Is Unlocking the Stellaris Tech Tree in Star Rail Really Okay? [317]

Night had fallen. The bustling metropolis shimmered like a dreamlike gem against the darkness, radiating brilliance.

More than a month had passed since the grand military parade.

...

Belobog, Administrative District, Qlipoth Fort.

The lights in the inner chambers burned bright.

An aged clock hung against the pristine white walls, its hands trembling ever so slightly as they ticked away in the stillness of the night.

It was an ordinary evening. After a routine day of lecturing, Chen Lin felt an exhaustion unlike anything he had ever experienced—like a world-class marathon runner who, paradoxically, found himself utterly drained simply from climbing six flights of stairs.

An inexplicable, indescribable fatigue.

At the table, Bronya and Seele sat discussing military and political affairs as usual. Moonlight filtered through the half-drawn curtains, blending with the soft glow of the lamps.

Yet, lying in bed, Chen Lin found the night eerily silent. Not a single stray sound disturbed the stillness.

He closed his eyes, wanting nothing more than a deep, restful sleep.

Bronya took notice of his condition, pausing the discussion with Seele before rising quietly to her feet.

A breeze slipped through the slightly open window, stirring the air. As she gently pulled it shut, the lingering wind rippled outward like an endless tide.

"…?!"

A sudden, unshakable sensation struck Chen Lin. His eyes snapped open.

Before him lay a vast expanse of enormous celestial bodies—one blazing star after another, stretching endlessly into the void.

Around him, a lively beach bustled with activity. People dressed in colorful swimwear scattered across the sand, their laughter, playful shouts, the sound of waves slapping the shore, and the occasional delighted shriek of someone plunging into the sea filling the air.

Everything felt so real.

Yet—

I’ve never been to the beach before. Never once in my life.

"This is… a dream? It has to be a dream!"

His first thought was a precise assessment of his situation.

His consciousness remained sharp, completely unclouded by the dream’s pull. His rational mind was untouched by passive emotional influence.

Everything was crystal clear—nothing seemed amiss.

The golden sand shifted beneath his feet as a salty sea breeze whistled past. Waves crashed and retreated in an endless rhythm.

"So… where exactly is this?"

A psionic adept with refined mental discipline could easily control the state of their dreams—decide whether to dream and what that dream would become.

Yet to his shock, Chen Lin found himself completely immersed among the ‘NPCs’ around him, just like an ordinary person.

He couldn’t wake himself up.

He couldn’t alter any aspect of the dream.

The logic of this world was too seamless, too real.

Then—

Rapid footsteps jolted him from his thoughts.

He turned around.

A little girl in a swimsuit, no older than five, was running toward him with her right hand raised high. In it, she clutched a beautiful, flawless seashell.

"Daddy, look! Isn’t this shell so pretty? Doesn’t it look just like the one at home?"

Six or seven meters behind Chen Lin, a middle-aged man crouched in the sand, building a sandcastle. He looked up and smiled.

"It really does. Where did you find it…?"

"Over there, in the grass—ah!"

The girl tripped over a small dip in the sand.

Chen Lin instinctively reached out to catch her—only to realize, to his shock, that his body couldn’t keep up with his thoughts.

He could only watch as she fell, the seashell flying from her hand and landing right at his feet.

The sand, hardened by countless footprints, did little to cushion her fall. She burst into loud, wailing sobs.

Her father rushed over, scooping her up in his arms, gently soothing her.

Chen Lin knelt down, picking up the shell. He wiped the sand from its smooth surface, noting its near-perfect symmetry—without a single flaw. The inside gleamed like polished glass, reflecting the sunlight in a dreamlike spectrum of colors.

He found himself staring at it, momentarily lost in thought.

Nearby, the father reassured his daughter, warning her to be more careful when running. In no time, at her insistent urging, he sighed in resignation and returned to building his sandcastle.

Meanwhile, the little girl searched for her lost shell.

When she spotted Chen Lin crouched down with it in his hands, she quickly ran over.

"Big brother, can I have my shell back?"

She spoke hesitantly, as if unsure whether she could retrieve her treasure from a stranger.

Chen Lin snapped out of his daze.

This dream puzzled him. The logic of these events—why they were happening—was completely beyond his understanding.

But that didn’t stop him from indulging the impulse to talk to these ‘NPCs.’

