Disclaimer: I don't really play MMO games so I'm not too familiar with gaming terms. I tried my best but if there's any mistakes or weirdness, I'm sorry…

Little Apple is someone I met in the game. When I was doing my daily quest, I came across her being attacked and killed, yet continuously resp.a.w.ning and then getting killed.

I couldn't watch it anymore, so I rescued her. She was angry that the “Qiang Wei Guild” that she was in didn't come to help her, so I seized the opportunity and brought her into our guild.

At the time I found out that she wasn't too familiar with the game, so I taught her myself, and brought her along to battle dungeons. As we spent more time together, she became more glued to me, making me a little troubled.

At the time I was directing the party, but she kept messaging me, making me annoyed, so I replied “I'm battling, busy”. I didn't expect my thoughtless words would make Little Apple start to seriously study the game, and successfully entered the team that I commanded.

After the game updated, they added a marriage system. They also added two new couple skills. One is “inseparable”, where you can be instantly transferred to your spouse's side. This skill is pretty useful, and can save time when in the dungeons.

The other skill is “transforming b.u.t.terfly”. This skill is a bit of a pain. After using this skill, you will immediately die, and drop a level. Instantly fully replenis.h.i.+ng your spouse's HP, with a 50% damage reduction effect. Your spirit will transform into b.u.t.terfly wings behind your spouse, and can automatically attack the enemy, with the attack power being 50% of the user's attack.

We studied this skill for a long time. It needs a maxed intimacy meter, which limited the use of the skill. Dropping a level is a also a pain. Dropping one level from a full level, the equipment worn on the body will lose its effect. It also takes another three to four days to level up, in addition you will have to train together with your spouse.

If the spouse is absent, it will only be a month later, when the negative state disappears, before experience can be gained as usual.

After they opened the marriage system, Little Apple dragged me to get married. Afterwards, we would do the couple quests everyday, increasing our intimacy meter. When she saw the system message stating that we were the first couple to attain a maxed out intimacy meter, she was extremely happy.

“Little Apple, heal me well. Xiao Qiang, watch your position. Little Rain, why are you standing on the fire, you roasting a pig? Butcher Knife, stop cutting the water. You guys can use your skills however you want, there's no OT right now.”

(T/N: OT: over-taunted. When party members use their skills to attack/heal, they might draw the attention/aggression of the Boss away from the tank.)

I stopped my reminiscing, focusing all my attention on commanding. When challenging a dungeon, the worst that can happen is when a party member acts stupidly. I am very familiar with every cla.s.s and their skills, so commanding is smooth and easy.

“Ok, this boss is dead. Everyone quickly recover, the final boss will will appear in 30 seconds. Later when the boss appears, it will immediately rush at a member. DPS and healers stand together, while Little Apple and I will each stand to one side, forming a triangle. Whoever the boss targets, Little Apple will immediately heal him, and then I'll taunt it.”

(T/N: DPS is damage dealing characters)

I started issuing the new battle tactics. Previously we always failed at this point, because the boss was invincible from the start. Basically after rapidly dispatching a DPS, it will kill another five or so, only then will I be able to restrict it with my taunt. In the end, our attacks couldn't keep up and the whole party was wiped out.

Healing can attract the boss's attention, but if the healer is killed, basically the whole party will also be wiped out. So this time we're trying out a new battle tactic.

“Little Apple, get ready! The boss is here. The boss is headed for Little Rain. Little Rain, don't move. Little Apple, heal him. Ok, Little Apple, quickly run in the opposite direction.”

"Little Apple, use “invincible”, keep replenis.h.i.+ng your HP. Ok, there's only 20 seconds left of the boss's invincibility attack.”

But Little Apple's “invincible” will end in one second. The last second is always the key to the party being wiped out, because there's no healing skill that can hold up against the boss's one shot.

At this time, I decisively used the couple skill “inseparable”. Activating the skill takes one second, you can s.h.i.+eld your spouse during the activation period, and reduce damage by 50%. After the boss's invincibility attack ended, with Little Apple's HP down to a trace, I was immediately sent to Little Apple's side, gaining the attention of the boss.

“Wow, amazing. Guild Master is brilliant. This time we'll hopefully be able to take down the boss.” cheering sounded in YY.

(T/N: YY is a Chinese video-based social network.)

“All right, everyone spread out. Let's go all out. Pay attention to your positions.”

After I grabbed the attention of the boss, I continued to command the party members.

“Later when the boss is down to its last bit of HP, it will summon 20 copies of itself. They will chase you guys for three seconds. Everyone must quickly evade, otherwise if even one person is caught, all the copies will explode, wiping out the whole party. Don't die, as long as one of us survives, we'll win.”

This is the boss's worst ability, and it's difficult to make sure people won't make any stupid moves when challenging a dungeon.

“Ok, it's summoning its copies. Everyone use your DoT skills, healers make sure recovery is smooth. Spread out, get ready to evade.”

