Just as they guessed, Weibo and Douyin were buzzing like crazy.
Several posts about Eden were shooting up the trending charts—
and without exception, each one had the words [Honkai Impact 3rd] attached.
The game had just gotten a massive wave of free publicity and hype.
Inside the miHoYo studio.
"Bronya, how's the data looking?"
Bronya paused her game and opened up the backend.
One glance at the numbers made her pupils shrink sharply.
Seeing her stay silent for so long, Mo Li grew suspicious.
"What's wrong, Bronya?"
"Hold on, boss… let me double-check."
She could hardly believe her eyes.
Was she seeing things?
Leaning closer, she bent her petite frame toward the screen, her fingers tracing the digits.
"Ones, tens, hundreds… thousands…"
Unfortunately, at that exact moment, Mo Li was standing behind her with a cup of coffee.
Bronya's OL outfit, black stockings, and pencil skirt already emphasized her figure—
and now, with that slight forward lean… it was far too suggestive.
Mo Li took a sip of coffee, looked up, and nearly spat it all out.
In his rush, he ended up choking.
"Cough—cough—"
Just then, Rita happened to walk by.
She saw Mo Li hacking away, curious, and walked over.
"Boss, what happened—"
As she got closer, she noticed Bronya's posture, then glanced at Mo Li's flustered state.
Her smile hinted she understood perfectly.
She stepped to Mo Li's side and patted his back lightly.
As Mo Li finally caught his breath, Bronya's flat-toned voice rang out—
"Boss, our game… exploded!"
Rita's eyes lit up in surprise, but Mo Li seemed calm.
"As expected.
More importantly… did you just smile?"
Bronya rolled her eyes.
"I'm not an emotionless doll. Smiling once in a while isn't strange."
"It is strange! We've known each other this long and this is the first time I've ever seen it!
And you're saying you're not expressionless?"
Bronya narrowed her eyes at him, silently warning: One more word and I'll hit you.
Rita chuckled behind her hand.
"Don't feel bad, boss. Even I rarely see Bronya smile."
"…"
"Aren't your priorities a bit off? I just said our game stats exploded! The studio's on fire right now—aren't you happy?"
"Of course I'm happy," Rita said, "but I can't read game metrics at all…"
"Let me see," Mo Li walked over to the computer.
When he saw the figures, his reaction matched Bronya's disbelief.
"Tens of millions…! Thirty million downloads?!"
"???" Rita blinked.
Before she could process that, Mo Li dropped another bomb.
"Ten million players have played for more than two hours.
Two million paying players…"
What kind of numbers were these?
Even some games that had been live for a year couldn't hit that many total downloads—
let alone thirty million on day one.
Their own in-house game had only gotten a few hundred thousand total downloads,
with daily active users barely breaking ten thousand…
Compared to Honkai Impact 3rd, the difference was hundreds, even thousands of times over.
No wonder Bronya's composure had cracked, making her count the digits over and over.
"At first, I thought I was seeing wrong…" Bronya admitted.
She turned to Mo Li.
"What kind of mind do you have to make a game like this…"
In truth, even Mo Li hadn't expected this.
During open beta, the total pre-registrations had been around thirty million.
Now, less than ten hours after launch, they'd already hit thirty million downloads.
Pre-registration didn't necessarily mean downloading,
and Mo Li's own estimate had been about fifteen million downloads in the first 24 hours.
Yet in under ten hours, they'd exceeded the total prereg number—
and paying users had already reached one million.
Rita quickly spread the news to the rest of the girls in the studio.
Without exception, when they first heard thirty million downloads,
no one believed it—until they huddled around the screen,
counted the digits several times, and then all burst into excited cheers.
Bronya quietly watched them, a faint smile tugging at her lips.
It had been a long time since the team felt this happy.
But once she calmed down, she noticed the way the girls were leaning over the data screens—
hips out, postures unconsciously provocative.
She glanced at Mo Li, who was "tactically" sipping water,
and suddenly realized something—her cheeks warmed slightly.
"Ahem… everyone, don't get too excited—mind your posture," she reminded gently.
But the numbers had them too giddy to care.
They were too busy chatting to notice.
Bronya let it go—everyone was dressed modestly anyway.
If their poses were a little suggestive… well,
Mo Li had been on his best behavior the last couple weeks.
A small perk for him wouldn't hurt.
Just as she thought that, Mo Li suddenly spoke.
"Alright, girls—check if the servers are stable, then scale them up.
It's almost quitting time—dinner's on me tonight, call it a celebration."
Surprisingly, the girls didn't cheer. Instead, they exchanged glances.
This puzzled Mo Li.
After a moment's thought, he teased:
"What, the game just started making money and you're already eyeing bonuses?"
"You misunderstand, boss…" Mei quickly interrupted in a soft voice.
"We usually don't go out to eat together… strangers' stares make us uncomfortable."
Mo Li understood immediately.
Fair point—every one of them was stunning,
and if they went out together, they'd draw every eye in the area.
"Boss, maybe just order takeout? I plan to stay in the studio tonight to keep an eye on the data."
Rita nodded in agreement.
"Himeko's idea is good. If you really want to treat us, just get takeout~"
Seeing everyone in agreement, Mo Li didn't push.
"Alright, what do you want to eat?"
"Pan-fried fish with spice essence."
"Hunan-style phoenix chicken."
"Steamed shrimp heads."
"Steamed black bream."
"…"
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