I Play With Stats in Honkai: Star Rail Chapter 4

"Go on, get out of here. I don't want to keep arguing with this brat!"

Liuge made a dismissive face, like shooing away a child.

"You're the brat! Got the guts to settle this like real hackers?"

Silver Wolf's eyes widened, her expression screaming that if she didn't knock him flat, she'd write her name backward.

"Fine, I'll be waiting!"

"Hmph, just you wait!"

Watching the two kids bicker from the side, Kafka wore a faint smile as she gave Liuge a deep look, then led the grumbling Silver Wolf away.

Liuge just glanced at the scene, feigning disgust as he turned and walked off in the other direction.

Only when he could no longer sense either of their presences did he lean back against the wall, letting out a relaxed breath.

"Whew... acting is exhausting!"

005 Combined Stat-Stick: Puppet Control

After deactivating the [Haxxor Bunny] transformation, Liuge headed toward the direction Kafka and Silver Wolf had come from.

Back when the two of them left, Liuge had briefly considered using this chance to join the Stellaron Hunters.

But the thought was snuffed out the moment it arose.

The reason was simple: he'd been operating in Haxxor Bunny's form, and joining the Stellaron Hunters would mean maintaining that state long-term. His real body was genuinely weak—without the stat-stick's boost, let alone facing Kafka or Silver Wolf.

Just now, he'd have been killed by the Voidrangers.

So Liuge only entertained the idea for a moment before dropping it entirely.

Now, with Kafka and Silver Wolf gone, the urge to follow them and see whether the Trailblazer was male or female surged back up, and this time he didn't hold it back.

"Might as well take a look. Who knows, maybe I'll snag some rare stat-sticks."

Murmuring to himself, Liuge kept his guard up as he moved through the return passage, wary of running into another Crack Realm like before. This time, there'd be no Herta puppet to help him retreat.

Speaking of which, wasn't Herta on an external visit? How had she connected back just now?

In the story, Herta only returned after the Space Station attack was fully settled, right?

Weird, huh.

But that was beside the point. Once the Antimatter Legion was fully repelled, everything would become clear.

Liuge didn't believe Herta wouldn't come talk to him, an unregistered person, when that time came.

Sneaking and skulking for about five or six minutes, Liuge's caution proved correct. Along the way, aside from the Voidrangers that hadn't been cleared out, he spotted a Voidranger: Trampler, three Baryons, and three Anti-Baryons.

Speaking of Baryons and Anti-Baryons, from what he remembered in the lore, they were like nodes that maintained a barrier-like field, keeping the Space Station in chaos and allowing Crack Realms and Voidrangers to appear freely.

As for the academic details, Liuge—being a slacker student—only half-understood them and just glossed over the gist.

The Trampler, on the other hand, was a guardian of valuable treasure chests, which had stuck in his memory.

After all, treasure chests!

But now, when Liuge saw the Trampler, his first instinct wasn't to check for chests—it was to find a place to hide. He knew that even transformed into Haxxor Bunny, fighting a Trampler would be a tough battle. After all, the Haxxor Bunny stat-stick card was still incomplete.

Wait, incomplete?

Liuge suddenly froze, then smacked his forehead. How could he forget the Endurance and Enhanced Vision stat-sticks he'd just obtained?

Since Haxxor Bunny was a character who used firearms, Endurance and Enhanced Vision were the perfect picks, weren't they?

Acting on the thought, Liuge tried dragging the [Endurance] and [Enhanced Vision] stat-sticks onto the completed [Haxxor Bunny] card.

The next moment, the two stat-sticks fully merged into Haxxor Bunny's panel.

Seeing this, Liuge felt a surge of joy, then checked Haxxor Bunny's description bar.

Though the word "incomplete" hadn't disappeared, the usable power had risen from 70% to 90%.

"So, I'm still missing one more stat-stick to integrate?"

Rubbing his chin, Liuge thoughtfully looked at the remaining stat-sticks in the Stat-Stick Library.

The [Strength] stat-stick had already been fused into his right hand, and [Listening] had sharpened his hearing. The only unused stat-sticks left were [Character Stat-Stick: Femme Fatale] and [Stat-Stick: Puppet], along with two white stat-sticks that had appeared out of nowhere: [Silk Thread] and [Physical Technique].

As for Femme Fatale and Puppet, though both were gold stat-sticks, Liuge had no opportunity to use them.

"Huh? Where did these two come from?"

Liuge stared in surprise at the Silk Thread and Physical Technique stat-sticks, his mind racing. After a moment, he finally remembered—they were the white stat-sticks he'd picked up from the few Voidrangers he'd killed while Herta covered his retreat.

But since he'd been running for his life, he hadn't had time to check them. So these were the ones.

Suddenly, his eyes gleamed as he looked at the Puppet and Silk Thread stat-sticks.

Puppet and Silk Thread—weren't they the perfect match?

And as he expected, combining them yielded a new stat-stick marked with "NEW": [Puppet Control].

Gazing at the new stat-stick, Liuge felt a quiet delight. Then, while integrating the Physical Technique stat-stick into himself, he equipped this new [Puppet Control] stat-stick.

Just from the name, it was clearly a skill stat-stick.

