Is Unlocking the Stellaris Tech Tree in Star Rail Really Okay? [267]

Lush greenery filled the courtyard, with blossoms in full bloom all year round, firmly rooted in the fertile soil.

Within the pavilion, two figures sat by a stone table—one tall, one petite—engrossed in conversation.

The table was covered with countless sheets of densely packed calculations. If stacked together, they would likely reach six or seven meters high.

A young girl, draped in a white lab coat, cradled a metallic sphere in her thin, delicate hands, explaining its function to the man before her. When she saw him nod in agreement with a smile, the joy in her expression was unmistakable.

“At first, it was Sister Serval folding origami for the kids at the nearby orphanage. But as she kept folding, she suddenly realized something—by changing the creases and fixing certain points, an ordinary piece of paper could take on countless different forms."

“At that time, I was working on improving the analytical device, but I hit a problem. The data collected was chaotic and disorganized—if we didn’t find a way to decode it, the results would be infinite… So I tried looking for a universal key to unlock the information. That’s when Sister Serval shared her thoughts with me."

“She proposed a theory: if all of space-time—including both visible and invisible aspects—were like a blank sheet of paper, then every fold would represent a different manifestation of the world. But no two folded shapes could ever be exactly the same; there would always be slight variations at the edges. That means even if they look identical, their underlying structures would be fundamentally different—essentially, distinct worlds."

“Sister Serval then thought of the Imaginary Projection Device, which can use a sufficient amount of energy and psionics to ‘pop’ a person’s consciousness into another strange dimension. If that’s the case, then wouldn’t the particle beam emitted during the device’s energy convergence briefly form a link between two different ‘sheets of paper’—from A to B?"

“So she asked me to calculate the particle beam model of the Imaginary Projection Device. After over 90,000 tests, we finally verified that the formula actually worked…”

Clara’s small face flushed red with excitement as she recounted their discoveries over the past year.

She hadn’t seen Chen Lin in a long time. He had visited her recently, but she had been too buried in her research to notice. She had been tinkering with a new device—one that could envelop any atom or electron in psionic energy and, through high-speed collisions, reassemble unrelated particles into any shape.

During testing, she stumbled upon a peculiar energy that interfered with particle assembly. Whenever certain particles formed a specific pattern, a powerful repulsion reaction occurred—sometimes generating intense heat, other times triggering outright explosions.

This energy remained unobservable for now—or rather, Clara’s team had yet to find the correct method of detection. As a result, they were left blindly experimenting, systematically testing possible repulsion-triggering combinations to uncover an underlying pattern—either validating a hypothesis or discarding it entirely.

The Imaginary Projection Device, on the other hand, had emerged after Chen Lin unlocked the traditions of the Imaginary Realm. Incredibly, a group of Jarilo-VI scientists had gone to sleep one night, only to wake up with sudden flashes of inspiration. Within just two weeks, they had figured out how to enter the Imaginary Realm.

If asked to explain the finer principles, most scientists couldn’t. They would simply say, My brain just got fired up, and I thought, “Hey, this might work.” And then, somehow, it did.

The Imaginary Projection Device required vast amounts of energy and psionics to operate, allowing users to project their consciousness into the Imaginary Realm. Within that space, time seemingly did not exist. Some researchers claimed to have spent mere minutes inside; others swore they had been there for months—even years.

Yet, when their consciousness returned to their bodies, only ten seconds had passed.

Additionally, those who returned often exhibited psionic fluctuations.

Some, previously ordinary in psionic potential, came back with power rivaling elite soldiers of the Psionic Legion. Others, who had shown no particular talent in scientific research, suddenly became geniuses overnight, proposing theories far beyond current technological understanding.

And some… never woke up at all. Their minds had become completely unresponsive—brainwave activity nearly indistinguishable from the dead.

Clearly, the secrets of the Imaginary Realm extended beyond Clara’s comprehension. Yet, her deep research into it had led to a groundbreaking discovery—she had developed an intricate mathematical model that formed the basis of the small sphere in her hands.

This sphere could autonomously process calculations based on Clara’s mathematical model, constantly generating and analyzing new possible formations.

But what was the point of these formations?

Clara was searching for a model that could correspond precisely to their current reality, aiming to validate Serval’s Dimensional Theory—to determine whether their world was truly limited to just three dimensions or if higher dimensions coexisted.

If they were merely in a three-dimensional world, then where were the Aeons—beings beyond human perception—watching from?

If their world was only three-dimensional, then where did the Imaginary Projection Device send a person’s consciousness?

