My Unconventional Online Dating - Chapter 24
At that moment, a scream echoed from the distance, someone seemingly shouting “Help!”
Xiao Nianyuan glanced at Lian Qiushui, and the two of them headed toward the source of the sound together.
Not far away was a small grove with dense trees and tall grass.
As Xiao Nianyuan pushed through the undergrowth, she inevitably got scratched. Lian Qiushui, watching from the side, suddenly stepped forward to clear the path. Before long, they saw someone running toward them.
Lian Qiushui abruptly reached out to stop Xiao Nianyuan, who looked at her in confusion. Lian Qiushui explained, “One person is enough. I’ll go check it out.”
Though unsure of Lian Qiushui’s reasoning, Xiao Nianyuan stopped and let her handle it.
Lian Qiushui quickly approached the person and intercepted them. The girl, gesturing frantically, excitedly said something to Lian Qiushui that was hard to make out.
Lian Qiushui glanced back at Xiao Nianyuan, who thought she was being signaled to come over and took a couple of steps forward.
Lian Qiushui immediately made a stop gesture. Xiao Nianyuan didn’t understand but halted nonetheless.
Only then did Lian Qiushui nod, reassured, and turned back to continue talking to the girl.
The girl pointed in a direction, and Lian Qiushui nodded, heading that way. After a few steps, she noticed the girl wasn’t following and turned back, puzzled.
The girl was about to walk toward Xiao Nianyuan, clearly terrified and wanting to stay with someone rather than act alone. But she had barely taken two steps when Lian Qiushui grabbed her arm.
The girl looked at Lian Qiushui blankly, who said, “If you don’t come along to show the way, how will I know where they are?”
The girl froze, stammering, “It’s… just straight ahead. Just keep going.”
But Lian Qiushui insisted, “You’re coming with me.”
Reluctant but unable to refuse since she was the one asking for help, the girl glanced at Xiao Nianyuan with a pitiful, pleading look.
Seeing this, Xiao Nianyuan offered, “I’ll come along too.”
“No need for so many people. One is enough,” Lian Qiushui objected.
Xiao Nianyuan studied her for a moment before saying, “Then I’ll go with her.”
Lian Qiushui’s eyes widened as if she wanted to say more, but Xiao Nianyuan had already waved it off. “It’s fine. I’ll go check it out.”
After all, she was a player. No matter what, nothing truly bad would happen—at most, it would be minor scuffles. The game wouldn’t outright ban her, would it? On the other hand, Lian Qiushui, as an NPC, might not respawn if she got injured or killed.
The more Xiao Nianyuan thought about it, the more sense it made. She told Lian Qiushui, “Stay here. Don’t do anything rash.”
Lian Qiushui’s words caught in her throat before she could speak, as Xiao Nianyuan and the girl had already started walking ahead.
As they went, the girl sobbed to Xiao Nianyuan, “There’s a monster over there. It ate my friend.”
Xiao Nianyuan gave her a skeptical glance. “Your friend got eaten, and you didn’t try to save her?”
“I… I did want to save her!” the girl exclaimed, sniffling before shrinking back. “But I don’t know how to fight. Wouldn’t that just be throwing myself in too?”
She was grieving, but her fear was genuine.
Xiao Nianyuan sighed. Then again, this was just a game—it made sense. Even if the monster had eaten her friend, she’d surely be fine in the end.
To avoid alerting the enemy, Xiao Nianyuan and the girl crept forward cautiously, stopping beneath a tree. The girl whispered, “It was right ahead, but now it seems to have disappeared.”
She stared blankly ahead—just moments ago, the monster had been enormous. How could it vanish now? Uneasy, the girl murmured, “Maybe it’s shrunk now, waiting to ambush us.”
“Shrunk to ambush us?” Xiao Nianyuan muttered, feeling an odd sense of déjà vu.
With no sign of the alleged monster, Xiao Nianyuan suggested tentatively, “Why don’t you go out and see if you can lure it out?”
The girl hesitated. “If I go out… will it eat me too?”
Xiao Nianyuan reassured her, “Don’t worry, I’m here. I won’t let it eat you.”
The girl blinked curiously. “Are you a beta tester?”
Xiao Nianyuan nodded, and the girl sighed in relief. “Then I feel better. You have to protect me.”
Bolstered by this promise, the girl finally mustered the courage to step forward.
