Half an hour later.
Inside the internal conference room of the Golden Courtyard.
Eden had used the flimsy excuse of "going to inspect the OEM factory that makes merchandise for the new game."
With that, she packaged up Elysia, Nuwa, along with the still-clueless Griseo and Aponia, and sent them all out the door.
Now the conference room's doors were shut tight, the venetian blinds drawn completely closed.
Welt sat at the head of the long conference table, holding a cup of coffee that had already gone stone cold.
Eden leaned back in her leather swivel chair, her long legs crossed.
In the center of the long table, a cylindrical projector cast a beam of eerie blue light upward.
Within that beam, Bronie's holographic bust—shrunk down to the size of a soda can—sat cross-legged, chewing bubble gum and gazing around at everyone with utter boredom.
Su Yu sat in the seat closest to the door.
His body had clearly recovered to the point where he could uproot a weeping willow bare-handed, yet at this moment, his posture was extremely cramped and uneasy.
Just like a delinquent student who'd been called into the Dean's office to stand as punishment.
And the source of his unease.
Was sitting directly across from him.
Kevin Kaslana wasn't wearing his usual well-tailored, expensive suit, but instead a loose gray loungewear set.
His face, perpetually cold as an iceberg all year round, was drawn tighter than ever now.
He just stared, dead-on, straight into Su Yu's eyes.
Su Yu felt his scalp go a little numb.
In the entire studio, Kevin's current Bond level—aside from a few special individuals—was absolutely at the sworn-brother tier.
"So, uh..."
Su Yu coughed dryly, trying to use the motion of taking a drink of water to cover up his awkwardness at not knowing where to put his eyes.
"A car accident?"
Before Su Yu could round out his excuse, Kevin's utterly flat, level voice came crashing down.
"A dump truck with failed brakes, that precisely snapped over a dozen of your ribs, causing you to hemorrhage massively."
"And then you not only didn't die, you weren't even taken into the emergency room—you were just carried straight back to a bed in the Golden Courtyard?"
Kevin crossed his hands, resting them on the tabletop, and leaned his body forward slightly.
"Do you take me for an idiot like Nuwa, who'll believe even an alien invasion as long as you hand her a figurine?"
This—what was with this feeling of being interrogated by the "head wife"?
Su Yu set down his water cup.
He turned his head and shot a resentful glance at Kiana sitting beside him.
Kiana immediately shrank her neck down.
She pinched the hem of her clothes with both hands, her head lowered nearly under the table.
"Sorry, Su Yu..."
She mumbled softly, that iconic ahoge hanging limply and lifelessly.
"I... I'm really no good at lying. As for Kevin, I really couldn't keep it hidden from him."
Kiana's voice grew smaller and smaller: "His face is just too scary when he goes all serious. I got nervous, and I... I told him everything."
There was simply no way to smooth this over.
For ordinary people, a car accident was the perfect cover.
But to Kevin, it was as good as protesting too much—a guilty man plastering up a sign that read "no silver buried here."
You have to understand, Kevin Kaslana's identity in this world was that of a sworn brother Su Yu had known back in his high school days at Senba Academy.
The two of them had eaten instant noodles together, pulled all-nighters gaming together, cut class together to go to one of Eden's concerts, and Su Yu had even played wingman for him and Mei.
On the System's Bond panel, Kevin's starting level was already a maxed-out Bond—aside from Kiana's locked question-mark level, his level was even higher than Eden's and Sirin's.
As the System liked to tease, you should count yourself lucky that Kevin Kaslana is a man, otherwise no one else would even get a look-in.
A brother of that caliber, kept in the dark for so long—that seething, pent-up frustration, Su Yu could imagine it with his toes.
"Mei and I both already knew that this white-haired girl you picked up wasn't any ordinary person."
Kevin's gaze passed over Su Yu, glancing once at the head-lowered Kiana, then nailed his eyes back onto Su Yu's face.
"But I really never imagined."
