Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

            Bound Boat: Hey.

Xu Boyuan didn’t know why, but that single word sent chills down his spine. He took a bracing sip of his tea.

            Blue River: Yes?

            Bound Boat: I was talking to the boss about potential recruits and he wanted me to tell you that the Rosy Dusk girl is cleared.

            Blue River: Oh. Okay then. What about the others we mentioned?

            Bound Boat: Alt accounts apparently.

            Bound Boat: How do you want to go about this?

            Blue River: The normal way? How else?

            Bound Boat: We already tried it…

            Blue River: …So does she just not want to join the guild?

            Bound Boat: She’s still new to this so she doesn’t know what all the top guilds represent. She said she wanted to avoid picking sides or something.

            Blue River: Did you tell her no one is going to hunt her down and stab her in a back alley for choosing a club guild to back?

            Bound Boat: Yes but she doesn’t seem to believe us.

            Blue River: :/

            Bound Boat: :/

            Bound Boat: So, I did mention this to Changing Spring…

            Blue River: Okay…

Was it just him, or was that an ominous pause? Xu Boyuan shifted uncomfortably in his seat. Bound Boat and him weren’t exactly the best of friends, but since coming to the tenth server to pioneer for their guild, they had gotten to know each other. Bound Boat didn’t do foreboding. He wasn’t living disaster to disaster like Xu Boyuan seemed to, these days. He was a blessedly ordinary example of a human being.

Maybe Xu Boyuan was paranoid. He couldn’t be blamed for that, considering the amount of bullshit he’d dealt with since coming to this damn server. “Bullshit” being Ye Qiu, of course. That accursed Lord Grim and his accursed friends and their accursed dungeon rec—

            Bound Boat: And he suggested you just try to romance her a little bit. Flirt. You know?

Xu Boyuan’s thoughts screeched to a confused halt. Know what? How to flirt? How to flirt with girls online? How to flirt with girls online to convince them to join his guild?

No, he did not know! What the hell!

            Blue River: There’s no way he suggested that. I refuse to believe it. Tell me the truth.

            Bound Boat: …

            Blue River: Which one of those idiots put you up to this?? Flying Brushstroke?

            Bound Boat: Okay, so it wasn’t Changing Spring’s idea initially, but he approved it.

            Blue River: Like hell he did. Is this a joke?

            Bound Boat: No, really. This is a suggestion. You don’t have to do it, I guess.

            Blue River: You guess??? Can you be a little clearer?

            Bound Boat: It was a suggestion! That’s what the boss said!

            Blue River: So I don’t have to do it.

            Bound Boat: That’s what I typed. Right there. You can read it again.

            Blue River: Don’t you sass me. I’m tired of people sassing me. What makes you think seducing her to our side would work? And why am I supposed to do it??

            Bound Boat: I mean…she just seems romantic. Rosy Dusk? And the scouts said she’s super into those cheesy webnovels, you know, the ones with CEOs and whatnot.

            Blue River: No, I don’t know!!! Why in the world would I know. And why would I know how to seduce someone online???

            Bound Boat: It’s not a ~seduction~, don’t be crass.

            Blue River: This whole strategy is crass.

            Bound Boat: You don’t have to do it.

            Blue River: Is there another way to win her over? Besides investing a lot of time into befriending her.

            Bound Boat: We practically offered her a college course on the Alliance and Blue Rain and even that didn’t work.

            Blue River: So no.

            Bound Boat: Likely not.

            Blue River: Well. Dammit.

            Blue River: You know what? Whatever. I’ll do it.

            Bound Boat: Then…good luck, buddy.

            Blue River: Thanks so much.

It took a concentrated effort of will not to log off of Blue River then and there. The call of Peerless Looks and his comparatively easygoing undercover life in Guild Happy was almost too much to resist. But Xu Boyuan had literally just logged off of Peerless Looks after checking in with Guild Happy, and showing up again so soon might seem suspicious. And maybe he felt guilty. Just a bit.

He didn’t know what he felt guilty for, though. Fooling the sweet-natured and naive members of Guild Happy? Or lowkey neglecting the members of his actual guild and their progress in the tenth server?

Xu Boyuan shifted restlessly in his seat, taking a big gulp of his already lukewarm tea. No one had even recognized his…temporary lapse in judgment, or accused him of betrayal. Nor should they, logically: Ye Qiu was well aware of his identity, and his direct superior was in the loop regarding all of Guild Happy’s developments. But everyone just seemed to casually accept that he was doing whatever he was supposed to while he couldn’t shake the feeling that he was doing something wrong. Or, something not right.

They were so trusting of him. Liang Yichun trusted in Xo Boyuan’s capability, and Ye Qiu trusted in Xu Boyuan’s predictability. In his eyes, they appeared so careless, and that was something Xu Boyuan hadn’t managed to wrap his head around. Carelessness wasn’t in his nature.

Damn. Here he was again, winding himself up. This is why I’m going to die young.

Just as he managed to clear his thoughts and calm down, what he’d just agreed to do hit him full-force and he freaked out all over again.

Why am I here? Just to suffer? he asked himself dramatically, smacking his palm against his forehead.

All things considered…probably.

* * *

Well, Xu Boyuan thought a few minutes later as he diverted yet another existential crisis, I said I’d do it, like an idiot, and now I just have to—do it. The sooner the better.

First things first, he ought to gather information. Xu Boyuan didn’t have the slightest understanding of online dating etiquette—he didn’t exactly play this game to meet girls—so he had to educate himself before he made a move.

His first attempt to learn something ended almost as soon as it began. Searching “how to date gamer girls” brought up a lot of results he didn’t want to look too deeply into, as well as a lot of streaming channels and weird products. Girl gamer bath water? What the actual fuck?

He tried different searches, but every sexist article he read on the topic of gaming and romance cost him at least a dozen braincells each. Occasionally he’d find something that seemed passable as advice, only to shake his head when it ultimately just boiled down to harassment.

Bother girls until they miraculously realized they were in love with you. Right. That seemed realistic. Pulling pigtails on the playground may be a thing, but nobody ever actually appreciated it. And from what Xu Boyuan understood of women, they disliked being bothered just as much as men did.

Fancy that.

Unfortunately, Xu Boyuan was going to have to resort to bothering somebody, because these idiots on the Internet clearly had no sense. He wasn’t exactly a love guru, but even he could tell that much.

He considered his options. His friends list mostly comprised of Blue Brook’s high-level players, the people he dungeoned with, and team leaders, recruiters, and assorted contacts. People he needed to interact with to keep Blue Brook running on the tenth server.

Not people he would ever want to ask for love advice.

(Was it accurate to call it love advice when love wasn’t in any way involved?)

Xu Boyuan procrastinated for as long as he could before he decided on someone to sacrifice his dignity to. Then he took about ten minutes to work up the nerve to actually send her a message, frantically pouring tea down his throat the entire while.

            Blue River: Hey, Grace……

            Lunar Grace: Yes?

            Blue River: How are you today?

            Lunar Grace: Just fine I suppose. What’s up?

            Blue River: I wanted to ask you something. If this makes you uncomfortable just say so.

            Lunar Grace: Okay…………

            Blue River: How should I go about romancing someone in this game?

            Lunar Grace: Excuse me

            Lunar Grace: what

Okay, that was a reaction. Xu Boyuan winced and forged on, face already hot with embarrassment. Probably the only thing worse than this would be questioning Lunar Grace in person.

            Blue River: Like if another player was interested in you, how would you want him to express it?

            Lunar Grace: Who did you fall in love with?

            Lunar Grace: Is it Lord Grim?

Xu Boyuan was glad he’d finished his tea, because he definitely would have choked and died and then where would Blue Brook be?

            Blue River: I would sooner stab myself. It’s a girl.

            Lunar Grace: A girl you’re in love with.

            Blue River: It’s not that, I have to convince this girl that I like her.

            Lunar Grace: What in the world for??

            Blue River: For her to join our guild…

            Lunar Grace: You want to date someone just to get them to join up??

            Blue River: I have orders! Don’t judge me, I’m not a fan of this plan either!!

            Lunar Grace: You absolute fool. Who is this girl? Do I know her?

            Blue River: I don’t think so, her name is Rosy Dusk. We haven’t managed to recruit her.

            Lunar Grace: So you’re going to try your manly wiles on her.

            Blue River: Please don’t say it like that.

            Lunar Grace: You’re going to flirt with her like a bad boy and then make her run dungeons for us.

            Blue River: …………

            Blue River: Well, would that work??

            Lunar Grace: This is absurd and I am laughing incredulously. Goodbye.

            Blue River: Wait no!

Helpless to stop her, Xu Boyuan watched the green dot next to Lunar Grace’s player ID turn gray. Great. He had been abandoned in his hour of need. Now what?

Xu Boyuan briefly contemplated his friends list again, but just the thought of enduring another, similar conversation—or heavens forbid, something even worse—was enough to make him give up.

With a deep, appropriately dramatic sigh, Xu Boyuan collapsed against the back of his chair and stared up at the ceiling. It was past midnight, there was nothing to do outside, and no good reason to log off and forget this entire evening ever happened. He had responsibilities.

That reminder had him straightening in his seat at last. Yes, exactly, he did have responsibilities, and this was one of them. How hard could it be to convince a girl he liked her? Hadn’t Xu Boyuan faced a lot worse? Even just these last few months, he had been put through the wringer. If he thought of it as spending time with a skilled player, then it wasn’t too daunting. It could even be a vacation. All he needed to do was get along with Rosy Dusk. Play the game together. Chat about vaguely romantic things. That should be downright relaxing, no?

But before he could embark on this relaxing journey, Xo Boyuan had to cover his bases. So he tracked his cursor over to another name on his friends list, a name that still sent a shiver of trepidation down his spine (and more than a hint of annoyance), and opened a chat window.

            Blue River: I’m not going to be spending much time on my alt anymore. Good luck with the guild.

The reply arrived quickly, which wasn’t such a surprise anymore. Xu Boyuan used to think someone like Ye Qiu had better things to do than mingle with common folk like himself, but he’d come to realize that Ye Qiu didn’t really see people that way. Even if he was retired.

(And wasn’t that just laughable? Xu Boyuan still couldn’t figure out how someone that damn terrifying could be retired.)

No, Ye Qiu saw people as obstacles. He was a bowling ball and all the (Glory) world was made up of pins. But if you stayed out of his way, he might not knock you down. He might even slow down and make conversation.

            Lord Grim: i’m sure i’ll manage

            Blue River: Yes, well, I’ll be handling some important business in the meanwhile.

            Lord Grim: lol what important business

            Blue River: Important! Business!

            Lord Grim: okay then, you do that

            Lord Grim: when will you be back?

            Blue River: Who said anything about me coming back?

            Lord Grim: don’t make me laugh

…Infuriating conversation.

            Blue River: I have better things to do than babysit your small noob army.

            Lord Grim: and yet—

            Blue River: And yet nothing!

            Blue River: I am busy, do you understand that? Can you read??

            Lord Grim: ah yes

            Lord Grim: don’t let me stop you from attending to your solemn guild leader duties

            Lord Grim: but if you intent to leave permanently then tell me so i can fill in your spot

            Blue River: What do you mean, fill in my spot?

            Lord Grim: i mean that a lot of people would love to join my guild and having someone who doesn’t ever show up taking up a spot would obviously be a waste

            Lord Grim: i’m fine with harboring spies as long as they’re honest workers and don’t freeload

Xu Boyuan’s eye twitched. What kind of logic...

But on second thought, it made sense. Why did it make sense? Why?

            Blue River: Will you even be able to find somebody as competent as me?

            Lord Grim: anyone who can follow orders is competent enough for me

            Blue River: I’ll check in now and then.

            Lord Grim: :)

* * *

Arranging a meeting with Rosy Dusk wasn’t as difficult as he expected. Xu Boyuan found her location through his guild members and invited himself over, and that was that.

Rosy Dusk was a Launcher, which resulted in some vaguely haunting flashbacks the first time he clapped eyes on her. Her equipment was well-matched and color-coded, something Xu Boyuan had come to expect from female players. She looked a lot more capable than what he was used to, though. Not the kind of person to sacrifice functionality in the name of fashion, clearly, but the kind who’d prefer to be called fierce and pretty.

Someone he could work with. Relaxing a little, he approached her.

“Rose, this is Blue River,” a guild member introduced them. Not a recruiter, but a scout who’d been asked to keep an eye on her, and who didn’t openly wear the guild tag. “Blue River, Rosy Dusk.”

