[I give up. miHoYo is playing us like a fiddle.][Woof woof woof~~ Fairy, hurry and play it already!][No need to act like that, guys.]
"Aiya~~"Elysia chuckled softly at the barrage of chat messages.
Still, she didn't forget her task.She quickly opened the short clip Mei had sent her and started playing it in the livestream.
The screen began—
A pitch-black void.
Only a chat window appeared at the bottom.There were no voices, no speaker names—just "???" accompanying the text.
"..."
"The Hyperion has broken through the encirclement.K423 and the Godsbane prototype are missing.The Herrscher has once again fallen into slumber,but the collapse she triggered across the world hasn't stopped."
"In this crisis, Anti-Entropy might rally once again and form an alliance with Theresa."
"Also, there's another unstable factor."
"The power of the feather—the 8th Divine Key, [Feather of Heshil]—seems to conceal secrets even I do not yet understand."
"No matter. The experiments will continue, unaffected by these disturbances."
The first 20 seconds were simply an unknown figure summarizing the aftermath of the Herrscher of the Void's awakening and the current state of the world.
Honestly—
If the video had ended there, it would've been considered utterly boring.
But then—
the real heartbreaker began.
In the last 10 seconds:
The darkness faded.
The sound of ocean waves filled the speakers.
The camera slowly panned upward:
First came into view—
the serum container.
The very same serum gifted by Fu Hua to Murata Himeko,and then injected into Kiana's body.
And next to the container—
Kiana herself, half-submerged in seawater,unconscious and motionless.
The short clip ended there.
[That "???" must be Otto! Don't think I can't recognize you just because you're silent!][There's so much hidden info here. But—dammit! I don't want to analyze anymore! Writer, please don't mess with Bronya next!][It should be fine... Right?After all Himeko sacrificed so much—there's no way Kiana...No way! Absolutely not!!][I'm logging in right now to whale a 648 pack to save Kiana!!]
Even though Himeko was currently the hottest character because of The Last Lesson,everyone knew it was a temporary surge.
Deep down, the players' real favorites were still the original trio—
And Kiana, with her tragic story and heavy burden,was undeniably the most beloved.
Especially now—
Knowing how much she had already suffered.
And that Himeko had given everything for her.
They didn't even want to imagine how devastated Kiana would be when she woke up.
At that moment—
Hokuto leaned toward the mic, speaking in Otto's voice:
"Everyone, please look forward to—"
[SHUT UP! YOU SHUT YOUR MOUTH!][I'M NOT LISTENING, I'M NOT LISTENING, I'M NOT LISTENING!][I KNEW IT! YOU'RE UP TO NO GOOD, OTTO!!]
"..."
For all sorts of reasons,
Otto's hatred meter among players in this worldseemed to be even higher than it had been in Hokuto's past life.
He paused for a moment.
Then said, in Otto's voice:
"In any case,please look forward to the next update."
After that,Hokuto handed the stream back over to the girls.
They continued chatting with the delighted Elysia,answering random questions from the audience.
Hokuto simply stood by, watching, occasionally chiming in.
Ring ring~~
His phone suddenly vibrated.
"I'll go take this,"Hokuto said, slipping out to answer.
"Hello?"
"I heard about Honkai Impact 3rd,"came a familiar voice on the other end.
It was Li Yue from Penguin Games.
"You're new to making games,"Li Yue said kindly,"so it's normal to make rookie mistakes like this."
"You don't have to panic.Just spend a little time patching up the main story.Given Honkai Impact 3rd's quality, you can still recover the public image."
"Of course—if you've realized you're lacking experience now,you should understand joining Penguin would only benefit you."
"..."
Li Yue rambled on with heartfelt advice.
Hokuto listened patiently—
then said calmly:
"Why don't you check the internet's reaction to Honkai Impact 3rd again?"
Li Yue: ???
Curious, Li Yue opened the laptop beside him.
His fingers tapped the keyboard—
searching keywords like "Honkai Impact 3rd,""The Last Lesson," and so on.
Before this phone call,he had already checked once.
And at that time—
the internet was flooded with posts like:
[miHoYo you sons of ****!][Give me back Himeko! If you don't, I'm quitting forever!]
The posts were practically dripping with rage.
But now—
Li Yue noticed a subtle shift.
Among the emotional outbursts,a different tone had started to emerge:
[Through The Last Lesson,did Honkai Impact 3rd deliver something no other domestic game has?]
[A Brief Discussion:Murata Himeko, the Mortal Who Stood Against the Divine.]
[An Analysis:Is There Still a Chance Himeko Survived?]
[STOP ARGUING!Let's just talk about Honkai Impact 3rd's Literary Genius Herrscher of the Void! (lol)]
Okay, maybe ignore that last one.
Li Yue realized—
the conversation online had started to turn.
"How... How did you do it?"he asked Hokuto, genuinely stunned.
"Through love and justice, of course,"Hokuto replied lightly.
"...?"
"Kidding.Simple truth:At home, rely on your parents;out in the world, rely on your friends.""I just had the luck of having good friends help me."
"Friends...?"
Still puzzled,Li Yue dug deeper.
He quickly found the root cause—
Elysia's livestream.
"I see..."
Li Yue pieced everything together.
"You predicted the internet would explode after The Last Lesson aired,""so you had Mei pre-arrange a voice chat with a top VTuber—drawing attention from a massive audience on PiliPili."
"And you chose PiliPili precisely because Honkai's player base overlaps heavily with the anime crowd."
Hokuto listened to all this with a blank expression.
Meanwhile,Li Yue continued analyzing:
"Then,you soothed emotions with a group performance of Nightglow,redirected player anger onto Otto, the main antagonist,and finally,had Himeko herself step in with a sincere, touching speech—"
"Brilliant.An operation so smooth it looks like a textbook example of crisis management."
"Honestly, it's genius."
"You even hired rational-minded 'plants' to stabilize public opinion, didn't you?"
Li Yue slapped his desk excitedly.
"Incredible.Truly a rising star.It seems I, as an industry veteran, underestimated you."
Hokuto: "..."