"...Why do so many people have garters?" Chen Li stared blankly at the ever-increasing number of red packets in his private messages.
[Because in the Honkai world, the garter is the main body!]
"..." Fine. Chen Li reluctantly believed the little sprite's nonsense. Wait, didn't you say you were fixing a bug?
[This is an automated reply. Please leave a message after the beep... Beep!]
"The good news is that the Entry has been successfully completed," Chen Li said, glancing up.
Not only was it completed, but it was also over-completed. He had received garters from Big Herta, Little Herta, Ruan Mei, Sirin... even Asta had joined in on the fun. Of course, it was also possible that the spirited little machine, Little Herta, had taken the initiative to snatch them herself.
The bad news was that Chen Li had no idea what to do with all these garters.
Besides the garter situation, Chen Li was also being tagged like crazy in the group chat and harassed by friends who weren't in the chat. The reason was that the moment he returned to the "present," all of his Friends Circle connections had been severed.
The culprit was, of course, Chen Li himself, as he had "consumed" all of his "friends" while inside the big black handsome fellow. The only reason these people were able to get online so quickly after receiving the "You have been consumed" notification and frantically tag him was thanks to his own sense of caution—Chen Li now made it a habit to provide every friend with at least two Friends Circle terminals.
"Speaking of which... how are my Galaxy Ranger friends doing?" After returning to the present and dealing with the trivial matters, Chen Li turned his attention to this important issue.
The Galaxy Rangers had suffered heavy losses in their battle against the Lord Ravager, Zulo. Otherwise, in the original story, it wouldn't have taken Tielnan and Acheron a hundred years to clear the shadows from the Sea of Death. The wills of these Galaxy Rangers were often incredibly firm. Although as Bloodsin Wraiths they would endlessly repeat the actions of their past lives, with the help of the Pond of Rebirth, perhaps more of them, like Tielnan, would regain full self-awareness and meet the minimum requirement to watch the Revival Games ads.
"Let's see... Holy cow, how many Revival Cards did they manage to assemble?"
The moment Chen Li used his organizer privileges to open the Revival Card application interface, his consciousness was transported to a virtual desk. Then, countless Revival Cards rained down from the sky, burying him completely.
---o---
"Chen Li, are you alright?" Robin asked with concern.
"I'm... I'm fine." Chen Li shook his head to clear it.
"What is this?" Robin's eyes were immediately drawn to the virtual interface that had suddenly popped up in front of Chen Li.
"Oh, this is a data sheet I pulled up on the Revival Card fragment drop rates. It details the average drop rate for 500 individuals who watched the Revival Games ads over a hundred-year period. The data shows that almost everyone, when watching the ads, will encounter a specific fragment number that is fated to be unobtainable for them."
"That's true. The one I can never seem to get is #6, and my brother's is #8," Robin nodded.
"And the data also shows that the average drop rate for this fated, unobtainable fragment is 1/3000."
"How much?" Robin was stunned.
Although she had no idea where Chen Li had found 500 people and had them watch ads for 100 years for a Curio that was forged just a few days ago, wasn't a 1/3000 drop rate a bit absurd?
"1/3000," Chen Li repeated, thinking she hadn't heard clearly.
To be honest, Chen Li found the number quite romantic. Of three thousand weak waters, a single line of life...
Of course, for the person watching the ads, the number was anything but romantic.
"Assuming a person watches the ads continuously, with each viewing taking 30 seconds, watching 3000 times would take about 25 hours... It seems... it seems that's not unacceptable." Robin was just about to complain about the unreasonable mechanics, but after doing the math, she found it seemed quite reasonable after all.
Watch ads continuously for 25 hours to get a complete Revival Card. One Revival Card allows you to nominate a person for the Revival Games, with a chance to defeat their opponent and be successfully revived. It didn't seem like an unbearable price.
"The drop rate for the hardest-to-get fragment is 1/3000, which seems unreasonable, but if you factor in the other nine fragments, the drop rate for any given fragment becomes 1/300. That's not even twice as bad as the probability of getting a limited 5-star character only after hitting hard pity in a gacha game. It's still acceptable," Chen Li said.
"I'm not complaining about the mechanics being unreasonable. I was just wondering how long it would take me to watch 25 hours of ads. And having to listen to my own songs every time is a little embarrassing," Robin said, covering her eyes with the small wings behind her neck.
"You haven't been watching the ads recently? It's been switched to Herta's brainwashing ad now."
"I know. I just suggested to my brother yesterday that he stop buying ad slots for me."
"Oh, no wonder no one was competing with Herta for the ad slot that starts this afternoon," Chen Li realized.
"Speaking of which, has anyone assembled a full Revival Card yet?" Robin asked curiously.
"They have," Chen Li nodded.
"How many?"
"A little over a million."
"Ah? How many?"
"Now do you understand how I felt when I tried to approve the Revival Cards and received over a million applications?" Chen Li pressed a hand to his forehead.
A year has 8,760 hours. If 500 people worked for 100 years, watching ads continuously, that would be equivalent to watching 438,000,000 hours of ads. Assuming an average of 25 hours to get one complete Revival Card, 438,000,000 hours could produce 17,520,000 Revival Cards.
Vacations? What do Bloodsin Wraiths need vacations for?
An 8-hour workday? What do Bloodsin Wraiths need an 8-hour workday for?
Rest? What do Bloodsin Wraiths need rest for?
Thankfully, purifying the Bloodsin Wraiths was a gradual process, so it wasn't possible for all 500 of them to be watching ads on their terminals from the very beginning. Thus, Chen Li didn't actually have to approve over 17 million Revival Cards. As for why the final number was so different? Who knew?
And yet, just over a million Revival Cards was enough to give Chen Li a headache so bad he wanted to die.
