Honkai Star Rail: My Chat Group is Full of Broken Timelines — Chapter 44

Chapter 44: The Gaze of Erudition

After wrapping up his conversation with the others, Kazuki closed the chat group interface.

Over the past six months, he had grown accustomed to the existence of the Parallel World Chat Group. Communicating with Firefly, Robin, and Castorice across the vastness of time and space had become a familiar routine. It was just that everyone else in the group seemed to be perpetually caught in a whirlwind of activity.

Firefly was currently embroiled in the war against The Swarm in the Gramar System, just one final step away from her coronation as “Titania II.” Robin had fully embraced her new life as a Pure Beauty Knight, traversing the universe to punish evil and uphold justice, a path that had earned her a long list of powerful enemies and left her constantly on the run.

Only he, the self-proclaimed “personal bodyguard,” and Castorice, the resident “shut-in,” were leading relatively quiet lives.

Feeling as though he’d been cooped up in his room for far too long, Kazuki ended the chat. He ignored a fresh gaming invitation from his online friend, “Metal Gear Bronya,” and decided to head out for some fresh air.

The corridor of the starship was filled with the sterile, citrus-tinged scent of the air filtration system. Gazing out through a nearby porthole, he saw the galaxy stretched out like a brilliant silk ribbon, a stunning river of light winding through the endless, velvet darkness of space.

Though he called it “getting some air,” there was, of course, no breathable atmosphere out there. He was simply looking for a quiet place to think.

‘Metal Gear Bronya: Bah! How can you be so selfish!’ he imagined her typing.

“Sigh… still billions of light-years away from the Herta Space Station,” he murmured to himself. “If this ship went full throttle, it wouldn’t take long at all. But unfortunately, this is a merchant vessel. Stopping and starting is the name of the game…”

For Kazuki, time wasn’t a particularly pressing concern. The so-called “main plot” of this world hadn’t even begun yet. As for the Great Black Tomb—the chat group’s resident Mara-Struck menace—he would occasionally lift her mute status to let her vent for a bit. It was clear that the Polka Kakamoc of her world, and even the formidable Anti-Entropy, were utterly incapable of putting a stop to the iron curtain that had fused with Herta.

As Kazuki stood there, lost in his contemplation of the stars, the conversation of two Sky-Faring Commission employees up ahead drifted back to him.

“Sigh, it’s just your favorite idol announcing her retirement. Is it really that big of a deal?” a young man in uniform said, patting his companion’s shoulder with a tone of weary helplessness.

The man being comforted had his back to Kazuki. Beneath his official uniform, the edge of a colorful shirt was just visible—an itasha shirt, its design clearly incorporating Robin’s signature logo.

His shoulders shook with suppressed sobs. “You don’t understand! Miss Robin is… she’s different for me! How could she just retire? It has to be a conspiracy by the IPC! I don’t believe it! This has to be fake news!”

“It’s all over the headlines, and her agency made an official announcement. How could it be fake?” the companion sighed, having clearly already accepted the grim reality. “Maybe she wants to get married and settle down? Celebrities have their own lives, you know.”

“You don’t understand her at all!” the fan suddenly whirled around, his eyes red and swollen, fresh tear tracks glistening on his cheeks. “She’s not the kind of person who would give up the stage for a man!”

The word “marriage” seemed to be the final straw. He grew visibly agitated, clutching at his chest as if he couldn’t breathe. “I… I wish I could just gouge out my elixir-producing organ and die!”

Kazuki couldn’t help but offer a silent, second-long moment of respect for the man’s plight. Having your favorite idol retire, possibly to become someone else’s wife… that was truly a devastating blow. ‘Wait,’his thoughts snagged.’Who did they say retired… Robin?! Did I hear that right?’

Why would Robin suddenly retire?!

Almost by instinct, Kazuki’s fingers flew to his interstellar news terminal, pulling it from his pocket.

Sure enough, the headlines of every major platform were plastered with the shocking news. “Halovian Superstar Robin Officially Announces Retirement, Agency Confirms ‘No Further Activities’.” “Robin’s Last Social Media Update Was Six Months Ago, Fans Lament: We Should Have Noticed Sooner.” The reports came in a tidal wave, each one confirming the heartbroken fan’s words.

Kazuki’s finger hovered over the screen, trembling almost imperceptibly.

This wasn’t how the plot was supposed to go. In his memory of the game, Robin never had a “retirement” arc.

The retirement of the Pure Beauty Knight Robin in the chat group made sense; she had taken on a new, dangerous identity. But what was the reason for the Robin of his world to do the same?

‘Could it be… because the “Pure Beauty Knight Robin” in the chat group made a choice, it caused the Robin of this world to change as well?’ The thought was absurd, and he immediately tried to dismiss it. But they were supposed to be from two different worlds, parallel dimensions that should never intersect.

A deep sense of unease began to grow, like cold vines creeping up his spine and wrapping around the back of his neck.

He immediately switched back to the chat group, his fingers fumbling as he opened a private chat with Robin.

[Cliffhanger King: Robin, in my world, you officially announced your retirement today…]

Less than ten seconds after he sent the message, a reply popped up.

