The laughter echoed intermittently through the motion-capture studio for several minutes.
Su Yu took down a proportionally scaled wooden tachi from the weapon rack.
The scabbard was carbon fiber imitating a lacquer finish, the grip wrapped in synthetic leather cord, its weight almost identical to a real blade.
He stood at the very center of the motion-capture zone, Mei's full-body illustration projected on the big screen behind him.
A gentle girl with long purple-black hair, and an adult man in a skin-tight motion-capture suit with a constipated expression on his face, formed a contrast intense enough to be recorded in the history of humanity's visual disasters.
Theresa was still in the corner clutching her belly and gasping, laughing until tears came.
"Su—Su Yu, do you want to tie a ponytail—pffft, hahaha—it'd be more immersive that way—"
"Teriri, shut up." Su Yu drew the wooden blade expressionlessly.
When the first strike swung out, scattered laughter still lingered in the motion-capture studio.
The blade cut through the air with a dry "swish."
The trajectory was a little stiff, the sheathing angle off by two inches.
The skeletal model on the control room screen completed the motion, but the data lines carried obvious hesitation.
"Motion fidelity, 47%." Nuwa stared at the data panel, muttering. "Still a long way off..."
Second strike.
The blade sliced diagonally down from the right shoulder, at a lower angle than the first.
The wooden blade paused for an instant at the lowest point, then was pulled back to center. This time the finishing motion was much cleaner, but the footwork transition was still half a beat slow.
"52%." Nuwa called out the number.
Third strike.
From this strike on, the laughter vanished completely.
The System's auxiliary cultivation module projected pale blue guidance lines at the edge of Su Yu's vision.
Those lines weren't teaching him how to swing the blade—they were awakening something: everything about Raiden Mei, extracted from Kiana's memories.
The angle at which the blade fell.
The shift of the center of gravity when turning.
The precise coordination between breathing and the rhythm of the strike.
Hokushin Itto-ryu.
That was an ancient sword art passed down from the Edo period, emphasizing the combat philosophy of "one strike, certain kill."
In the depths of Kiana's memory, every draw of Mei's blade carried a thunderous momentum—but the source of that momentum was the swordsman's absolute faith in the "single strike."
Tai Xu Sword Qi flowed through his meridians, producing a strange resonance with the power-generation structure of Hokushin Itto-ryu.
The spiritual power accumulated from cultivation in the consciousness space, like a river finding a new bed, naturally poured into the trajectory of every swing.
The wooden blade traced a crisp, clean arc through the air.
"68%." A few notes of seriousness entered Nuwa's voice.
Theresa stopped laughing.
She braced both hands on her knees, tilting her head as she stared at Su Yu in the motion-capture zone, her white-haired twin tails draping down both sides of her shoulders.
"Hm?" She blinked. "What's going on... He was just clowning around, and now suddenly—"
Himeko sat in a folding chair, arms crossed over her chest.
Her brows knit slightly, her gaze following the motion trajectory of the wooden blade.
"Is this called Hokushin Itto-ryu...?" Her voice dropped. "When did this guy learn kendo?"
Fu Hua, standing against the wall of the motion-capture studio, pushed up her glasses.
Behind the lenses, her gaze moved slowly with every rise and fall of the wooden blade.
In the corner opposite the studio, Sirin hugged a blue-and-white dragon plush, leaning against the equipment rack.
Her two pupils were fixed on the back of that man in the center of the field.
In that world full of Honkai, she and Raiden Mei had crossed blades head-on.
That purple-haired girl's blade wreathed in the power of lightning had been no illusion; though in the end she fell at Sirin's hands, given that weak personality of hers, being able to cause Sirin some trouble at all was already praiseworthy.
So Sirin knew very well what Hokushin Itto-ryu looked like.
She knew that unique way of generating force from the lower body, transmitted through the waist and abdomen to the blade tip.
She knew that instant of explosion that compressed the whole body's strength into a single swing.
She knew that absolute pursuit of the "single strike," born from an ancient swordsman's faith.
The blade this man before her swung—
was different.
Still different from Raiden Mei.
The gap was obvious.
Lacking the empowerment of Honkai energy, lacking the lightning power granted by the Herrscher Core, that wooden blade was, after all, only a wooden blade.
But that power-generation structure, that rhythm of shifting the center of gravity, that brief pause when the blade reached its lowest point—
These things overlapped with the Raiden Mei in her memory.
In the end, it was only imitation.