“Hi, my friend Bound Boat mentioned you to me.”

“Hello,” she offered. “Are you here to try and recruit me, too?”

Well, that was blunt. But he was openly wearing the guild tag. “No, I just wanted to dungeon with someone different. You like dungeoning, right?” That was what he’d been told…

“Mostly I just like the drops,” Rosy Dusk said dryly. Her Launcher moved a little closer to his Blade Master. “You want to hit up some dungeons, then? Are you any good?”

“I’m a higher level than you,” Xu Boyuan returned, a little bemused. “But yes, I’m good.”

“Plenty of people have time to grind all day and yet no skills to show for it.”

Why did this girl talk like a seasoned Glory veteran? Wasn’t she new to this game? “I promise I can pull my weight. Have you played any other MMOs?”

“Yeah, some. Which dungeons do you like?”

Okay, now it made sense. “The hard ones. What other MMOs are you into?”

Conversation soon flowed between them. The guild member who introduced them excused herself, though she made sure to privately inform Xu Boyuan of some of Rosy Dusk’s habits and preferences. It was useful information, but for now it mostly served to make Xu Boyuan feel like a creepy stalker.

This whole thing felt creepy, if he thought too hard about it. So he focused on the relaxing aspect of it all. Here was someone who, for the time being, was completely unrelated to the chaos his work life had become. Somebody who just wanted to have fun and enjoy herself. Yes, work was the whole reason he was hanging out with Rosy Dusk in the first place, but he could still just…be her friend, right? If they got along well enough, maybe he wouldn’t even have to woo her or whatever.

Say what you would about Xu Boyuan, but he lived in hope. And very much did not know how to flirt with girls online. Or maybe in general.

He and Rosy Dusk hooked up with some random players outside a Level 45 dungeon and cleared it without too much fuss. Then it was rinse and repeat up until about three AM, when Rosy Dusk called it a night.

“Better get to bed,” she said, though she sounded pleased.

“Eager to be rid of me?” Xu Boyuan asked, teasing her much like he would anyone from his usual party.

Wait, no. He couldn’t do that, he had to give her special treatment like any admirer did with the object of their affections.

...What was special treatment?

He didn’t know what he was doing, did he.

Before he could come up with something, Rosy Dusk laughed a little, sounding almost shy. “Nah, I had a good time. You really are pretty skilled, especially compared to some of the people I’ve been stuck with. Wanna do this again tomorrow?”

Xu Boyuan’s eyes widened. Hope cautiously raised its head. Perhaps he did know what he was doing. “Definitely. Here, I’ll send you a friend request.”

They friended each other and agreed to meet tomorrow night.

Feeling a little daring, Xu Boyuan added hastily, “Oh, and you’re pretty good, too.”

“Ha. Thanks.” And then she was off.

Xu Boyuan sagged in his chair. The ceiling looked down on him with far less judgment than before. He chose to interpret that as a reassuring sign, rather than proof that madness was catching.

Maybe everything would turn out okay. He actually liked Rosy Dusk, and she seemed to like him. They had hit off in just one meeting. Was it possible? Could he pull this off?

...If he pulled this off, nobody would ever let him live it down.

Oh, who was he kidding? They wouldn’t let him live it down regardless.

Chapter Text

Dungeoning the next day indicated he had some minor talent in prophecy, because when Xu Boyuan invited  members of his usual party to join him and Rosy Dusk, he was inundated with teasing comments. They weren’t even in this server, but he knew this must be the other Great Experts’ fault. Bound Boat wouldn’t have dared squeal and Lunar Grace’s preferred revenge was usually a lot more personal.

Not that Xu Boyuan would know much about it. He’d never offended Lunar Grace in his life. Truly.

Everyone is a comedian these days, he internally grumbled as he read through the DMs. It was a test of his concentration to switch between the different chat windows and the party chat, and focus on the dungeon at the same time. Xu Boyuan didn’t know how Ye Qiu pulled off this kind of multitasking on a regular basis. Though in his defense, this dungeon was actually a fair challenge at Blue River’s current level. That was his reasoning for adding his “Blue Brook friends” to this party with Rosy Dusk, after all. She’d only been convinced it was worthwhile when he’d explained the dangers of the dungeon and how much smoother things would go with experienced players.

As instructed, everyone wore their guild tags proudly. Xu Boyuan didn’t think it wise to be more dishonest with Rosy Dusk than absolutely necessary, and why would a member of Blue Brook Guild get to know non-guild players well enough to party up with them on the regular anyway? Xu Boyuan wasn’t that good of an actor; he couldn’t hide how familiar he was with these people.

Rosy Dusk was suspicious at first, but somehow he had her believing that they were ordinary guild members and not the most elite of their ranks in this server. He chose to view that as another sign of her newness to the game and its culture rather than an insult to his abilities.

About two-thirds of the way through the dungeon, Xu Boyuan finally tired of typing individual reprimands and set up a private chat for himself and the other guild members.

            Flower Lantern: tell her her kiting skills are sexy

            Thundering Light: No, tell her her equipment looks cute

            Flower Lantern: girls are never impressed by those kinds of compliments

            Thundering Light: And why not? Girls love it when you notice what they wear

            Flower Lantern: but they know it’s just for show, they know men don’t care

            Thundering Light: Who says men don’t care?

            Flower Lantern: sorry, all men but you don’t care

            Bound Boat: Can we focus on the dungeon…

            Flower Lantern: it’s not that hard of a dungeon, we know how it goes

            Bound Boat: But we have to look out for Rosy Dusk and make sure she doesn’t suspect us of having a private chat discussing the best methods our guild leader can employ to seduce her.

            Blue River: Oh my god, I’m not seducing her. Don’t make me repeat myself again.

            Bound Boat: Sorry.

            Blue River: …You’re having fun with this, aren’t you.

            Bound Boat: Of course not.

            Thundering Light: He is, he’s a traitor

            Flower Lantern: look who’s talking

            Blue River: Both of you are hypocrites. Each of you is as bad as the other and I did nothing to deserve this.

On the other hand, maybe Bound Boat would dare. How else would these two idiots know what was going on? Through their powers of observation? There was nothing to observe!

And that was kind of the problem, wasn’t it. Because there being nothing to observe was the same as saying Xu Boyuan wasn’t making any progress on this…mission. He wasn’t wooing Rosy Dusk.

He just—couldn’t make himself do it. Flirting, what even was that? How did someone just flirt with a stranger on the Internet? Lunar Grace was right, this was absurd. All of it.

“Which way do we go?” Rosy Dusk asked when they arrived at a crossroads in the emerald-studded tunnels they were running through.

Xu Boyuan pulled himself away from the private chat long enough to say, “Left, we’ll get to the boss quicker,” then went right back to trading insults with his so-called friends.

Rosy Dusk’s irritated huff over the mic went unnoticed.

They finished the dungeon with only minor setbacks. Some of those were due to Rosy’s Dusk inexperience, some to everyone else’s inattention. Xu Boyuan himself had made a couple of bad calls in there because he was too busy trying not to reach through the screen to strangle Flower Lantern.

“You guys are a quiet bunch, huh?” Rosy Dusk asked while they headed to the nearest town to restock on potions.

“You think so? We’re always talking shit, though,” Flower Lantern said, audibly confused.

“Well…you barely talked.” A hint of awkwardness lingered in her tone.

“Ah, we usually talk more,” Bound Boat said. In the private chat, he sent some very disgruntled messages.

            Bound Boat: I told you we needed to pay more attention to her! She might get the impression we don’t like her.

            Flower Lantern: why would she think that?

            Bound Boat: We said we know each other well and then we were mostly silent except when we were coordinating attacks. It must seem like we gave her the cold shoulder.

            Bound Boat: You’re all idiots.

            Blue River: Remember, dungeoning together like this was your idea!

            Bound Boat: You hardly even spoke to her!

            Bound Boat: Are you even trying?

            Blue River: Oh shut up. After we restock let’s just make our excuses and leave, I’m tired.

            Thundering Light: …

            Bound Boat: …

            Flower Lantern: …

The atmosphere hanging over the five them was subtly strained when they arrived at the town, whatever conversation they made half-hearted. Rosy Dusk had never been to this town before, so they took it upon themselves to show her around a bit and lead her to the market.

Shopping was a welcome distraction. Just about anything would have been at that point, though. Even a surprise appearance from Ye Qiu.

Xu Boyuan was genuinely upset that this outing had to end on such a note, but not upset enough to try to salvage anything out of the wreckage. The state of things probably wasn’t as bad as he feared anyway. He’d step back, return tomorrow, and carry on as if nothing was wrong. Rosy Dusk surely wouldn’t hold tonight against him.

After comforting himself, he began the retreat.

“Sorry, we must have been boring to hang out with. It’s late and we party up too often, so we’re already sick of each other.” Xu Boyuan laughed stiffly. “Here, I bought a few extra potions by mistake.”

Of course he didn’t buy them by mistake, but Rosy Dusk accepted them anyway. He mailed the items to her and bid her a good night. His useless friends, he didn’t even bother speaking to.

If Xu Boyuan were wise, he’d just call it a night and head to bed. But he was in such a foul mood that he doubted he’d do anything besides toss and turn and cuss out his entire guild. So instead he logged off of Blue River, made himself some tea, very calmly drank it, and then logged on to Peerless Looks.

Despite his better judgment, Xu Boyuan had to admit he found Guild Happy’s company uplifting: things were simpler, there was  no real politicking, no real expectations, and everyone admired him without demanding too much of him. It was all so blessedly ordinary in the rawest, most distracting way possible.

            Making History: peerless bro is here! hi peerless bro!!

            Loveless Moonlight: Someone wanna dungeon?

            Shatter Stone: peerless bro, are you going to lead another dungeoning party?

            Killer Shadow: What’s the best skill point distribution for a witch…

            Song Sayer: Check the forums, fool.

            Loveless Moonlight: Peerless bro, let’s dungeon together

            Peerless Looks: Hi, everyone.

            Peerless Looks: Sorry, I was dungeoning on another server so I’m taking a break now.

Since Xu Boyuan couldn’t be present terribly often, he’d made up a backstory for himself. A lot of it was based off facts, and he didn’t lie where it wasn’t needed. But he told the Guild Happy noobs that he’d been playing Glory for a long time (which he had) so he had accounts on other servers (which he did). Most of his friends weren’t on the tenth server (true) and he liked to play with them whenever he could (less true), because there was no way they were coming over here. Therefore, he had a busy schedule (understatement), chock-full of socializing with his several dozen buddies (a social life—laughable).

The Guild Happy noobs all thought he was a cultured bastion of wisdom, a virtual celebrity, and took the chance to ask him about everything whenever they could. Because Xu Boyuan was such a benevolent and patient man, they became attached. It wasn’t surprising; he was basically babysitting these little disasters, after all. They knew they were being looked after in Lord Grim’s absence, they were just uncommonly okay with it (the noobs, at least).

But what did come as a surprise were how many of them were interested in acquiring older account cards to access other servers. When Xu Boyuan questioned such interest, he’d been laughed at and told they obviously wanted to see him more often and take notes.

It was flattering, and mortifying, and Xu Boyuan was perhaps just a little soft inside. Though the probing questions were undoubtedly an annoyance. And some people really were much too forward.

Case in point, Steamed Bun Invasion.

            Steamed Bun Invasion: i’m back i’m back!!

            Steamed Bun Invasion: brothers and sisters when are you free

            Steamed Bun Invasion: i can help you through some dungeons

            Song Sayer: Shouldn’t you be leveling?

            Loveless Moonlight: Dungeoning earns xp

            Steamed Bun Invasion: this guy gets it

            Loveless Moonlight: I’m a girl

            Steamed Bun Invasion: this girl gets it

            Steamed Bun Invasion: oh peerless bro!

            Steamed Bun Invasion: you seem a little down

            Peerless Looks: I do?

            Steamed Bun Invasion: yeah!! where’s your usual energy????

“What usual energy?” Xu Boyuan muttered to himself as he typed out a short reply.

            Peerless Looks: Like I said, I’m taking a break. Because I’m tired.

            Steamed Bun Invasion: of dungeoning?????

            Peerless Looks: Yes.

            Steamed Bun Invasion: inconceivable!!

            Shatter Stone: oooo steamed bun knows big words

            Steamed Bun Invasion: yes i do

            Steamed Bun Invasion: i know many big words!

            Peerless Looks: Of course you do.

