Lee slumped further into her chair, chin pressed into the palm of her hand as her professor's voice droned on like a particularly persistent white noise machine. Something about supply and demand curves. Or maybe elasticity. She wasn't really sure anymore; she had stopped listening around three slides back.
All she could think about was getting back to her apartment, turning on her laptop, and hearing the familiar boot-up sound of Honkai: Star Rail.
Or watch some v-tuber playing through the story, watching their every reaction and seeing if they noticed all the little details.
And then getting angry when they didn't.
"Man, HSR 3.4 was incredible — Phainon's story, the Lygus monologues — I could listen to those for hours. And I swore I wouldn't pull until Cyrene's banner, but Phainon's pure golden retriever energy was too much. My wallet didn't stand a chance."
Her thoughts wandered. I mean, look at him! So cool! So… golden retriever!
And the events! The value of the reruns, the little hidden dialogues… dates with Cyrene! she'd spent hours farming just to see every single line. She sighed, imagining her last ten-pull: two Eidolons, zero copies of the light cone she actually wanted. Classic. Her relic luck had been even worse. She had spent an hour theorycrafting the perfect Phainon build only to roll 4 DEF substats in a row instead of crit damage or crit rate.
Still, it had been worth it. Phainon's heroic speeches, mixed with the dumb, endearing energy, δ-me13's event log, had been everything she wanted from 3.4.
3.5 was supposed to be next week — Before Their Deaths. Cerydra, Hysilens… she'd been refreshing the update preview for days. If they leaked a trailer tonight… ugh, she'd lose it.
Hot Fish lady! And the second coming of Furina!
Her notebook was open, sure, but the page it rested on was filled with doodles — a little Pom-pom drawing looking perfectly huggable and adorable. HSR was her comfort food, her main hobby, and maybe, just maybe, a little too much of her personality. Perhaps she spent just a little too much time playing it, going so far as to create several alt accounts to replay sections of the story again.
She leaned slightly to peek at the phone of the classmate next to her. Five minutes left. Five eternal, agonizing minutes.
They say a watched clock never ticks — or wait, is it a watched pot never boils? Whatever. Same difference.
Lee knew exactly zero people in this class. Which was saying a lot, considering she'd been taking it for months. Actually, she knew approximately zero people in any of her classes. Not that she minded. It wasn't like she had ever really tried. Group projects were misery, small talk exhausting, and besides — there was a new event rerun going live in two days, and she needed all her stamina to farm rewards for her myriad of alt accounts.
Her mind wandered. What would it even be like to live in the HSR universe? Sure, the Stellaron Hunters were terrifying in real life, and the IPC even worse, but—still. Riding the Astral Express, seeing the stars, actually meeting Uncle Yang, Himeko, little March instead of just watching them on a screen?
And Stelle… Heh. Eheh.
Okay, maybe too many late-night fanfics. Suddenly she found herself sitting up a little in her chair and wiping off a tiny bit of drool that had escaped.
"That'd be worth it," she whispered under her breath, smirking.
The lights in the lecture hall flickered.
Lee blinked. "Huh?"
The hum of the projector cut out, then came back louder, buzzing almost painfully. The screen flickered on and off in an almost epilepsy-inducing rhythm. The air thickened, pressing against her ears like she was suddenly underwater. Students around her shifted uncomfortably, some looking up in annoyance — but before Lee could even form the words, "Great, the power's out again…", something yanked at the space behind her navel.
Not like falling. Not like tripping.
Like being unzipped from reality.
An incredibly uncomfortable feeling, like scuba diving, welled up inside her. Pressure came from all sides, all directions. She felt blind, but also like she was seeing a kaleidoscope of colors. She felt like she was falling, yet standing perfectly still.
Her mouth opened to say something — anything — but the sound that came out warped and echoed back at her like she was yelling into a cave. Her stomach lurched, throat burning—
Hrk—!
She ejected the contents of her former lunch with no control over direction, her head spinning violently. Her mind went blank.
Then — suddenly — her senses returned. An almost overwhelming barrage of sights, sounds, smells, and other sensations rushed in at once.
She was hovering about a meter above a cracked sidewalk, facing downward.
Wha…
Her body tumbled forward, slamming into the pavement. Pain shot through her head, spinning her further, before darkness finally claimed her.
And in the final moment before blacking out, a new sound reached her ears:
[Ding! ★ System binding complete! Welcome to the Ultimate Romance System™! (๑>◡<๑)♡]