With the vigorous start of the massive dojo renovation action, the backyard of the Inch Heart Dojo completely exploded with activity.
If one didn't look at the gold-lettered signboard hanging in the front hall, passersby would likely assume this was a large-scale demolition site. Dust flew into the air, and electric drills roared.
One million—Su Yu's five hundred thousand plus Su Mei's investment of five hundred thousand. This sum, an astronomical figure for the Inch Heart Dojo, was currently transforming into truckloads of cement, steel bars, soundproofing cotton, and high-precision floor mats, flowing in continuously.
And standing at the center of the storm was the usually gentle and virtuous Eldest Senior Sister, Lin Zhaoyu. At this moment, she held a ledger and a calculator, reconciling the accounts item by item.
"Foreman Li, the quote for this batch of soundproofing cotton isn't right, is it?"
"Same brand, same specifications. The building materials market next door gave me a quote yesterday that was five yuan cheaper per square meter. You have a total of two thousand square meters here; that calculates to ten thousand. Do you plan to pay this difference out of your own pocket, or should I switch to another vendor?"
Foreman Li broke out in a cold sweat. "Manager Lin, this... doesn't this include the shipping fee..."
"Shipping is calculated separately, three hundred per truck; I have the detailed logistics price list right here." Lin Zhaoyu didn't even lift her head, her fingers tapping out afterimages on the calculator. "Let's round down the fraction. Give me a ten percent discount on this batch. If it works, it works; if not, haul it away."
Foreman Li gritted his teeth. "Deal! Manager Lin, you are truly capable! This blade work is even more precise than Lord Guan's!"
[System Notification: Detected a financial talent with extremely high potential. Suggest the Host attempt to poach her. If this target were invested in the stock market, she would likely have achieved financial freedom by now.]
Su Yu looked at the red complaint box popping up on his retina and nodded in deep agreement. Letting Lin Zhaoyu practice swordsmanship was truly a waste of talent. This was clearly a Wolf of Wall Street delayed by martial arts.
On the other side, the bustling activity wasn't limited to the renovation team. Ma Feima's group of muscle-man disciples were currently wearing tank tops, showing off their tendon-like muscles, and carrying hundreds of pounds of construction materials as if they were flying. Those who didn't know better would think this was some kind of Spartan warrior selection trial.
"Senior Brother! Where does this bag of cement go?"
"Zone C! That's the ground the Little Grandmaster will step on in the future; smooth it out for me!"
"Roger that! For the Little Grandmaster's game! Charge!"
This group of rough men, who originally just lifted iron in front of mirrors at the gym, were now more enthusiastic than anyone else when doing coolie labor. Originally, they were supposed to hire movers for this work, but once this group heard they were fixing up the dojo for the Little Grandmaster who "exploded Master with one punch"—actually, she scared Old Ma away without even throwing a punch—they all acted as if injected with chicken blood, insisting on doing free volunteer labor.
"Senior Brother Su!" A disciple with a buzz cut leaned in close to Su Yu, his face full of fawning.
"When the game goes online later, can you get us a beta test account? We have thousands of members in our gym; I'll make them all download it then! We'll boost the Little Grandmaster's rankings!"
Su Yu smiled and patted his shoulder. "Easy to say. I'll issue you guys an exclusive title then—how about 'Tai Xu Guard Squad'?"
"Too handsome! Thanks, Senior Brother!"
"Senior Brother! I'll carry this beam! For the glory of the Little Grandmaster!"
"Scram! Let me do it! I want the Little Grandmaster to see my cultivation!"
"What do you guys know! This isn't just renovation; this is adding bricks and tiles to the future of the martial arts world! Wait until that... Honkai Impact 3rd goes online, I definitely have to top up a first purchase to support it!"
Su Yu silently crossed out the budget for hiring movers as he watched this group of fanatical fans comparing muscles while moving bricks. Is this the power of an idol? If Kiana went into livestream sales, she could probably sell out of dumbbells.
Of course, the commotion at the dojo was too big to hide. Although the martial arts world had declined in modern society and everyone usually stayed in their own circles as ordinary people, such a big move by the Inch Heart Dojo was still like a depth charge, detonating the martial arts circle.
