When I took off the helmet, I almost collapsed. I was the only one in the bedroom, everything just now was like a dream. A talking white cat, a self-aware artificial intelligence, and an inescapable dating simulation game.
"Ying...Waning Moon..."
Whispering the names of these two people, I pinched my cheek. The slight tingling sensation was transmitted directly to the brain along the facial nerve... It hurt, it seemed that this was not a nightmare, and I did experience an incredible thing.
Since I would die if I didn't eat anything, I still made a pack of instant noodles to eat.
I didn't know how Waning Moon and Ying were... I called Waning Moon, but I did not receive a reply.
Speaking of this experience, it was really like a dream... I wrote it down and posted it on the Internet to warn others. However, the news I posted seemed like a stone sinking into the sea, without causing even a single ripple.
Why would anyone believe it? Think about it, the previous news interview has completely dispelled all the related questions, and now most people would think this was just a simple prank, right?
I wanted to confirm the status of Ying and Waning Moon, but when I decided to log into "The Story Of Cherry Blossoms" again, a message made me dispel this idea.
[Waning Moon: See you at GreenLand Cafe at 2 o'clock tomorrow afternoon. ]
[Me: Are you and Ying okay? ]
It was a pity that Waning Moon no longer replied. It seemed like I would only be able to find out tomorrow.
Now that there was news... Then go to sleep? Looking at the game helmet on the side, I closed my eyes with lingering fear...
I slept until 12 noon the next day. After I got up, I took a shower and set off. There were too many questions to be answered about what happened to Ying and who was Waning Moon.
The coffee shop in GreenLand didn't have many customers due to how expensive it was. Although I was poor, it was indeed the best choice to choose this quiet place to talk.
Pushing open the beautifully carved wooden door, I looked for Waning Moon's figure.
"Shi Yuanxing, here."
Standing up greeting me was a young man with yellow hair and sunglasses.
If I heard it right, this voice was familiar to me. I subconsciously thought of a celebrity I had seen not long ago. But this kind of person was unlikely to appear here. He was the kind of person that was busy every day.
"Hello, who are you?"
"My name is Su You, and I am glad to meet you."
"..."
What? The person in front of me was really Su You. It was probably just the same name, right?
"——And Waning Moon, you should also say hello to classmate Shi. Aren't you two classmates?"
But the person who called himself Su You didn't explain too much to me, just patted the shoulders of the person next to him.
"Tsk...Hello..."
The brown-haired girl wearing a mask and a hat sitting next to him greeted me very coldly. Wait... This voice, this attitude... Why was it a little familiar?
"Hey, it was you who dragged me into that game, not to mention that we almost died together yesterday. Is there really a need for you to be so indifferent to me?"
Speak of which, what did he mean by classmates? I mean… Are you kidding me! The most unlikely combination in my heart began to take shape...
"This is so annoying! Talking to him is already my bottom line."
"You! You are more annoying than on the Internet..."
However, the moment she looked up, I saw her left eye shining the red light--
That was--
"You are...Shen Qing, aren't you?"
"Ah, you finally recognize her."
The yellow-haired man took off his sunglasses at this time. This face! I would never be able to mistake it! He was the real Su You, the game master, my idol!
"Do you have an opinion?"
——Shen Qing, the super cold top student in the class, turned out to be the netizen Waning Moon who recommended Galgame, a dating simulation game to me? ! I feel that the world made a big joke with me.
"I mean..."
"What!"
"You don't have multiple personalities, right?"
The image of well-known iceberg beauty and the image of Waning Moon who mocked me on the Internet… they just didn't match each other at all.
"Shi Yuanxing, are you stupid?"
I was severely despised by the ice beauty...
After thinking about it, it was indeed impossible...
So I could only accept this fact.
"Hey, what's the matter with such a look of disdain, as if it is embarrassing to be recognized by me?"
"Of course, to be recognized by you idiot, everyone would feel embarrassed."
"Okay, okay, our time is limited, let's get to the business."
Su You smiled and calmed the tension between us.
"Student Shi, as you saw in "The Story Of Cherry Blossoms", artificial intelligence would suddenly produce self-awareness and endanger human health."
"I want to ask, is Ying the only self-aware artificial intelligence?"
"Of course not. Such artificial intelligence exists in many games."
