One month. Thirty days and nights. Seven hundred and twenty hours.
That month had been both endlessly long and startlingly brief, so brief that when the launch button was finally pressed, no one even had time to cheer. They just stared at their screens, frozen, holding their breath.
The data began to move.
The first player registered.
The first player completed the prologue tutorial.
The first comment appeared in the community: "Holy crap, the dodge slow-motion effect feels INCREDIBLE!"
The second: "It's free? Actually free? Is this studio doing charity work or something?"
Third, fourth, fifth...
Kiana was leaning over Stelle's computer, eyes wide as saucers, fingers clutching the hem of Mei's shirt in a death grip.
Mei let her hold on, her own free hand curling unconsciously into a fist.
Bronya's gaze swept rapidly between several monitor panels, fine beads of sweat at her temples.
Dan Heng adjusted his glasses. In the reflected light of his lenses: the server load curve, smooth, healthy, with headroom to spare.
Stelle and March 7th had completely abandoned the social media dashboard. They were crammed in front of one monitor together, staring at the registration count ticking upward with visible speed, lips moving in quiet, breathless murmurs.
And Arthur stood behind all of them, back against the wall.
He wasn't watching the data. He was looking out at the night sky.
His phone gave a gentle buzz in his pocket.
He looked down and unlocked the screen.
It was Cyrene.
"Just finished the prologue."
"First time playing a game that actually needs you to think with your hands. My fingers kept falling behind my brain. But when I saw Kiana leap off the Hyperion, I just stopped and stared."
"Every line you wrote. Really good."
A minute passed, then another message came through.
"Anyway, your studio still has such a long road ahead, Arthur. But that's okay."
"Roads have a way of brightening up as you walk them."
Arthur didn't reply.
He turned his phone face-down and pressed it against his chest, holding back the wave that had suddenly rushed up from somewhere deep.
---
Half an hour earlier.
The final pre-launch test at the Under the Stellar Sky studio.
"Engine stress within normal range. Asset loading normal."
"All level entry points error-free."
Dan Heng's voice was steady. Bronya's keystrokes were measured and even.
But the tension in the air was thick enough to wring out with both hands.
Kiana knocked over her coffee for the third time. Mei quietly wiped it up for the fourth.
Stelle had rewritten the community announcement post twelve times. March 7th had recited "this is definitely it" thirteen times beside her.
And Arthur, in those final thirty minutes, had done none of it.
He simply sat there, facing the backend dashboard, blank and waiting to go live.
Quietly, deliberately, he wrote in his notebook, stroke by stroke: "Honkai Impact 3rd."
He wrote slowly, as though completing some kind of ritual.
When the last character was down, he set the pen aside and looked up.
Ready to launch.
And then, now.
"Captain! We broke ten thousand!"
Stelle's voice cracked into something close to a scream.
"Comments coming in, positive feedback above 92%!"
March 7th's hands were a blur across the keyboard.
"Server load curve is stable. No unusual spikes."
There was, for once, a trace of warmth in Dan Heng's voice.
Bronya said nothing. But the corner of her mouth, just slightly, curved upward.
Kiana finally let go of Mei's shirt, and only then realized she'd been crying at some point without noticing. She scrubbed at her face with her sleeve until her cheeks went red. "Ugh, I am NOT crying! Something got in my eye, that's all!"
Mei didn't call her out. Her own eyes were bright with the same shimmer.
But her smile was so gentle, gentle as the light that breaks through after rain.
And Arthur finally pushed himself off the wall and walked to the window.
He didn't turn around.
"Good," he said, his voice so quiet it was nearly swallowed by the celebration behind him. "That's enough for today."
He paused.
"You all worked hard. Thank you."
---
In Elysia's livestream.
"It's out! It's finally out!"
The pink-haired fairy, rarely caught off guard, practically lunged at her screen.
"I've been following since the comic, then the trailer, and now launch day. Do you have any idea what this past month has been like for me?!"
She turned to the camera with an expression of exaggerated grievance.
The bullet comments flooded past in an instant: "We know, we know," "The fairy's been a fan from day one," "More excited than the devs, I'm crying."
The loading screen flashed by.
Then the display lit up.
The hangar door of the Hyperion slowly slid open, and Kiana appeared.
Her long white hair was pulled into a clean braid, drifting lightly in the air. She had her back to the camera, her frame slender but perfectly straight, and then her right hand rose to press against the side of her head. Along the edge of her tactical visor, a quiet blue glow came to life.
The stream went strange and still in that moment.
The bullet comments disappeared. The chatter stopped.
Even Elysia forgot to speak.
Only the sound from inside the game came through, clear and calm through the headset.
"Valkyrie, prepare for deployment."
"10."
"9."
"8."
"7."
Kiana tilted her head slightly. Her expression was hidden, but for just that instant, the curve of her jaw and the faint press of her lips against each other were visible.
"6."
"5."
"4."
And then she leapt.
Wind roared.
Cloud layers tore past on either side.
Both hands on her weapon, body fully extended, she fell like a white bird breaking through the clouds, plunging toward the ship below.
Elysia murmured the subtitles as they drifted across the screen, her voice barely above a breath, as though she were afraid to wake herself from the dream.
Then the bullet comments detonated.
"OH MY GOD OH MY GOD OH MY GOD"
"That opening! That shot! That voice acting!"
"I have CHILLS does anyone else have chills"
Elysia didn't read them aloud.
She just watched, quietly, as that small white figure fell toward the warship on her screen.
The light from the display reflected in her eyes.
It was a long time before she finally spoke, softly.
"So this is where Honkai Impact 3rd begins."
She didn't say anything more after that.
But everyone watching already understood. This beginning had already found its way into a great many hearts.
---
On the other side of the city.
Sirin was curled up in her gaming chair, the glow of her phone screen falling across her blank, expressionless face.
She wasn't streaming.
She was alone, and in silence, she played through the entire chapter.
She watched a Kiana who looked just like her sister leap from the Hyperion. Watched her fumble through her fighting, fumble through her attempts to protect people, fumble her way through lines so dramatic they should have been embarrassing.
Sirin set her phone down. She leaned her head back against the chair and stared at the dark ceiling.
For a long time.
Then she picked the phone back up and opened her chat with Kiana.
The old messages were still there, including her last reply and the crying-cat emoji Kiana had sent back.
She started typing. Deleted it.
In the end, she sent three words:
"Not bad, I guess."
Three seconds later.
She locked the screen, tossed the phone aside, pulled the blanket over her head.
...
A note from the author: The Honkai: Star Rail characters who join the main studio will be introduced when those chapters come. If there are any issues with a chapter, just let me know. I'll rewrite it. I had originally planned to write Cyrene joining in this chapter, but after writing it and reading it back, her characterization felt off. I had to scrap it and start over. If anyone wants to read the discarded draft, I can add it as a bonus extra.