Kaguya Houraisan

"Sure—"

Mo Yi accepted the other party's team invitation and started today's ranked match.

Since both of them were Kings, matchmaking took quite a while. When there were fewer players around, it could take half an hour or even an hour to find a match. Naturally, they started chatting out of boredom while they waited.

World's Number One Princess:

"Why weren't you online last night? Aren't you still on summer vacation?"

Qi Mu Wu Wu Kai: "Busy, you know. (smirking)"

World's Number One Princess:

"(ˉ▽~~) Hmph~~ Every pigheaded man uses the same excuse when brushing off his girlfriend—'busy.' They can't even spare the effort to come up with a more specific lie."

"The favored ones are always fearless, while those who can't have it are forever restless. (emote: disdain)"

Mo Yi: "..."

Wait, we were just gaming buddies. Did she have to make it sound so resentful?

You couldn't fool me. A wife from an online game could never actually be a girl—she could only be some cross-dressing big shot using a voice changer!

Houraisan Kaguya

Faced with the endless quotable lines from "World's Number One Princess," Mo Yi could only honestly explain what had happened yesterday.

Well, renting out an unused room at home to earn some living expenses wasn't exactly something he couldn't talk about. It wasn't like he had gone out to haul bricks.

"Wait, this Princess has spotted a blind spot—"

Her Highness the Princess unleashed her absurd typing speed. Several messages popped up every second. "I can understand renting out an empty room for money. After all, no matter how powerful a Summoner is, they still have to eat in real life. Not everyone is like this Princess, with tens of thousands of mines at home, a hospital monopolizing an entire town, and a throne waiting for me to inherit."

Mo Yi: "..."

Seeing this, Mo Yi didn't even know how to mock her. It was blatant showing off, yet she said it so directly, with such a matter-of-fact tone.

He only wanted to say this: I am proficient in repairing nuclear submarines and reactors, refurbishing, polishing, and waxing nuclear warheads; cleaning aircraft carrier fuel tanks, maintaining space shuttles, and changing the three filters; performing high-altitude satellite surface cleaning and dust removal; rapidly clearing airship decks, and I even possess the lost art of doing splits in midair. As talented as I am, I only wish to ask: Rich lady, do you need a friend by your side to fuss over you and remind you to drink more hot water?

Before Mo Yi could type more than a few words, Her Highness the Princess's messages refreshed again.

"But you said you personally cooked last night to celebrate her moving in!"

"There can only be one truth: she must be a cute girl! (emote: irrefutable proof)"

Mo Yi: "..."

Normally, this was when he should have gone with the classic triple denial of "It's not me, I didn't do it, don't talk nonsense." But she was merely his gaming buddy, and a game friend of unknown gender at that. Mo Yi had no need to hide or explain anything over this, so he directly replied, "You really are a clever little thing!"

Actually, if she had not brought it up, Mo Yi truly would not have considered the question. If the person who came had been a burly eight-foot-tall man, would he still have rented the room to him?

No, wait. Tenants generally only came in two categories: male and female. The odds of her being a cute girl were fifty percent, weren't they?

What was there to be surprised about? JPG!

"No! (emote: Erkang reaching out to stop you)!"

After hearing Mo Yi's affirmative response, Her Highness the Princess immediately replied:

"Summoners don't need girls!"

"Girls will only ruin a Summoner's youth, drain your energy, consume your money, make you fall into depravity, and leave you indistinguishable from the masses. How tragic."

"Listen to me, Wu Wu Kai. What you need isn't a girlfriend, but a fellow seeker like me—someone who can support you on this lonely, one-way road to becoming a King through gaming. (emote: fist raised in encouragement)"

Mo Yi: "..."

What she said made so much sense that Mo Yi genuinely could not think of a way to refute her. He could only tease her back. "Her Highness the Princess, I'd also like to live happily like you, playing games every day, but my family circumstances won't allow it!"

