Honkai Star Rail: Saving the World with a Mobile Game — Chapter 8

Chapter 8: We Crashed! Man!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.

A thick silence descended upon the Parlor Car. The soft, rhythmic hum of the Astral Express’s engine was the only sound as Himeko, Welt, Dan Heng, and Stelle turned in unison. Four pairs of eyes locked squarely onto March 7th.

Squirming under the collective weight of their stares, March shifted her weight from foot to foot, suddenly feeling very small. “Uh… guys? Why is everyone looking at me like I just grew a second head?”

Stelle crossed her arms, leaning forward with deadpan intensity. “March. Did you secretly awaken the power of prophecy?”

“My thoughts exactly,” Dan Heng murmured, giving a curt nod beside her.

“Hey! What are you two even talking about?” March protested, her voice pitching up defensively.

Down by their knees, Pom-Pom was pacing in tight circles, long ears twitching in distress. The conductor stared up at the pink-haired girl, scrutinizing her from head to toe as if searching for a hidden Stellaron. “Passenger March 7th, how did you know where the Express was heading next?”

Pom-Pom tugged at their conductor’s hat. They hadn’t even announced the navigation route yet! The daily meeting had barely begun. Had Passenger March developed some terrifying ability to pluck memories straight out of people’s minds?

“Little March, what exactly is going on?” Himeko asked, offering a gentle but helpless smile.

“Wait, Pom-Pom, hold on!” March waved her hands frantically. “I was literally just spouting nonsense a second ago! Don’t tell me I actually got it right?!”

Her genuine bewilderment only deepened the confusion in the room.

“What do you mean, ‘got it right’?” Himeko asked, her brow furrowing.

“Uh…” March finally pieced together the absurdity of the situation. She fumbled in her pocket and pulled out her phone, thrusting the screen toward the group. “Maybe you guys should just look at this first. I swear, I was just repeating what I saw!”

The crew exchanged skeptical glances before crowding around the small screen.

Playing on the device was a live stream. And the content… looked disturbingly familiar.

Welt pushed his glasses up the bridge of his nose, his eyes narrowing sharply at the stylized logo on the screen.

“Honkai… Star Rail?”

Across the galaxy on the Xianzhou Luofu, Guinaifen was practically vibrating in her gaming chair.

“How is this even possible?!” she shrieked into her microphone, her eyes glued to her monitor. “How can the lore be this insane?!”

She read the on-screen text aloud to her chat, her voice dripping with dramatic flair. “‘A place even the legendary Akivili never set foot upon… a land where three Paths intertwine, birthing three entities comparable to Emanators…'” She gasped, leaning closer to the camera. “‘And it might even have been graced by the presence of an Aeon?!'”

Having just cleared the prologue of the main story, Guinaifen’s excitement had skyrocketed, especially when the majestic, tragic landscape of Amphoreus unfolded in a stunning animated cutscene.

This game developer was completely out of their mind. Who dared to write a setting this ridiculously grand? Weren’t they afraid the narrative would collapse under its own sheer weight? A single planet juggling three Paths, three Emanators, and an Aeon? It sounded like the wild fabrication of a madman.

Yet, the plot marched on. In the game, after the crew agreed to chart a course for Amphoreus, the digital March 7th suddenly complained of feeling unwell. Consequently, Guinaifen was forced to control Stelle, accompanied only by Dan Heng for the planetary descent.

Right before they left the Parlor Car, the digital March 7th delivered a highly suspicious line of dialogue: “I forgot to tell you something. I just realized a pattern: whether it’s Jarilo-VI, the Xianzhou, or Penacony… the first local person we meet always hides some incredible secret! You guys need to be careful…”

Guinaifen had paused the game right there, stroking her chin. “The first local we see? Chat, is this massive foreshadowing?”

She shook her head, mentally filing the warning away, and clicked to proceed. For this perilous descent, the in-game Pom-Pom had prepared a specialized detached train car.

For an ordinary Xianzhou street performer like Guinaifen, the idea of dropping onto an alien world via a literal falling train car was the peak of cinematic hype!

[We’re off! We’re off!]

[The character designs are super realistic, but the main plot feels way too fake.]

[A place like Amphoreus? Even the Astral Express probably couldn’t find it. And three Paths? That’s laughable.]

[Really bold fabrication, but since they know about Jarilo-VI, the Xianzhou, and Penacony, they must know quite a bit about the Express. Maybe they’re a fan too?]

[Do you think Miss March’s earlier words were foreshadowing? The first local we meet?]

[Wait, something’s wrong—why is the screen starting to shake—!]

The moment Guinaifen clicked to interact with the descent sequence, the cutscene hijacked her screen.

One second, the chat was casually debating lore. The next, as the detached train car breached the atmosphere of Amphoreus, the entire monitor plunged into pitch black.

