ARIWLBBC Chapter 37

The Alliance Central Control Tower, symbolizing the highest administrative authority in the entire galaxy. Its appearance resembles a round, sleek black sphere, possessing the strongest defense protection ability to date. It can move at any time, perform space jumps, and even traverse wormholes without a scratch.

Because of its unique appearance, it is affectionately called the “Black Pearl” by Alliance citizens. It serves as the office for the Alliance Chief and his subordinate ministers, deputy ministers, parliament members, as well as various public AI systems, and the location of the Second World server. Within the Black Pearl is a residential area, originally built for the Alliance Chief, but due to the strong territorial consciousness of the current Chief and ample resources, it has remained idle, occasionally serving as accommodation for visiting dignitaries.

However, after the Chief’s vacation for a few days, upon his return, he suddenly requested the cleaning and remodeling of this residential area, demanding that it conform to human aesthetics. Speculations abound among the people, boldly suspecting that this residential area is about to welcome the Chief’s wife or a rare human!

“Human? Chief’s wife?”

“Hehe.” The bald parrot chuckled coldly, “That old bachelor couldn’t possibly have such good luck. Just based on yesterday, when he inexplicably smashed a piece of uninstalled sensory board, I predict he’ll be a bachelor for life!”

Inside the Chief’s office, the brand new, thickened sensory board shone brilliantly in the man’s hands.

“Master, here’s the upcoming activity.” The golden sphere floated in front of Lie Beishuang, looking at the man who was flipping through escapee NPC information with lowered eyes, feeling genuine sympathy from the bottom of its heart.

Having not slept all night, he still had to come and clean up a mess early the next day.

“Let’s move up the meeting with the consciousness.” Lie Beishuang quickly scanned through the information in front of him.

Unlike eighteen years ago, this time the escaped NPC was a young snow wolf in its adolescence. It had been in survival mode instances and was the issuer of tasks in this instance. It was the lone son of the Snow Wolf King.

The process of the instance was for players to first find the Snow Wolf King and request the Snow Lotus from the Holy Mountain. The Snow Wolf King would then assign a small task to test the player’s abilities. If the player successfully completed this task, the Snow Wolf King would reveal its true request: its lone son was obsessed with the power of the lava from the Holy Mountain. However, being a snow wolf, continuing to learn fire-based abilities would harm its body. So, the Snow Wolf King requested the player to persuade its son and bring it back home from the lava of the Holy Mountain.

This task was originally very difficult because the young snow wolf was in its adolescence. No matter how appealing, persuasive, or heartfelt the player’s words were, the young snow wolf simply wouldn’t listen. It would just lower its ears, ignore the player, and even roll its eyes or wag its tail.

It was common for players to get frustrated and lose health points due to this.

Until one player found a different approach and used delicious meat pies to lure the young snow wolf, successfully guiding it all the way back home. Although persuasion was not successful, the task was completed successfully.

This was turned into a strategy guide by the players and posted on the Wanxiang Forum. All players learned about this situation, causing the price of delicious meat pies to increase by 10%.

As for why the young snow wolf escaped from its post:

According to the last player who interacted with the young snow wolf, while feeding it meat pies and trying to lure it back home, he noticed that the young snow wolf had gotten fat. He teased the little guy and asked how its research on the power of the Holy Mountain lava was going.

At that moment, the expression on the young snow wolf’s face was very disappointed. It said that due to its own physique, although it had made some progress, its skills were still ice and snow-based. It might not have any hope in its lifetime and could only hope that its dad would find a daughter-in-law with fire abilities for it. Perhaps the offspring could continue to research the power of the Holy Mountain lava. Upon hearing this, the single players mockingly laughed at the young snow wolf, saying how could it find a wife if it’s so fat. Instead of burdening the next generation, why not seek the advice of the consciousness? The consciousness was the god of the Second World; changing its physique would be a piece of cake.

