Honkai Star Rail: Saving the World with a Mobile Game — Chapter 83

Chapter 83: Could This Oracle Be Rewritten?!

“Dang dang dang dang dang!”

“Trianne makes her grand entrance!”

Inside the grand halls of the Bath Palace in Okhema, a small figure vaulted through the air. Trianne landed squarely on the plush cushions of the sofa and immediately flopped backward, exhaling a long, listless breath.

“Ah, Trianne is completely exhausted.”

She draped an arm over her eyes, complaining to the young man nearby. “Little Ash, you have absolutely no idea how close that was! It was almost exposed! Little Ren actually had to come in with killing intent, and I had to be ready to snap back and find Trianne at any given second. All that frantic running around… but thankfully, we made it just in time.”

Trianne peeked out from under her arm, glancing to the side.

Ash sat comfortably in a nearby chair, holding his mobile phone. He was carefully browsing the live broadcast footage captured by Aglaea and the rest of the crew, verifying that the grand script had not deviated from his carefully laid plans.

As he watched the dramatic playback, a deep sense of amusement bubbled up in his chest. He pressed his lips tightly together, fighting a losing battle against a massive grin. The sheer absurdity of the situation was simply too much to suppress.

“Heh heh… ha ha…”

Hearing the low, rhythmic chuckles, Trianne dropped her arm and stared at him, her expression flattening into absolute disbelief.

In the blink of an eye, she scrambled up and stood tall on the sofa cushions. She planted her hands firmly on her hips, glaring down at him. “Little Ash! This is not funny in the slightest!”

“Trianne is still perfectly alive, yet I had to sit there and watch a massive crowd of people weep over Trianne’s doll! And the worst part is, they were crying their absolute hearts out over a fake corpse!”

“Do you have any idea how complicated Trianne feels inside right now?”

Ash finally snapped back to reality, clearing his throat. “Sorry about that, Teacher Tribios… ha ha.”

He looked Trianne up and down, genuinely feeling a fleeting pang of guilt. But the moment his eyes landed on her pouting, diminutive form, the urge to burst into laughter only grew stronger.

Perhaps he finally understood the Aeon Aha’s philosophy—true joy was undeniably built upon the theatrical suffering of others.

Seeing Ash’s shoulders shake with silent, hearty laughter, Trianne’s face flushed with indignation. She stomped her foot on the cushion, planting her hands on her hips once more and puffing out her cheeks in a deeply sulky posture.

“However,” Ash said, finally reigning in his amusement to offer some good news, “this means Trianne can take a proper rest first.”

“Tribbie and Trinnon will probably need a bit more time before they can safely return to us.”

“Well, I suppose that is true.”

Hearing the logic in his words, Trianne tilted her head, her anger deflating as she found the arrangement rather reasonable.

Was she really the first one to wrap up her grueling filming schedule?

Naturally, if Tribbie and Trinnon had not returned yet, there was no way for her to revert to her original form. But operating in this pint-sized state for a while longer was perfectly fine with her. Once they finished the heavy narrative content for version 3.1, they could return whenever they pleased.

“Then Trianne will temporarily stay in this state,” she declared, settling back down onto the sofa with a satisfied hum. “I think I will indulge in a little bit of nostalgia.”

“Thank you, Little Ash.”

Trianne flashed him a bright smile and offered a confident thumbs-up.

Ash returned the gesture, though a quiet sigh escaped his lips. To be entirely fair, he had shared a deep, meaningful bond with Stelle back on the Astral Express. They had been true companions.

To push this elaborate script to its absolute limits, preventing any systemic bugs or universe-breaking anomalies from appearing, he had been forced to orchestrate a tragedy that made his dear friend cry. Deep down, his conscience pricked at him.

However.

He reminded himself that this grand deception was necessary for the survival of Amphoreus, and perhaps even the entire galaxy. Stelle would simply have to endure a bit of emotional grievance for the time being.

After all, the person she was mourning would actually live on in the future.

When the truth was finally revealed, Stelle would undoubtedly be overjoyed.

Meanwhile, a massive storm was brewing within the game community.

[Shaoji: The Honkai: Star Rail animated short ‘That Restful Long Night’ has officially been released.]

This high-budget animated short, prepared carefully in advance, was the exact weapon Ash chose to deploy at this critical juncture.

On the main story front, Guinaifen had just completed the latest harrowing chapter. The players who had experienced the emotional rollercoaster alongside her in that first wave numbered in the tens of millions. Word of the tragedy was already sweeping across every major social platform like wildfire.

[I saw this game climbing the charts and came in ready to mock it, thinking it was just some ordinary fan-made mobile trash. But how the hell does it have a fully produced animated short?!]

[Holy crap, what an absolute epic journey. How did the developer depict this planet with such vivid, suffocating detail? It feels more real and epic than the actual planet I live on!]

[The production quality of this short is way too strong. The cinematic direction, the haunting music, the melancholic coloring… the exact moment that fantasy-colored painting appeared on screen, I legitimately started shedding little pearls!]

