Meanwhile, In Another Universe
"It's finally here!" A young man with blonde hair exclaims excitedly as he looks at his computer screen, displaying a floating train with a huge planet in the background. At the lower part, a loading bar moves closer to the left side, indicating the download is almost over.
This young man is one of the many people who have been excitedly waiting for the new game release ever since Mihoyo announced their new game, Honkai Star Rail. After the announcement, there was an open beta server for players to test the game and provide reviews for the game to Mihoyo. He had tried to join, but alas, he was one of the many unlucky people who didn't get the chance, so all he could do was to wait till the game launched.
Then, they decided to have two separate launches, first exclusively in China and a few months later, a global launch. Honestly, the young man felt like he wanted to pull his hair out when it was announced. That is, if he's not a Chinese player.
But, of course, he had to wait until all the game data files were downloaded. He is baffled at the amount of data storage it takes, like, what do the game devs fill the game file with?
He had no choice but to delete some of his old files, games, and some of his hidden stash. He could only weep and hoped the game was good, but he wasn't worried when many beta-testers and Chinese reviewers said it was good, although not for people who disliked turn-based games.
Luckily enough, he loves those types of games.
"Come on, come on...yes!" The young man exclaims excitedly as the loading screen reaches the end. Excitedly, he turns on the game, and he is taken aback when the screen instantly brings him into a scene of a space station being attacked, and a purple-haired woman playing air violin.
"Kafka, I heard on Twitter everyone's going crazy with her..." The young man sweatdrops as he watches the cutscene. "...honestly, I can see why."
Once the cutscene ended, he had to play through the tutorial, and honestly, he admits they put a lot of budget into the character's ultimate animation, and from what he saw, the game mechanic was quite simple to follow. But he had one question for this game.
Where's the jump button!?
As he continues the story, he is given the choice of selecting the main character, Caelus or Stelle. Being a growing young man he is, he picks the obvious choice.
"Gimme Stelle," The young man says with a huge grin before he is asked to type the name, but he chooses to keep Stelle. As he plays and is given two new free characters, Dan Heng and March 7th, he progresses the story until they go to look for someone called Arlan.
He had tried to avoid the spoiler, but when you have Weibo as your social media, it was inevitable. From those who play the open beta server, he had to endure how they keep spoiling how the story progresses, and had to deal with how there will be a trio. Thankfully, he had avoided more spoilers and chose to play the game first before opening Weibo again.
When he encounters Arlan, they move to a cutscene where Arlan is being taken care of by a young woman with pink hair, while standing beside her is a guy with black hair with a strip of gray hair, holding some sort of energy bow.
"Zhi Jiang? You're here?" March on the cutscene calls, which pique the young man's curiosity. The guy with the bow knows March? What was their relationship? "Aren't you supposed to be in the safe zone? You haven't fully recovered."
"That would be my fault," Asta says as she walks closer to the crew. "He had helped us with some Voidrangers on the way, and we got...sidetracked when Voidrangers surrounding the room where Arlan is."
"I...see." Dan Heng says with a nod before glancing at Zhi Jiang. "I hope you didn't get injured."
"Nope," As Zhi Jiang says that, the screen turns black, and suddenly, the game teleports to an unknown area, and now, he's controlling Zhi Jiang.
"...eh?" The young man was visibly confused by this change. He wonders what's going on before the screen showing Zhi Jiang's brief information. "4-Star Wind...Nihility? This is...not what I expected..."
He decided to continue the game and from his inner monologue, he found a few interesting information. Zhi Jiang is a recent addition to the Astral Express, but as a passenger. He was found mysteriously on the train, and it was suspected that it was caused by an Aeon named Aha.
Third, he's from Earth.
"So, Earth exists in Honkai Star Rail? I wonder if we're gonna visit this game's version of Earth," the young man continues to play, and his current mission is to save a bunch of kids from getting attacked by the Voidranger. "Let's see how his gameplay looks."
[Battle Start]
"Before that, let's see his abilities...." The young man glances before rubbing his chin. "Oh, cool, defense down. That means Stelle and Dan Heng could deal more damage, and extra energy for any debuff he and his team apply....why is he a Nihility? This part seems more for Harmony."
"Oh, well, let's see his attack." He says as he presses a basic attack. Zhi Jang starts swinging his attack with his spear, and he is surprised at the damage he dealt.
"..." The young man blinks as he looks at the number, then he opens the stat. To his surprise, the Crit Rate and Crit DMG for a Trial build were 77%/225%.
