"What kind of insane game understanding is this?!"
The viewers couldn't understand why he hadn't picked a single damage dealer. Could a team like this really beat Svarog?
But there was something even more unexpected to come. After selecting the characters, the Path selection screen appeared.
While everyone else was choosing The Hunt and Destruction Paths to boost their damage output, the video chose The Nihility Path!
"What a baffling move!"
"Th-this... what's the point of picking The Nihility?"
"I can't even imagine how this is supposed to beat Svarog!"
"Haha, maybe Svarog will just drop dead on the spot!"
"Maybe once they go in, Natasha will be blasting out tens of thousands of damage with one shot!"
"So you turned on cheats, huh!"
"If you didn't turn them off, that means they're on?"
"This is all Big Bro's perseverance and hard work!"
Seeing the barrage filled with doubts toward his idol Silver Wolf, with people even claiming that Silver Wolf must have hacked into the system and altered the data...
That was practically an insult to his idol!
As a gamer, Silver Wolf had never used any of her hacking skills on game data!
He immediately started directing the moderators in his stream to mute people, but the barrage only grew more and more intense!
"Haha, he's getting mad!"
"The streamer's about to start silencing people again!"
"I'm soooo scared~"
Seeing that there was no way to mute all the barrage messages, Sweet Potato Pigeon simply turned off the barrage notifications and focused on watching the first-clear video.
At the beginning of the Simulated Universe, there weren't many Nihility Blessings yet, so every battle took a while to finish.
Still, Sweet Potato Pigeon could see what made The Nihility Path special!
Unlike The Hunt's speed boosts and extra actions, or Destruction's attack bonuses, The Nihility Path focused more on applying debuffs that continuously drained the enemy's health!
Using the Resonance had an 80% chance to inflict Burn, Shock, Bleed, and Wind Shear on all enemies!
And every Echo Resonance and Blessing within The Nihility Path had its own unique strengths!
There were effects that extended debuff durations, the Doubt effect that increased DoT damage, attacks that restored Path Resonance Energy...
The entire Nihility Path completely broke away from character-specific traits, allowing players to clear bosses easily using Path damage alone!
So the core of this first clear was simple: just stay alive and leave the damage to the Path Resonance!
Naturally, there was no longer any need to bring damage dealers like usual. All you had to do was bring Survival-type Characters!
Thus, a Nihility Skip Survival Build composed of the Fire Preservation Trailblazer, March 7th, Natasha, and Asta emerged!
All you needed to do was continuously obtain Nihility Path Blessings throughout the stages, unlock Echo Resonance after reaching a certain number, and then make sure you didn't die during the boss fight!
There was no need to deal any direct damage to the boss at all!
Watching Svarog lose over half a health bar to DoT damage in a single turn, Sweet Potato Pigeon and the viewers in the stream were all stunned!
"Holy shit, DoT damage is actually this strong? Svarog lost over half his health bar just by taking a turn!"
"So it really wasn't cheats? The Nihility Resonance is that powerful?"
"Now Svarog really is dropping dead on the spot by himself!"
"No, this game can be played like this?"
"No damage dealers, just a full team of Survival-type Characters to stay alive? And that actually works?"
"I can't believe it. I was still wondering whether Seele should go with The Hunt or Destruction!"
"You've been playing your Simulated Universe wrong again, again, again, again!"
"This has something to it. I'm going to try it right now!"
Sweet Potato Pigeon was shocked as he watched Svarog get defeated with such ease. He hadn't expected even a turn-based game could be played in so many ways, and that switching Paths could completely change the gameplay mechanics!
After the shock faded, a smug expression appeared on Sweet Potato Pigeon's face!
"Say something! Come on, Heizi, say something! You still claim Silver Wolf is cheating? Trash like you think you're qualified to question her?!"
At the same time, he was amazed inside. As expected of Silver Wolf—she could even develop such a unique playstyle!
After finishing the video, Sweet Potato Pigeon adjusted his own team and set off with a Super Survival Team made up of the Preservation Trailblazer, Bailu, Natasha, and Gepard!
Sure enough, while the fights were incredibly slow along the way, taking roughly five minutes just to kill an elite enemy...
After all, his characters had no damage output at all, and without enough Blessings in the early stages, the Nihility Resonance's damage wasn't particularly high either.
But their health bars remained safely above the danger line the whole time, and he didn't feel any pressure whatsoever!
By the time he reached Svarog, he had collected fourteen Nihility Blessings. It could be called an absolutely godlike run!
Sweet Potato Pigeon even switched to walking mode to strike a pose!
"Now then, count your sins! Svarog!
Nihility Blessing Grants Me!
The Simulated Universe is about to accelerate!
[Fourfold Root of Doubt]
[Suffering and Sunshine]
[Funeral of the Sensation Seeker]
[The Man in a Case]
[Twilight of Existence]
[Emotional Detachment]
And one last thing!
Praise Silver Wolf!"
This time, Sweet Potato Pigeon confidently engaged Svarog. In the past, he had always needed to keep an eye on his health when facing Svarog, and after entering the third phase, he had to worry about his Main DPS getting captured.
Looking at his four full-health characters, the thick white shields covering them, and the DoT buffs continuously triggering on Svarog, Sweet Potato Pigeon became smug again!
