously aiming its tip at Ruan Mei.

But in the next second, Bronya felt her arm being held by an invisible creature, unable to move at all.

"Isn't this your enemy?" Ruan Mei asked in a puzzled tone.

March 7th stammered an explanation from the side: "Well, perhaps the act of devouring someone is a bit…"

"I see, I understand." Ruan Mei let go of Bronya.

Bronya stared intently at Ruan Mei. The woman before her had done nothing wrong; her adoptive mother was indeed an enemy to be dealt with. But for her to meet such a death, Bronya's heart was still filled with grief and indignation.

Although it was a battle victory, the atmosphere at the scene was now even more solemn.

Dan Heng didn't know what to say about Ruan Mei's actions, trying his best to remain calm. Stelle's gaze was fixed intently on Derick's Number Two Avatar.

"Buddy…" she muttered to herself.

Just then, Derick's Number Two Avatar's large mouth opened, and a blonde, mature beauty was spat out.

"Mother!" Seeing Cocolia spat out, Bronya quickly rushed forward to check on her condition.

"Cough, cough, cough…" Cocolia, covered in slime, was coughing violently after landing on the ground. Cocolia raised her eyes to glance at Derick's Number Two Avatar, her eyes filled with terror. Although it had only swallowed her for a short while, she had felt immense horror. That feeling of her body being digested bit by bit was something Cocolia absolutely never wanted to experience again.

"…" She said nothing, but continued to spit out another large mouthful of slime. Bronya, beside her, quickly patted her back, helping her expel the slime from her mouth.

Watching Derick's Number Two Avatar operate like this, Ruan Mei nodded thoughtfully.

"Is it that it dislikes eating humans, or does it have a fondness for humans? This needs to be noted," she murmured softly.

She herself had no particular morals, but Ruan Mei cared a great deal about the habits of the creatures she 'reared'.

Meanwhile, on the other side, seeing Derick's Number Two Avatar act this way, a happy expression appeared on Stelle's face. She walked over to the Number Two Avatar and happily patted its body.

"As expected of my buddy, I really wasn't wrong about you. I knew you'd never do something like eat a person. That qipao woman's morals are just too low. Luckily, even though you're a monster, buddy, you're still reliable. You didn't do something so detestable."

"Don't touch it for now; it's digesting the energy it just obtained," Ruan Mei reminded Stelle, seeing her about to touch Derick's Number Two Avatar.

At the same time, her gaze also turned to Stelle. 'This body, is it made from a Stellaron?'

Looking at Stelle, Ruan Mei also thought of many kinds of experiments.

"Alright, I get it, I won't disturb it." Seeing Ruan Mei's gaze that looked like she wanted to experiment on her, Stelle shivered and quickly moved to March 7th's side. She didn't have her buddy's undying body; she really couldn't withstand Ruan Mei's experiments.

Stelle turned her gaze to Cocolia, pointed her baseball bat at her, and said: "Now, are you still planning to use the Stellaron to cause trouble?"

Cocolia didn't react immediately. And Stelle pointed to Derick's Number Two Avatar.

"That's my buddy, you saw it. We have the kind of friendship where it'll take a hit for me. If you still plan to cause trouble, I'll have it swallow you."

"This… this… forget it." Cocolia's tone softened at this point. Simple life and death were one thing, but that feeling of being swallowed into a body was something Cocolia never wanted to experience again.

Seeing her like this, Bronya breathed a sigh of relief in her heart. This way, perhaps my mother can survive.

_____

Greetings! ✨ Walnut here!

🔥 AN INCREDIBLE OFFER IS ON THE TABLE! 🔥

We're only 17 members away from our 65-member goal! 🎯

The second we hit it, 10 BONUS CHAPTERS for ALL STORIES will be released to everyone. No exceptions!

🪦 Your membership is the key. Let's make it happen!

100 powerstones = +1 Bonus Chapter for everyone! 5 reviews = +1 Bonus Chapter for everyone!

Secure your early access before it's too late!

👻 patreon.com/Walnutchan