Honkai Star Rail: I am Godzilla, domineering and rampant.

Serval looked at Qingque's excited back, a little confused.

Didn't she only care about slacking off...?

--------------------------

Reality.

The Planet of Festivities, Penacony, a universally renowned resort paradise, for which countless people strive half their lives just to obtain a ticket.

"Heh, turning the IPC's Frontier prison into a world-famous tourist spot, The Family really invested a lot into Penacony."

Aventurine chuckled and raised his glass in a toast to the handsome man beside him, who had wings near his ears.

As if unaware of the underlying meaning in Aventurine's words, Sunday responded calmly with a smile:

"The Family is bathed in the grace of Harmony, and naturally must create a pure land for all fellow believers across the universe."

"But this time, the Charmony Festival isn't just for the faithful of Harmony, many powers have arrived. Has The Family gone mad? Decided to open the gates of Penacony just like that?"

"Penacony welcomes all who carry harmony in their hearts."

"Oh? But I wouldn't say I'm someone who carries harmony in his heart."

His gaze behind the glasses shifted toward Sunday, and Aventurine smiled slightly.

...

"Well, well, what do we have here? The Family's little chicken-wing boy is chatting merrily with The IPC's envoy. Just this little scene, don't you think the internal affairs office back at IPC headquarters would be very interested in it?"

Sunday departed, and another guest arrived.

A lively red-haired girl bounced over, playfully winking.

"At least while I'm still generating profit for The IPC, I don't think they'll care," Aventurine replied without turning around to face the Fool he had met in a dream.

"Ugh, boring office politics," Sparkle muttered in disgust as she gradually walked away.

Gently swirling the crystal glass in his hand, the glass sparkled under the grand lighting of the Planet of Festivities, its wine radiating hues of flowing clouds.

With a slight bow of his head, a familiar figure reappeared. He downed the drink in one go, set the glass aside, and slowly walked toward the elevator.

...

[Penacony Time Skip~]

"So you're saying you entered some strange dream? And even ran into a monster there?!" March 7th widened her eyes in shock.

"Miss March, that was a Memetic Entity, a monster that exists between dreams," Black Swan, cloaked in black gauze and carrying an air of mystery, said softly.

Looking toward the silent woman beside Stelle, Black Swan smiled lightly. "We meet again, Miss Acheron."

Acheron gave a small nod. "Miss Black Swan."

"Wait, wait, wait! There's no time for small talk! Didn't The Family say the dream was absolutely safe? Why are there monsters?!"

March 7th raised her hand high, looking in disbelief at the two women still chatting like they were actually on vacation.

There's a monster in the dream world! Aren't you two the least bit concerned?!

"We'll probably find the answer in the Reverie hotel that's currently under repair. And what kind of situation requires repairs?"

"The answer: when it's been hurt."

"But The Family is still letting tourists in. They even sent us an invitation." Stelle asked in confusion.

"That's because the Charmony Festival is imminent. The Family can't afford the losses that would come from disrupting it. If Harmony can no longer protect the visitors, then the Planet of Festivities will inevitably fall from its peak," Black Swan whispered.

Her voice remained gentle throughout.

"Sounds super irresponsible. Why don't we go confront The Family about it? No way, they'd rather go ahead with the festival than cancel it. If we barge in, they'll ignore us, maybe even twist it and claim we have ill intentions." March gave a suggestion and gave the answer for it too.

"Whoa, March, where'd you learn all that?" Stelle looked at March 7th in shock, not believing those words actually came from her.

"TV shows, obviously!" March 7th stood with hands on hips, smug.

"Mm, little March has a point. And the fact that The Family's hidden this for so long shows how important it is to them. If we want the truth, we'll have to find it ourselves," Himeko said, nodding slightly, her gaze flashing.

"So troublesome..." Stelle scratched their head and asked tentatively,

"What if we just call in big bro to sort things out? That guy chased me and my friend around in the dream."

"That might not work." Before Himeko or the others could reply, Black Swan spoke softly.

"No matter how grand it appears, Penacony is just a reception site The Family built. The truth can only be found in the dream world. Godzilla's world-shrouding body might force The Family to reveal secrets, but anything obtained through brute force is always suspect."

"And within the dream... forgive my bluntness, but Penacony likely doesn't have a Dream Pool large enough for him. In other words, Godzilla can't enter the dream."

Hearing this from a memokeeper like Black Swan left Stelle feeling a bit deflated.

But she still muttered under their breath, "You won't know unless you try…"

Hearing the gray-haired girl muttering, Himeko smiled helplessly, then turned serious.

"No matter what The Family's hiding, we must investigate that monster thoroughly. Was it a one-time anomaly, or..."

A conspiracy of The Family?

...

Godzilla slightly raised his head, gazing into the starry sky.

Just now, did someone mention me?

