The Gamer who traveled to Honkai: Star Rail

In the infirmary, Jing Yuan sipped tea while organizing some documents.

The voice-over work he'd done for Pei Guang recently had brought him great amusement. He was genuinely curious to see the reactions of Luofu's citizens when they heard that familiar voice yet couldn't figure out who it belonged to.

Amused as he was, Jing Yuan was also secretly conducting an investigation under the guise of recuperation.

The Stellaron, the Ambrosial Arbor, the Disciples of Sanctus Medicus, Phantylia, and the sudden appearance of a "player" during the Lord Ravager incident had all caught his attention. Now that the biggest threat to Xianzhou had been dealt with, the next step was figuring out who had brought the Stellaron here in the first place.

And then… there was that woman.

Jing Yuan's expression grew serious as he sorted through his notes, his mind lingering on that man and that woman…

His thoughts were abruptly interrupted by Pei Guang's voice outside the door. Jing Yuan smiled faintly, glancing at the neatly stacked documents. "Looks like this move was the right one."

Getting up, he walked over and opened the door, finding five noisy figures crowded outside. Raising an eyebrow, he asked with mild curiosity, "Oh? Do you need something from me again?"

Pei Guang nodded. "Yep! I'll keep it short—basically…"

Pei Guang quickly explained the Echo of War and his bold plan. As Jing Yuan listened, his mind nearly short-circuited.

Selling access to the Echo of War wasn't exactly unheard of across the universe—but the way Pei Guang planned to do it was downright insane.

Normally, an Echo space involving an entity like the Lord Ravager would be highly unstable. Even an Emanator would struggle to keep it steady without the intervention of forces aligned with Equilibrium or Remembrance.

But this was Xianzhou territory. External Emanators here wouldn't casually interfere with such things. Which meant the only person capable of stabilizing this Echo space… was Pei Guang.

Stabilizing an ordinary Echo would've been impressive enough, but stabilizing an Echo of War tied to Phantylia, an actual Lord Ravager? That was practically the cosmic equivalent of taking a dump on the heads of the Lord Ravager and her entire faction.

And Pei Guang wasn't content with just doing it himself—he wanted to drag Luofu into it too. Not just Luofu—he wanted to rope in the entire universe, even asking the Xianzhou to sell tickets for the privilege of metaphorically shitting on the Lord Ravager's dignity.

This was… absolutely badass.

What's that? Worried about offending the Antimatter Legion? The Xianzhou Alliance was already gearing up for war with them—who cared about ruffling a few extra feathers?

Besides, this would actually be good for Luofu. Their generals couldn't physically grow stronger by fighting in an Echo, but having this space around would be a massive morale booster for the entire Xianzhou Alliance. Especially when facing the Legion, the Echo of War would skyrocket the Cloud Knights' morale.

Picture this:

During battle, the Legion yells, "We have the Lord Ravager on our side!"

The Cloud Knights respond, "Yeah? We've taken a dump on the Lord Ravager's head!"

The Legion counters, "We've got seven Lord Ravagers!"

The Cloud Knights: "Great! We've shitted on all of them!"

Crude? Yes. Effective? Absolutely.

While Pei Guang only asked Jing Yuan to handle selling three of the ten available slots, two were reserved for promoting Aurum Alley, and the remaining five were left for Jing Yuan to allocate as he saw fit.

However, whenever Pei Guang or his companions wanted to enter, their priority would override everyone else's. Those slots would roll over to the next cycle if necessary. Realistically, considering the need for Pei Guang's party to lead groups inside, the Xianzhou would only have four slots available at any given time.

After Pei Guang finished explaining, Jing Yuan felt a surge of excitement. As a general, he immediately recognized how valuable this Echo of War truly was. "Excellent! I won't let you down, Ah Guang. I'll make sure to sell those slots for a good price. On behalf of the Xianzhou Alliance, thank you for your support and generosity."

Pei Guang chuckled. "Wow, I'm asking you to help me make money, and you're thanking me for it? You Xianzhou folks are really too polite. Since you're being so gracious, I'll give you a 20% cut of the profits!"

Even Pei Guang was surprised by his own offer. As someone who mainly played RPGs with a bit of strategy games on the side, he wasn't exactly a mastermind when it came to complex schemes. Morale? Resource management? In his mind, a troop's morale and happiness should always be maxed out, right? 

