CH 2

Fighting in the game, besides going to the arena and friendly PvP, players could also unilaterally enable revenge killing—just like Yue Ran’s situation right now. 

He was already slightly upset. He could finally play the game to lift his mood, but he ended up getting screwed!

He was to blame for being attracted by the ‘fate’ selling point. He also didn’t want to deliberately search for his fated one, so he didn’t ask for the other half’s character ID. Both resulted in his impulsive purchase.

The more he pondered over it, the more unhappy he became, making him really want to hit people to vent.

However, the reality was very cruel, there was no chance for him to defeat his opponent. 

First, he hadn’t played for three years, he needed to re-adapt. Second, this was a new account, he hadn’t checked the account’s shortcut keys yet. Keyboard mashing was his only opinion. Third…he was playing a support summoner.

The game has six job classes: swordsman, monk, healer, assassin, mage, and summoner.

Summoner, like the name suggested, specialized in summoning. Summoner creates contracts with the spirits of animals and plants, and then calls on them to fight. The summoned spirit beast could attack the enemy or assist teammates. Yue Ran’s character’s main strength was the latter one.

So Yue Ran aggressively stormed toward his ‘fated one’, and with a wave of his staff, a spirit beast that buffed critical attack appeared beside him.

Raising his staff again, a spirit beast that helped remove or resist crowd control emerged at his other side.

Hoisting his staff for the third and last time, a spirit beast best used for defense arose before him.

He swung his staff… toward his summoned beasts!

What need have I for all of you? Useless! 

The swordsman entered combat mode as Yue Ran rushed forward with player-killing enabled. But who would have thought that Yue Ran would start jabbing at his summoned beasts with his staff. After being startled for two seconds, the swordsman quickly figured out what Yue Ran’s motivation was, and grinned unknowingly.

[(Local) >Smashing Vault of Heaven: You can use the normal attack on me.]

Summoners couldn’t do damage to their own summoned creatures. Yue Ran knew this, he was merely venting his anger on his poor aides, nothing more.

He noticed the message from the ID again. Since the swordsman insisted, he lifted his staff and rapidly hit the swordsman three times. Seeing his target standing still, he calmed down. 

In fact, he didn’t blame the other person. He let himself buy the account without asking proper questions.

The other player who allowed him to attack was already good enough. If he was in the swordsman’s shoes, he would have gone into full-rage mode on that guy when being attacked by a stranger.

After a brief wait, the swordsman sent another message.

[(Local) >Smashing Vault of Heaven: Are you done?] 

Yue Ran ‘humphed’ in front of the computer screen, ignoring the person as he began to search his cousin’s character ID and send a friend request.

Afterward, he noticed two or three players that were spectating the fun came closer and stopped beside them. At first, he completely ignored them but saw more players coming from both ends of the street, and they also approached them, as if to trap him in the middle.

They certainly weren’t the swordsman’s foes, right?

Could they be the swordsman’s friends? Was that the reason the swordsman was chatting him up and stalling for time? To wait for reinforcements to kill him? Wasn’t this too savage? 

Yue Ran quietly rotated his camera. He had no space to move and no way to escape.

He could only click to ‘pending’ on his friend list and wait for his cousin to accept his friend request, so he could inform his cousin to not come here. Best not to involve the buffoon.

What he didn’t know was, in another chat that he couldn’t see, a drastic conversation was going on.

[(Guild) BB Love: Leader, who is this?] 

[(Guild) Hit Me and Ur Bald: Look, they are a couple’s accounts!]

[(Guild) Ashen Inner Thoughts: Maybe the new alt that the leader brought and that guy are a couple’s account.]

[(Guild) BB Love: What do you know? Didn’t we just witness the leader standing still and giving the summoner free hits, and the leader even asked of his own accord!]

[(Guild) Hit Me and Ur Bald: (shock) (shock) (shock)] 

[(Guild) Blank: Impossible.]

[(Guild) Pear Blossom Rain: Leader, is that one your friend?]

[(Guild) Attired Guqin: Let me break the news, that guy is the leader’s three-dimensional partner.]

Ktf ueliv mtjccfi aegcfv vfjv rlifca lc jc lcrajca, obiibkfv ys ibev, olfgs fzqibrlbcr ilxf vgbqqlcu kjafg lcab j qba bo tfjafv bli. 

[(Guild) BB Live: !!!]

[(Guild) Hit Me and Ur Bald: !!!]

[(Guild) A Ball Cactus: The fuck is this madness!]

