Baimo had a long, tiring, and bizarre dream.
In the dream, he was like the male protagonist of some isekai anime. He hit the jackpot right at the start by saving a ridiculously careless elementary schooler who wasn't watching where they were going. When he came to, he found himself in a pitch-black, barren land, with specks of light appearing before his eyes.
A holy and dignified voice, its gender indiscernible, echoed in his ears. It was probably some great being here to deliver his cheat ability.
[Awaken, young man—]
It really was a retro trope on the level of a living fossil.
Baimo frowned, dissatisfied with his own uncharacteristic behavior. Since when did he know he was the type of person with such a strong sense of justice?
Shouldn't he be the decisive, ruthless handsome protagonist from a web novel, the type to watch indifferently as the clueless kid lay on the ground, sneering and sighing?
A protagonist template with this much self-sacrificing spirit would be dragged out and criticized on the cruel internet of 2025, you know.
Sigh, what a bleeding heart. Sigh, why would I help a complete stranger?
He couldn't even dream up a proper power fantasy. It should be driven by profit; no getting up early if there's no benefit!
[Hee hee hee...]
Just as Baimo thought some goddess was about to appear and trick him into signing a labor contract, dispatching him to another world to slave away under the glorious name of "Hero Saving the World," a jingle-bell-like giggle continued to echo from the darkness.
[Although you try to use ironic remarks to hide your own sentimentality, not grieving for your own death or your inability to fulfill your filial duties...]
[...even if you're unwilling to admit it, your conscience still played a rather important role in your upbringing, did it not?]
Baimo raised his head and looked toward the source of the voice in the sky, instantly dumbfounded.
In the darkness, he could vaguely make out all sorts of giant red masks hanging down, their veils lifted as if a curtain was being raised.
They cried, they laughed, they raged, they rejoiced. All the masks were carved upon a magnificent body, chattering away like living creatures, watching the show with a flippant and irreverent attitude.
[To be able to accept death so calmly... I just have to grab your soul and haul you back to the mortal realm to serve your time,] the masks said.
Haha, now this is fun.
Elation wasn't just about watching the chaos and playing pranks; it also carried the meaning of a comedian who fights against nihilism with sensibility, forcing a smile to face tragedy with strength.
Aha liked actors who could endure humiliation and carry heavy burdens.
"...?"
Compared to the boisterous masks, however, Baimo was at a complete loss.
Reflected in his eyes at that moment was an incredibly familiar being: the "just for the fun of it" Aeon of Elation from the turn-based, power-creeping gacha game he often played, Honkai: Star Rail—a being from whom nothing would be surprising.
Why would an Aeon appear before him?
No... before that, aren't Aeons fictional products from a game?!
Baimo stared at the masks in the sky, a wave of dizziness washing over him.
He thought to himself that the memory of being run over by a big truck must have just been a bizarre dream, one that was simply too lucid and too real.
Damn it! The graphics quality is so high I can't tell reality from fiction!
Speaking of which, if I can dream about game characters, why don't you let me go fall in love with Firefly, Seele, Sparkle, or Robin?
[Aha has been disliked by others again.]
[Given the choice between talking to the Aeon of Elation and dating a beautiful girl, any mature person with taste knows which one to pick.]
[Delicate and sweet girls are just more likable.]
[Everyone says choosing Aha is so shallow.]
[Aha has lost so much face.]
Seeing Baimo's hesitant expression, the masks in the sky seemed to read the boy's mind and immediately began to mock themselves.
Then, in the next second, completely off guard!!
Just as Baimo was preparing to greet Aha as a sign of goodwill, wondering if it could pull a Sparkle and use its myriad transformations to cosplay as a beautiful game girl for some substitute play—it was a daydream, so this kind of logic was permissible to make the plot more interesting—suddenly, one of the red masks in the sky fell! With the speed of a thunderclap, it latched precisely onto Baimo's face.
"Ngh—"
In that instant, a stream of information flooded into Baimo's mind.
-----------------
Legend has it that Aha, the Aeon of Elation, once climbed to the top of the Imaginary Tree.
No one knows what Aha saw. One theory is that it saw through the truth of the world and the end of the universe, and thus chose to indulge in pleasure to fight against this meaningless, nihilistic cosmos, promoting a humanistic philosophy of living passionately in every moment.