"Sure. But can you tell me why you want this shell so badly?"

"I want to decorate my room with it!" the girl answered without hesitation. "I want to find lots and lots of shells that look the same, so I can fill up Mommy’s whole room and make it super pretty and neat!"

…A nightmare for anyone with trypophobia.

Chen Lin couldn’t help but tease, "But no two seashells are ever truly identical—just like how no two snowflakes are exactly the same. Even if you find ones that look really similar, it’d be very hard to get a full set. Why do you want to cover your mom’s whole room with them?"

"Because last year, when Mommy went on a work trip, she said she loved pretty seashells and sandcastles!"

"Still, that doesn’t mean you have to fill the whole room with shells…"

"But Mommy said! If I can cover her room with exactly the same pretty seashells, and Daddy can build ten thousand identical sandcastles, then she’ll come back from her work trip to be with me and Daddy. Otherwise… she’ll have to keep working and won’t come home."

The little girl’s eyes sparkled with hope. "This shell looks just like the one I gave Mommy. If I keep looking every day, I know I can fill up her room fast! And Daddy’s already built over a hundred matching sandcastles!"

Chen Lin’s mouth twitched slightly.

…This doesn’t feel right.

He turned to glance at the girl’s father in the distance—only to find the man watching him as well.

The father smiled bitterly, shaking his head ever so slightly. A silent message.

"Xiaoyu, what does your mom do for work?"

The girl thought for a moment.

"Daddy says Mommy is a doctor! You know, the ‘white angels’ that teachers talk about! And Daddy always drives her to the hospital for work!"

Chen Lin smiled. "That’s amazing—Xiaoyu’s mommy must be a great doctor."

"Mm…"

But suddenly, the girl’s expression dimmed. Her eyes welled up.

"But I don’t know how long it’ll take to find enough seashells to fill the room… I really want to see Mommy… I even made a wish on my birthday—if I could find enough shells, I’d do anything… but… but it still hasn’t come true."

Chen Lin fell silent.

After a moment, the girl wiped her damp eyes with the back of her hand.

"Big brother, can I have the shell back?" She hesitated before adding, "If not… I can buy it! My piggy bank has lots and lots of money!"

Chen Lin had no idea what was happening to him.

He didn’t respond to the little girl’s request. Instead, as if guided by some unseen force, he blurted out a question.

"If your wish to fill the room with identical seashells could come true, would you be willing to give up anything for it?"

The girl froze, her young face clouding with confusion.

After a few seconds of silence, she nodded firmly. "Yes! Because then… Mommy will come home!"

"It doesn’t cost anything. Here, you can have it back. And I hope you’ll make your wish come true soon."

She brushed the sand off her hands, her expression growing complex. Pressing her lips together, she hesitated before speaking again.

"I know… even if I do it, Mommy won’t really come back. But… I’ll still keep trying, no matter the cost."

Then, just as suddenly, she broke into a bright, tear-streaked smile. "Anyway—thank you, big brother!"

"You’re welcome."

Chen Lin wasn’t sure why he had asked such an odd question, but he decided not to dwell on it.

Just as he was about to hand the shell back to the girl—

Her smiling face froze.

Her outstretched hand stopped moving.

The world around him came to a complete halt.

A strange sensation swept over him, clearing his mind in an instant. His vision shifted—

And he was back where he started.

The little girl was gone.

The same joyful shouts and laughter filled the air again. The father was still crouched over his sandcastle, exactly as before.

"What…?"

Chen Lin looked down and felt something in his palm.

It was the same beautiful seashell.

His mind stalled. Then—

Behind him, footsteps. A familiar voice.

"Daddy, look! Isn’t this shell so pretty? Doesn’t it look just like the one at home?"

A chill shot down Chen Lin’s spine, goosebumps rising over his arms.

As he expected, the girl tripped again. The seashell flew through the air, landing right at his feet… again.

The moment he picked it up, the eerie sensation would return. He would be dragged back to the beginning, over and over.

He had already lost count of how many times this had happened.

His pockets were stuffed with seashells. His hands were full.

But something was changing.

The more seashells he collected, the more the dream began to distort.

Sometimes, the father and daughter weren’t even there anymore. He would find himself heading straight to the grassy patch where the girl first found the shell—only for the cycle to reset again.

