The preview livestream for the new version cut to the main screen right at eight in the evening.
The countdown on screen hit zero.
The lights came up, and pink petal effects drifted along the edges of the screen.
Elysia, wearing her signature custom pink-and-white gown, stepped lightly into the center of the frame.
She stood there and waved at the camera.
"Hi~ good evening, Captains! I'm your favorite, most beloved Miss Pink Elf~"
The livestream's danmaku instantly poured down like a waterfall.
Dense lines of text nearly swallowed the entire screen.
Real-time viewership backstage broke fifty million within the third minute of the broadcast.
Elysia glanced at the teleprompter, her smile not stiffening in the slightest.
"Over this past month," her voice carried through the high-fidelity microphone, in that characteristic brisk rhythm of hers, "with everyone's support, Honkai Impact 3rd's global registered users have broken three hundred million!"
She paused for a moment.
"And every single day, over seventy million Captains fight alongside us aboard the Hyperion!"
The danmaku erupted with cheers of "miHoYo is a beast" and "Aimen."
"None of this incredible achievement would've been possible without all of your long-standing companionship and support!"
Elysia pressed her palms together in front of her chest.
"So, to repay everyone's love, right after this preview livestream ends—"
She deliberately drew out the last word, teasing them.
The director cooperated perfectly, cutting to a full-screen effect as golden light gathered at the center of the screen.
"Simply log into the game, and every single Captain can claim, for free — one S-rank Valkyrie of your choice! One full Stigmata set of your choice! And one exclusive weapon of your choice!"
Elysia winked at the camera.
"And the selection even includes the new version's S-rank Valkyries~"
The livestream went quiet for about half a second.
Then the danmaku channel — throttled several times already that night — completely exploded.
[?????????]
[Holy crap! Are my ears broken or my eyes lying to me?]
[Pick your own S-rank? Plus exclusive weapon and graduation Stigmata? Even the new ones are included?!]
[miHoYo's lost it! Is this game a charity now?]
[What kind of sorcery is this! Honkai Impact 3rd just giving stuff away like that?]
Question marks and exclamation points filled the entire screen.
Players were stunned senseless by this sudden, nuke-level windfall.
In this world's existing gaming market, forget giving away the newest S-rank character and exclusive weapon for free.
Even the smallest holiday freebies had major studios agonizing over every word in the announcement, as if they'd rather make players rewrite their server code themselves than part with anything extra.
And Honkai Impact 3rd —
the game currently boasting the best special effects and the most refined modeling on the market, where every single character's attack animation was backed by expensive professional motion capture —
was already completely free-to-play with an optional cash-shop model.
And now, it was handing out the exact content players wanted most — the core paid content — like cabbage on the street.
[Wait, is Brother Su laundering dirty money from some scam through this game?]
[Don't talk nonsense up there. I think Brother Su's awakened some System where he loses money the more successful his games get. This is just his roundabout way of stuffing cash into our pockets!]
Elysia watched the danmaku scrolling wildly across the feedback screen in front of her.
She lifted the microphone.
"Don't go making wild guesses, everyone."
Her voice was full of amusement.
"Director Su said it himself at today's meeting — Honkai Impact 3rd owes everything it's achieved entirely to you, the players."
She imitated the tone Su Yu usually used in meetings.
"'Our own players — of course we've got to spoil them rotten.'"
Elysia couldn't help laughing after she said it.
"Wow, that domineering-CEO kind of line — I thought that only existed in those urban romance novels," she said, making a hand-over-heart gesture at the camera. "I never expected it to come out of Director Su's mouth for real. It's actually pretty cool!"
The danmaku boiled over again.
[Director Su! A god!]
[I was gonna call Su Yu an old scoundrel and a beast in the chat, but he's giving away way too much for me to say that now!]
[Wait, if you're giving the game away like this, how are you even going to make money? Server electricity isn't free, you know?]
[Say no more, brothers! Follow my channel for the new version — I'll be giving away 100 free premium pulls live to celebrate!]
Super chats and sky-high gift effects exploded across the screen one after another.
The whales who usually lurked in silence started showing themselves.
[Brother Su! This game's got way too much conscience — for the love of god, don't let the company go bankrupt! I'm dropping ten more packs!]
Meanwhile —
behind countless invisible network terminals —
the ops directors and lead planners at every rival studio watched this preview stream, their faces turning as ashen as if they were attending a funeral.
They couldn't wrap their heads around what they were seeing.
