Mother, Happy Birthday.

In the empty dormitory room, Satou Yunona sat alone at the table, holding a cup of Americano, her emerald eyes staring blankly ahead.

She had just returned from braving the wind and snow; her delicate face and nose were red from the cold, and her cascading purple hair was studded with a few snowflakes.

The slightly long sleeves covered most of the palms, leaving only the fingertips exposed. The warmth emanating from the cup passed through the fabric and reached the palms, becoming just right.

She untied the scarf that had been wrapped around her neck and placed it on the slightly cluttered table.

A cell phone with a charm lay among a pile of books, near unopened mini cakes and bags full of snacks.

It's the weekend, and almost a month has passed since that disastrous snowman-building competition.

The temperature has stopped falling recently and has instead begun to gradually warm up.

During this time, the girl continued to attend Su Qing'an's class regardless of the weather.

Aside from the relationship between the roommate and the teacher, the boy's teaching ability played a major role in the outcome.

Another thing that Satou Yunona herself finds strange is that she has always thought she is not a person who is attracted to good looks, but for some reason she always finds Teacher Su particularly pleasing to the eye and feels a sense of familiarity.

This inexplicable and elusive emotion led to her subconscious and strange obsession with Su Qing'an.

However, unlike the real Su Qing'an, Satou Yunona has not developed any other feelings for Su Qing'an at the moment, which means she has no mental barriers when shipping the two.

So when she was stirring up trouble on the forum, the girl never had any doubts about her typing speed, and occasionally she would even enter a state of extraordinary performance with bursts of inspiration.

Hmm... that sounds a bit strange, but it should be considered a good thing.

As each lesson went by and she practiced outside of class, Satou Yunona's drawing skills improved steadily, and she began to gain the confidence to seriously pick up a paintbrush.

The things I want to work towards in the future are gradually becoming clearer.

Satou Yunona was originally a girl with very poor self-control, but the sense of fulfillment that came from living a fulfilling life made her choose to overcome her laziness and move forward.

After all, compared to the students at this academy, her family background was quite ordinary, so she naturally had to temporarily reserve the right to be willful.

But let's skip those annoying exercises today; a balance between work and rest is the right way to approach school life.

These trivial thoughts flashed through her little head Satou Yunona recalled the reasons that had led to her current miserable situation.

Carole took Qiluo to the movies, Hua probably went on a date with Teacher Su, and the other two roommates went shopping together.

So she stayed alone in her dorm room, sipping her coffee and lost in thought.

Two months have passed since I enrolled. In this time, which is neither too short nor too long, I have successfully integrated into school life and made a few pretty good friends.

It wasn't as surprising as she had anticipated before boarding the plane, nor as terrifying as she had imagined.

If I stay in Changkong City, I'll most likely enroll in the Senba Academy.

But now she was in Canghai City, a foreign land, and even though the experience was quite pleasant, she still couldn't help but feel lonely and homesick.

After all, unlike the others who live far from home, Satou Yunona is separated from that land by an insurmountable distance of mountains and seas, and she only dares to buy expensive airfares during summer and winter vacations.

The slightly hot and bitter coffee spread from the tip of her tongue to her entire mouth. The little girl held the paper cup in her hands to warm it, and her face showed a slight daze.

Actually, I've liked drinking black coffee for a long time.

Compared to typical female high school students, this hobby seems rather unusual.

She doesn't like adding anything else to her coffee.

It may be a strange way of putting it, but that pure bitterness, without any aftertaste, always helps Satou Yunona find her true self.

For example, in this peaceful and quiet atmosphere, even the things that wander off into my mind become more distinct amidst that bitterness.

She glanced at the small cakes she had bought on the table.

Today is her mother's birthday, so when passing by the bakery, Satou Yunona knew she couldn't give her a cake there, but she still couldn't resist buying one.

It's noon now; is it really appropriate to say "Happy Birthday" to my mother?

The girl took a sip of coffee and pondered for a moment. At this hour, her mother should be cooking.

