"Waaaaah!!!"
A piercing, miserable shriek tore through Mondstadt's clear sky.
"Boom—!!!"
Brilliant fireworks exploded across the azure sky, transforming into a shower of dazzling stars.
However, amidst this beautiful scene, a pitch-black humanoid object was thrown high into the air by the explosion's shockwave.
"Cough, cough, cough..."
Completely scorched, Elliot blinked in the smoke, a few wisps of green smoke still clinging to his hair.
He blankly looked down at the rapidly approaching ground, suddenly realizing a terrifying fact—
"Whoosh—"
Gravity ruthlessly dragged him toward the earth, the speed so fast his brain couldn't even register it.
During the rapid descent, his neck stretched out long, looking exactly like an overly elastic rubber band.
"Thud!"
"Ugh!"
Accompanied by a muffled sound, Elliot's head plunged straight into the soft sand like a radish, his two legs comically kicking a few times in mid-air.
"Oh my god... my neck..."
He braced his hands on the ground and laboriously pulled his head out of the sand pit, making a "pop" sound like uncorking a wine bottle.
Shaking the sand from his head, he suddenly noticed something reflecting light at the bottom of the pit.
"Huh?"
Elliot curiously reached into the sand pit, pulling out something that had been flattened... a paper figurine?
"Was I that accurate... or did you just catch it perfectly..."
He looked at the two-dimensional style "victim" in his hand, not knowing whether to laugh or cry; the outline of the blonde girl paper figurine was faintly discernible.
Elliot somehow pulled out a red air pump (why would a paper figurine have an air hole, anyway?) and aimed it at a small, inexplicable hole that had appeared on the paper figurine's waist.
"Squeak, squeak, squeak..."
As the air pump worked rhythmically, the paper figurine slowly inflated like a blow-up doll.
On the fifteenth pump, a crisp "Ding!" sounded, and the blonde girl finally returned to her three-dimensional form.
She lay on the beach with her eyes tightly closed. Her off-the-shoulder white dress was dusted with sand, and the delicate metal buckles on her over-the-knee boots sparkled in the sun.
"Wait! I hit Lumine?!"
Elliot's eyes widened.
"Good heavens, the Abyss drew the Prince this time..."
He couldn't help but complain, nervously glancing around, afraid that an angry Emergency Food would suddenly jump out and yell, "Release my Traveler!"
"Hey!"
Three familiar voices came from the distance.
Jesse, Zane, and Matt ran panting to the scene, freezing simultaneously when they saw Lumine lying on the ground.
Jesse adjusted the slightly crooked mask on his face: "Did... Elliot, did you do her?"
"???"
Elliot's face instantly flushed redder than a Jueyun Chili from Liyue.
"No! What kind of filthy language is that! Even the Akina Speed Star doesn't drive as fast as you!!!"
Zane squatted down to examine her closely: "Her outfit... is that Lumine, the female protagonist of allogene?"
Because of Matt's massive physique, the ground trembled slightly when he ran over.
Seeing the unconscious Lumine, he asked in surprise, "What happened to her?"
Elliot plopped down next to Lumine's head and spread his hands helplessly: "I think I hit her when I fell. I flattened her into two dimensions, and this is how she looks after I inflated her. It seems she won't be waking up anytime soon."
"Since things have come to this..."
Jesse suddenly looked at a half-finished fishing rod nearby, next to which lay several fresh earthworms.
"Let's eat first."
Everyone followed his gaze and immediately understood—this was clearly the fishing rod Lumine was making.
According to the plot development, she should have been fishing here for that famous Emergency Food... ah, no, fishing for Paimon.
As if flipping a strange switch, the four instantly entered picnic mode.
Zane pulled out three sun umbrellas from behind his back; Jesse magically unfurled four beach chairs; Matt, due to his Electro Lawachurl physique, produced coconut juice comparable to small water buckets; and Elliot somehow dragged over a professional barbecue grill, thoughtfully prepared with Mondstadt Special Barbecue Sauce.
The unconscious Lumine was "thoughtfully" placed by the group under the most luxurious sun umbrella.
Matt put star-shaped sunglasses on her and tucked a giant coconut juice with a straw into her arms (it nearly buried her whole body).
Jesse even covered her with a beach towel printed with the words "Teyvat's Strongest Utility Player."
"So..."
Zane cast his fishing line, splashing a small spray of water.
"Does this count as us hijacking Paimon's debut?"
"Shh—"
Elliot mysteriously lowered his voice.
"Maybe Paimon is lost in some space-time tunnel right now... perhaps drinking milk..."
"Hahahahaha!"
Everyone burst into laughter. They immediately realized Elliot was referring to Kiana, the Tuna from the Honkai Impact 3rd series.
Sunlight scattered across the shimmering lake surface, and the breeze carried the fragrance of Dandelion Wine.
The five of them (including the unconscious Lumine) thus began an eccentrically styled interdimensional picnic on the coast of the Teyvat continent.
Not far away, a certain unconscious white sprite suddenly sneezed, spun around confusedly... "Gulp, gulp, gulp!"
"Cough, cough, cough! What's going on!"
Paimon was surprised to find herself in the middle of the sea.
"Ahhh! Help! Gulp, gulp, gulp!"
"I! Gulp, gulp... can't... swim! Gulp, gulp, gulp!"