HSB Chapter 4

When a child was frightened, crying was the most natural reaction, but while she was frightened and crying, Bambi thought of Grandpa who was upstairs. She didn’t want Grandpa to hear her cry.

So, even though she was frightened into tears, Bambi cried silently, as she stood in the doorway, clutching the tattered teddy bear in her arms, and tears spilled out of her eyes like a string of pearls while she desperately tried to suppress the sounds of her crying.

Julius’s heart wrenched.

A moment later, he breathed a sigh of relief.

Bambi was probably frightened, so she didn’t dare go upstairs again as she carried the apple peels back inside, hastily locking the door.

Then she darted back into her bedroom, shoving herself under the covers, holding onto her teddy bear for dear life as she squeezed her eyes shut.

At this moment, a small trumpet-like icon appeared next to Bambi’s head. Julius clicked on it, and a small sobbing and scared cute voice sounded in his ears, “Bambi is brave. Bambi isn’t afraid.”

Julius paused before he realized it was Bambi’s voice.

Listening to the audio, while his heart ached, he was also in awe of the realism in the game. It made the game even more immersive for the player.

“The game feels so real, but why don’t you open up the selective functions of the game? Everything is gray! What the fuck is there to play?” Recalling how his action of transporting his daughter scared Bambi, Julius didn’t dare tuck his daughter in even if he wanted to. She was already afraid; if he moved again, she would only be even more frightened, so Julius could only restrain himself.

In the store, besides the tab for food, there were also clothes, jewelry, shoes, weapons, etc., and Julius had clicked on all of them, only to see they were all gray; none of them were lit.

“How am I supposed to raise my daughter?” These words were practically roared out. As if sensing his fury, suddenly a prompt from the System popped up:

[Due to your intimacy with Bambi which hasn’t passed the minimum standard, the “food” option in the store will only provide you with “red apple,” limited to one a day. If you want to provide Bambi with more abundant food supplies, please increase your intimacy with Bambi.]

[Current Intimacy: -10]

Julius: “…”

What the hell!

“I didn’t abuse my daughter, so why is it a negative number?” Julius was beyond displeased, feeling that the game was targeting him and the thought of uninstalling the game flashed through his mind.

The System popped up again: [Please note that the daughter is to be treasured, not bullied. Bambi is frightened, so the intimacy is -10].

Bully? Fucking bull! Which one of your eyes saw me bullying my daughter?

Julius was furious and was just about to retort back, but he suddenly noticed something wrong. First, he remembered Bambi’s scared crying, and it seemed that it was indeed because of him. Second, he spoke to the game screen and somehow the game could hear him and respond to him.

Julius became suspicious and exited the game to check the icon. He had no memory of downloading the game himself.

No, that’s not true.

His meeting with Kurt that morning flashed through Julius’s mind.

Kurt was a low-level vampire. The Astra Empire of the Interstellar Galaxy, besides the Terrans as the largest clan, had four noble clans: the Dragons, the Mer-people, the Avis, and the Vampires.

In terms of ranking, the Vampire Clan had the lowest status among the four noble clans. The low-level vampires couldn’t even compare to the Terran commoners.

However, Julius made friends without looking at one’s race. He was very casual about it and made friends if he liked them; if he didn’t, then they could fuck off.

He and Kurt were college classmates. Kurt’s family was poor so he couldn’t afford to buy an inhibitor. The Vampire Clan were bloodsuckers, feared the sunlight, active at night, and slept during the day. Later, the Terrans developed a potion that the vampires could take and let them come out in the day.

For the potion, the Terrans and the Vampires made a pact, and the Vampires became a noble clan dependent on the Terrans.

Not every vampire could afford the potion, which was made from precious herbs; it was expensive, and with a vial every three months—the average vampire might be able to afford one—cumulatively, it wasn’t affordable.

Julius felt sympathy for Kurt, so he kindly offered Kurt a few vials to help Kurt get through the initial hard days. Since then, Kurt had been Julius’s flunkey. After Julius went into business, Kurt naturally became Julius’s subordinate and helped Julius a lot.

Recently, Julius had been agitated by some business matters. Today Kurt told him that he found something fun for him to play with, to vent his frustrations. Julius didn’t take it seriously and didn’t pay it much heed. Looking back now, was he talking about this game?

Julius gave Kurt a call to ask him what was going on.

Soon, Kurt’s hologram appeared in the living room.

This was a very handsome man, dressed in a straight suit on which not a single wrinkle could be found. He had deep eye sockets, and his pupils were an unnatural gloomy ice green. His skin was deathly pale, and his hair was kept slightly long and was combed back, fixed with hairspray—the typical features of vampires.

“Your Highness.” Kurt bowed respectfully towards Julius.

Julius promptly asked, “Are you the one who downloaded this game onto my LUX?

Kurt had a mysterious and suggestive smile on his face. “Is Your Highness pleased with it? I picked this game after an arduous selection process. You can manifest her to your liking.”

Julius rolled his eyes crassly. “What are you talking about? What manifest?”

Kurt was surprised for a moment and then explained, “The game I found for you can manifest a woman from your imagination. You can enter the game and have a lovely date with her.”

You can do anything.

“…!”

“Your Highness, is there a problem with the game?” Kurt saw the change in Julius’s facial expression, and then asked, “I can check it out for you. Maybe something went wrong.”

“No need,” Julius flatly refused. “There’s no problem. Bye!”

He ended the call and stared at Bambi’s cute little face on the icon.