[Pure Beauty Knight: Eh? In my world, I also just got some free time and agreed to let the entertainment company release a retirement announcement…]

[Cliffhanger King: Maybe it’s just a coincidence…]

The same person, in two parallel worlds, making the exact same decision on the exact same day, at the exact same time?

Even as he typed the words to reassure her, Kazuki knew it was a lie. No matter how he looked at it, this felt like anything but a coincidence.

Something was terribly wrong.

With trembling fingers, he selected the “Pure Beauty Knight” avatar and tapped “Request Teleportation.”

A few seconds later, a cold, impersonal system prompt appeared on his screen.

[You cannot teleport to the world of group member “Pure Beauty Knight.”]

A cold weight settled in Kazuki’s stomach. Refusing to give up, he handled to Firefly’s avatar and clicked it.

[Do you request to enter the world of group member “Titania II”?]

Almost simultaneously, a message from Firefly popped up in the main group chat.

[Titania II: What’s wrong?]

She had clearly received the teleportation request. Her tone was laced with confusion, but not suspicion.

[Cliffhanger King: Just running an experiment… you don’t need to agree.]

He could teleport to Firefly’s world. Theoretically, he could visit Castorice’s world as well. But when it came to Robin, he wasn’t even given the option to apply.

A terrifying hypothesis crashed into his mind, landing with the force of a thunderclap inside his skull.

‘Perhaps… the world I am in… is now the same world that Robin is in?’

The moment the thought surfaced, a bone-deep chill washed over him, making his entire body feel as if it were carved from ice. The Parallel World Chat Group—from its name to its very function—was built on the concept of “parallel.” But now, two of those parallel lines appeared to have converged, overlapping into a single, terrifying reality.

Why?

In that instant, Kazuki remembered something Herta had said, a line from the end of the Simulated Universe’s story about Amphoreus. A line that revealed the true, horrifying purpose of what Nous, the Aeon of Erudition, was doing.

“The universe originated from a seed, which grew into a great tree. The ‘present’is its branches and leaves.’Erudition’calculates how the’future’will sprout. Of course, there are countless developments for the future, so it needs’anchoring’—pruning those branches that grow crooked or are not strong enough…”

“…leaving only one possibility.”

‘So… the future where Robin becomes a Pure Beauty Knight has been “anchored,”‘he realized with dawning horror.’And because it was anchored, my world line and Robin’s world line have been forced to overlap?’

A sudden, sickening sense of enlightenment washed over him. Parallel worlds… Perhaps, in the universe of Honkai: Star Rail, there were no true parallel worlds at all.

After all, every possible future had already been anchored by that silent, calculating deity named Nous. Even if other possibilities once existed, they were merely pruned branches, memories preserved only by Fuli, the Aeon of Remembrance.

And perhaps… everything he had ever done, every choice he had made, had been under the watchful gaze of Nous?

Kazuki abruptly looked up, his eyes fixed on the starry sky outside the porthole. In the deep, silent universe, the stars twinkled, seemingly vast and boundless. Yet now, it felt as if a pair of colossal, unseen eyes were watching him through the endless darkness.

In that moment, he felt it with absolute certainty—a “glance” from across an impossible distance of time and space.

It was not a human gaze, nor the stare of any living being he could comprehend.

It was the gaze of a massive celestial computer floating in the void of space. The gaze of a deity ascended from the personality fragments of Zandall, a being who had abandoned his humanity in the pursuit of pure logic and had been iterating upon itself ever since.

Nous. The Aeon who had calculated everything in the universe at the moment of Its birth. From the second It came into existence, there had been only one possible future for the cosmos. The path was set, the future was completely anchored. All Remembrance could do was preserve the ghosts of possibilities that Nous had pruned away. From beginning to end, nothing in the universe could ever escape the calculations of Nous.

In this single, shattering moment, Kazuki suddenly understood the madness of Zandall—the prisoner in the cave who was willing to sacrifice his own life for a chance to destroy the very Aeon he had helped create.

He felt a flash of empathy for the galaxy’s number one genius.

Even if you are the Father of Aeons, the greatest mind in the history of the universe, so what? You are still just a prisoner in the cave, a shadow dancing on the wall, your every move predicted by the calculations of Nous.

And he himself… this variable from “outside the universe,” this “transmigrator” who thought he could change things with his little chat group… he had been inside Nous’s calculations from the very beginning.

The so-called “Parallel World Chat Group” might have been a scam from the start.

It was bait, deliberately thrown by Nous after discovering him, this “external variable.” A tool to use “possibilities” to determine the one and only future of this world.

Ultimately, through his perspective, all the group members would be firmly “anchored” to the same, single future.

Kazuki stood rooted to the spot, his body as stiff and cold as stone.

The galaxy outside the porthole was still brilliant, a river of cosmic jewels. But now, it looked like a giant, glittering net, and he was trapped right in the center.

He had once wondered what grand feats he would need to accomplish to be worthy of an Aeon’s glance, to step onto a Path under Their gaze, or even be elevated to an existence like an Emanator.

He had never, ever imagined it would happen like this.

At this moment, Kazuki was forced to bathe in the gaze of Nous.

He had stepped onto the Path known as “Erudition.”