Simulated Lover: The Honkai Star Rail Dating Sim Event

01: The Rules of the Game

Before we begin, Huohuo is adorable. That is all

Simulated Universe

"Wait, do you mean I'm the protagonist?"

No response came from the frozen world before him, his room as quiet as the nights on Jarilo-VI's outlying snow plains. Figuring out that it had something to do with the popup that was just floating in the air, he pressed the big blue "OK" button which caused the popup to disappear and be replaced with another one, this time an explanation of his bizarre situation.

"Welcome Caelus to [Simulated Lover: Where Virtual Sparks Ignite Real Emotions]. You have been chosen as the [Protagonist] for this simulation, and as such you have a single goal in mind. Romance the beautiful girls in this fun, doki-doki inducing Affection Game!"

Caelus would be lying to himself if he said that he didn't find himself intrigued. He had played some dating simulators in the past while he had some free time on the Express, and playing one in the Simulated Universe would definitely be an interesting experience. Though he did remember Weiss say something about removing a lot of the Game-ification, so why this was left in, he had no clue.

Deciding to press the big blue "Okay" button, the popup once against changed.

"MECHANICS:

[SIMULATED LOVER] is a free to play dating simulator set within a planet experiencing its forays into the information age. As a result, only technology that a civilization of that level can reasonably develop will be present. As a result, there are significant differences within the world of [SIMULATED LOVER] and the [MAIN UNIVERSE].

The main goal of [SIMULATED LOVER] is to provide a full on doki-doki experience tailored to the player. As a result, [every single playthrough of Simulated Lover is personalized] and will likely include different scenarios based on the engine being used. In line with this goal, the usual hallmarks of choosing what to say based on several text options will not be present. In [SIMULATED LOVER], you as the player will get time to shine!"

Caelus took his eyes away from the popup, and processed the information before him.

"Damn, whoever coded this into the Simulated Universe really did some good work" he commented "Did Weiss do this?"

He was definitely the type to pull something like this off. With him being close friends with the person who he knew had her own little secret slice of the Simulated Universe, it definitely wasn't impossible.

But... at the same time, Caelus was kind of worried. Weiss himself had made clear that this iteration of the Simulated Universe wasn't supposed to be a game. So why were these elements present? Was it just to mess with him? Or was there some sort of greater purpose to this all?

"Well, they are members of the Genius Society" Caelus said to himself "My life is in good hands"

With that conclusion, he decided to continue reading the popup

"... Your goal in [SIMULATED LOVER] is to romance the game's beautiful array of [Heroines], which you will meet all throughout your playthrough. The [Game] will naturally introduce you to said capture targets through [Story Events]. In the event the player hits a lack of progression with any [Heroine], the [Game] may force an [Emergency Story Event] to spice up gameplay.

The player may go for a heroine's [Individual Route], or go for a much harder [Harem Route] with any number of Heroines. For this, you will need to carefully manage a [Heroine's] emotions. To make this easier for the player, we have calculated this into a quantifiable variable known as [Affection Level]. Once a [Heroine] reaches a high enough [Affection Level], depending on thier personality they may start getting jealous of other characters if you spend too much time with them. It is good to note that [Heroines] have relationships with each other as well as other characters, so it is infinitely easier to gain a [Harem Ending] if [Heroines] are in good standing with one another.

That concludes the basic tutorial. Please press [OKAY] to start your journey"

Caelus paused after reading the explanation of the game's rules, hesitating if he wanted to press the button to start.

Using a so called "simulation" in order to create a dating game was nothing new, but due to different regulations regarding synthetic life propagation and ethics, this was usually very crude. Now, Caelus was essentially playing a procedurally generated dating simulator that had technology centuries ahead of the galactic standard, and was in very new territory. But... at the same time, he couldn't deny that he was just a bit curious.

Caelus's mind wandered a bit to Belobog, specifically to the dashing young woman that he knew as Seele. The both of them spent time together, and he found that whenever he saw her, there was a warm feeling in his chest. Romance was something Caelus was inexperienced with... so wasn't this the perfect way to gain some insight?

"It's just a game, Caelus" he said, hyping himself up "What could go wrong?"

Pressing the big blue [OKAY] button, he found that color was returning to the world around him. He saw as the hands on the clock on his wall began to move, at first slowly then speeding up to a normal speed. The Trailblazer breathed a sigh of relief, he thought for a second that he was going to be stuck in time like those horror movies March kept on getting him to watch.

After a few moments of peace and tranquility, Caelus heard knocking on his door. On the other side, a muffled yet oddly familiar voice yelled out, half annoyed yet also half concerned.

"Caelus, wake up!" the voice said "You don't want to be late for your first day of school! Your friend is already down there, as is your sister and mother. Out of five people, you will pay the price!"

"Might as well see who my dad is like" Caelus thought to himself. After standing up from his bed and walking over to the entrance of his room, he gently opened the door.

Caelus' eyes widened, as he instinctively got into a combat position and tried to summon his bat to his side. Of course that didn't work, which meant that he had no way to defend himself from the cat-apron clad figure of the Stellaron Hunter member he knew as Blade staring down on him.

A/N: Thanks for the reviews. They power me like hydrogen powers a fusion reactor.

Anyways, the new event was honestly really cool. Huohuo activates my paternal instincts and makes me want to pat her in the head. She is adorable, but unfortunately I am a Ruan Mei enjoyer first and foremost and have to skip her. I promise to get her on rerun though because she is so damn adorable.

Guinaifen and Sushang on the other hand... smash next question.

Hope you enjoyed the story so far. This is twocubed, ready to come at you with the most inconsistent update schedule known to man.