Reborn with Steve Stand - Chapter 512: Xiao Yao (1)
Looking at the massive blocky sculpture of a person in front of him, Fang Mo couldn’t help but feel nostalgic.
There were no custom skins, no capes; just a huge, original version of the Steve statue standing before him, holding a pixel-style diamond pickaxe in its hand. The overall style was very simple and unadorned.
But above its head, hung an ID that Fang Mo had once used.
Mofang.
Fang Mo silently looked up at the statue, his thoughts somewhat complex.
Truth be told, he hadn’t expected this.
His partner had done something just like he had.
Indeed, when Fang Mo first arrived in the MC world, feeling lonely and homesick, plus not remembering the crafting recipes, he built a statue of his partner on a nearby hillside as a kind of spiritual solace.
What Fang Mo hadn’t anticipated was that,
the other person had done the same thing in the dream world.
Fang Mo felt like laughing but was also inexplicably moved: “No way, how could we both think of doing the same thing… Are we that in sync?”
However, his words seemed to catch the other person’s attention.
So, before long, the figure that was reading a book slowly raised her head.
She looked like a princess out of a fairy tale, with soft, silky golden hair, skin like milk, and eyes as clear as sapphires with a hint of questioning. She even wore a crown on her head, giving her an aura of elegance and nobility.
“Uh… what is this?”
However, upon seeing her appearance, Fang Mo was stunned.
It was undeniably beautiful.
But it was clear that this was not her true appearance.
Of course, it was obvious, since everyone was from the East. Suddenly encountering a golden-haired, blue-eyed girl in a dream, could that be real?
Of course, since this is a dream world, there’s another explanation.
Like the golden-haired girl being a projection of the subconscious, experiencing some kind of “role-playing” dream where her identity is that of a princess, which is quite common. Fang Mo had dreamed before of becoming Daniel Wu, which is quite reasonable, no problem.
“Yo, long time no see, girl.”
Since they were acquaintances, Fang Mo didn’t stand on ceremony and directly greeted her: “You’re quite elegant today, playing the role of a golden-haired princess… Which country’s princess are you playing? Disney or Nintendo? Need me to play Bowser?”
“…?”
However, to Fang Mo’s surprise, she looked completely puzzled after hearing his words.
Then, before he could speak again, the golden-haired girl frowned, her little face filled with great confusion: “…Do I know you?”
“Uh, I am Fang…”
Fang Mo opened his mouth, about to speak, but the golden-haired girl interrupted him.
“Never mind, I can’t be bothered to know who you are.”
The golden-haired girl suddenly sighed, a mix of laziness and dejection in her gesture, as if shooing someone away: “I just wanted to relax for a moment without being disturbed, can you please just stay away from me?”
“Hey, girl, I’m Fang Mo.”
Seeing her act this way, Fang Mo couldn’t help but remind her: “Even though dreams can be abstract… you can’t possibly not recognize me, right?”
Hearing the name “Fang Mo.”
The girl seemed incredulous, looking up: “…What did you say?”
But in the next second, as if she realized something, she sighed melancholically, and her expression turned dull again: “Can we not joke around? He’s long gone, don’t make jokes about the dead. Haven’t you experienced death in your family?”
“No, listen, I really am Fang Mo.”
Hearing this, Fang Mo fiercely wiped his face, then tried to explain: “I’m not dead, I just reincarnated into the MC world, it’s a long story…”
“6.”
However, after listening, the other party simply calmly uttered a word from their mouth.
“…”
Seeing the disbelief on the other party’s face, Fang Mo also felt a bit of a headache.
Unlike children like Fang Xin, his partner was already an adult, and Fang Mo expressed that he really had no way to fool her.
“Anyway, just listen to me explain slowly.”
Despite some headache, Fang Mo still braved it and started explaining: “Actually, I didn’t die at that time, but was reincarnated into the MC world, really, and then I unlocked a mysterious island mod there. You should know about this mysterious island mod, right? You used to love playing with it, the one that could travel between worlds. As a result, I used it to travel through myriad worlds.”
“…”
The girl opposite did not pick up the conversation but just crossed her arms and quietly watched Fang Mo.
Though she didn’t speak, the message she wanted to convey was already clear, which was, keep making things up.
“Anyway, I traveled through many worlds, constantly searching for a way to return home.”
