Honkai Star Rail: Summoning the Chrysos Heirs — Chapter 18

Chapter 18: The Uses of the Physical Data Space

“Er… well, since I was the one who brought you here, do you want me to take you back now?”

Silence fermented in the small room. An Ning tapped her fingers against the edge of the metal table, eventually squeezing the stiff words out.

Cyrene blinked, sweeping her gaze over the officer’s conflicted expression. An Ning meant well, but after enduring that grueling interrogation, Cyrene only wanted to put as much distance between herself and this oppressive building as humanly possible.

“Let’s just forget it,” Cyrene said, shaking her head gently. A flawless, polite smile graced her features, her tone soft yet carrying an immovable determination. “I’ll call a taxi. I won’t trouble you, Sister An Ning. Besides, the Bureau probably has a mountain of follow-up paperwork waiting for you.”

She didn’t give the officer a chance to insist. Standing up smoothly, she headed straight for the door.

“I’ll be going now. Goodbye, Sister An Ning~”

The heavy door clicked shut, completely cutting off the older woman’s hesitant face.

The moment she stepped past the main gates of the Special Anomaly Bureau, the evening breeze rushed to greet her, carrying the city’s unique scent of exhaust and bustling nightlife. Cyrene’s perfectly straight posture instantly slumped. She let out a long, exaggerated sigh.

“Phew… that scared me to death.”

She patted her chest, feeling the frantic thumping of her heart finally begin to slow. In her past life, she had been a perfectly law-abiding citizen who wouldn’t even dare cross the street on a red light. Aside from getting her ID card renewed, she had never set foot inside a police station. Sitting in that interrogation chair, feeling her secrets being peeled back layer by layer under their intense scrutiny, was infinitely worse than grinding through an Abyss dungeon.

‘Let’s keep these highly stimulating plot twists to an absolute minimum in the future,’ she muttered inwardly. Pulling out her phone, she quickly tapped the screen and hailed a ride home.

The sharp click of the key turning in the lock echoed loudly in the quiet corridor.

Cyrene pushed the front door open. Before she even had the chance to kick off her shoes, a warm, steady voice drifted from the shadows.

“Cyrene, you’ve returned?”

The living room curtains were drawn tight, leaving the space draped in dim shadows. Phainon sat patiently in a powder-blue armchair. The moment he heard the door, he stood up, his striking golden eyes reflecting her silhouette in the low light.

“Did the Authorities give you any trouble?”

“Nothing much. It was just a routine chat.”

Cyrene kicked off her shoes, stepped barefoot onto the plush carpet, and threw herself onto the sofa, sinking into the cushions like a boneless cat. She spent the next few minutes pouring out every detail of her encounter at the Bureau, outlining her grand scheme to use this opening to infiltrate the Authorities and hijack their intelligence network to track down the Abominations.

“You wish to join the Authorities and use their information grid?” Phainon’s brows furrowed slightly as he weighed the tactical pros and cons. A moment later, the tension in his expression smoothed out. He gave a slow nod, walked over to the water dispenser, and poured a cup of warm water. He handed it to her gently. “It is a sound strategy. Their intelligence network spans the entire city. It will be far more efficient than us wandering the streets like headless flies.”

Cyrene accepted the cup, wrapping both hands around the ceramic to soak in the warmth. She let out a distressed sigh.

“The strategy is great, but the execution is a nightmare…” She looked up at him, her rhombus-shaped pupils swimming with helplessness. “If I actually join the Bureau, they’ll put me under constant surveillance. Phainon, you can’t just stay invisible and shadow me twenty-four-seven. When I need to pass information to you, you’d have to sneak around like a thief…”

Cyrene puffed out her cheeks, looking exactly like a deflated balloon.

“Ugh… if only Agy or Cipher were here. One could use her golden threads for remote communication, and the other… well, she could probably waltz right through the Bureau’s front door and nobody would even notice.”

Right as she pictured Cipher casually toying with the Bureau’s security, a familiar mechanical voice chimed in her mind.

[Actually, you and Phainon have always possessed a method for instantaneous communication. You simply haven’t used it yet.]

