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ArabicHonkai Star Rail: Saving the World with a Mobile Game — Chapter 5
Chapter 5: Can a Knockoff Fan Game Really Be This Good?
The sudden shift in visuals caused the livestream chat to erupt into an absolute frenzy.
[The universe? The galaxy? The Express?!]
[Why did the stream suddenly change to this? Little Gui, are you still alive? Squeak if you are!]
[It is over, it is over. Did the stream get hacked? Did Little Gui offend someone?]
[Nooo! Do not kill Little Gui!]
On the other end of the broadcast, Guinaifen sat outside a bustling teahouse on the Xianzhou Luofu, the ambient chatter of the street completely lost on her.
The reason she had gone entirely silent was simple. The moment she booted up the game, the sheer quality of the loading screen had pinned her in place. The main menu was nothing short of stunning, possessing a visual depth that practically pulled the viewer through the screen.
“This game seems a bit interesting?” Guinaifen finally blinked, leaning closer to her device. She quickly reached out to adjust her microphone. “Don’t panic, family! I’m fine, I’m fine. I’m just getting ready to review a new game. These are just the opening visuals.”
[It is Little Gui’s voice! Little Gui is alive! So it was just game footage?]
[That scared me half to death. Wait, game footage?]
[What game is this? The name is Honkai: Star Rail? Why does it sound like it is related to the Astral Express? Is it THAT Astral Express?]
[Amphoreus version? I have never heard of this planet. As the most loyal Express fan, I have no idea that the Trailblazers ever went there.]
[It is probably some knockoff fan game made to farm money, hahaha!]
Guinaifen secretly shared the exact same mindset, which was why she did not bother refuting the cynical comments flooding her chat. To be perfectly honest, she streamed these random indie titles purely for the comedic value. If the game turned out to be a total train wreck, tearing it apart live would still make for fantastic content.
“Alright then, let’s officially enter the game!”
Fully expecting a hilariously broken mess, Guinaifen registered a fresh account and tapped the screen to proceed.
An epic, cosmic scroll seemed to unfurl before her very eyes.
What met her gaze was a solitary planet, pulsing with a gentle rhythm amidst a sea of cold stars. Its celestial body was shaped like a perfect infinity symbol, an impossible ‘∞’ suspended in the void. The composition was so exquisite, so magnificently rendered, that it made one instinctively yearn to reach out and touch its light.
Amphoreus.
The nine letters were elegantly inscribed in the upper right corner of the screen.
Guinaifen paused, her finger hovering over the glass. Her brow furrowed slightly.
“Is this it?”
Nothing else happened. There were no menus, no flashy buttons, just a single, silent planet floating in the dark.
She nodded to herself, convinced she knew exactly why her viewers had sent her this link. They wanted her to rip this lazy cash grab to shreds! Fine, she would provide the sharpest, most ruthless commentary possible and expose just how bare-bones this knockoff truly was.
Without another word, Guinaifen tapped directly on the infinity-shaped planet.
The next second, the screen went pitch black.
Silence.
It was so quiet, so entirely devoid of life, that it felt like her device had died. Guinaifen waited for ten seconds. Then twenty. The chat rapidly lost its patience, a tidal wave of question marks washing over the screen.
Guinaifen stared at the black void, thoroughly bewildered. Was this game literally just an empty shell? Why did it crash the moment she clicked the only button available?
“What is going on here?”
She tapped the dark screen again, just to see if the application had frozen.
The moment her fingertip made contact, a brilliant spark flared in the darkness. Radiant golden threads erupted from the point of impact, spreading upward like veins of liquid light!
“The beginning of the world was a mass of chaos.”
“Then, the gods cast down the sparks.”
“The Titans were born from the fire.”
The spreading threads rapidly sketched out the colossal silhouette of a giant holding up a sphere in the center of the screen. The visuals were accompanied by a slow, soothing female voiceover that carried the weight of ancient history, making Guinaifen jump slightly in her seat.
“Three weave destiny, three open the heavens and earth, three mold life, and three guide through calamity.”
“The fire of the Titans ignited civilization, allowing the living beings of ten thousand nations to thrive.”