After this was said, I would naturally not continue to dig into the issue of their identity. Sure enough... Ying was not an exception, and the rumors on the Internet were not groundless.
"Why does the game production company or the government ignore them?"
They even found media to spread fake news! I was a little annoyed. If these people could prevent the trouble before it happened, maybe those players and even Ying would not have that kind of problem.
"The number of games and the number of players is too big. In contrast, the proportion of such related reports is negligible and not enough to attract the attention of the government. On the other hand, Endea has invested a lot of money in public relations to clear this matter. For example the talk show I participated in before. After all, once artificial intelligence harms humans, it will have a huge negative impact on their company."
"So the rumors about players fall into a vegetative state--"
"Yes, most of them are related to artificial intelligence. In order to solve this problem, people who have encountered self-aware artificial intelligence have gathered together and established an organization that specializes in discovering and extracting artificial intelligence to prevent them from continuing to endanger human lives. This organization is called: Debug, and I am one of the leaders of the organization."
"So, did you plan to take Ying away?"
"Yes, it's just that we didn't expect her to be so destructive. "The Story Of Cherry Blossoms" is an old-fashioned game with a small-scaled in-game world. Her rampage caused the world to collapse, and she almost destroyed herself—— Thanks to you, her code was successfully extracted by us..."
"Then Ying is still alive..."
Suddenly I felt that the word 'alive' was inappropriate, but I couldn't think of a more appropriate word.
"Well, of course, she is still alive, but we store the extracted artificial intelligence in a special server that was not connected to the outside world to prevent them from escaping and harming others again."
"Can I see her..."
I did not know what I should say to let them release Ying.
"Don't worry, Waning Moon has already told me about Ying's situation. As long as we confirm that her emotional stability will not harm humans, we can give her to you, but there are conditions"
"What are the conditions?"
I asked him eagerly.
"The condition is that you join our Debug organization to help us investigate and extract artificial intelligence."
"What?"
To be honest, I did not want to be involved in such an incident again... Ying's matter was just a momentary passion...
"You have also seen the horror of a self-aware AI after they lost their mind, right? If you keep them in the game, there will only be more and more incidents of players falling into a vegetative state, and someone has to solve them."
"To be honest, based on the current situation, we can only store her in the special server 'Garden of Eden' all the time. You should understand what it means?"
"Do you want to store her on a hard drive and prevent her from having any contact with the outside world???"
Looking at Su You's face that was not smiling, I stared at him slightly hostilely. What it meant to AI... was self-evident.
"Let's put it this way, from the communication we tried to have with Ying...or your girlfriend after we extracted her. The result... is not ideal. She is very unstable. And it's extremely dangerous. I don't know when the corruption phenomena of data will happen again."
"Why would Ying..."
"We don't know the specific reason. Her code seems very complicated. Although we have encountered many self-aware AIs and successfully gave them back to the players, it is obvious that your girlfriend does not want to cooperate with us. She almost caused a disaster."
"Disaster?"
"Well, we've made it abundantly clear that she's a character in the game and that there's a real world out there that she's completely unaware of. Like the AI in general, we won't ignore them and forcefully delete them. The gentle and sensible AIs will be able to have a server that is entirely dedicated to them without the constraints of the game system.."
Su You glanced at Waning Moon, or Shen Qing, when he said this.
"The consciousness I projected in the server was almost destroyed by her."
Shen Qing said silently a fact that left me speechless.
"I am sorry..."
I didn't know why I felt that I must apologize here. Was Ying always like that after she was self-aware? I could almost imagine how she who had completely fallen to the dark side would react when she knew the things about the real world, Shen Qing or Waning Moon...
"Yeah, as soon as the lively pink-haired girl knew Waning Moon's identity and relationship with you, she lost her mind and kept shouting 'I won't let you take Yuan away from me' while trying to kill Waning Moon. She was almost caught by your gaming girlfriend and falling into a vegetable state. The only way we can deal with such a dangerous and unstable self-aware AI is..."
"Delete her??"
"Maybe I will analyze her code and study her algorithm. To be honest, many people are very interested in the particularity of your girlfriend's data..."
"What are you going to do to Ying?"
Although Su You said it lightly, I knew very well what this kind of thing meant to an artificial intelligence without a physical body. Ying, who had always hoped that someone could be with her, not only would fail to realize her wish, but she would also completely become a pure research object.
