Vanguard of the Eternal Night

translator: xiin

editor: kara

The game was actually over, but since Old Friend had suddenly dropped offline, the official management still had to give a statement on it.

Someone went to contact the real world and investigate the situation.

After a while, the host came back onto the stage and shared: Nothing serious had happened to Old Friend; it was just that his brain was overused, and the system had forced a disconnection.

On the big screen, they even broadcasted a segment of a video of Old Friend. He had purposely shown up on camera in order to relieve the audience's worries.

The audience was relieved to see that he was in good spirits. At the same time, they had also noticed that there was a very small instrument attached to the tip of his nose, one that was mainly used to delay the symptoms of a nosebleed.

Everyone: "……"

Quite a few people turned their heads to look at Odin, just to see that Odin looked extremely indifferent and had already disappeared off-stage.

.

After Tyron went offline, the minor news that 'Odin had directly beat Old Friend into having a nosebleed' started making rounds, and the gossip lurked around the fringes of this round of provincial competitions.

Although the audience didn't laugh at Old Friend due to this incident, and public opinion was mainly focused on his physical condition and the game schedule… they couldn't prevent people from thinking about it in their hearts.

In fact, Vantico and Old Friend were currently having a lovers' quarrel and had even started to live separately. Vantico had been angry for over half a month and wasn't willing to take the initiative to patch things up, but when he saw this piece of news--

His lungs were going to explode from anger!

Vantico sent a private message to Tyron's official email account, saying, "Come at me if you have the ability to do so! What kind of person bullies another's family?! Haven't you heard that grudges between men shouldn't involve their wives and children?"

Tyron didn't reply.

Vantico continued, "You have the guts to do it but no guts to admit to it? Is bullying a mage profession who you have a natural advantage over as an assassin anything to be proud of?!"

Tyron didn't reply.

This time, Vantico was so angry that his heart, liver, spleen, lungs, and kidneys were about to explode too. He continued to send, "Speak! Don't hide and not say a word. I know that you've seen all of this! If you have the guts, then come out and fight me. If you lose, you have to apologize to my family and quit the provincial competition!"

Tyron didn't reply.

Vantico: "……" Ah! Damn it! I'm so angry that I could die! I'm dead!

.

Yes, Tyron really hadn't read the emails.

His official email account had always been handed over to the AI housekeeper for screening. Sometimes, Victor would also go and check it himself. Because there'd always been some petty people who came to find trouble with him before, the AI housekeeper's screening mechanism was quite harsh. After having received Vantico's first message, it had analyzed the provocative content and directly assigned it to the lowest level of importance.

Even if Vantico really died from anger, Tyron would have probably only learned about it from the news.

At present, he’d just finished a game, so he naturally went straight home.

.

Due to the cold silence of reality, Tyron hadn’t been offline in a long time and had gradually become accustomed to the interstellar population’s living habits.

At this time, he'd transferred himself home directly. Just as he arrived home, he almost thought that the system had malfunctioned.

This was because he'd found that he wasn't standing at the door to his home facing the familiar interior decor, but was rather standing on a pier.

"……"

The old antique thought 'modern technology is really unreliable' even as he expressionlessly turned around, intending to leave.

It was at this time that he heard Victor's voice call out from behind him, "Hey, wait! Wait a minute!"

Tyron: "……"

He turned his head back and saw a small fishing boat come slowly out from the pier. Victor stood on top of it, a circle of heart-shaped electronic candles at his feet. He was waving foolishly towards him, "It's me! It's me! Darling, I'm back!"

Victor stared at him intently after he finished speaking. His blue eyes reflected the light from the multitude of candles, and gentleness was hidden within the depths of his smile.

.

Tyron removed his scarf, sunglasses, and coat, leaving them on the deck. He went over and stared at him for a long time.

He thought for half a beat, hiding many words that were turning around in his heart, and finally said a single sentence, "…What are you doing here?"

Victor said, "I'm giving you a surprise!"

He stepped on the switch again as he spoke, and the electronic candles on the boat all turned off. A while later, they gradually lit up again, twinkling like stars. At the same time, the sound of a piano could be heard.

"I played a song on the piano, wrote a program, made a lot of candles, and wrote a poem. I originally wanted to surprise you…" Victor ended up laughing even as he spoke, "But the program wasn't written well, and it seems that there's a problem with it somewhere. The music wouldn't play just now."

He'd only spoken halfway when the boat suddenly moved again, slowly driving itself back to the pier!

"Ah, don't go back! Wait wait wait--" Victor was anxious. He reached out for the pier, stretched out a foot, and kicked the switch. The disobedient boat finally stopped moving.

When he looked up again, gasping for breath, he saw Tyron with his hands in his trouser pockets, standing on the pier and looking down helplessly at him.

Their eyes met for a long moment, and Tyron grudgingly said, "Well, it's very surprising."

Victor laughed, "Forget it then, admit it. It's terrible."

.

Tyron's long leg stretched out, and he stepped into the boat. The boat swayed for a while before slowly leaving the dock with the current.

The two of them sat face to face with the piano tinkling in the background. The sky darkened like a dark blue curtain that rose up from the horizon, slowly covering the spherical sky.

