Honkai Dream Swap - 341
--+--
“Mmm—finally, we’re here. The Family’s entry process is way too much. We went through over a dozen checks on the way in, and they searched our luggage four or five times…”
At the front desk of The Reverie Hotel, March 7th let out a huge yawn and grumbled under her breath.
“I was starting to wonder if they wanted to dig out your Stellaron and take a look at that too…”
“At least for now, the Stellaron’s mood is still stable.” Stelle folded her arms. “But the one they checked the hardest was probably Corruption-chan, right?”
“I don’t know why, but the Family’s inspection process for energy lifeforms is so absurdly long that I’m starting to wonder if it’d be faster for Corruption-chan to skip the energy form and go through the companion pet check as a Swarm King instead…”
“Ehehe… I wouldn’t mind being Lynelle’s pet…”
“Dummy, don’t say things people could misunderstand!” Lynelle saw Misha walking toward them and quickly knocked Corruption-chan on the head.
Misha might not have Mikhail’s memories yet, but she still didn’t want to leave some strange first impression on this great senior Nameless.
“Welcome to The Reverie Hotel! My name’s Misha. If you’d like to check in, please head to the front desk. If you need help carrying your luggage, you can call me anytime.”
“It’s the kid from the dream…” Stelle paused for a moment as pieces of that dream seemed to flash through her mind. With a hint of curiosity, she began chatting with Misha.
“Then I’ll go check on Himeko and Mr. Yang first?” March turned to Lynelle.
“Yeah, go ahead. Stelle might be talking for a while.” Lynelle nodded, then lowered her voice. “That blue-haired kid might be a huge Astral Express fan, you know? Look, there’s a tiny ticket mark on his necktie.”
“Huh? You’re right…” March froze. “But I remember Pom-Pom saying this style of special pass is only owned by Nameless who’ve been aboard the Express… At least, I don’t think anyone would make a fake of something like that, right?”
“Could that kid be some hidden member of the crew too?”
“Who knows?” Lynelle blinked. “Maybe it’s just like you said. Or maybe some people simply copied the ticket and turned it into a souvenir…”
“Mmm, it is kind of hard not to think about… Forget it. I’ll ask Himeko later.” March didn’t dwell on it and walked straight toward the hotel front desk.
A few minutes later, though, March 7th came rushing back with a nervous look on her face.
“Lynelle, Stelle, Corruption-chan… There’re a lot of people gathered at the desk. Himeko and the others look like they’re in trouble!”
“Very sorry, Miss Himeko…”
By the time everyone reached the front desk, they happened to hear the troubled voice of Alley, the hotel receptionist.
“According to our records, the Astral Express has reserved four platinum guest rooms in total. They’re under Mr. Welt Yang, Miss Himeko, Miss March 7th, and… Mr. Dan Heng. These are indeed the only four reservations we have.”
“Uh…” Stelle froze, then nodded with a solemn look and tugged on Lynelle’s sleeve. “Yes. I’m Dan.”
Lynelle gave Stelle a strange look, then tilted her head. “Then… I’m Heng?”
“Yes. The two of them are Dan Heng.” Corruption-chan put on a thoughtful expression. “So I should be Mister.”
“This really isn’t the time for jokes, you dummy!”
“Dan Heng… I see. When we replied to the Family, Lynelle and the others hadn’t boarded the Express yet.” Welt came to a realization.
“Here’s the situation. Dan Heng can’t come for the moment because of certain matters, and in the meantime, the Astral Express has welcomed several new Nameless. Would it be possible to add two more rooms for us, then transfer Dan Heng’s room to Stelle’s name?”
“These three children are new passengers of the Astral Express. I can vouch for their identities,” Himeko said with a nod.
“That may be…” The receptionist looked troubled. “It’s not that I doubt your identities, but the Charmony Festival is about to begin. At this time, I’m afraid it’ll be difficult to arrange new rooms on short notice. Also, changing the room list at the last minute is somewhat complicated…”
“Uh, actually, Corruption-chan and I can stay in Herta’s room… Then Stelle can take Dan Heng’s room.” Lynelle thought for a moment, then took out Herta’s proof of authorization.
“If I remember right, members of the Genius Society are permanent VIP guests of the Family, so there should be a room reserved for Herta here too, right?”
“I’m her assistant, Lynelle. This is the proof she gave me earlier. If you doubt its authenticity, you can send an inquiry to The Blue right now.”
“Ma-Madam Herta? This…”
The moment she heard Herta’s name, Miss Alley seemed to think of something rather unpleasant.
For a brief second, her expression slipped out of her control. Still, her training as a service worker let her restore her attitude fast.
“I’m very sorry. To be safe, we do need to verify the authenticity of this letter. But Madam Herta’s whereabouts are unpredictable, so I’m afraid you may need to wait a little longer…”
“Haha, why make it so troublesome?”
Just then, a voice came from behind them.
“Miss Alley, with the Charmony Festival so close, there’s no need to waste time on something so meaningless. I can vouch for Miss Lynelle’s identity. She’s indeed Madam Herta’s sole and very important assistant. This has long been recorded with the IPC, and her relationship with Herta is quite close.”
“You are… Mr. Aventurine?”
Just as expected… He took the bait.
Hearing the voice behind her, the corners of Lynelle’s lips curved up a little. Herta’s proof could solve the problem, but unless she had no choice, Lynelle didn’t want to cause trouble for Herta.
Besides, in this matter at least, someone else would be more anxious than she was.
That someone was Aventurine.
At the start of Penacony’s events, Aventurine, who was more or less alone, would have to look for allies through every method he could and find a way to break into the Family’s defenses.
In his plan, the Astral Express was an important piece.
Aventurine would line up behind the Astral Express on purpose and use that chance to get involved with them in a natural way.
But if Lynelle solved the whole thing using Herta’s identity, his plan would fall apart completely. Any contact he tried to make with the Express afterward would feel forced.
So as long as Lynelle took out the proof, Aventurine would jump out before Alley could verify her identity and solve the matter himself.
Of course, that alone probably wouldn’t be enough to justify his contact with the Express. He’d surely find some other reason too…
“Indeed. I’m Aventurine, humble as I am, of the IPC’s Strategic Investment Department. I’m a Non-Performing Asset Liquidation Specialist under [Diamond], and I’m here by invitation of [the Watchmaker].” Aventurine gave the group a slight bow, then looked toward Lynelle.
“Of course, that title may sound a little unfamiliar to you all… But Miss Lynelle, do you remember helping a friend of mine in Belobog?”
“You mean Topaz?”
“Exactly.” Aventurine smiled. “If Miss Lynelle hadn’t stepped in so promptly to hold back that troublemaking Masked Fool, and if the Express crew hadn’t helped Bronya with advice, the IPC and Jarilo-VI might’ve suffered a few needless misunderstandings because of that Masked Fool. Naturally, my friend’s been full of gratitude toward you ever since.”
“She didn’t host you well enough during Aetherium Wars, so before I set off, she made a special point of asking me to look after you all.”
The Watchmaker… Himeko quietly exchanged a look with Welt, then spoke first.
“I see. Since you’re Miss Topaz’s colleague, that makes you a friend of the Astral Express as well. It’s a pleasure to meet you, Mr. Aventurine.”
“Hahaha… If we’re friends, then helping friends with a small problem is only natural. During this trip through Penacony, I’ll have to trouble all of you to look after me as well.” Aventurine let out a bright laugh, then turned toward the receptionist beside him.
“Miss Alley, as you can see, please let these young ladies check in for my sake.”
“I have an appointment with Mr. Sunday of the Family. For my sake, I’ll ask him to handle this matter later. Don’t worry, I won’t cause you any trouble.”
“Well…”
“Please be at ease, Alley.”
At that moment, another voice came from the side. “The Family can’t let its guests enter the dream burdened by worry.”
“Speak of the devil. Look who’s here: Penacony’s handsomest man, Sunday, and the singer known across the cosmos, Robin.”
“Thank you for waiting, Mr. Aventurine. This way, please. Let’s speak in private.”
Sunday neither confirmed nor denied the praise. He simply gestured for Aventurine to follow him, while Robin walked over to the Astral Express group and began explaining the situation.
Mmm… At this point, there shouldn’t be any more problems, right? Oh, right. Aventurine might show up in Stelle’s room later, but that move should just happen to get caught by a lost Acheron, so it’s not a big deal. Does that mean I can enter the Dreamscape early and wander around?
At that moment, Lynelle was distracted, thinking through her next move.
She didn’t notice that her gaze had followed her own tastes with ruthless precision and drifted onto Robin. More accurately, it had landed on Robin’s ear-wings.
“Um… Miss Lynelle? Miss Lynelle?”
