Huo Linfei snapped his eyes open—only to be struck by a wave of searing pain.
It felt as if every bone in his body had been pulverized and then crudely pieced back together. Every inch of skin was screaming. Instinctively, he tried to lift an arm to shield his eyes from the light, only to find it so heavy it might as well have been filled with molten lead.
"I… I'm still alive?"
That was the first thought to flicker through his mind.
His last memory was frozen on the out-of-control red freight truck—the blinding headlights of the "Hundred-Ton King"—and the instant his body lifted off the ground.
He remembered the sound of bones shattering. He remembered the rusty tang of blood surging up his throat. He remembered the agony of his soul being ripped out of his body by brute force.
But what he was feeling now was completely different.
He was lying on a smooth platform, his upper body soaked in some kind of viscous, transparent liquid that reached just below his ears. The fluid gave off a faint blue glow and rippled gently with each movement.
Even stranger—though he knew he should've been a total wreck, bones broken and organs ruptured—aside from deep muscle soreness, there wasn't a single obvious wound on him.
[System rebooting…]
"What?"
A cool, emotionless female voice sounded in his ears.
[Querying host memory.]
[Host: Huo Linfei]
[Current location: Herta Space Station]
[Binding successful]
"System? Simulation? Did I transmigrate? The Hundred-Ton King was right!"
Huo Linfei was practically vibrating with excitement. After reading so many transmigration novels, it was finally his turn.
Love you, Hundred-Ton King. See you tomorrow!
"Beeeeep—"
A sudden alarm blared from the corner of the room. An ear-splitting alert tone cut straight through his euphoria, followed by an announcement:
"Antimatter Legion invasion detected. All space station personnel, evacuate immediately… I repeat, the Antimatter Legion is invading. All personnel, evacuate immediately…"
"Antimatter Legion?" Huo Linfei heard a name that was way too familiar. "Isn't that the villain faction from that game that came out recently? Honkai… Star something Rail something? Or was it Honkai 3rd's sequel…?"
[Antimatter Legion signal detected. Retrieving mission target…]
[Emergency mission: Defeat the Doomsday Beast.]
Still not even off the platform, Huo Linfei jolted so hard at the system's voice that he sprang up like a carp—sending the blue-glowing liquid splashing everywhere.
"Me? Fight the Doomsday Beast? Are you kidding?"
The game hadn't been out long, but he'd already seen plenty of monster lore on forums. The Doomsday Beast—people online called it a world-buster. In the trailers, there was that enormous creature with wings blotting out the sky, firing endless barrages of light projectiles—that had to be it. Even as a tutorial boss, it radiated suffocating pressure.
"System, forget the mission for a second. Tell me what kind of combat power I actually have."
[Scanning host capabilities…]
[Scan complete.]
[Simulated persona: Huo Linfei]
"Huo Linfei? The Huo Linfei I know?!"
Only able to hear the voice—no interface in sight—Huo Linfei was getting impatient. His own name had gotten him teased nonstop as a kid, because classmates loved to link it to a certain hot-blooded red-haired character from a Chinese animation. The character's arrogant one-liners were the polar opposite of Huo Linfei's introverted personality—making him an easy target for ridicule.
[Generating interface.]
[All data retrieved from the deepest layers of the host's memory.]
[It is the "Huo Linfei" from your memories.]
He won…
Huo Linfei grinned in satisfaction, tossing his head back and sinking into the transparent liquid again.
[Please check the device on your left hand. Based on your memory, this device is called an "Ability Lock."]
Huo Linfei raised his left hand. The bright red Ability Lock glinted—and he couldn't stop the corners of his mouth from lifting.
With the power to clear seven parallel universes in fourteen days, what was a Doomsday Beast supposed to be? Give me two days to warm up and I'll punch through Star Rail!
"BOOM!"
The explosion was savage. The platform he'd been lying on tipped over completely, and he was thrown to the floor, tumbling in a messy roll.
"Seriously? My newbie protection hasn't even started and I'm already eating the floor?"
Huo Linfei wiped the liquid off his face, exasperated. But once he'd crawled away from the toppled platform, he finally noticed something in the room—a bright, glittering object.
At the center of the room, a golden, radiant thing hovered in midair. There was a console beside it.
"That looks like it'll burn my hand off. Better not go near it… System, how do I get out—"
He didn't get to finish.
Two uninvited guests appeared in the room.
"This is interesting. Not bad for someone from the Genius Society… but who's this?" A tall woman with purple hair looked at Huo Linfei, her violet eyes carrying a hint of curiosity.
"A security guard watching the Stellaron? Herta's into this kind of lowbrow entertainment now?" A silver-haired girl wearing goggles chewed bubble gum, her tone dripping with disdain for "Herta."
"That girl kinda looks like Bronya… System, are they allies?"
[Targets confirmed: Stellaron Hunters—Kafka, Silver Wolf.]
[Threat level: 5 (recommended: immediate retreat).]
[Escape success rate: 47%.]
"What—seriously?" Huo Linfei's face went blank. "You're telling me to run now? I can't fight back at all?"
Before the system could answer, Kafka was already in front of him.
The purple-haired woman—half a head shorter—rose slightly onto her toes and leaned in close, lips nearing his ear.
"Please… listen to me…"
A strange power flowed along her voice and into Huo Linfei's brain. His body felt like it crashed—like a computer locking up. In an instant, he couldn't move his limbs at all.
"W-Wait—hold on!"
Huo Linfei launched backward in a burst, retreating several meters. Compared to that hypnotic pull, Kafka being that close made his whole body go numb in the worst possible way.
"Miss, we're meeting for the first time! You can't get that close!" Huo Linfei backed away righteously, one palm held upright in front of him. "And besides… I already have someone I like!"
"..." x2
"Kafka, did you mess up his brain?" Silver Wolf's bubble gum popped. She looked at the ridiculous redhead like she'd just stepped on a bug.
"I didn't do anything." Kafka's eyes narrowed slightly. "If anything, my Spirit Whisper doesn't seem to work on him."
"Easy. I'll just send him away." Silver Wolf flicked her wrist, and a virtual keyboard materialized in front of her. Her fingers tapped rapidly. "Elio's script doesn't need this guy anyway."
Huo Linfei squeezed his eyes shut—and felt the ground vanish beneath him. A jolt of weightlessness hit, and he snapped his eyes open.
Splat!
His body met the floor in an embarrassingly intimate embrace.
"Doesn't hurt…"
He lay spread-eagle on the ground. That girl—Silver Wolf—apparently had some kind of space-transmission ability. Judging by the surroundings, he was still inside the space station.
Before he could even process what just happened, an ear-splitting screech came from around the corner ahead—metal tearing like paper.
Three pitch-black monsters burst through the wall, their bodies seemingly made of liquid metal. Their arms reshaped into razor-sharp energy blades.
"Where the hell did these mobs come from?!" Huo Linfei blurted out.
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In Star Rail, Ultra-Beast Armored — Have I Caught "Equilibrium"? (All Chapter 26)
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