Collapse Iron: I just transmigrated! You want me to save the Black Tower?!

...It really did fly out.

Jiang Jiu was thrown out, tracing a messy arc in the sky before crashing heavily onto the surface of an asteroid.

boom--!!

A deep crater was punched into the surface of a planet, and cracks spread outward from the point of impact, causing debris to fly everywhere and dust to billow!

Jiang Jiu lay at the bottom of the pit, his back having smashed through countless layers of rock. A metallic taste churned in his chest, and he coughed violently as his throat tightened.

Blood was seeping from the corner of his mouth; it was clear he had been hit hard.

He tried to sit up, his fingers digging into the gravel until his knuckles turned white. His arms suddenly gave way, and he collapsed halfway up. He coughed twice, each cough tasting of rust.

The starry sky above was still spinning, and the newly formed black hole was slowly shrinking. The power of nothingness, having lost its guidance, lazily retreated into the darkness.

He lay at the bottom of the pit, head tilted back, watching the starry sky slowly return to calm, panting heavily.

"cough......"

He coughed a few more times, then raised his hand, wiped his mouth with the back of his hand, and sat up, supporting himself on the ground.

Something is floating behind me.

Jiang Jiu glanced at it; it was a mask, the one that always wore a smile.

Ahha floated above him, upside down, his smile on his mask deeper than ever.

"Awake?" He asked.

Jiang Jiu remained silent.

"Get up if you're awake!" Aha's voice chuckled. "Lying on the ground is no fun. Get up, Aha will take you to have some fun!"

Jiang Jiu: "..."

[Hanabi: Ahem... Yes, that's right, I knew Pleasure was the best! She pulled off the most reliable rescue from the most unreliable character! Cool~]

[Sambo: Still changing his tune.]

[Hanabi: What? I'm a staunch hedonist! Nobody's more loyal than me, is he?]

[Star: Hiss... Aha! A judo throw juggled Jiang Jiu out of the void... Godfather, are you still alive?]

[March 7th: My God... Aha, be gentle! Saving someone is a good thing, but almost smashing them into a planet is a bit too much...? My ribs hurt just watching!]

Silver Wolf: Being thrown into the ICU by Aha is definitely a better ending than being swallowed by nothingness.

At least he's still alive, isn't he?

Now, the Aha team's contribution rate is 0%, the participation rate is 1000%, and the rescue method is -1000%.

Overall rating: Full marks for fun!

[Jing Yuan: Ah, this behavior... from initially gifting the mask and giving him all the power, to later opening the shield on the battlefield, and now forcibly interrupting the void's erosion, Huan Yu's favoritism towards Jiang Jiu is no longer concealed.]

[Jing Yuan: But I wonder how much of this favoritism Jiang Jiu can bear.]

[Fu Xuan: Whether he can handle it or not, he has to accept it. He's not just one person's fate now; he's the only variable in the entire universe.]

[Fireworks: How do I say I'm a little envious?]

[Fireworks: Jiang Jiu isn't even a member of the Pleasure faction, although he certainly deserves it, right? Now, will many people voluntarily join us, the Masked Fools?]

Sambo: We Masked Fools aren't just anyone's pick-up line.

[Black Swan: So this is what pleasure really is.]

[Dahlia: Hmm... But that still doesn't change the fact that the Star God of Pleasure has many enemies throughout the universe.]

[Black Swan: ...Pleasure is indeed pleasure.]

[Fireworks: Joy is universal joy—but this joy is not the same as that universal joy—]

[Bai Lu: I'll prescribe a medicine: seven days of quiet rest, abstaining from high-intensity combat, supplemented by a medicine personally taught by the Vidyadhara Dragon Lord, guaranteeing a full recovery within seven days! I just don't know if Lord Jiang Jiu would be willing to come to Fanghu for treatment...]

[Ling Sha: Bai Lu, don't rush to prescribe a medicine. What he needs right now isn't medicine, but a clear direction.]

[Lingsha: Aha pulled him out of the void, but if he still doesn't know what to do after getting up, he'll soon fall back down.]

[Forgetful Person: This humble woman believes there will be a direction... For example, his review just now clearly outlined all the dead ends. The Iron Tomb isn't the root cause, nor is the Learned One. Aren't the remaining answers already quite obvious?]

[Danheng: Memories? Only memories remain.]

[Danheng: It's the future reaching its end, and the only unavoidable variable in that future is the end of memory itself.]

[Himeko: No one caused the end; the end has always been there. Boshizun was just the first "person" to see it. If this inference holds true, then what Jiang Jiu needs to do is not to kill a certain star god, but to rewrite the future itself.]

[Screw Gum: Logical deduction: If the end is an inherent property of the future, then the only way to change the end is to change the definition of the future. This is a proposition at the level of a Star God, and fortunately, there is a quasi-Star God present who happens to possess this ability.]

[Black Tower: Star Gods Exist.]

[Star: So we've come full circle back to the original question—when will Jiang Jiu ascend to godhood?]

