Wind tugged at everyone's collars up on the rooftop, and distant rolling thunder still seemed to be providing a lingering echo for the 'test' that had just wrapped up.
Durandal still had the inflatable hammer tucked under her arm, its head swaying gently up and down with her breathing.
She looked Su Yu up and down, her lovely eyes narrowing into two thin slits.
Move, you useless brain!
Just as the corner of Su Yu's mouth was about to cramp from racking his brain, a crisp ding sounded in his head.
A translucent light screen only he could see snapped open, spelling out in that infuriatingly smug bold red font:
[Ding! Don't be afraid, Host—foster father's here to save you!]
Su Yu looked at the Honkai Impact 3rd quest-completion icon glowing on the screen, his eye twitching.
His gaze swept downward, and the System pasted up another line of bold text.
[With one lie about 4D shock feedback, you've perfectly deceived the entire world. You truly are a scam artist worthy of the name! Host, I'm honestly starting to wonder if your credit score is even enough to unlock a shared bike.]
Su Yu couldn't help but roll his eyes, mentally firing back a 'get lost.'
The System immediately popped up new text.
[Don't rush, foster father hasn't given you your reward yet. To match your flawless performance, the black-tech 4D shock-feedback support tech and equipment have been deposited into your backpack, and are now loaded into your armor module, ready for use at any time!]
[By the way, progress on the long-term Main Mission 'Honkai Impact 3rd: Not Playing Means You're Not Skyborn' is also accumulating rewards.]
[After this batch of rewards, your Emotion Points will be enough to redeem the item you've had your eye on. Based on your current Tarot Bond rank, the Parvati Super-Mutation Factor has been unlocked for you, along with an item to re-engrave and upgrade Rita's Stigmata—]
[One man playing hero isn't heroism; it takes a team of heroes to actually save the world. Time to send your good buddy Kevin some new toys!]
The items on the Store interface, gleaming with cold metallic light, made Su Yu's pupils contract sharply.
Fusion Warrior gene tech stacked on top of the Genetic Lock bonus—what kind of monster would that produce in Kevin?
But his brow soon furrowed again.
A ridiculous yet oddly grave worry popped into his head out of nowhere.
If Kevin fused with Parvati's Super-Mutation Factor and really turned into a giant ice block, wouldn't the Kaslana bloodline end with his generation?
[Relax. Once his Genetic Lock level rises, he'll naturally be able to control that cold.] The System added lazily.
[The Kaslana family's fine bloodline is safe.]
Su Yu quietly let out a breath of relief.
That was a load off his mind.
Smack! Right at that moment, the inflatable hammer thumped down on Su Yu's forehead—not too hard, not too soft—yanking him out of his internal dialogue.
"Su Yu!" Durandal rose up on her tiptoes, leaning her face in closer.
She kept smiling, but that smile had a way of sending a chill down one's spine.
"What are you spacing out for? Hurry up and answer my question! You're not going to try 'the equipment was already carted off' as an excuse, are you? You think I'd buy that?"
Su Yu glanced at Durandal, then let his eyes drop back to the row of green indicator lights that had just lit up along his armor's arm module.
He cleared his throat.
He raised his hand and tapped the holographic panel on his arm.
The air across the whole rooftop seemed to be struck by something all at once, ripples spreading outward in every direction.
A projection matrix, not yet fully resolved, ran at full power under the cover of thunder and darkness.
A hulking Honkai Beast, its purple-black carapace rippling with eerie light patterns, stepped out of the void.
"Holy crap!"
Nuwa couldn't help letting out a burst of hometown profanity.
The staff all took a step back in unison, a chorus of gasps rippling through the crowd.
Durandal's fingers tightened on the hammer, wariness flickering in her eyes—but suspicion outweighed it by far.
Su Yu gripped the weapon at his waist—an unremarkable-looking metal tube that in fact housed Anti-Entropy's most advanced liquid metal, able to reshape itself into any weapon he willed.
And the harmless little disguise the System had just installed could naturally be applied to it as well.
Su Yu hefted it in his palm, weighing it.
Reflected in everyone's eyes, the hunk of metal was wrapped, layer by layer, in flowing streams of data, reshaped—until it finally became a humming energy blade in his hand.
