Reverie Hotel, VIP Section
This area had been exclusively rented by the Interastral Peace Corporation for viewing Honkai: Star Rail-related content.
Aventurine and Topaz stared in stunned silence at the scene before them.
Black Swan was being flung around by Huangquan.
Feathers and blood splattered behind her...
Beside Topaz, her pet, Numby, cowered behind her, peeking out with just its tiny head,
as if terrified the woman in the video might burst out and snatch it away.
Topaz clicked her tongue in pity.
"Seems this Miss Huangquan is even stronger than we imagined..."
"Even a Memokeeper like Black Swan, in her own domain, got wrecked like this..."
"Oh right, she's also the one who took out the Duke Inferno."
"Incredible. She's fully capable of flipping the entire table."
Aventurine nodded solemnly.
"Good thing we did a risk assessment first and didn't rush into the dreamscape."
"If the Family's hounds push her too far, who knows if Huangquan might just lose it and destroy Penacony altogether."
As he spoke, a glint flashed in his eyes— Huangquan's power was terrifying, but if wielded properly, couldn't she be turned into a blade?
"So… she's an Emanator?" Topaz mused, almost to herself.
"Isn't it obvious? With strength like this, what else could she be?"
The two tacitly dropped the subject.
It was now certain— Huangquan was an Emanator.
But which Path she belonged to remained unknown.
Though in Topaz and Aventurine's minds, one possibility had already been ruled out.
She shouldn't be the Hunt's Emanator.
While her sharpness and bloodlust bore some resemblance to the Hunt, the Hunt's Emanators were tied to the Xianzhou.
How could a wandering warrior of this caliber suddenly appear in the cosmos?
Besides, her identity as a "galactic ranger" was fake to begin with.
Recalling the dream before arriving in Penacony, Aventurine already had a guess.
"Just a little more..."
"If they release just a bit more about Huangquan's backstory..."
"I'll be able to figure out who she really is."
---
Sparkle still had a bit of ice cream smudged at the corner of her lips.
But right now, she couldn't care less.
Her grin stretched so wide it nearly reached her ears.
Impossible to suppress!
The latter half of the video had taken a wild turn!
The mysterious ranger seemed like a completely different person—
Grabbing Black Swan and beating her senseless!
Plucking her feathers clean!
"PFFT— HAHAHAHAHA!!"
"YES! This is exactly what I wanted to see!"
"This is peak entertainment!"
"Serves you right for refusing to dance with me!"
Today, for the Masked Fools, was practically a holiday!
Even the leftover ice cream cone in her hand tasted better now.
Sparkle slammed the like button with gusto.
Ever since playing Honkai: Star Rail, the amount of chaos she'd witnessed daily dwarfed the past year combined!
She adored this game!
She worshipped its developer, Yu Ling!
And the fun wasn't even over yet.
The real show had only just begun.
---
Hotel Lobby
The sight of Huangquan "brutalizing" Black Swan left everyone frozen in shock.
Players visiting Penacony, hotel staff, Family security and administrators— All turned to stone on the spot.
Previously, Black Swan's mystique had been unmatched in players' minds.
At the start of the dance, everything had gone exactly as expected— Black Swan was in complete control.
No surprises.
Until those ten horrifying seconds flipped everything upside down.
No one could even muster a smile now.
No one had anticipated this—Miss Huangquan's presence dwarfed Black Swan's entirely!
This was terrifying!
Especially for the Family members.
Watching this, they felt a chill from head to toe.
"H-how the hell are we supposed to arrest her?!"
"She's downright savage!"
"She's a literal demon!"
"This is some next-level psychological horror!"
"The hunter became the hunted!"
"Quick! Warn the guys on patrol to get back now!"
"If we piss off this murderous lunatic, she might just slaughter all of us!"
Then—The frantic violin music stopped.
Just as everyone thought Black Swan was done for, the scene shifted back to the hotel stage.
Black Swan, supported by Huangquan's hand on her waist, was drenched in sweat.
Breathing heavily, pupils dilated—
For a Memokeeper to be this shaken, whatever she'd just experienced must have been unimaginable.
And Huangquan?
Her usual dull eyes now held a faint glimmer of realization.
"Ex..."
"Who?"
That line, paired with Huangquan's utterly clueless expression, left the entire audience stunned.
?????
For a moment, it was as if a giant question mark had appeared above everyone's heads.
"Huh?!"
"EX?! TE?! 13X?!"
"Too far! This is too far!"
"Killing them and rubbing salt in the wound?!"
"The Duke Inferno got done dirty..."
The crowd murmured in disbelief.
Even if they wanted to laugh, they had to pretend to be solemn—
This was a public space, after all.
Whoever laughed first would instantly become the target of universal scorn.
But compared to the restrained offline crowd, the online viewers watching the stream had no such reservations—
The barrage of live comments exploded instantly!
"『Duke Inferno: 6』"
"Huangquan's going too far! My man was so cool last patch, declaring war on all Paths! And not only did you kill him and steal his invitation, you can't even remember his name? How is that fair?!"
"The biggest injustice of this Amber Era—The Case of the Duke Inferno' Demise."
"Bro really died without telling anyone, smh."
"I was still shaken, but then I saw the comments and lost it lololol—"
"Children, this is not funny."
"In that memory sequence, the Duke Inferno were literally diced into pieces... Huangquan, you monster!"
"All this just to add another Relic set to the game. She really put in the effort!"
"Sigh… my man's officially the biggest clown now."
"But bro, it's really funny."
---
As the video neared its end, the tone darkened once more.
At the street's edge stood Huangquan, her shadow stretching long behind her— like a towering gravestone.
Black Swan's voiceover played:
"I've been watching her for a long time."
"Tonight was the final invitation."
Her tone, once confident and playful, now carried unease—
Even a faint tremble.
"『Galactic Ranger』?"
"No."
"I made a fatal mistake."
"Everyone has a past."
"But some people's pasts..."
"Are silent, bottomless oceans—"
"Filled with the corpses of the drowned."
As Black Swan's words faded, the street ahead was drenched in crimson light.
And from the sky—
Bodies, suspended by thick red threads, plummeted downward.
"Holy shit! Did Huangquan kill all these people?!"
"OTHERS?!"
"This is insane! A literal sea of corpses!"
"What the hell happened in Huangquan's past?!"
"I kinda miss Black Swan's smug attitude from the start of the video."
"『So I took action』"
"Is it too late to flee Penacony? Is this sister here just to massacre everyone as a ritual?!"
"Probably not? She wouldn't just go on a rampage unprovoked, right?"
"Relax, the Family's already sent hounds to arrest this stowaway."
"FUCK THAT! I was only a little worried before, but now I'm sprinting for the exit!"
"Unless the Family can summon Xipe herself, I'm not spending one more second in Penacony!"
"Poor Guinaifen… she's stuck in the hotel for at least another week."
---
Hotel Livestream
Guinaifen looked on the verge of tears.
"Folks… I think I might just become collateral damage here."
"I just peeked into the hallway—"
"There's like three squads of hounds patrolling out there!"
"Oh god—please, I'm begging you all, don't provoke her!"
"At this point, I'm half-convinced this entire hotel is gonna explode, and I'll be blown to smithereens—"
"Wait! The story!"
"I need to rush through the plot and see what happens next!"
"If I'm gonna die, at least let me die knowing the truth! Waaahhh—!"
To be continued…
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