"That you'd actually hide it from me, doing so many life-risking things behind our backs. Do you have any idea how Mei and I felt when I was standing in that hallway and heard her stammering out the truth?"
It was the kind of interrogation, laced with both fury and lingering fear, that only exists between brothers whose bond has been forged through life and death.
"We were just discussing it—since Dr. Mobius has already invented a serum that can make broken bones regrow."
Kevin spat out a line with a completely blank expression:
"Then maybe we could build a time machine too, go back to when we first met in college, and kick you to death right there at the freshman welcome party—so you couldn't cause us these earth-shattering headaches every single day now."
"Now, now, old Kevin..."
Su Yu skillfully put on a face of "a dead pig fears no boiling water" and leaned his body forward a little.
"It was really just a minor flesh wound, look, aren't I hopping around alive and kicking? Foster father, hear me out, let me explain..."
"Calling me grandpa wouldn't help either."
Kevin cut off his groveling-on-his-knees casting mid-spell, his voice cold enough to shed frost.
"Just how long were you planning to keep hiding it from Mei and me? If you hadn't nearly been hacked to death this time by that woman wielding a scythe—were you planning to wait until those monsters called Honkai Beasts tore down my house before you told me?"
"Haah..."
Su Yu let out a long, drawn-out sigh.
He knew this could no longer be kept hidden.
Su Yu looked to his left at Kiana's face, which was written all over with "I'm sorry, I couldn't hold it in," then looked to his right at Welt's veteran-cadre expression of "young people's business is none of my concern," then shot a glance across the table at Eden's eyes, which were brimming with "the good show is about to begin."
And then there was a certain Bronie, chewing her gum faster and faster, wearing the look of someone who couldn't get enough of watching the drama unfold.
He sighed.
Resigned to his fate—this round was the classic confession session.
Under the gazes of everyone around him, sympathy mixed with schadenfreude, Su Yu honestly laid out everything, from beginning to end, in full detail.
From how he was reborn into this world carrying the System, to how he'd picked up the Quantum Ghost Kiana on a rainy day, to the two of them and their damnable "one-meter distance limit."
Then on to that Honkai world full of catastrophe and life-or-death battles, and why he had to make this game called Honkai Impact 3rd to collect Cognition.
And of course, there was that most explosive bomb of all—
In that world, there was a man also named Kevin, who was even the supreme leader of that world's humanity in its fight against the Honkai, but who was, at the same time, Kiana's greatest enemy.
The conference room went utterly silent.
There was only the occasional electric crackle from the System, and the "pop" of Bronie's holographic projection bursting her bubble gum.
Kevin leaned back against his chair, having listened to this speech that was frankly a hundred times more absurd than a third-rate sci-fi novel.
On that face of his, forever unruffled, there finally appeared a trace of stunned bewilderment he couldn't quite conceal.
He turned his head and looked toward Kiana sitting beside him.
"So..." Kevin pointed at himself, "in your world, I'm your greatest mortal enemy?"
Kiana snuck a glance at him: "I, I don't really know either, but since Su Yu says so, then it should be true."
"Not only that."
Eden picked up the thread, a faint note of teasing in her tone.
"And over the past half month, this girl who's been loitering right under our noses every day, constantly swiping your instant noodles to eat—the one inside that shell isn't her at all."
Eden's slender finger tapped the tabletop.
"But rather that one called the Herrscher of the Void, named Sirin, the one who nearly destroyed half the world—isn't that right, Su Yu?"
Bronie's holographic projection curled her lip along with it.
"I said as much—that white-haired dummy may be dumb, but she's not dumb enough to that degree."
Su Yu pressed his forehead. It seemed Sirin ultimately hadn't managed to keep it hidden from Eden and Bronie; probably only Theresa genuinely believed Kiana hadn't been swapped out.
Just as these few people were reviewing the truth without the slightest restraint in the real world.
No one noticed.
In the deepest recesses of Kiana's mind.
A holographic screen floating in midair was clearly livestreaming the images and sounds from the conference room straight in.
"Aaaaaaaah—!!!"
