After their initial trial run, Su Mingqian slowly got the hang of it and learned to cooperate with the character that Li Shuoxing controlled.
They pushed forward together and soon encountered an obstacle that needed to be flown over.
Su Mingqian couldnât fly without his little flying carpet, so he could only lie on top of the character Li Shuoxing controlled, close his eyes, cling to the cloak on the characterâs back, and let the game character fly over with him.
Su Mingqian always looked extra attractive at this time.
Li Shuoxingâs eyes were glued to Su Mingqian, who had his eyes closed and fists clenched, and he couldnât tear them away.
Then, because of his inattention, the game character crashed into an obstacle and fell with Su Mingqian.
â!!!â
Li Shuoxing was scared witless. Before he had time to do anything, the screen flashed and Su Mingqian reappeared.
Narration appeared again.
[Su Mingqian falls.]
[Su Mingqian thinks of the player.]
[Su Mingqian comes back to life for the player.]
[Su Mingqian will fight alongside the player and never give up!]
â!!!â
The same three exclamation points brought out a different feeling.
After making sure that Su Mingqian would be fine no matter how he played the game, Li Shuoxing let himself go.
He turned the game up to the highest difficulty level and started playing crazy parkour with Su Mingqian.
He played until finally Su Mingqian, who had been chased back and forth by monsters and had experienced failure after failure, slowly shut down.
He crouched in the corner, his face buried in the game characterâs hat, his back to the screen and Li Shuoxing.
Li Shuoxing got worried and rushed to the television. âCub? Cub, whatâs the matter with you?â
A muffled voice came from inside the hat.
Su Mingqian: âXimu, the game is so hard. The monsters canât be beaten.â
Li Shuoxing: âYes, yes. The game is very hard. So donât feel bad, cub. Itâs not your fault.â
At the same time, he quietly opened the game settings and adjusted the difficulty from âDespairâ all the way down to the âNoviceâ.
Su Mingqian coldly said, âXimu, wait for me. Iâll write a modifier, change the gameâs difficulty, open an invincible mode for us, and then weâll slaughter all the way through, trampling all the monsters under our feet.â
Li Shuoxing: ââŠâ
He looked at his own controller, and looked at the difficulty on the screen. Neither to adjust nor not to adjust; in his heart, he inexplicably felt a cold chillâŠ
***
A day had passed. Li Shuoxing, who had played the game, had difficulty breathing because he was constantly engulfed by the cubâs cuteness on the screen. Finally, he was even more tired than if he hadnât played the game.
After going to bed early and having a good nightâs sleep under the cubâs tender care, he started to write at six oâclock the next morning, full of energy.
He hadnât written for two days, and his hands were a little rusty. It took him a full five hours to write just six thousand words.
However, he finally finished the basic task of the day in the morning.
Li Shuoxing smilingly asked Su Mingqian for a kiss as a reward. He got up and was about to go into the kitchen to get himself something to eat when the doorbell suddenly rang.
âWho is it?â
Li Shuoxing said. When he opened the door, he saw a foreign man with blond hair and blue eyes, carrying a huge, man-sized box, appear at his door.
Li Shuoxing: ââŠHello?â
The foreign man spoke articulately. âHello.â He took out a small piece of paper from his pocket and began to read, âI am a courier and installer. Love Bar App Company has ordered an access device for you, and I will install it for you.â
Li Shuoxing was overwhelmed by the first-class Mandarin. He held the door open so that he could bring in the big box behind him, and asked, âSo Love Bar App is an actual company?â
The foreign man paused for a moment, then looked down at the note. ââŠIt doesnât have much staff and has suffered a lot of restrictions, so itâs still a small and insignificant company at present. But I believe that with the lifting of various restrictions, it will soon enter a phase of rapid development, and eventually become part of a generation of giants.â
Li Shuoxing took a puzzled look at the foreign man and the note in his hand.
He just said it casually. Why did he give such a lecture-like answer? It was as if the Love Bar App employee was defending his companyâs prospects.
They didnât talk anymore.
Li Shuoxing led the foreign man into the house and pointed to an open area where he could place and install the thing. He sat beside and watched. Gradually, he noticed that the foreign man was installing a large chair, and a large helmet attached to the chair.
