Honkai Star Rail: Saving the World with a Mobile Game — Chapter 48

Chapter 48: The Romantic Story Lives On, but the Romantic Gushi are Truly Gone!

Meanwhile, in the reality timeline.

Amphoreus, Creation Vortex Core.

“Three steps, Castorice!”

A crisp voice, tinged with a heavy layer of forced indifference, rang out across the swirling expanse of the vortex.

Up ahead, Dan Heng and Stelle stood shoulder-to-shoulder, their wrists bound tightly by shimmering Golden Threads that bit into their skin, rendering them entirely immobile.

Behind them, Castorice, standing in a rigidly standard maid’s posture, began to shuffle her feet to adjust the execution distance.

One step. Two steps. Three steps. Four steps…

She moved forward, her head bowed in intense concentration, and then—

‘Wait, wait, Little Castorice! You’ve gone too far, you took an extra step!’

Tribios’s voice suddenly crackled through a hidden earpiece, echoing directly into her ear.

Hearing the childish, panicked commotion, Castorice froze instantly. Her polished shoes squeaked against the floor.

Lowering her head, she realized she had indeed overshot the mark. Her face flushed a deep, nervous crimson, and she immediately scrambled a step back.

“Um, no, I’m sorry…” she stammered, her hands wringing the fabric of her apron.

‘Don’t say it out loud, Little Castorice! We’re conducting a ruthless execution right now, be serious!’

“Oh, sorr—uh, no. I mean…”

Tribios: “…”

Stelle and Dan Heng slowly turned their heads. Seeing Castorice’s flustered, stammering state, they couldn’t help but exchange a long, deeply skeptical glance.

Dan Heng pursed his lips. He looked as though he wanted to sigh, but ultimately turned his attention back to Aglaea, his gaze firm and unyielding.

“To decide our life or death through a makeshift lynching… it is simply preposterous.”

Beside him, Stelle nodded vigorously in agreement. “Talk about burning bridges. After we just helped you out, too?”

But the Aglaea standing before them remained entirely indifferent. She stood tall, her expression locked into a mask as unmovable as a block of dry ice.

She simply crossed her arms, her regal robes fluttering in the vortex’s ambient energy, and gave the order: “Regrettably, for the sake of Okhema, I must do this.”

“I shall test you with Four Questions. The Golden Thread will ultimately provide the answer. At that time, Castorice will decide whether to grant you death based on the number of times the Golden Thread vibrates…”

‘Agy, Agy! Those are the wrong lines! You’re saying them completely wrong!’

Tribios’s voice reached Aglaea’s ears again, frantic and buzzing from an unknown source.

A subtle, almost imperceptible twitch appeared in Aglaea’s stoic expression. She murmured under her breath, “My Teacher, does it truly make a difference? I thought this version was more concise.”

‘That won’t do, Agy! You are the leader of the Chrysos Heirs now. You must be cold, elegant, unshakeable, and completely superior!’Tribios lectured through the comms.’The lines you speak must be both deep and implicit! You need more dramatic tension!’

Aglaea: “…”

Aglaea paused mid-sentence, her mouth hanging slightly open as she suddenly stopped speaking.

After a long, agonizingly awkward moment of silence, as if she had just waited for her internal router to reconnect to the network, she spoke again, her tone noticeably deeper:

“I shall test you with Four Questions. Deceitful answers will cause the Golden Thread to vibrate; sincere answers will leave it undisturbed.”

“The number of times the Golden Thread vibrates shall be the number of steps the executioner must take.”

“After the Four Questions, if she has not reached your backs, you will be considered to have passed the test. Otherwise, your journey ends here.”

However.

By the time she finished her grand, revised monologue and the tension snapped back to reality, Dan Heng and Stelle’s eyes were already glazed over with sheer bewilderment.

Stelle leaned closer to Dan Heng, whispering out of the corner of her mouth:

“Dan Heng, do you feel like Amphoreus is… dropping frames?”

Dan Heng gave her a flat, thoroughly exhausted look.

While he had absolutely no desire to join Stelle in her meta-nonsense and joking, he had to admit the entire atmosphere was indeed bizarre.

How was this supposed to be a life-or-death trial?

Looking left and right, there was nothing physically out of place in the scene. The vortex swirled, the magic hummed, and the executioner stood ready.

Yet, why did he feel an inexplicable, overwhelming sense of incongruity?

Especially with those random, silent pauses…

Noticing the two prisoners were already looking around and losing focus, Aglaea hurriedly raised her hand and announced:

“The First Question.”

“Outlanders—why have you come to Amphoreus?”

Fortunately, the direct questioning at the threshold of life and death successfully drew Dan Heng and Stelle’s attention back to the matter at hand.

After a brief moment of thought, Stelle, as expected, puffed out her chest and spoke up to respond:

“This is simply amazing!”

