The player was set to loop, and while Vivian was still lost in thought, the video had already started replaying. The cheerful sound of a flute began, and the red-clad female thief on the screen, in all her splendor, was galloping down the mountain with great momentum.

Vivian quickly turned it off. Knowing the ending, the earlier parody now seemed depressing, and she didn't want to watch it a second time.

Opening the minimized game, Vivian sent a message to Naihe: "I finished watching it. It was great."

After typing these dry words, Vivian had nothing more to say. In fact, she was full of emotions but didn't know how to express them. Should she say she almost cried?

That would seem silly = =

So, trying to find something to say, she asked, "Did you change the ending?"

As soon as the message was sent, Naihe's name lit up, and with a quick ding, his reply came back. "Yes, I changed it, otherwise the duration wouldn't be enough."

"You're back ^_^~~ Duration? What duration?"

Vivian was a bit puzzled. Was he talking about the video's length? But she remembered there was no limit on length.

Naihe: "According to the competition rules, if the video is at least half an hour long, the rewards for winning, like experience points, are doubled."

Naihe: "Since we made it, we should get all the rewards."

Vivian was embarrassed. She hadn't noticed this rule, but... Mr. Genius, are you so sure we will win?

No, no, that's not the point. The point is, according to Mr. Genius, were those scenes that almost made her cry added just to fill time?

Thinking of this, Vivian couldn't help but open the video to check. Sure enough! The video was neither too long nor too short, exactly thirty minutes, not a second more.

...

Although the truth was so obvious and cruel, Vivian still held onto a sliver of hope: "So how did you come up with the ending? It's so much better than the original."

Naihe: "The original ending was fine too, but it wasn't convenient to insert too many flashbacks to fill time, it would be too obvious."

@_@

Inserting flashbacks to fill time? Does that mean inserting pre-recorded segments? Why does it sound like the legendary 'padding'... Vivian thought of the current ending, which also had many flashbacks, and couldn't help but ask, "So the current ending... was it because it was convenient to insert flashbacks to fill time?"

"More or less."

Vivian was defeated.

It turns out Mr. Genius not only padded the time but also stuffed in a lot of flashbacks to do so. The ending was all about procrastination and laziness, not about being touching or about life and death, just fleeting clouds...

>o<

Suddenly, Vivian felt that her previous emotional self was really stupid...

With a complicated feeling, Vivian sent the video to the official website. As for why she sent it instead of Mr. Genius, it was because Mr. Genius was too lazy to register >_<

After sending the video, Vivian and Naihe went to do tasks. After finishing the tasks, she checked the posts and was immediately shocked by the number of clicks and replies.

How could there be so many replies?!

Some replies were even posted within a minute of her posting, which wasn't enough time to watch the video. But after looking at the content of these replies, Vivian understood.

In the end, it was influenced by the previous incidents of Little Rain Fairy withdrawing the video for a reshoot and Smiling Naihe challenging Jason Purewater one-on-one. These events not only caused a stir on the server but were also hot topics on the forum, so when Vivian's video was posted, a bunch of onlookers came to marvel—Smiling Naihe and Reed Vivian also entered the competition! Was it to compete with Little Rain Fairy? Obviously! Some even speculated that Little Rain Fairy would appear in the video, of course, as a vilified character.

Vivian couldn't help but snort inwardly! Some people are really petty, posting comments without watching anything. Her video definitely wouldn't feature any inexplicable third parties!

Besides, with her and Mr. Genius's brilliant image, why would they need a third party to highlight them >o<

Vivian flipped through the pages, and on the fifth page, she finally saw comments about the video itself. A girl replied to the post, posting several crying faces, lamenting that she actually cried.

Hehehe, she cried, and Vivian was delighted.

Great, she wasn't the only one fooled by Mr. Genius!

Seeing several posts saying they were moved to tears, Vivian happily ran back to the game to tell Naihe: "Did you see the replies? Many people said they cried, but I took the blame for you. You wrote the script as me, and everyone says I'm twisted..."

Indeed, if a story starts funny, is funny in the middle, and ends tragically, the scriptwriter is either twisted or deserves a beating.

Naihe: "I didn't see it, let me know the results."

>_<

It's clearly his work, why isn't he excited at all, Vivian said: "Okay, okay, I'll check every day and report to you ^_^"

In the following days, Vivian stayed by the computer, checking the replies whenever she had time.

