[Xianzhou Luofu]
[Star Skiff Central Hub]
A white-haired young man in blue clothes sat below the stage, listening to Mr. Xiyan telling stories.
The young man's name was Nero, a native of the Xianzhou, this life, and his previous life as well.
In his previous life, after getting three golds in a ten-pull on the Firefly banner, Nero got so excited he blacked out. When he opened his eyes again, he was already in a new world. It has now been three days.
Although he had no money nor influence, thanks to a good-looking face he never had in his former life, Nero was noticed by Mengming and hired by the Evernight Marquis as a sort of mascot.
He occasionally also served as the prototype for Mr. Xiyan's newly written story, The Universal Sword Immortal.
The Evernight Marquis provided Nero basic food, warmth, and a place to stay, so his life after transmigrating wasn't too difficult.
And during the three days Nero spent wandering the streets, he confirmed one thing, damn it, he actually ended up inside Honkai: Star Rail.
No need to think much about it, this was definitely Aha's doing.
Following the principle of "since I'm here, I might as well accept it," Nero adapted to the new world pretty fast. But he still couldn't feel happy.
Yesterday, Nero went near the Sky-faring Commission and looked from afar. He saw Tingyun, the chief representative of the Whistling Flames Merchant Guild.
Meaning the Express Crew still hadn't arrived in the Luofu at this point, which meant the Ambrosial Arbor disaster afterwards would definitely drag him into it!
With his tiny arms and thin legs, he'd most likely become a casualty. He wanted to run early, but he had no money.
The hand holding his teacup trembled slightly. Nero sighed, his heart filled with misery.
He couldn't run, and he couldn't fight.
He hadn't even lived through the process of growing from a child to a teenager in this new life, it was visibly short-lived.
And just when Nero was frowning over his foreseeable, extremely short new life, a crisp electronic voice suddenly rang in his ear.
[Ding! Congratulations Host, for successfully living until system awakening. The Popular Character System is at your service.]
Nero's hand instantly tightened, his eyes widening.
Only after personally experiencing it does one understand just how thrilling the sound of that "Ding!" really is.
After the brief excitement, Nero calmed his expression and asked in his mind, 'What can you do?'
[Ding! This system is dedicated to training the host into the most popular game character. The host may interfere with game-related content through the system to increase your screen time.]
[The higher the host's popularity, the stronger your power becomes, and this function is based on the host's historical highest popularity.]
[Also, the host does not need to worry about MiHoYo staff noticing inconsistencies caused by system interference, the system will ensure all changes appear reasonable.]
'So powerful... Show me something first, let me see what you can do.'
[Ding! Honkai: Star Rail will officially launch tomorrow on Blue Star. Today, the OP 'Interstellar Journey' will be released. Host, please make your interference...]
[T/N: Blue Star refers to our Earth]
———
[Reality, Blue Star]
7:30 p.m. A well-known HoYoverse streamer named "Siberian Duck" was helping viewers clear Genshin's Spiral Abyss.
This girl used a virtual avatar, and among viewers she was famous for calling everyone "brother," her easy high scoring, and her contagious explosive laughter.
Suddenly, chat messages began flooding the screen,
[Main streamer: Stop the Abyss! Star Rail just dropped the Star Rail OP!]
[I Use Pantene: The OP is gorgeous, super high production value, and the song is great!]
[My Pee Is Yellow: There are bare feet in the OP, stepping on snow... hehehehe... slurp...]
Siberian Duck noticed the flood of messages, immediately paused the Abyss, and said excitedly, "Really? Then why keep playing Abyss, let's watch it! I've been looking forward to the official launch of this game for so long. Tomorrow I'm absolutely streaming on time for the start. I'm giving up my weekend break for this."
As she spoke, Siberian Duck smoothly switched screens, opened the official Honkai: Star Rail channel, and clicked on Interstellar Journey.
In the video, a tarot card was being toyed with in Kafka's hand.
In an instant, a powerful piece of music burst forth.
The moment she heard the music, Siberian Duck couldn't help swaying along. On screen, as Kafka tossed out a tarot card, the Star Rail logo appeared.