It's better to call her in the evening. We can have a video call with our family, eat a different cake together, and wish each other a happy birthday from different places.

For such a gentle mother, this seemed like a gift more than enough.

But the little girl was a bit greedy; she felt that saying those words sooner wasn't such a bad thing.

Even though Satou Yunona had just video-called her the day before yesterday, she still couldn't help but miss her.

In the video from that time, my mother had just finished showering. She put down the hairdryer in the bathroom and talked to me with her long, wet hair still on. This patient and cheerful demeanor naturally made the communication very smooth.

Satou Yunona recalled the look in her mother's eyes when she looked at her. Those eyes always held a tender and endearing quality for her, and her pale lips would curve into a beautiful arc, making her unable to resist putting on a childish act in front of her.

In front of Satou Natsuno, the girl tried to appear mature, as if she didn't want to be looked down upon by her father, and she was a bit stubborn.

But Satou Yunona loved both her father and mother.

She loves them in her own way and is willing to work hard to create her own future so that they can feel at ease.

The girl put down her coffee and made a video call request.

As she did this, she consciously began to suppress the smile on her lips.

Because if her father answered the phone, Satou Yunona always felt that such an expression would make her feel a little shy.

In many ways, this strange mentality can be considered a unique characteristic of the little girl.

She looked at the projector that popped up shortly after the connection was established, and asked with a smile:

"Why is Dad cooking?"

In the video, Satou Natsuno is wearing an apron and diligently cooking, while her mother is filming with a phone. Upon hearing this, the mother turns the camera towards herself, a happy smile spreading across her beautiful face.

"Xia Zhi wouldn't let me into the kitchen today no matter what. Even though his cooking skills are terrible, he confidently said when he went into the kitchen that he would take care of lunch."

He was well-prepared, carrying a large bag of fresh ingredients, but he'll probably waste it all.

Satou Yunona was somewhat helpless:

"Why is Mom still so happy even though she already knows the result?"

She spoke sarcastically to the man in the video:

"I suggest Dad should book a restaurant right now. Mr. Xia certainly wouldn't want his lovely and beautiful wife to taste some weird and strange dishes."

Satou Natsuno's sweeping spatula movements froze. Looking at the food in the pot, now devoid of its original purpose, he guiltily but calmly began to deal with his cunning daughter:

"Yuno, cooking is similar to the Kendo club I joined when I was young."

"All my past failures were due to my weak Kendo skills; my mind wasn't calm enough, and my hands weren't steady enough."

"But recently I sparred with some old friends from high school a few times, and in those short hours I rediscovered the charm of Kendo and rekindled my youthful skill level."

"I am not the same person I was before."

Satou Yunona sighed and said:

"So, Dad, wouldn't it be better if you just went to a cooking class for a few days?"

Satou Natsuno smiled and shook her head upon hearing this, silently turned off the gas stove, put down the spatula, and stopped joking with her lovely daughter.

Actually, the man's cooking skills weren't so bad that they were inedible, but using this method to please his wife was one of the few clumsy ways he could manage.

Satou Natsuno's face, though showing faint wrinkles, was still quite handsome. He brought the phone closer, gently pulling his wife towards the girl in the video and smiling as he spoke:

"Alright, alright, I'll take your mom out for a nice meal. Yuno must have something to say to her mom, right?"

The girl hesitated for a moment upon hearing this. It wasn't something embarrassing to say, but under the smiling gazes of the two men, she found it difficult to be completely frank.

But soon, her lips curved upwards.

Satou Yunona looked directly at the two of them and said softly but earnestly:

Happy birthday, Mom.

Satou Natsuno's expression was complicated. His pupils reflected the girl's smile, his lips were slightly upturned, and the wrinkles on his forehead were more pronounced. The hand that held the communicator was calloused and somewhat rough.

The mother's smile was as gentle and soft as ever. As she looked at her daughter's face, her emerald eyes shone slightly, making her very beautiful.