Su Yu stepped forward, the blade's light carving an arc through the night, meeting the projected Honkai Beast head-on with the plainest, most unadorned slashing stance.
A metallic hum burst through the air; the Honkai Beast let out a rough roar that mixed with the faint thunder overhead, making everyone's scalp prickle.
Nuwa clapped her hands loudly, shouting at the top of her lungs, "Su Yu, you sly dog, you really know how to hide things! Why didn't you bring this tech out sooner?!"
Only Durandal stayed still.
She stood in place, watching every clash between Su Yu and the Honkai Beast.
The sparks flying between blade and carapace, the faint tremor through the ground, the gust of wind kicked up whenever the beast swung its tail.
It really did feel real. But—
"Durandal," Su Yu said, hefting the hilt and turning to look at her, "want to give it a try?"
He tossed the hilt over to Durandal.
Durandal caught it steadily, closing her palm around the hilt, feeling the faint warmth and slight vibration coming from it.
She walked up to the Honkai Beast still pacing around the rooftop, pressed her lips together, gripped the sword with both hands, and swung down at the beast's front paw.
Clang!
The impact left her grip numb, the recoil through the hilt disturbingly real.
The strike sensation this 4D shock-feedback system simulated felt exactly like hitting something solid and hard.
"Feels good, doesn't it?"
Su Yu walked up and took the hilt back from her hand, keeping his tone as casual as he could manage.
"Too bad you can't wear this armor yet, though. The most troublesome part of this tech is that it has to be calibrated to each person's individual body data, or it won't reach the full simulation effect."
Nuwa had already lost all patience and rushed forward, snatching the energy blade right out of Su Yu's hand: "Let me hit it! Let me hit it!"
A few of the bolder staff members crowded forward too, poking at the Honkai Beast with the blade.
Su Yu didn't stop them—the Key of Blankness weapon's output was now dialed down to minimum, holding only its most basic form and shock simulation.
Other than that, it was no different from the inflatable hammer in Durandal's hand, since neither of them could actually kill anyone.
Watching the crowd take turns 'getting a hit in' on the Honkai Beast, anyone who didn't know better might've mistaken it for some Pinduoduo group-discount haggling event.
But Durandal stood in place, not moving.
Raindrops fell into her hair; she brushed them off without thinking.
She watched the lively 'demo session,' her gaze growing heavier by the moment.
Nuwa had been won over easily, her eyes shining with enthusiasm for 'getting a hit in.'
But Durandal wasn't so easily fooled.
What she'd seen on Bronie's computer screen had been nothing like this small-time horseplay.
What Su Yu and Rita had pulled off was advanced martial arts and swordwork that defied the limits of the human body.
Was that special effects? Composited animation?
Combined with what she'd seen of Su Yu's performance on the island survival show, Durandal already knew something had happened to this man—something she hadn't seen coming.
And besides.
Just as Durandal had said back in that cave.
Su Yu wasn't good at lying. Or rather—in front of Durandal, his lies were far too easy to see through.
"Anyway—" Su Yu coughed lightly near her ear. He knew perfectly well that the more he said, the more likely he was to slip up, so under the circumstances, better to hand it off to a professional.
Yes.
Help me out here, Miss Eden!
"This technology was funded and developed by Sister Eden. If you've got any questions, go ask her."
Eden's light laugh came through the communicator: "Seems like someone's about to owe another favor~"
Durandal stared at Su Yu for a few seconds.
Then she took out her phone and dialed the familiar number.
Beep—it connected before the second ring.
"Ellie? What's going on?"
Eden's voice came through the receiver, soft as a cat just waking from a nap, with a bit of wind noise mixed in.
She must be driving somewhere.
"Good Eden—"
Durandal nudged a puddle on the ground with her toe, her voice taking on a complaining tone.
"Su Yu was secretly testing new tech up on the roof, and made it look like he hacked all of Arc City Tower, kicking up this huge fuss—don't you think that's just asking for trouble?"
Laughter drifted through the receiver.
Eden's tone stayed unhurried. "Ah, so that's what happened. Sorry, Ellie—the plan was to give you and everyone at work a little surprise once the test wrapped up..."
She paused, a note of amusement creeping into her voice.
