The diary ended here abruptly.
The past of the original owner of this body also stopped with these messy words on that April 25th that could never end.
It was like turning a page of history, a heavy and dark history.
Although that turbulent and obscure past was just yesterday, just the night before he came to this world, at that time he was still looking forward to checking his own Star Rail beta qualification on a mobile app.
Obviously, Ye Cang’s luck did not bring him a satisfactory result, otherwise he would not have spent a considerable sum to buy a Honkai: Star Rail beta qualification from a scalper.
Who would have thought that this purchase actually got him a real Astral Express ticket.
And then, he came here.
“…”
Ye Cang took a deep breath, closed the pitch-black Death Diary, shut his eyes, and felt the cold touch of the book cover in his hand.
He felt as if the entire universe was spinning around him, and as if boundless darkness was surging toward him, trying to swallow him whole.
He opened his eyes again, forcibly suppressed the urge to explore the Astral Express, sat down by the desk, picked up a pen, and began to draw ink.
After a brief silence, the confusion and fear in his heart were finally overcome by reason.
He picked up the pen, twisted the barrel tight, quickly turned the Death Diary to the latest page, and began to write:
–+–
[Star Rail Era Year 1, April 26th – Astral Express]
1.
My name is [Ye Cang].
Before transmigrating, I was a third-year student from China on Earth.
I transmigrated to this world because I bought an outrageously priced Honkai: Star Rail beta qualification from a scalper.
I suspect this world may be a parallel world of Honkai: Star Rail, with an independent Lovecraftian cosmic horror setting.
It is very eldritch and very dangerous!
2.
The original owner of this body was named [Cang].
He is suspected to be a time-reversing transmigrator.
He tried to strangle some kind of eldritch contamination in the cradle before it spread, but ultimately failed.
He also seemed to be eroded by some kind of eldritch contamination, and killed the other companions on the train again and again.
Based on the diary’s clues, he should have gone mad, or died.
3.
Is [Cang] really dead?
Is my transmigration related to his madness?
4.
In this world, memory seems to be a very unreliable thing.
The reason is unclear for now.
I suspect it may be related to Fuli, the Aeon of Remembrance.
Be careful of [Fuli] and Their followers, the [Garden of Recollection].
5.
Death Diary.
This name is not very pleasant, but now is not the time to dwell on it.
The Death Diary is suspected to have a time-reversal function.
Every death of the user will return them to the previous day (?) or to the time of the last diary entry (?).
This conclusion still needs verification.
For now, let us treat it as a save point.
6.
The memory of each death disappears rapidly (?).
This item needs verification.
Of course, if possible, I hope there will never be a day when it is verified.
7.
What is the eldritch contamination that [Cang] mentioned many times?
Has the crisis on the Astral Express been resolved?
8.
What does “be careful of March 7th” mean?
9.
I am going to explore the Astral Express.
If the diary for the 26th ends abruptly here, it means I encountered danger.
Please be careful.
–+–
“…”
Ye Cang raised his head and glanced at the starry sky outside the window.
It was brilliant and boundless, captivating.
The originally suppressed fear in his heart seemed to be diluted quite a bit.
After confirming that he had nothing else to record in the Death Diary, he closed the black leather diary, carefully tucked it into his chest, and did not forget to clip the pen onto the cover as well.
Time to go out.
The moment he made this decision, Ye Cang took a deep breath, reached out, and grasped the metal handle of the door.
Before summoning the courage to open it, he looked around again, confirmed that there was not a single self-defense item within sight that could barely be called a “weapon,” and gave up.
He exerted force in his wrist.
Click
The lock cylinder turned, emitting a tense metallic mechanism sound.
The door opened.
He did not go out directly, but carefully opened a crack, then through that narrow gap, cautiously observed the scene in the train corridor.
It was very quiet, even deathly silent, like going deep into an empty kingdom, or an empty palace.
The reason for such a metaphor was that the decoration of the train corridor was far more magnificent, elegant, and luxurious than what Ye Cang had seen in the game.
It made one have to praise the conductor’s taste, or rather the artistic attainments of Akivili, the Aeon of Trailblaze.
Considering that Akivili was already dead, he preferred to believe that it was the work of Navigator Himeko.
“Himeko…”
Thinking of that woman, Ye Cang, a six-year veteran captain, could not help but feel a pang in his heart…
and then it only lasted a moment.
Although it was just a game, that red-haired woman’s final lesson still unavoidably left a mark in his heart.
So, naturally, Ye Cang began to empathize with [Cang] in the diary.
