Mei pushed up her glasses and slipped the stack of documents recording Kiana's astonishing data into her briefcase.
"The data collection was flawless. In fact, it exceeded my expectations."
She glanced at Kiana, who was already chatting enthusiastically with Lewis and looked as though the two of them were about to become sworn sisters on the spot, then turned to Su Yu, who was still wiping cold sweat from his forehead.
"I'll take care of the remaining paperwork. As for this outstanding disciple of the Taixu Sect's ID card…"
She extended a slender finger and pointed toward the photo booth with the blue curtain on the other side of the hall.
"Go get the photo taken first."
"After all, if she's going to live in this world legally, she'll need a smile on that card."
Lewis came over as well, slapping Su Yu on the shoulder with a heavy hand forged through years of weight training—
Su Yu immediately felt as if half his body had sunk five centimeters into the ground, his bones protesting on the spot.
That made it twice now.
"I'll handle the vigilante license!" Lewis declared. "In a few days, I'll have someone deliver the card and the uniform to your place."
"And don't forget—come back and spar whenever you've got time!"
After parting ways with those two formidable, busy women, Su Yu brought Kiana over to the photo section of the registration hall.
This wasn't her first time facing a camera—after all, she had just been through that mortifying livestream disaster the night before.
But that had been for entertainment.
This time, it was for something serious. A legal ID card.
For Kiana, this was her very first time dealing with anything like it.
And more importantly, it meant she was finally about to shed the crushing label of "undocumented person" for good.
That sense of ceremony made her unconsciously tense up. She was practically walking with the same arm and leg.
"Come on, young lady, sit here."
The photographer was a kindly middle-aged man, pointing at the little stool draped with red fabric.
"Look at the camera and smile."
Kiana sat down stiffly, hands on her knees, back ramrod straight, looking less like someone taking an ID photo and more like someone being interrogated.
Staring at the dark lens, what surfaced in her mind wasn't anything cheerful at all. It was the cold, severe expression she had worn during her days wandering in exile—those countless nights facing surveillance cameras and drones.
That was the expression she had needed to survive.
So, just before the flash went off, her gaze sharpened, her lips pressed into a line, and a killing aura radiated from her whole body.
Click.
The photographer looked at the image on the screen in silence.
That face looked as if it might leap out of the photo and kill someone in the next second.
If that ended up on an ID card, she'd probably get pulled aside by special police eight hundred times before ever making it onto a train.
"Um… miss?"
The man wiped sweat from his forehead.
"This is for an ID card. A civilian ID. Not an A-rank wanted poster… Could you maybe soften it a little? Just a tiny bit?"
Kiana blinked blankly, and the killing aura instantly vanished, replaced by confusion.
Soften it?
She tried tugging at the corners of her mouth, doing her best to imitate the smiles of ordinary girls—or maybe even her own carefree smile from the old days.
But she couldn't do it.
Faced with that black camera lens, she felt as if she were staring down the barrel of a gun.
The result was a smile that looked worse than crying—an awful, threatening grin.
Like a tiger trying to look friendly but forgetting to hide its fangs.
The photographer's hands started shaking.
Was this girl really here to get ID photos?
She wasn't here to smash the place up, was she?
Or was she some underworld boss's daughter slumming it for fun?
Behind him, Su Yu could take no more.
He knew Kiana didn't refuse to smile because she didn't want to.
She had simply forgotten how to show her real self in a place that was safe.
Those wandering years had poured concrete over her softness and innocence, burying them beneath layers of hard shell.
Since that was the case… then he'd just have to crack that shell open himself.
He glanced at the timer on his phone.
The system-granted "absolute free time" still had a few minutes left.
Enough.
Su Yu quietly circled behind the photographer until he stood directly in Kiana's line of sight.
Then he cleared his throat and struck an outrageously twisted pose.
Left hand on hip, right hand raised over his head, body hunched like a gorilla.
Then he started wriggling.
