The lights in the underground lab were pale, almost bloodless.
Welt met Su Yu's and Kiana's tense gazes. After a brief pause, a low, quiet chuckle escaped his throat.
In the oppressive weight of the room, that laugh sounded almost startlingly light.
"Su Yu. And Kiana."
"Since you both already know the origin behind the name Welt, then you should understand — in the face of that name, I've only ever had one choice."
He rose to his feet, unhurriedly buttoning his suit jacket.
"In the name of the world, to protect this world — that's not some slogan requiring a risk calculation. It's my instinct."
Kiana took half a step forward, her lips parting.
She wanted to say something, but Welt raised a hand and stopped her.
"Don't look at me like that, Kiana. Like I'm some martyr."
Welt's voice was warm and gentle.
"I'm not nearly as tragic as you two seem to think. The memory extraction... for me, it might not even count as a sacrifice. If anything, it's a rare opportunity."
"Stay too long in a peaceful world like this one, and a person starts to rust. Getting the chance to go back, to take a fresh look at the road I've walked, to see some old friends again — that's not a bad thing at all."
Su Yu studied him, his brow still furrowed.
"Uncle Yang, you'd be gambling with your life."
"I'm not that easy to kill." Welt smiled. "Don't forget — I'm not just the Herrscher of Reason. Before I came to this world, I was the Nameless aboard the Astral Express."
He clapped Su Yu on the shoulder, the weight of it heavy.
"A nameless wanderer doesn't carve a path through the cosmos on nothing but hot blood and impulse. What I've got tucked away is more than enough to see me through this memory storm safely. I'm not so reckless as to gamble my own life for pride."
Welt's smile faded. His gaze moved past Su Yu, settling on the holographic map of Arc City displayed on the tactical table.
"Saving the world has never been a one-man — or even two-man — show. If we relied on lone heroics against the Honkai, we'd have lost ten thousand times over already."
"Only by twisting every last strand of strength together into a single rope do we stand any chance at all."
He turned his head, looking at the two saviors before him — impossibly, almost absurdly young.
"Besides."
Welt shrugged, his tone taking on the teasing note of an elder.
"A man stays a boy at heart till the day he dies. Saving the world is far too thrilling a business to leave entirely to you youngsters. This old bag of bones still has some fire left to burn."
Kiana's eyes reddened, but she clenched her jaw and refused to let the tears fall.
She nodded firmly.
"All right. Since it's decided." Welt glanced at the mechanical watch on his wrist. "When do we start? What preparations do I need to make beforehand?"
Su Yu had just opened his mouth to answer — the sooner, the better —
— when a cheerful electronic ringtone burst from his coat pocket, shattering the somber, hard-won gravity that had settled over the room.
Su Yu blinked, then pulled out his phone.
Four bold characters flashed across the screen: Elysia.
He swiped to answer, but before he could get a word out, a rapid-fire barrage of accusations came pouring through the line.
"Su — Yu! Where in the world have you all run off to?!"
Elysia's voice was sugary-sweet as always, though right now it carried an unmistakable edge of pouting fury — he could practically picture her through the screen, hands on hips, cheeks puffed up like steamed buns.
"Have you forgotten what today even is?! Honkai Impact 3rd's first-week settlement! Revenue's off the charts! The whole world's talking about our game — and where are you? On a day that should be a celebration, everyone raising glasses, morale sky-high!"
She sucked in a breath and raised her voice even higher.
"Game Director Su Yu! CEO Kevin! And CTO Chief Motion-Capture Officer Kiana! Our three core executives — have. Vanished. Off. The face. Of the earth?!"
Su Yu held the phone a little farther from his ear to spare his eardrums.
He glanced at Kiana and Welt, who both looked equally stunned by the sheer volume.
"So, um, Ellie, something urgent came up on our end. We're in the middle of a really important —"
"Not listening, not listening!" Elysia cut off his explanation flat. "I don't care what galaxy-saving business you're busy with. Right now, this instant, immediately — drop everything!"
The clink of glasses sounded faintly in the background.
"As Honkai Impact 3rd's one and only brand ambassador, and self-appointed chief party director for tonight's celebration, I am now formally decreeing — seven thirty tonight, top-floor private room, Skyward Grand Hotel, everyone assemble!"
Her voice suddenly went soft, wrapping up with a sugary tone sweet enough to melt bones.
"And if you dare not show up... heh heh, you're all dead meat. Hmph~"
"Beep—" The call cut off.
The room went quiet for two seconds.