"By the way, that battle animation you saw was actually made with the new tech."
"I wanted to test whether motion capture and 4D environment simulation could integrate seamlessly... Looks like it turned out well?"
Durandal nodded a few times, lightly.
The sharp scrutiny in her gaze toward Su Yu finally began to ease.
"Hmph." After hanging up, she slung the inflatable hammer over her shoulder and lifted her chin with grudging acceptance.
"Looks like someone really did dodge a bullet—matching what good Eden said, word for word. Almost like you two coordinated it in advance."
Su Yu said with a smile, "Sister Eden's the investor. Of course she needs to know the project details—that's reasonable, isn't it?"
"Sure, very reasonable. So reasonable there's nothing to pick apart."
Durandal glanced at him, her expression complicated, but in the end she let it drop.
Su Yu cleared his throat and walked over toward the group still playing 'Pinduoduo, help me cut the price.'
"All right, all right, that's enough for now. Once the tech's fully polished, I promise you'll get to play with it until you're sick of it."
But Nuwa hugged the energy blade and wouldn't let go. Su Yu stepped up, making as if to snatch it back.
Durandal had already clapped her hands and called out to the crowd still going wild on the rooftop, "The test's over, so let's head back down!"
As she said it, Durandal glanced at Su Yu once more.
"You put out an official announcement under miHoYo's name without so much as an explanation—when we get back, you'd better have something to show the players, right?"
She pointed the hammer at him, her face once again lit with the smile that belonged to Miss Pink Elf.
"And another thing—Miss Pink Elf is starving right now. As the one responsible for all this, you're footing the entire bill for tonight's midnight snack!"
"Midnight snack!" Nuwa led the cheering. "Director Su's paying!"
The staff's cheers rang out together under the thunderstorm.
Su Yu rubbed his forehead and jerked his chin toward the stairwell door. "You all go on down. I'll clean up the site here and catch up in a minute."
Durandal nodded, hammer in hand, and walked toward the rooftop exit. "Don't keep us waiting too long. If I get hungry, I might just come back up here and give you another beating with this hammer."
She pulled open the fire door leading downstairs and stepped through.
The door swung shut behind her, heavy.
Thud—
That dull sound was like something finally settling into place.
Durandal leaned her back against the cold fire door, head bowed.
The inflatable hammer in her hand drooped against the floor; she nudged it gently with the toe of her shoe.
The Pink Elf who'd just been chin-jutting at the sky a moment ago now clenched her teeth, but still couldn't hold back the grievance rising up her throat.
"Bad Su Yu, your lies really are getting clumsier by the day."
Raindrops slid from her hair onto the back of her hand; she rubbed them off with her fingertips.
She clenched her teeth and replayed the phone call in her mind.
Eden had said, "that was tested with composited animation."
But Eden had also said she was out working, nowhere near the scene.
So how would she know that what Durandal had seen was that 'animation' on Bronie's computer?
"Good Eden, you clearly weren't anywhere near Arc City Tower—so how did you know I saw those images on Bronie's computer?"
She rested the back of her head against the metal door, gazing at the dim gray window at the end of the hallway.
"So... have you been coordinating something with Su Yu behind my back this whole time?"
Some sour ache of being shut out by the people closest to her crept down her collar like rainwater.
But that grievance lingered on her face for less than three seconds.
She raised both hands—smack, smack—and slapped her own cheeks, loud and sharp.
"Bad Su Yu's been getting worse and worse lately, but he must have some reason for keeping this from me. And if good Eden is helping him keep it secret, that means this is something I'm probably better off not knowing—"
She gripped the hammer tight and walked a few steps down the empty hallway.
Her heels clicked crisply against the marble floor.
Then she spun around suddenly, raising the inflatable weapon into the air.
"Hmph! Even a pretty girl has a temper!"
"Whatever the reason, I am absolutely going to investigate this down to the very bottom! Su Yu, Eden—"
Her voice echoed through the empty hallway, carrying a faint nasal tone and utter seriousness.
"Great Detective Durandal is going to figure the two of you out completely!"
A bright flash of lightning rolled past outside the fire door's window.
The light briefly lit up the side of Durandal's face.
She rubbed her nose hard, tucked the hammer under her arm, and headed for the stairwell.
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