You asked for healing, and you wrote Honkai Impact 3rd?

[Overwhelming the other contestants, putting them under pressure.]

[Who still remembers his pain mask? Turns out it was all just a facade.]

The topic's buzz skyrocketed; those with traffic only grew more famous.

And this was merely Su Nian's starting point.

Now, with the contrast from his peers, the show's fame backing him, and the excellence of his story...

All the factors that make a work explode in popularity seemed to have gathered around Su Nian.

At this moment, Su Nian had transformed into a red-hot genius author.

How could a miserable college student have classes all day plus evening study sessions?

Sigh, and there's even homework. I'll handle the miscellaneous stuff today, planning to burst out another wave this weekend.

As always, love you all.

Chapter 28, A Sudden Turn, The Power of the Blank Key

This was a recruitment drive of grand scale.

Even though everyone knew Su Nian couldn't see right now, still immersed in his writing, to show sincerity, they naturally had to prepare while he was still blind and unaware of the outside world.

Only then could they increase their chances of being chosen. The copyright was solely in Su Nian's hands; they had to win his favor.

When a person is outstanding enough, everything else must make way for them.

The once lofty industry big shots had now set aside their pride. One man alone could rival a top-tier industry scriptwriting team!

But the most terrifying thing about Su Nian wasn't just his creativity in plot and expression.

It was that he was too young, his potential completely untapped.

To achieve such success at this age... This one is terrifyingly formidable! Surely his future is boundless!

Back in his studio, Su Nian couldn't have dreamed that writing a single story, making a name in the competition, would bring him fame in less than a day.

Right now, he was still grinding away at the Previous Civilization storyline.

He hadn't even finished Kevin's part yet. After that, Snakey, Ai Li, Eden, Chijie... their stories would take a long time to write.

He absolutely couldn't let up.

[Mei reported to the Moth of the Fire council that the unnumbered Divine Key—the Blank Key—was nearing successful development.]

[To prevent the Tenth Herrscher from discovering it, Dr. Mei proposed secretly relocating the Divine Key research facility to an isolated island in the Pacific Ocean, with Kevin leading a unit to guard it.]

[Two days later, approximately 200 individuals of the Tenth Herrscher were detected in the waters near the island.]

[Fifteen minutes later, the Moth of the Fire high command ordered Kevin to lead most of the troops to engage.]

[But this was merely the Herrscher's decoy tactic.]

[L10—997 led 540 Thousand-Man Herrscher individuals to infiltrate the research facility, aiming to destroy the Divine Key research institute.]

Thinking of this, Su Nian added another section on the Blank Key's settings in the "Divine Key Chapter" page.

[Unnumbered Divine Key—Blank Key]

[It is a suit of armor capable of embedding a Herrscher core. Unlike other Divine Keys, the Blank Key also designs the user's body as part of itself.]

[Allowing a human to connect to the Imaginary Space for a short time—that is, to temporarily become a Herrscher.]

This was one of the trump cards Mei left for herself.

The Valkyrie armor developed by Schicksal in the current civilization was also based on this sample.

The armor Aunt Himeko wore during The Last Lesson—the Crimson Knight: Moonlit Eclipse—was precisely embedded with the Plague Gem, granting her power comparable to a Herrscher, allowing her to defeat Sirin and save Bug Bug.

The technology of the Previous Civilization was far too advanced.

Although the Blank Key caused permanent damage to the user's body, it was undeniably a powerful trump card.

If not for the research being shelved after the Thousand-Man Herrscher, perhaps under Mei's optimization, the side effects could have been greatly reduced.

Ah, Old Mi, Old Mi.

Every knife came so suddenly, yet so reasonably.

In this incident, Mei's body suffered irreversible damage, almost blatantly signaling that the story's ending was destined not to be happy.

Against this backdrop, even if Su Nian assumed they defeated The End and overcame the Honkai, Kevin would never welcome his own happiness.

The damage suffered this time, combined with years of accumulated overwork, had already broken her body before the battle against The End.

Kevin thus lost his beloved.

This might be the most tragic event in Kevin's entire career.

For his beloved, Kevin joined the Moth of the Fire, fought against the Honkai, and endured so much.

Every Honkai from then on... for humanity, for Kevin, was an unbearable price.

Obsessed? Not obsessed enough!

Su Nian recalled how players' attitudes toward him shifted from questioning Kevin to understanding Kevin, almost becoming Kevin and surpassing Kevin.

Thankfully, the ending of the current civilization in Honkai Impact 3rd did have a bit of happiness in it.

Otherwise, Kevin's fan-made image would have ended up like Otto—dragged to the Imaginary Tree by the Trailblazer when Fuwu got stabbed.

When the story reached that point, the art circle's big shots churned out countless meme-worthy fanarts.

The Trailblazer dragging Welt, pointing at the Imaginary Tree.jpg

"Your Eminence, take us charging at the tree one more time!"

