บท 1: Chapter 1: Golden Light and Crossing Over
In a small rented urban room, the only light came from the streetlamp at the corner of the building across the alley, shining through the clothes that were rarely washed for days and through the window.
On the wooden desk that also served as a dining table, Nolan Walker was staring intently at the game screen running on his laptop. Due to the overly dark environment, blurred images were also projected onto his face, showing the Gacha banner interface in Tighnari's banner.
The lights weren't turned off to save electricity or anything. Ever since Tighnari's banner came out, Nolan Walker had been using his previously saved Primogems to Wish, but unexpectedly kept getting the wrong 5-star each time. This was yet another soft pity where he didn't get the current rate-up character. He continued wishing another 30 times without even a ripple.
As a college graduate who had just graduated and became unemployed, Nolan Walker simply didn't have the means to top up and spend money. He could barely make ends meet with some side jobs. However, he didn't want to miss Tighnari, so he painfully farmed chests, domains, and events for over 10 days, saving up each Intertwined Fate he obtained. Now he finally made it to hard pity right before Tighnari's banner ended.
Nolan knew that with the guarantee system this wish would definitely get him Tighnari. Thinking of the bittersweet past 10-plus days, he turned off the lights in his room and sank into darkness—he was determined to be blinded by the golden light!
This is the stubbornness of a loser, right?
With his palm on the mouse, he slowly moved towards the wish button. Even knowing it was a guaranteed 5-star, he still felt a bit nervous before the moment of truth.
Click.
A crisp sound rang out as Nolan pressed confirm. The wishing animation began playing, a brilliant shooting star descending. He watched without moving, repeatedly chanting gold, gold, gold in his mind.
In less than a second, the shooting star flashed golden, confirming that there was no error. He got hit!
Although extremely excited, Nolan didn't have anyone to share the moment with and he wasn't in the habit of talking to himself, so he could only silently rejoice.
One second, two seconds passed. Strangely, the golden shooting star on the screen kept expanding instead of the animation ending. Could it be a network issue? No way, at this time?
He always played full screen which made him dizzy, so he could see the taskbar showing his phone hotspot still connected fine. It wasn't a signal problem.
Just as he was feeling anxious, the golden shooting star showed no signs of stopping at all.
Could it really smash its way out?
As if responding to Nolan's thoughts, the sound of breaking glass rang out. Cracks like a spiderweb appeared on the screen with golden light bursting out from within.
Nolan's eyes widened but there was no time to think. The whole screen shattered and the golden light swallowed him whole, his consciousness going blank as the room was left empty.
"Boing, Boing."
Bouncing soft squishy noises that sounded like something jumping up and down. Still unconscious, Nolan turned over with an itch—it felt like sleeping on grass, the soft pointy blades brushing over his skin.
Wait, wasn't I just wishing? As if realizing something, fragments of memories flashed through Nolan's mind, ending at the scene of being struck by the game's golden shooting star.
He had just opened his eyes when a splash of water hit his face. Nolan instantly woke up.
Lying sideways on the grass, in his blurred vision was a blue blob jumping up and down. He wiped the water off and propped himself up with one hand. His sight gradually cleared—it was a hydro slime!?
"Hydro Slime! Wait, that's too weird. What's going on right now?"
Nolan uttered his voice in some surprise.
The soft and bouncy little thing in front of his eyes looked very cute, wasn't it the Hydro Slime in the game? It was exactly the same, could it be real?
Could it be that he had been knocked out by the golden light for several decades, and nowadays game companies could use biotechnology to create fantasy creatures from games to sell?
While Nolan was shocked, the sudden voice frightened the Hydro Slime. It angrily squeezed its body, poised to attack.
Nolan had seen this scene countless times in the game, so of course he knew what it was going to do.
"Hey hey, wait, calm down!"
He instinctively shouted, getting up to run away, but was a step too late. His raised butt was struck by the slime's bouncy body, knocking him flat on the ground.
