In version 2.3 of Mingchao, there is a character named Zanni, who is a bank clerk and a resonator. Her setting seems to be full of the atmosphere of future technology, with complex skills and gorgeous attributes, but I see a certain silence and truth of our time in her. This truth does not come from numbers or fighting, but from her struggle within the rules, and the stubbornness of being swept away by life but refusing to completely surrender.
I often wonder what it is like for a person to work in a bank? It is not a passionate workplace, but more like a river that always flows with rules and regulations and customer questions. Every form, every contract, and every approval is a fine and cold chain. You work there every day, seemingly dealing with people, but actually dealing with data. Over time, people’s emotions are like being sealed up by pages of documents, no longer fresh. But Zanni is not like that. She is a “resonator” and she has her battles-and her battles are never noisy.
Her weapon is called “Flame Judgment”. I read these four words for a long time. What comes to my mind is not the scene of the judgment of the fire, but her shadow standing alone in the empty office after get off work at night. The flame is scorching and short-lived. It may be the unextinguished love in her heart, or it may be her last dignity when she fights against the system. The so-called judgment is not a judgment of others, but her examination and choice of herself.
“Silent Negotiation” is her ordinary attack skill. This name sounds like war, but also like daily life. I remember that I also did a lot of “silent negotiations” when I was young: with fate, with the body, with life, and with the question of meaning that always appeared in the dead of night. In those negotiations, we didn’t say a word, but every second was like a battle. Zanni’s attack has rhythm and expansion and contraction, just like every effort and concession we make in life.
Her resonance skill is called “Sleepless Watch”, which reminds me of the years when I lived in the hospital ward. At night, I often look out the window, thinking nothing, doing nothing, just watching. It is a kind of gaze of life on life itself. Sleeplessness is not necessarily painful, sometimes it is too awake; watching is not necessarily waiting, sometimes it is unable to let go. Zanni’s skill can only be cast after being attacked, which is very similar to what we often say in life: “endure to the limit before breaking out.”
But she did not break out completely, but counterattacked accurately. She does not mess around or go crazy. She is a tempered person, the kind of person who survives setbacks again and again and knows how to wait for the opportunity.
I like her “burning flame form” very much. The skill says: attack is enhanced, flames accumulate, and the multiplier is increased. But this burning flame also has a limit, and it will exit after it falls below a certain value. I saw a person’s peak, and I also saw the trough where she had to return. People cannot burn all the time, people have limits. After the burning flame, it is the “moment of final judgment”, just like the destination we have to face after ups and downs in life.
She also has a skill called “beacon of the future”. When I was young, I also had my own beacon. I used to think that writing was everything to me, but later I realized that writing was just a way for me to communicate with the world. It is not a purpose, but a tool. For Zanni, she may have just worked at first, but in the battle, she gradually learned how to be herself. The beacon does not tell you where the end is, but reminds you: you are not nowhere to go.
Some of her talents also made me sigh, such as “quick response” and “no fear of pain”. These words remind people of cold efficiency and patience, but I read traces of growth in them. A person can “quickly respond” because she has experienced too many sudden out-of-control; she can “no fear of pain” because she has tasted the end of pain.
There is also the resonance chain, skill improvement, and output enhancement. It seems to serve the combat experience in the game, but I always feel that it is the dignity she has fought for bit by bit. She is not born strong, but a strong person who has gained experience from failures and grown up in loneliness.
When the resonance is released, she will say: “The first thing to do? Get off work!” This line is really wonderful. A person can have extraordinary power, but still think about getting off work. This is not negativity, but an irony, a voice that reminds us not to forget our daily lives. We are not fighting machines, we are people, people who get tired, dream, and miss the smell of dinner at home.
I think if I can meet Zanni, I will not ask her skill values or output data, I just want to sit down and listen to her talk about how she insists on working in the bank, how to practice skills at night, and how to find a direction that will make her regretless in the busyness and silence.
The game is a collage of worldviews and a reflection of reality. Some characters are just strong, but some characters are alive. In my eyes, Zanni is not a character, but a projection of a person in real life. She is a person who tries her best to “resonate” on the road of life’s continuous progress – not resonating with the world, but with herself.