Eden's gentle, melodious voice carried throughout the venue as she opened the booklet, and the three of them held it up together for the cameras.
The quiet venue only erupted into heated discussion after Eden finished speaking.
The contestants' section reacted the most strongly.
"Regret? This round is mainly about emotions, so it definitely has to involve youth and growth! Regret runs through a person's entire life."
"What about love? There have been countless moving love stories throughout history!"
"Hey, hey, hey, I already know what I'm writing. How could love be more touching than family? The tree longs for stillness, but the wind never stops; the child wishes to care for their parents, but they are already gone."
"Idiot. You can get high scores by forcefully elevating anything."
"Why limit yourselves so much? Go with a fictional setting. I'm a sci-fi master!"
The contestants all shared their own thoughts. This was part of the show's format.
Every contestant had an exclusive livestream room broadcasting their creative process.
That information was hardly important. Anyone could think of those themes, and writing something was nowhere near that simple.
They might as well say it now and try their best to win fans in front of the cameras.
Even if they lost, they still had to gain enough fame and exposure.
Su Nian was the only one who hadn't shared a synopsis, yet her exclusive livestream was no less popular.
A theme of regret...
Countless tearjerkers she had once seen immediately surfaced in Su Nian's mind.
Was it a catastrophe that swept across the three realms, yet only killed the three clerks of Yong'an Pawnshop?
Or the final embrace in Hotarubi no Mori e?
The speed at which cherry blossoms fell was five centimeters per second...
Or perhaps... a future without a future wasn't the future she wanted?
This world had never lacked regrets.
But what Su Nian couldn't be sure of was whether those works had already been created—or perhaps they had been created but simply hadn't become popular yet.
At the very least, from the original owner's memories, she had seen quite a few works that had existed in her original world.
No, there was one thing this world could never possibly have.
Su Nian thought of a possibility.
Among the contestants, who had already launched into a heated discussion, Su Nian was the only one who didn't speak to the camera about her ideas. Instead, she took out her phone and began searching.
Her earlier expression, as though she had put on a mask of pain, had already caught the attention of a certain type of netizen.
Wasn't watching someone else suffer a kind of entertainment?
Lmao, bro really was a master of facial expressions.
Maybe not a good writer, but definitely a good actor. A veteran actor with ten years under his belt!
What was she searching for? The camera couldn't catch it.
Bro was steady. She was the only one who hadn't said anything—could she already be planning it out?
Far ahead, far ahead.
"Now that this round's prompt has been announced, it's obvious that you all have plenty of freedom this time. Contestants, work hard~"
"Then let me announce that the Top 32 advancement round of the Tenth New Youth Creation Competition has officially begun. Please find the corresponding room according to your number and begin creating."
Now, everything had been explained.
And Su Nian had found her answer.
This world had the characters from Honkai Impact 3rd, and their experiences were largely the same.
How could the Flame-Chasers from the Previous Civilization, who had long since perished, appear in the same frame as the main story's characters? How could she have dreamed something like that?
Yet this world truly bore no trace of Honkai whatsoever.
Since there was no Honkai Energy.
And no company called miHoYo in Magic City.
Then Su Nian knew exactly what she should write!
Honkai Impact 3rd had spanned her adolescence and youth. Any of its stories would be more than enough to get her through this round.
At worst, she should be able to withdraw with honor instead of ruining her reputation, right?
Su Nian had witnessed that imperfect story slowly move toward its conclusion, accompanied by regret.
She had once cried her eyes out over The Last Lesson, foolishly believing that Himeko would return as the Herrscher of Flames.
And as she gradually matured, she had seen the Thirteen Heroes of Fire and Elysium Everlasting, as if personally witnessing the splendor of the Previous Civilization.
She had watched Kiana get beaten up by Mei, and binged videos asking how Kevin had become so deranged.
She had quit the game because of certain events, then returned later for all sorts of reasons.
Even without perfect recall, this was her youth—what she loved—and Su Nian remembered it clearly.
Su Nian left the contestants' section along with the other participants and headed toward the rooms prepared by the production team.
According to the original owner's memories, that would be her studio for the next week.
Su Nian's number was 13, and her studio was Room 13.
What a coincidence.
Su Nian thought to herself. She remembered the story of the Thirteen Flame-Chasers clearly and had even specifically looked into their settings and background before.
