The Gamer who traveled to Honkai: Star Rail

While Herta was recording and analyzing, somewhere else, the Aeon of Preservation, Qlipoth, also noticed a shift in the Path of Preservation. 

Qlipoth didn't intervene, because this change was favorable: it expanded the concept of Preservation, which helped with His own goals. There was no reason to stop it.

In fact, when the trash can used this unique power, Qlipoth even gave it a bit of support. Otherwise, there's no way a trash can would have the strength to summon Pathwalkers of Preservation.

The battle at the scene had entered its climax. 

With the small bugs out of the way, the Emanator-on-Emanator fight became much more straightforward. During the back-and-forth melee, the trash can seized an opening and sucked the Starcrusher Swarm King Skaracabaz into its body.

The moment Skaracabaz was pulled inside, the trash can stripped away its defensive concept and cut it off from its Path power, preventing any large-scale attacks. 

But this could only be done while it was inside the trash can. That's why the can needed help: although the creature's defenses were neutralized, its physical strength alone might be enough to break the seal. 

It needed someone inside to kill the Propagation Emanator, the Starcrusher Swarm King Skaracabaz.

When the trash can conveyed this need, Pei Guang drew his weapon, stood up, and looked at Stelle.

Pei Guang: "The cutscene is over. Time for our battle."

Stelle: "The cutscene's over? We can fight now?"

Pei Guang nodded: "Yeah, cutscene's over. From here on out, the enemies are ones we can deal with. But be careful, even weakened, an Emanator of Propagation's damage is no joke."

Stelle: "Got it!"

Pei Guang: "Let's go!"

Pei Guang and Stelle charged in. The creations of Ruan Mei cheered them on as they moved.

The two entered the trash can's inner space. Inside, Skaracabaz was trying to break free of the restraints. With its defense stripped and its Path power sealed, it could only rely on its body to try and escape.

It kept slamming against the walls, and each hit knocked out countless small bugs, who either died or self-destructed from the impact. With this repeated assault, it was only a matter of time before the can's seal was broken.

But that time would never come: because the players had arrived!

Pei Guang and Stelle entered. If this had been the real body, even ten of them wouldn't have stood a chance. But against a charging brute with no armor, the Emanator of Propagation was about to learn the cruelty of players.

The moment they stepped in, Pei Guang used Taunt on all enemies.

"Grandson! Your grandpa's here!"

That one taunt immediately redirected Skaracabaz, who had been trying to escape, causing it to charge straight toward Pei Guang.

Unable to gather any Path power for energy-based attacks, Skaracabaz attempted to crush Pei Guang and Stelle through brute-force charges instead, but every time it was about to land a hit, Pei Guang swung the lid of a trash can and parried the attack. 

Each perfect parry interrupted the charge, and in that opening, Stelle would lunge with her War-Flaming Lance and smack it again with her bat.

With no defense and its Path power temporarily severed, the enemy was just a large, tough boss to Pei Guang and Stelle. Through relentless taunting, parries, and ambushes…

Skaracabaz, reborn into the world, let out a pained cry before dying under Stelle's War-Flaming Lance, within the belly of a trash can, and under Pei Guang's shield.

The moment Skaracabaz died, Pei Guang tried to store the corpse in his inventory space. Watching it disappear into the storage, he let out a relieved sigh.

"We won… this fight was just as thrilling as ever!"

Stelle: "No kidding!"

This battle was genuinely intense. To both of them, it was one of the rare bosses that felt truly difficult.

Pei Guang: "But let's not get cocky. We only pulled this off thanks to plot armor and some scripted help. It's one of those early-game moments where the devs let you fight a late-game boss for the thrill of it. We gotta level up fast so we can beat these kinds of bosses without relying on cutscene hacks."

Stelle: "Right! But hey, this counts as another win against a tough enemy, right? You think we'll get a good reward this time?"

Pei Guang: "No clue. Even if the one who gave us this quest doesn't reward us, we still made a profit. We got ourselves a Propagation Emanator corpse. I'm gonna take this thing to the Ten-Lords Commission and see how many merit points it's worth. Who knows, maybe a few more of these and I can trade up to be a general."

Just the thought of becoming a general gave Pei Guang a sense of purpose.

Compared to Ruan Mei's sneak-drugging methods, Pei Guang had a pretty positive impression of the Xianzhou Alliance. 

That said, he also had a favorable opinion of Asta. But after weighing his options, he decided he'd sell most of the loot to the Xianzhou. 

After all, they might let him play the role of a general! The best Asta could offer was probably a resource-rich star system.

And if he were a general, what's stopping him from taking all the star systems he wanted? Still, Pei Guang planned to leave a few good items for Asta, but first, he needed to find out whether the Emanator corpse was actually worth anything.

He figured being a general might be useless, but, like he always said: it might be useless, but it can't be absent.

While Pei Guang and Stelle shared their battle thoughts, back in Herta's office, the moment she confirmed the Propagation Emanator's life signature had vanished, she absolutely lit up.

Without saying a word, she went full workaholic mode.

Screwllum wasn't much different. It was incredibly rare to witness an Emanator-tier battle this close up, and especially that army of trash cans at the end: even he was captivated by the phenomenon.

The only silent one was Ruan Mei. 

As a member of the Genius Society, she wasn't the type to be shaken by reality: after all, in her own field of research, she was number one. No one surpassed her.

But now, recalling everything she had just witnessed, especially Pei Guang's constructs and comparing them to her own, she was, for the first time, coming to grips with the sheer gap between people.

And yet, Ruan Mei also had a thought sprouting in her heart: to compete with Herta for Pei Guang. She could tell Pei Guang and Herta had a good relationship: but that was the past.

From now on, she was going to...

Even if that failed, it didn't matter. As long as she could get her hands on a portion of the Propagation Emanator's body tissue, it wasn't impossible to use her own power to create a genuine Emanator.

A smile crept across Ruan Mei's lips.

What she didn't know, however, was that she might not be getting her hands on that Emanator tissue after all…

At the Ten-Lords Commission of the Xianzhou Alliance, one of the Ten Lords stared dumbfounded at a message from Hanya.

As a key figure in the Xianzhou, the Ten Lord had seen many strange things—but this? This was a first.

On the screen in front of him was a screenshot sent by Hanya. It was a message from Pei Guang.

Pei Guang: "I completed a quest and killed a Propagation Emanator. It's a bit damaged, can you check how many merit points it's worth? Also, help me find out how many Emanator corpses I'd need to trade for a general position. I need a goal."

"W-w-what???"

The Ten Lord's mind hadn't even caught up yet. 

He was truly experiencing the feeling of "you live long enough to see it all." 

Someone actually trying to sell an Emanator corpse? Was this guy not afraid of retaliation from the Aeon faction? Think about it: if someone dared sell a Luofu General's corpse, it wouldn't matter who they were. That would be a grudge unto death.

But wait… upon closer look: Propagation Emanator?

Oh. Well… that's fine then.

Wait a second.

Propagation Emanator?!