The Moon.
Beneath the deep, silent expanse of stars, the string lights wrapped around the campsite emitted a warm, cozy glow.
"Hey, are some snacks missing?"
Raiden Mei's sharp eyes noticed the mysteriously vanished treats on the platter. Her eyes narrowed. "Ki~a~na~~"
The deliberately drawn-out call sent a jolt through the girl with the high white ponytail and purple cross-shaped pupils, who had been staring blankly under the table. She quickly raised her hands as if to prove her innocence.
"It-it wasn't me!"
"Re~al~ly~?"
"Of-of course!"
"Idiot Kiana, sneaking food again," Bronya chimed in with her usual deadpan retort.
"Idiot Kiana, sneaking food again~"
Across the table, the Book of Fuxi, holding a half-eaten snack in its small hand, joined the verbal assault on Kiana.
"Book—of—Fu—xi!"
Like the sudden terror of your mom using your full name, the small figure turned its head almost frame by frame towards Fu Hua, who was approaching with a dark expression. Sweat beaded on its brow.
Watching her friends joking and squabbling, a smile touched Kiana's lips. She turned her gaze back to where she'd been staring earlier.
Bending down, Kiana pulled a large Crimson Kite from a cardboard box under the table. Noticing her movement, her friends stopped their roughhousing.
Seeing the object in the girl's hand, Fu Hua scratched her neck. "Actually, this is..."
"I know, it's a kite, right? ...But can a kite really fly on the moon?"
"Of course! There's air inside the moon base. As for higher up in space..."
Grateful that Kiana had drawn Fu Hua's attention, the Book of Fuxi patted its completely flat chest:
"You just worry about running. Little Fuxi will figure out the rest."
"Okay, I'm off then!"
Kiana assembled the complete Crimson Kite set and started running across the lunar surface.
"It's really flying!"
The girl's joyful, sweet laughter rose with the kite on the wind, but then her eyes widened abruptly.
"Eh? The kites are going to get tangled!"
"Don't worry about that," the Book of Fuxi said, manipulating a holographic projection. The specially made kite lines automatically detached from their connection points.
"Everyone, come quick! It's about to start!"
Raiden Mei, Bronya, Seele, Durandal... the girls gathered around, surrounding the white-haired girl.
"Uh, wh-what are you guys doing? Hey~ Hey~~!" A confused Kiana was lifted up by the others.
"Three! Two! One!"
As the countdown finished, the girls pushed upwards together, tossing the white-haired girl towards the sky.
The kites, now detached and beyond the moon base, should have scattered and fallen. But as sunlight struck their surfaces, internal devices converted the light radiation into thrust, allowing them to continue flying in space while certain parts transformed.
The scene unfolding before her made Kiana's eyes widen, filled with pure surprise.
The kites, reflecting the sunlight, arranged themselves in a pattern, looking just like...
"Wings of Light—"
A chorus of voices echoed from below. At the exact moment the white-haired girl reached the apex of her ascent, her figure overlapped with the main body of the kites. The pale blue kites were instantly dyed a brilliant gold by the sun.
"—Unfold~!"
From the perspective of the Moon, the kites had all transformed into wings of light, carrying Kiana as she soared towards Earth.
The scene was breathtakingly beautiful and stunning, making time itself seem to stand still.
And then, the picture truly did freeze...
Along with the image, the emotional background music and the screen-filling barrage comments in various colored fonts, all shouting 'Wings of Light, Unfold!', also froze.
In a brightly lit rental apartment, within a cozy little bedroom.
A young man with refined features sat before his computer, pausing the video with the tool that could control the 'timeline'—the mouse.
His brown-black eyes reflected the image of Kiana's long-unseen Wings of Light unfolding on the screen. Qi Qiong let out a soft breath.
Just the visuals alone didn't actually carry enough emotional impact to strike deep into the heart.
The scrolling comments and music were also factors in stirring emotions, but the most crucial element was the companionship and memories woven throughout the story behind the image.
"The figure I sought before the clouds ♪"
"Turning back, it's still you ♪"
Glancing at the lyrics displayed above the screen, Qi Qiong sighed reflectively.
"When I watched this before, all my attention was on the Wings of Light unfolding. I didn't listen closely. Looking back now, those two lines of lyrics are quite interesting."
He thought back to the very first opening cinematic of Honkai Impact 3rd.
Pigtails dancing in the fierce wind, the valiant white-haired girl activated her tactical visor and leaped from a warship tens of thousands of meters in the sky.
Plunging through billowing layers of clouds, falling like a meteor amidst the golds and reds painted by the twilight glow.
It was now 2024.
"The figure before the clouds... it's still you, huh..."
Looking at the white-haired girl with her unfolded Wings of Light, memories surged through Qi Qiong's mind like a tide.
