From the perspective of the moon, the kites transformed into wings of light, flocking around Kiana as she flew toward Earth.
The scene was beautiful and stunning, making time itself seem to stand still.
And then, the picture truly did freeze…
Along with the image, the lyrical background music also stopped, as did the words "Wings of Light—Expand!" that filled the entire screen in a multitude of colored fonts.
In a warmly decorated little bedroom inside a lit rental apartment.
A handsome young man sat before his computer, pausing the video with the mouse—a tool that could control the 'timeline.'
His dark brown eyes reflected the image of Kiana's long-unseen wings of light expanding on the screen. Caelus let out a soft sigh.
The image alone didn't actually possess the emotional impact to strike deep into one's heart.
The bullet comments and music were also factors that stirred emotion, but the most important thing was the companionship and memories that ran through the story behind the visuals.
"*Thinking of that figure standing before the clouds ♪*"
"*I turn around, and it's still you ♪*"
Glancing at the background lyrics at the top of the screen, Caelus mused with a sigh, "When I watched this before, all my attention was on the wings expanding. I didn't listen closely. Looking back now, these two lines are quite interesting."
He thought back to the very first opening cinematic of Honkai Impact 3rd.
The braided pigtails dancing in the fierce wind, the valiant white-haired girl activating her tactical visor and leaping from a warship tens of thousands of meters in the sky.
She pierced through the billowing, stacked layers of clouds, descending like a meteor through shades of gold and red painted by the afterglow.
Now, it was 2024.
"That figure before the clouds… it's still you."
Watching the white-haired girl unfurl her wings of light, memories surged in Caelus mind like a rising tide.
Back in 2016, he had stumbled upon a short clip of the game on his phone and was so stunned by the exquisite cinematic that he downloaded the game on the spot.
At that time, Caelus was still a high school student.
Few high schools allowed students to bring phones, so Caelus could only play when he went home once a month.
For any gacha game, you either had to spend money or grind relentlessly to have a relatively decent experience.
Caelus had no time to grind, and as for spending…
His parents had divorced when he was young, remarried, and started new lives. Neither wanted to be burdened with him.
They both paid child support on time, but living with his grandmother, he knew how hard-earned every penny she had was. Naturally, he wouldn't spend his living allowance on a game.
If not for his unique family situation, Caelus wouldn't have even been able to own a "luxury item" like a phone during high school.
His abysmal luck, the kind where he'd hit the 100-pull pity for characters, often only getting them at 80 or 90 pulls, made a bad situation worse, dragging his game experience down again and again.
He was trapped in a vicious cycle of 'can't beat it -> no crystals -> can't pull characters -> can't beat it.'
He would frequently hit hard pity, quit in frustration, and uninstall the game, all in one smooth motion.
But after a while, when the urge to play returned, Caelus would just download the game again.
Back then, Honkai Impact 3rd was truly unrivaled in its action and character design.
He'd log on to the bridge just to see and poke the characters, only to get kicked off the bridge by Kiana's foot.
Fortunately, there were returnee player rewards. After using them up, as long as he took a break before playing again, he could trigger the returnee rewards once more.
On and off, Caelus managed to accumulate starting funds through these returnee rewards until, during one version, his luck finally turned, and he pulled the first meta-defining character, a pseudo-Herrscher of Reason.
After graduating from high school, Caelus had more time to himself, but the hard mode of real life made it difficult for him to invest his energy into gaming.
He played casually, transforming from a semi-waifu, semi-meta player into a pure waifu collector.
It was just that Caelus tastes were quite inclusive, covering basically every type of Valkyrie.
He prioritized his crystal resources on pulling for characters. Only when he had enough to guarantee the next Valkyrie would he try pulling for weapons and stigmata.
He continued until he lit up the achievement for collecting all the Valkyries.
His thoughts drifted back from his memories. Caelus casually clicked on the screen, and the video resumed playing.
Watching the girls on screen laughing and celebrating, the lively and adorable Kiana, and the screen full of 'Thanks for the companionship' comments, Caelus slack in his chair.
Overall, the story of Honkai Impact 3rd wasn't what you would call exceptional.
It had its boring parts, its convoluted parts, and its retcons. Much of the plot was written to serve the character designs.
But tracing it back to its roots, wasn't it the characters that carried this game to the end?
Of course, in this regard, it was just like reading a book.
A thousand readers will have a thousand Hamlets.
For Caelus, what moved him wasn't the story, but the memories of playing the game in the past.
If another game had accompanied him through the eight years of his youth, then no matter how exquisite this short film was or what story it held, it could never have made him feel so sentimental.
The video finished and paused.
Closing the webpage, Caelus looked at the Honkai Impact 3rd icon on his desktop. The hand holding the mouse twitched, and he finally double-clicked on the girl making a V-sign with her fingers.
"Hmm… I think I can kind of understand Eden now."
After the Final Battle, Eden brought the surviving Flame-Chasers back to Earth.
Everyone entered cryo-pods to escape the world's reset and move on to the next era, but Eden alone refused.
