As Evan couldn't help but wonder if he should start working out to build up his strength and fortify his kidneys, time trickled by. The morning classes ended, followed by a short lunch break, and then the afternoon lessons began.
During his beautiful homeroom teacher's class, Evan received a notice. The school intended to give him the single, once-a-year internship slot at ME Corp.
ME Corp was a world-renowned mega-corporation. As long as he didn't make any major mistakes and performed normally during his weekend internship hours, this position was practically a guaranteed job offer after graduation. It was an incredibly precious opportunity. But as the only male student of his year, Tachikawa Academy was taking special care of Evan, granting him the spot without much of a trial. When the other students heard the news, none of them raised any objections.
A long time ago, due to a pandemic called the "BH," the male population had begun to decline rapidly. First, male newborns started dying for a variety of reasons. Then came young children and the elderly, whose bodies weren't much stronger than infants. Finally, even healthy adults began to perish. The survival rate dropped from one in ten, to one in a hundred, and now to an absurd one in a thousand. The surviving males were cared for due to their rarity, receiving preferential treatment in all industries.
At the same time, a large number of women, unable to find male partners, began to turn their gazes toward the same sex—some out of necessity, others with ecstatic joy. With the help of technologies like in-vitro fertilization, humanity cleverly sidestepped the issue of reproduction, leading only to a world increasingly filled with yuri undertones.
Of course, none of that mattered to Evan anymore. The moment he received the notice, all his wild thoughts vanished. His gaze was fixed on the company's abbreviation printed on the internship invitation letter: ME Corp.
Nagazora City. ME Corp. These two nouns, which weren't overly distinct on their own, finally clicked together and unlocked a buried memory.
Once upon a time, Evan had also been a wise, dimension-hopping janitor.
Right now, Evan had no time to daydream about the beautiful Valkyries whose affection he had painstakingly maxed out on his bridge. There was only one thing he needed to know.
The so-called "BH" pandemic was the Honkai. And the Third Honkai Eruption—the catastrophe that would turn the great city of Nagazora into a dead zone—how long until it happened?
Even though he had spent countless hours on the game, knew the fighting styles of every Valkyrie on the bridge, and felt he understood the plot well enough, Evan couldn't find the exact date of the Third Honkai Eruption in his memory. It was a number that wasn't particularly important to a player; how many would bother to remember it?
Just as the other students in the class were cheering for Evan securing the ME Corp internship, and just as he was agonizing over the Sword of Damocles hanging over his head, a few faint words suddenly appeared before his eyes— "Friendship Supply Unlocked. First 10x Pull is Free."
In the game, what could you get from the Friendship Supply pool? The best drops were character fragments, and usually for weaker characters at that. An old, salty player like Evan had almost forgotten it existed; he had accumulated so many friendship points that he couldn't even be bothered to spend them.
But now, these words and the chest that appeared after them were the most beautiful sight Evan could have imagined.
In the world of Honkai, the powerless were nothing more than background props. Evan didn't believe his status as a male alone would be enough to survive the coming disaster. On the contrary, in some ways, the Honkai was even more malicious towards men; otherwise, the male population in this world wouldn't be so scarce.
Confirming that no one else could see the text prompt, Evan refrained from touching the "10x Supply" button. Who knew how the pulled items would manifest? For now, all he could do was wait quietly for school to end, planning to investigate further back in the safety of his dorm.
He was so worried his "golden finger" was a one-time-use item that he didn't even dare to click the close button in the upper right corner of the virtual interface, terrified it would disappear and never return.
For the rest of the day, Evan's vision was a dizzying mix of the real world and the Friendship Supply interface. It was nauseating, but he gritted his teeth and endured it. If he asked to leave early now, he was more likely to be personally escorted to the hospital by his overly concerned teacher than be allowed to go home [web-20]. That would only waste more time. He could only calm himself and wait.
Over the course of the next hour or so, besides the eye strain, Evan came to a conclusion: his golden finger had no AI. Otherwise, it would have given some other prompt during such a long wait. This meant he would have to figure everything out himself. Just as the Friendship Supply didn't appear right when he transmigrated, but only after he received the ME Corp internship offer and realized this was the world of Honkai, he still couldn't be sure of its trigger conditions.
Evan's dorm was located off-campus . The moment the final bell rang, he shot up from his seat. He politely but firmly refused the girls' invitations to have dinner together and hurried towards his dorm.
It had taken him over ten minutes to get to school that morning, but the return trip took only eight. If he wasn't so worried about attracting unwanted attention and concern, he would have sprinted the whole way back. The excitement he felt now, just before using the Friendship Supply, was far greater than any he'd felt when spending money on gacha pulls in the game.
After all, one was just a game, merely entertainment. This, however, was about his very survival. Now that he was in the Honkai world, how could he be content to remain an ordinary person, powerless in the face of the disaster?
Should he flee Nagazora before the Third Honkai Eruption and find some remote corner to live out his days, relying on his status as a male? If he had absolutely no chance of gaining power, he might have been forced to make that choice. But now, with the appearance of the Friendship Supply—this tiny glimmer of hope—Evan no longer wanted to run away like a coward.
When the Honkai descends, where in the world can one find a safe haven? Instead of running, Evan wanted to try and face it.