The words buzzed through Arthur's mind, forming a suffocating sensation that could only be called "failure."
Just as that wave of despair threatened to swallow him whole,
[Ding!]
A crisp electronic chime, as if detonating directly inside the depths of his skull, went off without warning.
[Detecting host at a critical career turning point...]
[Binding system...]
[Binding complete.]
[Host: Arthur (Captain)]
[Current World Pan-Entertainment Index Assessment: Low.]
[Critical IPs absent: Honkai series, Star Rail series, Genshin series... (List too long, collapsed)]
[Introductory Mission Released:]
[Mission Objective: Before the timeline converges (bankruptcy liquidation completed), successfully complete development and construction of all foundational content for Chapter One of the game Honkai Impact 3rd.]
[Mission Reward: System-Assisted Development Module (Beginner) unlocked.]
[Failure Penalty: None (timeline convergence is itself the penalty).]
[Accept mission?]
Arthur's breath caught in his throat.
A semi-transparent blue screen materialized before him, visible to him alone, its cold text carrying an air of absolute authority.
The system's chime still echoed inside his mind, and that collapsed list of "missing IPs" felt like a key.
In an instant, it threw open a locked floodgate somewhere deep in his memory.
This was no illusion.
Those worlds, those characters, those stories were not merely fantasies from a past life, nor blank spaces in this world.
They had existed. Or rather, they should have existed.
And now, an opportunity had arrived to bring them back to life in this world.
Bankruptcy liquidation? Debt crisis? His childhood sweetheart waiting to take him home?
To hell with all of it.
A scorching surge of energy shot from the soles of his feet straight to the top of his head, scattering every last trace of dizziness and despair.
Arthur launched himself off the sofa, the motion too forceful.
He knocked over an empty drink can by the armrest, sending it clattering and rolling far across the floor.
The noise jolted the office's lifeless occupants out of their stupor.
Kiana pulled off one earbud and blinked her blue eyes in his direction. "Captain? You finally woke up? Bad dream, or did you dream it was payday?"
Her tone carried its usual teasing edge, though a faint, barely perceptible concern flickered beneath it.
Mei closed her sketchbook, her gaze settling on him quietly, full of unspoken questions.
Bronya set down her pen and turned her head.
Dan Heng's eyes drifted away from his lines of code, Stelle rubbed his eyes. March 7th set down the pen she'd been spinning endlessly.
Every pair of eyes converged on him, laden with exhaustion, confusion, and the hollow numbness of people staring down the end of the road.
Arthur drew a deep breath, filling his lungs with the stale air of their battered little office.
Yet he felt more clear-headed than he ever had before.
He walked to his desk and picked up the "Preliminary Asset Liquidation Report."
Without even glancing at it, he crumpled them together with the stack of overdue notices and the landlord's eviction warning beneath it.
Under everyone's stunned stares, he swept his arm in a wide arc.
The paper ball sailed cleanly into the wastebasket in the corner, bouncing off the rim of the half-dead pothos plant.
It landed with a dull thud.
"Liquidation? Liquidate what, exactly?"
His voice was low, but it carried an iron certainty, cutting through the silence of the office with unusual clarity.
"Listen up, everyone."
Arthur swept his gaze around the room, meeting each familiar, young face one by one.
"Starting today, Under the Stellar Sky Studio is changing course."
He paused, catching Kiana's look of surprise, her brows raised, Mei's eyes widening slightly, and the sudden light that rekindled in Bronya's gaze.
Taking in the varying degrees of confusion and curiosity from the others, he slowly spoke the name:
"Our first project..."
"Honkai Impact 3rd."
"A story about girls who fight for all that is beautiful in this world."
The office fell silent for a few seconds.
"Honkai Impact... 3rd?"
Stelle was the first to speak, at her messy ash-grey hair.
"Boss, that name sounds kind of... chunni? And what does 'Honkai' even mean?"
"Sounds like the title of some cheap horror game."
Kiana pursed her lips, though she straightened up slightly from her slouch. A curious gleam danced in her blue eyes.
"Still, 'fighting for all that is beautiful in this world'? Whoever came up with that line, it's actually kind of cool."
Mei said nothing. She simply tilted her head, a look of quiet contemplation drifting through her violet eyes.
Dan Heng pushed his glasses up and asked calmly, "Arthur, do you have a new technical proposal and a project plan? Core gameplay, engine selection, art style, development timeline, budget..."
She left the sentence unfinished, but her meaning was plain: no more castles in the air.
Arthur raised a hand to hold back the questions piling up around him.
He couldn't produce a polished plan on the spot; the system's existence wasn't something he could reveal. The specifics would need to be recalled and pieced together, but first he had to light the fire.
"I'll have the full plan to everyone within three days. But the direction, we can lock in right now." His gaze turned fierce.
"We're not making the kind of thing flooding the market right now, stuff that's either painfully generic or sloppily made.
We're going for top-tier, fluid 3D action. Characters and story that genuinely move people. A vast, living world with real depth.
Kiana, Mei." He turned to his two childhood friends.
"Your artistic instincts need to be pushed to their absolute limit. Dan Heng, Bronya, we need a brand-new engine framework, efficient and capable of carrying spectacular combat. Stelle, March 7th, we need your wild ideas to breathe life into every corner of this story."
His tone was filled with an unshakeable confidence, a boldness that bordered on arrogance.
And yet it spread through the room like a current, touching everyone present. Even the most cautious Dan Heng's furrowed brow smoothed, just slightly.
"Hm, easy enough to say," Kiana scoffed, sinking back into her chair, though the corner of her mouth tipped upward just a little.
"I'll be watching to see what you actually pull off. You'd better not show up in three days with something you scraped out of your drafts folder."
"I'll do my best," Mei said softly, her fingers absently tracing the edge of her sketchbook.
Bronya gave a single nod and turned her gaze back to her monitor.
Dan Heng was quiet for a moment, then adjusted his glasses. "I'll need to see a technical feasibility analysis as soon as possible."
"Ooh, a new project!" March 7th seemed to perk up a little. "Boss, can we raise the food budget this time? I'm so tired of convenience store rice balls!"
Stelle stared at Arthur with a thoughtful look and muttered under his breath, "Creating a new story... sounds a bit more interesting than being a baseball superhero, I guess."
The team's morale, just barely, lifted a fraction with this sudden new course.
The path ahead was still swathed in fog, but at least the crew of this sinking ship had shifted their gaze, if only for a moment, from the hole beneath their feet toward the unknown horizon beyond.