Tap-tap-tap-tap... tap-tap... tap... tap-tap... A string of rapid clicks filled the room.

The curtains were drawn.

The lights were off.

Only the glow of the computer screen lit up a face.

His long bangs nearly covered his eyes.

His lips were pressed tight. His gaze shifted behind that thick fringe, following the character on the screen.

The headset set off to the side kept spilling out voices.

“DPS! Sword cultivator!! Say something! Don’t just cast skills without warning, we can’t keep up—... Holy crap! That Spirit Sword Art! Sword bro, you’re insane!!”

It was a girl’s voice, urgent and lively.

The moment he heard it, his Adam’s apple bobbed. An awkward, tense look appeared on his face.

He opened his mouth. Sweat even started to bead and slide down his forehead, even though the AC was clearly on.

“N-no...”

Just one word.

Yet it felt like some invisible barrier had sealed his mouth shut.

It wasn’t a barrier, of course. It was just that speaking to strangers online through a mic, people he didn’t know well, was already enough to make him unbearably embarrassed and nervous.

So he typed a line instead.

“I don’t have a mic.”

It wasn’t that he didn’t have a mic.

It was that he had a mouth and still couldn’t speak.

No... it wasn’t that he couldn’t speak either.

It was just too embarrassing.

Because of this xianxia-style cultivation game, he could at least listen to his teammates chat, but... just listening already made him tense. His temperature rose, his cheeks burned, sweat trickled down.

In that state, how was he supposed to open his mouth and talk?

He couldn’t do it.

So all he could do was carry in silence.

Of course, if it was really that hard for him, then he should just stop playing this kind of game. Go play single-player games instead. No interaction, problem solved.

He knew that too.

The problem was... he still longed to talk to people normally. But every time he worked up the courage, the moment someone actually spoke to him first, he couldn’t answer at all.

Especially girls in games.

Even if there was always a chance she was actually some burly dude behind the screen.

When the fifty-man raid boss finally crashed to the ground, someone in the party gasped.

“So this is what an eleventh-rank big shot looks like? That damage is ridiculous, isn’t it? He’s almost three hundred thousand ahead of second place! How do you even do that? Is our second place a beggar or what?!”

The raid leader, who had been calling the shots, said it in an exaggerated tone.

“Who are you calling a beggar?! H-he just has slightly better gear than me! Once I get my BiS gear too, I’ll definitely out-DPS him!”

The girl’s voice, which had just been trading playful compliments, suddenly turned flustered as she tried to explain herself.

The boy in front of the screen, who had just been feeling a little smug, instantly got nervous again. He reached out and moved the headset farther away, as if the girl might crawl out of it at any second.

“Heh, I doubt you’ll ever catch up. Everyone knows Feihua is the acknowledged number one carry on this server. In raids, his damage has never lost to anyone. If you can catch him, I’ll let you be guild leader.”

“Tch... like I care. Hey, you there, Feihua! Got a minute?”

“What is it.”

The boy kept typing while they talked. It was his way of proving he was still listening, that he wasn’t rejecting communication...

It was just that the short, plain text he sent made him come off a little cold.

The girl, whose voice alone sounded cute and bright, said irritably, “How about a duel with me? And give me some pointers while you’re at it.”

“I don’t know how to teach.”

The moment something like this came up, he instinctively started backing out again.

He obviously still liked cute, pretty girls.

But... but he just reflexively rejected them. It was absurdly awkward, and he couldn’t control it.

“What’s there not to know? I’ll head out in a sec, open a room, and invite you. Just accept it, okay?”

That was what the girl said.

The boy looked at the screen.

[Player: The Cutest Heroine in the Server has invited you to a duel. Reject or Accept?]

A duel... he would never refuse that.

He was an eleventh-rank arena god. At the very least, he was stronger than ninety-five percent of the players on this server.

But... why did they have to voice chat?

Why did she have to talk?!

So he clicked Reject.

“??? Why’d you reject it?! Looking down on me or something? Acting like some master just because you won’t talk?”

The girl sounded genuinely angry.

The boy sighed helplessly and moved the headset even farther away. He thought for a long time about how to explain himself, but whatever he typed felt too weak.

And really, who was scared of who on the internet? As long as they didn’t meet in real life.

“Sorry, I don’t coach.”

That flat, lukewarm sentence, paired with Lu Huai’s earlier behavior, gave off nothing but the icy aloofness of a true expert.

“Don’t coach? Why? Just because you don’t have a mic? I’ll buy you one! Give me your address and I’ll mail it over. Is Sennheiser enough? Or Audio-Technica!”

“Say something!”

“886.”

That was all the girl saw appear in the chat box.

She froze for a second.

Then the system notified her:

[Your friend Feihua has gone offline.]

“???”

On the other side of the screen, the girl stared at it, her head full of question marks, and scratched her long, waterfall-smooth hair.

“What is his deal? Why would anyone reject a PK invite from a beautiful, sweet-voiced, rich girl? Is he gay?”

But the guild leader sighed from the heart.

“This is probably the cold pride of the strong. Women only slow down the speed at which he draws his sword.”

“You mean the speed of crossing swords, right?!”

He really had logged off.

Because he felt like his condition had already gotten as bad as it possibly could.

She wanted to mail him a microphone? And she wanted his address? Wouldn’t that make her think he was some broke scammer...?

And if the mic actually arrived, then he’d lose his excuse for refusing voice chat.

But there was no way he could talk online with a girl who had a voice like that.

Thinking it over, rejecting her really had been the only option.

The boy leaned back in his chair. At last, he felt his physical state improve a little.

