Chapter 79: Second Generation Little Xie
Shoutout to nyanmaru for the commission!
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“The 13-year-old first-year Little Xie has returned to normal, the 7-year-old Swallow-watching Little Xie has returned to normal, and the 10-year-old weakest third-grade Little Xie has successfully recovered…” The system sprite was providing real-time updates to Chu Feng:
“All characters infected throughout the city have now recovered! Congratulations, Master!”
The Dream City map was projected onto the air screen, and the previously infected red and orange areas turned completely green.
“That’s great!” The system sprite looked at the now-safe Dream City, feeling very relieved. “Master is so smart, he found the original body of the NO.1 in battle strength right away!”
The sprite expected to see a joyful expression on Chu Feng’s face, but his master appeared unexpectedly calm.
“Who is the second in battle strength?” Chu Feng suddenly asked.
Currently known, the first in battle strength is the 13-year-old first-year Little Xie, and the third in battle strength is 24-year-old Dr. Xie. The fourth in battle strength is the 7-year-old Little Shiyu. They all have their own secrets.
So, who is second?
And what secrets does that Xie Shiyu hide?
“Um…” The sprite was a bit puzzled. “The virus has been resolved, all infected characters are recovering, so this battle strength system no longer exists. Therefore…”
“So we can’t know who the second is anymore, right?” Chu Feng asked.
“…Yes.” The sprite felt a bit strange. Why was his master concerned about battle strength rankings when the purpose of finding these high-ranking characters was to find the original body and eliminate the virus?
Chu Feng sighed.
He used to think that they were all ordinary things: like going to Xie Shiyu’s house to play happily or going home with Xie Shiyu every day after school, but they were all part of the “normal” world that Xie Shiyu was trying to approach secretly, in a place Chu Feng couldn’t see.
Ding, ding—
[Little Xie Illustrated Handbook] reminds you: Progress is increasing significantly…
Chu Feng lowered his head, reached out to click on the magic book icon, and opened the long-unused [Little Xie Illustrated Handbook]—
Ding, ding, ding…
Countless notification sounds immediately popped up, and the pages of the book flipped, with each dark silhouette of characters being illuminated, turning into vivid little Xies, engraved on the pages, facing Chu Feng.
On the left side of the guide’s label bar: Kindergarten, elementary school, and junior high school were all fully illuminated. The progress had increased from the original slightly over 7% to a straight jump to 76.8%.
“Congratulations, Master! The character casualty rate has dropped significantly!”
The system sprite diligently reported as it looked at the guide. “The casualty rate of your Little Xie characters was originally 10%. This time, encountering the virus and recovering, successfully overcoming a crisis, so the casualty rate of these recovered Little Xies next time is 10% multiplied by 10%… 1%! It might not even be 1%, as experiencing two consecutive dangers is quite rare…”
“So, 23.2% of the characters still have a casualty rate of 10%?” Chu Feng asked.
“You should be more optimistic. With a 1% casualty rate for 76.8% of the characters, it means that most characters in your city are unlikely to be casualties. Isn’t that good?” the system replied.
“I don’t want vague words like ‘most.’ I need to ensure the safety of every character. Organize the data of all characters that haven’t been illuminated yet.”
The system spirit paused for a moment, then quickly projected the current character analysis chart on the air screen:
“23.2% of unlit characters are concentrated in the older Little Xie area. Mainly some high school students and working professionals, with a few college students.”
Chu Feng carefully examined the character list, noting that these characters were mainly located in high school campuses and the companies where Little Xie worked.
“These characters need to be closely monitored, and all places they frequent must be under surveillance. Report to me immediately if there is any situation.”
“Yes, Master.”
After arranging the system tasks, Chu Feng was ready to dismiss the spirit and spend some time alone with the 13-year-old character, Little Xie…
“Master.”
The system spirit didn’t leave as usual. It hesitated for a moment.
“I have something to say.”
Chu Feng turned to look at it, feeling a bit strange. This system belonged to the “family” system and had a basic favorability towards humans. It had always been very obedient to his commands, without any objections.
“Go ahead,” Chu Feng said.
The antennae on the system’s head stood up as it said to Chu Feng:
“Although I, as a game system, should persuade players to play more games and spend more money, as a high-tech system for data analysis, I don’t recommend you keep playing this game.”
“Why?” Chu Feng asked.
In reality, many people advised him not to indulge in the past, not to get addicted to virtual games, to look forward and move on to a new life. His mother even tried to introduce him to blind dates and new partners. Chu Feng had heard countless arguments like this, so he wanted to hear what a data system could say that was new.
“Because you still have decades of future ahead of you. From my statistical analysis, the happiness and benefits this game brings you in the next 3-5 years are significant, but if we extend the analysis to thirty years, the benefits of this game to you will tend to zero infinitely.”
Chu Feng remained silent.
“And…” The system spirit hesitated, but finally said:
“During this period, due to monitoring the citywide virus, there were particularly many data codes involved. I found something.”
“What?” Chu Feng asked.
The spirit glanced at Chu Feng, seeming a bit afraid of angering his master, and finally said its conclusion somewhat nervously:
“According to my analysis, the characters currently in your city should already be the second-generation Little Xies.”
