Kiana and the Captain's Bizarre Adventure

"Sorry, I got your clothes wet."

After Kiana calmed down, she apologized to Himeko. Himeko didn't blame Kiana; instead, she continued to comfort her.

“It’s okay, I don’t mind. You’ve been living up to her expectations of you all these years, haven’t you? Just like I said, she must be very pleased.”

Kiana sniffed, her voice slightly nasal.

"Thank you. May I call you Himeko?"

"Of course, nice to meet you. My name is Himeko, and I'm the navigator of the Starry Sky Train. You can ask me anything about the Starry Sky Train."

"Nice to meet you, Himeko! I am Kiana, Kiana Kaslana, the Herrscher of the End, from the same hometown as Mr. Welt over there."

"The law of the end? Isn't it the one that commands and directs?"

"A Commander?" Kiana scratched her head in confusion. "I'm not a Commander. As for the Herrscher of the End, didn't Mr. Welt tell you about the 'Herrscher'?"

"I'm sorry, Walter rarely talks to us about his hometown. Come on, I'll introduce you to the people on the Star Train."

As she spoke, Himeko led Kiana toward the crowd and began introducing everyone to Kiana one by one.

"This very lively child is named March 7th."

The pink-haired girl whose name was called greeted Kiana warmly, and Kiana nodded slightly in response.

"The one standing there silently is Danheng, the think tank in charge of managing the train. Don't let his quiet demeanor fool you; he's one of the few reliable people on our train. If there's anything you don't understand, you can ask him for help."

Dan Heng nodded slightly.

"And she is someone we met on this space station. She has a star core sealed inside her body. Just to be on the safe side, I extended an invitation to her, but she is still hesitant about joining the Star Train. Her name is Star."

When her name was called, Hoshino was excitedly looking at Kiana, sometimes circling around her, sometimes reaching out to touch her, her eyes full of excitement and curiosity. Kiana was a little uncomfortable for a moment, after all, usually Mei was the one being harassed while she was the one harassing, and now the roles were reversed, which gave Kiana a novel experience.

"As for me, I'm the navigator of this train. I usually decide the destination and the members of the next expedition. Finally, there's Walter, but I don't think I need to introduce him."

"Since the Star Train is a train, shouldn't there be a conductor or something similar?"

"Of course, its name is Pam. However, for some unknown reason, Pam cannot leave the train. So, to ensure that Pam doesn't feel lonely or bored, we usually have members stay on the train to keep Pam company. As for what Pam looks like, I think you'll find out once you board the train."

That's right. After the captain met the train crew and learned about the next mission, she immediately asked to board the train. If it weren't for Welt's assurance that she wasn't a suspicious person, Himeko probably wouldn't have agreed.

After a brief exchange of pleasantries, Kiana quickly became friends with March 7 and Xing. It wasn't that she was deliberately ignoring Danheng; it was just that when Kiana tried to strike up a conversation, Danheng only gave a few perfunctory responses, leaving Kiana unsure how to build a good relationship with him. Meanwhile, the captain was still catching up with Welt, but judging from Welt's less-than-ideal expression, the captain had probably already relayed Tesla's message to Welt before his departure.

Hopefully, once everyone on Earth has the ability to come here and meet, Mr. Walter will be able to curry favor with Dr. Tesla. Suddenly, an unfamiliar voice interrupted everyone's conversation.

"Hey! Didn't I tell Himeko to have you guys come to my office? It's been so long, I'm getting impatient!"

The voice came from a female doll with long black hair and purple eyes. If it weren't for the obvious ball joints at her joints, Kiana might have really mistaken her for a normal human being with her vivid expression and movements.

But who is she? Kiana looked at Himeko with a puzzled expression.

"Her name is Black Tower. She is the true owner of this space station and also the 83rd member of the Genius Club. She did notify me to have you and Xing come to her office, but less than three minutes have passed since then. It seems that her curiosity about you and Xing is greater than ever before, and she couldn't even wait three minutes."

"Of course, one is an unknown envoy and the other has a star core sealed inside him, and strictly speaking, that star core is still my property."

After saying that, Black Tower glanced at Kiana, then looked at Star.

"That's really strange. I built this space station to seal this star core, and it took a lot of effort to completely seal it. Yet someone managed to return to simplicity and seal the star core directly inside a person's body, and it's very stable. As for the other one, I'm even more curious. She's clearly a messenger, but I can't tell which star god's messenger she is. Kiana over there, can you tell me whose messenger you are?"

“I am not the envoy,” Kiana replied, shaking her head.

"Then I'm even more curious. The power and abilities you possess can only be achieved by beings at the level of Commanders. If you're not a Commander, then what are you?"

“My power comes from an entity called [The Cocoon of the End], and people like me are called Herrschers in my homeland.”

Kiana then began to explain the concepts of Herrscher, Cocoon of the End, and Honkai. After a long while, when Kiana finished explaining everything, Black Tower showed an interested expression.

"An advanced civilization created an entity called the Cocoon of the End in order to create its own kind. The Cocoon of the End creates its own kind by 'embracing' civilizations one after another. The product of failure is the existence called the Herrscher. When a civilization can no longer withstand the 'embracing', the Cocoon of the End will reset the entire civilization. When that planet can no longer give birth to civilizations, the Cocoon of the End will leave."

