Is Unlocking the Stellaris Tech Tree in Star Rail Really Okay? [291]

“D-Dad…?”

Chen Lin stood frozen on the spot, utterly stunned by what he had just heard. He stammered, repeating the little girl’s words as if hoping he had misheard.

The thought that he—still single—had somehow ended up with such an adorable daughter… Would his parents be so overjoyed that they'd fall flat on their faces upon waking up? No, wait—so overjoyed that they'd wake up smiling?

If there was anything particularly wrong with this situation, it was probably the girl’s identity.

The Eater of Worlds—Shi Sha. One of the Five Gods of The Shroud.

Not only did it consume people and entire regions, but if luck was particularly bad, even an entire planet could vanish without a trace. There was no stopping it. Any attempts at prevention were futile—because PDX, those lazy devs, had never intended for planets marked by The Eater of Worlds to survive. There wasn’t even a single line of code for that possibility in Stellaris!

Recalling the lore of the Five Gods of The Shroud, Chen Lin turned his gaze back to the little girl clinging to his waist, sobbing uncontrollably.

Who would have thought that behind such an innocent-looking child lay a creature capable of devouring entire worlds in a single bite?

And perhaps… that wasn’t even her limit.

“Shi… uh, little Shi," he corrected himself quickly, forcing a gentle tone. "Daddy’s not going to abandon you. Don’t cry, okay?”

He had no idea why he had suddenly become a father, but there was no avoiding the objective reality of the situation. His only option was to accept it.

And besides… wasn’t she kind of adorable? She wasn’t at all like how he had imagined The Eater of Worlds—no unpredictable mood swings, no luring hapless travelers into signing contracts in exchange for sacrifices.

Some civilizations, when pushed to the brink, wouldn’t even hesitate to offer up whatever was demanded. At that point, the only thing on their minds was survival.

“Really…?”

Her soft, syrupy voice made it impossible for Chen Lin to sound harsh. His expression naturally relaxed.

“Of course it’s true. Daddy’s brain just short-circuited for a second back there. Can you forgive me?”

He crouched down, gently wiping her tears away. “If you’re hungry, Daddy will find something for you to eat. I’d rather starve than let my daughter go hungry.”

“But… I’ll never be full.”

“Then we’ll just keep eating and eating!” He grinned. “Look, the food at home is ours—so we can eat as much as we want. No need to hold back! But food that isn’t ours, well… that’s different. We’ll have to be selective. Oh! And especially starfish. If we come across any, we have to eat them. Eat them a lot!”

“Starfish?”

“Yeah. A type of soft-bodied creature. It doesn’t matter if they’re sentient or not—once we infuse them with our [Super Delicious Gene], we can can them, put them on the dinner table, and sell them across the galaxy! Completely ethical, universally loved!”

“Ohhh!” Shi Sha’s eyes sparkled. “Then… can we make other things super delicious too?”

“Well—”

Chen Lin was about to say “Of course!” but then noticed her gaze fixated on the spot where he stored his [Zro Dust].

He instantly changed course. “—Not inanimate objects. But if you really want to try something… how about Daddy catches a few soldiers from the Anti-Matter Legion, modifies them a bit, and then you can see if they’re tasty?”

The Anti-Matter Legion? That sounded like a lot of them. Maybe… maybe they’d be enough?

Shi Sha’s thoughts raced as she eagerly nodded. “Okay, okay!”

“There’s way more out there, too. Like…”

He rattled off a long list—particularly mentioning the Aeon-worshipping Path of Abundance, the endlessly multiplying swarms of Legion soldiers, and all sorts of other annoying, overpopulated beings.

He even gave her a brief rundown on the concept of the Aeons themselves.

To his surprise, Chen Lin turned out to have quite the knack for comforting children. Once he got over his initial panic, it only took a few moments to turn his weeping first-born daughter into a giggling, happy little thing.

But then—

As she laughed, Shi Sha suddenly spoke a sentence that made Chen Lin’s hair stand on end.

“So that’s what an Aeon is?”

Shi Sha blinked her round, glossy eyes. “I think… I’ve eaten one before!”

Chen Lin’s expression froze in sheer horror as he stared at his daughter.

She spread her small arms wide, drawing a big circle in the air, and said excitedly, “I was locked in a pitch-black room. There was nothing to eat, and I was so, so hungry… I didn’t even have the strength to get out. But after a while, something appeared next to me, and everything around me was delicious!”

“That doesn’t necessarily mean it was an Aeon. It could’ve been something from The Shroud…” Chen Lin wiped the cold sweat from his forehead, thinking that perhaps when The Shroud was trying to feed her with [Zro Dust], it had been suddenly interrupted.

For a split second, he thought he saw something flicker across Shi Sha’s innocent, childlike face—something feral, almost sinister.

But when he looked again, she had reverted to her pitiful, teary-eyed expression, speaking in a tone filled with grievance and fear.

“There was… something inside me that told me it was something I hated. I didn’t like it at all. But I also knew that if I ate it, I could escape. If I didn’t, I would disappear… Then, that thing suddenly lunged at me, trying to swallow me whole! It was so scary… wuuu…”

Shi Sha pounced on Chen Lin again, clinging to him as she sniffled softly, looking utterly defeated by fear.

After soothing her for a while, Chen Lin, now genuinely curious, smiled and asked in a probing tone, “So… what happened next?”

“Hmph! It was garbage. I ate faster than it did!”

Her blood-red eyes gleamed with pride as she planted her hands on her hips, exuding the confidence of someone who had never known defeat.

“Daddy, it was so delicious! Mmm… after I ate it, I suddenly had so many new memories. I think it was called… Obolo… ros?”

