Elysia mused thoughtfully.
"So what Kiana means is… Sirin could've had a bright future, but fate forced her down a different path?"
"Umm…"
Kiana hesitated, then answered, "That's… basically what I meant, yeah."
Elysia accepted Kiana's response and continued advancing the game's story.
In the game—
Kiana had also been affected by the dream.
Thankfully, the perceptive Bronya noticed something was off.
Floating in the air, the little loli gently transformed into a comforting "big sister" and began counseling Kiana slowly and steadily.
This unusual interaction style made the players emotional.
Who would've thought that the two who used to bicker constantly would get along this well now?
Just like when they first downloaded Honkai Impact 3rd, no one expected the story to develop this far…
And now, they just wanted to share this feeling with everyone else.
After talking with Bronya, Kiana felt much better.
She headed to the cafeteria to eat her fill. As she was preparing for a walk to digest, she saw Seele standing in front of a vending machine nearby, seemingly frozen in place.
"Huh? Seele, why are you zoning out in front of the vending machine?"
Though Kiana didn't notice anything odd, players could immediately tell from the illustration—it was Veliona.
Veliona responded seriously, "This thing… seems to be broken."
"Broken?"
Kiana took a closer look. "Umm… you didn't press 'confirm,' see? Like this—just one press… and it drops right down! Here, your wasabi peanuts!"
"What's going on, Seele? You're acting like it's your first time using a vending machine."
Veliona: "..."
What?
You've never seen a shut-in who's only two years old and has zero life skills?
As the two chatted, Veliona accidentally brought up an awkward topic:
"How's the fight going… with the other personality?"
The mood immediately turned uncomfortable.
Trying to recover, she hurriedly added something that didn't feel important to her—but actually was:
"Everyone's heart contains both good and evil. You don't need to dwell on it too much. Just believe in what you want to believe in—hold fast to what you want to hold fast to. That's enough."
That line greatly inspired Kiana, even brought her a sense of clarity.
She expressed sincere gratitude to Veliona—leaving the latter completely baffled.
Meanwhile, players were loving this cross-server conversation moment.
[Quantum-tier comprehension from the paramecium.]
[Veliona: ???]
[Looks exactly like us during reading comprehension exams.]
...
Afterwards, Kiana left the cafeteria and found Theresa.
The two talked about Sirin and Cecilia.
Theresa regretted not discovering the Babylon Tower experiments in time to save Sirin.
As for Cecilia—
She chose to believe in Cecilia's decision, believing that her love and kindness would continue to be passed on endlessly.
Kiana was moved.
She remembered her own past—how she had been saved, how light had shone into her life, how many people had selflessly given their all to build a better future.
All of it, piece by piece, didn't build a tower in her heart…
—but laid a strong foundation.
It was the foundation that gave her the courage to face all that was ugly and painful in the world.
Finally, Kiana sought out Tesla to learn more about the aftermath of the Herrscher of Dominance.
Even though the Herrscher of Dominance had clearly been defeated, Bronya still hadn't recovered her powers as the Herrscher of Reason.
It made them wonder—
Had something been overlooked?
But they weren't given much time to investigate.
That very night, Kiana was once again pulled into the Theater of Domination.
And the resurrected puppet had long been waiting.
To achieve her goal, the puppet began recounting her story.
"Back then, I was just an ordinary middle schooler. But one day, monsters broke into our school and crushed the peaceful life I'd always taken for granted…"
"The school became ruins. My friends, classmates, teachers—all buried under the rubble… I could hear their cries for help grow fainter… until they disappeared entirely…"
"At the time, I thought maybe my life was about to end too. But then—you appeared."
"You smiled and patted my head, told me 'It's okay now.' Back then, you were like a light—like hope incarnate."
As the puppet spoke, gentle music played in the game.
The overly peaceful, serene atmosphere…
It even made many players start throwing out bullet comments like:
"This puppet has to be a traitor, right?"
"Something's off—too bright. Where's the dark twist?"
Which showed just how suspicious they were.
Even the ever-optimistic Elysia wasn't quite as cheerful this time.
"If this puppet is truly a good person, then why did she silently drag Kiana into the Theater of Domination?"
"And besides, didn't her entrance earlier feel… obviously shady?"
She paused.
"Maybe what comes next is what the puppet truly wanted to say."
[Heh. The scriptwriter's evil intent—
The more beautiful the setup, the deeper the despair that follows.
You all better brace yourselves.]
Miss Mobius dropped a bullet comment.
She seemed unusually active.
And as expected—
Just as the players were starting to feel unnerved by the gentle tone—
The puppet's tone suddenly shifted.
"But… I was wrong. The one who survived—me—became a target of everyone's hatred."
"Because I was the sole survivor…
Most of the surrounding families had lost loved ones in that disaster.
They supported each other, encouraged each other—
But only grew distant from my parents."
"'Why did only she survive?'
Voices like that started to spread…
And eventually, turned into hatred."
"No one wanted to give us shelter.
No one wanted to offer my parents a job.
Even the disaster relief kept delaying our application for various reasons."
"It wasn't the disaster that broke us—
It was our fellow humans who did."
"My mother wept day after day.
My once hard-working father began to drink and grew violent."
"And then one day—I heard my father muttering while drunk:
'If only… she'd died in that disaster too.'"
"That moment…
I felt something inside me crack."
Kiana in the game was silent.
So were the viewers in the livestream.
But the silence wasn't from anger—
It was because the story felt… far too real.
Like something that could be perfectly replicated in reality.
Leaving everyone speechless.
Suffocating.
Crushing.
A player rested their hands on the keyboard, typing furiously…
Only to delete it all.
They tried again—
And deleted it again.
Again and again…
In the end, they sent nothing.
Because they didn't know what to say.
It was as if they, too, had been dominated—
By the Herrscher of Dominance from inside the game.
The [Strings] were already coiled around them.