After a brief blackout, the login screen for the Cyberangel version relit across every stream.
On screen, Bronya stood alone at the edge of that dim space where gravity itself seemed not to exist, and without hesitation, leapt down into the bottomless Sea of Quanta below.
The fall didn't last long. The scene shifted, and she found herself in a strange labyrinth full of warped architecture and drifting fragments.
"This is the crack between reality and possibility, the space of cognition and existence..."
A boy's voice came through the game's speakers.
A boy appeared on screen, standing perfectly straight, introducing himself as Joachim.
"I've been guarding this vast labyrinth all along, keeping those who lose their way from wandering in."
Before Bronya could ask anything further, the air around her suddenly began to tremble.
Quantum Shadows closed in immediately, the monsters surrounding Bronya in an instant.
These Quantum Shadows were projections cast by Bronya's own consciousness.
As long as she remained within this space, she would keep glimpsing the scenes buried deep in her own mind.
Ordinary weapons were useless against these things, but Project Bunny carried the Strength needed to fight them off.
Joachim told Bronya that Project Bunny, too, was a power born from the Sea of Quanta.
Except that Bronya, as she was now, didn't yet understand the full truth of Project Bunny.
In the official stream, Elysia had been holding a macaron up to her lips, but at those words she paused, setting the treat back down on its little plate.
"Oh my..." Her gaze lingered on the screen for several seconds, and her fingers tapped the desk twice. "Now that's a big surprise."
On screen, the danmaku suddenly accelerated.
[Project Bunny is ALSO from the Sea of Quanta?!]
[Whoa! Wasn't it mentioned earlier that this mech was something Seele gave to Bronya after gaining her power?!]
[Foreshadowing paid off! The old scammer buried this one deep!]
[Got it, got it — this is definitely Bronya's arc this time!]
Elysia watched the dense, colorful wall of danmaku scroll by, reaching for the cup beside her to wet her throat.
"You're all right about that. Looks like our little Bronya is going to uncover Project Bunny's true power here. But..." she turned her gaze back to the game, "this little brother Joachim doesn't seem inclined to let her through so easily."
On screen, Joachim told Bronya that to reach the Sea of Quanta, she'd first have to pass a trial.
The image blurred in rippling waves, and when the blinding white light faded, Bronya found herself somewhere completely different.
It was a classroom.
Sunlight slanted in through the window onto the blackboard, chalk scraping against it with a rhythmic scratch.
"Bronya Zaychik."
A voice tinged with mild exasperation came from the direction of the podium.
Bronya rubbed her eyes and looked up from her desk, and that familiar figure crashed into everyone's view without warning.
Murata Himeko.
Seated beside Bronya, wearing red-framed glasses, diligently taking notes in a notebook, was Fu Hua.
In this world, everything felt so peaceful.
The wind outside stirred the curtains, and the classroom air even carried the dry scent of sun-warmed paper.
The Squad Monitor was still listening attentively, and Teacher Himeko was still up at the podium, exasperated because a student had fallen asleep during her English class.
For a fraction of a second, the danmaku seemed to freeze, and then it erupted like a tidal wave.
[TEACHER HIMEKO!!!]
[I'm crying, she's still here, she's still teaching us!]
[That red hair, that tone of voice — I can't hold back my tears.]
[God, it's just an ordinary English class, why am I crying over this.]
[Old scammer, you have no heart! Give my Himeko back!]
Elysia watched the screen fill up with sobbing emotes, and the light, breezy expression on her face faded a little.
She watched the vividly alive Himeko on screen, her fingers unconsciously tightening around the mouse.
"So that's what it was..." she pursed her lips, her voice a little lower than usual. "No wonder someone in the office was smiling at the data so happily before we went live today."
She looked up, toward the camera.
"Do you all remember what that guy said during the preview stream before? He said Himeko would appear again in some other form. Back then you all said he was lying."
Elysia sighed.
"He really wasn't lying. He just did it through a different world bubble, a guest appearance in an event storyline. I suppose that counts as an appearance, doesn't it?"
The wailing in the danmaku instantly turned into outrage.
