Light, or some fragments of memory, peeled off in silence.
A being, named Silkock, descended in version 5.7. She is not a “character”, she is not a hero or savior in the traditional sense, nor is she a clear party in the narrative structure. She is a rift, an uneasy condensation, a “device” that constantly mediates between the abyss and the light.
Silkock, ice attribute, one-handed sword user, five-star rating. Ratings do not represent everything – it is a label, but not the truth. Her mechanism revolves around “virtual realm rifts”, which is a recoding of ice and a deconstruction of combat.
When freezing, superconductivity, and diffusion react, she will arrange virtual realm rifts near the enemy. These rifts are metaphors, abstract manifestations of neural networks, and fractures in the psychological defense line. She has a maximum of three rifts at a time, just as humans can only bear a maximum of three basic desires, and more will collapse.
Her heavy attacks, combat skills, and elemental bursts can “swallow” rifts and gain “Snake’s Cunning” – a phrase with a double meaning. It not only represents the numerical effectiveness of offensive stacking, but also implies that she always maintains an indifferent attitude in the path of snake (temptation, danger, unknown) and cunning (wisdom, calculation, inhumanity). She is not expressing emotions, she is the shell of emotions. She is not fighting, but using fighting to fight against the way of defining herself.
Her other mechanism – “Dead River Crossing” – is triggered by the surrounding ice/water element characters. This is a connection mechanism, an expression of “others” invading “self”. Her attacks are strengthened by the existence of others. In philosophy, this is the feedback of others’ perspectives to the ontology; in system theory, this is a gain feedback triggered by external conditions. This is a proposition repeatedly mentioned by Canxue: people are not independent individuals, but the sum of relationships, and are constructed objects.
Her general attacks gain attack gains at different stages based on the number of layers of the Dead River. These layers are not the product of time, but the traces of encounters. Do you still remember the boy who lived with her in the abyss? Ajax. She never said love, and she didn’t even have the warmth of “love”. In the abyss, she taught him to survive with coldness, just like a machine transmitting signals to newly generated codes.
“Teaching” itself is a kind of violence – a reshaping of the lower by the higher status. At a certain point in time, they are mirror images of each other. Ajax became a prince and walked into the world; Silkock remained where he was, motionless, unchanged, without the need for audiences or judgment. She is the forgotten, and also the forgotten.
And with her, Taliyah also arrived in version 5.7.
Taliyah is a four-star, water attribute, auxiliary positioning. He and Silkock form a symmetrical relationship – he provides shields, recovery and acceleration, which is a structural guarantee. He exists in order, while Silkock exists outside of order. Taliyah represents the world’s maintenance of rules, and Silkock represents the world’s challenge to rules.
His shield mechanism is the first buffer against conflict. His attack speed bonus is a soothing that makes the rhythm faster and more humane. His elemental burst is a split – the summoned creature coexists with the main body, symbolizing the split superposition of personality, and also symbolizing the “backup self” extended in the crisis.
He is understandable and safe. But Silk is not. Silk is the kind of existence that you try to analyze, disassemble, label, and classify but can never see clearly. She is outside the system, but speaks in the system grammar; she resists human nature, but is still summoned in the form of a human.
The new weapon “Cang Yao” is assigned to Silk. It is a border weapon – its mechanism is a game’s thinking about “cyclicality”. It will increase the attack power when the crack is absorbed, and at the same time increase the frequency of crack generation. In the philosophical context, this means: the more violence is used, the more cracks are stimulated; the more attempts to repair, the more trauma is created. This “negative growth logic” is the root of the tragedy faced by Canxue-style characters.
The set of holy relics of “Deep Corridor Finale” is more like an autopsy report of Silkock’s soul:
Two-piece set, ice element damage increase. Straightforward, calm, and no room for maneuver.
Four-piece set, provides attack buff when energy is exhausted, but also blocks another skill. This is a price, a sacrifice, an equivalent exchange – or, a metaphor for fate.
Silkock’s existence tells us: not all characters are born for you, some characters are just for a way of existence, a scar that cannot be restored, a boundary that is destined to be incommunicable but continues to speak.
In this version, Silkock is not here to “assist” you in clearing the level, she is here to remind you: every time you click a skill and trigger a reaction, you are constructing a way of survival for the “other”.
Taliyah is another path – safe, within the system, and can be tamed. And Silkock is a dream that you cannot tame, an echo from the abyss that you will forget but cannot completely delete.
Are you ready to let these two completely different existences step into your team together?
Or, are you ready to see yourself in the mirror?