Sirin's crazed, screeching scream nearly flipped over the entire sky of the consciousness space.
She stamped her feet furiously without stopping, splashing the water beneath her feet flying in all directions.
"That shrimp holding those two beat-up guns! That number-three servant who chews bubble gum all day!"
Sirin stretched out a finger, pointing at Bronie's holographic projection on the screen, her silver teeth grinding audibly.
"She actually dares to call me dumb?! She actually dares to lump me together with that Paramecium who only knows how to eat fried chicken?!"
"Once I take over this body in the future! I will absolutely stuff that stubby little melon into the Imaginary Space and let her keep company with those quantum jellyfish for ten thousand years!"
This Queen, who just a few hours ago had been immersed in a tragically beautiful star-crossed love, having even cast aside all her dignity.
Was now, thanks to this social-death sensation of being surrounded and picked apart, and moreover being slapped with the label of "dummy," had every last one of her buried tsundere traits completely ignited.
However.
No matter how impotently and wildly she raged inside, the conference outside continued to proceed in an orderly fashion.
"Alright."
Kevin suddenly stood up.
He rounded the conference table and walked straight up in front of Su Yu.
Without any warning.
He raised his fist, aimed at Su Yu's solid chest.
"Bam!"
He slammed it down hard.
If this were the old Su Yu, the one who used to stay up all night coding year-round, this single punch would absolutely have dropped him to the ground on the spot.
But for the monstrous body that had now broken through the second-stage Genetic Lock, that even dared to catch an S-rank Valkyrie's scythe bare-handed.
This punch landed on him, and Su Yu didn't so much as sway.
Kevin felt the bones of his hand ache from the shock.
He silently withdrew his hand and rubbed his wrist.
"With that, we're even now."
He turned around, braced both hands on the tabletop, and let his gaze slowly sweep across every single person present.
"Now, this is no longer just your one-man mess."
"I'm joining this so-called secret alliance of yours too."
Before Su Yu could open his mouth to refuse, Kevin directly cut off his line of retreat.
"In fact, Mei was already recruited a few days ago by those two lunatics, Mobius and Dr. Tesla. She's now a specially appointed advisor at Anti-Entropy's underground laboratory."
"Don't even think about leaving her and me out of it."
Su Yu rubbed the spot on his chest that had been struck.
It didn't hurt, but that raw, scalding emotion that belonged between brothers came transmitted through the fist.
"How could I? Since you're so set on boarding this thieves' ship that could sink at any moment..."
Su Yu extended his hand.
"Then I'm counting on you, Kevin."
The two hands clasped tightly together.
It was the kind of confirmation between grown men that needs no extra, superfluous words.
"Oh, right."
Kevin let go of his hand, as if suddenly remembering something important.
"Since this whole mess is real. Then afterward I'll have to find some excuse to holler at that guy Su, the one who's off running around all day, and get him to haul his ass back from the Mu Continent."
"Huh? What are you calling him back for?" Su Yu was momentarily stunned.
"He's a top-tier doctor."
Kevin answered as though it were the most natural thing in the world.
"His medical knowledge can only be put to use in a peaceful world. If that Honkai disaster really arrives, who the hell will be left alive for him to treat?"
After Su Yu heard this, he actually nodded in agreement.
Though in this world, Su was just an ordinary doctor.
But if they could pull him into Anti-Entropy's medical team, for this group who had to throw their lives into filling pits at any moment, it would absolutely be an enormous safeguard.
"As for the others in the Golden Courtyard—Elysia, Nuwa, and Aponia and the rest—"
Kevin's voice sank, and his gaze turned toward Eden.
"My opinion is the same as Su Yu's. If possible, I absolutely do not want to drag them into this dangerous whirlpool too."
"Just look at how Su Yu was carried back a few days ago, lying in the medical pod covered head to toe in blood, and I know that from now on, incidents like this will absolutely be no rarity."
Kevin rapped on the table and solemnly delivered his conclusion.
"With them, we must keep the secret. For as long as we can hide it, we hide it. Understood?"