[The old scammer wants me dead and won't rest until he gets it!]
[This is worse than just stabbing us directly! Show us a glimpse of a beautiful past and then tell us it's fake!]
[Is he telling us, in this way, that the wonderful St. Freya we remember can never come back?!]
In the game, Bronya seemed a little dazed by all this too, but after a round of combat training, she sharply noticed that this world's Squad Monitor and Himeko had certain subtle traits that were completely different from the people she remembered.
For instance, this Himeko was clearly younger.
But what truly left Bronya's jaw — and every viewer's — on the floor was the history class that followed.
The bell rang.
The classroom door opened, accompanied by the heavy, oppressive click of military boots against the floor, and a figure stepped up to the podium.
A crisply pressed military uniform, a striking, spirited face, golden hair pinned back with meticulous precision.
Cocolia.
In this sunlit classroom, the mastermind behind the Third Eruption that had reduced all of Nagazora to rubble now stood at the podium as a teacher, history textbook in hand.
[Wait, is that Cocolia?!]
[Cocolia as a history teacher? This world's gone insane!]
[This is beyond absurd!]
[Didn't Cocolia CAUSE the Third Eruption? Where does she get the nerve to teach history?]
Some viewers started listing off everything Cocolia had done in the original world.
She had triggered the Third Eruption herself; Mei hadn't been recovered, and it was some idiot white-haired guy who'd thrown a wrench into the plan; and the Bronya she'd sent out had also been dragged off to St. Freya along with everyone else.
It was a losing deal all around — practically buy-one-get-one-free in reverse.
But in this world bubble, everything was different.
On screen, Cocolia called on Bronya to answer a question about the Second Eruption.
Bronya answered based on her own memories.
The Second Eruption was the greatest disaster in human history.
It began at the Babylon Laboratory in Siberia, then spread across the entire world.
It gave birth to the Herrscher of the Void, who ruled over space and brought humanity unimaginable devastation.
But Cocolia told Bronya that wasn't quite how it happened.
Cocolia pressed the remote on the podium, and the projector screen in front of the blackboard slowly descended.
After the Second Eruption broke out, Schicksal took immediate action.
Their decisive response successfully contained casualties in the surrounding regions.
As for the so-called Herrscher of the Void, she had been completely destroyed just twenty-two hours after her birth.
Footage began playing on the screen.
A massive steel machine advanced through snow and ice, its thick mechanical arms crushing Honkai Beasts in its path.
Thanks to Schicksal's decisive action, most regions of the world had been spared from this catastrophe.
Cocolia pointed at the machine in the footage.
"This is a tactical mech developed by Schicksal's North American branch. It was first deployed in combat during the Second Eruption, becoming one of the primary forces used against the Herrscher."
The scene shifted again.
On that ice- and snow-covered battlefield, several girls in Valkyrie armor were escorting a group of civilians in retreat. Leading the way was a woman with long white hair, wielding a knight's lance.
Schicksal's S-rank Valkyrie Cecilia, leading the Snow Wolf squad, had protected countless civilians while battling the Herrscher.
And Cocolia herself had been one of those the Snow Wolf squad saved back then.
[??????????]
[Schicksal's North American branch? Tactical mechs? Isn't that Anti-Entropy's Titan?!]
[Wait! The North American branch never split off? There's no Anti-Entropy?!]
[Snow Wolf squad protecting civilians? Cecilia saved Cocolia?]
Cocolia switched off the projector and told everyone that, more than that, this very St. Freya Academy had been founded by that same Cecilia.
In this world bubble, the Second Eruption had been quickly contained, the disaster brought under control. Cocolia had never founded an orphanage, never adopted Bronya and Seele out of the frozen wastes.
Cecilia hadn't just survived — she'd gone on to found this academy for training Valkyries.
And Cocolia had become a real Valkyrie, and a real teacher.
"In this academy, everyone is free."
Cocolia's voice no longer carried that cold, commanding edge — it had taken on the warmth of a teacher's hopes for her students.
