Is Unlocking the Stellaris Tech Tree in Star Rail Really Okay? [331]

I shouldn’t have forgotten any crucial information, right?

After replaying everything in his mind multiple times, Chen Lin still couldn't recall any additional details regarding a war breaking out inside a swarm of nanobots. From his understanding, as long as it wasn’t some fan-made MOD or expansion MOD, there were only a handful of things that could come out of an L-Gate.

That left him with the one explanation he least wanted to believe—

This damn L-Gate has an expansion MOD!

Chen Lin was speechless. With no other choice, he propped his face up with one hand and silently went back to managing the research process.

Fu Xuan ended the call and instinctively glanced back, only to find that Chen Lin’s face was practically radiating joy. She couldn’t help but ask, “Beloved brother, your countenance betrays displeasure. What troubles you?”

Chen Lin let out a dry chuckle. “What else? The results I got are just… a little more unexpected than I’d have liked.”

“What manner of unforeseen event does my dear brother refer to?”

“It’s something like this…”

Since there wasn’t really anything to hide, Chen Lin relayed the key points of the event chain he had uncovered in response to Fu Xuan’s inquiry.

Fu Xuan leaned back into her seat, listening quietly as he spoke. Her fingers were intertwined, sometimes separating, sometimes pressing together, the tips brushing lightly as if she were contemplating the weight of each word.

When she heard that every single nanobot on Tamz had perished, her eyes narrowed slightly, revealing a trace of deep thought—

As if she were searching for a hidden layer beneath the surface of his words.

Her brows furrowed. Clearly, the information Chen Lin had provided had also exceeded her expectations.

The existence of nanobots had only recently transitioned from whispers of legend to physical reality within the Xianzhou Luofu. Though the units they had encountered were all in pieces, the artificers of the Artisianship Commission had discovered that these nanobots contained sophisticated sensor-processing cores. These cores were responsible for coordinating their actions, regulating their collective behavior, and enabling them to function as a highly organized system.

Not only that, but they also possessed a remarkable level of autonomy and learning capability. From a structural standpoint, calling them a hive mind was entirely appropriate!

But an all-out nanobot war? One so catastrophic that it resulted in the complete extinction of every unit on the planet?

That was unprecedented.

Who was the victor? Who was the vanquished?

Fu Xuan tapped lightly against the table, her fingers now drumming in a steady rhythm.

"If not for the crucial detail of 'no survivors,' I might have speculated that there was never a war in the first place. Instead, the nanobots could have been disrupted by some unknown energy wave, triggering widespread data corruption and activating their own security protocols—"

"Which then spiraled into a large-scale internal purge…”

She shook her head, then sighed softly after a long pause. “The world is like a chessboard, ever unpredictable. To explore the unknown always demands far more effort than ordinary endeavors.”

She wasn’t the type of naive young girl who would badger Chen Lin about the credibility of his sources, nor was she one of those stubborn fools who insisted on dissecting his entire methodology.

Fu Xuan was straightforward, but she understood when to prioritize efficiency over rigid scrutiny.

Xianzhou divination techniques were indeed profound, but when it came to information processing and scenario simulation, they were vastly more cumbersome.

Simply put, divination, formations, and augury were scientific methodologies—
Their predictions were rooted in data and computational power, yielding probabilistic outcomes. They weren’t some mystical nonsense where an old sage in the mountains could just wiggle his fingers and divine the will of the heavens.

Black cat or white cat—so long as it catches the rat, it’s a good cat.

With Chen Lin’s presence as a disruptive factor, Fu Xuan could only discern that this journey might come with some difficulties—
But nothing they couldn’t overcome with effort.

As for anything beyond that? She had stopped trying to divine further.
Because she knew—the more she calculated, the more the accuracy would deteriorate.

"The most pressing task now is reconstructing what happened in this war…"

Saying this, Chen Lin turned his gaze to the special research project currently in progress—

[Nanobot War]

["A cataclysmic war erupted on Tamz. The combatants have been identified as nanobots originating from the L-Gate. As for the full course of the conflict… our scientists are working diligently to reconstruct the events!"]

[Research Time Remaining: 4 hours 19 minutes 51 seconds]

"All in all, it’s not a big deal. Fu-jie, just sit tight and wait here."