Sirin drew her conclusion inwardly, but the fingers gripping the plush's wings unconsciously tightened.
Su Yu sheathed the blade.
The tip of the wooden blade pointed at the ground, the blade and his right arm forming a perfectly straight line.
His breathing was heavy, sweat sliding down from his temples and dripping onto the collar of his motion-capture suit.
In that gap, the semi-transparent System light-screen popped up again.
But this time what appeared wasn't a mission panel, but something he'd never seen before.
[Personal Panel Unlocked]
[Name: Su Yu]
[Age: 23]
[Heart Art: "Tai Xu Heart Art"—Great Accomplishment]
[Martial Art: "Tai Xu Sword Qi"—Minor Accomplishment]
[Martial Art: "Inch Heart Fist"—Minor Accomplishment]
[Martial Art: "Hokushin Itto-ryu"—Beginner, progress bar continuously increasing...]
[Skill: Eminence of Taixuan—Locked]
[Armament: Star of Eden—Upgradeable]
[Item: Body Enhancement Serum (2 remaining)]
[Note: The Host's current physical condition has reached the threshold for using the second dose of serum, but note that each injection produces the agonizing pain of full-body cellular tearing and reorganization. After injecting the serum, at least three days of dormant sleep are required for the body to repair itself. The Host is asked to arrange their time reasonably.]
[Note: It is normal for the Host to bleed profusely from all over the body after injecting the serum. The enhancement serum is not merely a reorganization of cells and flesh, but also a leap in the tier of life itself.]
Su Yu glanced at the enhancement serum in the item slot, his brows furrowing slightly.
Three days of dormant sleep was too extravagant for him; the Herrscher of the Void was always an unstable factor—
Of course, what he meant was that if he really slept for three whole days, this dumb queen—who had even less capacity to take care of herself than Kiana—might genuinely starve herself to death.
The second dose could wait until Kiana returned before he decided. As for now.
Su Yu looked at the progress bar of "Hokushin Itto-ryu".
The progress bar was still ticking.
With every swing, the proficiency of Hokushin Itto-ryu advanced by one notch.
That earlier System prompt floated up into Su Yu's mind.
"Visitor from another world—"
"Honkai invasion—"
Although, according to Fenghuang, Kiana—returning after mastering Tai Xu Sword Qi—would see her strength take a dramatic leap.
And with the research and efforts of the Anti-Entropy R&D team, the damaged White Comet armor also had the possibility of being reactivated.
But to entrust the fate of the world entirely to a single girl—he wasn't shameless enough for that.
Saving the world and the like was still too far off for Su Yu.
But if that was the destiny of Kiana Kaslana—
then let himself become her strength too.
He had to raise his own strength as much as possible, not letting a single opportunity slip.
The light-screen dissolved into countless tiny particles scattering into the air.
Su Yu stopped moving.
He lowered his head, his chest heaving violently from the high-intensity exertion.
The cold air from the AC blew past, tousling the damp strands of hair on his forehead.
He drew a deep breath of rubber-scented air and slowly exhaled the turbid air from his lungs.
The next second, the wooden blade rose again.
Fu Hua, standing at the edge of the field, felt the fingers pushing her glasses suddenly tighten.
As a grandmaster of the Tai Xu Sword Sect, she was most sensitive to changes in "qi."
In that instant just now, a certain looseness had faded from Su Yu.
The wooden blade swept out horizontally.
This time, the sound of the blade tearing through the air was no longer shrill, but muffled, like the low rumble before thunder.
No flashy technique, no hesitant pauses, only unwavering resolve and crisp, clean killing intent.
That was a pure strike existing solely to cut down its target, after casting aside all distracting thoughts.
"What a strike."
Fu Hua blurted out, the gaze behind her lenses astonishingly bright.
"81%!" Nuwa shot up from behind the control console, her chair sliding back half a meter.
"Su Yu really lives up to being Little Grandmaster Kiana's senior brother." Fu Hua's voice wasn't loud, but in the quiet motion-capture studio, every word rang crystal clear. "This martial comprehension is truly astounding."
Even Cheng Lingshuang, acknowledged as the most talented in the entire Inch Heart Dojo, couldn't manage this.
Of course, the reason she couldn't was largely because she was a total lazy dog.
Theresa's mouth had fallen into an O-shape, her earlier pig-squeal laughter completely forgotten.
Himeko leaned back in her chair, gazing at the back of that person in the center of the field with somewhat complicated eyes.
And in the corner, Sirin buried her chin in the soft top of the Bella Doll's head.