How much this game must've cost to develop — anyone in the industry could tell at a glance just from the render quality.
Giving it away like this —
this wasn't running a game anymore.
This was smashing the whole market!
This was suicidal, money-losing self-destruction just to make noise! Had miHoYo completely lost its mind?!
These rivals would never understand.
This was exactly the inescapable, open-book scheme Su Yu had set in motion.
Use content of era-defying quality and a free-to-play model that broke every convention, to forcibly drain all traffic and attention first.
Then use this scale of rewards, far beyond anything players could ever expect, to give them a sense of being valued like never before.
In an age where everything is calculated down to the last cent by capital, this move of Su Yu's was buying the loyalty of tens of millions of players with cold hard cash.
And it drastically increased the player base's stickiness.
Meanwhile —
in the production control room beside the livestream studio —
Fuxi stood holding a tablet, staring at the revenue curve on the screen that had shot up so sharply it blew straight past the axis limits.
Even as the CFO who managed Eden's sprawling business empire and had seen every kind of storm, she couldn't help sucking in a sharp breath.
"This is insane. Every player in this world has lost their mind."
Fuxi looked up at Su Yu, who sat in his swivel chair, drinking water.
By any normal logic, giving away this much free content at launch and today should have crashed player willingness to spend down to zero.
Because everyone could freeload the best items for nothing — so who would bother paying?
But — once the books were reconciled —
Honkai Impact 3rd wasn't losing money. Not even close.
Quite the opposite.
It was raking it in hand over fist.
The number ticking up on that account wasn't just enough to fully cover R&D costs for the next three major updates.
It could even casually pull out massive sums to keep feeding, without interruption, into the Starfire training base — to purchase all those expensive industrial raw materials and military-grade equipment.
— though on Fuxi's books, that line item was registered simply as "Eden's personal investment," and she had no idea what industry it actually funded.
"You've been giving stuff away nonstop this whole time — these players could technically play through the entire game without spending a single cent."
Fuxi held the tablet up in front of Su Yu.
"But do you know what your payment conversion rate actually is right now?"
She pointed at a percentage highlighted in red on the screen.
"Ninety percent. A full ninety percent!"
"That means out of every hundred people who download this game, at least ninety of them have bought a monthly card or a bundle — and that's not even counting the whales who spend like crazy!"
"If this conversion rate got out into the industry right now, it would scare every competitor to death!"
Fuxi looked at Su Yu.
"There are so many players out there right now singing your praises on forums, calling you the industry's number one conscience developer. Doesn't that make you even a little bit guilty?"
Su Yu screwed the cap back onto his water bottle.
He looked at the glaring red percentage on the screen.
"Fuxi." Su Yu set the bottle down on the desk and sighed. "You don't understand the trick of it."
He leaned back in his chair.
Because there's a saying — a full mouth makes for a soft tongue, and a full hand makes for a short reach.
Today they took my freebie packs, pulled the Valkyries I gave away for free.
A couple of versions from now —
once I've driven the knives in one by one, tortured them until they're crying into their pillows at midnight —
the very hands that took my free rewards won't be able to type out any of those vicious little greetings on their keyboards anymore.
...Just kidding.
I want those vicious greetings too! Heh heh heh!
All that raw grief, rage, even the cursing and hatred aimed at this "old scoundrel" that you'll erupt with in front of your screens —
every bit of it gets converted by the System in the background into pure Emotion Points that sustain him in his fight against the end of the world!
All that negative emotion, all that slander directed at him — all of it becomes his Strength.
Whether it's revenue or Emotion Points —
in this meticulously constructed cage of his, Su Yu had already secured an unassailable position long ago!
Who could stop him now from harvesting this whole world — who the hell could possibly stop him!
Watching those Emotion Points climb higher and higher, Su Yu's smile grew more and more twisted.
The livestream cut back to the main stage.
Elysia held up the thin script in her hands.
"Alright, that wraps up the rewards segment. Now, let's take a look at what surprises the new version has in store for everyone!"
She made a welcoming gesture toward the big screen.
"In the upcoming new version, we won't just be launching the main storyline's brand-new content — Chapter 9's Interlude, and Chapter 10 — Under The Deep."
The screen played a short, high-energy montage of gameplay footage.
"On top of that, we'll also be opening a special chronicle storyline — Azure Waters. In this chapter, you'll be able to explore Bronya's past."
Elysia looked into the camera.
"And there's more! We also have an extremely fun brand-new faction event — the Summertime Battle!"
She introduced it with an animated tone.
