Chapter 203: Old Yang Married His Foster Mother? Is That For Real?
Back in the livestream of MiHoYo's #1 Idol, Ai-chan.
In the previous segment, Carole, Su Mu, and Raiden Mei had showcased the excellent combat system of A Post-Honkai Odyssey (APHO) and given everyone a tour of St. Fountain's scenery. This had sparked immense interest among players, many of whom were already wondering if they should find time to visit the real St. Fountain in the future.
Travel bloggers who had previously visited South Africa enthusiastically shared their itineraries and experiences. Some even wrote long-form articles informing players exactly where the prototype for St. Fountain was located.
The prototype for St. Fountain was indeed in South Africa. Its exact name is False Bay, located on the southern side of the Cape Peninsula. It lies southeast of Cape Town, South Africa's largest city. Furthermore, the Cape of Good Hope is just to the southwest of False Bay! It is also one of the prime locations for spotting Southern Right Whales!
To make it easier for Honkai 3rd players to travel and sightsee, many travelers spontaneously posted various guides under their accounts—covering everything from ticket purchases and passports to local customs and evaluations of domestic tour groups.
For a time, a massive travel craze was ignited!
Meanwhile, South Africans looking at the flood of travel bookings from all over the world fell into a state of unprecedented confusion. The passion of global players directly crashed the ticketing systems. They had never seen anything like this before, and the local government was genuinely startled!
Confused officials checked the websites, looking even more at a loss as they stared at each other. Just because False Bay became a filming location for a game, it brought in such a terrifying volume of ticket sales during the off-season? The number of buyers was even more frightening than during the peak season... Were global players literally flying in right now??
Even Su Mu hadn't expected APHO to trigger such a craze. While he was streaming, he was suddenly called out. He was completely baffled, but he understood it must be something urgent; otherwise, no one would have interrupted the stream.
Consequently, Elysia happily took Su Mu's place, picking up the controller and continuing to interact with the audience while playing. The bullet chat after Elysia appeared was almost exclusively "Amen."
Looking at the popular Elysia, even Carole couldn't help but roast: "The art style is completely different from when Director Su was here. This is pure discrimination, isn't it?"
Carole understood, though. After all, the plots Director Su wrote... were indeed very easy to earn players' hatred. Meanwhile, Elysia, the beautiful brand ambassador, was the "white moonlight" of countless Honkai 3rd players. Naturally, her treatment was worlds apart from Su Mu's!
While Elysia re-entered the city to search for detectors and deal with enemies, Su Mu returned to his office. And there—he saw a familiar person waiting for him.
Kevin Kaslana?
Looking at Kevin sitting in his office eating cup noodles, Su Mu felt the image was somewhat comical.
"What happened?" Since he was still in the middle of a stream, Su Mu wanted to understand the situation quickly and went straight to the point.
"Let me finish this bite first," Kevin said. He slurped the noodles and finished the entire bowl right in front of Su Mu.
"The CEO of the World Serpent Group eats this every day?" Su Mu wiped his sweat. although he had heard from Elysia and the others that Kevin often ate cup noodles, seeing it in person was still a bit much.
"It saves time and effort, quickly providing the energy the body needs... Fine, the truth is I'm just too busy and only had time for a quick bite." Kevin made a joke. After all, the Kevin of this world hadn't experienced the tragedy of the Honkai, so he retained his original "purity"... while not as naive as the youth in high school, he wasn't a total "poker face" like in the game either.
And he seemed very afraid of his wife...
Elysia had told Su Mu about this. In Su Mu's eyes, Elysia's talent for gossip was world-class; if something was related to gossip, you just had to ask her.
"Alright, back to business. I'm not here representing the World Serpent Group this time..." Kevin Kaslana revealed the badge in his hand. Su Mu looked closely—Holy crap, three gold stars?
On second thought, Su Mu felt relieved. Kevin had mentioned having a military background before, but seeing it with his own eyes was still a shock. After all, a General is the highest current rank, and there aren't many of them in total... This made Su Mu's expression turn solemn. Since Kevin had revealed this identity, it meant he wasn't here for business. Then...
"Have you heard about the situation in South Africa?" "What? Where?" "It seems you don't know yet..."
Kevin sighed and told Su Mu about the South African ticketing system being crashed by Honkai 3rd players, as well as the sudden surge in exit applications and passport processing in Shenzhou. Such a terrifying scale had truly alerted the upper management.
"Tourism...?" When Kevin explained the investigation results, Su Mu was momentarily speechless.
Wait. He hadn't predicted this either! How was he supposed to know that so many players actually wanted to visit the real-life locations of St. Fountain?
"It feels absurd, doesn't it? In fact, our first reaction when we heard was the same as yours..." Kevin gave a bitter smile. He could never forget being suddenly called to a meeting where a group of big shots listened to the investigation report. Their expressions went from serious to stunned, and finally to a helpless, wry smile.
"So... you came to me just to tell me this?" Su Mu felt there was more to it; otherwise, a phone call would have sufficed.
"Of course not. Honkai Impact 3rd has significantly promoted exchange between Shenzhou and South Africa. The local South African officials specifically called the Shenzhou officials to express their appreciation, which led to great progress in certain cooperation plans... Therefore, Shenzhou wants you to be the Shenzhou-South Africa Friendship Ambassador, awarding you an honorary medal during a nationwide broadcast..."
