Once the girls had finished watching the short animation, Mo Li finally asked slowly,
"So? How was it?"
Durandal was the first to speak.
"I have to say… It's amazing. Boss, which studio did you hire for this short? If a domestic animation studio could do work at this level, Chinese animation wouldn't be in such a sorry state."
Bronya nodded in agreement.
"The soundtrack is also impressive. At least thirty percent of the emotional impact comes from the music alone."
After experiencing the 1.1 version firsthand, their admiration for Mo Li had grown even deeper.
Even though Bronya's face was still expressionless, her eyes seemed to sparkle when she looked at him.
Rita, in her usual coquettish tone, sighed softly.
"Boss, I'm really starting to admire you more and more~"
Mo Li: "…"
Even with his thick skin, being stared at by so many beautiful girls at once was a little uncomfortable.
"Alright, alright, enough flattery. You've tested long enough—now do you believe me? This game won't have bugs, so stop bringing up the closed beta.
Also… the short's soundtrack actually isn't complete."
"Hmm? Not complete?"
Mo Li nodded lightly.
"I've got another song here. If we pair it with the The Queen Descends animation, it'll make the scene even more impactful.
So… which one of you has vocal skills? And I mean actual singing ability."
The system had already given him the voice acting, music, and cinematics for the game. But Mo Li still wanted the girls to handle some of the dubbing themselves—not only to keep them busy, but also to give them a sense of involvement.
If they only handled promotion and maintenance, they might not feel much attachment to the project. But if they personally took part in the voice work, they'd care a lot more about the game's success.
To his surprise, the girls weren't just capable of voice acting—they could sing, too. Their voices were already at professional seiyuu level, and compared to trained singers, they only lacked a bit of technical polish.
That wasn't a problem. After just two days of training, Himeko could already perform Befall flawlessly.
And so, Honkai Impact 3rd launched without a closed beta, meeting the anticipation of thirty million players.
Zhang Ming had been counting the days for what felt like forever, and finally, launch day was here.
He'd even taken the day off just so he could play the moment the servers opened.
In his gaming friends' group chat, the messages were flying.
"Preload done, account created—miHoYo, why aren't the servers open yet?!"
"miHoYo: stop rushing me! Only one more minute."
"Hope this game doesn't disappoint me."
"Kiana… slurp slurp…"
"Hey, Tencent released a mobile game too—aren't you guys gonna try it?"
"Heh, I can already guess—it's just the same old Tencent formula."
"Bro, why don't you check it out for us and report back?"
"Sure thing, wait for my update."
Meanwhile, over on Bilibili and Douyin, countless streamers went live the moment the servers opened.
Since Mo Li had never invited outside beta testers, the only people who had fully experienced Honkai Impact 3rd were the girls in the studio.
For the past two weeks, there hadn't been a single leak online—no gameplay, no story spoilers, nothing.
Normally, under these circumstances, the hype would die down. But Mo Li kept releasing short gameplay clips, each blatantly stamped with a countdown:
[Time until launch: XX days, XX hours, XX minutes]
The result? Players couldn't play, couldn't get insider info, yet every couple of days they'd get another gorgeous teaser video. The hunger was real.
Aside from a few battle clips showing different characters, no other information was ever revealed—just enough to make them itch with curiosity.
The only things players knew for sure were that White Comet: Moonlight and Herrscher of the Void were insanely powerful, and that when the Valkyries shouted lines like "Wings, spread!" and "Lightning… Burst!", the resulting special effects were jaw-droppingly cool.
White-haired lolis, deadpan girls, white-haired beauties, red-haired seductresses, elegant maids, Shenzhou stoics…
No matter your taste in 2D girls, this game had it.
Even non-anime fans were starting to get drawn in.
Some players, unable to play or find leaks, began desperately searching for beta accounts.
One rich player even offered ¥100,000 for a closed beta slot.
The news of someone offering 100k for an account sent Honkai Impact 3rd trending on Weibo, breaking into mainstream discussion.
When Mo Li heard about it, he could only shake his head helplessly. Using the official account, he posted a statement saying there were no plans for a beta—no matter how much players begged.
The girls in the studio all agreed—he was evil for keeping them hanging like this.
Finally, on launch day, after all that slow-burn hype, interest in Honkai Impact 3rd exploded.
Whether they genuinely wanted to play or were just riding the wave, most major game streamers chose to broadcast it.
On Bilibili, a popular uploader with ten million followers—known as Miss Fairy—made a rare move by starting a live stream.
Though she had unmatched beauty, most of her fans weren't there for her looks. Her real charm lay in her sunny, cheerful personality, her innocence, and… her wildly unpredictable stream topics.
Her only flaw was that she streamed far too infrequently—maybe once a month at best.
But whenever she went live, the chat would always be packed.
Today was no different.
"Hi~ Did you miss me?"
On screen, a pink-haired girl smiled brightly, waving lightly at the camera.
Her brows were like crescent moons, her lips tinged with rose; in her playful smile, she seemed like a little fairy from the mortal world—pure, mischievous, and radiant.
With just that simple greeting, the gloom of the day seemed to lift, replaced with pure joy.
And just like that, the good mood spread—seeing such an innocent, adorable girl, the viewers couldn't help but smile.
In an instant, the entire screen was flooded with barrage comments:
[Is that… Elysia?]
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