"At that time, Captains will be able to draw and join a faction of their own within the game!"
"You can join Team Fortune, Team Pirates, or Team Treasure Hunt! By completing all sorts of fun daily quests, you'll accumulate points for your faction."
"The winning faction won't just receive a unique commemorative medal — the event shop will also be stocked with huge amounts of Crystals and all kinds of precious growth materials waiting for you!"
This mature style of event operations was, in this world's gaming scene, an utter case of being Outclassed by None.
But Elysia wasn't finished yet.
"Beyond the content inside the game—"
She pulled out a beautifully printed card.
"Miss Pink Elf also has a few more major announcements for you all."
"Starting next Monday, Honkai Impact 3rd will officially launch a crossover collaboration with KFC, as well as several well-known nationwide bubble tea chains!"
"During the collaboration, buying the designated combo meal will get you an exclusive in-game Stigmata and a physical badge merch item!"
"At the same time, the official miHoYo flagship store will officially open across major e-commerce platforms right after tonight's livestream ends! The first batch of items up for sale will include the highly anticipated premium figurines and themed apparel — all pre-orders are now open!"
Elysia watched the numbers surging endlessly on the screen in front of her.
"Lastly, for all the Captains out there who love Honkai Impact 3rd and have a special talent of their own —"
"miHoYo, together with major video platforms, will officially launch the 'Creator Incentive Program.'"
"Whether it's fan-made videos, fan art, or cosplay! As long as your work is good enough and conveys real love for the game, we've prepared extremely generous cash rewards and traffic support waiting for you!"
With this relentless combo, the rival studios still struggling to keep watching the livestream had gone completely pale.
Merch launches.
Offline crossover collaborations.
The creator incentive program.
These three blows landing together — this wasn't running a simple mobile game anymore.
miHoYo was ruthlessly, unreasonably forcing the birth of a massive IP culture empire belonging entirely to Honkai Impact 3rd.
They were using money and resources to dig moats across the entire ACG community, locking players' attention firmly inside their own territory.
Which of these moves didn't require pouring in an enormous amount of real cash?
They'd already given away so many virtual resources early on, and now they were laying out this massive offline operation too.
This was way too much money being thrown around.
Could it be — just because they had that woman Eden backing them —
that they could really do whatever they wanted in this world's gaming industry?!
And meanwhile, Su Yu, sitting in the production control room —
if he could've heard the inner screaming of those rival studios, he probably would've told them, with some regret —
Sorry about that.
When you've got a wealthy patron who'll kiss you unprompted in a sports car at midnight, and who could break your entire industry's bottom line just by letting a little cash slip through her fingers —
yeah, you really can do whatever you want.
The livestream's progress bar steadily approached its end.
As a stirring piece of background music swelled —
Su Yu stepped out of the shadows on the side of the stage.
Kiana walked beside him.
The two of them had just taken their place in front of the camera.
The tone of the danmaku instantly split into two wildly different extremes.
Half the danmaku was flooding the screen with white hearts.
[Holy crap! It's really the live Paramecium!]
[Kiana's so cute today! Even her ahoge is moving!]
[Don't be scared, Kiana-bao! We're all here. If that the damn planner really kills off Teacher Himeko, us Captains will each throw a brick and level miHoYo's headquarters!]
[I say Kiana-bao is the cutest in the world, who agrees, who disagrees?]
[Our Theresa is the cutest in the world!]
But the moment the other half of the danmaku spotted Su Yu, all kinds of "warm" greetings came flying in like snowflakes.
[Pah! Su Yu, you old scoundrel! You've got the nerve to show your face!]
[All you ever do is torture these poor girls in the game, pah! How can you be so selfish!]
[Su Yu, you old scoundrel, I swear I'll make you fly!]
[Give us back Auntie Himeko!]
Amid the chaos of the danmaku, some rational questions were mixed in too.
[Seriously though, Brother Su — with the way your game gives so much away every day and drives costs up this high, don't your investors get scared looking at the financial reports?]
Su Yu held the microphone.
He glanced at the danmaku scrolling by, his expression calm.
"I have a friend, an investor I deeply respect," Su Yu's voice was steady. "She once told me something."
"She said money is just a worldly thing — you're born without it, and you can't take it with you when you die."
Su Yu looked into the camera, his gaze seeming to pierce right through the screen.
"Compared to sitting in a spacious office, watching cold numbers tick up on an account balance —"
"she said she still misses more —"
"those days back when she was crammed into a small, run-down studio with a group of like-minded companions, working tirelessly together, day and night."
