Miao Yan considered the question and answered. “It was me. More accurately, after arriving, I accidentally came to find out that you met up with my Exclusive Account… you see, Stewart is a very good butler. In the evening, he will report some stuff to his employer. To be honest, when I heard about you coming over here, I was very surprised.”
“And then?”
“The one who wanted to invite you over is her,” Miao Yan smiled. “Yet, the one to meet you is me.”
“Then, the matter that I requested?”
Miao Yan smiled. “You mean the two girls that you were looking for? I wanted to ask, are the both of them your girlfriends? One of them appears a tad bit too young.”
“I do not like that kind of joke,” Chen Xiaolian shook his head.
“I couldn’t find them. What I am able to gather is that Sir Pattinson had helped them make a reservation at my club. Those people simply stayed here for a few days before leaving. Sir Pattinson is an ordinary person who does not have much knowledge about this. He was simply helping a business acquaintance by making those arrangements. He arranged for those people to stay here for a couple of days – that was all he knew about this matter.”
Business acquaintance… Chen Xiaolian immediately thought of Qiao Yifeng.
He sighed.
“Are those two girls very important to you? I mean, I remember that the young one was by your side in the Mausoleum of Qin Shihuang instance dungeon. However, the older one… is your girlfriend, right?” Miao Yan looked into Chen Xiaolian’s eyes. “Don’t deny it. I can see it in your eyes.”
“You should change your name to Foxy,” Chen Xiaolian replied coldly.
“I will consider this suggestion of yours,” Miao Yan gestured with her head.
“So then… why did you invite me over tonight?”
“If my answer is ‘I do not know’, will you get angry?”
Chen Xiaolian held back the urge to flip the table over – he was clear that even if a fight were to occur, he was no match for this woman.
Back in the Mausoleum of Qin Shihuang instance dungeon, this woman had been able to contend against a fully empowered Bai Qi!
“My Exclusive Account… truthfully, she is not much different from you… she is a normal person in this world. Thus, the things that she think about, the things that she does – normally, when I am not here, I would not be able to guess what she is thinking about. You can consider this as…” She suddenly pointed at her chest. “Consider it as a body sharing two souls.”
It had to be said, her slender finger was almost pointing at the round area on her chest. That posture was rather… indecent.
Chen Xiaolian did his best to move his gaze away to avoid looking at her snow-white valley.
“I came here to play around because I was feeling bored. Being able to meet you here is something of a surprise,” Miao Yan smiled. “I like to enter this world often, even when there is no instance dungeon. Taking this identity to experience the life in this world of yours. Just look, everything is quite lovely, wouldn’t you say?”
Chen Xiaolian did not say anything. His mind was considering something.
“Can you tell me… you being here in London, is there any other reason why you are here besides looking for those two girls?”
Chen Xiaolian became surprised. “An instance dungeon will be opening up in London soon, don’t you know?”
“I don’t know. I am not participating in that instance dungeon,” Miao Yan looked at Chen Xiaolian. There was a gloating expression on her face. “It seems you were selected? All I can say is: Good luck to you, rookie. Back in the last instance dungeon, if it was not for me, you would probably have died… or failed the quest.”
“Being able to survive is good enough,” Chen Xiaolian replied coolly.
“Being able to survive is good enough?” Hearing those words, Miao Yan was seemingly stunned for a moment. Then, she lowered her voice and murmured even as she drank a mouthful of wine. “In your opinion, what is your definition of living?”
“Survive through the instance dungeons, not dying… at the same time, grow stronger and protect those you want to protect,” Chen Xiaolian quickly answered.
Miao Yan’s expression turned even more peculiar. There was a trace of loss and confusion in her eyes and she asked in a low tone. “That… is that so. That is the meaning of your existence…”
Observing her reaction, Chen Xiaolian suddenly felt vexed.
“What is wrong with that?” Chen Xiaolian sneered. “My existence, me being a mere NPC, could I ask for more?”
Miao Yan suddenly smiled.
A peculiar light was seemingly shining through her eyes.
“You know, there was this one time when I entered – you see, I like to use this identity to live in your world and experience the interesting details of life here. For example, there was this one time where I went to the library to check out some articles regarding this world of yours. There, I saw something very interesting.”
Chen Xiaolian was surprised. “You are not thinking about starting a discussion about literature with me, are you?”
“Of course not. However, the idea expressed in the article was very interesting.”
Miao Yan softly continued. “The article was about the author’s experience of playing an interesting online game. He killed with frenzy in the game, levelled himself up maniacally, fought against other countries, established his own base of operations, developed new lands… all the way until he had thousands upon thousands of soldiers and horses. He unleashed his massive army through the lands of the game, sweeping away every monster he saw on the map.
“He felt happy with what he was doing. He felt as though he was looking down upon the world.
