After Paimon finished speaking, the game officially began.
Text appeared at the center of the screen:
“Prologue: Act I — The Outlander Who Caught the Wind.”
“Isn’t that the title from the earlier trailer?”
“And the format… why does it feel like a stage play?”
After reading it aloud, Daixiaomei rubbed her chin thoughtfully.
“Wow!
Paimon is so cute!
I just want to squish her!”
“The visuals are insanely beautiful!
This opening cinematic alone beats most domestic games!”
“Most?
Are you kidding?
It beats all of them!”
“The Traveler is cute too!”
“If no one objects, I’m taking Lumine home…”
Even though Dai Xiaomei had countless questions, something more important was waiting.
After finishing the dialogue with Paimon—she could finally move freely.
“It’s finally starting!”
Her hands hovered over the keyboard, her breathing quickening.
What she had just seen shocked her deeply.
The login screen music, the cinematic opening—everything had exceeded her expectations.
But those were still just animations.
No matter how good they were, a game ultimately depends on its gameplay.
Even a beautifully animated game wouldn’t succeed if the gameplay was poor.
After all, she was here to play, not just to watch.
Still, after that opening, her mindset had clearly shifted.
“Guys… I’m actually starting to feel excited!”
“Logically, this shouldn’t be possible, but that cinematic was just too good.
I’m starting to think this company—miHoYo—might actually pull it off!”
She hesitated, afraid that once she started playing, the illusion would shatter.
After all, she didn’t have high expectations for domestic games.
If the game was just slightly better than others, she could accept it.
But this… this felt like it had leaped several tiers ahead—maybe even reaching world-class standards.
That kind of jump felt almost unbelievable.
The chat, however, grew impatient and urged her to move.
She couldn’t stall any longer.
Finally, she started playing.
She rotated the camera with her mouse while moving the character as instructed.
Thanks to her solid FPS gaming background, she quickly got the hang of it.
And as she tested the controls, she noticed something surprising—
The responsiveness was incredibly high.
There was no lag whatsoever.
The experience felt smooth and fluid.
From this alone, her earlier worries already seemed unnecessary.
Even without the music and animation, the gameplay quality alone felt on par with a AAA title.
When she walked under a large rock and realized she could actually climb it, she couldn’t hold back:
“Holy crap… this is insane!”
She stared in amazement as Lumine climbed up the rock.
After climbing down, she ran toward a nearby tree—and soon gasped again.
Not only could she climb it, she could even pick fruits called Sunsettia from the branches!
“???”
“This is what an open world is like?!”
“So everything from that trailer was real?!”
As someone playing an open-world adventure game for the first time, Dai Xiaomei sounded like a complete newbie in awe.
She could move freely in a beautiful environment, climb rocks and trees—and even gather resources!
“I don’t even know what these fruits do, but I’m picking all of them!”
Excited, she scrambled around the tree, harvesting every last fruit.
Of course, she slipped once and fell.
Luckily, the tree wasn’t tall—she only lost a tiny bit of health.
Even so, it scared her badly.
At this point, she didn’t know that she’d later get healing abilities.
Or that approaching statues could restore health. Get faster updates on g.com.
Or even that the Sunsettia she just picked could restore 300 HP each.
In her mind, if her health dropped to zero, it was game over—
Everything would reset: level gone, items gone, all progress lost.
As a complete newcomer to open-world games, she was still figuring everything out.
After finishing the fruit harvest, she continued exploring.
At this point, she had fully transformed into a “bandit”—grabbing everything she could along the way.
Nothing was left behind.
At one point, she even killed a small animal with a single strike, turning it into raw meat for her inventory.
“Wow… truly leaving nothing behind!”
“I swear, if you gave her a shovel, she’d dig up the ground itself…”
“I can’t take it anymore!
Watching her play is making me want to try it myself—if I wasn’t at work, I’d already be downloading it!”
The chat buzzed with excitement.
“Easy for you guys to say—if you were playing, you wouldn’t resist picking everything up either!”
Dai Xiaomei protested, refusing to accept the criticism.
Leaving items behind?
That’s just wasteful!
“Heh.
As a wise and elegant streamer, I shall not stoop to your level.”
She stopped arguing, because by now, she had followed Paimon to the lake with the statue.
“Guys… do you think this game lets you swim?”
Looking at the lake ahead, she licked her lips, clearly excited.
“In the earlier trailer, I think there was a swimming scene.
Based on what we’ve seen, it probably does.”
“Don’t underestimate swimming systems—if they really implemented it, that’s a ton of work.”
“Maybe it’s a feature they’ll add later?”
“Why don’t you just jump in and try?
None of us have played it either!”
The viewers began urging her to jump into the water.