Honkai Star Rail: Saving the World with a Mobile Game — Chapter 50

Chapter 50: The Many Shall Part with One

As the entire community knew, to ninety-nine percent of the player base, Ash’s game was still just a fan-made passion project—a glorified skin used to sell cards and rake in credits.

Every major figure in the universe possessed a supreme, absolute charm that made them both desirable and admirable. That was exactly why players chased them with such fervor. The hope the Astral Express brought to the cosmos, the enigmatic allure of the Stellaron Hunters. Even Herta’s outward arrogance and disdain, which barely concealed a core of genuine care and kindness. These tangible, living people were the driving force keeping everyone hooked.

Because of this inherent bias, players automatically compared the game’s original characters with the real-world legends they were based on. Most people just watched the streams for a good laugh. After all, many were still playing purely for the fan-made novelty. Surely no one actually thought a fictional original character could ever surpass the sheer appeal of Madam Herta?

[Even so, I still don’t think anything can top Madam Herta.]

[No kidding, she actually exists in real life. How could the charm of a true Genius Society member lose to a bunch of pixels?]

[Don’t bash the original characters, guys. Besides, Madam Herta herself authorized this game.]

[True. Let’s just see what kind of character the Author can cook up with all those resources they piled into this update.]

Realizing they were about to enter Tribbie’s dedicated route, Guinaifen rolled up her sleeves. She wasn’t the only one getting invested. Countless players from the Xianzhou Luofu who usually just lurked in the background were now popping up across the community forums.

“It’s coming, family!” Guinaifen announced, leaning into her microphone. “Looks like our big Tribbie is finally getting some serious lore!”

Without a doubt, the title of the next chapter—[O Doorway, the Knocking Still Echoes in Dreams]—was intimately tied to Tribbie and her counterparts. Unable to contain her excitement, Guinaifen refused to wait a single second longer. After quickly scrolling through the bullet chat and thanking her viewers for a massive wave of digital gifts, she clicked directly into the main story.

Darkness swallowed the screen. A brief, heavy pause followed.

This time, no 3D models spawned into a map. Instead, a warm, beautifully illustrated CG accompanied by a youthful voice slowly faded into view.

“Mom, Mom! I had a dream last night.”

The artwork depicted a red-haired woman. She looked elegant, intellectual, and deeply gentle, sporting a familiar pair of pointed elf ears. A young, red-haired girl lay innocently across her lap, babbling a charming fairy tale in a sweet, childish cadence.

“Oh? What did you dream about, Tribios, my good girl?”

“I dreamed that I turned into many, many versions of myself. We used the moon as a boat and the stars as sails, drifting on the sea. Wherever the wind blew, we drifted right along with it.”

The moment the image fully rendered, the comment section exploded in shock.

[Where did the game just take us?]

[Tribios? Is that Tribios lying there? Why does she look exactly like Tribbie!]

[No, you have it backward. Tribbie looks like what Tribios was like when she was a child.]

[Wait, so this is what the real Tribios actually looked like back then?]

[Then… hold on, is this Tribbie’s mother? A brand new character!]

The red-haired girl’s story sounded whimsical, yet it carried the heavy weight of foreshadowing. She dreamed of crossing a violent storm to reach an island blessed with gentle winds, grazing sheep, and singing birds—a place as beautiful as a fairyland. But looming in the distance, a mountain-like black tide threatened to swallow the island whole. The animals fought desperately to resist the encroaching dark, but their efforts were futile. Then, the nightmare startled her awake.

In reality, her mother gently stroked her hair, explaining that those dark waves did indeed exist. They were called the black tide. But the sacred Gate Titan would always guide the people onto the right path.

“But,” the young girl asked, her eyes wide with worry, “what if even Janus is eaten?”

“Then… the Saintess will guide the people. After all, we are the incarnations of the Gate God in the human world, right?”

Her mother offered a soft, reassuring smile.

“Right!”

The dream shattered, coming to an abrupt and jarring end. In the very next second, a startled Tribbie found herself standing blankly in a cramped room.