Xiao Nianyuan hid behind the tree, watching the girl’s every move.
At first, nothing happened. But soon, the grass across from them rustled, and a small rabbit suddenly hopped out.
Xiao Nianyuan recognized it instantly—it was the same rabbit that had tricked her before. If Lian Qiushui hadn’t exposed it back then, she might have ended up like the girl’s friend, devoured by the creature.
The rabbit seemed delighted to see the girl. It suddenly expanded, jaws gaping wide, ready to swallow her whole. The girl collapsed in terror, too petrified to even scream for help.
Having promised to protect her, Xiao Nianyuan couldn’t just stand by. She rushed out immediately.
The moment she appeared, the rabbit froze mid-attack. It shrank back down, transforming into a pitiful little bunny that gazed at Xiao Nianyuan with pleading eyes—utterly unlike the ferocious beast from moments ago or the bl00d-drenched horror from their first encounter.
The bizarre rabbit wagged its stubby, fluffy tail at Xiao Nianyuan, almost endearingly.
But having been fooled before, Xiao Nianyuan wasn’t about to be deceived by its cute act. She eyed it warily and called to the girl, “Come closer. Don’t let it eat you.”
The girl’s legs had turned to jelly. She reached out weakly for help. Just as Xiao Nianyuan hesitated to pull her to safety, another hand shot out—Lian Qiushui’s—yanking the girl away from the rabbit’s reach.
Xiao Nianyuan turned to see Lian Qiushui smirking. “Looks like I had to come check after all.”
Without waiting for questions, she added, “Even if you could handle it alone, I’m your mentor. I couldn’t let you face this by yourself.”
Xiao Nianyuan nodded, long accustomed to Lian Qiushui’s self-proclaimed “mentor” role.
The girl glanced between them. Though reluctant to interrupt their “intense eye contact,” she whispered urgently, “My friend is still inside its stomach.”
This little rabbit was quite adept at playing innocent. If it hadn’t put on such an innocent act, the girl and her friend wouldn’t have been so easily deceived—or more accurately, the girl was tricked, while her friend was eaten by the rabbit while trying to save her.
Xiao Nianyuan eyed the rabbit warily. This creature had swallowed someone’s friend whole—there was no guarantee it would simply spit them back out.
As she frowned, pondering how to make the rabbit disgorge its meal, the creature suddenly grew in size. Yet instead of attacking Xiao Nianyuan and the others, it opened its mouth and spat out a person.
Then it shrank back to its small rabbit form, wagging its tail and gazing at Xiao Nianyuan with pleading eyes—its attempt to curry favor couldn’t have been more obvious.
The girl hurried to help her companion, apologizing profusely: “I’m so sorry, it’s all my fault you got eaten.”
Her friend simply shook her head without speaking.
Only after confirming her friend was truly unharmed did the girl notice the rabbit’s persistent, longing looks at Xiao Nianyuan. She asked curiously, “Is this your pet?”
“No.” Xiao Nianyuan was equally puzzled. What was this rabbit’s deal? Even if Lian Qiushui had disciplined it earlier, shouldn’t it be trying to please Lian Qiushui instead of showering her with attention?
What Xiao Nianyuan didn’t know was that the rabbit was far cleverer than she realized. It understood that Lian Qiushui protected Xiao Nianyuan—if it wanted Lian Qiushui’s favor, it was better to directly ingratiate itself with Xiao Nianyuan.
Trying to please Lian Qiushui would likely earn it a swift kick into the distance. But gaining Xiao Nianyuan’s approval would effectively mean securing Lian Qiushui’s as well—a permanent solution that would also protect it from being bullied by other monsters.
The girl’s eyes darted shrewdly as she suggested, “Since it likes you so much, why don’t you take it as your pet?”
If she weren’t so clueless and powerless herself, she’d love to tame a cute yet formidable monster as a companion.
Xiao Nianyuan ignored the suggestion, turning to Lian Qiushui instead. “Let’s go.”
The rabbit startled and quickly scampered after them. Lian Qiushui narrowed her eyes, shooting the creature a glance. The rabbit froze instantly, only resuming its pursuit after a long pause—keeping a cautious distance behind them.
Hesitating, the girl asked her friend, “Should we try befriending them? More connections might come in handy later.”
