Back in the stream, Little Gui was just as breathless as the station staff. Once she calmed down, a fiery determination burned in her eyes.
"I have to pull Himeko!" she declared. "I could watch that Ultimate animation all day!"
"Everyone, Himeko is only a trial character right now, unlike the free March 7th and Dan Heng we got earlier. Once this part of the story is over, Himeko will leave the team. I can't imagine a single minute in Star Rail without her!"
"The streamer is going to start pulling now! Oh, wait, I mean [Warping]!"
Guinaifen switched to a local Luofu song meant to bring good luck and opened the Warp interface.
In the chat, the barrage of messages had been thin for a moment as everyone processed the shock of Himeko's Ultimate. Now that they heard she was going to pull, the messages started flooding in again.
...
"I just checked; Himeko is a five-star character!"
"That pose! Those effects! If she wasn't a five-star, I wouldn't be able to stand it!"
"So, where do we get her?"
"It's that Departure Warp. The description says you're guaranteed a five-star within fifty pulls. Maybe you'll get Himeko!"
"Does that mean there are other five-star characters too?"
"Reignbow Arbiter, please protect me and let me pull Himeko in one shot!"
"Himeko follows the Path of Erudition; you should be praying to Nous."
...
Guinaifen first used the few free standard tickets she had. The results were consistent: nothing but three-star Light Cones, without a single four-star character in sight.
Unwilling to give up, she checked the Warp details.
"Every ten pulls guarantees a purple—that means a four-star character or Light Cone... and a maximum of 90 pulls guarantees a five-star. So that's how the gacha mechanic works."
"But our newbie banner only needs fifty pulls to get a 'Gold' character."
Having understood the rules, Guinaifen naturally navigated to the top-up interface.
"Everyone! I finally found the recharge screen!"
"[Double the first top-up for every tier, limited to once]? Wow, what am I waiting for? I'll top up the first few tiers first."
"And this [Express Supply Pass] looks like a great deal. Buying it, buying it!"
A Little Gui emote popped up on the screen to hide her payment password. Soon, she had completed the first few recharges.
At the same time, she warned her viewers: "Spending in this game is actually quite expensive. Even with the double bonus, a ten-pull is nearly ten thousand Credits. That's about a full day's salary for an average person. So please, everyone, spend rationally!"
By now, Guinaifen's Stellar Jade count in the top right corner had reached over ten thousand—enough to hit the guarantee on the Departure Warp. She turned up the volume on her lucky background music and even made a point to go wash her hands.
Everything was ready.
Warping start!
[Warp 10 times.]
Behind Conductor Pom-Pom, a purple light flashed. The train doors opened. A row of three-star Light Cones and one four-star character appeared on the screen.
"It's... March 7th?"
"But we already have March 7th. Oh! Duplicate characters are converted into [Eidolons]? They unlock extra abilities?"
Following the tutorial, Guinaifen opened the Eidolon screen. It looked like a series of shattered mirror fragments, each one a close-up of the character from a different angle. When she saw the 6th Eidolon, Guinaifen's eyes nearly popped out of her head.
"This... this..."
"If they showed any more skin, I wouldn't be able to stream this anymore! Don't tell me every character's sixth soul is like this..."
She immediately checked other characters. A minute later, Guinaifen swallowed hard.
"Anyway... let's keep pulling!" she said, her voice slightly strained. "It was only the first ten-pull. Pulling March 7th isn't a loss!"
Internally, however, Little Gui was practically drooling. Damn it, developers! You really know what you're doing, don't you?! Unlocking the 'original form' at Eidolon 6? Who could resist that!
The art wasn't fully revealing; it stopped exactly at the line of what was permissible, but it created a "half-hidden" aesthetic that left a great deal to the imagination.
Taking a deep breath, Guinaifen knew she had been completely hooked by this game. But I can't help it! I can't control myself!
She dropped the second ten-pull. A new four-star character appeared. Guinaifen adjusted her mindset and looked at the screen.
"Everyone, looks like a new character," she said. "Hahaha, looking at this avatar, why does she look so much like a good friend of mine?"
Giggling into her hand, she clicked on the new character's profile.
[Sushang (New), Physical Type, Four-Star, The Hunt]
"Hahaha, not only does she look like her, but the name is exactly the same as my friend's!"
After saying that, Guinaifen froze for a second. Finally, it clicked.
"AHHHH! That IS Sushang herself!!!"
"How did you get made into this game too?!"
Guinaifen practically leaped away from the screen, looking like she'd seen a ghost. The viewers in the stream were also thrown into a state of bewildered excitement.
...
"No way! Is that really that Sushang girl?"
"I thought it was only the Astral Express and Space Station people. I didn't expect to see characters from our Xianzhou!"
"Seriously! How many secrets is this game hiding that we don't know about?"
"Keep pulling, streamer! I suspect there are even more unexpected characters. Maybe you can even pull the General of our Xianzhou!"
"You're dreaming! Pulling this girl from the Cloud Knights was probably just an easter egg. You want General Jing Yuan? The developers would be summoned by the Ten-Lords Commission before they could even finish the model."
...
Guinaifen took a few gulps of soda to calm down. She returned to the screen, clenching her fists.
"I want to see what they made of Sushang!" she muttered. "If her skills don't show off her usual style, I absolutely won't accept it!"
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