In the end, amidst a sky of yellow sand, she walked upon the radiation-scorched earth, singing a final song for Elysia, and was annihilated along with that era in the world-ending cataclysm of Finality.
When Caelus first heard about Eden's ending, he couldn't quite understand it.
Wasn't it better to live on and go to the new era with her friends?
Why be buried along with the tomb of the apocalypse?
Now, Caelus could understand Eden's thoughts a little.
The end of Part 1.5 was a very classic, Chinese-style happy reunion ending, and there was nothing wrong with that.
As for Part 2, Caelus had only dipped his toes in before quitting.
It had nothing to do with the quality of Part 2's content. It was just that no matter how great the ship of the new era was, it could never evoke the same memories and feelings for 'his youth.'
Even if characters from Part 1 were in Part 2, it was like the white moonlight that exists in everyone's heart.
The white moonlight of the past is invincible; not even the future version of that white moonlight can shake its position in the slightest!
Of course, if you were looking at big Bronya and Auntie Mei from the perspective of the 3D animation community, that was another matter entirely.
A Post-Honkai Odyssey, forever god-tier!
Although he didn't play much, Caelus would still occasionally log in to look at his lovely Valkyries, or rather, to reminisce about his past self.
"Captain on the bridge."
Amidst that liver-aching voice, the familiar bridge appeared on the screen.
Caelus skillfully opened the Valkyrie interface. His mouse glided past the grayed-out new characters from Part 2, hovering and clicking over the rows of SSS-rank Valkyries.
Ignoring weather factors and the current buffs, Caelus casually ran a round of the Elysian Realm with Herrscher of Finality, purely enjoying the fun of controlling the character and the combat visuals.
He didn't care about the score and quit as soon as he felt like it.
Just as Caelus was about to close the game, he suddenly saw the rotating event icon in the top-right corner. The mouse, poised to click the 'X', paused as interest sparked in his eyes.
"Oho, a crossover? Now that's a rare sight."
Honkai Impact 3rd had far fewer crossovers than its big sister, which seemed to periodically drain the life force of other games.
The only ones Caelus remembered were the Evangelion crossover in version 4.5, the Genshin Impact one in 4.9, and the Promare one in 6.9.
Among them, Genshin was an in-house title from miHoYo, and this time, the crossover partner was…
"It's actually Star Rail?"
You're right, but Honkai: Star Rail is a brand new 3D adventure-themed turn-based strategy game independently developed by miHoYo. The game takes place deep in the galaxy, where players will board the Astral Express, visit myriad worlds across the universe, and join forces with a diverse cast of companions…
Unfortunately, he couldn't earn 150 Stellar Jades a day, his monthly pity pulls didn't reach 5000 Stellar Jades, which didn't translate to a monthly income of $5000 in real life, nor did it surpass the majority of people in China.
Alright, fine, Caelus hadn't even started the game yet.
The reason?
The streetlights were all empty.
He was enjoying the blessings of the 996 work culture every day; who had time to play games?
He knew Star Rail had an auto-battle system and daily tasks that could be completed with a few taps during his commute, but going through the story still took time.
Regardless of what others did, Caelus preferred to watch the story when he played games, unless the plot was like some of Genshin's side quests—as smelly and long as an old lady's foot bindings.
Playing through the story in fragmented bits and pieces made for a terrible experience. It was better to wait until he had a proper chunk of free time to get into it.
Another reason was habit.
Caelus usually preferred to let three or four episodes of an anime pile up before binge-watching them, and it was the same with game stories.
"A year's worth of content, two major version updates… that should be enough to keep me busy for a while. And it just so happens to have a crossover with Honkai. Time to download!"
Caelus opened the miHoYo launcher, clicked on Honkai: Star Rail, and started the download.
The main reason was that he had told his boss to shove it, so he now had ample time to rest.
To be honest, now that his grandmother had passed away, there was no need for Caelus to work so desperately. After all, he had no plans to buy a house or get married.
His life's purpose was to be a traveler who had 'leapt beyond the three debts and existed outside the five insurances.'
But alas…
His experience of growing up poor had made him habitually save money for some unknown future and live frugally.
He felt his personality needed to change.
But something like personality was hard to change without a major upheaval or an external push.
Watching the progress bar slowly crawl, Caelus opened Uber eats and ordered a watermelon-flavored shaved ice. He switched to YouTube to browse videos, and a Star Rail fan creation happened to be on his homepage.
Should it be called a strange personality, or a virtue?
Most people hated having their story experience ruined by spoilers, but it didn't bother Caelus.
Even if he learned parts of the plot through fan creations, Caelus could still maintain a good experience when he played through the story himself.
Most people probably couldn't understand it, but he just could.
Half an hour later, the doorbell rang.
Taking the bag from the delivery guy, Caelus thanked him with a warm, enthusiastic smile.
The moment the door hid the delivery guy from view, the smile on Caelus face slowly vanished, returning to a cool calm.
Back in his room, the game assets had already finished loading.
After logging in with a verification code from his phone, a space station filled with sci-fi aesthetics appeared on the screen.
While watching the opening cinematic, Caelus took the shaved ice out of the bag and scooped a spoonful into his mouth with the provided utensil.
