Where's the cute girl we were promised? She's completely wiped out S-rank dungeons!

After the "true end" announcement was finished, the three players exited the game before the twenty-seven seconds were up.

This time, Song Yuan was lucky. When she appeared at the logout point, she didn't see anyone causing trouble, which was truly a cause for celebration.

She looked around and searched for a while before finally finding Qiao Ran leaning against the door, panting slightly. An Xiaomei was nowhere to be found; she must have been relocated to another place.

Seeing that Song Yuan was already very close, Qiao Ran still kept her head down and didn't move. She tilted her head, thinking it was a side effect of her low life value, and was about to ask if he was alright when Qiao Ran suddenly raised her head, a black gemstone butterfly necklace hanging from her slender, white fingers, and smiled:

"Surprise~ Isn't that a pleasant surprise?"

Unfortunately, Song Yuan didn't understand what he meant: "What is this?"

Qiao Ran extended her hand, letting the necklace slide naturally into her palm, and proudly introduced it:

"It's obvious~ This is a necklace. I saw it when I was entering the password for the safe in the last dungeon. Your birthday is in two days, right? So, Present~ Isn't that a surprise?"

Song Yuan stared blankly at the glittering little thing. She had entered the password to the safe because of clearing the dungeon. In such a serious situation, she certainly hadn't bothered to remember what numbers Qiao Ran had entered, much less imagine that he would get any information from it.

She used to receive gifts for her birthday, but they were always from her attending physician, He Li, and some grateful patients.

If the person giving the gift were Qiao Ran, the situation would seem quite different.

Qiao Ran held up the necklace and stared at her expectantly for a long time before Song Yuan slowly reached out and said "thank you".

"It's nothing~"

Qiao Ran placed the necklace on it and casually made a comment:

"But why do you still look so serious? Are you unhappy? I'll think you don't like it."

Song Yuan asked, puzzled, "What expression should I make?"

Qiao Ran stroked her chin thoughtfully, "Hmm... at least smile, okay? But I'm not forcing you, it's just that since I met you, I haven't seen you with any expression other than a blank face. Do emotionally detached people not like to smile?"

Song Yuan shook her head: "It's just that I don't like it. I don't know about other people's situations."

Qiao Ran nodded knowingly and encouraged her, "Then try a little harder. Even after trying, you still can't smile?"

So Song Yuan did as he said and "tried her best," but apart from her eyes becoming increasingly fierce and her expression becoming even more serious than when she was relaxed, she just couldn't manage to curl the corners of her mouth up.

Qiao Ran couldn't stand it any longer, and waved her hand while chuckling awkwardly:

"Alright, alright! If you don't like it, then don't smile. Actually, you look quite good with a straight face; it suits you..."

Song Yuan didn't want to try anymore. She stopped smiling, reverting to her familiar serious expression, and earnestly promised:

"I'll give you a gift in return."

Qiao Ran waved her hand, not caring about it: "No need to remember so clearly. By the way, where's An Xiaomei? Shall we take her to the base first? It'll be easier to gather for the next game."

Song Yuan pointed in a direction behind him: "Haven't she been standing there the whole time?"

Qiao Ran turned around abruptly, and judging from her expression, she knew it wasn't An Xiaomei who was on the phone, but An Xiaoyou. She was standing about four or five meters away, arms crossed. She'd been listening for who knows how long, and her eyes were practically rolling to the sky.

Qiao Ran's face darkened for a moment: "Why didn't you say so sooner?!"

Song Yuan replied matter-of-factly, "Weren't you talking at the time?"

An Xiaoyou said sarcastically, "Weren't you two all lovey-dovey at the time? How could I possibly come up and disturb your private time?"

Qiao Ran: "..."

After returning to the camp with An Xiaoyou, Song Yuan felt a familiar golden light flash across her chest. Looking down, she found the familiar prop again.

"Holy crap! What is this thing?!"

Song Yuan looked at An Xiaoyou, who was complaining, and noticed that all three of them had this item: "The Golden Lock of the Infatuated Ones". Fu Zhengyang had used it when he followed them into the previous instance.

"Looks like we've offended one of the three major guilds again," Qiao Ran gave An Xiaoyou a kind smile, then opened the game's forum. "Don't worry~ It's common for our guild to be hunted down by other guilds~ Let me see... Fu Zhengyang and Wang Daqiang are confirmed dead, so the ones coming for revenge this time must be... Oh my god?"

Song Yuan checked her game panel and saw that a post had indeed been published and was very popular. The poster was a player with the ID "Puppeteer". The post basically said that in the next game, Puppeteer, the leader of the Crystal Guild, would cooperate with the Midnight Guild to bring Qiao Ran back to the Crystal Guild, while making Song Yuan and An Xiaomei die in the game to avenge their fallen teammates.

An Xiaoyou's lips twitched as she pointed at the post and said:

"I must be seeing things... The wording here definitely means we're going to 'take you away,' not kill you in the game, right?"

Qiao Ran: "...Stop talking. Being taken away by that pervert is worse than death, okay? Taking me back to the Crystal Guild is worse than letting me die in the game."