As players progressed through the story, the screen briefly faded to black, followed by a loading animation.
After the loading screen finished, the perspective shifted to a top down view, and a gameplay tutorial pop up appeared.
"Whoa... this is actually a bullet hell mode."
After reading just one line of the instructions, Xiao Mu immediately understood the mechanics.
In the upcoming challenge, the defense turret would continuously launch Pyro projectiles at the Traveler controlled by the player.
As long as the player was hit fewer than three times before the timer ended, the challenge would be considered successful.
The actual Traveler only had one attempt in the story, but players were given three chances.
After all, many factors affect a player's performance, such as control responsiveness, device performance, or network stability, any of which could prevent optimal gameplay.
"Watch me clear this without losing a single life."
"Wait, it is lagging. It is lagging."
Xiao Mu originally thought a challenge inside the Archon Quest would not be very difficult, but the speed of the projectiles exceeded his expectations, and movement space was limited. His three lives were quickly depleted.
[If you are bad, practice more. Stop making excuses.]
[The network signal icon in the top right corner already exposed you.]
Reminded by his viewers, Xiao Mu glanced at the top right corner and saw the signal indicator was green, meaning the connection was stable and there was no lag.
"Fine. I was careless and did not dodge properly."
Xiao Mu rubbed the back of his right hand with his left thumb and stretched his fingers.
"I am serious now."
After failing the challenge, the game returned to the scene where Pacal asked whether the Traveler wanted to try.
Xiao Mu selected the option to accept, and the game entered the loading screen again.
Facing the incoming barrage, Xiao Mu was no longer careless. His fingers rapidly tapped the WASD keys to maneuver and avoid the projectiles.
After accidentally losing one life to a fireball, his heart skipped a beat. Fortunately, he made no further mistakes and successfully survived until the timer ended.
"Cleared," Xiao Mu said as he lifted his hands from the keyboard. "That was easy."
After completing the bullet hell challenge, the story resumed.
The people of Natlan were visibly surprised by the Traveler's performance.
"I did not expect you to be this skilled," Pacal said in astonishment. "Within the Children of Echoes, only Kachina managed to avoid getting hit on her first attempt."
"You bet." Paimon placed her hands on her hips and laughed proudly. "Our Traveler is very strong."
"Traveler?" Pacal was slightly stunned. He lowered his head and thought for a moment. "So you are the Traveler. That explains it."
Seeing Pacal's reaction, Paimon felt something was off and whispered to the blonde girl beside her, "That uncle suddenly became very serious. Did I say something wrong?"
The Traveler shook her head, indicating she was not sure either.
"Lady and her companion, I still have matters to handle, so I will take my leave," Pacal said. "Our defense turret's training mode has multiple difficulty levels. If you are interested, you may stay and continue the challenge."
After Pacal left, another pop up appeared on the screen.
This time, it was the kind of interface commonly seen in limited time events.
"Wait, there are Primogem rewards here too?" Xiao Mu's eyes widened.
They actually placed event style Primogem rewards inside the Archon Quest.
During the Special Program livestream, the official developers had stated that upon completing the Archon Quest, players would receive Intertwined Fate rewards along with an additional five hundred Primogems.
But after entering the game, not only were there Primogems as quest completion rewards, players could also obtain Primogems by participating in mini game challenges during the Archon Quest itself.
[Could this be part of the five hundred Primogems mentioned earlier?]
[No, they clearly stated that the five hundred Primogems are given after completing the Archon Quest.]
[So that means besides the Primogems from finishing the quest, you can also earn Primogems during the quest like in version events?]
[The Special Program did not mention this at all.]
[Can even Mihoyo Insider no longer be trusted these days?]
[Who cares. As long as there are Primogems, everything is fine.]
[It actually feels good to have event style tasks inserted during the Archon Quest to change the pace.]
Xiao Mu examined the interface and saw that he had completed the Easy difficulty in training mode. Medium and Hard difficulties were still available.
Next to training mode was an enemy annihilation mode option, currently locked with chain icons.
Based on his gaming experience, enemy annihilation mode would likely unlock after clearing all training mode difficulties.
"Even though I want to continue the Archon Quest, since there are Primogems available, I will collect them first before progressing the story."
Even as a whale player, Xiao Mu did not want to miss any opportunity to obtain Primogems.
The next two difficulty levels were not drastically different from the first. It felt as though the game was simply offering players various ways to earn Primogems. He easily obtained a total of one hundred and fifty Primogems.
However, after unlocking enemy annihilation mode, Xiao Mu's composure completely collapsed.
"Am I playing Touhou?"
Looking at the extremely dense projectile barrage from the defense turret, Xiao Mu felt his mind tremble.
Those who knew would understand he was playing Genshin Impact. Those who did not might think he had switched to a Touhou style shooter.
He tried to control the Traveler to dodge, but the barrage was far too dense. Even the slightest misstep resulted in being struck.
Moreover, the damage in enemy annihilation mode was extremely high. Originally, players had three green heart icons representing their lives.
After being hit once in enemy annihilation mode, those three green hearts instantly disappeared and were replaced by seven black hearts.
What did that imply?
After being struck by a single projectile, the player not only failed instantly but the interface even displayed negative life indicators as a visual exaggeration.
"What was HoYoverse thinking? Is this even designed to be cleared by humans?" Xiao Mu complained anxiously.
He attempted the mode several times, but each attempt ended during the very first wave of attacks.
Fortunately, enemy annihilation mode did not grant Primogem rewards. Otherwise, he would have forced himself to keep retrying until his hands cramped.
[According to the in game description, the defense turret's enemy annihilation mode was designed for Abyssal Monsters, so its output and firing frequency are far higher than in training mode.]
[What kind of deep hatred does Natlan have toward the Abyss to build such a terrifying weapon?]
[Abyssal Monsters: Can someone speak up for us?]
[Does anyone else feel a strange sense of inconsistency? It feels like Genshin Impact's world building is different from the early regions. Mondstadt feels medieval, yet Natlan has advanced defense turrets.]
[Mondstadt is medieval? Have you actually studied the setting?]
[What is strange about Natlan having defense turrets? Fontaine has mechanical patrol units, and Sumeru's world quests feature giant ancient machines too.]
[Ruin Guard: Hello.]
[Fun fact: Ruin Guards are ancient automatons from centuries ago in Teyvat.]
[So what is wrong with Natlan having defense turrets? It makes complete sense.]}
...
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