Robin noticed her stare and tilted her head with some curiosity. “I noticed you’ve been looking at me for a while now… Is there something I can help you with?”
“Ah, that’s because your ear-wings look like they’d feel really nice to touch… Cough, cough, no, wait, that came out wrong. I didn’t mean to be rude. Sorry…”
Maybe she’d been thinking too deeply, because Lynelle said what was on her mind before she could stop herself. The girl quickly came back to her senses and tried to fix it with a red face.
“Oh… Have you never met a Halovian before?” Robin paused. “If you’re truly curious, you may touch them a little… But as a reminder, if you meet a Pepeshi later, please don’t ask to touch the fluff ball on their head. That’s, um… not really something strangers should do.”
“No, no, no… If I really touched them now, I’d die in the social sense on the spot, right?”
Hearing that the little songbird had actually offered, Lynelle shook her head faster than a rattle-drum.
Was she kidding? If it were only her and Robin here, she might really hug the cute little bird and give those ear-wings a fierce petting. The problem was that Sunday was still watching from the side.
Lynelle had no doubt that if she really touched Robin’s ear-wings right now, Brother Sunday might start chanting at light speed and hit her with a round of In the Beginning Was the Deed.
“Hehe…” Lynelle’s cute, red-faced head-shaking seemed to make Robin quite happy. She stood with a smile and said goodbye. “If Miss Lynelle is still curious the next time we meet, I’ll keep that promise for you.”
“Well then, I won’t disturb you all any longer. Alley should’ve finished handling the hotel matter by now, so please enjoy Penacony’s night to the fullest.”
“I can’t believe we really met Robin…”
March 7th took the Dreamscape Pass from the attendant and clicked her tongue in wonder. “I didn’t expect her to really be that gentle… Though I don’t know if it’s just me, but doesn’t Miss Robin’s voice sound kind of strange?”
“All right, March. We’ll talk about that later.”
Himeko patted March on the head and gave a small shake of her own.
“For now, everyone should go put down their luggage first, then meet back in the lobby.”
“Mm-hm. I still haven’t looked closely at the Dreamscape Pass, though… It says… Huh?”
March 7th let out a confused sound. “Why does this passport’s wording feel kind of weird?”
“What does it mean by ‘please enter the dream with your face upward,’ ‘please don’t fall asleep kneeling, lying prone, or in any other unconventional posture,’ and… ‘please don’t enter the dream while naked’?”
“March.” A certain Lynelle explained with a solemn face, “You need to understand that it’s just like those absurd school rules. Behind every absurd-looking rule, there may be an even more absurd, shining moment of human-shaped stupidity. So if you don’t want to become part of one of those stories, it’s better not to dig too deep into those rules.”
“Eek… Th-Then I won’t try it…”
When March put those two rules together, she seemed to understand something all at once. The girl’s face turned red, and she immediately gave up on the reckless idea growing in her heart.
“My room seems to be upstairs from yours. If anything happens, remember to call me on the terminal, okay?”
With that, Lynelle reached the staircase and kept going up, then found her room.
But…
“Wait…” Looking at the familiar red button on her desk, as well as an adorable Sparkle doll, Lynelle fell silent.
“I haven’t even entered the dream yet. How’d she already find me…”
--+--
Honkai Dream Swap - 342
--+--
[Calling Card]
[Tonight, I’ll come to take Lynelle’s body.]
[Phantom Thief Sparkle]
“...”
Lynelle stared at the calling card on the table, pinned under a Sparkle fumo, then at Sparkle’s Wondrous Button sitting beside it.
For a moment, she fell into true silence. This one had really left her speechless. She couldn’t decide whether she should laugh or put up a few polite precautions.
What was she even supposed to say?
Back on Jarilo-VI, she’d put Sparkle through all sorts of strange little gadget-based “training,” and she’d even let that tiny gremlin under one meter forty experience what round-the-clock chaos felt like.
But surely Sparkle wouldn’t be so eager to run over and get revenge already, right?
If Lynelle remembered right, it’d only been three or four hours total since she’d arrived at Penacony and reached her room in The Reverie.
For Sparkle to hear the news, sneak in ahead of time, and leave a calling card that more or less said, “Just you wait and see if I get you back tonight”...
Didn’t that mean some Sparkle-chan had been camping outside The Reverie every day, waiting for Lynelle to show up? She couldn’t have awakened some weird new preference after last time and come back to indulge it again, could she?
Thinking back to the first run, where Sparkle had also been put through all kinds of punishment routines under Lynelle’s hands, Lynelle found herself giving that guess a little more credit.
She moved the Sparkle fumo aside and picked up the button on the table.
“And this button...”
“This can’t be the one that’s supposed to be used later in 2.3, right? Forget it. Whether it is or not, I’ll press it first. If anything goes wrong, I’ll just put it on Sparkle’s tab.”
After a brief pause, Lynelle pressed the button without hesitation.
“Hehe... I knew you’d press it!” Sparkle’s voice suddenly came from the fumo beside her, nearly making Lynelle jump.
“Well, you can relax.” As if she’d expected Lynelle to be on guard, the fumo explained at once, “What’s playing here now is only a recording from Sparkle. There aren’t any traps.”
“If you don’t believe me, then I can only say this... Since you’re hearing this recording, that means the bet I made with a certain Miss Peacock has already been settled. So, Lady Sparkle’s in a very good mood, and I won’t tease you this time.”
“Still, the calling card remains in effect. Before midnight tonight, you’d better watch out for Lady Sparkle’s sudden attack, okay?”
“To tell you the truth, this time Lady Sparkle has the power of the script on her side. Bringing down a mere Lynelle will be as easy as turning my hand. When that time comes... hehe.”
A wicked, candy-sweet laugh came through the recording. “Every single ‘game’ you used on me back on Jarilo-VI... I’ll pay it all back twice over~”
With that, the recording cut off with a soft click. Lynelle was left staring at the Sparkle fumo on the table, still wearing the same expression of someone trying not to laugh.
“She knows about the script... and she actually thinks that’s an advantage?” Lynelle felt it getting harder and harder to keep the corners of her mouth down.
“That’s impressive. If I’m guessing right, her script should’ve come from Silver Wolf, right...? Did Silver Wolf really not tell her that the scripts Elio gives everyone only cover that person’s point of view?”
After dealing with Sparkle’s calling card, Lynelle had a rare stretch without much trouble.
Maybe Aventurine thought Stelle would be easier to deal with than Lynelle, because he still chose to go find Stelle, just like in the original story.
Acheron also got lost at just the right time and helped drive Aventurine away for her.
By then, everyone could finally lie down in the Dreampools and begin their first dream entry. Of course, this dream entry wasn’t only for sightseeing.
Himeko had gone out of her way to remind everyone about the second half of the Watchmaker’s invitation, so gathering clues about the Family’s abnormalities in the dream was also one of their tasks.
As the liquid in the Dreampool rose over her body, Lynelle closed her eyes. She had to admit, even without its dream-entry function, Penacony’s Dreampool would make a pretty good sleep aid. At the very least, it was much better than some shoulder-and-neck massager or miracle fawn brand from an ad.
[Lynelle, Lynelle, have you entered the dream yet?]
Not long after Lynelle sank into the dream, Stelle sent a message to her terminal.
[Lynelle: I’ve been in for a little while already. I think I’m in the Golden Hour right now... Where are you all?]
[March 7th: I’m in the Moment of Dusk, getting ready to head to the grand auction!]
[Stelle: I’m in the Golden Hour too, but this place is huge. Should we look around on our own first?]
[Lynelle: No problem. But... where’s Corruption-chan?]
[Corruption-chan: The signal on my side seems pretty bad... I don’t know how long this message will take to send.]
[Corruption-chan: I think I’m in a very strange place right now. None of Penacony’s Twelve Hours seem to match it.]
[Corruption-chan: Anyway, you don’t need to worry about me for now. With my life form, this dreamscape won’t be able to do much to me. It’s just that this damned place doesn’t even seem to have a single person around. I don’t know if it’s tied to the Family secret Big Sister Himeko mentioned before.]
“A damned place without a single person?” Lynelle looked confused. “Where’s that supposed to be? Dream’s Edge? Dreamflux Reef?”
“Don’t tell me Corruption-chan ran off to some bug-related place... That kid really does have the kind of physique that attracts trouble.”
Lynelle rubbed her head with some frustration.
“Forget it. Corruption-chan has my power mark on her anyway. If something really happens, I can just use a card and teleport straight to her... For now, I should gather some intel in the Golden Hour first.”
Yet just as Lynelle set her worries aside and began wandering through the Golden Hour, she had no idea that someone else had already set their sights on her from the dark. Sparkle wasn’t the only one watching.
“So she’s the child named Lynelle... Mm, she really is quite cute.”
