Did the Top-Ranked Girl Get Exposed Today? [HoloVerse] - Chapter 13

The Ghostly Flower Maiden’s oppressive aura instantly erupted, countless solitary phantoms surging wildly from all directions, piles of bleached bones stacking into steps beneath her feet.

Her dark-woven skirt swept across the skeletal staircase as the Ghostly Flower Maiden turned her head, locking onto the Lantern-Holding Xian Yun.

[System Alert] Player [Xian Yun Alt] has become the Ghostly Flower Maiden’s aggro target! Focus healing!

Xian Yun: ???!

Watching the bone-blade wielding Ghostly Flower Maiden closing in rapidly, she grabbed her lantern and began circling the arena without looking back. Her evasive maneuvers were exceptionally slick, precisely leading the Ghostly Flower Maiden’s attack range away from the group.

Despite this, Xian Yun couldn’t outrun the Ghostly Flower Maiden’s inherent movement speed buff. A single misstep earned her a strike that instantly halved her health bar.

Xian Yun: ????!

“This can’t be right!? She just took half my HP with one hit!!”

“Save me, Wang Mo!!”

Danhuang Liuxinbao cursed the Ghostly Flower Maiden’s broken damage while switching from spear to shield, instantly positioning herself before Xian Yun to block another onslaught.

This gave Xian Yun a breather. She quickly applied damage reduction buffs and seized the moment to heal herself back to safe HP levels.

The three non-targeted players weren’t idle either – feather arrows, silk shadows, and sword glints relentlessly pursued the Ghostly Flower Maiden.

Yet no matter how much damage the others dealt, the Ghostly Flower Maiden remained fixated on the lantern-bearing Xian Yun.

The scene unfolded with Xian Yun leading the charge, lantern in hand, closely followed by Danhuang Liuxinbao shielding against damage.

Behind them, the enraged Ghostly Flower Maiden swung her bone blade in pursuit, trailed by three additional players.

Against the backdrop of Xian Yun’s continuous wailing, after both Danhuang Liuxinbao and Top Fan of Shang Xianyue fell once each…

Wang Mo spread her snow-white wings. Feng Xiaoxiao exhausted all mana to cast Arctic Pureland, finally defeating the Ghostly Flower Maiden, who dissolved into mist vanishing within the boundless snow.

Where she last stood, only an extinguished lantern remained.

Everyone sighed in relief. Xian Yun, having kited the boss throughout, collapsed spread-eagle while complaining “I’m exhausted,” her eyes vacant.

Wang Mo retracted her wings and landed, her battle-damaged attire still unchanged when a camera shutter sound echoed. She looked up to see…

The previously drained Xian Yun now springing up, eyes sparkling as she pressed her temples with both hands, double-tapping to save the screenshot.

Wang Mo: “…”

She found this utterly incomprehensible, even bewildering.

“This account uses the default system face,” Wang Mo expressed confusion, “What’s worth photographing?”

“You don’t get it.” Xian Yun declared confidently, her eyes glazing over as she happily uploaded her latest capture.

“New meme material acquired.”

Xian Yun: ~(￣▽￣)~

Wang Mo: “…”

[System Alert] The Ghostly Flower Maiden has returned to the shadows. To prevent outsiders from disturbing the princess’s eternal slumber, the guardians have left you “Urge to Depart”.

[System Alert] Congratulations on clearing the Flower Sea Hide and Seek instance! Obtained “Urge to Depart”!

As party leader, Danhuang Liuxinbao immediately opened the instance rewards. Golden light flashed, revealing not only the level breakthrough gems needed by Feng Xiaoxiao and Top Fan of Shang Xianyue…

But also a dazzling array of additional loot, making this an exceptionally rewarding haul.

Without further discussion, Danhuang Liuxinbao considered everyone’s opinions and began distributing the rewards based on their contributions to the dungeon.

Everyone received experience points and clearance gold coins, while the two Level 25 breakthrough gems naturally went to Feng Xiaoxiao and Top Fan of Shang Xianyue.

The remaining special title, “When the Bright Light Fades,” offered no significant stat boosts but granted a dark golden butterfly effect on the wielder’s weapon when equipped.