The large helmet was a bit like a barber store hair dyeing machine, but it looked much more complicated and high-end, and its installation process was equally complicated. Anyway, Li Shuoxing, who was sitting next to him, couldnât understand it. He just saw the foreign man tinkering on the chair and helmet for a long time before finally announcing, âOkay.â
Li Shuoxing began to worry. âWhat if this machine breaksâŠâ
The foreign man continued to look at the note, as if it was his magic weapon for smooth communication. âPlease rest assured. Love Bar App has purchased a commodity insurance service for you, and you will enjoy damage replacement service for three years. The damage replacement phone number has been left with the product manual for you. In order to implement this service, our company will collect your usage data from the terminal, strictly follow data confidentiality guidelines, and promise that all data will only be used for statistical error correction.â
After that, he conjured up a thick stack of bilingual documents in English and Chinese, and handed them to Li Shuoxing. âPlease authorise us to use your data.â
Li Shuoxing was stunned.
He looked at the thick document, and suddenly felt as if he had seen this somewhereâŠ
He asked, âIs it okay if I verbally agree?â
Foreign man: âNo.â
Li Shuoxing: âIf I donât agreeâŠâ
Foreign man: âI can only get the machine back the way I got it here.â
Li Shuoxing had to take the document from the otherâs hands.
He first looked at the translated Chinese and found that it was indeed a document authorising the other party to study his data. If there was anything else, it was, please ensure that your use of this machine is in strict accordance with the instructions on the manual, and, if the user uses the machine freely and causes danger, the company will do its best to rescue the liability disclaimer clause⊠eh?
So it isnât that the company isnât liable?
Li Shuoxing paused for a moment and reread the sentence. He found that there was no mistake in the document. It really said âdo its best to rescueâ.
This made him feel much better about the agreement.
After a few more glances, without reading it too closely, to make sure that the whole article was only about this machine and not some other trap contract, he quickly signed it.
The foreign man took the document Li Shuoxing signed and left quickly.
Only Li Shuoxing and the new access device were left in the room.
He looked around the access device, then picked up the manual and read it. He had thought that the manual would be complicated because it was such a complicated machine, but the manual was extra simple, with only a single line of words and a phone number.
[Access Device Instructions]: Please use the data cable to connect the access device to the phone installed with the Love Bar app, and enter the Love Bar app program.
[Service Hotline]: 213-XXXXXXX
Li Shuoxing: ââŠâ
He recognised that it was a Los Angeles number.
He couldnât help but think deeply about it.
Then he followed the instructions, connecting the two and entering the Love Bar app.
When he logged back into the game, the countdown in the lower-left corner was down to its last few minutes.
Text started refreshing on the screen.
[System: New external device detected. Game is connectingâŠ]
[System: Please sit in the chair and put on the helmet.]
Li Shuoxing did as he was told.
[System: The last ten seconds. Love Bar App 3.0 will soon arrive. The countdown begins.]
[System: Please close your eyes.]
Li Shuoxing continued to do as he was told.
As he closed his eyes, the countdown sounded in his ears.
â10, 9, 8⊠3, 2, 1!â
At the last number, a soft light suddenly burst out before Li Shuoxingâs closed eyes.
His eyes were closed, but he saw the scene clearly.
He seemed to have shifted into a new space in a flash. He sped through a blue tunnel, just like the concept video heâd seen before. He could feel the weightlessness of his legs, which were off the ground, and could feel the slight sting of the cold wind on his skin.
After a short period of time, the fantastic scene suddenly disappeared.
Li Shuoxing felt himself plummet down, land on the ground, and bounce.
Then, a familiar scene unfolded before his eyes.
A sofa, coffee table, fireplace, large bookshelf, record player, and self-service weekly rack appeared one by one in front of Li Shuoxingâs eyes.
Li Shuoxing subconsciously stroked the leather sofa underneath his body, feeling the delicate lubrication of the leather, and saw his round doll hand.
He had entered the game as advertised by the Love Bar app, but had become smaller. Very, very small⊠He had become Xingxing, and a Xingxing wearing a flowery little dress.
Damn.
I was careless.
Thinking back to the video, it did show me and Xingxing merging together to enter the game, but I didnât think Iâd actually become Xingxing in the game. If I had known that, I would have changed Xingxingâs clothes first.
Where is Xingxingâs little closet?
ââŠXingxing?â
A noise came from in front.
Li Shuoxing looked up and saw Su Mingqian.
It was no longer Su Mingqian from across the screen, but Su Mingqian who actually appeared in front of him. Although he still looked a bit chibi, this was enough for Li Shuoxing to get excited.
Li Shuoxing immediately forgot about the womenâs clothes on his body. He jumped up from the sofa and walked toward Su Mingqian.
But it was a bit difficult to get used to the change from human to doll.
Li Shuoxing had only taken two steps before he fell headfirst from the sofa and rolled over a few times. He felt as if his body had fallen onto a soft cushion; with impact, but no pain.
So, Li Shuoxing got up from the ground and continued forward; pattering, wobbling, and his dress fluttering. He trotted to Su Mingqian, opened his arms, and hugged the otherâs legs.