"I mean, we could… but do you all not mind? Didn't you say before we'd just let things take their course?" Hokuto asked.
"Uh… I think that was what we agreed on," Kiana scratched her cheek, recalling the previous arrangement.
She had finally come up with a good idea, but it seemed it wouldn't be put into action after all.
At that moment, Himeko spoke up.
"The popularity of Honkai Impact 3rd has far exceeded our expectations. One day, our secret might suddenly be exposed by accident."
Himeko shared her thoughts: "I think we might as well choose the right moment to go public on our own terms."
Compared to being exposed passively by some unforeseen event, she preferred to take the initiative and keep the situation under control.
"What you said makes sense, Himeko."
Hokuto nodded, then looked at everyone else: "What do you all think?"
Seeing this, the girls began to share their opinions as well.
"I don't really care," someone said indifferently.
"I'm not into livestreaming, but Himeko has a point," someone said, as long as they didn't drag her into the stream.
"Hmph, looks like it's my time to shine," another one said with excitement.
The girls all had different things to say, but...
"Looks like you've reached a consensus."
Hokuto summed it up, his interest piqued as well.
He was just about to discuss with them who should go live when Honkai Impact 3rd updated with Chapter 14—
When a voice suddenly called out from outside.
"Hello? Is anyone here?"
"Hokuto? Hokuto?"
"..."
"Oh crap!" Hokuto remembered Raven. "I had an appointment with… Miss Cioara."
"Hokuto, you had an appointment? Is this another new character you've picked out?"
The girls were already very familiar with Hokuto's preferences—he liked turning real people into game characters. Some of the more observant ones had even begun noticing certain abnormalities.
However, they all kept it tacit between themselves and Hokuto, without speaking of it.
Just like Rita had once said:
Everyone has their own secrets.
Unless absolutely necessary, they wouldn't go prying.
More importantly, after this time spent together, they had come to trust Hokuto.
"Yeah, but she might not agree easily, so I might need you all to cooperate with me."
"Understood!" N voices in sync
...
Raven, who was walking through the miHoYo office, suddenly felt a chill down her spine.
She glanced around suspiciously.
She could still see signs of clutter on the desks—clearly, someone had been working just a moment ago.
But for some reason, they had all suddenly vanished.
"Excuse me? Is anyone here?" Raven called tentatively into the office.
"There is! Someone's here!"
Kiana came running out in a hurry, grabbing Raven's hand: "You're Miss Cioara, right? We've been waiting for you for so long!"
"Hm?" Raven blinked. This white-haired girl looked… kind of familiar?
Bronya and Mei rushed out and pulled Kiana away from Raven.
The two of them simultaneously raised a finger to their lips: "Shhh~~ Kiana, calm down. Don't say anything weird and scare her off."
"Oh oh oh." Paramecium nodded.
Raven closely observed the three and slowly realized something: "Aren't you Kiana and Mei?"
Because she was visiting miHoYo for a collaboration, she had studied Honkai Impact 3rd thoroughly beforehand. She knew all the in-game settings by heart.
Her body froze. "Could it be… our world is actually a bubble universe?!"
Kiana & Mei & Bronya: ???
"Mei, the guest seems even more…" Kiana trailed off.
"Kiana, don't be so direct. The guest is probably just… having a chuunibyou episode," Bronya said quietly.
"Oh, I see." Paramecium completely understood.
Raven: ...
Were these people pretending she didn't exist?
Still, she admitted she had let her imagination run wild just now.
She let out a breath. "Phew~~ So what's the actual situation?"
"We're employees of miHoYo. Due to some circumstances, we designed game characters based on ourselves. You'll see Himeko and the others soon."
Mei explained to Raven, "I'm not a Valkyrie, just an ordinary art designer at miHoYo."
"I'm miHoYo's programmer," Bronya said.
It was Kiana's turn. She puffed her chest out proudly and said: "I'm the scriptwriter at miHoYo!"
"What!? You're miHoYo's scriptwriter? You're the one who—"
"I'm the second scriptwriter~~" Kiana quickly distanced herself. "The main story has nothing to do with me!"
"Oh, that's right. I remember now, miHoYo's main writer is also miHoYo's boss." Raven recalled.
"..."
While the girls were chatting, Hokuto also arrived with the others.
He looked behind Raven. "Didn't you say there were a lot of people? Why is it just you?"
"I asked them to wait outside for now."
Raven paused, her gaze scanning over the girls of miHoYo one by one. "I'm a little afraid to let them in. It might get too noisy."
"No worries. miHoYo is usually pretty rowdy too," Hokuto replied calmly, showing no concern at all.
As if miHoYo was normally quiet.
Raven probably had no idea—between Paramecium, the Rice-Cooking Lady, Silly Goose… and the Fairy Miss who occasionally popped by—when all these oddballs gathered in one place, the kind of chaotic chemical reaction that could occur.
You could say, if miHoYo was ever completely quiet one day, that would be the shocking part.
It would make you wonder if the Honkai was arriving tomorrow and Kiana and the others were about to become Herrschers.
"Then I'll go get them…"
"I'll come with you."
Hokuto followed Raven outside.
A lavender-haired girl in her twenties immediately stood out—she was surrounded by a group of people.
"Everyone, don't say anything weird later, especially don't mention… that incident."
"That incident?"
"You know… just when our game was finally done and launched, and it seemed like Raven Studio was about to take off, but then…"
The lavender-haired girl's voice grew mournful: "Honkai Impact 3rd suddenly exploded in popularity. Our gameplay… unfortunately turned out to be way too similar, and our game flopped."
"Have you all forgotten what Teacher was like back then?"
"She didn't say a word, didn't show any expression, just paced back and forth through the room—running, tumbling… muttering 'It's fine, it's fine,' while huge tears streamed down her face."
Raven and Hokuto stood at the entrance to miHoYo, listening from afar as the lavender-haired girl reached the end of her tale.
"In the end, Teacher finally couldn't take it. She ran outside and wailed toward the edge of the sky—crying her heart out like a child…"
Raven & Hokuto: "..."