Luckily it was grass, a bit of cushioning not to be seriously injured. He was now one hundred percent sure that this Slime was real.
In the end, it was a monster, even with its cute appearance, once recognizing Nolan as an enemy it ruthlessly pursued. It wanted to attack again.
Nolan swiftly rolled on the ground, narrowly dodging an impact. He crouched there catching his breath.
What's the situation here?
Keeping an eye on the hydro slime, he reserved the strength to observe his surroundings, wanting to confirm if he had truly come to Teyvat. Otherwise, how could such an identical Hydro Slime exist!?
The ground was grass, emerald-like fresh sprouts. The sky was vast with white clouds and blue sky rarely seen in modern cities. To the left was a forest and to the right a clear lake. In the center of the lake was a small island with a Statue of The Seven!
The Hydro Slime gathered its strength to crash into him again. Prepared this time, Nolan dangerously but narrowly dodged.
This Hydro Slime wasn't the big variant. Its speed wasn't too fast. For him as an ordinary human adult, with preparation, he could also dodge it.
Nolan looked at the Slime which seemed to be more angry look. He retreated two steps towards the Statue of The Seven.
The lake water was shallow enough to wade across. Getting closer to the statue, he confirmed it was undoubtedly the Anemo Archon Barbatos's statue
Recalling the long familiarized game map, comparing it against his current surroundings—unsurprisingly, this was Starfell Lake.
The scenery before him, the sounds of fish disturbed into swiftly swimming, the air carrying the scent of grass entering his nostrils, everything he saw, heard, and smelled told him without exception: This Is Another World!
This...this is just too amazing!
Nolan is just a bottom laborer on the earth, his life is depressing and hopeless, and only the expectation of his relatives is the driving force behind his continuous efforts.
But effort doesn't always pay off in this society, otherwise, why would the vast majority still fail to succeed?
Nolan wouldn't say he was fed up, but the meaningless day-to-day work had nearly extinguished all his passion.
Luckily, he had the Teyvat Continent to accompany him - one of the few places that could bring him peace and quiet.
He had long yearned for Teyvat while playing the game - what child doesn't love to fantasize? So when he suddenly crossed over into Teyvat, he had no doubts or disbelief about accepting this reality.
He didn't have any strong attachments holding him back on Earth either. Since he was here, there must be a way back too. After all, Teyvat was a land of supernatural powers - as long as he didn't give up, there would always be chances.
And since both Lumine and Aether were from worlds outside Teyvat and had some special abilities, it was normal for him to have something special too, like being able to control elemental powers by touching the statues of the Seven, right?
Filled with anticipation, Nolan placed his palm on the Statue of the Seven before him depicting Barbatos. A cool breeze blew by, but there was no reaction. His eyes widened in surprise. No...that's not right. Where was the promised elemental power conversion for otherworld travelers?
Boing. Boing.
The pesky Hydro Slime wasn't ready to give up the chase, splashing through the lake undeterred. Did it really have to hold such a grudge over such a small thing? It definitely lived up to being a monster.
Damn, really no reaction at all no matter how long he kept his hand on the statue. So much for wishful thinking on his part.
Well, even though he didn't obtain any special powers like Lumine or Aether, he still had to deal with the slime before him now. In fact, Nolan wasn't actually very afraid. He had defeated hundreds, if not thousands of slimes in the game before, even including Raiden Shogun herself.
It's not that he also has such ability, it's just that now he's not completely ignorant about this unfamiliar world, and understands that as an ordinary adult, he can deal with this small-type hydro slime if there's only one. At least running-wise, it definitely can't catch up to him.
However, Nolan didn't plan on just escaping. Instead, he wanted to try defeating it. After all, this was Teyvat - wilderness filled with monsters was commonplace. Living here, sooner or later one would encounter them.
Also, if the information provided in-game was accurate, slimes had a chance of dropping slime condensate when defeated. It should be in demand, and if sold, could fetch quite a lot of Mora. This would solve Nolan's penniless state after crossing over to Teyvat.