A bizarre, high-pitched screech tore through her headset.

Amidst the blur, Guinaifen squinted at the dark screen. Before she could process the noise, a blinding, violent crimson glare washed over her virtual surroundings the moment her character opened her eyes.

Immediately after, a streak of roaring fire materialized from the abyss, instantly piercing straight through the hull of the Astral Express car!

“What the hell is happening?!” Guinaifen screamed, nearly falling out of her chair.

[We crashed, holy crap—!]

[This happens right after entering the planet?! Does it have to be this intense?!]

[Was that an animal cry just now?]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.

BOOM—!!!

A deafening explosion rattled Guinaifen’s headphones, and the screen violently cut to black once more.

She sat there, jaw slack, completely dumbfounded.

Did they seriously just crash?! The opening CG was this explosive?

She frantically clicked her mouse and mashed her keyboard, feeling around in the dark. Thankfully, the madman of a developer clearly didn’t intend to end the game on a literal train wreck.

Slowly, the darkness faded. Stelle was the first to open her eyes, groaning as she pushed herself up from the wreckage.

“Ugh… Dan… Dan Heng?”

As the camera panned up, Guinaifen and her live chat collectively held their breath. The map had completely transformed!

Gone was the cozy, polished interior of the Express. In its place lay a sprawling, oppressive landscape of ancient Roman-style ruins, choked by the fires of war. The sorrowful, suffocating atmosphere of a dying world was rendered with such agonizing, photorealistic detail that it felt as though the creator had physically stood amidst the rubble to paint it.

Following Stelle’s raspy call, the camera shifted, quickly finding Dan Heng lying unconscious in the debris nearby.

[For real, guys? Are we officially on Amphoreus now?]

[This game’s map can be this realistic?! I thought games like this were mostly just cheap texture packs.]

[Did the Author actually come here?]

[Interesting, really quite interesting. Wait up, guys, I’m gonna download and play it too!]

[Hurry, hurry, Little Guinaifen, keep! See what’s around, can we continue the main story?!]

The livestream’s viewer count was skyrocketing, easily breaking past the five-thousand mark. And due to the unquestionable quality of the prologue, Honkai: Star Rail had successfully hooked its first wave of true players.

[Cosmic Fragments +10]

[Cosmic Fragments +10]

[Cosmic Fragments +10…]

Over in Ash’s room, a cascade of system notifications chimed pleasantly in his mind. Listening to the endless stream of digital currency rolling in, a deeply satisfied smirk tugged at his lips.

This was his first real bucket of gold.

Watching the game spread like wildfire, he realized this method was infinitely faster than trying to publish the lore of Amphoreus as a traditional book. Once the entire universe became hopelessly addicted to Rail, wouldn’t the ascension and promotion of the Aha Star happen in the blink of an eye?

Honestly, he felt like he was outsmarting the entire Genius Society!

Keeping an eye on Little Guinaifen in the live stream, he watched as she eagerly began her exploration.

After interacting with Dan Heng to wake him up, the two characters exchanged a brief, tense dialogue.

“It seems we can’t contact the Astral Express Crew right now,” Dan Heng noted, his spear materializing in his grip.

Before they could formulate a plan, a flash of movement caught the camera’s focus.

“Wait, what is that pink rabbit over there?” Guinaifen yelled, slamming her finger on her keyboard. “Let’s chase it, folks!”

Stelle and Dan Heng sprinted after the bizarre creature, handling through the burning rubble. But the moment they reached a massive, imposing stone gate, the rabbit vanished into thin air.

Guinaifen blinked, thoroughly confused. Left with no other leads, the protagonist duo had no choice but to discuss their options and push through the gate, stepping out into the unknown.

And the moment they did, an impressive spectacle dominated the screen!

Far in the distance beyond the gate, silhouetted against a dark, oppressive night sky, stood a colossal, Titan-like giant. Its massive shoulders bore the weight of a glowing sphere, the scarce, haunting light radiating from it serving as the sole guidepost in the ruined world.

Guinaifen certainly remembered seeing that exact entity in the promotional trailer.

What was it called again?

“The world-bearing Titan… Kephale!”

Struck by the sheer scale and cinematic framing of the scene, Guinaifen unconsciously opened her mouth wide.

But this moment of awe didn’t last long. The game’s core gameplay loop was finally kicking in.

As Guinaifen panned the camera around to admire the environment, a harsh, grinding sound of stone scraping against stone echoed through her headset. A nearby statue was violently trembling.

The moment she spun the camera back around, Dan Heng had already dropped into a low, defensive combat stance.

“Not good. Be on guard!” Dan Heng’s voice was sharp, measured, and dangerous. “These statues are inorganic lifeforms. It looks like we have no choice but to fight!”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.