Regaining control of the character, Guinaifen blinked, taking a moment to process her surroundings. It was a dark, suffocatingly small space, illuminated only by the flickering, dying embers of a faint fire. Murals covered the walls, ancient scrolls littered the floor, and a pile of lifeless dolls that looked distressingly similar to Tribbie and Trianne sat in the corner.

“Is this… something from my childhood? I can’t remember…” Tribbie whispered.

Even though the flashback had ended, the phantom echoes of her mother’s voice still lingered in the air. Seeing the newly updated quest objective and feeling the sudden, oppressive shift in atmosphere, Guinaifen pursed her lips.

“I get it. This has to be the room where Tribbie lived as a kid!”

Steeling her nerves, the streamer immediately got to work. Guided by the lingering whispers of Tribbie’s mother, she quickly recovered three segments of Remembrance scattered around the room. Each segment corresponded to a past prophecy.

The first showed Tribbie being led by Aglaea. The second revealed Trianne fighting fiercely alongside Phainon and Mydei. The third depicted Trinnon, proving herself as clever as Anaxa and Hyacine.

These were not just fragments of memory. They were absolute prophecies destined to come true in the future.

Before long, Guinaifen gathered the three dolls symbolizing Tribbie, Trianne, and Trinnon and placed them back into the ornate music box in the center of the room. She let out a breath, thinking she could finally escape this claustrophobic nightmare. To be completely honest, the enclosed space and the dim, flickering firelight made the whole experience feel like a survival horror game. Guinaifen was already on edge.

But the game had other plans.

The moment the final doll clicked into place, the music box began to spin entirely on its own.

As the gears ground together, the mother’s voice echoed once more, reciting strange, archaic prophecies of Amphoreus.

Whoosh—!

Without warning, a distorted, corrupted string of Amphoreus letters violently slashed across the screen. Guinaifen jumped in her seat, completely caught off guard.

Eerie, discordant music swelled through her headphones.

“O Janus ▓ Please listen ▓▓!”

“In the black mist, death and destiny draw near ▓ On the blood-stained earth, the dead and the living seek the path ▓▓.”

The chat went into absolute meltdown.

[Holy crap, what just happened? Why did the screen go black?!]

[The text is completely corrupted. What living beings? What ‘lone shadow’? What is all this?]

[Oh my god, that scared the life out of me! Why are the Tribbie and Trianne dolls catching fire?!]

[Sanity points are dropping into the negatives right now!]

The visuals and audio grew increasingly sharp, grating against the ears like rusted metal.

Then, a desperate scream tore through the static.

“Run ▓ away ▓▓ Tribios ▓▓▓ Run away ▓▓▓▓”

It was a frantic command, but there was nowhere left to run. After taking just a few steps, the room filled with a massive, tangled pile of Tribbie dolls, their lifeless glass eyes staring up from the floorboards.

The sinister voice relentlessly pressed on.

“This ▓▓ is ▓ the Saintess’s ▓▓ sacrifice ▓▓▓”

“You ▓ cannot ▓▓ reach ▓ the end ▓▓▓”

“Only one person…”

Guinaifen sat frozen, entirely unable to comprehend the cryptic warnings. The sheer atmospheric dread had her paralyzed.

Yet, in the face of this overwhelming terror, the normally timid Tribbie stood her ground. She lifted her head, her voice trembling but resolute as she answered the darkness.

“I know… I know…”

“It’s okay if I can’t reach the end. ‘We’ have already made up our minds!”

The moment those words left her lips, the entire room began to violently shake and warp.

“Go and say goodbye ▓▓”

“But remember, Tribios…”

Finally, a blinding white light engulfed the screen, swallowing the darkness whole. When the glare faded, only Tribbie remained, standing quietly before a single doll. Her mother’s final words echoed softly in her ears.

“The many shall part with one, only that person shall witness the miracle—”

This time, however, the game provided a chilling translation just below the dialogue box.

[Only one person can survive to the end and witness the “Re-creation”!]