After putting away the documents Xia Zichen had signed, the two sat across from each other and turned their attention back to the game.
[Guild] [Sunflower]: Wow, it’s so rare for the Great God to be online at this hour.
[Guild] [Season in Bloom]: It’s obvious he’s online because he’s keeping the Great God’s Wife company.
[Guild] [Sunflower]: Picks nose. We demand the truth.
[Guild] [Tsundere Healer]: I think the truth is that the Great God and the Great God’s Wife are together. Otherwise, why would the Great God be in such a good mood to log on now?
[Guild] [Sunflower]: That truth suddenly makes me so excited!
[Guild] [Love at Third Sight]: Excited +1!!!
There were plenty of students in the guild, and since it was summer vacation, most of them had nothing to do. Many practically lived in the game, making this the busiest time of day.
[Guild] [Herbal Remedy]: How about I go upstairs and catch them in the act?
[Guild] [Sunflower]: AHHHHHH! Vice Guild Leader, that’s an excellent idea! Please don’t hold back—charge in!
[Guild] [Season in Bloom]: Yeah! I heard the Vice Guild Leader works at the same company as the Great God. But wait… if they’re at work, how could the Great God’s Wife be with him?
[Guild] [Herbal Remedy]: Ahem. There’s this magical place called an office. You know?
[Guild] [Sunflower]: I know!! I totally know! I understand exactly what you mean!
[Guild] [Tsundere Healer]: Why did my thoughts suddenly become so dirty… Office and stuff…
[Guild] [Love at Third Sight]: You’re definitely not the only one! Vice Guild Leader, hurry up and save the Great God’s Wife! The Great God clearly has evil intentions!
[Guild] [Chen Xi]: …You’re all overthinking it…
Watching everyone enthusiastically letting their imaginations run wild, Xia Zichen couldn’t let it continue.
He had to interrupt them before they completely abandoned whatever remained of their dignity.
[Guild] [Sunflower]: Great God’s Wife, don’t be shy.
[Guild] [Tsundere Healer]: Vice Guild Leader, hurry up! Take some pictures and share them. We need proof!
[Guild] [Season in Bloom]: Agreed! Vice Guild Leader, charge! For the safety of the Great God’s Wife!
[Guild] [Canmo Wuhen]: Speaking of pictures… I happen to have quite a few of you and Jian Lang.
That casual threat immediately deflated Herbal Remedy.
Gu Xu had plenty of photos of Luo Ji and Mo Xiang.
Of course, he hadn’t taken them on purpose.
Luo Ji simply loved taking pictures. Whenever the three of them went out to eat, Luo Ji always insisted Gu Xu photograph him and Mo Xiang together.
If Luo Ji forgot his own camera, he’d simply borrow Gu Xu’s phone, which happened to have the best camera among the three of them.
In Luo Ji’s opinion, it would be a waste not to use it.
Gu Xu had never bothered deleting the pictures.
His phone had plenty of storage, so over time, they simply accumulated.
[Guild] [Herbal Remedy]: Ahem… I was just joking.
[Guild] [Sunflower]: Vice Guild Leader, seriously? You’re giving up just like that?
[Guild] [Herbal Remedy]: When you’re under someone else’s roof, sometimes you have to bow your head.
Although the pictures of Luo Ji and Mo Xiang were perfectly normal, he had no interest in publicly sharing them.
Gu Xu had probably only been joking…
But Herbal Remedy wasn’t willing to bet he wouldn’t be retaliated against if he really barged into their private time.
Ever since Xia Zichen had started working at the company, everyone had been curious about him.
After all, Gu Xu had personally led him into his office while holding his hand.
That definitely wasn’t something you did for just anyone.
Most of the employees were young, and naturally, young people loved gossip.
Still, everyone knew where to draw the line.
Most simply assumed Xia Zichen was Gu Xu’s relative.
Xia Zichen heard the rumors but never bothered correcting them.
[Guild] [Tsundere Healer]: Honestly, I’d kind of like to see the Guild Leader and Vice Guild Leader too. That would definitely be… spicy.