Fang Mo felt a bit embarrassed under the other’s gaze, but at this point, he definitely had to continue speaking firmly: “Later, I snatched Aizen’s Hogyoku in the Soul Society, then in the Marvel Universe, I took down Thanos, snatched his Infinity Gauntlet, and finally found the coordinates here. It’s just that my physical body can’t return for the time being, and currently, I can only communicate with you through consciousness in dreams…”
In a few words, Fang Mo briefly explained his entire experience.
“It sounds quite interesting.”
It was only at this point that the girl opposite finally spoke up, tilting her head in a thoughtful expression: “Not even novels dare to write like this… I suppose the process must have been fascinating, right?”
“Oh, it was incredibly fascinating.”
Hearing this, a proud expression immediately spread across Fang Mo’s face: “You can’t even imagine what I’ve done… I tricked Nick Fury of the Avengers into picking cotton on an alien planet, persuaded Erina to draw the sword to save Great Britain, and personally applied hair gel to Aizen. Oh, and I also went to the X-Men. Let me tell you, that year in Poland, with my hands in my pockets, I didn’t know what an opponent was.”
“Hmm… Is that so?”
After Fang Mo finished speaking, the girl opposite first nodded, then suddenly leaned towards Fang Mo.
“…What are you doing?”
Fang Mo looked at her puzzledly.
The girl didn’t respond, only raised her head and quietly scrutinized Fang Mo.
Honestly, the girl’s inexplicable behavior made Fang Mo a bit uneasy, as he didn’t know what she was up to, so his gaze subconsciously tried to avoid hers.
But just then, Fang Mo heard a soft sigh.
“It really is you…”
The girl opposite let out a soft sigh, then leaned forward a couple of steps, almost touching Fang Mo’s body, and then pinched Fang Mo’s cheek: “So it really is a dream, huh? But such a realistic dream is really rare… Could it be a lucid dream?”
“Hey, hey, respect yourself.”
Fang Mo felt itchy on his face and quickly reiterated: “This is all real, not a dream.”
“I don’t believe it.”
However, probably convinced that she was dreaming, the girl opposite suddenly smiled lightly, a bit ready to let herself go, her words becoming even more ludicrous: “Didn’t you just say you wanted to make a cameo as Bowser? Okay, then show me a hot water scalding performance, and I’ll believe what you said is true.”
“…”
Hearing this, Fang Mo also didn’t know what to say anymore.
What species is Bowser, and hot water scalding… she really came up with that.
Yes, this is the true nature of Fang Mo’s partner xiaoyao, a pure Internet abstract art master. All that soft and cute girl, the white little snow cone, is just a facade. After all, she’s the one who can play along with Fang Mo… How could her essence be that of a normal person?
Rather, the reason Fang Mo has become so neurotic is largely due to this little lunatic.
“Not like that, just calm down a bit…”
After being pinched back and forth on the face for a long time, Fang Mo also hurriedly shook his head, shaking off her hand: “I know you might think this is just a dream, but things really aren’t as simple as you think, big sister. If you keep this up, you’ll definitely regret it. The character setting is about to collapse, please be rational, okay?”
“Rational? How do you expect me to be rational?”
However, the girl didn’t listen to Fang Mo at all, and her pinching became even
The girl across still looked skeptical. She glanced up at Fang Mo and asked, “So, do you want me to burn a few more 2D wives for you? Are you thinking of Azur Lane or Blue Archive?”
“Let’s not,” Fang Mo responded instinctively, weighing his words, but quickly caught himself and hastily explained, “Ahem, that’s not what I meant. Don’t overthink it…”
“So what exactly do you want to do?”
Sitting on the beach, holding a coconut and tilting her head, the girl asked, “You’re not planning to take me down with you, are you? Should I just kill myself then?”
“There’s no need for that…”
Upon hearing this, Fang Mo quickly shook his head, then suddenly took a deep breath, trying to make his expression look more serious, “Um, well, actually, I’m talking about something serious, concerning the MC stuff.”
“MC stuff?”
“I know, what I said earlier might have been too outrageous for you, and it’s normal if you can’t accept it,” Fang Mo spread his hands and said. “But… that’s just how it is. I’ve hit a progress wall here, can’t remember many crafting recipes. You get what I mean?”
“So, you’re saying you were dumb enough to forget installing JEI, and then you came all the way here to ask me about crafting lists through a dream.”
Hearing this, the girl nodded and said, “Your addiction is too severe, dying doesn’t make you forget about playing MC… You wouldn’t have crammed your ashes into your PC case for burial, would you?”
