Who's Cheating?

"Hello," Yu Xuejiao greeted. Thinking that the other party might have muted the voice chats, she typed her greeting separately.

[Now] Chestnut: Hello

[Now] Preceding Summer: ?

Now what?

Yu Xuejiao felt like crying.

[Now] Chestnut: Sorry for the last time. I shouldn't have attacked you.

[Now] Preceding Summer: It's okay.

After that, Preceding Summer's avatar was moving away again.

"Wait!" Yu Xuejiao subconsciously exclaimed through the mic.

She was about to type it in text when she saw a reply from Preceding Summer.

[Now] Preceding Summer: ?

It turned out that the other party could hear her all along.

"I… I wanted to make it up to you," Yu Xuejiao muttered and then initiated a trade with Preceding Summer.

[Now] Preceding Summer: No need.

"Please take it. Treat it as an apology."

[Now] Preceding Summer: I forgive you. No need to give me anything.

"I really insist!"

[Now] Preceding Summer: Okay.

Yu Xuejiao let out a sigh of relief.

Her purpose wasn't to only apologize to Preceding Summer—but of course, her intentions weren't sinister.

From time to time, she might have schemes, but behind each of them were simple-minded thoughts.

In this case, Preceding Summer was super super super cool, so Yu Xuejiao wanted to befriend her and add her to their guild.

Yu Xuejiao started rambling as she added a weapon to the trading window. "You know, I coincidentally have a good Healing Staff that fits you well. It's indigo tier, and the passive increases your attack. Others were telling me to reroll the passive, but I disagreed since I was afraid that the tier might downgrade."

Indigo weapons were currently the highest tier for weapons—unless the developers did a major update, which shouldn't be happening anytime soon.

From Preceding Summer's screen, the active and passive of the weapon could be seen.

Yu Xuejiao was right. It indeed fit their aggressive healer style shown in the duel earlier.

[Now] Preceding Summer: Thank you.

"Can we add each other as friends?" Yu Xuejiao asked.

She waited for the other party's answer. Enough time had passed for her to turn her PC on and off three times, but there was still no response.

"Pleaaaase~?" Subconsciously, Yu Xuejiao acted spoiled, like she usually did toward her brothers, forgetting that she had a voice changer on.

To be honest, the sound of it would indeed make anyone's heart melt, but…

That was her brother's voice she was using!

Receiving no response from the other party, Yu Xuejiao tried another approach.

"Where are you headed next?"

[Now] Preceding Summer: Forest of the Dead.

Yes! She replied!

Yu Xuejiao was happy.

"Are you planning to farm Corrupted Pearls?" she asked, knowing that the said material was something Shamans often farmed for.

Why were there pearls in the forests? Ask the developers. The author had no idea either.

[Now] Preceding Summer: Yes.

"Can I come with you? Please?" Yu Xuejiao's voice had a pleading sound to it.

From the other side of the screen, the poor Shaman felt helpless upon hearing the other party.

[Now] Preceding Summer: Okay.

"Yay~!"

Yu Xuejiao was smiling, even humming, as she followed Preceding Summer to the Forest of the Dead.

No one talked. They just killed and killed monsters here and there.

Yu Xuejiao was fine with it at first, but the silence was kinda getting to her.

"So, uh… The game… The game is updating soon. Do you think they'd be adding new weapon tiers?" Yu Xuejiao did her best to start a conversation, knowing that the answer to that was 'no.'

She didn't receive a response. QAQ

[Now] Preceding Summer: How do you know there's an update?

The response was late, but Yu Xuejiao was still happy, and then horrified again.

It wasn't like she could tell the other party that her brother mentioned it to her! But now that she thought about it, how did Yu Chengli know indeed? Their family is more on the medical side too.

Yu Xuejiao quickly made up a logical answer. "I saw people talking about it in the game's forum. Those leakers are pretty accurate most of the time, so we'll probably get an update soon."

[Now] Preceding Summer: Okay.

They were back to silence.

Yu Xuejiao understood that they weren't close enough to talk the entire time, but she was simply too used to bantering with others when it was necessary to grind.

[Now] Preceding Summer: I'm logging out.

"Can I add you as a frie—" Before she could finish talking, the Shaman's avatar already turned into particles of light.

"Lili, what time is it?" Yu Xuejiao asked with a sulky voice.

"9:29 PM."

Look at that. One and a half hour before her bed time. Maybe she should log out now as well?

At this moment, Xiao Chunsheng's face popped up in her mind again.

"..."

"GO AWAYYYYYYY!"

She needed to get distracted again. And so, she went back to their guild.

"Look who's here. Hey cheater. What's up?" Moon Lamp said.

"..." She was just gone for a bit. How did she become a cheater?

"See! Chestnut is speechless."

Yu Xuejiao couldn't help but think that Moon Lamp was out of gossips to poke her nose into, so she made one up, featuring her.

"Who did I cheat on, and who did I cheat with?" Yu Xuejiao wanted to know her own tea too.

"You spent so much effort tracking down that Prattling Spear. Aren't you chasing Jade? Yet you're currying favors with that Summer gal!" Moon Lamp didn't sound the least bit angry. On the contrary, she sounded very excited.

"..." How should Yu Xuejiao explain ah?

Fortunately, she really didn't have to because Blood Jade started laughing hard.

She then spoke up, "You know, Moon, when it comes to being nosy and gossipy, you're number one. But Chestnut is only three or four rankings behind you. If your online boyfriend also cheats on you—"

"Okay, stop! Knock on wood! Don't hex me!"

"Heh. Deserve," Yu Xuejiao snarkily commented.

"Shut up. Why are you even here? Don't you have a job?" Moon Lamp retorted.

"Wait for your boyfriend to cheat on you—" Yu Xuejiao was immediately cut off.

"You bitter—" So Yu Xuejiao cut off Moon Lamp too.

"I'll chase him hard and beat him until he's battered too. Bye. Good night." After saying that, Yu Xuejiao really did log out.

It wasn't even ten o'clock yet, so she was still unwilling to sleep. And she didn't want to play anymore either, which was why she logged out in the first place.

"Oh yeah. Keyboard!" Yu Xuejiao clapped once.

She was expecting a couple of paperwork, so it would be nice to have a nice-sounding keyboard.