Su Yu stared at the darkened phone screen and burst out laughing.
A moment later, Kiana was laughing too, hand pressed over her mouth.
Even the ever-composed Welt's mouth curved into a rueful, easy smile.
All the heaviness — death, apocalypse, the shadow of a vegetative fate — got scattered clean away by that one phone call.
"Well, it seems," Su Yu said, pocketing his phone and looking at Welt, "our memory extraction plan will have to wait until tomorrow."
He made an inviting gesture toward this former Sovereign of Anti-Entropy.
"Come on, Uncle Yang. As a member of the studio, there's no way you're skipping this celebration."
11
Skyward Grand Hotel.
The top-floor luxury banquet hall.
Su Yu, Kiana, Welt, and Eden arrived together in the same car.
Kevin, having squeezed in one extra set of weighted training at the range, arrived more than ten minutes behind them.
When he walked in, even his perpetually ice-cold face still had a few unwiped beads of sweat clinging to it.
The private room was already in full swing.
Theresa stood on a chair, straining to reach a tempting-looking plate of limited-edition bitter melon mousse sitting in the center of the lazy Susan.
Elysia, dressed in a pink evening gown, flitted through the crowd like a butterfly, pressing glasses of champagne into everyone's hands.
Nuwa had Su Mei and Lin Zhaoyu cornered, gesturing wildly about something — most likely some new merchandise scheme she'd just dreamed up.
Ma Feima sat in a corner, locked in mortal combat with an enormous charcoal-grilled king crab.
Fu Hua sat quietly off to the side with a cup of hot goji berry tea, watching the raucous crowd, and pushed her red-framed glasses up her nose.
Nearly every one of miHoYo Studio's several dozen core staff members had shown up.
The only one missing was Bronie.
Su Yu had gotten a text from her: "Too many people, way too loud. This Hack Bunny's on server room duty. Tell that pink-haired idiot to box me up two fully-loaded HOMU pizzas on the way out. No onions."
Attached was a pixelated bunny emoji, sunglasses on, cigarette in mouth.
Su Yu had just found an empty seat and hadn't even picked up his chopsticks yet when he felt a grip tighten around his arm.
Elysia had somehow already materialized right beside him.
"Okay, okay! Everyone, quiet down!"
Elysia clapped her hands, her crisp voice instantly cutting through the room's noise. Half-pushing, half-dragging, she hauled Su Yu to his feet.
"Today's miHoYo's very first official celebration party! Let's give a big round of applause and invite our great producer, Mr. Su Yu, up to say a few words!"
"No, no, no, really, I don't need to—"
Su Yu put up a token struggle, but under the unified, rhythmic cheering and clapping of every employee and friend in the room, he resigned himself to being pushed up to the makeshift microphone stand at the front.
He cleared his throat twice and adjusted the height of the microphone.
The spotlight fell on him.
He looked out over the sea of vivid, familiar faces before him.
"Ahem — honestly, I didn't actually prepare a speech."
Su Yu stood with one hand tucked casually in his suit trouser pocket.
"All I could think about on the way over was how I'm going to settle the score with Sixth Senior Brother if that whole plate of king crab is gone by the time I sit down."
Laughter erupted from the crowd.
Ma Feima, mid-chew on a crab leg, scratched his bald head sheepishly.
"Actually, on the drive over, something suddenly came to mind."
Su Yu's tone shifted, easy and warm, like he was chatting with old friends.
"A few months back, when I first registered the name 'miHoYo,' our office was just the living room of a run-down rental apartment I'd leased."
"All the equipment we had was one secondhand computer. Boxes of instant noodles crammed under the desk. And the entire company was just me and Kiana."
Down in the crowd, Kiana straightened her spine slightly at the mention of her name.
"Back then, all we had was some inexplicable burst of drive, and we used that as our startup capital, sheer willpower dragging this ragtag little operation up off the ground."
Su Yu's gaze swept across the crowd.
"Getting to where we are today — that is nowhere close to being my accomplishment alone."
He pointed toward the animation team's table.
"Thanks to Nuwa's animation team. Three straight weeks of nonstop crunch. I checked the clock-in logs last night at midnight and I'm honestly scared the labor bureau's going to shut me down today."
Su Yu grinned over at Nuwa.
"Oh, and Nuwa — have you ever actually tallied up how many iced Americanos you've downed during all this?"
Nuwa shouted back from the crowd: "Boss! Eighty-seven cups! I'm immune to caffeine now!"
The room erupted in laughter again.
