The two pizzas were gone.
Kiana leaned back on the couch, rubbed her now-rounded belly, and let out a satisfied sigh.
The afternoon sun was no longer harsh. Filtered through the slit in the curtains, it turned soft and golden, pooling into warm patches across the wooden floor.
That patch of light seemed almost alive—creeping along the weave of the carpet, inching up the edge of the couch, and finally stopping by Kiana's feet.
Just then, a white blur lazily squeezed itself through the crack of the bedroom door.
Chongchong strutted out with that utterly unapologetic cat walk, yawned hugely at the sun on the floor—pink tongue on full display—then launched itself onto the couch like a tiny cannonball.
It didn't need navigation. It went straight for the most comfortable spot in the entire apartment:
Kiana's knees.
It flopped down, curled itself into a perfect white fluffy donut, and let out a long, pleased—
"Meow~"
Then it rubbed against Kiana's hand and started purring, the kind of built-in hypnosis that made everything feel softer.
Kiana lowered her head to look at the white fuzzball and gently scratched under its chin.
Chongchong squinted its eyes into two slits, purring even louder—like a small motor that had gone slightly defective.
The sun was perfect: not cold, not hot.
Her stomach was full, no longer aching with emptiness.
And she even had a living, breathing knee-warmer.
Last night, she'd managed to fall asleep under Su Yu's promise—"I'll watch over you."
But those nightmares, sharp as shattered glass, had still tormented her in broken fragments all night.
Only now did that sense of safety—warmth and food—finally soak the tightly wound nerve inside her until it softened.
Sleepiness came like a tide, wave after wave. Her eyelids felt weighted with lead.
Kiana propped her head up, trying to cling to the last shred of wakefulness, but her white head grew heavier and heavier, sinking bit by bit like a toy running out of battery.
"Sleep if you're tired," Su Yu said from beside her. "It won't rain tonight. When you wake up, we'll go out and buy what you need."
"…Mm." Kiana answered drowsily, then asked, "What about you?"
"Me?" Su Yu fished a laptop out from under the couch, patted the dust off it, and flipped it open. "Time to work."
The screen lit up.
"Project proposals don't fall from the sky," he said. "While you sleep, I'll build the framework for the Honkai 3rd pitch."
Kiana forced her heavy eyes open and looked at him.
That game.
The one that would record her past—her pain, her sins—everything.
"…Will it work?" she asked.
"Relax." Su Yu flashed an OK sign. "Leave professional work to professionals. You just need to be my muse. I'll handle the rest."
Kiana stared at him for two seconds, like she wanted to say something, but in the end she only gave a quiet "Mm."
The moment that sound left her, her final resistance crumbled.
Her head tilted, soft against the couch back, and her breathing became steady and deep almost instantly.
Chongchong shifted on her legs in mild annoyance, found a more comfortable position, tucked its head into its paws, and fell asleep with her.
One girl and one cat—frozen into a still life in the afternoon sun.
Su Yu glanced at Kiana to make sure she wasn't disturbed, then dimmed the laptop screen a little.
He took a deep breath—like he was about to do something criminal—and summoned the damned system panel.
[Ding! Host detected engaging in main quest!]
[Newbie gift pack unlocked: Game Development Basic Kit (Lv.1)]
[Contents: Script structure logic, concept design templates, basic programming modules, idiot-proof engine guide…]
[Special note: Skill level is currently low; supports only basic framework construction. For advanced functions (e.g., special effects that make players cry), please work hard to raise relevant stats or purchase premium skill packs—dear~]
Su Yu raised an eyebrow.
The system's tone was still infuriating, but he had to admit: this part was useful.
Back in his old life, this kind of skill pack alone would've saved him ten years of grind.
He opened a document and started typing at speed.
Project: Honkai — Proposal (Draft 1)
Genre: 3D action RPG
Core selling points: Next-gen visuals, extreme impact feedback, immersive story
World setting: The Honkai era—disaster born alongside civilization; a thousand-year war between chosen girls and Honkai beasts…
He wanted to transplant every memory he had of Honkai Impact 3rd—the Three Great Houses, the Hyperion's construction, each chapter's level design, even that gacha system everyone loved and hated…
A transmigrator's real cheat was never the system.