Danhuang Liuxinbao called out, “Raise your hand if you want it!”

Everyone except Wang Mo raised their hands.

“Alright,” Danhuang Liuxinbao sighed and initiated the system’s dice roll. “Let’s roll the dice. Whoever gets the highest number wins.”

Top Fan of Shang Xianyue rolled a 72.

Feng Xiaoxiao tossed the dice, and it slowly settled on a 98.

Xian Yun rubbed her hands together and rolled a 2, 70 points lower than Top Fan of Shang Xianyue.

She stared in disbelief. “How did I get a 2?!”

Danhuang Liuxinbao patted her shoulder reassuringly. “It’s fine, it’s fine.”

“So, what did you roll?”

“68.”

“…”

Xian Yun turned away coldly.

The title unquestionably went to Feng Xiaoxiao. She tapped the title to activate it in her title slot, and two shimmering butterflies with trailing light effects instantly appeared around the silk ribbons wrapped around her wrists, one gold, one dark, their glow intertwining.

Combined with the icy blue hue from the system’s guidance, Feng Xiaiao was now a butterfly connoisseur.

The dungeon had dropped two Level 60 purple-grade items and five Level 40 blue-grade items, along with a mix of Level 20–30 blue-grade gear.

One purple item was for the Sword Dream class, and the other for the Healer’s Realm class, which went to Top Fan of Shang Xianyue and Xian Yun, who had suffered the most mental damage.

The Level 40 blue items were distributed one per person among the five, regardless of class. The remaining gear was useless to Danhuang Liuxinbao and the others, so Feng Xiaoxiao and Top Fan of Shang Xianyue split it evenly.

After obtaining the purple weapon, Xian Yun mercilessly discarded her Level 45 green weapon, only to realize she wasn’t high-level enough to equip the purple one. She sheepishly went back to retrieve her green weapon.

Top Fan of Shang Xianyue tearfully hugged her unactivated purple longsword. Feng Xiaoxiao teased her, “You’ve got a purple weapon at Level 20! Keep it up, and you might become the next Shang Xianyue.”

“No!” Top Fan of Shang Xianyue declared firmly. “Shang Xianyue is my faith, and faith is meant to be unreachable! Even if she’s deleted her account, she’ll live on forever in my heart!”

Feng Xiaoxiao scratched her head, baffled by the fan’s fervor, but she respected her taste. The two promptly added each other as friends.

Listening to the two newcomers shower Shang Xianyue with effusive praise, Danhuang Liuxinbao scratched her head in confusion.

“Why doesn’t our guild leader have any fans? She’s the top-ranked player in Tianyu, after all.”

Xian Yun snorted. “Even if she did, they’d probably freeze to death from her icy glare, that little iceberg!”

Wang Mo didn’t object, seemingly agreeing with Xian Yun’s remark.

With the boss defeated, the group waved goodbye and parted ways. Wang Mo and Xian Yun logged back into their main accounts to continue leveling up, while Danhuang Liuxinbao prepared to log off for a meal.

The hastily formed ragtag team disbanded on the spot.

Feng Xiaoxiao used the breakthrough gems, spending gold coins and other materials to successfully break through her level cap. Combined with the hefty experience from the Ghost Flower Maiden dungeon, she leveled straight up to 30.

Just five more levels, and she could…

Feng Xiaoxiao slapped her forehead, feeling as though she’d forgotten something.

She was having such a delightful chat with Top Fan of Shang Xianyue that the two of them couldn’t stop talking about Shang Xianyue, taking turns showering her with effusive praise.

As Shang Xianyue herself, Feng Xiaoxiao felt no awkwardness about singing her own praises, she accepted the compliments with complete ease and thoroughly enjoyed her fangirl’s starry-eyed admiration.

So, when Top Fan of Shang Xianyue reluctantly prepared to say goodbye and mentioned that she was also working on the “Heaven-Sent Marriage” quest, though on the Heaven-Sent side, Feng Xiaoxiao immediately clicked with her. Coincidentally, Feng Xiaoxiao still had an unfinished quest related to Hua Yue, and the two decided to team up and complete it together.

