Chapter 24: The First Step in Making Honkai Impact 3rd: Siding with the Wealthy Lady, Eden
Time to get to work.
Thanks to Bronya's strange ability to over-analyze everything—an ability she seemingly learned from who-knows-where—Kiana Kaslana's usually "Paramecium-like" behavior had, for once, taken on a grander quality.
But even with Kiana greenlighting the project, making *Honkai Impact 3rd* wasn't a decision that could be settled with just a few sentences. Currently, the number of employees at miHoYo was nowhere near enough to support the production of such a game; therefore, they had to start a massive recruitment drive.
The funds in the company's account weren't exactly overflowing, but Kiana guaranteed she would find a way to secure more money. Furthermore, Bronya had decided to put her full trust in Su Mu and dipped into her own hidden emergency savings.
As for Su Mu, he also invested his modest share of the dividends from *Getting Over It* back into the project. Although the amount wasn't huge, it was a clear demonstration of his resolve.
Su Mu pointed out that creating this game would be a massive undertaking. To maintain a large-scale 3D mobile game like *Honkai Impact 3rd*, the team size naturally couldn't be small. In his previous life, it was normal for the team behind a major live-service mobile game to consist of hundreds of people.
Considering the tight initial funds, Su Mu hadn't originally intended to hire so many people at once. After all, if they recruited hundreds of staff immediately, the salary expenses alone would be an astronomical figure. The responsibility of recruitment was handed entirely to Bronya. As the HR Manager of miHoYo, she was already a well-known figure in the gaming industry.
As for Kiana, she was responsible for assisting Bronya and finding ways to attract investment—a task she had volunteered for. She claimed to have a "brilliant plan" and promised to bring back a group of "hidden talents."
Su Mu found it strange—why was Kiana being so proactive? It really didn't seem like her usual personality. But on second thought, since Kiana had taken over the company, it was normal for her to want to make miHoYo big and strong. Being diligent and responsible was actually a good thing.
Su Mu didn't know that Kiana's definition of "hidden talents" was actually derogatory. She was planning to follow the "President Pei" playbook: recruiting "clear-eyed and foolish" university students or hiring old, dead-weight employees who had been fired elsewhere.
3D development was a difficult path to begin with, and costs were high. If the development process was plagued by constant bugs and the schedule was dragged out indefinitely, the project might die before it even reached the testing phase! If that happened, all the invested capital would be lost!
Thus, Kiana was delighted to find that the food, housing, and travel expenses for the employees Su Mu recruited for *Honkai Impact 3rd* were also counted as part of the investment! What did this mean? It meant she finally caught a "big fish" and could start losing money on a massive scale!
To "lose" her way to becoming the richest person, Kiana was full of motivation! After all, what could be more fun than losing her "stinky old man's" money and watching it turn into ten times that amount in her personal vault?
The Paramecium had evolved into a High-Speed Paramecium. Now, it was time to accelerate!!!
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Su Mu, of course, remained unaware of Kiana's little schemes. He didn't have the spare energy to analyze her strange behavior because, frankly, the success of *Honkai Impact 3rd* depended largely on him.
Although the complete proposal had been presented and approved by Bronya and Kiana, writing the proposal and patching the bugs in the *Honkai Impact 3rd* script was actually the easiest step. The real difficulties lay ahead.
The first major hurdle was the portrait and reputation rights for the characters appearing in the game. Su Mu had previously analyzed that if they could obtain the consent of these individuals, then *Honkai Impact 3rd* would already be halfway to success. It was like making a game in his previous life that featured a mash-up of famous stars like Jackie Chan, Andy Lau, and Stephen Chow—anyone would be curious enough to take a look and see what was going on. The hype and traffic would be immense.
But the problem now was: how could he obtain the approval of the characters appearing in the game?
Bronya mentioned that for those on the Anti-Entropy side and some famous figures in the gaming circle, she would find ways to get their consent. As for the Schicksal side, Kiana was there; she would have her mother and father handle things. Given Siegfried and Cecilia's reputation in this world, obtaining consent shouldn't be difficult.
Therefore, Su Mu didn't need to worry about the approval from Schicksal or Anti-Entropy for the time being. But the problem was... besides Schicksal and Anti-Entropy, there was another very important group: World Serpent. Specifically, the Thirteen Flame-Chasers and other characters within World Serpent—like Raven, whose island was lost because of the Herrscher of the Void.
"I can only rely on Pardo..."
Su Mu was now glad he had managed to get in touch with Pardo earlier. This way, he wasn't completely in the dark. To convince the Thirteen Flame-Chasers, the approval of Pardofelis alone wouldn't be enough.
Su Mu recalled the Thirteen Flame-Chasers in his mind and felt a bit of a headache. Honestly, if the personalities of the Flame-Chasers in this world were anything like those in the Elysian Realm, they would be very hard to handle. After some thought, Su Mu decided that he had to first secure Eden's approval if possible.
After all, Eden was truly wealthy enough to rival a nation. In *Honkai Impact 3rd*, she personally covered more than half of The MOTHs' operating costs. In this world, she was a major star with a supreme status in the music industry. As the mistress of the Golden Courtyard, her voice and prestige were beyond question. At the same time, she deeply cherished and cared for her companions. Calling her a "matriarchal" figure wouldn't be an exaggeration. Otherwise, she wouldn't have previously invited Su Mu to visit the Golden Courtyard through Pardofelis.
"How should I convince Eden..."
Although visiting as a guest and then making a request was somewhat impolite, Su Mu didn't want to miss this chance. "Also, the other Flame-Chasers will likely be there. How should I convince them?"
Su Mu opened Word and began writing down information and personality traits for each of the Thirteen Flame-Chasers. As for how he could confirm if their personalities in this world matched his expectations—
"Pardo, do you want to take a look at my new game proposal?" Su Mu sent a message to Pardofelis.
"I want to! I want to, I want to! Brother Su Mu, I've been waiting for your new game!"
Having experienced a massive surge in followers from streaming Su Mu's game previously, Pardo had now become a total fan of Su Mu. Su Mu sent the settings and a portion of the plot for the Elysian Realm arc to Pardo. After finishing everything, he turned off his phone screen.
A short while later.
"Brother Su Mu! You... you didn't investigate me secretly, did you? Why are all my relationships so clear to you? Even the personalities are almost exactly the same!"
END OF CHAPTER