Becoming a Star In Honkai: Star Rail!

Painful!

So painful!

Michael opened his eyes slightly to stare at the ceiling of his room, his body was completely wet with sweat.

He felt hot, his head hurt intensely and he had a severe toothache.

If he had been a woman, he might have been able to bear it, but as a man, a mere fever and toothache had already left him at death's door.

His mother had always told him that women were better at enduring pain, but he had never believed her. Now that he was in this sorry state, however, he remembered her words.

"It's a good thing I asked for five days off work..."

Michael worked at a talent agency that was about twenty minutes from his home.

Of course, he didn't work as an idol or an actor, he was merely an assistant responsible for small menial tasks with a low salary, but enough to support him.

His father was a huge Michael Jackson fan, and had named him Michael in the hopes that his son would be a musical talent as well.

But Michael had no musical talent whatsoever, and he wasn't good at acting either.

Perhaps under the pressure of his father's expectations, he had taken private singing lessons and graduated from acting college, but his skills were mediocre at best.

In the end, the highest he could achieve was the position of assistant. Behind the scenes, he ran from one place to the other, preparing costumes, makeup, running errands and fetching food for the crew.

Despite this, Michael didn't feel particularly disappointed, the dream of being a star was never his to begin with, he just felt slightly sad that he couldn't live up to his father's expectations.

Sighing, Michael weakly got up from the bed, reaching out to grab his phone. After fiddling with it for a few seconds, he opened 'Honkai: Star Rail'.

It was the only game he played, as he usually didn't have time to play others. There was something about 'Honkai: Star Rail' that had hooked him from the start, so he had been playing since version 1.1, occasionally spending money if there was a character he wanted.

This time, too, he loaded some cash into the game to throw some pulls at Robin's banner. He already had her E3, and was racing for an E6.

As the game opened, Michael got up and staggered to the bathroom, sitting on the toilet and relieving himself.

"Should I wash my hands before pulling...?"

Michael never considered himself a superstitious person, but when he came to the Honkai: Star Rail banners, he seemed to have a supernatural bad luck. If he didn't pay for it, he would have a hard time winning any 50/50.

"Yeah, I better wash my hands first..."

Michael muttered to himself, setting his phone aside as he cleaned himself up and flushed the toilet.

As he was about to get up, however, a strange force pulled him down.

"Huh...?"

Confused, Michael looked down, but nothing seemed different from usual. He tried to get up again, but that force was still pulling him down, and the more he tried to get out of the toilet, the more that force pulled him down, until he was starting to be sucked into the toilet.

"This can't seriously be happening..."

Michael began to struggle to get up from the toilet, but the force was pulling him further and further down. He no longer had the strength to resist because of the fever to begin with.

"No! HELP! SOMEONE! AT LEAST LET ME PULL ROBIN FIRST!"

Michael called for help, but he lived alone and his house had exceptional soundproofing, so it was unlikely that anyone would hear his screams and come to his aid.

In the face of death, Michael clearly had his priorities straight. His hand reached out for the phone, barely reaching it. His fingers glided weakly across the screen, pressing pull 10×, and soon, the gacha animation began to play across the screen.

Michael's face lit up, the game's gacha animation ticket glowed faintly, indicating that a five-star character had been pulled.

As light cone after light cone passed across the phone screen, his body sank deeper and deeper into the toilet.

When Michael finally reached the last pull, a five-star harmony character animation appeared on the phone screen, and his face lit up.

But when the character in question was revealed...

It was Bronya.

"NOOOOOOOOOOO!!!"

His wail could be heard even through the thick walls of his house, sounding completely pitiful and desperate.

His body had already been completely sucked into the toilet, his phone weakly falling from his hand, sliding across the bathroom floor as he became one with the water flowing down the sewer pipe.

From that day onwards, the person called Michael... No longer existed in that world.

Let us give him a moment of silence as a way of honoring his filial dedication. Despite his difficult work, he never complained, and always helped his coworkers.

Truly a kind-hearted person, who enjoyed spending his free time playing casual games rather than mixing with inappropriate people or flirting around and getting involved in controversial situations.

Cause of death: sucked into a toilet.

⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀— Hertha Spatial Station.

Throughout his life, Michael observed that, often, the simple stroke of an authority's pen brings us great inconvenience and suffering.

He remembered that when he was younger, at the very beginning of his career as an assistant, starting his professional activities, with a fairly comfortable established routine, a simple stroke of the pen from the Manager-in-Charge caused his life to change in 24 hours. His working hours had been changed.

For him, a young man who was still inexperienced, that change became a big problem. He didn't want to accept it. His routine became accompanied by great suffering. Everything was a reason for complaint. The work environment became difficult, as everyone was dissatisfied. In short, work became a burden.

By a happy coincidence, at a meeting in the Human Resources department, a kind senior gave him the following teaching:

Man, due to his psychic, mental, spiritual and physical constitution, is a being adaptable to all changes and all situations in which life places him, as he advances towards his improvement.

"Adaptation, my ass!"

Michael cursed, looking at himself in the mirror.

What stared back at him was not his average, relatively ordinary appearance that he had always had.

In his previous life, he had an ordinary appearance, with nothing in particular to stand out. His hair was black and his eyes were brown, the most common colors possible. He was not athletic, and his voice was not striking enough to make him a singer.

Now, however, he had soft but firm features, an angular jaw, hazel eyes, and neatly trimmed blond hair. Two beauty marks adorned the corners of his eyes, and while he frowned and twisted his lips, he still looked charming.

"Ridiculous..."

Michael's voice is now smooth, clear and clean, the kind that you would instinctively think 'Oh, he must be a singer...' when you first heard it.

Michael was no stranger to these stories of transmigration, he had read some before, in fact, while he had free time.

But normally these stories only happened in specific situations.

'I didn't swear at anyone, I didn't send an 8,000-word text criticizing the game, I didn't regret my life, I had a happy family and I wasn't even run over by a truck...'

So why?

He couldn't help but laugh at the absurdity of the situation.

Forget about those delusional dreams of exploring the universe, becoming the strongest or anything like that.

He recognized the place where he was the exact moment he stepped here.

Honkai: Star Rail was a beautiful universe, but it was also full of dangers. There were organizations left and right wanting to destroy planets, turn people into trees or extinguish races on a whim, not to mention the Aeons they worshipped.

Michael rubbed his face with his hands, sighing heavily before opening his eyes to look around the room.

It didn't look like a personal room, and the clothes he wore were too fancy for a scientist.

He was definitely not a Space Station worker.

As Michael pondered his current situation, a crisp bell sound snapped him out of his thoughts.

[Ding!]

[Congratulations to the Host for successfully transmigrating to the 'Honkai: Star Rail' universe!]

[The 'Star Maker System' is being linked!]

[Let's work hard to become the most popular star in the universe, Host!]

[Status Window]

Visual: A-

Voice: D+

Dance: E-

Acting Skills: D+

Charisma: C

Luck: A-

[Skills]: None.

[Popularity]: 0

[Overall Rating]: A nobody who has no recognition.

As a series of translucent blue windows appeared in front of him, Michael was left with a blank expression, his mouth slightly open in disbelief.

"... What?"

His voice had never sounded so indignant before.