Is Unlocking the Stellaris Tech Tree in Star Rail Really Okay? [344]

Chen Lin was currently locked in an intense battle with the exceptionally martial Silver Wolf, exchanging blow after blow in a relentless contest.

Meanwhile—

Inside the L-Gate.

The exit of the L-Gate, which connected to the Jarilo home star system, had been temporarily designated as the A2 system by the capital authorities. The naming convention was refreshingly straightforward.

For example, the first star system at the exit could be given a single-letter designation, with a numerical suffix indicating the number of routes leading to that system. If a fleet traveled outward from the first route, the branching star system it reached would be named A2-1, whereas the opposite route would be A2-2.

In other words, additional star systems extending from the primary system would append their position in the route sequence, allowing precise navigation through the stellar network.

A strategic primary system could have only one immediate branch system. Beyond that, the naming would follow a cycle of "primary system + branch system," maintaining clarity in the mapping structure.

At this moment, Seele’s fleet was stationed in the central stellar orbit of the A2 system, quietly observing as the engineering fleet constructed an outpost. Not far away, a large number of research ships were systematically scanning and studying various L-Drake carcasses.

The battle might have ended, but Seele’s responsibilities had only increased.

Every combat unit had noted an alarming phenomenon—the L-Drakes they fought seemed to possess a unique ability akin to a warp engine. One moment, their sensors detected nothing unusual; the next, several L-Drakes would suddenly appear within their control zones, making it nearly impossible to anticipate their movements.

The research fleets had no military capabilities. Conducting salvage and analysis operations this deep in contested space was incredibly dangerous. Seele had to remain constantly vigilant, coordinating her forces to provide escort protection for both the engineering and research ships.

At critical moments, she also had to use her abilities to conceal ships venturing into hazardous areas or those under sudden attack by L-Drakes.

The strain was immense.

Fortunately, she had Fia alongside her in this operation. Their fleets took turns overseeing the situation, ensuring no lapse in security. Although Fia’s fleet had sustained the highest number of damaged ships in the initial engagement, not a single one had been destroyed.

Now that repaired vessels were steadily returning to the front lines, Seele finally had a brief moment to rest. After a full week of constant high-intensity activity, she was able to shut her weary eyes and sleep properly for the first time.

By the time she awoke, an entire day and night had passed. After a quick shower, she returned to her command room to carefully review the tactical errors from the previous battle.

“The battlefield positioning was incorrect. I shouldn’t have placed the firepower unit in such an open area. Several surrounding planets could have been used as cover. Deduct 1 point… And this cruiser’s placement basically turned it into a sitting duck. Fortunately, the enemy didn’t notice, but I need to be more mindful next time—minus 2 points.”

Dressed in her military uniform, Seele let her still-damp black-and-blue hair fall freely over her shoulders. Propping her chin on one hand, she meticulously analyzed the battle recordings, comparing them against a nearby star map.

Not only was she reviewing her mistakes, but to ensure she wouldn’t forget them, she also took out a small notebook and began jotting down notes.

This habit was something she had picked up from Pela.

“I was too focused on directing the firepower unit’s attack positions and neglected the escort fleet during close-quarters engagements. I already knew laser weapons were far more effective than missiles in that situation, yet I let my nerves get the better of me and forgot such crucial information. I only remembered it when the battle was nearly over… That’s a major issue—minus 8 points.”

Her adjutant entered with a kettle, silently pouring her a cup of water.

Noticing that Seele’s hair was still visibly damp, the adjutant left briefly, then returned with a long towel. Without saying a word, she gently dried Seele’s cascading black hair before leaving the room and closing the command room door behind her.

As the dozens of simultaneous battle replays reached their conclusions, Seele completed her self-assessment and recorded her final score in her notebook:

—61

Out of a possible 100 points, she had scored only 61. Clearly, she was far from satisfied with this result. Without hesitation, she pulled up Fia’s fleet combat records, along with Fia’s personal command logs, for further analysis.

Just a few months ago, Fia had been a complete rookie—someone who had never even set foot on a warship before. Lin-ge had asked her to shadow Seele to learn the fundamentals of fleet command. But in just a few dozen days, Fia’s progress had been nothing short of astonishing.

This was Fia’s first time commanding a mixed-type fleet in battle. In terms of experience alone, Seele should have vastly outclassed her.

