Honkai Star Rail: I Played the Villain, Now the Heroines Want Revenge — Chapter 236

Chapter 236: Driving the Sky

Inside the Palace of Astrum.

The grand hall was filled with the low hum of jade abacuses and holographic star charts. An air of tense, controlled crisis permeated everything.

The Helm Master of the Sky-Faring Commission, Yukong, was already waiting in the main seat.

[Inorin’s Note: The Palace of Astrum (司辰宫/Sī Chén Gōng) is the headquarters of the Sky-Faring Commission, the Luofu’s trade and navigation authority, which is led by the Helm Master, Yukong.]

“The Trailblazers of the Astral Express… I’ve heard much about you, but I didn’t expect to meet you here today.”

Yukong’s voice was steady and powerful, as sharp as one of her arrows, yet tinged with an undeniable, bone-deep weariness.

“Tingyun has already reported your intentions to me.”

“Originally, as the Helm Master of the Sky-Faring Commission, my duties did not include receiving foreign visitors. That is the purview of the Realm-Keeping Commission.”

“However, since you are aware of the Stellaron disaster and intend to help our Luofu Celestial Ark, then upon your arrival here, I must grant you a face-to-face opportunity…”

She stood up, a sign of respect that shocked the guards in the room.

“Allow me… to personally implore you, help the Luofu Celestial Ark overcome this calamity.”

Upon hearing this, everyone was stunned.

Especially Orion.

The future I saw… she was proud, almost arrogant, he thought. For her to be this broken… for her to plead for help from outsiders…

He knew, instinctively, that this was quite different from what he had imagined.

Or was it that the current crisis was even more severe than any possibility he had anticipated, leading her to…

“Are you saying, you’re asking us to help… resolve the Stellaron?” Welt confirmed, his voice cautious.

Yukong’s face showed a bitter expression. “A mere Stellaron… I wish that was all it was.”

“But this Stellaron has exceeded the Luofu’s scope of understanding. No records of Stellarons, even in the most ancient archives, have ever described the current situation on the Luofu.”

“The Luofu has no remaining strength to cope, and has even sent distress signals to the other flagships of the Alliance…”

[Inorin’s Note: The “Xianzhou Alliance” is the fleet of six main ships. The “Luofu” is just one of them. Yukong is stating the Luofu is crippled and has called for help from the Alliance.]

“At present, if you Trailblazers are willing to lend a helping hand, the Luofu Celestial Ark will naturally accept this goodwill.”

“Really? The Luofu Celestial Ark actually needs our help?” March 7th couldn’t believe it. “I thought you were going to kick us out just now…”

“Me too,” Stelle said, “I just had a feeling you were going to refuse us.”

Orion also said, “Same here. The great Xianzhou… when did it become so hospitable?”

“We truly have no choice…” Yukong sighed, her professional mask cracking for a moment to reveal the desperate woman beneath. “Please understand.”

Welt frowned. “So, the situation on the Luofu is very urgent right now?”

“It’s not yet a desperate crisis,” Yukong nodded, “There’s always a way to solve it. We have the General. We have our duty.”

“However, if we wait until then, the Luofu Celestial Ark might already be… largely crippled. We would be a ship of the dead.”

“Let me confirm one more time…” She looked at everyone, her sharp gaze meeting each of their eyes. “Are you truly willing to help the Luofu?”

“Of course!”

March 7th was quick to speak. “That’s what we came for, to seal the Stellaron! Right, Stelle?”

“Uh-huh! Right! We are Stellaron… uh, Trailblazers!” Stelle corrected herself, pumping a fist.

March 7th whispered a complaint: “Hey, hey, you haven’t really been charmed by that Kafka, have you? Don’t mess up your lines at a crucial moment!”

Stelle chuckled: “Just excited, just excited.”

Orion, meanwhile, stepped forward and declared loudly: “Sealing the Stellaron is our bounden duty!”