Those people beside her were praising that man.
Fu Hua said he had superb talent, Nuwa was marveling at the data, and the short white-haired one and the red-haired woman were both looking at him with completely different eyes.
Listening to those words, watching that back endlessly swinging the blade, something indescribable rose up in her chest.
If she absolutely had to give that thing a name—
That guy was currently this queen's "servant."
The servant getting stronger meant this queen's power grew stronger too.
This was only natural, nothing to make a fuss about.
Sirin rubbed her chin twice in the plush's soft fur, a faint ease surfacing between her brows.
At least this guy hasn't embarrassed me.
At the center of the motion-capture zone.
The sound of the wooden tachi cleaving the air went from an initial dull scrape to gradually sharp and piercing.
The data recording for several sets of armor alternated in turns.
Su Yu's grip on the blade grew steadier and steadier, his footwork and shifts more and more natural.
The foundation of the Tai Xu Heart Art and a certain almost monstrous learning ability granted by the System produced a wondrous chemical reaction at this moment.
Those fragments of memory belonging to Raiden Mei turned into instinctive reflexes deep within his muscles.
Every strike, finishing motion, turn, and upward flick drew closer to the core of that ancient school founded in the Edo period—Hokushin Itto-ryu.
This motion capture went on for about three hours.
Time quietly reached eight o'clock. Fu Hua had a class that evening and left early; the others also returned to Arc City Tower, busy with studio matters.
Himeko yawned and said she had a drinking party that night, taking off first.
Theresa had her own business too, casting a reluctant glance at "Kiana"—after all, the purpose of her joining the studio was to give play to her Auntie's love and fiercely make up for the love that Siegfried, that scumbag's, "illegitimate daughter" had been missing all these years.
But unfortunately, during this time "Kiana" had basically stayed by Su Yu's side, so close it wouldn't be an exaggeration to call them inseparable, which left Theresa without any chance to get close.
In the end, only Su Yu, Nuwa, and Sirin remained inside the Inch Heart Dojo.
"Shff—"
The tip of the wooden blade traced a sharp semicircle in the air, finally coming to a steady halt less than two centimeters from the anti-slip mat.
Su Yu held the downward-slash posture, adjusting his breathing.
He could clearly feel that the once utterly clumsy "Hokushin Itto-ryu" swordsmanship was now merging into his muscle memory like instinct.
Accompanied by the System's notification tone, that progress bar on the personal panel finally crossed the "Beginner" threshold and charged straight into the "Minor Accomplishment" realm.
With the Great Accomplishment "Tai Xu Heart Art" as a foundation, plus the extremely precise motion guidance the System provided during motion capture, this learning speed was simply terrifyingly monstrous.
Su Yu rubbed his chin, feeling a bit of regret. If only this terrifying martial comprehension weren't triggerable solely in the specific state of recording motion capture, he really would've loved to live here for ten days or half a month, exploiting this System bug to grind all the way to max level.
Fenghuang's past teaching surfaced in his mind—practical combat is the sole truth that tests everything.
In this world, there was no shortage of people who could trade blows with him.
At the very least, Theresa's kind of divine strength—tearing apart security doors with her bare hands—was something he'd have to treat with caution even if he ran into it.
But the problem was, sparring and life-and-death combat, after all, had a decisive gap between them. The thousands of clashes with the Herrscher of the Void in the consciousness space had given Su Yu an unprecedented improvement.
That was the leap that elevated an "idle salted-fish producer" into a "warrior with an incomparably tough heart."
If not for that fierce battle, in Fenghuang's words, he would probably have needed to go through far more life-and-death struggles to temper his heart art and spirit to their current state in this peaceful world.
But even so.
Between himself and a true Herrscher, there was still a chasm hard to cross. That he could beat Sirin until she was stripped of armor and helmet in the consciousness space was, for one, because in that world suppressed by laws, the Herrscher of the Void was inherently extremely weak.
For another, that wasn't reality, which was why he could rely on his tenacious will to forcibly drag his opponent into a war of attrition.
But if it were in reality, meeting a Herrscher of the Void at her peak head-on—
Su Yu felt that his own end would probably be even more miserable than the Snow Wolf squad's back then.
"I didn't have much of a real sense of it before."
Su Yu lowered his head and looked at his own palm.
"Looking at it now, I really was fearless out of pure ignorance back then."
