Anyone Up for Duos Tonight?

.

During a gap between jobs, Qiu Xu took up her old side gig as a game rank booster again and unexpectedly met a rich, clueless noob of a client:

[AAA Building Materials Wholesale Xiao Gu]

.

On their first day of knowing each other, Qiu Xu got her first order from Boss Xiao Gu:

[AAA Building Materials Wholesale Xiao Gu]: Can you boost me from Starshine I to King 25 stars?

.

On their fourth day of knowing each other, Qiu Xu got her second order from him:

[AAA Building Materials Wholesale Xiao Gu]: How long would it take to boost me from King 1 star to King 30 stars?

Qiu Xu found the message a little strange: Is this still the same account as before?

[AAA Building Materials Wholesale Xiao Gu]: Yeah.

Qiu Xu: ...?

You mean you dropped more than twenty stars in two days?

.

On their seventh day of knowing each other, Qiu Xu got her third order from him:

[AAA Building Materials Wholesale Xiao Gu]: Are you free to boost me from King 5 stars to King 30 stars?

Before Qiu Xu could reply, the client changed his mind.

[AAA Building Materials Wholesale Xiao Gu]: Never mind.

[AAA Building Materials Wholesale Xiao Gu]: Do you offer gaming companion services? Money's no object. I mainly want to experience a winning streak where someone carries me, T_T.

Qiu Xu: ...Sure, I can do that.

She glanced at the emoticon at the end of his message and couldn't help laughing out loud.

.

By their fifteenth day of knowing each other, the two had grown much closer.

Boss Gu sent Qiu Xu crying stickers and complained about his ten-game losing streak in duo queue with a friend that day.

As a skilled booster, Qiu Xu didn't hesitate to laugh at him:

Qiu Xu: Is that even a humanly possible record?

At the same time.

[AAA Building Materials Wholesale Xiao Gu]: [Transfer: 1,000 yuan]

The next second.

Qiu Xu: [Message retracted]

Qiu Xu: [Message retracted]

[AAA Building Materials Wholesale Xiao Gu]: ?

[AAA Building Materials Wholesale Xiao Gu]: Why'd you retract it? I saw it. [Angry/]

Two months later, Qiu Xu smoothly started at her new company.

Only a few days after she'd gotten to know her coworkers, she unexpectedly spotted an all-too-familiar mutual friend beneath a nine-photo post on her supervisor's Moments.

[AAA Building Materials Wholesale Xiao Gu] commented: [Where is this? The place looks nice.]

The supervisor replied: [It's a newly opened amusement park in City A, out in the suburbs. Interested, President Xiao Gu?]

President Xiao Gu?

Qiu Xu stared at those three words, her mind going blank for a moment.

Then her phone suddenly vibrated.

A certain "President Xiao Gu" sent her an invite to log on.

[AAA Building Materials Wholesale Xiao Gu]: Anyone up for a game tonight? I mainly play Lan, Jing, and Luna. Peak rank 2,300, 120 points as a jungler. I injured my hand recently, so I've switched to Yao.

Qiu Xu: ...

Whose President Xiao Gu is always yelling about wanting to play Yao, huh?

But thinking back over their interactions during the past two months, Qiu Xu suddenly felt a little guilty.

Ever since they'd gotten close, she'd seemed to mock this "President Xiao Gu's" hilariously bad gameplay more times than she could count.

If he found out she was working at his company...

#Can I still resign now?#

#Waiting for an answer, this is urgent#

.

◾️Skilled girl rank booster x rich, clueless noob client

◾️Cool-faced, tsundere kitty x goofy, lovestruck puppy boy

◾️An unconventional boss male lead / a sweet two-person comedy

-

Things to know before reading:

1. This is a self-indulgent passion project. Some of the absurd copy is adapted from online memes, and the male lead's username is a play on words. It's part of the "gaming stories where the guy is bad and the girl is good" series. I've clearly stated that the male lead is pretty bad at games, and have kept saying so. There's really no need to keep going on about how bad he is. If you want to read about a guy carrying the girl, please just leave.

2. It has a little Honor of Kings content. Most of the gaming scenes will be before the story goes premium. There probably won't be much gaming or workplace content after that, and neither will be written in a particularly professional way!

3. It's a slice-of-life story, mainly a sweet two-person comedy. They are both virgins. The leads are the same age, but the heroine started school a year early. If you really want to know who's older, the heroine is a few months older than the hero.

4. The story starts online and moves offline later. Since it's a gaming story, text chats will make up a large part of it.

5. If you need a reference for the Honor of Kings season setting, use Season 39. The original idea came to me around then, though I didn't pay much attention to it while writing. I just wrote whatever came to mind.

6. If you don't like it, please leave. I respectfully decline writing advice and meaningless score-farming comments.

-

Here are some upcoming stories. If you're interested, feel free to add them to your collection first~

How Did the Puppy Doll Start Sharing Senses with Her Boyfriend?

Gu Yunran had a boyfriend named Mu Bai.

On their first anniversary, she received a doll from Mu Bai, who was away on a business trip.

It was a half-meter-tall stuffed toy that looked a little like a puppy.

She happily told her boyfriend she'd received the little dog he'd sent, but he insisted on correcting her:

It was a wolf.

-

Gu Yunran, a plushie enthusiast, loved the doll Mu Bai had sent her.

