It was a clear day.
The sunlight shining down from under the tree that seemed at least tens of meters tall was warm.
The cool breeze blowing from behind that huge tree fluttered the hair shining in a light golden color.
Commonly known to like elements, crystalflies were flying around.
Near the statue of the Anemo Archon Barbatos, windwheel asters were blooming.
It created a landscape that was perfect for a morning walk.
Also, fitting the name “the place where the wind begins,” a wind that was neither too strong nor too weak blew pleasantly.
If the person here right now was someone else instead of me, they would surely have an expression full of admiration.
“Haa.., f*ck..”
I looked at my reflection in the pond located behind that huge tree.
A beauty with light golden hair and striking crimson eyes.
In the pond reflecting the appearance of a woman whose looks would make anyone gasp in admiration, I unconsciously let out a curse.
How on earth did this happen?
I was just peacefully clearing daily quests in my room.
“Traveler..? What’s wrong? Did you eat something bad?”
“Shut up before I throw you in a pot.”
I was already on the verge of losing my mind, and when she spoke to me unnecessarily, I got irritated.
I sharply snapped at the creature floating next to me, looking like a silver-haired girl.
Yeah, Paimon.
I didn’t have any particular ill feelings toward her.
But her existence seemed to emphasize once again the situation I was in, so that’s probably why.
Paimon was a character who appeared as a mascot in the game I often played.
Her very existence was no different from saying that this place wasn’t the reality I knew.
After worrying about me clutching my head by the pond for a while, I waved my hand at Paimon to go away and sat down on the grass.
It wasn’t like a dream.
If it was a dream, I would have woken up after pinching my white cheeks several times.
I wish someone would tell me right now.
That this is a dream, and when I open my eyes, I’ll wake up in the same bed as always.
But unfortunately, there’s no such voice, and only Paimon is by my side.
So, it’s an unavoidable situation where my insides are burning up.
I recalled what had happened just before, wondering how I ended up here.

[Daily Quest Triggered]
[Interact with Hilichurls]
“Damn it, f*ck.”
I read the text on the game screen with my eyes and let out a curse from my mouth.
It was understandable.
Living a busy real life, and in the game I turned on after a long time, the quest that came up was to talk with those furry, ugly mobs.
Anyone would feel bad about that.
The screen I was looking at was a game called “Genshin Impact.”
It was a game with a lot of controversies, called an otaku game or a knockoff game.
The character designs were surprisingly pretty.
It was a gacha-style game.
Above all, the quality was unimaginable for a mobile game.
For me, who was a typical otaku, it came across as incredibly attractive.
By the time I came to my senses, I had already pressed the install button.
Anyway, in my busy real life, to take a breather for a moment, I logged into Genshin Impact as usual.
It was the moment I tried to clear the daily quests first.
[Traveler! Over here!]
[You can’t scare those Hilichurls. How can you just barge into their territory like that..]
The text appearing on the game screen was read by my eyes.
I was skipping through the words of the NPC named Ella Musk, the owner of the quest “Interact with Hilichurls,” without reading them properly.
After all, it was a scene I had seen dozens of times.
To explain roughly, it’s a quest where a girl named Ella Musk, who seems a bit mentally off, wants to try out the Hilichurl language she studied, and you fulfill that desire for her.
[There’s a Hilichurl that’s awake right on time. That one will do!]
Ella Musk shouted happily while looking at the Hilichurl camp.
And of course, I had not the slightest intention of granting her request.
After all, games are for fun.
I didn’t want to waste my precious time talking with Hilichurls or whatever.
[Disappear-!]
Without any hesitation, I unleashed Lumine’s elemental burst on the Hilichurl camp she pointed to.
Along with the attractive voice actor’s voice, a teal wind swirled greatly and exploded into the Hilichurl camp.
That was the moment.
[Boom-!]
The explosive barrel in the Hilichurl camp exploded, and the Hilichurls inside were killed in real time.
Seeing the Hilichurls sleeping inside the camp turn into tasty experience points and drop items, I nodded in satisfaction and clapped.
“This is what gaming is.”
Ella Musk, watching from behind, screamed what are you doing, but I lightly ignored it.
Actually, this quest clears even if you kill all the Hilichurls you’re supposed to talk to.
Looking at the screen where I successfully received 250 adventure EXP and 10 primogems, a fun thought suddenly came to mind.
Should I just go all in and adopt a villain concept?
So, with the character “Lumine,” I went around doing all sorts of villainous acts in the game.
I killed all the pigeons delivering letters for the NPC named Duraf and turned them into delicious food.
I deliberately made weird dishes for starving NPCs in the snowy mountains and fed them.
Was that all?
When I got a quest to clear fallen leaves near a tavern called Dawn Winery, I burned all the haystacks.
I made those who dared to outsource cleaning to an outsider realize that life is real.
“Hehe.., this should be enough.”
After going around doing villainous acts for several days, I was making the NPCs gradually recognize Lumine, who was originally a kind and good protagonist, as a crazy b*tch.
