Chapter 37: Finally, Finally
After praising Endless Time's shot-calling from top to bottom, the four members of Disqualified の Summer divided up the loot, added each other as friends, and left the party.
Blue Sky Beyond and Sister Dog went off to eat. Lime was still at the internet café and logged off to head home.
Before long, everyone had logged off, leaving only Endless Time and Xiao Chi in the party.
[Party] Endless Time: Not eating?
[Party] Light Boat Has Passed: I'm streaming for twelve hours today. Not logging off.
[Party] Endless Time: You still need to eat.
[Party] Light Boat Has Passed: I am. I've already ordered takeout.
[Party] Endless Time: I've actually got overtime. Logging off for now. I'll be back online later.
[Party] Light Boat Has Passed: Oh, okay.
[Why am I getting goosebumps just reading this conversation???]
[Damn! Are you two filming a romance drama or what?]
[Got a screenshot, everyone. I'm making a CP fan page. I can't take this anymore!]
Not long after Endless Time logged off, Xiao Chi's takeout arrived.
Feeling a little embarrassed to eat in front of the camera, Xiao Chi said, "Guys, while I'm eating, let's watch the replay. I'm planning to make a Ranyi Fish tutorial video."
He switched the stream entirely to his desktop and opened the recording of the dungeon they had just cleared.
[?]
[Couldn't you watch literally anything else while eating? You just finished this run!]
[You're so down bad. Endless Time logs off to work overtime, and you're sitting here watching his gameplay while you eat.]
[Holy crap, what is this housewife romance trope? I'm obsessed!]
As he watched the replay, Xiao Chi commented along the way.
"Endless Time's thought process is really clear. He explained the Ranyi Fish strategy incredibly well. It's honestly so comfortable listening to him lead, you know? Having a commander with clear logic and organized calls is so important in raids. Otherwise, you just feel like a headless fly, running around everywhere. Sometimes your whole team's DPS is good enough, but you still can't beat the boss. That's a game sense issue. Without great game sense, you simply can't be a good raid leader."
"Me? I'm not really cut out for it. My mechanics are decent, I guess, but when I'm focused on playing, I can't keep track of the entire battlefield. Like just now—Endless Time was directing everyone while also taking care of the first wave of three water bombs himself. It was incredible! Everyone, look closely—"
Xiao Chi dragged the progress bar back and played it in slow motion.
"—Right here. The instant Ranyi Fish's Water Bomb cast bar appeared—just 0.1 seconds in—Endless Time was already telling everyone to spread out. The cast is only two seconds long! In that tiny window, he'd already predicted the bombs' trajectories, moved from his original DPS position to here, and then bam, bam, bam—knocked away all three projectiles."
"Sword Cultivators don't have a blink skill. He chained together side rolls, back rolls, and movement abilities seamlessly to reposition at high speed. Normally, you'd assign three people to deal with the first wave—one bomb each. Since Endless Time handled them all himself, every DPS player could stay on the boss and unload damage. That's why we cleared it so fast."
"A truly all-around commander."
[...]
[So... what'd everyone have for dinner?]
[Can somebody remind the streamer that he's making it really obvious how much he's into this guy? He's been praising him forever. He might not be tired, but we sure are.]
[Seriously though, is this scripted, or are they actually some heaven-sent OTP?]
[It's hard to believe someone this handsome could fall so hard without using his brain.]
[Seems normal to me. Plenty of guys worship sports stars or pro gamers like they're in love. I think Xiao Chi's basically in that mindset.]
[When you're gaming and some ridiculously skilled all-rounder keeps treating you well, it's honestly hard not to catch feelings, girls!]
[Until you meet IRL and immediately want to die. Don't ask me how I know. #smile]
[Please stop. I just got off work and came to watch a stream for fun. I don't need reminders that real life exists, thanks. As long as Endless Time never does a face reveal, I can ship this forever!]
[Look on the bright side—we already know at least one of them is insanely handsome. Isn't that enough, girls?]
[Can everyone be quiet and let us watch the gameplay? The streamer is giving a pretty good explanation. This is a gaming stream. If you want to talk about random stuff, go somewhere else.]
After finishing the replay once, Xiao Chi jotted down a few key points in his notes, planning to edit the tutorial after ending the stream.
No one else from the guild was online. He watered the Nameless Seed first, spent some time hauling stones, then headed to Mount Gouwu to mine copper ore. Mining there was a pain—the mountain was full of cliffs, so there was a lot of climbing involved.
After mining for quite a while, he teleported back to the guild sanctuary and started crafting keys.
In Quest for the Azure Heavens, dungeons can drop Premium Treasure Chests, and daily activities also reward them. Opening a Premium Treasure Chest gives a random reward, which could be equipment, crafting materials, or completely worthless junk.
Opening one requires a copper key crafted from mined ore. Players either spend the effort making the keys themselves or buy ready-made ones from the Trading Hall.
Some unlucky players simply put the unopened treasure chests on the Trading Hall and let someone else gamble on opening them.
After all, the keys weren't cheap.
Sometimes Xiao Chi sold keys too. That night, he crafted a huge pile of them, and his viewers assumed he was about to list them for sale. Instead, he dumped all 99+ keys into the guild warehouse.