“Cough cough…”
Fang Mo’s gaze dodged at this, “How could that be… Only someone from a 2D world would do such a thing. I mixed my ashes with rice, never put them in a PC case.”
“…Ridiculous.”
The girl rolled her eyes and didn’t bother to probe further: “So, you want my help, huh? That’s not a problem… But how can you be sure you’ll remember? I recall you hated touching the crafting table the most.”
“Well…”
Just as Fang Mo opened his mouth to say something, the environment around them changed in the next second.
The beach disappeared, replaced by an old classroom, and Fang Mo found himself sitting behind a desk with a blackboard in front of him, on which abstract crafting lists were drawn.
“Alright, class, let’s start our first lesson.”
The girl, appearing out of nowhere, tapped the blackboard with a teaching stick and said, “First, we’ll learn from the IC2 book. To craft a Sticky Resin Wood Tap, you need to use planks, and this is how they’re arranged. You have 5 minutes to memorize this problem…”
“Who the hell would memorize this crap!”
Seeing this scene, Fang Mo almost flipped the table, reminded of the fear dominated by ancient Chinese literature classes: “This is purely imprisonment, I refuse.”
“How can I help you then?”
The girl looked at Fang Mo, not angry, probably having realized this was a dream world and simply sat casually on the lecture podium, swinging her legs and said, “Why don’t you just take me to the MC world to play, like we used to? I’ll handle the logistics.”
“Okay…”
Hearing this, Fang Mo was almost instinctively ready to agree.
But in the next moment, he hesitated.
Yes, she thought this was all just a lucid dream, so she was careless, but he knew it was real.
According to the theory of Nyarlathotep, Fang Mo indeed couldn’t truly descend into this universe, but Nyarlathotep didn’t say he couldn’t take things out. And since the soul isn’t material, if Fang Mo wished, he might really be able to take her soul away from here, traveling through worlds with him.
But the problem is…
She’s not just his partner; she’s a living person.
Fang Mo could indeed take her soul, but if he really did so, wouldn’t she become a vegetative state in the real world?
Fang Mo cares a lot about his family and knows how painful it is to lose a family member. Putting himself in her shoes, his partner surely has her own attachments in the real world. Fang Mo understands the temptation of traveling through countless worlds; he knows he could persuade her to leave with him without a second thought.
Honestly, Fang Mo felt amazing when he first awakened his Stand.
But what about after the excitement wore off?
Everyone has a heart; no one can wander forever without yearning for home. Fang Mo himself has felt this, with the world bustling around him, yet he could no longer hear a word of care from his parents.
That’s why Fang Mo doesn’t want her to feel the same way.
“I’m sorry, I can’t take you there.”
Thinking this, Fang Mo deeply inhaled and lowered his head to fiddle with the stationery on the table: “Or just teach me like this, I suddenly feel that studying can also make me happy… By the way, where did we leave off? The formula for synthesizing a two-headed dragon?”
“…It’s the formula for a wooden dragon head.”
The girl said with a headache.
“Oh, okay, it’s the wooden dragon head.” Fang Mo quickly recovered his composure, shook his hands, and said, “But this thing is too simple. Can’t you give me something more complex?”
…
However, the girl ignored him, pursing her lips as if deep in thought about something puzzling.
“Hmm, what’s wrong?”
Seeing her like this, Fang Mo curiously asked.
“…Strange.”
Hearing Fang Mo’s question, the girl expressed her confusion with a baffled face: “This should be a lucid dream, right? Here everything should be as I say… It doesn’t make sense for you not to listen to me. Why won’t you take me to the MC world to play?”
“So I’ve told you, this is real.”
Hearing this, Fang Mo felt compelled to reiterate once again: “And even if this is your dream, my mental strength is much stronger than yours. Strictly speaking, you should be listening to me here, not to mention I have this.”
Saying this, Fang Mo pulled out his own Infinity Gauntlet: “Come on, look at this thing and say it again, who is really in charge here?”
“This is… Thanos’s gauntlet?”
The girl seemed stunned at the sight, but soon, she stared seriously at the gauntlet, seemingly doing something unknown, as if she was holding back a strong force.
“So I’ve said, I am…”
Fang Mo, unclear of what the other party was intending to do, was still trying to explain the reality of the dream when suddenly, a bright light burst from the girl’s left hand without warning.
Following this, another Infinity Gauntlet appeared there.
“What the heck!?”
Now it was Fang Mo’s turn to be stunned.