Honkai: Star Rail. Getting chased by players! [2]

Astral Express, Observation Carriage.

Cava stared blankly at the virtual screen before him.

Inside the Astral Express, after that voice entered Cava's mind, the entire carriage fell into a deathly silence. March 7th remained frozen, looking out the window, unmoving. The juice in Himeko’s hand stayed perfectly still in the cup, not a ripple in sight. Even the ever-reliable Welt was motionless, frozen mid-action as he adjusted his glasses on the sofa.

Time, it seemed, had been forcibly stopped by some unknown power, and now the only person who could move was Cava.

“There’s one hour left until the players log in. Please finalize your character setup.

Hint: The more attention your character receives from players, the more unexpected benefits you may gain.”

While Cava was still confused, the virtual screen in front of him suddenly switched to a familiar interface.

“This... isn't this the Honkai: Star Rail character menu?”

Cava looked at the interface he knew all too well, and in the center stood a character that looked exactly like him. Apart from the character's appearance and name, all the other data fields were blank.

“Does this mean... I’m about to become a controllable character?”

A wild idea popped into Cava’s head, and based on the current situation, it seemed to be true!

Gulp...

Staring at the paths and attributes available for selection, Cava swallowed nervously.

...

In Reality

Since the news broke that some people were able to log into the game early, all the players eagerly waiting for Honkai: Star Rail’s launch rushed to open their game clients. Everyone wanted to secure a good UID for themselves.

But when they opened the game and saw the announcement, all the players who had hoped to get ahead cursed in unison.

“Damn! F*ck!”

[QQ Group: Astral Express Africa Branch]

[(Group Owner) Fierce Sipper of March 7th's Sweat: WTF? Why did I get kicked out! I just saw Kafka, my wife!]

[(Admin) No Evil Shall Bury Me: You liar! The servers haven’t even opened! You tricked us again! I’m going to hunt you down IRL!]

[(Group Owner) Fierce Sipper of March 7th's Sweat: No, trust me! I really logged in! And I even played through some story content!]

[Kafka Is My Eternal Wife: FML! Get lost! You got my hopes up for nothing!]

While the QQ groups were filled with players ranting and cursing the group owner for not finding a way in, over at MiHoYo’s headquarters, a new face quietly appeared in the character database for Honkai: Star Rail. The character portrait... was none other than Cava!

In the frozen Astral Express, Cava was still busy adjusting his character’s stats.

He had already accepted the fact that he had become a game character. At first, he thought he had simply been transported into the game world, but it turned out he had literally been transferred into a “game world”!

There was no time to overthink things. Time was limited, and he had to finalize his character’s stats. This wasn’t just about his survival in the vast sea of stars—it was about his future!

He couldn’t forget the system's hint earlier: The more attention he garnered from players, the more unexpected benefits he would gain.

Cava’s expression grew serious. As someone who had spent an entire year following this game’s development, he had memorized all the character data by heart, including optimal team compositions and the game’s various mechanics.

If he wanted to win over most players...

“Please select your Path.”

Without hesitation, Cava chose the “Path of Abundance” from the menu.

It was common knowledge that in the early stages of Honkai: Star Rail, there were only two healer characters. Most players would only have access to one, which was the four-star character from Jarilo-VI, the leader of the Underworld, Natasha; the other was the five-star character from Xianzhou Luofu, the “Healer of Dragons,” Bailu.

As a general pool five-star character, Bailu wasn’t easy to obtain, and early in the game, having just one four-star healer like Natasha wasn’t quite enough, especially when trying to clear the Memory of Chaos.

So, if Cava wanted to gain favor from players right from the start, choosing the Path of Abundance was the right call!

Moreover, Cava had just noticed something—his character’s star rating had been locked at four stars by the system. While the strength of a four-star character might be up for debate, it also made him more accessible.

As the saying goes, "The core DPS may be replaceable, but a solid support is invaluable!"

After choosing his path, it was time to select his attribute. In Honkai: Star Rail, attributes were also crucial. Because of the enemy’s weakness-breaking mechanic, characters in the team needed to have matching attributes to break through the enemy’s defenses. So, selecting a good attribute was key.

After careful thought, Cava ultimately chose the Lightning attribute, the same as that of the Healer of Dragons, Bailu.

No special reason—just that the idea of being a walking human defibrillator was too compelling! Though he might steal a bit of the dragon healer’s thunder, it couldn’t be helped. After all, he was a big guy, not a cute loli!

Next came the most tedious part—setting his base stats. This was the most critical aspect of a character, even more important than Eidolon bonuses!

But as a four-star character, Cava's stat options were limited by the system to fit within the four-star category.

Using Natasha’s base health and attack stats as a reference, Cava kept adjusting the data panel, and before he knew it, time had flown by.

After several minutes, Cava exhaled a long breath and couldn’t help but laugh at the extreme stats displayed on the screen.

“Folks, you’re now looking at Honkai: Star Rail’s character with the lowest base attack and the highest base health in history. His defense is mediocre, but aside from being a tank, he won’t be dealing much damage at all.”

“But that doesn’t matter! Healing in abundance is the way! As long as I don’t die, I’ll outlast you!”

With the remaining time, Cava focused entirely on developing his skill tree. He even added a bit of “uniqueness” aside from healing. Just before time ran out, he also set up his Eidolons, of course, all within the system’s allowed values.

As a character who didn’t need much strategic thinking, Cava's Eidolons were set up to maximize healing and survivability. The whole concept was about abundant healing!

For some reason, the system even forced him to take a topless half-body photo. He wasn’t sure what kind of weird quirk the system had... Oh, right, it liked seeing other characters’ six-star Eidolon portraits... In that case, it’s fine.

After submitting his character details, the system prompted Cava to set up some breakthrough materials. Most of these were fixed, with common sources, so Cava just went along with the system.

“Character creation complete. Please wait patiently...”

After submitting everything, the only thing left on Cava’s screen was a waiting indicator, a series of jumping ellipses.

At that exact moment, as the data was submitted, a gaze filled with both compassion and vitality, but also tainted with wickedness and strangeness, was cast upon Cava...