C76 Part2

Translated by boilpoil Edited by boilpoil

The Prince is back. The one and only person with triple-S psychic strength is back. And he brought someone with him.

The news makes it through the Internet like wildfire. People all log virtually onto the Galnet to celebrate and welcome him.

The Galnet is kind of like a virtual world, but it is just the Internet of the main world, formed entirely from servers, and the product of countless experts’ work, before finally being developed a fully immersive method of browsing the Internet. It is called the Galnet.

At first, it was an attempt to develop a better means of communication between the many distant planets of the empire with its over 900 inhabited planets spanned over 3000 solar systems. The planets had to ‘log on’ regularly to report to the empire administration, which also means they will be able to exert control more easily, and also spot planets which have ‘fallen offline’ and investigate more readily.

After many iterations, developments and even a revolution or two, it has changed fundamentally. Now, all empire residents with proof of ID can log on, and it has developed from just a conference space into this ‘space’ that is theoretically unlimited in size save for server capacity.

Everything you can find in the Main World is also in the Galnet; what you can’t find is likely also possible inside.

In fact, there are many people who, dissatisfied with the boredom of the Main World or the poverty on their own planets, decide to make a living and eventually ‘move’ entirely online, their physical bodies either stored away or destroyed entirely on request. Their uploaded consciousness will be maintained for as long as they can continue making a living. This has of course also caused massive controversy in the Main World and a depopulation crisis for many of the poorer worlds, but that’s a story for another time.

Anyway, there is just one thing to be noted here——The system message function.

It was what the empire used when it needed to inform the planets something not urgent, like the passing and imminent enactment of new legislature, that would be ludicrously inefficient if done by painstakingly organising an in-person meeting online and synchronising everything and making time for everyone, each and every single time.

Therefore, instead, a console, or a monitor in most cases, would display the message on its screen usually installed on the front of government buildings, and also to anyone online at the moment.

The technology then evolved to be able to display videos, then holograms, and finally fully interactive, lifelike projections.

Of course, originally, being technology needed to convey necessary but not urgent messages, the ‘dismiss’ button is greyed out for the first few seconds so nobody would accidentally dismiss it. The feature is kept through all iterations.

The problem is, the feature that was once official business use only was also opened up to the private market eventually. Of course, it’s expensive; perhaps only some 40% of the entire population can afford it, and more than 99% of them would find it a waste of money and time.

Unfortunately, Liu Yu’an’s family, the royals, are of course within the less than 1% minority of citizens. And they didn’t just send one. All the members of the extended family went ahead and sent something, each longer than the last like a competition.

Whether they wanted to or not, everyone now knows the youngest prince is back.

[The ‘Triple-S Prince’ is back?! For real?! OMG]

[He even has a princess consort already, holy sh-]

[no no no this isnt happening no no no no consort]

“I want all info on the ‘consort’ in one minute” This message that just screams ‘bossy CEO’ is floating across the Galnet sky and also loudly blarped by speakers on the screens outside government buildings. It’s not much cheaper than the forced system message Liu Yu’an’s family ‘abused,’ and it’s usually overlooked because of that.

The crucial difference this time though, is that the system message goes like ‘Photo of buyer – Name of buyer [Their message],’ while the message in the sky with it blarped by synthesised tone outside is entirely anonymous, at least publicly.

As soon as everyone realised that, while the Galnet is still relatively calm as you could just choose not to look up at the sky, but the main world is all full of synthesised tones blarping and even arguing.

“Consort? Identify yourself, and the relevant species should prepare for battle!”

“A friend of mine working at the VW Centre said the Prince brought a human from the virtual world, so the relevant species…”

“I can challenge the world to a duel!”

“It’s a bugged world. Authorised personnel only”

Meanwhile, some other people have noticed something else… Who knows why they’re discussing this in public burning all the money up instead of literally using any other more economic means of discussion.

“So the Prince hid in virtual worlds all these years? No wonder His Majesty and the royal forces still couldn’t find him even with the weekly system message bombardment”

“Haha, the Prince sure is smart. If my dad scolds me in the future I’ll also hide in a virtual world!”

“Hello? Did you not read that it’s a bugged world? And regular virtual worlds require parental signature with supervision to be authorised. Wake up”

“By the way ladies, time to give up. The Prince must have gone to some lengths to bring someone out from the virtual world, so he must love her a lot. Please instead set your sights on the many eligible bachelors around you”

“I just got off work from the VW Centre. I can report that the consort is male!”

“Holy shit! Prince! Please call me! I’m male!”

“Me too! Look this way instead! I can both Top and Bottom and act innocent or devilish or sexy or pure…”

There’s no need for weather reports on Galnet, usually, given it’s artificially sunny all the time. But if there were one, it would surely be ‘mostly cloudy’ for once with all the text almost causing the first artificial eclipse.

The ladies are all speechless and dissing with their friends, “…bunch of shameless dullards. The last second they tell us to look at them; now the consort turned out to be male and they turn into little bitches like that.”

“What a sight when men try to act coquettish.”

While the Galnet is having a riot, Liu Yu’an, Shao Yanxi, and the procession of royals are all rushing for the palace. On the car, Shao Yanxi is currently holding Liu Yu’an’s older brother’s youngest son, i.e. his nephew-in-law. It’s the two-year-old brat His Majesty was holding earlier, named Liu Mu.

