Arknights had just been released, and it quickly caught the attention of most players. Although the gameplay demonstration looked like a tower defense title from a previous era, it was still perfectly suited for killing time, and playing it even evoked a sense of nostalgia for classic tower defense games.
What truly intrigued players, however, was the game's exquisitely detailed character art. Despite adopting the same gacha system used by most games on the market, players still nodded in approval when they saw how vividly the NPCs were portrayed. Many of them chose to download the game on the spot.
Yang Yan XF was one of the earliest players to do so. After arriving in the Kawalerielki with the main group, he had been spending his days participating in PVP missions against Kazdel players, which stirred memories of his past PVP experiences in Kazdel. When he heard that a game based on the Arknights world had been released, he immediately downloaded it. Since he was going to slack off anyway, he might as well use a game to pass the time.
He opened the download page and saw the six-star operators displayed in the interface.
"Siege, Exusiai, Hoshiguma, Eyjafjalla…" As he read through the list, Yang Yan XF grew thoughtful. These did not seem like six-star operators released according to the original timeline. If the release order strictly followed the story, the first operator should have been the Black Knight.
If they had really done that, the game probably would not have attracted many players. Although these characters would eventually join Tomorrow's Development or form cooperative relationships with it later on, releasing them as six-star operators now did not seem unreasonable.
Once the download finished, Yang Yan XF launched the game.
[Loading network configuration…]
[Reading update data…]
[Attempting to establish a mental link with Terra…]
Seeing these lines, Yang Yan XF chuckled. It seemed the game was constantly paying homage to Arknights.
Well, the game itself was called Arknights, so that made sense.
[A vast stretch of yellow sand filled the screen. Aside from the sound of footsteps beneath one's feet, there was only the howling wind and swirling grit. There were no cheerful birds, no soothing sound of flowing water.]
[The ground beneath felt real. It was heavy, as if it were weeping under the weight of this world, bearing its joys and sorrows alike.]
This brief introduction immediately drew Yang Yan XF into the perspective of the protagonist, sparking his interest.
He tapped forward.
As expected, the protagonist controlled by the player soon collapsed from sunstroke and dehydration. When he opened his eyes again, he found himself sitting by a campfire.
Felix had rescued him.
After a short exchange, Felix, the pioneer, invited the player to join him and asked for the player's name.
Yang Yan XF quickly registered his ID. 'Sigh. Playing a game always meant fighting for a usable name.'
After Felix learned his name, the player, viewing the world from a first-person perspective, sharply noticed something.
In the distance, shadowy figures carrying torches were quietly approaching.
"These are… scavengers from the no-man's-land."
Felix glanced toward them. "They search for food and resources during the day. Nighttime is their hunting ground."
Hunting?
"They target passing travelers." The pioneer drew his pistol. "Get ready. They're coming."
The battle tutorial began.
Yang Yan XF quickly realized that the tutorial divided deployment into high ground and low ground. From it, he learned that snipers and casters were placed on elevated platforms, while vanguards and defenders held the ground level. This matched the familiar structure of the Arknights system.
Felix himself was deployed on the ground. Although he wielded a handgun, considering his early-stage close-combat abilities, this placement was still reasonable.
Yang Yan XF glanced at the three-star operator the system had given him at the start.
Hmm. Plume.
The name was familiar. He remembered that Plume had been responsible for security when he and many other players arrived in Lungmen. She was now one of the Executives, tirelessly maintaining order aboard the Venus. Besides Plume, he also saw unfamiliar faces like Fang, Beagle, and Kroos.
Yang Yan XF recalled seeing some of these young female operators aboard the Venus before.
Only briefly.
Since they appeared here as three-star operators, they were likely trainees currently being cultivated within Tomorrow's Development.
The tutorial ended quickly, and it seemed that Felix, the Pioneer, was not meant to actively participate in combat. Yang Yan XF deliberately let a scavenger slip through the defense, only for Felix to raise his hand and drop the enemy with a single shot.
From this short tutorial, Yang Yan XF gained a rough understanding of how the tower defense mechanics worked.
Soon, the game moved on to the gacha menu he had been eagerly anticipating.
The six-star operators displayed were all familiar faces, either people he knew personally or names he had heard countless times before.
Ten pulls in a row. Go.
"Wow, Gold… wait, Gold is only a five-star?" Yang Yan XF scratched his head. He had expected Gold to be a six-star, but it turned out she was rated one tier lower.
"Five-star Gravel? Isn't this the girl who's always been by the King of Dawn's side? How does she even have this kind of operator card?"
The beginner's ten-pull ended. Yang Yan XF glanced at the male and female characters still available in the gacha pool. Gritting his teeth, he decided that spending a little money did not really count as spending money. After all, the first recharge bonus was doubled.
With that justification, he bought all the in-game purchase packs except for the 648 package, along with every beginner bundle. The reason for skipping the 648 was simple. He was only a light spender.
"Go!"
"Pull it for me!"
Orange light.
Yang Yan XF's fingers trembled as he opened the operator pack, revealing an orange card.
"Saria, member of the Rhine Lab Research Institute experimental group and director of the Kazdel Institute. I require your assistance to set many things on this land back on the right track."
On the screen appeared a silver-haired Vouivre girl with imposing horns, her entire body radiating strength.
Yang Yan XF's whole body shook. "I'll screenshot it, this is insane!"
He immediately took Saria into combat training with his squad. The attempt was admittedly reckless, and the outcome was entirely predictable.
'Unbelievable. Absolutely unbelievable. I actually pulled Saria.'
An overwhelming sense of security washed over him.
His trembling hand tapped the screen again.
"Holy crap! Eyjafjalla!"