The young snow wolf suddenly realized this, snatched the remaining meat pies from the player, and ran away. Until now, there has been no sign of the young snow wolf.

The player’s actions were basically correct, except for mocking the NPC for getting fat. The inspector had already given the player verbal education. Now it seemed that the young snow wolf had most likely left the instance map to seek the advice of the consciousness.

Although he had been in office for eight years, Lie Beishuang had only seen the consciousness once, and even then, it was a somewhat blurry image.

Eight years ago, after bestowing upon Lie Beishuang the rights and abilities of a maintenance officer, the consciousness dissipated and disappeared. There was no welcoming ceremony like the previous chiefs had, nor was there any ceremony held for Lie Beishuang.

At that time, there was much discussion on the Star Network, and there were even rumors that the consciousness was dissatisfied with Lie Beishuang. Lie Beishuang also pondered whether he had done something to offend the consciousness in the Second World, but he found nothing.

Fortunately, the consciousness did not show any further signs of dissatisfaction, and coupled with Lie Beishuang’s measures to increase military welfare, improve racial relations, and reduce taxes for the people after taking office, the Alliance’s GNH (Gross National Happiness) index increased by two points within a quarter, gradually calming the rumors.

“Understood.” The golden sphere came to the wall of the office and operated it. The wall opened to reveal a blue passage.

Lie Beishuang adjusted his attire and entered the passage. In the moment his body completely disappeared into the passage, the wall closed, and the path under his feet integrated and rotated. The scene in front of him kept blending and changing until everything finally settled down, and the passage disappeared, replaced by a wilderness.

Grassland, small houses, peculiar crescent moons, and a brilliant starry sky.

This was the only passage where one could see the consciousness, the boundary between reality and virtuality, which some called the “singularity”.

With a gentle breeze blowing, the green waves rolled on the lawn. Lie Beishuang approached the small house and politely knocked three times.

There was no response from inside.

After waiting for a moment, Lie Beishuang knocked on the door again. The surroundings fell silent, with only the sound of the wind.

This kind of situation generally had only two explanations. The first was that the consciousness was entangled in a very serious matter and couldn’t make it to the singularity, and the second was that the consciousness didn’t want to see Lie Beishuang.

After thinking for two seconds, Lie Beishuang knocked on the door again. Due to excessive force, the wooden door slowly creaked open. Lie Beishuang checked the door lock and found that the consciousness hadn’t even locked the door.

Sensing that something was wrong, Lie Beishuang cautiously entered

the small house. The area inside the house was infinitely large, but the consciousness only used a small portion, with simple furniture and a few scattered colored pens on the desk.

Lie Beishuang picked up one of the colored pens and noticed a thick layer of dust on the desktop.

There was no concept of time in the singularity, and dust was also a creation of the consciousness. There was very little information in the room, and if he randomly moved things around, it could likely upset the consciousness.

Lie Beishuang held the colored pen in his hand, lowered his head, and left the small wooden house. The consciousness had been absent from the singularity for a long time, perhaps asleep in the myriad realms or incarnated as an NPC, nowhere to be found.

“Master, something’s wrong. Have you seen the consciousness?” The scepter saw Lie Beishuang come out and immediately scanned his entire body, clearing away some unstable molecules.

“The consciousness is not here, or it doesn’t want to see me.” Lie Beishuang returned to the sensory board and pondered. “What happened?”

“The young snow wolf NPC attacked a player and immediately fled!” The golden sphere hurriedly floated back and forth. “The situation has escalated. The consciousness is not here, and the inspectors are conducting a carpet search, but they haven’t found the young snow wolf yet! If other NPCs follow suit like the young snow wolf, won’t the Second World be in chaos?”

“We’ll find it.” Lie Beishuang pressed his fingertip against the sensory board, his expression indifferent.

“The inspectors can’t find it. Who else can find this NPC?” The golden sphere rolled frantically on the table in distress.