What Kiana carried was the power of Stigmata inherited across an unimaginable span of time from the Kaslanas and the Schariacs, plus that madman Otto's five hundred years of obsession, and the core of the Herrscher of the Void, Sirin—only then was the perfect Herrscher vessel forged.
Calling her a pure talent monster wouldn't be an exaggeration either.
But even a Kiana like this had to undergo several metamorphoses before she was qualified to stand upon the stage of history and fight for humanity's hope and future.
Even Kiana under the Herrscher of Flamescion, facing that world's Kevin Kaslana, was utterly no match.
The combat power of the Honkai world was simply too stratified. By the mid-to-late stages, without Herrscher-level combat strength, one didn't even have the qualification to sit at the table and eat.
And as an S-rank Valkyrie, Teacher Rita was, in the truest sense, already the limit of an ordinary human.
Although everyone always mocked Teacher Rita for getting captured by someone again today, Teacher Rita was, after all, the goalkeeper of the S-rank Valkyries; it wasn't that S-rank Valkyries were too weak, it was purely that the few people above her were absurdly, monstrously strong.
And now there was a cruel fact: that the frequently captured Teacher Rita would find capturing him as easy as child's play.
"No wonder the Kiana back then scolded me as simply insane." Su Yu scratched his head. "An ordinary person going to save a Valkyrie who could tear apart Honkai Beasts with her bare hands—that really is no different from being insane."
But—
Su Yu looked at the wooden blade in his hand. He now inexplicably understood a bit of why the System would have him become Raiden Mei's motion-capture actor.
The helplessness in the face of reality, the fear of an unknown future, the dissatisfaction with his own weakness—
Indeed, these subtly corresponded with the state of mind of that Raiden Mei who, before Nagazora, had bitterly chased Kiana's fading figure.
"Good work, Boss." Nuwa poked her head out from behind the control console. "The motion data is almost at 90%. This level is already plenty usable. How about we call it here?"
"If we're going to do it, then we do it to perfection."
Su Yu raised the wooden blade again.
"Nuwa, sorry to trouble you—one more time."
Nuwa looked at the Su Yu before her and was stunned for a moment.
That fellow enthusiast in her impression, the man who'd stayed up all night queuing with her to buy newly released out-of-print figures, always a salted fish, always indifferent to everything.
At some point, he had quietly changed.
She knew clearly it wasn't today, nor yesterday.
"If you're tired," Su Yu didn't turn back to look at her, "you can let Ai-chan take over. Although all her computing power is at the studio, just flipping the switch is still doable."
Nuwa pushed the red-framed glasses on the bridge of her nose.
"Heh—what nonsense are you spouting? I'm the studio's top-tier animator. If I can't see the first-hand data, how could I ever sleep?"
The corner of Su Yu's mouth curled up. "Then I'll trouble you, Lady Nuwa."
"You'd better thank me properly."
The corner of her mouth tilted up, her fingers already placing an order on the food-delivery app—seeing as this idiot was working so hard, she'd be magnanimous for once and treat him to a cup of milk tea.
Su Yu said nothing more. After drawing a deep breath, he let himself re-enter that state from before.
A strike swung out.
"91%!"
Growing stronger was a long, endless process.
What you fight for, why you become strong—anyone can spout pretty words.
But only when it's truly put into practice in every single strike swung, in every move and every form, will the body engrave that sweat and effort into memory.
Another strike.
"92%!"
The scene slowed and slackened in this moment, time as if stretched infinitely long.
"Make a name for yourself, or remain a nobody?"
Amid the haze, it seemed such a voice sounded in his mind.
Another strike.
"94%!"
Spirit and body pressed toward their limits amid the ceaseless swinging, yet unexpectedly, after exhaustion reached its peak—
The fatigue of body and spirit receded like a tide. His perception was amplified in this moment—the direction the blood flowed within his body, the frequency of his heartbeat, even every single contraction of his muscle fibers.
All of it appeared clearly before his eyes in this moment.
To be precise, it wasn't "seeing," but "feeling," closer to something like an innate intuition.
A certain ancient shackle locked deep in human DNA, in this moment, gave a faint yet deafening "click."
Su Yu's right arm contracted violently, defying physiological common sense; he clearly "heard" the faint sound of several muscle fibers in his right biceps snapping from the instantaneous overload.
By rights, a tear of this magnitude should have swept excruciating pain across his brain in an instant, robbing him of his ability to act.
But—the pain sensation... vanished.
In its place was one hundred percent absolute control over every inch of flesh and blood in his arm.
In this extremely brief instant, his body was no longer bound by the subconscious "self-protection mechanism"; his potential was violently extracted without reservation.