"Have you heard? That Inch Heart Dojo, which was about to close down, suddenly got rich!"
"Not only did they get rich, but it seems a mysterious expert has arrived. Even Ma Feima was seconds-killed by one move!"
"Could it be that old... cough, that Little Grandmaster Fu Hua is returning to the jianghu to unify the martial arts world?"
"Does the Tai Xu Sword Sect really have some secret technique not passed down to outsiders?"
For a time, in the WeChat groups, forums, and even residential community owner groups of various sects, discussions about the Inch Heart Dojo sprang up everywhere. Some watched from the sidelines, some were jealous, and some were restless. Countless pairs of eyes peered from the dark, trying to figure out exactly what this old-established sect was up to.
However, the wind and rain outside could not blow into Su Yu's cozy little home for the time being. Or rather, Su Yu's attention was now entirely focused on the young girl standing on the coffee table before him.
"Are you ready? Kiana."
Su Yu sat in front of the computer, his fingers hovering over the keyboard, his expression as focused as if he were waiting for a rocket launch. The renovation of the motion capture venue still needed time; after solving a heap of troublesome matters, Su Yu and Kiana began to push forward with the script for the Main Mission.
First up was the scene that countless players in his past life went crazy for—Kiana's umbrella-less rapid descent. That was, in the truest sense, where the dream began.
Kiana stood on the coffee table in the center of the living room, a bottle of bitter melon juice placed beside her—heaven knows why this guy specifically bought a bottle of hated bitter melon juice when she came back.
The coffee table under her feet was the prop she strongly requested to simulate high altitude. Kiana took a deep breath. Although she wasn't wearing that cool Valkyrie armor, and although she was stepping on a coffee table instead of cloud layers ten thousand meters up, the moment she closed her eyes, that dusk, that battleship, that voice... everything returned.
"Ahem..." The young girl cleared her throat, her originally somewhat wandering eyes instantly becoming sharp. She raised her hand, pressing an imaginary communicator by her ear.
"Helios, this is Hyperion. Report mission status."
Kiana imitated Himeko's voice from the communicator back then; at this moment, she seemed to have truly returned to the Helios transport ship. At this time, she was no longer the glutton who fought wits and courage with Su Yu for the last slice of pizza. In that instant, she transformed back into that fledgling, heaven-and-earth-fearing, yet hot-blooded B-rank Valkyrie.
"Report Major, optical sensors target invisible. Mission risk escalated to Class A. Requesting confirmation!"
She mimicked the serious yet slightly worried tone of Teacher Himeko in the headset back then, but the corner of her mouth hooked up into an arc so confident it was somewhat arrogant.
"Yes! Disengage safety protection. Manually open the hatch!"
Su Yu's fingers typed rapidly on the keyboard, recording every detail, every line of dialogue. His heartbeat was also accelerating. This was that famous scene.
"Helios has entered fixed cruise orbit! Airlock decompression complete, voltage normal! Observation unit confirmation complete. Waiting for Valkyrie deployment!"
Kiana suddenly opened her eyes. In that moment, Su Yu seemed to truly see the gale winds and the setting sun of ten thousand meters high in her heterochromatic pupils. She bent her knees slightly, assuming a starting sprint posture. The air in the living room seemed to solidify.
"Valkyrie deployment preparation! Ten! Nine..."
As the countdown ended, Kiana made a backward leaning motion on the coffee table, then turned abruptly, spreading her arms. Although there were no thrusters and no orange-red streamers, in Su Yu's eyes, she was flying.
"That feeling..." Kiana closed her eyes, her voice carrying a trace of nostalgia and intoxication. "The wind whistling in my ears, the clouds exploding around me. Gravity wanted to grab me, but I was faster than it."
"I was like a bird—no, even freer than a bird. The setting sun was right beneath my feet, and the whole world was burning in my vision."
She described the weightlessness of that extreme descent, described the brightness of that instant she pierced through the clouds. Su Yu listened, entranced. He could feel that the Kiana of this moment was happy from the bottom of her heart. That was her before she had experienced separation by life and death, before she had shouldered the weight of the world. Pure, shining, fearless.