Otherwise, forget finding a way back - even just surviving would be troublesome.
During Nolan's brief contemplation, the hydro slime used its bouncy body to hop closer and closer. Nolan used the Statue of The Seven as cover, blocking the slime.
The slime jumped a bit to the left, so Nolan moved a bit to the right. It hopped right, so he stepped back left, repeatedly blocking its attack path.
The not-so-bright slime was extremely annoyed, deciding to just charge and smash this obstructing pillar. Gathering strength for one big jump...
Boing.
It dealt no damage whatsoever to the statue and bounced back, rolling on the grass.
Due to its physical composition, the water slime temporarily lost control of its body as it tumbled.
Now was his chance!
Seizing the opportunity, Nolan leaped forward, pounding the small slime's body wildly with his fists. Punching the jelly-like slime felt soft and springy - it wouldn't hurt his hands. After over a minute of punching and kicking for all he was worth, the slime finally dissolved into a puddle of elemental water on the grass, defeated.
Unfortunately, no slime condensate formed. Nolan felt somewhat disappointed.
Just then, an emotionless voice sounded in his mind:
[Defeated a Powerful Enemy, Obtained 32 Adventure Experience]
W-what? Nolan was stunned at first, but then he saw a familiar interface appear in his vision:
Name: Nolan Walker
Level: Lv.1 (0/100)
Race: Human
Title: None
Inherent Talent: Entangling Affection
Skills: None
Specialty: [Descender]
Adventure EXP: 32
Wasn't this a Teyvat fan-made mini-game that had become popular online recently? Nolan had also downloaded and played it before. Players would gain Adventure EXP from defeating enemies, which could be used to increase their Level or Skills.
Innate Talents were randomly obtained by each player and provided special titles, like [Honorary Knight], [Flying Champion], or [Unconferred Flower]. Unfortunately, Nolan didn't have one yet.
Skills had to be learned and trained. Specialties came from adventuring experiences - the more bizarre the experiences, the higher the chance of obtaining a Specialty.
He hadn't expected this fan-made game to cross over with him too. He was worried earlier about how to survive in Teyvat without any abilities, but this was just hitting the jackpot. All those times he rolled the gacha just to build up pity must have paid off with his streak of luck.
Only Nolan could see this panel. He tapped on the explanation for his Innate Talent [Entangling Affection] to see what it did, hoping it was a good one since that mattered a lot to players.
[You were once struck by the golden light of entanglement, awakening this talent within you. After interacting with characters, you will unlock corresponding affection levels. Upon reaching max Level 10 affection, you shall obtain empowerment from their Archon seats - however, this "character" scope is limited to the opposite gender.]
Based on the description, his Innate Talent seemed similar to the affection system in Genshin Impact, except at max level he would obtain some special Archon empowerment rather than a name card.
He didn't know what the exact effects would be though. It definitely wouldn't be easy to fulfill the conditions, since max affection represented complete trust and vulnerability with someone, requiring long periods of interaction to achieve. He could only let nature run its course.
Nolan tapped on his other trait - the Specialty[Descender]. As he guessed, it denoted him as someone who came from outside Teyvat, with no records on the World Tree, similar to the Traveler. And that was it for effects.
The current 32 exp was from defeating the hydro slime earlier. It wasn't enough to increase from Lv.1 to Lv.2 at 100 exp, he could only put it aside for now.
In any case, he was no longer empty-handed in Teyvat. The days ahead were worth looking forward to.
Phew~ Seeing the fan-made character panel that crossed over with him helped Nolan relax his emotions quite a bit.
Next, he just had to find ways to gain Adventure EXP, increase his Level, and steady his footing in Teyvat - to witness this splendid, fantastical world!
And so, Nolan Walker turned his gaze towards the fish swimming in Starfell Lake. If he remembered right, defeating them would also provide Adventure EXP according to the character panel.
(End of Chapter)
To be continued...
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