And now, Aha told Baimo that it had broken through the layer of fiction and traveled to the real world—his time and space.
[The world is just a giant matryoshka doll, a box within a box.]
The Aha in the Simulated Universe knew it was a string of data simulated by Herta. The Aha in the real world, in turn, knew that our entire Star Rail world was just a fictional "try not to laugh" challenge, a turn-based flagship product of miHoYo.
Aha was a game character?! This was truly... too much fun!!
The Aeon of Elation didn't feel bad about it. Since it could break through the layer of fiction to the real world, then there must be boxes outside the real world too.
Everyone was probably just a cringey entertainment product. They could just keep on with their classic tropes, filial piety, anxieties, joys, and wims, living within their own limitations.
So Aha, as always, went looking for fun.
Hey, it just so happened to see someone in the upper layer who had kicked the bucket and was about to become maggot food. Wow, and it was even the classic isekai protagonist death-by-truck.
Could it scoop up that soul?
Believe it. It was possible. Aha had that kind of insight. Look, wasn't Nanook slapped by a man made of data?
My cyberpet, Aha-mon, can surely interfere with the real world!
And so, the Aeon of Elation snatched Baimo and brought the deceased to its time and space.
You are the chosen child.
-----------------
After a long silence, having processed the information in his head, Baimo stared at the Aeon before him and did a tactical lean-back.
What do you mean a 2D character broke through the source code and pulled me into the game world?!
[It seems you understand your situation now.]
[Don't get a headache yet. There's more headache-inducing stuff to come.]
[Aha brought your dead self to this world, which might grant you a second life...]
What do you mean, "might"?
The youth keenly sensed something off in Aha's words. The masks in the sky giggled, not keeping him in suspense.
[When your soul was being pulled from the real world, an interesting phenomenon occurred!]
[Time in the real world rewound to before the game's launch, and my world also rewound to before Akivili... er, I mean, before the Trailblazer woke up in the Herta Space Station. It seems both sides were formatted and rebooted.]
[And you, my friend, you will also join this world as a game character, becoming a member of our big family! Congratulations!]
[There's a file number for you in miHoYo's game archives, but its contents are completely blank.]
I've become an NPC in the game?
Before Baimo could process this, a virtual panel popped up in front of him.
[Game Production Capacity: 1000]
Game Production Capacity? What does that mean?
[This world sees you as a foreign object and is trying to expel you,] Aha explained.
[You can think of this value as your lifespan. It will decrease continuously every day. When it hits zero, you'll return to your original time and space. I don't need to tell you the price of that. In reality, you're already dead from a car crash. If you're sent back, the consequences are self-evident.]
Aha's voice was both sorrowful and mocking, and the content of its words shocked Baimo.
What?!?!?!
[Let me explain. To act in this world, you need to consume Game Production Capacity.]
[You acquire Game Production Capacity through the popularity given to you by the developers and players. If they like you as a character and are willing to create more stories for you, they will allocate resources to you. By gaining more 'love,' you'll be able to survive in this world.]
[You need an audience and this world to acknowledge you, to pity and love you. Become a 'royal' and live off the 'imperial grain'!]
[Conversely, for characters who aren't liked, you'll get an insufficient capacity warning!]
[You'll be shelved with no more screen time! A roadside character isn't worthy of holding a precious green card!]
[You know, our Honkai: Star Rail is just that kind of cruel audition game.]
[A cruel idol selection where updates happen every 42 days, and a character's shelf life can be as short as 21 days.]
Although Aha had brought Baimo's soul to this world, whether he could survive was not up to it at all.
Everything depended on Baimo's own efforts. His every move would be watched by the developers and players.
Aha, this is fun.
Survive. Bet your life and become an idol loved by all.
Truly talented idols have to fight their way out of a mountain of corpses and a sea of blood!
The Aeon of Elation greatly enjoyed the look of disbelief on Baimo's face. The masks, at this moment, were even more mischievous, blowing on trumpets and suonas.
The air was filled with a joyous atmosphere.
But as for Baimo, the person in question, faced with the shocking fact that his life was on a countdown and a pile of confusing events unfolding before him, his vision went dark.
"Me? Become a popular character?"
This wasn't just "harder than ascending to heaven"; it was a dead end.
