Chapter 182: After Making the Leaderboard
After calming her emotions, Ji Ning opened the trending video leaderboard and browsed through a few of the front-page videos.
Among them were thrilling, high-difficulty instances and others where the entire team was wiped out, leaving no survivors.
Watching with a pounding heart, Ji Ning also understood why Xing Ye had known that giving the same answer would result in the death of all players. He had seen it here.
Ji Ning browsed for a while. She didn't see any instances she had personally experienced, but she did see a video of the five-star Battle Royale instance that Xing Ye had been in.
After watching for a bit longer, the unpleasant feelings she'd had were forgotten, and her mind was filled with the thought, "Brother Xing Ye is so strong."
Only then did she remember to check her private messages, and she was surprised by the sight of unread messages from five different men lined up side by side.
Opening them one by one, she saw almost all of them mentioned her making the Points Leaderboard, sending congratulations and concern.
Because she had learned of the leaderboard-related information later than they had, the men were all rather worried about her psychological resilience.
Among them, Xing Ye, Jiang Ting, and Sheng Churan each took the extra step of explaining why they hadn't told her about it earlier.
Ji Ning replied to each one, reassuring them that she was doing well now.
Especially Xing Ye.
To this man who had witnessed her growth and was like a guide to her, Ji Ning had endless things to say.
Her negative emotions, her nonsensical thoughts, her plans for the future—she wanted to tell him all of it.
Ji Ning: Brother Xing Ye, you know what? Watching my own video (the parts with you) was even more embarrassing than actually experiencing it. I couldn't even bear to watch.
Xing Ye: Girls are thin-skinned, not as thick-faced as men. When I miss you, I just watch the videos.
Ji Ning: Actually, I haven't been completely unaffected by it. After seeing all this, I feel like it'll be even harder to focus on clearing instances properly from now on.
Ji Ning: But I'll work hard to overcome it. I'll just treat myself like an actress.
Ji Ning: Speaking of which, Sheng Churan, having been a Big Star before, must be way more adapted to this than us.
Xing Ye: You are truly an outstanding girl. Positive, optimistic, and more and more attractive.
Ji Ning: You're making me blush!
Ji Ning: Anyway, since you're so amazing, I have to get stronger too. I absolutely can't hold you back.
Xing Ye: I really want to hold you right now, my good girl.
Ji Ning: If we meet in the next instance, I'll let you hug me all you want! Hehe~
The chat windows between these two were blazing hot, so the other men were left on the sidelines for the time being.
Jiang Ting, having received no message in return, instead went to knock on a friend's chat window.
Jiang Ting: Yanshu, what was your last instance? Was it hard?
Qin Yanshu: Four-star survival instance. Not hard.
Qin Yanshu: Brother Ting, I ran into Ji Ning.
Seeing Qin Yanshu's brief and straightforward confession, Jiang Ting couldn't help but feel a vague illusion that Qin Yanshu had done it on purpose.
Jiang Ting: And then?
Qin Yanshu: It was nice.
Jiang Ting felt a momentary pang, and replied: Indeed, she's very cute, like a little cat. Who wouldn't like her.
This time, it was Qin Yanshu's turn to feel the pang.
He searched through his memories but couldn't grasp the feeling of "kitty" from the way Ji Ning behaved when she was with him.
"Little Cat," he imagined, should be haughty yet clingy, utterly endearing; even when they do something wrong, you can't bring yourself to hate them.
Yet the Ji Ning before Qin Yanshu was quiet, considerate, and sensible.
He knew this wasn't the real her. After all, anyone would act a bit more restrained in front of strangers.
Qin Yanshu remained silent. It should have been Jiang Ting envying him, but now it had become him envying Jiang Ting.
He knew Jiang Ting's personality; the man never took a loss and would always repay any slight. He shouldn't have brought this up himself; it was purely making trouble for himself.
……
As the countdown to the next instance neared its end, Ji Ning opened the leaderboard again for a detailed look, focusing her research on the five men she knew.
Brother Xing Ye had currently experienced 14 instances, ranked 60th on the Points Leaderboard, and 14th on the Popularity Leaderboard.
Song Weiyang had experienced 11 instances, ranked 94th on the Points Leaderboard, and 63rd on the Popularity Leaderboard.
Jiang Ting had experienced 15 instances, ranked 71st on the Points Leaderboard, and 16th on the Popularity Leaderboard.
Sheng Churan had experienced 15 instances, ranked 75th on the Points Leaderboard, and 10th on the Popularity Leaderboard.
Qin Yanshu had experienced 12 instances, ranked 87th on the Points Leaderboard, and 20th on the Popularity Leaderboard.
The one closest to Ji Ning was Song Weiyang, but her popularity growth rate was much faster than his.
Ji Ning suspected this was due to her being a girl. The gender ratio on the leaderboard was vastly skewed, making it easier for women to rise in rank compared to men.
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