Question Otto, understand Otto, become Otto, surpass Otto...

After writing out the Blank Key's setup, Su Nian switched back to Kevin's storyline. Next up was the Blank Key's power demonstration.

[Mei had long planned the fastest way to eliminate the Tenth Herrscher, so she deliberately staged this act. In truth, the Blank Key was already complete.]

[She intentionally leaked intel to gather the scattered Thousand-Man Herrscher in one place and wipe them out in one fell swoop.]

But... with most personnel and the strongest combatant, Kevin, gone, who was supposed to protect the lab?

Everyone reading this was pondering the same question.

A bunch of defenseless lab researchers taking on more Herrschers than Kevin?

What a joke—there were more than double the number.

No one had the heart anymore to watch the industry big shots throwing olive branches and fighting over Su Nian.

Now Su Nian's plot had thrown out another puzzle.

[The female lead is definitely getting stabbed!]

[We've heard you say that many times. Who stabs the female lead for no reason?]

[I believe Kevin will definitely make a heroic return, show off his might, save the damsel in distress, and get married after dealing with the side effects.]

[Don't underestimate human ingenuity. If they dared to plan this, there's absolutely no problem.]

With the plot progressing, who cared about the irrelevant stuff?

The audience eagerly discussed the new plot Su Nian had written. The olive branches they'd thrown were momentarily forgotten.

[Mei first embedded the Herrscher of Thunder's core. Within 201 seconds, she used the power of electromagnetic fields to bombard hundreds of Herrschers.]

Su Nian recalled the Blank Key chapter's manga. The illustration of Mei here was too similar.

Mei, wearing the Blank Key with the Herrscher of Thunder's core embedded, looked and acted almost exactly like the current civilization's third Herrscher, Raiden Mei.

Couldn't say it was very similar—it was just identical.

What a Thunder Queen!

[10 minutes later, Mei embedded the Herrscher of Wind's core. This connection lasted only 65 seconds but still eliminated 100 Tenth Herrschers.]

[However, when only 120 Tenth Herrschers remained, Mei was struck down by the Blank Key's side effects.]

The audience's emotions were like a roller coaster—soaring high, then plummeting low, low, low—

They'd thought it was going to be a battle of wits against the Herrschers, with Kevin returning at the critical moment, but Mei was no pushover!

Watching Mei display her divine powers, all they could think was "awesome."

The two were already a perfect match, and now Mei had grown strong too. Hope had skyrocketed.

Then, the very next second, Su Nian took a sharp turn and piled debuffs on Mei!

The plot twisted and twisted again.

This state could only last less than five minutes.

Not great.

Chapter 29: Knowing Why You Fight

The time was too short. Though they said the difference between the strong was decided in seconds, this was a fatal flaw.

It was destined to be highly limited.

And one unexpected point was...

The Blank Key was actually made by Mei for Kevin from the start.

She believed Kevin could truly unleash the Blank Key's power, even surpass its limits.

But before that, Kevin needed to understand one thing...

Su Nian remembered Kevin mentioning this in the "Sea of Old Tales" section of his memories in The Past's Paradise.

And the scene described in "Sea of Old Tales" was undoubtedly during the Tenth Eruption against the Thousand-Man Herrscher.

Too bad this Blank Key plan was put on hold for some reason.

Maybe because... it was just a prototype for the Valkyrie armor?

Su Nian thought about it. This time, he should also push Kevin and Mei's relationship forward a bit.

Even though the two had already known and accompanied each other for so long, who didn't love a little sugar?

That's how you make sure the people who see it later get stabbed right through the heart!

The harder they ship now, the faster the little pearls will fall later.

Su Nian's smile was practically reaching for the sun. Soon now.

Let them be happy a few more days. Then Su Nian would start handing out the knives.

[Fortunately, by this time, Kevin had already wiped out all the enemies at sea and rushed back.]

But it wasn't Kevin who handled the cleanup afterward.

Though he was powerful, he had yet to undergo the Chimera Surgery. His condition and strength hadn't reached their peak.

Kevin wasn't yet the boundless-power Patriarch Kai.

Against the Thousand-Man Herrscher—whose members could coordinate and support each other with their varied abilities—he was clearly at a disadvantage.

And Mei hadn't anticipated that L10-461 had other tricks up its sleeve. It was exceptionally troublesome and had drained a fair amount of Kevin's stamina.

Truth be told, neither of them had much energy left to deal with the remaining Herrscher in front of them.

These Herrscher fragments posed no threat to their lives.

If Kevin only needed to protect Mei, the two of them would have zero safety issues.

But Kevin and Mei's current intentions seemed to have diverged somewhat.

What Mei wanted was to end the Tenth Herrscher here and now, once and for all!

As for Kevin... Su Nian couldn't fathom his thoughts.

What he thought and what he did were wildly inconsistent.

A hero is judged by his deeds, not his heart.