Everyone silently nodded.
They all understood those girls too well—they represented the most beautiful, most in-need-of-protection portion of everyday life in this world.
Facing these companions who trusted him without the slightest reservation, Su Yu drew a deep breath and began to report the enhancements this body of his had gained after enduring that life-or-death battle.
The stabilization of the second-stage Genetic Lock.
The loading of spatial Authority.
The soaring peak of his body's raw output.
That inhuman state that shattered the limits of the human body, that completely blocked out the pain-sensing nerves, that could even autonomously control cells to forcibly reassemble and heal.
Even a veteran of the business world like Kevin sucked in a cold breath upon hearing it.
"This is basically a monster wearing human skin."
Bronie's holographic projection summed it up with perfect precision.
"And what about Kiana?"
Su Yu turned his head to look at Welt.
Welt's gaze fell upon Kiana, and in those eyes hidden behind his lenses flickered a light of gratified relief.
"This is precisely what I was going to say next—a piece of good news."
Welt stood up and walked to the whiteboard.
"Over these past two days, I've accompanied Kiana through detailed physical function tests."
"I can tell you all with certainty that after that battle at the abandoned building."
"The Kiana of now."
Welt weighted his tone.
"Using no Honkai energy and no Herrscher Authority whatsoever, the pure strength and neural reaction speed that this body of hers can unleash."
"Have already reached the rating standard of an S-rank Valkyrie within Schicksal."
"And if we add in the White Comet armor that Dr. Mobius has just finished repairing—her true combat power will climb yet another terrifying tier higher."
Welt looked at Su Yu and delivered the final conclusion.
"Just like what happened in the ruins yesterday, at least in a head-on confrontation, even if that Schicksal maid named Rita were at her absolute peak, Kiana would possess the strength to absolutely crush her."
The moment the words fell.
Kiana, sitting beside Su Yu, that ahoge which had drooped for so long now sprang up energetically.
She lifted her exquisite little face with a hint of smug pride, folding her arms naturally across her chest.
"Hear that!"
She tilted her head, looking at Su Yu, her eyes sparkling with brilliant radiance.
"This young lady is now an absolute master when it comes to Tai Xu Sword Qi, you know."
She leaned in a little closer, lowered her voice, and in a tone only the two of them could hear, playfully added:
"That Heart Essence Chapter you secretly learned from the Squad Monitor, the one you only just brought to full mastery—before someone like me, who handles even divine essence with ease, it's really not worth a second glance."
Su Yu's expression stiffened for a moment.
Earlier, so as not to make Kiana worry, and in order to stockpile one more life-saving trump card.
He had indeed been constantly in the Tai Xu Illusory Realm, constantly following Fenghuang to cultivate Tai Xu Sword Qi, constantly keeping it hidden from Kiana.
He'd thought that after yesterday's brutal battle this matter would be turned over and done with; he never expected that this girl, whose head usually wasn't too sharp, would remember this particular thing so clearly.
"This... it was just for the sake of being prepared for the unexpected. You know, one more skill means one more way out..."
Su Yu strained to muddle through with a far-fetched excuse. "Hmph."
Kiana wasn't buying it at all.
Beneath the broad conference table.
She used the tip of her slippered foot to step down on the back of Su Yu's foot, not too lightly and not too hard.
"After we get home, we'll settle. This. Account. Properly."
Su Yu sucked in a cold breath.
This gesture, so exactly like an old married couple settling scores after the autumn harvest, made him instantly understand.
This girl wasn't letting it slide—she'd merely postponed that terrifying process of settling accounts until there were no outsiders around.
"Ahem."
Welt pretended not to have seen these two's little maneuvers.
He sat back down in his chair.
"Regarding the reconstruction of the energy core for Wotan's giant mecha. With the addition of Dr. Mei and that miniature nuclear fusion furnace, progress is far faster than we imagined. At the latest, by next week, we'll be able to conduct the first ignition test."
"That, however, is all a matter for later."