            Steamed Bun Invasion: peerless bro believes in me…

            Steamed Bun Invasion: peerless bro i’ll find a way to help you

            Peerless Looks: I don’t need help?

            Steamed Bun Invasion: you clearly do

            Peerless Looks: No, I really don’t?

            Steamed Bun Invasion: definitely

            Steamed Bun Invasion: well i know a really smart person so hang in there

Xu Boyuan rolled his eyes and continued to chat with the others once Steamed Bun fell silent. He didn’t think much of their brief conversation—how many smart people could Steamed Bun really know?

It turned out that was a terrible thing to ask because Steamed Bun knew Ye Qiu.

Sometimes Xu Boyuan was an idiot. One look at his newest DM and he was just about ready to slap his monitor off the desk and rage-quit his entire life.

            Lord Grim: i heard someone’s down

How many years in prison did one have to put in for murder? Would they let him off easy if he confessed and behaved well? Was there parole? Could he still talk to his mom?

And most importantly, which one would he kill first: Steamed Bun or Ye Qiu?

            Peerless Looks: You heard wrong.

            Lord Grim: oh that’s a relief

            Lord Grim: how is babysitting duty

            Peerless Looks: Fine, thank you for asking.

            Lord Grim: great

            Peerless Looks: I happen to know what I’m doing.

            Peerless Looks: I’m a helpful person.

            Lord Grim: yes, the epitome of helpfulness

            Lord Grim: how is spying duty

            Peerless Looks: …

            Peerless Looks: Getting better every day.

            Lord Grim: oh?

            Peerless Looks: Well, since certain people aren’t kicking other people out, those other people can hang around and gather all kinds of information.

            Lord Grim: wow, steamed bun wasn’t kidding

            Lord Grim: wanna have a go in the arena?

            Peerless Looks: …Did I offend you somehow?

            Lord Grim: no…it’s just that PVP in the arena is a great way to relax

            Peerless Looks: Do I seem like I need to relax?

            Lord Grim: yeah bro

            Peerless Looks: And relaxing means you have to kick my ass.

            Lord Grim: am i not fun to play with?

            Peerless Looks: I have no hope of beating you. Being humiliated is not fun. Or relaxing.

            Lord Grim: not everything is about winning, and losing to me is hardly a humiliation

Well. He had a point there. Xu Boyuan knew for a fact that every big-name pro had lost to Ye Qiu at some point or another. In comparison, he was hardly special.

            Peerless Looks: Even so, the disparity between us means it can’t be that fun for you, right?

            Lord Grim: says who?

            Lord Grim: playing glory is always fun for me

Somewhat comforted, Xu Boyuan agreed to meet Ye Qiu at the Arena. He didn’t know when his life reached the point that casually dueling a gaming legend was an option, but his mood was bad enough that this didn’t bear further contemplation.

The trip was a bit of a pain to make, but eventually he made it, and Lord Grim was already waiting at the Arena’s entrance when he arrived. Peerless Looks’s equipment appeared especially ordinary next to the rainbow-colored travesty that was Lord Grim’s. Xu Boyuan should have been used to it by now, yet the sight still made his eyes hurt.

“Took you long enough,” Ye Qiu said with that weirdly affected cheer that indicated he wasn’t at all bothered. “Let’s go in. I’ll set up a room and let you know.”

“You should have made a room before I got here,” Xu Boyuan complained.

Ye Qiu ignored that—because Xu Boyuan was right, of course—and in no time at all, they were in the Arena, exchanging blows in front of an audience of zero.

It was disconcertingly quotidian. Xu Boyuan was reminded of the horsing around he got up to with his friends.

But that would be absurd, wouldn’t it? All he ever did with Ye Qiu was suffer at his hands.

Except for rare occasions such as this, when they peacefully coexisted in the same space without business matters hovering over them. Xu Boyuan found himself falling into the familiar rhythm of battle: aim, click, press this key, press that one, move the camera there, move it back over here… His reactions were instinctual, automatic, yet Ye Qiu made him think and work and strive for victory. He would never win, and Ye Qiu wasn’t even trying that hard, but it was more than enough to take Xu Boyuan off the night’s previous events.

By the time they had enough, forty minutes had passed and they’d played at least a dozen rounds. With Ye Qiu as his opponent, the most he could expect was a quick defeat, and the least an even quicker one.

“You’re back to normal,” Ye Qiu observed out of nowhere upon their exit from the room.

Xu Boyuan blinked at the screen. “What do you mean?”

“You were all mopey before. It didn’t suit you.”

“Well, how would you know what suits me,” Xu Boyuan grumbled. And how would you know I was mopey! You’ve never seen me mope.

“Hey, keep the good mood while you can,” Ye Qiu replied with a chuckle. “I didn’t mean anything by it. Are you finally tired of Blue Brook? You can come work for Happy.”

“Don’t speak nonsense. I already have my dream job. And how can I keep my good mood when you’re bothering me!”

Ye Qiu only laughed some more. Without Xu Boyuan’s notice, their avatars had distanced themselves from the Arena, ambling through a less crowded street in town.

“Then what’s up? You’re usually so, hmm, how do I put this? Something is just different about you lately. Is it that ‘important business’ you mentioned?”

Damn his perceptiveness. Xu Boyuan couldn’t believe this guy had gotten such a good read on him throughout all their tumultuous interactions. And with just a few words from a previous conversation, he was opening the lid on some things Xu Boyuan truly preferred he did not see.

Ye Qiu didn’t break the silence that reigned between them after his question. The two wandered, paying no mind to their surroundings. Xu Boyuan knew this was a waste of his time and Ye Qiu’s as well—everyone knew he was returning to the stage one way or another, he’d made that clear enough at All-Stars and had only driven home the point since then. Ye Qiu had better things to do than to pry into Xu Boyuan’s affairs.

Unless…he wasn’t prying.

Xu Boyuan was suddenly struck by the need to get it off his chest. This matter with Rosy Dusk was his affair? No, it was technically the guild’s, and maybe that should have elevated it beyond his own personal needs and desires, but it didn’t. And Xu Boyuan kept trying to convince himself to put duty first, to do what had to be done, to fulfill everyone’s expectations, and—

This was just so stupid, wasn’t it. What he said before was undeniably true, and just because it came out in an unideal situation didn’t make it less so.

He shouldn’t have agreed to this.

Xu Boyuan sighed and said, “I got myself into something stupid.”

“Oh yeah?”

“Yeah. Just downright dumb.”

“I’m curious now. This doesn’t have anything to do with me, does it?”

“Not everything has to do with you,” Xu Boyuan said with a roll of his eyes. Tragic that Ye Qiu couldn’t be subjected to his exasperation in person; then maybe he would understand how thoroughly he was impacting Xu Boyuan’s health and sanity. “It’s about a new recruit. A potential recruit, I mean. She’s really good, but she’s new to this game, and nothing we did or said convinced her to join us. But we need new blood, in this server especially, the number of interested players has decreased by a lot since…”

Ye Qiu, who seemed to be listening attentively, said, “Since…?”

“The…Poplar Beach incident.”

“Oh.”

Lord Grim and Peerless Looks were now on the outskirts of town; the wilderness sprawled before them in all its virtual glory. But Lord Grim didn’t proceed any further, and instead turned to face Peerless Looks.

Logically, Xu Boyuan knew Ye Qiu wasn’t watching him through the screen. Emotionally, it was another matter. He felt as if he was being picked apart.

“That’s too bad,” Ye Qiu murmured eventually. “It wasn’t my intention. It’s just how it happened.”

“I know that. To be honest, I think it’s great you taught that prick a lesson, even if I did feel bad for him for a second there. The consequences, though…”

“Yeah. So what about this potential recruit is such a problem?”

Xu Boyuan had to make an effort to keep his hands on the keyboard rather than fidget. “She’s not really a problem. The problem is that she won’t join us; more to the point, the problem is the solution my idiot colleagues came up with. And the fact my boss approved of it.”

“What’s this solution?”

“I’m supposed to get her to like me and convince her to join that way,” Xu Boyuan confessed in a rush.

Hey, he already knew it wasn’t very noble. Lunar Grace’s reaction was bad enough; if Ye Qiu decided to take offense on Rosy Dusk’s behalf, it was over for him.

But as experience consistently proved, one shouldn’t judge Ye Qiu by typical moral standards.

“That’s it?”

“…You’re not, like, mad? Scandalized?”

Ye Qiu sounded puzzled. “Why would I be mad? If you’re just getting her to like you—”

“Romantically. I have to get her to crush on me to the point where she would follow me into my guild.”

“Why does it have to be romantic? Just be her friend.”

“People have already tried that! She knows a lot of guild members, and gets along with all of them, yet not one has managed to talk her into joining.”

“They’re just bad at talking, then. I’m sure this independent stage will run its course soon enough and she’ll realize for herself the benefits of a guild,” Ye Qiu reassured him.

Xu Boyuan refused to be reassured. “But what if she doesn’t? Or worse, she does, and she joins the competition? You don’t know how desperately we need someone of her skill. We’re not doing all this for fun, we’re running a business here. We have to produce results. Do you know how many wild bosses we snatched this week? One! My job could be riding on this!”

“Whoa there, I doubt your job is riding on one girl. She can’t make that much of a difference.”

“You’re one man, and look at everything you’ve done..”

“I’m me, what’s your point?”

“…Fair.”

A suspicious pause.

“Hmm…”

Even more suspicious! Xu Boyuan’s heart quailed shamefully, just a little bit, before he managed to calm down.

Lord Grim was opening and closing his weird umbrella weapon. Xu Boyuan wondered at such an idle action. He didn’t think he’d ever had this long of a one-on-one with Ye Qiu before; when they spoke, it was usually short and to the point, or while they were in the middle of something else. They were competitors besides, and the kind of shit that happened to Xu Boyuan as Ye Qiu’s competitor was not exactly conductive to heartwarming exchanges.

“I’ve got it,” Ye Qiu exclaimed.

“W-what? You’ve got what?” No, Xu Boyuan did not flinch.

“Nothing, I just thought maybe me pretending to have come up with a real solution would lift your spirits.”

“I hate you.”

“I get that a lot.” Ye Qiu hummed, unperturbed. “Well, what were you expecting? For me to offer you lessons in seduction?”

Xu Boyuan closed his eyes and counted to ten before responding. “No, and even if you did, I would turn them down!”

“Why?”

“Because why would I ever take your advice on something like this?” Because you insist on screwing around with me and everyone else even distantly attached to the pro scene? Because you are actually some god of destruction intent on dragging us all to ruin?

“Why wouldn’t you? I’m known for giving great advice. Just look at all the guides I’ve written these past ten years. Look at Steamed Bun and Soft Mist!”

Okay, he’s got me there. Xu Boyuan was well aware of how accomplished Ye Qiu was; they didn’t call him the Glory Textbook for nothing. When it came to this game, there was little to nothing that he didn’t know about. But how relevant was game knowledge in Xu Boyuan’s situation? If he told Rosy Dusk the best combination of Launcher-specific skills to promptly take down a dozen enemies in the next dungeon they ran together, would she suddenly be over the moon for him? No!

…That did seem like the kind of information she would appreciate, though…

Back up! This was Ye Qiu. And Ye Qiu may be many things, but he wasn’t some love guru.

Xu Boyuan said as much, and admitted, “You don’t strike me as the romantic type. Like, at all.”

“Now what gave you that impression? You’ve never seen me in a romantic context,” Ye Qiu replied in a teasing tone.

“And I hope I never will. Listen, can you just let this go? You’re not serious, are you?”

“I am serious.” The umbrella opened.

“Fine, then. I’ll take it.”

“Take what?”

“Your advice.”

The umbrella closed. “Excuse me?” Ye Qiu demanded.

Finally, he got one up on him. Xu Boyuan smiled smugly at the screen. “Since you’re so determined, I’d be happy to attend those ‘lessons in seduction’ of yours. When does class officially start?”

Ye Qiu coughed.

Chapter Text

“So this is her!”

“Hello?” Rosy Dusk said, bewildered. “Who are you?”

“A friend of Blue River’s.”

Xu Boyuan only wished he had such an ability to lie through his teeth. Directing Blue River to stand between Rosy Dusk and Lord Grim, he briefly introduced the two.

“Rose, Lord Grim is a very experienced player, and he offered to dungeon with us tonight. It’s a good opportunity for you to learn some new things, since he knows everything about this game. Lord Grim, Rosy Dusk is new to Glory, but very talented. Please take care of her.”