Back in 2016, he'd stumbled upon a short clip while Browse on his phone. Stunned by the exquisite cinematic graphics, Qi Qiong had downloaded the game immediately!
At that time, Qi Qiong was still a high school student.
Few high schools allowed students to carry phones, so Qi Qiong could only play when he went home once a month.
Any gacha game requires you to either spend money or grind heavily to have a relatively decent gaming experience.
Qi Qiong had no time to grind, and as for spending...
His parents had divorced when he was young and remarried separately. Starting their new lives, neither wanted to take Qi Qiong, the 'burden', with them.
Both parents paid child support regularly. Living with his grandmother, he deeply understood how hard-earned every penny she had was, so naturally, he wouldn't dump his living expenses into a game.
If not for his unique family situation, Qi Qiong wouldn't have even owned a 'luxury item' like a mobile phone during high school.
His abysmal luck, hitting the 100-pull pity timer often only after 80 or 90 pulls, only added insult to injury, dragging his gaming experience down further and further.
He fell into a vicious cycle: 'Can't beat stages -> No crystals -> Can't pull characters -> Can't beat stages'.
Frequently, after hitting pity on a banner, he would rage-quit and uninstall the game in one smooth motion.
However, after some time passed and he felt like playing again, Qi Qiong would just download the game once more.
Back then, Honkai Impact 3rd was truly unrivaled in its action and character design.
He'd log in, go to the bridge to look around and interact, only to get kicked off by Kiana with one swift foot.
Thankfully, there were returnee player bonuses. After using them up, as long as he took another break before playing again, he could trigger the returnee bonuses once more.
Playing on and off, Qi Qiong managed to accumulate starting funds purely through these returnee bonuses. During one particular version update, his luck finally turned, and he pulled the first real meta character, the Herrscher of Reason(Bronya Zaychik).
After graduating high school, Qi Qiong had more disposable time, but the 'hard mode' of real life made it difficult for him to invest significant energy into gaming.
His approach to gaming became very casual. He shifted from being half a 'play-for-favorites' player and half a 'meta' player to being purely driven by personal preference.
Except, Qi Qiong's preferences were quite broad, covering almost all types of Valkyries.
Crystal resources were prioritized for pulling characters. He would only pull for weapons and stigmata if he had enough resources left over to guarantee the pity for the next Valkyrie.
Until he finally lit up the achievement for collecting all Valkyries.
Snapping out of his reminiscence, Qi Qiong randomly clicked on the screen, and the video continued playing.
Watching the laughing and celebrating girls on screen, the lively and adorable Kiana, and the barrage of 'Thanks for the companionship' comments, Qi Qiong leaned back in his chair.
Overall, the story of Honkai Impact 3rd wasn't exceptionally brilliant.
It had its boring moments, its convoluted parts, retcons, and many plot points clearly existed just to serve the character designs.
But fundamentally, wasn't it the character appeal that carried the game through its entire run?
Of course, in this aspect, it was just like reading a book.
A thousand readers will have a thousand Hamlets.
For Qi Qiong, what touched him wasn't the story itself, but the memories of playing the game in the past.
If another game had accompanied him through those eight years of his youth, then no matter how exquisite this short film was, or what story lay behind it, it couldn't possibly evoke such feelings in him.
The video finished and paused.
Closing the webpage, Qi Qiong looked at the Honkai Impact 3rd icon on his desktop. The hand holding the mouse twitched, and finally, he double-clicked the icon featuring the girl making a finger gesture.
"Hmm... I think I can sort of understand Eden now."
After the Final Battle, Eden brought the surviving Flame-Chasers back to Earth.
Everyone entered cryo-pods, preparing to escape the world's reset and proceed to the next era, but Eden alone refused.
In the end, amidst endless yellow sands, she walked upon the radiation-scorched earth, singing a final song for Elysia, vanishing along with that era in the apocalyptic end brought by Finality.
When Qi Qiong first heard about Eden's ending, he couldn't quite understand it.
Wasn't it better to live on, to go to the new era with her friends?
Why choose to be buried along with the tomb of the apocalypse?
Now, Qi Qiong felt he could slightly grasp Eden's perspective.
The end of Part 1.5 was a very classic, feel-good reunion ending, the kind often seen in Chinese stories. There was nothing wrong with that.
As for Part 2, Qi Qiong had barely dipped his toes in before quitting.
It wasn't about the quality of Part 2's content. It was just that the ship of the new era, no matter how grand, couldn't evoke the same memories and feelings connected to 'his youth'.
Even if characters from Part 1 participated in Part 2, it was like everyone's unforgettable first love.
That past ideal is invincible; even a future version of that same ideal couldn't challenge it in the slightest!
(Of course, if you're talking about Adult Bronya and Aunt Mei from the perspective of... certain fan animations, that's a different story.)
APHO, yyds (forever the greatest)!
