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

Su Nian was so skilled at this that Welt instinctively assumed it was her specialty.

No, Su Nian wasn't just good at this subject matter.

The story felt almost naturally formed, the rhythm of psychology and writing perfectly fused together.

On top of that, the characters Su Nian established were all extremely distinct.

With these foundations, every sacrifice he wrote felt completely reasonable, using the aftermath of battle to indirectly describe the cruelty and the power of the Herrscher.

The Thirteen Heroes of Fire—Welt had originally guessed these thirteen people were all protagonists, joining forces to defeat the Honkai.

Then Su Nian went snap and killed one of them off.

Before writing her death, he even used her sister to torment her again.

Cruel! This was far too cruel!

Just how much damage was this to a siscon?

But Su Nian controlled the book's pacing; even without seeing the livestream chat, he had already predicted the audience's emotions.

Su Nian wasn't getting flamed. Instead, the audience's fire was all focused on the soldiers of the Moth of the Fire who had disobeyed orders.

At the moment Sakura's life faded, he once again solidified her image, making the audience grow fond of her character.

Yet after Sakura passed, Su Nian also displayed the hopeless state of civilization he had written to be so bleak.

But by then, the audience was no longer angry. If they put themselves in that world, they could only feel how weak and powerless humanity was before the Honkai.

Kevin stood on the scorched earth, amid the ruins of the city, using environmental contrast to create a sense of helplessness.

But this didn't break Kevin.

Instead, it only strengthened his resolve to fight the Honkai.

Although Welt didn't know what further foreshadowing Kevin's renewed determination here was meant to set up.

Still, if a sentence appeared a second time in a different form, it had to be extremely important.

As if dissecting the story like reading comprehension, Welt could only feel awe.

What kind of stories would Su Nian bring next?

Welt didn't dare think further!

This god-tier talent had actually crossed his path—Welt even felt that Su Nian should be sitting in the judges' seat instead.

Although Welt was an industry insider, he wasn't a specialist.

It was also because everyone else in Anti-Entropy was busy.

Only he, an animation designer obsessed with mecha, had been pushed out to be a judge.

Faced with Su Nian's work, he felt a bit ashamed of his own inadequacy.

But it also strengthened his desire to recruit Su Nian into Anti-Entropy.

[Attention all contestants: the official creation time for the competition has passed eight hours. Please arrange appropriate rest time for yourselves. If needed, contact the production team at any time.]

The broadcast played again. This was the third...

No, if it was the third bell, how could eight hours have passed?

Su Nian suddenly looked up. So fast... four hours had gone by?

How had he not noticed at all?

Su Nian had been so absorbed in writing earlier that he hadn't even heard the third broadcast.

Today's task was officially over.

The other contestants were probably about to start resting too, right?

After all, there was still a difference between contestants and workhorses. The original owner's memories had recorded some "writer's norms."

Including but not limited to scratching heads, suffering mortal anguish—these most basic pains.

Writing consumed immense mental energy. Being able to maintain eight hours of writing a day was impressive, but it was basically impossible to be in full creative mode for all eight hours; you had to slack off quite a bit...

Su Nian didn't need to look now. After the other contestants got through these high-pressure eight hours, their mental states were probably already wrecked, and they just wanted to die.

And the reality was just as Su Nian had predicted. As soon as the broadcast ended, the doors to some contestants' studios opened, and they all ran out to relax and ease their discomfort.

But Su Nian's situation was different from theirs.

He was relaxing his body while still recalling the plot. Under this state of recharging, his condition was excellent.

He could easily fight for a few more hours.

These past few hours, his body and mind had been exceptionally joyful.

After all, when it came to The Past's Paradise, the first thing that came to mind was...

Elysia!

Why? Because the name of The Past's Paradise was Elysia!

The English name of The Past's Paradise was Elysian Realm, meaning the domain of paradise, and Elysia's English name was Elysia, and her stigma was "real me."

The name "The Past's Paradise" means Elysia, the True Self.

Elysia's sweet words made Su Nian unconsciously sink into them again.

The main storyline of The Past's Paradise was advanced alongside Elysia.

As an Elysia fan, this was no burden at all.

It was happiness!

If Su Nian were writing a story he didn't love or even cherish, he wouldn't remember it so vividly, and might even feel pain from deducing the plot.

The text volume was simply too much.

But now... alright, time to start secretly outdoing the other contestants.

Su Nian flexed his wrists, satisfied with what he had written.

He walked to the computer and typed the concept of The Past's Paradise into the setting collection.

