When it came to gossip, Thunder Nina seemed to type faster: "They're all in City B now, what a coincidence, Vivian are you there too?"

Vivian: "Yes, I'm studying in City B."

Actually, it wasn't much of a coincidence. The server was named "Empire City Storm," so it was normal for people from City B to gather there. Speaking of which, the great master and George Yu should also be in City B...

Vivian's thoughts drifted away.

Thunder Nina: "I'm in City T, boohoo, otherwise I'd come to hang out with you guys. By the way, I have a photo of Jason Purewater and Little Rain Fairy together. Purewater is quite handsome, Vivian do you want to see?"

Vivian: "No interest."

Vivian wasn't curious at all about what Jason Purewater looked like. Otherwise, she would have seen his photo a month or two before their "divorce." At that time, another couple in the guild exchanged photos, but because neither could accept the other's appearance, they dramatically ended their relationship. Purewater suggested exchanging photos then, and Vivian, surprised, declined with the excuse, "I don't have a digital camera, so no electronic photos," which was true but sounded fake.

To Vivian, the reason for refusal wasn't important; what mattered was expressing her unwillingness to exchange photos. Meeting people online was fleeting; you didn't know their face or heart, so sharing photos required caution. Moreover, exchanging photos under the guise of "marriage" was somewhat ambiguous, and Vivian disliked such ambiguity.

However, Jason Purewater clearly didn't think so. Looking back, it was from that time that Purewater's attitude began to change.

Thunder Nina persistently asked, "Really not going to look?"

Vivian: "Nope."

Thunder Nina sulked: "Having gossip but can't share it, Vivian you're so not cute. By the way, have you met Smiling Naihe? Is he handsome?"

This question made Vivian pause in front of the computer. She casually replied "haven't met," but her mind inexplicably wandered to whether she would be willing if Naihe suggested exchanging photos.

It seemed...

She would be willing.

And if Naihe suggested meeting in person?

It seemed... she would be willing too.

Uh~~

Vivian was startled by her two "willing" responses, then thought, given Naihe's personality, he wouldn't make such requests, so these hypothetical questions were moot. But thinking this way, she felt a vague sense of regret.

She could forget anyone in the world, but with Naihe...

Vivian suddenly didn't want to think further.

*** *** ***

Vivian didn't mention the bribery incident to Naihe; it was a small matter, not worth discussing.

The next day, Vivian and Naihe unsurprisingly became the champions of the video contest, receiving a bunch of rewards, including a colorful couple's outfit.

Vivian put on the outfit immediately. It was indeed beautiful, luxurious, exquisite, and radiant, with adjustable colors: red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, violet, just like a rainbow series. Vivian played with each color.

George Yu said to Naihe: "You should try it on too."

Vivian nodded repeatedly, sending a drooling emoji with hearts in her eyes.

Although Naihe didn't like such luxurious and complex attire, seeing their anticipation, he clicked to change. The once simple white-clad musician instantly transformed into a noble purple-clad prince. Then, at everyone's request, he changed colors one by one, but only tried six colors.

Monkey Wine said: "Six colors, one is missing."

Mozar Ta shouted: "Green, green!"

Naihe ignored him, seemingly out of patience, and instantly reverted to his white-clad musician look.

George Yu and Mozar Ta both snickered.

Vivian suddenly realized, green...

The great master's usual headpiece was a white jade hairpin, but the colorful outfit's headpiece was a hat, and the green outfit was...

A green hat...

Mozar Ta deliberately said: "Something's up with the third brother, why won't he wear the couple's outfit with the third sister-in-law, could it be..."

Naihe said: "We've been an old married couple for a long time, we don't care about superficial things."

Vivian was embarrassed.

Great master, if you don't want to wear it, just say so, no need for excuses, and certainly not "old married couple"...

In the following days, Vivian kept wearing the colorful outfit, not because she liked it so much, but because she felt it would be a waste not to wear it after putting so much effort into the video. Actually, wearing this outfit was quite troublesome because it had no attributes, no defense, no attack, so wearing it to fight monsters was a sure death. Therefore, she had to change outfits before every battle.

Once, Vivian didn't change in time and was killed by a small boss with one swipe, leaving her extremely frustrated. From then on, she tossed the outfit into the corner of her warehouse, never to wear it again.

There was an episode where Vivian wore the outfit for only a few days but encountered Little Rain Fairy several times, whereas before, they might not meet even once in ten days or half a month. Meeting so often made Vivian feel awkward, wondering if others thought she was showing off...

But, well, let others think what they want, who cares!

*** *** ***

Shortly after the video contest winners were announced, the schedule for the couple's PK tournament was also released.

The official start time for the PK tournament was next Friday at 8 PM, and the entire competition would last a month. The first half would be a round-robin tournament within each server, followed by elimination rounds and division finals for the top sixteen in each server, and finally, a cross-server elimination and grand final.

