Diary

Finished! Last two chapters were very short.

Just read a few pages today. I actually wanted to read a full chapter but I had no time and no energy anyway. I did read a few pages to stay in the story (because I haven’t touched the book during the weekend).

To be honest, I’ve never really liked Alice, from the first moments she appeared in game to the Nod-Krai arc where she was more present… but now I’m starting to warming up to her because of Prune’s story.

Ended up reading another chapter, the plot is incredibly good!
There are two chapters left, I’m keeping them for tomorrow.

Finished chapter 4, wow this book is really great. Best police procedural I’ve read in a while. This chapter in particular had decisive elements, it’s very suspenseful!

His kit is pretty easy, there’s only three key words: 欢悦 (the thing he accumulates to unleash his special skills), 争胜 (the thing teammates accumulate for him to increase damage of special skill and burst) and 乘兴 (the thing that increases his skill level).

My initial plan was to study character’s mails on their birthday, but I have a lot of catch up to do… Mails have piled up so quickly these past weeks.

Finished chapter 3, halfway through already!
I like that each chapter is one day, and we really follow the characters through the whole day. Given that I’m reading one chapter per day, it feels like the story is unfolding in real time.

Finally did Prune’s last ascension, but I’m not maxing her level (still 80) nor her talents. I won’t really play her anyway, I built her for IT and because I like her, but I have no idea if she would be good in any of my teams.

Finally did Fischl Witch’s Homework! The story was so great, I think it was the best one from the ones I did. And it would have probably helped to do it before my IT run rather than after but oh well…

I’ve completed all the tasks I wanted to do during the patch, which included a lot of content from previous patches. I’m still very late in Nod-Krai exploration and anecdotes.,,
I will pull for Sandrone. and it would be tempting to go for constellations of Mizuki on the special banner, but I more or less like all the Snezhnaya characters so…

I did everything I wanted to do in the patch! The achievement card is complete, I can peacefully wait for Enigma to release.

I didn’t like this version of UTTU, why did they make restrictions on the characters we can use? I really don’t see the point of the event, if we just use trial characters. It felt bad not being able to use my P5 Ezio, or my favourite character Charon.
And the restrictions were always the same, there was not a single stage that allowed us to play dynamo? Unless I missed something?

Limbo is done too, and I played Critter Crash until I got the skin. I’m missing some rewards, so I might do a couple of other runs if I have time.

I finished the second chapter… this book is really great!! An excellent police procedural so far, the case seems really complex, I love it!

Finished chapter 2! Love it as much as 403小組，警隊出動！so far.

I finished the first chapter/story. No real surprise in the end, the solution was pretty obvious and I’m not sure I found it that convincing, but it was entertaining and very easy to read. Overall, it was a enjoyable read!

Snezhnaya characters look great
I especially love 达妮卡 and 阿罗夏
I’m so happy that Snezhnaya will release during August too, Summer always feels so long, so it will be something to be looking for.

Unfortunately, I didn’t have time to read much, but I absolutely love the beginning! I had no idea that this book featured one of the main characters of 403小組，警隊出動！, that’s really a nice surprise.

Oh, 林木森 is also from 403小組，警隊出動！, hard to forget that name!

I started the first story (I’m assuming each chapter is going to be a different case), it’s very good and reads very easily!

I’m not doing my Korean food notebook anymore, but there’s a mention of 갈비탕 and 냉면 right on the second page. Having to go through a whole dialogue during which characters are eating galbitang and naengmyeon is pure torture!!

I read the first chapter! Loved it, looks like a good police procedural!

They don’t work in the same departments, but here are the police ranks of the main characters:

• Takamiya is 警視 Police Superintendent, two ranks above Hino.
• Habaro is 警部, Police Inspector, one rank above Hino, even though they’re the same age.
• Hino Yukihiko is 警部補 Assistant Police Inspector.
• Irie Ayano is 巡査部長, Police Sergeant, one rank below Hino who is her direct superior.

Done! The last chapter was so good too!!
I was about to say that it’s the longest book I read in Chinese, but then I remembered 網內人 which is about the same length (and there’s the Gu Long novel too, but this one read so easily it didn’t really feel that long).
The book was good overall, but I felt like it had a tendency to drag on in the second half. Stil very entertaining!

I finished 優子, it was really good! It has a very good, surprising end, but it’s quite sad too.

I finished the last chapter of Nicole’s quest. It was a nice event overall, it’s cool to have new formats for events/stories.

