Three months later, deep within an unnamed star system.
“Extract her bloodline. Remember, no painkillers—I want to watch her howl in agony until it tears her soul apart!”
“But if we do that… she might die painfully on the operating table.”
“Then knock her out when she’s about to die from the pain.”
“…Understood.”
The girl was restrained on the medical bed.
Her ornate dress had long since been sliced open by the scalpel, revealing a smooth yet fragile spine.
The doctor in the white coat raised his hand to control the mechanical arm; the thick needle slowly pierced into her spinal cord.
Pfft!
Blood splattered out, and Yun Ruoxi immediately let out a sharp, mournful wail, tears mixing with the physiological ones streaming uncontrollably down her face.
The Overlord standing nearby laughed, even rhythmically tapping his hands with amusement.
“Yes, just like that!”
He shuffled forward, his bear-like bulky body oddly breaking into a strange and exaggerated dance.
“Kill me! Kill me!” Yun Ruoxi cried hoarsely.
The surrounding star bandits broke out in cold sweat.
Yet no one knew that beneath the girl’s howling exterior lay a soul extraordinarily calm.
She had severed her own pain perception; the miserable display was all delivered through master-level acting.
It was proof that anything produced by the system was a guaranteed masterpiece.
Even the Overlord, powerful enough to conquer an entire star system single-handedly, didn’t detect the slightest flaw.
“Just you wait, Overlord… one day, I’ll kill you with my own hands.”
Yun Ruoxi, feeling her body weaken more and more, silently vowed deep in her heart.
“Forty percent of her bloodline has been extracted.” The doctor hesitated before speaking, “Boss, do you want to continue? If we drain her dry… she will really die.”
“She won’t die. Just keep extracting. She’s no ordinary Star Energy User.”
Clap!
The Overlord applauded with delight, swaying his hips.
Clap!
He shook his body, lifting his right leg, a face full of enjoyment.
“Understood.” The doctor responded quickly, though his heart was still uncertain of the Overlord’s intent.
Since humanity developed Star Energy technology and implanted Star Energy bloodlines into all humans via genetic engineering, the Star Energy bloodline had become the foundation upon which every member of the cosmic human race depended.
It not only determined whether an ordinary person could become a Star Energy User but was also tied to their health.
A human surviving after having their entire bloodline drained was something he, a professional, had never heard of.
But since the Overlord had given the order, he had no choice but to comply.
“Seventy percent, eighty percent!”
Gurgle gurgle—
The bright red marrow was continuously drawn out, poured into test tubes beside him.
One after another.
At first, the marrow extracted shimmered with unusual colors like starlight within the red.
But as time passed, the test tubes filled with increasingly dull red—a clear sign the bloodline was being exhausted.
And just like the bloodline drying up, the girl’s cries had long since stopped.
Her throat was completely hoarse, her tears dried up; she could no longer make any sound.
Facing such a pitiful scene, even the doctor—who prided himself on a heart of stone—felt some pangs of guilt.
“One hundred percent… extraction complete.”
“Use the best medicine. Don’t let her die.”
The Overlord had already stopped his awkward and ridiculous dance when the girl’s wailing ceased.
He coldly tossed out the order, stood up, and left—once again becoming the feared king of the star bandits.
“It hurts, it hurts so much to have my bloodline extracted. My body feels completely hollowed out…”
Inside the dark cargo hold, a hibernation pod faintly glowed.
With the system’s help, the just-awakened Yun Ruoxi only slightly lowered the intensity of the Pain Sense Block and immediately cried out in pain, squeezing out several tears forcibly.
With no other option, she had to max it out again.
“Sure enough, exchanging for a Pain Sense Block was the right call.”
Yun Ruoxi exhaled deeply, lazily lying inside the hibernation pod, as if nothing had happened, stirring the hibernation fluid with her finger.
Back on the operating table, Yun Ruoxi had been careful to consider the Overlord and feared that this segment of “acting” might be edited into personal extras or flashbacks.
So she had tightened her nerves throughout, performing fully in character, not daring to reveal a single genuine emotion.
Not daring to expose her true thoughts even slightly.
It was foreseeable that this kind of situation would only increase as the story progressed.
From now on, she might only be able to briefly be herself when alone and away from any plot involvement.
But just thinking about earning more Popularity Points made the sacrifice trivial to Yun Ruoxi.
She silently summoned the system:
“Exchange for an A-rank Star Energy Bloodline.”
[Exchange Complete]
[The A-rank Star Energy Bloodline is expected to be fully rooted in the host within one cosmic month. Remaining Popularity Points: 7000]
Although the A-rank Star Energy Bloodline couldn’t compare to her A+ Night Orchid Blood, the gap between them wasn’t vast.
After all, in the vast universe, those with A-rank bloodlines were already considered elite talents.
As for the S-rank bloodline above A+, only ancient aristocratic cosmic families with legacies spanning thousands of years possessed such bloodlines.
So using an A-rank bloodline to pass the War Camp Selection was absolutely sufficient.
As for why she didn’t initially awaken the Unknown Bloodline inside her body—
Unknown meant mystery, meant uncertainty.
Yun Ruoxi worried that awakening the Unknown Bloodline might disrupt the plot like before, which would be detrimental to her future plans.
Clenching her fist,
feeling her body gradually regaining vitality, Yun Ruoxi’s expression calmed again, and she slipped back into “acting mode.”
“All preparations are complete, the script is written. Become the ladder for me to grow stronger, Lin Zhen.
“System, put me back into hibernation.”
[Hibernation mode restarted]
***
《Starlight》 Season One follows a weekly release schedule based on Yanjing time, premiering every Saturday at 6 PM sharp.
Alternate universe, Earth.
July 12, 2025.
Only eight days after the release of the pilot PV, the first episode of 《Starlight》 Season One officially aired.
On the day of the premiere, it received overwhelming acclaim, breaking multiple viewing records at once.
It also scored exceptionally high on Douban, Rotten Tomatoes, IMDb, and MC.
That day, several trending searches related to 《Starlight》 surged into the top ten on Weibo and Bilibili.
It was clear that 《Starlight》 had already shown potential to become a global sensation, even a historic masterpiece.
With this level of popularity, even self-media bloggers who previously paid little attention to anime began to notice 《Starlight》, creating miscellaneous talk, clips, or cosplay to ride the wave.
Amidst this nationwide anticipation—
July 19, 2025, Saturday, 6 PM sharp.
《Starlight》 Season One’s second episode went live across major global platforms.
From the very start, the second episode dazzled with a “burn-the-budget” level of stunning space visuals, leaving no viewer disappointed.
In the boundless cosmos, a spaceship sped past the edge of a Red Giant.
The camera looked through the ship’s edge.
The boiling Magma Ocean churned slowly, its surface bubbles as large as planets.
A harsh dark red glow bathed the spaceship, shining through the portholes onto a burly man slumped in the pilot’s seat, fast asleep.
The burly man was unkempt, chest hair messy, with one eye replaced by a Mechanical Eye that twitched even in sleep.
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