[The Past's Paradise]

[The Past's Paradise: The idea was proposed by Elysia, funded by Eden, with technical support from Vill-V. At that time, it was called the Golden Courtyard. Later, it was gifted to Mobius for maintenance.]

[Aponia sought out Vill-V and merged herself into The Past's Paradise.]

This was the origin of The Past's Paradise, and what followed was the "meaning" of its existence.

[The Past's Paradise is a memory palace, housing the souls of the thirteen Flame Chasers from the previous era of the Honkai.]

[In a corner of the World Serpent's sacrificial grounds, a dim, winding corridor snakes out, bending a hundred times, its end leading to a massive facility buried deep underground.]

[In this profound subterranean realm, the memories of the last thirteen Flame Chasers of the Previous Civilization are sealed.]

The existence of The Past's Paradise had no precise definition; its meaning varied completely in everyone's heart.

To Kevin, it might be more of a symbol—a record of the Flame Chasers' history in the world;

To Elysia, a storybook chronicling an era's journey and the full lives of thirteen people;

To Chijie, a continuation of war;

To Eden, a sedimentation of beautiful bygone days;

To Mobius, an extension of the Stigmata Project, the vessel of her lifelong dreams and pursuits;

Recording those truths buried by history wasn't just to warn future generations.

The Flame Chasers also sought to pass on the glory of being Flame Chasers.

There were many views, and there was never a single standard answer.

Now, the meaning Su Nian wrote was what he believed: the moment that engraved the past.

It would tell the audience that here... lay the secret of the Thirteenth Herrscher of the Previous Civilization.

Chapter 39, The Battle of The End

After writing down the concept of The Past's Paradise, Su Nian shifted to Kevin's storyline.

He typed out the content he had originally planned.

He wanted to first briefly introduce the story of the Previous Civilization.

[Vill-V publicly announced that Kevin had slain the Thirteenth Herrscher alone, and humanity once again saw a faint glimmer of hope.]

The Thirteenth Herrscher—just glossed over like that!

Su Nian didn't even tell them that Elysia was dead.

He was a great guy; back in the day, that line "Elysia is dead" had been used by Ship Ghouls to stab people's hearts.

Methods included but weren't limited to voice messages, videos, and spamming the message in chat groups.

Such ghouls!

Not like him—he only needed to stab deep enough to be unforgettable.

Su Nian chose to keep this part hidden and let the audience guess for themselves.

But The Past's Paradise did directly tell players that Elysia was dead, just not the cause of death.

At the time, the causes of death for several Flame Chasers were unknown.

Initially, it was only known that at least two Flame Chasers had died on the moon.

Later, that number kept increasing, until the fate of every Flame Chaser—alive or dead—was fully revealed.

Faced with Su Nian's deliberate concealment, many viewers were extremely puzzled.

The Thirteenth Herrscher just died that hastily?

[Fastest Herrscher death in history has a new record holder; the Thousand-Man Herrscher expresses satisfaction.]

[The Previous Civilization is beyond ruin; popping out another Herrscher really doesn't know what to do, huh?]

[Huh? Then why not end it with the number thirteen?]

[Doesn't the number 13 represent bad luck, misfortune, and evil in Western culture?]

[Then why don't you mention that Su Nian is from Shenzhou, and that the 4th and 14th Herrschers are unlucky?]

[Brothers are looking forward to your work, and you're playing mind games with everyone.]

[In previous seasons, there was a big shot whose writing technique was exquisite, but all the reasoning content he wrote was read through, which had a pretty bad impact on the work.]

[Ah, then I understand. I hate spoilers too.]

[Intuition tells me this is something very important.]

Long-time viewers of the show stepped in to explain, which barely helped the other audience members understand Su Nian's thinking.

Su Nian's foreshadowing!

In the previous story, Su Nian had been digging holes the whole time, and now she was digging one to fill another, though what purpose it would serve was unclear.

The Previous Civilization ended with fourteen Herrschers.

The story began with Elysia and ended with Elysia.

Before the Herrscher of the End, the story of the Previous Civilization had already concluded. Against the End, they had no chance of victory.

But they were warriors.

Saving the world was no easy task, but that was no reason for them to give up lightly.

Hector knew the kingdom would fall, and Achilles knew he was walking toward death...

Yet both of them still stepped onto the battlefield without hesitation.

The Flame-Chasers of the Previous Civilization were the same.

Cosmo, who was originally supposed to execute the Ark Project and leave Earth, wanted to stay and fight. Even knowing the path ahead held certain death, he refused to be a deserter.

Pardo, the weakest of the Thirteen Flame-Chasers, had only wanted to live a good life, yet she too joined this battle.