The youth looked toward the grass where Lumine and Paimon were hiding with a puzzled gaze, making a posture as if he was about to speak.
Lumine instantly knew that she and Paimon had been exposed. The hand gripping the dull blade tightened even more. Her expression became grave. As long as the youth showed any attacking tendency, she would immediately counterattack.
But before the youth could make a sound, an uninvited guest arrived and interrupted the first meeting between Lumine and the youth.
A dragon's roar startled the flock of birds surrounding the youth into instantly scattering. The panicked birds flapped their wings and dispersed.
A massive cyan dragon flew over the top of the forest. The airflow generated by its flapping wings caused the entire forest to sway.
Green leaves flew everywhere. The youth's gaze shifted from the grass to the massive dragon. A trace of worry appeared between his brows as he muttered to himself, "So something really did happen? Dvalin."
With that, the youth retracted the flaming wings behind him and chased in the direction the massive dragon had flown.
Only after the youth's figure could no longer be seen did Paimon, who had been covering her mouth the whole time, fly out of the grass: "Phew, that person just now had such a strong sense of oppression. It scared me so much that I didn't dare to speak."
"First a person who caused the little birds to riot, then a massive dragon flying over the forest. I clearly remember that Mondstadt doesn't seem like a very dangerous place, right?"
Paimon was still feeling lingering fear, while Lumine recalled the youth she had just encountered.
On the youth, she felt a trace of familiarity, somewhat similar to the unknown god she had met back then.
This made Lumine want to understand the youth further. She wanted to know the relationship between the youth and that unknown god.
"Paimon, let's follow and take a look. I'm a bit concerned about that person just now."
"Concerned? Could he be the god who attacked you?"
"No." Lumine shook her head. "I just feel that he and that god are a little alike. He might know some related information. I don't want to miss any possibility."
"Oh!" Paimon nodded, indicating she understood. "Then let's hurry and follow."
Lumine and Paimon followed the traces along the way and tracked them.
But by the time they arrived, they could only see the flying dragon that had left, as well as the ominous blood-red crystals scattered on the ground.
Lumine felt that this crystal might be useful later, so she picked up the crystal on the ground and put it into her inventory space.
...
"It seems MiHoYo's planners have gone for further studies during this period. This new plot segment is much more interesting than the 'goodnight story for kids' during the closed beta." Silver Wolf controlled Lumine to pick up the tear-drop crystal and then gave her evaluation of the new plot.
During the closed beta, the Mondstadt plot lacked freshness for veteran game players like Silver Wolf.
Mondstadt's plot was very mediocre and very formulaic.
Basically, after just one glance, one could infer all the subsequent content. That was what formulaic meant.
In the original plot, the Traveler and Paimon, on their way to Mondstadt City, encountered a green-clothed youth communicating with Stormterror. Stormterror retreated because of the Traveler's appearance, and the green-clothed youth showed hostility toward the Traveler.
Only then did the Traveler pick up the tear-drop crystal.
To be honest, the original plot was really very formulaic. Silver Wolf and the other closed beta players could basically guess that the boss of the Mondstadt chapter was Stormterror, or the person controlling Stormterror.
It was also very easy to guess that the green-clothed youth was an important clue character. At least Silver Wolf had guessed it.
But with such a simple plot, Silver Wolf could guess the general outline with her eyes closed. It was nothing more than the traditional adventure story development of "hero fights evil dragon."
However, this new plot in the official launch gave Silver Wolf a bit of freshness.
The appearance of the new character Jun Bai who only had an illustration and whose basic information was incomplete basically announced that the official launch plot and the closed beta plot were going to diverge.
Otherwise, changing the plot for just one segment and having a new character with no foreshadowing show his face would mean the planners were somewhat idle.
"It seems the closed beta plot can now only be used as a reference." Silver Wolf became interested. "This kind of plot where I can't guess the subsequent direction is what's interesting."
[If you don't understand, just ask. This plot feels average, so what aspect is the streamer interested in?]
[Closed beta player agrees with the streamer. Although this plot is average, compared to the closed beta's plot that could be seen through at a glance, it's already quite stunning.]
[Speaking of stunning, artist come out and eat chicken legs again! The cutscene just now was an absolute kill.]
[After Jun Bai's appearance, every frame is wallpaper level.]
[Prior declaration: I am male and have no homosexual tendencies. But I still want to say that the scene of Jun Bai at the boundary between light and dark is really handsome. So handsome that I want to go crazy! Hehe! Hehe! Jun Bai! Jun Bai!!!]
Silver Wolf was just about to speak and explain what she thought was good about the new plot. Then a scream loud enough to make her lose her hearing came from the earphones:
"Husband is so handsome!!!"
...It was Guinaifen.
Perhaps because it was her first time experiencing open-world gameplay, she had been acting like a bandit along the way either picking flowers and grass by the roadside, or swinging her sword to chop wood; either climbing trees to pick fruits, or going into the water to catch fish.
As a result, the other voice-call streamers were already on their way to Mondstadt City, while she had just entered the cutscene.
That was her reaction upon seeing Jun Bai's appearance...
Silver Wolf glanced at Guinaifen's livestream room and found that this was only her reaction upon just seeing Jun Bai's appearance. So she decisively took off her earphones.
As expected, there were two even louder screams afterward.
After Guinaifen finished watching the cutscene, everyone on the voice call began to condemn Little Guizi.
Sushang: "Little Guizi! You almost scared me to death!"
Stelle: "My eardrums almost burst. You have to compensate me!"
Huohuo (who had been scared by Guinaifen's scream into diving under the quilt and still had not come out.)
Kafka: "Remember to control the volume next time, otherwise you'll scare the children."
Listening to the condemning voices coming from the earphones, Guinaifen, whose face was flushed and who was panting heavily, quickly put her hands together and apologized to the sisters' group: "Sorry, sorry, sisters. I got too excited for a moment."
"Next time you go crazy, remember to turn on mute. Also think about the water friends in the livestream room." Silver Wolf put her earphones back on and said, "No matter how excited your emotions are, you have to learn to control them. You almost interrupted my train of thought just now."
Picking up a bottle of happy water, taking two sips to moisten her throat, Silver Wolf began to explain the Mondstadt plot from the closed beta to the water friends in the livestream.
Only then did she say: "Actually, both the new plot and the original plot show the same basic story tone of a traditional 'hero fights evil dragon' adventure story, but for me, the new plot just feels better than the original plot."
"Both are plots used to introduce the 'evil dragon.' What I think is good about the new plot is that it blurred the information about the evil dragon."
"In the original plot, Stormterror displayed its power the moment it appeared, and it was directed at a character who seemed to be on the friendly side. We players would have a preconceived notion that Stormterror is the evil dragon."
"But in this new plot, to non-closed-beta players, Stormterror is just a massive dragon passing by. It did not leave us with any bad impression."
"And Jun Bai's last sentence, in the eyes of attentive players, is a symbol that confirms Stormterror's innocence."
"This is the blurring of information about the evil dragon. The benefit of doing this is that later, when players realize that Stormterror is the evil dragon we need to defeat, players will think about whether Stormterror is innocent, rather than taking it for granted that Stormterror is the evil dragon that must be eliminated."
"Although it's not much better, compared to the original formulaic plot, I'm willing to give the new plot a pretty good evaluation."