Almost immediately, he received a set of scathing DMs.

            Lord Grim: don’t make this about me!

            Lord Grim: or even worse, about me and her!!

            Lord Grim: you’re the one who’s supposed to look cool here

            Blue River: What are you talking about…

            Lord Grim: what do you mean, weren’t you listening to what i said when we agreed to this plan?

            Lord Grim: we need to show off your skills

            Blue River: I’ve dungeoned with her before, and frankly, you can outdo me any day of the week.

            Lord Grim: well i’m not outdoing you this particular day of the week

            Lord Grim: i invited myself along to help you look good

            Blue River: That is literally not in your nature! Nobody can look good next to you!

            Lord Grim: just trust me, and stop playing me up

            Lord Grim: focus on yourself

A little bit miffed that his attempt at politeness had been so rebuffed, Xu Boyuan decided to take Ye Qiu at his word and focus only on himself. When someone as aggravating as Ye Qiu gave you his blessing to ignore him, you did not question it, and instead took it for the gift it was.

Rosy Dusk and Ye Qiu exchanged a few more words, but Ye Qiu was surprisingly good at keeping his mouth shut when he wanted to and did his best to fade into the background once they were inside the dungeon.

It was a relatively easy dungeon, compared to what Xu Boyuan was used to, but like many high-level dungeons, it had its own unique set of challenges. Once you hit the 50s on dungeons, you could expect a lot more spice in your life.

This particular one, the Underground River, involved a bit of swimming, plus some unique aquatic enemies. To somebody who was new to the game, it was actually one of the most difficult dungeons they’d encounter. Xu Boyuan had no doubt that Rosy Dusk would struggle once they reached the river bit.

For him, it would be a cinch. The river wasn’t deep where they were meant to cross: It only became dangerous if you crossed at the wrong place or were carried away by the current. If you were flushed down one of the tunnels, well, you were done for.

Xu Boyuan explained this to Rosy Dusk as they progressed through the initial stages of the dungeon, fending off multiple enemies with startling ease. At first, he was baffled that everything was going so well with just a party of three, but then he remembered that one of them was God Ye Qiu—who, at this time, was pouring all his attention into making this dungeon as breezy for Xu Boyuan as possible.

He was a rather unobtrusive helper. Every now and then he’d let the higher-level enemies slip harmlessly through his defense so Xu Boyuan could dispatch them, demonstrating his skill.

“This dungeon is really different,” Rosy Dusk observed at one point. “It really looks like we’re underground, navigating a dungeon…but without all the torture stuff.”

“It’s supposed to look like a naturally occurring tunnel system, as if carved out of stone by these underground rivers. But now there is only one river left. Lore says it’s the last barrier between us and all the treasures the water carried in and left behind.”

“Oh, so the old rivers would carry in items and stuff. And the reason we have to get past the one river is because it guards the items?”

“Basically,” Xu Boyuan said. “That’s the story. This is a magical place or something, and the treasures belong to the boss who claims the tunnels as his own. We’ll be meeting him once we cross the river.”

“Right, how do I cross it? I’ve been in water before, but I never fought in it.”

“We have to cross at a specific location,” Xu Boyuan explained, “I’ll show it to you when we get there. The key is to be as quick as possible and avoid battle in the water. It’s too easy to fall in if you’re fighting.”

“Hmm… Lord Grim, are there any dungeons more difficult than this one? Because this sounds pretty hard for somebody who’s just starting out. I would have totally gotten my ass kicked if I hadn’t known.”

“Ah,” said Ye Qiu, possibly surprised at being addressed. He was handling a whole group of minor monsters while Xu Boyuan and Rosy Dusk faced off with some more challenging ones.

No matter what he said, it was impressive. Internally, Xu Boyuan bemoaned the man’s lack of subtlety. Any player worth their salt would recognize the difficulty of managing all that aggro!

“Well?”

“There are more difficult dungeons, of course,” Xu Boyuan interceded, wary of letting Rosy Dusk’s attention stray too far from him. He had to stick to the plan. “But this one tends to trip up new players. It’s why I wanted to bring you along.”

“And Lord Grim?”

“...What about him?”

“Why did you bring him along?”

Why was she asking?! “Uh, pulling this off with just two people would take a while.”

“Oh, right. I only thought he’d have better things to do.”

Ye Qiu spoke up suddenly. “What do you mean?”

“I’ve heard about you! Took me a while to remember why your name seemed so familiar, but people in the forums and the world chat mention you a lot.”

“My fame precedes me,” Ye Qiu said dryly. “Well, no worries, I told Blue River I’d come so here I am. I don’t think either of you will need me, though.”

With that, Ye Qiu fell silent once again, and after another failed attempt at starting up conversation with him, Rosy Dusk left him to his own devices. She and Xu Boyuan chatted casually all the way to the river.

Xu Boyuan began to relax again. He was having fun, actually. When he wasn’t being bothered by his guild members, time spent with Rosy Dusk was enjoyable.

The problem was, the more he grew to like her, the more ashamed he felt about this whole romance scheme.

When they arrived at the river, Rosy Dusk acquitted herself remarkably well and followed all the instructions Xu Boyuan gave her. With little fuss, they were past the main hurdle, their aquatic opponents left in the dust. Well, the river. The puddle?

            Lord Grim: i can see why you want her in your guild, she’s pretty good

            Lord Grim: not many people would stay perfectly calm in that kind of situation

            Lord Grim: the river looks more intimidating than it is

            Blue River: Don’t you dare think about stealing her away.

            Lord Grim: i won’t, i won’t

            Lord Grim: i don’t have room in my heart for more minions anyway

            Blue River: You are a goddamn menace. Let’s hurry up and finish this dungeon.

            Lord Grim: but things are going so well!

            Lord Grim: why not draw it out a bit :)

            Blue River: …What are you planning…

            Lord Grim: planning??

            Blue River: Stop it right now.

            Lord Grim: no clue what you’re talking about

            Lord Grim: boss is here, gotta go!

            Blue River: We literally have the same objective! We have to go in the same direction!!!

Deep breaths, deep breaths. He mustn’t lose his composure. Sure, Ye Qiu was up to something, but in Xu Boyuan’s experience, that was frequently the case. Ye Qiu would still keep his word and do what he promised, regardless. He definitely wouldn’t have accompanied Xu Boyuan here to sabotage his chances at recruiting Rosy Dusk.

Right?

With no small amount of nervousness on Xu Boyuan’s part, they moved farther and farther away from the river, where the tunnels grew dark and ominous. The gloomy scenery reflected Xu Boyuan’s mood rather well; all his interactions with Ye Qiu seemed to head in a dark and ominous direction at some point.

“This is so dramatic,” Rosy Dusk said.

“It’s about to get even more dramatic,” Ye Qiu told her cheerfully.

“Really? Is the boss—”

The boss came out of nowhere, only the gleam of his gemstone eyes giving his presence away.

“Eep!”

Sab the Hoarder was one of the more curiously designed NPCs in the game, dressed to blend into the stone walls so he could hide in random niches and sneak up on unsuspecting players. He had always annoyed Xu Boyuan with this propensity for jump-scares. Though in all fairness, Rosy Dusk’s shriek was blessedly short.

            Lord Grim: okay blue river this is your time to shine

            Lord Grim: go wild

            Blue River: ????

            Blue River: Don’t you abandon me now!

            Lord Grim: don’t worry, i got you

            Blue River: Where did you go???

            Lord Grim: just attack already

            Blue River: YE QIU I SWEAR

            Lord Grim: wow caps

            Lord Grim: everything will be okay

            Lord Grim: do your best!

Of course, the most annoying thing about Sab the Hoarder wasn’t actually the sneaking and the jumping and the scaring. Those things would be fine, if one only had to be subjected to them at the very beginning of the battle.

The most annoying thing was that he didn’t stop doing it.

It was a long battle, but to Xu Boyuan’s credit, he didn’t yelp even once.

Rosy Dusk had better be impressed.

* * *

“I cannot believe you,” Xu Boyuan hissed as soon as they were alone. Rosy Dusk had logged off before either of them, claiming exhaustion. After that entire experience, Xo Boyuan couldn’t blame her.

He was not going to be returning to the Underground River any time soon if he could help it.

“What? You did really well.”

“Well, you barely did anything!”

“Please, you saw the stats, I doled out my fair share of damage.”

“I couldn’t even see you without the lighting effects from our attacks!”

“That’s the whole point, Little Blue. We’re fighting in an underground tunnel. In the dark.”

Xu Boyuan fumed.

Then, after a few moments, he decided it wasn’t worth getting all worked up at Ye Qiu. So he had underestimated how difficult it would be to take down Sab the Hoarder with only three people. So he had focused too much on the river bit and forgotten to account for how a new player might struggle to fight in the dark. So what! He had put in a good performance. He got to show off just as they planned. Mission accomplished, or mission accomplished?

His frantic attempts to comfort himself eventually succeeded. Guilt finally under control, Xu Boyuan decided they might as well move on to the next step.

Yes, they, because he was not letting Ye Qiu get away that easy. If Xu Boyuan had to endure this bullshit, the least Ye Qiu could do was endure it alongside him.

(There was something very wrong with this logic, but Xu Boyuan was too emotionally unbalanced to figure out what.)

* * *

The next time the three of them were online, they explored other Level 50 areas and introduced some new dungeons to Rosy Dusk (nothing as stressful as the Underground River, though). Xu Boyuan harbored a growing suspicion that they were monopolizing her time, but since she didn’t object, he didn’t bring it up.

After that, Ye Qiu offered a suggestion: “How about I show you guys someplace special?”

“Special?” Xu Boyuan echoed, surprised.

“Oh, I’m sure it’s nothing new to you, Little Blue, but I doubt Rose has seen it yet. The Peach Blossom Circle?”

Xu Boyuan blinked at his screen. The Peach Blossom Circle…oh. Oh!

A romantic outing? Was that what Ye Qiu was getting at? Xu Boyuan had to admit, it was one of the most scenic locations on the regular server, and the girls certainly appreciated it. But what would they even do there? Would Rosy Dusk like it?

As it turned out, Rosy Dusk liked it very much, and exclaimed frequently at everything she saw as they explored. The Peach Blossom Circle was essentially a pile of rocks at the center of a verdant valley, where a huge peach blossom tree perched. Surrounding the rocks was a circle of other peach blossom trees, the only ones in the vicinity. The pink of their ever-present blossoms was startling, especially compared to the gentle green of the majority of the valley’s foliage.

“Ah, something has come up. My lady friend is telling me to come over. I better go!”

“We just got here,” Rosy Dusk protested. “You’re not going to show us around more?”

Ye Qiu laughed. “The tour is for your sake! Little Blue knows this place pretty well, don’t believe anything he says about not coming here often. Anyone who has girls in their usual party would be well-acquainted with the valley.”

“Ha, is that true?”

Reluctantly, Xu Boyuan said, “Yeah, I know my way around.”

For some reason, he really didn’t want Ye Qiu to leave. His heart was literally pounding.

“See? He’ll wrap up the tour and then you guys can just find a place to hang. There are always monsters up on the hills in case you get bored.”

“Well, okay… Have fun!”

“You too. See you!”

And just like that, Ye Qiu was gone. The bastard.

Xu Boyuan hoped Rosy Dusk couldn’t somehow sense his discomfort through the screen. Ye Qiu had said he would arrange for some alone time for the two of them, but this had not been what Xu Boyuan imagined! Wasn’t it too obvious a ploy, leaving them in such a romantic location with the excuse that he had to attend to his “lady friend”? The subtext couldn’t be any more clear!

Shameless!

Rosy Dusk, thankfully, didn’t seem embarrassed at all, and as they walked around some more, Xu Boyuan gradually arrived at the conclusion that she either hadn’t understood the implications or was choosing to ignore them. That was probably bad news, considering the entire reason for coming here was to encourage romantic feelings. Somehow, though, he couldn’t find it in his heart to feel anything but relief.

At the end of the day, no matter how pleasant a companion Rosy Dusk was, Xu Boyuan didn’t have any genuine romantic feelings toward her. And even though he’d promised to go through with this mission for his guild, he felt no less...wrong about what he was trying to do now than he had at the very beginning.

Unsure how to address all his conflicted feelings, Xu Boyuan resolved to put them out of his mind and enjoy the moment for what it was.

“So, how long have you known Lord Grim?”

Xu Boyuan hummed. “Probably since he came to this server. Which was right when it opened, basically.”

