In a different world, on a different timeline,
Ah Xian breezed through the introductory tutorial with ease.
With practiced familiarity, she selected the protagonist, bid farewell to Kafka, and swiftly advanced the story to the point where the card pool unlocked.
This was the moment of the first meeting between the little gray-haired Trailblazer, Himeko, and Asta.
"Looks like the public release hasn't changed much. No surprise there—the paid beta was already highly polished."
Ah Xian pressed F3 to open the card pool interface, covering the QR code area and topping up ten 648s in one go.
"No skimping during the pioneer phase. Let's go for a 6+5 Seele first. Winners, join the group to claim your rewards from the admins. The doujin will have to wait a bit."
[Inhumanly rich!]
[Seven consecutive off-banners incoming, charge, charge!]
[Seven off-banners? That's not enough. Gotta miss the weapon at least two or three times, heh heh heh.]
[The fans are true devils of the modern world.]
[Hurry up! Dawdling guarantees an off-banner!]
Many streamers, to stretch their broadcast time, deliberately drag out their content.
For example, they'd watch every single pull animation and click through them one by one, calling it a sense of ritual and excitement.
Ah Xian didn't dawdle. Her pulls were lightning-fast clicks with skipped animations, straight to the ten-pull results.
Her first ten-pull landed the featured launch character, Seele.
Instantly, the chat exploded with scrolling question marks.
[Is this really Ah Xian?]
[No way! Absolutely no way!]
"Thanks for all the blessings, folks! Keep those big guarantee curses coming—I can handle it."
[Damn it, she's acting smug, everyone!]
Unfortunately, Ah Xian's smugness didn't last long. She lost the 50-50 and got an standard-banner Yanqing, then had to eat the full big guarantee to pull a second Seele.
[Feels so good!]
[Lmao.]
[Didn't someone just beg for a big guarantee? Was that it?]
[Now the smile's on my face!]
Catching sight of these mentality-breaking comments, Ah Xian rolled her eyes.
She lifted her water cup to her lips with her left hand while her right clicked the mouse for another ten-pull.
Sipping her water, she didn't skip the pull animation. During the ticket's flight, no red glow appeared at the edges.
No gold.
Ah Xian didn't care and clicked the mouse lightly to end the animation.
Just as she was about to close the interface and keep pulling, she noticed a purple frame in the pull results containing a black character silhouette.
"Huh? What's this?"
"A character?"
She instinctively clicked the frame, and the screen jumped to the character info page.
At the center of the screen was a black shadow, but its humanoid outline was clear.
The description was filled with question marks.
Path: Unknown. Element: Unknown. Skills: Unknown.
Based on the height, Ah Xian hesitantly guessed:
"A young male… no, an adult male?"
"But this outline doesn't match any of the known four-star male characters…"
The launch four-star male characters were just three:
Dan Heng, one of the starter trio; Arlan from the space station; and Sampo from Beloberg.
That was it.
Even she was utterly confused, let alone the viewers who hadn't participated in a single beta test.
Ah Xian opened her inventory, found a Nihility Light Cone, and zoomed in on the character image for a close comparison.
"Doesn't look like this red-haired back-shadow guy either. Weird."
[Is this a bug?]
[Could it be a future four-star character that MiHoYo accidentally included in the launch files?]
[Not impossible.]
[Now that's some fun—game-breaking accident on launch day.]
[More bugs, please! If it's bad enough for a ten-pull compensation, even better.]
[For real.]
Ah Xian scratched her head and checked the official wiki page for confirmation.
When she saw the exact same black silhouette in the four-star character section, she froze.
There really was an unknown character.
Clicking the silhouette to view its details, a note popped up:
[Details about this character will automatically unlock when any player encounters them in the story.]
"What's this nonsense? Hiding a four-star character like it's some big secret? That's ridiculous."
"But, I take back what I said earlier."
"The public release does have changes—a new character means the story's been tweaked too."
"That said, who knows where in the story this guy shows up?"
"The beta story only went up to the early Xianzhou arc. Looks like we won't see this character until much later."
"They're making it so mysterious. I hope this male character at least looks good."
Ah Xian refocused and continued her pulling spree.
A few minutes later—
Ah Xian slouched in her chair, looking utterly defeated, and clicked for her final ten-pull.
She was completely burned out.
Seele's final Constellation took a full 160 pulls to hit the big guarantee.
Misfortune never comes alone—she didn't get a single Gepard or Bailu.
The only silver lining was that Bronya had reached Constellation 2.
"Sigh, early game's gonna rely on Natasha and March 7th to survive…"
A glorious 6+5 Seele, and not a single five-star sustain to use.
Sure, raw power could carry her through without a sustain, but who'd choose to struggle standing when they could fight comfortably lying down?
"Another mysterious character? He really loves me—Constellation 5, huh?"
"No, wait, the outline's totally different. It's a Light Cone."
Black lines appeared on Ah Xian's forehead as she grumbled.
"They're even hiding the Light Cone art… huh? The stats aren't hidden!"
[Reliable and Proper Hobby]
Level 1/80
Base HP: 43
Base Attack: 19
Base Defense: 18
The following effects only apply to the [Abundance] Path:
Superimposition Level 1
Joy in Progress
Increases the wearer's healing by 12%.
When triggering a follow-up attack that inflicts a debuff on an enemy, restores 2% energy to other allied units.
"Follow-up attack?"
Ah Xian muttered to herself.
The public release had only two Abundance characters:
Natasha, given for free, and Bailu, the top prize in the standard pool.
Neither healer had follow-up attack skills.
This Light Cone not only required a follow-up attack to trigger but also demanded that the follow-up attack inflict a debuff.
It was hyper-specialized, with no trace of general utility.
No other character could use it, so it was likely tied to that mysterious character.
Did that mean another Abundance character?
One with follow-up attacks that could inflict debuffs.
The Light Cone's name was odd too.
Reliable and Proper Hobby?
Ah Xian glanced at the Light Cone's flavor text:
"What's your hobby?"
"Obviously, seeing those faces that realize they can't beat me and fighting me only makes it worse."
"Uh, that's kinda twisted?"
The pink-haired girl blinked in surprise.
"Just kidding. I'm a reliable and proper adult…"
"…Forget it. Come on, one, two, three, cheese~~"
"…Requesting human translation. Is this hobby normal? No matter how you read it, it sounds like taking pleasure in tormenting others."
As for the pink-haired girl in the dialogue, was that March 7th or Asta?
[This old man thinks it's fine.]
[I play solo lane Chronokeeper. Not bad.]
[Then I'm +1 for the canyon kamikaze driver.]
[Five thousand games as the Clown, and I say it's way too normal—so normal I can't help but call it a kindred spirit.]
[Good grief, so many CS lurking among Ah Xian's fans. Please, be human!]
Ah Xian's face darkened.
The chat was really going at it, weren't they? Digging up the culprits who tilted her in Summoner's Rift.
She ignored them and pushed forward with the story.
She had to admit, this mysterious four-star character had piqued her curiosity.
What kind of skill mechanics did he have? What was his personality like?