“Sigh…”
Ren lay on his bed out of boredom, glanced at his phone screen, and let out a sigh.
Lately, the online drama surrounding Genshin Impact and Zenless Zone Zero had been getting worse and worse.
Ren originally wanted to return to the games to check them out, or maybe try out HoYoverse’s new game, Zenless Zone Zero, but after watching some gameplay videos, he lost all interest.
“What should I play…”
He sat at his computer, looking at the dazzling array of games, but suddenly felt a bit dispirited.
Tumbling back onto his bed, Ren checked his phone again, wanting to find another game to kill time.
After browsing for a while, he put his phone down in frustration.
Most games were just grinds now, and Ren’s mindset was like an old man’s—once he finished his daily tasks, he didn’t feel like playing anymore.
A few days ago, the new event in Azur Lane had also been cleared, so these past few days he had entered the dead week.
“There’s nothing to play.”
He picked up his phone and took another look.
Just as he was about to put it down, his eyes caught an old game tucked away in the corner of his screen that had been gathering dust for years: Honkai Impact 3rd.
Over the years, he had quit and returned to Honkai Impact 3rd multiple times.
Initially, it was because his phone couldn’t handle it, forcing him to drop it.
Later, it was due to other reasons, and eventually, he gave up on it entirely.
Still, he couldn’t bear to let the money he’d spent go to waste.
He didn’t know when he had redownloaded it, but every now and then he’d log in to look at the Valkyries who had boarded his ship, as well as the Herrschers on the bridge, though he never actually played it.
So, Ren tapped the icon for Honkai Impact 3rd.
There were many new Valkyries in Honkai Impact 3rd that he didn’t recognize at all.
However, after downloading the update resources, he saw the familiar elevator and the iconic bridge doors.
“Welcome back, Captain.”
Kiana’s playful, energetic voice rang in his ears.
But Ren, with a complicated mind, quickly tapped to skip.
He had seen this screen many times.
At first, it made him happy, but later he lost the heart for it.
His feelings toward Honkai Impact 3rd were complicated, and he didn’t know what to say.
It was just a game, and in the end, it was only a game.
Ren scrolled through it aimlessly.
Just as he was thinking about what to do, his hand stopped.
He realized he didn’t even know what he was supposed to do after coming back.
After thinking for a moment, he began clicking on the red notification dots, planning to clear them all and log off.
However, he suddenly spotted a notice in the announcements.
“Huh?
A new game?
Honkai: Civilization?”
Ren looked at the new game announcement in confusion.
HoYoverse had released a brand-new game, and it was called Honkai: Civilization.
“Star Rail has been out for over a year, and Zenless Zone Zero is out too.
Another new game?”
“Strange, I don’t remember hearing about this.”
Whether it was Honkai Impact 3rd, Genshin Impact, or Honkai: Star Rail, he had been a launch player, and even Honkai Impact 2nd.
But as time went on, he gradually stopped playing them.
Actually, when those HoYoverse games first launched, he had a lot of enthusiasm to grind through them.
He missed the joy of that first exploration.
Now, seeing a new game pop up suddenly sparked his curiosity, so Ren tapped the redirection link to check it out.
However, Ren didn’t notice that as soon as he tapped the link, the announcement in the game vanished completely, as if it had never existed.
…
The poster girl for Honkai: Civilization was a girl who looked a lot like Bronya, or rather, was Bronya herself.
After downloading Honkai: Civilization, Ren immediately opened the game.
Unlike other games that start with some mysterious, epic-looking animation, entering Honkai: Civilization presented Ren with thirteen small stars orbiting one giant star.
Except for the big star, which couldn’t be clicked, all thirteen small stars could be tapped.
After that was the character selection screen.
To his surprise, the characters were all highly detailed, accurate 3D models.
The characters available under each star were different, and Ren saw many familiar faces on the character selection screen.
Bronya, Kiana, Himeko, Anna, Wendy, Raiden Mei, Sirin, Fu Hua, and so on.
“Aren’t these Herrschers?”
Ren suddenly realized something and couldn’t help but complain, since many of the selectable characters were Herrschers from Honkai Impact 3rd.
These thirteen small stars and the large star looked exactly like they represented the fourteen Herrschers.
Among the selectable characters in the thirteen small stars, all the Herrschers from Honkai Impact 3rd could be chosen.
There were even some of the Thirteen Flame-Chasers from the Previous Era.
However, the difference was that only female characters were available.
Ren silently gave HoYoverse’s new game a thumbs-up.
The 3D models in this new game were incredibly detailed.
Ren rotated the camera with great interest.
Just this aspect alone was enough to keep him entertained for a long time.
After admiring them for a while, Ren randomly chose Bronya and proceeded to the next step.
“ID, hmm…”
Ren thought for a moment, then typed in: The beast who got me pregnant.
Next was an animation of the Honkai outbreak in Nagazora.
Ren recalled that this seemed to be the beginning of Honkai Impact 3rd, right after the main trio—Kiana, Raiden Mei, and Bronya—first met.
The animation wasn’t long.
After it ended, a brief tutorial followed, introducing the functions of various buttons.
Among them was a diamond-shaped crystal button labeled “Collect Honkai Energy.”
This seemed to be one of the most important gameplay loops.
Clicking it revealed a massive skill tree, which also noted that the damage dealt by controlled characters could be amplified based on the amount of Honkai Energy.
What surprised Ren was that this seemed to be a fully 3D open-world game?
All characters, enemies, and items were 3D modeled.
The character he could control was Bronya, who was currently sleeping in a room.
Kiana and Raiden Mei were also sleeping nearby.
Zooming in on the screen, he could see Bronya’s delicate sleeping face.
As he moved the virtual joystick, Bronya opened her eyes, got off the bed, and walked a few steps.
Standing next to the bed gave her an option to sleep, and she could also interact when walking next to the sleeping Kiana or Mei.
At this time, the pupils of the Bronya he controlled were gear-shaped.
Plus, there was the diamond-shaped crystal button on the left side of the screen.
“Could it be that I’m controlling a Herrscher?”
Ren guessed.
In Honkai Impact 3rd, you control Valkyries to fight the Honkai.
So, in Honkai: Civilization, you control Herrschers to fight Valkyries.
That seemed pretty reasonable.
This diamond-shaped crystal should be the Herrscher Core.
Ren controlled Bronya to open the door and walked out onto the empty, quiet streets of Nagazora under the night sky.
In the game, you could interact with many things, and attacks could even destroy buildings or objects.
“This is amazing!”
Ren was extremely excited.
He saw many Dead and Honkai Beasts wandering the streets, all of which were incredibly detailed.
So Ren excitedly controlled Bronya to fight these Dead and Honkai Beasts.
The combat system of Honkai: Civilization wasn’t much different from the previous Honkai Impact 3rd, so Ren quickly got the hang of it, easily taking down the Dead and Honkai Beasts.
[Click to Collect Honkai Energy]
A prompt popped up on the Herrscher Core button.
When Ren did so, the Dead and Honkai Beasts on the ground turned into purple energy that surged into Bronya’s body, and the Honkai Energy in the Herrscher Core filled up a small portion.
Next, Ren controlled Bronya to run around defeating enemies, collecting a good amount of Honkai Energy.
Unfortunately, it seemed the Dead and Honkai Beasts on the map wouldn’t respawn until the next day, so after a short while, Ren had no choice but to return to the room and make Bronya go to sleep.
“I’ll play again tomorrow.”
Ren checked the time, saw it was very late, and turned off his phone.