[(Guild) Blank: Sour.] 

[(Guild) Pear Blossom Rain: Isn’t the leader single?]

[(Guild) Attired Guqin: They just got together.]

[(Guild) Fruity: You all big talk, I don’t believe you! Leader, leader, is this true?]

Aljcu Wljb, ktb kjr yflcu mjiifv bea gfqfjafvis, vlvc’a asqf yjmx. Pcrafjv, tf uijcmfv eq ja tlr oglfcv, Hlc Wleplf. 

Hlc Wleplf tjqqfcfv ab wffa tlr fsfr. Lf gfwlcvfv Aljcu Wljb, fsfr aklcxilcu, “P kbc atf yfa, cb ajxf yjmxr.”

Jiang Xiao asked, “What use if only I admit it?”

Qin Xiujie chirped, “Leave it to me, just throw them a bone or something.”

Looking at his smug friend, Jiang Xiao turned back to his screen and typed one word. 

[(Guild) >Smashing Vault of Heaven: Yes.]

A second explosion erupted within the guild chat.

Members that were not present were frantically typing, requesting for the location, while those who were present circled the summoner.

Yue Ran watched the group of players bouncing back and forth around him but never made a single move. He tried to move out of the circle very slowly, but they surrounded him again when he was inches away from freedom. Furthermore, they even sealed off all the possible escape routes. 

He accepted his fate as he let go of his mouse, ready to be knocked unconscious.

Instead, in the next moment, he saw the text bubble above everyone’s head uniformly, with four words displayed neatly on it.

[(Local) BB Live: Hello, sister-in-law!]

[(Local) Hit Me and Ur Bald: Hello, sister-in-law!] 

[(Local) Ashen Inner Thoughts: Hello, sister-in-law!]

[(Local) Blank: Hello, sister-in-law!]

[(Local) Strongest O in Universe: Hello, sister-in-law!]

…… 

Yue Ran: “…”

Fuck me, who are you calling sister-in-law?!

Yue Ran smashed his enter key, as he was ready to throw a tantrum in the local chat, he heard his crisp ringtone. He picked up his phone and looked at the caller ID, and pressed connect. “Cousin, where are you? There is this group of blockheads!”

From the other end, “Oh, those blockheads are my friends.” 

Yue Ran: “…”

He silently took everything in. He carefully surveyed the group of players and spotted a familiar ID among the sea of character IDs: ‘Attired Guqin’

He suddenly realized, “This was your doing!”

Qin Xiujie hurriedly cried, “Stop whatever you’re thinking, please hear me out!” 

Yue Ran snapped, “Scum!”

Qin Xiujie explained, “I found you a sister-in-law…”

Completely surprised, Yue Ran’s attention was successfully diverted. “What?”

Qin Xiujie resumed, “That’s right, she is an omega. Super gentle and beautiful. She is a music major, and very good at singing.” 

As someone who ate too much dog food today, Yue Ran didn’t want to eat anymore, but this didn’t stop him from being happy for his cousin. “Really? Introduce her to me soon.”

Qin Xiujie exclaimed, “Do you see the player called ‘Pear Blossom Rain’ in the game?”

Having heard what his cousin said, Yue Ran searched through the names of the blockheads again and found a nearby player with that character ID. She was wearing a light pink healer outfit. At the same time, his cousin called out, “Don’t talk to her. We are not dating yet.”

Yue Ran demanded unhappily, “…Then what use was everything that you just said?” 

Qin Xiujie reassured, “That’s what I wanted to talk to you about, Ran Ran.”

An alarm bell went off in Yue Ran’s head.

This bastard was actually a very stubborn fool and also filled with evil intentions. So unbearable that he changed his cousin’s contact name to ‘Buffoon’.

Usually, his cousin would call him ‘Xiao Ran’. 

But as soon as Qin Xiujie changed his nickname to ‘Ran Ran’, it meant his cousin needed something from him, and it never ended well.

Sure enough, Qin Xiujie pleaded sincerely, “Help your cousin out on something.”

Staying vigilant, Yue Ran asked, “What is it?”

Qiu Xiujie said, “Smashing Vault of Heaven is our guild leader’s alt, you and he pretend to be a couple for a month.” 

Without considering it, Yue Ran rejected, “Fuck no!”

Qiu Xiujie said smiling, “You don’t like your character ID right?”

Yue Ran snapped, “You think?”

Qin Xiujie begged, “Help me and I will buy you a name change after a month.” 

Yue Ran blinked slowly. It was very tempting.

