Is Unlocking the Stellaris Tech Tree in Star Rail Really Okay? [348]

Deep within the L-Cluster.

Nebulae and dust belts intertwined to form a hazy blue mist, shimmering with a mysterious and captivating glow under the starlight.

In this ancient and desolate star region, one could occasionally witness intense stellar winds generated by the gravitational interactions between stars. These winds swept through the nebulae and dust, creating magnificent, turbulent bands of stellar storms.

The light of the stars here was distorted into strange shapes, and in certain areas, mysterious energy fluctuations rippled through space—almost as if foreshadowing some impending upheaval…

On a barren planet riddled with craters, the near-nonexistent atmosphere served as undeniable proof that this was far from a habitable world.

Yet, in a remote corner of this lifeless planet, space itself was caught in an endless cycle of breaking and reforming.

The loose rocky slopes nearby seemed to be pulled by some invisible force, vanishing in the blink of an eye. Two passing L-Drakes noticed the anomaly and circled curiously in near-orbit, observing the phenomenon from above…

No one knew how long this state had persisted, but the mass of the anomalous space kept increasing.

Perhaps it had reached a critical threshold, for at that moment, a violent explosion suddenly erupted from the planet’s surface. The two L-Drakes flinched in alarm, hastily retreating to a safe distance.

They lingered far away for a long while, cautiously observing. Only after confirming there was no imminent danger did they slowly begin to approach once more.

At this moment—

The dust from the explosion had settled, leaving behind only an enormous crater. If a future research vessel were to pass by, its crew might easily mistake it for the impact site of a massive meteorite…

The L-Drakes circled the orbit. Their nanite bodies began rapidly shrinking until, before long, the two creatures had diminished from asteroid-sized behemoths to the scale of mere office buildings.

Even at this reduced size, they were still towering colossi from the perspective of ordinary lifeforms.

Their descent to the surface was not driven by idle curiosity but by something far more fundamental—the unmistakable presence of a ‘heretical kin’ with an incorrect form. Their core instincts would not tolerate the continued existence of such an ‘aberration.’

Detect. Approach. Attack. Depart.

This was the internal directive guiding the two mutated L-Drakes at this moment.

Amidst the lingering dust and debris, a figure slowly emerged…

It was a silver-haired girl, her entire body covered in grime. She was sprawled on the ground, coughing incessantly, propping herself up on trembling arms as she struggled to stand. Her crystal-blue eyes cracked open just enough to take in her surroundings.

The sight of the cold, barren sand and the sensation of the intense radiation and thin air made her suddenly collapse back down, rolling onto the ground in frustration, loudly lamenting—

"Ahhhhhh… I can’t take this anymore! Why is it always some godforsaken wasteland?! Ugh!"

Her tantrum was abruptly interrupted by a sudden, sharp pain radiating through her body. Her delicate features twisted in agony as she curled into herself, her frail form trembling.

Minutes passed before the pain finally subsided, but by then, she had lost all interest in throwing another fit. The strange sensation within her body was a clear reminder of the serious injuries she had sustained.

Seated on the ground, she pulled a nearby coat over her shoulders. Looking down at the metallic cube that was slowly materializing in her palm, she muttered in a hushed voice,

"The internal pressure of those back-to-back transfers was awful… it hurts…"

The Mirror Rift Generator—a byproduct unintentionally created by scientists researching higher-dimensional entities. It was originally designed to decrypt encrypted data.

The decryption principle was fairly straightforward: by pairing the Mirror Rift Generator with other devices, vast amounts of parallel reality images could be mapped and analyzed, allowing for a probability-based selection of the most likely matching passwords—thus effortlessly cracking encrypted systems.

In essence, this device was merely an auxiliary tool that required additional equipment to function properly. When used alone, it could open mirror rifts to other times and spaces—but those rifts were filled with highly unstable pressure storms.

Scientists had no idea what prolonged exposure to these pressure storms might cause, nor could they have predicted that one day, under the girl's command, they would be forced to personally send her into an uncertain fate through one of those very rifts…

"Successful landing No. 170,295. Another silent star cluster. Another barren land…"

Grey Tempest recorded the details of her arrival—an essential routine she forced herself to complete each time she survived an exit from the Mirror Rift. Only after finishing this task would she begin confirming the details of her current time-space.

There were many steps involved, all procedures taught to her by those scientists. If she followed them carefully and methodically, she would eventually get results.

The only downside this time was that her injuries were severe. At best, she estimated it would take years to fully recover.