Although he didn't play much anymore, Qi Qiong would occasionally log in to glance at the lovely Valkyries, or rather, to reminisce about his past self.
"Captain on the bridge."
Amidst the familiar, grind-inducing voice line, the familiar bridge appeared on screen.
Qi Qiong expertly opened the Valkyrie interface. The mouse cursor slid across, ignoring the grayed-out new characters from Part 2, hovering and clicking amongst the rows of SSS-rank Valkyries.
Ignoring weather effects and current buffs, Qi Qiong casually ran through the Elysian Realm using the Herrscher of Finality, purely enjoying the pleasure of controlling the character and the combat visuals.
He paid no attention to the score, quitting whenever he felt like stopping.
Just as Qi Qiong was about to close the game, he suddenly noticed the rotating banner icon in the top right corner. The mouse, poised to click the 'X', paused. Interest sparked in his eyes.
"Oho, a collaboration? Now that's rare."
Honkai Impact 3rd did collaborations far less frequently than its older sister game, which seemed to periodically absorb the life force of other games with vampiric intensity.
In Qi Qiong's memory, there was only the Evangelion collab in version 4.5, the Genshin Impact collab in 4.9, and the Promare collab in 6.9.
Among those, Genshin Impact was miHoYo's own game. And this time, the collaboration partner was...
"It's actually Star Rail?"
You are correct, but Honkai: Star Rail is a brand new 3D adventure-themed turn-based strategy game independently developed by miHoYo.
The game takes place deep in the galaxy, where players will board the Astral Express, visit myriad worlds across the universe, and join forces with diverse companions...
Unfortunately, he couldn't earn 150 Stellar Jade daily, nor reach 5000 Stellar Jade monthly for pity, which wouldn't translate to a $5000 monthly income in real life either, let alone surpass the majority of people in China.
Alright, fine, Qi Qiong hadn't even started playing the game yet.
As for the reason?
Weren't his pockets completely empty?
He was too busy enjoying the 'blessings' of overtime every day; where would he find time to play games?
He knew Star Rail had an auto-battle system and daily tasks that could be completed with a few clicks during his commute, but going through the story still required time.
Regardless of others, Qi Qiong preferred to follow the story when playing games, unless the plot was as tedious and long-winded as certain side quests in Genshin Impact.
Experiencing the story in scattered bits and pieces was just too poor an experience. It was better to wait until he had free time to properly dive in.
Another factor was habit.
Qi Qiong usually preferred to binge-watch anime, letting three or four episodes pile up. He treated game stories the same way.
"Over a year's worth of content, two major version updates... that should be enough to play for a while. Plus, there's a Honkai collab now. Let's download it!"
Qi Qiong opened the miHoYo launcher, clicked on Honkai: Star Rail, and started the download.
The main reason was that he had just quit his job, telling his boss off, and now had plenty of time to rest.
Honestly, now that his grandmother had passed away, Qi Qiong didn't really need to work himself to the bone. After all, he wasn't planning on buying a house or getting married.
His path in life was now that of a wanderer 'beyond the three loans, outside the five insurances' – free from mortgages and conventional societal burdens.
But alas...
Having grown up poor, Qi Qiong had developed a habit of saving money for an unknown future, habitually living frugally.
He felt his personality needed to change.
But personality is hard to alter without experiencing major upheaval or external forces.
Watching the progress bar slowly creep forward, Qi Qiong opened Meituan and ordered a watermelon-flavored shaved ice. He switched to Bilibili to browse videos, and a Honkai: Star Rail fan creation popped up on his homepage.
Should it be called a strange personality trait, or perhaps a virtue?
Most people hate spoilers ruining their story experience, but Qi Qiong didn't mind.
Even if he knew parts of the plot through fan creations, Qi Qiong could still maintain a good experience while playing through the story.
Others might not understand, but he just could.
Half an hour later, the doorbell rang.
Accepting the delivery bag from the courier, Qi Qiong thanked him with a warm, enthusiastic smile.
Once the courier's figure was hidden by the door, the smile slowly faded from Qi Qiong's face, replaced by a cool calmness.
Returning to his room, the game resources had already finished downloading.
After logging in with a phone verification code, a space station brimming with sci-fi aesthetics appeared on the screen.
While watching the opening cutscene, Qi Qiong took the shaved ice out of the bag and scooped up a spoonful with the provided utensil, stuffing it into his mouth.
Qi Qiong loved the feeling of scooping up a tall mountain of watermelon shaved ice with a spoon, shoveling it away bit by bit like excavating someone's ancestral tomb—it was very stress-relieving.
Eating his shaved ice, Qi Qiong followed the game's tutorial, curiously maneuvering Kafka around to interact with various objects.
He learned about the settings and world-building, correcting the wild impressions left by fan videos.
Progressing through the game's story, he soon reached the point where the player chooses their protagonist.