That kind of pain of being unable to protect loved ones despite giving everything, that kind of despair of watching the people you want to protect die one after another before your eyes, until finally discovering that you are the culprit behind it all…
He could not imagine how utterly devastated [Cang] must have been at that moment when endless pain and despair erupted in his heart all at once.
He only knew…
Today is the 26th.
That 25th that could never be escaped was over.
And the person standing here was Ye Cang.
He took another deep breath, a faint ache in his heart.
But this time, he walked out of the door and into the empty corridor.
Although he did not know how [Cang] finally escaped the 25th, there was no doubt that he had at least broken that loop.
Suicide would restart time.
And if he wanted to save everyone on the Astral Express, he had to actively restart time, then trial and error between life and death again and again…
But according to the diary, the “monster” that killed Himeko and the others was himself.
How did he manage to kill that “monster” without triggering the loop?
Ye Cang stopped, his expression grave.
He opened the diary, supported his arm and palm below it, and quickly added two more sentences with his pen.
–+–
10.
The corridor is empty, tentatively safe.
[Cang]’s method of breaking the loop is very likely related to my transmigration.
Death triggers the loop, so what if the soul is killed while the body is still alive?
(To argue this, one must first prove that in the world of Honkai: Star Rail, the soul is a real thing and not a vague philosophical concept.)
11.
Based on the conjecture in item 10, if [Cang] wanted to protect everyone on the Astral Express, he could only kill the “monster” first.
And he himself should not have a way to kill his own soul, so the possibility of third-party intervention cannot be ruled out…
An Aeon?
Yes, he said he was the Emanator of an Aeon.
That Aeon’s name is…
[xxxx].
–+–
“…” Ye Cang raised two fingers, gently pressed them against his brow, and rubbed counterclockwise for a moment.
He always felt that these four characters seemed familiar, yet he had no impression of them at all.
He had no choice but to close the diary and walk along the corridor toward the car where the train’s head was located.
During this time, he passed three rooms in succession.
The nameplates read Welt, Himeko, and March 7th.
They were presumably their respective rooms.
He tried turning the doorknobs.
Without exception, none opened.
The door to the data room was unlocked, but it was empty, with no sign of Dan Heng as Ye Cang had imagined.
So he wrote another passage in the diary.
–+–
12.
Two abnormalities: March 7th’s door cannot be opened, and Dan Heng is not in the data room.
No danger encountered for now.
–+–
At this point, there was nothing left to explore in this car.
Ye Cang tucked the diary into his chest and walked toward the observation car ahead.
He cautiously pushed open the isolation door between the two cars, his body slightly bowed, stepping back, ready to deal with possible danger at any moment.
Creak
The imagined impact and horror did not come.
After the isolation door opened, what appeared before him was a beautiful, energetic young woman.
She had neatly trimmed pink semi-long hair, beautiful gradient-colored pupils like pink crystal half-submerged at the boundary of sea and sky blue, and wore a highly personalized blue-and-white jacket with a sailor-style collar.
At this moment, she was holding a plate of small cakes, her body half-turned, looking at the stunned Ye Cang in surprise, and then a cute smile like the morning sun appeared on her face.
“Hi!
Ye Cang, are you awake?
I was just about to bring you some small cakes!
Come try them!
These are amazing desserts baked by Conductor Pom-Pom himself!”
“March…
March 7th?”
Ye Cang was dazed.
Before he could react further, the pink-haired girl in front of him had already affectionately linked her arm with his and pulled him into the observation car.
It was also at this moment that he noticed that in the center of the elegantly decorated observation car, with huge semi-transparent glass on both sides, a long wooden table was placed.
Welt Yang, Himeko, Dan Heng, and Pom-Pom were each sitting on either side of the long table, leaving the empty seats at both ends for the not-yet-seated Ye Cang and March 7th.
“Everyone…
is here.”
Ye Cang, looking bewildered, was pushed by March 7th from behind into the main seat.
The sly girl had already skipped to the other end of the long table, raised her slender foot, leaned forward, one small hand on the table, the other holding up a crystal goblet toward Ye Cang, and giggled: “Come on, let’s celebrate our banquet’s protagonist, young Ye Cang, successfully reaching Star Rail Era April 26th!
Cheers!”
“…” Ye Cang’s smile suddenly froze on his face.
Ye Cang?
How does she know my name is Ye Cang?
The owner of this body that she knows should be called [Cang]!
And “successfully reaching the 26th”…
this is a fact that no one knows except himself and the previous owner of this body!
Then, he remembered the sentence [Cang] wrote at the end of the diary:
Be careful of March 7th.