Not far from where Lynelle stood, a beautiful lady with a purple veil and a tall, full figure was murmuring to herself, an oracle card pinched between her fingers.
“I didn’t expect to meet her so soon after entering the dream... Perfect. It’s still early, and the various factions haven’t even begun to enter the stage yet. This is a fine chance to probe her for information.”
“I hope... that colleague from the Garden of Recollection didn’t lie to me. I hope this adorable child truly does hold a great secret that’ll satisfy me.”
--+--
Honkai Dream Swap - 343
--+--
Ever since she’d come to Penacony this time, Black Swan had felt as if her luck had taken a turn for the worse.
As a Memokeeper, and a fairly capable one at that, Black Swan’s greatest passion and line of work was collecting all kinds of memories.
No matter how you looked at it, a memory that was both interesting and grand enough was a rare treasure for any Memokeeper, the sort of thing you couldn’t count on finding just because you wanted it.
With that hope for fresh memories in mind, Black Swan had come to Penacony. The Family would be holding the Charmony Festival here, and hidden beneath the festival was the Watchmaker’s Legacy.
On such a vast stage, truly excellent memories were bound to be born. Most important of all, this stage should’ve been safe.
After all, it was called the Charmony Festival, but the one in charge of it, Sunday, was only a tuner of the Fourth Scale.
That meant he was still an individual person, not an existence like those of the First or Second Scales, who had almost no personal will left.
By the same measure, the Annihilation Gang, who were planning to stir up trouble, weren’t that strong, and the envoy sent by the IPC was only one of the Ten Stonehearts.
From the look of it, the overall power level of this dispute didn’t even seem to reach the level of an Emanator.
So for Black Swan, whose strength wasn’t weak even among Memokeepers, going to Penacony naturally shouldn’t have counted as a dangerous trip.
Yet once she arrived, she found that this place seemed a little different from what she’d imagined.
Putting aside the strange environment and dense Memoria covering the whole Asdana star system, Duke Inferno, whom Black Swan had been keeping a close eye on, gave poor Swan a nasty shock right out of the gate.
Before he’d even reached Penacony, he’d put on a clean, simple performance of crashing and dying.
That startled Black Swan. Duke Inferno might not have been an Emanator, but he absolutely wasn’t weak. The fact that he’d died so quietly meant the person who’d killed him had to be no ordinary figure.
So, following that clue, Black Swan investigated all the way down the line and soon found the suspected killer of Duke Inferno: the Galaxy Ranger, Acheron.
That got poor Swan excited. To start with, the Path of The Hunt normally shouldn’t specialize much in the mind.
Even if it did, judging by Acheron’s blank look, she didn’t seem like the type who was skilled in that area.
The memory of a strong person’s fall might not count as a full feast, but it was more than enough to be called a pre-meal dessert.
Add in the fact that Acheron herself was a beautiful lady, and as the garnish on that dessert, she’d no doubt be a delight to the eyes.
So Black Swan made her move.
As for what happened afterward, Black Swan didn’t want to say much.
In short, exhausted in both body and mind, she realized Penacony’s waters seemed a little deep, so she decided to change direction for now.
That was when she remembered a message one of her Memokeeper friends had sent her some time ago.
[That certain Lynelle from the Astral Express has a deep secret hidden inside her. I tried to probe once, but one of our own kind was nearby, so I couldn’t succeed. If you run into her alone on Penacony, you can try looking into her memories. Trust me, there’s absolutely a surprise in there you won’t expect.]
In other lines of work, the saying “people in the same trade are enemies” might apply.
For Memokeepers, that wasn’t the case.
Memories could be shared, and aside from completing one’s own quotas, it was common for several Memokeepers to join hands when it came to precious memories.
So Black Swan didn’t doubt her colleague’s words at all. She only assumed the other party had been unlucky and hadn’t found the right chance.
But now, hadn’t that chance arrived? Her target, that certain Lynelle, was wandering through Oti Mall.
Under Black Swan’s gaze, the pink-haired girl seemed a little tired from shopping, so she chose a local specialty, an Oak Cake Roll and a Thousand-Layer Sundae (Zero Calories), preparing to enjoy the taste of the dreamscape first.
Good. Lynelle could enjoy her delicious cake and sundae, while Black Swan would go enjoy delicious Lynelle. How harmonious and friendly.
With that thought in mind, Black Swan put on a confident smile and walked toward Lynelle.
--+--
Meanwhile, on the other side…
“Cough, cough, cough… Why does this Oak Cake Roll taste so bad…?”
Lynelle looked at the delicate cake in front of her, which somehow only filled her mouth with the taste of crumbs, and her expression turned stiff.
Honestly, if she’d known this thing tasted like this, she would’ve rather gone to eat one of Firefly and Stelle’s disaster meals than try something that could stand shoulder to shoulder with soda bean juice.
“Hehe. In the world of dreams, people don’t lack all kinds of happiness and beauty. Once their desire for pleasure has been satisfied, they naturally start moving toward stranger and stranger novelties.”
“For example… the ‘Pika White Grape Soda’ and ‘Sliced Cake "Stargazer"’ currently being sold in that same display case.”
Just as Lynelle was staring at the cake with no idea where to start, like Tokugawa in a members-only restaurant, a gentle female voice sounded beside her.
Lynelle looked up in surprise and found an elegant woman holding a tray, her air mysterious and mature, smiling warmly at her.
“Hello, adorable little sister. Would you mind sharing your table with me?”
Why’s she here…
Lynelle was a little dazed. At first, she hadn’t noticed anyone coming over, but now that she looked closely, wasn’t this the certain lady with a purple veil, who could summon unspeakable mysterious giant hands, attacked enemies like an evil medieval witch, yet somehow never actually hurt anyone—the powerhouse main carry of DoT teams, Madam Black Swan?
Why wasn’t she off spying on Stelle right now? Why wasn’t she matching wits with Sparkle? Why had she come over to Lynelle instead?
And looking at her like this, she felt oddly familiar… Wait. She couldn’t be thinking of making a move on me, could she?
The moment that thought crossed her mind, the corners of Lynelle’s mouth, which had finally calmed down after being lifted for ages thanks to Sparkle, started showing signs of flying right back up again.
“Hmm? Could it be that you don’t want to…?”
Black Swan tilted her head in slight confusion.
She wouldn’t go so far as to call herself some rare beauty of the universe, but at the very least, Black Swan believed she should be the type who grew more pleasing the longer one looked at her.
So why had Lynelle looked like she wanted to laugh the moment Black Swan sat across from her?
Surely she hadn’t reached the point where people wanted to laugh just from seeing her… right?
“Ahem, it’s nothing. I just remembered something happy.” Lynelle rubbed her cheeks and worked hard to make herself look a little calmer. “I’m just curious. There are clearly plenty of empty seats here, right? Why did you choose to share a table with me?”
“Food can usually bring only the pleasure of taste, but a beautiful enough dining companion can stir one’s appetite.” Black Swan smiled. “You can think of it as a personal hobby of mine. I’ve always enjoyed finding beautiful ladies or girls to accompany me. It puts me in a pleasant mood.”
“Not long ago, I shared an unforgettable dance with a truly wonderful lady. I hope that today, the two of us can also gain an encounter memorable enough to leave an impression.”
“…”
What should I do? Black Swan really does seem to be here for me. What do I do if I can’t hold back my laughter?
For some reason, the moment Black Swan opened her mouth, Lynelle felt that holding back her laughter was more painful than being stopped right at the last second.
“Fine…” Lynelle worked hard to make her expression look normal. “Then… enjoy your meal.”
And then, deep in her heart, the girl began to call out.
“Kiana-chan, time to clock in!”
--+--
Honkai Dream Swap - 344
--+--
“Actually, as the center of pleasure, the Golden Hour’s food is one of Penacony’s finest points too.”
Black Swan gently cut a small piece from the stargazy cake in her hand. “If you can’t get used to Oak Cake Rolls, why don’t you try mine?”
“Uh…” Lynelle looked at the fork Black Swan held out, and at the very lively fish-head cake on it. The corner of her mouth twitched. “Does Penacony… not have any normal food?”
“Don’t worry. It looks strange, but the cake tastes pretty good.” Black Swan smiled as she explained, “Most of the time, food that looks normal has a more unique taste. Food with a strange shape, the kind that looks almost like a wonder, usually doesn’t taste bad.”
“That’s not really advice from experience. It’s just simple psychology. The Golden Hour exists so people can enjoy themselves, so if a dish frustrates tourists with both its looks and its taste, how’s that supposed to help them have fun?”
“That sounds like it makes sense…” Lynelle nodded like she half understood, then bit into the cake Black Swan fed her. “Mm, yeah, it tastes good!”