---

Jarilo System

Half a day earlier, in a remote corner of the Jarilo Prime star system, a massive fleet of warships had the entire area locked down.

It wasn’t until a convoy of research vessels and engineering ships arrived that the formation began to loosen, slowly parting to create a passageway.

Not because any big shot was aboard these vessels—
But because the ships were preparing to undertake an operation that would impact not just the stability of the Jarilo Sector, but potentially the political and military balance of this entire galaxy.

An event destined to be recorded in interstellar history!

Inside the Imperial Research Institute, the scientists involved in the project had gathered in the conference hall. From time to time, their gazes would shift toward the projections on the screen.

Among them was the chief scientist personally appointed by Chen Lin to oversee the L-Gate project—Clara.

Right now, she was busy issuing real-time commands to the engineering drones disembarking from the ships and assembling critical infrastructure—
Ensuring that no unexpected variables disrupted the operation.

The rest of the scientists were all fulfilling their assigned roles—

Some monitored environmental fluctuations,
Some maintained stable communication channels,
Some analyzed the data streaming in from the L-Gate…

In the Imperial Research Institute, everyone had their own work to do.

Everyone except one particular figure—

A petite fox-eared girl, dressed in a delicate pink pleated skirt, standing quietly in the corner.

She twirled a half-bloomed peach blossom between her fingers, bringing it to her nose for a slow, thoughtful inhale.

Phantylia lifted her head precisely on schedule, just as a figure in a white lab coat approached.

Serval.

She offered a small smile. "I’m all rested up. I’ll take over from here. Clara is in your care now, Chief Guard."

Phantylia nodded slightly, her voice smooth as silk. "Oh, my lady Serval, you need not trouble yourself. It is but my humble duty."

She stepped aside, allowing Serval to move forward and relieve Clara of her work.

A few moments later, the frail-looking girl finally stood up from her seat.

Perhaps it was from long hours of sitting and working, but her movements were slow and stiff.

Phantylia immediately stepped forward to support her.

“Thank you, Sister Lunalia…”

"Miss Clara, you flatter me. This is nothing more than a small favor~”

After Pela relayed Chen Lin’s orders, Phantylia also received her own command through The Shroud—protect Clara.

As the person with the second-deepest understanding of the L-Gate after Chen Lin, Clara was gradually stepping into the spotlight. Other civilizations, lacking their own L-Gates and unable to approach one for study, were left in the dark. But as time passed, the sheer complexity of the L-Gate’s design and the technology it contained would become increasingly clear to all.

When that time came, Clara would no longer be an observer in the audience—
She would step onto the grand stage of interstellar affairs.

Given that opening the L-Gate wasn’t in everyone’s best interest, Clara, as the lead scientist on the project, needed absolute security during the process. This was precisely why Chen Lin hadn’t brought Phantylia along to Tamz—
She had to stay behind to guard Clara, never leaving her side.

Chen Lin wasn’t here. Sha Shi wasn’t here.

When it came down to it, the only person capable of ensuring Clara’s safety without fail was Phantylia.

The L-Gate was far too important, and Phantylia knew her lord wouldn’t tolerate any unexpected incidents.

Ssshh—

The deep doors of the Imperial Research Institute slid open one by one. The two of them stepped out—Clara was heading to the cafeteria behind the main building to grab a bite to eat.

She had barely eaten in the past five days. Even with the enhancements granted by her medium’s constitution, hunger still gnawed at her.

Phantylia, having spent an entire day inside, was utterly bored. Everyone had their own tasks, and she didn’t want to interrupt them. The only way she could gauge the project’s progress was through Clara’s updates.

"That thing, hmm... to put it simply, it's actually a network sensor designed to reactivate dormant nanobots. Since both the upper and lower halves of the L-Gate are made from a special nanobot-constructed material."

"But that’s not all! Clara also discovered a large number of inactive nanobots attached to the L-Gate itself. The special network sensor is meant to reactivate them so they can resume their functions…”

"The upper half of the L-Gate contains hundreds of billions of tiny crystalline cores, each housing a strange energy we’ve never encountered before. These cores generate a spatial V-type torsion. Sister Lunalia, just imagine it as a kind of light—it’s easier to understand that way. Based on our calculations, if this energy were to spiral out of control, the resulting impact would be comparable to the radiation burst from a white dwarf star explosion. That’s why we have to be extremely careful when opening it.”