It was, in legend, "National Elementary and Middle School Calisthenics, Movement Eight: Cool-down Exercise"—
except in Su Yu's performance, it looked more like a cramping octopus.
Kiana's pupils widened slightly.
What the hell was he doing?!
That man who was usually so composed, who liked to snark and act cool—
the one who could sit before Mei and talk circles around everyone just to get her paperwork handled—
was now puffing out his cheeks, crossing his eyes, and flailing both arms over his head like seaweed in a storm.
This was… so stupid.
This was beyond stupid. This was weaponized stupidity.
The moment that thought crossed her mind, the ice of her defenses cracked from sheer absurdity.
The corners of Kiana's mouth broke.
Real laughter rose from her eyes like spring water.
Those sharp, mismatched eyes curved into crescents. Her rigid shoulders relaxed.
All at once, she radiated the softness and liveliness of an ordinary girl her age.
It was the smile that only appeared when she let down all her guard—for the idiot who was willing to completely throw away his dignity just to make her laugh.
Click—
The shutter snapped at the perfect moment.
That instant of warmth and shy softness was captured forever.
"Good! Perfect!"
The photographer shouted in delight, nodding repeatedly at the image on the screen.
"That's it! That's exactly it! Still a little shy, but that's perfect! So pretty! Now she finally looks like a teenage girl!"
Kiana lowered her head a little, cheeks pink like ripe apples.
She watched Su Yu stop his ridiculous routine and flash her an "all done" gesture, and something warm and a little painful welled up in her chest.
He really was… such an idiot.
But not an idiot anyone could hate.
Next came the form-filling.
They moved to the counter, and Su Yu picked up the Special Population Registration Form.
"Name: Kiana Kaslana."
"Age…"
That line actually made him hesitate.
He glanced sideways at Kiana.
After thinking it over, he wrote down a middling number.
Sixteen.
Su Yu did have selfish reasons for that.
Once Kiana was truly settled in this world, he wanted her to continue the education she had never really finished.
Of course, in this world, she wouldn't be learning combat arts or how to fight the Honkai.
She'd be learning math, English, and all the rest.
Still, to live in this world, people needed goals. Needed a way to realize their own worth.
Unlike someone like him, who could more or less coast through life, half-living on games and inertia—
Kiana deserved something better.
Or rather—
Su Yu wanted her to have something better.
At the very least, he wanted her to make some friends her own age, instead of being tied to an "older guy" like him all the time.
Not that Su Yu thought of himself as old.
But compared to Kiana, there really was an undeniable age gap.
"Why not eighteen?"
Kiana sounded dissatisfied.
"I'm not a child anymore!"
Su Yu looked at her.
How should he put it…
If Bianka had stood here claiming she was eighteen, he might have believed it.
Bianka was just… unusually developed.
But Kiana at this age?
It simply wasn't persuasive.
Su Yu came up with some excuse and muddled through it, then moved on to the next line.
"Home address…"
Kiana's pen froze above that field.
Her grip tightened slightly.
Home.
That word was too luxurious for her. So luxurious it felt like a dream too far away to reach.
During her years of wandering, the ruins of Arc City had been home. Dark bridge underpasses had been home. Temporary camps that might be overrun by Honkai beasts at any moment had been home.
Anywhere she could lie down. Anywhere she could keep the rain off for a night.
Everything had been home.
And nothing had.
She had never had a fixed place to go back to.
And in this strange new world, she was even more thoroughly an outsider.
What was she supposed to write there?
Taixu Mountain?
She raised her head reflexively and looked at Su Yu.
Her eyes were like a lost kitten's in the rain—wet, helpless, quietly yearning.
Su Yu seemed to have anticipated this moment all along.
He didn't look at her.
He simply extended a finger and tapped that blank line.
"Write it."
His voice was light, but steady.
"Tianqiong City, Xingfu Residential Complex, Building 3, Room 302."
That was Su Yu's home.
The place where they were living together now.
