It meant that the fireflies were born in the Ten-Thousand-Fathom Abyss, and their lifelong pursuit was to fly across the abyss and reach the surface. Yet once they did, they could survive only for a brief seven days before burning themselves out.

Yu He scratched the cat under the chin.

Why did it suddenly feel so BE…

“Let’s keep going,” Tang Shaoqing said.

“Mm.”

The dungeon was called “Fireflies.” With all these fireflies and that note they’d found, the content was probably related to this theme.

As they walked on, they ran into another little girl.

“…Isn’t that the one from earlier?” Porridge sounded unsure.

“She looks a bit different.”

Her clothes looked like nothing more than a piece of rag wrapped around her body, though her hairstyle was about the same.

Yu Guo stepped up to talk to the girl.

“She says she’s a firefly. Her wings are damaged, and she can’t fly up. She wants us to help her repair them and take us up if we do.”

Porridge: “How are we supposed to repair them?”

“It’s probably the same girl as before. The face and the eyes are exactly the same,” Yu He said, zooming in and hovering the camera right up to the girl’s face.

Yu Guo hummed in agreement. “She said there’s a place in the abyss with a miraculous elixir. She gave me a firefly; it’ll guide us there.”

“It’s pretty nice-looking. Really delicate; you can even see its little legs.” Yu Guo opened [Firefly] interface. The description contained only the word “Firefly,” as if the entire creature glowed, its legs clearly visible.

Thankfully, it was in a game and drawn quite beautifully. If they’d given her a giant realistic bug, she would’ve died on the spot.

“Let’s go.” Yu Guo clicked ‘Use.’

Yu He followed behind, propping his chin as he moved along slowly. With World Chat gone, things suddenly felt a bit unfamiliar.

Normally, whether he was wandering aimlessly or getting farmed, he’d always glance at the forums or World Chat, kind of like scrolling Zhihu1Similar to Quora. A Q&A / knowledge-sharing platform in class or Weibo before bed.

“Wife.” Yu He was spacing out when that Voice Changer chose the worst possible moment to speak again.

“What?” Yu He answered reflexively, his voice carrying a trace of resigned impatience.

Only after speaking did he realize something was off. His hand froze on the controls, and the bunny-eared loli came to a stop as well.

Why did he even respond?? He wasn’t his wife.

“It’s nothing, just calling you.”

Yu He: “…”

Guoguo: … You two

Guoguo: QVQ

Guoguo: Just get on with it

Daming Lake’s Xia Yuhe: Get on my ass. Go do your quest

Guoguo: Bro, you’ve changed. You never used to object to me shipping 2D characters QAQ

Daming Lake’s Xia Yuhe: Am I a 2D character?

Guoguo: He-jiang and Doting on He-jiang are

Daming Lake’s Xia Yuhe: ?

Staring at that question mark, Yu Guo hurriedly changed the subject—

Guoguo: u1s1,2If there’s one, say one = To be fair/Real talk/Gotta admit Voice Changer actually seems like a decent guy…

Even though the whole “girl got driven to quit the game by Voice Changer” thing was blowing up all over world chat and the forums, Voice Changer hadn’t really deceived anyone’s feelings.

Anyone who knew the inside story knew that he and that girl were just a game CP. They did quests together, that was it; no private contact info, not even QQ added. Probably afraid his real voice would give him away.

Maybe he used a voice changer just to satisfy a bit of vanity. But isn’t online interaction all about preserving a hazy sense of goodwill? Playing games and doing dailies together is more fun when the voice sounds nice, and with a screen between you, you might never meet in real life anyway.

Lying was definitely wrong. That girl and her friend had every right to put him on broadcast. But did he really have bad intentions?

Maybe he was just some pitiful soul from the real world, coming to the virtual one to look for comfort.

Daming Lake’s Xia Yuhe: Maybe

He didn’t really know either. He’d only known this Voice Changer for two days.

This person gave him just three words’ worth of an impression: “dumb and rich.” A 99-rmb name-change card handed out without hesitation, a 998 outfit bought on a whim. If that wasn’t dumb and rich, what was?

Even though he himself was a second-generation rich kid, his parents had raised him frugally. When he was young, he’d even had to split a bag of spicy strips with Tang Shaoqing.

As he was thinking this, Yu He switched the camera to the black-clad assassin, only to find the guy walking straight toward him.

“Why’d you stop moving?” Voice Changer asked.

He’d just been talking about him behind his back, so Yu He suddenly felt a little guilty. “The internet seems kinda laggy…”

Yeah. Lag. Definitely lag. Not because he’d been gossiping and forgot to move.

[Player “Doting on He-jiang ” wants to princess-carry you.]

[Accept or Reject]

Yu He: “?”

“If you accept, you won’t have to operate manually. Otherwise, if your lag gets worse later, who knows what might happen,” Voice Changer said again.

Yu He finally understood what it felt like to lift a rock only to smash his own foot.

So considerate. Way too considerate.

After being forced to click “Accept,” the bunny-eared loli was scooped into the black-clad assassin’s arms. The little ears twitched and bobbed, and paired with their IDs, they were basically a walking dog-food dispenser.

Tang Shaoqing smiled and took a few more screenshots.

“Uh… can I gossip a bit?” Porridge walked two steps, stopped for a few seconds, then walked two more, finally catching up to them. Yu Guo looked like she was still walking ahead, but her ears had long since grown over here.

“Mm.” Tang Shaoqing answered first, leaving Yu He with no chance to refuse.

“So how did you two get together?” Porridge asked.

Tang Shaoqing curled his lips and began spinning nonsense with a straight face. “The last time Jiao Jiao said this account was bought, none of you believed her; but that time, it was actually true.”

Yu He: “…”

Bro, that time it was fake. You’re not going to be able to get off this stage.3Finding oneself in an awkward situation

“I happened to find out. Back then, we were both being hunted all over the place. I saved her, and by a twist of fate, we formed a bond.”

“She was a total newbie, didn’t understand anything. She accidentally bought this account, so I casually taught her some things and gave her some items. She felt really bad about it.”

“Plus, she was constantly being hunted with bounties on her head; no one believed her, and her mentality kind of collapsed. She wanted to A the game and kept wanting to divorce me, saying she’d sell the account. But she also felt that the things I gave her were too expensive and felt really sorry toward me.”

“But it’s fine. I really like him.4The “ta” used here was really he/him, but he was using she/her earlier. Spending a bit of money doesn’t matter. Given my situation, a game CP is about all I can manage anyway. I guess I was a little selfish. I hoped he’d keep playing the game with me.”

Listening to himself, Tang Shaoqing almost felt like switching careers to become a novelist. It was all keyboard work anyway; pretty much professionally related for someone who typed code all day.

Porridge: “Holy…”

Who knew it was actually such a heart-wrenching love story? Why did it make him feel so moved that he almost wanted to cry?

Author’s note:

“A-ing the game” means quitting the game.