Hasumi had not been having a good ti lately.
She was deeply experiencing the painful reality of launch-limited characters being pampered while their banner was live, then tossed aside the mont it ended.
At first, Hasumi had not felt much.
After all, at this stage, Oath only had two limited main DPS characters.
Players who pulled for Hasumi said that her strength was not as good as the Saintess's, but in reality, they could still barely manage to get the full 2,000 points and claim all the rewards in the second phase of Extre Abyss.
If Oath were to introduce more high-difficulty challenge dungeons in the future, such as Chaos Abyss, which required two teams, or even high-difficulty dungeons with locked rosters that only allowed limited characters, Hasumi would definitely have plenty of room to be used.
But right now, the hardest Abyss challenge in Oath only required one team.
Whether in terms of area damage or ease of play, Hasumi was far inferior to the Saintess.
On top of that, once the teasers for future gacha characters were released.
Oh boy.
Looking around, they were all teammates for the Saintess.
Even the last newly announced main DPS from the Empire looked like they had arrived specifically to send Hasumi into retirent.
Thus, the sentint that Hasumi was a discarded version character and a character with no future began to spread among the players.
And then, today, Hasumi faced the most heartbreaking betrayal of all.
A female player nad Macchiato, a whale-tier player belonging to the Do Alliance, practically funded the server by herself.
She was the kind of player who would not even blink when buying twenty $94.79 top-up packs.
The most exaggerated thing about this top-tier whale was that, originally, pay-to-win progression in Oath had a ceiling.
For a limited character like Hasumi, pulling her six tis and pulling her signature weapon five tis was already considered her strongest possible setup.
But what was truly extre was that Macchiato had pulled twenty-five copies of Hasumi's signature weapon, then gave those fully refined weapons to other characters who could fight with rapiers.
It was practically the sa as whaling for a 6 25 Hasumi in one go.
From that day on, Hasumi realized that she had to cling tightly to this whale.
Unfortunately, even this whale cared imnsely about ta strength.
When the future gacha characters were announced, essentially pronouncing a death sentence for Hasumi, Macchiato did not hesitate to abandon her.
And today, Hasumi's most heartbreaking mont finally arrived.
"I don't want to be rude, but take off all the Sacred Relics with perfect substats."
Macchiato was a player who wore glasses and looked extrely pragmatic.
"But Savior, there will surely be places where I'm needed on the battlefield in the future! Without my Sacred Relics, my combat power will drop significantly!"
Hasumi was still pleading bitterly with Macchiato not to strip her gear.
Sacred Relics in Oath were divided into five-piece sets.
Usually, only four pieces were needed to activate the set bonus, while the fifth piece was an off-piece used purely for its stats.
Because of this flexible off-piece slot, when Oath players no longer needed a certain character, they could strip high-quality Sacred Relics off them and use those pieces on other characters.
Macchiato clearly wanted to strip Hasumi's gear and distribute the five perfect-stat Sacred Relics on her to the Holy Nation characters as off-pieces.
"You're useless! With your 6 5, I only got twenty thousand points in Extre Abyss at most. After switching to the Holy Nation team, I can easily break forty thousand. If I strip your Sacred Relics now, I can probably raise that score even higher! Besides, your skill effects are nowhere near as flashy as the Saintess's, so don't argue!"
Macchiato lightly pushed up her glasses and spoke in a sowhat commanding tone.
"Unequip them! I told you to unequip them imdiately, didn't you hear ?"
"Savior, how can you say that? It isn't good to focus too much on flashy effects in battle. And as long as I find the right partners..."
While Hasumi was saying laughable things like, "gas aren't all about flashy effects," and, "just wait until I get a proper support," Macchiato finally lost her patience.
She opened the interface and forcibly stripped the pile of perfect-stat Sacred Relics off Hasumi.
"My Sacred Relics... my Sacred Relics... Savior! What will it take for you to believe that I won't let you down in the future? What will it take for you to leave my Sacred Relics with ?"
At this mont, realizing that she would be completely abandoned to the bench, Hasumi truly panicked.
She grabbed Macchiato's hand and begged her not to leave.
"I'd like to keep supporting you too, but... you have no future. So... let go!"
Macchiato was a pure ta slave.
She brushed off Hasumi's hand and left without looking back, no matter how hard Hasumi tried to make her stay.
Hasumi was originally thinking about whether to chase after her, but then she suddenly saw Carl's main body nearby, watching everything unfold.
Then, this prideful Knight Princess quickly scrambled up from the ground, brushed her hand through her dazzling blonde hair, and acted as if nothing had happened as she spoke to Carl.
"Ah, Sir Carl. It's rare for you to visit this Savior's tiline today. Are you here to discuss so business with her?"
