Is Unlocking the Stellaris Tech Tree in Star Rail Really Okay? [278]

Plip.

Plip—

In the inner courtyard, a pair of delicate, fair-skinned little feet hurriedly tapped against the wet ground. Strangely enough, neither the puddles on the ground nor the raindrops falling from the sky could touch the girl—whenever they got within a millimeter of her skin, an invisible force repelled them with sudden intensity.

Being able to run around in the pouring rain without a single drop landing on her, while showing no outward sign of using any stance or psionic power—such a feat was rare, even in the psyker-filled nation of Jarilo-VI.

Clara remotely connected to the research institute’s equipment, copying over every difficult case she had encountered before. After a quick shower, she took off running toward Chen Lin’s residence.

As long as she crossed this long hallway, she would reach the heart of Qlipoth Fort, the place where the two leaders truly rested.

There were always attendants on standby inside Qlipoth Fort, no matter the time.

This wasn’t because Chen Lin was abusing his supreme authority to overwork his subordinates. Instead, it was a reasonable shift system, with everyone rotating through three separate teams.

As she walked, Clara nodded in greeting or responded verbally to the attendants who acknowledged her. Over the past year, she had matured significantly. At the very least, she no longer panicked or froze up when exchanging greetings with unfamiliar people.

“Hello, everyone…” Clara’s voice was soft and delicate, as fragile as a tree branch that could snap in a strong breeze.

Her small figure weaved through the halls of Qlipoth Fort, and the responding attendants felt their hearts practically melt. If not for the fear of losing their prestigious positions, they might have rushed over to snuggle this little girl on the spot.

Suddenly, Clara caught sight of several maids carrying large buckets of water that reeked of blood, along with some bloodstained cleaning tools. They were coming from the direction of Chen Lin’s study, and the overwhelming scent of blood could be detected from a distance, leaving Clara momentarily stunned.

But when she extended her psionic senses to investigate, the atmosphere inside Chen Lin’s quarters was perfectly peaceful. Her dear elder brother was simply sitting at his bedroom desk, tinkering with his terminal. There was no sign of any struggle…

Then again, it made sense. If something had actually happened inside Qlipoth Fort, the countless attendants stationed in the inner courtyard would have immediately sprung into action, transforming from gentle maids into decisive warriors. The Imperial Guard outside would also have responded at once—how could things remain so quiet?

So… what exactly was going on?

Clara trotted forward and asked, “Um… excuse me, is that blood?”

The moment they recognized her, the maids carrying the blood buckets instinctively closed ranks. Their cheerful chatter vanished in an instant, and they stood at attention as if they were soldiers caught slacking by a drill sergeant.

The lead maid responded with absolute seriousness, “Reporting to Lady Clara, yes, this is indeed blood.”

“Did Brother Chen Lin get hurt?”

“Oh, no, not at all. The Governor is perfectly fine.”

The maid hesitated before explaining, “You might not believe this, but all this blood came from the Chief Guard’s nosebleed. She told us so herself.”

Clara was dumbfounded.

“Huh…?”

“Well, just now, the Chief Guard—who was completely covered in blood—asked us to help clean up the Governor’s study. Apparently, she accidentally bumped her nose, and it ended up splattering all over the walls, the desk, and the floor.”

Clara glanced down at the deep-colored blood in the buckets the maids were carrying. A nosebleed could cause this… much blood loss?

“What about Sister Phantylia?”

“The Chief Guard left after giving us our orders,” the maid replied. “Honestly, we were worried about whether losing that much blood might affect her health, but she seemed fine. She looked like a snowman, completely drenched in blood, but she was still joking around with us like always… Tsk, tsk, the Foxians really are built differently.”

“I see… Sorry for interrupting your work.”

“Haha, Lady Clara, you’re too polite. If you ever need anything, just give us the word.”

As Clara watched the maids march off in unison, she couldn’t shake the feeling that something was… off.

She wasn’t as perceptive as Pela, who could instantly analyze and deconstruct everything into raw data, but with five whole buckets of blood that dark in color… wouldn’t that require at least three to five liters?

With a mix of curiosity and doubt, Clara arrived at the door of Chen Lin’s bedroom. Before she even had a chance to knock, the door swung open—pushed aside by an invisible force of psionic energy.

Whoosh.