"I'm Eyjafjalla. Before joining Tomorrow's Development, I studied volcanic geology. In the future, I'll be using Tomorrow's Development facilities to conduct research with my parents. I'll be counting on you from now on."
Another pull.
"Here I am! Codename Exusiai, reporting for duty! You must be the legendary messenger. If you ever have the chance to do something interesting or travel across this land, just call me anytime!"
Yang Yan XF smiled. He knew both of them well. Eyjafjalla was the gentle, ram-horned researcher who belonged to the research department and had recently been traveling aboard the Venus. The other was Exusiai, a Sankta girl like the King of Dawn himself, who in the story had joined Tomorrow's Development around the same time as Eyjafjalla.
Yet Yang Yan XF noticed something particularly interesting.
The position of the "player" in this game.
He was surprised to hear a voice actress whose tone was almost identical to Exusiai's. The voice itself was not the key point, though. It was what she said.
That "legendary messenger."
She had addressed the player directly and assigned them a role. In a game driven by a main storyline, that carried weight.
Generally speaking, main story structures in games fell into a few categories. One type treated the player as nothing more than a camera, with no direct interaction between the player and the characters. This approach was extremely common in mobile games. Another type gave the player a clear protagonist role, allowing them to lead a team. That protagonist might be a hero seeking vengeance against a demon king, or an ordinary herb gatherer forced into an adventure to discover their own purpose. The story revolved around the player, who interacted with characters obtained through gacha pulls. Compared to the first type, this structure was far more prevalent.
Clearly, Arknights belonged to the latter category.
However, it was not quite the same as games where the player-controlled character was the sole protagonist. Judging from the unfolding plot, it seemed that Hai Mao intended to position the player in a more supportive role, acting as an assistant rather than the center of the narrative.
The player-controlled protagonist, the messenger, did not display much talent in direct combat, yet he excelled in other areas. Command, coordination, and the ability to discover and cultivate talent were where he truly shined. In the upcoming storyline set in the No Man's Land, not only did the pioneer Felix continuously display his personal charisma, but the protagonist working behind the scenes also stood out. He commanded refugees to resist brutal raiders, helped them manage supplies and calculate expenses, and recruited several of them to travel together, eventually becoming subordinates of Felix.
This kind of narrative gave Yang Yan XF an intense sense of immersion. In most mobile games on the market, the protagonist is either an all-powerful leader who controls everything and collects characters through gacha, or an ordinary individual who merely interacts with gacha characters within the story. A protagonist positioned as a true second-in-command was genuinely rare.
Yet it was not merely a story about a second-in-command. It was a bold dual-protagonist narrative.
One particularly challenging battle depicted Pioneer leading a detachment to ambush the enemy.
When the protagonist was left in charge of the base camp, Yang Yan XF found himself swallowing nervously. Although Felix naturally drew the spotlight, the player-controlled protagonist was given plenty of moments to shine as well.
Strategic planning and decisive victories followed. The scene where Yang Yan XF led the refugees to defeat the raiders while protecting a girl in his arms made him finally let out a long breath.
Cool.
Isn't the whole point of playing games to enjoy yourself? Even though the protagonist was not especially strong in combat, his other strengths were undeniable. This was exactly the kind of protagonist players would love. The storyline of becoming Pioneer' right-hand man and helping him rise to power was precisely what many players dreamed of.
Pioneer had his moments in the spotlight, and the main character also received substantial screen time. This pleasantly surprised Yang Yan XF. He had always enjoyed digging into lore, and he had heard of the story about leading refugees to defeat raiders before. It seemed the production team had put in considerable effort, even interviewing people who had lived through that period.
The beautiful girl rescued by the player protagonist also joined the team and could even fight as an operator. Her codename was chosen by the player protagonist himself.
Is this… a wife gifted by the game?
Yang Yan XF hesitated briefly, then typed in Japanese name Murasame.
With the birth of the new operator, Murasame, he immediately checked her profile. She turned out to be a five-star operator from the start, with impressive stats and solid skills.
The real highlight, however, was her voice and words.
"Operator Murasame reporting. Thank you for saving my life. From this day forward, please allow me to be your sword and your shield, and to fight for you."
"Since you have chosen to follow Pioneer, I will fight for Pioneer and for what we believe is right. But please remember, my loyalty belongs to you."
"Preparing for battle. Please watch closely as I fight."
A smile crept onto Yang Yan XF's lips. This was truly a waifu directly delivered to the player by the game. Other operators felt like comrades-in-arms, but this one was clearly a mascot designed just for the player.
After a moment of thought, he continued playing.
Through the game, he learned much more about the combat capabilities of operators he rarely encountered before. For instance, no one dared to break through Saria's defenses when she stood her ground. Her strength was astonishing, and she was likely the strongest of the early six-star operators. Although Eyjafjalla rarely fought in daily life, her abilities were incredibly destructive. Exusiai's rate of fire was exceptionally fast. While she struggled against heavily armored enemies, she excelled at clearing weaker foes.
Yang Yan XF completely fell in love with the game. What captivated him was not only the tactical gameplay and operator interactions, but also the meticulous storytelling crafted by the development team.
He played straight through to the eve of his first journey to Kawalerielki of Kazimierz, where the story abruptly ended. Clicking further revealed that there was no additional content available yet, which left him feeling frustrated. Still, considering the need for a long-term operation and healthy lifespan for the game, this was understandable.
Yang Yan XF exited to the main menu and began browsing the forum.
After Arknights launched, he was clearly not the only one engrossed in it. The forum posts said it all.
>>"Arknights has solid gameplay and an incredibly engaging story!"
>>"I'm speechless. Starting the game with a female character as the face of the game, and having her be so strong, is amazing."
>>"The developers are unbelievable. How do they know all this history? It feels so real while playing."