“Tch, bragging to me again.”
Whatever the other side said now, Eve Nightburn wouldn’t believe a word of it.
If she actually fell for it, she’d be crying with regret, and no amount of remorse could fix that.
Besides, catching light? What kind of abstract fairy tale was that? Could anyone give a live demonstration?
“But still…”
Eve tried swiping the exit button and found it actually worked. After exiting the UI interface, she browsed through the entire contents of the phone and discovered it was identical to the data from her old phone.
“This phone isn’t bad. Consider it compensation for my emotional distress!”
After saying that, Eve immediately opened That Goose, found Miri Dreamwell’s account, and attempted to call her.
Ring~ Ring~ Ring~ Ring… Ring!
With the final ring, her first call went unanswered.
…
“Hmm…”
Eve then checked the calendar.
Wednesday.
Could it be that Miri was already back at school?
Only then did Eve remember the critical detail: logically, once the Lantern Festival ended, the school’s winter break was over.
She looked up the date of the Lantern Festival and realized it had been 13 days ago.
“It’s almost the Dragon Raising its Head?!”
Eve didn’t understand—hadn’t it felt like she hadn’t even celebrated the Spring Festival yet? How was the Dragon Raising its Head almost here?
Did you all celebrate without me again?
Wait, why “again”?
A lightbulb went off in Eve’s mind as she suddenly realized she hadn’t celebrated a traditional national holiday in over a year…
Her holidays were more like… overtime.
No wonder she was part of the Celestial Court.
Her holidays were just different from those of mortals.
At this thought, tears welled up in Eve’s eyes as she gave herself a thumbs-up with a smile.
To—her past self, who had stubbornly pursued immortality every single day.
Even if she hadn’t become a deity, her resilience deserved some encouragement.
“Eve Nightburn is absolutely amazing every day!”
After the self-pep talk, Eve felt reinvigorated!
Brave Eve, fear no hardship!
So what if she couldn’t reach Miri during school hours? She’d just wait!
“Speaking of which…” Eve looked at the phone in her hand. Did this mean she now had a better way to kill time?
“Decision made! Time for some gaming fun!”
Eve sat back on the bed, found the MOBA game she used to play, and launched it.
As soon as the game opened, a UI interface she’d never seen before popped up.
“A gift to every citizen of Cloudhaven City.”
Accompanied by two lines of text:
“In the face of disaster, life always finds its own way. This is the most precious spirit of life.”
“This is also the core spirit of MOBA games. No matter if hope exists, may you persevere until the very end.”
By the time she finished reading, Eve was choking back sobs, tears rolling down her cheeks and dripping onto the screen.
“These… these capitalists are so evil!”
She tried to suppress the surge of emotion with curses but found herself genuinely moved by these “villains.”
“It’s just marketing drivel…”
“It’s just profiting off suffering…”
“He’s even insulting me…”
In the end, Eve pinched herself to force her emotions back under control.
“I’m just a filthy gamer.”
As soon as she said it, the heart-wrenching feeling vanished completely.
That’s right—you push your lousy ads, I play my lousy game. We all have bright futures ahead.
Eve pressed the “Confirm” button at the center of the UI interface, revealing an in-game item bundle.
After some calculations, she realized it matched exactly the resources she could’ve grinded from the Lantern Festival up until two days ago.
In other words, during the time she spent building and then burning down the Frozen Kingdom, the game had farmed all those resources for her?
Well, well. Was this what they called account-sitting?
Eve declared that today, for half a day, the horses of this trash game’s developers would be resurrected!
The sun must be rising from the west—the horseless devs, ranked 7th in the zodiac, actually had horses now!
After claiming the bundle, Eve happily queued up for a match.
In ranked, she picked a mid-lane mage. The early game went smoothly.
Eve effortlessly secured five kills, snowballing the game. Just as she thought victory was assured, mid-game, she sensed something was off.
Their marksman kept farming jungle after team fights, refusing to push towers.
The other teammates were all building tank items, making them equally useless for pushing.
Staring at her tiny mage, utterly incapable of taking towers, Eve realized the terrible truth—she was being trolled!
Thanks to her wonderful teammates, the lead she’d built was dragged out until the very end.
At the final moment, as the screen displayed the two damning words—”DEFEAT”—it hit her.
The devs were still the same devs. The game was still the same game.
Devs, your horses lived a grand total of 15 minutes.
As expected, the devs remain firmly ranked 7th in the zodiac.
As expected, the sun would never rise from the west.
Eve, unwilling to accept this, queued up again.
“This time, I’m playing marksman. Let’s see who stops me from pushing towers!”
This time, Eve was honored with a beautiful start—her support decided to lane with the mage.
Left alone at the Crystal, she had to 1v2 against the enemy marksman and support, who bulldozed straight to her high ground.
All while her four teammates showered her with “friendly greetings.”
“Do you even know how to play marksman?”
Eve didn’t argue. She just reported each of them in turn, silencing their nonsense.
This trash game might suck at everything else, but its anti-toxicity system was top-notch. Truly the most wholesome game in the universe.
Somehow, they still won, though Eve earned a glorious 3.0 rating.
The verdict was clear: Eve was a carried noob. A pure, unadulterated carried noob!
Staring at her butchered rating, Eve could only sigh, “Trash game, wasting my youth!”
Then she quietly exited.
Maybe team games weren’t real games after all.
After some thought, Eve decided to try a single-player game.
After clearing about ten levels, she grew bored and quit.
Post-gaming, she did what every internet addict must do—mindlessly scroll through videos.
After who-knows-how-long, Miri suddenly called.
“Wah—?!”
Caught off guard, Eve fumbled her vibrating phone, which bounced around before landing on the bed.
She picked it up and answered.
Eve: “Hello?”
Miri: “Little sister finally replies to big sis! By the way, how have you been lately? Those guys haven’t been bullying you, have they?”
