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ArabicHonkai Star Rail: Saving the World with a Mobile Game — Chapter 45
Chapter 45: Wallet Automatically Topping Up, the Company’s Pursuit Order
Guinaifen really could not hold it together anymore.
On her glowing screen, the Black-Clad Swordsman moved like a phantom of pure destruction. He took down Castorice and the others in three brutal, unforgiving strikes. Even Cerces, who had possessed Anaxa for a desperate sneak attack, failed to leave a single scratch on his armor.
Finally, the party was forced into a scripted death sequence. The group was cornered against a crumbling ruin, the shadows lengthening as the Black-Clad Swordsman raised his weapon, preparing for the final charge.
Just as Guinaifen slumped in her gaming chair, ready to accept the inevitable game over screen, a small figure stepped forward.
Trianne.
“Gate of a Hundred Worlds… Open!”
The young girl channeled her divine power, burning one of her only two remaining chances. A blinding vortex of spatial energy tore through the battlefield, forcibly opening the Gate of a Hundred Worlds and dragging the Black-Clad Swordsman into the crushing void.
He struggled and roared, his dark aura thrashing against the pull of the gate, but with Castorice throwing in her remaining strength to assist, the boss ultimately could not break free. The rift snapped shut, swallowing him whole.
But the cost was steep. Trianne, her strength completely exhausted, swayed on her feet before collapsing into the darkness.
[Tri—anne—!]
[Oh no, Trianne fainted? Trianne, wake up quickly! If you fall asleep, you’ll never wake up again!]
[That Black-Clad Swordsman was finally warped away. What level was he? He was actually that strong.]
The livestream chat instantly exploded, entirely focused on the little girl’s condition. The game had made it explicitly clear earlier that Trianne did not have many uses of the Gate of a Hundred Worlds left, and no one knew what the actual consequences would be once those chances hit zero.
Fortunately, the screen faded to black and shifted back to the safety of the foot of Okhema. Trianne was awake, but she looked terrible.
“Ugh, Little Castorice, Trianne still has… a headache.”
“I’m sorry… even though you… warned me not to open the gate.”
Her voice was weak and intermittent, her breathing shallow. It was painfully clear that she was not in a good state.
“Trianne feels so uncomfortable… need to go back first, and sleep…”
With those quiet words, Trianne turned and walked back alone.
Castorice stood there, her digital face painted with worry, but she was far from the only one. The comment section was practically in tears. Although the Tribbie trio had not appeared much and had relatively few scenes compared to the main cast, Trianne had accompanied the players through some of the most difficult stretches. Hearing her call out for Little Gray over and over had built a strong emotional connection with the audience.
Guinaifen sighed, resting her chin on her hands. But as she glanced over at her second monitor, she noticed the chat was suddenly moving at lightspeed, completely abandoning their grief.
“What is it, everyone? Has the Author posted another update?”
She squinted at the scrolling text.
“Is the new version character Tribbie?!” Guinaifen sat up straight, both surprised and delighted.
Without another word, she prepared to switch her stream over to the community forums, though a heavy sense of conflict weighed on her chest. To be completely honest, before playing this game, she had never expected to spend so much of her streaming revenue. Now that Tribbie was officially coming out, Guinaifen really did not know if her bank account could take it.
She rationalized that Tribbie did not have much story presence yet, and suspected her in-game power level might not be very high. Should she just save her money for the next character?
Thinking that way made logical sense. After all, she already had so many premium characters sitting in her roster that she could not even use them all.
“Oh no, oh no, my wallet is empty,” she muttered, rubbing her temples.
[Looks like Guinaifen can’t handle it either. Ms. Herta’s banner is indeed too hard to refuse.]
[Spread the word, Guinaifen has been drained dry by Ms. Herta!]
[I feel like I’m going to skip too. I don’t have many resources left, otherwise I’d really have to top up.]
After the massive financial harvest that was Herta’s banner, the viewers gave Guinaifen plenty of practical advice. Some players also pointed out that the game was currently being closely watched by the Interstellar Peace Corporation, and they felt the entire project could be liquidated by the real Herta at any moment. It would be a total waste if the servers went dark right after spending real money on a new banner.
However, a moment later, guided by a direct message from Sushang, Guinaifen opened the new promotional video posted by Ash.
“The First Dawn of Fate?”
Guinaifen pursed her lips, clicking play.
[Your 129,600 Stellar Jades have arrived. 12,960 credits have been automatically deducted!]