Yet, as Seele flipped through Fia’s command records, occasionally glancing up to compare them with the battle footage, she quickly spotted the key difference.

“Damn… that was some masterful kiting!”

Most ship-mounted weapons included long-range attack capabilities, but aside from laser cannons, their accuracy at extended distances was abysmally low. Fia, however, had fully leveraged her weapon range advantage—while Seele commanded her fleet to charge straight into the enemy, Fia’s battle zone had instead been a constant cycle of attacking while retreating!

Thanks to her fleet’s superior engines, Fia could always maintain a relatively safe distance while bombarding the L-Drake swarms. Given the sheer size and sheer numbers of those creatures, as long as her fleet fired in the right general direction, she could achieve a solid 40% hit rate.

For the first ten hours of battle, Fia’s fleet had kited the L-Drakes relentlessly, frustrating them to the point that they might as well have vomited from sheer exasperation.

Whenever the L-Drakes attempted to retreat to their pack, Fia’s fleet would halt their withdrawal and deploy waves of destroyers and escort ships to harass them up close.

It didn’t matter whether they actually landed hits—what mattered was that they emptied their magazines, then immediately fell back, repeating the maneuver once their weapons cooled down or were reloaded.

The coordinated efforts of the escort and destroyer squadrons were near flawless. Whenever an ally sustained damage, nearby formations would step in, drawing the L-Drakes’ attention and attacks, ensuring that damaged ships could retreat safely. This not only minimized losses but also maximized overall combat efficiency!

In the first battle, over seventy L-Drakes had appeared. Seele had faced the bulk of them—forty-eight in total—while Fia had methodically whittled down her assigned targets using persistent harassment tactics.

Fia wasn’t aiming for outright destruction. Once the L-Drakes in her sector had been rendered combat-ineffective, she led her completely unscathed main fleet to reinforce Seele’s frontline engagement. On top of that, she dispatched ten destroyers on a massive detour to cut off the L-Drakes’ retreat. This forced them to rely on their high-chant subspace teleportation ability to escape—creating the perfect opportunity for a final annihilation strike.

By the time Fia had wrapped up her sector’s battle, fewer than five of her ships had lost combat capability. Meanwhile, her remaining fleet, still in peak condition, had swept into the primary battlefield and shattered the L-Drakes’ formation in one decisive assault.

Seele scratched her head awkwardly, muttering under her breath, “So this is what Lin-ge meant by a ‘natural talent’? A legendary first battle right off the bat… Yeah, she’s got something alright.”

Jealousy wasn’t in Seele’s nature—her remarks were more admiration than anything else.

She had already heard from Bronya that when Fia, this so-called imperial princess, signed the delayed-integration agreement with Lin-ge, she had been willing to sacrifice not just all royal power but even her own life to free the Stetbayan people from servitude.

Bronya had described her as a ruler unlike those of other underdeveloped civilizations—someone with awareness and courage far beyond her time. She enjoyed power but never hesitated to bear the responsibilities it entailed when the moment demanded it.

Seele had never been fond of primitive civilization rulers—her past experiences made it impossible for her to have a positive view of them. But Fia… Fia had chipped away at that rigid perspective.

After all, anyone willing to speak up for their people was worthy of respect.

I, Seele, appreciate people who take responsibility!

Just like me.

Seele was still busy patting herself on the back when her adjutant suddenly entered the room and handed her a document.

“Commander, this is a message from the Governor’s Office,” the adjutant explained.

“Oh?”

Seele perked up. Messages from Qlipoth Fort might not necessarily come from Chen Lin, but if it was from the Governor’s Office, there was no doubt—it had to be personally issued by him. She immediately snatched the document. “Let’s see what we’ve got here.”

Tearing open the envelope, she found a densely written report. She read through it silently.

When she spotted the words “Third Fleet” and “Third Fleet Commander”, her lips curled into an excited smile.

No other reason—this Third Fleet’s arrival meant they could solidify control over the A2 system, providing a stable foundation for the other two fleets to advance further.

The document’s directives signaled the Qlipoth Fort government’s intention to continue pushing forward, constructing a strategic framework that allowed for both offense and defense.

Nice. More battles. More action.

Her excitement, however, faded when she read the latter part of the document—the appointment of the Third Fleet’s commander.

“…The Chief Guard?”

