Hokuto: ???
"Why are you all looking at me?"
"Otto's filming is already done, and you're still trying to pin it on him?"
"No."
Theresa was the first to shake her head.
Seeing this, Hokuto nodded slowly. "I knew it wasn't that bad..."
Theresa's next words floated in immediately after: "We're looking at you not because you voice Otto, but because you're the scriptwriter."
She crossed her arms and lifted her chin. "This blame clearly shouldn't fall on Otto, but on you!"
"..."
Hokuto genuinely wanted to argue back, but after thinking it over, he found himself at a loss for words.
"Ahem."
He coughed twice, smoothly sidestepping the topic.
"I simply wanted to deliver this emotional 'resonance' that can truly touch the heart."
Everyone: "..."
"You believe that yourself?" someone asked with a suspicious expression.
"Of course."
"...Really? Then why do you look so pleased?"
Hokuto blinked at the remark.
Suddenly, he remembered a line from Su in a script Elysia had once shown him.
It seemed quite fitting here.
"Please don't be misled by appearances. Internally, I am actually extremely anxious and in great pain."
"...Doesn't look like it at all."
...
Back at the MiHoYo studio—
While Theresa and the others were "discussing" with Hokuto whether he was truly anxious and pained inside—
Elysia was still seriously progressing through the main story.
In the plot, after hearing Mei's words, Su roughly understood her thoughts and decided to act alongside her.
He linked his consciousness to Mei's, accompanying her in visiting the other Flame-Chasers.
The first person Mei sought out was Eden.
At this moment, Eden had apparently just had some wine and still seemed slightly tipsy.
"Eden, have you... seen Elysia?"
"I have something I want to ask her, but she seems to have vanished—I've already searched many places."
Although Mei's question was quite direct,
Eden, being currently intoxicated and unaware of Elysia's disappearance, didn't think much of it.
She cheerfully replied that Elysia sometimes liked to disappear on purpose, to enjoy watching how people missed her.
Because...
"Elysia really cares about how everyone feels when she's not around."
"I've seen her alone at her desk, pondering deeply… When I asked what she was doing, she said... 'I want to write a long letter that anyone who reads it will remember me by.'"
At this point, Elysia paused for a moment.
A long letter... That was never something the real her had considered.
Was it because she lived in a world so close to destruction? Though she always put on a cheerful face, perhaps deep down, she was never certain whether she would survive tomorrow.
Is that why she wanted to leave something behind? To avoid being forgotten?
She suddenly felt a little sorry for in-game Elysia... Hmm, she wanted to be her friend...
Ahem. Wanting to be with herself... sounds kind of weird, doesn't it?
Maybe better not.
If 'Otto'-san found out, he'd surely mock her for being so excited that she even fancied herself.
Elysia: Still, who told Elysia to be such a flower-like lovely girl~♪
She took it all in stride.
But not the viewers in the livestream.
[I don't know why, but this scene makes me feel really sad.]
[I remembered how Elysia told Mei before parting—begging her not to forget her. Her greatest fear was being forgotten.]
[Please don't make me recall the happy times I had with Elysia again... It hurts too much now.]
The players were emotionally stirred by this part of the plot.
Elysia quickly collected her thoughts and continued on with the story.
After hearing Eden's response, Mei's voice grew slightly heavier.
"Then... Eden."
"What if Elysia really disappears forever—hypothetically, I mean."
Even though Mei emphasized "hypothetically," Eden almost broke down when she heard it.
Eden: "..."
Her lips moved, but no words came.
Or perhaps her voice was swallowed entirely by something unseen.
A visible "gravitational force" surrounded her.
[Is this... Eden almost losing control of her emotions? But she suppressed her voice with Star of Eden?]
[Actually, the thing Eden holds is called 'Harmonic Entropy.' The current era calls it the Star of Eden likely because Su renamed it to commemorate Eden.]
[Thanks for the lore, but... was Eden really about to break down and then forced herself to calm down?]
[That's what I think too. After all, Eden and Elysia were the closest of friends. There's no way she could accept something happening to Elysia.]
