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“Uh … Yocchan? Can I ask you something?” Riko asked her girlfriend, wary of any possible negative response.
“Yes, little demon Riri? What queries would you like to pose to the great fallen angel Yohane?”
“I started playing Genshin Impact a few days ago because I saw you play it. Now that I’ve reached adventure rank 16, I’ve unlocked co-op mode. I’ve been having trouble with a few bosses, though I’ve explored the whole map. Could you help me defeat a few of these bosses?”
Yoshiko’s face beamed; she was excited that her girlfriend had started playing a game she played. “Of course, little demon Riri; it is only correct that I repay your loyal service with some favors of my own!”
They both went over to Yoshiko’s house to load up their devices to start playing Genshin Impact. “Riri, what’s your UID?” Yoshiko asked.
“UID? What’s that?”
“That’s your User ID. I need it to enter your world.”
“How do I find it, Yocchan?” Riko asked, looking over at her girlfriend’s screen.
“It’s in the bottom right corner of your screen, Riri,” Yoshiko said, chuckling at the fact that Riko had remained oblivious to the numbers for so long.
“Thanks,” Riko said, watching her girlfriend input the numbers after pressing F2 on her computer keyboard to go to the co-op interface.
“Is this you?” Yoshiko asked after she finished typing in Riko’s UID.
“Yes.”
“Great!” Yoshiko hit the “Request to Join” button and watched Riko’s screen. When a small pop-up appeared on her girlfriend’s screen, she directed Riko to hit the accept button.
When she landed in Riko’s world, she was instantly hit by a feeling of nostalgia. She had first spawned in the lower teleport waypoint of Mondstadt city itself, which was not an unfamiliar place; however, she was struck at how far she had come in playing the game. She first saw the two Fatui diplomats, Mikhail and Lyudmila, clad in full black and wearing masks, conversing about the topics that were related to Snezhnaya. She looked beyond the two diplomats sent by the Tsaritsa and looked at the old houses, with their white and gray bricks, red roofs, and walls of plants arranged in an orderly fashion, that had first captivated her interest so much. She rotated her view slightly to the right, looking at the windmill and its giant arms, spinning, and spinning; she remembered all the mushrooms that she had grabbed off of the edge of the windmill. In the distance, she saw the cathedral, the place where she had stolen the Holy Lyre so many months before. Jumping down, she looked down the street she had crossed so many times in the past, whether to retrieve rewards from Katheryne, craft at the alchemy table or go to Wagner to have something made. She looked at the fountain, where Anna prayed by day, and Anthony stole by night. Rotating her screen left this time, she spent a few seconds looking at Timaeus and the alchemy table, where she’d turned stones into more precious stones and weapon or talent ascension materials into more precious ones of the same series.
Walking past the fountain, she remembered every time she walked this main road in the past. She saw Good Hunter, the restaurant where she purchased jam and crab roe every week; it was also the place where she had dined with Amber and the other residents of Mondstadt from time to time during a quest. She watched as Eury, wife of the drunkard, Nimrod, walked away down the street. After walking down two flights of stairs, she turned to the right, coming face to face with Katheryne, the leader of the Adventurers Guild, from whom she had received many gifts of 20 primogems every day. Turning a semicircle around, she saw Donna, the girl who should’ve been arrested by the authorities for stalking, and Flora, the owner of the flower shop. When she walked down the final flight of stairs of Mondstadt’s main street, she turned around, looking at the town from below; she remembered when Amber had first brought her to this town. The city still looked the same to her, with the short flags on clothing lines extending from the roof of one house to another and Stanely looking depressed under a tree.
Her memories were broken when Riko asked her a question. “Yocchan? I wanted to ask you to help me beat the big blue flower; I think it was called the Cryo Regisvine?”