At last—

With his arms nearly overflowing with hundreds of identical seashells, he arrived back at the moment where the girl reached out her hand with that same frozen smile.

This time, the dream didn’t reset.

The still image moved.

The girl blinked, looking down in astonishment at the small pile of seashells that had suddenly appeared in front of her.

Chen Lin wanted to explain, but then—

To his horror, he realized he couldn’t speak.

He could hear the girl’s voice clearly, but not his own.

He had completely lost control of the dream.

Her expression was filled with disbelief. "Big brother… all these seashells…?"

"…"

Her voice trembled with excitement.

"Really?!"

"…"

She hesitated for a moment, then nodded vigorously.

"Okay."

A wave of dread crashed over Chen Lin.

He didn’t know what she had heard—but deep in his soul, an overwhelming sense of foreboding took root.

It wasn’t logical.

It wasn’t explainable.

But it was absolute.

—And then, it happened again.

The endless cycle of retrieving the same seashell.

Each time he reached a certain threshold, he would return to the beginning, handing the collected shells to the little girl.

But the settings changed.

Sometimes it was morning. Sometimes noon. Sometimes dusk. Sometimes deep into the night.

He had no idea how many shells he had given her.

And it wasn’t just seashells anymore.

The dream kept evolving—now, he would bring her other things.

Whatever she asked for, he would watch as his dream-self sought it out.

Sometimes, he would jump forward in time—fetching an item from her future and bringing it to her present self.

A week ahead. Two weeks.

A year. Two years.

Every time he borrowed from the future, a piece of the dream shattered.

The things he brought her became increasingly abstract.

Not just objects—but concepts.

Health. Knowledge. Strength.

Gold, jewels, money—

Anything she needed, he delivered.

Except for the seashells, everything else was given to either the middle-aged man…

Or a woman in a hospital gown.

The more he gave, the heavier the unease in his heart grew.

And then—

Finally—

After the girl had received every possible gift from every possible future…

There was nothing left to give.

She had everything she could ever ask for.

And then—

Her mother appeared.

Her parents took her to the beach, laughing together as a family, full of joy.

A perfect, happy life.

But—

The price of achieving her wish was the complete erasure of every future beyond that moment.

To save her lost mother at all costs—she had sacrificed every future afterward.

So now, the question was:

Did she even exist in the future anymore?

When the timeline reached that inevitable blank space—

What would happen to her?

That thought crept into Chen Lin’s mind.

And the sheer, horrifying implications sent a chill through his entire body.

"…Shit."

Like a spectator watching the entire process unfold, Chen Lin gasped—

And bolted upright in bed.

Morning light filtered through the room. The antique clock on the wall ticked forward.

Everything was still.

He glanced around, chest rising and falling.

Then—he let out a long breath, muttering under his breath.

"What the hell kind of dream was that…?"

Still shaken, he got out of bed and pulled the curtains open.

His hair was a mess. His eyes were heavy with sleep.

Yet, deep inside, a strange, indescribable emotion lingered.

Shaking his head, he tried to push the bizarre dream aside.

Then, he noticed a message from Clara.

She was asking him to meet her at the Imperial Research Institute.

A few days ago, she had told him the original weapon they had planned to develop had hit a dead end. But in the process, they had stumbled upon new insights that allowed them to complete an abandoned prototype instead.

Now that the new weapon was functional, she wanted him to oversee testing and provide feedback.

Since the weapon was designed specifically for use against organic lifeforms, they had modified a small planet within their domain for controlled testing.

The planetary adjustments had been finalized. All parameters were now stable.

That was why Clara had been bombarding him with messages since early morning.

But—

Just as he stepped outside—

He ran into Pela, who was hurrying over from the Administrative Hall.

"Sir, you’re awake!" Pela greeted him with urgency. "Mr. Svarog has requested an audience with you. While communicating with Kruz’s X-Factor Vault, he uncovered coordinates to a failed terraforming project from the Kruz civilization’s past."

"Their records suggest the planet still exists. He hopes you will grant permission to send a team to verify it."

"A… failed terraforming project?"

"Yes. Mr. Svarog referred to it as an incomplete remnant of Kruz’s old Ideal City Project…"

---

A/N: This chapter is a foreshadowing piece for The Shroud—so it won’t feel too abrupt later.

T/N: huehue only 2 chaps today 3 tomorrow idk why but i think my acid reflux is acting up

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!