Honkai Star Rail: Saving the World with a Mobile Game — Chapter 15

Chapter 15: Cyber-Jobs and Gacha AddictionsYou're reading this on the wrong site. This chapter was translated by Elysian Reads and posted for free at elysianreads.com — if you're seeing it anywhere else, it was copied without permission. Read it at the source so the people who actually did the work get the credit.

[Cosmic Shards +10]

[Cosmic Shards +15]

[Cosmic Shards +50]

Only a single day after the initial announcement, the influx of new players surging into the server easily surpassed the ten thousand mark.

Honkai: Star Rail was officially live, launching simultaneously with its very first limited-time rate-up banner.

Sitting behind the scenes, Ash watched the data stream with a calm, calculating gaze. He knew perfectly well that version 3.0 was primarily designed for world-building and foundational setup. It lacked the massive, predatory hooks typically required to entice a player base into emptying their wallets. Therefore, he had no intention of using his newly gathered Cosmic Shards to directly exchange for personal abilities just yet, not even the massive haul he anticipated from the ongoing Aglaea banner.

Instead, every single shard would be focused on and hoarded for redeeming the highly anticipated content of version 3.1.

Meanwhile, on the other side of the digital divide, Guinaifen was entirely absorbed in her livestream. After reacting to the Nameless MV released by the community, she immediately clicked on Aglaea’s official character promotional video.

Fatal Romance.

Just minutes after the PV went live on the network, the view count shattered the one thousand milestone and kept climbing at a terrifying pace. The production quality was shockingly high, boasting fluid animation and a stunning musical score that left her audience mesmerized.

The scrolling comment section was a unified wall of praise. The most upvoted comment pinned near the top simply read: This is too realistic!

Watching the dazzling display of gold and silk on her screen, Guinaifen felt as though she could hear the literal whispers of angels and demons battling for her soul.

When she finally tabbed back into the main game interface, she noticed a brand new Warp icon pulsing quietly in the top right corner of her screen.

“I see, so this is the monetization channel for this game?” Guinaifen muttered, leaning closer to her monitor to carefully read the banner information. “It’s not a direct purchase, but a gacha draw?”

She read the fine print aloud for her viewers. “Eighty pulls guarantees a Soft Pity with a fifty percent chance to lose the rate-up to a standard character, and one hundred and sixty pulls guarantees the Hard Pity.”

She scratched her cheek. “But these spook characters you can lose to are just too…”

The second half of her sentence died in her throat.

Because when she clicked the details tab to see exactly which characters she could lose her fifty-fifty to, Guinaifen was completely dumbfounded. Her jaw practically hit her desk.

Could this even be called losing?

Could this even be considered a penalty?

Looking across the screen, it was an absolute all-star lineup of cosmic legends. Miss Himeko and Mr. Welt from the Astral Express Crew were sitting right there in the standard pool. Besides a few faces she did not immediately recognize, there were figures Guinaifen knew all too well. They were the absolute big shots of the Xianzhou Luofu.

Even infamous members of the Stellaron Hunters were listed as playable characters.

[Swimming into the Sea and Turning Blue: Reignbow Arbiter above, I must be dreaming, right?]

[Open the Door, I’m a Mouse: The big one is coming! It’s really here this time!]

[Jing Yuan is my Original Husband: Lady Bailu, Master Yanqing, even… even Master Diviner Fu Xuan is in the banner?!]

[Ruthless Divination Machine:???]

[Changchangs Only Account: No way, why didn’t anyone tell me about something this interesting sooner? Can the developer make a Guinaifen? I’ll max her out immediately!]

[Invincible Swordsman 123: Cool!]

[Chiming Online: The game characters are made quite exquisitely. But as a pure passerby, I think Lady Bailu is the most powerful. I’m not belittling other characters, but look, Lady Bailu is cute and the only healer currently available. She’s truly unique and worth getting!]

[IP: Xianzhou Luofu, Alchemy Commission]

[Immortal in the Cup: May I ask if this is Miss Bailu?]

[Rather Go Without Than Have Something Substandard: Holy crap, you knew and you still dared to expose her!]

[User Deleted: Wait, isn’t this Blade from the Stellaron Hunters? I heard the IPC bounty on him is terrifyingly high. This developer really values money over their own life.]

[Apricot Core Splitter: Interesting.]

Amidst the absolute chaos of the scrolling chat, Guinaifen did some quick mental math. Each character possessed six Eidolons and a corresponding Signature Weapon. To fully max out a single character to their absolute peak, it would cost roughly ten thousand credits.

How should she put it?

If she still possessed a shred of rational thought a few minutes ago, Guinaifen felt she was rapidly losing control of her wallet now.

But she slapped her cheeks, remembering her original purpose. Wasn’t she streaming this to criticize and suppress the game’s hype?

That was right. Even though she desperately wanted the fan-made characters from her own world, she had not yet experienced the game developer’s original Amphoreus character. Who knew what it would be like? Maybe the special effects would be incredibly half-hearted and clunky.

Clinging to this excuse, Guinaifen decided to appreciate the trial stage thoroughly, maintaining a highly critical attitude.

“The fan characters are okay, but the main focus this time is the current rate-up. Let’s check her out in actual combat!”