"Hoho, Mr. Svarog, where's that great hand of fate of yours now?!"
When the third phase arrived and Svarog summoned his mechanical arm, Sweet Potato Pigeon's heart still tightened, perhaps because the previous encounters had left too much of a psychological shadow.
But even if one of his characters was captured now, Sweet Potato Pigeon no longer had to panic like before and rush to save his Main DPS.
Burn, Shock, Wind Shear, and Bleed—effects of every color exploded across Svarog's body, and his health bar began to plummet!
In the end, after grinding him down for over ten minutes, Svarog finally fell!
"Oho! I finally cleared it!"
Silver Wolf ended her exploration of the Simulated Universe. World 5 would only open after she completed the later Main Story quests.
After stretching lazily, Silver Wolf had faint dark circles beneath her eyes, and she looked somewhat exhausted.
Ever since she had encountered the Simulated Universe, she had become extremely interested in Herta's experiment within the game.
It could be said that she had stayed up all night grinding through more than half of the skill tree. During that process, she discovered the traits of each Path, which was how she created the first-clear video for Simulated Universe 4!
Kafka looked at Silver Wolf with a smile in her eyes.
"It's rare to see you this interested. You didn't even sleep last night."
Hearing Kafka's words, Silver Wolf replied weakly.
"Sigh, the Simulated Universe gameplay in this game is way too addictive. I kept playing and suddenly it got this late. I'm going to sleep first. Call me if anything comes up."
However, the words "I'm going to sleep" seemed to be a shared lie. Silver Wolf lay in bed and started watching her first-clear video again.
As she read the comments praising her beneath the video, the corners of Silver Wolf's lips curved upward.
But as she kept watching, she suddenly came across a discussion video about Honkai: Star Rail.
It was titled Why I Don't Recommend Anyone Pull Seele.
Why I Don't Recommend Anyone Pull Seele
Why didn't it recommend anyone pull Seele?
Silver Wolf, who had originally planned to sleep, was immediately interested when she saw that title!
As the only Limited Character currently available in Honkai: Star Rail, Silver Wolf had naturally pulled Seele to 0+1—that was, the character along with her Signature Light Cone.
Based on her overall experience using her, whether in terms of mechanics or overworld exploration, Silver Wolf felt that Seele was a qualified Limited Character.
And now someone was actually saying they didn't recommend anyone pull Seele. To be honest, Silver Wolf's first thought was that this person had absolutely no bottom line when it came to farming views!
After all, the game had only been out for two days, and the Limited Character had only become available to pull on the second day. Most people still hadn't even figured the game out yet!
Still, the title really was eye-catching, making people want to click in and hear how the creator had reached that conclusion.
In the end, Silver Wolf clicked on it, ready to see what insightful opinion this blogger had to offer!
The video had clearly just been uploaded. Thanks to the exaggerated title, it had drawn plenty of viewers into the comments.
"Who is this guy? How dare he talk about my wife Seele like that?!"
"Yeah! Seele makes overworld exploration feel like slicing through melons and vegetables for me right now!"
"He's farming views, isn't he? The character just came out and someone's already spouting nonsense!"
"Looks like Honkai: Star Rail is popular now. We've even got clout chasers showing up!"
"Friendly reminder: this blogger has a history of this. He's made similar claims about other games before!"
"A blogger who lives off hate traffic. People like this are everywhere!"
"Oh, so he's a repeat offender!"
"Then it's fine!"
"We get to watch The Connoisseur make another classic statement!"
"Interesting. This is going to be entertaining!"
Most people in the comments shared the same skeptical attitude and looked down on the blogger's attempt to farm views.
The blogger's ID was The Connoisseur, and he really was a creator who profited from controversy and hate traffic in gaming. He even had quite a few followers online, making his channel a gathering place for people looking for entertainment.
He had originally been worried that there hadn't been any recent topics in the gaming section that could drive traffic and provide some fun, when Honkai: Star Rail happened to appear before him!
And by making related videos, he could even squeeze a little extra money out of the incentive program!
So after some research, The Connoisseur decided to make an issue out of the current Limited Character in the Gacha Pool.
"Hello, everyone! I'm The Connoisseur. I'm sure plenty of players who saw the title think I'm talking nonsense, so in this video, I'll explain why I don't recommend anyone pull Seele!"
The Connoisseur's voice appeared in the video as he began speaking over some of the character's PV footage.
"I'm sure many players have already pulled Seele. So when it comes to Seele's most unique mechanic, what's the first thing that comes to mind?
"That's right, it's Seele's Reprise mechanic.
"As a unique mechanic for a Limited Character, Reprise grants an additional action after defeating an enemy, and that extra action does not consume the buffs on the character.
"With this mechanic, Seele truly has overwhelming dominance in battles against smaller enemies and can end fights very quickly.
"On top of that, Seele's Technique allows her to enter stealth, preventing overworld monsters from noticing her.
"With those two things alone, Seele can absolutely be considered a T0 character for current overworld exploration and daily gameplay.
"So why don't I recommend that everyone pull Seele?
"The reason is exactly what I just said: she succeeds because of exploration, and she fails because of exploration.
"Seele's usefulness only exists in the early game.
"Once the game enters its later stages, players will need to clear Memory of Chaos—the abyss-style mode we're all familiar with—to obtain Stellar Jade.
Before you continue