Serval’s theory suggested that the world was not limited to three dimensions but instead comprised multiple coexisting dimensions. Humans, due to their own dimensional constraints, could at most perceive three.

Clara agreed with this hypothesis. To test it, she and Serval placed an ant on a geometrically complex structure. The structure linked to another, completely enclosed shape in a seemingly seamless extension. Then, they imagined viewing the world from the ant’s perspective.

After this experiment, their belief in the theory only grew stronger.

Initially, Clara’s model had yielded just over a dozen possible solutions. Given enough computational power, she had hoped to narrow them down and eliminate incorrect ones.

However…

As time passed, the number of valid solutions increased from dozens to hundreds—and now, it had grown into the millions.

Faced with this boundless uncertainty, Clara was gripped by despair. She even began to doubt whether her mathematical model was flawed. But no matter how many times she revalidated and recalculated, the equations remained unchanged.

Disheartened, she had left her lab—only to receive an invitation from Chen Lin. Initially, she felt undeserving of such an honor, thinking she had failed to produce anything worthwhile. But Serval had gone and informed Chen Lin about her concerns, leading him to personally drag her out of the research institute.

Clara’s current joy wasn’t because she had momentarily set aside her work—it was because she had finally found a breakthrough.

After arriving at Qlipoth Palace, Chen Lin had sat with her, going over the entire calculation process. He reassured her that her model was flawless, but her approach had hit a bottleneck, preventing further extensions.

Thus, all the forms derived from her calculations were indeed correct!

He then introduced her to the concept of parallel universes.

Even Chen Lin had only speculated about parallel universes in the past—no one had ever been able to prove their existence.

When he had first unlocked the Imaginary Realm, an influx of knowledge had poured into his mind.

The Zroni had once grappled with these same questions, pouring vast resources into their research. Otherwise, the Kruz Civilization would never have discovered a reclusive group of Zroni hiding within the so-called “Wall.”

Among the Zroni, there had existed a theory—the Monpaysefi Hypothesis—which used mathematical models to demonstrate the existence of parallel timelines. And Clara’s mathematical framework? It was the foundation of the Monpaysefi Hypothesis.

No wonder Chen Lin had always thought of Clara as a supergenius.

Even if he had said nothing—even if he had given her no guidance—Clara would have eventually pieced together the Monpaysefi Hypothesis on her own, reconstructing the theory and proving the existence of parallel universes step by step.

By the time Chen Lin finished explaining, the entire morning had passed. Like a diligent student, Clara absorbed every lesson, the mental block in her mind breaking apart like a dam under a flood. Enlightenment swept over her.

She then began recounting her past year and a half to Chen Lin—how her life revolved entirely around research, eating, and sleeping, completely detached from the outside world. Every day was either spent inside the lab or on the way to the lab.

Chen Lin felt both a pang of heartache for the little girl and a deep sense of awe at the breadth and depth of her knowledge.

If not for the knowledge torrents he had unlocked, he probably wouldn’t even be able to lift his head in front of her.

How humiliating…

It wasn’t surprising that Chen Lin had such thoughts—frankly, researchers across the entire nation shared them. After all, Clara’s talent was downright monstrous.

Even the scientists who had originally come to Jarilo-VI for technical assistance had suffered devastating blows to their confidence. Some had spent their entire lives on a single theory, only to present it proudly—only to have this teenage girl not only prove them wrong but also fix their mistakes for them. How could anyone’s self-esteem not crumble?

Now that her mental block was gone, Clara was practically glowing with joy. She was about to start refining a new device when Chen Lin mercilessly interrupted her.

“Take two days off. No work. I’m taking you out.”

“Ah… But, brother…”

Chen Lin feigned displeasure. “Don’t tell me you didn’t understand the things I just taught you.”

“I understood! I really did! None of this is hard for me. Even if I forget, I can just derive it all again. It’s just…” Clara hesitated, eyes darting between the equations on the table and Chen Lin in front of her.

The new theory was fascinating, and she really wanted to keep exploring it. But… it had been so long since she had last spent time with Chen Lin. The last time he had taken her out for fun, she still lived under Cocolia’s rule.

Chen Lin remained silent, simply watching her.

After a moment, Clara lifted her pale chin, but the second their eyes met, she shrank back down, whispering timidly, “…Then… then Clara will go.”

Her hesitation lasted no more than half a second before she pushed all the equations from her mind. Formulas could be worked out anytime, but going out with big brother wasn’t something she could do whenever she wanted.