They happily formed a party and teleported to Shengjing City. The streets were just beginning to light up with lanterns, much like the scene when Feng Xiaoxiao had left with Di Xiang.

This time, however, the night sky was devoid of blooming fireworks and floating Kongming lanterns.

Top Fan of Shang Xianyue opened her quest panel. “The progress here says we’ve reached the point where… hmm…”

“Lin Lang and Tian Ci are preparing to discuss marriage, and Hua Yue is getting ready to leave Shengjing City to seek apprenticeship in Yushi.”

She couldn’t help but sigh. “Our participation progress is too low! By the time Tian Ci and Lin Lang get married and the quest ends, the rewards we’ll get won’t be much.”

This kind of serendipity quest, which can only be completed once per account, calculates the final rewards based on how much the player contributed to advancing the storyline.

If the player doesn’t intervene at all and only runs errands for the storyline characters, the characters in the serendipity event will naturally follow their predetermined paths.

But if the player gets personally involved, there’s a high chance of causing a butterfly effect and altering the characters’ final outcomes.

Remembering what Di Xiang had spoiler-ed under the fireworks while they were observing the love triangle, Feng Xiaoxiao grew thoughtful.

“Those two might not necessarily end up together.”

“Tian Ci and Lin Lang didn’t end up together in the end.”

Si Nian rested her head on Yumi Chang’s shoulder, lazily scrolling through Yumi Chang’s quest panel with her hand, feeling the woman beside her growing increasingly rigid.

Yumi Chang sat bolt upright, staring straight ahead, emanating an aura of unwavering integrity and unshakable composure.

No matter what Si Nian said to her, Yumi Chang remained completely silent.

In her mind, she frantically scanned through her friends list, intending to send out an SOS, only to realize that aside from Si Nian, her friends list was completely empty.

Si Nian was the only friend she had, and she’d been forced to add her just after logging in.

Even now, Yumi Chang couldn’t figure out why, why had Si Nian followed her the moment she logged in?!

Did this woman have a tracker on her??

Unaware of the torrent of furious screams raging in Yumi Chang’s mind, Si Nian merely picked up a strand of Yumi Chang’s hair with a teasing smile, gently winding it around her finger.

Yumi Chang’s breathing grew somewhat rapid, as if the woman wasn’t holding her hair but her rapidly beating heart.

Si Nian’s warm, moist breath drew close to her ear, lightly nibbling on it as she murmured in a somewhat indistinct tone.

“You know…”

Yumi Chang’s voice trembled, one hand already stealthily hovering over the game’s logout button.

“Know what?”

They were so close that when Si Nian laughed, their chests seemed to resonate together.

Yumi Chang now bitterly resented the game’s hyper-realistic sensory feedback and swore that if she escaped this ordeal, she would absolutely file a complaint with the game developers!

Si Nian’s soft whisper in her ear struck Yumi Chang like a thunderclap out of clear sky.

“Xiao Yu, you didn’t change your avatar’s face, you’re using your real-life appearance.”

A thunderous crash seemed to shatter Yumi Chang into pieces on the spot.

Of course, this was only the scene playing out in her imagination.

In reality, she merely shot to her feet, forcing herself to appear calm while her mind raced, scrambling for a way to escape her current predicament.

“I have no idea what you’re talking about.”

Yumi Chang maintained a deadpan expression: “Even if you’re the number one beauty in the entire game, you can’t just start manhandling me out of nowhere.”

“Besides, there are plenty of people in the world who look alike. It’s just a game avatar, how can you be so sure it’s not just a coincidence?”

Si Nian nodded, as if in full agreement with what Yumi Chang had said.

“You make a valid point.”

Yumi Chang let out a soft sigh of relief, but before she could finish exhaling, Si Nian continued, “But have you forgotten? Back then, we linked our accounts as intimate partners.”

Si Nian smiled at her, her stunning, flame-like features now burning as fiercely as real fire, slowly reducing Yumi Chang to ashes.

“So the moment you logged back into the game, I knew, you had returned.”