“Then, little one, in return for feeding you just now…”
“Then try mine?” Lynelle copied her and scooped up a big spoonful of her Thousand-Layer Sundae (Zero Calories).
“Little Lynelle really has no sense of caution…” Black Swan looked at Lynelle, who’d eaten food from a stranger without pause and didn’t mind the so-called indirect kiss as she offered her ice cream back.
A troubled look crossed her face. “So, what are we now?”
“Don’t talk. Keep eating,” Lynelle answered by reflex.
“Ah, wait, no. Ahem… I fell right into the bit. As for Miss Black Swan and me, we’re friends, of course.”
“Friends…” Black Swan’s lips curved. “Then, as your friend… can you answer one question for me, little Lynelle?”
“What question?”
“The question is…”
“I want to know what kind of mystery you’re hiding, to make that colleague of mine pay so much… attention to you.”
Black Swan’s purple-and-gold eyes slowly met Lynelle’s pink ones. In that instant, a faint wave of dizziness passed through Lynelle’s mind.
There was no doubt about it. That was the feedback from Lynelle’s own mental defenses being touched.
In truth, to let Black Swan invade smoothly this time, Lynelle had pulled back every defense she could.
Otherwise, with the level of protection around Lynelle’s mental world, poor Swan breaking in once would’ve been no easier than making a DoT team 0-cycle every Abyss in a whole version back to back.
Still, this had one downside. Until Black Swan finished, Lynelle had to act like she’d been hypnotized.
If she didn’t, and Black Swan sensed that something was wrong, then the fun would be over before Lynelle could watch it.
--+--
So, what was happening on Black Swan’s side right now?
The answer was… she’d gotten a little lost.
“Strange… Can a human really hold memories on this scale?”
Looking at Lynelle’s vast, boundless mental space, Black Swan felt a headache coming on.
As a Memokeeper, and one who’d clearly sensed that Lynelle had related mental defenses, the longer Black Swan stayed inside Lynelle’s mind, the more Lynelle’s subconscious would reject her. She had to end this fast.
But… what the hell was this in front of her? Black Swan had picked a random place to slip into, only to find herself watching a group of dinosaurs chase one another around.
Was this really the kind of memory a person could have?
What Black Swan didn’t know was that, because Lynelle’s system was linked to the world on the Honkai Impact 3rd side, and because the core anchor for the second run was still with Lynelle, anyone invading Lynelle’s mental world could easily slip along the system’s pull and fall into Honkai Impact 3rd’s planet catalog by mistake.
Clearly, that was exactly what’d happened to our Miss Black Swan.
“No, at this rate I won’t find anything… But at least that colleague didn’t lie to me. If I’m seeing this right, this child’s head contains the equivalent of an entire civilization… I’ve got to find where she stores her own memories, fast.”
As an excellent Memokeeper, Black Swan had the composure to stay calm in a crisis.
Once she realized something was wrong, she chose to return along the path she’d taken in, then walked down another fork.
How should this be put… Black Swan’s choice was right, but the problem was that she hadn’t gone back far enough.
She’d only left the range where the system was linked to the planet catalog. She hadn’t left the system itself, and the other path she walked down led straight to…
--+--
“Huh? Wait, I haven’t even gotten ready to make a move, so why did this Memokeeper barge in on her own?”
Kiana stared at Black Swan, who’d appeared in the system buffer zone out of nowhere, and her eyes went blank with confusion.
She’d originally planned to take advantage of the other woman getting lost and whip up some giant spectacle to scare Black Swan.
Then she looked away for one second, and the woman was already right at her front door…
There was no helping it. Usually, Kiana really didn’t want to step in, but this seemed to have flown far past what counted as usual.
Kiana dug through Lynelle’s memories and found plenty of “spellcasting materials.”
Just as Lynelle had said before, this strange-looking Memokeeper seemed to have a curious talent. She could always pinpoint the exact beings she absolutely couldn’t afford to provoke.
So… it really was time to teach her a small lesson.
--+--
“This time, I seem to have found the right place… This should be Lynelle’s memory space. This scene also fits the memory-palace layout of someone with mental abilities. I just don’t know why her memory palace looks a bit like a large theater…”
“Ah, there’s a door!”
The endless corridor before her suddenly produced three chocolate-like doors, and Black Swan’s eyes lit up.
Everyone knew this kind of imagery was likely to represent something very important in Lynelle’s heart. In other words, the big surprise her Memokeeper colleague mentioned was probably here…
“Whew… I still need to be careful.” Black Swan walked up to the door on the left, gently gripped the handle, and pushed it inward just a little.
“Tap… tap…”
A sound like objects knocking together rang out as the door opened.
“?” Black Swan opened the door a bit wider and carefully poked her head in. “What’s that sound…”
But the moment she looked inside, Black Swan noticed something familiar swaying in front of her.
It was a pair of feet, swinging in the air.
Black Swan snapped her head up. The figure hanging in the air like a little fair-weather charm came fully into view, and from her outfit, there was no doubt that she was a Memokeeper.
Black Swan’s skin crawled. What that dense, endless tapping meant was now obvious. Without the slightest hesitation, she slammed the door shut.
“?!”
“Why are there so many Memokeeper corpses? And their outfits looked like… the Cremators?!”
“What is this girl?”
Black Swan quietly swallowed. Only now did she realize she seemed to have run into someone terrifying.
“Then, the remaining two doors…”
Reason told Black Swan she should run right now. But as everyone knew, Memokeepers were creatures with powerful curiosity and an even stronger talent for getting themselves killed.
Even though reason screamed at her to flee, Black Swan’s body was more honest than her mouth. She walked to the door on the far right and opened a crack the same way.
“May I ask…”
Through the crack, a face Black Swan would likely never forget in this lifetime looked back at her in confusion.
In the memory, the girl named Mei tilted her head. “Do you… need something?”
--+--
Honkai Dream Swap - 345
--+--
“A copy of Evernight’s teru teru bozu sleep-aid white noise, plus one of my private Mei memory highlight reels… Mm, that should be enough to scare this Memokeeper off, right?”
Kiana rested her chin on one hand as she watched Black Swan struggle inside the Theater of Domination, and the corners of her mouth couldn’t help but curl up.
As for where the Theater of Domination had come from?
First, this was inside Lynelle’s memories.
Second, Lynelle had also fused with the Core of Domination, so wasn’t it only normal for the Herrscher of Domination to have a Theater of Domination?
“Still, this Memokeeper’s strength is decent, and she’s got an adult body, no question there, but why do I keep feeling like she’s kind of silly? She doesn’t feel anywhere near as mature as she looks… At least, she’s a step below that Memokeeper who came into the Solar System to negotiate with me before.”
“But that makes sense too. What that Memokeeper discussed with me had to do with the Garden of Recollection’s deepest secrets, so of course her rank couldn’t be low. At Lynelle’s current stage of growth, she’s nowhere near ready to know about that yet… Eh, wait?”
Kiana’s eyes flew wide open.
“No way. You’re already scared that badly, and you’re still opening the third door?!”
“When it’s fine, you watch boldly, and when it’s not, you watch while scared out of your mind, huh? Are all you Memokeepers like this?”
While Kiana had been talking to herself, Black Swan had already made her choice under Kiana’s stunned gaze.
The first two doors had given her more than enough of a shock, but in the end, they’d only seemed like memories. They’d been frightening, yes, but at least they hadn’t bitten her like Acheron had.
Among the memories Black Swan had once collected, someone rather overweight had once said that if you survived eating it, it counted as edible.
For Black Swan, since the memory in front of her hadn’t hurt her at all, that meant there was no problem.
Besides, if the memories behind the first two doors were already that exciting, then getting to see what lay behind the third door would be worth the ticket price even if she got plucked bald again!
With that thought, Black Swan took a deep breath and pushed open the third door.
In an instant, Black Swan felt as if the place around her had changed.
She seemed to have arrived in a deep, ethereal space, so strange that even her long-memetic body gained a vague sense of substance.
And before her… a huge purple cocoon of light, almost alive, rose and fell like it was breathing.
Even though the cocoon made no move, Black Swan could feel a pressure from it that was hard to put into words.
Without a doubt, she’d only ever felt pressure like this from Emanators.
But even with Acheron, who’d left such a deep impression on her not long ago, Black Swan had been able to judge Acheron’s true Path by her power.
With this giant cocoon before her, no matter how she searched her memories, she couldn’t find any kind of power that matched Them.
“What in the world is this… Ngh!”
Before Black Swan could react, a force she had no way to resist took over her body and hung her straight up in the air. Her face turned pale with panic.
After all, a Memokeeper’s greatest reliance was nothing more than their near-immortal memetic body, along with their Path abilities in the mind and in manipulating Memoria.
But now, her memetic body was useless before the other party, and her ability to manipulate Memoria couldn’t sense a thing.