Hasumi instantly regained her confident look, with a faint and composed smile on her face.
Provided one ignored the bit of dirt sared on her cheek.
"I'm here for you. But speaking of which, how many tis has this happened since the 1.2 teasers were released? No, I should ask, how many tis has this happened today?"
Carl felt that Hasumi being stripped of her gear was probably not a one-ti occurrence.
Most ta slave players were likely already stripping the high-stat Sacred Relics off Hasumi and equipping them onto their Holy Nation team characters.
"Just two cases? Uh... three? I've actually lost count."
Hasumi chose to play dumb to escape her current cruel reality.
"I'll be blunt. If we're only talking about ta strength, you won't receive any more favor from the Saviors. In a month, two months, a year, your situation will only get worse day by day, until you beco a forgotten joke of a character."
Carl directly spoke of Hasumi's tragic future.
"Maybe in two years you'll get buffed, but by then, the Saviors will have already forgotten you in the furthest corner of their accounts."
Hasumi was still lying to herself at first, answering with her usual bright smile.
"How... could..."
But soon, perhaps after another ta slave Savior stripped her Sacred Relics, Hasumi rushed in front of Carl, grabbed his shoulders, and asked,
"Will it really beco like that? The Saviors abandoning one by one?"
"Yes. It's only a matter of ti," Carl said with certainty.
"So... Lord Carl, I... can I ask you for help?"
After steadying her mind a little, Hasumi directly sought aid from Carl.
In fact, most gacha characters were well aware that after two version updates full of chaos, Carl had beco a taboo existence beyond the usual player popularity discussions.
And the Oath developnt team had strictly forbidden gacha characters from contacting Carl.
Who knew what the punishnt would be if they violated that rule?
But to Hasumi, losing popularity among players was no different from death.
Since she was dood anyway, Hasumi naturally turned to Carl for help.
"Of course. After all, I've liked your character design since launch."
Seeing Hasumi's straightforwardness, Carl also confessed his inner thoughts.
"Eh? L-like? Lord Carl, your sudden confession... I don't know how to respond."
Hasumi was a little shy for a mont.
But soon, her narcissistic personality took over, and she asked curiously,
"I wonder what Lord Carl likes about ?"
"Of course, I like..."
Carl's tone suddenly beca half-joking.
"Your twisted and broken side. A confident Knight Princess like you, completely collapsing after suffering setbacks, abandonnt, and betrayal, then falling from grace. It is truly delicious."
"This...! No matter what setbacks I face, I won't be discouraged! I'm sure the Saviors wouldn't want to see broken either."
Hasumi still carried that baseless confidence.
Really?
Carl was certain that when Hasumi's Sacred Relics were being stripped just now, the dangerous thought of assassinating the Saintess must have crossed her mind.
"That's hard to say."
Carl handed Hasumi a contract protected by Elysium's system rules.
"Take a look at the terms. If you can accept them, sign it."
"Hmm... Accompany the Saviors in playing Descent into Netherworld Village, a ga with horror elents? No problem!"
After signing the contract without hesitation, Hasumi looked at Carl with sparkling eyes.
"Lord Carl, you must want to step in and save the Saviors when they're being chased by terrifying monsters, using that to increase my popularity among them, right?"
"Don't worry! I will definitely let the Saviors see my heroic and reassuring side!"
Hasumi patted her chest confidently, as if she were already imagining scenes of players praising her.
"Hasumi is so reliable!"
"I want to keep playing gas with Hasumi forever!"
And so on.
Actually, they would rather see you scared until you break down.
Carl did not tell Hasumi this cruel truth.
Instead, he ntioned sothing else.
"The developnt of Descent into Netherworld Village still has one last step remaining: purchasing loot for players to collect. Don't we have permission to go to the City of Glory now? Co with and see if we can get a large shipnt of goods to use as loot."
At this stage, the City of Glory was not open to players yet, but NPCs like Carl could go scout ahead.
"Of course. I want to help with the purchasing too. Lord Carl, if you run short on money, you can just tell ."
As a launch-limited character, Hasumi had earned quite a lot of paid Contract Stones through her revenue share.
Carl did not say more.
He glanced at Oath's schedule.
Three days later was the preview livestream for Oath Version 1.2.
At that ti, all the Holy Nation characters would gather in the City of Glory for a livestream.
Carl and Hasumi, of course, were not on the invite list.
However, Carl could absolutely invite familiar players and hold a launch event for Descent into Netherworld Village.
Compared to all the empty promises of a preview livestream, it would be far more direct to broadcast an actual session of Netherworld Village gaplay, scavenging, fighting, and extracting, then show it to the players.
"Is it ti for a showdown? Let's see which of the two preview events will be more popular."
(To be continued.)
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