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

[She said it would help Raven bring the person she was waiting for to her side.]

[But now... the pendant's whereabouts are unknown.]

[However, they had just met a friend who was very good at "finding things"...]

Something broken? Must be Chijie's doing!

Feeling unwell? Must be Mobius's doing!

Something lost? Must be Pardofelis's doing!

Rumors spread for a reason sometimes... The Flame-Chasers all had their flaws. Though they were heroes, no one demanded they be perfect.

[Pardofelis had just returned from elsewhere and was indeed in her shop. As soon as she saw Mei, she enthusiastically pushed her wares.]

[...There were quite a lot of items on the stall, and some were clearly recognizable as belonging to other Flame-Chasers.]

["To be honest, I just finished inventorying the shop and dug out some unsold oddities from a few years back. I'm planning to sell them cheap now. See if anything catches your eye..."]

[However, Raiden Mei spotted the pendant Raven had described among the pile of goods at a single glance.]

["There is something that interests me—that gold pendant. It's quite unique."]

[Pardofelis hadn't caught on yet, her slick merchant spiel flowing endlessly. "Everyone's bought something that looks useless but just feels oddly familiar, right? That's fate at first sight."]

["It does feel familiar. I recently promised Raven I'd help find her lost pendant, and this one looks exactly like it."]

["Uh... ah? Well, what a coincidence! Never thought Sister Raven liked this kind of pendant too. Good taste! Good taste!"]

Pardofelis had realized it but still forced calm, showing no cracks. That's what it meant to be an "actor."

Su Nian sighed inwardly.

[Pardofelis shoved the pendant into Mei's hand.]

[Before Mei could press the issue, a mature female voice rang out, directly pouring into her mind.]

["...It's you. You've finally come."]

[Mei's body suddenly went weak, and the scenery before her dimmed. As Pardofelis panickedly called out "Sister Mei," she collapsed.]

She was used to stocking goods from Raven, but Raiden Mei collapsing directly—suspected "insurance fraud."

It scared Meow-Meow half to death.

Most critically, Raiden Mei hadn't paid yet.

[Raiden Mei's consciousness entered the prison Raven had described. It was pitch black, with nothing at all... Was this the Deepest Place?]

["Come here... strange traveler... come closer to me... I have been waiting for your arrival all along."]

[In the shadows, only her figure was visible—her peaks seen, but not her face. Yet the power she displayed left Raiden Mei deeply puzzled.]

["Strange traveler, can you tell me your name?"]

["Raiden Mei." The words had barely left her mouth when Raiden Mei's body trembled violently. She had answered the question without knowing why.]

["[Please] trust me. Neither I nor this prison... bears you any ill will."]

[Intuition told Mei... the woman before her was very dangerous. But... she couldn't help wanting to believe her words... What was this...]

["It's alright, Mei. I understand... There is still a wall standing between us."]

[She... knew what Mei was thinking.]

[From the very beginning, Raiden Mei's consciousness had been slipping from her control. No... she had to find a way... to stay lucid...]

["It's fine, Mei. Relax... Listen to my words, close your eyes..."]

[Her body moved according to the instructions without her consent.]

The clues Su Nian had given earlier were complete, and now this segment practically shoved the answer in their faces.

There was no need to understand exactly what form the [Law of Retribution] took.

The concept of the Deepest Place had already been clarified.

They just needed to fit the pieces together.

This person had to be Aponia—Raiden Mei already knew that.

This power had to be the Law of Retribution! And this segment was something every viewer recognized.

Indeed, revealing things too early would kill anticipation.

But by this point, anticipation was already more than sufficient. Aponia's mystique had already built the atmosphere perfectly.

Instead, having some plot answers clearly hinted but not directly stated, letting them "guess" on their own, was far more engaging.

Welt nodded in approval.

"Not blindly pursuing inscrutability, but leaking some special setting content in advance—it does make things much easier to understand."

This was a question of audience.

They had assumed Su Nian's earlier Kevin-perspective writing was a complete story for a reason.

Even though the title and synopsis Su Nian wrote didn't seem closely tied to Kevin, they still thought so.

All these misunderstandings stemmed from the sheer volume of content Su Nian had provided.

A fully fleshed-out world, power system, internal organizational structure, hostile factions, internal conflicts...

All of it could be pulled out and told as a complete story.

Some big names in the film industry were even dangling promises, saying the Binding Tragedy could be made into a standalone feature film...

But the main text Su Nian had drafted separately was about the Past's Paradise as visited by those from later generations.

This section was dense and difficult to grasp. Many authors with a strong command of the main plot favored this approach—saving the sudden clarity for the end, delivering a powerful payoff to the reader.

But at the same time, this style of writing was also filtering its audience.

Many things didn't come down to whether the story was good or not.

It came down to whether it could reach a wide audience.

The experience from Kevin's perspective that Su Nian had written earlier was exactly like that—easy to understand, yet still exciting enough.

But during the livestream, Su Nian had appropriately spoiled some of the setting details, turning what seemed like nonsense into something anyone who followed from the start could understand.

A work should never aim to filter out as many readers as possible.