The video became increasingly popular, not because of gossip, but because of the video itself. Some people praised the exquisite production, and upon discovering the creator was Smiling Naihe, they were even more amazed. A player said, "This video is amazing! Smiling Naihe is really strong, not only can he fight, but his skills are so strong, he's a true all-rounder."

More people were discussing the plot, discussing the ending and the choice of the white-clad musician.

There were so many discussions that Vivian became conflicted. Once, she couldn't help but ask Naihe: "Why does the musician have to kill the female thief?"

Naihe was silent for a while, then replied very rationally: "This plot, I'm sure you wrote it."

Vivian: "..."

Vivian: ">o<, it was me..."

But she was just parodying.

Vivian continued to ask, "If it were you, would you kill the female thief?"

As soon as she sent this question, Vivian realized it was inappropriate. It seemed like she was prying into someone's privacy, but... she really wanted to know... That line "Rather let her die than live hating me" kept popping into her mind these days, and she couldn't help but wonder if the real Smiling Naihe would say such a thing.

Fortunately, Naihe didn't seem to mind her overstepping and quickly replied, "Not me."

Vivian: "Hmm?"

Naihe: "He is not me, I wouldn't go that far."

Vivian was stunned for a moment, and inexplicably, the corners of her lips gradually lifted.

During this time, Little Rain Fairy and Jason Purewater's new video was also released, but it was clearly not as popular as before. After all, in terms of plot and production, they were far inferior to Vivian and Naihe's work.

Soon the submission period ended, and the voting period began. Vivian and Naihe's video was far ahead in the voting, leaving the second-place video by Purewater and Little Rain far behind. Even someone as modest as Vivian felt that their chances of winning were really high >o<

However, just the day before the results were announced, Vivian received a strange message from Thunder Nina.

"Vivian, I have a question for you."

"What?"

"You have to promise not to get angry before I dare to ask."

Vivian was embarrassed, just ask, why use this trick, but still said: "Go ahead, I won't get angry."

"Really don't get angry, actually I'm asking on behalf of someone else. If, I mean hypothetically, someone offered you a large sum of money, would you be willing to withdraw from the video competition?"

Vivian was taken aback, quickly realizing: "Jason Purewater?"

Thunder Nina: "Vivian, you guessed it!"

Vivian: "No need to guess."

Isn't it obvious? If she withdrew from the competition, who would benefit directly? And who does Thunder Nina know?

Thunder Nina: "Little Rain Fairy seems to really like that outfit, so Jason Purewater asked me to ask you on his behalf, he probably felt embarrassed to ask you directly, Vivian, you're not angry, right?"

To say Vivian wasn't angry would be a lie, but to be angry wasn't worth it. In the game, buying and selling things is normal, even if the deal doesn't go through, it's no big deal, but directly offering money to make someone withdraw from a competition is going too far!

Vivian's fingers paused on the keyboard, thinking about how to reply.

Of course, she would refuse, but facing someone who likes to throw money around, a righteous refusal wouldn't be satisfying, it wouldn't hit back at him. The best way is to be richer than him, to make him angry! Although Vivian actually isn't rich... but she can pretend! After all, it's over the internet, no fear of being exposed.

So, Vivian, from a modest family, began to type with a wealthy air: "Not angry, just funny. Someone actually wants to pay me to withdraw, it's hilarious, does he think he has more money than me?"

"How many properties does his family own worldwide? What car does his family's servant drive to buy groceries? What breed is his family's cat? His family..."

Vivian threw out a series of rhetorical questions until she couldn't make up any more, then sent the final sentence with great momentum, "If he doesn't plan to spend tens of thousands to make me withdraw, tell him not to embarrass himself."

Thunder Nina was clearly shocked, tens of thousands! Purewater wouldn't spend tens of thousands, he seemed to want to offer a few thousand at most. It seems Reed Vivian is really rich, casually mentioning numbers in the tens of thousands!

"Vivian, I didn't know your family was so rich, I really couldn't tell!"

Vivian: ">o<, I'm low-key."

Thunder Nina said: "Then forget it, Vivian, you're really not angry, right? Actually, I didn't want to ask for him, but I think he really loves Little Rain Fairy, I felt a bit soft-hearted."

This message Vivian hadn't had time to reply to when her next message came: "You know, they met, and they're a couple in real life too."