Su Yu paused for a moment.
"She said back then, everyone was so poor they couldn't even afford delivery food. But if they managed to land even a small ad test worth a few hundred bucks, everyone in that room without air conditioning would cheer like crazy."
"Because she knew the team could hold on for at least one more month."
He lowered his eyes.
"It's a shame, though. Those days are gone for good now..."
The livestream went silent for a moment.
Then —
the danmaku multiplied at an exaggerated speed.
[LMAO! Brother Su, this investor friend of yours — that's not secretly you, is it?]
[Making up a fake friend, huh!]
[Brother Su, you're totally showing off! If you're not showing off right now, I'll take your surname!]
[I really give up on you, Old Six. Even a heartfelt story from you somehow comes out sounding like a humble brag.]
Facing the wave of teasing flooding the danmaku, Su Yu suddenly dropped all his usual casualness.
He gripped the microphone tighter, his back straightening.
That same gravity he carried standing before two hundred and fifty soldiers at the Starfire training base pressed, in that instant, through the tiny camera lens straight into the heart of every player watching the stream.
"I know," Su Yu's voice turned serious. "Over this past month and more —"
"because of where the story's been heading, a lot of you have had complaints about me."
He looked at the blinking red light of the work indicator in front of him.
"Some of you have even thought I'm a liar."
"Thought that everything I preached at the start — health, positivity, all of it — was just an excuse to lure you all in before slaughtering your favorite characters."
Su Yu didn't dodge this sensitive topic. He faced it head-on.
"I want to set the record straight, right here."
"None of that was a lie."
His voice rose a notch.
"I've said before, in earlier interviews, that Honkai Impact 3rd tells the story of a group of girls growing up in a cruel world."
"And if it's a story about growth, then along that journey —"
Su Yu looked into the camera.
as if looking straight at all the players sitting in front of their screens, crying tears over the characters in this game.
"They're bound to run into setbacks. They'll get knocked down, battered and bruised. They might even lose things that matter deeply to them."
"But that's reality."
He pulled the microphone a little closer.
"But they will never fall because of it. They'll wipe their tears for the sake of everything good in this world, and keep fighting, keep moving forward."
Su Yu didn't dress it up with any fancy words.
"From start to finish, that's the simple story Honkai Impact 3rd has always been telling."
He took a deep breath.
"And right here—"
"I'm going to make a promise to every Captain watching."
His voice rang out, firm and resolute.
"None of the tears shed on this screen, none of the sorrow and pain you've lived through with these girls, has been meaningless suffering."
"Your tears, your support — all of it will become the strength that keeps these girls moving forward."
"In the end—"
"they will absolutely reach the destination they've dreamed of."
"I promise you all — by the very end, this will be an ending that satisfies everyone. A complete, happy ending!"
As Su Yu's oath-like words settled into silence —
the danmaku, which had just been full of jokes and teasing memes —
suddenly froze in a strange stillness.
Then —
like a dormant volcano finally erupting.
[Damn it... I actually got moved by a scoundrel.]
[He's right, though! This kind of classic hero's-growth story needs hardship — how else would you see the protagonists' true resolve!]
[Believe it! All I can say is, believing in Brother Su needs no reason!]
[You can call Brother Su a beast, someone who keeps handing us knives every single day, but you can't say he doesn't cherish every single character and girl in this world!]
One danmaku scrolled across the screen.
[Let me ask you all — if Brother Su really didn't cherish these characters, would miHoYo really pour this much effort into polishing every single character's model and skill effects frame by frame? Would they really spend this much money producing movie-grade masterpieces like The Queen's Descent and Final Lesson?!]
[Nothing more to say. That look on Brother Su's face just now convinced me. Fine, I'll take the knife, alright!]
[Say no more! Just bring on the new version already! I can't wait to get back to the Hyperion!]
[Heh heh, well, guess what, the new version's finally getting to Bronya's story? I keep saying the flat-chested twin-tailed loli is the objectively correct choice, I'm telling you!]
The tone of the entire danmaku feed completely shifted.
That trust and anticipation, ignited entirely by Su Yu's combination of words, had been fully set ablaze.
Amid the sea of "can't wait for the new version" cheers and a flood of virtual gifts flying across the screen —
the image on screen slowly faded to black.
The new version's preview livestream came to a successful close.
____
Gift for Everyone: Once we hit 50 Powerstones, I'll release +1 bonus chapter
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