The moment the sunlight hit Su Yu's face, he felt as though he had finally come back to life.
About two hours earlier, after sending the video to Fu Hua, Su Yu had taken Kiana to visit Vill-V's underground workshop.
After that, a whole series of unspeakably traumatic events had occurred.
By the time he climbed back out of Vill-V's steampunk-style basement carrying a suitcase, he genuinely felt as though he had survived an entire other lifetime.
Even now, the image still replayed in his head: that top-hatted mad inventor's exaggerated gestures and opera-singer-level declamation.
"Welcome to the world of spirals! Are you prepared to experience ascension, my dear audience?"
Please allow me to return to base immediately, thank you very much.
Leaning on the stair railing, Su Yu let out a long breath.
He glanced back at the iron door that had already shut behind them. Through the gap, faint blue arcs of electricity were still flashing, accompanied by the muffled sound of something exploding.
Possibly. Maybe. Probably.
She was building something dangerous again.
He immediately looked away and pretended he had seen nothing.
Vill-V had said that while building the holographic motion-capture system, she had gotten a new inspiration and wanted to make something "big," so the reward Su Yu had previously mentioned about working as her magic-show assistant had been put on hold for now.
He had no idea what exactly "big" meant, but at least for the moment, he was safe.
Temporarily.
Kiana hopped down the stairs beside him as well.
Her cheeks were still a little pink.
Earlier, while they had been calibrating the motion-capture equipment in the basement, that skintight mocap suit had outlined her entire figure—
Even though Su Yu had been the only audience, it had still been unbearably embarrassing.
But now her expression was much more relaxed.
Because just moments ago, the system had sent Su Yu a message that had nearly made him cry out on the spot, Father, I kneel before you!
[Device successfully bound: Vill-V Motion Capture System (Spiral Custom Edition)]
[Detected room for optimization in external equipment. Beginning automatic upgrade...]
[Upgrade complete.]
[Device evaluation: This device's design philosophy is at least thirty years ahead of this world's current tech tree. Its creator's understanding of human kinesiology and data encoding has reached an almost变态 level.]
[System's evaluation of the creator: A genius beyond her era. If possible, the host is advised to maintain a good cooperative relationship with her—though maintaining a safe distance is equally important.]
[Upgraded changes:]
[No dedicated capture suit required for full-body motion recording]
[Recognition accuracy increased to micro-expression level]
[New "Invisible Mode" added: remote capture can be performed without the target's awareness, usable only after obtaining the target's consent]
[Warning: Do not use in the bathroom]
When Su Yu saw that final warning, he really had wanted to call the system his benefactor on the spot, but that impulse died instantly.
What kind of misunderstanding did this system have about him?
And what kind of nonsense was "without the target's awareness" but "only after obtaining the target's consent"? Was its left brain fighting its right brain?
That said, the line about not needing the specialized capture suit anymore was undeniably good news.
Su Yu could practically imagine the look Vill-V would make if she learned that the skintight mocap suit she had worked so hard to design had just been one-click skipped by the system.
She'd probably perform a spiral ascension on the spot.
After telling Kiana about the upgraded equipment, she froze for a second.
"So I really won't have to wear that... that thing anymore?"
"Nope." Su Yu nodded, looking at the girl in front of him, who looked as delighted as a cat that had stolen a fish, and couldn't help smiling. "The system says that as long as you move within its sensing range, it can automatically capture the data. Clothes or no clothes, it doesn't matter."
"That's amazing!" Kiana gave a little jump, her white ponytail drawing an arc under the sun. "That outfit earlier was way too... too weird! It felt like my whole body was tied up, and..."
Her voice dropped suddenly, and the blush on her cheeks deepened.
"And what?" Su Yu asked on purpose.
"Nothing!" Kiana shot him a glare and quickened her pace. "The point is, I don't have to wear it anymore!"
Watching her stomp ahead in a huff, Su Yu chuckled softly.
Now that the motion-capture setup was ready, the next step was to start officially recording Kiana's combat movements.
Those moves, those techniques, would become core material for Honkai Impact 3rd.
Not only that, they could also be used to complete the system quest Revival of Taixu.
As long as they later got Fu Hua and her disciples involved in the mocap team and gathered enough data, not only would they be able to airdrop in a genuine master of Taixu's lost arts—
they would eventually also obtain the complete Taixu Sword Qi, giving Kiana a true means of contending with the Herrscher of the Void.
But the biggest problem right now was how to bring it up to Fu Hua and rope her entire martial arts hall into the project.
Sure, it could be explained simply and bluntly as a little martial aunt testing the heirs of Taixu.
But his junior, Fu Hua, was a dyed-in-the-wool old-school purist—
Well, maybe that was too harsh. It was more accurate to say she was too proper.
It was hard to say whether she would agree to use martial arts for motion capture in a video game.
Taking advantage of a spare moment, Su Yu had also asked Kevin and that pink little gremlin for information about Fu Hua.
And honestly, Elysia's information network was just too authoritative.
He had no idea why, in this world, Elysia—who was merely an ordinary internet streamer—had access to so much intel.
She knew all sorts of things about Fu Hua's family, and even the home addresses of several of her disciples.
To her credit, she hadn't spilled all that private information outright. She had only told Su Yu things that could also be found online.
Then, in her role as Ah Hua's good friend, she had "casually" confided a bit to Su Yu about Ah Hua's current circumstances, and said that if possible, she hoped he could give Ah Hua a hand.
Su Yu had been a little curious why Elysia thought he could help Ah Hua at all, but all she had done was send a teehee~ sticker and then go offline.
That sticker, incidentally, had been designed by Su Yu himself.