Chu Feng was instantly stunned.
He was stunned for a moment, then regained his composure:
“You even found out about this?”
“I am a game system, after all. If I can’t retrieve data, I might as well be destroyed,” the spirit said indignantly, then voiced its speculation:
“Because of the limited computing power of modern computers, people like you, with memories spanning twenty years, need to transfer them into the game to create characters with 100% fidelity. The computational load is too heavy, and current computer systems can only handle two calculations. In other words, you have two chances to create an identical Dream City.
“Your current city is the second generation, and the character Little Xie is also the second generation. Although both are 100% recreated from your memories, this implies that your first attempt to create Dream City, the first generation city, has collapsed. So, when you reset to factory settings, you created the second generation city. Therefore, it is reasonable to assume that all the Xiao Xies from the first generation city…”
…are already deceased.
Chu Feng remained silent.
He accepted this fact.
The first time he built Dream City, he had just lost Xie Shiyu. His principle was to only accept a 100% faithful recreation of Xie Shiyu, and the real Xie Shiyu had died in a plane crash. It was like fate itself: any game character recreated with 100% fidelity would also encounter accidents in the game.
The average probability of an accidental death in a person’s lifetime is approximately 0.26%, while the initial murder rate for all Xiao Xies characters is as high as 10%.
System spirit: “I don’t know how the first generation Xie died, but it’s possible it was like now, constantly being murdered. And because you weren’t adequately prepared, you couldn’t save them like you did this time. In the end, all the Little Xies in the city died, so you had to reset to factory settings and rebuild Dream City. Master, you know deep down that this is your last chance. If you fail again this time, you won’t be able to recreate him with 100% fidelity in the game anymore. You won’t see him again.”
Chu Feng asked, “What are you trying to say?”
The system spirit twitched its antennae and said, “Master, this is just a game, not your spiritual pillar. You have given it too many expectations that the game itself cannot bear. Maybe… you also can’t bear the consequences of losing them again. I can’t find the specific records of the destroyed first-generation city, but I can see when the records disappeared.
“The character data records of the first-generation city began to sporadically disappear, indicating that some individual Little Xies were killed. Finally, the remaining large group suddenly disappeared altogether. I guess they may have encountered a major disaster… like an earthquake, tsunami, or something. Master, if we encounter another terrifying riot this time, we won’t be able to cope with it…”
“No.”
Chu Feng interrupted, “Last time, they didn’t die from an explosion.”
The system spirit furrowed its brows in confusion. It couldn’t understand. Such a large number of characters in the city died instantly. Only an explosion could have such destructive power. Although explosions weren’t typically included in the game’s scenarios, unless the original owner who was 100% restored had died in an explosion in reality. Otherwise, characters like Xie Shiyu, who died in accidents, wouldn’t usually encounter large-scale explosions in the game.
The spirit said, “Then, how did the first-generation city… d… disappear?”
It was about to say “die,” but its empathy module reminded it that this word might trigger Chu Feng, who had lost his lover. The empathetic system spirit silently changed its wording.
Chu Feng didn’t answer.
After a long silence, he turned away without looking at anyone, staring into the void in front of him, and calmly replied, “They committed suicide.”
***
The spirit exclaimed, “…!! That’s impossible!”
Game characters couldn’t have self-awareness. Unless Chu Feng had set them all to commit suicide, they wouldn’t be able to perform the “suicide” action. Moreover, these characters should instinctively want to stay with Chu Feng for a long time. On the one hand, it was due to the natural instinct of game characters towards players, hoping to keep the players around. On the other hand, it was due to the instinct of Xie Shiyu. These 100% restored characters were full of love for their master, and they would surely be happy to spend every day with Chu Feng.
The spirit had been speculating what kind of accident could have wiped out the entire city of Little Xies. No matter what, it couldn’t imagine that game characters, composed of code and data flows, would collectively commit “suicide,” a behavior characteristic of living beings, against the consciousness of the player Chu Feng and the game system.
Chu Feng remained even more silent than usual. In this quiet moment, the system spirit felt that its master was reluctant to mention the first-generation city. Its human empathy module reminded it to stop probing further.
“Well… then I’ll leave first. I’ll go set up surveillance in key areas, and reports will be provided for the remaining characters under close observation.”
Chu Feng nodded.
With a whoosh, the system spirit disappeared, retreating to its background work.
After it left, there was only the 13-year-old Xie Shiyu in the room, sitting at the desk doing homework, with a piano beside him.
Outside the window, it was raining, and the city’s buildings were bathed in a smoky curtain of rain.
The 29-year-old Chu Feng watched this scene quietly. After a while, he silently walked to the piano, just like sixteen years ago, and played a piece for the thirteen-year-old Xie Shiyu.
The raindrops pattered against the window.
As Chu Feng played, he didn’t know that outside the bedroom door, leaning against it, was someone.
The regulator X, who had rushed here upon receiving the “Citywide Virus Resolved” notification, didn’t barge in to disturb.
The twenty-nine-year-old Xie Shiyu, who had lost his memory, leaned quietly behind the door, listening to the somewhat familiar piano melody, softly enveloping him…
Like whispers from a deep lover.
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