[Guild] [Love at Third Sight]: Great God, post a photo! If you do, none of us will ever compete with the Great God’s Wife for dungeon gear again. Even if he just AFKs and finishes last in healing, we’ll still give him the best loot!
[Guild] [Sunflower]: Agreed!
[Guild] [Greedy Bloodlust]: Seriously… Why do I feel like you people have less and less shame every day?
[Guild] [Love at Third Sight]: What’s shame? Can you eat it?
[Guild] [Tsundere Healer]: For pictures, we don’t need shame!
[Guild] [Greedy Bloodlust]: …
[Guild] [Jian Lang]: Enough gossip. Since everyone’s here, let’s run the dungeon. Let’s try to clear the last boss today.
[Guild] [Tsundere Healer]: Tsk tsk. The moment the Vice Guild Leader gets dragged into this, the Guild Leader immediately jumps out to protect him.
[Guild] [Sunflower]: That’s true love, isn’t it?
[Guild] [Love at Third Sight]: Absolutely!
[Guild] [Season in Bloom]: One hundred percent!
The guild members continued chatting while assembling the raid.
There were over forty people from Maple Pavilion online.
After excluding those already in other instances or otherwise occupied, they still had several empty raid slots.
Xia Zichen glanced through his friends list.
An Jing and the others happened to be online, so he invited them.
Recently, they’d been joining Maple Pavilion’s progression raids anyway.
[Raid] [Midnight Sneak]: Here I am again, mooching off your experience.
Besides raiding with Maple Pavilion, Battle Hall had also been attempting progression on the new dungeon.
Unfortunately, they’d only managed to defeat the fifth boss.
Victory remained a long way off.
Partly because attendance was inconsistent…
And partly because they simply lacked enough overall strength.
An Jing found it rather frustrating.
Fortunately, Maple Pavilion was excellent.
He’d picked up quite a few nice items while raiding with them.
[Raid] [Herbal Remedy]: No need to be polite. We’re all friends. Helping each other is only natural.
[Raid] [Season in Bloom]: Exactly! You’re the Great God’s Wife’s family, after all.
[Raid] [Midnight Sneak]: Family…
[Raid] [Chen Xi]: …Ignore them.
[Raid] [Sunflower]: Oooh, the Great God’s Wife is being tsundere!
Xia Zichen sighed helplessly.
He flew directly toward the dungeon.
He honestly wanted to know…
Exactly which eye had convinced Sunflower that he was tsundere?
He and tsundere had absolutely nothing to do with each other.
The group entered the instance in grand fashion.
Before pulling the boss, Jian Lang thoughtfully placed down a feast.
Everyone ate to gain their buffs.
Jian Lang directed the raid over voice chat.
The assault began.
With Jian Lang, Herbal Remedy, and Canmo Wuhen providing overwhelming damage output, the first several bosses fell quickly and smoothly.
Loot was distributed according to class.
When they reached Boss Six, everyone sat outside the room recovering health.
Anyone needing consumables hurried to refresh their buffs.
Canmo Wuhen sat beside Chen Xi.
The two looked incredibly harmonious together.
Xia Zichen took a sip of coffee while waiting for the raid to finish preparing.
“Why did you choose to play a healer in the first place?”
Gu Xu asked, holding a pastry toward Xia Zichen’s mouth.
Taking a bite, Xia Zichen replied,
“The other three started playing a day before I did.”
“They all picked DPS classes.”
“If we wanted to level together, someone needed to heal.”
“So I chose healer.”
That had indeed been the practical reason.
Though the reason he’d created a female character…
Had been Shen Yicheng.
“Usually guys prefer playing DPS.”
Although plenty of men played female healers in MMORPGs, Gu Xu personally didn’t know many male healer players.
“Actually…”
“Healing is easier than DPS.”
At least once you became familiar with it.
Healing took some adjustment at first.
After all, DPS only had to pay attention to the boss.
A healer had to watch at least five people’s health simultaneously.
