"Heh... the Land of Eternity, the Land of Rejection, the Garden of Recollection's Hidden Trove... How interesting."
"It seems that Memokeeper lady who sent you to Amphoreus was hiding something from you."
On the Herta Space Station's platform, after forcing the Memokeeper to spill everything she knew, Herta let out a soft chuckle.
"Madam Herta, Madam Herta, I've told you everything I know!"
Having confessed all, the Memokeeper pleaded with Herta, her voice trembling with fear and terror. "Please, let me go! Please, let me go!"
"Come on, get in yourself." Herta flicked her little finger, and a mirror materialized beside the Memokeeper. She gestured for the woman to enter. "I need to discuss the Amphoreus situation with Lumina and the others right now. I haven't had time to think of a way to reduce your sentence."
"You can wait inside until I'm done with the Amphoreus matter."
"Uh..." Hearing this, the Memokeeper hesitated.
But under Herta's overwhelming pressure, she obediently stepped back into the mirror.
"Hmph." With a flick of her hand, Herta sealed the mirror and snorted coldly.
Honestly, Herta despised this kind of behavior.
For those trapped in her mirrors, Herta could have brutally ransacked the Memokeeper's mind, tearing through her memories without the need to patiently ask questions word by word and wait for her answers.
So why did Herta choose this method now?
It was all because of Lumina.
Herta didn't want to appear "brutal" in front of Lumina, so she opted for this slightly gentler approach.
Even though Herta knew Lumina's personality and that she wouldn't actually mind such actions, she still didn't want to reveal her violent side to her.
...Unless, of course, the target of that violence was Lumina herself.
"Ah... It seems Miss Black Swan did hide quite a lot from us," Welt said, his voice deep and slightly aged.
"Heh, it doesn't matter what she hid," Herta scoffed, crossing her arms with a smile that radiated absolute confidence. "We just need to go to Amphoreus and see for ourselves, don't we?"
"Herta, do you know what that expression reminds me of?" Lumina asked, finding Herta's all-knowing smile amusing.
"Ha? What?"
"A Memokeeper," Lumina answered truthfully.
"..."
Hearing this, Herta fell silent for a moment. Then, with a tone laced with annoyance and faint anger, she snapped, "You actually dare to compare me to a mere Memokeeper?"
"Are you overestimating that Memokeeper, or are you underestimating me, Herta?"
"Er..." Hearing Herta's words and sensing the sudden, inexplicable tension in the air, Welt and Sunday exchanged a glance. Welt then spoke up, breaking the slightly awkward silence.
"Madam Herta, are you planning to go to Amphoreus yourself?"
Herta suppressed her frustration and turned to answer Welt's question. "Yes."
"But I won't be foolishly barging in with my physical body like you lot."
With that, Herta waved her small hand in the air again. Four mirrors materialized around her, one in each cardinal direction.
"See these? Herta's Magic Mirrors," she announced, tossing her hair as she introduced them to the group.
"With these, I can perform simple or complex spatial warps without ever leaving my room."
"I can easily project my Spirit Data Body to any corner of the galaxy."
"Hmm... Of course, there's a prerequisite for that."
"The target location must be within the service range of the Interastral Peace Corporation's communication network."
"After all, this is a joint technology."
Herta's expression remained neutral, but her gaze was fixed on Lumina, as if to say, See? Madam Herta is so incredible.
"So, in simple terms, you can project yourself anywhere within signal range, right?" Lumina chuckled at Madam Herta's blatant plea for praise.
"Exactly. Convenient, isn't it?" Herta huffed lightly.
"Then I'll go too," Lumina said, nodding to Welt and Sunday. "Whether it's Stelle's problem or March's, we'll find the answers once we investigate Amphoreus."
"Miss Lumina, you're going to Amphoreus as well?" A hint of delight appeared on Welt's face.
If Miss Lumina goes, no matter what dangers lie within Amphoreus, they'll surely be resolved with ease, right?