Most important of all, even the escape methods Black Swan often relied on, whether for attack or flight, seemed to sink into the giant cocoon like stones into the sea. None of them worked at all. Instead, they’d only gotten her strung up.
Now she was finished… That place full of Memokeeper teru teru bozu dolls from earlier might be gaining one more resident…
Black Swan swayed in despair in midair, and she couldn’t help cursing herself from a few minutes ago.
Damn you, past me!
“So… what should I do with this Memokeeper?” While Black Swan was being hung by the cocoon’s phantom and “swinging” in the air, Kiana sank into thought.
Because Black Swan had insisted on courting death, Kiana had no choice but to bring out something with a bit of deterrent force to fully restrain her.
The cocoon in front of her was a projection Kiana had made on the spot.
After all, if Black Swan kept probing deeper, she’d likely notice the memory power hidden within Lynelle, as well as the deal between Kiana and the Garden of Recollection.
But… now that she’d caught Black Swan, what was she supposed to do with her? Killing her was out of the question, since Black Swan’s later role was almost impossible to replace.
But just letting her go… With a Memokeeper’s curiosity, it’d be hard to guarantee she wouldn’t stick to Lynelle’s side and try to dig up memories from her every single day.
And if Kiana punished her a little before letting her go… Lynelle didn’t really have any punitive memories strong enough to threaten her.
Black Swan wasn’t like Sparkle, who’d already been punished every which way by Lynelle back in the Solar System for stirring up trouble.
Besides, with Black Swan’s experience, her resistance to that sort of thing probably wouldn’t be weak. As a Memokeeper, even if she’d never eaten pork, she’d surely seen plenty of pigs run.
“Ah, right. I’ll just use that…”
At that moment, Kiana’s eyes lit up. A special memory was pulled from Lynelle’s memory archive.
On the other side, Black Swan’s vision suddenly began to blur. In that daze, she seemed to see, at the far end of her sight, a beautiful silver-white planet. On that planet, someone was looking back at her too.
That person had long silver-white hair, a gorgeous white-and-purple dress, and… a beautiful pair of star-shaped eyes.
“What’s happening…?”
Before Black Swan could finish wondering, she suddenly saw the blurry figure in the distance raise a hand toward her.
“Bang~”
Along with a cute little sound effect, the girl made a playful finger-gun gesture. But in Black Swan’s eyes, that cute motion was terrifying.
The instant the girl raised her hand, a pressure that was without doubt Emanator-level—no, perhaps even at the top among Emanators—locked firmly onto her.
Black Swan, still hung in the air, couldn’t help trembling.
Yet the earlier restraint left her unable to move at all, so she could only let the other party’s attack lock onto her. And after that… Black Swan witnessed what it meant for a blow to destroy heaven and earth.
Under that strike, “she” didn’t even get a single instant to struggle before being crushed into dust.
Only when Black Swan’s eyes flew open did the trembling and spasms of surviving a disaster fully reach her senses.
“Uh… Miss Black Swan?”
Watching the other woman calmly stare at her and take a bite of ice cream, only to start shaking like Sparkle in Belobog after Lynelle had turned the vibration setting up to max, Lynelle tilted her head.
What kind of memory did Kiana feed her? Why was it that strong?
--+--
Honkai Dream Swap - 346
--+--
“Miss Black Swan, are you… all right?”
It took Black Swan a good while to calm down. At last, she lifted her head and looked at Lynelle with an almost painfully complex gaze.
Girl, why didn’t you just say your memories were being guarded by an Emanator? I wouldn’t have come poking around if I’d known.
And if you’ve got an Emanator protecting you, why are you still acting so careful? Don’t tell me this was all bait meant to reel me in.
Or are Emanators these days all taking the same low-profile route as Acheron?
And since when did the Astral Express have an Emanator standing behind it? Akivili hasn’t come back to life. So where did this Nameless Emanator, whose Path she couldn’t even see, come from? The wild?
Oh. Wait. No.
There did seem to be one person who fit every part of that description.
Maybe Kiana’s blow had knocked her thoughts clear, because Black Swan suddenly remembered something.
Before she’d come looking for Lynelle, a Masked Fool had invited her to be their dance partner. At the time, Black Swan had turned that Fool down, saying she already had a better choice.
And after being rejected, when the Fool named Sparkle heard that Black Swan wanted to find a petite girl with pink hair, she’d worn a very strange look on her face.
In other words, that Masked Fool knew something about Lynelle’s strength.
Black Swan’s mind began racing.
As everyone knew, Aha had once boarded the Astral Express as one of the Nameless. After Akivili’s fall, it was almost impossible for the Astral Express to produce an Emanator walking the Path of Trailblaze.
Add in the fact that the Masked Fools seemed to know about the Emanator tied to Lynelle, and…
Hiss.
Black Swan drew in a cold breath.
She thought she knew which being this “Emanator” around Lynelle was.
The key point was that she couldn’t find any way to deny her own guess.
With that one’s personality, doing something like this honestly wouldn’t be strange at all. And judging by the way Lynelle was staring at her in total confusion while trying to show concern, Lynelle didn’t seem to know anything about what was hidden in her own memories. That also fit that one’s style far too well.
Oh, Fuli above. This was far too funny.
Black Swan silently gave up on the idea of testing Lynelle any further.
At the same time, she made a firm decision. Once the Penacony incident was over, she’d return to the Garden of Recollection and give that colleague of hers a solid kick.
Looking at Lynelle, who still hadn’t caught up at all, Black Swan sighed and forced a faint smile. “Sorry, Lynelle. I must’ve embarrassed myself just now…”
“…For some reason, my body suddenly felt unwell. I lost control for a moment.”
“Are you having trouble adjusting to the high concentration of Memoria?” Lynelle asked with “curiosity.”
“Uh…” The corner of Black Swan’s mouth twitched, but she still chose to go along with the girl’s words.
“More or less… You may not know this, Lynelle, but I’m actually a Memokeeper. Maybe I haven’t adjusted to Asdana’s local Memoria yet, so my body reacted poorly… Yes, that should be it.”
“Oh…” Lynelle at once put on a look of sudden understanding. “That sounds quite serious, then… Miss Black Swan, do you need to go back and rest?”
“It’s fine. At the very least, I should be able to finish this meal.”
--+--
While Lynelle and Black Swan finally ended their probing and returned to a normal mood, continuing to enjoy their desserts, a petite girl stood on a high-rise not far away.
With a mask tilted across her face and a monocular in hand, she was already laughing so hard she nearly pounded the floor.
That’s right. It was our dear Miss Sparkle.
As the mysterious person who’d left behind a warning that roughly meant, “Lynelle, just wait for tonight’s surprise,” Sparkle had in fact been watching Lynelle ever since she’d entered the dream.
And because she’d once spent time in the Solar System matching wits with Lynelle in a chase that could be summed up as “don’t get caught unless you want to be pranked,” Sparkle knew Lynelle’s usual detection range quite well.
Even after tailing Lynelle the whole way, Lynelle hadn’t noticed a trace of her.
After following for a while, Sparkle had just been about to spring the setup she’d prepared in advance and capture this little Lynelle, letting her experience the joy of being hoisted up like bait.
But before Sparkle could act, she found that her prey had been snatched away by the very Memokeeper who’d rejected her.
What made it even better was that Black Swan, who had stolen Sparkle’s target in a sense, also planned to use mental means to probe Lynelle’s secrets. That caught Sparkle’s interest at once.
As everyone knew, for a Pathstrider of Elation like Sparkle, her favorite thing was finding fun, whether the joke was on her or on someone else. And her second favorite thing, of course, was watching other people become the joke.
After all, based on Sparkle’s understanding of Memokeepers, they’d never explore Lynelle’s mind with the same sense of restraint she had.
They’d only rummage through Lynelle’s memories in the roughest way possible.
The difference between the two was simple. In the former case, the being inside Lynelle’s body would only treat it as part of their usual playful routine, so they wouldn’t step in. But in the latter case…
Judging by Black Swan’s freshly plucked look, there was no need to say more.
“Ha, this Memokeeper’s way too funny… She only just hit a wall with that hidden ‘Galaxy Ranger,’ and now she came over to Lynelle and tried the exact same thing again. Does she have some kind of hidden talent for comedy?”
Watching Black Swan leave the stage with regret, Sparkle had already labeled this big sister, whose inner nature and outer appearance didn’t match at all, as a “funny woman” in her heart.
“All right, since the dessert before the Elation has already left the stage… it’s time to serve today’s main course for this night that’ll never end.”
Humming a little tune from back home, Sparkle confidently pulled out a button and slammed it down.
As an outstanding Masked Fool, being able to win and lose with grace was one of Miss Sparkle’s finer qualities. So she’d prepared an interesting trap for Lynelle.
