It was Su Mingqian who returned to his senses first.
Su Mingqian: âXimu, weâre nowâŚâ
Li Shuoxing hesitated. âGo sit at my seat first. Then ask the waitress and see if she can tell you more information.â
Su Mingqian acted accordingly.
He went to the seat in the corner and sat down. When the waitress brought the coffee, he spoke again, âDo you know more about Ximu?â
The waitress smiled and actually answered Su Mingqian, the answer even matching Su Mingqianâs question.
Perhaps Su Mingqian, who had come here in the past, had asked something similar.
âThe customer who sat here is a student from nearby, but he seems to be graduating soon, so he hasnât come here for a while.â
Su Mingqian: âThenâŚâ
He was still trying to talk to the waitress.
Li Shuoxing outside the game had officially stepped through the door of the cafe and entered the familiar premises.
He subconsciously drew back and forth from this place to the waitress in the game.
Although she was still wearing the familiar store uniform, she now had a small nameplate on her chest, which read, âStore Managerâ.
There were many people in the cafe now, and the waiters were very busy as they wove their way through the crowd.
The store manager, who met eyes with Li Shuoxing, greeted him. âHello? How can I help you?â
Li Shuoxing looked at her with complicated eyes.
Although youâre now wearing a small tag, itâs just a change in name.
The store manager outside the game was also the waitress in the game.
The store manager today was also the waitress back then.
âŚIt was like a tongue twister.
Anyway, this person, whom Li Shuoxing had known for a long time, unexpectedly served both him and Su Mingqian at the same time today.
Li Shuoxing even had the urge to give her a tip.
The store manager didnât get a response for a long time and was suspicious. âHello?â
Li Shuoxing came back to his senses. âGive me a latte. Nobody in the corner, right? I want to sit there.â
With that, he didnât wait for the store manager to speak and walked on his own to the corner booth where heâd been in for a long timeâand of course, where Su Mingqian was currently sitting.
When he sat down, Li Shuoxing paid extra attention to the direction Su Mingqian was sitting, deliberately not choosing the seat on the same side as him but instead sitting opposite him.
Sitting this way, they were basically sitting face to face drinking coffee.
Thinking of this, Li Shuoxing couldnât help but take another look at the game screen. He saw Su Mingqian holding the coffee cup in his hands and spinning it around, but his eyes were darting to the empty sofa opposite his own seat, as if he was thinking about something.
And he seemed to be thinking about something good.
Because there was +1+1 favourability coming out of his head.
Su Mingqian was indeed thinking.
It didnât matter when he didnât hear anyone here say Ximu.
Once he heard it, some desires in his heart were suddenly awakened.
He realised he wanted to see Ximu.
Whether it was the past Ximu or the present Ximu.
He wanted to meet him face to face.
He thought, Itâd be great if I could see himâŚ
Almost the next second of Su Mingqianâs thought, there was a sudden movement in the slow game system.
Li Shuoxing looked down and saw a new system prompt on the screen.
[System: The game has detected that you have appeared in the cafe.]
[System: The program is loading.]
[System: Please place the external device one metre in front of you.]
[System: Please follow the following prompts to complete the system instructions and trigger the plane ticket task [Wish]:
1.1. Please face the external device.
1.2. Please raise your hands flat in front of you.
1.3. Please raise your hands up.
1.4. Please perform a squat.
1.5. Please stand with your arms and legs apartâŚ]
Dense, detailed annotations appeared on the screen.
Li Shuoxing read down line by line.
He slowly froze.
Li Shuoxing: ââŚâ
Li Shuoxing: â???â
In a public business district.
In a crowded cafe.
System, are you issuing this task.
To try to kill me?
The intense shame made Li Shuoxing nearly drop his phone and run away. However, it was also then that a slightly uneasy voice came out from the game: âXimuâŚ?â
âŚNo, itâs no use acting cute now.
Thereâs no way Iâm doing these shameful things here.
I donât want to lose face!
However, perhaps because he didnât answer in time, Su Mingqian, whoâd been only slightly uneasy, couldnât help making his voice louder, his tone even more anxious. âXimu, are you still there? Answer me, okay?â
âŚOkay, itâs really useful acting cute.
Come to think of it, I havenât been here for a long time. No one will know me. It doesnât matter.
For my cub, I give in!
Li Shuoxing got his teeth knocked out and swallowed with his blood <sup>1</sup> ćč˝ç齿ĺčĄĺ means to silently endure all manner of insults and abuse. , his smile stiff. âIâm here, Iâm here. Thereâs just somethingâŚâ
Su Mingqian: âWhat is it? Is it urgent?â
His voice was like a gentle spring, soothing the wounds in Li Shuoxingâs heart.
Li Shuoxing inhaled deeply and continued to comfort himself.
Itâs okay.
This is the corner.
Iâm just fooling around. No one will notice.
