Character Attributes and Magical Girl

"The train has arrived at the station. Passengers who need to disembark, please prepare..."

As Qian Peng jogged to the nearest subway station, he heard the announcement from the platform.

There were no police officers at the entrance. Several demi-humans of various appearances bypassed the ticket gates and rushed into the train cars.

Seeing this, Qian Peng followed suit, easily vaulting over the one-meter-high gate and enjoying the thrill of a free ride.

He found an empty seat in the carriage and glanced at his remaining stamina. With a soft "Oh?", he opened his character card.

[Name: Amulet Owl]

[Race: Human]

[Level: 1]

[Class: Commoner]

[Rank: None]

[HP: 200/200, Stamina: 187/200, MP: 0/0]

[Faith: 0]

[Traits: Hero Template, Well-Rounded, Innately Talented (Inactive)]

[Attributes: Strength 20, Agility 20, Stamina 20, Intelligence 20, Perception 20, Charisma 20]

[Skills: None]

[Hero Template: You are a born hero. Your initial attributes are set to the Hero Template. Upon leveling up, all attributes increase by 2, with 4 free attribute points.]

[Well-Rounded: You have no fatal flaws.]

[Innately Talented (Inactive): You possess a special talent in a certain area.]

Hero Template?

No wonder the yellow bar (stamina) is twice as long as I remember.

Seeing such a wonderful start, Qian Peng was about to explain it to his livestream audience when he noticed the bullet comments were already providing information.

"In the old version, humans started with all attributes at 10. For every level gained, all attributes increased by 1, with 5 free attribute points."

"Now, at launch, they've given an extra 60 attribute points, and an additional 5 points per level-up."

"This is amazing."

"..."

Seeing that the comments weren't hitting the main point, Qian Peng pondered for a moment and added:

"The Hero Template is a trait only NPCs have. The bonus attributes are good, but they won't be able to bridge the gap in primary damage-dealing stats compared to the original version."

"All stats in this game are based on attributes, with various complex multipliers. Base attributes are important, but not that important."

"For example, a Barbarian who puts all points into Strength would have 64 Strength at level 10 in the old version, but 74 in the new version. A mere 10-point difference in Strength results in a 15% damage difference."

"However, besides leveling up, players can gain attributes from various sources. By the late game, when attributes reach five or six figures, 10 points of Strength becomes insignificant."

"Of course, having higher base stats means higher HP, a longer stamina bar, and stronger resistance to status effects. These will increase your survivability, especially in high-pressure situations, but the difference won't be that exaggerated."

As he spoke, the subway stopped at the next station. Qian Peng habitually checked the station sign to confirm he wasn't going in the wrong direction.

As he withdrew his gaze, he noticed a girl out of the corner of his eye.

The girl was only 1.4 meters tall, with dark brown pigtails. She wore a blended wool sweater that clearly looked of poor quality. She stood in the corner where the carriages connected, head bowed, seemingly trying not to attract attention.

But her face, far more delicate than an Elf's, still drew frequent glances from the surrounding passengers.

It's that player named 'Li Yuan'.

Qian Peng closed his eyes, switched the game to the background, and opened his browser, deciding not to get involved with her.

[Magical Girl] was a new profession released the year before last. It was introduced a few years after the game's launch to attract new players. Players could change professions at level one, and each profession advancement was called [Magical Girl - XX Form].

This profession boasted the highest DPS in the entire game, with a massive lead. A single energy beam could take a huge chunk out of a boss's health bar.

But its weaknesses were also obvious.

[Magical Girl] had no resistance to status effects. If hit by a crowd control skill, they would take full control duration. Simultaneously, they had no hard crowd control skills themselves, and their bodies were as fragile as mages.

These colorful little girls traded everything for damage.

Despite being a high-difficulty profession that danced on the edge of a blade, due to its cute appearance, the ability to change professions at level one, and the fact that they could use general-purpose magic equipment, it became a favorite among new players.

