Kiana

It felt as though a long time had passed, yet also as though it had only been an instant. The darkness behind his eyelids filled with light.

His body regained its normal senses.

A gentle breeze embraced him. The vitality flourishing beneath the sunlight was a unique sight of this season. The youth stood beneath an ancient evergreen tree, its lush branches and leaves swaying as they danced, while the sunlight filtering through the obstacles above flickered along with them.

Each breath brought air fresh enough to lift his spirits as he looked at the scene before him.

This was an unfamiliar city. Melodious cicadas chirped beside the ear, and its green belts were well designed without losing their historical charm.

The bustling crowds formed a harmonious, beautiful scene: office workers hurrying to work, women with children, female high school students chatting and laughing with friends. Everything was so peaceful that one could place their trust in the future without worry.

"I came back to life." It took him a moment to understand that fact, leaving Su Qing'an speechless.

Unlike before, when he had died without even knowing what era he was in.

This time, he understood the era and the plot he was in almost immediately.

Because of the girl before him, someone easily recognizable to anyone who thought of Honkai Impact 3rd.

"Hey! Idiot Shopkeeper, why are you sitting here looking so dumb?!"

The girl wore a Japanese-style JK school uniform. Anyone who had lived in Changkong City for a long time would probably recognize where the uniform came from at a glance.

Her highly recognizable white hair was braided and casually draped over her shoulder. Her fair face was refined and sharply defined, while her sapphire-blue eyes were magnificent and dazzling.

If she wore a proper, gentle expression—or simply stood on the spot with a blank face—she would have been a flawless beauty from every angle.

But at the moment, she frowned in displeasure. As though she could not tolerate being ignored by The Person Before Her, she bent down and brought her little face close to Su Qing'an. Her angry look was just like a cat with its fur standing on end.

"So it's Kiana..." The youth before her raised his head to glance at her, his words carrying an indescribable regret and melancholy.

"Why do I feel like you really don't want to see me?!" Kiana complained irritably, chopping Su Qing'an on the head with her hand. The force was unexpectedly gentle, like friends roughhousing.

"In every sense, I don't want to see you right now." He admitted it without hesitation. Su Qing'an had no spare capacity to think about why Kiana seemed so familiar with him.

Kiana's appearance gave him no time at all to escape reality.

For one brief moment beneath the tree, he had almost believed he had returned to his original world. Then this girl easily shattered every hopeful illusion.

"Don't tell me you spent the salary you were supposed to pay me on pulls!"

Suddenly thinking of a possibility, Kiana's expression turned grave as she widened her sapphire-blue eyes.

Looking at Su Qing'an's dejected face, the more she thought about it, the more convinced she became that this was the expression of someone who had whaled hard and failed to get what he wanted. She immediately pointed at him in furious accusation.

"Do you know me?" Su Qing'an asked bluntly.

"Shopkeeper, I don't have time for this kind of joke."

Kiana said crossly, adjusting the bag in her hand. "Alright, I need to go to class."

Su Qing'an examined the girl before him, who should not have existed. If not for her familiar voice and the fact that he was in the world of Honkai Impact 3rd, he probably would not have recognized that this girl with such a magnificent face was Kiana.

Her earlier words confirmed that she had not mistaken him for someone else. She really did know him. Even though Su Qing'an should have had no possibility of knowing the Kiana of this world, facts were facts, and he could only accept them.

He did not have any serious social difficulties, but he was absolutely not the type to grow familiar with people on his own. His earlier joking remark had only slipped out because Kiana was the sole presence in this unfamiliar world that made him feel a sense of familiarity.

So he had unconsciously relaxed. But once he calmed down, the girl before him was merely a familiar stranger.

"Wait, you said I'm a shopkeeper, right?" But if he did not clarify some things, not only would he fail to understand his current situation, he might end up miserably homeless.

"Yeah. Don't tell me pulling made you stupid, Idiot Shopkeeper."

The girl furrowed her delicate brows. This strange question made her begin seriously paying attention to Su Qing'an's condition.

At this moment, the youth was displaying the distance and detachment of a stranger, as if this were their first meeting.

That was something Kiana could not understand, an absurdity no one could possibly have guessed.

"What kind of store do I run? And do you really know me?"

Was the Su Qing'an Kiana knew truly him? If not, did that mean there was another Su Qing'an in this world?

If that assumption was true, was that Su Qing'an still in this world? And if he was, would he be able to see another version of himself?

The questions tangled in his mind piled up like mountains, pressing against nerves that were already nearing their limit.

A cold sense of alienation wrapped around him. Intense loneliness flooded indifferently through every part of his body, while solitude gripped his heart. All of it made him utterly out of place in this world.

But at the same time, he understood. He had probably passed the so-called god's trial. The information revealed at the very start was undoubtedly the key—the gift marking the official beginning of the game.

Idiot Shopkeeper, what kind of joke are you making?

The words that Kiana had almost blurted out at first became stuck in her throat when she saw Su Qing'an's expression.

She could not understand why she could sense such heavy, complicated emotions from a single expression. Kiana felt that the Su Qing'an before her was a traveler wandering alone through fog, and now it was as though he had walked by himself into an unfamiliar land, helplessly asking strangers for directions.

Kiana did not know why the person before her had changed so drastically all of a sudden, but that did not stop her from making a decision.

"If you say you're joking now, then even if you double my salary, I'll still beat you up." The girl sighed helplessly and spoke in a threatening tone.

In truth, if another youthful, beautiful girl had said that, it might have sounded like a flirtatious threat.

But when it came from Kiana, it required extra caution.

Because if she lost control of her strength even slightly, you might end up hospitalized for half a year.

"Come on." Ignoring the youth's silent response, Kiana said, "I'll take you back to the store."

"Kiana." Su Qing'an called the girl's name.

"What?" The girl looked at him in confusion.

"How many times have you skipped class this week?"

"...No matter how many times, this one was your fault." Kiana, embarrassed into anger, smacked Su Qing'an on the head with the shoulder bag in her hand. "If I fail my finals, I'm holding you accountable."

Faced with the girl's unreasonable bag-swinging, Su Qing'an froze for a moment. He rubbed his head, recalling the force that had been so light it could be ignored, and relaxed considerably.

Kiana was unexpectedly gentle.

[Congratulations on passing the trial. God's Game officially begins.]

[Mission: Survive the coming Third Honkai Outbreak.]

[Struggle in this world destined for collapse.]

The square lettering on the pitch-black background of his phone looked like a nightmare at that moment, but the young man remained expressionless as he glanced at the azure sky.

Had Moth to Fire come to rescue them? Was Hua safe? Would she be lonely there by herself? Would she feel uneasy because of his disappearance?

Even though they were already in different eras, Su Qing'an could not help feeling anxious about the girl's situation. At the same time, his heart was filled with guilt over his broken promise and the hollow feeling of never being able to see her again.

At that moment, Su Qing'an himself had not realized that, compared to his own predicament, Hua's safety was what he considered first.

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