Caelus loved the feeling of using a spoon to carve out a tall mountain of watermelon shaved ice. Spoonful by spoonful, it felt like excavating an ancestor's tomb—very stress-relieving.
Eating his shaved ice, Caelus followed the game's tutorial, curiously maneuvering Kafka to interact with all sorts of objects.
He was learning the lore and worldview, correcting the odd impressions left by the fan videos.
He pushed the game's plot forward and soon reached the part where the player chooses their protagonist.
Choosing between a male or female character had never been a multiple-choice question for Caelus.
In many games he had played—whether online, mobile, or single-player—whenever there was an option to choose a character's gender, he would, without exception and without hesitation, pick a beautiful female character.
Aside from competitive online games like League of Legends, even in DNF, he only trained female characters.
There was no particular reason for this; it was simply due to his personality traits that made it impossible for Caelus to feel any sense of immersion.
Yes, as a player, he couldn't derive even the slightest bit of immersion from any protagonist in any game.
After all, no game gives players complete freedom of choice.
Take Genshin Impact, for example. If he were to immerse himself as the male protagonist Aether, Caelus would want to chop Scaramouche into mincemeat, yet the storyline forces you to become friends with him.
It's not just Genshin Impact—in any game, even if you can control the protagonist, it's only at certain moments and in trivial matters that players are allowed to make choices, all within the constraints of the plot framework.
If you can't act entirely according to your own will, what's the point of talking about immersion?
And without that sense of immersion, why would you want to control a male character when you could control a beautiful female character instead?
Not to mention gacha games where characters are the main selling point.
Honkai: Star Rail was the first game that made Caelus hesitate when choosing a character.
What a coincidence, truly a coincidence!
The male protagonist Caelus shared the same name as him.
Not just the name—even their facial features and contours were strikingly similar.
If you ignored the gray hair and golden eyes that don't exist in reality and made Caelus about 10–20% less attractive, he would look almost identical to himself.
In fact, with a wig, colored contacts, and some makeup, He could be the perfect cosplayer for Caelus!
If this were a player who easily felt immersed in games, they would have already used an auto-clicker to confirm selecting the male protagonist.
"Taking so long to decide? Didn't you think it through before heading out?"
The Easter egg dialogue for players taking too long to choose their vessel played again—Silver Wolf's voice rang out.
"Don't rush me, Silver Wolf. This is a very important decision."
Kafka, who is responsible for selecting the Stellaron vessel in the game's storyline, responded.
Hearing this, Caelus nodded slightly.
Yes, this was an extremely important decision.
Once confirmed, it couldn't be changed.
So…
Sitting up straight with a serious expression, Caelus moved the mouse and clicked to switch the vessel to "Stelle."
Perhaps this rare coincidence could allow him to experience the "immersion" he had never felt before.
But then it occurred to him—Stelle and Caelus are two sides of the same coin. Stelle is the female version of Caelus. If he could truly immerse himself in Caelus's role…
Wouldn't that mean Stelle is the female version of himself!?
Caelus had no desire to become a beautiful girl—he and his "little brother" got along just fine, thank you very much. But being able to control a female version of "himself"? That would be an even more novel experience than immersion.
"There's really no need to hesitate."
Worst case, he could just create another account and pick Caelus~!
Just as Caelus was about to press the confirm button—
BOOM!
A loud explosion suddenly came from the wall on his right. Instinctively, Caelus turned to look.
Everything happened in the blink of an eye—too fast for an ordinary person's dynamic vision to process. All Caelus saw was a flash of red and the body of a steel vehicle.
Optimus Prime?
That was the first thought that crossed his mind.
In an instant, the world spun around him.
Lying on the ground, Caelus struggled to open his blood-blurred eyes and focused on the emblem in front of him.
A silver circle, embedded with a silver five-pointed star, with a red inner ring and the character for "Yun" printed in the middle.
"So it wasn't Optimus Prime after all… just a Dayun heavy truck."
A sharp pain spread through his buttocks, but Caelus knew it wasn't actually his buttocks hurting—they were still propped against the car's hood.
His consciousness slipped into the abyss along with the hand gripping the mouse.
On the half-shattered monitor, the cursor—which should have clicked "Confirm"—drifted toward the Carrier Dome. His hand, pinned under a rock, completed the final long-press authentication.
Carrier Dome, activated.
Caelus didn't notice this scene, and even if he had, he wouldn't have cared under such circumstances.
Seizing the last flicker of lucidity before death, Caelus mustered all his strength to move the mouse and open the browser.
Only half the screen was functional, but relying on his memory of the webpage, he summoned immense willpower and, with trembling hands, cleared his browsing history.
His search history was far stranger than that of your average pervert.
After clicking "Confirm," Caelus having completed his final task, let out the last breath he'd been holding and completely lost all sensation in his body.
At the very end, a classic sketch by Uncle Benshan suddenly surfaced in Caelus mind.
What is the most painful thing in the world?
Dying with money left unspent.
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Hey so this is my first time translating so I tried fixing it up but since it's my first time, I might make some mistakes so if you have advice then please share it
I might make a patreon if people ask for it