Even the tiniest movement of his enormous body could set off a significant chain reaction.

"What's wrong?" A slightly dejected voice came from above.

It was Hanya, but this Hanya was vastly different from before.

With normal skin color, one could barely detect the trace of bluish tint hidden underneath without careful observation.

The voice also lacked its usual gloominess… though when dealing with strangers, that hadn't changed.

This visible transformation lifted the spirits of the two sisters.

It's nothing.

During this brief time together, everyone had come to understand what this meant.

Though they didn't understand why Godzilla suddenly acted, in their position, it was clear their level wasn't high enough to grasp the deeper meaning behind its every move.

With two judges accompanying, although Hanya's skills weren't as refined as Ting Yun's, her strength was beyond Ting Yun's comparison. Plus, with Godzilla intentionally relaxing its muscles, the two could still perform the task with full effort.

Eyes closed, he contemplated about how to procure his next snack.

…

Still the ever-diligent little messenger.

Godzilla didn't know whether Garden of Recollection used a performance-based system, but the messenger's enthusiasm alone would make Qingque label her as a heretic.

Before the messenger could even speak, there was a loud "BOOM!"

Godzilla's massive body suddenly rose from the ground! From afar, it looked like a mountain standing up, like an earth dragon soaring to the skies.

"Uwah!" Caught off guard, the messenger was sent flying by Godzilla's sudden movement.

After spinning a few times in midair, she finally regained her balance.

…

Thankfully, messengers from Garden of Recollection had no physical bodies and traveled through the universe in memetic form, otherwise, just that one hit would've been her final goodbye to the world.

Shaking her head, the messenger flew angrily to Godzilla's side and landed on its shoulder.

Though she hadn't obtained Godzilla's memories during their time together, at least she'd earned enough familiarity for preferential treatment.

At the very least, she no longer had to worry about getting blasted away by one of Godzilla's breaths.

"What's up with you?" the messenger asked curiously.

Since meeting Godzilla, she'd noticed how lazy the big guy was.

Always either napping in the Scaled Abyss or snoozing back in Jarilo.

Even for an un-aging entity, this level of laziness was extreme.

As if there was nothing in the world worth its attention.

Why was it suddenly moving now… Wait!

The messenger suddenly realized, this was a dream!

And it was Godzilla's own dream!

Basically, like a craftsman eating noodles at home, tending his own shop.

After understanding everything, the messenger sat down in resignation.

Godzilla's shoulders were broad enough that even lying down for a nap wouldn't risk rolling off.

Godzilla walked slowly, as if admiring the surrounding scenery.

"How strange," the messenger suddenly said.

Though called a messenger, she was also an collector of dreams.

Looking at this dreamscape built from Godzilla's memories, sprawling Xianzhou Luofu, Jarilo VI…

The messenger felt increasingly puzzled.

There clearly wasn't enough memory substance here to support such a large-scale dreamscape, yet Godzilla's dream seemed to defy logic and exist in this form.

She had visited Penacony before… in the Asdana Galaxy.

Garden of Recollection followed rules carefully; they didn't mess around.

If she had to describe it, a dream built from Asdana's abundant memory substance would be like a meticulously crafted, well-constructed building.

Sturdy and real, but some fine details were inevitably imperfect, after all, memory matter was the specialty of the memory weavers.

But Godzilla's dream was different. His was solid as a rock, offering no gaps to exploit. If he hadn't seemingly opened the dream himself, she would've been stuck outside waiting for who knows how long for him to wake up, instead of entering to negotiate.

Shaking her head, the messenger stopped thinking about it.

Garden of Recollection collected vast memories, including some ones indistinguishable from natural memory matter.

This universe was vast. There were always things that defied imagination.

"Boom!"

After some thought, Godzilla stopped at the edge of a cliff, gazing into the distance.

The messenger stopped her swirling thoughts and looked up.

A trace of golden light remained on the horizon, no, it wasn't the last of the sunset, but the first light of dawn.

Looking back, they saw the moon set in the east, and the golden sun rise in the west.

Godzilla's massive body slowly sat down, gazing at the rising sun in the distance, its thick tail gently swaying, stirring the freshest air of morning.

The messenger sniffed lightly.

A unique freshness of dawn filled her nose, clear and invigorating.

…

Interasteral Peace Corporation.

"How's the experimental data? Any progress?"

Lanner leaned forward slightly, offering a greeting.

"Of course. Preliminary research has made progress. All data from those Borisin has been documented. However…"

"However?" Hearing that word, the visitor's tone grew slightly heavier. Everyone knew that when something was highly anticipated, it was best not to follow up with bad news.

Lanner understood this well, but this had indeed hit a bottleneck.

"The corpses of ordinary Borisin can only handle part of it. Even with augmentation, they can only be strengthened about tenfold."

He nodded slightly. That made sense.