"Hm? The lower half? Clara isn't entirely sure what's going on with it. No matter what kind of energy comes into contact with it, the energy gets rapidly neutralized. So, Clara suspects that the upper half of the L-Gate serves as an energy excitation device, while the lower half is some kind of neutralization mechanism to stabilize violent energy surges.”

"The L-Gate will only enter an active state when both halves are activated simultaneously… but Clara finds it really interesting! If we could precisely control this type of powerful torsion and craft some kind of ‘lens’ to focus the V-type torsion onto a single point, we might be able to catapult entire fleets approaching our sector straight into another galaxy!"

The more Clara spoke, the more excited she became, completely forgetting that Phantylia was a total layman when it came to scientific research. She continued to walk, animatedly explaining the new physics formulas she had deduced—
Leaving Phantylia looking completely lost.

Luckily, at that moment, a psionic guard stationed outside the Imperial Research Institute reached out for a mind-link.

This form of encrypted, telepathic communication—exclusively available to psionics—was nothing new to Phantylia. She accepted the request without hesitation.

"Chief Guard, are you currently with Lady Clara? We’ve apprehended a suspicious outworlder. He claims to be a friend of Lady Clara and wants to meet her. Name’s Sampo."

"I'll ask her. Keep him under watch for now."

"Understood!"

The mental link severed.

Phantylia waited for Clara to finish her sentence before cutting in.

"Miss Clara, do you know someone named Sampo?"

"Huh...? Oh! Clara does!"

Clara’s gaze drifted into the distance, her thoughts pulling her back to years past.

"Uncle Sampo is a very strange person. Even back in the final days of the Architects’ Era, he could slip through the Silvermane Guards’ lockdowns and move freely between the upper and lower city. He worked with Wildfire quite a bit—sometimes, when the Robot Settlement needed something, he would take on their requests. Sister Seele, my brother, and Aunt Natasha all knew him."

The Architects’ Era—nowadays referred to as the late era of the Architects. Phantylia was familiar with the general history of that time.

For someone to move undetected through the Silvermane Guards’ lockdown back then was already an impressive feat.

And now Clara had just casually mentioned that he was acquainted with the Young Mistress and her people…

But then—

Clara’s next words made Phantylia’s brow crease slightly.

"It’s just... ever since Belobog overcame its crisis and officially joined the Empire, Uncle Sampo suddenly vanished. Clara heard that… he might have been eaten by a Rift Monster.”

Something isn’t right.

This man—there was definitely something off about him.

Phantylia would bet her long years of experience on it.

Jarilo-VI had developed for quite some time now. Any humanoid lifeform on this planet should be registered in the records.

Yet the psionic guards had identified the man as an outworlder. That meant he wasn’t recorded in Qlipoth Fort's archives.

It even suggested that he might have smuggled his way into Belobog.

And Belobog’s lower city was no welcoming place like the upper city—
Countless research institutions and military-industrial complexes were based there.

Just getting through the entrance required passing at least ten layers of security checkpoints.

How did he get in?

Clearly—he snuck in.

But if he was skilled enough to bypass all those psionic guards and infiltrate the area unnoticed…

Why did he suddenly get caught by the patrol team outside the Research Institute?

With these doubts in mind, Phantylia extended her psionic vision outward.

Before long, she spotted a tall, lean man with blue hair, completely surrounded by a squad of psionic guards at the perimeter of the Imperial Research Institute.

He had a pleasant smile on his face, his hands raised in a non-threatening manner, casually using a few well-placed words to defuse the tension in the air.

Then—

The man noticed her.

He glanced in the direction of her psionic gaze.

"Could he be from a Masked Fool…?"

Phantylia withdrew her vision.

If she wasn’t mistaken, there was a faint trace of a certain Aeon’s presence on him.

Even though it was concealed, there was no hiding it from her—the now vastly more powerful Quad-Blooded Emanator.

But then—what was a Masked Fool doing in Belobog?

Phantylia wasn’t too familiar with the Masked Fools, but she knew one thing for certain—

Wherever a Masked Fool appeared…

Something interesting was about to happen.

And the only "interesting" event on the horizon was…

Her lord’s plan to open the L-Gate?

---

T/N: translation should be slightly different now... my apologcheese im trying something new

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!