Kiana froze.
She had been staying there all this time, yes.
But that was one thing.
Writing it down in black and white on an official government document was something entirely different.
If she wrote it there, that meant…
it really was her home now.
Not a temporary shelter.
Not a borrowed corner she might be kicked out of at any time.
But legally, formally, a place she belonged to.
A place she could return to openly when she was tired, when she was wronged, when she needed somewhere to go.
"…Is that really okay?"
she asked quietly, uncertainty trembling in her voice.
"I'm a lot of trouble. I break your coffee table, I eat a lot, I cause you all kinds of problems…"
"What nonsense are you saying?"
Su Yu smiled and tapped the desk lightly with his finger.
"You're my junior sister. If you don't live with me, where are you supposed to go? Sleep under a bridge?"
"And anyway, rent's expensive these days. I'm letting you stay for free and you're still not happy? Who turns down a deal like that?"
"Come on, write it. There are people waiting behind us."
Kiana bit her lip, her eyes stinging.
She lowered her gaze to the finger pointing her forward.
It felt like a signpost guiding her home.
That great weight inside her heart seemed to settle, just a little.
Anchor.
So this was what an anchor really meant.
Not just the physical distance restriction.
But a tether for the soul.
As long as that address existed—
as long as that person existed—
then no matter how big or strange this world was, she would always have somewhere to go back to.
As long as he was there, she was no longer a ghost.
She took a deep breath and tightened her grip on the pen.
Then, stroke by stroke, with deep and careful seriousness, she wrote the address across the blank line.
Tianqiong City, Xingfu Residential Complex, Building 3, Room 302.
When she finished the last character, she suddenly felt the strange magic of words.
They were nothing but black symbols on white paper—
yet they warmed her like winter sunlight.
"Done."
She set down the pen and handed the form to Su Yu.
Her face still wore that same proud, half-aloof expression.
But at some point she had quietly edged half a step closer, her shoulder lightly brushing his arm.
This time, it wasn't because of the system's safety-distance restriction.
She just wanted to lean against him.
The way a ship leans toward harbor.
Before long, the process was complete.
When the ID card—still faintly warm from the plastic seal—was placed into Kiana's hand, she lowered her head and ran her fingers over the little line listing her residence again and again.
Address: Tianqiong City, Xingfu Residential Complex, Unit 3, Room 302
Just a few dry Chinese characters and numbers.
On any map app, it would be the kind of tiny residential point you'd never find unless you zoomed all the way in.
But in Kiana's eyes, that string of symbols seemed to carry a physical weight, resting heavily in her palm while at the same time lifting her heart.
And at that exact moment, the air before Su Yu's eyes warped.
The translucent panel appeared again—
that infuriating system that usually did nothing except warn him about distances, issue shameless instructions to do deeply questionable things, or speak in half-riddles—
this time complete with cheap celebratory confetti effects.
[Congratulations, Host! Hidden Side Achievement Unlocked — "Returning to the Nest"]
[Achievement Description: A wandering soul is no longer without a home. Sometimes, a legal proof of existence can calm the heart more than any divine weapon. You gave her a name, and you gave her a place to belong.]
[System Review: Many years later, when Su Yu had already become a generation-defining king of entertainment, he would still remember that afternoon—remember how the system, like some old father, had nagged him into binding himself to a high-quality Valkyrie. If given another chance, he would still shout without hesitation: "Honored godfather, please accept my bow!"]
Looking at that ridiculous review, Su Yu rolled his eyes skyward.
Get lost. What are you, some kind of fake historical chronicler?
[Reward Granted: Home System Unlocked (Lv.1)]
Su Yu raised a brow and quickly scanned the small text beneath it.
[Effect: Within the registered address area (Xingfu Residential Complex, Unit 3, Room 302), all distance restrictions are removed. Kiana Kaslana obtains "Absolute Freedom" within the home. Even if the host goes outside, the individual will not disappear from losing anchor proximity.]
