"Success! It's a success! This old man did it!"
Inside a cave nestled in the snowy plains, a young and handsome man stared fanatically at the miniature glowing tower before him.
The smile on his face had reached a point where it was utterly uncontrollable.
If only the ground beneath him weren't so uneven and hard...
At this very moment!
He'd probably be wriggling around like a maggot.
"I'm a genius! I'm truly a genius! A one-in-ten-thousand genius!"
Su Ran!
A traverser who was both fortunate and unfortunate.
Half a year ago, he'd been sent to this other world by a truck driver rushing to meet his quota.
For most young people in his shoes,
they might have been overjoyed by now.
But not him.
Because this was a Honkai starting point!
He'd spawned in an endless expanse of snowy plains, with no end in sight!
Fortunately, he'd bound a system.
It allowed him to complete tasks and earn chances at selection rewards.
To make up for the Honkai start,
the system had given him a free selection opportunity and enough supplies to last a year.
"The power to brutally beat down every living creature in the current world" or "wisdom beyond imagination."
Back then, Su Ran had been frozen stiff, unable to move.
But the cold had sharpened his mind unexpectedly.
He wasn't swayed by the allure of invincible power.
Instead, he chose wisdom.
As for the reason?
It was simple!
He'd gotten the system, so there would surely be more selection opportunities in the future.
By choosing to enhance his brain, he could use that upgraded intellect to make the most correct choices when more rewards came along.
What followed was straightforward.
After obtaining this wisdom and applying it for a while,
he realized this wasn't just a simple boost to intelligence!
This was clearly the power of "I reckon it'll work"!
With this wisdom, what was power even worth?
He wasn't some brute who relied on his fists anyway.
To make battle lines crumble to ash with a casual laugh—that was the real elegance!
And so, in this short half-year,
relying on this "I reckon it'll work" wisdom!
He'd successfully created the Plasma Spark from the tokusatsu series Ultraman! (More or less)
This artificial sun capable of evolving humans into Ultraman!
Its glow illuminated the entire cave.
"As expected, way better than a campfire!"
Considering the importance of this power, he pondered for a long time.
Then he decided to pick up that beam of light and shove it straight into his own body.
After all, it had been designed to be compatible with the human body from the start.
And this was made under resource-scarce conditions.
It wouldn't rival the real sun.
It couldn't possibly burst a person open!
"Hiss!"
After stuffing what he called the Plasma Spark light directly into his body,
Su Ran drew in a sharp breath of cold air.
Though it wouldn't explode a person,
directly integrating this energy into the body was terrifying all the same.
At this moment, he could clearly feel his body being permeated by a force.
It started from his chest and spread outward.
And right now, his body wouldn't respond to his commands.
'Is this the wrong script?'
When he lost control of his body,
balance naturally went out the window too.
Su Ran toppled straight to the ground.
All he could do was stare blankly at the ceiling.
Before he completely lost control of his eyes,
he gave them a hard blink.
Then he plunged into total darkness.
No sensations at all, not even a shred of light.
Not even the light he could imagine in his mind would appear.
'Did I flip the big truck?'
Just as Su Ran was about to sink into despair,
a piercing red light appeared.
It filled his entire field of vision.
A machine materialized before Su Ran's eyes.
"I made something like the Plasma Spark—what the heck is this thing?"
He stared blankly at the massive machine's head.
"Query: What species are you?"
The enormous machine posed a question to Su Ran.
"I... probably, maybe, still human?"
He lifted his arm.
Thanks to the red light from the robot's two eye-like emitters, he could see that his body still had human skin.
Too bad he hadn't turned into an Ultraman. What a shame.
Even the power of "I reckon it'll work" couldn't pull it off?
Worthy of something that played with idealism.
"Denied. You are not a carbon-based lifeform."
The big machine rejected Su Ran's answer.
"Is that so? Then I must have succeeded!"
His excitement over the experiment's success outweighed his curiosity about the machine before him.
"Query: Are you a lifeform?"
Su Ran didn't answer right away.
Instead, he basked in the joy for a bit.
Once his emotions had settled,
he responded again.
"Of course! In my view, if it can think and feel emotions—even if its heart doesn't beat—that's life!"
"..."
The red light flickered for a moment.
Then the big machine spoke once more.
"Do you wish to become an Emanator walking the Path of Erudition?"
Su Ran fell silent.
He began to think.
The loneliness of the past half-year, combined with his fanaticism for research, had made him overlook the game he'd once played.
Honkai: Star Rail.
He'd even forgotten what the Erudition Aeon looked like.
So when he first saw this big machine, he hadn't recognized it.
After all, the first glimpse in the game was that big red light.
That was a side view, not the front.
His wisdom had plenty of practical uses, after all.
No spare time to reminisce about old games.
Only now did it hit him.
The snowy plains...
"This place is... Jarilo-VI?"
"Negative. This is a primitive planet. The lifeforms here cannot conduct space travel." Nous dashed his hopes.
"Fine."
Su Ran felt a twinge of disappointment.
He'd thought he might run into Duck Duck or Seele here.
"I accept your blessing. Becoming an Emanator holds no downsides for me."
He wasn't some conspiracy theorist.
He remembered the lore from Honkai: Star Rail—humans couldn't judge an Aeon's good or evil by their own values.
His vision returned to the light.
Su Ran awoke in the cave.
He felt the surging power within his body.
The joy that had just calmed surged up again.
Not long after, a message echoed through the cosmos.
"Su Ran, Genius Society #85, exists on a remote and insignificant planet, created a near-perfect intelligent lifeform—unable to calculate, unable to comprehend its composition, possesses traits of an immortal species."
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I hope you all enjoy this fanfic! If you notice any errors or awkward phrasing, please let me know :D And don't forget to leave a review!