I don’t know if you have ever met such a person: she doesn’t talk much, but her actions make people unable to ignore her; she never explains herself, but tells the world why she comes with coldness and determination.
In this era full of splendor and noise, Genshin Impact version 5.7 brings such a character. Her name is Silk.
When I first saw her story, what arose in my heart was not amazement, but a kind of heaviness. She does not belong to our world, she comes from the abyss. She walked out of the cracks in the virtual world step by step, with the power of ice and the silence of old memories.
Many people say that she is indifferent. But I don’t think so. She is calm, restrained, and the one who is willing to walk alone in the dark, just to save others from having to face pain. She is a person who is not understood, and a person who does not need to be understood by others.
Her identity in the game is a five-star ice element character with a unique combat mechanism. She can create a special existence called “virtual cracks”, which freezes the enemy and triggers the crack effect, causing the battlefield to fall into controllable chaos. In the rift, enemies and allies are affected by Silkock. She needs to constantly run the energy bar of “Snake’s Cunning” to gain energy through fighting to burst skills. This is the fighting method she brought back from the abyss, which is both cold and efficient.
But these skill parameters do not represent who she is.
Who is she? She is a teacher who once adopted a lost boy. That boy is called Ajax, the “Young Master” we are familiar with. He fell into the abyss when he was fourteen years old. It was a place that could change his fate. But in the shadow of chaos and soul-eating, it was Silkock who taught him how to survive in despair.
For three months, she taught him to fight, taught him tactics, and taught him how to stand up in a world without hope. And when he left the abyss and returned to the ground, only three days had passed. Three days in the human world, three months in the abyss – this is a joke that time played on fate.
But the Young Master did not forget her. He engraved her teachings in his bones and blood, even if he never mentioned it, even if he became an executive of the Fatui many years later.
And now, she is back. Not for anyone, just because she still has an unfinished mission. The plot update of version 5.7 is the prelude to her return.
She didn’t talk big, nor did she have touching lines. She just stood on the ice field, silently drew her weapon, and gathered the energy of “Snake’s Cunning” into an explosion, freezing the enemy and clearing the battlefield.
At the same time, another character also appeared. He is Taliya, a four-star water element shield auxiliary character. His existence is like the soft power needed in this era. He uses shields to provide shelter for the team and can increase the attack speed of teammates. In our team, Taliya is the one who is willing to stand in front, a person who believes that protection is greater than attack.
Unlike Silk, Taliya is more like a representative of ordinary people who are willing to stand up. He has not returned from the abyss, nor does he have a tragic past. But because of this, he is particularly important. He represents those of us who are ordinary but still try their best to protect others.
The entire 5.7 version is not just a replacement of characters. It also brings a new weapon “Cang Yao” and a new set of holy relics “Deep Corridor Finale”. These contents optimize Silk’s fighting style from a numerical point of view, but also build a new level from an emotional point of view.
“Cang Yao” is her partner born for battle, and “Deep Corridor Finale” is more like a symbol of her past experience. This set of holy relics provides a strategic choice: get a strong bonus when the energy is zero, but once triggered, another skill will be invalid for a short time. Does this look like her way of dealing with the world? Always making choices, always choosing between costs and gains.
I always feel that the characters in the game may be a projection of some personality in our reality. Silk represents those who are strong, do not complain, are not understood, but always carry the burden forward; and Taliyah is those who are gentle, silently give, and protect order in chaos.
We need them.
In the real world, we may not have the power of “Virtual Rift” or the sword of “Cang Yao”. But we need such a spirit. It takes some people to not give up in hardship, to persist in loneliness, and to choose loyalty and responsibility in misunderstanding.
So when you draw Silk, please don’t just treat her as a combat unit. She is a story, a carrier of faith. She came from the abyss, not to be king, but to defend the land that once trusted her.
Each of us can be the one who walks out of the abyss silently.