Entertainment to the death, make a tokusatsu film that will crush the entire internet.

While domestic players were crying their eyes out in the afternoon sunlight at St. Freya Academy.

Players overseas are still eagerly anticipating the upcoming 3.0 version update.

Due to time zone differences, Honkai Impact 3rd's global servers adopt a partitioned update strategy.

The Asia-Pacific region will be served first, while North America and Europe will be served 12 hours later.

This means that by the time domestic players had finished the third chapter of the main storyline and caused a huge uproar on social media...

Overseas players are still eagerly scrolling through the update countdown on Twitter, drooling over the leaked gameplay screenshots of Herrscher of the Void from the Asia-Pacific region.

The administrator of the North American player community is a veteran anime fan named Marcus, who has been a die-hard fan of the Land of Light since the Ultraman Tiga era.

The basement houses a complete set of Land of Light transformation devices and an astonishing number of limited-edition figurines.

He placed one of the Tiga bone sculptures in a custom-made acrylic dust cover next to his monitor, and would pray to it every day before turning on the computer.

He was sitting in front of three monitors. The left screen showed the update announcement from the official North American Twitter account of Honkai Impact 3rd, and the right screen showed the Honkai Impact 3rd Reddit forum.

The middle screen displays his administrator backend.

The community's visitor count is climbing at a visible rate, breaking the record set just last week every second.

"Marcus, our brothers have gone mad."

His partner sent a message on the Discord channel.

"There are already over 10,000 discussion threads about patch 3.0 on the Reddit subreddit, and 1,000 of them are about how to use a VPN to connect to the Asia-Pacific server in advance. Should we issue a statement to discourage this?"

"What's there to persuade them about? Let them fight it out."

Marcus retorted, "Back when we were watching Ultraman Tiga, we also used VPNs to watch the Asian premiere. That's called tradition."

Just then, another message began circulating in the player community.

The original poster was a Chinese student studying in San Jose who posted a long message in English.

Title: "All overseas players, please be mentally prepared before entering version 3.0. This is not a joke."

"I know you're all really looking forward to the Herrscher of the Void. She's cool, incredibly powerful, and absolutely amazing."

But before you excitedly rush into the gacha pool, please open your mailbox, read the letter Himeko sent you, and have your tissues ready.

I'm serious.

Don't ask me how I know; my roommate has been crying so much she's dehydrated.

I'm an international student from China, and I've been playing for twelve hours longer than you guys.

That's all I can say.

—A citizen of the Light who has already used half a box of tissues.

This post quickly became a trending topic on Reddit.

Half the comments section was asking, "What exactly happened?"

The other half was stopping the first half from asking, "Stop asking! Don't spoil it! Let us see for ourselves!"

"My Chinese roommate is crying? Should I buy a couple more boxes of tissues?"

"I'm British, and I don't believe it. How heartbreaking could the storyline of a free mobile game be? I'm a man who's seen 'Puella Magi Madoka Magica'."

"Upstairs, you'll regret saying that."

Marcus looked at the comments and remained silent for a moment.

He edited a new community announcement in the management backend and pinned it to the top of the special section.

The announcement was brief.

To all North American players who are about to enter version 3.0:

First, please check your email.

Second, please respect the plot and do not post any unspecified spoilers in the community. Violators will be temporarily banned.

Third, you can buy some tissues in advance.

Second wave of updates.

A Twitter account called @HimekoGlobal posted a message with a screenshot shared by players in the Asia-Pacific region.

The letter on Himeko's desk that has not yet been mailed.

However, in the overseas version, this image has been altered, and the content of the letter has been blurred.

I can only make out the recipient's name "Kiana" and the signature "Your teacher, Murata Himeko".

The caption for this tweet.

"No matter what language you use to open this letter, the tears will taste the same. No matter what country you are from, we will all have the same dream tonight. Goodnight, teacher."

The third wave, the fourth wave.

As more and more players in the Asia-Pacific region complete the main storyline, a large number of comments and screenshots from players of different countries and languages ​​have begun to appear on overseas social media.

Filipino players use English.

Indonesian players use Indonesian.

A Thai player posted a screenshot of the Godfall Sword in Thai.

Korean players use Korean.

......

But what surprised overseas players the most was the translation.

In the localized version of Honkai Impact 3rd, Himeko's letter was translated into more than forty languages.

Each language version retains the same detail.

The last line of the letter reads, "I am honored to have fought alongside you."

It appears in handwritten form in all language versions, with handwriting completely consistent with the original Chinese version.

It was as if the words Himeko herself had written had transcended the boundaries of language and time zones and reached every player's screen.

"It must have been done by the localization team of the Land of Light."

Someone analyzed it on Twitter.

"When they translated this letter, they preserved the last line of Himeko's original handwriting."

This analysis tweet was liked and retweeted by the official account of the Land of Light.

The overseas operations official Twitter account, which is known for its quirky and unconventional content, did not use any emojis or hashtags; it simply posted the line.

"—Your teacher, Himeko Murata."

It was 8:40 PM New York time, 20 minutes before the server opened.

Marcus's Discord channel was packed with over 12,000 people.

The voice chat room was full of players from all over the world.

They were talking about the same topic in various languages: English, Spanish, French, German, Portuguese, and Russian.

Marcus conducted the quietest countdown of his broadcasting career.

He picked up his mug, took a sip of coffee, and said, "Alright, whatever happens tonight, we're all players of the Land of Light. We'll spend tonight together."

It was exactly 9 p.m.

The North American servers have officially launched.

Marcus clicked the login button. The loading screen flashed by.

A silver-haired girl above the ruins, the Herrscher of the Void, whose pupils burn with golden cross-shaped light.

Open your inbox.

The first email contained the Godfall Sword Surtr, a five-star greatsword, which was given away to all servers.

The second email was a letter left by Himeko.

Himeko's voice was transmitted through her microphone to everyone in the voice chat room.

......

After completing the main storyline, Marcus remained silent for a long time, tears streaming down his face.

He switched the game back to the main city and left his character on the rooftop of St. Freya Academy.

Turning around, Marcus faced away from the screen and said something to the camera.

"Someone just asked me why a free-to-play mobile game from China could make me cry like this."

"I've been thinking about it, and you can understand Himeko's story without needing to understand Chinese culture."

"Because what she did is universal; a good teacher entrusts the future to her students in her last class."

Just when the audience thought Marcus was about to continue sharing his thoughts, he abruptly changed the subject.

"But... I still have to emphasize one point! Land of Light... you're not human! Who would stab someone in the back of the game?!"