Honkai Star Rail: Corruption System

The elongated shadow at the alley's entrance seemed to freeze as a figure stood quietly within it, completely blocking the only escape route. That calm, low voice instantly pierced Black Swan's eardrums, making her very soul tremble slightly.

She turned gracefully, and the deep purple eyes beneath her veil suddenly solidified, clearly reflecting the newcomer's silhouette. A pure black hoodie, worn meticulously with a neat collar, and grey-gold eyes, indifferent and without a ripple.

It was Daziel.

A cold alarm shrieked wildly in Black Swan's heart, and a fine chill instantly seeped from her fingertips. The two video clips from before, enough to subvert cognition, the one truly cold and ruthless hand behind them, was this very man! Thinking of that Halovian singer—Robin—and her miserable end, reduced to a little dog, a chill originating from the depths of her soul shot up her spine.

She would absolutely not become his next "broken" collector's item!

Her expression sinking slightly, Black Swan's fingertips flipped deftly, and a tarot card, painted with complex and strange stellar patterns, silently slipped into her palm. The card felt cold and hard, like her currently tense state of mind, filled with the sharp edge of defense and the cold glint of vigilance. An intangible Path energy flowed around her body, her combat stance already assumed. The foul Memoria in the narrow alley seemed to thicken and stagnate due to this silent confrontation.

Daziel slowly stepped into the cramped alley, his pace unhurried, as if merely strolling in his own garden. His gaze first swept casually over the dazed Sparkle, who stood foolishly in place, her eyes still holding a trace of lingering bewilderment, before finally, impartially, landing on Black Swan. Daziel's face even wore a faint, gentle smile, forming a bizarre and intense contrast with the filthy, squalid environment.

"You glimpsed so many of our secrets."

"It's one thing to be unwilling to help, but to go so far as to erase Sparkle's memory, leaving her in a brief state of chaos."

"Miss Memokeeper, to do this is a bit… unjustifiable, wouldn't you say?"

Daziel's voice flowed smoothly, yet it carried the effortless control of one who has the whole situation in hand.

Black Swan tightly gripped the tarot card, which emanated a faint energy fluctuation. She tried her best to maintain her usual gentle tone, as if silk were gliding over ice.

"A trivial little warning, with no substantial harm."

"This little brat from the Masked Fools acts too wantonly. A small lesson, to let her understand that not every being can be arbitrarily toyed with by her."

Daziel nodded slightly, his posture composed, as if completely accepting this seemingly righteous explanation.

"The goal of the Garden of Recollection is nothing more than to collect those memories worthy of being recorded, those of extraordinary value."

"This deep water of Penacony is far murkier than you imagine. Those astonishing secrets worthy of being marked are far more numerous than what you currently know."

He leaned forward slightly, his grey-gold eyes seeming to contain a strange gravity, able to directly see through the deepest desires and fears of one's heart.

"Choose to cooperate with us, and I can guide you to touch those deeper, more hidden torrents of memory, even those deliberately buried by the Family."

"In exchange, I need your ability, Miss Black Swan, the unique authority of a Memokeeper."

Black Swan was silent for a moment, the brow beneath her veil knitting almost imperceptibly. This proposal had precisely struck the core driving force of her trip to Penacony—the pursuit of unique memories. But the man before her was as unfathomable as an un-divinable void, making her instinctively feel an unprecedented resistance and danger.

"In Penacony, I have indeed encountered some insurmountable obstacles."

She finally spoke, her voice carrying a hint of barely perceptible gravity.

"There are two people whose memories are like being completely shrouded in the deepest, thickest fog. No matter how I use the Memokeeper's authority, I cannot see through them in the slightest, unable to stir even a single ripple."

"One was a lady I happened to encounter in the Golden Hour not long ago. I tried to probe her by inviting her to dance, but was nearly consumed by the aura of Nihility on her, bringing disaster upon myself."

"And the other…"

Her gaze, like the most precise probe, slowly fell upon Daziel's calm, rippleless face. "Is you, Mr. Daziel."

Hearing this, Daziel actually shook his head and chuckled lightly. The sound echoed in the cramped alley, carrying an indescribably strange quality.

"I know who that lady you mentioned is."

"However, I am different from her. The reason you can't see my memory should be due to… other reasons."

An extremely subtle, almost imperceptible dark fluctuation flashed across the depths of his grey-gold eyes.