Aside from its soft, squishy feel, she especially liked the little dog's deep blue eyes.

They always seemed to sparkle, and reminded her of Mu Bai's eyes when he looked at her.

The day she unexpectedly discovered that her boyfriend seemed to share sensations with the puppy doll, Gu Yunran gazed at his face, which had suddenly flushed, and mischievously gave the doll's tail a couple of firm strokes.

The very next second, she heard Mu Bai let out a muffled groan.

The corners of the man's eyes turned slightly red, and he let out a couple of restrained, breathy gasps.

Curious about Mu Bai's reaction, Gu Yunran turned to look, only to suddenly see a fluffy tail appear behind her boyfriend.

Gu Yunran: ...Eh, eh?!

-

On her 389th day with Mu Bai, Gu Yunran learned a few things from her boyfriend:

1. He really wasn't human. He was a dog spirit whose true form was a silver wolf.

2. The puppy doll she loved was made from the fur of his true form.

3. The reason the puppy doll could share sensations with him was that he had made it happen on purpose.

4. He fell in love with her at first sight, years ago, when he was still a clumsy little wolf who didn't know how to hide his animal ears.

_

She Says She Likes Men Who Can Cook

.

Puppy girl x lovesick fool

.

Puppy girl x lovesick fool

.

Xu Xingwan recently followed a cooking blogger.

Why call him a "cooking blogger" instead of a "food blogger"?

Naturally, because his cooking was hard to describe.

Leaving aside his frequent kitchen disasters, the food he made often failed on every front: appearance, aroma, and taste.

Perhaps she'd watched too many polished food bloggers post mouthwatering videos late at night. Xu Xingwan felt that watching a kitchen novice blow up his kitchen now and then was kind of fun, too.

The reason Xu Xingwan followed him was his username, which clearly had a story behind it:

[She Says She Likes Men Who Can Cook]

People in the comments often used the opportunity to tease him: Give it up, streamer. With your cooking, she's probably never going to like you.

Every time, the blogger would reply with a string of ellipses.

Until one day, Xu Xingwan joined in and posted the same comment. But the blogger replied to her with a whole string of heartbroken emojis.

-

Ji Chi was a kitchen novice who didn't know the first thing about cooking. He usually got all his meals from restaurants and takeout.

He'd thought he'd never set foot in a kitchen in his life, until one day he unexpectedly heard that his crush, Xu Xingwan, liked men with eight-pack abs who could cook.

Abs were no problem, Ji Chi thought. He worked out regularly.

But cooking...?

Though it seemed like a challenge, after he went home that day, Ji Chi gritted his teeth and added learning to cook to his to-do list.

To keep himself accountable, he immediately created an account to document his progress.

He'd only meant to use the account to record his life, but he never expected one of his videos featuring a culinary abomination to go viral for a while.

What surprised Ji Chi even more was that one day, while checking the comments under his video, he noticed that Xu Xingwan seemed to be following him.

Before Ji Chi could get excited, he saw her join in with a comment under his video:

[Give it up, streamer. With your cooking, she's probably never going to like you. [Dog Head/]]

For a moment, Ji Chi felt his breathing stop. His heart hurt so much he could barely breathe.

-

Until one day.

After unexpectedly learning that Ji Chi was the cooking blogger she'd been following, Xu Xingwan suddenly felt a little guilty.

Well...

How was she supposed to tell him that she'd just made that up on the spur of the moment?

-

Anonymous Visitor

.

Since becoming single again, Wen Shuyu had often noticed a blurry avatar visiting the private Weibo account she used to vent.

At first, Wen Shuyu didn't pay much attention.

Not until the avatar had visited for two weeks straight.

Who could it be?

Driven by curiosity, Wen Shuyu gritted her teeth, closed her eyes, and bought a membership for her private account.

In an instant, the blurry avatar was revealed: a smug, grinning yellow-bean emoji, along with a string of gibberish for a username.

After staring at the arrogant, comical yellow face for several seconds, Wen Shuyu clicked on the person's profile, intrigued.

The person's bio read:

[Would some dummy really buy a membership just for me? No way, right? No way, right?]

Dummy Wen Shuyu fell silent for a moment.

It was obvious this was a trap set specifically for her.

Having been caught off guard and insulted, Wen Shuyu felt her fists turn surprisingly hard. She immediately punched the screen, landing two thwacks on that hateful yellow face.

After taking several deep breaths to calm herself, Wen Shuyu considered the person's words and behavior and soon came up with "two" suspects:

The first suspect was Wen Shuyu's childhood friend and first love.

A detestable guy who seemed aloof on the surface but was clingy in private, and far too controlling of her.

The second suspect was Wen Shuyu's online boyfriend and ex.

A top-tier jungler she'd met through a game, skilled enough to carry her effortlessly, but also a detestable guy who was far too possessive and loved to check her game history.

As it happened, the last character in the real name shown on each of their WeChat transfer accounts was "Yan."

.

On the day her secret identity was exposed, Shen Zhiyan looked at Wen Shuyu's eyes, feigning accusation as she stared at him, and smiled especially brightly.

"Right, it's all me."

"But you figured it out a long time ago, didn't you?"

-

Theme: Everyone has things they're good at and things they're not good at. There's no need to beat yourself up over it.