The night breeze rustled the curtains, making them flutter. In the warmly lit bedroom, Chen Lin sat at his desk, casually beckoning Clara over.

As she approached, Clara finally noticed the terminal on his desk, its screen projecting a semi-transparent holographic display. Through the hologram, she could see the person on the other end of the call.

It was a beautiful woman with a circular hair clip at her temple. She wore a white, high-necked dress with a delicate ribbon tied at her slender neck—her attire was formal, as if she had just gotten home from work.

At that moment, she was resting her chin in her hands, lying on the desk with a gentle smile. A faint blush tinged her cheeks, and her bright, crystalline eyes occasionally curved into crescent moons.

Clara’s pupils trembled. Why does it feel like my brother keeps meeting all these beautiful women? And video calling them… from their bedrooms?! This relationship… it can’t be shallow, right?

Chen Lin picked up the little girl and sat her on his lap before introducing the woman.

“This is my benefactor, my good friend, and best sister, Asta—the current head of Herta Space Station. Back then, I somehow ended up in the middle of the station while it was under siege by the Legion… After we drove them off, I was seriously injured. If not for Asta taking care of me, I’d probably have been tossed into space and died without even knowing how.”

As he spoke, he added, “Oh, and the relief force that came to support Jarilo-VI? That was Asta’s doing—she hired them for me. The three waves of reinforcements cost over 92 billion credits in total. I think she’s getting a little too comfortable being my creditor since she won’t even let me pay her back.”

Herta Space Station…!

Clara had read about this famous space station before—only now did she realize that its true owner was none other than Madam Herta, the very name enshrined in the station’s title!

Ever since her worldview expanded, Clara had naturally learned about the Genius Society, the legendary organization renowned across the cosmos—an eccentric playground for the most brilliant minds, standing at the very pinnacle of the scientific world’s hierarchy.

If Clara’s dream in the past had been to become an engineer or a scientist, then her dream now was to one day receive an invitation to join this society…

Of course, if Chen Lin didn’t want her to join, she wouldn’t mind either. It wasn’t about membership itself—she simply wanted the qualification that symbolized the highest recognition in the research field.

So, the moment she heard the introduction, Clara immediately recalled everything she had read about Herta Space Station, including numerous online rumors mentioning Asta’s name.

“Wow! Chen, your little sister is so adorable!” Asta’s excited voice came through the call. “What’s her name?”

“Miss Asta, my name is Clara. Thank you for helping Jarilo before…”

Asta’s fair, flawless cheeks flushed slightly with excitement. She waved her hand and said, “Hello, Clara! It’s a pleasure to meet you. But just so we’re clear, don’t take Chen’s nonsense too seriously—I’m not some creditor. That small sum of money? Consider it my treat; it’s nothing to worry about.”

“Sm—Small sum?!”

Jarilo’s star system no longer used credit points as currency, but Belobog had circulated them in the past, so Clara had a general idea of their value. Yet 92 billion credit points… being described as ‘meal money’?

Even just imagining it felt completely absurd!

Clara, full of question marks, turned to look at Chen Lin’s profile. He simply said, “Asta here personally funded the construction of Herta Space Station. She’s not short on cash… Worst case, I’ll go work for her to pay off the debt—beast of burden, endless overtime, day and night…”

“Ew, if you really did that, you’d be working for a lifetime and still wouldn’t pay it off.”

Asta held up four fingers. “I don’t know about other places, but a janitor at our company only makes 40,000 credits per standard system month. And half of that goes to renting a dorm and eating at the cafeteria.”

“You wouldn’t pay me more than that?”

“If you actually came to work for me, I’d give you my entire monthly allowance as your salary. How about it?” Asta said, blowing warm air on her fingertips as her soft pink bangs swayed slightly. She smiled. “I don’t really care much about money, and I’ve never bothered counting how much I make per month… But I do know that when I built this space station, I never noticed my account balance decreasing.”

A space station this massive, and its construction didn’t even put a dent in her account balance? Just how rich was she? Probably on par with her brother…

Clara’s small mouth hung slightly open—her understanding of this beautiful woman’s power had just deepened.

While Clara was still processing this revelation, Chen Lin suddenly ruffled her hair.

“I can’t leave Jarilo-VI for now—there’s too much to do. If I really left, forget everything else, even our dear Chief Scientist here wouldn’t approve. Instead, why don’t you come over to Jarilo and hire me as your personal tea server?”