Daziel gazed at Black Swan, a trace of almost imperceptible feeling flashing through his heart. In the original plot, she had been willing to proactively offer help because of her interest in the Trailblazer's memories, in the Stellaron hidden within him. But now, merely because she couldn't see through him, that curiosity was overwhelmed by a deeper fear, and things had become trickier.

In a sense, it was Acheron's fault for leaving such a psychological shadow on her.

"I am disinclined to be an enemy of the Garden of Recollection's Memokeepers."

His tone was still calm and gentle, yet his words revealed a cold, undeniable decisiveness.

"But you, Miss Black Swan, are an indispensable part of this destined trajectory."

Daziel slowly raised his hand, his slender fingertips gently brushing the outline of a hard object in his coat pocket. It was the Aether Coin, and inside the coin was Phantylia, who possessed the power of an Emanator.

"So, I can only say I'm sorry. Against me, you have no chance of winning."

"Of course, you can also choose to try right now."

"Whether the authority of the Memokeeper you rely on, that profound power to play with memories, can resist the… will-twisting power contained in my hypnotic pocket watch."

That pocket watch! The very item that, in the video just now, had completely rewritten the will of the one named Robin, turning her into an obedient little dog!

Black Swan's pupils suddenly constricted to the most dangerous pinprick. A terrifying sense of threat, one that faced the very essence of existence, poured over her like ice water. The power of memory, against this bizarre hypnosis that directly acted on the spiritual source and twisted sensory cognition…

What were the odds of victory?

She dared not gamble, absolutely dared not gamble! Coupled with the shadow that woman with the tachi had left on her, that aura of Nihility that almost turned her soul to nothingness…

Fear and reason waged an incredibly fierce battle in her heart, the scales tipping wildly.

Just as Daziel's fingertips were about to draw out that pocket watch exuding an ominous aura. Black Swan seemed to glimpse, from those seemingly calm grey-gold eyes, a confidence that surpassed human understanding. Or perhaps, it was simply the extreme fear of the unknown that completely overwhelmed the last bit of reserve and pride she had as a Memokeeper.

She blurted out, her voice carrying an undisguisable haste and tremor: "Wait!"

"I… I've changed my mind!"

Daziel's movement stopped with extreme naturalness, his fingertips gently leaving the outline of the pocket watch.

"You should have done so earlier."

His tone was flat, as if everything was under his control.

Black Swan took a deep breath of the cold, foul air, forcibly suppressing the violent palpitation in her chest.

"Never mind. The experience of my brief contact with that lady does indeed leave me with lingering fear to this day."

"For existences in Penacony that are completely incomprehensible and unable to be seen through, maintaining a necessary distance is always the wisest choice."

She quickly found a sufficiently respectable, and sufficiently real, reason for her compromise. Then, she gracefully turned to the still-dazed Sparkle, who was curled on the ground, and her slender fingertips gently tapped the void. An invisible, water-like ripple quietly spread out, and as if it had life, it gently submerged into Sparkle's brow.

Sparkle's petite body jolted violently. The bewilderment in her eyes, like a thin mist blown away by a gale, instantly restored its usual focus and spirit. The confusion faded, replaced by the shock and bewilderment of someone suddenly awakened. She blinked her unique pink eyes in confusion, first looking around at the filthy environment, then at the confronting Daziel and Black Swan.

A brief moment of chaos flashed in her pink pupils, then was immediately covered by her usual cunning and the annoyance of being tricked.

"Hey! You woman in the veil! What did you do to me just now?! Why is my head so dizzy?!" Sparkle shrieked, her voice piercing.

Black Swan, however, ignored Sparkle's shouts, merely turning her gaze back to Daziel. She gracefully drew back her hand, gently arranging the high-quality shawl on her shoulder, her posture returning to its previous composure.

"Does this show my sincerity, Mr. Daziel?"

Daziel's expression was as calm as ever. He nodded slightly, indicating his approval.

"It does."

Black Swan adjusted her breathing, trying to return to the usual composure and calm of a Memokeeper. Even with a thousand points of unwillingness and ten thousand points of vigilance in her heart, she could only temporarily accept this passive situation.

"So, what do you need me to do?" she asked softly, her tone carrying a necessary cooperation.

Daziel's gaze passed over her shoulder, looking towards the narrow alley exit, towards that bizarre, hedonistic dreamscape city.

"Find a way."

"To send us into Penacony's… true dreamscape, the one hidden beneath the beautiful dream."

