"Ah, I got him? Isn't this... the symbol of the Erudition Path?"
Unable to believe what she was seeing, March 7th thought there had been a bug. She had clearly pulled Jing Yuan, the Hunt Envoy, so why had an Erudition Jing Yuan appeared instead?
But after March 7th checked the situation online, she discovered that Jing Yuan in the game really was an Erudition Path character!
"Wait, can you guys look at my Jing Yuan? Did I pull the wrong one? Why is he on the Erudition Path?"
"Same here. The moment he appeared, I thought I'd lost another 50/50!"
"Ahahaha, the Jing Yuan Gacha is here! The pool's out already, so why isn't everyone pulling?"
"This... this isn't right, is it? Did the official team make a mistake?"
"Maybe too many people spent money and caused a bug!"
"Exactly! The leaks I saw said Jing Yuan was a five-star Hunt Main DPS, and that his Ultimate would even make him go dark and become Mara-Struck!"
"What kind of garbage lore did you read?"
"I checked the official announcement, and Jing Yuan really does seem to be on the Erudition Path. Even his Signature Light Cone is Erudition!"
"A Hunt Envoy becoming Erudition in the game—now that's an interesting development!"
Although some players suspected they had pulled a fake Jing Yuan, wondering why the Hunt Envoy Jing Yuan they had pulled had turned into an Erudition Jing Yuan.
More players joined the mad rush for Jing Yuan instead, throwing in every last bit of Stellar Jade they had saved for so long, until Jing Yuan drained them completely dry.
"I got him! I got him!"
Guinaifen stared excitedly at the golden light on the Warp screen. Jing Yuan's character art flashed past, and she had pulled General Jing Yuan in just ten pulls. Was this the blessing of Luofu luck?
At the same time, Sushang's Warp beside her began to change as well. Golden light burst out from the carriage!
Erudition, long hair, AoE damage—except this one was female!
"Waaah, Little Gui, I lost my 50/50 to Himeko!"
Seeing this, Guinaifen comforted her.
"It's fine. Hand me your phone. I'll pay for your pulls!"
The same scene played out among countless players, just as it had during previous banners.
Although the featured Gacha Pool character had a 50% rate, quite a few unlucky players still lost several 50/50s in a row to other characters.
Perhaps it was precisely because these players carried the burden that the boosted UP rate created by the lucky players getting double five-stars in ten-pulls could return to 50%!
They really... I'm crying!
Greatness needed no explanation!
Lin Guang was currently checking the game's popularity data.
The Jing Yuan Gacha's explosive popularity had exceeded all expectations. Just one hour after the Gacha Pool opened, in-game revenue had already reached 3.21 billion and was still climbing!
Meanwhile, every game metric in the system had multiplied several times over after conquering the Luofu market!
Registered Users: 32.62 billion Current Online Users: 20.43 billion Discussion Heat: 24.34 billion
Every metric had reached the tens-of-billions range. It could barely be considered a qualified interstellar game now.
However, the growth rate of Game Points had slowed considerably. He currently only had 7.36 billion Game Points. He had no idea whether the game's popularity had reached some threshold that slowed point acquisition, or whether it was some mysterious Eastern force at work.
But it didn't matter. By the time the Jing Yuan Gacha ended and version 1.1 arrived, he would definitely have enough to save up 10 billion Game Points!
That once-unreachable Envoy-level Augmentation was now within arm's reach!
It wasn't for fighting or anything. Emanator-level figures possessed another crucial trait: the ability to cross the stars. That would be a tremendous help for his future plans.
After reviewing the game's various statistics, Lin Guang returned to his work.
Back in the game.
The moment players pulled Jing Yuan, they began preparing his ascension materials. Once they had raised him, they were ready to test his mechanics and strength.
It had now been twenty days since the game launched. The first wave of heavy spenders, who bought stamina with Stellar Jade every day, had already reached Trailblaze Level 50, and the character level cap had risen to level 70.