It was omniscience.
He knew which plotlines became masterpieces, which characters would become everyone's "wife," which lines would lodge in a player's chest for life.
The keyboard clattered for half an hour—then stopped abruptly.
Su Yu stared at the screen.
Only a few pages of dry, lifeless text sat there, like a mummy squeezed of all moisture.
What the hell?
He remembered every detail of those plotlines. His head was full of scenes and dialogue.
But the moment he tried to turn them into words, it felt like something blocked them—only the tiniest trickle could get through.
What he wrote was nothing but skeletal bullet points:
"Kiana enrolls at St. Freya."
"The Third Honkai erupts."
"The Herrscher of the Void awakens…"
Like there was an invisible membrane in the way.
What came out had bones—but no flesh.
No soul.
This wasn't the story that made people cry and curse "miHoYo."
It was a settings document.
[Ding! Host detected encountering a creative bottleneck~]
A red pop-up appeared again, cheerfully obnoxious.
[Friendly reminder: This system's core mechanism is Emotional Resonance~]
[The plot of "Honkai 3rd" must be created based on the bound Valkyrie's real memories and emotional experiences. Only real pain brings real tears; only real love generates real emotion points.]
[In short—]
[Only when host and bound target review and recount these memories together will inspiration surge like a spring! Efficiency skyrockets!]
[Current solo creation efficiency: 5%]
[Co-creation with bound target: 75%–95%]
Su Yu's fingers froze on the keyboard.
He stared at the red text for a full five seconds.
Then he screamed in his mind at maximum volume:
Are you a demon?!
Make Kiana recount those memories?
Make her tear open bloody scars with her own mouth, peel them back, and show him the rot inside?
"So, Kiana—tell me how you became a Herrscher and killed people? Tell me how Mei almost died saving you? Tell me how Himeko-sensei fell into the Sea of Quanta to save you?"
What kind of human being does that?!
Dragging a girl who'd only just decided to live—who'd only just eaten a full meal—back into hell?
Su Yu's temples throbbed.
Screw off.
He cursed the system in his head.
Take back what I said earlier—this thing isn't cute at all. It's a heartless, bastard capitalist.
After mentally greeting the system's ancestors eighteen generations back, Su Yu forced himself to calm down.
As messed up as it was… he understood.
Some wounds, if you keep them covered forever, don't heal.
They rot inside until they kill you.
PTSD was exactly that—memories that couldn't be faced, couldn't be processed.
And for that damned "anchor"—for Kiana to truly gain freedom in this world—the main quest had to be done.
But the question was: how?
Ask directly?
At best, the remaining furniture wouldn't survive.
At worst, neither would his head.
Su Yu closed the laptop with a soft 啪, leaned back against the couch, and exhaled long and hard. He felt more exhausted than after hauling bricks for a full day.
Beside him was the sound of steady breathing.
He turned his head and looked at Kiana.
She was sleeping deeply. Even in sleep, some of her guarded posture had finally loosened.
The afternoon sun favored her, gilding her messy white hair with a warm golden rim, making her look like an angel that had fallen into the mortal world.
Her brow was still faintly furrowed—like she was worrying even in her dreams—but at least…
She was finally willing to close her eyes and sleep peacefully beside a stranger.
Chongchong was still curled on her knees. Two white creatures stacked together—so perfectly gentle it felt wrong to disturb it.
Su Yu didn't speak. He just watched.
There had to be a way.
He couldn't do what the system suggested—forcing her to relive pain. That was secondary harm.
[Friendly reminder: You can start with light topics~]
As if sensing his conflict, the system popped up another line—complete with a "cute" smiley.
[For example, talk about daily life at St. Freya Academy? Those happy memories—no knives~]
[Step by step, slow and steady—uh, "gentle simmer"... no, I mean, "gradual progress"~]
Su Yu stared at the emoji and his mouth twitched.