[Note: At last, you no longer have to stand outside the bathroom door counting down for a beautiful girl while she uses the toilet. Excited?]
As he read that line of bright, taunting red text, the vein at Su Yu's temple started throbbing.
If the system had a physical body, he would have hit it with a textbook uppercut right then and there.
But in the very next second, the urge to complain was drowned in a tidal wave of joy.
Distance restrictions removed?
Absolute freedom at home?
Did he understand what that meant?
That meant he could finally throw the white-haired lump who always kicked her blanket off and had the sleeping posture of a tornado out of his bed!
It meant no more nervously guarding against every tiny movement in the night because of that damned proximity limit!
No more red-faced midnight bathroom runs where both of them had to function like a pair of awkward conjoined twins!
And most importantly—
the Prime Minister could finally rest.
He no longer had to recite The Memorial on the Expeditions by the bathroom door every single time.
Basic human rights.
These were delayed but undeniable basic human rights.
The same rotten system that normally refused to act like either a human being or a useful machine, and seemed to exist solely for the sake of enjoying his suffering—
in this moment, it suddenly looked oddly handsome.
Probably an illusion.
But it didn't stop him from wanting to kneel down and give thanks to whatever invisible hand had finally decided to show mercy.
Su Yu took a deep breath and pinched his thigh hard.
Don't laugh.
Absolutely do not laugh.
This was a police station.
There were uniformed officers everywhere, and serious civilians handling official business.
If he started jumping around like a lunatic who had just won the lottery and shouting, "I'm free at last!"
then even Lewis, protector that she was, would probably have him detained for observation.
More importantly—
Kiana was standing right next to him.
That girl was carefully slipping her new ID card into a pocket close to her chest, handling it as delicately as if she were hiding away a fragile jewel.
If he told her this right now, she'd probably leap three feet into the air and slam straight into the ceiling.
At that point, not only would he have to add "ceiling repair" to their monthly budget, but his carefully cultivated image as a hidden martial arts senior would collapse on the spot.
Well, not that that image wasn't already half-collapsing anyway.
Still, best to preserve what was left.
Su Yu forced himself to cough and looked back at the panel.
Beneath the reward section was one more faint little line, obviously placed there just to torment the reader with curiosity.
[Hidden Quest Chain (2): Locked]
[Unlock Condition: Please explore independently. Hint: Now that the nest exists, isn't it time to think about furnishing it? Or perhaps… some deeper form of bond?]
Riddle-speakers should be expelled from Gotham.
Su Yu viciously flipped the system off in his mind.
This damned thing had always been like this. Outside of dropping the ball at critical moments, its greatest hobby was saying half of something and leaving the rest dangling.
Still.
Even with just that first reward, it was enough.
At the very least, the system's acknowledgment proved one thing—
all of it had mattered.
The all-nighters spent grinding away at design docs.
The shamelessness with which he had cajoled Griseo and Lewis.
Even the clownish way he had handled the livestream crisis.
None of it had been wasted.
That girl had truly begun to put down roots in this strange world because of his efforts.
That alone was enough.
After saying goodbye to Lewis, the two of them stepped out of the police station.
The evening sun poured through the glass doors of the registration hall, bathing the freshly printed ID card—still faintly warm—in soft gold.
Kiana lowered her head, her fingers brushing over the card again and again.
Name: Kiana Kaslana
Not K-423.
Not a wanted fugitive.
Not some fabricated "ancient martial arts prodigy."
Just Kiana Kaslana.
The girl smiling shyly in the photo, with warmth in her eyes—that was her.
And the address field that read "Xingfu Residential Complex, Unit 3, Room 302"—
that was her home.
In that moment, the long-festering void inside her, the fear that she would be rejected by this world at any moment and erased as an anomaly—
it finally cracked, just enough for golden sunlight to pour in.
She lifted her head, and in those mismatched eyes shimmered the warm light of sunset.