"Then—" Kiana suddenly opened her eyes and leaped down from the coffee table.
Bang!
Feet landing steadily, kneeling on one knee, one hand supporting against the ground, the other raised behind her. A standard superhero landing. Although her knees might hurt, looking cool is a lifelong matter. She slowly raised her head, her gaze sharp, the corner of her mouth wearing that iconic, confident smile.
"Valkyrie White Comet, joining the battle!"
Freeze frame. This scene overlapped perfectly with the opening screen of the game in his memory. It was even more vivid, more full of vitality than that one. Because standing in front of him right now was a flesh-and-blood Kiana.
Su Yu looked at her, not speaking for a long time. Until Kiana held that pose for too long and her legs went a bit numb, causing her to wobble uncontrollably.
"Hey... Su Yu? How was it? Was it cool?" She broke character instantly, turning back into that little girl begging for praise, looking at Su Yu with a face full of expectation.
Su Yu came back to his senses, the corner of his mouth hooking into a gentle smile. He gave a thumbs up, speaking from the heart: "It was dead cool. This is where the dream begins."
After recording this scene, Su Yu's fingers hovered over the Enter key. He swiveled his chair around, looking at Kiana who was still posing on the carpet.
"I have a question. Being at an altitude of several thousand meters, an umbrella-less rapid descent... Even if you are a Valkyrie, did you really not feel a single bit of... that in your heart at the time?" Su Yu gestured a heartbeat acceleration. "Like 'It's over, I'm going to become a meat patty' or something?"
"Ha? How is that possible!" Kiana threw her head back, the stubborn ahoge on top of her head bouncing along with the motion. She placed her hands on her hips, her expression looking as if Su Yu had asked an extremely stupid question.
"This young miss is Kiana Kaslana! For people of the Kaslana family, the word 'nervous' doesn't exist in the dictionary!"
The young girl's voice was crisp and powerful, carrying a natural, unreasonable confidence. As if just by stating this surname, gravitational acceleration would have to give her some face. Although Su Yu felt it was debatable whether the Kaslanas even had dictionaries, much like a certain Suspended Blade City Crown Prince shouting HKS.
"Besides..." Kiana scratched her cheek, her tone restraining a little bit, her eyes drifting away. "Saying 'umbrella-less' isn't quite accurate either. Domain Unit: White Comet is an all-domain general-purpose armor; the body is equipped with a Burst System and thrusters."
She turned around, pointing to the positions on her back and ankles. "In the few hundred meters before landing, I would activate the thrusters for reverse injection, using the reaction force to decelerate and buffer. Although the impact force is still huge, it was all for a cool entrance—it was worth it!"
Su Yu suddenly realized, his fingers typing rapidly on the keyboard.
[Remark: Add close-up shots of the armor's thruster ports. Particle effects must be sufficient. It's not just a Leap of Faith, but a combination of technology and the physical body.]
"Furthermore, it wasn't my first time on a mission, okay!" Kiana seemed very dissatisfied with Su Yu's skepticism. She sat back on the sofa puffing her cheeks, grabbed a handful of potato chips, and stuffed them into her mouth.
"Although that kind of large-scale mission was indeed the first time... before that, I underwent devilish training at St. Freya Academy! This young miss is of the practical combat school!"
"Okay, okay, okay, Miss Practical Combat Kiana." Su Yu smiled and soothed this bristling cat, casually handing over a bottle of ice tea.
"Then after landing? According to general logic, you should have immediately gone to regroup with Mei and Bronya, right? After all, they were your teammates."
"That was the original plan." Kiana took the ice tea but didn't rush to drink it. She held the bottle, the playfulness in her eyes gradually fading, replaced by a focus named 'Warrior'.
"But the situation at the time wasn't right." She spoke in a low voice, as if she could smell the burnt scent permeating the air of Soukai City that day again. "The Honkai energy concentration was too high. Detectors showed the reaction of an Emperor-class Honkai Beast. The entire Soukai City was under air raid sirens."
