New chapter

"Chao, left!" Yitian called and Chao moved to the right side, evading the opponent, attacking him from the back. Yitian fired many shots at the attacker, but they weren't so successful.

"Should we try the new combo?" Yitian asked Chao, who only nodded.

"Yixing, when I say 'now' jump to the... " Yitian looked around the map quickly, while waiting for the cool off.

"Before me." Chao finished the instructions and Yitian smiled. He was still a better strategist. Yitian looked at Chao's shoulder for a brief moment, it was already healed. No wonder since it was more than two months already.

He looked at the toolbar and noticed that all of his skills were available. Yitian jumped at the highest stable branch of the tree and took a steady position.

His first target was the swordmaster attacking Yixing. This was common, since Yixing joined them later and his level was low. But he was leveling up at a fast pace thanks to their help.

Yitian took the aim and a deep breath. His right hand was moving, to keep the aim at the player's body.

"Now!" Yitian shouted and at the exact moment pressed two. Yixing was quick to jump in front of Chao and activated the shield. It all happened in a matter of seconds, so Yitian could calmly continue with his sequence. Two, four, two. Move. Six, eight, eight.

A sudden sign of their victory appeared on the screen and Chao with Yixing jumped up happy and did some victory dance.

But Yitian was stunned. They might not have noticed but he did. Their plan was perfectly executed. Chao was moving his player, to have both of the opponents in one line. And a bit closer into Yitian's range of fire.

The combo he pressed released first HP damage, and after he moved, he used MP spells to fire a big cannon shot. His chain skills weren't bad.

But when he pressed the last eight, he was attacked by an animal. Their summoner found him. That was rare. Most players give up on searching for him, once he disappears. But this one…

Good that this was the 3v3, who had two deaths lost.

And because his weapon did something unexpected, he would be killed in a second by that animal.

"My weapon…" He was still shocked by what happened in the last second of the game. Chao quickly moved to his side and pressed P.

"GUN SHARDS?!" he shouted and looked stunned. Instead of a gun in the equipment window, there were only gun shards. And it was all worthless materials not even remotely near the level of the materials it was made of.

"How is that even possible?" Yixing asked, but no one was able to answer him. They all sat in their chairs and were incapable of speech. Yitian leaned back and closed his eyes. He was so tired, and this was another hurdle to overcome.

He shifted from the game to the game forum and tried to look up answers. And wow, there it was.

"When your level is higher than the weapon's level, using the higher-level skill will shard the weapon into worthless materials regardless of what it was made of." Yitian was reading aloud shocked and rubbing his eyes in the meanwhile, when he finished he yawned and looked drowsy at Chao.

"I don't care, sleep, now!" Chao got up from the chair and started pulling Yitian up by hand.

"Wait! why? We still haven't finished what we were supposed to do today. We need to work more." Yitian protested. He needed to work harder, so he would be good enough.

But unfortunately, he got a forehead flick from Chao as a wakeup call from his whining.

"I don't care. Your eyes are red, you look drowsy and totally dead. You need to sleep. Screw the game, you can't be ill." Chao said and looked at Yixing who was trying to start a new mission.

"Don't even try that! You sleep too! We aren't sleeping enough…" He said and then rubbed his neck. It was a holiday, they had no school and to be honest. Chao had no idea when was the last time he slept in a bed.

"We need to make a schedule. This is doing more damage than good. We will be tired, not in top condition." Yitian exhaled, knowing that Chao was right, that they had to sleep in bed this night. He glanced at the watches. More like early morning, because it was 4 am.

"Should we think about it now? To apply it sooner?" Yixing asked, soon after he reddened because his stomach rumbled. Yitian and Chao laughed.

"I will fix some midnight snack. And we can discuss it while at it." Yitian chuckled, Cha and Yixing both nodded and sat at the counter. Yitian rubbed his eyes again, feeling a burning sensation. He quickly made some light sandwiches and sat next to them.

"We need a schedule. For sure. We can't go on like this. Even professional teams have fixed times of gaming." Yitian said while eating. Both of them nodded. Yixing got up and brought a notepad with a pen and passed it to Yitian.

"So how about waking at 7 am?" He asked, but he was rewarded by a horrified expression and dead silence. "So eight. Okay," he smirked and wrote 8 am as the start of their day. None of these two was an early bird, and to be honest, not even Yitian, but he was just too used to waking up so early, he didn't mind.

"Morning run or exercise, breakfast, and clean up time should be next," Chao said and tapped on the next line with his finger. Now it was Yitian's time to be horrified. Exercising was his nightmare. AND EVERY DAY? He wrote those things with a defeated posture, which made Chao laugh.

Like this, they finished their daily schedule and soon they went to sleep. Yixing entered his room, but Chao stopped Yitian just before entering his.

"Show me your eyes," Chao said after seeing Yitian ribbing them again.

"It's okay. It hurts just a bit," Yitian waved it away but Chao forcefully caught his head and turned Yitian to see better to his eyes. Red. Chao blew a slightly bit to both his eyes when Yitian blinked and teared up.

"You are not using your eye-drops!" Chao was fed up. " You are looking into the screen too much and it's drying them out, hurting them!" He walked away into his room. Soon after he came back and threw a new bottle to Yitian.

"Drop them and don't make me come and do it myself!" Chao slammed his door, not seeing the cute smile on Yitian's face.

The note with the daily schedule was pinned to the fridge. Dragon's schedule. Starting a new chapter in their life.