As the players went through this plot, the screen before them briefly went dark, followed by a loading animation.
Once the loading animation ended, the view before them shifted, changing to a top-down overhead perspective, and then a popup window introducing the gameplay appeared.
"I see... it's actually a barrage game!"
Just reading one line of the introduction, Mu Yang already knew how to play next.
In the upcoming game segment, the defensive tower would continuously spit fireballs at the player-controlled Traveler.
As long as the number of hits received before time ran out was less than three, the challenge would count as a success.
The real Traveler only had one attempt, but the players had three chances.
After all, there were many factors that could affect players' performance, such as the feel of the controls while playing, the gaming device being used, and the network status—all of which could prevent players from performing at their best.
"Watch me clear it in one try..."
"Ah, it lagged, it lagged!"
Mu Yang originally thought the challenge in story mode wouldn't be too difficult, but unexpectedly, the fireballs' speed was much faster than imagined, and they even blocked movement paths. His three chances were quickly exhausted.
[If you're bad, just practice more; no excuses.]
[The network signal in the top right corner betrayed you.]
After the fans' reminders, Mu Yang noticed that the signal in the top right corner was green, meaning his network had been fine earlier and there was no way it lagged.
"Alright, I was careless and didn't dodge."
Mu Yang rubbed the back of his right hand with his left thumb and did some stretches to loosen his fingers.
"This time, I'm prepared."
After the challenge failure, the game screen returned once more to the scene where Pacal asked the Traveler if she wanted to try.
Mu Yang clicked willing to try, and then it loaded again.
Facing the incoming fireballs, Mu Yang, having failed once already, no longer took it lightly. His fingers forcefully tapped the WASD keys on the keyboard to dodge the fireballs.
After accidentally losing one chance to a fireball, Mu Yang's heart raced with shock, but fortunately, he made no more mistakes in the subsequent dodges and survived.
"Done." Mu Yang's hands left the keyboard, "Simple as pie."
After clearing the barrage game, the plot continued.
The people of Natlan were astonished by the Traveler's agility.
"I never imagined your reflexes were this good." Pacal said in surprise, "In the entire Children of Echoes, only Kachina was able to avoid being hit on her first challenge."
"Of course not." Paimon placed her hands on her hips, laughing happily, "Our Traveler is super amazing."
"Traveler?" Pacal was slightly stunned, then lowered his head and pondered for a moment, "So she's the Traveler; no wonder then."
Seeing Pacal's expression, Paimon felt it was a bit strange and asked the blonde girl beside her: "That uncle's face suddenly got so serious; did I say something wrong?"
The Traveler shook her head, indicating she didn't know either.
"This woman and her companions—I have some matters to handle with them, so I'll take my leave first." Pacal raised his head and said, "Our defensive tower's practice mode has several difficulty levels; if you're interested, you can stay and try them out."
After Pacal left, the game screen popped up another window.
This time, the popup was the kind that often appeared in event plots.
"So there's even Primogems here?" Mu Yang widened his eyes, somewhat surprised.
To think there were event Primogems interspersed in the main quest.
During the preview livestream, the game officials had said that after completing the game main quest, players would not only get Acquaint Fates but also an extra 500 Primogems as a reward.
But after entering the game, not only were there Primogems as rewards after completing tasks, but even during the main quest, Primogems could be obtained by playing mini-games?
[Isn't this just skimping from those 500 Primogems?]
[No, the 500 Primogems were explicitly said to be given after finishing the main quest.]
[So that means, not only are Primogems given after completing the task, but along the way in doing the task, you can also get Primogems like in version event tasks?]
[The preview livestream didn't mention any of this.]
[These days, even Uncle Mi can't be trusted anymore?]
[Who cares; as long as there are Primogems, it's fine.]
[Occasionally interspersing some event tasks during the main quest to add variety feels pretty good too.]
Mu Yang looked at the interface and found that what he had just cleared was the easy difficulty in practice mode; there would be medium and hard difficulties next.
And next to the practice mode, there was an enemy annihilation mode. Those words were bound by chains.
Based on his gaming experience, once he cleared all the difficulties in practice mode, the enemy annihilation mode would definitely unlock.
"Although I really want to progress the main quest, since there are Primogems to get, I'll wait until I've claimed all the Primogems before continuing the plot."
Even as a whale, Mu Yang didn't want to miss any opportunity to get Primogems.
The next two modes weren't much different from the previous one; it felt like they were just varying ways of handing out Primogems to the players, and he easily got 150 Primogems.
However, after unlocking the enemy annihilation mode, Mu Yang's mentality instantly exploded.
"Am I playing Touhou now?!"
Looking at the dense barrage from the defensive tower, Mu Yang's brain was trembling.
Those who knew would know he was playing Genshin Impact; those who didn't would think he was playing a Touhou series game.
He wanted to operate the character to dodge, but the barrage was so dense that any slight deviation would result in being hit by a fireball.
Moreover, the damage in enemy annihilation mode was particularly high. Originally, players had three green hearts representing health.
But after being hit once by a fireball in enemy annihilation mode, those three green hearts instantly cleared to zero, then changed into seven black hearts.
What did this mean?
After being hit once by a fireball, not only did the player die instantly, but they even owed seven health bars!
"What was Mihoyo thinking with this? Is this meant for humans to clear?" Mu Yang panicked.
He challenged it several times, and each time he was wiped out in the first wave of attacks.
Fortunately, the enemy annihilation mode had no Primogem rewards; otherwise, he definitely would have mashed the keys until his hands cramped.
[Looking at the in-game text introduction, the defensive tower's enemy annihilation mode is prepared for Abyss monsters, so its power and firing speed are much stronger than practice mode.]
[What's the deep grudge between Natlan and the Abyss? They even made such an amazing weapon.]
[Abyss monsters: Speak for me!]
[Doesn't anyone else feel it's out of place like I do? It feels like Genshin's early style is different. Mondstadt was still a primitive society, but Natlan has defensive towers now.]
[Mondstadt is a primitive society? Have you studied history?]
[What's strange about Natlan having defensive towers? Fontaine has robots patrolling, and Sumeru's side quests have large robots too.]
[Uniocular: Hello.]
[Cold knowledge: Ruin Guards in Genshin's world view are antiques from hundreds of years ago.]
[What's wrong with Natlan having defensive towers? This is totally right, okay?]