Stadium of the Sacred Flame.
Announcer's Booth.
Rios arrived at the door of the announcer's booth and gave it a slight once-over.
From now on, this would be his place of work.
"However, I have no mind for work right now anyway."
Rios glanced at the system's Shock Value, and sure enough, it had already exceeded 4000.
Using 1000 to sustain the Sacred Flame left 3000 remaining.
How to use the remaining Shock Value would require some careful thought from Rios.
At that moment, the system's voice rang out in his mind.
[Natlan storyline has been significantly altered]
[Pre-heating for players will commence ahead of schedule]
Hearing the system's message, Rios's eyes lit up.
If he leaked information to the players now, wouldn't his Shock Value rise even further?
After all, the system's Shock Value could be obtained not only from Teyvat's natives but also generated from the players.
"Hope the hype explodes."
======
Player world.
Just as 10 a.m. arrived.
Mu Yang launched the open-world game on his computer.
"Genshin Impact, launch!"
While starting Genshin Impact, Mu Yang also opened his livestream room to chat with his fans.
[Streaming this early?]
[The Sacrificial Spear has refreshed already?]
Mu Yang was a fairly popular UP in the Genshin community, with several full fan groups.
When he posted his "Yang Mu is live" message, the idle fans in the group entered the livestream to join the fun.
"What Sacrificial Spear?"
"This is the Favonius Lance; it produces spheres in abundance."
Mu Yang smiled as he interacted with the barrage in the livestream.
[So why are you streaming this early?]
[Got something tonight?]
"Of course, it's to claim Primogems."
"Didn't you all watch the preview? Today is the day Liben comes over."
Mu Yang said.
[Dad's here?]
[My phone's a bit cold; let's heat it up with some Genshin]
After Mu Yang's reminder, the fans also recalled that today was the day of the Liben event rerun.
Liben was a beloved NPC in Genshin Impact.
As long as players handed over junk items they didn't normally need, Liben would give Primogems in return.
The whole process took less than half a minute.
This was also why players liked calling Liben "Dad."
He gave way too much.
It was just like Pot of Greed from Yu-Gi-Oh!—as long as you could fit it in, no deck would disdain it.
"Actually, claiming Primogems is only one part of it."
"Every time Liben appears, he also introduces information about the next nation's team."
"The Traveler is heading to Natlan next, so Liben should talk about Natlan matters shortly."
Mu Yang operated his freshly pulled max constellation Hydro Archon to Mondstadt, finding the uncle with the basket on his back across from a little girl selling flowers.
In the instant of dialoguing with the uncle, Mu Yang's max constellation Hydro Archon turned into the Traveler, who then conversed with him.
"Young friend, we've met again." Liben said.
"Has your business failed again?" The Traveler asked.
"Don't bring it up." Liben said helplessly, "Natlan has selected a new Pyro Archon recently; on his first day in position, he issued a very outrageous policy, suspending the Pilgrimage of the Returning Flame's Holy Night."
"This event is the lifeblood of the Natlan people; stopping it would hurt them more than killing them."
"The Natlan people are thrown into panic over this and have no mood to buy things."
"This batch of mine has taken a huge loss."
"..."
"Same as always?"
Liben's words took a turn, beginning his usual trade of exchanging Primogems for junk.
However, Mu Yang didn't immediately go to exchange for Primogems; instead, he furrowed his brows and said somewhat strangely: "The Pyro Archon used 'he' instead of 'she'?"
"I didn't see wrong, did I?"
[You didn't see wrong]
[It's he]
[It's him]
The people in the livestream confirmed that Mu Yang's eyes weren't blind.
"But that's strange."
Mu Yang's brows knitted tightly: "Didn't Venti say that among the Seven, aside from him and Zhongli, they were all women?"
"By that logic, the Pyro Archon should also be a woman—how did she suddenly turn into a man?"
[miHoYo ate the lore. Veteran players are used to it.]
[Eating lore my ass; if you didn't pay attention yourself, don't mislead others.]
[Liben just said it clearly: Natlan selected a new Pyro Archon, and the gender is male.]
[How long ago was it that Venti leaked info about the Seven to us? It's totally normal for there to be a Pyro Archon swap in between.]
[Swapped to a new Pyro Archon... we won't have to fight the new one alongside the old one later, right?]
[There's a possibility.]
[After all, we stole the Anemo Archon's treasure with the Anemo Archon, held a funeral for the Geo Archon with the Geo Archon, and fought the Electro Archon with the Electro Archon.]
[Fighting the Pyro Archon with the old Pyro Archon doesn't seem impossible either.]
Seeing the content in the barrage, Mu Yang's brows relaxed.
So it was a Pyro Archon swap; he had thought Venti's intel was fake.
In that case, the old Pyro Archon should be a woman, right?
"Hope the old Pyro Archon isn't dead, so I can have one more wife." Mu Yang clasped his hands together in prayer.
In his livestream, the fans continued discussing the new Pyro Archon and Natlan matters in a very casual manner.
But elsewhere, the flames had already risen.
[Aaaah! miHoYo, give me back my female Pyro Archon!]
[You said the Pyro Archon was a woman, and now midway you change her to a man—what does that mean?!]
[I was waiting to pull Himeko to max constellation!]
[No, how is pulling Himeko related to pulling the Pyro Archon?]
[I have insider leaks: the original Pyro Archon is a woman with red hair and golden eyes—that has to be Himeko.]
[Red hair and golden eyes is Himeko; has your brain gone haywire?]
[Your brain's the one that's haywire; the original Pyro Archon definitely looks just like Himeko—you wait and see!]
[Still exactly the same... don't you know that ever since Honkai Star Rail came out, Genshin hasn't released any more of that batch of characters who share faces with Honkai Impact 3rd?]
Some were happy, some were worried.
While some players thought they had lost a wife, others celebrated gaining a husband.
[Day 1 of hoarding Primogems for the male Pyro Archon]
[Does anyone know my husband's name? Waiting online, urgent.]
[The Genshin Male Pyro Archon subreddit has been created; everyone welcome to join.]
[Why hasn't the leaker posted Natlan preview images yet? Back during Sumeru, they leaked all of Fontaine's characters.]
[What do you think the male Pyro Archon's personality is like? Could it be the super hot-tempered type?]
[Or maybe the opposite—a super gentle personality.]
[No matter what, the Pyro Archon's model absolutely can't be ugly; at least on the level of Venti or Zhongli.]
[I got the info from the leaker: hubby's name is Rios, red hair, golden eyes.]
[Rios? That fire horse from Sael?]
[His combat style won't be summoning a horse out, right?]
[Actually, Rios from Sael Project looks pretty handsome... ]