“Pfft—!”

If he had been drinking tea, he would’ve spat it out right there and then.

Oroboros.

According to all the records he had read aboard the Xianzhou, Oboloros was none other than Oroboros—the current Aeon of Voracity!

The Xianzhou Alliance classified it as a threat on par with the Aeon of Destruction. The reports described it as a being that devoured everything in its path, reducing entire civilizations to nothingness beneath its monstrous hunger…

And now?

Chen Lin glanced at the little girl in front of him—this small, frail-looking child who was timidly mumbling about how “scary” it was and how she had barely managed to escape.

A giant question mark slowly formed in his mind.

So this highly dangerous Aeon had just… gotten eaten? Just like that?

An Aeon’s demise wasn’t a trivial matter. Herta had dedicated her life to observing and researching Aeons. She would probably have a better grasp of what this meant than he did.

Mechanically, Chen Lin continued comforting the sniffly Shi Sha while his mind drifted elsewhere.

Suddenly, he recalled Phantylia’s unusual behavior from before.

Half coaxing, half questioning, he asked, “Hey, little Shi, do you know a big sister with pointy fox ears?”

Shi Sha tilted her head in thought.

“Fox…? Is that something I can eat?”

“No! Definitely not.”

For god’s sake… If something like Oroboros had already been reduced to a snack for this little glutton, what in the universe wasn’t edible to her?

Chen Lin quickly explained, “She’s Daddy’s pet. And that means she’s your pet too. We keep her to play with, not to eat. Got it?”

Shi Sha didn’t seem to fully understand, but she gave a half-hearted “Ohhh” in response.

Still, deep in her crimson gaze, the hunger never truly faded.

“Then I won’t eat Daddy’s… pet!”

“Good girl, good girl.”

Chen Lin ruffled Shi Sha’s fluffy hair, though his mind remained clouded with questions.

No matter how he looked at it, he couldn’t understand why a God of The Shroud had taken on the form of a human child—and why he had somehow ended up as her father.

Even if The Shroud had acknowledged him, the divine beings within it shouldn’t have transformed like this, right?

He looked at Shi Sha, who was now obediently clinging to his side.

At a glance, she didn’t have even a trace of the sly, cunning nature expected of an Abyssal peddler—those beings who lured desperate souls into signing away their lives in contracts.

If he were to take her outside, no one would ever believe she was a god.

In fact, most people would probably just think she was an adorably sweet little girl… and then direct envious looks his way.

Oh, right. If his daughter was a god…

Then that meant he was a—

…Godfather?

The realization hit him like a brick, and he went completely numb.

“Daddy wants to ask you something, okay?”

Shi Sha nodded enthusiastically, her little head bobbing up and down like a pecking chick. “Okay, okay!”

Once he had her permission, Chen Lin carefully asked the question that had been gnawing at him.

“How… do you know I’m your daddy?”

The moment the words left his mouth, Chen Lin felt an immediate sense of regret.

Crap. That was way too blunt.

As expected, Shi Sha’s eyes instantly filled with tears. She clutched at the hem of his shirt and sniffled, “Daddy… are you going to abandon me again…?”

Chen Lin interrupted her before she could spiral into another sobbing fit.

“No, no, no! Never! Believe in Daddy, okay?” He gently pulled her into a hug. “Daddy’s just really, really dumb. I just want to know how you immediately knew I was your daddy. That’s all. Having such a cute and sweet daughter—I’m overjoyed!”

“…Really?”

Shi Sha’s tears vanished in an instant. She placed a finger on her lips and said matter-of-factly, “Daddy is Daddy! You used to ask me to help with things all the time. I’ve known since then that Daddy is Daddy.”

“…I asked you to help?”

“Mhm, mhm!”

Shi Sha nodded excitedly, pointing at the surrounding trees, flowers, and streams.

“All of these were things Daddy asked me to plant! I couldn’t see anything back then, but whatever Daddy imagined, I imagined too!”

…!!!

Chen Lin suddenly understood.

Back when he had fought Phantylia, The Shroud had absorbed a massive amount of [Zro Dust].

After that, it had occasionally started “speaking” to him. He had assumed that, as the realm evolved, it had gained a will of its own—a sentience capable of communicating with its recognized wielder.

But now, it turned out… he had never been speaking to the realm itself.

The entire time, the one communicating with him had been Shi Sha!

So then… how had she manifested in physical form?

This time, Chen Lin played it smart. Instead of asking outright, he casually chatted with Shi Sha while subtly piecing together bits of information.

Slowly, as fragmented details accumulated, he finally pieced together the reason for Shi Sha’s existence.

She was deeply connected to his psionic energy.

Chen Lin had always been fond of devouring other energy-based beings. Back when he first ascended through psionics, he had even used this method to consume the Stellaron’s power—and Cocolia along with it.

Psionics were, by nature, a manifestation of the user’s will. His ability to grow stronger by devouring energy was tied directly to his initial perception of psionics itself.

In other words…

He had accidentally treated psionics like a cultivation novel’s forbidden technique.

And The Shroud had simply reflected that concept—expanding it into something even greater.

That reflection…

Was Shi Sha.

And if she had been born from his concept…

Then why did she already know her name?

When he asked, Shi Sha only tilted her head and replied, “Dunno! I just knew I was supposed to be called that!”

A perfectly natural answer.

And yet… something still felt off.

If she was merely a reflection of his will, he should have been the one to name her.

Unless—

She wasn’t just his extension.

She was an extension of something far, far greater.

Perhaps…

She was an extension of The Eater of Worlds itself.

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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!