"Bronya, you're no exception. You can live however you please, freely and lightly, pour your youth and sweat into whatever you choose, and chase your own happiness."
"A beautiful life — it's yours to hold in your own hands."
Sunlight bathed everyone in the classroom in warmth.
Viewers across the streams were completely floored by this turn of events.
The Cocolia who, in reality, was ruthless and self-serving, willing to do anything for her goals — in this world, she'd become a good teacher, brimming with righteousness, guiding her students toward a better life.
[God... if Cecilia had really survived, would things have actually turned out this way?]
[This is all too beautiful. Beautiful like a dream.]
[No Anti-Entropy, no experiments, no all those sacrifices, Bronya gets a normal childhood...]
[I just want them to keep living in this world forever.]
Viewers sank into this utopian vision.
In another stream, though, the mood was entirely different.
The lights in the room were off, only the dim red glow of the screen illuminating the fox mask on Sparxie's face.
"Tsk, tsk, tsk..."
She looked at the danmaku monitor plugin beside her, filled with comments gushing about how "beautiful" it all was, how they "wanted to stay here forever," and let out a string of exaggerated tongue-clicks.
"Look at you all. Look at you poor little things, sold off and still helping the buyer count the cash."
Sparxie picked up a pink candy from the desk and popped it into her mouth, chewing it with a loud crunch.
"You don't actually think this is him handing you candy, do you?" She leaned in toward the mic, her voice dripping with condescending mockery. "Sparxie saw through this ages ago! Isn't this the old scammer laughing in your faces up close?"
"He obviously has the ability to write a happy ending like this. He could write a Cecilia who's alive. He could write a Cocolia bursting with righteousness. He could write these adorable girls going to class, goofing around, living healthy, sunny lives every single day."
Sparxie spun halfway around in her chair, then stopped abruptly.
"But!"
"He just won't do it! Ha, he's just messing with you!"
"He's putting this beautiful thing right in front of your faces, letting you see clearly the kind of life these girls should have had, and then telling you — I'm just not going to write it that way in the real world! What are you going to do about it?"
She watched as the viewers who'd just been sighing wistfully suddenly erupted into fury and despair at her merciless breakdown, and she smiled even wider.
[Someone drag this little demon offstage! My head's about to explode!]
[This world is basically a monument to the old scammer's malice! He built this beautiful world on purpose, just to make reality look even crueler by contrast!]
[Ugh, please, please just stop talking.]
[My take is, we should just be grateful the old scammer even bothered giving us something nice in a parallel world.]
"Grateful?"
Sparxie saw that comment as if she'd just heard the funniest joke in the world.
She leaned forward, the eyes hidden behind her mask fixed on the screen.
"Forgot to mention something to you all."
She deliberately dropped her voice, as if she were about to announce some malicious secret.
"In this world, there are no cruel experiments, no Tower of Babylon tragedy, which means..."
"That Paramecium you all love so much, that white-haired troublemaker, Kiana —"
Sparxie spread her hands.
"She simply never would have been born. At all."
That line landed like a hammer, crashing straight down on everyone's skull.
In Sparxie's stream, the danmaku froze for a brief moment, then erupted into wailing far greater than before.
[DAMN IT!!!!]
[Murder by truth! Straight-up murder by truth!]
[Officials, please control this little demon's mouth! Do whatever it takes, just shut her up!]
[I wish I'd never understood the logic behind that! Old scammer, you're really vicious!]
The game didn't pause just because the danmaku was howling in anguish.
In that sunlit world, Bronya was selected to take part in a mission to clear out Honkai Beasts.
In the squad formed under Cecilia's founding, she saw a familiar figure.
Short hair, blue eyes.
Seele.
Bronya stood rooted in place, watching the girl chatting with her teammates.
At first she thought it was simply someone who looked a lot like her — after all, in a world where even Cocolia had become a Valkyrie, a normally-raised Seele who'd joined the Valkyrie forces made perfect sense.
But as the mission progressed, Bronya still noticed something off.
Certain reactions this Seele had in battle, and the unmistakable, undisguised affection she occasionally showed when looking at Bronya — all of it pointed to one truth.