"Calm down, generally speaking we only do this to dangerous AIs that are completely uncooperative and intend to harm humans."
"But Ying is acting very dangerous now, isn't she?"
I stared at Su You and Shen Qing next to him, although Shen Qing had helped me and pulled me out of that game, but if they really wanted to deal with Ying that way...
"That's why I said, join us."
"What do you mean?"
"You still don't understand? No wonder you are still a virgin."
"Do you want to fight?"
To be honest, I still could not relate Shen Qing's expressionless cold face with Waning Moon's ridicule.
But sure enough, this way of mocking would make people so angry that I subconsciously refuted it.
"Now now, I know you are very good friends on the internet, there is a lot of time to argue later on. Let's get back to the business, Shi Yuanxing, Ying will become stable and less aggressive when you are by her side."
"Ying..."
"Yes, from just now, your girlfriend looks just like a little girl throwing a temper. Even if she knows what is going on in the world, she still asks to see her boyfriend."
"So you want me to be with her?"
"You finally understand it. Yes, as long as you are next to her, she will not be dangerous. Then there will be no need for us to take strong measures."
"Are you sure you won't do anything to Ying?"
"Of course, we won't do anything, as long as you assist us. So? Judging from your major and other social media performance, you are also very interested in the development of artificial intelligence, aren't you? Honestly, it is very rare to see someone ignoring their life to save one Artificial intelligence. If you really want to help Ying and want to understand what so-called self-awareness is, it is better to join us."
What he said was reasonable, and I could not find anything to refute.
"Also our manpower is very limited, but it will take an average of more than 10 hours to deal with each "self-aware AI event"... So for Ying, and for other players, come and join Debug."
"...Okay, I'll join."
Su You was right. I was not going to be silent when encountering this kind of thing. Ying's experience has given me a great shock. Whether it was such a girl or an innocent player who was dragged into this, they shouldn't encounter this kind of thing.
Even if it was just for Ying, I could only choose to join this organization.
"That's great, welcome to Debug, Shi Yuanxing! Without further ado, let's go now."
"Go where?"
"A place where you and Waning Moon can argue with each other freely."
Su You smiled mysteriously, got up to pay the bill and pulled Shen Qing and I out of the coffee shop. Of course, it didn't take long for me to understand what he meant.
We took Su You's car and drove in the bustling city.
I have heard of this car before, and the price was about 4 million. According to Su You, this was a car that he often drove privately and was given by a female fan...
To clarify here, I was not envious after listening, not even a bit.
"I will take you to the base of our organization. If there is no traffic jam, it will only take you 20 minutes from there to your school."
Su You said that. But I didn't expect this base to be a 1000 square meter villa.
Just how rich was he? I've seen this building several times before. I always thought it was the rental apartment. I didn't expect that the whole area belonged to him.
"This is also from someone else."
"Is it a female fan again?!"
Just how many rich female fans did he have? !
"No, no... I once rescued a player trapped by the Awakening AI in the game. Afterward, he gave me this villa as a thank you gift, and I will use it as a base."
Fortunately... If it was a female fan, I might really commit suicide because of the intense feeling of inferiority...
"Student Shi Yuanxing, if it is not convenient for you to live in the dormitory, please live here with Waning Moon. It will be easier for you to work together."
I didn't expect that the next bomb he dropped made me want to commit suicide.
"What?"
Shen Qing and I speak in unison? What was this? Live under the same roof with the campus goddess?
"What? Boss, are you kidding? Why do I want to live with this guy?"
Shen Qing's reaction was more exaggerated than mine.
"It's very big here, even if you two live together, it won't be crowded..."
Su You explained helplessly.
"Yes, but living under the same roof with that kind of virgin..."
"Sorry for being a virgin!"
"Huh? Didn't you say that you don't want to live at home? And you suggested to me..."
"Ah!!!!!! Don't say anything! I'll agree!"
Their dialogue seemed to be involved in something that I didn't know. What was it?
"Then it is decided! It is free, and meals are also included. There is a lot of entertainment and snacks. This environment is also very good. As long as you do your job well in the organization, you can enjoy all of those benefits."
Hello! I haven't said my opinion yet! Although on the other hand, living here could indeed solve a lot of my daily expenses, it seemed not bad.