Vivian paid special attention to the grand final's date—June 13th at 8 PM.

The Level 6 exam was on June 20th in the afternoon, meaning if they made it to the grand final, they would still have a week to focus on studying English.

Perfect.

Vivian nodded in satisfaction, starting to carefully allocate her study and game time for the next month. Naihe, however, seemed very casual. After registering with Vivian at the NPC, he said to her: "If there's a match, notify me a day in advance."

Vivian, accustomed to being the great master's scheduler, immediately agreed: "Sure, no problem."

Compared to Naihe's calm demeanor, Monkey Wine and George Yu were much more enthusiastic, pestering them for PK practice before the tournament, claiming to be their sparring partners.

Monkey Wine said: "Come on, treat us as your opponents, simulate a PK match."

Naihe said: "Our opponents are couples, who's the husband and who's the wife between you two?"

Monkey Wine said: "Of course, I'm the husband."

George Yu jumped: "I'm the husband."

Monkey Wine: "I'm taller than you."

George Yu: "I'm heavier than you."

...

...

The two argued childishly for a while, neither able to convince the other, eventually leading to a fierce PK...

Vivian watched them speechlessly for a while, then looked at Naihe with admiration, thinking, the great master is truly lethal without bloodshed.

In short, due to the unresolved husband-wife status between George Yu and Monkey Wine, there was no sparring, and before the tournament, the main activity for the group remained boss hunting.

Vivian and Naihe still occasionally left the team to do couple's tasks. They were almost done with the advanced couple's tasks, with only the legendary and very challenging "Divine Eagle Lovers" task left.

How challenging was this task? So challenging that, despite the game running for so long, no one in the entire server had completed it. Vivian and Naihe worked their way through it, finding it lived up to its reputation, with each small task being both difficult and complex.

Take the essential monster fighting, for example. There was a monster in the task that shamelessly resisted all non-attack spells, and when its health dropped to a certain level, it would use a healing move to fully restore its health. It also resisted detection spells, making it impossible to know how much health it had... Eventually, it was Naihe who calculated the monster's health and the critical point for its healing move to get past it.

Vivian's admiration for the great master grew even more. She was also calculating the monster's health, but nowhere near as fast. It was inhuman, truly inhuman.

Moreover, the "Divine Eagle Lovers" task included not only traditional elements like monster fighting and material collection but also bizarrely set time-limited riddles, mazes, and even chess and couplets... Although the chess only required a few moves, with options for Chinese chess or Go, there were bound to be players who couldn't play either...

Too challenging!

Fortunately, there was the all-rounder great master Naihe.

The two of them progressed relatively smoothly, reaching the final stage, where Vivian finally understood what "no most challenging, only more challenging" meant.

In the final stage, after finishing a conversation with an NPC, Vivian was unexpectedly transported by the system to a mysterious place not on the map, and Naihe had to find her within sixteen hours. If he couldn't, the task would fail.

Only then did Vivian understand why the task was called "Divine Eagle Lovers"—it was entirely modeled after the sixteen-year separation of Yang Guo and Xiaolongnü.

In that case, was this dark place she was in now, like in the "Divine Eagle Lovers" book, at the bottom of a cliff? Would Naihe have to jump off a cliff to find her?

Fortunately, the system hadn't gone so far as to disable the messaging system, so they could still communicate.

Naihe: "What's the environment like around you?"

Vivian: "It's just very dark, very dark, very dark..."

Vivian felt awkward describing it, but Naihe remained calm: "Can't see anything?"

Vivian: "No."

Naihe: "What about sounds?"

Vivian listened carefully for a while: "There seems to be the sound of water."

Naihe: "Okay, I got it."

After that, there was no more conversation. Naturally, Vivian wouldn't just sit and wait for Naihe to find her. She slowly explored in the dark, trying to find any useful information to tell Naihe. She also searched online for information, but as mentioned earlier, since no one had completed the task, there were no player guides, and the official description of the final stage was just one sentence—"Rely on the telepathy between lovers to pass."

What a joke.

After about ten minutes, a message flashed again. Vivian thought it was from Naihe, but when she opened it, it was from the leader of her guild, Warrior World.

Warrior World: "Reed, why is your team snatching the boss from our guild's team?"

Vivian's guild was called Azure Sea Sound Pavilion, one of the four major guilds on the server, founded by a female player named Butterfly Dream. Vivian had known Butterfly Dream since she started playing the game, so she joined the guild at its inception and was considered one of the veterans, though she never held any position.

Two months ago, Butterfly Dream changed jobs and became suddenly busy, so she handed over the guild leader position to her husband, Warrior World, whom Vivian wasn't very familiar with, though Jason Purewater was.

Receiving such a message, Vivian was momentarily baffled.

"What boss snatching?? I've been doing tasks all along."

Warrior World: "George Yu Climber, Monkey Wine, aren't they in your team?"