After all, in Welt's eyes, Lumina was someone who could single-handedly slay a god-like being like Sunday without relying on any external power...
With her there, even if the Antimatter Legion and three Emanators were waiting inside Amphoreus to attack March and the others, they wouldn't stand a chance...
-
"Open the door! Open the door! Open the door!"
In the real world, ten minutes before Version 3.0 launched, Little Bear's livestream was already packed with viewers.
Some were regulars who watched his videos, while others were camping in his stream, waiting for the game to go live.
The moment the Astral Express departed, they would ditch the stream and dive into the game.
Little Bear himself was frantically clicking on the game's loading screen, clearly desperate to jump into the story.
Whoosh—
Before long, the train successfully entered the starry sky, and the game officially launched!
"It's live! It's live, everyone! The servers are open!"
Little Bear roared in excitement.
In response to his shout, the viewer count on his stream plummeted at a visible rate.
This had nothing to do with Little Bear, though. The game had launched, and everyone was rushing to play and pull for characters.
"Alright, everyone, first we pull for Herta, then we tackle the story."
"The account-pulling session will start tonight."
With that, Little Bear opened the gacha screen and began his pulls.
Soon after, he opened the quest menu and tracked the mission: [Heroic Saga of Flame-Chase].
"Flame-Chase, huh... Looks like they're not even bothering to pretend anymore." Little Bear sighed as he looked at the name of the version's main quest.
[Here it comes, here it comes, the angst is here... Hiss... The angst is served, why isn't anyone eating?]
[Not eating? You'll eat it whether you like it or not! That's right, I'm the renowned Senior Editor for both Honkai and Honkai: Star Rail!]
[Kek. We all know the story's gonna be angsty, but it's fine. They'll probably ease into it in Version 3.0 and won't hit us with the heavy stuff right away.]
[Firefly, Robin: ?]
[That's different. Their story spanned three versions, so it needed to be compact. Amphoreus is a massive, eight-version arc, so they won't drop the angst bomb right at the start.]
"Yeah, hitting us with a major tragedy right at the start of Version 3.0 would be way too cruel," Little Bear said, fully agreeing with that last comment.
As the opening chapter of an eight-version story arc, it surely wouldn't be that devastating right out of the gate.
But as a veteran fan of the Honkai series, Little Bear still felt a flicker of doubt as he said this...
After all, Mihoyo's reputation for being heartless wasn't built in a day.
"Sigh... I wonder if Lumina will show up in Amphoreus..."
"If Lumina were here, she could bring someone back even if they were turned to dust..."
Stepping into the Astral Express and seeing the crew gathered together, Little Bear couldn't help but sigh again.
[He's still thinking about Lumina (facepalm)]
[If Lumina showed up, she'd speedrun Amphoreus in a single day.]
[The moment Lumina appears, the Twelve Titans would come scrambling to hand over the Coreflame personally (facepalm)]
[Hiss... For some reason, I'm suddenly really curious to see that happen...]
Glancing at the comments in his live stream, Little Bear controlled his character and initiated the dialogue.
"All passengers, please stand by. The navigation meeting will begin shortly."
"..."
"Three... two... one!"
With a click of Little Bear's mouse, the train completed its jump.
"This is... nothing?" Little Bear murmured, confused as he stared at the star-dusted void outside the train window.
The next moment, Black Swan acted, answering the question in his mind.
She floated up, reached out, and touched the train window.
As BGM began to play, a giant infinity symbol (∞) materialized among the stars.
"A Möbius Strip..." Little Bear murmured, taking in the sight of Amphoreus.
Then, as the lines and visuals from the "Who Am I?" PV played, he couldn't help but speculate, "Is Amphoreus a world trapped in a constant cycle of reincarnation?"
[Reincarnation? Reincarnation is great! Kill them, revive them, kill them again, revive them, kill them... over and over, endlessly. How wonderful! (furious)]
[Alright, they're not even pretending anymore (laughing)]
[The moment the word "reincarnation" appeared, I knew this would be a "romantic story" (smiles)]
"Are we... missing someone here?"
