Xiao Yi sat in blissful silence, taking in the view of the world while listening to the area’s tranquil bamboo flute melody intertwining with the waterfall beside him for over an hour, lost in his thoughts.

He’d been feeling more and more like he should confront his old friends, even if to air the dirty truth he’d been hiding from them but he knew he shouldn’t.

It was his burden to bear and he understood if they wanted revenge for what they thought he did but sometimes, he just wanted to not be the villain in everyone's stories. It contradicted everything he’s done to get to this point in life but having the people he loves hate him…

It’s a strong mountain to sit atop his shoulders.

Before Moon stepped on stage, Xiao Yi could convince himself that he’d moved on by not watching their videos and treating them as if they were ghosts.

How do you move on from losing four friendships that spanned a decade? Hell, he even lived with Chen Qiang and treated his parents as his own.

He couldn’t go back to see his second set of parents, because even they had cut him off because of what he supposedly did.

Xiao Yi’s thoughts were broken as he heard the sound of wings flapping softly, headed toward the desolate island where only he and a few low-level non-combative mythical creatures rest.

Behind him, he could hear someone drop to the ground, but he didn’t move his camera as the person walked closer.

[Prince]: Someone still comes here?

Xiao Yi glanced at the name, then wrote back.

[Shen Wei]: En.

The footsteps paused for a moment while Prince typed and Xiao Yi responded before they continued until they stopped right next to Frost.

[Prince]: Who are you?

Xiao Yi looked at the newcomer. Prince. Sword master. Golden nameplate. There was silence for a few moments before Prince sat down and crossed his legs, right next to Xiao Yi.

[Prince]: Those cosmetics haven’t been sold so either you’re a player or a dev. Which one?

[Shen Wei]: Neither.

Xiao Yi glanced at the sword master once more and raised his eyebrow. This little sword master was a champion as well but he didn’t remember seeing a ‘Prince’ on the list. Was it a name change, or did he have the outfit sent to another character?

Interesting.

Prince wore a black scarf that wrapped from his nose to where it blended under the black, crossed-collar top. The top itself had no color, but the bracers that wound half of his forearm were black with red intricate designs. Otherwise, he wore a black horse skirt that seemed to be one tone, but when Prince moved and allowed the sun to shine through the outer layer of silk, one could see black roses.

Unlike most characters in the game, Prince’s hair was simply left to hang down.

Xiao Yi hummed as he clicked his keys, throwing the other’s question back at him.

[Shen Wei]: Who are you?

[Prince]: Who are you?

Xiao Yi chuckled, but he couldn’t deny that he was feeling a tad playful… Well, he was in a secluded area anyway, right? Why did he need the spell on?

‘I wonder if they’ll run away if I just…’

The mouse moved to the top of the screen where active buffs were, right-clicked, and clicked ‘remove spell’. The game had to make a show of reapplying the black nameplate as it slowly moved across the gold, like particles eating everything in its path.

[Frost]: Hi.

Prince didn’t run away, nor did he get up and request a duel. The two sat in silence once more for a few moments until ‘Prince’ replied.

[Midnight]: Wow, I wasn’t expecting this.

Xiao Yi pushed his chair away from the desk just the slightest bit as he leaned back, his mouth parted slightly.

Midnight.

Another jack of all trades who also happened to be a captain back in the day. Before he created EDGE, he was the substitute sword master for FFS for just one year.

He’s quite a famous tale. FFS had only planned to keep him as a temporary substitute because their sword master was temporarily ill so they offered him a one-year contract not thinking he’d have to substitute any large games, but their sword master had gotten ill the night before the world championship and he had to fill in.

It was their first win in the world championships.

Midnight left just a month later due to his contract ending, and FFS wasn’t able to talk him back into the contract despite Xue being his childhood friend. It was because the FFS staff disrespected him too much. Not long after he left, the sword master hurt his wrist and was deemed unable to continue playing Valley of Light and FFS had to go search for another member.

Midnight wasn’t strained on money and was just playing around in the league so he went and created a new team, EDGE, where he could be the captain behind the scenes and join as an assassin now and then.

His team had never made it to the world championships but it’s not because they lacked talent. It was simply because they were talented players with professional lives, so they didn’t participate in every competition - only ones they were interested in or had space in their schedules for.

They dominated the singles and duos tournaments.

If they decided to compete in the World Cup… If Xiao Yi still led Team X, he wasn’t sure he’d beat them.

Thank god he retired.

Xiao Yi rolled back to the desk and tried to calm his raging heartbeat.

[Frost]: Me neither. Wanna fight?

-

Sorry for the late updates. I've been quite busy the past few weeks.

I found out I have 2 lifelong conditions that are both quite serious, I need to be on meds my entire life.

One of them turned out to be genetic so I'm trying to reach out to the family I do know about, which you'd think would be easy but at this point I'm considering hiring a PI to find the rest.

Took up more hours so I can pay for meds.

University application things.