Chapter 54

It was like downing a glass of strong liquor.

A little dizzy.

And a little flustered.

After reading that paragraph, Li Shuoxing got up from the bed. He walked back and forth in the bedroom, but didn’t calm down, so he grabbed his phone and walked to the living room, and then to the stairs—

And didn’t go down any further.

Within two minutes of opening the door, Li Shuoxing was frozen by the cold outdoor air.

Wearing his thin short-sleeved pyjamas, he sneezed heavily in the cold wind, then woke up, quickly stepped back, closed the door, and returned to the warmth of the room.

Now that he’d woken up, he had to face the message again.

Li Shuoxing held his phone and looked at it for a while, sorting out the known conditions one by one.

In the game:

Su Mingqian has an English name.

Su Mingqian has distinctive grey eyes.

Su Mingqian has amnesia.

In Su Mingqian’s memory fragments, his friend George appears.

In reality:

George’s family relationships and private matters are highly consistent with the memory fragments.

George’s wife confirms that her husband has a grey-eyed friend who appears to be Asian and whose English name is not Su.

All right, now the question arises.

Who exactly is George’s grey-eyed friend? Is it Su Mingqian?

What role does the Love Bar app’s payment account, that user with the WeChat ID Su, play in this?

Li Shuoxing’s head started to hurt.

He was just playing a game. Although he liked the little person in the game, he wasn’t at all prepared for the mystery reasoning in reality on top of playing the game.

And he had no idea what the correct answer to the mystery would be.

This development was too much like a novel.

If he were to write such a story.

…If he were to write such a story, what kind of ending would he arrange for it?

Li Shuoxing was stumped by his own question.

He thought and thought, and instead of arranging a random ending for this story, he logged onto QQ and entered the Terminal Food Group.

Li Shuoxing: “@All members, masters, are you there? Do me a favour.”

[400k updated per month] Calm Egg: “Oh, has Eunuch’s account been stolen today?”

[30k words typed per day] Interfinger Storm: “The word master from Eunuch’s mouth always has some wonderful meaning.”

[100 VIP chapters] Soren was as direct as ever. “Say it.”

[Five years unbroken updates] Six Flavour Monk: “Amitabha, help others to help yourself. Almsgiver Ximu, please say your distress.”

[2m stock] Ten Zero Ling: “←”

Before Li Shuoxing could speak, he was overwhelmed by the titles these people had before their IDs.

He said confused, “Why do you all suddenly have titles?”

As he spoke, he took a look at his own ID. There was nothing in front of it.

Li Shuoxing felt even more puzzled. “And I don’t?”

No one answered his question.

Instead, Si Buqun jumped out, dragging the longest title and inexplicably reciting a poem.

[7000 per hour] Si Buqun: “I recommend Xuanyuan with my blood, I write novels with my life!”

After Si Buqun, maybe it was that the group was really lively, even Sang Wugui came out and got the conversation back on track.

[Waste rolls out] Sang Wugui: “Everyone’s here? Eunuch was just asking for help?”

As soon as the message was sent, Sang Wugui was shocked by his title.

[Waste rolls out] Sang Wugui: “Why do I have this title???”

[400k updated per month] Calm Egg’s mouth was the fastest, revealing something carelessly. “That’s your fault for being such a waste. There’s nothing worth showing off in your past achievements. Look at Eunuch above you. He could even burst twelve updates on a business trip these past few days. Of course, it’s still far from us.”

[Waste rolls out] Sang Wugui: “…”

Li Shuoxing: “…”

It seemed that suddenly, he understood something.

The group was also silent.

The others were secretly staring at Calm Egg across the screen.

That day when Li Shuoxing burst out 12 updates, the group had experienced a great wave. The result afterwards was that everyone’s ID had been added with the title of their most impressive past achievement, and they adhered to two absolutes on Li Shuoxing.

Absolutely don’t talk about Eunuch’s twelve updates.

Absolutely don’t give Eunuch a chance to show off!

They didn’t expect that the guideline had only been in place for a short while before it was broken by one of their own.

It could be seen that an author who wrote political novels could turn into a mallet in a second as long as his mouth chattered.

Everyone thought heavily.

Li Shuoxing’s face was full of black lines. “You guys…”

[400k updated per month] Calm Egg: “Uh, I suddenly remembered that I haven’t written today’s update yet.”

He said goodbye to them with that and was about to withdraw.

Li Shuoxing hurriedly pulled him back. “Wait, I really have something to ask you guys. Let me finish first.”

With that, he deleted and modified his question without delay.

Li Shuoxing: “It’s like this. I recently took on a custom novel project. This project is quite special. I was given half of the outline in advance and was asked to add the following development based on this. Now I’m rather hesitant about this development and don’t know how best to do it. Can I consult with you?”

When everyone heard this, they were interested.

But this interest wasn’t quite the same as the interest Li Shuoxing expected.

Interfinger Storm was the first to doubt, and he doubted particularly professionally, “They wrote half of it first and then gave it to you to continue? What do I say about this job? How much did they pay you to take it? Five or six thousand for a thousand words isn’t worth it.”

