Chapter 56: The Second Movie Project
A week had passed since the release of the Honkai animated movie. Online, the film was met with overwhelmingly positive reviews, but at the same time, many aggressive netizens were flooding the comments section to curse out Welt Yang.
"How dare Welt Yang kill off Cecilia at the end! My Dear... He and his Anti-Entropy Entertainment are now my mortal enemies."
"Welt Yang, don't let me catch you on Nagazora Street, or else..."
"You deserve to die, Welt Yang!"
Whenever he saw such comments, Ya Qing would reveal a subtle smile, feeling a little fortunate.
His phone suddenly rang. Without even looking, Ya Qing knew it was Welt Yang. Welt had called him countless times over the past week, but he had never answered.
Today, however, he picked up.
"Mr. Yang, good morning. I trust you're having a pleasant day?"
"Cut the crap, Ya Qing Schariac. What exactly are you trying to do? I don't need your charity, and neither does Anti-Entropy," Ya Qing's tone reminded Welt of Otto, so his own was not friendly. It was, in fact, rather harsh.
"Mr. Yang, I don't understand what you mean," Ya Qing said with a smile. "I had to put your name in the writer's credit for some unavoidable reasons, and yet you've misunderstood me and have been bombarding me with calls for a week straight."
"Hmm, how should I put this?" Ya Qing's tone grew more playful. "I put your name as the writer, but that was merely... a small apology on behalf of the President."
"If this has caused you unnecessary trouble, I am truly sorry. Perhaps I should find a monument, kneel before it, and perform a tearful apology for you? Haha, though I imagine that's not something you'd want to see."
Welt's brow furrowed. He could hear both sincerity and mockery in Ya Qing's words, two completely different emotions that made it impossible to tell if Ya Qing was apologizing or just toying with him.
"I..." Welt opened his mouth, but the arguments he had prepared were completely thrown off by Ya Qing's verbal gymnastics. For a moment, he didn't know what to say.
"Mr. Yang, if there's nothing else, I'll be hanging up now. I look forward to our next collaboration, my esteemed... scriptwriting teacher."
Ya Qing ended the call, leaving a thoroughly bewildered Welt Yang on the other end to question his own existence.
Shutting down his computer, Ya Qing stretched. He hadn't worn his favorite dinosaur pajamas for the past week. "Perhaps it's time to get to work."
Ya Qing changed into a casual outfit—a white long-sleeved shirt and loose-fitting jeans. It was nearly ten o'clock, and the Courtyard was mostly empty. Those who had school were at school, and those with jobs were at work.
By the time Ya Qing arrived at his company building, it was exactly eleven.
"Lord Ya Qing, you actually came to the office today!" Rita, holding a stack of project proposals, looked at him in surprise. After all, they had all returned to work on the third day after the movie's release.
"Yes. Rita, please inform everyone that there will be a meeting in the conference room in half an hour," Ya Qing said before heading to the top floor.
Rita acknowledged the order, organized the proposals in her hands, and went to notify everyone one by one.
Half an hour later in the conference room, Ya Qing opened the laptop he had brought from the Courtyard and projected its screen onto the large display behind him. "Let's get straight to the point," he began. "Given the success of the first movie, we need to strike while the iron is hot and produce a sequel."
"Is the script already written? How can we start modeling without a script and character descriptions?" Patrick was the first to ask.
"The script is complete. The timeline is set sixteen years after the first movie. The tentative project name is Honkai Impact 1st: Poem of the Wind, and the film will conclude with the defeat of the 4th Herrscher."
"Boss, I have a question!" Sabu chimed in. "The first movie ended with the death of the 2nd Herrscher, but the second one jumps to the 4th Herrscher. What about the 3rd Herrscher? Won't that create a jarring gap in the story?"
Salome replied, "Sabu, the solution is simple. We just have to make the 3rd Herrscher someone who fights for humanity, like Welt. We can even give her plenty of screen time to flesh out her storyline."
Ya Qing silently took a sip of water.
"Exactly. That's my idea. What if the 3rd Herrscher becomes one of the protagonists?" Ya Qing then pulled up the character introductions.
Kiana Kaslana: An energetic young girl with braided pigtails. Her Valkyrie battlesuit is a white bodysuit accented with orange and black stripes.
Raiden Mei: The 3rd Herrscher. She has a gentle personality, long purple hair, and a graceful demeanor. Her Valkyrie battlesuit consists of a black, thread-like undergarment and pink armor. A bomb near her heart will detonate if her Herrscher personality is detected.
Bronya: Emotionless and stoic, this three-no-loli is a skilled hacker with a complicated relationship with Anti-Entropy. She is always followed by a mech named "Project Bunny."
"Is this our main trio?" Cheng Lixue had a bad feeling. Would Kiana suffer the same fate as Cecilia? After all, Cecilia was the protagonist of the last movie, and her ending was...
"Will the voice acting be done by the real people again?" Sabu asked. It was common knowledge within Schicksal that Ya Qing had developed a machine capable of mimicking human speech.
"We'll have them do it. The machine still needs optimization. It sounds a bit unnatural, and if you listen closely, you can hear a faint electrical hum," Ya Qing explained.
"Right, I feel like I'm forgetting something," Ya Qing frowned.
The other women in the room had the same feeling. There was something they had forgotten.
"Yeah, boss, I feel it too. What could we be forgetting?" Sabu wondered, scratching his head.
"Forget it, I can't think of it. The project proposal has been sent to your emails. For now, let's aim for a Christmas holiday release. Let's create a promotional video first to capitalize on the hype from the first movie," Ya Qing ordered.
The team got to work.
Ya Qing was still racking his brain.
"What did I forget?"
At Nagazora Airport, Shigure Kira, lugging a mountain of luggage, had been waiting for half an hour. Growing impatient, she finally pulled out her phone and called Ya Qing.
"Hello? Kira? Why are you calling me so early in the morning?"
Hearing Ya Qing's lazy tone, Shigure Kira became suspicious. "You haven't woken up yet, have you?"
"Of course not. I'm already at the office, working hard," Ya Qing said, tasting a dessert Rita had bought for him and taking a sip of refreshing coffee.
"Then why! Didn't! You! Come! Get! Me!" Shigure Kira was furious. He had clearly promised to pick her up, but he had stood her up.
"Oh crap, I forgot," Ya Qing blurted out instinctively.
"What?! Ya Qing, you are so dead!" Shigure Kira wanted to crush her phone in her hand.
"Kira, which airport are you at? I'll come get you right now."
"Don't bother, I'm already in a taxi. You just wait, Ya Qing," Shigure Kira seethed, her ample chest heaving with rage.
Without a moment's hesitation, Ya Qing chose to run for it.
By the time Shigure Kira arrived at the company, Ya Qing was nowhere to be found. Furious, she grabbed Cheng Lixue and began shaking her. "ARGHHHH!!!"
Join my patreon For Early access to Chapter : patreon.com/TheWorldGod
Tiamat 200 Chapter (Final)
Honkai 200 Chapter
Lobotomy 110 Chapter
MushokuTensei 40 Chapter
'Pure Evil' Simulator 93 Chapter
Crossover Fic Blue-Eyes 170 Chapter