The Gamer who traveled to Honkai: Star Rail

Listening to what Pei Guang was saying, Ruan Mei felt her mind get a little tangled. 

But it didn't matter: she had already failed countless times. She didn't mind trying Pei Guang's proposal, even if it meant taking a far more strenuous route to cultivate life.

"I'll give it a try. Oh, by the way, Herta's Simulated Universe is ready too. She's planning to invite you to test it."

Pei Guang replied, "Ah! That works. This time I came not just to see you, but also to ask Herta about testing the Simulated Universe. I've got nothing to do lately, the Memory World's still under maintenance, and the Simulated Universe just opened. Guess I'll have to enjoy myself in the Simulated Universe for a while."

To Pei Guang, the Memory World and the Simulated Universe were two of the best experiences this world had to offer. 

What's the difference between the two? The Simulated Universe's rewards were much worse than those from the Memory World, while the Memory World's realism… was almost ridiculously high.

But what Pei Guang didn't know was that this time, in the Simulated Universe, he'd be experiencing a world nearly indistinguishable from reality.

Were there differences between the two? Yes. The Aeon of Remembrance wanted the player's unique memories, using what was obtained from them to achieve Its ultimate goal.

The Simulated Universe, on the other hand, was Herta's attempt to calculate the impact Pei Guang had on this universe: his arrival introduced countless variables into the world, but as time passed, those variables were decreasing. 

To speed up that reduction, for the Aeon of Erudition, the Simulated Universe was a very effective tool.

Though both were simulations of the past, in a way, they were also a contest between two Aeons.

Of course, Pei Guang didn't know any of this. To him, as long as it was fun, that was all that mattered.

Since he wanted to start the test, he and Ruan Mei headed straight to Herta's office. Inside, a Herta puppet was in standby mode, but as soon as Pei Guang appeared, it was instantly taken over by her main body.

"Yo~ Look who it is! The one and only Pei Guang? You're here to test my Simulated Universe? Good news: it's ready for testing anytime."

Pei Guang said, "Anytime? Then I'll—"

Herta cut him off: "No need. This time we've decided to focus our resources and only let you enter the Simulated Universe!"

"Resource focus" was just a nicer way of saying "budget shortage." 

Compared to the last round of testing, not much time had passed, and the resources scraped together in that short time were only enough for Pei Guang to run the test to the limit, maybe even until the machine exploded. 

Adding anyone else would stretch things too thin.

As for Stelle? She could just test the regular Simulated Universe. It saved money and helped gather data for future versions of the one Pei Guang was testing.

Pei Guang said, "Only me, huh? No problem. But hey, there's an exit button this time, right? Don't tell me you're pulling that 'no exit key' prank again."

Last time, someone had gotten too playful and designed a first-run with no exit function. Pei Guang had absolutely hated that, and if someone tried it again, he swore he'd show them the true meaning of cruelty.

Herta replied, "Nope. But this time, the Simulated Universe isn't simulating the Swarm Disaster: it's... whatever, you'll find out once you're inside. I'm really looking forward to seeing how you perform."

Pei Guang: "Enough talk. I'm testing it! But hey—what's the reward this time?"

Herta: "I'll throw in a few extra sets of Simulated Universe-exclusive relics. Don't worry, you'll get your fair share. Now get in there!"

With Herta's arrangements, the machine had already started up, and Pei Guang once again entered the Simulated Universe.

As he did, the red glow of the "eye" at the center of the Simulated Universe, linked to the Aeon of Erudition, lit up. It connected to the Simulated Universe, not only providing computational support but also continuing its analysis of Pei Guang through his performance inside.

With the simulation underway, Herta, Ruan Mei, and Screwllum began monitoring the situation from the observation site.

Pei Guang opened his eyes. When he did, he found himself standing atop a heap of electronic garbage. Scanning the surroundings, he began assessing his situation.

"Let's see what kind of fun we're having this time."

Pei Guang opened his system and looked at the notifications. Immediately, he frowned.

"They gave me mod access and cheat tools last time. Why don't I have them now? Bad review! Bad review!"

As he was complaining, he spotted a system log from when he first entered the Simulated Universe.

[Player Pei Guang has entered a limited-time event. During the event, your body will be digitized. Units that join the player's faction within the event map will also gain digitalized bodies and can level up through combat.]

[During the event period, the event instance will be available for open beta. Thank you for your contributions during the closed test. You are now invited to act as an event planner and guide more players to experience the event content in reality. Please explore additional content on your own.]

Reading this, Pei Guang frowned at first; then, as if he understood something, his expression changed.

"So if I'm the closed beta player, and I get to play as the scumbag dev and let more people experience the game I played… can I stop them from exiting?"

The system didn't respond, but after investigating for a bit, Pei Guang realized that no—he couldn't. A game with no exit button wasn't a game. 

That would just be isekai.

Pei Guang then looked into the access permissions he had for the event map. Simply put, he could invite external players into the Simulated Universe, and "external players" referred to those outside the Simulated Universe, not people from his original world.

Seeing this, Pei Guang showed an excited expression. But before taking any action, he decided to run a few tests.

Meanwhile, outside the Simulated Universe, those observing Pei Guang's actions were puzzled by what they saw.

Herta: "What is he doing? Why is he staying in the same place for so long?"

According to the Simulated Universe's feedback, Pei Guang had remained in the garbage dump where he was "born" for a full year: an entire year spent just standing in an electronic junkyard!

Compared to the last time, when he entered and immediately caused a simulated Big Bang, the current stillness felt unnerving.

While things were quiet on Herta's side, on the computational end, managed by the Aeon of Erudition Nous, things were far from peaceful.

That's right: Nous, the Aeon, was literally smoking. 

Beside It, a figure with a bulging belly and a crying soybean mask was fanning It with a fan. Whether that fan could cool down an overheating Aeon was a mystery to all.

At that moment, Nous was suffering from computational overload: It had already simulated this universe once and possessed all related computational data, so letting Pei Guang freely simulate previously recorded content should not have been difficult.

The power from the Path of Erudition was sufficient to support anything Pei Guang could do within the Simulated Universe. Through this simulation, Nous was calculating Pei Guang's limits. 

As Pei Guang experienced more, the unpredictability of his future had been gradually decreasing.

But suddenly, after Pei Guang had stayed in the Simulated Universe for just one month, which was only a few seconds in real time, Nous discovered that the decreasing uncertainty had skyrocketed, multiplying to a level even greater than when Pei Guang had first arrived in this world. 

The scale was so massive it defied numerical description: it was as if several entire worlds had been forcefully jammed into Nous's body!

Even for an Aeon, that much data was too much to handle. 

Fortunately, at that moment, the power from the Path of Erudition also increased.