Cyrene’s hands jolted, nearly spilling her warm water all over the carpet. She froze, blinking blankly before asking in her mind, ‘Instant communication? What is it? Does this System come with a built-in chat app?’

[The Physical Data Space.]

Her eyes lit up instantly, shining like an explorer who had just stumbled upon a mountain of gold.

“Right! The starry space!”

She slapped her thigh, all her previous frustration vanishing into thin air. The System had mentioned earlier that Phainon, as her summoned Reminiscence character, possessed the exact same access rights to the Physical Data Space as she did. But the System had only said they could freely enter and exit. It never specified that they had to be standing in the exact same physical location to do it!

This meant the space was essentially a secure, unhackable, distance-ignoring private server.

‘No matter where we are in the real world, as long as we log in at the exact same time, we’ll meet up in that dimension?’

Excitement bubbled up in her chest. She slammed the water cup down on the table, leaned forward, and rapidly explained the System’s hint and her own deduction to Phainon.

“I’m pretty sure the logic holds up. What do you think, Phainon?”

A flicker of genuine surprise crossed Phainon’s golden eyes before he nodded in approval.

“It is highly probable. That dimension exists independently of reality. Theoretically, it serves as the perfect rendezvous point.” He glanced toward the sunlight bleeding through the edges of the curtains and straightened his posture. “If that is the case, let us test the theory.”

“How do we test it?” Cyrene blinked.

“I will leave the apartment and secure a position approximately one kilometer away.” Phainon approached the window, using two fingers to pull back a sliver of the fabric. His sharp gaze swept over the sunlit street below, scanning for any hidden watchers. “Once I confirm the perimeter is secure, I will send you a message. We will then attempt to enter the Physical Data Space simultaneously.”

“Perfect! Let’s do it!” Cyrene pumped her fist in the air.

Phainon looked back over his shoulder, a gentle, reassuring smile curving his lips. “Wait for my signal.”

He did one final sweep of the street outside. Satisfied, he placed a hand on the windowsill and vaulted out into the open air without making a single sound. The curtain swayed gently in his wake before settling back into stillness.

Cyrene scrambled over to the window and peeked down. She caught a brief flash of white as his figure darted through the shadows of the towering buildings, disappearing into the maze of alleyways in the blink of an eye.

“That agility… truly worthy of Lord Deliverer,” she murmured in awe.

Retreating to the sofa, Cyrene clutched her phone in both hands and sat obediently, waiting for the notification.

The seconds ticked by.

Roughly a minute later, the device in her palms buzzed sharply. She instantly woke the screen. A short text message sat in her notifications.

Xiaobai: “In position. Enter the space.”

“Here we go!”

Cyrene took a deep breath, adjusted her posture on the cushions, and slowly let her eyes slide shut. She focused her intent, silently issuing the command in her mind.

‘Enter Physical Data Space.’

The very next second, that familiar sensation of free-falling seized her. The heavy gravity of the real world was stripped away in a flash. The air around her turned thin and biting cold, while an ocean of absolute darkness surged up to swallow her senses whole.

The vertigo only lasted for a fleeting moment.

When Cyrene opened her eyes, the dim, powder-blue living room was gone. In its place stretched a vast, boundless cosmos, alive with the slow, majestic drift of billions of stars. Beneath her feet lay a void of shifting galaxies, while swirling nebulae rotated silently overhead in the deathly quiet of deep space.

Cyrene steadied her weightless body and eagerly scanned the endless expanse.

“Phainon?”

“Cyrene. Your deduction was entirely correct.”

A warm, familiar voice echoed from her right. Cyrene whipped her head around.

Standing less than two meters away, bathed in the ethereal glow of the cosmos, was Phainon. His platinum-white robes shimmered brilliantly against the starlight, and his handsome face carried that same steady, reassuring smile.

“It matters not where we are, nor how vast the distance between us in the physical world,” Phainon said, taking a slow step toward her. His golden eyes swept over the brilliant nebulae before settling warmly on her face. “We can always meet under this sky.”