And the best place to test a character now was the resettable tenth floor of Memory of Chaos, unlocked after clearing fifteen floors of the Forgotten Hall!
As a first-phase player from launch, Lao Mu had pulled Jing Yuan to 6+5. But for testing purposes, he was currently using him at 0+1.
"Alright, brothers, Jing Yuan is at the standard 0+1 setup right now. Let's first take a look at his mechanics and strength in actual combat."
Upon entering battle, they could see an Action Bar on the left with the Divine General's Manifestation marked by a number three. Jing Yuan's unique mechanic was this Divine General's Manifestation.
Jing Yuan's Skill and Ultimate were ordinary Erudition attacks, but they respectively added two and three attack stacks to the Divine General's Manifestation, stacking up to a maximum of ten.
Each added stack not only increased the Divine General's Manifestation's damage, but also boosted its action speed, allowing it to move faster.
It could be said that Jing Yuan's strength lay entirely in the Divine General's Manifestation. As long as it acted, everything would be alright!
There was only one small detail to note. Before the Divine General's Manifestation acted, if Jing Yuan was inflicted with crowd control, then the Divine General's Manifestation would retain its stacks, skip its turn, and wait until the next cycle to act.
But Lao Mu didn't care when he saw this. Being unable to act while controlled was perfectly normal.
Memory of Chaos, Floor 1.
Facing the boss Gepard, Jing Yuan's Ultimate lit up during battle, and Lao Mu pressed it without hesitation.
Ultimate: My Body is Light!
[It is time for Surprise Troops.]
In the game, Jing Yuan held a Formation Blade in each hand as he gathered strength, lightning flickering around him from time to time.
After selecting his target and unleashing the attack, Jing Yuan opened those golden eyes, devoid of sorrow or joy and filled with divinity. His naturally imposing expression bore down on his opponent, made even more oppressive by his indifferent tone.
[Majestic Divine Spirit, heed my command—Slash, No Mercy!]
The camera pulled back. Jing Yuan and the towering Divine General's Manifestation seemed to merge as one, delivering a massive slash!
"Holy shit, that Ultimate animation is way too cool!"
"That move! The one that defeated Jingliu in the Animated Short!"
"The delivery of that line was incredible! It had the authority of a king looking down upon the world!"
"This is exactly how I imagined a Hunt general!"
"After seeing Jing Yuan smiling all the time, watching him get serious during his Ultimate is insanely cool too!"
"Compared to General Jing Yuan's effects, what even is Seele's Ultimate? Flashy flying-head nonsense!"
The audience was astonished by Jing Yuan's Ultimate animation. As expected of General Jing Yuan!
Then, as Jing Yuan continued acting, the Divine General's Manifestation reached its maximum of ten stacks. Its Action Bar advanced continuously, and the audience's anticipation rose to new heights!
When it was the Divine General's Manifestation's turn to act, the screen changed.
The golden Divine General's Manifestation in the Heavenly Dome gripped its blade in one hand and hurled a devastating strike toward the target below!
Ten hits of Lightning damage from the Divine General's Manifestation kept popping up. Its single-target multiplier reached an astonishing 660%, and Gepard's Toughness bar and HP bar plummeted at a ridiculous speed!
Ten-stack Divine General's Manifestation, instant refinement!
The terrifying damage numbers and immense Toughness damage shocked the audience beyond measure!
After all, Seele, the previous Limited Character, only had a 425% multiplier on her Ultimate.
Jing Yuan not only had the ten-stack Divine General's Manifestation with the highest 660% multiplier in the entire game so far, but he also possessed a 200% Erudition Ultimate. So long as there were two targets, he was in no way inferior to Seele!
The huge damage numbers brought by the absurdly high multipliers instantly captivated every viewer, making them unconsciously overlook his possible shortcomings.
Almost every player instinctively compared these two launch Main DPS characters, and the same thought surfaced in their minds without prior agreement.
Jing Yuan's strength was absolutely cracked!
Goodbye, Seele. You were merely an ordinary person born in an age without me!