"BOOM—!"
At the instant this strike swung out, the wooden tachi actually tore through the air by sheer force, letting out a terrifying shriek like a detonating thunderclap.
"99%... no, 100%!"
Nuwa shot to her feet, her movement so large it knocked over the water cup on the table, splashing water all over the floor, but her eyes stayed fixed on the incredibly perfect peak data on the screen.
In the corner, Sirin abruptly sat bolt upright, the Bella Doll in her arms unconsciously squeezed out of shape.
At the instant that strike swung out, she actually sensed, from this ordinary man without the slightest bit of Honkai energy, a pressure almost like that of a ferocious beast!
And at the instant this strike reached its lowest point, that high-density wooden tachi finally couldn't withstand the terrifying kinetic pressure it was never meant to bear.
With a "crack," it shattered from the middle into a sky full of flying wood splinters.
And in the very same second the wooden blade shattered, that godlike, perfect sense of controlling his body receded like a tide in an instant.
The backlash descended with a crash.
"Ugh..." Su Yu grunted, one knee slamming heavily onto the anti-slip mat.
The skin all over his body flushed crimson in less than a second, his body temperature soaring sharply; sweat, contacting his scalding skin, evaporated directly into wisps and threads of white heat-vapor outside the motion-capture suit.
The excruciating pain was like tens of thousands of steel needles piercing into his marrow all at once. If not for the Great Accomplishment "Tai Xu Heart Art" immediately running of its own accord to firmly protect the damaged meridians and muscle groups, this right arm would probably have been crippled on the spot.
"Su Yu?!" Nuwa cried out, about to rush forward.
Su Yu shook his head to signal that he was fine.
At that moment, the pale blue light-screen flickered wildly in Su Yu's bloodshot vision, directly occupying his entire field of sight.
Line after line of crimson, solemn text emerged slowly, accompanied by a sharp System notification tone:
[Warning: Detected Host's heart rate instantly breaking 230 beats/min, with signs of 15% overload tearing in the local muscle group of the right arm!]
[Automatically activating emergency repair program: Tai Xu Sword Qi has intervened and is stabilizing the damaged meridians. Estimated preliminary repair time: 4 hours.]
The System alert flickered a few times, then the screen's color gradually turned to a deep, profound dark blue.
[Deep physiological scan complete.]
[System Notice: The Host's instantaneous force-output peak just now has thoroughly shattered the biological limit of ordinary humans.]
[Life-Tier Analysis (First Revelation): the Genetic Lock system.]
[Explanation: In order for the Host to resist the Honkai that may descend in the future with a mortal body, the System did not adopt the highly corrosive 'Honkai-energy Adapter' route that relies on the Imaginary Tree, but instead unlocked for you the ultimate evolutionary code belonging to human potential—the Genetic Lock. This system borrows no external power, seeking only to mine inward the endless treasure of life's dimensions.]
[First Stage (which you have stabilized): Combat Instinct. Releases the brain's limits on perceiving danger, activating "bullet time," granting you extreme combat intuition and reflexes surpassing ordinary humans.]
[Second Stage (the threshold you just touched): Absolute Physical Control. Forcibly severs the pain nerves' self-protection barrier, releasing 100% of the output potential of every bundle of muscle fiber and bone in the whole body.]
[Ding! Congratulations, Host—amid extreme focus and the very extremity of physical depletion, you have faintly touched the threshold of the Second-Stage Genetic Lock!]
[Danger Warning: The Host's current physical "hardware" (bone density, muscle-cell toughness) is still unable to routinely bear the violent output of the second-stage Genetic Lock. Just now it lasted only 0.5 seconds before causing muscle tearing; forcibly breaking through completely would cause irreversible, permanent paralysis or even collapse of the body.]
[System Suggestion: The Host is advised to find a suitable opportunity as soon as possible to inject the second "Body Enhancement Serum" to raise the base bearing capacity of the physical body; or... in a true life-or-death desperate situation, seek the perfect chance for breaking-cocoon rebirth through will alone.]
Watching the light-screen gradually fade from his retina, Su Yu gasped in great mouthfuls, sweat dripping onto the floor.
The throbbing pain from his right arm not only failed to make him feel fear, but instead made the corner of his mouth strain into a somewhat crazed arc.
His years as a veteran bookworm let him react within seconds.
This was another path—distinct from Kiana, and even from that Honkai world's system—that was also viable in this peaceful world.