But after getting used to it…
It wasn’t that troublesome.
DPS players competed over damage-per-second.
If your DPS was too low, it was embarrassing to even call yourself damage.
Healers simply needed to keep everyone alive.
Whether everyone stayed at full health wasn’t particularly important.
“Really?”
Gu Xu finished the half-eaten pastry Xia Zichen had bitten and thought for a moment.
“Want to switch characters for a while?”
“Hm?”
Xia Zichen looked up.
“I’ve never played a healer.”
“I’ll heal this boss.”
“I don’t know how to play Abyss Gate DPS…”
Xia Zichen naturally didn’t mind letting Gu Xu heal.
His only concern was that he couldn’t play Canmo Wuhen’s damage rotation.
“It’s easy.”
“Just press one, two, three, four in order.”
As he spoke, Gu Xu stood up and walked over to Xia Zichen’s seat.
After thinking it over, Xia Zichen agreed.
Boss Six was the easiest boss in the entire dungeon.
Even if one player died, the others could easily finish it.
Besides…
He’d never played DPS before.
The opportunity sounded rather exciting.
The two switched seats.
Once everyone confirmed they were ready, Jian Lang charged in and established aggro.
…
One minute after the pull, Xia Zichen finally wiped his hands clean after finishing his pastry.
He controlled Canmo Wuhen and charged into battle.
Although Gu Xu had claimed it was just “press one, two, three, four,” some abilities remained on cooldown.
So Xia Zichen adopted a very straightforward strategy.
Whichever skill icon lit up…
He pressed it.
To anyone watching, his rotation actually looked flashy and stylish.
Even Xia Zichen thought his own gameplay looked incredibly cool.
Like a complete beginner…
He simply enjoyed watching all the flashy skill effects.
After dodging one of the boss’s targeted attacks, he ran back into position.
At that moment, every skill was still cooling down…
Except the ability bound to the 8 key.
Without thinking, he pressed it.
After all, he hadn’t used it earlier because the key was too far away.
The result…
Canmo Wuhen cracked his whip—
And yanked the boss straight toward himself.
Xia Zichen froze.
Normally, pulling the boss wasn’t a huge problem.
The tank could simply pull it back.
Unfortunately…
The boss happened to be casting a frontal AoE attack.
By dragging the boss over…
Nearly the entire ranged group suddenly found themselves inside the attack radius.
The raid was instantly wiped out.
Only then did Xia Zichen realize…
Earlier, the skill hadn’t been unusable.
He’d simply been standing too far away, as he was used to playing ranged classes.
Canmo Wuhen barely survived with a sliver of health.
Chen Xi, whose job was healing the ranged group from a distance, survived because he had remained outside the attack.
If Xia Zichen had still been healing…
He would have immediately activated damage reduction, repositioned, topped off the tank and Canmo Wuhen, then battle-resurrected another healer.
Unfortunately…
Gu Xu was now playing Chen Xi.
His awareness wasn’t bad.
He immediately began casting group heals.
The problem was…
His AoE heal only affected his own party.
And everyone in that party was already dead except himself.
He had essentially healed nobody.
“Move forward a little.”
“The group heal won’t reach.”
“Use single-target heals.”
Xia Zichen reminded him.
Gu Xu reacted quickly.
He moved closer and immediately used Chen Xi’s biggest healing spell on Jian Lang.
Unfortunately…
He forgot to activate his threat reduction skill.
After the previous AoE, aggro had become unstable.
Although Jian Lang had recovered the boss…
He hadn’t fully secured threat yet.
Healing naturally generated enormous threat.
The moment Chen Xi landed that huge heal…
The boss immediately switched targets.
“Jump.”
“Use your damage reduction.”
“Cast a big heal on yourself.”
Xia Zichen had already stopped paying attention to Canmo Wuhen entirely.
His focus was now completely on Chen Xi.
“…I already used my big heal.”
Gu Xu looked helpless.
Only then did Xia Zichen realize…
Instead of applying heal-over-time effects to Canmo Wuhen…
Gu Xu had dumped every major healing cooldown onto Jian Lang.