With such a powerful Main DPS, as long as they pulled a few supports, they could probably use him until the servers shut down, right?
For a time, Jing Yuan's popularity in the game surged wildly once more. Some people even began making Character Strength Rankings and popularity polls.
This also spawned a group of Fake Meta Players led by The Connoisseur. These Fake Meta Players did nothing useful all day, only stirring up Community PVP by putting down and praising different characters.
Wherever there was a Jing Yuan-related video, they would show up to promote him. They even barged into videos about other characters to mock them, throwing the community into utter chaos.
However, there were currently only two Limited Character Main DPS units in the game. Memory of Chaos happened to have two sides, upper and lower, so usage rates in Memory of Chaos simply could not demonstrate Jing Yuan's overwhelming strength gap.
Faced with this situation, the Fake Meta Players said, "Only when the tide recedes do you see who's swimming naked. Time will provide the best answer!"
Though the answer it gave might be just a little different.
On the Luofu Xianzhou.
Yanqing was deeply shocked by the huge damage numbers produced by the Divine General's Manifestation. He turned toward Jing Yuan beside him and asked excitedly.
"General, this game's character design truly fits the real person perfectly. It even has the Divine General's Manifestation to assist you. What score would you give your own character?"
Character ratings were also an idea Jing Yuan had come up with after the Jing Yuan Gacha released.
He had seen all sorts of character review videos in online communities, but their perspectives were truly rather biased, making Jing Yuan shake his head repeatedly.
As for his current game character's rating, after thinking for a long time, Jing Yuan gave the following recommendation.
Pull Recommendation: 8 points. Character Strength: 7 points. Signature Light Cone Strength: 9 points!
This rating left Yanqing somewhat stunned. The previous Limited Character, Seele, had scored an excellent pair of nines and an eight. Why were the general's own scores so much lower?
Seeing Yanqing's stunned expression, Jing Yuan smiled softly.
"Sometimes, Yanqing, do not be misled by the surface of things. Think more."
As he spoke, Jing Yuan posted the rating data using an account named Real Name Online.
But the players at that moment clearly could not recognize the value of this recommendation, nor could they possibly imagine the identity of the account's owner!
Meanwhile, Lin Guang had also finished negotiating the broadcasting arrangements for film and television in the surrounding star systems.
That meant they could finally begin the thrilling Preview Program segment!
As for their dear host...
"Are you ready, Mr. Jimi?"
Jimi, who was preparing to become the host, suddenly shuddered. He felt as if something unclean had fixed its gaze upon him!
As time passed, the Jing Yuan Gacha opened, and version 1.0 of the game had entered its final phase.
The Preview Program, which would announce the next version, was finally ready to begin recording.
When it came to the Preview Program, the first person Lin Guang thought of was their dear Mr. Jimi.
As Honkai: Star Rail's model worker, the only person in the game with a swimsuit skin, and the soul of the Preview Program, how could the Preview Program possibly be without him?
Speaking of the Preview Program, its recording method left Lin Guang deep in thought.
Bringing people in to record it in reality would not work. Setting aside whether he could even invite them, the Stellaron Hunters were openly opposed to the company. Relying on real-world connections was not very reliable.
And if he used the original Preview Program video provided by the System Mall... well, its effect did not seem all that good either.
That left only one method.
Lin Guang swiped hard across the System Panel several times before finally finding his target under the Memory Path section: Dream Entry!
He only needed to enter the identity information of specific individuals, and it would calculate the Game Points needed to pull them into a dream Memory Bubble.
It could even customize the Memory Bubble's style, such as transforming it into the chibi style used in the Preview Program.
Then, he only needed to forcibly pull them into the Memory Bubble, give them a general program outline, and record the result.
"Hmm... let's see, for this Preview Program..."
The version 1.1 Preview Program needed Jimi, Silver Wolf, Jing Yuan, and Yukong. After entering their information into the system, he soon received the price required to pull them into the Memory Bubble.
"O-one hundred million..."
Before you continue