As Little Bear continued through the story, he soon realized that March 7th hadn't appeared since the train arrived at Amphoreus.
"No way... Are they really going to hit us with a tragedy before we even set foot on Amphoreus?" Hearing this, Little Bear finally noticed it too.
The girl who was usually the liveliest among them was nowhere to be found...
Shortly after, they arrived at the room. Seeing March 7th looking extremely weak instantly confirmed Little Bear's thought: Mihoyo wasn't even trying to be subtle anymore.
"Seriously, bro? You're actually doing this?"
"We just got to the outskirts of Amphoreus, and you're already hitting us with a tragedy before we even go in?"
"What's going to happen once we're inside... Are they all going to die right in front of the protagonist?"
Realizing this, Little Bear launched into a non-stop rant.
[Quick! Go get Lumina!!!]
[It's fine, we have Lumina. March will definitely be okay (smiles with sunglasses)]
[I'm already looking forward to the story inside Amphoreus. Let me guess, will someone die the moment we step in?]
"I get it now. March 7th SP is coming soon. We don't need to be sad; we just need to save up our tickets," Little Bear concluded after a moment of silence, offering the only explanation he could muster.
The story continued, and soon it was time to decide who would disembark.
"Do you think Amphoreus is connected to March 7th's past?" After comforting and reassuring March 7th and leaving her room, the group gathered in a circle to discuss.
"It's unlikely to be such a coincidence. I haven't found any clues related to [Six-Phase Ice]. It's more likely that some power from Amphoreus manifested in her first," Himeko replied, shaking her head after a moment of thought.
"Stelle, Dan Heng, Little Swarm, I'd like to entrust you with leading this Trailblaze mission. Is that alright?" Himeko's gaze swept gently over the three of them as she asked softly.
Stelle had a Stellaron constitution, giving her excellent physical resilience, while Dan Heng was incredibly powerful.
As for Little Swarm, her capabilities were beyond question.
If even Little Swarm couldn't solve the problem on Amphoreus, it would mean an Emanator was involved... In that case, the Astral Express would either have to call for reinforcements or warp away immediately.
"No problem." The three of them had no objections to Himeko's proposal and nodded in agreement.
"Good. Leave the matters on the train and March 7th to us adults," Himeko nodded, then continued, "Follow me."
"Just in case, I prepared an emergency [backup plan] before we departed. I just didn't expect we'd need it so soon."
"..."
The mission continued until Pom-Pom revealed the details of this backup plan.
"A train car!"
"A whole damn train car..." Little Bear was stunned for a moment before exclaiming in shock.
[Brothers, this is invincible! It's one of Akivili's cars! Even if we can't win, we can just hide inside, and no one will be able to touch us!]
[I've got a bad feeling about this...]
[Don't tell me we're going to crash?]
"Stop being so pessimistic. With Little Swarm here, it would take at least an Emanator-level power to make us crash, right?"
The more Himeko and Pom-Pom talked about how safe it was, the stronger Little Bear's ominous feeling grew.
But the thought that Little Swarm would be there to help reassured him.
It's not like we'll enter Amphoreus only to be greeted by an Emanator's welcoming gift, right?
"Anyway, something that ridiculous could never happen. Crashing is definitely out of the question," Little Bear declared.
As soon as he finished speaking, a cutscene began.
"Train car detaching in three... two... one..."
The car separated from the train, its engines firing up as it plunged into Amphoreus's interior...
"Mem?"
A sound echoed. The train car and its three—no, two—occupants successfully entered Amphoreus. Through the windows, they saw the scenery outside.
There were mountains, rivers, and ruins, looking just like...
BOOM!
Before Little Bear and his livestream audience could get a good look at Amphoreus's interior, an attack slammed into the train car, sending it plummeting to the ground.
"What the hell?!"