Kiana raised her head, looking directly into Su Yu's eyes. "If I went directly to find Mei, that big guy might have destroyed more city blocks and hurt more civilians. Although I really wanted to see Mei... Dad said that the duty of a Kaslana is to protect. So, I had to eliminate the immediate threat first."
Su Yu's fingers stopped. He looked at Kiana, an indescribable touch surging in his heart. This was Kiana. No matter how unreliable she usually acted, at critical moments, she would always put protecting others first.
"So, you charged at the Honkai Emperor single-handedly?" Su Yu asked softly.
"Hehe, not exactly single-handedly." Kiana's style suddenly shifted, the depth from just now breaking instantly to reveal a sly smile. "Although Aunt Himeko has a sharp tongue, her support is very on point!"
She threw the throw pillow onto the floor and stepped on it barefoot, making a surfing pose. "She deployed a group of drones for me! Like those... very big ones, carrying missiles and a bunch of weapons!"
Kiana gestured while adding sound effects with her mouth. "Whoosh—! I jumped onto one of the drones just like that! Like stepping on a skateboard! Can you imagine, Su Yu? In the high sky of several hundred meters, beneath my feet was the burning city, and around me was the whistling wind."
"I stepped on the drone, holding dual pistols, and flew over the heads of the Honkai Beast swarm! Dadadadada! Bullets rained down like raindrops; those Zombies couldn't even touch the corner of my clothes!"
Kiana got more excited the more she spoke, her whole person glowing. "At that time, I felt like I was simply the master of the wind! What Honkai Emperor? This young miss is going to blow it away right now!"
Su Yu watched the girl dancing with joy before him, that scene already automatically generating in his mind. Soukai City, the steel jungle, the drone swarm, the rampaging Honkai Beasts. And that back figure standing on wings of steel, white braids dancing wildly in the wind.
"This visual..." Su Yu muttered to himself, the corners of his mouth rising crazily. The game technology of this world could definitely recreate an even more realistic and shocking visual! "This is absolutely a superb level to make the players' adrenaline soar!"
Kiana sat cross-legged on the carpet, clutching that innocent Homu pillow in her hand and kneading it into various shapes.
"After beating that big guy away, I rode the drone and slid onto the deck of the Moonlight Throne with a whoosh like surfing!" She spoke with radiant eyebrows, as if that battlefield filled with smoke was right before her eyes.
"Just as I landed, Himeko... the Major roared at me on the comms." Kiana shrank her neck, mimicking Himeko's unique voice line. "[Kiana! Move faster! The battleship's power system is damaged; it's going to crash in thirty minutes! You must seize control; absolutely cannot let it smash onto the heads of Soukai City!]"
Su Yu's fingers typed out a crisp rhythm on the keyboard. "And then? You charged straight in?"
"Of course! When has this young miss ever been cowardly?" Kiana hmphed, picking up a grape and tossing it into her mouth. "Besides, the comms said that Mei and Bronya had already reached the designated position... I hurriedly ran over to regroup."
Speaking of this, her eyes suddenly drifted for a moment, and her speaking speed inexplicably sped up. "Mm, anyway, we just regrouped, and then we started fighting side by side..."
"Stop."
Su Yu's finger hovered over the Enter key; like a seasoned detective interrogating a suspect, he stared at Kiana with burning eyes. This part skipped too fast; the logic wasn't smooth.
"Where is it not smooth!" Kiana averted her gaze guiltily, staring at the chandelier on the ceiling. "Regrouping is just regrouping; what other logic could there be?"
"According to my understanding of you..." Su Yu turned around, the corner of his mouth hooking into an amused arc, that expression looking extremely like a big bad wolf trapping a little white rabbit. "You were in an extremely hyper state at the time. Knowing that Mei was right ahead, was it really just as simple as 'hurriedly ran over'?"
He paused, then threw out his killer move. "I remember someone's biological clock is very sensitive to the lack of 'Mei Content'. Did you not whine in the communication channel? For example... complain about the time?"
Hoho, trying to hide from an old Captain? You must be joking; he could recite this plot backwards!
Kiana's body instantly froze. Her cheeks turned red at a speed visible to the naked eye, as if dyed thoroughly by burning clouds. "You, you... how can you even guess that?!"