If she won, she’d get to enjoy both the setup and the payoff.
And if she lost…
Well, that wasn’t too likely. But even if she really did lose, the worst that could happen was unlocking another “defeat scene” in a new area.
She’d already lost to Lynelle plenty of times and kept coming back for more. As a Fool who put Elation above all else, could the great Sparkle possibly be afraid of that?
Getting thrown around could still count as Elation!
Besides, a certain peacock sister of hers couldn’t experience any kind of Elation right now.
No matter how you looked at it, Sparkle was still doing much better than that sister stuck doing cleanup work.
And so, with the firm belief that she couldn’t lose either way, the great Sparkle began her operation without a second thought.
--+--
Honkai Dream Swap - 347
--+--
“Black Swan left in such a hurry… Cute. No wonder people call her oversized Fischl.”
Watching Black Swan’s retreating back, Lynelle propped her chin up with one hand and smiled, pleased as if she’d just enjoyed a great show.
“Still, it looks like she’s misunderstood something… Well, whatever. At this rate, Kiana-chan should be out before I have to rush to Amphoreus. Any misunderstandings can be taken up with my Finality Tuna.”
“As for now… since Black Swan just left me, and Sparkle sent that letter earlier, it looks like the plot hasn’t started yet. At the very least, Stelle probably hasn’t met Firefly. After all, Sparkle has the script Silver Wolf gave her. There’s no way she’d miss the story beats.”
Lynelle tapped her cheek and looked around.
“Where should I go next… Maybe I should explore some off-plot areas the game never mentioned?” Just then, her phone gave a sharp beep. “Huh? Who’s messaging me now… Stelle?”
[Stelle: Lynelle, Lynelle, I found something fun in Golden Hour!]
[Stelle: The place is called Dr. Edward’s Dreamscape Sales Store. You can probably buy all kinds of dreams there, and new customers get one free trial… Guess what I just tried?]
Ah, so it’s this part. Lynelle caught on right away, but she still played along and sent a curious Pom-Pom sticker.
[Stelle: Hakivili’s dream!]
(T/N: Using the last two letters of Aha and combining it with Akivili.)
[Lynelle: Wait… Aren’t you scared Pom-Pom will see your phone? If you call THEM Hakivili in secret, watch out. The conductor might make you sweep the Express.]
[Stelle: How do I put this… If this Memory Bubble is real, then calling THEM Hakivili honestly feels fair. THEY were way too wild. I still can’t picture the Aeon of Trailblaze spending every day on the Express blowing the budget to raise nose-walking beasts, or secretly stealing Pom-Pom’s train pot…]
[Lynelle: Uh… actually…]
[Lynelle: That Memory Bubble is probably real.]
[Stelle: Huh?]
[Lynelle: You can buy it and show it to Pom-Pom if you don’t believe me… Oh, right. Do you still have enough Credits?]
[Lynelle sent a red packet: Credits x 10,000,000]
[Stelle: T-That much? Pom-Pom shocked.jpg]
[Lynelle: I’ve been a little short on money lately, so… I found a way to get some.]
[Lynelle: Don’t worry. The source is clean. Silver Wolf’s been spending a bit too much on gacha lately, so she came to me for help.]
[Stelle: O.o?]
[Lynelle: We split the reward fifty-fifty afterward. As for whether Silver Wolf got caught… I’ll just say the odds of her messing up with this kind of thing are probably lower than the odds of us walking down the street and suddenly falling into Nihility.]
[Lynelle: Anyway, tonight’s spending is on Miss Silver Wolf. If you run into any good friends on the way, don’t hold back. Treat her to a big meal.]
Seeing Stelle fall silent on the other end, Lynelle put down her phone with relief.
Under her guidance, Stelle probably wouldn’t end up eating poor, adorable Firefly out of house and home the way Lynelle had back then…
At the very least, letting the two of them have a great time shouldn’t be a problem.
Still…
“Dr. Edward’s Dreamscape Sales Store… Since Stelle already bought that dream bubble of Hakivili, should I go take a look and see what kind of dream bubble Mr. Edward would choose for me?”
--+--
“What’s Lynelle doing? Why’d she suddenly start chatting with someone… Damn it. She’s too far away. I can’t see a thing…”
On the other side, Miss Sparkle, who’d noticed Lynelle stop walking and start typing in place, had no choice but to stop too.
“Ugh, forget it. Who knows which little girlfriend she’s chatting with now… But this works out fine. The great Sparkle gets more time to set up her perfect trap.”
“Now that I think about it, after I successfully capture Lynelle this time, should I turn the record of me dealing with her into a video and show it off to her harem later? That’d definitely be fun.”
“But when I think about how Lynelle probably has even more defeat CGs of me and Vita saved away, maybe I’d better not…”
Muttering to herself, Sparkle adjusted the markers she’d left along the road bit by bit.
As for what those markers did… they weren’t all that impressive.
Sparkle had named them the Acheron Special Attack Buttons, and their effect was to blur a person’s memory of their route on a subconscious level, making them lose their way.
When set up perfectly across Golden Hour like this, the markers could trigger a chain reaction of blurred memories and guide the “victim” down a route Sparkle had arranged ahead of time.
Sparkle had done special research before, and Lynelle’s mental defenses wouldn’t filter out subconscious interference on this level at all. The effect was too weak. It wouldn’t even trigger Lynelle’s automatic defenses.
“Ah, looks like Lynelle’s moving again… Hehe, I knew it. She fell for it!”
Sparkle’s face filled with eager anticipation. At the end of this wrong path was a “Dr. Edward’s Dreamscape Sales Store” she’d prepared with great care.
After all, Lynelle would only lower her mental defenses and let herself sink into a dream bubble while experiencing one.
As for whether Lynelle would notice anything suspicious… that part was fine.
Dr. Edward was already famous to begin with, and before setting up this plan, Sparkle had even disguised herself as Lynelle and gone to the real Dr. Edward to experience the whole process.
In other words, the service Lynelle would receive was a perfect one-to-one copy. The only difference was that the contents of the dream bubble had been swapped out by Sparkle for… hehe.
But there were two things Sparkle hadn’t predicted.
First, while Lynelle had never come here in real life, she’d run around plenty of maps in the game.
Second, just moments ago… Lynelle had already asked Stelle to buy that dream bubble.
“Dr. Edward’s Dreamscape Sales Store?”
Seeing that she’d nearly drifted all the way to somewhere outside Oti Mall, Lynelle blinked in confusion. Bro, is this really where you’d open a shop?
Or could it be…
Lynelle suddenly remembered something. A certain Masked Fool girl had left her a notice saying to wait for a little midnight surprise before twelve o’clock.
In theory, after wandering around the mall for so long and having a meal with that goose, it should’ve been well past midnight. But this was Golden Hour, where time was frozen before twelve. Lynelle could even picture Sparkle’s smug face if she really walked into this trap.
Still… since she was already prepared, why not go in and try it? With her current strength, as long as she kept her guard up, there was no way Sparkle could trick her.
Hehe, I’m going to enjoy the look on Sparkle’s face when this blows up on her!
With that thought, and under the ecstatic gaze of a certain little girl under one meter forty not far away, Lynelle walked straight up to the dreamscape sales store without hesitation.
--+--
Honkai Dream Swap - 348
--+--
“Welcome to the Dreamscape Sales Store, Nameless of the Astral Express!”
The moment Lynelle walked up to the Dreamscape Sales Store that Sparkle had most likely forged, the giant eyeball sprang to life.
“Here, you can enjoy all sorts of fresh and fascinating dreams, from works produced by Clock Studios to private donations. We’ve got it all! Judging by the look of you, this must be your first time in Penacony, right? Don’t worry. Dr. Edward will give you careful, thoughtful help and guide you toward your very first Dream Bubble, so you can enjoy this unforgettable feast for the eyes and ears.”
So far, Lynelle couldn’t spot any real difference.
Well, if she had to name one, the way the voice had put just a little more weight on enjoy just now felt suspect. If this was Sparkle, that little gremlin had to be laughing herself sick right now.
Lynelle’s eyes shifted. Then, playing along, she asked, “Then... are there any Dream Bubbles that’d suit me? I heard the first one here can be tried for free.”
“Of course. I’ve already chosen the perfect Dream Bubble for you. They say the memories inside... belong to the fallen Akivili! I can assure you, this Dream Bubble is a perfect fit!”
All right. That settled it. This was Sparkle’s doing for sure.
Lynelle had just had Stelle buy that Akivili Dream Bubble, so even if this really were a proper Dr. Edward branch store, there was no way it’d still be selling the same one.
Sparkle had even scouted the place first just to set her up, hadn’t she?
