In the pitch-black space, three people who looked ninety percent alike had gathered together.
Two were sitting, while one was lying down.
The three of them looked almost identical. The few differences were that one had a slightly cleaner-looking face, though it bore several fluorescent patterns; another had far more patterns on his face, looking as though he was about to shatter; the last looked the most miserable. He only had a few fluorescent patterns, but his clothes were tattered, and his body was covered in wounds.
"So your starting point was a spaceship drifting through space..." Mysteries Morien rubbed his temples as he sat there.
He had just received the memories of the other two "selves," and his head was throbbing.
"Yes." Morien, lying on the ground, answered weakly.
He was the one with the most obvious patterns on his face.
Meanwhile, the tattered Morien sat beside him, occasionally poking him with a finger.
"Then the AI on the ship injected you with something called a 'Synesthesia Beacon,' and you immediately gained the ability to understand other languages." Mysteries Morien sorted through the memories flooding into his mind.
"Oh, this thing doesn't just let you understand any language. It also lets you read any writing recorded in the Synesthesia Beacon database."
"Yes." Morien, lying on the ground, raised a hand and gave a thumbs-up.
"Ah~." Mysteries Morien dragged out the sound. "I think I can guess which world you ended up in."
"What a coincidence, I guessed it too." The tattered Morien replied.
"How coincidental, I guessed it too." Morien on the ground said.
"'Honkai: Star Rail.'" Mysteries Morien said. "Hmm... a spaceship... Now you really have nowhere to go, above or below. Your situation is even more extreme than mine."
The time Star Rail Morien had crossed over to was terribly unfortunate.
This was a ship belonging to the Interastral Peace Corporation.
The pilot had dropped dead from overwork after prolonged exploitation. The AI installed aboard the ship was an artificial intelligence without self-awareness, not a living mechanical intelligence, so it could not communicate.
As an outsider, he had no authority to operate the ship whatsoever.
As for why the AI provided food and a Synesthesia Beacon for communication.
The reason was simple.
The Corporation always needed to travel to all kinds of planets, and they often used the negotiation tactic of "locking up the natives for a day or two" to "peacefully resolve" problems.
And the area at the rear of the ship that could serve as a detention room was an excellent choice.
"To talk to yourself alone for an entire week without breaking down, you really are incredible." Mysteries Morien gave him a thumbs-up.
Drifting alone through the universe, with no one to speak to, unchanging darkness outside the window, and a single corpse as his only companion...
"Hehe, I think so too." Star Rail Morien gave a slightly unhinged laugh. "This starting point is truly divine."
He was full of resentment.
"But you're not much better off either." He turned to look at the tattered Morien, who was still poking him.
Among the worlds of the three Moriens, the tattered Morien's world was probably the lowest level.
Yet he was currently in the most dangerous situation.
"It's one thing to joke about it online, but in real life, who wants to rush in red-faced and risk their life just to serve as a speed bump for the Four Disaster Curses?" Jujutsu Morien grinned as he spoke.
The world this Morien had crossed into was Jujutsu Kaisen.
He had arrived on the day of the Shibuya Incident.
At the time, he had inexplicably appeared in a subway station.
Seeing Japanese posters everywhere, he had thought he had crossed into Japan in a parallel world.
Just as he was wondering whether he could find a way to sneak back home without a passport, he ran straight into a Transfigured Human that had been turned into a Monster through Idle Transfiguration.
It was... rather sudden.
He had truly found love around a corner.
Seeing his singed hair, torn clothes, and wounds all over his body, Mysteries Morien and Star Rail Morien both looked at him with pity.
"Hey, hey, hey, what kind of looks are those? I awakened Jujutsu!" Jujutsu Morien shouted in dissatisfaction.
Perhaps because his body had adapted after crossing over, he really had awakened a Cursed Technique and Cursed Energy. But the other two still looked at him with pity.
Star Rail was a world where will mattered. Even a bug could have a chance of becoming a god.
Lord of Mysteries had complete Paths of the Divine. As long as one worked hard, becoming a god was not impossible either.
But the Jujutsu World was different.
This place emphasized talent. Whether someone could become a Jujutsu Sorcerer was determined from birth. Everyone's amount of Cursed Energy was fixed, and it was nearly impossible to break through later in life. Every person's Cursed Technique was also naturally engraved into their brain.