The first to appear were, of course, the protagonists, Stelle and Caelus. Then came close-ups of the Astral Express crew, Himeko, Dan Heng, March 7th... Then there were close-ups of other characters, some seen in previous tests, some entirely new.
"It's the Express crew! Ah! Looks like there are characters we didn't see in the beta! Dan Heng is so handsome!"
Siberian Duck's reactions were immediate. Some viewers who had already watched the OP before showed an "I've seen things" attitude.
[Kamisato Ayaka's Dog: Keep watching, it gets even cooler later!]
[Dan-Heart Everlasting:Dan Heng is handsome, but the white-haired sword immortal is so handsome my little brother can't stay straight!]
[The Hero: Bro, what the hell, down tremendous!]
The video continued. A few characters flashed by, then the screen stayed on a snowy landscape.
Seele, Jing Yuan, Yanqing, Xueyi, and several others each unleashed their abilities, all charging toward a huge mechanical being, the Artifex Engine.
The Artifex Engine faced them head-on, the eye on its head firing a red laser. With the screen shaking, the sense of pressure was overwhelming.
Right at that moment, a silver sword light slashed through the center of the screen, instantly splitting the scene into two. A smooth transition followed, shifting the scene to the Herta Space Station.
A Herta puppet stood on the platform watching as a Doomsday Beast charged toward the station, but at the same time a fire-lit meteor shot up from the far side of Blue Star at an even faster speed, instantly igniting the screen.
Another transition, Welt stared at the Artifex Engine, unable to look away. The protagonist began their flame-spear charge, and finally, holding the spear, stood before Nanook.
In the next moment, the scene dispersed like ink in water. Within the thick mist, the Abundance's Mystic Deer replaced Nanook, and the Express crew appeared behind the protagonist. A figure in blue stood before the Mystic Deer with hands clasped behind his back, shielding everyone.
The scene gave that white-haired youth a close-up. He raised one hand, forming a sword gesture, flicked upward, and the same sword light as before sliced the screen cleanly in two.
The scene returned to Kafka, tarot cards scattered on the ground as she turned and walked away.
Thus, the video ended.
In this video, the final appearance of Nero left just the right amount of suspense.
Siberian Duck sat before her computer, her avatar in the corner staring in shock.
"Holy crap! Huh? Isn't this like an anime? This is way too cool! MiHoYo went all out again! But who's this white-hair guy? I never saw him in the beta!"
As Siberian Duck "resurrected," the chat exploded again,
[Chemical Grinders: WHITE HAIR! sniff sniff...]
[I Use Pantene: Confirmed, this is a targeted strike on my weak point!]
[Battle Power Is Also a Hobby: There are two scenes where the screen was sliced clean, White Hair must be some kind of master!]
[My Pee Is Yellow: I don't care anymore, brothers! Even if his face close-up was only for a moment, I'm pulling early!!]
[jz1099: Are you pulling for him or for ME?]
———
[Inside the Game]
[Ding! The OP has been released. The host has successfully gained a wave of attention. Over two thousand people rewatched the host's scenes after finishing the OP. Host's strength increased.]
[Rewarded skill: Clear Breeze in Both Sleeves.]
As the system voice faded, a refreshing sensation spread through Nero's body from the inside out, making him involuntarily let out a soft "Ah~"
His strength was rising, Nero could feel it vividly.
When the feeling of his hollow body being slowly filled faded, Nero realized that everyone listening to the storytelling around him was staring at him with strange expressions.
His old face flushed red. He lowered his head.
It was all Aha's fault, making him embarrass himself like this.
After cursing Aha in his heart, even though Aha had nothing to do with it, Nero checked the skill Clear Breeze in Both Sleeves. But the system description was only a few words.
[Use wind as a sword, follow like a shadow; lightly touch the water, cut falling red leaves.]
He didn't understand it, but it sounded incredibly powerful.
After a short silence, Nero decided to try out the new skill later.
To keep steadily gaining popularity so he could become strong enough to survive inside Star Rail, he felt it was best to appear more often, not wait until the Stellaron Crisis reached the Luofu before showing up officially.
So he asked the system if he could enter the story early.
[Ding! Of course. A very cool entrance has already been arranged for the host.]
"Good good good! I love being cool."
Nero grinned like a fool.