Chris Brooks let out a sneer and was just about to type when suddenly a message popped up in the crowd—

　　[Current] Zhizhi Taotao: Brothers and sisters, quick, move to the new battlefield! Fairy Grace just posted on the forum tearing into Hopeful Heart!!

　 A single stone stirs up a thousand waves.

　 Before Chris Brooks could react, everyone around him disappeared in a flash, and in an instant, he was the only one left at the entrance of the general store.

　 His gaze shifted and landed on the name “Fairy Grace,” his eyes icy cold.

　 A while back, it was this very Fairy Grace who kept spamming the loudspeaker and the world channel, forcing David Harris to quit the game and go abroad.

　 He packed up his stall and flew over to the forum NPC.

　 Chris Brooks actually wasn’t the gossiping type. If it were a few years ago, he never would have imagined himself visiting the drama hotspot twice in one day.

　 The post by Fairy Grace was titled “Hopeful Heart, I was wrong about you.”

　 Opening it up, he saw a dense and melodramatic wall of text, at least three thousand words, but with very little actual substance.

　 It was about her and Hopeful Heart meeting up in real life. She claimed that Hopeful Heart’s real age didn’t match what he said in-game, and that she paid for both the plane tickets and the hotel. Even their food and entertainment expenses while together were covered by her, with Hopeful Heart using card limits as an excuse to ask her to pay.

　 The most crucial part—right after they met up, Hopeful Heart started ignoring her in-game, and even blocked her on WeChat and by phone.

　 Classic hit-and-run!

　 The replies below the post were all over the place.

　 1F: Why do I feel like this isn’t very believable? Hopeful Heart doesn’t seem like the type to be stingy about hotel and airfare.

　 3F: I think it sounds pretty fake too...

　 5F: If you don’t know the situation, just stop talking, okay? Hugs for Grace.

　 6F: What’s wrong with the support group? If you don’t want people to talk, why post on the forum at all?

　 32F: I actually think the OP is telling the truth. Hopeful Heart really is a jerk. Almost all my girlfriends have been hit on by him, even married women weren’t spared.

　 39F: Didn’t Hopeful Heart cheat not long ago? The other person was that Emily Harris.

　 76F: Must be nice to have money. I want to be a player too.

　 88F: Isn’t this a textbook case of using someone for sex?!

　 Of course Hopeful Heart is a jerk, otherwise he wouldn’t have pursued David Harris while already having a girlfriend.

　 Halfway through, Chris Brooks got bored, closed the forum, and decided to take advantage of everyone being busy with the drama to go pick up a quest from the wild map NPC.

　 To boost his account stats, he needed not just money, but also a ton of experience to raise his gear’s attribute caps. The few daily quests in the safe zone just weren’t enough.

　 He had just walked up to the quest giver when he noticed something sparkling in the upper right corner of the game interface.

　 It was the flashy effect of a divine weapon. When he saw it clearly, Chris Brooks couldn’t help but be shocked—after all, a few years ago in his server, divine weapons were something you only saw in the official website’s introduction. Even after five years of operation, not a single player had managed to forge one.

　 After all, to craft a divine weapon, you had to defeat the War God, afford the forging materials, and have the luck to succeed in one try.

Most people couldn’t even get past the first step. Chris Brooks had fought the War God before too—he sat at his computer for eight hours straight without eating or drinking, used up all his potions just to win, and in the end crafted a piece of absolute junk. He was so mad he couldn’t eat for a whole week.

　 He immediately closed the NPC dialogue and headed straight for that flash of black light, because the other player was also doing a wild map quest, currently helping the NPC pull weeds. So after just a couple of steps, Chris Brooks could see the other player’s character clearly.

　 A back view.

　 The male character wore the latest black ancient-style robe, his red hair marking him as a demon race, and he held a pitch-black, shadowy longsword—an eye-catching look anywhere.

　 Below the name was a title, just two characters—War God.

　 And below that, the character’s name.

　 Hopeful Heart.

　 Hopeful Heart?!

　 Chris Brooks immediately sat up straight. He saw Hopeful Heart stand still for a moment, then suddenly squat down and start pulling weeds.

　 Chris Brooks was amazed—seriously, you’re being dragged through the mud on the forum, and you still have the mood to do weeding quests here?

　 Truly the mark of a player—unshakable composure, you have to respect it.

　 But this was exactly the opportunity Chris Brooks had been waiting for. In fact, his first plan after buying the account was to add Hopeful Heart as a friend.

　 It wasn’t too late now. He opened Hopeful Heart’s chat window and hit the add friend button.

　 “The other party has temporarily disabled friend requests. Add failed.”

　 Chris Brooks found this hilarious. After playing Nine Heroes for over six years, this was the first time he’d seen such a ridiculous setting in the game.

　 He opened the current channel, just about to say something, when suddenly a line of yellow text popped up on the screen.

　 [Energetic Little Mosquito has initiated a forced PK against you.]

　 Chris Brooks reacted instantly, jumping to dodge the attack skill flying at him from behind. The message he hadn’t finished typing was also accidentally sent due to his slip of the hand.