Chapter 29: Chapter 28 - Self-Made Light Cone
"And that's why you absolutely! Positively! Cannot go rummaging through trash cans! Understand?"
Wende looked at the dazed Stelle and suddenly felt that something wasn't right. He turned to look at the others beside him, and sure enough, they were all frozen still again.
As the familiar glowing screen slowly descended, Wende was at a loss.
"Didn't you just finish updating a bug? What, another problem? Can't you just sacrifice a programmer to the heavens already, hey!" Wende expertly complained to the system screen.
[Detecting imminent gacha pool update. Player is requested to complete the creation of their Light Cone in a timely manner.]
The system screen ignored Wende's complaints, silently displaying the text.
"Tsk... Can't you guys just release it yourselves? I have to fill in the holes I dug myself?"
The corner of Wende's mouth twitched. He could already imagine how his recent bout of nonsense had been written into the official plot by the system.
[Character is requested to complete the fabrication of their 4-star Light Cone within one hour.]
After displaying this message, the system vanished. The screen before Wende's eyes now showed a Light Cone template, largely similar to the character template from before, but completely blank...
"Sigh..."
Wende looked up at his companions, frozen in time, and felt a headache coming on.
"Fine, I'll think..."
Staring at the Light Cone fabrication interface, Wende fell into deep thought.
First, he was currently just a 4-star character, and a 4-star character on the Path of the Abundance at that. Therefore, the Light Cone had to be a corresponding Abundance Light Cone. That was non-negotiable.
Second, although he didn't need to worry about the Light Cone's base stats, he had to carefully consider its unique skill. It had to fit the identity of a 4-star Light Cone without being too underwhelming.
Finally, and most importantly, were the three pillars: the Light Cone's name, picture, and lore text. This was the hardest part!
But that wasn't what gave Wende the biggest headache. The thought that he was still technically a non-entity, a black market character, made him worry. Would the system eventually make him fabricate his own entire backstory?
Thanks, I'm about to explode!
"Sigh... Let's get the Light Cone done first."
Wende sat down on the ground, defeated. He dragged the system screen in front of him and began to think, sketching and writing, occasionally deleting things.
Half an hour later...
Finally, with the system's permission, Wende had set the Light Cone's skill panel. Next was to take a selfie, then come up with a name and a story.
"Hmm..."
After much deliberation, Wende took off his shirt, revealing a broad chest and a well-defined, muscular physique. He struck a "steel training" body-builder's pose for the system screen.
"This should be fine, right?"
Wende felt it was still missing something special, so he draped a white lab coat over his upper body.
The coat was unbuttoned and the fabric was thin, so even though he was covered, one could still faintly make out the contours of his physique underneath.
"Mm... this'll do."
Wende nodded in satisfaction and wrote down the Light Cone's name.
[A Healer's Self-Discipline]
As for the final lore text, Wende spent another half an hour on it. He finally passed the system's review just before the deadline. The [A Healer's Self-Discipline] Light Cone was successfully approved, and the time freeze was about to end.
"Sigh..."
Wende let out a long sigh, got up from the ground, and patted the dust off his clothes before walking back to stand in front of Stelle.
"Let time flow once more."
He thought this very chuuni line in his head as he watched Stelle's eyes gradually regain their spirit, and he couldn't help but sigh again.
"Sigh..."
"Wende..."
Stelle looked ashamed. For some reason, she just couldn't resist the strange impulse she felt whenever she saw a trash can. She always wanted to run up, embrace it, lift its sacred lid, and search for the "treasure" within.
But seeing Wende go to so much trouble for her, she made up her mind! She had to restrain her desire to rummage through trash cans! She absolutely could not let Wende down!
"From now on! I will never rummage through a trash can again!"
Stelle raised her hand above her head, making a solemn promise to Wende.
Seeing such a determined Stelle, Wende nodded, satisfied.
"Good~"
It was the third day of Honkai: Star Rail's public beta. The damned NC planners must have lost their minds. The first rate-up character banner, which should have been available at launch, was delayed until the third day. What, did their company not want money?
The players, seeing the 200MB update package and the patch notes, had lost the will to be angry. They just updated the game at light speed and jumped in. As for the patch notes, they didn't even glance at them. It was nothing more than a few bug fixes anyway!
Inside an AC Station Live Stream
A female streamer by the name of "Shi Luoluo bu shi Luoluo" was randomly picking a lucky viewer from her chat to gift a free 648 top-up.
"Alright! Let's congratulate this fan named 'White Night' for winning our free 648!"
The livestream's lottery ended, and the lucky winner was born!
Shi Luoluo bu shi Luoluo logged out of her own account and then DMed the fan named White Night, having him scan a QR code to log into his account on her stream.
"Okay, let's take a look at this fan's I... ID?"
Shi Luoluo bu shi Luoluo's mind went blank for a moment as she stared at the absolutely unhinged ID.
[Unhinged. Utterly unhinged!]
[Knowing heaven is easy, defying heaven is this man!]
[To be fair, I'd want to show it off too!]
[Good, good, this is in accordance with the rites of Arknights.]
[I want to clarify, we Arknights players aren't like this!]
[Ehehehe, Wende! Wende! (twists and writhes in darkness)]
[WOC, did the guy upstairs drink too much nuclear wastewater?]
The player whose AC Station account name was "White Night" had logged into his game account, and in the character ID field were the words "Frantically Licking Wende's Sweaty Feet."
"Er... Ahahaha, it seems our fan here has some... special hobbies. Let's take a look at their roster first."
Luoluo gave an awkward laugh, then quickly closed the ID screen and opened the character interface.
"Oh! This fan actually pulled Himeko! Although Himeko's damage was a bit low in the beta test, the game has been overhauled now, so maybe she'll get a buff in the future."
Luoluo said this in a consoling tone. Himeko's power level was indeed in an awkward spot right now. She was fine for farming materials, but in any other content, her damage could only be described as "scraping."
"Alright, this fan's wish is to pull for a Seele, and it would be even better if he could get a Wende."
Luoluo expertly opened the gacha screen and gave a thumbs-up to the camera.
"Bros! Let's guess how many pulls it'll take your streamer to get her!"