Playing Stat-Sticks in Honkai: Star Rail

Liuge also saw the crowd standing on the deck at this moment and curiously came over to ask.

"Apologies, young master, for disturbing your rest."

"Miss Tingyun, you are too kind. If you hadn't kindly taken me in, others might have thrown me out of the ship's cabin. Where would I have gotten a place to rest?"

Hearing this, Tingyun smiled slightly, accepting his words.

Then, she looked towards the approaching Star Pirate ships in the distance.

"Young master, look over there."

"Hmm? What is that?"

"It's Star Pirates!"

Tingyun replied, continuing, "It seems our luck isn't very good this time. To encounter a Star Pirate group, something that rarely happens even once in a decade, during our return journey."

"Star Pirates..."

Liuge heard this novel term.

This group didn't exist in the game, but considering his current situation, it felt very real.

Since the game was set in space, it was naturally a place where the good and the bad mingled. Just as there were pirates at sea, there were naturally Star Pirates in space.

"Hmm? Something's not right, Lord Tingyun!"

Suddenly, a subordinate from the lookout post shouted.

"What happened?"

Tingyun looked over, and the next moment, a figure leaped down from there, landing in front of her.

"Lord Tingyun, I just took a look from up there. I found that the Star Pirate ships seem to have been in a battle. Each ship has some degree of damage."

"Star Pirate ships that have been in battle?"

Tingyun frowned, then looked at her subordinate.

"Where is the person? Is there anyone on board?"

The subordinate thought for a moment and shook his head.

"There were no signs of anyone."

"Empty ships?"

Tingyun frowned and walked to the railing, gazing at the Star Pirate ships in the distance.

She found that, as her subordinate had said, there were indeed signs of damage.

All indications pointed to something unusual.

At this moment, Tingyun's brows were deeply furrowed, as if she were contemplating something.

As the ships gradually approached, this eerie atmosphere grew even stronger.

Seeing this, Liuge pondered for a moment and looked at Tingyun.

"Miss Tingyun, are there any humanoid objects in the ship's cabin?"

"Hmm? Yes, there are, but they are all mannequins used for displaying clothes. Why do you ask, young master?"

"I possess the ability to control puppets and perceive everything they see."

Upon hearing Liuge's words, Tingyun's eyes immediately lit up. She turned and instructed her subordinate to bring those mannequins.

"Then I'll trouble you, young master."

"It's nothing. Being able to help Miss Tingyun puts my mind at ease. Otherwise, receiving your kindness unilaterally makes me quite uncomfortable."

"You jest, young master!"

Tingyun chuckled behind her hand, her impression of Liuge improving significantly.

While waiting for the mannequins to be brought over, Liuge directly dismantled the combined Stat-Stick into [Clone].

He then reacquired a series of Stat-Sticks such as [Puppet], [Phantom], and [Autonomous Consciousness].

Following that, using the recorded Stat-Sticks, he combined [Puppet] and [Threads] to create the skill Stat-Stick [Puppetry].

It was at this moment that the subordinate brought over three mannequins.

"Thank you, young master."

Tingyun, seeing that everything was ready, gave a slight bow to Liuge.

"No problem!"

Liuge nodded and used [Puppetry] on the three mannequins. The next instant, Liuge felt his consciousness split into three strands, entering each mannequin.

Surprisingly, Liuge felt no discomfort. Although he had three viewpoints, they appeared in his mind like three surveillance feeds, effortlessly.

After successfully controlling the three mannequins, Liuge arranged for them to be placed in a prepared small boat, which then rapidly headed towards the distant Star Pirate ships...

The small boat gradually approached the Star Pirate ships.

From the perspective of the puppets Liuge was controlling, the exteriors of those ships weren't as undamaged as they appeared from a distance.

They were pockmarked with signs of damage, even appearing to have sword marks.

"Some of the marks are old, but most of them are new."

Liuge could even perceive a sense of smell through the puppets he controlled, detecting the scent of rust and gunpowder.

Bang.

The small boat collided with the leading ship, finally halting its advance.

By this time, Liuge had already maneuvered several puppets to board the ship.

Three puppets landed on the deck in a triangular formation.

Damaged weapons, a broken floor, and even dried, black bloodstains were splattered around.

—The battle had been fierce!

Liuge frowned slightly.

He then instructed the three puppets to split up and search.

Puppet One headed for the ship's helm, Puppet Two went inside, and Puppet Three remained on the deck.