Buying a name change costs more than buying an account. In fact, he was just thinking about whether or not to buy a name change, he could always purchase another account but the other two accounts’ character IDs suck. Neither of the options sounded very pleasing.

Qin Xiujie bribed, “Come join our guild and play for a month. You can leave the guild after one month, and I will buy you cosmetic equipment to cover your armour, and an appearance coupon to change your appearance. Once you change your name, I will re-introduce you to the guild as my younger cousin. No one will suspect who you were.”

Yue Ran was more and more excited. “I see…” 

Qin Xiujie added to his offer, “If I successfully court your future sister-in-law in one month, I will pay for all of your meals for one month after university starts.”

Yue Ran immediately agreed, “Deal.”

Usually, it was hard for his cousin to bleed out to this degree. This was a once in a lifetime offer!

Qin Xiujie said with a smile, “Now, please reply to my friends.” 

Yue Ran, concerned, said, “Your leader…”

Qin Xiujie reassured, “I filled him in as well.”

Feeling relieved, Yue Ran did his best to turn a blind eye to his character ID as he greeted his cousin’s guildmates.

[(Local) Vault of Heavens Essence<: Hello everyone.] 

The guild members were fired up all at once when they saw the leader’s wife join the guild and enthusiastically began asking questions left and right.

For now, Yue Ran didn’t reply and waited for his cousin to explain.

Qin Xiujie knew what he meant. He explained his reason so Yue Ran could be on the same page.

It was very simple. He likes Pear Blossom Rain, Pear Blossom Rain likes the leader, but the leader didn’t like her. 

Their leader bought an alt account for unknown reasons. When he learned that it was a couple’s account, he made a bet with the leader on a whim. If the leader meets the other account within three days, the leader and the other player would pretend to be a couple for a month. The leader knew what his motive was and agreed.

Yue Ran narrowed his eyes. “Oh, is that why you’ve been pushing me to return to the game?”

His cousin chuckled. “We only placed the bet today, and I didn’t tell you which account to buy. The only thing I told you was come meet me at the general store.”

That was true. 

Yue Ran was silent.

Qin Xiujie said, “Okay, it’s only one month, and it will go by in the blink of an eye. Give your cousin a chance to gain love.”

Fine.

Yue Ran added nothing else as he ended the call. 

On the other side, Jiang Xiao watched Qin Xiujie put down the phone, and learned that the person was his friend’s younger cousin.

He asked, “You swear you really did nothing?”

“After the bet, I’ve been under your eyes the whole time, no chance for me to make any moves.” Qin Xiujie showed a triumphant smile. “All I knew was that he wanted to buy an account. I specially urged him to enter the game today and then called him over. Anything else had nothing to do with me.”

Of course, if Yue Ran didn’t buy the other couple’s account, he can’t promise that he wouldn’t have done some dirty trick within the remaining two days. 

He asked, “They told me, did you allow him to hit you?”

That was strange. Normally Jiang Xiao’s temper wasn’t that good.

Jiang Xiao nodded and looked back at the game.

He would always complete what he promised others, so when he first spotted the other account, he thought of the bet with his friend and said ‘hi’ to the other player. Afterward…The little summoner threw an adorable tantrum, rolling into a lump with his summoned spirit beasts. That was too comical. For a split second, he got a good impression on the little summoner and that was why he said those following words. 

The guild chat was still lively. Questions were flying in from every direction.

Such as [How did you meet the leader?], [How long have you been together?], [Please slide your photo], [Do you want to do an instance dungeon?], [Is the leader this cold in real life as well?] etc.

Unfortunately, they asked a bunch of questions and a certain someone didn’t answer a single one.

A moment ago, Jiang Xiao vaguely heard the yelling on the other end of the phone. He knew the other party wasn’t thrilled, so he will be considerate for the first time. 

[(Guild) >Smashing Vault of Heaven: He is not good with strangers.]

[(Guild) Vault of Heavens Essence<: We’ve known each other for a very long time, childhood sweethearts even! We got together after his confession (dances in happy circle). No, I will not slide you a photo, only hubby can see them! Okay, we can do an instance dungeon sometime! He is not cold in real life, he loves me very dearly (cover face).]

The two messages were sent almost at the same time, and the guild chat went completely silent.

The guild members thought at the same time without cue: Leader, does this look ‘afraid of strangers’ to you? 

Jiang Xiao: “…”

Yue Ran: “…”

They successfully pretended to be a couple for five minutes and immediately shot themselves in the feet.