Alternate Universe
"Damn, this game feels a bit too easy when I add Zhi Jiang to my team!" A young woman exclaims excitedly as she livestreams her Honkai Star Rail gameplay. This is Xiao Mei, a young uprising livestreamer in China with a solid amount of followers.
She is well-known to be one of the most tame livestreamers in the Chinese livestreaming community, especially compared to some of the infamous ones. The Internet can be...a scary place, especially when some people are just down bad.
One of the infamous examples is the day when Genshin Impact was launched. Xiao Mei shudders as she remembers the day she started her career as a livestreamer. She remembers how her livestream comments were filled with a lot of degenerates. Thankfully, she managed to learn a few things to keep the gooners away.
She had just started playing the game a few hours after the launch, and honestly, she was surprised by the game's content. She had once been chosen as one of the beta testers, and compared to the new game, it had much better graphics, and the gameplay was smooth.
Another thing that surprises her is the change in the storyline. The game had decided to add a new character for the Astral Express crew, and she was surprised that he was from Earth. Each part of his story references a real place on Earth, and he is just an average college student before everything happens.
He was rescued by the Astral Express after an incident that led him into space, which everyone agreed an Aeon was responsible for his situation. He brought a unique type of mission for Honkai Star Rail, specifically his rescue mission. She had seen the social media that at first, everyone seemed to be complaining a bit about how the character had a mission that forces the player to fight the monsters. But with his kits, everyone didn't complain and just enjoyed the game.
Currently, she had just finished the battle against the Doomsday Beast, and she was rewarded with the cutscene where the MC was gazed upon by a hot-looking god (She had to remind herself to control herself) before she was about to self-destruct, only for the resident's uncle to stop it effortlessly.
Yeah, she decided she would get Welt from the standard banner.
After that cutscene, she then received a mission where she had to meet with Zhi Jiang through March's POV, which is another surprise addition to the game. They had a small talk with Xiao Mei, finding out Zhi Jiang had officially joined the Nameless. She cheers that the Astral Express had picked up another stray, and is a bit sad upon learning the other reason Zhi Jiang chose to join.
Then, there's a new mission involving March, Himeko, and Zhi Jiang. The trio is walking around the station to buy some clothes for their newest Nameless, which is a bit adorable for Xiao Mei. The dialogue is quite funny while also showing their dynamics.
March: Zhi Jiang, take a look at this set of clothes.
Zhi Jiang:...are you trying to turn me into a peacock or something?
March: What's a peacock?
Zhi Jiang:... never mind.
It was a series of dialogue with no serious moments, showing a fun side of the game instead of full action like earlier. Funnily enough, there are several spots you can interact with to see proper clothes for Zhi Jiang as an optional mission, and the developers make sure they add a small detail to each of Zhi Jiang's dialogue. The more optional missions you complete, the more exhausted Zhi Jiang sounds in every interaction.
Randomuser97: Damn, I feel the pain.
D-1MarchFan: The devs know our pain.
Himeko's Dog: Pussy. If I were him, I could handle it.
TheOnlySaneMan: That username explains a lot of things.
Himeko's Dog: ???
'What are they talking about?' Xiao Mei can't help but be confused by everyone saying how they feel Zhi Jiang's pain. What pain? Zhi Jiang is exhausted, but he doesn't look like someone in pain.
She decided not to think too much about it and decided to complete the mission. She was greeted with a small cutscene of Zhi Jiang's new look, March giving him a dog tag that belongs to his dad (Which dropped when they were trying to move him from the train cargo), and him giving March a hug of gratitude. Xiao Mei honestly finds their interaction adorable, and the cutscene ends with March placing the Express Pass on Zhi Jiang's vest.
After the cutscene ends, the game displays a brand new feature for everyone: Outfits. Xiao Mei blinks when the features are displayed on the screen, as the game provides a tutorial to use them. Upon clicking the character menu, she was told to open Zhi Jiang's. When she did, she saw an extra section and pressed it as the game instructed.
Upon pressing it, she was greeted with Zhi Jiang having a few outfit selections. The first one is the default one, his current look, and the second one is the sleepwear (which was confirmed to be Welt's). Upon swiping to the left, it was revealed that there are more outfits yet to be unlocked, but the game says, 'Continue Trailblaze to unlock more outfits. '
Randomuser97: Holy sh*t! We got free outfits!