Lie Beishuang edited the command and slowly raised his head to look at the scepter, his golden-red eyes shining with a hint of brilliance.

“The strongest force in Wanxiang has never been the inspectors.”

“Then who is it?” The scepter tilted its head.

“The players.”

×

Under the maple tree in the milk bar, Boge sat leaning against the curly-haired alpaca, stroking the innocence and cuteness of the slightly silly-looking little Shiba Inu in his arms from time to time, feeding it dog food.

The little Shiba Inu squinted happily, rolling the pink tongue around the dog food and exposing its soft belly to the human teenager in front of it. The gentle caresses of the human, accompanied by loving eyes, swept away all the tiredness of the little Shiba Inu, leaving only comfort and contentment.

The light brain beeped, and the little Shiba Inu, still not satisfied, got up and bumped its light brain against Boge’s, transferring star coins over.

The grass mud horse, who had been serving as a fluffy backrest all along, also got up and paid with star coins. A white little corn snake slithered down Boge’s sleeve, happily bumping its light brain against Gugu’s.

After waiting for a moment in place, Boge raised his hand and touched his head, “Sister Wen Niao?”

“Ah!” A grey wren with pink claws and a short beak elegantly flew down from above Boge’s head, with two round white fluffs on its cheeks, making Wen Niao exceptionally petite and cute.

“Sorry, I forgot about the time. Your head is just perfect for building a nest.” Wen Niao spread her wings and bumped her light brain against Boge’s, “Do you have time tomorrow? I’ve been so lucky today to meet a human willing to let me stay on their head.”

“I should have time tomorrow.” Boge smiled and glanced at his star coin balance, “Mainly because I have a lot of hair, so I dare to let you stay on my head.”

“Young people don’t know the value of hair. When they get old and bald, they’ll regret it.” Wen Niao sighed, “Even if you have a lot of hair now, you should stay up late less. Judging by your complexion, did you not sleep well yesterday?”

“It’s okay.” Boge scratched his head, “It’s in my genes; I definitely won’t go bald.”

Wen Niao nodded, “I’ll come tomorrow, then. You’re a regular customer now, so save a spot for me on your head.”

“No problem.” Boge made an “OK” gesture and waved to the queue of fluffy creatures, “Come on, next wave.”

Two sugar gliders glided over, accurately grabbing Gugu’s fingers, while a pink piglet trotted over and found a spot in Boge’s arms, lying on his legs, grunting a few times before falling asleep with its eyes closed.

“And me.”

With an elegant stride and a fluffy tail, a red fox squeezed the little pink piglet to the side and lay down on Boge’s legs.

“Amber?” Boge looked at the red fox in surprise, “How did you come here?”

“I heard you were looking for a house in the leisure area.” Amber wagged her tail, charming and enticing, “I happen to have a house here. The owner hasn’t moved in yet and hasn’t had time to decorate it. If you’re done here, we can go see the house together.”

“Thank you, Amber.” Boge sincerely thanked her, “Have you seen Orange Cat recently? I haven’t seen him for days.”

“Oh, him. He’s heartbroken.” Amber blinked, “He’s not my type.”

Silently mourning for Orange Cat for two seconds, Boge earnestly petted each fluffy creature, spending quite some time on each one. Feeling a bit thirsty, he was just about to get a glass of milk when he suddenly heard a continuous sound of message notifications coming from the milk bar, and all the fluffy creatures opened their own messages, looking confused.

“What’s going on?” Amber lowered her head to read the messages, her eyes showing a hint of confusion, “Rewarding NPC? Is this a new gameplay?”

Opening the message panel, Boge stared at the six-digit reward amount, his eyes slowly lighting up.

¹TL: YSIAD “You can support me if you like my translations by leaving a comment below, or by sending me a Ko-fi. Thank you ❤️”

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  TL: YSIAD “You can support me if you like my translations by leaving a comment below, or by sending me a Ko-fi. Thank you ❤️”