The lobby on the first floor of Arc City Tower buzzed with noise.
The air conditioning was cranked high, and the marble floor threw back the harsh sunlight pouring in through the massive floor-to-ceiling windows.
Su Yu stood behind a man-height recruitment banner stand, reaching up to tug down the brim of his cap.
He wore an ordinary gray hoodie, a black medical mask covering his face.
Most crucially, he'd pushed the [Perfect Maid's Magic Mirror] disguise skill — derived from his Bond with Rita — to its absolute limit.
His breathing had been deliberately drawn out, his heartbeat slowed to an almost lazy rhythm.
Even his very presence, guided by that invisible thread of spiritual power, had been dialed down into a nameless extra — the kind of face utterly impossible to pick out of a crowd.
Even if someone walked right past him, their gaze sweeping over him, their brain would automatically file him away as background scenery, leaving no trace of memory behind.
He watched the long line snaking not far away.
It was the crowd gathered for miHoYo Studio's regularly scheduled 'Player Open Day cum Fall Recruitment Info Session.'
Arc City's young people clutched résumés, murmuring to each other, faces alight with the fervor of wanting in on a phenomenon-level hit game company.
Su Yu glanced down at the System quest countdown on his phone.
He'd slipped into a tour group of about twenty people.
The elevator doors opened. Ding.
"Welcome to miHoYo Studio, everyone~ all you future little sweethearts!"
The instant the doors opened, a faint floral breeze washed over the group along with that sweet, piercingly clear voice.
Elysia stood at the reception desk, a pink megaphone in hand, her eyes — seemingly able to talk on their own — sweeping across every visitor's face, complete with a flawless wink thrown in for free.
"I'm your tour guide for today, and also this place's Chief Publicity Ambassador — Elysia~ Everyone can just call me Ellie."
A wave of stifled gasps immediately rippled through the crowd.
Even the applicants whose palms had been sweating from nerves felt their shoulders unconsciously relax the moment they saw Elysia's smile.
Su Yu stood at the back of the line.
He watched the pink elf, still brimming with energy, pushing her social-butterfly charm to its absolute peak.
She looked exactly like her usual self.
Clearly, everything about the Spatial Rift that had collapsed at the abandoned factory, about the countdown that could bring about this world's Destruction, even about the grim news of 'Su Yu's whereabouts unknown' —
— had all been kept from her, airtight.
"Everyone, this way please~ Watch your step, don't trip on the discarded drafts scattered around from our modeling work."
Elysia, light as a butterfly, led the group into the central corridor of the office area.
Su Yu, hands tucked in his hoodie pockets, trailed at an unhurried pace at the back.
Transparent glass partitions lined both sides of the corridor.
"On the left is our animation and art team."
Elysia stopped in front of the glass and rapped on it lightly.
Behind the partition, Nuwa sat cross-legged in her oversized ergonomic chair.
Her hair was a bit frizzy, twisted up carelessly behind her head with a pencil.
Two huge high-resolution drawing tablets sat in front of her.
Her right hand gripped a pressure-sensitive stylus, sketching lines across the screen in a frenzy, while her left hand rummaged through a pile of instant noodle cups and empty instant coffee cans, finally closing around an energy drink; she popped the tab one-handed and tipped her head back to chug it.
Through the whole thing, her eyes never left the screen for even half a second.
"This is our Lead Artist, Miss Nuwa," Elysia said quietly into the microphone. "She might look like an Ashura about to snap at any second, but the characters she draws have the whole internet absolutely obsessed~"
Through the glass, Su Yu studied the heavy dark circles under Nuwa's eyes.
This girl had probably barely slept a full night since the day Honkai Impact 3rd's open beta launched.
She had no idea about the end of the world, but her state — burning herself out purely to perfect the next update's models and animations — rang truer than any slogan ever could.
The group moved on.
"This is the Finance and HR office."
Elysia pointed to another room fitted with venetian blinds.
Through the blinds, Lin Zhaoyu was faintly visible in her prim business suit, brow furrowed, pen in hand, scribbling rapid annotations across a thick stack of reports.
Her face, always wearing the worried expression of a fussing mother hen, was now creased with the grim look of someone about to blow up over a budget overrun.
Meanwhile, in the open discussion area on the other side of the corridor —
Su Mei sat on a tall barstool, holding a cup of iced Americano.
In front of her was a whiteboard densely covered with marketing matrices, traffic-funneling channels, and trending-topic purchase plans for upcoming Honkai Impact 3rd updates.
This president of Taixuan Media was drawing several huge circles on the whiteboard with a red marker.
They were all keeping the studio running, step by methodical step.
Suddenly, a muffled thudding sound came from up ahead.
"Hyah!"
The tour group was led to the corridor outside the motion-capture room.
Inside the holographic green-screen stage —
Fu Hua wore a black skintight motion-capture suit, dotted all over with silver optical markers for the photoelectric tracking.
She wasn't wearing the red-framed glasses she usually used to seal away her looks, her hair pulled up into a high ponytail.
She was coaching a set of movements.