Moreover, if I ignored Waning Moon's strange character and sharp-tongue, Shen Qing was indeed a very beautiful girl. Many people in the school would dream of living with her.
And compared to them, I also knew the unknown side of the campus goddess. Alas... I didn't know why I began to feel happy about this.
"Are you thinking about something weird again? Don't tell me that you are thinking..."
"No!"
"Then what did you do to Ying in the game before? And what do you mean that I like you?"
Shen Qing subconsciously covered her chest.
That was right, she was still Meow Chan when I accidentally grabbed Ying's chest, and she saw everything. Moreover, when I chatted with Waning Moon online before, I also boasted about her liking me...
But how would I know that she was Shen Qing.
"That is..."
Oh no... She definitely thought that I was a pervert now.
"A delusional perverted virgin, stay away from me!"
This was so embarrassing.
"Can you stop talking about virgin all the time? Your image has been completely ruined!"
"Is there any problem with saying that a virgin is a virgin? Do you dare to say that you didn't fantasize about doing that kind of thing to my body?"
"What am I fantasizing about? Probably you want other people to fantasize about doing that kind of thing to your body, that is why you always think that people are thinking something dirty in their mind."
"What did you just say!"
"You heard it, and I don't want to repeat it."
Even if it was true, it was still rude to call someone a virgin, right? Sure enough, Waning Moon or Shen Qing was really a rude girl.
"The servers are all placed in the basement. The first floor is the living room, kitchen, dining room, and recreation room, and the second floor is the bedroom. Specifically, you have to explore it yourself."
"Can I see Ying?"
I did not care about other things, this was my biggest concern.
"Don't worry, I will take you to her now."
"...Thank you."
I suppressed my emotion and followed Su You and Shen Qing to the basement.
There was a wall in the basement with images changing repeatedly.
"This is the display, through which you can communicate with virtual characters. This computer cannot be connected to the Internet, so the display is the only method of communication. The collected artificial intelligence is stored in these scroll-like storages. You can just plug it into this slot, then you can communicate."
As he said, he took out a 'scroll' from the neatly placed shelf and inserted it into the slot.
The image of the display became completely dark. Suddenly, a voice sounded--
"Where is this?"
"Ying!"
That was right, this voice was Ying!
"Yuan...Where are you?... It's so dark here, there's nothing..."
"Boss, can you let Ying out?"
I didn't know how to reply to Ying like this. I had to save her.
That was right, I also called Su You boss like Shen Qing.
"Let her out? You mean to transfer her to your microcomputer?"
"Yes...I know this request is too much, but she is too pitiful to be locked up in the 'Garden of Eden' like this...
"In fact, it is not impossible to do this. After all, some games will relieve relevant special codes, so players can extract the information of the game characters into their personal computer and combine it with their smart companions... But unfortunately, "The Story Of Cherry Blossoms" does not have such a function. "
"..."
I suddenly felt that the world was going to collapse...
"...Fortunately, Ying's character information and code have been extracted, so if you want Ying to display it on your microcomputer, you only need to ask the programmer."
"Really, really? Can Ying really be displayed on my microcomputer?"
If this was the case, I would save money and buy a contact lens-style microcomputer to let Ying appear in my world!
"This guy is so annoying."
Waning Moon, no, Shen Qing said impatiently.
"Then can I visit Ying often?"
If this was the case, I must live in this villa.
"Yes, but please don't touch other 'scrolls'."
"Ying… you will be able to see me soon, please be patient and don't be angry with others anymore. I will do my best to let you out as soon as possible."
I spoke to the dark display screen.
"Um... Okay, Yuan... No, it should be called Shi Yuanxing now. You really did not abandon me, you are really here... I'm so happy."
"You can just call me Yuan."
"Mhm, Yuan... I'm sorry, I did that to you before..."
"It's okay, it's not Ying's fault..."
"Okay, you have plenty of time to talk in the future. This kind of communication is very stressful to the server, I don't want the crash to cause harm to them. Don't worry, someone will help you reunite, our programmer is more excellent than you can imagine! In many aspects."
Su You patted me on the shoulder, and we left the basement together.
"Ying! Just bear with it for a while, I will definitely let you out!"
"Um... I will wait..."
In this way, the first communication between Ying and I outside of the game was over. It was a wonderful feeling that we could talk to her like this in the real world.