Lacking skill, ignoring commands, and enjoying blaming others... New players would often be inexplicably controlled by mobs, then take out a teammate with a single shot, and then proceed to snatch the mage's gear.

In less than two years, the reputation of this profession was ruined.

Although there were many skilled players among the [Magical Girl] class, who dominated the speedrun records for almost all dungeons.

However, since [Magical Girl] was a "lowly" output class, unlike the "noble" healers and tanks, most players were too lazy to differentiate and would just paint them all with the same brush.

Shaking off the memories of [Magical Girl] from his mind, Qian Peng opened a video website, clicked on his profile picture, and found the "Despair Expedition OL Strategy Compendium" section among his thousands of video guides for various games.

He clicked on "Iron Wall City Full Collection Guide" and began watching with great interest.

But the viewers in the livestream chat immediately became displeased, flooding the screen with complaints:

"This subway ride is too much of a hassle. What's the difference between this and my morning commute?"

"They sacrificed gameplay for realism, sigh, I don't even know what to say."

"Checking a guide you made yourself? Is that even a thing?"

"Switch the game screen back!"

"Summoning a god, but it's yourself from seven years ago."

"So where is this streamer actually going? And is he going to save my ice cream or not?"

"Yeah, streamer, what are you planning to do? At least explain it to us."

As more and more questioning comments flooded in, Qian Peng tried to brush them off:

"Iron Wall City is a map that was only updated in the second major version. Outside the city are monsters from level 30 to 60. I'm a Divine Arts player who hasn't learned any Divine Arts, so who am I supposed to be tickling out there?"

He didn't want other players peeking in to know his next plan, but he couldn't stop the increasing number of viewers in his stream.

Hundreds of thousands of new viewers, drawn by the news, entered the stream only to see him watching videos, inevitably leading to their impatient complaints.

"Alright, alright, alright, I'll show you guys the subway environment."

Unable to stand the constant nagging any longer, Qian Peng switched back to the game and stood up. He began touring the subway car with his viewers, chatting with the comments.

"This is where original players spawn. Nearby are residents who have turned into zombies. Those are monsters for levels 1 to 10."

"What's out there in the Broken Sword Valley? High level, high resistance, high stats. They're all hellish monsters, how am I supposed to fight them?"

"What do you mean I can only play 'wheelchair' classes? My highest arena ranking was 328. I was a king of casual players in my youth, you know."

"Dude, I don't even know how to learn skills or how to change classes right now. Can you just let me figure things out first?"

"…"

Qian Peng wandered through the six carriages of the old subway three times. Every time they reached a station, he would get off to explain things.

Finally, the subway arrived at the "Emerald Park Station" he was heading to. Qian Peng breathed a sigh of relief and stepped out of the carriage, only to find that Li Yuan had also followed him out.

He immediately became vigilant.

Despite Li Yuan's appearance as a young girl, her stats were likely the same as his – a hero template with all stats at 20.

A normal male civilian NPC would have stats ranging from about 8 to 15.

This meant that the two of them completely outclassed ordinary people in every aspect. In ancient times, they would have been formidable warriors capable of conquering cities.

Qian Peng slowed his pace, letting Li Yuan walk ahead, worried she might be after his [Ember].

However, just as he was fully focused on guarding against the girl, Li Yuan, who had been as cold as an iceberg all along, suddenly let her small face fall and burst into tears.

"Sister, I'm so sorry, I… I lost the ticket." She cried heartbrokenly, like a child who had made a mistake.

Qian Peng was stunned. He first recalled the social media account of this "little girl," who should be that merchant sister who posted "Buying Expedition Gear, Buying Expedition Items."

Then, he noticed that in front of every exit gate, there was a police officer holding a riot shield.

In Mmorpg games, because output classes made up the vast majority of players, it was easy to find them for dungeons. Therefore, they jokingly referred to themselves as lowly classes. Conversely, healers and tanks were rare, ensuring they always had teammates for dungeons, leading to them being playfully called noble classes.