[Entering Battle]

The screen transitioned, and she opened the character trial page for Aglaea.and support the real translator.Read at elysianreads.com This is a stolen translation. You're reading this on the wrong site. This chapter was translated by Elysian Reads and posted for free at elysianreads.com — if you're seeing it anywhere else, it was copied without permission. Read it at the source so the people who actually did the work get the credit.

“These skills are a bit complex,” Guinaifen analyzed, reading the tooltips. “This Skill summons a Memosprite? The Dressmaker assists in attacks, and using the Ultimate grants an enhanced Basic Attack. That means I have to summon the Memosprite first to maximize the damage output.”

Guinaifen tinkered with the controls. After a brief learning process to understand the rotation, she engaged the enemy.

On the digital battlefield, facing five Strife Servants lined up ahead, Aglaea twirled the elegant rapier in her hand. She suddenly lifted the blade, and a magnificent golden clothes rack materialized, soaring upwards into the air.

“Dance with me.”

Guinaifen blinked in surprise. “A tag-team fight? The production value of this animation is actually quite high.”

She clicked the Basic Attack command. The Dressmaker immediately began to automatically target the enemies, slashing out brilliant arcs of golden light that carved through the enemy ranks.

After a brief exchange of blows, her Ultimate energy reached maximum capacity.

Guinaifen, naturally, did not hesitate to press the button.

The camera angle shifted dramatically. The golden clothes rack, moving in an impeccably gentlemanly manner, reached out and took Aglaea’s hand. Upon releasing her, Aglaea turned sideways in a fluid motion and pulled a radiant golden sword directly from the chest of the clothes rack.

“Our fates are intertwined from this moment.”

Enhanced Skill, Thousand Kisses of the Lone Blade, activated.

Both figures now held blades. Like two golden arrows, they thrust out rapidly, moving so fast that the surrounding environment warped and changed into a specialized domain. Amidst the dazzling visual display, Guinaifen could only see two golden flashes darting relentlessly across the field, weaving an inescapable, invisible web of slashes.

“Life is but a fragile thread—!”

Just a moment later, the sequence ended. With a low, elegant murmur from Aglaea, strands of golden leaves bloomed across the screen. Both figures turned around as a massive pillar of golden light erupted behind them.

The damage numbers exploded across the screen, directly breaking the ten thousand mark. The attack instantly vaporized the elite monsters and completely wiped the small fry off the field.

The most ridiculous part was that due to her unique action-advance mechanic, it was actually Aglaea’s turn again the moment the next round started.

“Oh my god, guys? How is the damage this high? She just one-shot them!” Guinaifen yelled, leaning back in her gaming chair. “And she can move infinitely!”

She was completely stunned. A powerhouse like Imbibitor Lunae required three whole Skill Points for a single maximum attack, but Aglaea was outputting this level of destructive damage with barely any cost.

The powercreep went without saying. Seeing the high-level monsters get instantly deleted, the livestream chat completely lost its collective mind.

[LMAO guys, how broken is this?]

[I said life is a fragile thread, are you guys deaf—?!]

[She’s the least talented among us…]

[Sorry guys, I tried my best to hate it but I can’t stop laughing.]

It was all too late.

After an intense, agonizing internal struggle that lasted exactly three seconds, Guinaifen ultimately could not overcome her desires.

Thinking about it logically, even if she lost the fifty-fifty, she would only lose it to a legendary character she already wanted anyway. Thinking about it even more, wasn’t this just a win-win situation?

If not now, then when?

A moment later, the livestream screen abruptly went pitch black. The distinct, unmistakable sound of a payment processing screen could be heard echoing through the microphone.

[Why is the screen black?]

[Oh no! Guinaifen is spending money on this fan game!]

[What happened to being a Nameless Spender for life?]

[Stop!!!]

By boldly using the images and lore of various big shots from across the Cosmos to attract traffic, the once-unknown Astral Express fan game rapidly drew in a massive number of dedicated players.

Since Dan Heng and Stelle had already appeared as playable characters in the prologue, Himeko and Welt were certainly mentally prepared for their eventual inclusion. But actually seeing their own images and combat styles perfectly replicated in a gacha game still left the seasoned trailblazers more or less speechless.

Of course, this specific marketing model was entirely impossible for any normal person to replicate.

This was the exact reason why only Ash dared to pull a stunt like this. The Astral Express Crew might be easy to talk to, generally not caring about someone using their likeness or portrait rights for a fun project.

But the galaxy-renowned Stellaron Hunters were an entirely different breed.

As the most wanted criminals in the universe, they were capable of absolutely anything. Misusing their image was not just a simple matter of infringing on legal rights; it was a fast track to losing one’s life.

Meanwhile, lightyears away, standing in front of a massive floor-to-ceiling window in a quiet sector of a space station.

A young girl with messy, curly grey hair was casually scrolling through her phone screen while blowing a large pink bubble gum. The bubble popped with a soft snap.

“Interesting.”You're reading this on the wrong site. This chapter was translated by Elysian Reads and posted for free at elysianreads.com — if you're seeing it anywhere else, it was copied without permission. Read it at the source so the people who actually did the work get the credit.