"Do you know, Nurse? After work I look at the stars… like a lot. They're in this dark hollow space, and they shine really bright, and I just wonder if aliens are also staring back at us."
A man who looked only in his twenties lay on the hospital bed, smiling as he greeted the nurse beside him. His young face was exceptionally pale, with dim light in his eyes. A brief silence stretched between them, slightly uncomfortable.
"Ah… I didn't realize you were such a romantic person," the nurse said, caught off guard.
"Romantic? All my colleagues say I'm an eccentric who always thinks about impractical, useless things." The man on the bed let out a quiet, helpless laugh.
"But that's just who I am. Life is so short. If I lose my yearning for the unknown, then what would remain of me?"
"Mm…"
The nurse nodded slightly, then hesitated, clearly unsure how to continue the conversation.
She stood beside him, sadness quietly reflected in her eyes. The man on the bed suffered from a rare disease. In its early stages, it was hard to detect, starting with sluggish movement and slowly progressing to physical rigidity until the brain stopped functioning. According to the doctor previous diagnosis.
A year left.
A single year before everything that made him who he was, would quietly slip away.
"Mr. Eden… is there anything you want to do?" she asked carefully, her voice slightly hesitant.
"Something I want to do… if possible, take me to see the stars."
...
"Do you long for an unknown journey?"
"Do you long to leave the cradle of the Earth and walk with the stars?"
A soft, distant, and impossibly clear voice echoed in his ears. It carried a strange weight, as though it did not belong to this world. He turned his head to look at the nurse behind him, her hand on the wheelchair handle as she pushed him forward.
"Hm… Mr. Eden, are you feeling uncomfortable somewhere?" the nurse noticed his look.
"No… nothing," Eden muttered while slowly turning to look at his lap.
Just as he thought the voice he had heard was a hallucination, it echoed again in his ear.
"Do you long for an unknown journey?"
The voice resonated from within his heart, as if questioning his curiosity about the unknown. That voice was far clearer than the nurse voice, or the world around him. Was this what a dying mind sounded like?
"Do you long to leave the cradle of the Earth and walk with the stars?"
Hearing the voice again, Eden closed his eyes. His Remembrance took him back to a time in the past. to a childhood night spent watching the stars through a telescope, a birthday gift from his parents.
Since he had fallen ill, his Remembrance often returned to those moments. The starry sky was beautiful yet distant, like the moon in water or a flower in a cracked mirror. And yet now, it felt so real, as though it were right before his eyes.
(Can I really walk with the stars?)
As he recalled it, all the relatives and friends he once could reach had disappeared to distant corners of the world, leaving him alone with a body confined by disease.
(Yes, I long for it.)
How could a human, imprisoned in a dying body and mind that slowly forgets the world and itself, not yearn for the starry sky beyond?
Eden felt a sense of trance. He opened his eyes. The exit ahead seemed to draw closer, while the world's colors turned gray and its sound dissolved into silence.
Moonlight bathed him softly. He looked up. The starry sky was still as beautiful as ever.
Then everything vanished.
...
...
When he opened his eyes again, he found himself in a vast, beautiful star-filled expanse. Cosmic dust drifted along invisible paths, and waves of heat pulsed softly from distant stars.
He had broken free from the cradle of Earth and was walking alongside the stars.
Then he looked down and realized he was no longer himself.
He had become her.
The girl looked around curiously at the scene before her. Her long white hair looked somewhat sickly, but her deep blue eyes reflected everything. Within her pupils, countless specks of white and gold shimmered like an infinite starry sky she had always longed for.
"Am I... dead?"
"Sound cannot be heard in the vacuum of space. I must be dead."
She curiously pinched her cheek with her soft, small white hand and felt the reality of pain.
"I can feel pain?"
"You are still alive."
A mechanized female voice rang in her ear.
The girl's body stiffened when she heard that familiar voice.
"Nice to meet you, Child of Humanity. I am glad to witness your birth. You may call me System. To help you better adapt to this environment, a new body has been formed for you. I did not obtain your consent, please forgive me."
'I'm alive... and this system...'
The girl remained silent for a moment.
Then she smiled.
"Thank you, I don't mind. I'm already very happy to see these stars and have a second life. At least I'm still in human form and not some strange object. I once read a novel where the protagonist died and turned into a vending machine in another world."
There was a silent moment.
"You are quite optimistic... However, since this is your second life, have you thought about choosing a new name?"
"A new name..." she murmured, gazing into the sea of stars. For a brief moment, her thoughts drifted back to that hospital room.
"Then… let it be a farewell to the past. From now on, I will be called Ena."
Even if what she saw before her defied common sense, she already had a System what else could be impossible?
"System, what can you do?"
"In response to the host, my ability is Simulation. The world you are in is called Honkai: Star Rail. You can interact with the characters of this world during simulations and obtain corresponding abilities."
"You should have heard of this game and played it in your spare time."
"But before officially binding with you, I want to ask you a question. If everything you experience comes at a price, and if every simulation carries the risk of endangering your real self, would you still use me? Would you still perform simulations?"
"I would. Everything has a price, I understand that. But if I give up every chance for adventure, wouldn't life just slip away with time anyway? If I can experience something more meaningful, why wouldn't I try?" she answered without hesitation, her resolute gaze reflecting the sea of stars in front of her.
"...Then it is accepted."
System binding in progress... 1%, 5%, 10%, 50%, 90%, 99%, 100%... Binding successful.
(Star Rail Simulation System at your service.)
(One simulation attempt is currently available. However, Failure to secure a stable location during the simulation may result in danger.)
(Recommendation: Locate a safe place to settle.)
(Searching for suitable target.)
(Timeline detected: Pre-contact stage of the Astral Express. The Astral Express is approaching. Host, please remain stationary.)
"You're quite impressive. Besides simulation, you can also detect surrounding targets and timelines."
"You flatter me."
Ena found herself liking this polite System. It could have hidden the cost and only revealed it after binding, but it didn't.
Across the quiet expanse, the Astral Express emerged, traveling along shimmering rails that cut through the universe like threads of light.
She watched it quietly.
This was the beginning of everything