So it just pretended it hadn't said the earlier part. Nice "recall" function you've got there.
Happy memories…?
He stared at the progress bar on the screen, stuck like it was constipated and refused to move even a single notch, and finally sighed in surrender—then snapped the laptop shut again.
Without Kiana herself as a "living material library," he could write until Honkai 4 came out and still not squeeze out two decent lines.
He set the laptop on the carpet, fell back into the couch, and let the soft afternoon warmth bake his eyelids.
Outside, some bird chirped nonstop. Through the glass it sounded slightly distorted—like a lullaby.
His consciousness melted quickly, like butter.
…
He didn't know how long he slept.
Su Yu woke up to a numb, tingling sensation.
Something heavy rested on his shoulder, like a warm water bottle—and there was a faint, lingering scent.
Familiar.
Like that lemon shampoo that was always on sale at the supermarket, mixed with a hint of grass after rain.
It was the smell of his bathroom, but right now it stirred an inconvenient kind of imagination.
His thoughts turned like rusty gears, and his gaze drifted downward—
His heart skipped.
Kiana's head was resting on his shoulder.
Her messy-but-soft white hair spilled over his arm like a waterfall, a few strands mischievously slipping into his collar and tickling his neck.
With her steady breathing, those strands rose and fell lightly against his skin.
Too close.
Close enough to count her long eyelashes and the small fan-shaped shadows they cast beneath her eyes.
Asleep, the constant hostility and melancholy in her face finally faded.
Her brow smoothed out, lips slightly parted—she looked like a completely ordinary girl, untouched by suffering.
Su Yu instantly froze into a fossil.
Two lifetimes or not, he was still a 99%-purity, never-dated-in-his-life loser.
In his last life, he'd been trapped in the blessing of 996.
In this life, his closest physical contact with the opposite sex had basically been that alcohol-soaked "death kabedon" from Himiko.
And now a living, breathing, defenseless girl was leaning on him, sleeping like an unguarded piglet.
As a veteran Captain, he'd yelled "wife!" at a screen plenty of times—but those were 2D characters behind glass.
Now—cough—now this girl had body heat.
Weight.
Breath.
That warmth burned from his shoulder straight to the tips of his ears.
Su Yu felt his face heating up; his brain CPU was screaming at the edge of overload.
Just as he sat there helpless, barely daring to breathe—
Kiana's eyelashes fluttered like startled butterfly wings.
Then her mismatched eyes slowly opened.
Left: deep blue.
Right: brilliant amber.
Their eyes met.
Time seemed to hit pause.
Su Yu's brain instantly began running scenario simulations:
Script A: She screams "pervert," then delivers a standard Kaslana flying kick—sending him to meet his great-grandma.
Script B: She coldly pulls out the Spear of Void and demands to know why he's plotting something.
Script C: She dies of embarrassment, then chops up a nonexistent dining table.
He subconsciously tensed, ready to take the Valkyrie's hit.
But the storm didn't come.
Kiana simply blinked. Her gaze sharpened from confusion into focus, locking on his face right in front of her.
Then—like red ink dropped into water—color rushed across her cheeks.
She was still leaning on his shoulder. She didn't move.
About three seconds passed.
To Su Yu, they felt like three centuries.
"…I'm hungry," Kiana said in a flat, almost voice-acted tone, as if the blush had never happened at all.
Su Yu stared for a beat.
Then, like he'd been electrocuted, he sprang up from the couch at light speed, retreating two meters—no, wait, one meter.
"Ahem!" He coughed hard into his fist, trying to force his voice back into a normal register.
"Uh… me too. Perfect timing."
"Let's go eat something outside, and we can hit the mall to buy daily necessities and clothes… You can't just keep wearing my old T-shirt everywhere. I mean, I don't mind, but it's bad for the city's image."
He kept talking, but his eyes were fixed on the ceiling like he was trying to find a flower pattern—absolutely refusing to look at her.
