In the frozen time, Elric scratched his head.
Finalize the character? Got it—rolling a character sheet, right? Okay. Start the game and max out the "big three"—
Huh? No choices? Not even a random option? What kind of trash system is this?
Fine then. A Vision.
Elric thought briefly. "Supports are eternal. Main DPS come and go."
This wasn't the launch era of Genshin Impact anymore. Back then, being a pure healer or a buffer-type support would've been pretty great.
When the game first started and everyone was scavenging for scraps, healers were worth their weight in gold.
If he'd been designed that way at the time, he could definitely have farmed popularity. But now… that would be a bit harder.
So as far as kit design went, Elric wanted to position himself like the Raiden Shogun—able to serve as a main DPS, but also provide off-field support. The kind of character that even at C0 with a "The Catch"-type weapon, normal players could still play comfortably.
He had to fight for popularity. The reason he couldn't change anything right now, in the end, was because he was too weak.
If he became strong enough, maybe he could find a way to save everything.
Pyro… no.
There was already that same-type six-star war-god "dad" out there.
Elric considered carefully—any factor that could affect him, he wanted to eliminate at the root.
Electro was even more impossible. Anemo had the "Ye Heavenly Emperor" and the "Venti Emperor" suppressing everything—there was no room for him to fit in.
Dendro had Nahida "Mom," Geo had Zhongli "Dad."
That left only Hydro and Cryo.
Hydro, huh. Sumeru's main story was already done. After this event ended, they were probably heading to Fontaine next.
Fontaine—the nation of Hydro.
With Furina as the Hydro Archon, her strength in gameplay terms definitely wouldn't be bad.
As for Neuvillette… heh.
A must-have unit for leaderboard grinders, both male and female.
The Spiral Abyss is a grand stage—if you've got a dream, come on in.
So the optimal choice right now was Cryo, then?
A Cryo Vision.
Among the Cryo characters released so far, the main DPS options were pretty decent. But when it came to support—
You couldn't say they were completely useless… but you could say they were basically useless.
There was only one five-star Cryo support—Shenhe—and the mainstream teams built around her were mostly meant to support Cryo characters.
As for the shields from other four-stars… uh, let's just look at Shenhe again.
Alright, alright. Before the Tsaritsa finally came out, he'd carry half the Cryo element himself.
Anyway, by then, with full adjustments and buffs, he'd even have Zhongli nuking for him.
With a grand sweep of his hand, Elric clicked and chose the Cryo Vision.
On the interface, the seven elements spun endlessly, before finally stopping on a brilliantly shining Cryo Vision.
After he made his selection, the constellations that had been gray suddenly lit up.
"Hm? So you can only choose constellations after picking the Vision element?"
Elric rubbed his chin and clicked on constellations.
[Constellation: xxx.]
"?"
Elric was full of question marks. What kind of bizarre system was this—why was it xxx?
So what constellation did he even have?
Next should be crafting his skills and attributes, right?
How about making something that gives enemies shields and heals them? If it's too strong, players might not necessarily like it.
Because once people's investment is high enough, there are plenty of strong characters.
Take Zhongli, for example—if you give him a set of artifacts with high CRIT stats, old man Zhongli can even run a nuke build.
But if you say his kit is weird as hell, and it can even heal enemies?!
Then you have to pull one just to try it.
Of course, that kind of logic only worked if Elric were a four-star. Some people might pull a weird four-star just to fill the roster and fool around.
But once it's a five-star…
Every pull comes with endless grinding from hardcore players—and endless spending from whales.
So the kit needed both a strong hook and real usability.
Elric scratched his head. Designing skills was such a headache.
Forget it. He'd look at what conditions the system would give him first.
His gaze returned to the screen, and he noticed a box at the very bottom.
Elric clicked it, and a question appeared.
[Please fill in your attribute concept for your in-game character.]
[Note: You only need to fill in traits. After you enter the game, you will need to input the numerical values yourself. This entry will affect your background story in Genshin Impact.]
So skills and numbers came later?
And it could generate a background story and automatically "correct" it?
That's insane. Okay, family—let's max it out.
In his previous life, he hadn't had a choice. He'd become the ultimate college drone of a great nation.
Even if he got out, he'd probably evolve into the ultimate corporate slave.
But in this life…
He was going to become a celestial aristocrat!
Elric instantly typed in a huge block of text, shaping himself into a figure who stood above heaven and earth, an emperor unrivaled in all existence.
As for game backstory? The more absurdly overpowered, the better. If he could become someone like the Sustainer of Heavenly Principles, that wasn't off the table.
Then he could probably extract the ancient dragon's authority while still keeping "Divine Furina" alive.
After he finished filling everything in, Elric hit submit.
[Submission complete. Generating story. Please wait patiently…]
After submitting, the light screen in front of him was reduced to nothing but a constantly bouncing ellipsis.
A while later, when the story generation was complete, a Cryo Vision suddenly appeared at Elric's waist.
Then an unknown, strange power surged into his body.
"This power… is it elemental energy…?"
Only now did Elric truly realize the gap between ordinary people and Vision bearers.
A deep, heavy sense of loss washed over him—over him, and over everyone who had never possessed a Vision.
But this sensation of being filled with elemental energy…
It felt amazing.
Elric raised both hands. His crimson, star-like eyes were filled with disbelief.
At this moment, he felt power surging through his body—he could probably knock down five hilichurls with a single punch.
And yet he also felt something indescribably strange about himself.
Maybe it was just because he'd only just obtained elemental power and hadn't adjusted yet.
Elric didn't think too much of it. He casually guided the Cryo energy within him, gathering it at his fingertips.
Very quickly, a chunk of ice formed in his hand, condensed from elemental energy.
Yeah—this would definitely be convenient in the desert.
No, wait… wouldn't a Hydro Vision be even more ridiculous?
Right—where's my sword?
No, hold on. Why would I even have a sword?
I'm a scholar. Carrying a sword would be so rude.
Scholars should be hitting people with books, shouldn't they?
Frowning deeply, Elric hurriedly looked back at the light screen.
And found… nothing.
The system-generated backstory wouldn't even let him see it?!
Then how was he supposed to know who he even was?!
Elric was speechless. But he suspected the sword had something to do with whatever background the system had fabricated.
So he was a one-handed sword character, then? Fine. At least he didn't have an Anemo "best friend."
System, don't you dare write an Anemo best friend into my backstory.
In any case, having a Vision felt great.
The immediate priority was clearing up the misunderstanding with the Traveler.
"Stop right there!"
Lumine cried out sharply, then leapt forward and blocked Elric's path.
The scholars pursuing them also stopped, surrounding Elric in a tight ring.
"Damn it—aren't scholars supposed to be buried in research with terrible physical fitness? We've run through, what, several streets already!"
Elric cursed inwardly. He felt nothing but bewilderment at the situation in front of him.
He had no idea how things had spiraled into this.
"Se… Senior Brother… maybe we should just admit it…"
Layla panted, exhausted. She didn't want to run anymore. It was too tiring.
"Admit what? Why the hell would I admit anything—"
Elric reflexively protested. He felt wronged beyond belief. No, seriously—how had he suddenly become a criminal?!
Then he quickly noticed the increasingly sharp chill in Lumine's gaze, and realized his wording was… really not appropriate. If anything, it only made him sound more guilty.
He immediately changed his tune and, with the deepest grief and injustice, shouted:
"No! I really didn't do anything!"
"I've been wronged!"
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