[Nearby] Flowing Light: I’m here.

They waited for a long time, but no one else answered. Now they knew that they were the only ones who had been dragged into this strange instance.

[Nearby] Never Deeply Attached: Where are you? I’ll go to find you.

[Nearby] Flowing Light: Here are my coordinates [78,63]

A moment later, Zheng Xiaoguang saw Never Deeply Attached walk toward her character with lighting effects.

[Nearby] Flowing Light: Huh? What’s this?

She could not understand why her character did not have such lighting effects.

[Nearby] Never Deeply Attached: As I didn’t have enough blood and power just now, I took one of your wedding candies. Now I have full health and full power and seem to have accidentally opened an additional instance.

Upon seeing that, Zheng Xiaoguang thought in surprise, “What? I’ve eaten quite a lot of wedding candies by now, but all I’ve gotten is a 50% off coupon for a mount in the shop. Why is this Never Deeply Attached so lucky? We gave him only three candies, and he opens an additional instance now.”

Never Deeply Attached told her that he had just read a thread about this instance on the forum. He said, “There are a narrow corridor and many adjacent rooms on both sides of it. It’s a dark place, and only the player who opens this instance has lighting effects.

“Once a player opens this instance, the system will randomly select another player on his or her team to play this instance together. Evidently, you’re the one who gets randomly picked out by the system, Flowing Light.

“In this instance, players can only chat on the Nearby channel and can’t use any transfer skill. There’s no time limit for this instance. As soon as we complete all the missions here, we’ll be sent back to the regular map.”

Never Deeply Attached checked the popup message box, which was visible only to him, and said, “Let’s go. The system is reloading a monster now.”

An additional instance was very different from a regular instance. Compared to their counterparts in a regular instance, monsters in an additional instance were much more difficult to deal with. Because of this, the awards here were much better. Lucky players often unlocked gold ingots, materials for notch equipment or even limited-edition mounts in an additional instance. Zheng Xiaoguang should have felt excited about this chance, but somehow she just felt reluctant to play together with Never Deeply Attached.

Despite that, now she had no choice but to follow him. At least, with the help of his lighting effects, she could see things in this dark place.

When they arrived, the monster was not ready yet. As they had nothing to do for the time being, they sat on the floor and waited for the monster.

[Nearby] Never Deeply Attached: You don’t like me, do you?

[Nearby] Flowing Light: Huh?

[Nearby] Never Deeply Attached: I spoke for Venus before, but I never meant to hurt you. I just didn’t want to see my friends fall out because of some misunderstanding. If what I did made you unhappy, I apologize to you. Please forgive me.

[Nearby] Flowing Light: I know. I never blame you for that.

[Nearby] Never Deeply Attached: It seems to me that you’re unwilling to talk to me.

[Nearby] Flowing Light: No. You think too much.

Zheng Xiaoguang felt somewhat guilty while saying this, because she did feel reluctant to talk to this Never Deeply Attached. She thought, “As Bluegreen-Clad said, Never Deeply Attached just got used by Venus and never meant to hurt me before. However, I just somehow feel that I don’t want to talk to him.”

Suddenly, her cellphone rang. It was Bluegreen-Clad who called her. She quickly picked up her cellphone. “Hello.”

“Are you still in that instance, Xiaoguang?” asked he.

“Yes, I am.” Zheng Xiaoguang looked at the game interface and continued, “Never Deeply Attached is here too. This is an additional instance that he has accidentally opened. I really don’t know how to play here. Can you log into my account to play this instance for me?”

“Okay, so you log out first,” Bluegreen-Clad replied without any hesitation.

Zheng Xiaoguang felt much relieved. She hurriedly said goodbye to Never Deeply Attached and logged out.

When Bluegreen-Clad logged into her account, he saw Never Deeply Attached sat on the floor in the instance.

When they played together, everything went smoothly for them until they met a challenge called “Predestination”.

Players could not only get married or engaged in Shiny Sky Online. If a player had a secret crush on one of his or her friends, he or she could make this person his or her predestined person. By doing so, an anonymous love letter would be sent to the predestined person, and once two players “predestinated” each other, the system would inform both of them that they were well-matched.

This machanism was originally designed to help shy players to confess their love, but for Never Deeply Attached, it was a big challenge.

Task Tip: A married player gets through this mission directly. A single player can get through this mission only by finding a well-matched predestined person.

In fact, it was easy for Never Deeply Attached to find this well-matched predestined person. As Strawberry Ice Cream liked him very much, she probably had made him her predestined person a long time ago. As such, once Never Deeply Attached made her his predestined person, they would become well-matched.

Nevertheless, this happened to be the last thing that Never Deeply Attached wanted to do.

He wanted to give up and felt really bad about this decision, since once he completed this mission, he and Bluegreen-Clad would win lots of rewards. After a moment of thought, he said to Bluegreen-Clad, apologetically, “Let’s give up.”

Bluegreen-Clad felt confused. After some consideration, he decided to have a talk with his friend.

Blue: Does that female archer named Strawberry Ice Cream like you?

Thanks to Han Meimei, he also heard about this thing.

Never Deeply Attached: Uhm, yes.

Bluegreen-Clad: What do you think?

Never Deeply Attached: I’m very grateful for her love, but we’re just not meant for each other.

Bluegreen-Clad: There’s no such a thing. You have to get what you want with your own hands.

After remaining silent for a long time, Never Deeply Attached replied.

Never Deeply Attached: I want to ask you something, Bluegreen-Clad. If you and Flowing Light decide to make your virtual relationship real someday, but your parents are strongly against this idea since they can’t accept a girl you meet online, will you break up with her for your parents?

Bluegreen-Clad: No, I won’t.

Never Deeply Attached: Hehe, are you saying that even if your entire family opposes your relationship, you still won’t give up?

Bluegreen-Clad: Yes.

Never Deeply Attached was trying to explain to Bluegreen-Clad that a real relationship was more about two families instead the two people in the relationship, but Bluegreen-Clad’s answers were totally beyond his expectations.

Never Deeply Attached: Why?

He wondered, “Isn’t it true that most people will choose to compromise with their families? “Everyone tells me that we should value our parents more than our girlfriends. Unlike girlfriends, parents are irreplaceable. Why is Bluegreen-Clad so different? What does he think? Does he really plan to defy his parents for Flowing Light?”

Bluegreen-Clad: Because I trust myself and my girlfriend. If my parents refuse to accept her, I’ll give them time to know more about her and accept her. I won’t put myself in such an awkward situation and force myself to pick either my parents or my girlfriend. That’s completely unnecessary.