In the vision Liuge controlled, Puppet One arrived at the helm to find a charred corpse leaning against the wall, seemingly the helmsman. Around the corpse, dismembered limbs and torn flesh were scattered. However, judging by the tattered clothing, it appeared they had made a final stand to protect the helmsman.

—Did they put up their last resistance in this place?

After entering the ship's interior, Puppet Two discovered a large quantity of cargo in the cabins. Judging by the disarray, it seemed none of it had been lost.

—Was this not a hunt for treasure?

Puppet Two, after searching the vicinity, found nothing out of the ordinary.

Just as Liuge was about to switch his view to Puppet Three, the connection to Puppet Three was suddenly severed.

Stunned for a moment, Liuge immediately directed Puppets One and Two to Puppet Three's location.

One minute later, Puppets One and Two arrived at the spot and discovered a vanguard soldier of the Antimatter Legion, a Voidranger: Reaver.

"Hmm?"

Liuge's confused utterance made Tingyun, who was waiting nearby, curious.

"Young Master, did you discover something?"

"Yes! On that ship over there, there's a Voidranger from the Antimatter Legion."

"The Antimatter Legion?!"

Tingyun frowned slightly, seemingly surprised by this answer.

Meanwhile, as Liuge observed the Reaver, the Reaver also moved, lunging towards the two puppets.

However, Liuge, now prepared, immediately maneuvered the puppets to dodge.

Simultaneously, under his control, Puppet One swiftly moved to grab the Voidranger's arm and, using the momentum of its attack, flung it off the ship.

It flew directly into space, shoulder-to-shoulder with Kaz.

Having done this, Liuge had Puppets One and Two conduct a final search before moving on to investigate the other ships.

The four Star Pirate ships were scattered with varying numbers of Voidrangers from the Antimatter Legion.

It was clear that these four ships had been attacked by the notorious Antimatter Legion.

They were likely just unlucky.

Star Pirates, being a nomadic group, would plunder one area and then move on. They had encountered the Antimatter Legion, which was in pursuit of the Stellaron.

It was obvious they had been casually slaughtered.

"Tsk, tsk, tsk... How unlucky."

Liuge muttered and immediately disconnected the puppets from the Star Pirate ships.

Not to mention that puppets were consumables, and the puppets on those ships were already beyond repair after several encounters with Antimatter Legion Voidrangers, making them not worth salvaging.

"Yes, Young Master?"

"The investigation is complete. The Star Pirates on those ships were all slaughtered by the Antimatter Legion, and all that remains there are Voidrangers."

Liuge said this, looking at Tingyun.

However, when he saw Tingyun's slightly confused expression, his own expression changed.

Wait, Tingyun?

Antimatter Legion?

"Damn it, the Lord of Ruin!"

Remembering Tingyun from the game's storyline, combined with the current encounter with the Antimatter Legion's Voidrangers.

A bad feeling surged.

And this timing, it was exactly when the Astral Express crew was about to resolve Belobog.

Liuge wouldn't believe in a million years that Tingyun encountering a Star Pirate Ship belonging to the Antimatter Legion at this moment was a coincidence.

"Hmm? Young Master, why did you suddenly mention the Emissary of the Lord of Ruin?"

Tingyun was a bit puzzled. Just after investigating the situation over there, the Young Master in front of her brought this up. Could it be that a Lord of Ruin was present there?

Thinking this, Tingyun glanced towards the four ships in the distance and shook her head.

It shouldn't be. The appearance of a Lord of Ruin would invariably be accompanied by a complete Antimatter Legion, not just a few stragglers like these, and within Star Pirate ships at that.

"No time to explain, let's go, quickly! Get away from here!"

Liuge couldn't bother with explanations anymore. He immediately called out to the nearby Minghuo Merchant Guild members, telling the helmsman to accelerate and leave.

But Liuge was an outsider, after all. His words were useless.

"Miss Tingyun, we must leave quickly. I'll explain later!"

Liuge looked towards Tingyun at this moment.

In the story, many said that Tingyun was replaced by Phantylia when the player was using the谛听 tutorial.

But Liuge believed that was impossible.

His most accepted theory was that Tingyun was replaced by Phantylia midway, before returning to Loufu.

In the story, Fu Xuan also officially confirmed this viewpoint, stating that Tingyun was replaced before the Astral Express crew arrived.

"Alright! I'll listen to Young Master Liu. Full speed ahead, away from this place!"

Seeing Liuge's serious demeanor, Tingyun nodded and immediately gave her orders.

With Tingyun's command, Liuge finally breathed a sigh of relief.