Lynelle didn’t know whether she should feel flattered that a Masked Fool had put this much effort into her or troubled that Sparkle had latched onto her at all.
The corner of her mouth twitched, but her plan didn’t change. If Sparkle had laid a trap, then Lynelle would step right into it. Who’d turn out to be the hunter was still up in the air.
After all, ever since she’d gone deep into the uses of mental perception with Aponia, Su, and the others on the Honkai Impact 3rd side, she’d built up more than a few defenses.
Two mental-type signets, a Little Senti trial card she could project at any time, plus her own Discipline and Corruption powers... as long as Sunday didn’t force mental interference on her with Embryo of Philosophy, nobody below an Emanator should be able to break through her mental defenses.
Of course, if she was going to act, she had to commit to the bit.
“Really? But I’ve never used a Dream Bubble before... What do I need to do?”
“That’s simple,” Dr. Edward said, his voice warm and coaxing. “You only need to fully lower your mental defenses, accept the Dream Bubble of your own will, and let your mind enter its world. Rest assured, this store has operated in Penacony for many years. We’ve earned an excellent reputation in both privacy and safety. No matter what happens in the dream, nothing will ever be leaked.”
“Since this Dream Bubble contains a large amount of compressed data, this store will speed up your perceived time inside the dream. So please relax with your whole body and heart, and simply enjoy the delight this Dream Bubble brings you.”
Sparkle wasn’t even trying to hide it anymore. This was six hundred and sixty-six layers of Sparkle nonsense.
As Lynelle complained inwardly about how unreliable a certain Masked Fool was, she quietly placed several protective Disciplines on herself.
To be honest, she was curious about what kind of trap Sparkle had prepared for her.
After all, in both appearance and nature, the thing in Lynelle’s hand really did look like a sealed Dream Bubble, and it seemed to hold no small amount of information. That meant it couldn’t be some empty fake.
“Then... I’m starting, okay?”
Lynelle lifted the strange pink Dream Bubble in her hands and gently pressed it to her forehead.
--+--
“Where am I...? Have I already entered the dream?”
It felt like only a blink had passed before Lynelle woke from her daze. Yet the moment she opened her eyes, she realized something was off.
The odd trembling beneath her, the fact that her arms were restrained, and the triangular wooden frame she’d been set astride all pointed toward one thing: her current situation was strange, awkward, and clearly part of Sparkle’s prank.
Before Lynelle could think any further, another burst of bizarre buzzing cut through her thoughts.
“Dear customer...” Just then, the door in front of Lynelle swung open. From what she could see beyond it, this seemed to be some room aboard the Astral Express.
As Lynelle studied her surroundings, the culprit behind this whole mess, the Masked Fool Sparkle, came skipping over to her.
“Well? Are you satisfied with the contents of this Dream Bubble?”
“So it really was you, Sparkle...” Lynelle asked, unsurprised, her face flushed from the strange sensations coming from the prank device around her. “And you’re calling this Akivili’s dream?”
“Of course. And I’ll let you in on a secret, Big Sis Lynelle. Lady Sparkle works part-time as a director, too.”
Sparkle gave her a playful wink, then pulled out a remote and nudged it with her thumb. The words Lynelle had been about to say turned into a strange, startled breath.
“As everyone knows, the Aeon of Elation and the Aeon of Trailblaze were once very good friends. Even though Aha blew up the Express, both Akivili and that mascot on the train still seemed to consider THEM a Nameless.”
“There are even rumors that when Akivili fell, Aha burst into a chaotic mix of dramatic weeping and maniacal laughter... Ah, what a tragic pair of star-crossed souls.”
“N-No, wait...” Lynelle fought back the odd feeling, her voice coming out in broken pieces. “As a Masked Fool, is it really fine for you to make up stuff about your boss like that? And what does any of this have to do with this Dream Bubble?”
“Don’t worry. THEY don’t mind.” Sparkle spread her hands. “And don’t be so impatient. When I was on the Xianzhou, I once saw a strange kind of hook literature.”
“It seemed to be the work of the History Fictionologists, so I used that hook literature as the base, added in my own personal experience, and compiled this Dream Bubble.”
“...?”
Lynelle leaned back on pure instinct.
“You’re not about to tell me...”
“Yep.” Sparkle’s lips curled. “Right now, your role inside the dream is Akivili, and my role is Aha.”
“Do you know why Akivili didn’t do anything to Aha even after Aha blew up the Express? The truth is, Akivili once sold hooks to Aha, and Aha had leverage over THEM. My ancestor was a Nameless from that era, and she saw the whole thing with her own eyes...”
Lynelle: “?”
--+--
Kiana-chan, who’d started recording the moment Lynelle got dragged in and had also quietly released Lynelle’s controls: “?”
--+--
Aha, who’d come running to watch the fun after hearing Akivili’s name, only to realize this wasn’t fit for polite viewing and leave a moment ago: “?”
--+--
After reading out a long introduction that sounded suspiciously like one of those “humans have three great desires” prefaces that appear before certain Dream Bubbles, Sparkle cleared her throat and added one last line.
“By the way, every memory in this Dream Bubble comes from my own personal experience. So, Big Sis Lynelle, are you ready to accept twelve whole hours of my revenge?”
“Mm... sure.”
Under Sparkle’s startled gaze, Lynelle nodded without hesitation. “Actually, I think twelve hours is a little too short, so I helped you change the Dream Bubble’s duration to twenty-four hours.”
“?” Sparkle’s pupils shook. “Wait, you—”
“And also...”
By now, Lynelle had already undone the restraints on herself. She gave Sparkle an adorable wink, making sure Sparkle could clearly see the layered marks shining in her eyes.
“Now then, my little Sparkle, please tie yourself up instead.”
--+--
Honkai Dream Swap - 349
--+--
"Gurgle~ gurgle~"
"Dear little Sparkle, just hold on a little longer—it'll be time for your water break soon."
Inside the dream bubble Sparkle had so carefully constructed, the roles of hunter and prey had quietly swapped.
She'd considered the possibility of her own plan backfiring, but what she never expected was that Lynelle's mental strength wasn't solely invested in her own psychic defenses.
Instead, it was split into several separate power nodes, each housed in different areas—her core, her signets, and more.
That meant even if Lynelle actively dropped her mental guard, she could quickly reconsolidate her various authorities. And as for whether Sparkle might slip through the cracks during that window, turning a simple intrusion into full mind control or memory theft...
Well, the last person who tried to slip through those cracks was Black Swan, and she'd been so thoroughly doxxed, wave after wave, all the way up to the Emanators, that she'd started doubting her own existence.
All things considered, Sparkle knew Lynelle well—but her intel was outdated. And now she was experiencing a familiar defeat CG once again.
The worst part? Lynelle didn't even need to adjust the restraints upward.
These devices had been built for Lynelle's own measurements, and Sparkle just happened to be at a slight disadvantage in the height department, so...
After being strapped into the very equipment she'd prepared for Lynelle, Sparkle realized with some dismay that her toes couldn't quite reach the ground.
And with her light, petite frame, her support points were... rather awkwardly placed.
"Guh... damn you, Lynelle..."
"What did I do?" Lynelle's expression was perfectly pitiful.
"I even gave you a rest and water break every six hours, you know. In your original plan, you weren't going to give me any breaks at all—I saw it in the dream bubble's logs. This is already plenty merciful."
"And besides..."
Lynelle leaned in, reaching out to gently pinch Sparkle's flushed, burning-soft cheeks.
"My dear Sparkle, tsundere's been out of style for ages. You're clearly enjoying this~ After all, in that dazed state, your subconscious emotional leanings are completely impossible to fake, aren't they?"
"I'll win next time for sure!"
"There, there... of course you will, sweetie~" Lynelle patted the girl's head in a coaxing, child-soothing tone, then decisively cranked the remote control to max.
As Sparkle's eyes rolled back and even her little pink tongue lolled out involuntarily, Lynelle casually tossed the tiny button aside.
"The dream bubble's got about six hours left. It'll dispel automatically when the time's up. So, my dear little Sparkle, enjoy yourself all alone~"
"Looking forward to your next move~"
With that, Lynelle exited the dream bubble. After all, there was still time left on it, and she needed to find Sparkle's real body first and move her somewhere safe.
Otherwise, given Sparkle's tolerance just now, if that brat's consciousness happened to pass out in the dream bubble and her body wasn't properly hidden... well, that'd turn into a very different kind of story.
"Hoo, Sparkle knows my abilities pretty well—she hid her real body way out here..."
Tracing the psychic residue left behind in the illusion, Lynelle had no trouble doxxing Sparkle's physical location. But... her current state looked a bit disheveled.
"So... sensations from inside the dream bubble get faithfully relayed to the body and trigger physical responses? And since dream bubble time flow is adjustable, doesn't that make this some kind of... pleasure-accumulation play?"