“But the Golden Age was fleeting, and the blasphemous black tide descended from beyond the heavens…”
As the narration echoed through her headphones, epic murals began to shift and breathe on the screen. They moved with a mysterious, glorious fluidity, perfectly capturing the aesthetic of a lost, ancient civilization.
Guinaifen sat completely paralyzed, her gaze entirely captured by the sudden, stunning animation.
Her livestream chat mirrored her shock, the screen completely whited out by thousands of question marks. The spam continued relentlessly for nearly half a minute before coherent words finally broke through.
[Holy crap, what is this? What on earth is this?]
[I thought this game was an empty shell, but there is actually stuff here! Is this the game’s lore? Titans, sparks, gods?]
[Wait, this animation is way too grand! It is so lifelike, as if this place actually exists.]
[I have never heard of this planet; it must be the developer’s original imagination.]
[Aglaea the Golden Weaver, the Three-Faith Messenger, Anaxagoras the Dull, the Priest, and that lion… are these characters from the opening animation? They are way too detailed for a knockoff.]
[Look, this Attendant of the Hand of Duskhaze actually has a dragon following her. She looks like a final boss! Do you dare to stare into her eyes for ten seconds?]
The Chrysos Heirs appeared one by one, woven into the animation like figures in a poetic, historical scroll. The sequence masterfully established the world-building and the core cast of this strange new universe.
The murals shifted one last time, giving way to a brilliantly shining sun. Beneath its blinding rays, a silver-haired man stood tall, holding a holy sword high above his head.
“And the nameless new King was crowned, alongside ten thousand heroes.”
“To begin upon the great undertaking of Deliverance!”
“Fire-Chasing is a journey of constant loss.”
“Indeed, we have committed ourselves to the flames.”
“Only to write the opening stroke in the epic of creation.”
Roughly three minutes had passed since the cinematic began.
With the appearance of a sweeping group portrait of the Chrysos Heirs, the screen gradually dimmed. The atmosphere left behind was incredibly grand, yet laced with a heavy, tragic undertone.
Guinaifen and her thousands of viewers were left staring at the fading light, their eyes wide and practically glowing with awe.
Unexpectedly, the presentation was not over yet.
In the blink of an eye, the darkness shattered. A lady wearing a pointed hat appeared on the screen. She looked entirely relaxed, her gaze fixed on the ‘∞’ ring reflected in an ornate mirror. A small, knowing smile played on her lips.
“Most hero’s journeys in the universe are but dice cast casually by Them.”
“Will your answer be any different?”
“Amphoreus.”
The words faded into the ether.
In that instant, Guinaifen gasped sharply, her expression shifting from mere curiosity to pure, unadulterated amazement.
That specific outfit. That distinct appearance. Even if she was not some high-ranking official of the Xianzhou Luofu, Guinaifen naturally recognized exactly who this woman was. After all, while this entity rarely showed her true self to the outside world, her fame across the cosmos was absolute!
Could this actually be the 83rd member of the Genius Society, Madam Herta?!
The creator of the Herta Sequence?!
A real-world, legendary figure had actually been modeled into this fan game. But far more, based on the mature, elegant appearance shown on screen… could this be her true body?!
[Herta? This is Herta, right?]
[You must address her as Lady Herta! This is definitely that Genius. The game actually includes Herta?]
[Oh my god, and this is Herta’s true body, right? This is the first time I have ever seen the full appearance of that Genius. It is over, I am a total fan now!]
[Does the developer have the copyright for Herta? How do they dare use Herta’s image? I remember this Genius hates showing her face in public the most…]
The revelation of Herta’s true body sent a massive shockwave through the viewer base.
All of a sudden, the popularity metrics on Little Gui’s livestream began to skyrocket. A casual outdoor broadcast room that originally held only a few hundred people rapidly smashed past the one thousand mark, the numbers climbing by the second.
This was the 83rd member of the Genius Society, a living legend rumored to have personally met Aeons on two separate occasions. Anyone who dared to broadcast what her true body looked like without permission was practically begging for a horrific fate. After all, rumors across the galaxy universally agreed that Madam Herta’s temper was not exactly forgiving.
However, just as the panic reached its peak, a final line of dialogue echoed at the very end of the animation.
“Of course…”
[What the?!]
[There is an expert!]