Si Buqun: “Eunuch, you didn’t get fooled by the copyright holder on the business trip, did you? I’m telling you, they are very good at talking and being brothers and sisters with everyone, but in fact, they only recognise money. Don’t believe them.”

Li Shuoxing was silent for a long time. Looking at this suddenly shrewd group of authors, he could only reply, “…It’s another complicated story. Anyway, the reason isn’t anything very important. I’ll give you a brief outline first.”

With that, he organised his language to be as concise as possible.

“It’s a story with an urban setting. One day, while playing a game, you accidentally discover that the NPC in the game has very high AI, just like a real person. The NPC claims to have lost their memories and wants to retrieve their memories. You think it’s a task of the game, so you help the NPC unlock their memories, but the unlocked memories actually correspond to real events! You are amazed and have these ideas:

“A: The NPC is a real human being.

“B: The NPC is super AI.

“C: The NPC is just an NPC, but has a real person playing with it.”

Li Shuoxing then asked, “What do you think?”

Calm Egg: “This story is very cliche…”

Interfinger Storm also found it boring. “Still playing with that old trope.”

Soren: “I choose D. It’s not important what the NPC is like. It’s what the NPC gives you that’s important. The NPC opens a holographic online game so you can enjoy playing the game with your brainwaves.”

Six Flavour Monk: “I choose E. The NPC is important, but the NPC is neither human nor AI. This is a projection of your mind, a dream of yours. If you break through the dream, you get the right result.”

Ten Zero Ling: “Then I’ll choose F. You then find that you’ve obtained a golden finger. Whatever the NPC learns in the game, you can learn in reality. How’s that, isn’t this golden finger cool?”

Li Shuoxing went black before his eyes. “Be serious, you guys!”

Sang Wugui was the only serious one in the group.

He gave Li Shuoxing an answer. “B: Super AI.”

Li Shuoxing hurriedly questioned Sang Wugui, “Why B?”

Sang Wugui knocked on the blackboard and underlined the key point. “Look at my identity: a cutting-edge sci-fi author.”

Shit!

He was exasperated by these animals and stopped asking. He asked and answered himself, following his intuition.

“I’ve decided, the next development is A, the little person is a real human being!”

Having made a choice, he continued to hypothesise.

“Now, you have a few more choices.

“A: You sympathise with the NPC’s experience. You’re determined to help them.

“B: You think it’s too complicated. You’re just playing a game and don’t want to be a saviour. You pretend nothing happened.

“C: You’re afraid that you’re involved in a complicated situation and suspect that you’re being monitored. You decide to throw away your phone.”

As these three options appeared in Li Shuoxing’s mind.

Each option forked out three more branches, each of which forked out three more branches.

Three and three, nine and nine.

In the blink of an eye, a flourishing tree of options appeared in Li Shuoxing’s mind.

Li Shuoxing arranged more and more futures for each of his choices. All 81 endings to this story were appearing in his mind!

Then.

Su Mingqian’s voice rang out. “Ximu? Are you there?”

Li Shuoxing snapped out of it.

Only then did he realise that he had unconsciously left the group and come into the game.

His finger touched the window, and the sound of the impact startled Su Mingqian, who was reading a magazine.

He raised his head, looked in the direction of the sound, and asked softly.

A +5 floated out of the little person’s head.

My arrival made him happy.

He was expecting my arrival.

Li Shuoxing suddenly felt a little sad.

He thought of his other two options.

If I throw him away, what will he do out there on his own? Surely he will starve and freeze, and maybe even be abused by those who pick him up; if I pretend that nothing has happened and hide what happened from him, then won’t he always live in a bubble of illusion?

Li Shuoxing was very upset by his imagination.

Deeper down, he was more heartbroken.

At that moment, he made another choice based on his expectations.

He sent a screenshot of Mary’s reply to the little person.

He cheered up his voice. “Cub, look, we’ve got a more definite clue—”

The clue was too real.

He decided to treat the little person as a real person and help him as much as possible.

In that case…

Should I take my time telling the little person that he is in a game?

If he knows he exists in a game.

How will he react?

Li Shuoxing still didn’t relax.

On the contrary, he was even more worried.

I always feel that once he’s a real person and knows he’s in a game, he’ll probably collapse.

But if he really is a real person, I can’t keep it quiet…

Damn, why do I feel like handling this poorly will result in a bad ending.

The clue had appeared on the light screen.

Su Mingqian, however, didn’t look at it immediately. He asked, “Ximu, are you upset?”

Li Shuoxing was still in a listless state at that point. “Yes, a bit. There are too few clues and too many possibilities. I simply don’t know what the future holds…”

Su Mingqian reassured, “Ximu, I think you’re under a bit of pressure. You don’t have to do this. Have you forgotten what you said to me before? The past is important, but the present is equally important. We can take our time looking for clues about the past. I think…”

Su Mingqian smiled.

“With you around, the present days are good too.”

Li Shuoxing listened to the voice and looked at the little person, suddenly happy, suddenly enlightened.

So what if a hundred endings are all bad endings?

I’m an author, a god one.

As long as I want, I can write the one hundred and first happy ending!