And reflected in that light was the man standing before her, the one who had kept running back and forth for her sake this entire time.
"…Su Yu."
She called his name softly, voice a little hoarse.
"Does this card… really mean that I'm… one of this world's people now?"
Su Yu stood beside her, still instinctively maintaining that subtle one-and-a-half-meter distance.
He didn't step closer and disturb this fragile moment.
He simply looked at her quietly, his gaze gentle and certain.
"Yeah."
He nodded, his voice soft but as solid as a vow.
"It's official. Signed and stamped."
He looked at the evening sun laying a golden halo over her silver-white hair.
"Welcome to this world, Kiana Kaslana."
"From today on, you're not a ghost anymore. You're not rootless driftwood."
"You're a living, breathing person. Someone who can walk out in broad daylight, buy snacks, make friends, and chase after happiness."
Every word landed like a knock against her heart.
This was the future she had once desperately longed for, yet never dared to hope for.
Her eyes stung.
Her vision blurred.
But this time, she didn't cry.
Because today was a good day.
A day of rebirth.
Tears could stay behind in the past where they belonged.
"Yeah!"
She nodded hard, forcing that tear back.
Then she lifted her face and turned toward Su Yu—toward the flaming dusk itself—
and gave him a huge smile.
Brighter than the one on the photo.
More real.
Her lips curved high, showing white teeth, her eyes crinkling into crescents.
It felt as if all the gloom, all the weight she had carried, had melted away in that instant, leaving only pure joy and a fragile, hopeful longing for the future.
It was the smile of the carefree "tuna" from her St. Freya days.
A smile she had worn before the world became too heavy.
The sunset glowed across her face.
She looked like someone who had finally seen dawn after a very long night.
Click.
A soft shutter sound broke the moment.
Kiana blinked in surprise and turned her head—
just in time to see Su Yu holding up his phone.
On the screen was the photo he had just taken, capturing her smile from that exact instant.
"Hey! Why are you taking sneaky photos?! I look terrible!"
"Terrible? Where?"
Su Yu looked down at the photo, and the corners of his mouth lifted uncontrollably.
The girl in the image had light in her eyes, a smile on her face, and the warm noise of ordinary human life behind her.
It was probably the most beautiful picture he had ever taken in his life.
He said it softly, without teasing, with simple sincerity.
"You're beautiful."
"Really beautiful."
He slipped the phone back into his pocket and hit save.
And silently, he made a promise—
No matter what it cost him, he would protect that smile.
He would never let it be swallowed by darkness again.
Though Kiana scolded him out loud and even made as if to snatch the phone away, there was no real anger in her eyes.
On the contrary, that feeling of being treasured—of being remembered and recorded—warmed her in a way she couldn't quite put into words.
"All right, stop standing around like an idiot."
Su Yu stretched lazily, deliberately breaking the atmosphere before it got too sentimental.
"To celebrate the fact that our household now has one more… ahem, one more legal citizen, let's go on a supermarket shopping spree tonight."
"What do you want? Chips? Soda? Or that limited-edition instant ramen you've been obsessing over?"
The words shopping spree instantly wiped the last traces of awkwardness from her face.
"I want that!"
She pointed at an ad display in the distant mall, eyes lighting up.
"Chocolate! And one of those huge tubs of ice cream!"
"And… I also want that pajama set with the Homu print on it! The one that fan mentioned when you were streaming last time!"
"Yeah, yeah, yeah. We'll buy it."
Su Yu shook his head helplessly, but his eyes were full of fondness.
"As long as your wallet… no, sorry, my wallet can survive it."
"Hmph, I'm a vigilante now!"
Kiana proudly waved her volunteer justice badge.
"When I get my bonus, I'll treat you to… to the most expensive instant noodles there are!"
"Oh wow, thank you so much…"
The two of them walked on under the evening sun, their shadows overlapping on the pavement.
They were no longer a lonely drifter and an unwilling caretaker.
They looked, at last, like a real family.
....
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