The brat, comfortably snuggled inside Shao Yanxi’s lap, would plant a kiss on Shao Yanxi’s face when Liu Yu’an looks elsewhere, and when he heard and looked he would act innocent, but then plant another kiss when Liu Yu’an turns away.

Shao Yanxi can’t help but chuckle.

“What a little trickster you are.”

Liu Yu’an makes a cold snigger and snatches the brat out of his comfy lap and puts him next to himself, saying, “sit by yourself.”

In the Main World, humans have changed quite a lot. Kids can speak by three months old and walk by five. Two years old? They can already go to kindergarten by themselves!

“Auntie! Uncle is bullying me!” The brat turns to Shao Yanxi to report on him; he’s used to looking for his mom when his dad was to scold him. Then his mom would knock his dad down a peg while giving him some more kisses.

Unfortunately, Shao Yanxi isn’t his mom. He pinches his nose playfully and says, “oh? You’re right, ‘uncle’ is bullying you,” then he emphasises again just in case he didn’t get it, “don’t call me ‘auntie,’ I’m an ‘uncle.'”

“But I already have uncles,” the kid insists, “I don’t have aunties though. If you don’t then someone else will become my auntie instead.”

Young kids like him really are too young to use the immersive technology, but he can still browse the Internet on-screen and read the text and images. Even if he can’t understand the words yet, he can still listen to the audio version; the royal family is a pretty hot topic among the populace. So the kid knows surprisingly a lot of what the online lingo is nowadays.

Shao Yanxi goes ’emm’ as he realises he might lose in a conversation battle with a kid; he looks at Liu Yu’an helplessly, who touches the brat’s nose and pokes his cheeks next, saying, “don’t bully your auntie, alright?”

“K~” He’s satisfied; the uncle called auntie ‘auntie,’ so he is the auntie! Yay!

Shao Yanxi pokes daggers at Liu Yu’an, who extends his hand behind the kid to hold his hand.

Shao Yanxi is a little spooked and quickly looks at the kid, but he doesn’t seem to notice at all; in fact, he seems to be blanking out entirely, and so he asks Liu Yu’an, a bit scared now instead, “is he alright?”

Liu Yu’an glances at him and… Yeah, he’s browsing the Internet. He ignores the kid and tells Shao Yanxi all about how it works, and says his ID card is already done and is now waiting at the palace.

“Your world really is amazing,” browsing the Internet wherever they want? And even logging on immersively in these ‘pods’? This is truly the realm of science fiction already.

“Yeah, it really is. And it’s thanks to this amazing technology that I could meet you.”

He is really thankful for the technology enabling him to enter the Virtual Worlds.

“After we marry, we can go on a honeymoon in other virtual worlds too,” Liu Yu’an says, having suddenly had this idea.

“Didn’t you have this conscription?”

“Oh, there was a massive earthquake not long ago, near the city you just left, the one with the Centre. Even His Royal Ass needs to address the issue or the Accountability Committee’s gonna rip him to shreds.”

Liu Yu’an lays out the major power players while dissing his father, but suddenly the kid has logged off the Internet and hears Liu Yu’an disses his grandpa and slaps Liu Yu’an, saying, “don’t badmouth the ‘pa!”

A kid’s slap is at best itchy, but it’s pretty cute how he is acting angry. Liu Yu’an asks Shao Yanxi, “do you like kids?”

“I guess I’m ok with them,” Shao Yanxi asks, “what about it?”

“We can also have one then,” then Shao Yanxi is spooked again.

Liu Yu’an knows what he’s thinking about and explains, “we have the technology to produce a foetus artificially by taking our chromosomes; for example, some women don’t want to experience the pain and so they will choose to ‘make-a-baby.’ Oh, but if it’s a lesbian couple then they can only ever have a baby girl .”

Shao Yanxi… Shao Yanxi is blanking out, pale.

“Wait, then… uh… where does the baby… the foetus… grow?”

“They can be grown in a vat, put back into the womb, or be transported to an artificial womb if male. I’ve heard some couples would have the man bear the offspring in an artificial womb too because they didn’t want to see their partner hurting. Scientific research showed that foetus growing up in wombs tend to do better than ones put in climate-controlled vats.”

“Then, uh, do you want to…” Shao Yanxi’s face is all stiff, and he says, “never mind. I’ll do it.”

Bearing kids is really painful, he’s heard. He doesn’t want Liu Yu’an to ache.

“Oh, don’t worry about it. We can get an evaluation at the hospital and get a suitability rating. The one higher in rating can bear it. Don’t worry.”

“Mm.” Though it’s probably asking for the impossible for him to not worry.

This is so far out he just can’t help it.

“Anyway, kids are still a bit away, we can discuss it again after the honeymoon at least. Though we should talk about the wedding ceremony instead. I bet dad’s already got it sorted.”

Liu Yu’an then seems to recall something and tells him, “oh right, it’ll probably be on Galnet.”

It is possible to hold a wedding in a ‘livestreaming room,’ which can theoretically hold the entire population on Galnet and then some. Then they can buy a system message to display a link to the livestreaming room. Unfortunately they cannot force people to attend a livestreaming event unless it’s for official business.

But anyway, when people attend a livestreaming room, if the host chooses the ‘realistic’ setting, then they can actually hold hands and physically feel it. It’s practically magic.

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