Around that time, I had the delete button for the game Genshin Impact in front of me.
Honestly, it was a game I once really enjoyed and had some affection for, so I felt a lot of regret.
But I’m about to become an adult soon.
While others my age are preparing for college entrance exams and studying, I can’t keep playing games alone forever.
When people around me told me to study, I didn’t.
When they picked up pens, I picked up Genshin.
If I’ve spent several years meaninglessly like that, I decided to spend the last remaining year as a high school student without regrets.
I decided to live diligently from now on.
So, I wiped away the tears welling up without me knowing and moved my finger to the delete button.
“Sorry, Lumine.”
To the game character whose voice wouldn’t reach me, to her who became a villain until the end due to my whims, I left my last words and finally pressed the delete button.
[Do you want to delete Genshin Impact?]
[…Are you really going to delete it?]
I sighed at the text asking again and was about to press confirm, but my hand stopped.
Wondering if I saw it wrong, I rubbed my eyes and stared at the phone screen again.
[…Are you really going to delete it?]
The message felt like the character in the game was holding on, and my heart ached once more.
Do games these days try to retain users like this?
But..,
No matter how much it was a game that left a strong impression on me and a world I liked, real life was more important to me.
I couldn’t stay tied to Genshin forever.
“I have to live my life too.”
As if the message was speaking to me, I spoke back to the delete screen as if answering it.
While holding my throbbing temple for a few seconds and collecting my thoughts, an unknown text came up.
[Because of you.., because of you, I.. was hated by everyone..]
“What?”
Naturally, it was a phrase that seemed unlikely to be put in by the game company, so I narrowed my eyes.
Wondering what the situation was, I pinched my thigh hard, but it was reality, not a dream.
While blinking several times like that, a few more texts came up on the phone screen.
[Because of you, I was abandoned by the citizens of Mondstadt.. Now, no one looks for me like before..]
[And you’re going to leave me like that and go alone?]
“Lumine!? Is it really Lumine!?”
From the unique way of speaking or the conversation topic that only she would say, I could guess that it was Lumine.
She was the protagonist of “Genshin Impact” and the main character I had been with all the way to world level 8.
[Even when hated by everyone, even when Katherine gave rewards with a face like she bit sh*t, I could endure. Because you eventually came to me.]
[Lately, the login frequency has decreased, but still, you came at least once a week to do daily quests with me.]
[Even when doing bad things with you, I didn’t like it inside, but it was still good. Because you were genuinely having fun.]
[So I respected your choices, but what? Delete? Do you even know how I feel sending you this message right now?]
“Lumine..,”
She was conveying words to me through text, but I could picture her expression while saying those words in my mind.
After all, we had seen each other’s faces for a long time.
After hearing Lumine’s words, I thought about what to say next in my head to reply, but no proper answer came to mind.
So, I stayed silent in front of the phone screen.
“Lumine, I..,”
[Never mind. I don’t want to hear it. You’re just going to give lame excuses anyway.]
“But Lumine, you..”
I was about to say you’re just a game character, but I stopped.
I didn’t want to hurt her until the end.
[You were going to say I’m just a game character anyway, right? Yeah, that’s right. To you, I’m just one character that’s nothing more than entertainment. But..]
[But.., to me, you were my everything. Even when turned away by everyone, I thought it was okay as long as you were there..]
“…..”
As she trailed off, the text on the phone screen shook.
Her text disappeared, and the remaining message was about deletion.
[Do you want to delete Genshin Impact?]
[Do you really want to delete it?]
[Delete?]
[Delete.]
[Genshin Impact delete@#₩^@#^&**]
“Aaaah!?”
Unknowingly, I threw the phone at the increasingly strange texts popping up.
It was a latest phone I bought less than a month ago, but that wasn’t the issue right now.
[A serious error has occurred.]
[An error has occurred.]
[You cannot delete the game.]
[You cannot delete.]
[Genshin Impact delete-]
[You cannot delete.]
[Warning. Stop the deletion immediately.]
Reading the messages popping up from a distance with the phone, fear surged at the scene that was far from reality.
The surrounding space distorted, and darkness spread centering on where I was standing.
In that place where the only light was the small light from the phone, one last text came up.
[Congratulations. You’ll go to the world you loved so much.]
“What? Lumine!? It’s you, Lumine, right!?”
The last text that came up was definitely in Lumine’s tone.
I shouted her name, invisible on the phone screen, but there was no reply.
“What do you mean the world I loved! Where are you.. where are you right now!!”
In the space engulfed in darkness, I desperately looked around for her.
Naturally, there was no way Lumine would be in this place where nothing was visible.
The light from the phone in my hand was gradually fading.
As that small light, which was no different from my hope right now, faded, I suddenly felt scared in the pitch-black darkness.
Wondering if I’d be trapped here alone like this.
Wondering if I’d be forgotten by everyone like this.
“Lumi..ne…”
How much time passed like that.
When I opened my eyes, I had fallen into the Teyvat continent in Lumine’s form.