“Chief… Scientist? You mean Clara?” Asta suddenly pulled out a magnifying glass from who knows where and held it up to her eye, scrutinizing the screen. “I don’t think Clara’s from a long-lived species, is she?”

Across the vast cosmos, long-lived species were too numerous to count. More importantly, without specialized scanning equipment, it was difficult to determine an organic being’s race just by looking.

Besides, this galaxy had countless ways to extend one’s lifespan. If you could imagine it, it existed. And if it didn’t exist, it was only because no one had discovered it yet.

As a result, the very concept of age and lifespan varied drastically from civilization to civilization.

Asta had been keeping a very close eye on Jarilo’s technological progress—especially since she had recruited numerous top-tier researchers from her Technology Development Division and sent them there.

Yet when these people returned from their trip to Jarilo, they were utterly broken, questioning their own qualifications as scientists.

She had received technical support reports from them just a few months ago—reports so absurd that they nearly shattered her worldview.

Things like:

• Farmland that yielded crops every month, producing thousands of tons per acre.

• Machines that looked completely ordinary but could extract massive amounts of high-quality minerals—straight from the air.

• A researcher who spent half his life accumulating knowledge, only to have a bunch of college students learn it all in two weeks—and then start teaching him a few days later.

• Psionic-powered civil engineers who relocated an entire mountain dozens of kilometers away—in half an hour.

One word summarized it all: Absurd.

Even Herta herself had read the reports. Afterward, Asta didn’t see her for two whole months. No one knew where she had gone, and whenever someone asked, she would just snap back with a “None of your damn business.”

Herta never held back her emotions. If she was happy, she showed it. If she was upset, she made it obvious. And if she was pissed, well… she let you know.

“Miss Asta, I’m 15 years old. I’ll be 16 in a few months…” Clara said softly.

“F—Fifteen?”

Asta’s eyebrow twitched visibly. “Clara, what field do you specialize in? Are you interested in astronomy?”

Clara nodded. “I’ve studied a bit of everything.”

Rarely did Asta meet someone genuinely interested in astronomy, so she wanted to continue the discussion. However, Chen Lin cut in first.

“The astronomical anomaly analysis reports I sent you earlier? Clara co-led those studies alongside another scientist. She’s also in charge of the orbital warship factory outside Jarilo-VI, and they’ve already finished their first frigate.”

“…Chen, tell me the truth. Are all your country’s psionics like this?”

Chen Lin chuckled bitterly and shook his head.

“This one’s special. Her psionic potential is at the Psyker level. Most psionics just have minor supernatural abilities—a slightly better memory, a bit of enhanced endurance… Nothing to make a big deal out of. Don’t over-mystify psionics.”

Psionic abilities had varying strengths. The weakest ones could only open doors with their minds or light a cigarette—these were the most common psionics in Jarilo.

Pela had classified psionic potential into three major tiers, mainly because abilities underwent a qualitative transformation upon reaching certain thresholds. Those who reached that level were usually absorbed into military or law enforcement, their identities registered and monitored. This not only allowed for tracking and security, but also ensured that strong psionics couldn’t act recklessly and go unpunished.

For the stability of the state and the safety of the people, sacrificing a bit of privacy was a small price to pay.

Then again, who would throw away a comfortable life just to become a criminal?

With Jarilo’s current psionic communication network, any fugitive would be caught within minutes by local authorities.

After a long pause, Asta finally said, “Chen, I’ll accept the invitation. See you there. As for Madam Herta, I’ll find a chance to give it to her—but I can’t promise she’ll accept… You know how she is. She does what she wants, whenever she wants.”

“No worries. There’s plenty of time.”

After a few more exchanges, the call ended.

In Asta’s bedroom at Herta Space Station, she stared at the terminal, then walked to a machine in the corner, feeding the newly received data into it.

As the machine processed the data, she sighed inwardly.

It had only been a year, yet another major power had emerged in the cosmos. One powerful enough to host a ceremony like this…

Asta picked up the freshly printed document and stepped out of her bedroom. She was on her way to find Herta.

Lying on her desk was another identical document.

Its cover bore the Imperial Emblem, with the bolded title beneath it:

“Interstellar Rift Empire: Jarilo – VIP Invitation to the Grand Military Parade”

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T/N: it seems like... Chen Lin really did not like Phantylia's plan

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!