Choosing between a male or female character had never been a real choice for Qi Qiong.
In the many games he had played—MMOs, mobile games, single-player games—any game that allowed gender selection, he invariably, without hesitation, chose the beautiful girl.
Except for competitive online games like League of Legends, even in DNF, he only leveled female characters.
There was no special reason; it was just a personality trait that prevented Qi Qiong from feeling immersed.
Yes, as a player, he couldn't derive even a shred of immersion from any protagonist in any game.
After all, no game gives the player complete freedom of choice.
Take Genshin Impact for example. If he were playing as the male protagonist Aether, Qi Qiong would want to dice Scaramouche into mincemeat, yet the plot forces you to become good friends with him.
It wasn't just Genshin; in any game, even if you could control the protagonist, it was only at certain moments, making choices on trivial matters, ultimately confined within the framework of the story.
If you can't act entirely according to your own will, what damn immersion is there to talk about!
And without immersion, how could controlling a male character possibly be as pleasing to the eye as controlling a beautiful girl?
Especially in character-driven gacha games.
Honkai: Star Rail was the first game that made Qi Qiong hesitate when choosing a character.
It was a coincidence, a real coincidence!
The male protagonist, Caelus (穹 - Qióng), shared the same name as Qi Qiong (祈穹 - Qí Qióng).
Not just the name, even the facial structure and profile were highly similar between Qi Qiong and Caelus.
Ignoring the unrealistic grey hair and golden eyes, if you made Caelus about 10-15% less attractive, he would look almost exactly like Qi Qiong.
One could even say that with a wig, cosmetic contacts, and some elaborate makeup, Qi Qiong could be the perfect Caelus cosplayer!
If this were a player who easily got immersed in games, they would have already been spam-clicking to confirm the male protagonist.
"Taking this long to decide? Didn't you think it through before coming?"
Triggered by the player's prolonged indecision over the vessel, Silver Wolf's voice line played again.
"Don't rush me, Silver Wolf. This is a very important decision," Kafka, responsible for choosing the Stellaron vessel in the game's story, responded.
Qi Qiong nodded slightly upon hearing this.
Indeed, this is a very important decision.
Once confirmed, it couldn't be changed.
Therefore...
Sitting up straight with solemnity, Qi Qiong moved the mouse and clicked on 'Switch Vessel: Stelle (星)'.
Perhaps this rare coincidence could let him experience the 'immersion' he had never felt before.
But then again, Stelle and Caelus were two sides of the same coin; Stelle was just the female version of Caelus. If he could truly immerse himself in Caelus's role...
Wouldn't that mean Stelle was the female version of him!?
Qi Qiong had no desire to become a beautiful girl—he and his 'little brother' were on perfectly good terms—but being able to control a female version of 'himself'... that was an even more novel experience than immersion.
"There's no need to hesitate at all."
Worst case, he could just make a new account and choose Caelus~!
Just as Qi Qiong was about to press the confirm button—
BOOM!
A sudden explosion erupted from the wall to his right. Qi Qiong instinctively whipped his head around.
In that split second, everything happened too fast for a normal person's eyes to track. Qi Qiong only saw red metal and the body of a truck.
Optimus Prime?
That was the first thought that flashed through his mind.
The world spun violently in an instant.
Lying on the ground, Qi Qiong struggled to open his eyes, blurred by trickling blood, and focused on the logo before him.
A silver ring, embedding a silver five-pointed star, with a red inner circle displaying the character 'Fortune'.
"So it wasn't Optimus Prime, just a Dayun heavy truck, huh."
A sharp pain spread from his rear. Qi Qiong knew it wasn't actually his butt hurting; his butt was impaled on the truck's front.
His consciousness slipped into the abyss along with the hand gripping the mouse.
On the broken monitor, displaying only half an image, the cursor, which should have clicked 'Confirm', had drifted over to the vessel 'Caelus'. The hand holding the mouse, pinned beneath rubble, completed the final long-press confirmation.
Vessel Caelus, activated.
Qi Qiong didn't notice this, and even if he had, he wouldn't have cared under the circumstances.
Mustering a final burst of consciousness, Qi Qiong used all his strength to move the mouse and open the browser.
Only half the screen was visible, but relying on his memory of the webpage layout, Qi Qiong, with trembling hands and great willpower, managed to clear his Browse history.
His search history... well, it was much weirder than the average pervert's.
After clicking confirm, having completed his final task, Qi Qiong let out the breath he'd been holding and completely lost sensation in his body.
At the very, very end, a classic line from Uncle Ben Shan's famous sketch suddenly echoed in Qi Qiong's mind:
What's the most painful thing in the world?
The person died, but the money wasn't spent.
________________________________________
If you want more chapters, please consider supporting my page on Patreon. with 30 advanced chapters available on Patreon
patreon.com/Leanzin