Chapter 141: Two Peerless Heroes

Before Vivienne could answer Chen Hao, Zhuge Taxue looked at the little girl in front of her with great curiosity. "Chen Hao, is she the N... Vivienne you told me about?"

Seeing Chen Hao frantically making eyes at her, Zhuge Taxue hurriedly corrected herself, swallowing those three English letters and directly using Vivienne's name instead.

That's right! Although she and Chen Hao knew that Vivienne was an NPC with self-awareness, Vivienne herself was completely unaware of her true identity. She always believed she was living in a real world. Through Chen Hao's brief introduction, Zhuge Taxue had already developed a strong fondness for this innocent and lively little sprite.

And let's not forget, Zhuge Taxue had a unique trait: she swung both ways. Upon hearing Chen Hao's description of Vivienne's appearance and personality, she naturally became extremely interested and desperately wanted to have a good taste of it.

Even if tasting was out of the question, just getting a look would be nice. Cough, cough... She hadn't expected this wish to be granted so quickly, which brought Zhuge Taxue unexpected delight.

Hearing Chen Hao's previous address, she immediately popped her head out from behind Chen Hao and curiously scrutinized the little girl standing before him. "Are you Vivienne?"

Because Chen Hao was taller than both Zhuge Taxue and Vivienne, and he was standing right between them, he had completely blocked their line of sight, so Vivienne hadn't noticed Zhuge Taxue hiding behind him at first.

It wasn't until Taxue greeted her that Vivienne realized there was someone else behind Chen Hao. "Eh? Another human has come into the forest? Chen Hao, is she your wife?"

"Cough, cough!"

"Pfft—"

The two of them coughed repeatedly. Chen Hao glanced at Zhuge Taxue and asked, "Vivienne, where on earth did you get the idea that we look like a married couple?"

Vivienne tilted her head innocently, resting a hand on her chin, and replied as if it were the most natural thing in the world: "When I was hiding behind the tree earlier, trying to scare you, you must have sensed it in advance, right? You must have thought there was some danger behind the tree, right? That's why you pushed her behind your back, isn't that so?

"Hehe! Just like the last time we encountered danger, when you put me behind your back!"

"Uh..." Chen Hao looked bewildered. "What does that have to do with us being husband and wife?"

"Hmm?" Vivienne asked back, looking baffled. "Isn't that how human husband and wife stories are written in the books? When danger strikes, the husband must bravely step in front of his wife."

"Good grief..." Chen Hao muttered under his breath, "Little girl, what kind of books have you been reading?"

"The books on the bookshelf at home, of course! You didn't have time for me to show them to you that time you went to my house, because you suddenly disappeared..." Vivienne answered very earnestly, then paused abruptly. "That's right! Chen Hao, it turns out that besides being a martial artist, you're also a magician!

"No wonder you were able to mysteriously vanish out of thin air from my house, and suddenly create a huge burst of flames to escape from that human big sister's subordinates, and then make your way back to the Elven Forest again.

It seems that's the reason why you appeared in the Elven Forest for the very first time, right? But judging by how young you are, you must have become a magician not too long ago, and you're not yet very skilled with your magic tricks, are you?

"Sigh... What a pity! Although our Elven clan is adept at magic, I've never had a magic teacher specifically instruct me in these things. While I do know quite a few elves who can use magic, none of my acquaintances are home in the Elven Forest right now. Otherwise, I could have asked some of them to offer you a few pointers on magic!"

"Cough, cough!" Chen Hao hadn't expected Vivienne to mistake him for a magician. She had probably jumped to that conclusion entirely because of the way he had mysteriously slipped in and out of her wandering range. She must have thought he used some sort of magical teleportation array or something similar to reach her side!

"Well, Vivienne, you've misunderstood. I'm not any sort of spellcaster," Chen Hao explained. "Similarly, the human female behind me is not my wife, but a friend of mine. Here, you two should introduce yourselves! Taxue, this is Vivienne, the one I told you about.

"Vivienne! My friend here is called Zhuge Taxue. She's the proprietress of a teahouse!"

Zhuge Taxue stepped forward first of her own accord and greeted Vivienne, "Hello, Vivienne! Chen Hao has told me all about you before. Meeting you today for the first time, you really are a very cute little girl!"

Because Zhuge Taxue was a head taller than Vivienne and visibly older as well, she patted Vivienne's head like an older sister. She forcefully suppressed the urge to pull Vivienne into her arms and rub her fiercely, maintaining a restrained composure.