If they were talking about regret... then the Thirteen Flame-Chasers were unquestionably the best choice.
Of those thirteen people, who wasn't impossible to move on from?
The strongest had been made to endure the loneliness of saving the world.
The most sincere had been made to wear the mask of betrayal.
The most compassionate had been made a plaything of fate.
The most elegant had been stripped of the basis for pride.
The most complex had been unable to dance upon the stage.
The most insane had cast aside the meaning of survival.
The most enlightened had fallen into the trap of obsession.
The one who cared most had lost her only attachment.
The one who yearned most had shattered her ideals of the past.
The most studious had fallen endlessly into life and death.
The most innocent had wandered the dark sea of stars.
The humblest had sealed away the feelings she cherished.
The happiest had come to understand the true meaning of pain.
Those thirteen vivid figures still lived in Su Nian's mind.
Su Nian had already made up her mind. There was no need to hesitate further.
She had inherited the original owner's writing ability; the only difference was her way of thinking. Now that she had a ready-made story to draw from, she no longer had to hold herself back.
She would begin with these thirteen Flame-Chasers and recreate their former glory and regrets.
Su Nian would become a knife-wielding ghost and make the audience of this world experience the pain of being stabbed in the heart!
That settled it. For this creation themed around regret, she would write—
"The Past's Paradise."
Let the ballad no one had sung be sung once more.
Let the stories sealed away by history continue into a new chapter.
Let noble and pure souls set out upon their journey.
"Everything... came from the distant past."
What Exactly Was Regret?
Without a doubt, writing about the Thirteen Flame-Chasers fit the theme perfectly. No one could read their story without feeling regret.
Although Su Nian was a Captain of Regret and loved sharing pain with others, when everyone was in pain, then there was no pain at all.
But if she started with something too devastating, Su Nian was also afraid they wouldn't be able to take it.
She would have to slowly test their tolerance.
Starting with the underworld reunion from Honkai Impact 2? She was a little afraid the blades would drown her.
The Thirteen Heroes of Fire had a regretful story, but what they inspired in readers was more often sorrow and admiration.
Most importantly, this story wouldn't count as plagiarism here!
She could write it!
Love was the beginning of everything.
And their stories weren't limited to Elysium Everlasting.
Su Nian had plenty of stories to choose from. If regret was the theme, she could only say that she would never finish writing them all!
She simply couldn't finish them all!
It wasn't only because it happened to fit. It was also because this story was truly wonderful.
This was only the preparation stage. They had seven days to create, but creation had to be done step by step. One misstep would lead to more missteps.
The story of the Thirteen Flame-Chasers and the Previous Civilization was simply too long. Even if Su Nian had the text in front of her to copy from, she couldn't possibly finish it in such a short time.
She wanted to show more of it.
Su Nian picked up her pen and began organizing the plot and main storyline, recording the general contents in writing.
She would use her own love as the foundation and their story as the introduction.
She immersed herself completely, recalling their pasts.
Thirteen vivid lives would be reborn beneath her pen!
The other sixty-three creators besides Su Nian were no ordinary people either.
All the contestants were fervently creating inside their own studios.
The creative process wasn't like the audience imagined, where one flourish of the pen brought forth a masterpiece.
There were only creators suffering miserably from writer's block, and the clatter of keyboards blending into the surroundings like background noise.
Even though some contestants had just claimed in their livestreams that they already knew what theme they wanted to write.
They were still completely at a loss.
They couldn't begin writing so carelessly.
If they wrote the same thing, it would be far too homogenized. But taking a different path was immensely difficult and highly risky.
In a situation like this, gamblers would surely die!
Thinking of the big names from previous seasons, they might not have been overwhelmingly stunning, but by proceeding steadily, they had still won plenty of popularity.
At times like this, choosing a tried-and-true theme was the easiest way to guarantee a good score.
Nearly every contestant thought this way, yet they still began writing hesitantly, only to immediately delete everything they had just written without hesitation.
This process, within such a short period of time, was a test for all the contestants.
Simply watching the contestants create was clearly dull and boring.
Even if a few of them were wildly losing it in front of the cameras, putting smiles on the audience's faces, it was far from enough.
During this time, the host and judges remained where they were and carried out some appropriate interactions to keep the program lively.
Before you continue