He couldn't just blindly approve the applications just because they were submitted by the Galaxy Rangers. What if some imaginative Ranger really did want to revive an Aeon, and Chen Li accidentally approved it, and by some fluke, that Aeon actually won the Revival Games... then the Aeon of Equilibrium would truly explode.
"A million Revival Cards... how long is it going to take me to approve them all? And why, out of the 10,000 cards I just approved, were over 1,000 of them for me?" Chen Li didn't understand, but he was utterly shocked.
After approving 10,000 cards, he found that 80% were to revive their Galaxy Ranger companions who died in that battle, 5% were to revive their good brother Tielnan, 5% were to renew the card for the friendly stranger Acheron, and 10% were to renew the Revival Card for Chen Li, the Curio Forger who had helped them so much.
If this ratio continued, it meant Chen Li would have over 100,000 Revival Cards, which meant he had over 100,000 Revival Games matches to fight.
He had no idea what mindset these Galaxy Rangers had to be in to renew the card for him, the organizer, who could revive just by watching an ad without needing a card at all. But...
Chen Li really had to thank them for this! Couldn't you have used those cards to revive your teammates?!
Considering that winning the Revival Games was a matter of luck, and that quite a few Galaxy Rangers had died in that battle, a million Revival Cards might not even be enough.
"Your name?"
"That's right, my name."
"These Galaxy Rangers are just too enthusiastic. So enthusiastic that I kind of want to die just to join them," Chen Li sighed after briefly explaining the situation to Robin.
Unfortunately, once a Revival Card's nominee was designated, it could only be approved or voided; there was no option to return it. Could it be that these Galaxy Rangers were operating under the mindset of "Chen Li might not need it, but we have to give it"? Was that why they renewed so many cards for him? Or were they genuinely afraid that if he died, no one would be there to revive them, so they sincerely wished for him to keep living?
"There's really no need for that," Robin quickly soothed him, sensing that he might not be joking.
"Speaking of which, as long as you collect all the fragments, can you give the Revival Card to anyone to use, regardless of whether you have a connection or not?" Robin suddenly asked, a bit puzzled. If she could have others help nominate people for revival, then Robin was about to unleash her "money power"!
It wasn't that Robin lacked the perseverance to watch 25 hours of ads to revive her mother. She was just worried about her mother's strength; she might not be able to defeat the monsters and demons in the Revival Games, so she wanted to prepare more cards as a backup.
When you're poor, use tactical infiltration; when you're rich, use carpet bombing.
"No. It doesn't have to be a direct relative, but you can't be a complete stranger. Also, while you can be casual when watching the ads, you must be sincere when designating someone as the nominee, without any external coercion."
"How is this 'relationship' determined? And how is 'sincerity' judged?"
"Let's say you and I didn't know each other before, Robin, and you suddenly came up to me, threw credit points in my face, and asked me to sell you my collected Revival Card. You would run into several problems. First, I would need to know the name and appearance of the person you want to revive..."
"Wait, what if someone was very young and has forgotten their mother's face? Can they still revive her?"
"It's not that strict. You just need to provide enough accurate information for the Revival Card to identify the person you want to revive. Just like how an ID card, a driver's license, or a household register can all be used to prove one's identity."
"Oh, please continue," Robin nodded in understanding.
"After obtaining the information to nominate someone, the criteria for judging whether you're qualified to revive them is quite lenient. Relationships like a believer and their deity, an admirer and the one they admire, a son-in-law and his mother-in-law, and so on. Disturbing the peace of the dead is a serious matter. Your relationship can be distant, but it can't be non-existent."
In the world of Honkai: Star Rail, this relationship had another special extension, such as the one between a Pathstrider and their Aeon... It was because of the Aeon that the Path existed, and because of the Path, Pathstriders could draw power. In other words, Pathstriders and their Aeon were two peas in a pod. And while people who walked two Paths were rare, they weren't unheard of, which was why Chen Li needed to strictly approve the Galaxy Rangers' revival applications.
"I see..."
"And the final hurdle is sincerity. If, and I'm just saying if... I were your number one fan, and I found out about the Revival Card, and in order to pursue you, I watched 25 hours of ads to synthesize a card—that card probably couldn't be used. Because my motive wouldn't be to revive your mother for her sake, but to use her to get closer to you. This is probably to protect the interests of the person watching the ads... Hmm? Robin, why are you blushing?" Chen Li tilted his head.
"It's-it's nothing."
"Oh. Right, if you really don't have the time, Robin, I can help you collect some fragments. But I don't have much time to watch ads myself..."
"Huh, you can nominate my mother for me?" Robin was taken aback.
"In terms of relationship, we have a life-or-death friendship. In terms of sincerity, my desire to revive your mother is completely selfless, so there's no problem."
Chen Li and Robin's relationship was one of a giver and a receiver of the Revival Card link! A life-or-death friendship, in short. That was the reason the Galaxy Rangers could vote for Chen Li.
And sincerity was even simpler. As long as it wasn't tainted by selfish desires like money, personal gain, or moral pressure, and one genuinely wanted to revive someone, passing this test was relatively easy. The fact that Chen Li could give out the Revival Card link for free was proof that he sincerely wanted to help his friends revive their parents, relatives, or close companions.
"N-n-no, that's alright. I can watch them myself, I won't trouble you. Even if I don't have time, there's still my brother. But thank you very much for the thought of wanting to help revive my mother. No, rather, the fact that you sent me the Revival Card link for free is proof of your sincerity. Thank you so much for your help," Robin said with genuine feeling.
"You don't have to be so polite."
[I'm not a professional romance guide system, but I think...]
Get lost!
[Roger that!]
---o---