Love at First Game

Episode 13 He's Not Me.

The video player was set on loop, and while Vivian was lost in thought, the video started playing again. Lively flute music filled the air as the woman in the red dress, a dazzling figure, rode her horse down the mountain with great momentum.

Quickly shutting it off, Vivian knew the outcome. The comedic pranks in the beginning already felt depressing, and she had no desire to watch it all over again. Opening a minimized game, Vivian messaged Nathan:

"I finished watching. It was perfect."

After typing those few dry words, Vivian was at a loss. She actually had a whirlwind of emotions but didn’t know what to say. Should she admit that it almost made her cry? That seemed silly. So, she awkwardly asked:

"Did you change the ending?"

Nathan’s name lit up before she could even send the message, and with a quick ding, his reply came through:

"Yeah, I changed it; otherwise, the duration wouldn’t have been enough."

"You’re back? What duration are you talking about?" Vivian was a bit confused. Was he referring to the length of the video? But she remembered there being no restrictions on its duration.

Nathan replied:

"According to the competition rules, if the video is longer than half an hour, the rewards for winning will double."

"Since we went through with it, we might as well take everything we can get."

Vivian was dumbfounded. She hadn’t paid attention to that rule, but… Daniel Thorne, are you really so sure that we can win the championship? No, no, that’s not the point.

The point is, according to Daniel Thorne, were those scenes that almost made her cry actually added by him to buy time? Thinking about this, Vivian couldn’t help but open the video to check.

Sure enough! The video was neither too long nor too short—exactly 30 minutes, without a single second added. Although the truth was so obvious and cruel, Vivian still held onto a glimmer of hope.

"Then… how did you come up with the ending afterward? It’s so much better than the original ending."

Nathan replied:

"The original ending works too. On the way to the cliff, we can insert memories all the way to fill up the 30 minutes. However, it would be too obvious."

Inserting memories along the way… Vivian felt perplexed. Wasn’t this the infamous cliché? And now she was asking how Daniel Thorne came up with this ending, not how he stalled for time!

Meanwhile, Nathan continued:

"This one is less obvious and not too troublesome. Most of it still uses previously recorded footage. We just need to shoot two additional simple scenes."

Vivian could only stay silent. So, Daniel Thorne not only bought time but also added a lot of clichéd memories just to prolong it. Everything about his ending originated from procrastination and laziness.

How touching, how profound life and death are… They’re all just fleeting clouds on the horizon... >o Suddenly, Vivian felt that her previous emotions were simply foolish.

Currently, Vivian sent the video to the official website with complicated feelings. As for why it was her who sent it instead of Daniel Thorne, that was because Daniel Thorne was too lazy to register.

After sending the video, Vivian and Nathan went on a mission. When they finished the task and refreshed the post, they were immediately shocked by the number of clicks and replies.

How could there be so many comments?!

Some of the replies were even posted within a minute of her posting. There was no way they had enough time to watch the video. However, after looking at the content of these replies, Vivian understood.

Ultimately, it was influenced by the incident where Ruby withdrew the video and the one-on-one fight between Nathan and Mason. These two incidents caused quite a stir not only on the server but also on the forum.

They are still hot topics today. So when Vivian posted her video, a bunch of people came to marvel at it:

“Nathan and Willow Vivian are participating too! Are they here to challenge Ruby? Clearly!”

Some even speculated that Ruby would appear in the video but as a vilified character. Vivian couldn’t help but tsk in her heart when she saw this!

Some people have such mean minds that they comment without even looking. She didn’t want any inexplicable third parties in her video! Besides, with her and Daniel Thorne’s brilliant and glorious image, who needs a third party to embellish it?

Vivian flipped through the pages, and it wasn’t until the fifth page that she saw comments specifically about the video itself. It was a reply from a girl who posted multiple crying emojis and exclaimed that she actually cried while watching.

Vivian chuckled at this. Finally, more than just me has fallen for Daniel Thorne’s deception!

Several other replies mentioned being emotionally moved by the video, and Vivian happily ran back to the game to tell Nathan:

"Did you see the comments? Many people said they cried while watching. But don’t worry, I take the blame for you. I said I was the scriptwriter in your video. Everyone says I’m crazy..."

Indeed, if a story starts off funny, continues humorously, and ends tragically, the scriptwriter must be crazy or something.

Nathan replied:

"I haven’t seen them yet. Let me know when the results are out."

Even though it was his hard work, he didn’t seem excited at all.

Vivian said:

"Hmm, okay! I’ll watch them every day and report back to you ^_^"

Over the next few days, Vivian sat in front of her computer, refreshing the comments section. The video was becoming more and more popular—not because of gossip, but because of its own merits.

People praised the exquisite production and were even more amazed when they discovered Nathan was the creator.

One player said:

"This video is amazing! Nathan is so talented. Not only can he play, but his technical skills are outstanding. He’s a master of both arts and combat."