Looking through the gap, Mo Li immediately spotted Himeko, her eyes red-rimmed. She was staring at him with a wronged expression, no longer as mature as before and instead looking rather cute.
Mo Li: "..."
He fell silent for a moment before asking hesitantly, "Did Himeko... cry while watching the story during the voice recording?"
The girls: "??"
Himeko: "..."
When she heard Mo Li mention the story again, Himeko seemed to recall something heartbreaking. She bit her lip in grievance as tears swiftly welled up in her eyes.
She tried desperately to keep the tears from falling, but the more she tried to stop them, the harder they were to suppress.
"Waaah..."
Then... she actually let out a sob by accident.
Seeing Himeko so upset, the girls hurriedly comforted her, their faces full of concern.
The girls truly had a wonderful relationship.
"Alright, alright, don't cry, okay? Whatever it is, we can all help you."
Seeing that Himeko still would not explain what had happened, Rita turned to Mo Li.
"Boss, do you know why?"
Mo Li did not hide it. "The Herrscher of the Void is about to be released, so I planned to release her alongside Chapter Nine's story."
"Um... Chapter Nine is basically all Himeko's story, so it's normal that you don't know about it... Maybe the story was a little touching, and it made Himeko cry."
It would have been better if Mo Li had not explained. Once he did, the girls became even more confused.
She cried just from reading a script?
Feeling her sisters' gazes, Himeko felt so embarrassed she could have crawled into a hole.
Yet that instead helped her pull herself out of the story.
"Boss, you doing this... makes me... lose face. I'm... the oldest big sister here, okay?"
Mo Li smiled. "As the oldest big sister, your tolerance is surprisingly low."
"You've got the nerve to say that..." Himeko shot Mo Li a glare. "Have you suffered some kind of trauma? How else could you write a story like this? I remember you said Honkai Impact 3rd was some kind of... healthy, sunny, positive game?"
"You call this healthy and sunny?"
PS: Another ten-thousand-word update today. Cuties, please send some free support my way.
Kiana: Huh? Isn't This Character Me?
"What's wrong with that? Look at the game's theme: fighting for all the beautiful things in the world. Isn't that positive enough?"
"What about healthy and sunny?"
Mo Li scratched his cheek awkwardly. This was not his fault, either. If anyone was to blame, it was the actual game's story planners.
He quickly laughed it off. "You can argue back with me now. Looks like your emotions have stabilized."
Himeko glared at him.
"Haha... How's the voice recording going?"
Himeko nodded unhappily. "Chapter Nine has already been recorded."
"Alright, let me take a look."
Mo Li retrieved the data and uploaded it to his computer.
The other girls all gathered around as well.
Since, aside from Himeko, the other girls only appeared briefly in this chapter, they did not know the story particularly well.
They were all extremely curious about what kind of story could make Himeko cry like that...
As time passed, the girls gradually became immersed in the story.
In the main story, Theresa carried the God Key on her back as she fought the Herrscher of the Void.
Otto killed Fu Hua... then negotiated with the Herrscher of the Void...
The girls knew this part of the story. After all, when Fu Hua had come to record her lines last time, they had happened to be watching nearby.
Back to the point.
In the previous main story chapters, Himeko's physical condition had only been mentioned vaguely. Players had not paid much attention, assuming she had merely suffered some injuries.
But in the latest Chapter Nine main story, Himeko's condition was finally clearly explained.
At the same time, it revealed the fate of Celestial Mandate's Valkyries.
To put it simply, ordinary Valkyries rarely lived past thirty.
On one hand, fighting Honkai beasts endangered their lives. On the other, when Valkyries used Honkai energy in battle, they were also corroded by it.
Himeko had already been a Valkyrie for many years. In the game, Kiana had not been wrong to call her auntie.
As a result, Himeko's body had already suffered severe erosion from Honkai energy.
If nothing unexpected happened, Himeko likely did not have much time left.
Just as the girls began worrying about Himeko's condition, Fu Hua, who had clearly already finished recording, suddenly appeared and gave Himeko a vial of medicine.
She said it could neutralize the Honkai energy within Himeko's body and ease the erosion it caused.
However, once she injected the serum, Himeko's power as a Valkyrie would quickly disappear, and she would gradually become an ordinary woman.
Seeing this, the girls were somewhat delighted. That way, although Himeko would become an ordinary girl, she would not die.
But the development of the story that followed told them...
They had truly been too optimistic.