“That’s pretty cool. He’s been there for you from the start.”

There for him? Ye Qiu had been haunting him from the start. “I guess. It hasn’t been that long since then…”

“But you guys seem to spend a lot of time together.”

“Do we?” That couldn’t be right. “It kind of depends. We got to know each other early on, but he’s always running around and I’m usually with my guild.”

“Right, Blue Brook. I’ve heard Lord Grim has helped your guild out before.”

A mortifying fact Xu Boyuan longed to forget. He still found it hard to believe that they hired God Ye Qiu to break records for them. Those dungeons weren’t even hard. “Yeah, he has. He’s very skilled.”

“He is, I haven’t met anyone on this game quite like him. I mean, I haven’t seen anything really flashy from him yet, but I can just tell he knows what’s up.”

“Uh, ‘knows what’s up’?”

“He’s competent. He’s really got that grandmaster vibe. Like nothing can touch him, you know?”

Xu Boyuan did know, but he definitely had never thought to describe it quite like that. “Are you expanding your horizons to include cultivation novels now?” he teased.

They veered off to other topics (mainly Rosy Dusk’s preferred webnovels, which she happily gushed about) as they climbed uphill to target the monsters. The conversation temporarily died down when they settled into the rhythm of slaughter, both too focused to muster up the energy for talking. Xu Boyuan watched his experience bar slowly fill up.

Then, when their attention began to wander, the conversation picked up again.

“I wish Brother Grim would put up some guides, I bet he’d write good ones.”

Him again! Xu Boyuan didn’t want to think about Ye Qiu, it was too frustrating.

“I don’t think he has time for that, but maybe you could ask him for some recommendations,” Xu Boyuan replied without much thought.

Wait. Ye Qiu was Brother Grim now?

“That’s a good idea. Good thing I added him as a friend—he’s still online.”

Xu Boyuan checked for himself and, indeed, Lord Grim’s name on his friends list was still accompanied by a green dot. Then he wondered when exactly those two friended each other.

…Why did his thoughts sound like something straight out of a jealous boyfriend’s love-addled mind?!

“Do you think he’s really meeting with a ‘lady friend’?” Xu Boyuan blurted after a few moments of nothing but pitiful dying-monster noises.

“Hm? Well, you would know better than me.” Rosy Dusk sounded a bit baffled.

Why would he know better? “I only know two girls he hangs out with pretty often…but neither of them could be, uh. That kind of lady friend. I don’t think.”

Now Rosy Dusk’s tone was tinged with amusement. “Maybe he didn’t mean that kind of lady friend, then. Maybe he just meant a friend who’s a lady.”

“That’s too straightforward for him,” Xu Boyuan grumbled.

“Ah? But he seems like a straightforward guy…”

Well. That was both true and not true. Xu Boyuan honestly felt that much of Ye Qiu’s straightforwardness was way too easy to misinterpret to be considered legitimately straightforward.

Did that even make sense? Xu Boyuan shared his thoughts with Rosy Dusk, who said, “It sorta does. But he can’t be blamed for you misunderstanding him.”

“Of course he can. He never makes himself perfectly clear, just clear enough for people to conveniently misunderstand the rest. Creating misunderstandings is practically the basis of his strategy.” With Ye Qiu, it was always those things left unspoken and undone that ended up hurting innocent bystanders and opponents alike. Xu Boyuan had developed a truly awful case of paranoia for a while after watching nearly all the club guilds go against him and his posse.

Less than a dozen people competing with the tenth server’s club guild elite! And Ye Qiu’s side had still come out on top! Was that not worth a little paranoia?

And don’t even get him started on Guild Happy...

“That seems harsh,” Rosy Dusk argued. “Where did this strategy business even come from?”

Xu Boyuan sighed. She wouldn’t understand, she was like the hapless civilian in a crime movie. “Forget it.”

“If you’re upset about Brother Grim not communicating things properly, you could just ask him to clarify whatever you’re not sure of,” she continued, as if Xu Boyuan hadn’t said anything. “That seems like the easiest solution to this misunderstanding issue.”

“It’s not really an issue…” For Ye Qiu, at least. Like Xu Boyuan had said, creating misunderstandings was the man’s bread and butter. Why would Ye Qiu solve something that ultimately provided him with the advantage in just about any situation?

“I get the impression that it’s an issue. Since you’re complaining about it and all.” Rosy Dusk was all but chiding him at this point. “C’mon, bro, you’re not going to improve your relationship with the guy by just ignoring your problems.”

“Who even said I want to—ugh, never mind. I don’t think we’re on the same page here.” For real, was Ye Qiu stealing his thunder? Was Rosy Dusk crushing on the wrong guy?

If that was the case, he was going to kill Ye Qiu and then himself.

“Maybe not, but I’d still take my advice if I were you. I’ve read way too many webnovels that go just like this.”

“Like what?” Xu Boyuan was so confused. “What is ‘this’?”

“A trope involving a lack of communication that in turn causes a ton of ridiculous and totally avoidable situations that result in misunderstandings and even more miscommunication. And then everything goes to shit and the protagonists have no one to blame but themselves.”

Xu Boyuan was speechless.

“This isn’t a webnovel,” he finally said, somewhat pathetically. Because while that…trope logic or whatever couldn’t be applied to Xu Boyuan’s history with Ye Qiu with complete accuracy, it still hit a little too close to home.

Whatever insufferable nonsense Xu Boyuan was forced to endure because of Ye Qiu, in the end it always did feel like he had no one to blame but himself.

Chapter Text

One night soon after that weird conversation with Rosy Dusk, Ye Qiu DM’d Xu Boyuan asking him to come to a certain set of coordinates.

            Blue River: Why?

            Lord Grim: dungeoning!

            Lord Grim: i’m meeting up with everyone here

            Lord Grim: calling rose as well so you two can spend more time together

            Lord Grim: we can even try and break a record if you feel like it

Xu Boyuan felt inexplicably overwhelmed. Meeting up with everyone? And Rosy Dusk, too? Possibly breaking a record? Why did everything this man say sound so terrifying and extreme? This was way too much.

And he still hadn’t figured out if he should be mad at Ye Qiu for...earning Rosy Dusk’s favor or whatever. Should this man even be allowed near her? Xu Boyuan’s job was still at stake!

            Blue River: Meeting up with who, exactly?

            Lord Grim: my usual party ofc

            Lord Grim: well, just soft mist and one inch ash

            Lord Grim: they’re the least likely to mess things up for you

            Blue River: I don’t know whether to be humbled or disturbed by your consideration.

            Lord Grim: just say “thank you ye qiu” and leave it at that :p

Xu Boyuan would mostly definitely not. He pointedly did not reply except to say he was on his way.

Yes, he was still going along with Ye Qiu’s plans. Xu Boyuan was in the habit of making questionable decisions nowadays.

The coordinates weren’t too far from his current location, so he set out with minimum grumbling after explaining to Bound Boat and the others that he was going to see Rosy Dusk. He could swear he felt their knowing gazes through the screen as Blue River turned his back on them and plunged into the wilderness.

He hadn’t mentioned to anyone that Ye Qiu had decided to “coach” him on how to pull off a successful online romance. Somehow, though, he had a feeling they knew. None of those miscreants were too polite to spy on him. He was just pleasantly surprised they hadn’t already brought it up.

Xu Boyuan didn’t need them to bring it up to feel terrible, though.

When Lord Grim and his abhorrent rainbow equipment came into view, Xu Boyuan swiveled Blue River around, but saw no one else.

“Am I the first one here?” he asked.

“Pretty much. One Inch Ash and Soft Mist are barely behind you, though.”

No sooner had he spoken than the two ran out of the surrounding foliage east of where Blue River stood. Both Ghostblade and Battle Mage wore far more reasonably matched equipment than Lord Grim; Soft Mist was actually looking rather fashionable. Gazing upon them felt like having his eyes purified.

“Hey, you two,” Ye Qiu said. “No one followed you, right?”

“No, Senior,” One Inch Ash answered politely.

“Wonderful. Exactly what I like to hear,” Ye Qiu said. “Now we just have to wait for our guest.”

“Hello, Blue River,” Soft Mist offered, sidling up to the three of them. “We heard you have a friend?”

Xu Boyuan sighed softly. “I don’t know what this menace told you, but it’s probably all lies.”

“Ah, Senior didn’t actually tell us much of anything except that we were going to meet someone new…”

“Yeah,” Soft Mist agreed, “it’s a friend of yours, right?”

“Right…”

That seemed to satisfy Soft Mist, who didn’t offer up any more conversation. She wandered closer to Lord Grim and stood there patiently.

Xu Boyuan stared at the three, waiting for something. He didn’t know what, exactly, but disaster followed Ye Qiu and his posse like death followed a reaper, and being around them honestly made him a little nervous.

Then he reprimanded himself: Why be nervous! He had spent some time with them while spying (or whatever) in Guild Happy, not to mention their cooperation—and altercations—in the past. They were just normal people, not the embodiment of all things terrible in the world…

A hum came from that side, followed by Soft Mist saying, “Hey, can you tell me about this combo?”

“Sure,” Ye Qiu replied. Nobody said anything more.

Xu Boyuan was completely baffled for a minute before he realized Soft Mist must have sent Ye Qiu a video or something like that. Or was showing it to him personally. It had never been made quite clear whether Soft Mist and Ye Qiu physically played beside each other, but a lot of speculation had gone on when Lord Grim’s identity came out among the guild leaders. Not only was there Su Mucheng, but this other sister hung around him, too. The possibility of Ye Qiu owning a harem was a running joke at this point.

 Personally, Xu Boyuan thought it was quite obvious that, regardless of how physically or emotionally close Ye Qiu and Soft Mist were, they clearly had a mentor-pupil relationship. Besides that, they were just friends. Su Mucheng, Xu Boyuan couldn’t be certain of, but thinking about Ye Qiu’s possible relationships was an absurd waste of time. Not at all the kind of gossip Xu Boyuan was interested in hearing. He wasn’t interested in any kind of gossip.

(He determinedly ignored the memory of asking Rosy Dusk about Ye Qiu’s “lady friend.”)

Eventually Ye Qiu began explaining some combo or other to Soft Mist, his voice a bit muffled. One Inch Ash continued standing there silently; it was possible that he was also doing something completely unrelated to Glory.

Xu Boyuan came to the realization that he had nothing better to do at the moment so he might as well reply to all the DMs sitting in his inbox.

And in his QQ.

And his emails.

And forum threads.

At least forty minutes had gone by when a soft chime alerted him that somebody had messaged him in Glory. Xu Boyuan opened up the game window to see Lord Grim standing before Blue River, a smiley face above his head.

“I don’t think she’s gonna show up,” Ye Qiu said.

It took a moment to remember what he was talking about, but Xu Boyuan could only agree. “Seems like it.”

“What do you want to do, then?”

“Uh…” Xu Boyuan searched his mind for an answer, but came up blank. If not dungeoning with Rosy Dusk, what else was there to do? “It doesn’t matter. I should just go back and do my…guild leader things,” he said awkwardly.

“Well, if you want,” Ye Qiu said, then turned and told his friends, “You guys go back to leveling, sorry for wasting your time.”

“It’s no issue, Senior,” One Inch Ash said. “Sorry we couldn’t help.”

“Yeah, maybe next time, Blue River,” Soft Mist added.

Xu Boyuan was a bit flustered. “Don’t worry about it. Thanks for coming.”

“We’ll see you later?” Soft Mist’s questioned seemed to be directed at Ye Qiu.

“Yeah, I just need to chat with Blue River for a bit.”

“Okay.”

Without further aplomb, they disappeared into the surroundings, leaving behind only a murmured goodbye from One Inch Ash.

On the screen, Blue River faced Lord Grim squarely. The two of them stood alone in the dim lighting unique to this particular location.

“What do you want to talk about?” Xu Boyuan asked, confused.

“I didn’t get to ask how last time went. Did you make any progress?”

“Uh, with Rose?”

“Obviously.”

Xu Boyuan huffed, but considered it carefully. “I don’t know…”

The time he spent with Rosy Dusk at the Peach Blossom Circle didn’t stand out to him as especially memorable. He wouldn’t describe the encounter (date?) as making progress, but he didn’t think he’d fallen in her regard or anything like that. They’d talked about a lot of things and, while it was obvious that they were two very different people, they certainly got along well enough for those differences not to matter so much.

At this point, Xu Boyuan felt comfortable calling her a friend. But that seemed like a pathetic thing to admit for some reason. And technically not what Ye Qiu was asking.