Although he said that, what he was thinking was something else entirely:

[If I get my hands on this Stellaron, especially the “Great Stellaron” Phantylia mentioned in the simulation… the 【Lord Ravager】 entry can be upgraded! The Villain Points will be massive…]

“But,” Yukong was still hesitant, “This Stellaron is different from before, and the enemy is also…”

“What’s there to be afraid of!” March 7th interrupted again, her confidence now boundless. “We have an ace up our sleeve here!”

As she spoke, she looked at Stelle.

Stelle immediately understood, proudly puffing out her chest: “That’s right! The ace of our Astral Express Crew!”

“Ace?”

Yukong’s gaze lingered on Stelle for a moment, a hint of doubt in her heart.

This… uh, somewhat carefree-looking girl… is the strongest combatant of the Astral Express Crew? She seems more like a mascot.

“No, no,”

March 7th quickly waved her hands, then pointed directly at Orion.

“The ace is him! Orion! The man who defeated the Lord Ravager!”

“Defeated… the Lord Ravager?”

At these words, a storm instantly raged in Yukong’s heart.

She certainly knew the weight of the words “Lord Ravager.” It was a term spoken in hushed, fearful tones. An Emanator of Destruction. A general-level, no, an ark-level threat.

This man… this young man… could defeat such an existence?

Perhaps…

Perhaps the Luofu truly has hope!

“Although I don’t like it always being brought up,” Orion smiled helplessly, “But it’s true. Helm Master Yukong, rest assured and leave it to us.”

Yukong looked at these confident young people before her, and the heavy stone in her heart finally dropped. A hint of tears, which she angrily blinked back, welled in her eyes.

“Everyone… the kindness of you benefactors, Yukong—and the entire Sky-Faring Commission—will remember it.”

Welt asked again: “So, what exactly is the situation on the Luofu right now? What is this ‘mutation’?”

Hearing this question, Yukong’s expression instantly darkened.

“Ever since the Stellaron descended,”

She slowly began, “The Luofu has been ravaged by an unprecedented plague called ‘Stellaron Sickness’.”

“Stellaron Sickness?”

Stelle repeated in surprise.

“Is it a disease brought by the Stellaron?” March 7th immediately followed up.

Yukong nodded: “That’s right. According to the divination of the Divination Commission and the research of the Alchemy Commission, we have confirmed that the source of this disease is precisely that Stellaron that quietly descended.”

“People infected with ‘Stellaron Sickness’ will experience several progressive stages, from mild to severe.”

She extended a finger. “First, there’s the mild stage. Patients in this stage will, in their daily lives, suddenly exhibit some bizarre behaviors that puzzle others. These behaviors usually do not cause much harm to their own bodies or external interactions.”

“Suddenly doing strange things?”

Upon hearing this, March 7th subconsciously glanced at Stelle beside her.

“Why does that sound so familiar…”

“Hey, March!” Stelle immediately heard her words and protested discontentedly, “What do you mean?!”

“Uh, well, nothing! I didn’t say anything!”

March 7th immediately hid behind Orion, feeling guilty.

“March 7th!” Stelle stood with her hands on her hips, pouting. “If you keep this up, next time I find good stuff rummaging through trash cans, I definitely won’t share it with you!”

March 7th peeked out from behind Orion: “Then I won’t help you with assists in battle anymore either! Let’s see what you’ll do!”

“No!”

Stelle immediately panicked, her momentum instantly weakening.

“Cough, cough!”

Yukong coughed heavily twice, her sharp gaze cutting them off. Clearly, these two girls were being a bit ill-timed.

Welt immediately brought the conversation back on track: “So, after the mild stage?”

Yukong’s expression became even more serious. “After the mild stage, there’s the moderate stage. Once the disease progresses to the moderate stage, the patterns of those sudden strange behaviors in patients become highly… similar.”

“Similar?” Orion caught the keyword.

