She said it would help Raven bring the person she was waiting for before her.
But now... the pendant was nowhere to be found.
Fortunately, they had just met a friend who was very good at "finding things"...
Something broke? Chijie must have done it!
Feeling unwell? Mobius must have done it!
Something went missing? Pardofelis must have done it!
Sometimes, rumors spread for a reason... The Flame-Chasers all had their own flaws. They were heroes, but no one had ever demanded that they be perfect.
Pardo had just returned from elsewhere, and sure enough, she was in her shop. The moment she saw Mei, she enthusiastically began promoting her wares.
...There really were quite a lot of things on the stall. Some of them clearly belonged to other Flame-Chasers.
"To be honest, I just finished taking inventory. I dug out some one-of-a-kind items that didn't sell a few years ago, and I'm planning to let them go cheap now. Take a look and see if there's anything..."
However, Raiden Mei spotted the pendant Raven had described at a glance, right in the middle of the pile.
"There is something here that interests me—the golden pendant. It's quite distinctive."
Pardo had yet to notice. The lines every unscrupulous merchant had at the ready came pouring out. "Everyone's bought something that looks useless, but somehow just feels strangely familiar, right? That's what they call fate between buyer and item."
"It does feel familiar. I recently promised Raven I'd help her find her lost pendant, and it happens to look exactly like yours."
"Uh... huh? Th-then that really is a coincidence! I didn't expect Raven to like this kind of pendant too. What fine taste! Fine taste!"
Pardo had already realized it, but she still forced herself to stay calm and showed no cracks. That was what it meant to be an "actor."
Su Nian sighed inwardly.
Pardofelis stuffed the pendant into Mei's hand in one swift motion.
Before Mei could hold her accountable, a mature woman's voice rang out and poured directly into her mind.
"...It's you. You've finally come."
Mei's body suddenly lost all strength, and the scene before her dimmed. Just as Pardo cried out for Sister Mei in panic, she collapsed.
She had merely habitually sourced her goods from Raven, but Raiden Mei had suddenly fallen over, seemingly trying to scam her.
It scared Meow-Meow half to death.
Most importantly, Raiden Mei had not paid her yet.
Raiden Mei's consciousness entered the prison Raven had spoken of. It was pitch-black, with nothing in sight... Was this The Deepest Place?
"Come here... stranger from afar... come a little closer... I have been waiting for your arrival."
Within the shadows, only her body could be seen. Her face remained hidden, though the peaks of her figure were visible. Yet the ability she displayed left Raiden Mei deeply confused.
"Stranger from afar, may I know your name?"
"Raiden Mei." The instant the words left her mouth, Raiden Mei's body jolted. For some reason, she had answered the woman's question.
"[Please] believe me. Neither I nor this prison bears you any ill will."
Mei's instincts told her... this woman was dangerous. Yet... she could not stop herself from wanting to believe her words... What exactly was this...?
"It's all right, Mei. I understand... There are still walls standing between us."
She... knew what Mei was thinking.
From the very beginning, Raiden Mei's consciousness had not been entirely under her control. No... she had to find a way... to stay awake...
"It's all right, Mei. Relax... Listen to my words, and close your eyes..."
Her body moved according to the woman's instructions without her control.
The clues Su Nian had laid out earlier were incredibly complete. This segment practically shoved the answer into their faces.
There was no need to understand what form the Law of Retribution actually took.
The concept of The Deepest Place had already been made clear as well.
All they needed was to match each clue to its proper place.
This person had to be Aponia. Raiden Mei already knew that.
This ability had to be the Law of Retribution! And by this point, every viewer knew it too.
Indeed, revealing certain things too early could make it difficult to create anticipation.
However, anticipation had already built up more than enough here. Aponia's mystery had long since established the atmosphere.
Instead, when certain story answers were plainly apparent but not directly stated, allowing the audience to "guess" them themselves made them more engaged.
Welt nodded approvingly.
"Rather than blindly pursuing unfathomable mystery, revealing part of the special setting in advance does make things much easier to understand."
This was a matter of audience.
There was a reason they had assumed the Kevin perspective Su Nian wrote earlier was a complete story in itself.
Even though the title and synopsis of Su Nian's work did not seem particularly connected to Kevin, they had still believed so.
All of those misunderstandings stemmed from how much material Su Nian had provided.
A complete worldview, a power system, the internal structure of organizations, hostile factions, internal conflicts...
Any of that could have been taken out and made into a complete story on its own.
Even major figures in the film and television industry had made grand promises, saying Binding Tragedy could be adapted into a standalone blockbuster...
Yet the main text Su Nian had drafted separately was about a visitor from the future arriving at The Past's Paradise.
This part of the story was obscure and difficult to understand. Many authors with an exceptional grasp of main plots liked writing this way, because when the truth was finally revealed, it gave readers extremely strong positive feedback.
But at the same time, that style also filtered out readers.
For many things, what mattered was not whether the story was good.
It was whether it could reach the masses.
The Kevin perspective Su Nian had written earlier was like that. It was not difficult to understand, and it was exciting enough.