BestestFashionista: And we can unlock more!?! For Free or paywall!?
Himeko's Dog: Knowing the company's history, I say it will be a paywall.
D-1MarchFan: I hope the next chapter kills off Zhi Jiang. No one should hug March except for me!
D-1MarchFan: ItShould'veBeenMe.gif
Xiao Mei stares blankly at the chat section before she decides to pull an ultimatum. She blocked 'D-1MarchFan' from her livestream to keep her sanity. From how Zhi Jiang and March interact, she had a feeling it won't be a one-time thing, and she fears 'D-1MarchFan' will start chatting about how Zhi Jiang should've gotten killed or maybe worse.
She knew the Chinese Mihoyo fandom, and it was a terrifying experience for her. She once had an online friend who loved gay ship in Genshin Impact and got relentlessly bullied by the community for it. She was glad that her friend was okay, but she had stopped using social media since that day.
Her friend isn't the only victim. There was a fanfic writer who wrote a self-insert fic and got countless flames from those same fans because they hate the story. It was terrifying, and Xiao Mei promised herself never to be like those people.
Himeko's Dog: As long as he stays away from Himeko, I'm fine with this.
Xiao Mei could only groan and facepalm at the chat. Seriously, what is truly wrong with these people? She decided to ignore them and take a look at which other characters have the Outfit feature.
...
...
...
"...March, Dan Heng, and Stelle have unlockable outfits! Damn you, Mihoyo! At least tell us how to get it!" She exclaims in anger before looking through the character list and froze upon finding the other character with said feature.
Welt Yang. And he had the same sleepwear that Zhi Jiang wore earlier, giving more lore accuracy. Xiao Mei gulps a bit as she notices she has unlocked the skin as well, a two-in-one bonus after completing the previous Trailblaze Mission. Without hesitation, she opens Baidu and searches how to get more tickets for normal pulls.
Unfortunately, she forgot she still livestreaming and the chat is full with lols from her viewers.
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Meanwhile
"...we are here for the meeting about the recent new mission that didn't exist in the Beta server." A guy with spiky black hair says as he glances around to see a brown-haired guy and a messy blonde-haired guy sitting nearby.
"...is this what you're calling me here for?" The brown-haired guy asks in a deadpan tone.
"What exactly are you referencing about?" The blonde-haired guy asks as he munches on his burger.
"I'm talking about Honkai Star Rail, damn it! I said it before in the group chat!" The black-haired guy exclaims while slamming on his table.
"Oh...right..." The blonde-haired guy says in a disinterested tone.
"Take this seriously, guys! We had an issue here!" The black-haired guy exclaims in panic.
"Dude, why are you taking this shit so seriously?" The brown-haired guy asks in confusion.
"...it's my March! She's been defiled!" The black haired guy cries, confusing both guys as they look at each other.
"...okay, I was pretty sure the game doesn't have some sort of spicy scene or else Weibo would explode with posts talking about it," The blonde says before pausing and opening the phone to take a look. "Yeah, no mention about it."
"Seriously, you are definitely overreacting." The brown haired guy sweatdrops. He remembers how his friend went crazy when March 7th got her trailer, and it was slightly unnerving at how much merch there was when he visited his house not long ago. He predicts this guy must have seen something that is normal, but triggers some gooners, including his friend here.
Honestly, why is he still befriending this guy again?
"I am not!" The guy exclaims before showing his phone to his friends, playing a video clip. They both raised their eyebrow and decided to humor him. They were greeted with Zhi Jiang, the new free 4-Star known for being extremely broken, hugging March. They probably miss a lot of context, given that his friend tends to focus on only one thing, but there's nothing that says 'March being defiled'.
"...I don't see anything wrong with this," The blonde says.
"What!?!" The black-haired guy exclaims before he plays the video again and pauses at the hugging scene. "How can you all be so blind!?! I'm talking about this!"
"Dude, that's just them hugging as friends," The brown haired dude says, a hint of confusion in his voice. "Nothing's wrong with this!"
"This shouldn't happen! It should've been me! Not this random ass n-!" His words were censored by a guy passing by, using a leafblower, as his friends were weirded out by their gooner friends.
Truly, Mihoyo fandoms are something else.
To be Continued