Another world.
Another timeline.
A-Xian breezed through the opening tutorial.
She chose the protagonist, said goodbye to Kafka, and rapidly advanced the plot until the gacha system unlocked.
In other words—
The first meeting between the gray-haired protagonist, Himeko, and Asta.
“Looks like the official release didn’t change much.”
“Not surprising. The paid beta was already extremely polished.”
A-Xian hit F3 to open the Warp screen.
After covering the QR code area, she topped up ten batches of 648 yuan.
“I refuse to suffer during progression.”
“Let’s start with an E6S5 Seele.”
“Family who win the giveaway can join the group and contact an admin to claim your rewards.”
“The doujin will have to be an IOU for now.”
[Wealth beyond human reason!]
[Seven consecutive 50/50 losses incoming. Sprint! Sprint!]
[Seven losses isn’t enough. Her weapon needs to lose another two or three times. Jie-jie-jie.]
[Chat is full of living demons.]
[Hurry! Hesitation causes lost 50/50s!]
A lot of streamers deliberately dragged out content to pad stream time.
For example, when pulling, they would watch every animation and click each result individually, calling it “ritual” and “suspense.”
A-Xian didn’t bother.
Her pulls were pure speed.
Click.
Skip animation.
Straight to the ten-pull result.
And her very first multi produced Seele.
Question marks immediately flooded the chat.
[Is this really A-Xian?]
[IMPOSSIBLE! Absolutely 8-possible!]
“Thank you for all the blessings, family.”
“Please keep wishing full hard pity guarantees upon me.”
“I can take it.”
[Damn it, she’s showing off!]
Unfortunately, A-Xian’s swagger didn’t last long.
She went all the way to soft-hard pity and lost to Yanqing.
Then she went all the way again before getting her second Seele.
[COMFORTABLE!]
[Who was begging for full guarantee just now?]
[The smile has now transferred onto my face!]
A-Xian rolled her eyes at the messages trying to destroy her mentality.
She picked up a cup with her left hand and continued pulling with her right.
While drinking, she didn’t skip the animation.
During the ticket’s flight, no rainbow distortion appeared around the edges.
No five-star.
A-Xian didn’t care.
She clicked once to end the display animation.
Just as she was about to close the screen and continue pulling—
She noticed something strange.
Inside one of the purple four-star result frames was a completely black character silhouette.
“Hm?”
“What the hell is this?”
She clicked instinctively.
The screen jumped to a character information page.
At the center was a black silhouette.
A humanoid outline was visible.
But everything else was question marks.
Path unknown.
Element unknown.
Skills unknown.
Judging from the height alone, A-Xian hesitated.
“A young ma— No.”
“Adult male?”
“But this silhouette doesn’t match any of the known four-star male characters…”
There were only three launch four-star men.
Dan Heng from the starting trio.
Arlan from the Space Station.
And Sampo from Belobog.
If even she had no idea what this was, ordinary viewers who had never touched the beta knew even less.
A-Xian opened her inventory and found a Nihility Light Cone.
She enlarged the artwork and carefully compared the figure.
“Doesn’t look like this red-haired back-view guy either.”
“Weird.”
[Bug?]
[Maybe this is a future four-star and MiHoYo accidentally left him in the launch files.]
[Possible.]
[Now this is entertainment. Game launched five minutes ago and already broke.]
[More bugs are good. If one’s severe enough to get us ten free pulls, even better.]
[Facts.]
A-Xian scratched her head and opened the official wiki to verify.
When she discovered the four-star character section also contained the exact same silhouette, she froze.
So this unknown character really existed.
She clicked the silhouette to view more details.
A note popped up instead.
“What kind of nonsense is this?”
“You’re hiding a four-star character like he’s some national secret?”
“Still, I take back what I said earlier.”
“The official release did change.”
“There’s a new character.”
“Which means the story changed too.”
“But who the hell knows when he shows up?”
“The beta only covered the early Xianzhou story.”
“So maybe this guy doesn’t appear until way later.”
“If you’re going to make him this mysterious, at least make him handsome.”
A-Xian put the matter aside and resumed her gacha crusade.
Several minutes later—
She was slumped in her chair like a dead fish.
Her final Seele Eidolon had required the full 160 pulls after another lost 50/50.
Good fortune never came in pairs.
Misfortune always arrived with friends.
Losing repeatedly was one thing.
The real tragedy was that she hadn’t lost a single 50/50 to Gepard or Bailu.
The only consolation was an E2 Bronya.
“Sigh…”
“Guess I’m surviving the early game with Natasha and March 7th.”
An E6S5 Seele owner with not a single five-star sustain.
Sure, overwhelming damage reduced the need for survival.
But if you could comfortably lie down while clearing content, who wanted to stand?
“Oh, another mystery character.”
“He really loves me.”
“What is this, E5 already?”
“…No.”
“The silhouette is too different.”
“So it’s a Light Cone.”
Several black lines appeared on A-Xian’s forehead.
“Even the Light Cone artwork is hidden?”
“Why are you acting so secre— Huh?”
“The stats aren’t hidden!”
Level 1/80
Base HP: 43
Base ATK: 19
Base DEF: 18
The following effect only applies to characters on the Path of Abundance:
Increases the wearer’s Outgoing Healing by 12%.
When a follow-up attack inflicts a debuff on an enemy, restores 2% Energy to all other allies.
A-Xian frowned.
There were only two Abundance units at launch.
The free Natasha.
And the grand prize of the standard banner—
Bailu.
Neither healer had follow-up attacks.
And this Light Cone didn’t merely require a follow-up attack.
The follow-up also had to inflict a debuff.
It was absurdly specialized.
Not even remotely general-purpose.
If nobody else could use it, then it was probably designed for that mysterious character.
Which meant—
Another Abundance?
An Abundance character with follow-up attacks that could inflict debuffs?
Even the Light Cone’s name was weird.
A Proper and Respectable Hobby?
A-Xian read the flavor text.
“What’s your hobby?”
“Obviously, seeing the look on people’s faces when they realize they can’t beat me, and hitting me only makes things worse for them.”
“Uh… isn’t that kind of变态?”
“I’m joking. I’m a reliable, respectable adult…”
“…Whatever. Come on. One, two, three—cheese~~”
The pink-haired girl stared blankly.
“…Requesting human translation.”
“Is this hobby normal?”
“No matter how I interpret it, it sounds like he enjoys tormenting people.”
As for the pink-haired girl in the conversation—
Was that March 7th?
Or Asta?
[This old man thinks it’s fine.]
[I main Zilean top lane. I don’t understand the problem.]
[Inting Sion player here +1.]
[Five thousand games of Shaco. Speaking as a certified representative: completely normal. So normal I almost cried after finding a soulmate.]
[Good lord. Why are there so many actual pieces of shit hiding among A-Xian’s viewers? Please become human beings!]
A-Xian’s face darkened.
These bastards had really chosen examples from the exact champions that had destroyed her sanity in Summoner’s Rift.
She refused to engage.
Time to push the story.
She admitted it.
This mysterious new four-star had successfully hooked her curiosity.
What kind of skill set did he have?
What kind of personality?