Jujutsu Morien's Cursed Energy was only barely a little higher than that of an ordinary person, and his Cursed Technique was even more difficult to stomach.
It was called Resonance Curse Technique.
Its effect was allowing his voice to directly appear in the minds of targets within a certain range.
It consumed an absurd amount of energy. He could maintain it for no more than three minutes, the straight-line distance could barely exceed one hundred meters, and it only worked at normal volume. He could not blast people with sound bombs.
"My enemies' abilities are: controlling fire, controlling forests, controlling the ocean, and controlling souls."
"And my ability is: sending voice messages without using a phone."
"If I work hard enough, I can even send them in groups."
"This is truly wonderful."
Jujutsu Morien patted his chest proudly.
It seemed he had been driven mad.
"Great. Someday, it'll be your turn to fight Sukuna." Star Rail Morien pointed his thumb at Jujutsu Morien.
"Huh?" Jujutsu Morien revealed a shocked expression. "You actually expect a cheap old phone to fight Sukuna?"
"Those old phones can actually send messages pretty far." Mysteries Morien reminded him. "At most, you're a toy walkie-talkie."
"And a one-way one at that."
Good. He had not disgraced himself. At the very least, he could earn the title of The Most Ordinary Jujutsu Sorcerer in History.
"Then there's you..." Mysteries Morien stroked his chin and looked at Star Rail Morien. "You embarked on the Path of Propagation?"
"Maybe..." Star Rail Morien answered absentmindedly.
"That's miserable too..."
Those on the Path of Propagation died if separated from the Swarm. As the universe's only anomaly, if Star Rail Morien had not entered this mysterious space and found "companions," he probably would have died alone before long.
"It would've been nice if you had become a Beyonder." Star Rail Morien rolled over. "Then maybe I could leave the ship on my own and find a planet."
"I probably can't help much from my side." Mysteries Morien spread his hands. "Even if I become a Beyonder, I feel like solving your problem would be difficult."
"I'd have to become a Demigod or even an Angel, at the very least."
"That's true..." Star Rail Morien said dejectedly.
"I'm even less useful." Jujutsu Morien shook his head. "You can't expect a toy walkie-talkie to do anything for you."
And it was a grudge-holding walkie-talkie, too.
"Sigh..." Star Rail Morien let out a heavy sigh. "If only a really powerful 'me' could show up right now."
At that moment, Mysteries Morien pointed at his own face, at the fluorescent patterns on it.
"Come to think of it, when I first noticed this, I thought it was some special trait I got from crossing over."
"But now that I look at it, it seems you brought it to me?"
"Seems so." Star Rail Morien nodded.
This was Entropy Loss.
It seemed that because he, as a transmigrator, had become the universe's only anomaly, his loneliness had resonated with the Path of Propagation.
Loneliness, division, death upon separation.
Those were the traits of the Path of Propagation, and every one of them manifested in him.
Whether it was the loneliness he had first experienced aboard the ship or the current situation where the identity of "Morien" had split across countless worlds, it all perfectly matched their present state.
The patterns that had first appeared on his body were the manifestation of "death upon separation."
It was a phenomenon unique to the Path of Propagation, a phenomenon unique to Honkai: Star Rail.
Yet it was also an "illness" that Morien, whose starting point had been the world of Lord of Mysteries, should not and could not have contracted.
"Then that's strange..." Mysteries Morien said in confusion. "I hadn't been here before..."
How had he gotten the negative effect in advance on credit...
He was certain that they should only synchronize memories and abilities after arriving here and touching each other.
Just like when he had touched them earlier, he could clearly feel that he had synchronized the physical qualities Star Rail Morien gained after embarking on the Path, making his body far stronger than an ordinary person's.
And after touching Jujutsu Morien, he had gained a tiny amount of Cursed Energy and Resonance Curse Technique.
But why...
All three Moriens pondered the question.
At that moment, the pitch-black space gradually began to destabilize.
The three of them suddenly had a premonition that they were about to return.
Star Rail Morien, who had been lying on the ground, suddenly sat up and looked at his other two selves. He spoke rapidly.
"I don't know how much longer I can hold on."
He had barely recovered this time, but before long, he felt like he really would break down.
"So, for my sake, become a Beyonder." He raised a fist toward Mysteries Morien.