I did Lohen’s Witch’s Homework (his story was pretty good!) and tried the new IT, but it’s really tough. I’m halfway through, but I’ll have to give up on the full flower clear. I don’t even know if I’ll be able to complete the run even. If not I’ll have to redo a run without trying to go to the flowers, which will allow me to keep better characters for the last combats. And borrowing my husband’s Kokomi was a mistake…
MVP so far is Durin for sure.

Finished chapter 26! This one was long for nothing, the author is taking so much precautions to explain something obvious and simple as if it was a super complex and new idea that most readers wouldn’t understand.
I also think there are a lot of problems surrounding Ding Ke, that made the whole thing really painful to read. The fact that he covered for Yuan Zhibang twice, and then for his son, is described like something perfectly okay. The character of Ding Ke is unbearable. It would be interesting to make him ambiguous or despicable in some ways, but the problem is that the novel never stops to praise him, this is so annoying.
This chapter could have been so much shorter, I’m feeling more and more that the novel is dragging on.

There are actually two stories in 夏と花火と私の死体, first the short novel of the same name, that I finished, and a short story: 優子 that I just began,
I loved 夏と花火と私の死体 very much, there was such an emotional detachment in the narration, it was a really interesting reading experience. The story was great, not my favourite one, but impressive for a book published at what, 18 or something like that?

Finally finished Lohen SQ which gave me the last materials to build him! Artifacts are very bad. Durin has the best pieces which were not even that good to begin with… but it’s fine, I don’t really care about his damage.
Given that Xiao is using Ineffa’s weapon, I gave Lohen PJWS which I believe is really good on him.
And artifact passive and cryo resonance give 35% CR, but maybe I should adjust his build if I decide to not play him with granny.

I finished Lohen’s SQ, so great!! I loved it, makes me feel like I know the character better, it was not too long which I really appreciate, and there was good pacing and action. No cutscene though, exactly like the event… really hoping this is not a trend.

Read another chapter today! This one was a nice change of pace, only based on discussion and deductions. But to be honest, I find all the psychological profiling not convincing at all, it’s full of generalisations and cheap shortcuts. Still enjoyed reading the whole chapter!

So I started the last short story 인생, 리셋, and it took me a couple of pages to realise that I had already read it: it was featured in the collection of short stories: 밀지 마세요, 사람 탑니다.
It’s very strange, I couldn’t see anywhere that this story (maybe the others too?) had already been published elsewhere, I thought it was a new collection.
밀지 마세요, 사람 탑니다 was so great, featuring stories from different authors with the common theme of Seoul metro. 인생, 리셋 was one of my favourite stories from the collection! I’m not going to re-read it though, so I just finished the book!

I think I finished a part, even though it’s not really defined as such. Still absolutely loving this novel!

I listened to the main story today (only did a couple of chapters), just listening, not looking at the text. It was okayish, I can’t say I’m following like super well, but enough to find it interesting and know what is happening.

When talking about choosing a name for her imaginary friend, the text say that 德斯卡戴 felt full of philosophical reasoning. I didn’t understand why, so I looked at the name of her imaginary friend in English: it’s Descartes! But René Descartes in Chinese is笛卡儿, so the two sound very different.

Read some pages today (though didn’t have time to go very far). Really loving this novel!

I finally started Lohen’s SQ! I love it so far! It has good pacing, we spend time with Lohen and we’re learning things about him. I also just reached the point where the plot is becoming really intriguing. There were some funny moments too!

This novel is fantastic, it’s fascinating, suspenseful, sad, and intriguing at the same time. I’m loving the beginning very much.

I’m finally starting 夏と花火と私の死体 today!

Read my daily chapter today!

I didn’t read anything else today, but I finished the short story 아름다운 괴물. It was excellent, really felt like a short novel rather than a short story. I really love how the main character is morally grey, doing disgusting and condemnable things, while at the same time being relatable. I couldn’t help but root for her still, despite everything. Overall, all the three protagonists of the collection have had complex personalities, I find all characters are very well written.

I started the third short story! It’s also the longest one.
I had originally planned to read half of it today, but I was busy with the website, so I only started it. I really love the beginning, looks very promising!

Finished chapter 21! That’s exactly why I love the series, this chapter was so great!

I finished the second short story, 보름, and I loved it. It was a very good mystery with very dark themes (depression, alcoholism and DV among others), but I loved how it makes you see the characters differently as the story goes.