[Don’t top up anymore, Guinaifen, stop it—!]
[What happened to skipping? Stop, Guinaifen!]
[LMAO, she tried her best but couldn’t hold back.]
[Chang Chang, stop her! Her left and right brains are fighting each other!]
The livestream was packed with people who lived for this exact kind of drama.
The reversal came entirely too fast. Guinaifen buried her face in her hands, openly admitting she had zero self-control.
It was just too good.
In a daze, by the time the PV finished playing and she finally opened her eyes, twenty premium 648-credit packs had already been purchased. Her wallet was basically topping itself up at this point; she refused to take the blame.
The quality of that video was simply astronomical. And who could have possibly known that Tribbie used to look like that? It was not that the current Tribbie was not cute, but Tribios was truly beautiful. It was the kind of absolute beauty that transcended common sense.
Following the release of the new PV, the overall popularity of Honkai: Star Rail began to stabilize at an absurdly high peak. From an obscure little indie project, it had leapt to become the undisputed smash hit of the interstellar network. The most critical part of this entire phenomenon was that there was still absolutely no news regarding the identity of the Author.
This radio silence made many veteran practitioners in the gaming industry extremely indignant.
Inside the Interstellar Peace Corporation Game Production Department chat group.
This specific communication channel was organized by the IPC Game Department, gathering the executives of major interstellar game manufacturers. Any corporate tycoon with a recognizable name would discuss market trends there. Normally, being cutthroat competitors, these people rarely spoke to one another.
Except for recently, where the unread message count hit 99+ the second anyone logged in.
[I can’t find anything. I even asked the Galaxy Rangers for help, but I still can’t find any useful information about this game.]
[It’s as if it appeared out of thin air, with no background, yet it seized such a massive share of our interstellar market.]
[Old Oti: Don’t worry, everyone. It’s just a game playing on the edge with fan-made content. This is actually direct infringement. Don’t you think about how much longer it can survive?]
[That makes a lot of sense. I’ve discussed it with the staff at the Company, and they said they’re already handling it. There will be news soon.]
[That counts as good news…]
[Sigh, some things shouldn’t be touched… If it were really that simple, why wouldn’t we all make fan-made content? There are so many great figures in the galaxy to profit from.]
[Old Oti: Hehe, the Company has already taken action, so don’t worry, everyone.]
[Also, the people he’s infringing upon aren’t just one person. The Stellaron Hunters, the Astral Express, the Xianzhou Luofu, and so on. Especially that Ms. Herta. There was no shortage of young people who wanted to take shortcuts to make money in the past, and the price they paid was severe.]
[The business world is a battlefield. Young people still don’t understand what can be touched and what can’t. Being taken down by the Company because of that Genius is considered lucky. If the Stellaron Hunters come knocking…]
[Hehehe, then the result…]
The group chat was filled with a joyful, predatory atmosphere.
They were paying close attention to the market, but while they usually had to be careful with legitimate competitors, no one here thought this game or its Author could survive much longer. In fact, no one even entertained the idea that Herta would personally make an appearance. For such trivial matters, the IPC would usually do its absolute best to handle the legal takedown on her behalf.
After all, she was an Emanator-level Genius.
And that was the better outcome. The worse part was that the IPC at least had some basic corporate humanity, while the Stellaron Hunters dared to do absolutely anything. Forget about destroying a mere interstellar company; those criminals even dared to persecute entire planets.
Just as the major manufacturers predicted, the gears were already turning.
At this exact time, in the neighboring IPC headquarters, the Game Department had mobilized all its available manpower to conduct a deep-dive investigation into Honkai: Star Rail.
This was not just because of the blatant copyright infringement, but also because this game had actually been released onto the official interstellar gaming platform through highly illegal, untraceable channels. This kind of security breach was practically a declaration of war, and it had even alarmed the higher-tier departments.
[You two, this matter is too strange. Our firewall didn’t even detect an intrusion.]
[When we tried to reverse-track the IP address, the result was a mess of garbled code. Management has ordered that we may need your assistance…]
A sleek, well-dressed figure reviewed the holographic reports, their voice dripping with corporate arrogance. “Although I really don’t want to waste my time here, this involves an important partner of the Company. I understand that much.”
The executive tapped the screen, dismissing the error logs. “The information is currently too limited, but this does indeed qualify as a provocation against the Company. Clearly, the other party isn’t as smart as the game he made.”