If you were to film it, it would definitely look like a very happy scene.

Time seems to stand still here, as if it has briefly captured this tiny, slightly sweet frosting.

And the next second.

The father and mother's expressions froze for a moment, such a vivid yet unchanging scene, as stiff as if they were playing a game of statues, both comical and funny.

"Don't joke around at a time like this," the girl thought to herself.

It's one thing for Dad, but why does Mom also join in this ridiculous antics so readily?

But immediately...

The kind and amiable face in my field of vision slowly cracked, the skin like a sugar coating was peeled away, the limbs gradually dissolved and disappeared, and the flesh and bones silently collapsed.

The harsh reality cleaved the warm and cozy picture in two.

The lava did indeed indifferently engulf the Nat Temple and the stupa. Obeying its promise, it rolled down the seven hundred steps, carrying hellish sulfur, and unleashed a devastating fire.

Dark dust fell softly through the girl's slightly open eyes.

The raging fire consumed everything beautiful she possessed.

With a crisp sound as the phone hit the ground, the video feed went completely black.

Satou Yunona looked stunned, as if she didn't fully understand what had happened, but the sharp pain in her heart and the tears welling up in her eyes preceded her awareness of sadness.

What happened?

Why did Mom and Dad become like that?

Is it a prank?

But even such doubts failed to arise.

The Honkai Energy swept through the entire Canghai City converged around this dormitory room.

A terrifying ocean of Honkai Energy seeped into the girl's body, annihilating her consciousness in a void and plunging her into deathly silence.

February 21st, 12:21 AM, late winter/early spring.

Satou Yunona transformed into a mermaid.

A mermaid destined to be killed by a whaling ship.

[At 12:19 PM on February 21st, a total of 3726 beams of light disappeared simultaneously within 0.54 seconds.]

[The entire plan meticulously prepared by the Moth to Fire has completely failed.]

[A total of 3,726 Honkai Energy containment devices, which consumed a great deal of manpower and resources, were rendered useless due to immature technology and their excessive size and scale.]

[Within three minutes, varying degrees of Honkai erupted in different regions around the world.]

[Fifteen minutes later, only a few small sections of the area that humans had set foot in were spared.]

Himeko finds it difficult to describe her feelings at this moment with any words.

Honkai 3rd achieved in less than half an hour what the United Nations had failed to do in nearly a century: a world map coloring game.

This Honkai caused incalculable damage even in its initial outbreak phase.

The world's population is estimated to have been reduced by one-third.

This was an undeniable and devastating defeat for humanity.

The only lesson humanity has learned from this defeat is that it should not attempt to stop the outbreak of Honkai.

The outbreak of Honkai requires no prelude, and the time it takes to propagate the outbreak is negligible.

Even this massive Honkai that spread throughout the entire world took less than half an hour.

Intercepting the outbreak of Honkai is an impossible task.

Humanity will be left with nothing but passive acceptance of calamities, searching for a glimmer of hope for victory in the cracks.

At the same time, the Moth to Fire also confirmed a reality.

A calamity called Honkai must possess a highly intelligent consciousness.

If the Honkai, possessing such immense power, were to have true consciousness, then perhaps only gods could describe such an existence.

This will likely make future wars even more brutal.

But humanity will not give up.

His use of underhanded tactics proves that he is not invincible.

There is only one reason why He needs to divert humanity's attention and military strength: to cover for the Third Herrscher has now appeared somewhere in the world.

The Honkai requires this Herrscher with unknown powers to overcome the initial hatching stage, and then leap to its most prosperous stage to destroy all remaining civilizations.

Himeko's indomitable will allowed her to continue thinking calmly even under such circumstances.

She employed a large-scale process of elimination based on the idea that the Honkai needed the absolute safety of the Herrscher. Himeko first roughly and inaccurately eliminated all the cities that were still not completely out of contact, and then, based on her current location, narrowed it down to three cities.

Finally, based on the remaining factors, the woman pointed her finger at a coordinate.

Canghai City.