Scanning through the textual records ingrained in her memory, Grey Tempest nodded in satisfaction.

"Mm, I did a great job! Now, onto the next step—systematic reconnaissance…"

Confirming the general stage of civilization in this timeline.
Confirming whether this timeline contained the planet she was searching for.

If it did, she would proceed to the planet for a secondary confirmation. If it did not, following her usual protocol, Grey Tempest would immediately activate the Mirror Rift Generator and move on to the next timeline—repeating the process until she finally achieved her goal...

"Hm?!"

Grey Tempest abruptly raised her head, her long silver hair flowing in the stellar wind. Every strand seemed meticulously sculpted by starlight, shimmering with an almost ethereal glow.

But that brilliance was soon swallowed by a looming shadow. She froze mid-motion, then sighed after a few seconds.

"Well… guess that confirms this isn’t a repeat."

"Woooo—"

Like rolling thunder. Like an ancient call.

A dragon's roar erupted through the silent sky, shaking the very core of her being!

Everything around her seemed to pause in an instant. The twinkling stars dimmed, and waves of sound came crashing down upon her senses in relentless, overwhelming tides.

She simply stared, wide-eyed, at the sky—shifting from day to night, then from night back to day…

RUMBLE!!

From high above, beams of searing light descended, scorching everything they touched.

Stone, sand, minerals—regardless of shape or composition—all were instantaneously reduced to molten red streams, splattering skyward from the impact.

The two mutated L-Drakes hovered in the upper atmosphere, their mouths still smoldering with lingering embers from their breath attack. Tiny flares flickered in and out of existence as they gazed down at the devastation below, their expressions filled with detached arrogance.

To them, the eradication of life was insignificant—nothing more than an occasional amusement encountered during their patrols. It wasn't even worth a second glance.

Having unleashed their breath, the two L-Drakes turned away lazily, flapping their massive wings in preparation to leave.

However…

Among the wreckage and ruin—where Grey Tempest should have been incinerated to nothing but ash—she was inexplicably still alive.

Not only that, but despite her bedraggled state, she even had the audacity to lift her arm, forming a makeshift finger gun aimed playfully toward the sky.

Her voice, light and melodic, carried a mischievous lilt. Her soft lips parted—

"Bang~"

In an instant, thick black mist erupted around her, coalescing before her fingertips into dozens of small, charmingly designed ‘toy cannons.’

Each one was just slightly larger than her palm, looking no different from the trinkets sold at street stalls. There wasn’t a single thing about them that seemed threatening.

But the moment Grey Tempest's voice faded, these seemingly harmless little cannons unleashed an onslaught of energy arcs—disproportionate in both scale and intensity.

No armor in existence could withstand her attack.
No shield had ever lasted more than half a second under her barrage.

The eerie green energy beams illuminated the scorched landscape once more, casting their glow upon the discontented expression on the girl’s face.

Had it not been for the words she was muttering under her breath, she might have even looked cool.

"Good thing I moved fast and changed into a fresh outfit. Gotta save this footage to show him later, hehe…"

Before she could even finish speaking, the energy arcs streaked across the sky at lightning speed, completely engulfing the two L-Drakes—who hadn't even had time to react.

Their hardened dragon scales might as well have been non-existent. Every shot struck directly into their flesh.

However, the distribution of energy arcs had an inherently random factor, which led to a wildly inconsistent damage output.

Or, in simple terms—her attacks had a randomized damage roll.

And so, the once-nonchalant Grey Tempest, upon noticing the outcome in the sky, suddenly felt a bit… awkward.

"...How is one of them still alive and kicking?"

She inwardly cursed her bad luck.

This wasn’t the first time she had fought similar wild mob creatures, though it was the first time she had been actively attacked by an L-Drake…

But still—regardless of the fact that they were technically the same fundamental entity in different forms, under the assault of dozens of energy arc launchers, even if they weren’t one-shot kills, one of them should not still be perfectly fine!

The only possible explanation was that she had terrible luck—the concentrated energy blasts had either failed to land critical hits or had dispersed mid-air, leaving one of the dragons not only alive but bold enough to counterattack.

Unacceptable. Absolutely unacceptable.

Grey Tempest’s eyes lit up as a thought crossed her mind, dimples forming on her cheeks as a bright smile spread across her face.

Since they were all nanite entities, she wasn’t confident she could capture just anything, but an L-Drake? That, at least, she was certain she could control.

Might as well tame one as a mount!

