Is the person you sculpt as cute as me?

"Good morning, Enchanter."

The deer didn't look back, but one could hear the obvious joy in the rising tone of its voice.

Their ships were different from those in the old world, and the sea was different too.

But nothing seems to make a difference.

"Eel, help me freeze the sea."

"Oh, freeze! Well, can't do it."

"Haha."

Xiaolu, carrying a fishing rod, leaned towards Yu Man, his face gazing out to sea: "When I wake up in the morning, I habitually want to call out to my Indigo, to pave the way for my freedom, so that I can gallop across the sea and relax."

"and then?"

"I almost jumped. If the ocean wasn't that beautiful... I almost couldn't tell the difference between reality and the game. The scary thing is, reality is the more pale and boring one."

In other words, the deer almost committed suicide by jumping into the sea?

Yu Man's heart tightened.

"But the amazing thing is," Xiaolu looked back at her, "after you came, I feel like reality has become colorful."

"……Yeah?"

“So it suddenly dawned on me – the richness of the old world’s colors and its constant interest… was actually because you were there.”

Yu Man was stunned. She didn't expect Xiaolu to say such a thing.

What kind of words were these? Yu Man couldn't answer or respond.

Looking at Yu Man standing there at a loss, Xiaolu felt proud of his own words.

She asked again—

"What do you mean? Son of a poet who wanders the world with his cat, now that you've won a $200 million prize, where are you going to travel? Isn't it time to move out of the roof I've provided for you and sail away with your secrets?"

"……What?"

"Hmm? Go back to your house, throw the money in front of your dad, and then go back to school freely... isn't that right?"

Yu Man blinked, still not understanding what Xiaolu was saying.

It’s not that I don’t understand.

Xiaolu's speech slowed down. "Buy your own house and decorate it to your liking. Whether you want to spend the rest of your life working hard in the real world or squandering your winnings on a life of luxury and entertainment, it's all up to you now... So, what are you going to do next?"

"Play in the old world." Yu Man said in a low voice.

"……what?"

"Brother, you misunderstood." Yu Man's tone remained the same as always. "The Spring Split is far from our goal. This is far from the end."

"Well, but the bonus—"

Yu Man walked towards the fence. She had no intention of freezing this exotic sea, but just wanted to get closer to the deer.

"I'm the type of person who saves whenever possible, because I've experienced poverty more than once. I don't want to experience the fear of having a mountain hanging over my head and hunger and cold swallowing up my days again. So it would be best if... I could have a place where I could eat and stay for free, so that I could spend less."

"Uh……"

"A young lady like you surely wouldn't understand, right? Life is hard."

"Yeah." The deer nodded as a matter of course, honestly, "But I know how to help the wandering poet's son."

"—Don't rush into making a decision."

Yu Man shook her head and looked at her with a slightly helpless look.

He continued in a slightly distant tone, speaking in Old World English—

"Wait until you take the secret from me... then you can make the decision."

"...I'll come get it after the game." The deer's expression was extremely serious.

"Ah."

"Can you give me a sneak peek first?"

Yu Man raised his index finger, interrupting her greed. Yu Man replied in a light and distant voice:

"Back in Shimla Bakken, I revealed the ultimate secret of this world to you. It was already clear then... Of course, you probably didn't understand."

"Uh?"

Yu Man waved goodbye. "Well, you should go fishing—and I'll go foraging...see you later."

……

As time goes by, a festive atmosphere fills Dubai.

Even though they were on the ship far away from the land, they could gradually feel the heat.

The venues for the spring games have already been prepared.

Each team either emerged from the auditions or gained more experience through the preliminary matches. A large amount of folk analysis, commentary, and rumors were flying around.

As the first top-level tournament held in the Old World, the Spring Tournament attracted tickets and attention from all over the world with its huge prize money.

Even Yu Man, who wanted to stay out of it, could not remain calm.

Not to mention that Senior Cat was madly studying his opponent and collecting information, which was permeating the air. As one of the contestants, they had no choice but to participate in the pre-match preparations.

Final makeup photo.

as well as--

Interview.

……

A cute and energetic European and American game blogger quietly visited their ship.

TravelerSoulTV – This name is quite famous.

She is a semi-official content digger, the medium that brings the team's inside stories to the audience, and is undoubtedly a top-level person.

It's also a curiosity.

"Hello! Super pretty little sister... Sorry to bother you! I'm a media person here to interview the "Snake Restaurant". Is the legendary player 'Eel' on board?"

