A turbulent surge of emotions roiled in the players' hearts, and their facial expressions began twisting uncontrollably into grimaces.
It took them quite a while…
…before their trembling hands barely managed to close the second blank sheet.
Once again, they stood frozen in place.
But even so, they couldn't escape it—the endless pop-ups of white paper.
And that single, soul-crushing line: "Elysia is dead."
A storm of agitation instantly filled the players' hearts.
Damn it!
What kind of psychologically damaging game design is this?
MiHoYo writers!! Are you sure your mental state is okay?!
They seriously suspected the writers had problems.
After all, could a human even come up with this kind of content???
The more timid among the Pardofelis-type players were already so scared their fur puffed up, curling into a ball and too afraid to even look at the screen. It was that disturbing.
...
Players' grimaces only worsened as they kept frantically closing blank sheets.
But each time they closed one, another immediately popped up.
The white sheets inscribed with "Elysia is dead" felt infinite.
It was as if they existed to cruelly shatter the players' hopes, forcing them to confront an unfeeling truth:
Elysia. She's already dead.
Finally...
Someone couldn't take it anymore.
"What the hell is this?! I can't take this anymore!!"
They force-quit Honkai Impact 3rd on the spot.
Then sat staring at the pitch-black screen of their phone, panting heavily.
!!!
This plot… it was really intoxicating! Completely intoxicating!
mi—Ho—Yo—Wri—ters!
How did your 37°C hands write something this cold?!
AAAAHHH!!
Still, those players who rage-quit the game might have forgotten… something.
Sure, quitting the game now made them look cool.
But once they calmed down and logged back in to replay the scene… they'd look pretty miserable.
Might as well grit their teeth and push through it.
Putting aside the rage-quitters for now.
The viewers in Elysia's stream were also overwhelmed by this mentally scarring game design, their vision practically going dark.
[Can we get some normal content, please?]
[My scalp's tingling—writers, if you can't afford therapy just say so.]
[They're really afraid we don't know Elysia is dead, huh?]
[I'm about to toss my Herrscher of Sentience core. The world has never been kind! Sob sob sob sob sob!]
[Elysia isn't dead! Elysia isn't dead! Elysia isn't dead! I'm not insane! I'm totally sane!]
Some were frantically shouting, others barely kept calm.
Or rather...
[This is horrifying, but seeing the Ancestor nearby makes me feel so much more grounded.]
[Kevin's sense of security is off the charts. I almost rage-quit too.]
[Thank goodness—thank goodness Kevin's still here.]
...
Despite the audience's uproar,
Elysia was still pushing forward with the story.
Even if these white sheets scrawled with "Elysia is dead" were deeply mentally scarring for her too.
They nearly made her want to end the stream right there, barge into MiHoYo, and give Hokuto a hundred... no, hundreds of punches.
"Kevin, do you know if Su is free recently?" Mobius suddenly asked Kevin.
Kevin: "..."
He fell silent for a moment before replying, "I think… after today, even if he wasn't free, he will be."
"Hm..."
In the brief exchange between the two,
Elysia finally endured the path of in-your-face white print and triggered the next cutscene.
"Herrscher of Thunder," Kevin suddenly said.
"What is it?" Mei asked.
Kevin extended his hand, presenting a stark white sheet.
"What's different about it?" Mei asked.
"The content."
Kevin's answer was as brief as ever.
Mei looked at the paper. The writing on it was indeed different from the rest—it mentioned Sakura's younger sister...
The two discussed Rin for a moment.
It was a recap for the players: due to Aponia's precepts, the soldiers guarding Rin developed mental distortions, which ultimately led to her death.
After the discussion, Mei turned her attention to the typewriter. After all, she came here to learn more through it.
But…
Kevin stepped aside.
The screen cut to a completely shattered typewriter.
It had been smashed?
Who did this?
The Honkai scholars in the stream immediately began analyzing the break patterns to determine who the culprit was.
This mattered, because that person could very well be the killer.
[These marks look like they were made with some kind of bladed weapon.]
[Yeah, definitely looks like it was slashed multiple times.]
[But the fractures are uneven. Doesn't really look like blade marks—more like it was done with a blunt object?]
If it were any other game, this kind of CSI-level CG analysis might be meaningless.
But this was Honkai Impact 3rd, the game most obsessed with detail.
Especially with that certain someone at MiHoYo who clearly has OCD.
So they believed—this analysis definitely mattered.
[Feels like something Sakura would do!]
[This scene does lean toward Sakura. She didn't know the truth about the 12th Herrscher, and she just got back the 3rd Divine Key last chapter.]
[But if it were Sakura, wouldn't the cut be clean—like a single precise slice?]
[Maybe the typewriter was just tough? Or maybe it wasn't Sakura? What if it was another Flame-Chaser with weaker strength… could it be Pardofelis or Griseo?]
...
Elysia, meanwhile, remained focused on the story.
In the cutscene, Mei was shocked by the damage to the typewriter and asked Kevin directly.
"What do you think? Who would do something like this?"
Kevin remained silent.
"Then let me rephrase... that document about Sakura—why did it appear in a situation like this…"
Kevin still said nothing.
"Then... what about Elysia? Don't tell me you're saying... this document is irrefutable proof that she's still dead?"
Players who weren't Honkai scholars and had just been mentally pummeled by the story jolted at that line.
They mentally repeated it again and again:
"Don't tell me you're saying... this document is irrefutable proof that she's still dead?"
And slowly… hope rekindled.
Yeah. Elysia was that strong.
In the Realm, basically no one could beat her.
The only one stronger—Kevin—was right next to Mei.
And Kevin looked more anxious than anyone. He couldn't be the one who did it, right?
If Kevin's ruled out, who else in the Realm could take on Elysia?
So...
[Guys, what if… the typewriter didn't print those documents? What if they were printed and copied using something else?]
[Exactly! The more the writers try to convince us Elysia is dead, the more we shouldn't believe it! There might be a twist later!]
[Writers, spit Elysia out right now!!]
...
Like this story Leave a review ; it would really help me out a lot.
Want to Read Ahead in Advance?
Join my Patreon!
+75 Chapters
Support me in
Patreon.com/BestElysium