She wasn't a native of this world bubble.
On a clearing where the monsters had been cleaned up, the dust of battle not yet fully settled, Bronya finally walked over to Seele.
A few simple exchanges, a few habits and gestures only the two of them would know, were enough to confirm each other's identity.
Seele spread her arms and pulled Bronya into a tight embrace.
In the official stream, more than a few viewers found tears rolling down their faces again at this scene.
[Finally... finally reunited.]
[How long have I waited for this day.]
[Ever since Seele disappeared, Bronya's been searching for her, and now she finally gets to hold her.]
But right on cue, Sparxie's voice rang out again in her stream, in that particularly punchable tone of hers.
"That's already a reunion? And you're all sitting there feeling happy about it?"
Sparxie toyed with the paper cutter in her hand, its blade flashing cold under the light.
"My god, Sparxie now thinks you're all a bunch of hopeless idiots. Did you all seriously forget the name of this game?"
She slammed the paper cutter down on the desk.
"It's called Honkai Impact 3rd! And you still think you can just swallow this candy and enjoy it worry-free? Dream on!"
At that reminder from Sparxie, plenty of viewers felt a sudden chill. That warm, giddy joy from the reunion moments ago instantly felt like it had been doused in ice water.
[Damn it... something's off, ninety percent off.]
[Knowing this old scammer's track record, this is definitely a trap!]
[Everything's been so nice, and now they're handing out more candy — there's got to be some huge twist waiting for us!]
Sparxie watched the danmaku start to panic, nodding in satisfaction, even swaying her head as she slipped into a mock-classical tone.
"I laugh at how naive Bronya is, and how lacking in schemes our old scammer Su Yu must be. If I were the screenwriter, I'd surely lay an ambush right here! Just as the players are at their happiest, grinning ear to ear — what if disaster suddenly struck?"
The game's progression didn't stall just because of Sparxie's jinx of a mouth.
At the end of their mission, Bronya's Valkyrie squad encountered a boy giving off fluctuations of the Herrscher of Reason's power.
It was Joachim, the very same boy from before.
In this sun-drenched world, he was being secretly imprisoned, subjected to all manner of experiments hidden from the light.
Bronya was faced with a choice.
The answer she ultimately gave was to invite Joachim to join the academy, to become one of them.
White light flared again.
Bronya passed the trial, returning once more to that labyrinth space full of warped architecture.
In Project Bunny's mechanical hand, there was now something new — a diary with a butterfly hairpin clipped to it.
Joachim's projection appeared before Bronya. This time, he no longer held anything back.
He told her that he himself was a fragment left behind here by the First Herrscher, Welt Yang.
He looked toward the diary in Project Bunny's hand — the girl called Seele possessed a special power, one that let her travel through the Sea of Quanta.
It was by pure chance that she had formed a connection to this labyrinth.
"In the world ahead, you'll be able to see her again. But to find the real her, you'll need to enter the true Sea of Quanta. This diary is your bond, your bridge."
Half the mystery had been revealed.
Without hesitation, Bronya followed the diary's guidance, walking toward a new Spatial Rift.
The screen went dark, the howl of wind and snow replacing the sunlight of the classroom in the speakers.
Bronya opened her eyes in the second world.
As far as she could see, there was nothing but a snow-covered plain. A bone-chilling wind made it hard to keep her eyes open.
Standing beside Bronya were four people.
One was Theresa, dressed in a nun's habit.
One was Joachim.
One was Seele, standing behind her.
And there was a man, kneeling on one knee in front of a screen set in the snow.
He had long golden hair, his eyes closed, a cross clutched in his hand — every bit the priest.
This person was none other than —
Otto Apocalypse!
In this world, he was a priest, running an orphanage, taking in children left homeless by the snow and cold.
In that instant, the danmaku across the stream seemed to be wiped clean in one stroke.
A few seconds later, a screen full of exclamation points completely flooded the view.
That villain responsible for countless tragedies, the utterly irredeemable mastermind every player had wanted to grind their teeth over — had he really gone and become a priest raising children?!
____
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