I froze like a statue the instant I saw her.

How should I describe her? She had big, round eyes that looked as clear as a lake. They looked pure enough to convince me that she had never seen anything dirty or dangerous in her life, and yet there was no mistaking the hint of womanly intelligence and cunning peeking from behind her gaze. It was as bewitching as it was charming.

No one could’ve imagined that Wind Fantasy was a girl, let alone a girl so beautiful that it positively stole the breath in my lungs!

“Now let me see your face,” Wind Fantasy said as she stared at me grudgefully. I wondered what kind of bond we had after murdering the hell out of each other.

I shook my head and replied, “You’d rather not. I’m a Night Creature, and my appearance is quite frightening.”

“Cut the bullshit and take off your hood already!” Her reply left no room for defiance.

Nodding, I pulled down my hood slowly and revealed my absolutely “bony” face to her.

She was obviously frightened by my appearance, but she quickly kept her emotions in check and asked, “You don’t also look like this in real life, do you?”

“Nah, I look slightly more handsome than this.”

“Hmph. Alright, remembering that we’re meeting at 3 pm tomorrow at Silver Fir Cafe, 1st floor. You should find me at a table on the right side.”

“Do you also look like this in real life?” I asked. It was a matter of great concern because this would be the second time in my life I would go meet an online friend. My first time was He Yi, and to say that it was a stunning meeting would be an understatement. Naturally, I didn’t want to meet the complete opposite of her if I could help it.

Wind Fantasy pursed her lips together into a small smile. “Well… I won’t deny that I adjusted my in-game appearance a little, so you may be a bit disappointed when you see me in real life. But I’m sure I won’t frighten you too much…”

“Alright, see you tomorrow afternoon then.”

Wind Fantasy bade me goodbye and returned to Floating Ice City. I myself crawled back into my grave.

I took off my gaming helmet. I was exhausted after being online for god knows how many hours, so I went to bed immediately after eating a bowl of instant noodles.

The next day, I woke up an hour into the afternoon. Du Thirteen was taking a shower and humming all kinds of vulgar tunes in the bathroom.

I climbed to my feet and cleaned myself for a bit.

Once Du Thirteen was done, we went out to eat lunch.

While we were eating, Du Thirteen asked, “So, we’re leveling to 30 after lunch?”

“Not this time. I have a meeting later.”

“A meeting?” Du Thirteen’s interest was immediately piqued. “Is it a woman?”

I nodded.

“Who is it? Is it He Yi? You’ve got to bring me along if it’s her, haha!”

“Of course not. It’s Wind Fantasy.”

“What? The number one player in the top rankings? She’s a… girl?”

“Yep.” I nodded and poured water over Du Thirteen’s budding desires. “However, she told me to be ready because she’s no beauty.”

Understanding exactly what I meant, Du Thirteen patted me on the shoulder and asked, “What time are you two meeting?”

“3 pm.”

“Okay, I’ll call you at 3:10 pm and say that your house is on fire. All you need to do is answer the call and rush back.”

I grinned. My brother is a caring man and a veteran!

Around 2 pm or so, I went to the post office to send the card He Yi gave me to my dad. On the way, I felt like I was literally dying under the scalding sunlight. The reason I did this was because I had no idea how much longer I could live. The card contained several hundred thousand RMB, and the password was my birthday date. I told my dad that it was my present to him.

I felt deeply ashamed and guilty about this, but there was nothing I could do about my condition.

After that, I sat under a small bridge and allowed my mind to wander. It wasn’t long before it was almost 3 pm. Time to move!

The Suzhou University of Science and Technology wasn’t far from where I lived. In fact, it was incredibly close because I was one of its students just a year ago. I was crippled after I graduated, so I rented a room in a nearby district.

I felt a lot of emotions after returning to my alma mater. I missed my idiot friends a lot.

Silver Fir Cafe was an elegantly-styled cafe that was opened just recently. Its interior design was pretty high class, and it was a nice spot for couples to show off their love to each other. Of course, this establishment did not offer sexual services.

A lot of girls shot me looks after I entered the cafe. Mn, now I’m sure my efforts to improve my appearance this afternoon weren’t in vain...

“First floor, the table on the right side…” I muttered to myself and walked toward my destination. Then, I felt a shudder from head to toe. WTF?!

There was only one person on the right side of the entire cafe, and it was a younger schoolgirl that looked like she weighed about 120kg. The poor chair she sat on kept groaning in pain, and she was staring at me innocently...

I gritted my teeth and swore in my mind. Fuck! You call this “a bit of adjustment”?? You… you look like someone who got crushed by a tank before getting reconstructive surgery!

For a moment, my fury scorched all the way to the heavens. All liars should go to hell!

I took out my phone and checked the time, 3:02 pm. Please, let these 8 remaining minutes pass by as soon as possible!

Pretending to be calm, I walked up to the schoolgirl casually, sat down and looked at her. I asked, “Hey there. How are you doing?”

The schoolgirl gave me a brilliant smile, the kind where fat was shaking all over the place. She replied, “Hey handsome, what about you? Are you alone?”

It was at this moment I noticed that something was off. She’s not Wind Fantasy!

A waft of fragrance suddenly brushed across my nose and shoulders like ripples across water. When I looked up, I was stunned to find a beautiful girl with bright eyes and clean teeth standing next to me and peering at me. Her long hair danced across the air as she stared at me playfully and scornfully.

I rose to my feet in an instant. “What… what’s going on?”

“Are you Broken Halberd Sinks Into Sand?”

She was holding a cup of tea. After glancing between me and the schoolgirl, a smile suddenly bloomed across her face like a pool of autumn. “I see your taste is quite special.”