He replied to Su Mingqian, âWell⌠itâs kind of an important thing. Maybe itâll bring you a pleasant surprise when itâs done. Cub, donât worry. Wait for me. Iâll be back soon.â
With that, using his phoneâs measuring app to measure the distance, he first placed the binocular camera in the designated position, then stood up from the sofa and began broadcasting gymnastics poses according to the systemâs instructionsâŚ
One action.
Two actions.
After two actions, Li Shuoxing suddenly felt silence around him.
He subconsciously looked ahead.
He saw the store manager with a coffee in her hand frozen a few steps away, not daring to come forward.
Around her, the other customers also turned their heads to him, each of them staring at him dumbstruck.
Li Shuoxing: ââŚâ
A thunderclap rumbled through his mind.
Several shocking headlines flashed out.
[Shock] A man in Shanghai actually did the following in a cafeâŚ
[Horror] In the cafe of XX Square, he lost it in public!
[Pondering] Another man suffers from a mental disorder due to a game, what games have such charm to harm people?
The already very forced smile almost couldnât go on any longer.
Li Shuoxing once again repeated in his mind like an ostrich.
It doesnât matter, it doesnât matter.
Iâm not a big star.
Thereâs no way anyone would recognise meâŚ
âUh.â The store manager, who was frozen in place, suddenly spoke. She was cautious. âHereâs the coffee.â
Li Shuoxing moved aside and pretended to be calm. âOkay, put it on my table.â
The coffee was placed on the table away from the camera.
The store manager was about to leave, but before she did, she said to Li Shuoxing, âSir, you look a little familiar. Have we met before?â
Have we met before?
Have weâŚ
MetâŚ
The forced smile began to crack. Li Shuoxing fiercely denied, âNever, donât talk nonsense!â
Store manager: âOh.â
Without another word, she hurried away from this position and returned to the counter, reaching for the phone underneath it.
She quietly pressed three numbers.
120 <sup>2</sup> 120 is Mainland Chinaâs emergency phone number. .
Just in case.
With such an episode from the store manager, Li Shuoxingâs heart got really tired and he began to completely let go.
The people around him were still watching him and whispering.
So he looked back at them with sharp eyes.
What are you looking at?
Whatâs there to see?
Isnât it just going crazy playing a game?
Have you never seen anyone going crazy playing a game?
After staring at them one by one, Li Shuoxing turned his eyes back to his phone screen.
He was calm and collected as he continued to complete the systemâs requirements step by step.
When all the steps were complete.
A loading bar popped up on the game interface, and above it was a system prompt in small text.
[Please wait patiently. A new interaction will begin when the loading is complete.]
Li Shuoxing could finally sit back down.
Once a person crossed that line, nothing else mattered.
He completely forgot his earlier embarrassment and anticipation began to churn from the bottom of his heart again. He held his breath and didnât even notice his heart drumming loudly.
I donât know how this interaction will work.
Since it never instructed me to buy 3D glasses, which means, itâs probably not making the cub into a 3D view as I thought before, then what is it changing?
He had a hunch.
Maybe this interaction would be more fun than heâd thoughtâŚ
In about five minutes, the slowly crawling loading bar finally reached the end.
The new program was ready to run!
In the game.
When Su Mingqian got an affirmative answer from Ximu, his anxiety turned to patience.
He waited patiently, took a couple sips of coffee, and then raised his eyes to suddenly see a few wisps of light appearing opposite his seat.
More and more dots of light, like countless blue fireflies born from the void, clustered and converged, slowly outlining a human body opposite Su Mingqianâs seat.
Then, the human body turned from virtual to real and officially appeared.
Su Mingqian looked at him in a daze.
It was a very young man, with single eyelids, thin lips and naturally slanted eyebrows, which made him seem arrogant and unapproachable. That young face full of vitality always seemed somewhat casual and untamed.
This oppression was even more pronounced when he glared at people.
And he was now sitting upright, with both elbows on the table and both hands clenched.
Suddenly.
The person holding his posture moved.
The arrogance and casualness disappeared, and Su Mingqian noticed more concentration and anticipation on his face.
Su Mingqian began to get nervous.
All his distracted attention was focused on the person in front of him.
All his imaginings of Ximu began to disappear and change at that moment, changing into what was before him.
Then he heard the person opposite him say, âCub?â
A single sound.
Very simple.
There was no more doubt.
This is my Ximu.
He reached forward impulsively.
The two hands touched.
He grasped the other.
A Ximu that was very real to him.
The author has something to say:
Strictly speaking, the VR system mentioned yesterday isnât a very accurate definition.
This section is a portrait of Li Shuoxing and the various poses he makes in the cafe captured by the system through the image modelling + motion capture of the external device [binocular camera], and constructed to be seen and touched by the cub Qian in the game.
For Li Shuoxing himself, heâs still looking at the screen outside the game~
1
ćč˝ç齿ĺčĄĺ means to silently endure all manner of insults and abuse. 2