"Lower your center of gravity. When you throw the punch, the power comes up from the ground — don't rely only on your shoulder's momentum."
Fu Hua's voice was cool and stern.
Her fingers swiped rapidly across a tablet, scanning the real-time feedback data it generated.
At the center of the stage, Ma Feima, likewise in a motion-capture suit, sweated buckets as he braced himself on one hand, grinding through a core-intensive variant push-up.
His exaggerated muscles bulged beneath the tight suit, sweat running off his forehead and dripping from the tip of his nose onto the green non-slip mat.
Cheng Lingshuang leaned against a cushion in the corner, eyes closed, seemingly dozing — but her breathing was oddly long and steady.
Su Yu stood outside the glass.
His gaze lingered on Fu Hua and Cheng Lingshuang for a moment.
They both knew about the apocalypse countdown, and they knew Su Yu's whereabouts were unknown.
But there wasn't a trace of panic in Fu Hua's movements. She was simply working ten times harsher than usual, doing everything in her power to translate the Taixuan Sect's techniques through motion-capture into genuine, tangible combat data for the game.
There was a grim, silent resolve to this preparation — the sense of someone who wouldn't rest until the enemy was crushed.
"Whoa…" a gasp rippled through the crowd. "Are they really practicing martial arts? That muscle guy looks fierce."
"Of course! All the combat motions in our miHoYo games are guided by real martial artists."
Elysia explained with a beaming smile.
Just then —
At the end of the corridor, the double mahogany doors swung open from the inside.
Slender high heels clicked crisply against the marble floor.
The tour group, still buzzing with noise a moment ago, fell into a hush all at once, as if someone had hit mute.
Eden walked out.
A folder in hand, she murmured instructions to someone beside her.
"Oh my God… is that Eden?"
"It's really Eden! In the flesh!"
An uncontainable stir swept through the crowd; some people's hands were even trembling with excitement.
It was the kind of fervor reserved for meeting a world-class star.
Eden heard the commotion.
She stopped and turned her head.
An elegant, mature smile graced her face.
She gave a slight nod, lifting the folder in her hand toward the tour group as a kind of greeting.
Elysia hurried over immediately, looping her arm affectionately through Eden's.
"Eden~ these are the newbies here for the tour. Were you up all night going over budget reports again? Watch out for dark circles~"
Elysia leaned in and lowered her voice to ask.
"By the way, where on earth did that workaholic Su Yu go for field research? He hasn't replied to my messages in three days now — when he gets back, I'm putting a big fat mark on his punishment list!"
The instant Elysia mentioned that name, Eden's body stiffened almost imperceptibly. "Him, huh."
Eden clasped Elysia's hand back, her voice carrying its usual languid ease, as if she'd just finished a glass of top-shelf red wine.
"Who knows? Maybe he snuck off to some island where nobody recognizes him, hunting for inspiration for the next update. You know how he gets — once he's buried in work, he forgets his own name."
Eden smiled and tapped Elysia lightly on the nose.
"Don't worry. When he's back, I'll help you punish him myself."
Elysia, not the least bit suspicious, turned back with a giggle to keep tending to the tour group.
But Su Yu, standing at the back of the line, his eyes shadowed beneath his cap brim, saw everything with perfect clarity. Around Eden's eye sockets lay a layer of concealer twice as thick as the shade she normally wore. This extreme restraint —
— this torment of having to cover up a raw, bloody piece of bad news with lie after lie, in front of her best friend.
Su Yu's throat bobbed.
His hand, tucked in his hoodie pocket, clenched hard.
His breathing lost its rhythm for two beats.
He immediately looked away, tucking his chin deep into his collar.
Eden seemed to sense something. Her gaze swept past the crowd, toward the back of the line.
But Su Yu's Shadow Stalk disguise was already running at its absolute limit.
In Eden's field of view, there was only an ordinary passerby with a mask on, head bowed over his phone.
She withdrew her gaze and turned toward the conference room on the other side.
The tour carried on.
When the group reached a corner of the administrative area —
The sound of an electronic lock disengaging caught Su Yu's attention.
The security steel door at the corner, marked 'Storage Room,' cracked open.
A pair of gray spiral twin-tails poked out through the gap.
Bronie wasn't wearing her tactical goggles.
The dark circles under her eyes were even heavier than Nuwa's.
Behind her, the door opened a little wider.
A woman in a dark trench coat and black gloves stepped out.
Cioara.
A deep-cover Schicksal agent. The true controller behind Arc City's sprawling intelligence network.
This viper, who normally only watched from the shadows, was now standing brazenly inside miHoYo's office.
Su Yu turned slightly, angling his ear toward that direction.
His hearing, enhanced by his second-stage Genetic Lock, easily cut through the corridor's ambient noise.
"Haxxor Bunny's Den has its independent backup power and firewalls fully set up now," Bronie said, voice low. "All the surveillance feed data's been scrubbed a second time, and I had the glass on this floor swapped out for blast-resistant panels at midnight last night."