No matter how you preserved a corpse's activity, it couldn't compare to the living.

"However, live experiments have shown much greater progress. Combined with augmentation, combat ability can be enhanced up to fifteen times."

"Only fifteen times?"

Lanner nodded. "These fifteen times are achieved while they remain conscious. Going further might increase their strength a bit more, but how much exactly is uncertain, and it might not be that useful. Besides, we've already outperformed the majority of samples."

In other words, achieving such an effect was already the limit.

And the greatest contributor to this result was Ruan Mei, the absolute authority in the field of life sciences.

Unfortunately, she was unwilling to participate in the long-term research of this project for The IPC.

Geniuses are always elusive.

Closing his eyes, he simply breathed.

"The IPC can't afford to offend an Emanator over a single project."

After saying this, he gave a few instructions to continue the research and left.

Watching him leave, Lanner dusted off the wrinkles on his clothes and lowered the brim of his hat.

"'The IPC can't...' But in private, anything is possible."

Don't get it wrong , he couldn't confront a powerful being head-on, but there are always side roads.

For example, what about a complete corpse from the Swarm Disaster?

...

Conspirators in the universe are always eager to control everything and get what they desire at will.

But in the end, this is a false proposition. Acting as one pleases simply means they haven't encountered something truly unattainable.

"That guy's cheating! I can't take this!"

Furious, Silver Wolf threw the controller aside and flopped into a pile of plushies with a thud, getting angrier the more she thought about it.

"No way, I'm reporting all of their accounts!"

If you can't play fair, don't play at all! What kind of hero cheats?

Seeing Silver Wolf acting so petty, Kafka chuckled softly.

Once Silver Wolf banned all seventeen of the opponent's accounts, she proudly declared in the group chat:

"Firefly seems to be having a lot of fun in Penacony."

"If it weren't so inconvenient for me right now, I'd want to join in too."

Hearing Kafka's words, Silver Wolf pouted, then said with sudden interest:

"What do you think would happen if I blacked out The Family's entire operating system?"

Kafka smiled gently, her eyes twinkling as she replied softly:

"Then you'd have every major force in the universe hunting you down."

Just look at who's in Penacony now, The IPC, The Family, the Nameless, the Galaxy Rangers, and even an Emanator.

The Nameless are our own, at least for now, so no worries there. But the others… not so friendly.

She didn't want to see Silver Wolf being chased across the cosmos just yet , best to enjoy things a little longer.

"The Family... can I die in the dream?" The ever-present death-seeker instantly perked up.

"Unfortunately, based on what we know so far, no."

Kafka gently shook her head, responding to Blade with some regret.

Sigh... this whole bunch would fall apart without me.

...

Penacony, Dreamscape.

Entering the dream again, the group felt an eerie atmosphere envelop them.

Unlike the glamorous outside, the hotel in the dream had a chilling sense of death.

"Death is hidden here. Don't lower your guard," Black Swan whispered.

Stelle nodded, took out her bat, and looked around cautiously.

"This way."

Black Swan waved to Stelle, who was holding her bat restlessly. Stelle didn't hesitate and pushed the door open.

The next second…

"We meet again, my-"

"Take this!"

Thud!

...

Who knows how long passed before Aventurine slowly came to. Just as he tried to sit up,

"Hiss-!"

The moment he touched his forehead, a sharp pain hit him. But it was precisely this pain that helped him regain some clarity, his vision sharpened.

Looking up, he saw Stelle with hands behind her back, the baseball bat's tip peeking out above her head, while Black Swan had a strange expression, unsure what to say.

"That's… quite the vigilance."

His mouth twitched.

Combined with the flash of the bat he saw before blacking out, Aventurine had no doubt that he had been knocked out cold by the brute in front of him.

Is that how you're supposed to be vigilant?

Complaining inwardly, Aventurine smiled again.

"Black Swan, Aventurine, you two are together?" Stelle's eyes shifted between them and asked seriously.

"Together might be too much, but we do have a deal."

"What do you want to talk to me about? You lured me here on purpose?" Stelle asked in confusion, eyes scanning Aventurine.

She had heard that the members of the Garden of Recollection forsake their physical bodies and exist as memes.

That meant she probably couldn't lay a hand on Black Swan. But Aventurine was different, it didn't matter if he was one of the Ten Stonehearts or an envoy of the IPC.

He was flesh and blood. As long as the opponent was human, her bat could set him free!

"Simple. I want to cooperate with the Astral Express. You need to understand the truth here and stop The Family's conspiracy. I, on the other hand, want to take back Penacony, this frontier prison. We're natural allies."

"Then why didn't you say so back in the lobby?" Stelle retorted.

Just because she carried a bat didn't mean she only solved problems with violence!

Among the Astral Express crew, aside from Himeko, Welt, and Dan Heng, she was easily in the top four in intelligence!