“You really love this character…”
Xia Zichen looked at him helplessly.
Canmo Wuhen wasn’t the tank.
Simple healing-over-time effects would have been enough.
After activating damage reduction, Chen Xi barely survived.
By then, Jian Lang had finally regained control of the boss.
“Move farther away.”
“Battle-resurrect Pianran.”
“The resurrection is on the U key.”
Rather than hoping Gu Xu could heal through the next phase…
It seemed far more realistic to let Pianran Qiwu take over.
Gu Xu quickly resurrected Pianran Qiwu.
Unfortunately…
At that exact moment…
The boss unleashed another AoE.
Ordinarily, that wouldn’t have mattered.
Except Gu Xu had revived Pianran while still standing inside the AoE radius.
The result…
Chen Xi immediately collapsed again.
[Raid] [Midnight Sneak]: …Little Chen, you slacked off.
[Raid] [Sunflower]: Great God! Why did you use the whip to pull the boss? Have you fallen for someone else? What about the Great God’s Wife? Isn’t that his signature move?!
[Raid] [Herbal Remedy]: Let’s just enjoy the scenery while dead. Canmo absolutely has to pay everyone’s repair bills.
“Great God’s Wife.”
“If you’re going to die…”
“You should at least give me some mana first.”
“Without mana, reviving me is pointless.”
Pianran Qiwu spoke over voice chat.
To avoid disrupting the raid leader, nobody else normally used voice unless something urgent happened.
This was the first time Xia Zichen had heard Pianran Qiwu speak.
The voice was unmistakably feminine.
Had everyone not already told him Pianran Qiwu was actually a man…
He would have believed otherwise.
Without anyone restoring his mana…
Pianran still had no choice but to heal.
He drank the most expensive mana potion in his inventory…
Kept the tank alive…
Applied heal-over-time effects to the surviving DPS…
Then resurrected a healer from Sacred Immortal Valley who could restore everyone’s mana.
Only then did the raid stabilize.
…
More than ten minutes later…
Under everyone’s watchful eyes…
Pianran somehow managed to heal the raid through the fight.
Meanwhile…
Xia Zichen achieved the lowest DPS Canmo Wuhen had ever recorded…
And finally defeated the boss.
[Raid] [Pianran Qiwu]: I’m going to puke from healing… After we leave this dungeon, I’m switching to DPS. Goodbye forever, healing.
[Raid] [Midnight Sneak]: We finally made it. At least it wasn’t too embarrassing.
[Raid] [Herbal Remedy]: Let’s keep this to ourselves. If word gets out, we’ll never live it down.
Pianran resurrected the remaining healers.
The healers then revived everyone else.
“Let’s switch back.”
Xia Zichen stood up.
“Didn’t enjoy Abyss Gate?”
Gu Xu remained seated.
“For someone unfamiliar with the skills…”
“It’s a little difficult.”
Xia Zichen shrugged.
Abyss Gate definitely required practice.
“So practice more.”
Gu Xu smiled.
“Let’s keep going for the next boss.”
Speechless, Xia Zichen stared at him for a moment before reaching out to pull him up.
“Stop ruining Chen Xi’s reputation.”
Gu Xu suddenly exerted force.
Instead of standing…
He pulled Xia Zichen into his arms.
Xia Zichen stumbled forward and landed directly on Gu Xu’s lap.
“I care more about my reputation…”
“…than Chen Xi’s.”
Caught off balance, Xia Zichen instinctively grabbed Gu Xu’s shoulders.
His eyes met Gu Xu’s deep gaze.
Feeling slightly embarrassed, he wrinkled his nose, picked up another pastry from the side, and stuffed it into Gu Xu’s mouth.
“Get up.”
Gu Xu said nothing.
He simply held Xia Zichen tighter.
Their breaths brushed softly against each other’s ears.
Gradually…
Xia Zichen relaxed as well.
He couldn’t quite explain why.
He only knew…
At this moment…
This embrace…
Felt wonderfully perfect.