"By the way, that is the room where our programmer lives, but don't bother him if there is no very urgent matter, just contact the programmer online."
Su You pointed to a door on the other side of the room...
"Does the programmer... live in the basement? Will the programmer come out to eat?"
"You don't have to worry about this, our programmer usually will not come out. Just don't be too surprised when you see the programmer."
"..."
Perhaps geniuses' daily lives were difficult to be understood by others.
Next, while eating egg fried rice, Su You gave us a detailed introduction to the Debug organization.
There were about 200 people in this organization-I didn't expect that it would have this many members. All the members were scattered all over the world. Once there was some information about "self-aware Ais", the organization would send the members into the game to investigate, but it did not mean that this kind of investigation would succeed every time.
"In a sense, to be able to produce 'self-awareness' after experiencing 2,892,314 games, your girlfriend is really amazing ."
Su You said so.
"This meal is terrible. Even my husky will despise it."
Shen Qing looked at the rice on the plate with an expression of disgust.
"The only two dishes I know how to cook are curry and fried rice. If you don't like it, you can cook them."
Speaking of it, I really didn't expect Shen Qing to be Waning Moon, and I didn't expect that one day I would talk to Shen Qing... If my roommate saw it, he would definitely be so shocked that he would pee himself.
However, although Shen Qing was too excellent in many areas, she was too difficult to get along with... She had such a sharp tongue that every sentence she said would hurt other people's feelings...
But I did not forget that she almost died in the game because of me.
So in the end, I could only conclude that everyone's personality had different aspects such as kindness and selfishness, good and bad.
"You can wash these bowls." Shen Qing said and turned around after eating and planned to return to the room to rest.
"What, I wash it?"
"Or you want me to wash it? Don't you know how to care for women and respect your boss?"
"Of course I won't let the boss wash it, but isn't it normal for you to at least wash half of the plates? Don't you have hands?"
I took back what I said before. There was no good side of her at all!
"My hands are not for rough work, only fools are suitable for this kind of thing."
"Who are you calling a fool?! And since you don't like the food cooked by me, why do you still eat them?"
"Okay, okay, stop arguing, I will wash it."
Su You stood up and tried to calm our anger.
"No, how can I let you wash it. I will wash it today."
Of course I couldn't let my idol wash the dishes. Shen Qing, this useless girl...
"Then, I am going back to the training base. I wish you all have a happy life here~"
After I finished washing the dishes, Su You saw that it was late and bid us farewell to leave the villa.
"Let me make it clear first, the room at the end of the corridor above is mine. If you appear within 5 meters of my room, don't blame me for calling the police."
"Who wants to go to your room, you are so full of yourself."
"Hmph, there is no need for me to argue with a loser. Goodbye."
Shen Qing finished speaking and returned to her own room.
Since I decided to live here, I chose the room next to the stairs... It would be better to stay away from Shen Qing.
I lay in bed and began to think about what happened in the past few days. I didn't have time to think about some things carefully earlier, but now I felt lingering fears when I recalled what had happened.
Ying had self-awareness from the very beginning. Did Shen Qing observe my game with Meow Chan's body since the second day?
Then, it could also explain why Ying would appear next to me in the ending of Shuiyuan Weina and Minghai Lily.
The first time, she probably used some method to take away Bantian Yuaner's ticket, right?
The second time, she was supposed to have a fever and she must have dinner at home with her father's blinddate, so she shouldn't have appeared at the cafe when I was with Minghai Lily.
However, her appearance did not alert me at the time. I only felt a little bit strange.
I shouldn't be so careless in the future when I need to track down the whereabouts of self-conscious artificial intelligence.
According to Su You, most self-aware game characters could trap the player, and some masochistic game characters even abuse players, causing huge psychological trauma to them...
After all, the generation of self-awareness was often related to the personality of the character itself.
Ying's personality was set to lack the care of her mother and fear being separated from her friends. However, when she was constantly confessed and left in the game by the player, she probably felt some kind of contradiction, which led to self-consciousness.
In the end, she chose to trap me to achieve the goal of never being separated from her lover.
Ah, so I was tired, I should go back to school tomorrow to pack my luggage and live here for now...
But I would never forget the day when I first met Ying. She looked at the falling cherry petals like a pink angel…