“However… he suddenly saw something on the monitor. There was a black shadow on the map, a black dot. It seemed like a monster that the game had spawned out. Thus, his moved his mouse and sent his massive army over to kill…
“It was then that the monster flew up, leaving the map, leaving the surface of the monitor.
“It turns out… that was just something that had unintentionally landed on the surface of his monitor…
“A mosquito.
“That’s right, just a pitiful little, piddling mosquito.
“At that moment, when the mosquito flew away… the overwhelming army that could cover the skies and move the lands… could only remain within the screen of the monitor, staring blankly at the mosquito.”
After saying that, Miao Yan looked into Chen Xiaolian’s eyes. “Don’t you think that this article is very interesting?”
“… … …”
Chen Xiaolian felt as though his heart had just received a heavy punch!
An incredibly strong feeling of suffocation gripped him and his heart pounded “peng peng peng peng”. It pounded violently again and again and again!
The casual manner in which Miao Yan had said those things and the tone she used became like a sword that had been viciously thrust into his heart!
Miao Yan then continued. “Even if he was invincible without parallel within the game world, even if he had thousands upon thousands of soldiers and horses, against a mere mosquito of the real world, there was nothing his army could do against it… no matter how much more powerful you become inside a game world, no matter how much longer your lifespan becomes, no matter how you protect all those you wish to protect…
“In the eyes of the upper plane… what is the point of it all?
“Perhaps, one day, all the Development Team needs to do is to make a little modification to the program here and there to erase everything that you have struggled for and all the brilliant results that you have accomplished.”
Miao Yan stared into Chen Xiaolian’s eyes and abruptly laughed out. “This world of yours, there is an interesting phrase in the internet. How did it go again…
“In the end, it was all for naught, all for naught, right? He he.”
… … Chen Xiaolian was utterly shocked!
…
A few minutes later, Chen Xiaolian left the building.
As he walked out, he saw a car parked outside.
Chen Xiaolian got into the car and sat inside, and the car slowly moved away from the manor. As for Chen Xiaolian, he was still thinking about what Miao Yan had said before they parted.
“I would like to ask you to stay as far away as possible from my Exclusive Account. This is a little personal request from me. This is the identity I use to experience your world, the identity of a normal person. Naturally, I do not wish to have anything to do with you Awakened ones… if that were to happen, then it would be pretty much the same as going through an instance dungeon. I do not want to be around a bunch of Awakened ones while experiencing the normal things in this world. That would be totally pointless.”
“About our meeting tonight, I will completely delete the memories that this Exclusive Account have about it from the moment you met her… this is something well within my capabilities. Do not doubt me on that. High-class Players get better treatment, after all.
“Chen Xiaolian, one last thing. I wish you good luck. Survive through this London instance dungeon. Perhaps we will meet up again in another instance dungeon.
“Also… I am aware that you had turned on the recording function of your mobile phone since the moment you entered through the door. As you are heading home, you may listen to our conversation again.”
Chen Xiaolian recalled that as Miao Yan was saying that last sentence, she had given him a wink.
Chen Xiaolian sat in the car and quickly retrieved his mobile phone!
He was indeed recording! From the moment he saw Miao Yan, he had slipped his hand into his pocket and switched on the recording function on the mobile phone!
Within the car, Chen Xiaolian held the mobile phone to his ears and replayed the conversation he had with Miao Yan.
“It’s you?”
“… … ‘85 Latour. It is definitely worth tasting.”
“… … country bumpkin.”
“You want to know how our world looks like? Are you sure you want to know? Are you absolutely sure?”
“… I want to know!”
“It’s useless. Even if I do tell you, you will end up forgetting everything I tell you.”
“What if I still insist on wanting to know?”
“Very well, in that case…” The moment Miao Yan said that…
Hearing that, Chen Xiaolian suddenly felt his throat becoming parched as his heart thumped furiously!
However, at that moment…
The voices coming from the phone’s replay suddenly…
Disappeared!
Chen Xiaolian held the phone and looked at it to determine that the phone was not malfunctioning. He saw that the replay function was still in progress.
However, when he held the phone to his ear, he could not hear a single sound coming from the phone!
Nothing!
Silence!
The silence lasted for more than 10 seconds!
More than 10 seconds of silence…
It was as though the more than 10 seconds… had been utterly erased!
Finally, a sound could be heard coming out once more from the mobile phone.
“Why aren’t you saying anything?”
“… … if I were to tell you that I had already told you about it just now, and that you have already forgotten it all now… would you believe me?”
After hearing that, Chen Xiaolian turned off the replay and leaned heavily onto the back of the seat.
At that moment, his body had become incomparably heavy!
Outside the window, the endless nothingness of the silent sky suddenly appeared as though it was capable of utterly swallowing up everything!
“As expected…” Chen Xiaolian suddenly gave a sigh. With bitterness in his eyes, he muttered. “In the end… it is all for naught!”
Invincible without parallel? Thousands upon thousands of soldiers and horses?
A small mosquito?
All for naught!
…