There was a small lamp on the pier, and the boat was drifting further and further away from the light. The illumination from the candles on the boat cast out several bright spots in the surrounding water.

Victor said, "How could there be someone who turns to leave without a single word!? I was planning to jump out and scare you when you came closer to check out the dock!"

Tyron sat back against the stern and stretched his long legs out comfortably. He raised his chin and said, "You forget. I won't be scared."

Victor thought about it and had to agree. His male god had instincts like a poisonous viper. He could only say, "Fine, fine, no shock then, only joy."

He took out a crystal ball from beneath his seat as he spoke, then uttered quietly, "Shh…"

.

The crystal ball was a holographic projector.

Victor stroked it gently, and the dark sky suddenly lit up from east to west, gradually transforming into a bright galaxy. Scattered stars slowly emerged in the void, and then a bright and clear moon emerged from the sea.

Victor smiled, "It's a bit too big."

He curved his fingers as he spoke, making the white moon one size smaller and startling a sea bird that was on the water into calling out and flying away.

The starry skies were vast and seemed to embrace the silence of the sea; the surface of the sea was brilliant, surrounding the boat full of candles.

Victor said, "I recorded this night view on planet Helen in the Second Star Province. Isn't it beautiful? Fortunately, the captain was willing to lend me his camera, so I took a lot of holograms. Later, I shamelessly asked him to lend it to me for two more days…"

.

Tyron leaned against the stern of the boat again, looked up at the starry sky, and asked lazily, "Where else have you been?"

"I also went to the Starry Dream Flower Sea at Bernard's Gate, which holds the last batch of cultural relics from the Bernard people. We talked about which batch of cultural relics to protect and later decided to list them as cultural relics along with their traditional garb…" Victor smiled as he spoke and turned the crystal ball. "As I said before, the Bernards wear short skirts as they sing and play on the dreamlike Flower Sea. When the wind blows, they have to cover up their crotches in embarrassment…"

The night view rotated slowly, and a dreamy Flower Sea gradually appeared in the sky.

The flowers seemed to cover the sky and block out the sun, stretching out from one end of the ocean until it reached them.

Victor's voice also turned leisurely and seemed to hold a smile, "This is how they grow flowers in artificial satellites. When you look out from the middle of the satellite, it's like there are dream flowers at every angle. They're planted in a flower field that's maintained by the centrifugal force generated by the satellite's rotation."

Pink and purple petals fluttered and fell, landing on the surface of the water and turning into small, vibrating, crescent-shaped boats.

Tyron stretched his hand out towards the sea water and casually picked up a petal. He held it up in front of his eyes and twirled it back and forth. He made a light sound to acknowledge he'd heard.

.

Victor had also photographed the remains of the Dragon Soul Empire. The tall, golden structures had been erected in the middle of a sea of clouds, forever stretching towards another set of buildings on an artificial satellite that moved in sync;

He'd also photographed the night market on Venus, the capital planet of the Second Star Province. The lights there were more penetrating than the Milky Way galaxy in the sky, the lights from moving vehicles flowing together to form a river of light;

He'd also captured the original music of a Phoenix citizen. He controlled the wind to make sounds through beautiful musical instruments carved out of stone, like hearing thousands of birds singing in unison;

There was also a recording of a huge nebula that they'd come across, one of the largest radio stars in the province was forming within it, the two torch-like lights absorbing all matter around them and emitting light waves that could reach the end of the universe.

He had come back to share everything that he'd recorded with Tyron.

They sailed through the various scenes, and Tyron said, "I've been to a lot of places, too."

Victor copied him and leaned back, asking curiously, "What kind of places?"

.

--He'd seen the White Palace, the symbol of an empire's power, collapse with a roar and transform into flying sand that covered the entire capital.

Tyron closed his eyes. There was a trace of a smile on his lips as he said, "I've seen white sandstorms in a city."

--The god had fallen at dusk, red blood falling to the earth and morphing into his holy flower.

"I've seen a sea of bright red flowers bloom overnight and spread across an entire continent."

--The prince had died from over-drinking in a fountain made of wine, and hundreds of civilians were buried for him.

"I've seen ale gush out of a fountain, and gold jewelry that flows along with a spring."

--A man of faith had been thrown into a fire, and the god had angrily sent his angel to kill all the nonbelievers across the whole city.

"I've seen all of the doors in a city, and all of its people." Tyron spoke gently, "That night, everyone was praying. I passed through their doors one by one, and then left them one by one. I remember the sounds of prayer, and the looks of fear in the eyes of all the people."

.

Victor asked, "Why were they afraid?"

He lowered his head and came over to kiss him, smiling as he said, "Is it because you always bully people?"

Tyron stroked his back and said softly, as though it wasn't very important, "That was the case back then, but it's not the case now."

"You're lying." Victor said, "You still love to bully people."

Tyron made a sound of acknowledgement, then asked suddenly, "Do you still want to bloom?"

The atmosphere at this moment was so good that Victor suddenly wanted to have a tail just so that he could wag it. His face was red as he said, "Yes, yes, I want to bloom."