Looking at Sparkle—whose clothes had come undone from all the convulsing, with suspicious wet traces left all over her little hiding spot—Lynelle's mind spontaneously generated several interesting new ideas.
But just then, her phone started beeping again, snapping her out of her reverie.
"Who now... oh, right, timing-wise, could it be Stelle running into Firefly? That idiot Sparkle, she went and burned twelve hours in one go, almost threw the whole plot off—wait, it's not Stelle?"
Seeing Corruption-chan's avatar on the message notification, Lynelle fell into thought.
"Corruption-chan? Something happen on your end?"
"There's been a bit of an unexpected situation over here... but don't worry, Mom—ah, I mean, Big Sis Lynelle."
Corruption-chan's voice came through the comms. "I think I've ended up in some new area, so I wanted to let you know. Oh, and I keep hearing dragging sounds and weird water noises on your side... Lynelle sis, you're not in some kind of trouble again, are you?"
"Trouble? Oh... you've got it wrong."
Lynelle blinked, then shook her head with a wry laugh. She realized Corruption-chan had probably interpreted those sounds as her having just killed someone and disposing of the body.
But really, she was just carrying a limp, noodle-soft Sparkle over to the bed. And those water sounds... well, let's just say Sparkle had real potential as a fountain maiden (complimentary).
"I'm just settling a friend down. She just finished some... healthy physical activities and passed out. Anyway, tell me about your side. You said earlier that after entering the dreamscape, you got transported somewhere strange—what happened?"
"Honestly, I'm not really sure myself..." Corruption-chan's voice sounded genuinely baffled.
"I wandered around that area for a while, and like you said, I found quite a few 'traces' of my kind. But I remembered what you told me, so I didn't dig deeper into them—just kept looking for a way out."
"Luckily, I ran into a kind creature near what looked like the dreamscape's border. It heard my situation and was really helpful—escorted me out. I'm staying with it now; it's pretty simple-minded and seems to have already decided we're friends..."
"?"
After listening to Corruption-chan's description, Lynelle slowly typed out a question mark.
Wait. Based on what Corruption-chan was saying, didn't that friendly creature sound... kind of familiar? No way...
"Corruption-chan, can you tell me... what's your friend's name?"
"Oh, that I do know. It's not great at talking, but if I heard right, it's called... Sleepie?"
--+--
Honkai Dream Swap - 350
--+--
“Corruption-chan…”
Corruption-chan had only just put down the comm terminal Lynelle had made specially for her when she noticed Sleepie stretching out a long tail-blade, poking at her little stomach with open curiosity.
“Ah, sorry, Sleepie. I think I held things up for a bit there…” She patted Sleepie’s tail in a hurry and said, “You said you were going to take me to meet your… uh, master? Let’s get going, then.”
“Gallagher… this way…”
The lively Meme gave a happy little wiggle, then flew off in one direction with Corruption-chan following behind.
--+--
A little while later, Gallagher fell silent as he looked at Corruption-chan, who was glancing around with bright-eyed curiosity. “Sleepie, you… this is the friend you said you picked up?”
“Corruption-chan… tasty… friend…”
“T-tasty?” Gallagher looked at Corruption-chan in confusion.
Sure, he was really just a dog, but from what he understood about human common sense, “tasty” wasn’t the sort of word you used to describe a friend, aside from certain very special hobbies.
Besides, the girl didn’t seem to be missing any arms or legs.
With the size gap between Corruption-chan and Sleepie, one bite would’ve made that obvious, and more to the point, humans shouldn’t be on a Memory Zone Meme’s menu.
“Ah, that…” Corruption-chan looked away, suddenly guilty. “Sleepie really did get a literal taste of me. As for the reason, I guess it went something like this…”
As everyone knew, Sleepie served as the bus traveling between Dreamflux Reef and the other dreamscapes, and the way passengers boarded was, well… unique.
So when Sleepie had taken Corruption-chan away from that strange dream, it’d followed its usual method and given her an intimate, heart-piercing ride.
The problem was that Corruption-chan wasn’t built like most people in a dream. She was a Swarm King made from three Paths: Abundance, Propagation, and Trailblaze, the last of which had appeared after she joined the Express.
On top of that, she was already moving toward an energy-based and data-based life form, so even the smallest piece of her data held a huge amount of information.
That meant when Sleepie “pierced” Corruption-chan, it couldn’t avoid touching and absorbing a little of the data she’d left behind. The result was simple: Sleepie had enjoyed the meal very much.
“In short, because of my special life form, Sleepie really likes my data. And…” Corruption-chan rubbed a small ball of data together on the spot and tossed it into the air.
Sleepie appeared above her at once, caught it with delight, then ate it.
“Friend. Tasty.”
“You saw that.” Corruption-chan spread her hands. “After eating a few times, Sleepie’s gotten much better at talking…”
Gallagher sighed as he looked at Corruption-chan’s innocent face while she kept feeding Sleepie bits of her own data. He could already feel a headache coming on.
At least half his fighting strength in the dream came from Sleepie.
Judging by the current situation, even if he tried to drive Corruption-chan away by force, Sleepie probably wouldn’t listen. Worse, he might not even be able to win.
But if he left Corruption-chan alone, that’d be trouble too. At this point in time, if she sent word about Dreamflux Reef and Sleepie to the outside world, things would get much more complicated.
Yet Gallagher couldn’t lay all his cards on the table either, because for a History Fictionologist, doing that would be no different from suicide.
“Miss Corruption-chan, I’ve got a favor to ask. Would you be willing to hear me out?”
After a brief pause, Gallagher decided to tell Corruption-chan a limited amount of the truth.
“If I’m not mistaken, you should be a member of the Astral Express… which means you’re also here for the Watchmaker’s Legacy?”
“Legacy? Watchmaker?” Corruption-chan tilted her head. “What’s… that?”
Gallagher: “?”
Corruption-chan: “?”
“Um… Corruption-chan.” Gallagher pressed a hand to his head. “When you’re on the Express, don’t you usually care about things like route goals?”
Corruption-chan shook her head without hesitation. “I don’t care about that stuff at all. As long as I can stay by Mama’s… mm, by Big Sis Lynelle’s side, that’s enough!”
Great. She was still a kid. Probably the Express’s mascot.
Gallagher took a deep breath, then pulled out a bright golden ticket. “Then I’ll keep this simple. We’re actually on the same side. In a way, our identities might even be a little alike.”
“I’m working hard right now to complete my master’s goal. But whether it’s Sleepie or Dreamflux Reef, exposing either one would bring a lot of trouble. So… until my plan is complete, I’d like to ask you to stay in Dreamflux Reef for a few days. Is that all right?”
“Don’t worry. Dreamflux Reef has some local residents too, and in a few days, I should also have Sleepie bring down some… Anyway, you won’t be lonely.”
“Sure!”
Corruption-chan nodded without the slightest hesitation.
After all, in their earlier call, Lynelle had told her to stay put in Dreamflux Reef and get along with the people there. Gallagher’s offer suited Corruption-chan perfectly.
“Oh, right! Since Sleepie’s going to bring people anyway, Uncle Gallagher, can you have Sleepie bring Big Sis Lynelle here too after a while?”
“Don’t call me uncle. I’m only thirteen…” Gallagher sighed. “Fine. By the way, what does this Big Sis Lynelle of yours look like? Is she the one who looks almost exactly like you, aside from the colors?”
“Mm-hmm!”
“All right. I’ll do my best…”
--+--
Meanwhile, in Golden Hour.
“Whew… I didn’t expect Corruption-chan to have already ended up in Dreamflux Reef. That’s a nice surprise. Perfect, really. This way, I can also keep her from meeting Firefly. Two birds with one stone.”
Lynelle held a straw between her lips and rested her drink neatly against her chest, striking a pose that Herta and Little Senti could never pull off while she enjoyed the dreamscape view. “So where should I go next…”
[Beep beep—]
“Hm? A message from Stelle?”
Lynelle picked up her terminal in confusion.
“Lynelle, Lynelle! Help!”
The moment the call connected, Stelle’s voice rang out from the other side.
“I saved a girl from the Iris Family over here, but the Bloodhound Family won’t stop chasing me. Lynelle, quick, use your unbeatable Corruption Authority and think of something!”
Being chased nonstop by the Bloodhound Family? Which part of the plot was this again…
Lynelle froze for a moment, then soon realized what had happened.
In the original story, Gallagher had helped Firefly and Stelle out of danger. But now, because Corruption-chan had wandered into Dreamflux Reef by mistake, Gallagher still hadn’t returned to Golden Hour.
“Don’t panic. Send me your location. I’ll be right there.”
Ready to deal with the butterfly effect she’d caused, Lynelle stood up at once.
--+--