Hearing this, the expression under Black Swan's veil instantly froze, her purple eyes filled with incredible shock. The foul air in the depths of the alley seemed to congeal into ice at that sentence. The purple pupils under Black Swan's veil contracted violently, the shock almost breaking through the elegant mask she always wore. The true dreamscape… Penacony's most deeply hidden secret, a forbidden land that even the Family was tight-lipped about.

How did he know? This had even surpassed the boundaries of many Memokeepers' explorations!

"Why… why do you know even this?"

Her voice trembled slightly, filled with an uncontrollable shock and suspicion. That feeling, as if all her secrets, all her pursuits, were completely exposed to the other's eyes. Icy fear once again seized her heart.

Daziel didn't answer directly, merely watching her with his calm grey-gold eyes. The shadow at the alley entrance outlined his tall and straight figure, like an eternal reef.

"I told you, cooperating with me only has its benefits."

"What you seek, Miss Memokeeper, I can guide you to touch."

Daziel knew clearly. As someone who knew the original trajectory, he was of course aware that where they were now was merely the dazzling surface dreamscape meticulously constructed by the Family—the Golden Hour. The true core, the one that carried more secrets and crises, was the Reverie Hotel deep within the dream bubble.

In the original plot, it was Sparkle disguised as Sampo who knocked out Daziel and Firefly in the Golden Hour and threw them into the Reverie Hotel in the dreamscape. But in this worldline interfered with by him, Sparkle, following by his side, seemed to have lost certain key sources of information, or rather, her logic of action had been changed. She knew less, as if weakened. Turning evil makes a character ten times stronger, while being redeemed makes them a fraction as powerful. Perhaps that's how it is.

So, to enter that area now, he had to rely on Black Swan. After all, in the original trajectory, it was Black Swan who acted to rescue the Trailblazer and Firefly from the attack of "Something Unto Death." She must know the method of traversing different dreamscape levels, or at least, possess such an ability. This Memokeeper was the key to solving the current predicament.

Black Swan's fingertips unconsciously curled, the cold touch of the tarot card making her calm down slightly. Cooperating with Daziel was extremely risky, like seeking a tiger for its hide. But not cooperating, the threat of that pocket watch, and the strangeness of not being able to see into his memory, left her feeling like she was sitting on pins and needles. Moreover, the bait he offered pointed directly at her core desire as a Memokeeper.

She was silent for a long time. In the narrow alley, only the faint breathing of the three could be heard, and the distant clamor of the dream city. Finally, reason and the desire for unknown memories overwhelmed fear.

"Understood…"

She squeezed out this word with difficulty, her voice carrying a hint of almost imperceptible hoarseness.

"However, to enter that true dreamscape, special mediums and rituals are required."

"We must first return to reality to make the necessary preparations."

Black Swan added, this was the standard procedure for Memokeepers conducting deep memory dives.

Daziel nodded slightly, having no objection to this.

"Alright, that's as it should be."

His gaze was calm, as if merely confirming a trivial detail. The sense of control was still firmly in his hands.

Sparkle, who had been curled up to the side, silently observing, finally couldn't help but jump out. She rubbed her still somewhat dazed head, her pink pupils darting around.

"Eh? Go back? Don't we need to call the crew from the train?"

"Aren't they all your companions? Honestly, my impression of them isn't bad…"

Daziel's gaze turned to Sparkle, a faint, indifferent arc on his lips.

"No need."

His voice was calm, yet carried an undeniable decisiveness.

"From the frozen snowfields of Belobog to the cloud-top battles of the Xianzhou Luofu, they are tired too."

"This beautiful dream of Penacony, just let them have a rare holiday."

Daziel's thoughts churned. He was long past the Trailblazer who needed the protection of his companions. Completing so many Fallen Value missions, establishing special connections with numerous women and others. And even controlling Phantylia, a true Emanator of Destruction. Whether it was his own power or the resources he could mobilize, he had long surpassed the "himself" of the same period in the original plot.

The murky waters of Penacony, he was sufficient to handle, and even…

Daziel's gaze became profound, as if piercing through layers of dream curtains, looking towards that unknown core.

If possible, this time, I will strangle all of Penacony's potential disasters in the cradle. Whether it's the Clockmaker's legacy, the Family's conspiracy, or the games of the Aeons. All will meet their end in my hands.

Daziel paused, his expression solemn.

"The destined fate of the Nameless in Penacony, I alone will bear it."

An invisible pressure quietly emanated from him, making the narrow alley seem to freeze for a moment.

_

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