Inside the grand hall, Valerius burst out laughing as he looked at the players who had just been eliminated.
Every single one of them wore the same dazed, hollow expression, like their worldview had just collapsed.
He'd been watching the livestream the whole time.
All he could say was—these guys had it rough.
Seeing Bronya appear alone, they'd thought they could surround her and take her down together.
Instead, they were beaten so badly their faith in reality practically shattered.
"That's not right!"
Arataki Itto was the first to explode. He stormed straight up to Valerius.
"Valerius, you definitely gave Bronya special treatment! There's no way she's that strong!"
"Hey, don't spout nonsense," Valerius replied calmly.
"I don't help players cheat."
Kuki Shinobu frowned as well and spoke up.
"Then how do you explain this? Bronya's army was full of high-tier units—and in large numbers."
By her calculations, everyone should still be stuck around Tier-6 units at best.
Even the Raiden Shogun, who was rushing for Tier-7 Behemoths, had gone through immense trouble—and still needed Hu Tao's support.
And even then, since a week hadn't passed yet, she'd only managed to recruit one Behemoth.
But Bronya?
She had three Angels, plus Knights, Red Dragons, Thunderbirds…
A complete mixed army—like a monster buffet.
"That's because of her skills," Valerius said lightly.
"…There's a skill like that?"
Everyone was stunned.
What kind of skill could just generate soldiers?
"Diplomacy," Valerius explained.
"Some neutral creatures in the wild will surrender directly and join Bronya's army."
Kuki Shinobu's mouth twitched.
So that kind of terrifying skill existed?
Wasn't that basically recruiting troops just by walking around?
"Diplomacy is that broken?"
Arataki Itto's eyes went wide, regret flooding his face.
When heroes leveled up, they were offered two skills to choose from.
And Diplomacy had once appeared in Itto's options.
But he'd chosen what looked stronger at the time—
Eagle Eye.
Valerius immediately understood when he saw that expression.
He sighed and asked, "Itto… what did you pick when you leveled up?"
"E–Eagle Eye…"
Pfft!
Valerius nearly spat blood.
You passed up Diplomacy for Eagle Eye?
That really matched his intelligence.
Eagle Eye only gave you a chance to learn spells the enemy had used after winning a battle—
a borderline useless skill.
And Itto was a Barbarian!
With that pathetic Intelligence stat, even if he learned magic, what damage was he going to do? Tickling the enemy?
"It's still not right," Lyney said, shaking his head.
"Mixed armies should suffer morale penalties. But Bronya's troops showed no drop in morale at all."
"Leadership," Valerius replied.
"Basic gives +1 morale. Advanced +2. Expert +3."
"…I see."
Now everything clicked.
The skill synergy was absurdly perfect.
No wonder she was so terrifying.
Inside the game world
After cleaning up the battlefield, Bronya glanced at her army.
She'd only lost a handful of Spearmen.
"So this is what Valerius meant by 'leave them some dignity'…"
Now she finally understood.
From the very start, she'd been roaming the wilderness.
At first, it had been genuinely difficult.
But once a group of Archers voluntarily joined her—
The game suddenly flipped to easy mode.
From then on, neutral creatures either fled, demanded gold to surrender, or simply joined her outright as admirers—no conditions attached.
Three days of wandering later, her army was stacked entirely with elite units.
When other players surrounded her earlier, she'd actually been startled, thinking she was done for.
But once she saw their armies…
She almost laughed.
This is what you brought to fight me?
Honkai-side chat channel
[Seele: That strong??? Bronya???]
[Serval: That's terrifying…]
[Jing Yuan: One against many—an achievement worthy of history.]
[Herta: Wait… aren't the others just really bad? So many versus one and still lost?]
[Ruan Mei: Miss Bronya, how heavy were your losses?]
[Bronya: Not much. I lost a small group of Spearmen.]
[Fu Xuan: ?????]
[Yukong: ?????]
[Sunday: ?????]
[Ruan Mei: What kind of army did the enemy have?]
[Bronya: Mostly Stronghold troops—many Ogres, with a few Thunderbirds mixed in.]
[Seele: …What did I just read?]
Seele was completely stunned.
That kind of force wasn't small at all.
If she had encountered it, she wouldn't even know how to survive.
And yet Bronya only lost a small group of Spearmen?
Was this really the same Bronya she knew?
[Jing Yuan: Then… what about your army?]
[Bronya: Mine? Three Angels, two Red Dragons… twelve Cavaliers, nine Unicorns, 147 Marksmen, plus some Spearmen.]
[Sampo: Huh???]
[Trailblazer: I just want to ask… are we even playing the same game?]
[March 7th: I only have six Crusaders as my strongest unit—how did you end up like this?!]
March 7th was completely dazed.
She'd just unlocked Crusaders and tested them out—instant results.
She'd thought she was doing pretty well.
But compared to Bronya?
Her trump card didn't even qualify to step onto the battlefield.
There was no arguing this anymore.
At this moment, she shared the same question as the Trailblazer—
Are we really playing the same game?
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