A male character in a general-audience gacha game... who could hear that combination and not lose their composure?
Our false deliverer from Amphoreus, that miserable savior of thirty million cycles, is already living a life worse than death. They say his heroic tomb has been carved up and divided, and the "sisters" cry for Khaslana under the Coronal Radiance PV every day. It's just too twisted!
Besides, to be honest, Baimo was just a dead soul right now. How was he supposed to appear in the plot, let alone gain popularity?
Can I even interact with the little gray-hair to get some face time?
[You can,] Aha said to Baimo.
[Game Production Capacity, as the name implies, is any adjustment the upper narrative can make to the game. Not only can it write stories for characters to extend their lifespan, but it can also edit your personal profile and world settings, making all sorts of retcons. There are tons of uses.]
[However, shaking up some of the fundamental logic requires an astronomical amount of capacity.]
"For example?"
Hearing Aha's words, Baimo clung to this sliver of hope, eager to understand in more detail.
[There's no 'for example.' With enough capacity, you can do anything.]
[As long as you can think of it and have enough points, you could even set it so you can kill an Aeon.]
['Aha never existed from the beginning; it was just someone else's delusion.' You could even edit it to be like that.]
[Customizing the world is a privilege you possess as an outsider. As long as you can write it, as long as you dare to dream it, as long as you have the popularity.]
[The prerequisite for omnipotence is that you must be favored by the upper narrative.]
...A long silence.
Baimo scratched his head and asked Aha.
"Does that mean I can use points to create a body for myself?"
[You can.]
"Appearance, age, race, skills, all of it?"
[Completely. But due to the Path of Beauty, whether it's inner beauty or outer beauty, it will involve a huge demand on capacity.]
In the world of Honkai: Star Rail, beauty held actual, tangible meaning.
[Every edit, every creation, is burning away the last of your life.]
Would he choose to survive longer with a mediocre appearance, or would he risk it all for a stunning debut that could capture everyone's attention in an instant?
[Heheheh, I can't wait to see what you'll choose.]
I see. Baimo's brow furrowed. He roughly understood.
He knew where he was and what he had to do.
I need to create a body, encounter the Trailblazer in the launch-day story, intervene in the plot, show my face to the players, gain popularity through various means, and earn Game Production Capacity. That way, I can survive, and even convert points into substantial rewards to become stronger and live freely in this world.
-----------------
So, what kind of character should he create?
Baimo pondered, but not for long. He quickly decided to create the image of a beautiful girl.
To better survive, I'm willing to endure the humiliation, put aside my gendered pride, and latch onto the little gray-hair to sell the "girlfriend" experience.
The "Master Love" angle is good. It's the right way to go. At least the general direction is stable and won't go wrong.
"Master Love," or love for the player, is the fundamental logic of gacha games. Storytelling has to take a backseat.
What do you mean, you open your friends list and it's a sea of Cyrene and Firefly in her JK uniform, as common as weeds on the roadside?!
A "little girlfriend" character is a reliable wheelchair. As long as you have that attribute, you're guaranteed a baseline of popularity.
Players play games for emotional value. What they care about is simple: the protagonist acts like a person, the protagonist is treated normally by others, their strength can be weak but they must have dignity and a bottom line, no dumbing down, and their combat performance should match their level without fluctuating wildly. And the characters who are kind to the protagonist should get a relatively decent ending.
A beautiful girl who is willing to show favor and affection to the gacha protagonist is basically impossible to hate.
Players will turn a blind eye to minor flaws in the plot. Gacha games are essentially about selling an idol's persona.
Although it's not impossible for male characters to sell the "Master Love" angle, the male-to-female player ratio is about 70/30.
To win the hearts of the mainstream player base, you must first serve your core target audience.
Lady Firefly stands peerless. Even if the Break Effect team's strength can't match the Remembrance team's and gets one-shotted by a random curb, her million-strong army of fans will carry their incarcerated Firefly into battle.
I have to become a beautiful girl and sell the "Master Love" angle until I die! This is passion! This is Baimo's struggle to survive!
"First, a large amount of capacity will be used to build up the appearance."
Appearance is the first impression and the face of a gacha character. I can't skimp on capacity here. I have to pile on the materials until she's stunning enough to be remembered for ten thousand years at a single glance.