"Honkai energy, an imaginary internal energy mutated by the Cocoon of the End, is corrosive but sufficient as a universal energy source. Although I'd rather study the Cocoon of the End you mentioned than Honkai energy, I'll study Honkai energy first considering practical factors."

"Are you sure? The damage caused by a Honkai energy leak could be substantial. And the follow-up handling would be extremely troublesome."

"Don't worry, I can handle this kind of thing after I've studied it. Are you going to give it to me or not?"

Kiana looked at the black tower in front of her and sighed, finally handing over a Honkai Crystal.

"Here you go. After my treatment, unless there's any strenuous activity, this Honkai crystal won't release Honkai energy on its own. However, I have a condition: you must inform me before you start your research. Of course, informing Mr. Welt is also an option."

"What, you don't trust my abilities?"

Seeing Black Tower frowning in displeasure, Kiana shook her head.

"Of course not. It's just that this Honkai crystal has only undergone simple processing. Once we start studying the early Honkai crystal, it's inevitable that it will start to emit Honkai energy. With me or Mr. Welt present, we can deal with the emitted Honkai energy more effectively."

"Alright, it's not a bad idea to be careful with this unfamiliar form of energy. Okay, that's all for now. Remember to come to my office later."

Black Tower waved to Kiana, signaling that she could leave. Kiana stared blankly at Himeko, who smiled helplessly.

"Sorry, that's just how Black Tower is. She has saved the planet where this space station is located many times, published many papers that have changed the understanding of the entire universe, even mastered the technology of reversing aging, and was appreciated by the erudite and officially joined the genius club. Okay, let's talk about something else first. Black Tower's achievements could be talked about for three days and three nights. If we keep talking about these things next to her, she will probably start to kick us out."

He then led Kiana to the other side, where Welt officially ended his reminiscing with the captain and came to Kiana's side.

"The captain has already told me the official situation. To be honest, even I, who has completed several explorations in this universe, have never heard of the existence of a Will Integration Entity. Moreover, it has knowledge of both the Imaginary Tree and the Quantum Sea, and can freely transport people to parallel worlds. Such an existence is probably even more mysterious than a Star God."

"I've wanted to ask this for a long time: Mr. Walter, what exactly is this 'Star God' that you often mention? And why did Himeko and the others initially think I was a Commander? What exactly is this so-called 'Commander'?"

“That was my oversight,” Walter explained, adjusting his slightly slipping glasses.

"The so-called 'Star Gods' are the embodiment of a philosophical concept. They are pioneers of an idea, walking at the forefront of that idea. After certain conditions are met, they will open up an existence called 'Destiny Path,' and this pioneer will possess all the imaginary energy contained in this Destiny Path, thus ascending to another existence, which is called 'Star God.' Although Star Gods can drive all the imaginary energy within the Destiny Path, they are also tightly bound to the Destiny Path. To be honest, I once confused Star Gods with Herrschers, but in fact, the two are not the same existence."

"As for the messengers, simply put, they are people who are on a certain path of destiny and are given power after being appreciated by the star god. This is also the only way for mortals to contact the star god so far."

"I see. No wonder they all thought I was a Commander at first. My power is indeed similar to that of a Commander in some ways."

"The Cocoon of the End? Speaking of which, your 'embrace' of Earth with the Cocoon of the End is almost complete. Now that you've left Earth, does the Cocoon have any objections?"

“At first, Cocoon did have some objections, but after the unified will communicated with Cocoon alone, Cocoon stopped saying anything.”

"It seems that this unified will is quite powerful. Is it possible that it is connected to the creator of the cocoon, or perhaps it is the creator of the cocoon? Now that it is about to have its own kind, it finally couldn't help but intervene?"

"I asked Cocoon about this before, but Cocoon's answer was no comment. I've also considered this possibility, but if He really is the creator of Cocoon, why didn't He appear when I 'embraced' Cocoon, but only now?"

"There are many suspicious points in this matter. We may have to wait for the information He reveals later to find out the specifics. According to the mission He gave you, you are to follow us on at least two pioneering expeditions, right?"

"Yes, and during this Black Tower space station incident, I also met two people named Kafka and Silver Wolf. Perhaps they were also involved in this incident."

After careful consideration, Kiana decided to only reveal that she had met Kaffa, and that it would be better not to tell Himeko and the others about Eriol's prophecy for the time being.

"Kafka and Silver Wolf? You mean you encountered a Star Core Hunter?"

"Star Core Hunter?"

Although Kiana already knew about this organization in Kafka's memories, and even knew something about its members, she decided not to reveal too much and would pretend not to know about the organization.

"The so-called Star Core Hunters are intergalactic criminal organizations that target star cores. They are all extremely dangerous criminals, and their bounty prices are among the highest in the Interstellar Peace Corporation. As for the Interstellar Peace Corporation, it is also a major intergalactic power. I won't go into the details, but you can learn more about it later in the train's think tank."

"In short, on behalf of the train crew, I welcome you and the captain to the team. Judging by the time, you should probably go to the Black Tower's office soon; she's been waiting long enough, and it would be impolite to keep her waiting any longer."

"Okay, I understand. Let's talk about it properly on the train later."

After saying goodbye to Welt, Kiana arrived at the Black Tower's office after asking around.