She stopped someone who was reading on the deck.

"Here." Yu Man closed the book sent by "Time", thinking that the contestants had an obligation to accept interviews.

"Thank you, thank you. Could you please do me a favor and ask Eel to be interviewed? Um... you should be a family member... or something? Wait... you look..."

"I am the eel." Yu Man stared at her with a serious tone.

250 Transition

Ever since the offline meetings started, those who met Yu Man would always be stunned for a long time.

It’s not that Yu Man can’t understand.

——Huh.

The interviewer in front of me was actually the one who woke up quickly.

She stared, her eyes sparkling with excitement like the ripples of the ocean: "You... you are definitely an eel, ah, that's the tone..."

"Oh?"

"I—I'm TSTV. Does this ID make any impression on you?"

The interviewer, who claimed to be from TSTV, was so excited that she almost jumped up and down. Her limbs moved around, and she occasionally jumped up and down, as if she was a child, which was quite consistent with her sweet appearance in her twenties.

Unfortunately, Yu Man has no impression of it.

TSTV noticed Yu Man's hesitation and immediately added, "I had the honor of interviewing you in Shimlabakken shortly after the server launched! It was, it was... after you established the first guild—"

“…Oh.” Yu Man remembered.

That was indeed the case at the time.

To facilitate the interview, she and Xiaolu even used the ocean as a backdrop, pulling off a fun little trick to film a video for TSTV...

Xiaolu's sword was so cool at the time that obviously more people played with swords, which had a great impact.

"I really, I didn't expect... that you would actually... be so realistic..."

“People say that all the time.”

TSTV closed the distance between itself and Yu Man, but the closer it got, the clearer her face became.

TSTV quickly became discouraged and distanced itself dejectedly: "You are a liar. You are actually this kind of girl. Why did you spread that false identity?"

"The one about the successful IT guy? That's a rumor someone made up about me. I never said I was one."

Yu Man was very honest, and the other party's joking word "liar" made her angry.

Oh, damn the Triple Crown.

"No one asked me if I was—I didn't get a chance to clarify, and besides, it was just an insignificant gamer's—insignificant rumor, meaningless, worthless, and not worth anyone's time."

Yu Man said a series of roundabout words, and TSTV realized that they had already started the interview.

She slapped herself in the face, aggravating the situation further.

Then he turned on the recording equipment for the interview, but turned off all the cameras.

"First of all, thank you for accepting this interview, legendary player Eel."

“Is it so legendary?”

Yu Man asked casually, waved his hand, took TSTV on board, and came to the semi-open lounge.

After bringing in the rattan chairs, they officially started their conversation.

"How will you feel about facing the opening ceremony and draw ceremony tonight, as well as the first round of matches?"

"...Fuck, today?" Yu Man exclaimed subconsciously.

The situation became very awkward.

TSTV was surprised. Yu Man was not pretending... but as a contestant, he really didn't take the schedule seriously.

"It's not that I don't take it seriously, don't get me wrong." Yu Man quickly raised her hand to explain, "It's just that after things stabilized recently, I've been adjusting everyone's skills in the game, and there are quite a few things that need fine-tuning..."

"……I see."

"Miscellaneous tasks and preparations—mostly all of that was handled by my teammates and our great coach, so I kept losing track of time... Shit, it starts today."

But Yu Man quickly calmed down.

Her battle preparations were complete, and as for studying the opponent—Senior Cat would surely do a good job of it.

Well, it's better to start early and end early.

TSTV understood Yu Man and continued, "So, which opponents do you think are tough? Could you please evaluate the players on each team? As a Legend player, your vision is undoubtedly the sharpest."

"In fact, I don't know anyone, except those who are just watching." Yu Man is very honest.

"...Wait, so you mean you don't take any of your opponents seriously?"

"No, I just don't know him."

"...even including Gamelan, the contemporary superstar who won two consecutive victories in the Pioneer Cup and the Outpost Wars, and his ML4K team?"

Who is this...

What the hell is this team? What do all these nonsense letters mean?

Oh, it seems there is such a person... the one that caused "Xiankan" to suffer a crushing defeat before...

Yu Man tried to say something polite—but failed.

"I don't know him." This was her only comment.

"...Really? You don't even recognize such an arrogant contestant?"

Yu Man pondered for a while, and more details gradually emerged in his mind.

This little brat named Gamelan seems to like swearing and insulting his opponents?