In her moment of excitement, she had caused Bronya to get hurt. Although Bronya didn't seem to mind much, Fu Hua was too embarrassed to ask for help grinding for an initial S-rank character anymore.
So... after apologizing profusely to Bronya, Fu Hua, in her capacity as a veteran player, guided Kiana, who wanted to get into the game, through the new player tutorial.
Kiana opened the character roster and saw rows upon rows of different versions of herself, her eyes sparkling with joy as she exclaimed, "Wow! I'm in this game! I look so pretty and cool!"
"That's right, because Ryn developed this game based on us... Look, there's also Mei, Bronya, and Kika..."
"Huh? Are Ryn's boobs that big?"
Kiana curiously swiped to Ryn's character profile and saw a buxom beauty who looked a lot like Ryn, with white bandages wrapped around her body.
"Ahem... because Honkai is a positive, upbeat beautiful girl game, I felt it wasn't quite appropriate for a male Valkyrie to appear, so I gender-bent myself..." Ryn, hearing Kiana discussing his in-game character design, quickly spoke up to explain.
Kiana looked at the female version of Ryn in the game, then back at the Ryn standing behind her.
"These characters are all supposed to be based on our battlesuits, right? But I don't think I've ever seen you dress like that, Ryn?"
"Uh... about that..." Ryn scratched his head awkwardly. He couldn't exactly say that this design was based on Penglaiji Ryn, could he?
"Ahem, this is just a normal school uniform! It was a design that the miHoYo company came up with on their own. I'm not sure what happened either!"
"Oh... it's a bit weird, looks very eighth-grade syndrome... but she's so pretty. I love, love, love Ryn, but what do I do if I love the female version of Ryn even more?"
"Ah, this..."
"By the way, if it's based on us, why isn't Class President Fu Hua in it?" Kiana asked curiously, scrolling through the characters and carefully searching for Fu Hua, but she couldn't find a trace of her. "That's strange. Even Big Sis Sakura and Aunt Himeko are here! Why not the class president?"
Hearing Kiana's question, both Fu Hua and Ryn broke out in a cold sweat. They exchanged glances, momentarily unsure of how to respond.
After a brief silence, they both spoke at once.
Fu Hua, with tears of pride in her eyes, said with a proud expression, "Kiana, you know my strength. A battlesuit can't define my power, so I can't be simply categorized by battlesuit ranks like you all. Secondly, my moves are ever-changing, each one containing a thousand variations, making it very difficult for the game to replicate my fighting style. That's probably why my character isn't available yet..."
Ryn said, somewhat awkwardly, "Because this is a beautiful girl game, and Fu Hua was mistaken for a male Valkyrie during the beta test, which caused some controversy. That's why Fu Hua's character hasn't been released yet."
"What! That's the reason!" Fu Hua exclaimed, then angrily grabbed Ryn by the collar. "I was looking forward to my character so much, and you're telling me you didn't release me because of that?!"
"How is that my fault? Go blame miHoYo's boss, Dawei-ge! I'm just responsible for providing the ideas and copyrights; the actual production is handled by miHoYo, a subsidiary of Schicksal."
"Then you should have told them I'm a Valkyrie too!"
"I did! But they said you're a femboy without the... goods!"
"What do you mean, a femboy without the goods! That's called a woman!"
——————————————
Fu Hua played Honkai Impact 3rd with Kiana for the entire day until it got dark, so Ryn decided to have Fu Hua stay for dinner.
At the dinner table, for a rare change, Fu Hua didn't exhibit her usual rule of not speaking while eating or sleeping. Instead, she chatted about the game with Kiana and Bronya while they ate.
Today, Fu Hua had gotten some alcohol from Himeko and had drunk several bottles. She was tipsy, her eyes and cheeks flushed red.
At noon, she had received the terrible news that the world saw her as a femboy. Then, in the afternoon, she had managed to ask Bronya to pull for an initial S-rank for her, but Bronya's answer was to just whale until you get it.
Whale for what! Fu Hua's heart sank when she heard Bronya's method. She skipped all the school's recreational activities every day, operated an excavator at a construction site in the morning, worked as a delivery person at noon, and then hauled bricks at the construction site at night. She worked multiple jobs a day, and all the money she earned was thrown into Honkai Impact 3rd without making a single ripple!
*Beep beep—*
A new mission notification popped up on the lens of Fu Hua's glasses.
It wasn't just Fu Hua; Ryn and Kiana also received the new mission notification at the same time.
Kiana first looked at her mission details, then turned to look at Ryn to see if his mission was the same as hers.
Ryn nodded. His mission was similar to Kiana's, with only some minor differences in the details.
Kiana then happily looked at Fu Hua, who also nodded to indicate that her mission was the same.
"Whoa! What is this! Me, plus Fu Hua and Ryn, the three of us? Does this mean HQ finally recognizes my strength as an S-rank Valkyrie and has assigned me a super mission just like Ryn's?!"
"Kiana, sorry to burst your bubble, but it's actually just a normal mission, which is why they're allowing you, an intern, to come along..."
Fu Hua finished speaking and brought up the details Kiana hadn't read carefully, making her take a closer look.
"In order to prevent the precious S-rank Valkyrie battlesuit from gathering dust, a special internship mission for Kiana Kaslana is hereby initiated..."
"I haven't really been letting it gather dust! During the last Anti-Entropy invasion and the battle against the Herrscher of Corruption, I made a huge contribution!" Kiana stuck out her tongue in embarrassment as she read the lines Fu Hua had specifically highlighted and read aloud.
Ryn: "Indeed. Maybe it's just to pad Kiana's resume to make it easier to promote you to S-rank Valkyrie. Otherwise, it would be like when I first started, and a bunch of Valkyries were unconvinced by me and Kika, these two S-rank Valkyries who popped up out of nowhere."
"Whatever, if worst comes to worst, we'll just have Kiana beat them into submission like we did back then~"
Kika, having eaten her fill, lay back in her chair, picked her teeth, and then let out a burp next to Mei. Mei kicked her chair, causing her to lose her balance and fall to the floor.
Ryn helplessly pulled Kika up from the floor. This girl was all talk and no game. He heard that last time Kika dragged Mei into the training grounds to teach her a lesson, Mei demanded a close-quarters fight and then chased her around like a groundhog with a wooden sword.
"Alright, alright, that's enough goofing around and celebrating. Since nobody has any objections to the mission, let's finish eating quickly and get ready to go! Kiana, eat up. Once the mission starts, you might not be able to eat your fill at every meal."
"Mhm!" Kiana nodded, then began to inhale her food like a vacuum cleaner.