Currently the strongest individual combatant in the entire Jarilo star domain, his very presence deterred any schemers who harbored ill intentions toward Chen Lin. Yet now, he was giving up his immense advantage on land to become a fleet commander? Wasn’t that a little too risky?

Seele opened her mouth slightly, hesitated, then shook her head. Forget it… If even I can see this issue, Brother Lin definitely thought it through already. No point worrying about it.

She turned to her adjutant and ordered, “Regroup all scattered fleet units. Also, check with the shipyards at Sky Fortress—find out when our ships will be fully repaired. Get everything ready to advance.”

“Yes, ma’am!”

The adjutant saluted crisply before turning on her heels to carry out the command.

Not long after the adjutant had left, she hurried back, her expression grim.

“Commander,” she reported swiftly, “the Frode research ship has detected a continuous stream of radiation and spatial fluctuations. Additionally, it intercepted an audio signal—yet even after decoding, our linked translation beacon was unable to interpret the content!”

“Frode?”

Seele frowned in thought. It only took her a moment to recall that the Frode was a research vessel assigned to planetary scanning tasks near the A2 system’s exit. She had even dispatched two destroyers and three escort ships to escort it.

That sector was highly dangerous—at any moment, enemies could emerge from a hyperspace corridor and launch an attack.

And now, they had intercepted what seemed to be battlefield activity, including an unknown audio transmission?

Seele immediately assumed it was related to combat. The reasoning was simple—massive radiation streams typically indicated explosions, whether from weapon discharges or celestial events. As for spatial fluctuations, aside from a few rare anomalies, they could only be caused by ship engines or the powers of certain Aeons.

For both to appear at once could only mean one thing—a large-scale battle was underway somewhere in an L-Gate system.

Or rather, had taken place. If the event occurred far enough away, the battle might have already concluded.

Regardless, this was crucial intelligence.

Seele reacted instantly, waving her hand. “Leave this to me. Go inform Commander Fia—I’ll contact the Governor’s Office. This needs to be reported immediately. We require the Governor’s direct decision!”

The adjutant nodded and left the room.

It wasn’t that Seele had anything against reporting this to Bronya. If anything, she felt she owed Bronya a lot.

But their roles were clear—during peacetime, internal affairs were mostly handled by Bronya, with Chen Lin rarely intervening. However, when it came to external operations, Chen Lin always had the final say.

In short, for internal matters, Brother Lin and Bronya would consult each other. But the moment gunfire erupted—the entire Jarilo star domain followed his command.

Seele retrieved the communicator Chen Lin had given her and initiated a transmission.

The signal traveled from Zero-Void Space straight to Chen Lin’s terminal. Almost the instant Seele pressed the call button, far away in Qlipoth Fort, Chen Lin sensed the connection.

At that moment, he was in the middle of a game with Silver Wolf. His brow lifted slightly, but instead of routing the call through his terminal, he answered directly in his mind.

“What’s going on?” he asked.

“Brother Lin, I’ve got something to report,” Seele replied.

Noticing there was no video feed on her screen, she was briefly puzzled but quickly dismissed it as unimportant. “Our research fleet detected a continuous stream of radiation and spatial fluctuations…”

She relayed the adjutant’s report word for word, then asked for Chen Lin’s instructions.

“Dessanu.”

“…Dessanu? Who the hell are they?”

“The civilization that created the L-Gates.”

Seele was stunned.

Chen Lin continued, “For now, don’t worry about that. Send me the decoded audio transmission. Back it up and forward a copy to the Imperial Research Institute. And get ready for battle. The Third Fleet’s assembly is underway—I’ve pulled some cruisers from the border as the main force. They’ll set out next week. Once they arrive, move forward as a group, but be careful.”

“Got it!”

They exchanged a few more words before Chen Lin ended the call.

He turned back to his screen, where the words "You Lose" were flashing in large letters. As Silver Wolf cheered in victory, he set down his controller with a smirk and leaned over.

“Huh? You’re done already?” she taunted. “Did my superior skills crush your will to continue? Hmph!”

“I’m done,” he replied. “Time to get to work. You too.”

Silver Wolf shrugged, clearly reluctant as she dragged herself off the couch.

“Ugh, fine, fine. Guess I’ve got no choice but to work for you.”

“No.”

Chen Lin suddenly turned to face her, his tone serious. “I’m giving you an opportunity to gain valuable work experience. Who said anything about working for me?”

Silver Wolf: “…”

This guy… has absolutely no shame.

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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!