“We just talked,” Xu Boyuan settled on saying, helpless. “She said you should put up guides. And she seems to like you a lot.”

“…You’re not telling me she has a crush on me, are you?”

“I sure hope not.” Though it was certainly an annoying possibility. “I think it’s more that she approves of you? For some reason.” The last bit was muttered.

“That’s nice, but you didn’t do anything to offend her, did you? At that time or since.”

Xu Boyuan suddenly understood the reason for this interrogation. “I’m pretty sure I didn’t say or do anything that would make her want to avoid me.”

Thankfully, Ye Qiu accepted that. “Okay. So if she messages me later apologizing and saying she was busy, then I don’t have to be suspicious.”

“Not as far as I know. She really might just be busy.”

“I just thought it was weird, since she said she’d come. It seems odd for her to stand us up.”

It did seem odd, but Xu Boyuan didn’t know anything about Rosy Dusk’s personal life beyond some basics: She was in university, lived with her parents, and spent a lot of her time online. It didn’t seem like she had an especially difficult life or a lot of demands on her time outside academics, but shit happened.

“We can just ask her next time we see her. She’s gone offline now,” Xu Boyuan pointed out after glancing over his friends list.

“True. You know,” Ye Qiu said abruptly, “you seem remarkably unconcerned about this.”

Xu Boyuan’s fingers twitched against his mouse. “It’s not exactly a big deal.”

“I just thought you would be a little more upset over the fact that your attempts at seduction haven’t earned outstanding results so far.”

“You’re the expert here,” Xu Boyuan said defensively, “so if my ‘attempts at seduction’ are failing, I only have you to blame. I’m relying on you, remember?”

Ye Qiu chuckled. “You have to put in some effort, too. I’ve been arranging all these opportunities for you, but you don’t seem to care that much beyond not embarrassing yourself. Do you really want this at all?”

Xu Boyuan paused. “I think I already made it clear that this isn’t something I’m precisely happy to be doing.”

“Right, right, it’s all in the name of keeping your job. Which I still think is blowing things out of proportion, but it’s your life.”

“Yes. Yes, it is.” The last thing Xu Boyuan needed right then, or ever, was for his choices to be judged by Ye Qiu.

There was a brief pause, as neither of them seemed to know how to continue, and then Ye Qiu said, “So, do you want to dungeon?”

Bewildered, Xu Boyuan said, “But Soft Mist and One Inch Ash already left.”

“We can dungeon anyway. It’s not that hard.”

Right. God forbid Xu Boyuan forget who he was speaking to.

But then they did go to the dungeon, and Xu Boyuan got to witness firsthand how not-hard every single aspect of Glory was for an unspecialized account in the hands of a god.

“Honestly, watching you is really cool, but also really frustrating,” Xu Boyuan said as they lazily slaughtered a line of minions.

“Why frustrating?”

“You’re just way too good at this game. And I know I’m never gonna be that good.”

“And what would you do if you were this good? Become a pro like I did?”

Xu Boyuan had to think about that. It wasn’t as if he hadn’t ever considered being a pro—in fact, he had fantasized about it when he was a teenager. But after growing up a little more, he realized he didn’t have what it takes to make it that far.

He decided to pour his passion for gaming and Glory into something within his reach: Blue Brook Guild. He had been a fan of Blue Rain practically the moment he realized the professional scene existed and his love for the team had only deepened since. When Blue Brook announced that they were hiring, Xu Boyuan, already a senior member of the guild, volunteered with hardly a second thought.

Xu Boyuan was someone who had a lot of second thoughts (and third, and fourth…), but he had never been so sure of a decision in his life. Back then, all he knew was that he wanted to help Blue Rain in any way he could, and if it involved doing something he loved, then all the better. He could play games and make money off it, and he didn’t even have to deal with all the stress and insanity involved in being a pro player. It was the ideal lifestyle that even his teenaged self hadn’t dreamed of.

If he did have the skills to make it to the pro scene, though, would he have taken the opportunity? Honestly, Xu Boyuan couldn’t think of a reason why he wouldn’t. He had never been especially ambitious, but a teenager wouldn’t think of such a choice as ambitious: a teenager would think, This is my chance, I’m going to take it.

However, just running a guild in a regular server was hard enough. Xu Boyuan didn’t have any idea what kinds of personal challenges a pro like Ye Qiu faced.

Then it occurred to him that he could just ask.

“How tough was your life as a pro?”

A few more minions were slain before Ye Qiu answered, “Not too tough. Not too easy, either, but I loved it. When it comes to competition, I don’t like it when it’s easy.”

“But besides competition,” Xu Boyuan said, “there were probably some difficulties you had to face, right?”

The pause this time was lengthier, more obvious. “Of course. Why do you ask?”

“I guess I’m just wondering how difficult my life would be as a pro as compared to now.”

Ye Qiu barked out a surprised laugh. “Oh, well, that’s hard to say. I think you’d deal with it all right. It’s stressful, but the answer to most problems is usually more training.”

That didn’t sound so bad, actually. “And what about the other problems?”

“Now that’s harder to say.” Ye Qiu hummed thoughtfully. “Ready for the boss?”

“Yep.”

Their conversation was put on hold until they left the dungeon. The boss fight took up way more energy than Xu Boyuan thought it would. He supposed even with a god like Ye Qiu by his side, two people versus an NPC was still a lot. As a result, he had pretty much forgotten where they left off.

“About what you asked—other problems just require other solutions.”

Xu Boyuan was surprised that Ye Qiu was willing to pick the topic back up so quickly. As they distanced themselves from the dungeon’s exit and made their way back into the thick foliage nearby, he said, “That’s not much of an answer.”

“There isn’t any good, all-encompassing answer. Whatever you face, you just have to deal with it the best way you know how. That’s life, right? Don’t give up on your beliefs or your principles and make the best of what you have.”

“So what you’re saying is, if you have a clear conscience, then everything’s fine?” How generic.

Ye Qiu laughed. “Fine? Maybe not. Sometimes, to stay true to yourself, you have to put up with unfortunate consequences. But personally, I’m all right with that. I’ve never been able to approve of those people who are willing to set aside their core values just to gain an advantage.”

Xu Boyuan frowned. Was that, perhaps, a possible explanation for why Ye Qiu had retired so suddenly? Did he want to stay true to himself? But then, what had Excellent Era tried to get him to do that would lead him to make such a drastic decision? It wasn’t like the guy was doing that much worse than he had in the past, especially for his age. The Ye Qiu of now seemed just as impressive and all-powerful as the Ye Qiu of back then, in Xu Boyuan’s eyes.

If he was bolder, he would ask about that, too, but he didn’t know the limits of Ye Qiu’s forbearance on this subject. Club business, especially other clubs’ business, was forbidden territory to someone as low on the ladder as Xu Boyuan.

A little absently, he mused, “The most important is still having a clear conscience, though? No matter what you choose, that’s enough?”

“It’s enough for me,” Ye Qiu replied, “but I can’t speak for anyone else.”

“I think…” Xu Boyuan paused to suck in a deep breath. It was nighttime in Glory’s day-night cycle, and the forest they were running through blocked out most sources of light except for the fireflies or the occasional bioluminescent flower. “I think I don’t want to do this anymore.”

“What?”

“This thing with Rosy Dusk. Maybe you’re right and I am blowing things out of proportion. Maybe it’ll be fine even if I don’t convince her to join my guild.”

Ye Qiu was silent.

“I’m tired of pretending I’m okay with this,” Xu Boyuan admitted. “I agreed to it in the first because…because I just felt guilty. Like I haven’t done enough for my guild all this time. Like I’ve failed everyone too often.”

“I don’t think you’ve failed anyone.”

What do you know? Xu Boyuan almost blurted. “…What makes you say that?”

“Your guild members support you and like you. They listen to you pretty much without question. You’ve put up with everything the other guilds and I have thrown at you and managed to take advantage of plenty of troublesome situations. Guild Happy’s members look up to you and, even if you try to say you’re just a very persistent spy, you still do your best when you’re with us. More than that, even. Seriously, I don’t know why you think you’ve failed.”

Xu Boyuan was stunned. He wanted to protest, list all his shortcomings for Ye Qiu to judge, but—hadn’t he thought earlier that Ye Qiu’s judgment was the last thing he needed? Why did he look for it now?

Because…he wanted to be judged as wrong. He wanted to be condemned. Ye Qiu was an unattached observer, he could be rational about it. He would definitely be able to point out all the places where Xu Boyuan went wrong, and better yet, he wouldn’t be merciful about it. They were competitors, not friends, no matter what Rosy Dusk thought.

Yet Ye Qiu had already passed judgment, hadn’t he?

It didn’t matter. He was wrong. Xu Boyuan knew better than anyone that he had plenty of reasons to be ashamed.

He didn’t want to be ashamed about Rosy Dusk, too. She didn’t deserve to be treated so callously.

Xu Boyuan sighed and said, “Regardless, I’ll tell them I’m not doing this anymore. I don’t mind hanging out with Rosy Dusk, I do still want her to join, but I’m not going to fool her into thinking I’m in love with her or something. I can’t be that dishonest.”

“That’s good.”

Xu Boyuan waited.

“Is that all you have to say?”

“What else do you want me to say?” There was a smile in Ye Qiu’s voice. “You’ve made a decision you can live with. Your conscience will be clean. Is that not good?”

“There will be consequences, like you said.”

“Can you deal with them?”

Xu Boyuan thought about it. What was the worst that could happen? He didn’t truly think anyone would fire him over this, even if he was going back on his word. This whole venture had been going above and beyond duty to begin with. Besides, he had no intention to give up on recruiting Rosy Dusk. He’d just go about it in a more honest way.

Honesty. That was what he was lacking. He could stand being a failure, probably, but he couldn’t stand success if it meant doing something so wrong.

Why couldn’t he have realized this sooner?

“For this, I’m pretty sure I can.”

“Then that’s that,” Ye Qiu said decisively. “Do you feel better?”

“You know, I think I do.”

Ye Qiu chuckled. “I may not be much of a love guru, but at least I’m good enough to give this kind of advice, yeah?”

“So you admit you’re not much of a love guru!”

“I never said I was.”

“Then…why did you agree to help me?” Xu Boyuan asked suspiciously.

“Maybe I wanted to have a clear conscience, too.”

* * *

Xu Boyuan was casually stocking up on potions in a small city when he received a DM from Rosy Dusk, who had only been online for a few scattered hours in the past few days. She said she’d been rushing to complete a research essay she’d forgotten about, thus why she had bailed on them without warning. Apparently the panic had swept over her too suddenly for her to remember to say anything.

Obligingly, he’d listened to her bemoaning the lack of effort from her partner, who she had mistakenly trusted to do his part. Rosy Dusk hadn’t been able to play properly in such a long time that he fully expected her to be antsy and irritable as soon as she returned.

He didn’t expect her to—to—

            Rosy Dusk: I’m joining BBG

            Blue River: What??

            Rosy Dusk: I’m serious

            Blue River: …You’re really serious?

            Rosy Dusk: Absolutely

            Blue River: But why all of a sudden???

Rosy Dusk didn’t reply; instead Xu Boyuan received a system notification saying she had joined the guild.

He was even more confused. She had asked one of the others to let her in? She was that determined? He would have at least expected some hesitation! Maybe a few questions! Xu Boyuan had been under the impression that she was a reasonable and consistent person all this time, not a person who would do something so seemingly out-of-character with no explanation!

But wait—wasn’t he just looking a gift horse in the mouth? Xu Boyuan swallowed his doubts and greeted her like everyone else in the guild chat.

Her introduction went well; it probably helped that a lot of people knew her already, and the rest at least knew of her (soundly confirming Xu Boyuan’s suspicions that they had all been gossiping behind his back). When it came to her fitting in and getting along with everyone, Xu Boyuan felt a lot more secure in his conviction that there would be no problems.

He was just beginning to believe that he hadn’t stepped into some weird alternate reality without his noticing when Rosy Dusk decided to spring something else on him.

            Rosy Dusk: Question, why doesn’t Lord Grim join?

The group chat fell suspiciously silent. Nobody seemed to know how to reply.

Then Lunar Grace showed up to save the day.

            Lunar Grace: He has his own guild.

            Rosy Dusk: Yeah I know, but he could at least use an alt right?

            Thundering Light: Can we not talk about Lord Grim and alts in the same sentence

            Lunar Grace: Why do you think he’d want to be here lol? We’ve offered before, he just prefers to do his own thing.