“Of course, little demon Riri! Lead the way!” Riko seemed to temporarily forget about teleport waypoints, walking all the way from Mondstadt to the Cryo Regisvines location. As they walked out of the gate, exiting Mondstadt, Yoshiko spun her screen in reverse for one quick goodbye to Mondstadt, as well as Lawrence and Swan, the two knights who stood guard at the main gate, not knowing when she’d return. Stepping on the bridge, she noticed the banners of Mondstadt flying proudly from its sides. More importantly, she saw the pigeons on the bridge fly off, scaring little Timmie, the poor child who stood watch on the bridge, hoping for a letter, carried by a pigeon, from his dead father. Continuing on the dirt path, she saw the temple of the Falcon, the place where she had practiced aimed shots with archers. She took a look at Mondstadt; it was the last place on the path where she would be able to do so. After they entered Windrise, Yoshiko looked at the faint outline of the Statue of the Seven, sitting under the large tree, a large beam of blue light rising from it; she didn’t remember the last time she came or even looked at this spot. They kept walking on the path from Mondstadt to the Cryo Regisvine, a painful reminder to Yoshiko about how much she used to enjoy the game; she used to play the game for hours on end, exploring the vast plains of Mondstadt and climbing the jagged peaks of Liyue that stretched to the skies and had no end; now, all she did was log in every day to do four tasks, and that wasn’t even on a consistent basis; she hoped something could restore her lost passion.
They came across two hilichurls, who were instantly killed by the two gamers; killing the monsters was practically manual labor for Yoshiko, who had slaughtered thousands of them by this point. Taking a slight right, they removed many obstacles that had obscured their view of the southern parts of Mondstadt; Yoshiko took her time, looking at the cliff at Cape Oath from a distance. She didn’t even know when the last time she went there was. Was it to go to the Spiral Abyss or kill the Electro Hypostasis? She thought. They watched Chloris, Flora’s sister, and the dealer in rare plants, such as the mushrooms Yoshiko had stolen from one of Mondstadt’s windmills, prance around from location to location in the grasslands of Mondstadt. Continuing their stroll, they entered the Thousand Winds Temple, signaling their proximity to the enemy Riko so desperately wished to eliminate. Yoshiko felt pity as they mercilessly slaughtered the five hilichurls stationed near that location, knowing that they were only fleeing a chaotic land. The outline of the temple of the Wolf came into view; they were close to the enemy’s location.
It was only when they approached the chasm above the Regisvine that Yoshiko noticed the first reason that Riko would probably have issues with the dispatching of the large blue plant. “Riri?”
“Yes, Yocchan? What is it?”
“You might not want to use Ganyu to kill this boss.”
“Why not, Yocchan?”
Yoshiko mentally facepalmed at Riko’s lack of knowledge regarding basic gameplay. “The Cryo Regisvine has 60% more resistance to Cryo than elements, meaning Ganyu will be extremely ineffective. I know you’re a useless lesbian for her, but you have drop her for now,” Yoshiko explained, taking a stab at teasing Riko, whose face turned red.
“Don’t worry, I know you’ll kill the boss for me, Yocchan.”
Yoshiko groaned. “Are you ready, Riri?”
“Yes, Yocchan, I’m ready.”
Yoshiko jumped into the chasm and glided to a position where she would be able to strike at the corolla of the Regisvine easily; Riko followed suit. Before Yoshiko could plunge and deliver the first blow to the boss, it rose up in a fury. Yoshiko plunged, though she did it too early; the boss did not take any damage. While Riko landed, Yoshiko began blasting the corolla of the Regisvine with fire, causing its health to diminish quickly. Riko began using her characters to throw some damage at the Regisvine, though it was negligible compared to Yoshiko’s. The Regisvine rose its head up; Yoshiko had seen this move too many times before and sprinted left twice; however, Riko wasn’t fast enough to dodge. It crushed its head on the ground, dealing massive damage to Riko’s character. However, Yoshiko finished off the corolla, sending the Regisvine crashing to the ground. It lay dormant for a few seconds as Yoshiko created reaction after reaction, sending the boss flying up before disappearing into dust. “That was amazing, Yocchan!” Riko said, launching herself onto Yoshiko.
“Of course! The wonderful fallen angel Yohane is capable of inhuman deeds out of this world!” Yoshiko struck a pose to magnify her power. They spent the rest of the day laughing together, slaughtering innocent bosses in Genshin Impact .