Some catchy, brainwashing songs spread far and wide precisely because of their simplicity.

"You love me, I love you, xxxx sweet and true~"

Back in the day, that song swept through every street and alley of Shenzhou with just those few words.

Beyond the youth, even the elderly and children knew it by heart.

When the general public can easily accept something, the work's future market becomes much broader.

The audience, who had originally been watching Raiden Mei run around collecting clues and meeting the Flame-Chasers, now finally felt the payoff from the plot.

Excitedly, they typed the answers in the barrage.

That was it—Su Nian already had fame and popularity backing her. While more difficult plotlines weren't a major issue, now the audience could participate too.

Joining in on discussions about the work, analyzing the story—the more discussion there was, the hotter the topic became, naturally pushing the popularity even higher.

But the real problem was that Su Nian hadn't revealed a single bit of the actual plot!

The plot was what truly mattered. Spoiling the setting was just a trivial thing!

Aponia approached Raiden Mei on her own, but speaking would only raise too many questions for her, so she chose to say little...

What exactly was she hiding?!

I'm emo. My laptop broke.

The power button lights up, but the screen stays black. Restarting didn't help either. It's dead!

Chapter 53: Faced with a Raiden Mei who wanted something, Elysia's request was...

[Aponia's intentions were never clear. She would often pull Raiden Mei's consciousness away, taking her to the Deepest Place, but only to talk—nothing more.]

[After being "locked in the dark room" by Aponia twice in a row, Raiden Mei had to figure out Aponia's true intentions. Through conversations with other Flame-Chasers, Mei learned that to reach the Deepest Place, she needed Elysia's help.]

[Faced with Raiden Mei, who was so eager to reach the Deepest Place that she exposed her own leverage and let herself be controlled... Elysia's request was...]

[Elysia put on a troubled expression, claiming it was difficult for her and that she needed Mei's assistance. Raiden Mei was about to agree when she noticed Elysia's gaze fixed on her—just like always...]

[Elysia's eyes were full of teasing and anticipation. They slowly moved upward, upward... finally stopping at just the right angle.]

[There was nothing there but her pair of horns.]

[Raiden Mei recalled the recording from the loudspeaker earlier: "I really want to touch her horns... I'm so curious, so curious!"]

[This could be considered... a payoff? Elysia's unwavering obsession with her horns.]

[To uncover the truth and enter the Deepest Place, this was just a small sacrifice...]

["Mmm..." Elysia was savoring the sensation.]

["..." Raiden Mei endured the discomfort, her breathing becoming uneven, laced with a slight tremor.]

This was one of Mei's rare "red-hot" moments.

Parts like this, which were extra compared to normal humans, were often the most sensitive.

Like a catgirl's ears or tail—scenes of touching such sensitive spots usually appeared in doujinshi.

In the game, you could tell from the voice acting that the lewd girl had perfectly captured Raiden Mei's suppressed discomfort.

But human imagination was limitless.

With just this much content, it was enough to fill in the missing details of the story.

[After paying a certain price, Elysia did her best to open the path to the Deepest Place for Raiden Mei, but problems kept cropping up.]

[There, Raiden Mei met two more Flame-Chasers, Cosmo and Griseo—both equally peculiar.]

[After all the effort to reach the deepest part of the Paradise, she found that the door to the Deepest Place hadn't opened. If Aponia was unwilling, they couldn't enter.]

[But when Mei returned to the Paradise Hall, Aponia once again pulled her into the Deepest Place on her own initiative.]

[This time, Aponia confessed her true purpose. She wanted to see what kind of person this Herrscher, who had come to this place as a successor, truly was... and whether the changes she brought to the Paradise were for good or ill.]

[She had already found her answer. At this moment, her heart was filled with... regret and pity.]

[Yes, regret and pity. Aponia told Raiden Mei what she had "seen."]

["If I had not witnessed it with my own eyes... how I wish that ten days from now, that tragedy could be avoided..."]

["Your arrival will bring the Paradise to an end. None of us wish to see this place reduced to rubble because of you. For that reason, I will have no choice but to..."]

["End your life with my own hands."]

[Aponia could see fate. The fate intertwined between the two of them would conclude in this form.]

[Death in ten days? No. Raiden Mei never believed in fate. Her destiny should be held in her own hands.]

Aponia could indeed see fate but could not change the outcome—but that didn't mean she couldn't deceive people.

Before this segment of The Past's Paradise's story was released, Honkai Impact 3rd had already launched something rather unexpected.

"Post-Honkai Odyssey"

And Raiden Mei's future lay within it.

Post-Honkai Odyssey was Raiden Mei's immunity card. She could only be stabbed in that story, not killed here.

Do you understand the weight of an immunity card?

At this moment, the audience's perspective was completely unaware of this. They knew nothing of those truths, never considered whether Aponia's words were true or false, nor did they know that Raiden Mei possessed the Post-Honkai Odyssey immunity card.

Aponia had personally prophesied Raiden Mei's death. The story's atmosphere had already turned suspenseful.

A death countdown... ten days!

They only knew one thing...

Su Nian was about to start swinging the blade again!