            Bound Boat: What a diplomatic way of putting it…

            Rosy Dusk: Just seems like he and Blue River are really close

            Rosy Dusk: I thought they might be dating or something

            Lunar Grace: ……………

            Bound Boat: Uh.

            Blue River: ………………………

            Flower Lantern: HAHAHAHAHAHAHA

Xu Boyuan dropped his forehead against the desk with a loud thunk.

It was official. If this was an alternate reality, then it was the worst possible one.

The teasing in the chat got so bad that he seriously considered just logging out, but then settled on making himself scarce and switching his status to invisible. It was hard to simply disappear from a crowded marketplace, but Xu Boyuan guided Blue River out of the city without a care for who saw him. He would find some hole to hide in soon enough.

Just as he found someplace quiet to log out from, Rosy Dusk sent him another DM.

            Rosy Dusk: Ahh I’m so sorry!

            Rosy Dusk: I didn’t know you guys were apparently like mortal enemies

            Rosy Dusk: Which sounds ridiculous btw but I can respect it

            Rosy Dusk: I really thought you were at least friends

Xu Boyuan was determined to ignore her at first, but after staring blankly at the screen for a few minutes, lost in thought, he typed out a reply.

            Blue River: It’s fine…

            Blue River: I just don’t understand why you would think that.

            Rosy Dusk: Why I thought you were friends? You were friendly with each other…

            Blue River: No, why you thought we could be dating.

            Rosy Dusk: Oh

            Rosy Dusk: Well

            Rosy Dusk: It just seemed so clear, you were always talking about him and stuff

            Rosy Dusk: And you were jealous when he left that time

            Blue River: I really wasn’t.

            Rosy Dusk: You seemed kinda jealous

            Blue River: You misinterpreted the situation completely. I was just curious about why he left so suddenly.

            Rosy Dusk: I mean same, but you really didn’t seem okay with it

            Rosy Dusk: And he always seemed to want to spend time with you

            Rosy Dusk: Enough that he didn’t mind staying in the background as long as he was around you

            Blue River: That’s…

What could he say? That it wasn’t that Ye Qiu wanted to spend time with him, but that he wanted Xu Boyuan to spend time with Rosy Dusk? That they had had impure intentions all along?

            Rosy Dusk: Look I know you’ve been spending a lot of time with me to recruit me

            Rosy Dusk: It was pretty obvious from the start

            Rosy Dusk: So I just assumed that having Brother Grim around made it a little more fun for you

            Rosy Dusk: And then I kinda began to think you were genuine after you invited him that first time

Xu Boyuan was so confused. Had those romantic webnovels rotted this woman’s mind?

            Blue River: What do you mean?

            Rosy Dusk: You were way more yourself around him

            Rosy Dusk: I don’t think you even realized it haha

            Rosy Dusk: And I got the impression you were really grateful to have him there

            Blue River: …

            Blue River: I’m going to go take care of some things on my own. I’ll see you later. The others will show you the ropes.

            Rosy Dusk: Oh okay

            Rosy Dusk: Again, I’m really sorry

            Blue River: Don’t worry about it. I just want to get away from those idiots for a bit. I’ll be back later probably.

            Rosy Dusk: All right then…

            Blue River: And I do genuinely like you as a person.

            Rosy Dusk: Aw thanks

            Rosy Dusk: Right back at ya

Xu Boyuan spent the rest of the night lying in bed and telling himself that Rosy Dusk, lovely as she was, didn’t know shit. She had only spent a few nights around him and Ye Qiu. Where was the proof? The scientific evidence? He had never said or done anything to suggest he liked Ye Qiu like that!

It was simply absurd. He had no idea what his guild thought beyond those initial shocked and mirthful reactions, he had closed the guild chat with a vengeance as soon as he saw things were only going to get worse. But surely they didn’t buy any of that, either, right? They had apparently told Rosy Dusk he and Ye Qiu were mortal enemies.

Not that they were, of course. Xu Boyuan struggled enough just being on the opposite side of Ye Qiu when it came to dungeon records and wild bosses, he didn’t think he would survive being the guy’s mortal enemy.

But they weren’t friends, either, no matter how friendly they behaved toward each other. Or how many times they cooperated. Or how many deep conversations they had in dungeons. Xu Boyuan firmly believed that.

Didn’t he?

Eventually Xu Boyuan found the strength to grab his phone and get on QQ. He was very carefully not thinking about what Rosy Dusk said or about his own very strong (but definitely negative!) feelings toward Ye Qiu. He was only thinking that he ought to make more conscience-clearing decisions, since the last one he made earned him some good karma in the form of Rosy Dusk’s brand-new guild member status.

            Blue Bridge: I’m going to be taking a break from Guild Happy.

            Blue Bridge: I don’t think I’ve been able to focus as much on BBG since I went over there and I want to remedy that.

            Changing Spring: ok

Xu Boyuan stared at his phone. Was it really that easy?

After processing the fact that his boss essentially didn’t care if he slacked off  a bit, Xu Boyuan opened up the Glory app. It was largely useless for anything besides trading and buying items and messaging people, so most players didn’t download it since there were less clunky alternatives. But Xu Boyuan kept it despite the absurd amount of storage space it claimed, precisely for situations such as these. If one needed to send a message but would not under any circumstances dare to log into the game, the Glory app was the ideal coward’s way out.

Not that he was a coward. He was just…getting some space.

After checking if Lord Grim was online—he was either offline or invisible—Xu Boyuan typed out as concise an excuse as possible.

            Blue River: Some stuff has come up, I have to focus on my guild for time being.

            Blue River: Don’t call me to babysit because I won’t be available.

            Lord Grim: when will you be available then?

Xu Boyuan was surprised by the quick reply, but didn’t let himself be daunted.

            Blue River: I don’t know. I’ll be spending some time in Heavenly Domain.

            Lord Grim: oh okay

            Lord Grim: see you there

            Blue River: …What?

            Lord Grim: i have to go to hd too

            Lord Grim: you think i want to be stuck at lvl50 forever?

            Blue River: I just forgot…

He really had forgotten, because he was an idiot. Of course Lord Grim would need to be relocated to the Heavenly Domain to continue leveling. Xu Boyuan and the other guild leaders had long foreseen this! How could he forget?

            Lord Grim: pretty inconvenient that you have to take a break at this time but i’m sure the guild will make it without you now

            Lord Grim: at any rate we’ll still be seeing plenty of each other right? :)

            Blue River: I can’t tell if you’re actually happy about that or if you’re just threatening me.

            Lord Grim: don’t be silly, i have nothing to threaten you over

            Blue River: So you’re actually happy to see me in Heavenly Domain.

            Lord Grim: well why not? i’m always entertained around you

            Blue River: What are you saying? That you like spending time with me?

            Lord Grim: …i’m not against it

            Lord Grim: even if i’m against you ;)

            Lord Grim: so don’t think i’ll go easy on you just because we’re friends!

…Friends?

They were friends?

Oh, goddammit.

Chapter Text

If anything could be said for Ye Qiu, it was that he was fairly consistent.

Xu Boyuan observed with growing dismay the absolute chaos that befell the Heavenly Domain the moment Lord Grim’s arrival was announced. Nobody who had watched the spectacle Ye Qiu had made of his Heavenly Domain Challenge was surprised, of course, but most of those people were from the tenth server. The tenth server had long ago become desensitized to Ye Qiu’s outrageousness.

The rest of the world? Well, they were going to have to get used to it. Zombies would overrun the earth before Ye Qiu stopped being extra.

Naturally, Liang Yichun wasn’t the happiest man ever when he learned the cause of the latest ruckus. He had been able to shuck the worst of the problem, leaving it to Xu Boyuan’s purview, but now the problem had come to him, and its name was Ye Qiu.

But if anything could be said for Xu Boyuan, it was that he was good at avoiding his problems.

A respectable amount of time passed before he was forced to meet Ye Qiu again. The season had drawn to a close and summer had arrived, which meant that there were a lot more hands on deck to help with boss-hunting and dungeoning. After delegating at least half of his more urgent tasks to those under him who were both trustworthy and outstanding, Xu Boyuan went on what could only be called a vacation. The universe was treating him well for the first time in what seemed an eternity and life was simple.

Then that brat Lu Hanwen had been dumped on him and there went simplicity.

It wasn’t that Lu Hanwen was a bad sort. Like many of the trainees who spent time with the guild over the summer, he was enthusiastic and skilled. He also wasn’t above listening to his more experienced seniors, even if he far outshone them. True, Lu Hanwen was almost too brave for his own good, but he was still a respectful kid with a pretty good head on his shoulders.

However, a good head on your shoulders was no safeguard against Ye Qiu, as Xu Boyuan himself had proven many times.

Xu Boyuan genuinely thought the guild alliance wouldn’t go for a Level 55 boss like Scarlet Ribbon Janna when a Level 65 was available. He thought this was going to be a relatively easy win for Blue Brook. No muss, no fuss, just some obligatory PVP and a typical boss fight. That was his only excuse for the situation at hand.

He should have pulled out as soon as he realized Ye Qiu and his small army were at Scarlet Cloud Taoist Rite, but Lu Hanwen’s presence changed some things, and frankly, if Xu Boyuan couldn’t even manage to bag a Level 55 boss when it was right there for the taking, then he should turn in his resignation now. He convinced himself it would be worthwhile to stay.

Besides, Lu Hanwen was spectacularly skilled for such a young kid! Xu Boyuan figured he could delay the alliance’s arrival at least long enough for Blue Brook to handle Seaside and Samsara, but when he saw the alliance’s troops heading in their direction, he immediately knew Lu Hanwen had failed. Xu Boyuan had underestimated Ye Qiu yet again.

He should have known better. He had already dealt with Ye Qiu for so long! Why was he so careless?

Xu Boyuan prepared to rescue Lu Hanwen. Of course, that was before he understood just what kind of shit he was personally in for.

Not only Ye Qiu, but Zhang Xinjie had the nerve to show up as well! These two gods couldn’t battle it out over the perfectly good Level 65 boss far away from here, they just had to come for the easy pickings. Xu Boyuan hadn’t even brought the elites with him! How was he supposed to deal with this?

In the end, he focused on his original plan of liberating Lu Hanwen from his sticky situation, leaving somebody else to temporarily oversee the boss fight. He didn’t expect to survive after breaking Lu Hanwen free, but he did. The success was bracing; however, the moment they were in the clear, Lu Hanwen said the boss was about to be taken from Blue Brook.

After that, things were a bit of a blur, as most wild boss fights were. When Red Ribbon Janna started acting up, though, Xu Boyuan knew something else had surely gone wrong.

Sure enough, it was Lu Hanwen who had been duped by Ye Qiu into Enraging the boss, triggering a massive hissy fit. That wouldn’t have been so bad if only Lu Hanwen hadn’t also joined Ye Qiu’s party in order to receive heals.

Xu Boyuan felt like he was on the verge of being Enraged himself. When Blue Brook retreated, kissing the boss goodbye, Xu Boyuan had Blue Bridge Spring Snow trail behind Flowing Cloud to watch over Lu Hanwen’s quest for revenge. And maybe pitch in a little bit.

“Oh, it’s you,” Ye Qiu said when he spotted him. He was playing as a Cleric, Enlightened Lord, who was clad in such shabby equipment that no one would look at him and think, Ah, it’s God Ye Qiu.

At least it didn’t look like rainbow puke, though.

“Is that all you have to say?” Xu Boyuan demanded angrily. “You’re too shameless. To think you’d trick Little Lu! He’s a child.”

“Who cares about that? It’s not like I scarred him for life. It’ll be a lesson for the kid.”

“You…!”

“Besides, you’re looking at it the wrong way. At that time, if no one healed him, he wouldn’t have been able to Enrage the boss. What kind of tactic is it, to have one person charging around violently by himself? He tried to ambush us alone at first, which is fine, but then he didn’t learn his lesson and tried again. Where’s your sense of teamwork? You can’t do everything in Glory alone.”

Xu Boyuan was speechless. He couldn’t decide if Ye Qiu had a point or if he deserved even more of a beating for going so off-topic like that. Regardless of the reason, Ye Qiu had still resorted to his usual underhandedness!

Why do I like this guy again?

He paused. Where did that thought come from? What the hell? He most definitely never… He didn’t like Ye Qiu at all.