Not only did Himeko not use the serum to save herself, she handed it to Tesla instead, asking her to create a special medicine that could deal with a Herrscher.
As for Himeko herself, she put on Celestial Mandate's fourth-generation Godkiller Armor and prepared to confront the Herrscher of the Void head-on.
With the Gem of Hysteria on that armor, Himeko, with the strength of an A-Rank Valkyrie, was actually able to contend with a Herrscher head-on for a time.
In the end, with Himeko keeping her occupied, everyone successfully repelled the Herrscher of the Void using the Moonlight Throne's weapon.
Thus, Chapter Nine's story came to an end.
Yet after watching it, the girls were even more puzzled.
Strange... Why had Himeko cried over a story like this?
As though she had heard the girls' thoughts, Himeko explained, "There's another CG animation afterward... I was recording that CG segment when..."
"Ohhh, so that's how it is."
"Boss, hurry up and let us see that short film."
"Yeah, I'm way too curious!"
Surrounded by a group of beautiful girls, Mo Li could smell their faint fragrance even while breathing normally. The scene put him in an exceptionally good mood.
He did not waste time and opened an mp4 file.
Elsewhere, on a high school campus.
Kiana sat in her classroom, boredly spinning a pen between her fingers.
The teacher's lesson sounded like one hypnotic spell after another in her ears.
Suddenly, she felt someone tug at her sleeve.
When she turned around, she met a pair of mischievous eyes.
"Hu Tao? What is it?"
Hu Tao sneakily glanced at the teacher on the podium before taking out her phone and leaning closer.
"Kiana, look. Does this anime character resemble you?"
A picture was displayed on Hu Tao's phone.
The picture showed an incredibly beautiful girl.
Her snow-white hair was tied into twin ponytails, and she wore a white skintight combat suit with a slightly goofy smile on her face.
At first glance, Kiana's eyes lit up, and she was stunned by the girl's beauty.
But the next moment, she found the girl in the picture somewhat familiar...
Wait... wasn't she a little too similar to her?
Although there were certain differences between anime and reality, those blue eyes and white braids... she looked exactly like Kiana, didn't she?
She nearly cried out in surprise, but thankfully, she retained a shred of reason and did not shout in class.
"Hu Tao, is this... me?"
"I was about to ask you. I found this meme in our class group chat." As Hu Tao spoke, she opened another image. "And this one... Doesn't she look like your Mei-jie?"
"Huh!! She really does..." Kiana was utterly astonished. She hurriedly took out her phone and scrolled through the chat history in the class group.
Seeing Kiana's frantic movements, Hu Tao quietly explained.
"I heard from our classmates that these are characters from a game. They noticed that this character is not only named Kiana, but also looks so much like you, so they posted it in the group chat."
"When I first saw it, I was shocked too."
"A game?" A spark of realization suddenly flashed through Kiana's mind.
She remembered that her sister seemed to make games...
"Could my sister have used me as a template to make a game?"
With that thought, Kiana immediately began searching for information about the game.
However, when she saw the three words "MiHoYo," her lively eyes seemed to shine brightly.
"So... it really is a game my sister made..."
"Huh? That game was made by Kiana's sister?"
Kiana nodded wildly, sweetness filling her heart. "MiHoYo Studio was founded by my sister and a group of her friends."
"I never expected my sister to put me into her game." As she said that, Kiana unexpectedly became a little shy.
"I was wondering... These past few days, whenever I've walked around with you, Kiana, the way people looked at us has been noticeably strange..." Hu Tao suddenly understood.
"Now it seems it was all because of this game."
Kiana said, "Hu Tao, do you want to come with me after school? Let's go see my sister's game studio."
"Sure~ Then help me ask your sister whether she can use this young lady as a template for a character~" Hu Tao was extremely interested in Kiana's experience.
If she were put into a game, what kind of character would she be?
Picture of Hu Tao
Kiana and Hu Tao
"Ring-ring-ring..."
When the dismissal bell rang, Kiana grabbed Hu Tao and sprinted off like they were running the hundred-meter dash.
She could not wait to see her sister, as well as gentle Mei.
During class just now, Kiana and Hu Tao had been constantly searching for information about Honkai Impact 3rd.
When Kiana learned that the Kiana and Mei in the game had plenty of suspiciously intimate scenes, she had nearly revealed a lovestruck grin.
So the moment school ended, Kiana immediately dragged Hu Tao along and rushed toward MiHoYo Studio.
"Oh my~ Kiana, slow down, my hat..."
Before you continue