At first, nobody thought much of it.
After all, plenty of life-skill players created several alternate accounts just to meet the minimum member requirement for establishing a small guild, then used the guild warehouse as a personal storage space.
Little Veggie Guild's guild sanctuary hadn't been upgraded yet, so its warehouse was still at the lowest level: three pages total, with one hundred slots per page. More than half of those three hundred slots were already packed with Xiao Chi's hoarded materials. Guild warehouse permissions could be assigned by page. As guild leader, Xiao Chi had set it so that all guild members could access only the first page, while the second and third pages were accessible only to himself and Endless Time.
The first page was practically empty.
That evening, Xiao Chi spent some time organizing the warehouse. He moved commonly used quest materials, along with the healing potions, mana potions, speed buffs, and food items frequently used in dungeons, onto the first page of the guild warehouse. He then changed the permissions so that all guild members could freely deposit and withdraw items from that page.
By the time he finished, it was finally ten o'clock.
Letting out a sigh of relief, Xiao Chi said, "Alright, everyone, it's ten. I'm ending the stream."
The chat immediately filled with question marks.
[Don't go! Chat with us a little longer!]
[Didn't Endless Time say he'd be back online later? You're not waiting for him?]
[Don't think you can end the stream and secretly play with Endless Time behind our backs!]
[What an amazing guild leader! You stocked up all those potions and snacks for the guild members to use?!]
"No, I've streamed for twelve hours straight. I'm really exhausted. I've got another twelve-hour stream tomorrow to make up my hours. See you tomorrow. Bye!"
Without another word, Xiao Chi ended the stream. After closing the streaming software, he slumped back in his chair, staring blankly at Light Boat Has Passed, standing idle inside the guild sanctuary.
It was ten o'clock now. Sister Dog and Lime had both logged in and were doing their daily quests.
There was still no sign of Endless Time. Was he really still working overtime? He must be so tired...
Even with such a busy schedule, he still found time to carry Xiao Chi through dungeons...
Endless Time is such a good person.
Everyone's so nice.
[Guild] Light Boat Has Passed: I put some materials, keys, and other stuff on the first page of the guild warehouse. If anyone needs anything, just help yourselves.
[Guild] If A Dog Wants To Leave I Dont Stop It: ??? Thank you, boss! Waaaah, Guild Leader, you're so generous!
[Guild] If A Dog Wants To Leave I Dont Stop It: You ended your stream?
[Guild] Light Boat Has Passed: Yeah. My brain's completely fried. I'm going AFK for a bit to shower.
When Xiao Chi came back after washing up, Endless Time still hadn't logged in.
He picked up his phone and idly scrolled through it, only to notice a new friend request on WeChat.
He tapped it open. It was from Endless Time.
Xiao Chi's hand jerked so hard that he nearly dropped his phone. He hurriedly grabbed it and accepted the request.
He… He had actually become WeChat friends with Endless Time.
Xiao Chi was stunned.
He opened Endless Time's Moments. There weren't many posts. The few that existed were all about games. MMORPGs, single-player games, console games… Most of them were just screenshots with the simple caption: Fun.
Xiao Chi browsed through them one by one. He had played most of those games already.
The ones he hadn't played, he quietly made a mental note of, thinking he'd try them after finishing his makeup streaming hours in a couple of days.
Endless Time... really does love playing games.
[Shi: Brother Xiao Chi.]
[Shi: I'm not getting online tonight after all. Still haven't finished work. Just wanted to let you know.]
Xiao Chi hurriedly started typing, making several typos before deleting them and starting over.
[Xiao Chi: It's okay. You didn't have to tell me.]
[Shi: I was afraid you'd wait for me.]
For some reason, the moment he read that message, Xiao Chi felt his face instantly grow hot. Thankfully, he'd already ended the stream. Otherwise, the viewers would've teased him again.
Holding his phone, Xiao Chi had no idea how to reply.
Have the viewers gotten into my head or something?!
There's definitely no hidden meaning behind what Endless Time said. He's just someone who's kind and polite to everyone.
Xiao Chi took a deep breath.
[Xiao Chi: It's fine. I was just about to log off anyway. I played for too long today.]
[Shi: Make sure you get some rest.]
[Shi: I've been wanting to queue battlefields with you for a while, but we never got around to it. After I finish this overtime shift, I'll have tomorrow off. How about you carry me in some battlefields tomorrow, Brother Xiao Chi?]
[Xiao Chi: Ah, sure! Of course.]
[Shi: Back to work for me.]
[Xiao Chi: 8]
Xiao Chi had wanted to type bye, but it felt too cutesy. See you felt too formal. Good night felt too intimate.
In the end, he copied Qian Yu and simply replied with an 8—Chinese internet slang because "8" (ba) sounds like the "ba" in bye-bye.
Even after shutting down his computer and lying in bed, Xiao Chi was still too excited to fall asleep.
He'd become WeChat friends with Endless Time!
And Endless Time had said they'd play battlefields together tomorrow!
He reread their WeChat conversation over and over again, never growing tired of it.
I got to talk to Endless Time again...
I get to play games with Endless Time again...
Finally... finally...
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