Just as the topic naturally turned toward the figure in the corner who had remained silent all along, wearing the shock collar—Rita Rossweisse—and everyone was preparing to discuss how to handle her, a sudden anomaly descended.
Without the slightest warning.
In Su Yu's field of vision, the originally calm System interface was instantly and completely engulfed by a glaring red storm of light that even carried a thick, bloody stench.
[WARNING!!!]
[WARNING!!!]
[WARNING!!!]
That shrill, ear-piercing alarm.
Exploded thunderously right within Su Yu's cerebral cortex.
[Sudden Singularity Crisis. Honkai Invasion Mission Initiated.]
[Codename: Meteoric Salvation.]
[Causality Detection: Because the Host has consecutively and forcibly transferred two dimension-level Anchors, Kiana Kaslana and Rita Rossweisse, a permanent fissure has appeared in the barrier between the Honkai world and this world.]
[Crisis Warning: Project STIGMA in the Honkai world's Arc City has already produced cross-dimensional energy overflow. The large-scale Honkai energy generated by that world's World Serpent operations will, six months from now in real time, directly invade this world through the singularity fissure!]
[Fatal Countdown:]
[Spacetime flow-rate differential cross-check complete.]
[Original world's distance until Arc STIGMA final execution: 3 days remaining.]
[This world's full-scale Honkai energy invasion: 6 months remaining.]
Six months.
Only one hundred and eighty days.
For a cross-dimensional catastrophe capable of annihilating all of humanity, this span of time was so short it was as if Death had already raised his scythe and hung it right over your neck.
The red pop-up windows stacked layer upon layer, almost enough to burn through Su Yu's retinas.
[The Only Solution:]
[Within 180 days, you must, by releasing the game Honkai Impact 3rd, establish a complete foundation of Honkai Cognition across the entire web. Vigorously develop the influence of the Anti-Entropy research team, and make ample preparations for the coming catastrophe.]
[At that time, a passage between the two worlds will briefly open. Please have the Host dispatch Kiana Kaslana to the Honkai world to stop Arc City's Project STIGMA!]
（Note! Traversing worlds will consume a large amount of Cognition and Anchor energy, and Kiana Kaslana is currently unable to obtain any Anchor energy replenishment from the Honkai world. If her Anchor energy is exhausted and she cannot return in time, her existence risks being erased!）
[Her maximum activity time in the Honkai world will be closely tied to the Cognition following your game's release.]
[Absolute Freedom Time is no longer merely Kiana Kaslana's time to be active in the present world—it further determines how long she can fight within the Honkai world—it is her fuel!]
[Please have the Host release the game as soon as possible! Unlock the Valkyrie Cultivation System, and cultivate and strengthen your Valkyrie team!]
[Additional Items:]
[180 days is merely the bottom line for full-scale invasion. As the time draws nearer, the present world's Arc City may very well produce unstable spatial rifts.]
[Please have the Host radiate the Honkai Energy Detection Device across the entirety of Arc City as soon as possible, and the moment a spatial entrance appears, go there at once to destroy the Honkai core!]
[System Notice: Honkai Energy Detection Device Blueprint x1 has been placed in your backpack.]
[Note: Once Honkai energy exceeds a space's tolerance limit, the Honkai will invade the world ahead of schedule! You must periodically dispatch Valkyries to clear spatial nodes!]
[System Remark: This is a trial. As you know, you have no way out to speak of. May the fortunes of war favor you, Host.]
Su Yu stared at those flickering numbers and words, his whole body as though flung into an ice cavern in the far northern reaches, cold from head to the tips of his toes.
Six months.
This originally calm, warm, ordinary world brimming with the warmth of human life.
Was about to face a true, civilization-annihilating—Honkai.
The others, who had still been joking with one another moments ago, looked at Su Yu's face that had instantly gone deathly pale and covered in cold sweat, and all fell silent.
"What's wrong?" Welt was the first to sense something was off. He set down the coffee in his hand and leaned his body forward.
Su Yu drew a deep breath.
He knew.
The last of the peaceful, easy times.
Was over.
____
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