Meanwhile, on the sunlit balcony of Ash’s Bath Palace.

Cipher lay reclined on a plush lounge chair, her upper half hanging upside down off the edge. She held a glowing ‘stone slab’ tablet above her head, her calves, clad in shimmering Golden Boots, draped casually over the back of the chair.

Perhaps out of sheer joy, she was constantly wiggling her toes, the rhythmic motion causing the entire chair to rock back and forth.

“Big Sister’s transition, from large to small in just one jump, looks so gorgeous!” she cheered, her cat-like eyes locked onto the screen. “I wonder if I’ll get a PV like this when it’s my turn.”

Cipher had just finished watching the brand-new promotional video released by Ash.

Beside her, Cyrene stood with her hands clasped neatly behind her back, leaning in with a soft, melodic smile to observe the glowing screen.

Without missing a beat, Cipher shared the PV to their private group chat, where it naturally received unanimous, instant praise.

[Anaxa: Read.]

[Keluida: Appreciated.]

[Hysilens: Beautiful.]

[Cyrene: (Cyrene_Heart.jpg)]

While monitoring the live situation outside in the vortex, Ash moved his gaze to the cat-like girl rocking on the chair beside him.

He noticed that immediately after sending the video, her energetic smile faded into a slightly troubled pout.

“It’s a pity,” Cipher sighed, letting the tablet rest on her stomach. “Such a great video, and Big Sister and The Seamstress can’t even see it right now. Even Woju Princess isn’t here. I don’t even know who to share it with anymore.”

She flipped upright, staring at Ash with pleading eyes. “Say, Ash, can you set up some kind of live stream so I can see what’s happening inside? It’s been a long time since I’ve seen Big Sister turn into Tribios and become small. I actually miss it.”

“Or…” Cipher tilted her head idly, a mischievous glint returning to her gaze, “When will you arrange for me to go in too? Tricking people is what I’m best at!”

Ash shrugged helplessly. He reached into a nearby container and tossed her a small, ornate box of dried fish he’d acquired from the system.

“Won’t you be able to see them when they come back?” he replied smoothly. “Also, don’t be in such a hurry. When they all return, it’ll be your turn to go in. You’ll be busy enough then.”

Stars seemed to literally manifest in Cipher’s eyes as she snatched the dried fish out of the air.

“Wait, it’s my turn to go in next? Does that mean I’ll be making my grand debut in the main story soon?!”

Ash merely poked the screen of his own mobile phone. “Won’t you know if you just keep watching?”

On his screen, the streamers across the universe were still frantically pushing through the main story, their chat boxes exploding with theories and reactions.

However, chatting with the cat-girl had left Ash feeling a bit worried about his own script.

Come to think of it, the Chrysos Heirs were all present and accounted for, but the Romantic Gushi seemed to be truly gone from the board!

What should be done about the upcoming acts?

Without the Romantic Gushi available to play the designated villains, surely he couldn’t just have the Romance Faction play the villains instead. That would ruin the lore consistency he had so carefully built.

Ash slowly turned his head, glancing sideways at the girl standing nearby. Innocent, kind, lovely, pure, shy, and currently sporting pink-tinted cheeks—the most perfect Cyrene.

It seemed like it might actually work!

Forget it, he reasoned internally. Just going through the motions would be enough to fool the players.

Aglaea, Castorice, and the others were acting very professionally out there. Even if the live execution was slightly different from his original draft of the main story, probably, maybe, should be, more or less…

There shouldn’t be any big problems… right?

Ash cleared his throat, putting on his most serious creator persona. “Cyrene, I have an arduous task to entrust to you!”

Cyrene blinked, her pure eyes widening in mild confusion. “Partner… eh?”

Astral Express, Parlor Car.

Ever since the Herta plotline had concluded in the game, Himeko had become infinitely more invested in the glowing screen in her hands.

She sat on the velvet sofa, her coffee growing cold on the table beside her. Because at least one terrifying thing could be absolutely certain now.

Since the mysterious developer could accurately observe, replicate, and predict the interior of the Astral Express, then the plot unfolding within the game was definitely not as simple as being made up for entertainment.

In other words, this was the actual, real-time Trailblaze journey of those two children, Stelle and Dan Heng.

Her mind raced back to the very end of the 3.0 plot update she had just finished. The final cinematic had shown a chilling image: March 7th, completely encased in a block of Six-Phased Ice.

Feeling a sudden, icy dread pool in her stomach, Himeko had immediately set the game down and walked briskly down the corridor to the passenger cabins to check.

She slid the door open.

Unexpectedly—or rather, exactly as expected now—March 7th was indeed standing in the center of her room, completely covered in that exact same, familiar ice, looking exactly like the day the Express had first found her drifting in the void!