Wait, it's not always maxed?! Where's the veteran player to guide the newbie here? At least spam some online guides please!

Jing Yuan was momentarily speechless. From his perspective, Pei Guang's worldview was completely different from that of normal people. After receiving revelations from the Reignbow Arbiter, he'd even studied typical player behavior.

How to put it? The things players cared about occasionally overlapped with what regular people valued, but most of the time, they couldn't be more different.

Still, Jing Yuan was a straightforward man. Since Pei Guang was being generous toward Luofu, as Luofu's general, there was no way he'd shortchange him in return. Besides, he'd already been preparing to establish an alliance with the Astral Express. 

Even if Pei Guang didn't care much about formalities, the Xianzhou still had to show sincerity.

Jing Yuan smiled. "Don't worry, I'll handle this properly. As for that 20%? Keep it. Just having this opportunity is more than enough for Luofu."

Pei Guang's grin widened. "Since you're being so polite, I'll gladly take you up on that. Guess that means you're working for free now, huh? Perfect timing—I'll need those resources to develop my planet. Once it's all set up, I'll definitely invite you over to check it out!"

Hearing that Jing Yuan didn't even want a share of the profits made Pei Guang genuinely happy. What? Jing Yuan trying to scam him? No way! This was the same guy who'd practically gifted him over 300 pulls in the past—a real stand-up guy like that would never pull a fast one on him!

Yep, that's the player mentality. Easy to satisfy, quick to trust. And if they do get scammed? No big deal—just drop that affection meter a few points. If it gets too low, well… time to farm some coins off him with tears in your eyes.

Jing Yuan laughed heartily. "Thank you for thinking of me. As the host, I should be thanking you—you've helped the Xianzhou so much without even taking the time to properly enjoy our culture."

Pei Guang waved it off. "You're too kind. Out of all the NPCs I've met, you're definitely the most polite. Oh, and when you're feeling better, don't forget to swing by Aurum Alley—I've already used the ad you voiced, and it's working wonders!"

Jing Yuan chuckled. "Glad to hear it's effective. Once I'm done with my work here, I'll definitely stop by to show my support."

Aurum Alley… Jing Yuan had been there before, but that was with a group of five. Now, though some familiar faces remained on the Xianzhou, everything had changed.

Pei Guang clapped his hands. "Alright then, we've got nothing more to discuss. We'll get back to expanding Aurum Alley! Oh, by the way—do you want to bring a few people along to personally test the difficulty of the instance? We'll start selling slots next week, so there's still time."

Jing Yuan nodded thoughtfully. "In that case, I won't be shy. I'll arrange for some personnel to join. But as for entering the Echo of War…"

Pei Guang interrupted with a grin. "I'll handle that!"

Jing Yuan chuckled. "I'll leave it to you, then."

Pei Guang smirked. "No trouble at all. Speaking of which, are you interested in jumping in for a round? Your Lighting Lord is pretty powerful—I bet you'd have a blast messing around in the Echo."

Jing Yuan raised an eyebrow. "Oh? I might give it a try once I've rested up. But if I do that, wouldn't it mean…"

Pei Guang waved his hand dismissively. "Hey, why are we being so formal? We're all on the same side here. If you feel like playing, just hop in. If someone's paid for a slot, we'll just push them to the next session. Easy."

Jing Yuan nodded. "No problem. I'll give it a try later."

Pei Guang added, "I'll have Seele guide you in."

He'd already decided on who would lead Jing Yuan into the Echo of War—Seele. Not only would she serve as a guide, but Pei Guang planned to give her a cut of the profits as well. After all, while he was focused on developing his own homeland, Seele's home needed resources too.

They were all part of the same team, the same crew. Main characters in the same story. What's yours, what's mine… it's all mine!

Pei Guang reached out to Seele about the arrangement, and she agreed immediately. Belobog's resurgence required external resources. As for Bronya? She gave her approval without hesitation.

Bronya trusted Pei Guang completely. Without him and his companions, Jarilo-VI would've been utterly destroyed. She vividly remembered him mentioning his skills in managing nations and even entire planets. If it weren't for his lack of interest, she would've begged him to become Belobog's Supreme Guardian, leading the city into a new era of prosperity.