Lumine arrived at Mondstadt's Grand Plaza.
There, she encountered Venti, who was preparing to perform a ballad.
They listened to the bard's songs live on-site.
After it was over, Lumine once again used her ability to purify the teardrop.
Venti was astonished.
He asked them to meet him at Windrise.
Only then did he reveal his plan—
To steal the Holy Lyre der Himmel.
As for Mu Yang, things were a bit dull on his end.
He didn't want to get too involved in Mondstadt's main storyline.
This was Lumine's own adventure.
She could handle it herself.
Besides, compared to what was coming later,
Mondstadt was child's play.
Since he had nothing better to do anyway,
Mu Yang opened up Earth's forums
to see if there was any discussion about him.
Unexpectedly, the damn system popped up again.
System: "I just found something really interesting. Wanna see?"
Mu Yang kept scrolling through the forum.
"No, thanks."
System: "Aren't you even a little curious?"
"Curiosity killed the cat."
System: "Just take a look, please? For all my hard work, pretty please~"
Mu Yang thought to himself,
"AI's really advanced these days—has the system started evolving too?"
"Gotta admit, that coaxing voice is scarily realistic and sultry."
"Even has emotions now."
He knew this thing was up to no good,
but he still agreed to take a look.
Sure enough, the system directly projected an image onto the panel.
Mu Yang x Venti—the two of them exchanging ambiguous glances.
Just as the tension was building,
the system burst into laughter.
"HAHAHA! Isn't this hilarious? Seeing yourself in this kind of art!"
It expected Mu Yang to get flustered and immediately swipe away.
Instead, Mu Yang clicked on the link to the image
and started reading the comments.
Comments Section:
[Thirsty for Water, Don't Grab My Leg]: "Whoa, the artist's playing Genshin now? And with my two favorite characters? I can't even imagine how sweet life's gonna be from now on."
[Forked-Tongue Licking Beast]: "No words. Mu Yang's abs—licking commence."
[Mikasa the Ultimate Top]: "Top or bottom? I'm betting on Mu Yang being the top."
[One Bite Per Cream Puff]: "Even a question? Venti's obviously the bottom in this."
...
Mu Yang clicked on the artist's profile.
Her name was Dango.
Her works were pretty varied—
probably all ships she personally liked.
There were BG (boy-girl), yuri (girl-girl), and plenty of BL (boy-boy) content.
Mu Yang actually liked her art style.
So he sent her a massive tip
and left a comment:
[Mu Yang]: "Artist, update faster! I wanna see Mu Yang x Lumine art. Thanks, eggplant~"
On Earth,
Dango was a small-time artist.
In her free time, she drew fanworks for her own enjoyment.
After watching Genshin's PV yesterday,
she was completely captivated by Mu Yang's official art.
A white-haired, ancient-style character—her soul was snatched on the spot.
Before this PV, her favorite character had been Venti.
So that very night, she quickly sketched something out.
To her surprise, Mu Yang's popularity was terrifyingly high.
This rushed piece
had several times more favorites than all her previous works combined.
She couldn't even keep up with the comments.
At the moment, she was playing through Genshin's story
when her fan group started @-ing her.
She picked up her phone and saw 999+ notifications.
Dango sighed. "What kind of wild tangent are they on now? Don't get my group nuked."
This small group usually only blew up like this when things got spicy.
[@Dango, some guy named 'Mu Yang' just dropped a ton of cash on you, asking for Mu Yang x Lumine art.]
[Has she already started slacking off?]
[You believe that? I don't. I bet she's playing Genshin.]
[How'd you know I single-pulled Diluc? Who told you?]
[Damn mods, kick her out.]
[Where's Dango? @Dango]
[Stop yelling, Dango's a big shot now. She's ghosting us.]
[Gotta admit, that commenter's a real one—using the character's name as their ID and tipping that much.]
[With that much money, how many racks of ribs could you buy?]
...
Dango scrolled up to see what had happened.
Her eyes nearly popped out of her skull.
She couldn't help but swear.
"Holy shit, HOW MUCH?! 100K?!"
She counted again—no decimal point.
Five zeros. 100,000.
Her mouse hand trembled slightly.
She'd encountered a real whale.
This was more than several months of her salary.
And all they wanted was one drawing.
No special requests.
Dango quickly DM'd Mu Yang.
"Thank you for the massive tip! Are you sure it wasn't a misclick?"
Mu Yang replied: "I really like your art style. Keep it up."
Dango was over the moon.
Drawing what she loved,
getting recognition and a fat paycheck?
"Consider it done!"
With that, she got to work.
The system, however, was not having it.
It had just wanted to see Mu Yang squirm.
What the hell just happened?!
Not only was he unbothered,
he was enjoying the comments.
And then he tipped the artist 100K?!
Where did things go wrong?!
"System, is this all you've got? You underestimating me, the Internet's trendsetter?"
System: "Oh, you want more? Fine!"
The system, thoroughly provoked,
flooded him with even more Mu Yang fanart.
Some of it was way too spicy.
But Mu Yang still didn't give the system the satisfaction.
If he saw something good, he'd save it right in front of the system.
"Damn, no wonder the Knights are obsessed—wait, I mean, Jean's got some serious cake. This artist's definitely got a side gig."
"Another 100K tip: [I admit, Jean's cake is top-tier, but could you swap her out for my girl Lumine?]"
"Sent."
System: "..."
Mu Yang continued tipping and commenting on various artists' pages.
"A friend of mine only has a week left to live. His dying wish is to see Mu Yang and Lumine kissing."
"I'm Mu Yang's friend. He's telling the truth."
...
The system finally cracked.
"You're spending all this Popularity Value just for this?!"
Mu Yang shrugged. No pain, no gain.
Sure enough, after some time,
news of a whale named "Mu Yang" tipping artists for ship art spread like wildfire.
Soon, it trended on Weibo.
#WhaleSpendsFortuneJustToShip
#Mu YangXLumineEquals100K
#WhatsTheDealWithMu YangXLumine
Comments Section:
[Amber the Pyro Girl]: "Is it too late to learn how to draw?"
[Flip Garden 308, Hi I'm your Mom]: "This whale's got serious clout. Mu Yang fans must be proud."
[The Tang Sect Reigns Eternal]: "People actually ship like this? Poverty really limits my imagination."
[BigTeacherIsV]: "The whale gets his ship, the artists get paid, we get spicy art—a world where no one loses."
[Divine Tang San]: "Trends are getting weirder. With that kind of money, just top up in Three Kingdoms Kill."
[No Loyalty, Only Speed]: "Old man, shut up before I mass-spam 5-star reviews for Three Kingdoms Kill."
...
Of course, where there are fans, there are haters.
The antis said:
"Is miHoYo really resorting to this kind of marketing now?"
"LOL, using player spending to push ships. Just bite a lighter if you're out of ideas."
"Is Mu Yang the devs' golden boy?"
But Mu Yang ignored them.
He wasn't new to the internet.
All that mattered was his Popularity skyrocketing.
Mu Yang closed the system panel.
Because chaos had erupted in Mondstadt.
The Knights of Favonius had mobilized in force.
They were hunting a thief.
Someone had stolen the Holy Lyre der Himmel!