Finally, after the long journey.
The steam train let out a whistle and slowly pulled into a silver-white fortress floating in the air.
The entire fortress was an elegant diamond-shaped structure, narrowing at the top and bottom, with an exceptionally wide platform extending outward in the middle.
Numerous devices were built on the platform.
Besides the station, helipads, and some strange glass tubes, there was even a sci-fi building suspected to be a Space Elevator, stretching straight up to the heavens.
The steam train entered the station, came to a stop, and the doors opened.
One by one, people began to exit the carriages, while a line of soldiers dressed exactly like before had long been waiting on the platform.
Instructor Behemoth stepped in front of the group, clapped his hands, and the sharp sound immediately silenced all the noise.
“Now, group by number: 0001–1000, 1001–2000… and so on. Line up from left to right! These soldiers will take you to your respective destinations.”
Teaching people by telling them once is enough.
The trainees, who had been reprimanded twice before, were exceptionally obedient. Within moments, the crowded crowd automatically formed ten long lines.
Yun Ruoxi stood at the end of the tenth line.
She quietly glanced in the direction where Lin Zhen was, only to find that he was also looking at her.
She then showed a slight expression of dependence, lowered her head a little, and followed the soldier leading the team out of the station.
***
Two suns hung in the sky, and the base’s temperature was very high. The heat waves rising from the square caused the air to distort slightly.
After leaving the station, the ten squads dispersed in different directions, clearly heading to different destinations.
The second episode was not over yet, but Yun Ruoxi knew that since she wasn’t assigned to the same group as Lin Zhen,
she probably wouldn’t be involved in the upcoming tests, dormitory assignments, and other scenes, so she could rest for a bit.
She silently breathed a sigh of relief.
Finally, the performance was over.
This was her first time roleplaying in front of hundreds of millions of “viewers.”
Although she had master-level acting skills and had read the script in advance, she still felt somewhat nervous inside.
But judging from the current situation, her character setup was at least roughly established:
A delicate and beautiful little white flower who, because of Lin Zhen’s help, developed a sense of dependence on him.
Actually, whether or not to establish this character was something Yun Ruoxi had struggled with repeatedly during the sometimes clear-headed, sometimes drowsy starship voyage.
In the end, she considered that compared to a character who appears mature from the start, a character who grows and completes their character arc gradually under the audience’s watch would be more relatable and beloved.
So she resolved to base her image on this.
A fragile and cute little white flower who grows through battle camp training, gradually becoming reliable and strong.
Though she remains outside the mainline plot, she repeatedly helps the protagonist group.
And in the end, to repay today’s kindness, she offers a brilliantly dazzling exit.
She believed that such a complete character arc would definitely leave a deep impression on the audience.
Yes.
Even though only the second episode had aired so far,
Yun Ruoxi, who considered herself the producer, had already thought about how she should exit by the end of this season.
After much deliberation, she decided not to escape the battle camp with the protagonist group.
Instead, she would use a grand enough, tear-jerking farewell to reap all the emotions that the audience had built up for her throughout the season.
As the saying goes, tragedy is eternal.
Humans always lament the imperfect, feeling sadness, regret, and nostalgia, endlessly recalling.
This is why tragic works always have a market.
If she simply escaped the battle camp with the protagonists like everyone else,
her character wouldn’t be elevated.
Her popularity wouldn’t surpass the limitations of being a supporting character and exceed the true male and female leads and the antagonist.
The focus of the following episodes was destined to be on the male and female leads and the antagonist. With such a high number assigned to her, it would be hard for her to get even a single scene.
So she had to seize every opportunity to appear.
Every appearance needed to be memorable; every appearance had to show enough noticeable growth.
Of course, when Yun Ruoxi said “exit,” she meant only for the first season.
After all, who says an exit means no comeback?
It’s become common for producers to be forced by furious viewers to “resurrect” popular characters.
The regrets born from her departure would take root and grow stronger during the gap between seasons one and two, continuously providing her with popularity, thereby forcing the producers to give her more screen time in season two.
Then, in season two, she would appear as a complete “beautiful, strong, tragic” antagonist, reaping another wave of popularity.
This plan was simply perfect; Yun Ruoxi could already see a flood of popularity rushing toward her.
“The perfect plan has had a good start. System, how much popularity do I have now?”
Following at the end of the line, Yun Ruoxi silently asked in her heart.
Because as long as she appeared in front of the camera, the prompt for increasing popularity kept ringing in her ears. Although pleasant, the frequent chimes were as annoying as flies.
So, to avoid disrupting her performance, she had turned off the real-time popularity increase notifications.
Now that it was quiet, she thought to check her stats.
“Forget it, just list all my data directly.”
【Name: Yun Ruoxi·Yelan】
【Age: 10】
【Fame: Widely Known (Appearance)】
【Ranking: Female 2 (Antagonist)】
【Star Energy Index: 0 (Bloodline Unawakened)】
【Potential: A (???)】
【Bloodline:
Grade A Bloodline (Consumes 2,000 popularity points for initial awakening; complete awakening requires 20,000 popularity points)
Unknown Bloodline (Consumes 20,000 popularity points for initial awakening; complete awakening requires 200,000 popularity points)】
【Physical Attributes: Strength E, Agility B, Willpower S, Constitution B, Mentality B】
【Popularity: 32,490】
【Popularity Debt: 100,000】
“After implanting the bloodline, all physical attributes improved…”
Having successfully squeezed into other supporting characters’ screen time, she had already obtained a large number of scenes in the first half of episode two, so Yun Ruoxi wasn’t surprised to have gained nearly 26,000 popularity.
With a global audience of nearly one billion, she even felt this number was somewhat low.
“Looks like gaining popularity isn’t that simple. It’s not just about the audience’s favor and love.”
“But… why do I have to spend popularity points to awaken the bloodline after buying it with popularity points? System, you owe me an explanation!”
Yun Ruoxi’s gaze fell on the 【Bloodline】 section, and she immediately grumbled resentfully inside.
【Exchanging bloodlines does not include awakening service. If the host does not wish to spend popularity points on awakening, they can awaken on their own. Reminder: System awakening service is Perfect Awakening, which can unleash the bloodline’s full potential.】
“Damn, a black shop!”
Yun Ruoxi knew perfectly well what “Perfect Awakening” was.
It was an extremely rare form of awakening that could perfectly unlock the potential of star energy bloodlines.
It usually only appeared in star energy users with extremely high bloodline concentration or those who underwent brutal trials and had exceptional talent.
She herself had a very high bloodline concentration and was judged very likely to achieve Perfect Awakening of the Yelan Bloodline.
That was why the Mainline Elders valued her so much and saw her as the next head of the Yelan family to nurture.