[Star: Ah Ha has already made his move, the five-god battle is over, and even the Learned One is dead, can't we just have a quick and painless ascension to godhood?!]

March 7th: It's not that easy...

They have never been the only ones hoping to ascend to godhood.

The Star God was even more anxious than they were.

But there's no use in being anxious.

This kind of thing can't be made clear, and... nobody knows which way to go. If you go in the wrong direction, you're doomed.

For example, right now, Jiang Jiu's mood is like a rollercoaster.

Up and down, it's incredibly exciting...

His mind was in a mess, and for a moment he didn't know what to say about the current situation.

Aha circled around him with a grin, and when he didn't react for a while, he didn't urge him. Instead, he observed him with great interest for a while.

Jiang Jiu leaned against the pit wall for a while to catch his breath, then looked at Aha with some confusion: "Why did you save me?"

He didn't believe that Aha didn't know he could restart, that death was just the beginning for him, so why stop him?

"Save you?" He tilted his head, seriously considering the question. "Aha didn't save you. Aha just felt that if you died like this, you wouldn't get to see the fun that follows."

"What kind of fun is this?"

Aha did not answer immediately.

He floated in front of Jiang Jiu, circling around him, somewhat like a cat that had discovered a new toy. He stopped after circling twice, and the smile on his mask suddenly deepened.

"you guess?"

Jiang Jiu: "..."

Jiang Jiu didn't guess, nor did he bother to guess.

He now prefers to reopen.

[Fireworks: Is Aha hinting at something? Is there more fun to come?]

Sambo: Knowing Aha's style, he might actually know something, but he just won't say it.

[Silver Wolf: Jiang Jiu just wants to restart it right now; if it really doesn't work, then we should just abandon this storyline.]

[Topa: No! We've already killed Vasubandhu! The sunk costs are too high!]

[Gold Sand: Killing Bo Shizun is useless; losing the Wisdom Star God line might cause other problems, so sunk costs don't exist.]

[Citizens of the Immortal Ship: Lord Jiang Jiu! Don't give up! The Imperial Bow has already fired an arrow for you!]

[Fengraomin·Huiqu: Isn't your focus a bit too off? However, this pause is a disservice to the deceased Master Boshi.]

[Sai Fei'er: He's already like this, why are you still rushing him? Can't you let him rest for a while?]

[Wan Di: Rest? The end waits for no one.]

[Star: Black Tower is still online! Godfather, you can't log off before your girlfriend! This is a matter of dignity!]

[March 7th: This angle of "My Love from the Star" is quite unique!]

[March 7th: But Jiang Jiu seems to have secretly logged off with Black Tower on his back several times, right? It doesn't seem to be very useful.]

[Fireworks: But honestly, isn't Aha being a little too nice to Jiang Jiu? He's not from the Pleasure faction, he's not an Envoy, why is he protecting him like this?]

[Sambo: What if he's just trying to gain attention?]

Aha waited for a while, and when he saw that he didn't respond, he couldn't hold back any longer.

"Oh dear, the little madman isn't responding! Ah-ha, what a loss of face!"

He said he was losing face, but he still continued talking.

"Before you killed that piece of scrap metal, did you ever think about this question?" His voice was deliberately lowered, as if he were revealing some incredible secret. "Why was He so cooperative?"

Jiang Jiu paused for a moment.

Aha moved even closer, so close that the mask was almost touching the tip of his nose.

“He wants to leave, but he can’t, because IX is there. He wants to fight, but he can’t, because Nanuk is there. He wants to hide, but he can’t, because Lan is there.”

Aha counted them one by one, his voice growing increasingly faint.

"But have you ever thought about... why He waited for you to come?"

Jiang Jiu didn't speak, he just looked at Aha.

“He could have left earlier! Before Nanuk came, before Lan came, before Aha came, before you called them, He had countless opportunities to leave. That clever piece of scrap metal is supposed to be all-knowing and all-powerful, how could he not have foreseen that you would come to kill Him?”

“…He did it on purpose,” Jiang Jiu said.

“Aha didn’t say anything!” Aha denied with a grin, but there was something else hidden in that smile. “Aha just finds it strange that someone who can calculate everything could not foresee his own death. Unless… He originally wanted to die.”

"Huh? Why would a Star God want to die? How strange! Aha finds this very interesting!"

[Sai Fei: My God.......]

[Saifei: I always feel like Aha knows everything, but he never explains anything clearly. Why? Is it that he can't say or doesn't want to say?]

[Topa: If it were any other star god, I would tell you very clearly that I definitely can't say, but if it's Aha, well... I feel like I can't say and I don't want to say either.]

[Himeko: Now that Aha has said it bluntly, Master Hakushi actually sought death willingly.]

[March 7th: The Venerable Master of Broad Knowledge is an omniscient and omnipotent star god, why would he do this? If the other star gods know that doing this is useless, then isn't he just fooling around with Jiang Jiu?]