"At seventeen, when one should be at the most wonderful age in life, I, who lived deep in the mountains, had already reached rock bottom. Just yesterday, my father fell off a cliff while gathering medicinal herbs to make a living and lost his shoes. My mother suddenly fainted in the fields and was later diagnosed with late-stage severe tonsillitis, a rare illness. My grandmother, who loved me the most, was also diagnosed with a cracked toenail. From now on, I probably can't walk three hours through the mountains every day to play games with you at an internet café in the city. After all, people need to grow up, take on more responsibility, and learn to give up certain things. My family also needs me to trick a wife into coming home to take care of them. That's probably what growing up means."

World's Number One Princess:

"Wu Wu Kai, are you trying to make me laugh to death so you can inherit my Ant Credit Pay? (emote: smirking)"

With Mo Yi's joking around, the two kept chatting. Since they still had not matched with anyone, there was really nothing else to do besides talk.

After chatting for another ten or so minutes, Mo Yi suddenly remembered a serious problem that was about to arise.

His trial mission, "Honor of Kings," was about to be completed. Soon, he would no longer need to play Honor of Kings every day and would instead have to devote his time to clearing other games. That also meant he would soon be unable to continue happily playing with Her Highness the Princess, the old friend who had played with him for nine years.

Because of the Little World Game, Mo Yi had neither the inclination nor the time to spend on socializing in real life. Even with his classmates, he only knew their names.

To obtain something, one had to pay the corresponding price. Mo Yi naturally understood that principle. If he wanted to become stronger, he had to play games properly, and naturally he could not have time to make friends.

Even though he understood that, humans were social creatures. Even if one could be self-sufficient materially and did not need to rely on others, one still needed "friends" psychologically—people to confide in about life's joys and complaints.

Simply put, no matter how awesome he was, what was the point if he had no friends to show off to or share it with? It would not be fun at all!

The one who filled the emptiness in Mo Yi's heart was Her Highness the Princess, whom he had met in the game. Whenever Mo Yi had something he wanted to complain about, he could tell her. The two also maintained an unspoken understanding: neither asked about the other's real life. When it was time to play, they played; when it was time to curse each other for being useless deadweight, they cursed without restraint.

But alas, all feasts eventually came to an end. Mo Yi would ultimately have to continue down the path he had chosen.

Thinking of this, Mo Yi inexplicably felt sad, but he still told her honestly, "Her Highness the Princess, after this summer vacation ends, I probably won't be able to log in and play Honor of Kings every day like before."

In a certain classically decorated room in another distant world—

"What?!"

A black long straight hair girl wearing a pink tracksuit that completely clashed with the elegant antique decor around her leaned against the head of the bed, half-reclining on a tatami mat. Before her sat a laptop radiating an intense black-tech aura. One hand typed on the keyboard while the other held a can of happy water, from which she occasionally took a sip. She was World's Number One Princess—Houraisan Kaguya, who was gaming and chatting with Mo Yi across a dimension and who knew how many worlds.

After seeing Mo Yi's message that he might rarely log in in the future, she could not even hold onto the large cola bottle in her hand, accidentally spilling some of it.

But she had no time to care about the cola staining the precious silk quilt covering her feet. Instead, she shakily gulped down two mouthfuls of happy water before barely calming herself enough to process Mo Yi's message.

"How could you do this?!"

Kaguya's voice was crisp and sweet, perfectly satisfying anyone who loved voices. She muttered, "Without you, Wu Wu Kai, what meaning would there be even if I became number one on the national server?!"

Kaguya could not help recalling the joyful times they had spent fighting in Summoner's Rift together over the past nine years—more than three thousand days and nights.

It was you who led me onto the path of battling through Summoner's Rift, and now you wanted to break up and leave over a single disagreement? Dream on!

Like Mo Yi, Kaguya stayed at home and had no friends. In the past, she had always stayed home alone, playing single-player games. Only after connecting to the internet of other worlds had she begun playing Honor of Kings, and then she met Mo Yi.