Not pursuing Honkai's mutation and adaptation, but pursuing power inward, toward the spirit.
Looking at it now.
Earlier, on the mountain highway, his Tai Xu Sword Qi being able to precisely grasp the movement of every component of the sports car—apart from the tempering in the consciousness space and Fenghuang's auxiliary cultivation—was also inseparable from the first dose of enhancement serum.
Back when he infiltrated the Tiger Claw Gang to rescue Murata Ryusuke, his control over his body and spirit had not been merely the effect of the Tai Xu Sword state.
The truth of the Body Enhancement Serum was not simply a boost to his physical fitness.
No wonder there was the pain of full-body cellular tearing; that suffering, like being burned to death by fire, was not merely torment—it was, in another sense, a "rebirth."
The pain in his body still lingered on this frame, but Su Yu's spirit at this moment felt incomparably exhilarated.
The Second Stage of the Genetic Lock... Absolute Physical Control, huh?
No wonder the System had warned earlier that the second dose of enhancement serum was not only a reorganization of the flesh, but a leap in the tier of life.
Without a sufficiently powerful vessel, this terrifying power that could drain a person dry in an instant was indeed no different from suicide.
"Hey! Idiot human, what fit are you throwing!"
At some unknown point, Sirin had come before Su Yu. She frowned hard, looking at Su Yu's reddened, steaming arm, her tone carrying a fluster even she hadn't noticed, though it was still that condescending manner.
"It's just recording some crappy data—do you want to wreck this body?!"
Su Yu raised his still-slightly-trembling left hand, wanting to habitually ruffle Sirin's head, but thinking of the tip of the iceberg of higher-dimensional power he'd just glimpsed—
He drew a deep breath and, bracing his knees, slowly rose to his feet.
"It's fine."
Su Yu looked at the broken half of the wooden blade fallen on the ground.
Those black eyes were, in this moment, brighter and more resolute than ever before.
"I just... in this peaceful world, found a way to become stronger."
"Strong enough... to be able to help you, and Kiana, in the future."
Sirin was instantly frozen in place.
This human—drenched in sweat, right arm red like a boiled shrimp, in an utterly wretched state—had just now desperately put himself through the wringer, even nearly crippling his arm, all for... to help her?
An indescribable sourness and warmth crept up along her chest, making Sirin's eyes sting faintly.
She abruptly turned her head, hiding her scalding cheeks deep in the soft shadow of the Bella Doll.
"Arrogant! Foolish! Conceited human ant!"
Sirin raised her voice, retorting loudly in an extremely disdainful and contemptuous tone.
"This queen is the noble Herrscher of the Void, the god who brings down the calamity of Honkai! Who needs help from a good-for-nothing like you, who can't even hold a wooden toy without crushing it? Don't go gilding your own face!"
"I just... I just don't want you wrecking this body, so there'd be no one to make me sweets!"
Though her mouth showed no mercy.
In that shadow no one could see, the corner of Sirin's mouth uncontrollably curled up into a tiny arc.
When they left the Inch Heart Dojo, the night was already very deep.
After soothing Nuwa once—saying he'd just twisted it and it would be fine with some ointment—and seeing the half-believing her onto a taxi.
Neon lights flickered among the building clusters, dyeing the edge of this peaceful city's night sky a faint warm orange.
The slightly cool night wind passed through the lush roadside trees on both sides of the street, the leaves making a soft "rustle," gently smoothing away all the restlessness stirred up earlier in the training room.
Su Yu's right arm, from the loss of strength and the muscle damage, couldn't muster any force for the time being, so he could only casually tuck it into the pocket of his trousers.
He walked very slowly.
Sirin, hugging that blue-and-white flying dragon plush, unhurriedly fell half a body-length behind him.
The two of them walked side by side like this along the silent path.
The dim yellow streetlights cast their shadows slanting onto the gray-blue floor tiles; as their steps moved, the two shadows—one tall, one short—sometimes merged, sometimes separated.
The whole way, neither spoke again.
Sirin was unusually quiet, not complaining that the night road was hard to walk, nor clamoring to eat a late-night snack, only lowering her head and carefully stepping on the edge of Su Yu's shadow stretched long by the streetlights.
In this tranquil world without the calamity of Honkai, without gunsmoke and death.
The overbearing Herrscher queen, and the ordinary producer striving with all his might to break the shackles of mortals.
Just like this, in such a wondrous, tacit, and somewhat heartwarming posture, they walked side by side into the depths of this gentle night.
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