The game Kurt downloaded for him was originally meant to manifest a woman of his fantasies to relieve his boredom, but a little girl ended up appearing. If Kurt knew, Julius could only imagine that Kurt would label him as a pervert in his mind.

Julius could never allow his image to become warped in his subordinate’s eyes!

So, Bambi was automatically generated by the game through his imagination?

But he didn’t imagine a child—gah!

Could it be that his deepest desire was to have a daughter and hence Bambi was born?

The more Julius thought about it, the more he felt it was the case. He quickly logged back into the game. Bambi was still hiding under the covers like a tiny ball. The System prompted: [Bambi is asleep.]

Julius immersed himself even more into the role of a father. This was a daughter that he “imagined” to life. He must hurry and let her live the best life.

Since the game could sense his thoughts, Julius asked it directly, “How can I increase the intimacy between me and my daughter?”

The System: [The choice belongs to Bambi.]

Julius: “…”

“Can I communicate with my daughter?”

[No.]

“Can she see me?”

[No.]

“…what can I do now?”

[After 24 hours, you can buy another red apple.]

In other words, he couldn’t do anything?

Fuck! What a useless game!

Julius, who couldn’t buy anything in-game for his baby daughter, was furious.

Here, the AI butler had changed back into his human form and was pushing a food cart over. He then placed the vegetarian diet dishes that Julius requested to “make it taste like meat” on the table.

“Your Highness, your dinner is ready. Please enjoy.”

A total of six dishes and a side of soup were exquisite in presentation, with full marks for color and aroma, and could be considered art. Anyone would give a thumbs-up in praise of these dishes.

The AI butler’s face displayed a barely noticeable smugness and pride. “Your Highness, these are all vegetarian dishes. Take a bite. Can you taste the meat? If you can’t, I will update my system’s RAM and remake it for you.”

As he said this, the AI butler noticed his master used a kind of blank look to stare at the dishes on the table. After looking it up, the AI butler concluded that his master’s face could be suitably described as deep-seated hatred.

The AI butler was stunned.

Why did these dieting, vegetarian dishes he made incur His Highness’s utter loathing?

“My precious daughter can only eat a pitiful apple while I eat gourmet food. How can there be such a father like me!” Julius wailed his heartache and gloom. “Take it away. From now on, if there’s one day I can’t buy food for Bambi, then it’s one day I will accompany her.”

“?”

The AI butler wanted to ask Julius if there was something wrong with his head, but his internal programming prevented him from uttering such impudent thoughts.

Julius had decided to share in his daughter’s hardships, ignoring the AI butler who looked like his CPU had crashed, and returned to his spacious and luxurious bedroom. He studied his daughter’s bedroom to see if there was anything he could do.

After studying the room for some time, he finally realized his daughter had been sleeping under the covers.  Wasn’t it too hot and stuffy inside?

Before, he didn’t dare move for fear of scaring Bambi again, but now that she had fallen asleep, he, the daddy, could finally do his thing.

Julius gingerly pulled the covers off with his fingers, and sometime later, Bambi’s face was exposed. You could still see the tear tracks on her face if you looked closely.

She clutched the teddy bear in her arms.

Noticing that the teddy bear’s arm was about to break off, an idea crossed Julius’s mind. He remembered when Bambi pulled open the drawer to grab the band-aid earlier, he thought he saw a needle and ball of thread.

Julius wasn’t too sure and went to open the drawer, but the drawer on the LUX screen was too small in comparison to the size of his finger; he couldn’t open it—unless the screen was somehow magnified.

Julius summoned his AI butler, “Go to Ethan’s house next door and bring me his virtual projection equipment.”

“Your Highness, I can’t do that.”

“Do you think I don’t know that you have a thing with Ethan’s butler? Hurry up! Or I’ll have my brother change butlers.”

Who said robots couldn’t have love?

Julius’ AI butler silently walked away to carry out his orders.

As for when Prince Ethan returned and realized his beloved projection equipment was missing, he’ll just have to turn Prince Julius in.

Robots refuse to take false blame!

The AI butler was very efficient, and it didn’t take long for him to bring back the projector. Julius tinkered at it a bit before he was able to project the game screen, and chased out the curious AI butler.

Through the virtual projection, Bambi’s room was almost proportionate to Julius’s bedroom.

Julius seemed to be standing in the room, but in comparison with the room, he was a giant who had to bend over to avoid touching the ceiling.

Julius crouched down by the bed to observe his daughter up close.

So cute.

He poked his baby daughter’s soft little face, but to no avail, there wasn’t any real sensory, so he couldn’t feel it, making him incredibly disappointed.

Julius opened the drawer next to him and took out the tiny needle and thread. As a prince, Julius had never passed a needle through a thread; it took him forever to pull the thread through the needle.

Then, he took the bear from Bambi. To make himself comfortable, Julius simply sat on the ground as he clumsily sewed together the bear’s arm.

~*~

When she woke up, Bambi rubbed her eyes and sat up on the bed. It was already dark outside.

Just as she was about to get out of bed, the bear rolled off her body and she raised her little hand to grab it.

However, the little hand froze in the air and slowly retracted.

The teddy bear’s broken arm was sewn back together with a red thread. The stitches were crooked, and there was still cotton exposed on the outside; it was like a large red centipede, quite ugly to be honest, and destroyed the teddy bear’s features that were already wanting in the looks department.

Meanwhile, Julius, who was secretly observing his baby daughter, saw the unfeeling prompt from the System pop up on the screen:

[Intimacy –50.]

The smile on Daddy Xander’s face cracked.