"Good." Cioara's voice was calm and efficient. "I've already issued top-priority filtering orders to the underground intelligence network here in Arc City. Any communication containing the keywords Su Yu, Spatial Rift, or Anti-Entropy gets intercepted before it ever reaches the official database."
Cioara patted Bronie's shoulder.
"Don't push yourself too hard. That pretty boy's not exactly reliable, but I've looked into his past activity records."
There was a cold, analytical edge to Cioara's tone.
"He's not the type to throw his own life away that easily."
Bronie didn't argue. She just gave a muffled 'Mm.'
Then she shut the steel door again.
Su Yu withdrew his attention.
This ragtag little crew that had once been just him and Kiana —
— now, after losing him, its backbone —
— hadn't collapsed at all.
If anything, it had become an engine with its speed limiter torn off.
Every single person, every single gear, was spinning at a near-frenzied pace, all racing toward that countdown five months out.
"Last stop."
Elysia led the group to the massive floor-to-ceiling glass curtain wall at the far end of the studio.
Outside lay Arc City's bustling streets.
She turned around, hands clasped behind her back, the hem of her pink dress swaying gently.
That smile of hers remained radiant, without a trace of shadow.
"miHoYo is one big, harmonious, loving family."
Elysia's voice was sweet into the microphone.
"Welcome, everyone — come join us!"
Enthusiastic applause broke out through the corridor.
The tour was over.
The group began to disperse under HR's guidance, heading toward the various conference rooms for the next round of interviews.
Amid the chaos of the crowd turning, Su Yu silently slid half a step backward.
Shadow Stalk.
His body seemed to melt into the shadow of the corner, completely slipping outside the capture angle of the freshly-installed high-definition blast-proof camera overhead.
Less than twenty seconds later —
— he'd already made his way to the door of Eden's unlocked private president's office.
He twisted the handle, slipped inside sideways, and closed the door without a sound.
The office's furnishings hadn't changed.
The expensive Persian rug, the custom vinyl record player in the corner.
The air was thick with that familiar, rich scent of top-shelf red wine.
Only now, the massive mahogany desk by the window was piled high with documents and reports waiting to be signed.
Su Yu walked up to the desk.
He pulled a fountain pen from the pen holder nearby, took the document lying on top, and quickly scrawled a line across its blank title page.
When he finished, he folded the paper over and tucked it beneath the coffee cup Eden used most often.
Then he pulled his cap brim back down.
He opened the door and, just as he'd come in — following the blind spots along the ventilation ducts and emergency exits — strolled brazenly right out of the studio he'd built with his own two hands.
Half an hour later.
Eden pushed open the door to her office.
She tossed the folder in her hand onto the sofa and locked the door behind her.
She walked to the desk and sank into the wide leather chair.
Her heels were kicked off under the desk.
She buried her face in her hands, her long wine-red hair spilling loose over her shoulders.
No sound of crying.
She didn't even dare cry out loud, because Elysia's office was right next door.
Her shoulders trembled, slow and heavy.
After a long while —
Eden lifted her head.
She drew a deep breath, pulled out a tissue, and tried to dab away the small tears that had leaked from the corners of her eyes despite her restraint.
She reached for the coffee cup on the desk.
The moment her fingers brushed the celadon cup's rim —
— her gaze landed on the folded white paper tucked beneath it.
Eden's hand froze.
She knew perfectly well there had been no note there when she'd left the office.
She quickly unfolded the slip of paper.
On the white page —
— a line of scrawled handwriting met her eyes, every stroke and turn carrying that bone-deep, careless, devil-may-care flair she knew so well.
She'd seen this handwriting countless times before.
On the budget reports sent back to her, on the game score drafts handed over in the dead of night.
[Everything's fine. Don't make a fuss. See you a little later.]
Eden's pupils blew wide in an instant.
The thin slip of paper trembled faintly between her fingertips.
She stared hard at the line, as if trying to pull each character apart, crush it, and see straight through it.
Confirming this was his handwriting, written by his own hand.
Confirming this wasn't some cruel prank someone was playing on her.
Confirming it was his — that singular, unmistakable habit.
The next second —
Eden clamped both hands hard over her mouth.
Her teeth bit into the flesh of her hand, and the sharp pain told her this wasn't a hallucination.
The string she'd kept wound tight these past few days, the tear ducts she'd forced under a hard shell of composure and believed had run completely dry —
— broke, all at once, in that moment.
Warm tears spilled uncontrollably from her eyes in fat, heavy drops.
She cried silently in that chair for a full minute.
Every ounce of pretense and grievance from these past days poured out and drained away in tears.
A minute later.
Eden pulled another tissue from the desk.
She wiped her eyes completely clean.
Bit by bit, she smoothed her fingers over the thick concealer that had smudged.
She stood and walked to the full-length mirror nearby.
The woman in the mirror still had reddened eyes.
But in those eyes — once as deep and still as dead water — a blazing light had rekindled.
Eden looked at herself in the mirror.
She carefully refolded the note and tucked it into the inner pocket of her suit, close against her body.
Her voice rang out in the empty office, carrying a slight rasp from the crying.
"Welcome back."
"My little producer."
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