Kiana sat up straight, watching the man who was usually unstoppable with his mouth—now flustered like a kid who'd done something wrong.
She pressed a hand to her chest.
Her heartbeat was just a little faster than usual.
When she woke up, she really had been startled.
That close breathing. That male body heat.
In the past, she would've screamed "pervert" and kicked him immediately.
But…
Looking at Su Yu's face, red with embarrassment, and his awkward, panicked posture—
She couldn't feel disgust.
She even thought…
It was kind of funny.
"…Fine," she said.
She stood, casually scooped up Chongchong—who was still trying to cling to nap-time—and set it on the floor.
The kitten meowed in protest and rubbed against her ankle.
"Let's go."
…
After changing and getting ready—
Kiana was still wearing the oversized T-shirt, but Su Yu found her a pair of athletic shorts to wear underneath. It looked like that "no pants" streetwear style—surprisingly not out of place.
Su Yu stood by the entryway, stuffing keys and wallet into his pocket while changing shoes.
Behind him, the sound of breathing grew slightly heavier.
He turned—and saw Kiana staring at the security door leading outside, her body tense like a drawn bow.
Beyond that door was the world.
A strange world—peaceful—and supposedly a world that could finally see her.
But in her memories, "the world" was cold rain, indifferent crowds passing through her like she didn't exist, and the suffocating feeling of being abandoned by the entire universe.
Even if Su Yu said it was fine…
That fear lodged in her bones.
Su Yu straightened and looked at her expression.
That tight little face was full of anxiety she wanted to hide but couldn't.
He didn't say pretty things like "don't be afraid" or "I'm here."
He simply held out his hand.
Palm up, fingers slightly curled—an invitation.
Kiana froze.
She stared at his hand for two seconds.
It was a good-looking hand—long fingers, clean knuckles, faint calluses from years of typing.
It looked…
Warm.
"…."
She bit her lower lip and finally moved.
But she didn't take his hand.
Instead, she reached out with two fingers—carefully, like she was afraid of disturbing something—and pinched the corner of his sleeve.
Just that tiny bit of fabric.
Su Yu watched her and understood.
This was very Kiana.
Wanting to rely on someone, yet still clinging to the last scraps of pride and stubbornness.
"Okay," he said. "We'll do it like this."
He opened the door.
Evening sunlight poured in like a golden tide.
Not the harsh white of noon, but a warm orange-red that painted the hallway with a soft filter.
From downstairs came distant traffic noise, and the smell of someone cooking.
"Hold tight," Su Yu said as he stepped out, glancing back.
"Don't let go. You really don't want to be this old and end up on a missing-person poster. I already have the headline: 'Shocking! Why Did a Young Girl Vanish?'"
"W-Who would get lost?!" Kiana shot back instinctively—and just like that, half her tension scattered.
Su Yu laughed and crossed the threshold.
Kiana followed closely behind him, fingers still gripping that corner of sleeve like it was her lifeline.
The moment they stepped out of the apartment building—
The evening breeze hit her face.
It carried the city's lively scent.
Car exhaust, cumin from roadside barbecue stalls, some unknown flowers from a distant park, and the hot steam of oden drifting out near a convenience store.
Noisy.
Chaotic.
Alive.
Not silent ruins.
Not a cold battlefield.
This was the first time since arriving in this world that Kiana truly stepped into it—
As a person.
She could feel people looking.
Some glanced twice at her striking white hair; some turned back, drawn by her mismatched eyes.
But those gazes held only curiosity and admiration.
No fear.
No disgust.
No treating her like a monster.
In this peaceful world, unusual hair and eye color were just signs of individuality.
She was simply a normal girl—
Being led out for a walk.
Kiana's fingers tightened unconsciously around Su Yu's sleeve.
Her palm was slightly sweaty.
This was her first step in this world.
And also—
The first step of a new life, belonging to Kiana Kaslana.
No crushing mission.
No reason she had to fight.
She took a deep breath of air full of everyday human warmth.
…It was wonderful.
-------
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