Besides, she had so, so much she wanted to talk to him about.

Chen Lin chuckled. “That’s more like it.”

He scooped up the little girl and playfully tossed her into the air a few times before they changed clothes and headed out into the city.

For the past year and a half, Clara had buried herself in research, practically living in her lab. The only times she left were to gather data at test sites. She had no idea what Belobog even looked like anymore—especially the new cities, which she had never once visited.

Now, perched on Chen Lin’s shoulders, Clara held a melting ice cream cone—something she once couldn’t afford and now never had time to buy—while listening to him recount his adventures in Xianzhou Luofu.

He told her about Welt’s disappearance, his mission to track down missing allies, his first encounter with the mindless Marastruck at the freight docks of Starskiff Haven… and how he had saved a young Foxian girl from its clutches.

Chen Lin had a natural talent for storytelling. It came from his years of guest lecturing alongside senior directors, standing on university podiums to teach students in his field. Dry, technical jargon had never suited him; he preferred painting vivid, engaging narratives to explain complex theories.

During his time giving lectures, the hall was always packed. Students had even joked that listening to Professor Chen made learning so much easier.

When he returned to the research institute, his colleagues often teased him about not choosing a stable teaching position and instead wasting his talents on backbreaking research that barely paid.

“When I found out the Disciple of Sanctus Medicus—an ancient organization thought to be extinct—was suddenly making a high-profile resurgence, General Jing Yuan and I immediately realized something was off. Someone was deliberately stirring the waters, using the Disciple of Sanctus Medicus as a distraction to mislead us.

“That night, Jing Yuan and I had a long conversation, sharing the same bed as we devised a counterstrategy. We decided to play along—allowing me to infiltrate the Disciples, gather intel, and make a grand show of destroying one of their hideouts. This would lull their true backers into a false sense of security.

“But the Disciples turned out to be far craftier than we anticipated. Their structure was closer to a pyramid scheme—isolated cells with no direct communication. Only the regional leaders could contact their superiors…

“So I had to get creative. After coordinating with the local Cloud Knights, we staged an elaborate act, framing the original leader. Then, after a ‘fierce battle’ where I pretended to escape with a few low-ranking members, I successfully took over as the new regional head. That’s how I gained full control over the Disciples operations in that sector…”

Clara listened with a mix of admiration and envy.

A heart-to-heart talk… sharing a bed…

As Chen Lin continued, Clara mentally reconstructed each event, placing herself in his shoes—maneuvering through Xianzhou, outwitting conspiracies, and turning the tides of battle.

The twists and turns were incredible. Dan Shu, once a respected healer, was revealed as the leader of the Disciples. Tingyun, the charming merchant who had been by his side, was actually the mastermind behind it all.

And when Clara heard that Tingyun was, in fact, a Lord Ravager, she gasped and clapped a hand over her mouth.

Even though Clara rarely stepped outside, she was aware of what an Lord Ravager was.

By now, Jarilo-VI had access to a much broader information network. Even a recluse like Clara knew that this was a being of terrifying power.

Her eyes sparkled with awe as Chen Lin recounted his hundred-day-and-night battle against the Lord Ravager, Phantylia. But then, her excitement faded as she realized… she had never accomplished anything nearly as important.

Her mood sank.

Fortunately, Chen Lin had no idea what she was thinking. If he did, he would’ve flicked her forehead on the spot.

To say Clara had done nothing was the most absurd understatement imaginable.

The fact that Jarilo-VI now had an independent shipbuilding platform—one that had even started mass-producing warships—was directly tied to Clara’s contributions.

Sure, their current production was slow, and they could only build corvettes using Chen Lin’s blueprints. But that was already miraculous. Just a year and a half ago, Jarilo-VI was a civilization that hadn’t even mastered aviation, let alone spaceflight.

And Clara?

She was responsible for 90% of the project.

Many of the platform’s modular components, as well as key parts of the warships themselves, had been manually assembled by Clara using her unique abilities.

That’s right—Clara had literally built starships with her bare hands.

Let that sink in.

If you dropped Clara into any technologically underdeveloped civilization, the best-case scenario would be that her knowledge destabilized their society beyond recognition. The worst-case scenario? She could trigger an all-out world war.

And yet, somehow, this naive little genius had convinced herself that she had no accomplishments to speak of… all because she was comparing herself to Chen Lin.

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T/N: HOLY CLARA? ??? ?? clara built this in a CAVE with a box of SCRAPS

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!