Su Mu's mouth twitched several times. Good lord, I didn't do anything. I'm just sitting in my office and honor falls from the sky? Is this real life? But since it was happening right in front of him, Su Mu fell into thought. These players truly always found ways to give him unexpected "surprises."
"With this status, your future actions in Shenzhou will receive maximum convenience. Meanwhile, South Africa is very welcoming of MiHoYo entering their gaming market, saying they will loosen the review process to the maximum... This is a great opportunity for you."
Su Mu nodded, understanding that Kevin was right. With this status, he would receive the maximum support from the authorities regardless of what he did... although Kevin was already his backing, he lacked a formal public identity. This was good for both Su Mu and MiHoYo.
However... accepting this honor meant showing his face in public. If he showed his face, wouldn't he be doxxed by players in minutes? No, no, if he made more "torturous" games in the future, he might actually receive literal razor blades in the mail!
"Kevin, let's discuss something." Su Mu looked at Kevin with a "mischievous" smile. "Compared to me, there is someone much more suitable to act as this brand ambassador. Allow me to introduce you: the President of MiHoYo, the Golden Tiger of the customer service department, the legendary figure with a 99% approval rating—Kiana Kaslana!"
Kevin's expression turned complicated. "You should understand how important this opportunity is for you. After all, your current status is just a businessman. But with official support... I don't understand why you would give even this kind of opportunity to that girl Kiana."
Su Mu looked at Kevin with a smile. "Do you want to hear the lie or the truth?" Kevin looked at him suspiciously. "There's a lie and a truth?"
Su Mu nodded. "The lie isn't actually a total lie. I just think Kiana's image is more likable. Who could refuse a beautiful white-haired girl as the ambassador of friendship between two countries? Compared to a rough guy like me, everyone would certainly prefer to see a beauty like Kiana."
Kevin was startled. "And the truth?" Su Mu said solemnly, "The truth is it would affect my personal safety. I don't want to receive razor blades at my house for making games in the future. It's terrifying."
Kevin: "..." Kevin: "You really are good to that girl. But I'm curious—you two are just boss and employee, right? Why are you willing to give her such a precious opportunity?"
Su Mu said without hesitation, "Isn't it obvious? Because to me, Kiana is also an important family member." Wanting your family to live a good life is only natural.
"Family... you're right." Kevin's lips curled up slightly. He also thought of his companions at the Golden Courtyard; though they shared no blood relation, they had gathered together and become true family long ago. "I understand. Just like us at the Golden Courtyard."
"Ah, there's still a bit of a difference." "?" Su Mu didn't elaborate, only smiling. The matter of competing with Siegfried to "raise a daughter" wasn't something he could easily say out loud.
"Fine, I will relay your thoughts. It shouldn't be a big problem..."
Once that was settled, by the time Su Mu returned to the livestream, Elysia was having the time of her life. During his absence, the plot had progressed to Squad 3 finding a young boy who looked exactly like Joyce and bringing him back to base. This had set the entire chat ablaze.
[Eh? Welt actually has a child? Wait, why does he look exactly like Joyce?]
[So who is the mother? Who is Welt's wife?]
[Wait, didn't they say Welt went missing? How did his kid go missing with him?]
Not only was the audience shocked, but the in-game Raiden Mei was also very surprised. After all, the mission intel she received previously had no mention of this. Later, Mei revealed the child's identity.
["That child has Mr. Welt's appearance. his name is Joffrey Joyce Yang."]
He didn't just look like Joyce; his name was Joyce. But that Joyce—the first Herrscher of Reason—hadn't he died at Otto's hands long ago? Was this some passive ability of the Herrscher of Reason, where Joyce also started doing "Welt-ups"?
However, Mei's subsequent explanation cleared things up for the viewers. As it turned out, little Joey was a clone of Joyce. In the previous Anti-Entropy Invasion arc, it was mentioned that Cocolia had created many Joyce clones, and they had caused quite a bit of trouble. But most of those adult clones had flawed personalities and eventually went mad or died. Joey was discovered when he was only a few months old, and Welt adopted him. This was a secret known to very few.
The previous Joyce clones were all... well, hard to evaluate. They were either lunatics, meme-face monsters, or incredibly arrogant brats. One of them had even been thoroughly crushed by Mei. After the truth came out, the audience felt it was a bit of a pity. If he was an adopted son, did that mean Welt might not be married?
[You can't say for sure, right? I saw Tesla has a lot of feelings for Welt. Maybe she's his wife.]
[But here's the problem: I remember Tesla and Einstein were basically Old Yang's foster mothers? So if that's the case, isn't Old Yang... a rebellious son hitting on his mom?]
[Whoa, what kind of plot is this?]
[Wait, wait, is the Anti-Entropy social circle that messy? But I guess it's okay, since Tesla and Einstein have ageless bodies due to that one battle... meaning they always look like beautiful girls.]
[LMAO, I suddenly remembered the plot from the 'Twin Stars' event—Einstein riding a bike with Tesla on the back, and behind them is a precious historical photo of the first nuclear explosion...]
[Pfft!]
END OF CHAPTER
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