(T/N: DoT: Damage over time – an effect, such as poison or similar, that reduces HP over time)

“That's right. There's only 2 more seconds. Evade the copies. Butcher Knife, what are you doing! Go right!” I started shouting.

“We're done for. Little Apple, quickly use “inseparable”!!!” I started shouting even louder.

“Bang bang bang……” a ton of explosions, all of our party members were killed, leaving only Little Apple and I to resist.

“Keep it up, Leader. Don't give up, Little Apple. The boss has only 10,000 HP left.” The dead party members continuously encouraged.

I quickly calculated in my mind. My damage reduction ability is completely out. The boss will rampage after a second, I can only resist for one second. Afterwards the boss will have 5000 HP left. If Little Apple's “invincible” skill gives me 2 seconds, and we still can't kill the boss, causing our party to be wiped out.

“Little Apple, stop healing me after one second. Focus on attacking the Boss!” I decisively commanded, when the party members heard it became quiet.

I quickly lured the boss in the opposite direction, while Little Apple started to attack the boss. The boss's HP started to drop. With my last bit of HP left, I used the couple skill “transforming b.u.t.terfly”.

“Transforming b.u.t.terfly……” I shouted.

Everyone watched as my dead body collapsed, my spirit flew apart, transforming into countless tiny b.u.t.terflies, flying towards Little Apple. “Husband…… Boohoo……” Little Apple sniffled.

After using the skill, hearing the background music of “The b.u.t.terfly Lovers” made the atmosphere become exceptionally heavy.

(T/N: The b.u.t.terfly Lovers: Chinese folktale)

The tiny b.u.t.terflies gathered behind Little Apple, and grew into two large wings, slowly lifting her body up, suspending her in the air.

I found that my skill panel had changed. One is an attack skill “flying flowers into b.u.t.terflies”, the other is a damage reduction defensive skill “unyielding”.

“Little Apple, attack with all you've got. I'll protect you……” I shouted.

As the boss was rus.h.i.+ng over, I frantically hit the attack skill on the skill panel, the boss's HP quickly dropped. As it reached Little Apple, I used “unyielding”.

The b.u.t.terfly wings curled forwards, wrapping around Little Apple. An image of me holding a weapon appeared in front of Little Apple, warding off the boss.

One hit, two hits. My weapon was destroyed, my hands were cut off. Next was my head, body, legs, and lastly the b.u.t.terfly wings shattered.

“Little Apple use invincible……” I shouted.

“Boo hoo…… Ok…… Go die, stupid boss. Give me back my husband. Boo hoo……” Little Apple sniffled and replied.

At the end of Little Apple's “invincible”, with only a trace of HP left, the boss collapsed with a “bang”.

At the same time, a bolt of lightning descended from the sky, hitting my fallen corpse, turning me pitch-black.

“Boo hoo…… Husband……” Little Apple ran to my side and cried.

There was a dead silence in YY. A lot of the female members started crying, even I teared up a little.

After awhile, I gently said: “That's enough, Little Apple. Resurrect me.”

“Uh huh. Boo hoo……”

After being resurrected, I stood my blackened body up and checked out the boss's dropped rewards. I started distributing the items according to the DKP. Finally there was only an “orange weapon” that was used for healing left. The DKP of Little Apple and the other two healers were the same.

(T/N: DKP = Dragon Kill Points)

“You guys roll……”

(T/N: Roll was written in English. I'm a.s.suming it's like roll the dice…)

“Give it to Little Apple…… Boo hoo……”

“Yeah…… Give it to Little Apple……” the other female healer said.

“Okay. Little Apple, this weapon is yours……”

“Ok……” Little Apple said softly.

“Congratulations to Ding Tian Guild for winning the first kill……”

“Our guild got the first kill, everyone cheer up. Let me sing a song for everyone……”

“You're my little apple, I can never love you too much. Your red face warms my heart. Lighting the fire, fire, fire, fire, fire in my life.”

(T/N: Little Apple song

original MV (with ok english subs)

)

Afterwards everyone started singing together: “You're my little apple, like the most beautiful cloud in the sky. Spring arrives again, and flowers bloom all over the mountainside. I reap the hopes that I sowed……”

“Congrats to Guild Master Ding Tian for getting the server's first kill.” Qiang Wei Guild's guild master, Barbed Rose, said.

“Ha ha. Thanks……” I laughed and replied.

“How did you defeat the last boss?” Barbed Rose asked.

“Teamwork, teamwork……” I answered evasively.

“Ok. If there's a chance, let's work together again……” Barbed Rose replied.

“All right.”

When I thought things had come to an end, I didn't expect the guild members to post the video of me “transforming b.u.t.terfly” for Little Apple online. This video touched countless people, and I was named “best husband”, while our guild's popularity rose rapidly. But I didn't know about all of this, because Little Apple was coming to meet me.