That was an important chapter, things are taking a turn now it looks like!

I can’t find the time to start Lohen’s SQ, and I’m waiting for the ascension materials it gives to fully level him up. I’ll only try an Abyss run with him once he is 90 and talents 9. I still don’t know if I want to double crown him…

Finished Centurion’s Anecdote, I liked it! The end was a bit underwhelming though…

I don’t have the courage to try and unlock the other ending, I’m not a fan of the multiple endings mechanic, so I’m giving up on the weapon ascension mats, but I do have the weapon!

Read chapter 19 today too!

The last story was much shorter than I thought… and so strange too!

As per tradition, my first Abyss clear was Xiao and Mizuki! Clearing with those two makes me so happy every single time
First half:

Xiao

Durin

Faruzan

Xianyun

Durin is back on NO for the clear… I’m so glad I pulled him for Xiao, because it’s so much easier to clear content that requires pyro.
And yes, I chose to play Xianyun instead of Nicole, but this Abyss is actually a good way to test the Durin-Nicole core for Xiao, maybe I’ll try later in the month if I feel like it.

Second half:

Mizuki

Ororon

Columbina

Ineffa

I didn’t think it would work because of the Suanni, but they did it!

Either I don’t understand what I’m reading, or there’s a problem with the book. Talking about Han Hao and Eumenides, the book says:

那个“很坏很坏的坏人”，自然就是Eumenides! 正是他害得韩灏身负血案，不得不抛妻弃子，亡命天涯。

What?! Han Hao shot his colleague by mistake, then decided to kill the witness to protect himself. When another witness resurfaced, Han Hao decided once again to protect his position, by killing him and killing the captain of the SWAT team Xiong Yuan too who was protecting the witness. So this guy not only killed a policeman by mistake, but then coldly murdered three other persons to protect himself! Then he also killed Deng Hua thinking it was Eumenides but oh well. Eumenides had nothing to do with the shooting of the colleague and the first murder, and even though he did stage the setup for the two following murders, Han Hao didn’t have to play along, he is the one who took the decision to kill Xiong Yuan to continue hiding his secret. I just don’t get it, why is the novel describing it as if Eumenides was responsible and Han Hao was a victim?
More generally, I find the whole Han Hao thing very strange, like the man killed innocent people to protect his position and privileges, what could be more despicable? Even Eumenides kills for justice. But even though they had knowledge of all this, Yin Jian and his colleagues were still very respectful towards Han Hao at the beginning of the novel. It also always seems like Liu Song is singled out as being strongly vindictive for personal reasons - he loved and admired Xiong Yuan - but his attitude should actually be the norm rather than the exception.
And since I started pointing out things that bother me, it’s the same with Ding Ke. The single one argument to prove how good a policeman he was is the 100% success rate, something repeated several times in the novel. But to me, this looks extremely bad: a 100% conviction rate screams wrongful convictions. And everyone sighing in admiration when just hearing his name is just cringe. And when the characters thought that Ding Ke quit the police because he couldn’t face a failure, they still admired him? What is there to admire when someone flees as soon as things don’t go their way? But worse, we later know that Ding Ke covered for Zhibang, and the novel makes it look like it was the right thing to do, and he resigned to what? maintain his integrity? Like, knowing he covered for his favourite student - and not a slight mistake, Zhibang did kill a man (although I’m sure, we’ll learn he had no choice or a good reason to act so), shows him under a very bad light, but it’s almost described as a noble sacrifice.

I finished the short story 落ちる飛行機の中で, I loved it!
I’m tempted to read the last one too, because it’s very short, but I’ll keep it for tomorrow instead.

I wanted to try Lohen in the current Abyss so I did a run last minute! He is still half built (level 69, talents 6/6 and no Witch’s Homework yet).

First half:

Lohen

Durin

Kazuha

Nicole

I tried with Citlali, but it didn’t work, I was missing a few seconds on the third chamber. Changed to Kazuha and cleared everything with a lot of margin. Lohen’s damage was really low given his build. I was also not doing his combos really. But Durin’s damage is impressive. I never really played Durin dark form before, he was just a Xiao support. But with Lohen, I gave him his DPS set, and I’m really shocked by his numbers!

Second half:

Columbina

Lauma

Linnea

Ineffa

The support team from Nod-Krai. It’s probably not optimal to make them all fight for hydro, but the team is mega strong still, and I find it fun to play.