Vivienne seemed to enjoy the sensation of having her head petted, and she laughed happily, "Hello to you too, big sister! Are you also from the human world like Chen Hao? Since you're a teahouse proprietress, you must have met lots of people, right? Is there anything interesting you can tell me about?

"I've always yearned for the world outside the Elven Forest. I want so badly to go out and look around!"

"Cough, cough!" Chen Hao interrupted Vivienne and said, "Alright, Vivienne, if you're interested in the outside world, you can chat properly with Taxue later. Right now, I want to ask you: what happened after we parted ways last time, and how did you manage to get back to the Elven Forest?"

"When we parted ways last time..." Vivienne thought for a moment. "Actually, it was so strange! Didn't that big sister start fighting with you? Then the two of you exchanged blows with a huge burst of flames, and both of you vanished together. After that, all the other humans disappeared for some reason too.

"I didn't know what to do at the time, and I planned to follow the path home that you told me about. But I hadn't flown very far when that big sister who disappeared with you suddenly appeared in front of me again."

"What?!" Chen Hao was startled. "She appeared again?!"

After the shock passed, Chen Hao quickly put the pieces together. That's right! Regardless of whether that person truly was Dong Xin, her identity as a GM was absolute. Although he had never heard of a GM dying while playing games in the past, a moment's thought revealed that a GM could essentially be considered a type of player.

Since players could resurrect within the game, it wouldn't be difficult for a GM to achieve the same thing! That was probably the reason she had shown up before Vivienne once more.

"Then how did you shake her off?" Chen Hao cared deeply about this question. In his view, given that Vivienne's only special ability was flight, escaping the pursuit of a GM should have been completely impossible.

To his surprise, Vivienne's answer was even more unexpected: "I didn't shake her off, and she didn't capture me either. Instead, she escorted me back to the Elven Forest. If I had to find the way myself, who knows how long it would have taken! After all, those monsters knocked me out cold when they captured me, so I had no idea how I'd gotten out in the first place."

"What? She let you go? And even sent you home?" Chen Hao asked in utter astonishment. "Why?"

Vivienne shook her head. "I don't know about that... I forgot to ask her. But the big sister said she actually harbored no ill intentions toward us, and that you had misunderstood her. She also told me that once I returned to the Elven Forest, I must never wander about randomly. She said that everywhere in the world right now, including the Elven Forest, there are people hunting down elves like me. For my own safety, she told me to stay home and never go outside.

"What's more, she even had people prepare a huge amount of food for me, enough to last me several months!"

Chen Hao became increasingly baffled. He simply couldn't figure out the motive behind the actions of that GM who looked so much like Dong Xin. And she claimed to have no malice toward him or Vivienne? Now that Chen Hao thought back carefully, during their clash, he really hadn't sensed any glaring murderous intent. Could it be that he really had misunderstood her?

If she held no malice, why on earth had she attacked him? And why had she let her subordinate NPCs capture Vivienne?

At that moment, Zhuge Taxue spoke up, and her words jogged Chen Hao's memory: "Hey, Chen Hao! Didn't you say that the woman who might be the big guy's mistress is someone you might have known from before? Could it be that she recognized you right from the start, and so..."

Chen Hao thought it over and nodded. "That's entirely possible."

Following that, Chen Hao asked Vivienne, "Since she told you not to go out and even prepared food for you, why did you run out today?"

Vivienne chuckled sheepishly, her face flushing with embarrassment. "I was just getting so bored at home! The other elves in the Elven Forest didn't know where they'd all run off to, so I thought I'd come out for a stroll.

"I didn't run far at all, just wandered around near my house!"

"Alright!" Chen Hao should have guessed that reason. Ever since he met this girl, he knew this cute little sprite was a restless spirit, sharing a personality that was an exact carbon copy of Gu Mengyan. The last time she got captured was because she couldn't sit still and came out looking for him; encountering her this time was for the exact same reason. Were he and her really... bound by fate?

It seemed appropriate to put it that way, seeing as every single time he entered the game across all three occasions, he kept running into Vivienne. He just wished he knew what the catalyst was that allowed him into the game in the first place, or what controlled his departures from it.

Furthermore, since he had been able to bring Zhuge Taxue into the game with him, could he actually bring other people along as well? He remembered that right before losing consciousness, his hand had been gripping Zhuge Taxue's. Was it as simple as making physical contact with someone the exact moment he entered the game to pull them in with him?

If people could be brought in this way, what about physical objects?

Just then, a sudden ripple stirred the air. Then, amidst the astonished and tense expressions of the trio, a familiar figure materialized before Chen Hao.

"Chen Hao, I've finally found you..."