The Supreme Archbishop of Fontaine

「It's starting!」

「It's about to begin!」

「I heard the game planner for Genshin Impact will be appearing this time. We should really thank (gnashing teeth) her!」

「Yes, yes, thank (gnashing teeth) her for giving us such a great game.」

「Right, right, thank (gnashing teeth) her for putting Astrea through so much pain.」

「Exactly, thank (gnashing teeth) her for being merciful and not outright killing Astrea.」

Amidst the sea of "thankful" comments, the livestream finally began.

The screen opened with three beautiful girls sitting on a sofa.

"Hello everyone, I'm Qingque, the CEO of miHoYo."

"Hello everyone, I'm Fu Xuan, the General Manager of miHoYo."

"Hello everyone, I'm Kiana, the game planner for Genshin Impact."

「Holy—」

「Holy—」

「Holy—」

「What kind of heavenly company is this?! Dad, I want to work here!!」

「Dad: Me too.」

All the previous gnashing of teeth completely disappeared. Seeing these three girls who seemed to have stepped straight out of an anime, everyone collectively lost their minds.

「By the way, that Kiana… don't you think she looks a bit like the Sustainer of Heavenly Principles?」

「Isn't she basically modeled after herself?」

「Wow, the game planner is stepping in as the final boss?」

「Good, good, good. From now on, I'm waiting for the Sustainer to have a health bar.」

"Regarding version 1.2, I heard Kiana has developed a mini-game within Genshin Impact for everyone to play, right?"

Under Fu Xuan's intense gaze, Qingque reluctantly took on the role of host and began questioning Kiana.

Kiana elegantly crossed her legs and smiled. "Our game development team listens carefully to the players' feedback. In previous surveys, many players complained about the lack of content during downtime. So, after careful consideration, we decided to add a mini-game to Genshin Impact."

"I believe everyone knows that in the main storyline of version 1.1, it was mentioned that the Supreme Bishop of Fontaine is selling computers and spreading the internet—in fact, our Supreme Bishop has included a very fun game in this business to promote the internet."

"In version 1.2, players will be able to see newly opened internet cafes in any nation across Teyvat. In these cafes, players can play the mini-game."

"Oh." Fu Xuan nodded. "So, you're saying we can play another game within Genshin Impact, right?"

"Sort of, but not entirely. The mini-game is closely related to Genshin Impact. For example, the characters are shared. Whatever characters you have in Genshin Impact, you'll have them in this mini-game as well."

"Wait, wait, wait." Qingque quickly interjected, her eyes wide. "Are you saying I'll be playing Genshin Impact within Genshin Impact? Do I have to run through the map again, open chests again, and collect Anemoculi again? If the Primogems in this mini-game can be used in Genshin Impact, then maybe it's worth it."

"How is that possible?"

"So what exactly do you mean? You'd better explain clearly, or I'll definitely stop you."

"It's hard to explain in words, but once you play it, you'll understand."

Kiana took out her phone and said:

"Come on, you two, take out your phones and log into Genshin Impact."

The screen behind Kiana showed the login screen for Genshin Impact.

It was Kiana's phone screen being projected.

Fu Xuan and Qingque also took out their phones and logged into their accounts.

Soon, Astrea appeared on the big screen.

Kiana controlled Astrea and teleported to Liyue, quickly running to the internet cafe location.

It was a quaint-looking shop, but upon entering, rows of modern computers appeared.

Kiana sat down on a chair and clicked to start the computer.

Instantly, the screen changed.

The in-game computer screen expanded, taking up the entire display.

On the screen, there were two icons.

[Animation]

[Game]

Kiana tapped the game icon.

The interface opened, revealing only one game.

『Genshin Clash』

She clicked on Genshin Clash again.

「Matchmaking」

「Ranked」

She clicked on Ranked.

Bronze V

「Ranked Match」

She clicked on Ranked Match.

On the left was 「Start Matchmaking」, while on the right was a list of friends added in Genshin Impact.

Kiana invited "Divine Calculator" (Fu Xuan) and "Sparrow God" (Qingque) from her friends list, then started matchmaking.

Very quickly, the last two teammates and five opponents were matched, and the game officially began.

On the right side of the screen were the five teammates.

Aside from Qingque and Fu Xuan, the other two matched players were Raiden Shogun (Mei) and Pink Fairy (Elysia).

"Oh, great! With Mei on the team, it's like having the strength of a hundred people."

Seeing the match-up, Kiana exclaimed excitedly.

Her voice came through Qingque and Fu Xuan's phones.

Then, from Kiana, Qingque, and Fu Xuan's phones, a gentle voice said, "The strength of a hundred people? That's too exaggerated. I'm not some superhuman."

"No, as long as Mei is on my team, I feel like I've gained a hundred times the strength!"

"Can you two stop flirting here? This is a livestream."

"Yeah, Elysia's heart hurts. Kiana only has eyes for Mei, completely ignoring me."

Qingque and Elysia's teasing voices came one after another.

「Wow, is this mini-game a multiplayer mode where you play with other players in the open world?」

「How do you even play this game? Did you see the left side? It's all Genshin characters.」

「You two are still focused on the game, while everyone else is already shipping them.」

「Is miHoYo this yuri internally?」

「I don't know about the others, but Kiana definitely has something going on with that Mei.」

Amidst the lively atmosphere in the livestream chat, Kiana and Mei shared some sweet moments before starting to select characters.

Kiana specifically showed the viewers the heroes on the right side.

"These are all the heroes you can choose to play in the game. In Genshin Impact, whatever characters you have, you'll have the corresponding heroes in this mini-game. For example, I didn't pull for Tartaglia, so I don't have him in my hero pool."