Chapter 16 is great, and we finally get to know more about something the author has been teasing for a while, but I was so tired today, I could barely keep my eyes opened while reading, so I preferred to stop mid-chapter. I’ll continue tomorrow!

I took the Miliastra personality quiz and my result was “Master Strategist of Liyue“.
I’ve been having fun with “One Stroke Puzzle”, “Nonogram Scrolls” and “Flappy Linnea” among others to farm primogems. Then I spent 15 minutes customising my Manekina. Some standard fates gave me the autumn-theme outfit I wanted so badly when it came out, but now the weather’s much too hot to wear that…

Now that I have Mika, it makes farming 空羽蛾 for Lohen much easier than it was for Linnea!

I can’t wait to start Lohen’s SQ but I didn’t have time this weekend… I’ll wait to have the ascension materials from his SQ to fully ascend him too, so it slows down his build. I’m working on building Prune in the meantime.

I finished chapter 5, and this one felt oddly out of place. The chapter was okay overall, but there was a whole passage where characters seemed to understand something from the first time, when we already went over it previously. I’m pretty sure it must be a mistake, it felt very odd. Not only do the characters realise something everyone already knew, but we even already went through the consequences of it in a previous chapter.
I still enjoyed reading it, and I do still find the novel very suspenseful, but this chapter in particular felt quite repetitive.

I played a little bit of Critter Crash, I had a broken Dynamo deck which got me my best result.
I’ll continue playing until I get the skin, but I probably won’t have time to go beyond that.

Critter Crash is actually the perfect thing to do while watching the World Cup.

Finished chapter 14 and the first part too! There are two parts in total in the book.
I’m halfway through the book now, still loving it very much!

I finished 神の言葉, another incredibly fascinating story. It’s kind of scary to think that someone can write so many unique yet equally impactful stories.
I really loved this one, the end was so striking and terrifying too… But what I loved the most is the protagonist, it was such an interesting character, not just his personality and how it made him struggle, but that he was aware of it.

There were only two character names in 神の言葉, so I’m not doing a character list. Even for Closet it was not really necessary.

I continued the story a bit, I finished chapter 9. I like it so far, but it’s also not my favourite.

Cleared Lucidscape! I always try to speedrun with my best characters. Teams were:
First half:

They cleared in 4 rounds. I did a retry, but I couldn’t clear in 3 rounds no matter what. Maybe the team is not optimal, because Fatutu didn’t do anything.

Second half:

Not sure what this team is exactly, but they cleared in 3 rounds no problem (Ezio is P5 and Charon P3). I didn’t play Cassandra at all.

Starting reading Mika’s character story! I don’t like reading in-game so I take the text from the wiki. With new characters, I want to only read as I really unlock them in-game, but given that Mika is not in the party, I’ll just read everything even if I don’t increase friendship with him yet.

I finished Varka SQ, it was insane!! He got a crazy trial, I can’t remember any character having so much combat in their story! (though to be fair, there are a lot of SQ I haven’t done yet). I loved the last part a lot, the cutscenes were great too, and the combat was really cool. Thank goodness I haven’t played his story during his banner! Varka’s playstyle is so good

I’m still in the middle of the second chapter… I love how almost each time we get to do a different activity or game. On the one hand, I’m happy to still have these to do, so I can also meet Columbina still, but on the other hand, will I ever get the glider… not before Snezhnaya that’s for sure…

Finished chapter 13, almost halfway through!

I finished the first short story, 불빛 없는 밤의 도시, and I think it was a really strange one.
It feels like there was a lot of interesting threads, but none was really fully developed. Maybe it would have been better as a novel? For example, the idea of the zero lights nights was really interesting, and we do follow the different steps of its implementation, but at the same time, the character of Jae-u could have been more developed I felt like. The idea of linking those zero lights nights to crime was also very interesting. But challenges like CCTV being useless, were not really the focus of the short story, event though this had a lot of potential. Similarly, the tensions with the environmental maintenance workers could have been an interesting thread if the story had focused more on that. The end was very good, but also felt strange to me, maybe because we never get to know the characters completely. I feel like this short story could have easily been a novel, because there was so many things going on.

Her character story 1 was so sad it made me cry. I kind of want to equip the bubble pistol gadget when she’s in the party, no actually I’m going to look at all the toy gadgets I have in the backpack and equip them all!