"Me riding myself.jpg"

As the surviving L-Drake prepared to launch another attack, the energy arc launchers in front of Grey Tempest dispersed. Instead of countering, she slammed her foot into the ground with immense force.

The terrain beneath her visibly sank, and in the next instant, she shot upward—accelerating toward the dragon at a speed nearly rivaling her own energy arcs.

Of course, she could fly normally.

She just thought this way looked cooler.

The moment she brushed past the L-Drake, she snatched onto one of its scales, stabilizing herself midair. Without hesitation, she pried open a thick scale and plunged her entire arm inside.

"ROAAAR!!"

The L-Drake let out a deafening roar—not one of anger, but mostly pain.

Clinging to the dragon's back, Grey Tempest furrowed her brows and let out a puzzled "Eh?"

"...Something’s off about this L-Drake."

From a certain perspective, L-Drakes were also Grey Tempest—there was a strange, inexplicable connection between them.

Yet, as she examined the nanites composing this particular L-Drake, she realized they were unlike anything she had ever encountered before.

For any nanite-integrated entity, nanomachines acted like cells—each type serving a unique function. Unlike organic beings, nanite constructs did not contain "harmful cells."

L-Drakes were pure nanite constructs.
Grey Tempest, however, was not.

She was something else—something more unique.
Technically speaking, she was closer to a collective will of an entire nanite civilization.

And because of this, the idea of capturing and controlling a different-form version of herself as a mount didn’t seem so strange. After all, she could manipulate other nanites, and in doing so, she could take control of specific nanite units…

But there was a problem.

Every single nanite in this L-Drake was a "harmful cell."

That doesn’t make any sense.

Grey Tempest remained frozen on the dragon’s back for a long moment, processing the implications.

Then, something else struck her—these flawed, single-programmed "cells" could actually be corrected.

Realizing this, she decided to run some deeper tests.

And the results?
They shocked her to her core.

Across countless timelines, she had never once encountered a version of her own kind infected with this so-called "Apocalypse Protocol."

The Apocalypse Protocol forced nanites to advance in multiple directions simultaneously. Once specific "correct" conditions were met, the protocol would deeply mark that chosen path.

As these paths narrowed and became more defined, the Apocalypse Protocol would then extract the central data of each nanite and forcibly transmit it to surrounding nanites, leading to a systematic assimilation of all nearby processors.

Or, in simpler terms—
Infection.

And what happened when different regions of nanites developed conflicting marked paths?

The Apocalypse Protocol had one final resolution:

—Massacre.

No matter how the paths diverged, the ultimate outcome was always violent conflict.
Whoever survived was right.
Whoever perished was wrong.

A glorified death match?

Grey Tempest: "…"

After analyzing its logic, Grey Tempest couldn’t help but think—
Whoever coded this had some serious issues.

This wasn’t just a virus.
It was a superweapon designed specifically to corrupt nanite civilizations.

She had never seen anything like this before.

Now that she understood the cause, Grey Tempest swiftly corrected the corrupted L-Drake in a matter of moments.

The dragon, which had been writhing in agony, suddenly fell silent—before obediently descending onto the barren surface.

Gently stroking the now-docile beast, she issued her first command:

Find the other infected nanite-integrated entities.
And correct them.

As she gazed upon the desolate planet before her, a melody echoed in her mind.

A song only she could hear, drifting through the void.
A figure only she could see—sitting at a grand desk, effortlessly orchestrating the rise and victories of an empire spanning the stars.

At that moment, it felt as if she had returned to that fateful day—
The day she swore her eternal allegiance.

His voice had whispered beside her ear, singing an ancient hymn:

"She is—"
"A fleeting fantasy, fallen from shattered star-rivers into my dreams."
"A power sought across the galaxies."
"A light left behind by the gods, in the darkest of times—"
"The last star in my sky…"

Grey Tempest slowly rose atop the dragon's back.

Her gaze drifted to the distant horizon.

Her voice trembled.

"...So tell me—weren’t you also the only star left in my sky during my darkest times?"

Her fingers curled slightly.

"...Then why did you disappear without a word?"

---

T/N: THE GREY TEMPEST GOT TURNED INTO AN ANIME GIRL??

This is a fan translation of 在星穹铁道点群星科技树真的没问题吗? by 杏雨诗韵 All rights to the original work belong to the creator. Please support them by exploring their original work or sharing it with others if you can. Thank you for reading and supporting my efforts to bring this story to a wider audience!