"There's one more important thing. I suggest you check it later. The barrage fully showcases the myriad possibilities of Chinese text."
Dan Heng reached out to stop Su Chen's actions.
"No problem." Su Chen waved his hand. "I've got no parents, so I'm not afraid of them tearing up my household registry."
"No, I just want to ask you something. Or rather, Cocolia wants to ask you something. Earlier, a man kept inquiring about opening a shop in the interactive city."
Su Chen's eye twitched, sensing something off. "What kind of shop?"
"Ahem…" Dan Heng paused, visibly struggling to say it. "Cocolia mentioned a Mr. Zhong wants to open a…"
Oh, I knew it. How could there not be someone from Teyvat… Su Chen nodded. "Let him open it!"
"The interactive city is for entertainment. Suddenly opening a shop like that—won't it have a bad impact?"
"Don't worry, it won't. If anything comes up, just have Mr. Welt talk to Mr. Zhong."
Dan Heng nodded. "Since it's your decision, I have no grounds to object."
"Alright, scatter, scatter." Silver Wolf yawned. "This is so boring. I'm going back to my games."
Soon.
The crowd of onlookers dispersed.
Seeing the surroundings quiet down, Su Chen opened his phone.
This was a short film from Elysia's perspective, depicting the meeting of the Thirteen Flame-Chasers, showing Elysia in a white dress walking toward her final stage.
He couldn't be clearer about this vague storytelling method.
It hooks the audience's desire, making them anticipate the story until they can't let go.
"Your smile looks pretty sly, you know?" Big Herta sipped her tea, eyeing Su Chen.
"Why hasn't this pointy Herta left yet?" Su Chen regretted his words as soon as they left his mouth, realizing he was in Herta's office. Shouldn't I be the one leaving?
Big Herta just smiled, not bothering to respond.
"Right, where's that little Herta? I mean, Little Herta?"
"Her? She's gone to study new knowledge, but she'll be back soon. If you're worried, I can responsibly tell you: what she can do, I can do. What she can't, I still can."
That fits my stereotype of a genius perfectly… Su Chen gave a thumbs-up. "Lady Herta is unparalleled, Lady Herta is brilliantly clever, Lady Herta is a breathtaking beauty!"
Big Herta's expression remained calm. As a genius, she'd been showered with praise since birth.
But being complimented by miHoYo's creator himself still felt pretty good.
Big Herta ignored whatever Su Chen was up to, focusing on her own research.
…
Seeing he could finally have some peace, Su Chen lay on the office sofa and opened his phone.
He clicked on the video titled The Thirteen Flame-Chasers.
Despite being just a few minutes long, it already had tens of thousands of barrage comments.
He pressed play.
It opened with a lightning strike, zero-frame start.
Elysia's gaze locked onto the camera, her breath faint, yet she forced a smile onto her face.
"So, please tell me, at the end of this story♪"
Elysia's acting was impeccable. In the video, her eyes flickered, as if holding a thousand unspoken words, constantly restraining herself.
Everyone knows restrained eyes are the most moving!
A simple glance could spark endless imagination in the audience.
"I, *****♪"
The last line was muted.
In just two seconds, the barrage exploded.
[Let her live, let her live!]
[Pink Fairy Lady, this close-up shot, I can only say miHoYo's too good.]
[I saw light in Elysia's eyes, perfect acting!]
[The world is full of suffering, join the Elysian Church.]
[So where can I sign up?]
"With a cry, this was the first sound the girl who walked through life smiling brought to the world."
The screen was black, but a familiar voice rang out.
[Acheron?]
[Kind of, but not quite.]
[Who cares, it sounds good.]
[I feel like this story carries a faint sadness.]
The plot was simple: a pink-haired infant, with no reason or sign, appeared under a great tree.
The infant's cries drew the attention of a man, an employee at a nearby orphanage, who took her back with him.
As the girl grew, she always used her smile to dissolve the world's suffering.
So, everyone at the orphanage loved her.
But she still didn't have a name of her own.
Until that day.
The orphanage director gave the girl a fairy-tale picture book.
The story's protagonist set out to find a legendary paradise but arrived at the end to find nothing.
Yet the protagonist didn't give up, deciding to build their own paradise.
In the process, more and more people were drawn to the protagonist's charm, coming together.
Finally, one day, everyone cheered and embraced.
The pink-haired girl, reading the story's words, her eyes blooming with color, "Ah! This is it, a flawless paradise, an eternal Elysium!"
"A name, this is my name, my name is—"
"Elysia♪"
[I love this story! I love this name.]
[I think you just can't take your eyes off Elysia!]
[We're all adults, no need to say so much!]
[So when's Honkai Third coming out? Why keep teasing with this fluff?]
[This story's opening feels so meaningful, everyone's so kind.]
[Heh, by the law of storytelling, the brighter the start, the sharper the knife later.]
[Such a dark-minded guy…]
Sadly, the plot's happy moments didn't last.
Elysia revealed a certain power, and though she evaded official searches,
To protect the orphanage from trouble, she offered to see the outside world.
With everyone's blessings, she left her first home with a small backpack.
As night fell, little Elysia stood on a mountaintop, gazing at the myriad lights below. "So many lights, so beautiful. So I, too, should find my own paradise!"