He wasn’t some cold, aloof master at all.

He actually knew exactly what was wrong with him, exactly what kind of situation he was in, but... he simply couldn’t change it in any meaningful way. Even he thought he was being ridiculously awkward, yet he still couldn’t fix it.

At that moment, in the room, a somewhat skinny boy with slightly long hair sat staring blankly at the computer.

His name was Lu Huai.

Seventeen years old.

Second year of high school in Chuzhou.

One meter seventy-five tall.

Not tall, not handsome, not rich. Just an ordinary boy.

His biggest hobby was shutting himself away.

His biggest problem was social anxiety.

That might sound a little off when put so bluntly, but in truth, Lu Huai knew his own issues well.

And... this wasn’t some random self-diagnosis. A psychologist had actually confirmed it.

From a very early age, Lu Huai had already become unable to communicate with people normally.

He was afraid of being watched. He craved care, yet feared other people’s concern.

He wanted to talk to others because loneliness hurt.

But when it came time to actually speak normally, or appear in crowded places, he would shrink back uncontrollably.

The moment there was any risk of being observed by others, Lu Huai’s choice was always the same:

escape, avoid, evade.

Like a coward.

Not even like a man.

He didn’t know how long this would last. He didn’t know when he’d be able to live like a normal person.

But for now, it seemed this was all he could do.

He avoided public places whenever possible. He longed to connect with people, but once there were too many around, he wished he could just become invisible.

He didn’t like girls who looked average. He liked girls who were pretty and had taste.

But pretty girls with taste would never be blind enough to like him.

Besides, he couldn’t even start a conversation. He always felt like he was somehow different from other people, like girls should take the initiative to approach him.

Of course, that was never actually the case.

It was nothing more than inferiority mixed with fantasy.

Lu Huai let out a sigh.

When would this miserable, awful life of his ever change?

Look at that. He was waiting passively for change again.

But someone who only knows how to hope and fantasize, how could he possibly be lucky enough for change to come knocking on its own?

Ding-dong~~

The doorbell rang.

It happened while Lu Huai was drifting in bored thoughts.

After hesitating for a moment, he still got to his feet.

He walked to the door and first looked through the peephole. Outside stood a girl who looked visibly anxious.

Lu Huai hesitated. He didn’t open the door right away.

But she seemed to know exactly what he was doing, because she was already speaking impatiently from outside.

“Lu Huai! Open the door! You’ve got the guts to shut yourself away, but not the guts to open up?”

Only then did Lu Huai reluctantly open it.

This girl didn’t make him especially panic, because they were actually very familiar with each other.

You could say she was his childhood friend.

Even so... he still didn’t really dare meet her eyes. His gaze didn’t dare drift toward her pretty face at all.

The girl was nearly one meter seventy herself, not much shorter than him. She had beautiful eyes, and her long hair fell obediently behind her back.

She wore a short skirt and over-the-knee socks, looking fresh and lovely.

The image of a perfect beautiful girl.

This was his childhood friend, and also the neighbor next door:

Yan Ningning.

A seventeen-year-old beauty adored by elders and teachers alike, and someone who got along effortlessly with people her own age too.

She was practically the perfect opposite of him.

Naturally, Lu Huai had fantasized about a girl like her before. The kind of happy ending you saw in anime and novels, where childhood friends stayed together and eventually got married...

But while Lu Huai could fantasize, he also knew the truth clearly.

A girl who knew all his issues could never possibly think highly of him, let alone when she made no effort to hide her disdain.

“What is it...?”

Even when Lu Huai spoke, he sounded uncertain, completely unlike how he was online.

That couldn’t be helped. Talking to someone who knew your face and your real identity was completely different from talking to strangers online.

Bowing his head to a beautiful girl probably wasn’t that shameful...

That was how Lu Huai comforted himself.

Yan Ningning said irritably, “Do you even know what day it is? Don’t tell me you weren’t planning to go register today.”

“Oh right... today’s the registration day, huh...”

For Lu Huai, this day was especially difficult.

School registration day meant lots of students gathering together. They’d laugh and chat about where they traveled over summer break, what they did, what they bought.

But Lu Huai had nothing worth showing off.

He didn’t seem to have many topics in common with them either.

He didn’t want to run into them.

He didn’t want to be part of those conversations.

“I seriously can’t with you. Then hurry up already. Your parents specifically told me to keep an eye on you. Sure enough, if nobody pushes you, you really won’t go.”

The girl still looked at him with obvious disdain, though the boy wouldn’t meet her gaze at all.

Yan Ningning felt a little helpless.

After certain things happened, he had become like this...

As his childhood friend, she felt like she had some duty to help him change.

But... he wasn’t even willing to get a little closer to her anymore, so what was she supposed to do?

It was infuriating.

And, just a little, it hurt.

Lu Huai hesitated, glanced at her once, then looked away again and said helplessly,

“I’ll go later... There are too many people right now.”

That was right. If he went when there were fewer people, maybe it would be a little better...

But Yan Ningning didn’t care.

She pushed the door open and stepped right in. Her shoulder bumped his for an instant, making Lu Huai stumble back a full step.

Yan Ningning stared, stunned.

“Am I some kind of monster? Am I really that scary?”

“N-no... I’m not saying that.”

Seeing the guilty look on the boy’s face, Yan Ningning couldn’t even get angry anymore.

She let out a hollow sigh.

“Fine, fine. Enough of this. I’m waiting for you. Get your stuff, and you’re coming with me to register right now. Right now.”

Right now?

Go register with a beautiful girl like Yan Ningning?

Just imagining that scene made Lu Huaiguang’s fear level spike.