Honkai: Starting to Wander with Kiana

After drifting at sea for some time, they finally reached Japan. Taking the Shinkansen, they arrived in Changkong City on the same day.

Ryn and Kiana together had only a few thousand dollars. This was thanks to meeting several kind-hearted people along the way, even though they still went hungry for long periods.

Calculating that there was still time before the enrollment deadline for Chiba Academy, Ryn and Kiana rented an apartment near the Academy City.

It was expensive and not very big. The bedroom had no bed, only tatami mats, but the landlord kindly provided a set of bedding. A wall and door separated the kitchen from the bedroom. The kitchen was very small, barely enough for one person to move around. A small refrigerator and stove took up most of the space. The kitchen faced the entrance directly, and the bathroom was a partitioned-off area within the bedroom. Despite being small, it had all the essential features. You could say it was just enough to live in, but the cramped space might feel slightly stifling.

However, Ryn didn't mind. After all, he'd already slept on the streets, so he didn't worry about rain falling halfway through the night or Kiana rolling away and disappearing in her sleep. For Ryn, this was more than enough.

Kiana was even more easygoing. She was content as long as someone was around her. After all, Siegfried was so horrible to his daughter, Kiana only got to call him "dad" for about a year. If he had stayed with her that would have been okay, but he gave Kiana a taste of light and then vanished without a trace. "If I'd never seen the light, I'd have lived happily in the dark."

When a beam of light shines down into the abyss, if it keeps shining, it's a salvation for the creatures living there. But if it's only a brief flash, that light can do more harm than good.

The landlord thoughtfully provided lots of furniture, so Ryn wouldn't have to spend extra money. They didn't bring much luggage either; most of it was food.

After settling their housing problem, Ryn took Kiana on a tour of Chiba Academy.

"Wow! What a fancy school! And look at all those pretty girls!" Kiana's eyes sparkled as she excitedly pulled Ryn everywhere.

"Look at that girl, she's adorable!"

"Whoa, such long legs. I could play with them for a whole year!"

Kiana kept blurting out remarkably strange things, causing the other students nearby to look at her with annoyed expressions and move away. Ryn had already come up with a solution for his lack of space—he'd awkwardly built a castle (Chiba Academy was located in Akademstadt, bustling even during vacations).

He couldn't take it anymore and, still starry-eyed over the beautiful girls he'd seen, pulled Kiana along and headed for the admissions office, following the signs.

The customer service teacher glanced at them, intrigued. "Our daughter?"

"No, she's my younger sister. Kiana Kaslana. I'm enrolling her at your school."

"Sorry, we usually only see parents bringing their kids for registration. Your youth caught me off guard."

"That's a bit rude," Kiana said, her voice icy. "It makes me worry about the quality of teachers at this institution."

Ryn was stunned—he'd seen so many glowing advertisements online, so why was this teacher being such a jerk?

The admissions staffer laughed awkwardly and pulled out some student records for Ryn to look through. The photos showed young girls, some barely older than Kiana, with their own children.

"Since you're foreigners, you might not know about some outdated customs here. Some conservative women get married and have children at age 14 or 15. We don't accept students from those families because their extremely traditional views can affect the children. This goes against our school's goal of raising modern women."

Ryn gently patted Kiana's head before he said to the admissions teacher with a smile, "Don't worry, Kiana is very open-minded and doesn't have any of those old-fashioned habits. The family teaching keeps her self-disciplined."

"Great. Our school follows a friendly approach with foreign friends, so our admission requirements aren't very strict. Here, fill out this form and you'll be ready to start," the admissions teacher said with a smile, handing over a form. The teacher's enthusiasm made Ryn suspect that if they suddenly said they wouldn't enroll, the teacher would jump up and chase them down like the Terracotta Army to make sure they still filled out the form. In short, it was "voluntary" enrollment.

"How about tuition fees and other charges?"

"For foreign friends, we offer free tuition and have even set up special scholarships, grants, and rewards. You don't need to worry about the costs."

"...", Ryn couldn't help but feel a slight temptation, but he suspected that this all-girls school wasn't interested in him.

The admissions teacher quickly caught on to what was going through Ryn's mind and pulled out a stack of brochures from nearby schools, placing them in front of him.

"Although Chiba Academy doesn't accept boys, I think you might want to look into other nearby schools. For example, Demon Familiar Academy or God of War Academy could both be a good fit."

"Thank you, I'll consider it," Ryn said with a smile as he accepted the brochures. However, inside his head, he was thinking, Saving the world as a Japanese high school student might be fine for anime, but I'm not about to go back to school for 'real' again.

If Ryn knew that three girls from Far East (Japan)'s Saint Freya Academy (basically a high school with a bit more emphasis on education) really did fight off Honkai and save the world, he might actually consider finding a school here.

After completing the registration and discussing some further details, Ryn took Kiana away. Kiana wanted to stay and play more at the school, but Ryn said, "You'll have plenty of time to stay here in the future. Let's go now."

The gaming industry in this world is left behind. How else to explain how only Kallen Fantasy, Alahato, and Adventures of Hoom can dominate the charts year after year? Though Kallen Fantasy is indeed well-made, with graphics that surpass current technology.

But it's just not enough. Ryn already imagines developing his own games and selling them big-time—making a fortune. Starting from scratch would be too expensive in terms of both money and time. But why not copy existing games? Replace some elements from previous-world titles and release them here. They'd surely sell like hotcakes.

As for marketing and monetization, well, we have Peng-Qun and WeGame's strategies to learn from. One approach is to charge every player a small amount—six bucks—multiply that by millions, and it adds up. The other is to target the core players—you won't have as many, but they'll drop serious cash.

Ryn dreams of his adapted versions of Honkai Alliance, Heroes' Glory, Against the Flames, and Eternal Exile becoming big hits, raking in the cash and growing bigger every day.

But then Kiana pokes him, pointing ahead and gesturing for him to look.