But during the livestream, Su Nian had appropriately spoiled some setting details, turning what had seemed absurd into something anyone who had seriously followed from the beginning could understand.
A work was not better simply because it filtered out more readers.
Some catchy, brainwashing songs spread far and wide precisely because they were simple.
You love me, I love you, xxxx sweet as honey~
Back then, that song had become popular across every street and alley in Shenzhou with just a few words.
Not only young people, but the elderly and children knew it and could hum along.
Only when the public accepted a work easily could it have a broader market in the future.
The viewers who had originally watched Raiden Mei run around gathering clues and meeting Flame-Chasers were now receiving positive feedback from the story instead.
They eagerly posted their answers in the bullet comments.
That was right. Su Nian already had fame and popularity behind her. More difficult plotlines would not have caused any major problems, but now the viewers could participate as well.
They could take part in discussing the work, analyzing the plot. As discussion rose, its popularity would naturally climb to another level.
Yet Su Nian had not revealed a single thing about the story's real mystery!
The plot was what mattered most. Spoiling the setting was only a trivial matter!
Aponia had approached Raiden Mei of her own accord, but speaking would only make Mei raise too many questions, 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 does nothing. Restarting doesn't help either. I'm doomed!
When Raiden Mei sought something, Elysia's request was...
Aponia's purpose had always remained unclear. She would often pull Raiden Mei's consciousness away and bring her to The Deepest Place, merely to converse without taking any other action.
After Raiden Mei was "locked in a dark room" by Aponia twice in a row, she naturally had to uncover Aponia's true intentions. Through conversations with the other Flame-Chasers, Mei learned that to reach The Deepest Place, she had to obtain Elysia's help.
Faced with a Raiden Mei so eager to reach The Deepest Place that she voluntarily exposed her weakness and allowed herself to be manipulated... Elysia's request was...
Elysia looked troubled and claimed that it was somewhat difficult for her, so she needed Mei's assistance. Raiden Mei was just about to agree when she noticed the gaze Elysia cast toward her, as usual...
Ai Li's eyes were filled with teasing and expectation as they slowly moved upward, higher and higher... before finally stopping at just the right angle.
There was nothing there except for her pair of horns.
Raiden Mei recalled Elysia's recording from the loudspeaker. "I really want to touch her horns... I'm so curious, so curious!"
Perhaps this counted as... paying off earlier foreshadowing? Elysia had always remained devoted to her horns.
To uncover the truth and enter The Deepest Place, this was only a small sacrifice...
"Mmm..." Elysia carefully savored the sensation.
"..." Raiden Mei endured the discomfort. Her breathing grew ragged, carrying a faint tremble.
This was one of Mei's rare moments of "blushing with rage."
Extra body parts like these were often the most sensitive.
Like a catgirl's ears and tail, scenes involving touching such sensitive areas usually appeared in adult doujinshi.
In the game, the voice acting alone made it possible to hear how perfectly the lewd girl portrayed Raiden Mei's effort to endure the discomfort.
But human imagination was limitless.
That little bit alone was enough to fill in all the missing details of the story.
After paying a certain price, Elysia did her utmost to open a path for Raiden Mei to The Deepest Place, but problems kept arising.
Raiden Mei met two more Flame-Chasers there, Cosmo and Griseo. They were two more unusual Flame-Chasers.
After going to great lengths to reach the deepest part of Elysian Realm, they found that the door leading to The Deepest Place had not opened. If Aponia was unwilling, they could not enter.
But when Mei returned to Paradise Hall, Aponia once again took the initiative to pull her into The Deepest Place.
This time, Aponia confessed her purpose. She wanted to see what kind of person the Herrscher who had arrived as a successor truly was... and whether the changes Mei brought to Elysian Realm would be good or bad.
She had already received her answer. At that moment, her heart was filled with... regret and sorrow.
That was right, regret and sorrow. Aponia told Raiden Mei what she had "seen."
"If I had not seen it with my own eyes... how I wish that tragedy ten days from now did not have to happen..."
"Your arrival will bring about Elysian Realm's destruction. None of us wish to see this place reduced to rubble because of you. Therefore, I will have no choice but to..."
"End your life with my own hands."
Aponia could see fate. The fate entwined between the two of them would come to an end in this manner.
Death in ten days? No, Raiden Mei had never believed in fate. Her fate should be held in her own hands.
Aponia truly could see fate but could not change the outcome, yet no one said she could not lie.
Before this Elysian Realm storyline appeared, Honkai Impact 3rd had also introduced something rather unexpected.
"Post-Honkai Odyssey"
Raiden Mei's future lay within it.
Post-Honkai Odyssey was Raiden Mei's get-out-of-death-free card. She could only get stabbed in Post-Honkai Odyssey, not be killed here.
Did they understand the weight of that get-out-of-death-free card?
At this moment, the viewers knew nothing of this. They did not understand those truths, had never considered whether Aponia's words were true or false, and did not know that Raiden Mei possessed the Post-Honkai Odyssey death immunity.
Aponia had personally foretold Raiden Mei's date of death, and the story's atmosphere had now become suspenseful.
A death countdown... ten days!
They only knew one thing...
Su Nian was about to start killing people off again!
Before you continue