A perfect case of karmic retribution.
The phone in Su Yu's pocket vibrated.
He took it out and lit the screen.
A text from an unknown number.
[Hello, Mr. Su Yu. This is Su Mei, second disciple of Cixin Martial Arts Hall. Sorry to disturb you. I was hoping to meet with you privately to discuss the matter of revitalizing Cixin Martial Arts Hall. I look forward to your reply.]
Su Yu's brow twitched faintly.
Su Mei? That name...
The Su Mei from Chronicles of the Divine Lands' Broken Sword? Fu Hua's disciple?
So this world had a Su Mei too?
Whoa. That was a lot.
Before he could think much more about it, the phone vibrated again.
This time it was a message from Fu Hua.
Sender: Working Warrior Ah Hua (Fu Hua)
[Su Yu-senpai, there's something I want to tell you in advance. I have a disciple named Su Mei. She's a marketing director at a major internet company and has always wanted to commercialize the martial arts hall. I've never agreed, but she won't give up easily. She may try to contact you through other channels and attempt to reach little martial aunt. If she contacts you, just ignore her. Don't respond to anything she says.]
After reading Fu Hua's message, then looking back at the one Su Mei had sent earlier, Su Yu couldn't help sighing.
The timing really was impeccable.
Neither early nor late—just perfectly back to back.
He typed a quick reply.
[Su Yu: She already found me. I just got her text.]
The response from the other side came almost instantly.
[Fu Hua: She moves way too fast... Sorry, senpai, I've caused you trouble. Just ignore her. Whatever she says, don't believe it.]
Su Yu was just about to reply when Fu Hua sent another message, her tone obviously much lighter this time.
[Fu Hua: Oh, right, there's something else I wanted to thank you for.]
[Fu Hua: I forwarded the video you sent me earlier to my father. He's been recuperating in a sanatorium, and his health hasn't been very good. But after watching that video, he perked up completely! Apparently he got up on the spot and performed a full set of Taixu boxing, which frightened the doctors badly. The doctors said that at this rate, he might actually be discharged soon.]
[Fu Hua: My father asked me to thank little martial aunt on his behalf. Even without meeting in person, just seeing that video was enough to rekindle his hope.]
Looking at the message, Su Yu felt a complicated emotion rise in his chest.
He knew that what Kiana had displayed in that video was the genuine art of Taixu—
at least, that was how it appeared to the people of this world.
After all, Otto's training methods for Valkyries had originally been simplified derivatives of Taixu Sword Qi.
For an old martial artist who had spent his entire life searching for the lost true transmission, seeing those techniques with his own eyes was probably more effective than any miraculous medicine.
Just as Su Yu was wondering how to explain the idea of "restoring Taixu's lost arts through motion capture" to Fu Hua, the phone vibrated again.
Same unknown number.
[Mr. Su Yu, I've seen your earlier livestream. You want to make a game, and I'm guessing you urgently need a large number of motion-capture performers, correct? But I'm afraid to say this may disappoint you: with my master's personality, she's unlikely to agree to your request. So, we need to talk.]
Su Yu stared at the message for a full three seconds.
Then he slowly raised an eyebrow.
Interesting.
Clearly not one of those hot-blooded fools who only shouted slogans like "Revive the martial arts hall!"
She had identified his need with precision—
game production required source material,
source material required Fu Hua's cooperation,
and with Fu Hua's personality, she genuinely was unlikely to volunteer for anything involving "commercialization."
More importantly, Su Mei hadn't tried to sell herself with grand claims the way a typical salesperson would. Instead, she had gone straight to the problem Su Yu was likely to face.
That meant she had done her homework.
And she was confident she could solve that problem.
Putting his phone away, Su Yu looked ahead.
Kiana, walking in front of him, still had no idea that in this peaceful world, an undercurrent surrounding the "Taixu Sword School" was already beginning to stir.
And that woman calling herself Su Mei clearly wasn't going to stop after sending just two text messages.
By the time Su Yu tucked the phone back into his pocket, his thoughts had already looped around the issue three times.
What kind of woman could give even someone like Fu Hua this much of a headache?
And to be honest, in the private words he and Kevin used, Fu Hua really was the "difficult to deal with" type.
Taciturn. Miserly with words. Ask her ten questions and getting three answers already counted as a productive day. Not the kind of person who would ever open up about her troubles on her own.
Even when she ran into problems, she'd just carry them by herself.
Since Fu Hua had now become an important piece on the map of Su Yu's grand gaming enterprise, helping Fu Hua quite possibly meant helping Kiana too.
So yes, he really did need to pay more attention to the mental state of that silent gourd.
Better not wait until she bottled things up so badly that she metaphorically ended up hanging herself indoors—
Though Su Yu felt the odds of that were infinitesimally close to zero, the principle still stood:
Be prepared in advance.
So this was an opportunity to learn more about Fu Hua.
Not that he was especially interested in prying into other people's private matters.
He wasn't that pink gossip-loving gremlin, after all.
In any case—
Su Mei was the second disciple of Cixin Martial Arts Hall, Fu Hua's own student. She definitely knew a lot.
Fine. If meeting was the best way, then meeting it would be.
At his current physical level, an ordinary person really couldn't do much to him anyway.
Su Yu glanced at Kiana beside him, who was currently crouched in front of a vending machine, seriously analyzing which drink offered the best value, and sighed.
She had only just escaped from Vill-V's basement and was currently in a full-on I survived disaster and deserve a reward state of mind. Her brain was packed with nothing but food.
So he sent Kiana home first, reminded her not to run around, and, after receiving her lazy "Yeah, got it," turned around and headed back out.
....
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