And then there was Griseo.
Su Yu looked toward the girl sitting beside Fu Hua, quietly eating a small cake.
"Thanks to our little artist. On top of a heavy course load, I've been squeezing her for concept art on the side. Ellie complained to me just yesterday that little Griseo got caught sketching lines under her blanket in the middle of the night — Aponia walked right in on her and gave her a scolding."
Griseo's expression stayed flat, but the hand holding her fork froze — and her ears turned pink at a speed visible to the naked eye.
"And Master Fu Hua." Su Yu raised his water glass toward her. "Thank you for taking time out of your busy dojo schedule to teach a bunch of amateurs self-defense — even though so far, none of us can block even a single one of Kiana's strikes."
Down below, Kiana lifted her chin with smug pride and flashed him a giant V-sign.
Finally, Su Yu's gaze settled on Elysia and Eden in the front row.
"And last, a very special thanks to our two biggest heroes. Elysia. And Eden."
His tone turned noticeably more sincere.
"Without your godlike marketing skills and unconditional financial backing, Honkai Impact 3rd would probably have just quietly launched some random night, quietly sunk without a trace, and quietly announced its shutdown."
Down in her seat, Elysia lifted her hem and rose gracefully, dropping into a playful curtsy.
"Oh, stop, stop, Su Yu, you're exaggerating," she said.
But her radiant face was spelling out, in giant letters, You're absolutely right.
After that first wave of laughter died down.
Su Yu paused for a moment.
Gripping the microphone, his tone dropped naturally, growing more grounded.
"I know."
His gaze drifted slowly across every employee in the room.
"From the project's kickoff to open beta, every single person here has poured in effort far beyond what any normal job would ask."
"Some of you guys, I ran into in the elevator and found out you hadn't been home in a month."
"Some of you girls pulled all-nighters chasing deadlines and fell asleep slumped at your desk come morning — I walked by and saw the keyboard imprint still pressed into your cheek."
The chatter that had filled the room gradually died away.
Everyone watched him in silence.
"And I know something else too." Su Yu looked at Kevin, at Welt, at Kiana. "A lot of people here, even now, still don't fully understand... why this game matters so much. Why we've been pushing this hard."
He didn't mention the Honkai. He didn't mention the apocalypse waiting six months out.
He simply looked at them.
"This isn't just about commercial success. There's something deeper at stake here — something I can't fully explain to all of you just yet."
Su Yu's voice wasn't loud, but it carried clearly.
"But there's one thing I want every single one of you to know, without any doubt."
"Every one of you sitting here today — every line of code you've typed, every image you've drawn, every passage of text you've proofread... every ounce of effort you've put in."
"It matters far more than any of you realize."
The room went silent for a beat.
You could have heard a pin drop.
But Su Yu didn't press further into those heavier subjects.
He knew knowing when to stop was a required lesson for any boss.
He let his easy, casual grin return and took a full glass of champagne from a passing server.
"All right."
Su Yu raised the glass high over his head.
"The road ahead is still long, and there's a mountain of trouble still coming — but that's all tomorrow's problem."
He grinned wide at everyone.
"Tonight, all you have to do is eat and drink! Tomorrow's problems can wait for tomorrow!"
That line landed like a lit stick of dynamite, instantly detonating months of pent-up nerves in every overworked "crunch dog" in the room.
"Now that's a boss with class!"
"Cheers!!!"
The whole room roared its approval.
Dozens of glasses lifted at once.
The crisp clink of glasses, cheers, Elysia's laughter, and the ruckus of Ma Feima fighting over crab all tangled together into one joyful noise.
And amid that crowd of raised glasses and celebration—
—off in the farthest corner, by the floor-to-ceiling windows—
—Welt Yang stood quietly, a glass of red wine in hand.
A gentle smile rested on his face.
He wasn't looking at Su Yu at center stage, nor at the young people carrying on in their raucous celebration.
His gaze simply drifted past the crowd, settling quietly on the view outside the window.
Through the glass, Arc City's night skyline spread out before him, unobstructed.
The towering buildings lit bright, the elevated highways crisscrossing like veins, the endless stream of tiny headlights flowing along the roads below.
This was a world alive, noisy, thriving, thick with the warmth of everyday life.
This was the very thing he was about to step into that holographic simulation pod for — the thing he'd close his eyes and "live through again" inside that desperate dream to protect, at any cost.
Welt raised his glass and drained the last of his red wine in one go.
He stared at that sea of lights for a long, long while.
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