Did a lot of things in Genshin today, Nicole’s quest part 3, Prune’s Witch’s Homework (it was adorable!), some exploration, visited Columbina, and I just did the introductory dialogue of the new event (so happy to see Kazuha!! ) but I haven’t started it yet.

I completely forgot about Reed! I mean I forgot we got her for free and she was sitting at zero friendship in the suitcase. All my other characters have max friendship now.
I added her to the Wilderness, and I’ll need to redo my farming stages! My teams are always Ezio + whoever needs friendship levels.

Chapter 11 done!

I read Closet, this short story was really brilliant! I loved it so so much.

The first short story is really not easy to read, so I’m progressing slowly. I wanted to finish it today, but it’s probably not happening.

I finally got around to reading Prune’s kit… it’s so hard to read character kits in Chinese, but I decided to really immerse and stop watching guides in English or read anything in English about the characters. So from what I understand, I need to stack attack on her, and ideally, I would like to have her burst up too… There’s also a special mention if the DPS swirls, so I guess she only gets her full value with Varka or DPS Venti? I might just play her a bit in overworld for fun, but I won’t completely build her right now, and I don’t think I could slot her in any of my teams right now.

Lohen’s story details and kits aren’t updated on the Chinese wiki yet, so I’ll probably won’t start studying them today.

Finished chapter 10! This book is such a page-turner, exactly like the first one.

Saw this character in 暗黑者2, and it feels like I never saw it before. I know 皱眉 with the same meaning, it’s probably more common.

Started the first short story that gives its name to the collection. I found it hard to read (in terms of language level), but it’s very interesting!

불빛 없는 밤의 도시 is a collection of short stories! I thought it was a novel. I’m super happy, because I actually wanted to read short stories in both Japanese and Korean while I was busy with 暗黑者2, but then I saw this book and really wanted to read it, so I chose this one even though I thought it was a novel… It’s a nice surprise!

I went to pity and won my 50/50, it’s such a relief! My primogems count has never been so low…
As usual, I haven’t pre-farmed at all so it might take all the second half of the patch to build him and find him decent artefacts. And I don’t know what his best team is, but I do have Nicole and Durin, so it’s probably okay.

I’ve been lazy with reading character stories lately, because I can’t deny that with content in Chinese, I just don’t have the motivation to start reading character stories in-game, with everything else there is to read. It’s really a shame, so I’m going to study character stories from the wiki instead, that way I can paste them to my learning Chinese website and use the dictionary. I don’t know if I’ll have the courage or time to catch up on older characters, but I’m starting with my latest ones: Prune, Lohen and Mika.

I finally started the story, I love it!! I’m watching on bilibili instead of playing in-game, I wish I could just listen to it and not have to always look at the screen, but it’s too difficult. I can follow quite well, but I need to read the subtitles in Chinese.
I love Loggerhead the most, I love her voice so much, so melodious! Then I also really like 野木蓝.

Won’t have time to finish chapter 9 today, but I’m still happy with my reading progress.

Wow Lohen’s trailer… this guy feels like a mix of Sparkle and Jane Doe, clearly worth risking going to double pity for him.
I should also have two points of capturing radiance already, so it will help, because I do want Sandrone…

Chapter 8 is very long, I just started it but was too sleepy to really focus, so I didn’t make any real progress today.

I made some progress on the quest, but then there’s a warning saying the next part is going to be long, so I’m keeping this for another day. My goal was to finish it before Lohen’s release, which might not be possible now but it doesn’t really matter.

风起之日

I forgot this set actually gives 20% CR! Thankfully I was a bit short on Durin, so he’s build is not as bad as I initially thought, even though most pieces I found rolled poorly.

I’m not playing any Reverse1999 at the moment, just logging in to do my dailies. I haven’t done the story yet, and I’m somehow not really motivated to do it at all. What I think I will do is listen to it on either YouTube or BiliBili instead of playing in-game, so I can do something else why I listen.

Chapter 7 was not an easy read, not just because it was an unpleasant description to read, but it was also more difficult in terms of language level.

I read the second story 冷たい森の白い家, such a fascinating, strange and sad story…

I pulled Durin for Xiao, so I put him on NO and never farmed his DPS set (I did farm the domain a lot, but never found good Rising Winds pieces). But there’s two things happening now:

• I’m thinking of continue playing FFXX rather than the Nico-Durin core for Xiao
• I will pull for Lohen, which means that Durin is probably better on Rising Winds, and that Lohen will need a set of his own anyway!
  So I need to find two good sets now, with DPS requirements…