I felt ashamed, embarrassed, and awkward all at the same time. I didn’t know what to say at all. If there was a hole on the ground, I would’ve crawled inside and hidden myself.

She burst out into a giggle before pointing at a seat next to me. “Take a seat. Or would you like to order something?”

I shook my head. I only had about 2000 RMB left after sending the card to my dad, not to mention that I had a freeloader to feed.

She nodded. “Alright, now speak. How do you think we should resolve our dispute?”

“It’s simple. We just need to stay out of each other’s way from now on,” I replied honestly.

“Stay out of each other’s way?” A bit of disapproval entered her face. “You think that’s still possible after you wrecked the quest I spent ten hours preparing for?”

“Ah?” I was caught off-guard by her reply. “I wrecked your quest?”

“Mn.”

The wind beauty nodded. “That sentinel leader revives in ten hours after his first death, so I needed to kill him a second time. Also, I needed to kill him within 10 minutes after his revival, or I would fail my quest. But you… and Gui Guzi wrecked my plans completely!”

“Is that why you camped Gui Guzi’s corpse?”

“Yep.” She nodded seriously. I couldn’t sense any hesitation or falsehood behind her beautiful eyes.

I gritted my teeth and shivered. I can’t afford to piss off this beauty.

It was at this moment a series of giggles that sounded like bells came from the entrance. Three beautiful girls entered the cafe, and one of them ran up to Wind Fantasy with a smile. “Yiyi, why didn’t you show up for class this afternoon? Are you here… for a date?”

She suddenly looked at me, the word “misunderstanding” scribbled all over her face.

Panicking a little, Wind Fantasy tried to explain herself. “That’s not true, Qingqing! I… I, uh…”

However, she couldn’t find the right words to say. It was like she was literally tongue-tied.

I smiled appreciatively at the embarrassed girl before asking, “Hey beautiful, what is Yiyi’s full name?”

The beautiful girl looked surprised. “Seriously? You don’t know her? Man, you must be really unlucky if you’ve never heard about her. She has been the beauty queen of our university for who knows how many years already. Her name is Lin Yixin, and if I remember correctly she’s called Wind Fantasy in a game…”

Her answer silenced me for a bit. Wait a second, I think I’ve heard this name before...

It was then a memory entered my mind. Before I graduated, Du Thirteen often talked about a “goddess so beautiful she could shatter the heaven and the earth with her looks”. Was he talking about her?

I looked closer and realized that Lin Yixin was actually as beautiful as Du Thirteen claimed. If He Yi was a “stunning” beauty, then Lin Yixin was a “shattering” one.

Sensing my astonishment, Lin Yixin said, “Don’t listen to their nonsense. I’m just a shut-in who loves farming gold, that’s all.”

I nodded with a smile. “I’m also—”

“A shut-in?”

“Come on, I was going to say I like farming gold too!”

Lin Yixin covered her mouth with a giggle. “Fine, let’s get back to business then.”

“Alright. So, you were saying?”

Lin Yixin took a sip of tea before licking her lips once. Every little gesture she made was bewitchingly soothing to look at. She then smiled at me and said, “So… I plan to build a guild in the near future. I would like to invite you to join me!”

I gave it a thought before rejecting her resolutely. “I’m sorry, but no.”

“Never mind then.”

Lin Yixin didn’t take offense from my rejection. “We can at least be allies, right?”

“Yes, that won’t be a problem.” I nodded.

The girl with a ponytail—Lin Yixin’s classmate—interrupted our conversation again and asked, “Who’s this guy, Yiyi? Is he a player in Heavenblessed too?”

Lin Yixin nodded. “Yes, Qingqing.”

The girl named Qingqing held her hand toward me with a smile and said, “Good day to you, handsome! What is your ID?”

I shook her hand and replied, “Broken Halberd Sinks Into Sand.”

“Ah?”

Qingqing’s mouth fell open. “You… you’re actually the number two player on the top rankings? Hoho, you don’t actually look bad at all. And here I thought all guy gamers were dirty shut-ins!”

Her good impression of me actually made me feel quite awkward. Thank goodness I spent half an hour to improve my appearance before I came...

Lin Yixin said, “Alright, I guess we’re half-friends since we’re friends in game.”

“Why half-friends?” I asked.

“That’s because I don’t trust you enough yet,” she said directly. “There are plenty of forces lurking inside Floating Ice City, and we need to identify who our greatest enemies are.”

“And who are they? Mad Dragon?”

“Tch…” Lin Yixin snorted disdainfully before answering, “Leave small fries like them out of the conversation, will you? They’re not worthy to be my opponent in Floating Ice City at least.”

“Who is then?”

“You and Dominating Heaven Blade.”

I was extremely flattered by her high praise. I continued asking, “The Domination Clan?”

“That’s right!” Lin Yixin replied with a smile. “They’re a group of professional players, and they’re going all out in Heavenblessed. We all need to be careful of them.”

It was at this moment my phone rang. Du Thirteen’s voice came from the other side of the phone. “Lu Chen, it’s bad, our house is on fire! Come home quickly!”

I looked at Lin Yixin and made my decision immediately. Like I care if a fire or an earthquake is wrecking my house when such a beautiful girl is sitting right in front of me! So I answered, “Call 119.”

“Fuck—”

I ended the call before Du Thirteen could finish.

Lin Yixin heard everything, so she shot me a disdainful look and said, “I see you’re quite confident in my looks, hmm?”

I replied awkwardly, “Of course.”

Du Thirteen called me again a couple of seconds later. I ended the call again.

Several minutes later, a man barged into the cafe like a hurricane and shouted, “Lu Chen, you bas… tard…”

Du Thirteen’s voice died away as though he had been frozen solid.

It was because he saw Lin Yixin, a girl so shatteringly beautiful that she could exist in legends.