"Because I am the producer. I need to restore the character's psychological activities through profiling." Su Yu spouted nonsense with a straight face. "Speak quickly; this is crucial for shaping the character's personality."
"Ugh..." Kiana buried her face in the pillow, emitting a whimpering sound similar to a boiling kettle. After several seconds, she suddenly raised her head with an expression of smashing a cracked pot, closed her eyes, and shouted:
"Fine, fine! I'll say it!"
"[I can't endure even one minute more! I haven't seen Mei for 2 hours 27 minutes and 38 seconds!]"
The air was quiet for a second. Then came the sound of Su Yu suppressing his laughter, and the sound of the keyboard tapping crazily.
[Voice Collection: Kiana Kaslana—Longing precise to the second.]
"Aaaah, so annoying! Forget it! Forget it quickly!" Kiana frantically messed up her white hair, her ears turning completely red. But soon, mentioning Mei, her emotions rose high again like a roller coaster.
"After seeing Mei, it was easy to handle!" The young girl jumped up from the carpet, casually grabbing the remote control on the coffee table as a pistol, her other hand gripping the air as if holding a greatsword.
"Mei is a Menkyo Kaiden of the Hokushin Itto-ryu! A Kendo expert!" She gestured in the living room, her posture nimble. "I was responsible for dual-gun point shooting, using Gun Kata to disrupt the Honkai Beasts' formation. As soon as they revealed a weakness, Mei's blade arrived! That was simply the perfect combination!"
Kiana's eyes were sparkling, full of nostalgia and pride. "I didn't even need to look back to know where her blade would slash. Even if those Scythe Zombies and Chariot-class Honkai Beasts surged up like a tide, we could beat them into flowing water like chopping melons and vegetables!"
Su Yu looked at her. Although she was gesturing alone right now, in that void, there seemed to truly be a purple figure back-to-back with her, blade light and gun fire weaving into an exquisitely beautiful waltz.
"But..." Kiana's movements stopped, her brows furrowing slightly, her tone becoming solemn. "That Honkai Emperor came back. And this time, it learned to be smart! It no longer fought one-on-one, but brought a large group of little brothers to besiege us! Simply no martial ethics!"
She gritted her teeth, seeming to still feel the sense of powerlessness from back then. "My bullets were spent, and my stamina was almost overdrafted. Those attacks and scythes pressed in from all directions... I really thought we were finished."
The atmosphere in the living room fell silent. Su Yu didn't speak, just quietly waiting for that turning point.
"Just at that time—" Kiana took a deep breath and looked up fiercely. Her pupils constricted slightly, as if seeing that light tearing through the darkness once again.
"Mei blocked in front of me. She was clearly already injured, clearly usually so gentle... but in that moment, her back figure was like a mountain."
Kiana's voice trembled, carrying a kind of deep shock. "She shouted: [I cannot fall here! At least let Kiana...] Then, the light erupted."
The young girl spread her arms, as if to embrace that non-existent lightning. "Purple lightning spewed out from her body! In that instant, she seemed like she had changed into a different person! Her eyes turned red! That kind of... very eerie, yet redness that made one unable to look away!"
Kiana mimicked Mei's posture from back then, her eyes becoming sharp, chin slightly raised, revealing an arrogant air of looking down on all living things.
"Like a Queen! The Lightning Queen overriding all living beings! She shouted a sentence—[Go to hell, trash!] And then used only one slash!"
Kiana's arm swung down fiercely, bringing up a sound of wind. "One slash carrying lightning! That insufferably arrogant Honkai Emperor was cut open like it was made of paper!"
"Too cool..." Kiana murmured to herself, an abnormal flush rising on her face; that was the aftertaste of extreme excitement. "Really, Mei at that time was simply dead cool!"
Su Yu looked at the young girl immersed in memories before him, his fingers gently tapping out the last line of remarks:
[Core Performance: Herrscher of Thunder Awakening. BGM must be burning, visuals must be explosive. This is the miracle in Kiana's heart, and also the "Famous Scene" in the hearts of players.]
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