"Hey! Little brother! Don't go! I can really grant you long life! I'm not a swindler!" the green-clothed man pleaded, desperately clutching the outworlder's sleeve.
"Let go! If you don't let go, I'm calling the Cloud Knights!"
"Alright, alright, I'll let go... I'll let go..."
Watching the man in green reluctantly release his grip, the crew once again turned their heads in unison.
"Is this guy really one of the Disciples of Sanctus Medicus? Are you sure he isn't just a regular person who's not right in the head?"
Recalling the man's demeanor, which was exactly like a failed pyramid-schemer, March expressed her serious doubts.
"Err... maybe the brains of the Disciples of Sanctus Medicus don't work so well?" Stelle guessed.
"Forget it. Let's just have Stelle give it a try. If anything goes wrong, we'll back you up," Welt said to Stelle.
"Fine..."
Stelle reluctantly walked toward the man in green.
"Disciples of Sanctus Medicus..."
Wende's eyes narrowed as he sank into thought.
He felt... like he had heard this name before. His Master in his memories seemed to have mentioned it. Some of the medical texts he had studied also contained the characters for "Disciples of Sanctus Medicus," though his Master had blotted them out with ink. But with his curiosity at the time, he had used a few little tricks to see the words beneath the ink.
If that was the case, did his Master have some connection to the Disciples of Sanctus Medicus?
At this thought, Wende's eyes gradually brightened.
If he could figure out the identities of his Master and that "bad woman," could he then deduce his own identity in this world?
With this in mind, Wende's gaze toward the green-clothed man, who was now trying to swindle Stelle, gradually turned "amiable."
.........
"Jing Yuan, oh Jing Yuan, you may have calculated a thousand things, but you never calculated this move of mine, did you! Hahahahaha!"
Kakaya clutched his bank card, forcing a smile.
Damn it, what on earth happened? His luck pulling characters was never this bad!
To make character reviews, he needed to pull both the character and their signature light cone to max. It was just... this time, the crash and burn was a bit severe.
[Kaka-bro choked. Didn't you know Mother Yue next door got a max Eidolon Jing Yuan in just 200 pulls?]
[You don't have to believe in gacha rituals, but they really do work!]
[No, no, no, rituals can't save bad luck, and whaling can't change your fate!]
[Old scoundrel! Don't rest! Give me a Jing Yuan team build right now! I can't wait to drop a big one on Cocolia!]
[Help me! Lightning-Lord!
Leave Jing Yuan!]
"I'm calculating, I'm calculating! Stop rushing me! Aren't I running the numbers for you right now?!"
Kakaya instantly leveled Jing Yuan to 70 with all Traces at 8. With E6 and an S5 signature Light Cone, he equipped a lightning damage set, along with a lightning damage sphere and attack ring he had just farmed from the company set.
To build the team for Super Jing Yuan, the healer slot naturally went to Wende—he could heal and buff. The remaining two slots were filled by the current version's best supports, Tingyun and Bronya.
After setting up the team, Kakaya eagerly took it for a spin against a few nearby monsters.
Once he confirmed the feasibility of his idea, he began several rounds of numerical testing.
And then...
On the screen, the max Eidolon, max Superimposition Jing Yuan, with a ten-stack Lightning-Lord and stacked buffs from Wende, Tingyun, and Bronya, brought his attack down with immense force.
"Wait! No! Lightning-Lord, no! Stop!"
Suddenly, Kakaya screamed in terror.
A traffic light monster with a sliver of health stood opposite him, its health bar outlined with a white border.
"BOOM!!!"
The Lightning-Lord's world-cleaving strike viciously pierced through the traffic light's small body.
And not even a "-0" floated up.
"AAAAAHHHHHH!"
Kakaya howled in agony. His fully buffed, max-stack Lightning-Lord that he had spent so long setting up!!
[Traffic Light: Lightning-Lord? So-so!]
[You couldn't even break its sand-scratch!]
[So, couldn't you have just calculated it directly?]
[Idiot, don't you know you have to analyze specific situations? Data is just theory, actual combat is what matters!]
[So can you swap your max Eidolon Wende for Natasha? This child really can't pull a max Eidolon Wende!]
[Sigh, last time in the Simulated Universe I brought a max Eidolon Wende on the Path of Abundance. Guess what happened? One ultimate and a shield later, he had more HP than my Seele's six lives combined! Good grief!]
[SU numbers are fake!]
[Wende is a whale's toy!]
[Damn, how do you all have E6 Wende?]
[My standard banner 5-stars are all maxed...]
[Godly!]
"Something's not right, not right. Let's go again. This time, we'll take out the traffic light first!"
Refusing to believe it, Kakaya decided to try again.
[You go ahead and try. I'm gonna go wander somewhere else.]
[Star Rail is already in its 'grass-growing' phase... so boring...]
[True, my Trailblaze Level is capped again, can't do anything.]
[Kafka! My Kafka! Are you... doing okay!]
[I'm living a good life with my dad, Mom, please come back soon~~]
[I choose to go look at some... adult content.]
[No adult content!]
"Sigh... why can Wende only be on one team?" Kakaya looked at his max Eidolon Wende with deep regret.
Wende had already become an indispensable character for any team. The reason was simple: he was just too versatile!
His healing was second only to Bailu's, and he could also buff. After E6, he could practically solo-sustain a team...
Not to mention his ultimate's debuff cleanse, which had saved Kakaya's skin countless times in the Simulated Universe.
At that moment, the time was exactly 12:00 PM.
Just as Kakaya was lamenting Wende's invincibility, the bullet chat suddenly exploded.
[WTF! WTF! WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU EVEN TESTING! GO LOOK AT THE OFFICIAL ANNOUNCEMENT! THE 5-STAR WENDE SPLASH ART JUST DROPPED!]
[WHAT!!! IT'S ONLY VERSION 1.0! WHAT IS THE DEV TEAM DOING!]
[WTF! A SATELLITE! THEY LAUNCHED THE SATELLITE!!]
[CRAP, I SPENT ALL MY MONEY ON JING YUAN!!!]
"Huh? HUH?? HUH???"
Kakaya, who had just been sighing in感慨, instantly widened his eyes. He immediately grabbed his phone, opened the official Honkai: Star Rail account, and clicked on the latest post.
A brand-new splash art was posted, with no caption, only a string of question marks.
But just this one piece of art was enough to ignite the passion of the player base.
One group of people was shocked, wondering if the Star Rail devs had lost their minds. The game had just launched!
Another group started stirring up drama, angrily denouncing the developers for their greedy business practices.
And another group was worried, fearing that the previously leaked banner schedule had been rewritten.
But the vast majority of people were currently going absolutely wild in the comments section!