"This is a 5v5 competitive tower-pushing game where players team up. As long as you destroy the enemy's crystal, your team wins."

"Now, it's the hero selection phase."

The mini-game released in the first half of version 1.2 exploded in popularity.

It became so popular that many players downloaded the game just to play Genshin Clash in the internet cafes—without even progressing through the main story of Genshin Impact. Although, to pull for heroes and better understand them, these players eventually started progressing through the story, exploring the map, opening chests, and further falling in love with Genshin Impact.

Genshin Impact's daily active users skyrocketed, surpassing 100 million in a short time.

In this event storyline, to fully promote the mini-game and get all players hooked, winning a match rewarded 80 Primogems, with a maximum of four rewards per day for 20 days.

In other words, players could earn a total of 40 pulls.

Although this was quite generous, it was all worth it.

Genshin Impact's revenue surged once again. Zhongli's banner was already expected to perform well, and with this trend, Genshin Impact's global revenue hit a new high.

"Out there, I'm Zhongli, the shield support. But in this hero canyon, I'm the God of War, Morax."

Hóu, after solo-killing his opponent in the top lane, slicked back his hair with both hands, a smug smile on his face.

He was extremely satisfied with Zhongli.

In Genshin Impact, Zhongli was undoubtedly the strongest shield support, with his shield's durability, duration, and cooldown providing an overwhelming sense of security.

But in Genshin Clash, Zhongli shed his support role and became a top-tier damage dealer.

In the top lane, as a fighter, he was practically invincible in one-on-one battles.

The enemy Kaeya had been completely dominated by Hóu's Zhongli.

「Just you wait, I'm going to pull for Zhongli. Don't you dare run away!」

Hóu chuckled and quickly typed a response.

「I'll be waiting.」

Then, seeing the opponent go offline, Hóu hurriedly started pushing towers in a 5v4 situation.

This match was already won, and whether he'd encounter the same player again was up to fate.

—But things didn't go as well as Hóu had hoped.

A Barbara suddenly jumped out of the bushes.

A wave of water, shaped like musical notes, circled around Zhongli, followed by a large water ball launched from Barbara's hands, smashing into Zhongli.

"This round, you've won."

Zhongli spoke his exit line and was instantly defeated.

Hóu's eyes widened. "What the—?! My big, strong Zhongli got one-shot by Barbara?! What's going on? Did her passive stack to max? What are you idiots doing?!"

「Healing can't save Mondstadt: Gain 10% true damage per kill (assists don't count), up to a maximum of 10 stacks.」

In the end, Hóu watched helplessly as Barbara, with her passive fully stacked, one-shot everyone and effortlessly destroyed their crystal.

He cursed the entire time.

"Damn it, how did you let Barbara stack her passive? Do you even know how to play?"

"You're the one who doesn't know how to play. I called for help so many times, but you just camped top lane, didn't you?"

"What's wrong with camping top lane? How many times did I kill the enemy? I even made them rage quit!"

"And the cost was me getting destroyed in my lane, leading to you getting one-shot by Barbara, right? What, isn't your Zhongli strong? Can't even beat Barbara? If you can't even beat a nun from the Anemo Archon's church, why are you pretending to be the Geo Archon?"

Hóu was so frustrated he almost spat blood.

"Screw this, I'm done playing."

Since the release of this mini-game, streamers like Hóu finally had something to do.

Compared to Genshin Impact's gameplay, Genshin Clash undoubtedly had an advantage in daily active users.

Genshin Impact's biggest flaw was its severe downtime, but now that downtime was completely gone. Streamers like Hóu had endless fun just streaming Genshin Clash every day.

Especially since the different skill mechanics of the Genshin characters in the canyon led to many hilarious moments. These days, all sorts of funny short videos were flooding platforms worldwide.

For example, the scene just now was particularly amusing.

"Healing can't save Mondstadt"—Hóu couldn't understand why miHoYo would give Barbara such a skill in Genshin Clash.

While he couldn't figure it out, other game developers were lighting up with ideas.

"Did you understand? If you did, then learn from it."

"You said making a game like Genshin Impact would take at least two to three years, but this isn't so hard, right? I want to see results within a year."

"But… this is just a mini-game, right?"

"Mini-game my foot. Just because miHoYo made it a mini-game, you think it's just a mini-game? I think miHoYo is stupid. They should've made this a standalone project. Sell characters in Genshin Impact, then sell heroes in Genshin Clash—wouldn't that double the profits?"

"Incredible, truly incredible. That Kiana from miHoYo is amazing. She casually made a mini-game like this. It's unbelievable."

"Who wouldn't say so? And turning Genshin Impact into a free-to-play game was a groundbreaking move. Not selling the game but selling characters, not forcing players to spend money but enticing them to… How is she so confident? No one has ever dared to do this before."

"This is probably the difference between geniuses like her and ordinary people like us."

"Whatever, since Genshin Impact has proven free-to-play games are viable, let's just copy their homework. We can't make an open-world game like Genshin Impact yet, but we don't have to match their standards. We can lower the bar, not make it open-world, and stick to traditional gameplay. But this time, we'll focus on the story and character development…"

From the moment Genshin Impact dominated one-fifth of the global game market share in its first month, game developers worldwide had been studying it closely. Now, they had finally made up their minds.

Paid games were dead. From now on, only free-to-play games would survive.

In that case, let's go for it.

—This massive revolution in the gaming industry, though a bit late, had finally arrived.

It wouldn't be long before Genshin Impact faced countless serious challenges.