As Physical Technique and Puppet Control integrated into his body, Liuge naturally mastered the close-combat Physical Technique needed for fighting and the Puppet Control ability to manipulate enemies.

This was quite similar to Kafka's method of controlling people, but Kafka's technique was more refined—after all, it was Word Spirit and suggestion that could even manipulate the mind.

Having gained new abilities, Liuge was in high spirits.

Not only had Haxxor Bunny's power increased, but he now had some means of counterattack, no longer relying solely on rolling and dodging to take down enemies like before.

Before long, Liuge arrived at the place where Herta had covered his retreat earlier. The area was now a mess, littered with fragments of puppets, but the Crack Realm that had opened up earlier was also gone.

"Well, is this considered mutual destruction?"

Liuge muttered to himself as he continued walking in the direction he came from.

After this stretch of road, there were no more Voidrangers appearing.

Probably because Kafka and Silver Wolf had taken care of them all on their way out.

This relaxed Liuge quite a bit, and he even picked up two word entries along the way, though they were the previously obtained [Power] and [Speed]. He tried to see if he could combine the two Power entries into a new one, but it seemed he was still one short.

This taught him a new rule of Aether Edit: three identical word entries could be upgraded.

With no other choice, he equipped the Speed entry.

After all, the other Speed had already combined with Stealth to form [Haxxor Bunny] as a character card.

However, after equipping the Speed entry, Liuge's movement speed increased by more than half.

He soon arrived at the room at the end.

It seemed to be a huge surveillance room, but beside it was a hidden entrance that Silver Wolf had already cracked open.

She knew that was where the Stellaron Core Herta had restrained on Azure Planet was stored, and it was also the starting point of this space comedy called Star Rail...

006 Stellaron Core: I Think I'm Awake

Walking into the open room, Liuge immediately spotted a gray-haired figure lying unconscious in the center.

The figure had long gray hair, wore a black trench coat and a white shirt, with a blue thigh band on pale legs that was particularly eye-catching.

Mm, the ancestral thigh band!

Ahem, so it was the female version of Trailblazer. That's fine!

Liuge nodded, then looked at the golden orb glowing near the girl's thigh root.

Oh ho, there was indeed a reward, and it was a Golden Legend!

A flash of joy flickered in his eyes. He looked around, knowing there was no one else here, but checked just to be safe.

After all, the location of that golden orb was a bit hard to mention.

One wrong move, and it could easily be misunderstood.

Seeing no one around, Liuge stepped forward and reached toward the Trailblazer's thigh root.

Just as the joy in his eyes grew, the moment he touched the golden orb, a startled scream made his hair stand on end.

"Ah, Dan Heng, get him! Pervert!"

The cute girl's voice was laced with barely concealed anger.

"Ah, no, I didn't, I'm not, don't talk nonsense!"

Liuge's first reaction was to turn around and fire off a triple denial.

But it was too late. A expressionless young man, holding a long spear, arrived with a chilling killing intent.

In a panic, the Physical Technique integrated into Liuge's body kicked in.

He tilted his body slightly to the left, barely dodging the gleaming spear tip, while his right hand shot out and slapped the spear shaft, shifting its center of gravity downward. He spun half a turn and threw a punch at the young man's face.

Seeing this, the young man showed no surprise. Frowning slightly, he shook his hands, raising the spear's butt end.

Bang.

Fist met spear butt with a loud crash, and the immense force sent both stumbling back a few steps.

"Wait, wait, wait! Hear me out—cough, hear my explanation!"

The moment he steadied himself, Liuge was about to explain, but an ice-crystal arrow grazed his cheek.

"What's there to explain? I walked in and saw you making a move on that kid. This young lady saw it with her own eyes!"

A pink-haired girl with a short bob, holding a longbow and wearing a furious expression, warily walked over to the young man with the spear.

Liuge felt truly wronged, but to anyone who couldn't see the orb, he really did look like someone taking advantage of an unconscious girl.

"March, maybe we should hear him out?"

The young man beside her observed Liuge for a while and found that this man didn't seem like the type to attack someone defenseless. He was a bit puzzled.

"Dan Heng, you saw it too, didn't you?"

"But..."

"Um, is it possible I was just picking something up?"

"Picking something up?"

The pink-haired girl froze, then looked down at Liuge's hand.

There, resting in his palm, was a silver-white cross pendant.

"???"

Wait—had that been there just now?

For a moment, the pink-haired girl was also stunned.

As for Liuge, he had only just realized that the golden light orb he'd obtained wasn't a trait—it was a physical object.

And that object was the silver-white cross pendant in his hand.

Silver Cross Pendant

Description: A transformation device from an unknown world. It appears to be the exclusive equipment of some unscrupulous little runt.

Usage method: Shout the incantation [I am the one who calls death, for I am the one who loves charm with all my power].

Though he really wanted to complain, Liuge held back. After all, the priority now was to explain his current situation.

"Dan... Dan Heng, did he have that in his hand just now?"

"Mhm. He did."

Dan Heng nodded without hesitation.

Just now, when Liuge had unleashed that series of counterattacks, from such close range, he had clearly seen that the fist swinging toward him seemed to be gripping something.

And now that the object had been pointed out, he knew what it was.

"So... it might have been our fault?"

"Mhm."