Eden's reaction fully confirmed what the audience suspected.
Her voice changed.
No longer was it—using Elysia's words—the soft, cotton-candy-sweet, slightly tipsy tone.
It grew faintly cold.
Clearly, the wine had been scared out of her system.
And Mei had only said "if."
"Miss Mei, in my eyes... that kind of hypothesis is simply impossible."
Eden's words were so firm.
Mei ended up swallowing everything else she wanted to say.
After a brief goodbye,
She found Hua in the Realm.
"May I take up a bit of your time, Hua?"
"Please do. Time means little to us."
Uh...
To be honest, the players felt this line sounded oddly like a flag.
Could it be that after this... they'd never have time to chat again?
...Calm down. Don't overthink it.
Mei directly asked Hua what would happen if all memories were deleted.
She didn't even care if Hua suspected anything.
Put simply, Mei was just different when it came to the class president.
She had a kind of extraordinary trust in Hua.
And because Mei wasn't trying to hide anything at all, even Hua—the most straightforward of the Flame-Chasers—picked up on something unusual.
"Mei... something happened, didn't it?"
Mei nodded: "Sorry, due to some reasons, I can't tell you everything. But I won't hide the fact that I'm hiding something."
Only in front of Hua did the roles seem to reverse—this time, Mei was the cryptic one.
Fortunately, Hua was used to dealing with cryptic people.
She'd lived in a Realm full of cryptic personalities for fifty thousand years.
So not only did she not mind, she even gave Mei a clear answer:
If all memories are deleted, the memory self will vanish, and theoretically, there's no way to recover.
With her answer, Mei moved on to find the next Flame-Chaser.
On the road, she—as always—encountered waves of monsters.
Not wanting to delay the journey, Su decided to offer Mei a little assistance.
Wheel of Karma
Right in front of Mei, Su activated his ability.
And then... all the monsters vanished.
Players: ?
Mei: ?
"You call this... 'a little assistance'?"
Su modestly replied, "A petty trick. Not worth mentioning."
[Assistance: eliminating every monster to help the teammate win.]
[Su: I'm just a doctor. I don't have their kind of strength (）]
[There aren't many combat specialists among the Flame-Chasers. We're just doctors, researchers, artists, painters... that's all.]
[Actually this fits the setting of Honkai Impact 3rd. Don't forget—little Sentience is also support.]
Elysia got curious: "The Flame-Chasers seem really strong. Mei feels way out of her league."
"You can't put it like that," Vill-V joined in. "Su is probably only this strong within the Realm due to its unique rules."
"It's not representative of real-world strength."
"Ohhh, I see."
Elysia nodded thoughtfully, then guessed: "But if Su's this powerful here, doesn't that mean he'll play a major role soon?"
"Well, we'll just have to watch and find out."
"Mm."
...
With Su's help, Mei progressed smoothly.
She soon found another Flame-Chaser—Mobius.
"Oh...? Little white mouse? Didn't I say I don't want to be disturbed?"
Just as Mobius finished speaking,
Su's voice echoed in Mei's mind: "No, she never said that."
Then Mobius reacted as though she'd heard him.
"Huh? Su's actually working with you? Hmph, his taste is getting worse."
"You can hear him?"
"Of course not—but sensing his presence isn't hard. What did he say?"
"He said..." Mei paused, then replied mischievously: "'Someone your age shouldn't be speaking like that.'"
The tense atmosphere was instantly shattered by Mei's remark.
Players couldn't help but laugh out loud.
Though they'd been emotionally devastated by MiHoYo's narrative blades countless times, whenever it switched to comedic antics, they forgot the pain and burst into laughter.
Gotta admit—MiHoYo's scriptwriters really know what they're doing.
So...
Dear writers! Can you use those brain cells where they're needed?! Instead of writing that cursed nonsense from earlier?!
Players clearly hadn't moved on from the earlier Realm Typewriter incident.
Then again—
After Realm Icebreaker, who's still hung up on Realm Typewriter?
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