To no one’s surprise, Xu Boyuan didn’t walk away from that battlefield, but was forcefully removed from it. Blue Bridge Spring Snow and Flowing Cloud were slaughtered with hardly any fanfare and Xu Boyuan couldn’t do anything but fume quietly at his desk.

Ye Qiu was truly far too outrageous.

It took a few hours to calm down, though it was arguably Lu Hanwen who was the most frustrated between them. The kid bounced back quickly, though, and went offline to do his own things. Xu Boyuan had Blue Bridge Spring Snow  relocate from the revival point once he was ready to face the virtual world again, but after that, he had nothing to do but stew in his own thoughts.

A message notification from QQ drew his attention.

            Ye Qiu: hey

            Blue Bridge: …Is that really you?

            Ye Qiu: who else?

            Blue Bridge: How did you get my QQ? I don’t recall giving it to you.

            Ye Qiu: one of the other guild leaders passed it along when i asked

            Ye Qiu: you haven’t changed at all

            Blue Bridge: What?

            Ye Qiu: when you didn’t show up for more than a few days at a time in the 10th server, i thought maybe something was seriously wrong

            Ye Qiu: but you’re still just the same!

            Blue Bridge: ……….

            Ye Qiu: what??

            Blue Bridge: You’re so strange.

            Blue Bridge: Did you really have to do all that earlier?

            Ye Qiu: sure i did

            Ye Qiu: fair is fair, right? i can hunt wild bosses just like the rest of you

            Blue Bridge: You talk about fairness when you use tactics like that!

            Ye Qiu: i hate this saying, but it applies pretty well here: all’s fair in love and war

            Blue Bridge: That doesn’t meant there shouldn’t be limits!

            Ye Qiu: what limits would you suggest?

            Ye Qiu: aren’t you just angry that i pulled one over on you?

            Blue Bridge: That, but I’m also justifiably offended by your complete lack of morals.

            Ye Qiu: don’t exaggerate now, i have plenty of morals

            Ye Qiu: anyway, zhang xinjie didn’t fare much better, so don’t feel bad

            Blue Bridge: You must be the singularly most infuriating person I’ve ever met.

Xu Boyuan logged off of QQ before Ye Qiu could reply. He pushed away from his desk and stood up in a fury, beginning to pace around his office like a man possessed. And he had spent all that time calming down, too!

Trust Ye Qiu to make a fool out of him and his efforts.

But in reality, Xu Boyuan probably deserved it. He had underestimated Ye Qiu, he had misjudged Lu Hanwen’s capabilities, he had demanded too much from his troops, he had…developed a crush on Ye Qiu.

A crush! On Ye Qiu!

Out of all the absurdities that had plagued his life since Ye Qiu had become a part of it, this had to take the cake. All this time, his frustration toward Ye Qiu, while very genuine and heartfelt, had been masking…other feelings.

Feelings of admiration for Ye Qiu’s skill. Feelings of regard for Ye Qiu’s unbending will. Feelings of awe for his reputation, which circumstances constantly proved was well-earned. Feelings of appreciation for Ye Qiu’s bluntness, even if his tactics continued to be underhanded as all get-out. Feelings of gratitude for his help, his advice, his unique point of view.

Rosy Dusk had been right. In the time he had spent away from Ye Qiu and his shenanigans, Xu Boyuan had realized that sometime in the past few years, he had stopped being real. He had stopped feeling like himself. Maybe it began when his reputation grew enough for people like Poplar Beach to begin to try to compete with him. Maybe it began when Liang Yichun started heaping more responsibility on his shoulders. But either way, his problems far preceded the tenth server and Ye Qiu’s arrival.

But having Ye Qiu around—it shook things up. Not necessarily in a good way; in fact, it was usually in a bad way. Yet, when everything had reached a boiling point for him personally, when Xu Boyuan had most needed someone to share his burden with, Ye Qiu had been there.

It was such an odd thing. Who would have thought that something as ridiculous as Xu Boyuan agreeing to romance a girl into joining Blue Brook Guild would end with him like-liking Ye Qiu?

Xu Boyuan despaired. He despaired of himself and his absurd feelings, and he despaired of the fact that nothing would ever come of them. How many people over the years had fallen for God Ye Qiu? Wasn’t he merely another face in the crowd?

Ye Qiu was just so cool and…so much more, even when he was being incredibly uncool. But he was also a celebrity, despite never showing himself in public. In a way, Xu Boyuan’s chances at getting anywhere with him were even worse than his chances with Rosy Dusk, who he’d never harbored romantic feelings for at all.

Surely this was just a fleeting crush like any other. Time and more exposure to Ye Qiu’s awfulness would definitely cure him of it. Eventually his very real frustration would win over his admiration and then Xu Boyuan could go back to pretending he was a sane human being who had never felt anything more than disagreeable toward Ye Qiu.

He would get over it.

* * *

He did not get over it.

* * *

“Funny seeing you here!”

Xu Boyuan’s heart skipped a beat, with excitement or dread he couldn’t say. Blue Bridge Spring Snow turned, and Lord Grim entered his view.

“Are you here to dungeon, too?” he asked, already feeling defeated.

“I’m thinking about it.”

Ye Qiu had, for whatever reason, insisted on keeping in touch with Xu Boyuan even though they didn’t cross paths nearly as often as before. Usually he requested information, the kind of information that Xu Boyuan couldn’t resist handing over because he knew Ye Qiu would do terrible, terrible things with it (to the other club guilds). Sometimes he wanted Xu Boyuan to take up Peerless Looks and check in on Guild Happy. Occasionally he just wanted to talk about Glory or fight a round in the Arena.

Regardless of the reason, it was enough to keep Xu Boyuan from getting a grip and moving on. How could you forget your feelings for someone you were constantly reminded of? And Ye Qiu didn’t even have to say anything to remind Xu Boyuan of his existence: the Heavenly Domain was almost as taken with him as the tenth server had been, and hardly a day went by without Xu Boyuan receiving news of Ye Qiu’s exploits.

It was jaw-clenching, teeth-grinding stuff, frankly. Xu Boyuan was so pissed by everything he did. He should have already learned to resign himself, and maybe he would if he didn’t have to feel so strongly about everything related to Ye Qiu. Instead he was just…vaguely turned on.

He hated himself.

“You’re not ignoring me, are you?” Ye Qiu asked out of nowhere.

Xu Boyuan grunted and looked around. “It’s kind of crowded here, I just don’t want to be caught speaking with you.”

“That’s cold. Also not a denial.”

“Fine, come over here, then.”

Xu Boyuan had Blue Bridge Spring Snow lead the way to a more covered spot, out of the direct line of sight of anyone coming up the main path to the dungeon’s entrance. Lord Grim’s footsteps sounded behind him obediently.

“Now what do you want?” Xu Boyuan asked when he was satisfied with their position.

Ye Qiu seemed surprised. “Nothing. Just wanted to tell you that your equipment looks nice.”

“…My equipment?”

“Yeah, is it new?”

Xu Boyuan was suspicious. Yes, it was new, and Ye Qiu was definitely aware of that, because nothing about Glory escaped him. If someone changed their equipment, he would not fail to notice.

“I bought it recently,” he still said, playing along.

“A wise purchase. Like Su Mucheng would say, stylish yet functional.”

Now there was certainly a note of teasing in his voice. Xu Boyuan grew even more suspicious, but he had no idea what to do besides feign ignorance and treat it seriously.

“I do enjoy functionality.”

“Exactly what I like in a man,” Ye Qiu remarked.

A jolt went down Xu Boyuan’s spine and his hand almost convulsed on his mouse. “E-excuse me?”

There was a beat of silence. Xu Boyuan swore his heart, frozen by shock, was about to shatter like so much glass.

Then, suddenly, Ye Qiu laughed. “I was wondering if you remembered our old lessons. You know, the ones involving seduction.”

Xu Boyuan almost choked on air. “You never taught me anything about seduction! Much less how to flirt so shamelessly. I’d never learn something like that, and especially not from you.”

“Haha, don’t be mad Little Blue, I was just testing you.”

“What in the world for?”

“Just thought it would be fun,” Ye Qiu said. “It’s been a tough few days.”

“Well, I’m glad playing around with me makes you feel better.” He wondered what Ye Qiu thought of as tough. All things considered, his life was probably a lot crazier than Xu Boyuan’s.

“Who says I’m playing around?”

…Okay, Xu Boyuan’s heart might actually give out.

“You—! I don’t know what you’re doing, but stop it right now,” Xu Boyuan managed to force out.

Completely ignoring him, Ye Qiu continued: “It’s really too bad there’s no marriage function in this game.”

Xu Boyuan twitched violently. “You would just use it to troll people.”

Why was he entertaining this guy? Hadn’t he come to this side of the Heavenly Domain for a reason? And speaking of which, why did Ye Qiu just have to wander into his path?! It was a bit early in the evening, true, but the alliance was surely going to be on the hunt soon. They both had better things to do!

“You’re probably right. Anyway, what are your thoughts on cybersex?”

“Ye Qiu!”

* * *

(“On a serious note, I actually do want to get to know you better.”

“…You do?”

“Yes.”

“I, uh. I admit, I’m surprised.”

“You shouldn’t be. You said it yourself: I like spending time with you.”

“Because I amuse you, right?”

“Because I have a lot of fun when we’re together. And because I feel…a lot more like who I really am. Does that make sense?”

“Actually, it does.”)

Chapter Text

The stadium was fuller than Xu Boyuan had expected it to be, though it certainly wasn’t as full as a “real” match called for. Despite the fact that Excellent Era was competing, the Challenger League was still the Challenger League.

Nonetheless, a lot of people were apparently willing to shell out some cash to see Excellent Era and their old captain battle it out. Xu Boyuan thought it was pretty disrespectful to word it like that: Ye Xiu wasn’t on his own, fighting for vengeance; he was competing with a new team behind him. A team he had built with his own hands.

Xu Boyuan stood with the crowd that was shouting their support of Team Happy for all the stadium to hear. He didn’t feel entirely comfortable engaging with anyone, but he was sure many of these people were the very same Guild Happy members he had spent so much time guiding and teaching. He watched them with a faintly mystified smile, wondering at the odd turns life took.

Then it was time for the match, and he only had eyes for the stage.

When Team Happy won, Xu Boyuan felt the strangest sense of elation sweep over him. It was much like how he felt when he watched Blue Rain win a match, but somehow more personal. This was a team of people he personally knew, to varying degrees. This was the team his sorta-boyfriend had poured time and effort into. This was the start of a new dream.

Xu Boyuan followed the guild members to celebrate somewhere nearby. He didn’t point out that Team Happy had to hold a press conference following their victory, mostly because he himself forgot about it. He was floating more than walking, caught up in the high of victory, so much so that he forewent enough dignity to exclaim happily with the exuberant crowd surrounding him.

When he laid eyes on Ye Xiu, the joy he felt became so acute it was nearly painful. He almost turned around and left, overcome.

But then Ye Xiu saw him, too, and smiled.

“This is him!” Chen Guo yelled, popping up out of nowhere. “The boyfriend!”

“Uh—”

“Hi, Blue River,” Tang Rou greeted, as polite as ever. Then she blinked. “I mean, Xu Boyuan.”

“Hi,” he replied a bit weakly. Chen Guo had an iron grip on his arm and all but forced him to take the seat next to Ye Xiu as the crowd filled the restaurant, insisting on a toast.

Ye Xiu had a glass of wine in front of him, but he ignored it in favor of Xu Boyuan. “So, what did you think of our grand victory?”

“Astonishing,” Xu Boyuan said.

“Yeah? You were amazed?” Ye Xiu’s smile was a bit crooked, but his eyes were entirely too sharp.

“Very amazed. You’ll get to compete for real next season, won’t you? You must be…”

Ye Xiu hooked his hand around the back of Xu Boyuan’s neck and pulled him into a brief kiss before he could finish the sentence.

“…glad.” Xu Boyuan touched his lips as Ye Xiu drew back. He was certain his eyes must be comically wide.

“I am very glad,” Ye Xiu confirmed. “Glad that we all made it here together.”

“Well, you kind of dragged me into this.”

“Did I?”

Xu Boyuan nodded dazedly. “Yeah…you and your…everything. This is totally not how I thought things would go.”

“Having second thoughts?” Ye Xiu asked carefully, his hand sliding over Xu Boyuan’s beneath the table.

In that moment, the cheering fans, the team, the entire world seemed to fade away.

“No,” Xu Boyuan said. He smiled. “I’m glad we’re here together, too.”