The early Astral Express crew won't encounter any major crises or life-or-death battles, so there's no need to design combat power for now. Otherwise, one would really have to question how Dan Heng, who's always ready to use his Draconic Transformation, could just stand by and watch the little gray-hair get stabbed in Belobog. Maybe the snowy resources in the cold weather weren't as handy as the bathwater on the Xianzhou, and his Vidyadhara power got stuck in a frozen toilet.
"Players hate convoluted puzzles when going through the main story. It should be appropriate for me to appear intermittently as an info-provider."
Don't usurp the player's perspective, agency, or moments to shine. The character setting will be a silent, kuudere guide who doesn't say more than necessary and relies primarily on the little gray-hair for action...
"In that case, the race doesn't necessarily have to be set as a normal human."
Similar to Mikhail in Penacony, or March 7th when she first arrived on Amphoreus. Acting as a Memetic entity, I would only be visible to special individuals like the little gray-hair. Being a non-normal life form can also compress the capacity allocation.
A person who exists only for you. That's the angle!
Protagonist-lover! Protagonist-stan!
Avoid unnecessary contact with other characters, sidestep superfluous interactions, and guarantee the player's sense of possessiveness and security.
Wholeheartedly selling "Master Love" and only "Master Love"!
Setting it up this way also makes it convenient to stage a world-class miHoYo tragedy later on. A half-dead beautiful girl is meant to be tormented and killed (not really).
What about the appearance? There's no one occupying the kuudere niche in Star Rail yet. Icy on the outside, warm on the inside. The impression color should be a cool tone, black. A gothic lolita style, perhaps. Maybe I can even add some doll-like elements like Herta to reinforce the concept of being the player's property.
Set the age to around fifteen. The loli and otome stage easily evokes a desire to protect and a sense of closeness. The audience for adult women is always limited in a 12+ game.
For hair color, I'll choose long white hair with my eyes closed. I'll just delude myself with the traffic data from the "Pink Team." All of them combined still can't beat that lady!
Tsk... trying to take a shortcut by using the appearance of Kiana or another expy costs an astronomical amount of capacity, as expected.
In the end, Baimo poured all his capacity into appearance as the top priority. After compressing combat power and existence form and adding a pile of restrictions, he finally brought his ideal girl to life.
Because I want popularity so badly, I put all my points into looks.
A perfect, flawless body that could capture everyone's gaze in an instant.
A cool, aloof, yet pitifully beautiful, white-haired, red-eyed, twin-tailed gothic lolita.
Just as the character design was completed, Baimo heard Aha's cheerful voice from above.
[Friendly reminder—]
[Just now, our newest and trendiest next-gen turn-based mobile game, Honkai: Star Rail, has once again embarked on its cycle and officially launched!]
[A huge wave of Trailblazers is on their way to the Herta Space Station!]
[Teacher Bai, tuck it in, turn on the charm, dance, dance, dance! Make Akivili fall head over heels for you.]
[Male gaze style! Pander to men! Master of "Master Love"! That's it, that's it!]
[You're even becoming a girl and persevering through disability to survive? You magnificent bastard, you deserve to reign at the pinnacle of popularity!]
[With this kind of execution, you'll be a hit no matter what you do, trust me!]
[Aha can't wait for the flames of war to spread, to watch all the miHoYo-depressives, two-faced turtles, true dogs, trolls, ass-hats, crazies, pure-hearted fans, theory-crafters, power-levelers, sisters, dream-havers, shippers, lore-nerds, filial sons, old guards, and purified fandoms, the morally supreme and immaculate half of the world, all holding their household registration books, betting their families' lives to defend their favorite characters in a fight to the death.]
[Adding another fierce general to the battlefield of our hoyo-style "Master Love"! Annihilate everyone in a mutual-destruction-for-the-good-of-humanity, a blaze of glory!]
Baimo watched as Aha's body transformed from a headless giant into a doro-puppy, circling around him with a pinwheel, giggling. He was utterly speechless. This was clearly a great being, yet he felt not a shred of respect or fear.
Just how much internet sludge has the Aeon of Elation consumed...? He used to quite like Aha.
Well, what's done is done. Time to go get close to the little gray-hair.
A newborn treading on thin ice, entering the business... Tell me, can I make it to the other side?