[Just so you know, Castorice can only hold hands with her reflection in the mirror and her own shadow…]

[Damn it, even if I were actively trying to nitpick, I could never come up with a tragic detail like that. Who hurt the writer?!]

[I declare today’s Honkai: Star Rail absolutely invincible!]

[The newbies are still marveling at the game’s insane production value, shocked that a turn-based RPG has this level of world-building. But us veterans… we are already starting to feel the dread creeping in.]

[Shaoji, tell me right now, what kind of emotional demon are you trying to summon?! Do you have any idea I have been crying this entire time?!]

The explosive reaction was not limited to the forums.

In Guinaifen’s live broadcast, the second the animation faded to black, her chat box was completely obliterated by a tidal wave of question marks. Following closely behind were massive walls of text that actually caused the network latency to spike.

[Chiming Online: I am about to shed little pearls… Tell me exactly where Castorice is! Watch this young lady cure her of this wretched ailment right now!]

[Real-Name Surfing: Ah, fate truly shows absolutely no mercy to the kind.]

[Who said Honkai: Star Rail rose purely on the back of fanworks? At this exact moment, I feel Castorice is in no way inferior to the brilliant Ms. Herta! Castorice’s tragic image feels more grounded and real than an actual living person.]

[The short has way too many hidden details. Just look at the composition—holding the branch as if shaking hands with her reflection in the mirror on the left, while the branch on the right seems to be reaching out to shake hands with her own shadow.]

[Wind Rain Rainbow 7854: ‘Raising my cup, I invite the bright moon; facing my shadow, we become three people’—is this the deep loneliness the director meant to convey?]

[And the beginning! Especially the deer at the very start and the end. It has to symbolize the cycle of death and rebirth!]

[So, Shaoji, look me in the eyes and tell me… this time, Castorice will be reborn, right?!]

After finishing Castorice’s personal animation, Guinaifen sat in her gaming chair, completely moved to silence.

Initially, upon first meeting Castorice and hearing the woman speak of her cursed abilities, Guinaifen had not felt particularly touched. It had just seemed like standard fantasy lore.

But only after diving deep into the harrowing story and witnessing the sheer isolation depicted in the short…

A thousand years of being physically unable to touch another living soul. Was the weight of such a curse truly this heavy?

Guinaifen sniffled loudly, aggressively wiping the tears from her eyes. She was not ready to give up just yet. She leaned into her microphone, her voice trembling but resolute.

“Don’t be sad, folks! Let’s hurry up and find the ‘death’ Ember!”

“Castorice has been desperately looking for Thanatos this entire time. As long as we can reclaim Thanatos’s Ember, our Little Butterfly can finally break this awful curse. She will finally be able to hug someone!”

That was exactly right.

Sitting beside her, Sushang nodded vigorously, fully agreeing with Guinaifen’s passionate judgment.

“Cheer up, Guinaifen! Thanatos has already made an appearance in the lore. Castorice can definitely still be saved!”

They pushed forward, continuing to dive back into the game’s story.

Shifting away from the suffocating sadness of the previous scene, the narrative progressed. After Castorice finished recounting her agonizing past to Stelle, her tone softened, and she actually began comforting the Trailblazer.

“Embraces in this world were meant for joyous reunions, yet my hands can only ever speak of farewells. At that time, I too had every reason to believe this cruel fate would run through the entirety of my life…”

“But now, things have taken a turn. Since I can finally have an audience with Thanatos, I still have a chance to write a completely different interpretation for that destined prophecy.”

Hearing Castorice speak with such quiet, resilient hope, the millions of players sitting in front of their screens felt a sudden surge of invigoration.

[At first, I couldn’t understand the crushing weight of this oracle. Not until this short ended.]

[But if Castorice herself says so, could it be that this time… the oracle will finally be rewritten?!]

[My Stelle is going to be revived! Hahaha!]

Fueled by a renewed sense of anticipation, Guinaifen gripped her controller, officially preparing to set off toward the next objective.

also, to ensure there were no lingering regrets, Castorice seemed to have prepared a special gift for the journey, filling Guinaifen’s heart with eager excitement.

However, strictly following the established, torturous pattern of Honkai: Star Rail… if nothing unexpected happened, then something unexpected was bound to happen.

By the time Castorice and Stelle finally arrived at the designated coordinates, the area was entirely desolate. Only a gleaming Zagreus coin and a weathered stone slab remained in the dust.

“Lord Zephyrus, the demigod Zagreus that Aglaea mentioned earlier,” Castorice explained, her voice echoing softly in the empty space.

“What the heck? Zephyrus?”

Guinaifen paused the game, pondering for a moment. Had Aglaea actually mentioned this specific name before?

Curious, she clicked to view the archived message in her inventory.

The text glowed softly on the screen, beginning with a rather peculiar greeting—

‘To the esteemed Princess of the Snail Shell!’