On the day of the 5.7 version update, everything in the game was almost the same as before. The wind was still blowing, monsters were still spawning, familiar marks were lit on the map, and everything was in order. But when Silkock went online, I realized that things had changed. It was not because she was so strong, but because she was not like others.
Silkock is a five-star character with ice attributes and uses a one-handed sword. As soon as the panel data came out, the forum exploded. Some people said that her mechanism was complicated, some people said that she was a toy for “high-end players”, and some people said that she was the master of the young master and should be very powerful. Some people said that it would be better not to draw her because the cost-effectiveness was not high. But I stared at her skill introduction for several minutes. Her skill names are very strange – “Extreme Evil Skills”, “Virtual Realm Rift”, “Dead River Crossing”… They don’t sound like monster-killing skills, but more like they were copied from a philosophy book.
Later I learned that Silkock came from the abyss. The real abyss is not the layers of levels in the game, but life itself. She is not an ordinary person, she has lived in another world from the beginning. She has no companions and no past. She taught Tartaglia how to kill people, and then she disappeared. Now she is back, standing in the game screen, with no expression on her face, like a ghost that the game has forgotten.
Her mechanism is uncomfortable. You have to create “rifts” and then absorb the rifts with skills to obtain resources. This sounds like a process, but it is actually a test – she is testing your endurance. You have to keep operating, keep looping, and keep following her rhythm. She is not assisting you, she is forcing you to keep up with her. The cooldown time of her skills is accurate to 0.5 seconds, like a clock, constantly reminding you that “if you miss it, it will be gone.” You will feel that she is not controlled by you, but you are tamed by her.
Her talent “Dead River Crossing” is also very unfriendly. It depends on teammates to deal ice or water damage to stack her layers. Each character can only stack once, and each counts its own duration. This means that you have to team up around her. She needs others to cooperate, but she will not thank anyone. She coldly watches others work hard just to make herself stronger.
What makes me most uneasy is her holy relic – Deep Corridor Finale. The two-piece set is a bonus to ice damage, and the four-piece set has an even more extreme effect: when the energy is 0, both the general attack and the ultimate skill increase the damage by 60%, but once you attack, the other part of the gain will be invalid. The system tells you: You must choose the way to attack, and you can’t be greedy. It’s like in life, you can only keep one thing. If you want more, you have to give it up first.
When I play her, I always feel that I am not playing a character, but living with her. She is forcing you to make decisions, give up, and bear the consequences. She doesn’t care about your wishes, she only enforces her rules. You can dislike her, but she doesn’t need you to like her.
There is also Taliyah, who is also online in this version. She is a four-star character with water attributes and a one-handed sword. Compared with Silkcock, he is much gentler. He will add shields and attack speed to teammates, and can also eat health points to stack shields. His skills are not as complicated as Silkcock’s, and he is even a little honest. He is an ideal good man who appears in the wrong place. The probability of his name being mispronounced is faster than his shield breaking. He is the kind of character that you won’t get angry about, but you won’t get excited about either.
Taliyah reminds me of those “dispensable” people in the game. They won’t appear in the editing video, nor will they become the version answer. They are runners-up, and they shine for others. His weapon doesn’t appear in the front row of the weapon pool promotional picture, and his skills are not shining. He is just a shield, a shelter for others.
But Silk is not. She won’t shelter anyone. She only fights for herself. She is the master of the son, but not a mentor. She gave him martial arts, but didn’t give him hope. She is like some people we have met in our lives: teach you how to survive, but never tell you the meaning of life. You think she is here to save you, but in fact she is just constantly strengthening your tolerance for pain.
The game official said that she is “the strongest warrior in the abyss.” But you know, that’s not a compliment, it’s a judgment. She is strong because she has never lost her humanity. She won’t hesitate, won’t sympathize, and won’t regret. She is the character closest to “fate” in the game system. She is not something you can control, but something you have to accept.
After this version update, I spent a whole day collecting materials, upgraded her to level 90, and stacked double burst ice damage. Then I put her in the team and fought the Abyss. Monsters spawned in batches, my hands were always moving, but my mind was empty. I don’t know why I am playing, and I don’t know why I need such a character. But I know that if she is not a character, but a person, she will live longer than any of us.
Silkcock is a gift from the Abyss. You can refuse, but you will eventually understand that you have been the same as her in the game.
You just haven’t realized it yet.