Real world.
"Wdnmd—so the Traveler can actually use the Skyward Blade now?!"
As the plot progressed, Tuji couldn't help blurting out a curse.
She stared blankly as Lumine handed her Dull Blade to Elric, then casually pulled out that beautiful Skyward Blade.
No—HoYo, are you sure you haven't been possessed?!
So you're actually starting to listen to player feedback now?
They really modified the Traveler's weapon—swapping the Dull Blade for the Skyward Blade.
Then when is that golden divine sword sealed by the Heavenly Principles going to come back?
So the Dull Blade is finally retiring, huh.
…No, wait. It's just been entrusted to someone else.
[I really like one sentence Genshin players say: "Huh?"]
["You're giving me this—then what are you using?"]
[I have the Skyward Blade, baby.]
"Uh-oh. Lumine's completely showing off now."
Noticing Lumine's smug little expression, Tuji burst out laughing.
That kind of cheeky Traveler was rare.
It was just a shame that Elric's black-hair-black-eyes moe point had disappeared.
His eyes had turned the same color as Director Hu—only the shape was different.
Yeah… still a bit bigger than Director Hu's, though.
But—so handsome!!!
Tuji couldn't help propping her chin on her hand, staring motionlessly at Elric.
[Holy crap, "You use the Dull Blade, I use the Skyward Blade."]
[Traveler, where are your Festering Desire and Harbinger of Dawn?]
[Steady, steady—civil engineering is steady again.]
[So he's a Fontaine character. Wonder if he'll appear in the Archon Quest.]
She casually glanced at the barrage and smiled in satisfaction.
No matter what, this change was a good one.
At the very least, it made her stream even more entertaining. Hopefully they'd keep it up.
[Ding. Detected an increase in the host's popularity value. The Genshin Forum is now open.]
Down below, Elric, who had been dozing off, jolted awake and nearly yelped.
He rubbed his eyes and looked at the person speaking on stage with utter resignation.
No matter what world you were in, leaders never ran out of passion for giving speeches.
So the "three-hour competition" was actually two and a half hours of talking, huh?
Paimon was already asleep in Lumine's arms, and even Lumine kept nodding off, as if she might fall asleep at any moment.
Tch—terrifying. Even a physically tough Traveler like Lumine could be lulled into a trance!
Elric shifted slightly. Fine—he'd lend his shoulder to the Traveler for now.
But the priority was figuring out what this so-called Genshin Forum even was.
"System."
Elric focused his mind. Almost immediately, a translucent light screen appeared in front of him.
Sure enough, a new section had appeared at the bottom: Forum.
With a thought, he opened it.
The system was surprisingly considerate—no manual operation required, just a mental command.
[Genshin Forum.]
[ElricIsMyWife: I LOVE YOU, ELRIC!!!]
A critical hit right out of the gate!
Elric saw those words and his mind went completely blank, leaving only one thought behind.
"Crap. I've really been exiled to Teyvat's 'nighttime madness' now."
He could already imagine what the search results about him would look like.
Bro, I'm a male character. How are you calling me your wife? That makes no sense!
Elric's mouth twitched as he complained inwardly.
He knew that in his previous life, plenty of people would go feral over male characters—but he never expected to become the target himself.
No wonder his popularity value had risen. Someone was already going feral over him—how could his popularity not rise?
And this was just an event storyline, too. The effect was immediate?
Elric scrolled through the forum. There were even livestream links from creators on different platforms.
As expected of the system—black tech to the max.
He casually tapped into a stream labeled "Tuji."
Good grief. Even you streamers are absurd.
Still… it was novel. His actions could actually feed back into the game world.
When he saw the chat guessing his rarity—every last one saying he was four-star—his mouth twitched again. He couldn't hold it in.
Sorry for being a five-star, I guess.
And that person who said they'd pull full constellations for me—yeah, you. Don't run. I've memorized your ID!
"Damn it, so the Traveler's Dull Blade was 'liberated' by me, huh."
Watching the cutscene inside the stream, Elric felt an indescribable gloom rise in his chest.
He practically wanted to shove the Dull Blade back into the Traveler's hands.
In the end, he sighed. Forget it. Didn't this at least boost his popularity value?
Besides, he'd already strengthened his resolve—
To go all-in on chaos.
As long as the chaos was big enough, good enough, and players loved it enough…
He would become the first person to break through HoYo's signature "knife" tradition!
You want to stab my Furina? Go to hell!
The only question now was whether the Lumine beside him was truly herself, or some combined consciousness of the "fourth calamity."
As he thought that, Elric couldn't help glancing at Lumine resting against his shoulder.
Mm. That chubby little face—so cute, so Lumine.
There was no way she was the "fourth calamity."
Elric nodded to himself and abandoned the thought.
But… being this close with the Traveler—would it affect his popularity value?
This was Genshin Impact, after all. If a male character got even slightly close to a female character, people would slap a "ship" label on it and start cursing.
…No, wait. If it were someone else, maybe it would be a problem. But with the Traveler, it should be fine.
After all, even back then, in fanworks the Traveler was constantly shipped with all kinds of male characters anyway.
Elric finally relaxed. He could let himself go later—after he'd saved Furina.
Elric genuinely ached for Furina. He would use every method he could to save her.
Whether she was "divine Furina" or "human Furina."
Unfortunately, Elric didn't notice that this exact scene from the event—him with Lumine leaning on his shoulder—made the creators who had chosen Aether as the protagonist completely lose it.
[I get it now. This is a character made to ship with Aether.]
[AAAAH! The Aether–Elric ship is absolutely peak!]
[Aether sleeping with his head on someone's shoulder is so cute!]
[I heard this plot was written because the Sanguosha planners threatened the Genshin planners—so thoughtful.]
[Damn it, I'm going to leave a five-star review right now!]
[I'm going to make sure he's praised to the skies!]
[No, no! General, you are the very pillar of the Han…]
Advance Chapters available on Patreon
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