Honkai Descends

Senba Academy, at the school gate.

Groups of girls gathered there.

They should have been heading into their classrooms at this hour, yet they had all coincidentally lingered near the entrance.

They stared at the two girls not far outside the gate, their eyes filled with heart-shaped sparkles.

"Ahhh, I'm dead! Princess Kiana and Lady Mei came to school together again!"

"Look, look! They're even walking arm in arm! This is too perfect!"

"Ahhh! I'm willing to trade ten years of my best friend's lifespan to become either one of them!"

"As everyone knows, triangles are the most stable shape! So I'm willing to trade twenty years of my best friend's lifespan to join them!!!"

"..."

Hearing the gossip all around her, even Raiden Mei, who had received an elite education since childhood, could not help blushing a little.

For some unknown reason, the ratio of men to women in the world had become severely unbalanced.

As a result, most women, lacking potential partners, could only turn their attention toward others of the same sex.

Fortunately, advanced technology and widespread genetic techniques had solved the problem of normal human reproduction.

Yet relationships between women, brought about by the gender imbalance, had only become increasingly common.

Thus, whenever Mei saw people looking at her and Kiana with suggestive eyes, she always felt unusually uncomfortable.

Of course, even so, Kiana was still a friend she could never afford to lose.

Thinking of that, Mei subconsciously glanced at the carefree white-haired girl beside her and shook her head indulgently.

"Kiana, if we don't hurry, we'll be late~ When Teacher Himeko scolds you, don't expect me to help."

"Aww, Mei~ I just wanted to spend a little more time with you..."

After saying that, Kiana not only failed to pick up her pace, but became even more brazen.

Just like that, the two entered the classroom as the bell rang.

Seeing that the history teacher was already in place, Kiana unhappily pouted.

"Why does this old man arrive so early every time?! Now I don't even have time to get a little closer to Mei!"

Complaints aside, to keep the history teacher from reporting her to Himeko, the homeroom teacher,

Kiana could only reluctantly part from Mei and take a seat by the window in the second-to-last row.

"Ah~ Just thinking about being separated from Mei for another forty-four minutes makes me feel completely drained~"

"So, to get through this unbearable time faster, I've decided to take a nice nap. After all, my lousy dad always taught me, 'Early to bed and early to rise keeps you healthy'!"

(Siegfried: Is that what I meant?!)

However, although Kiana said that, she still secretly took out her phone before going to sleep.

"After all, going straight to sleep the moment I enter the classroom wouldn't look too good. At least I should pretend..."

So, Kiana propped up her history textbook on the desk and hid her phone behind it.

After opening her favorite pink app, PiliPili, known hereafter as P-site, Kiana suddenly noticed that the top trending spot had changed from Homu Adventure to a video she had never seen before.

And judging by the time, the video had been uploaded less than three hours ago.

"It topped the charts in under three hours? Isn't that just inflated data?"

In this commercialized age, as long as one had money, one could obtain most things people dreamed of.

P-site was naturally no exception, because—

"This old man loves money more than anything!"

Kiana rolled her eyes disdainfully.

She had intended to scroll past it casually, only to discover in disbelief:

"What?! In such a short time, it's already gotten over six million views? And nearly one million likes and six hundred thousand coins?!"

After all, views could indeed grow rapidly through heavy promotion by the website.

But likes and coins, functions that each user could only use once or twice, could not be faked.

All things considered, this video called Honkai Impact 3rd was truly terrifying!

Thinking that, Kiana adjusted into a comfortable position, opened the video, and took the chance to greet the handsome boy sitting behind her.

"If the teacher comes down later, remember to kick my chair!"

Only after receiving the handsome boy's affirmative response did Kiana begin watching the video in peace.

"As the second young lady of the Kaslana Family, I'm going to see just what kind of magic this video has!"

Unlike the other videos popular online, this one began by presenting viewers with a simple passage of text.

Yet when people read it carefully, they discovered that it contained an explosive amount of information!

Are you dissatisfied with this world in many ways?

Or do you feel that your life should never have been like this?

But if I told you that the world you see as filthy and unbearable was a place many people longed for, would you still think that way?

Could there be another possibility?

Could the world you lived in now have been fought for by people who gave everything they had?

Humanity always made the same mistakes.

But the world did not.

So, it was time. Time to reveal the truth buried beneath the dust of history.

This was... the story of a group of people fighting for all that was beautiful in the world...

The black screen and text gradually faded away, replaced by a flood of scrolling comments that filled the entire screen.

Congratulations on discovering the treasure of the town!

I strongly recommend newcomers keep watching. This is already my fourth rewatch!

This is not a drill! I repeat, this is not a drill! The hype is about to begin!!!

I don't know if I'm the only one with this problem, but I clearly posted my comment at the very beginning of the video, yet it only appeared after the opening text finished...

The comments covering the whole screen startled Kiana.

As far as Kiana was concerned, she belonged to the type who could not watch a video once she got used to seeing comments.

But looking at the comments that had already covered the entire image, she could not help remarking:

"Even though I was mentally prepared, isn't this way too many comments?!"

To see the video behind the comments more clearly, Kiana adjusted their density and began watching seriously.

"Since the eruption of the Third Honkai..."

"Two years, five months, sixteen days, two hours, thirty-four minutes, and twenty-four seconds..."

"Reporting, Major!"

"An unidentified object has been detected above Canghai City. Target coordinates: SH0639..."

In reality, when people saw Canghai City mentioned in the video, they all froze instinctively.

Because the Canghai City mentioned in the video really existed.

So the question was...

If this video had been filmed in Canghai City, why had none of its residents revealed anything...

Or perhaps...

Could it be, just as the beginning of the video claimed, that this was a story that had truly happened in history?

Elsewhere, unlike the others with countless questions, Chongchong did not have that many doubts.

At that moment, all her attention was focused on the realistic and gorgeous special effects in the video.

"Wow! These effects look so real. You can't see any traces of editing at all.

I'm going to share this with Bronya, who's away at a competition, and have her see how this video was made..."

However, in the next instant, the excitement in Kiana's heart vanished without a trace, replaced by endless bewilderment and shock.

Because when a new image appeared in the video, the girl saw...

"That person... is me?"