“Hmm…” Yukong explained, “Simply put, everyone infected with moderate Stellaron Sickness will, as if their brains are connected to the same network, at the same moment, without warning, uniformly perform the same action.”

“The actions vary widely. Sometimes they suddenly burst into song together, a children’s nursery rhyme we haven’t heard in centuries. Sometimes they suddenly start running in the same direction, only to stop at a wall. But according to our observations so far… most of the time, they suddenly start… playing games together.”

“Playing games?!” March 7th exclaimed in surprise.

“Yes.” Yukong nodded, her face grim. “For example, without warning, they start playing hopscotch on the entire street. Or, they suddenly start jump-roping collectively, without any ropes. Or even playing hide-and-seek in the plaza… all games that children enjoy.”

“The essence of these behaviors is similar to the initial stage; they also do not actively harm others.”

“But the most bizarre point is that all moderate patients, no matter where they are on the Luofu, will start playing the same game at the same time.”

Welt frowned deeply: “If a large group of people are infected with moderate Stellaron Sickness, wouldn’t it…?”

“Ah!” March 7th seemed to remember something, her face turning pale. “Could it be that what we saw on the street earlier… that large group of people suddenly stopping and standing still, they were really playing ‘Red Light, Green Light’?!”

“No way…”

Stelle also recalled that scene, feeling a chill down her spine.

Yukong nodded mournfully: “You saw it too? Indeed… those were patients infected with moderate Stellaron Sickness.”

Welt’s face instantly darkened. “Could it be that…”

“The urgent situation refers to… the majority of the ordinary citizens of the entire Luofu are infected with this Stellaron Sickness?”

Orion voiced the most terrifying speculation for him.

Yukong closed her eyes and nodded: “Yes… the vast, vast majority of ordinary citizens on the Luofu Celestial Ark have already been infected.”

“Currently, it seems only a few people with exceptionally strong wills, such as the General, the Master Diviner, myself, and some powerful Pathstriders, remain unaffected.”

[Inorin’s Note: “Master Diviner” (太卜) is the title for Fu Xuan, the head of the Divination Commission.]

This news was like a huge stone, weighing heavily on everyone’s hearts.

For a moment, the entire Palace of Astrum fell silent.

At this moment, March 7th suddenly thought of something else: “Wait! When they were playing ‘Red Light, Green Light’ earlier, wasn’t there someone… who was suddenly surrounded by a group of people and… Ah!”

“Could those people be…?”

“That should be severe Stellaron Sickness, right?” Orion finished her sentence.

“Yes.” Yukong said, her voice heavy. “Patients with severe Stellaron Sickness will blend in with the moderate patients, moving and playing games together.”

“But they… will attack others during the game.”

“Is this… indiscriminate attacking?” March 7th was somewhat startled.

“It’s possible.”

Yukong pondered, “However, according to the intelligence we gained by sacrificing several Cloud Knights… their attacks currently mostly follow a pattern.”

“What pattern?” Orion asked.

“It’s… those who ‘lose’ in those games, or those who don’t cooperate in playing the games, will be attacked.”

At these words, everyone felt it was utterly absurd.

Losing a game… and then being devoured?

“But, aren’t the Cloud Knights in charge of such things?” March 7th asked, “Why did they only come to clean up the aftermath? We saw them do it!”

Yukong’s expression became pained. “The entire Cloud Knights army was already infected; they couldn’t control themselves at that time. They were playing the game too.”

“Furthermore, there’s no difference between moderate and severe patients normally; if severe patients don’t attack people, they cannot be distinguished at all… And relying only on the General and a few of us, we cannot attend to every corner of the vast Luofu… We can only await support from the other Arks.”

March 7th lowered her gaze: “So that’s how it is…”

Although absurd, these events had already truly unfolded before everyone’s eyes.

After hearing all this, Welt let out a long sigh, his expression incredibly grave.

“It seems the current situation on the Luofu Celestial Ark… is even more critical than any situation we had anticipated.”