When her friend merely nodded silently, the girl took matters into her own hands: “Should we exchange contact info? It’d be nice to hang out sometime.”
“No thanks. I prefer solitude,” Xiao Nianyuan refused without hesitation.
The girl looked surprised. “An extra person could be helpful later. Can’t you make an exception?”
She gazed at Xiao Nianyuan with pitiful, hopeful eyes, only for Xiao Nianyuan to avert her gaze silently. Lian Qiushui chimed in: “She doesn’t like crowds. My company is enough.”
The girl studied Lian Qiushui, confused. “Aren’t you an NPC?”
Earlier, her concern for her friend had prevented her from recognizing Lian Qiushui as an NPC. Now that she had time to notice the inability to add Lian Qiushui as a friend—a telltale NPC trait—yet saw how un-NPC-like she was in clinging to Xiao Nianyuan, she grew thoroughly perplexed.
Lian Qiushui shrugged. “So, what if I am?”
“Nothing much. It’s just that if you’re an NPC, you can only contact her within the game. But if we become friends with her, we can stay in touch outside the game too. Even if we don’t meet in person, we could still chat casually.”
The girl stated this simple fact, yet the more Lian Qiushui thought about it, the more sense it made. She turned to Xiao Nianyuan, who found her expression amusing and asked with a chuckle, “You want me to be friends with her?”
Although Lian Qiushui wished Xiao Nianyuan would only have her as a close companion, she had to admit the girl was right. She didn’t want Xiao Nianyuan to only have friends within the game, so she nodded in agreement.
Seeing Lian Qiushui’s reaction, Xiao Nianyuan hesitated for a moment before asking the girl, “Alright then, shall we exchange contact information?”
“Great!” The girl immediately pulled up the friend request interface. As she added Xiao Nianyuan, she introduced herself: “My name is Tan Xialan.”
Support "MY UNCONVENTIONAL ONLINE DATING"
I have mixed feeling about this story. In one hand, I absolutely adore the relationship between Xiao Nianyuan and Lin Qiushi, despite the rocky start, their relationship quickly evolve into a very soft and clingly relationship where Xiao Nianyuan get to indulge her need for physical contact through Lin Qiushi due to the fact that she’s less self conscious about it with her initially since she’s an NPC, and Lin Qiushi get to indulge in her need for companionship through Xiao Nianyuan, who is pretty introverted and as such don’t interact with other players or NPC in the game, so Lin Qiushi get to have all of her attention. As time goes on, they become pretty clingly with each other, both physically and emotionally.
My main gripe is that I don’t think enough time in the story is dedicated to their relationship
A good third of the story is dedicated to a rather boring mystery about a classmate of Xiao Nianyuan who’s using her photo to scam people online in order to ruin her reputation and take revenge on her over a perceived slight about his scolarship, but it feels pretty disconnected from the main point of the story, Xiao Nianyuan never actually exchange a single sentence with the perpetrator, outside of once, when he’s about to get caught.
The mystery of the sky city take another large chunk of the story, but in my opinion, it really wasn’t all that interesting. Xiao Nianyuan caught a glimpse of a silhouette that she recognized in the sky city early on, and then obsessed over the sky city to try to find that person and find out what’s the sky city is. While the story doesn’t explicitly said it, the person is most likely Ji Rongxue, who Xiao Nianyuan thought was dead. But the mystery is revealed in a rather boring fashion and so is the true nature of the sky city.
I also have a slight gripe with the ending, I do think that Xiao Nianyuan and Liu Qiushu relationship benefited a lot from the dynamic of one of them being a real person and the other being an NPC who was stuck in a virtual world, and while I always expected this barrier to eventually fade for an happy ending, I do have a slight problem with how it happened. Firstly, it’s a personnal preference but I would have prefered if they had started their relationship in the game, while Liu Qiushu was still an NPC, and secondly, the story kind of brush off all too quickly how Liu Qiushu was actually a real person with her memory sealed inside of the game, so it almost feels like Xiao Nianyuan end up with a different Liu Qiushu than the Liu Qiushu we got to see for the entire story (since their meeting happen in the last chapter).
Also, there is some hints of a relationship between Ji Rongxue and Jing Siyan (another NPC), but it’s never explicited, Jing Siyan get deleted due to a virus and there’s no resolution on that front, which is pretty sad.
Thank you for reading and sharing your thoughts! <3