"...how did it get that high?" The young man asks before looking through his ability again. And he finds out his answer, it was from the unit's traces, which increases his Crit Chance by 18% and increases Crit Chance and DMG based on the unit's Effect Hit Rate. As he continues the game, the enemy attacks him and the young man can't help but question how he gonna deal with all of these enemies.
His answer comes unexpectedly as Zhi Jiang launches a counter that easily one-shots enemies. Another enemy attacks him, and he counters again, and the attack kills it. In a single turn, Zhi Jiang kills all of his enemies by simply countering.
"...okay, I really need to check on Weibo, because what kind of broken ass 4-star is this!?" The young man immediately grabs his phone and starts scrolling. As expected, Honkai: Star Rail's launch had become a hot topic on social media, and to his surprise, everyone is talking about the newly added character Lin Zhi Jiang.
Most posts had said that his addition is completely unexpected and that a lot of beta tester says this unit doesn't exist, nor was it found in the game files. The addition is surprising, but based on how the community reacts, it wasn't unwelcome.
Some people had theorized that his addition may have been from the beta tester's complaints regarding how the sub-stats from the relics and some of the lightcones feel useless, and how hard it was to build sub-stats like Crit and Speed. But the young man can't help but doubt it. Mihoyo is...not known to be super generous, especially with their previous gacha game, Genshin Impact.
But still, people love the addition of the new Character, and one of the spoiler sections had said he would be given free after finishing his section of the story in Herta's Space Station, which causes the young man to groan, wondering why he would even take a glimpse at it.
So, he continues the game, and Zhi Jiang's section of the story mission is quite interesting. A lot of beta-testers had advised everyone that you should avoid the mobs around the map and only attack them if you want to farm materials. For Zhi Jiang, you were forced to deal with them to save the scientists.
Mihoyo was cruel enough to add kids as part of the mission, forcing the players to save them or else they would die.
"Jeez, I never expected Mihoyo would pull such a ballsy move." The young man says as the mission leads him to Asta being surrounded by a group of Voidrangers. Upon entering battle, Asta ends up joining the battle, and honestly, they had a solid synergy. Asta increases the damage dealt by Zhi Jiang and also provides Zhi Jiang speed boost, letting him take turns faster.
What was a one-sided battle earlier with Zhi Jiang alone turns into a bloody massacre. The young man never expected that Asta would be a sub-DPS, especially with the damage she dealt to the enemy with DEF down debuff. Let's not forget Asta also managed to charge Zhi Jiang's energy so fast that he could use his ultimate after one skill.
Upon unleashing Ultimate, the monsters were unable to survive. The young man can't help but wonder how much damage he would deal if the enemy were alive, but with Zhi Jiang's debuff. He can't help but shiver a bit.
"Are you sure these guys were not 5-stars? Because this is too much," The young man sweatdrops, and he can't help but feel pity for the Voidrangers.
"...hm, I forgot to check his lightcone," The young man opens the character menu, and he is taken aback by the lightcone's art. In the image, there's a man with messy hair, a messy beard and mustache, tattered clothes, and a pair of soulless eyes, walking towards the unknown while using a wooden spear as support. A question starts rising from his mind, wondering who this man is, and when he looks at the name, he feels his heart crack.
'Aimless Journey'.
"..." The young man looks at the lightcone description, and he can't help but be surprised that the description confirms that the messy-looking man is Zhi Jiang. The difference is like heaven and earth itself.
[A young man stranded on an isolated island, aimlessly walking around the island with dwindling hope.
'Don't...give up hope...someone will pass by this island, someone...will see the smoke...'
The young man continues to think as he walks around, trying to hunt for food.
'I have to survive...I had to...for myparents..'
But the world is cruel. His patience, his hope, and his preservation were all futile as day by day, his hope was crushed by the world. He even attempts to escape, but only for the world to say 'no' and force him back to stay on the island.
Years have passed, and his attempts to survive have ended up becoming nothing more than an aimless routine. His hopes are gone, and all he could wonder is one thing.
'What...was the point...of moving forward...?']
The young man reads the story in the lightcone and could only feel pity for the man. He takes a deep breath before looking back at the game, trying to look at the character information. He was surprised at his story as it mentions multiple familiar places, which is even more proof that he's from Earth, like Beijing, Beijing University, Cambridge, and so on. The story mentions how he survives a plane crash before being stranded on an isolated island.
'Gosh, he really got all the bad luck...no wonder his combat path is Nihility...'
To be Continued