Thinking of what Star Rail Morien had gone through, Mysteries Morien could not help but make an expression as if he had eaten shit.
It felt like he was even worse off than himself...
He truly wanted to help his other self, but...
"But even if you say that, asking me to become a Demigod or even an Angel in such a short time..."
Star Rail Morien pressed his palms together and raised them over his head.
"Please, other me!"
"...All right... I'll do my best..."
"I'll come in from time to time! You have to remember to come in often and talk to me too!" Star Rail Morien left them with those final words.
He did not know how long this space's cooldown would be, but he would definitely come in whenever he got the chance.
He truly could not stand it if no one kept him company.
That was also why, even though they could directly view memories, the other two Moriens had chosen to communicate through conversation.
They only had time to say that much before the three Moriens were swallowed by the darkness spreading around them.
When the view before him finally began to brighten, Morien realized he had returned to the original cabin.
"Ah... I'm back."
Morien shook his head.
The buzzing in his ears had already vanished.
He had found "companions," and Morien was no longer in a state of "separation."
The manifestation of Entropy Loss on his body was no longer so obvious.
The driving force of Propagation was loneliness.
He had embarked on the Path because of the loneliness of not fitting into the world, then stabilized after finding a Swarm.
At last, the loneliness that had constantly haunted his heart had disappeared.
The corners of his lips curved upward into a smile.
He was finally no longer "alone."
The impassioned chants around him continued. Morien blinked and listened carefully.
Having synchronized the effects of the Synesthesia Beacon, Morien found that he could actually begin to understand what those chants were saying.
At first, he could only barely understand a few words, such as "Devil" and "resistance."
As he heard more and more words, he understood more and more of what was being said.
Morien watched Tris pace around the cabin, swinging his arms as he spoke in an impassioned tone.
"The greed and tyranny of those Devils threaten every single one of us! So we cannot be lambs awaiting slaughter! If I fall, I will rise again. But I will not fall! There can only be two endings to this counterattack! Either they destroy us, or we destroy them!"
Ah... Had Emperor Roselle brought The Rise of the Empire into this world?
Morien finally understood what Tris was saying, and those lines sounded more and more familiar.
Roselle had probably used them while showing off.
"Come to think of it..." Morien suddenly sensed something.
"Does Propagation really have the ability to hide itself?" Morien touched his face.
It felt hard.
True Sting could create illusions.
But that relied on their scale powder.
Yet he had already confirmed that he had not actively released any scale powder.
And it could not have been an effect caused by something synchronized from another world.
He had not even brought the Synesthesia Beacon back. He had only brought back the effects of having his body altered by the Synesthesia Beacon.
He seemingly could not synchronize "matter," and he had no "scale powder."
Morien furrowed his brow in thought.
On closer thought, that did not seem to be an "illusion," but rather control over other people's "attention."
"No... Something is wrong..."
Morien tilted his head back so Tris's constantly swinging arm would not hit his face.
If he had to say it, the only thing related to that on him was Entropy Loss Syndrome.
It would cause him to gradually dissipate, silently leaving the world.
But that was obviously a negative effect. As someone who had only been half a Pathstrider at the time, it was even more impossible for him to actively control a negative effect.
Then either he had another ability, or something was helping him control Entropy Loss.
He carefully recalled the memories brought by his other two selves.
Morien frowned, thinking and remembering.
Suddenly, he seemed to recall something.
In those other memories, there had been a moment when both of his other selves had seen their own reflections in glass.
The reflections in the glass did not look like his mutated face at all!
Morien looked carefully, but he still could not make it out.
That feeling... that feeling... it was like...
"That's it!" He suddenly saw clearly.
As he made out what was in the memory, Morien finally noticed that there had always been a "background sound" within it.
The Morien of the Honkai: Star Rail World should have broken down long ago. It was only because a "background sound" had constantly helped him regulate his emotions, keeping him cheerful enough not to collapse.
That voice had been ringing all along, yet none of the three Moriens had noticed it.
Cheerful... cheerful...
Morien slowly raised his head. At that very moment, Tris looked at him as well.
In the reflection in Tris's pupils, he saw his own face.
Tris saw nothing, but Morien did.
He had set foot upon [Propagation] and another Path, making his vision far sharper than that of an ordinary person.
He saw an orange-red mask on his face, its mouth stretched into a sneering grin.
He heard laughter.
"Aha."