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Chapter 6 Virtual Partner Part 1

Like "The Story Of Cherry Blossoms", the progress of  "Autumn~Rain of Love~" could not be saved at any time. Only after going to bed every day could the player save the progress.

Fei Fei suddenly remembered her name when I was quitting the game, even if I wanted to hear it, I didn't have a chance to hear it.

And if I enter the game again, the process would start again on Friday morning. For this game that could be played at any time, I would know Fei Fei's name sooner or later, so I had no plans to return to the game immediately.

My stomach was groaning a long time ago. I was already in debt because I bought a contact lens-type microcomputer. It was obviously impossible to order takeaway.

Fortunately, a few days ago, I had already purchased various ingredients and seasonings online, so it should be no problem to make a meal by myself. I went to the spacious kitchen on the first floor, took out the pot and pan and started preparing to make a simple fried rice for myself.

"Hey, making one for me as well."

Just as I was preparing, Shen Qing, who was passing by the living room, dropped such a sentence. Of course, her dress seemed to be no different from the unexpected encounter in the early morning last time. It was still black underwear, one side of her bangs covered the vaguely revealed red light.

It stands to reason that it should have been a very embarrassing scene, but after that time, neither of us seemed to show any discomfort. After all, Shen Qing's personality made it hard for me to see her as a pure opposite sex. .

Shen Qing was a beautiful woman. She had a slender and outstanding figure, but after doing that to Ying… I was now in the state of a virgin’s post nut clarity.

This awkward fellow of the Eighth-Grader Syndrome obviously disliked my meal last time. But she asked me to cook for her again. Shouldn't she have a dedicated chef to serve her...

"I wish I could cook for Yuan myself like then..."

Speaking of the dedicated chef, Ying definitely had this qualification and the willingness... Unfortunately, as a virtual existence, she had no body in the real world, and she could only watch me moving busily on one side.

The holographic TV that turned on automatically because of my arrival was broadcasting today’s evening news.

"Today's news: a college student's body was found in his residence. After investigation, it was an incident of brain death during a VR game. However, whether it was due to excessive gaming is still under investigation. The supervision of VR games needs to be strengthened urgently..."

Was it the brain death of gamers again? This time even experts couldn't tell whether it was related to the virtual dependence syndrome.

‘Wait, if I remember correctly, the game mentioned in the news should be the top 10 survival battle simulation game "Mirror Island" on the SKYLAND platform, right?’

The news of this million-selling game would inevitably be followed for a long time after the accident, so it seemed that not only the sales but also the evaluation of the game platform on the shelves would be greatly affected for a period of time.

The slogans of VR had always been to bring people joy and novel experiences. However, with the endless incidents of players being harmed by VR, VR manufacturers such as TECH-LIGHT must be in desperation now.

During this period of time when the news was broadcast, the rice was already ready. I added hot oil and beaten eggs to the wok, and the rice was also stir-fried until it turned brown, so two plates of hot egg fried rice was made very quickly.

"Do you only know how to cook egg fried rice?"

Shen Qing came over after hearing I say the meal was ready. But she frowned when she saw the fried rice on the table. At this time she was already dressed. As usual with long socks, a pair of shorts and a vest shirt. She was radiating with youthful vitality. if no one knew her terrible personality.

"Of course not, I can also make curry."

"Tsk."

"...say, we need to go back to college tomorrow, right?"

"Yes."

Shen Qing seemed to have realized it suddenly. It turned out that she almost forgot about class as well.

After all, a certain degree of confusion between games and reality would indeed affect people's normal lives. Playing games for a long time would easily make people tired, not to mention that it would also cause players to have a certain degree of strangeness to reality.

Many scholars had previously studied the psychological impact of virtual reality games on people, and game companies had also acknowledged this impact and reminded players to take breaks from time to time in the game.

Even so, it was not uncommon for players to be affected by games. Some players regarded reality as a game, some were traumatized by long-term gaming or excessive gaming, and the 'virtual dependence syndrome' was the most serious consequence.

"...Mr. McCulloch, the director of Endea's Artificial Intelligence Laboratory, believes that there is still a lot of room for development of artificial intelligence in future research..."

Sure enough, the previous news was still talking about the harm of VR games to people, and the following news became an introduction to the development of artificial intelligence. This kind of publicity effect made everyone think that everything was the VR equipment’s fault, right? However, only a few people and I knew that it was probably caused by an AI that had awakened self-awareness.

According to Su You, most of the self-aware AIs were not friendly to players. They couldn't understand the real-world survival situation. For example, Ying, she didn't mean to hurt the player, but she still wanted to permanently trap the players because of her own selfishness.

In addition, many self-aware AIs were not even as "gentle" as Ying. They would destroy and torture the human spirit in a more direct way. At least Su You knew that some AIs would treat the player in various cruel ways during the short period of time when the player was trapped, and even the brain death incidents that were often reported in the news were all related to this.

Whether the "Mirror Island" mentioned in the news was related to Awakened AI was still unknown. If it was true, then finding out the Awakened AI in this game was likely to be our future task.

——As for why neither the government nor the game company found the existence of Awakened AI, I didn't know. Not only that, Su You also said that he was not very clear. And I had no time to worry about the relationship between humans and technology now, because whenever I thought of class tomorrow morning at 8 o’clock, I felt desperate...

In galgame, I could easily answer high school questions, but in reality, I was an out-and-out underachiever. Unlike me, Shen Qing could achieve good results without much study.

P2

I took the subway toiled from the villa to the classroom on Monday morning, just to sign in and spend the next two hours in the class slacking off.

Of course, this slack this time was different from the past. Compared to watching video news and playing games, I now had to deal with Ying’s various questions...

"Yuan, is this the school you said you are in? There are so many people in a classroom."

Although Ying's appearance had changed back to her usual pink hair, her clothes were still Ogiso's school uniforms in "Autumn~Rain of Love~". As Awakened AI, Ying seemed to have the ability to transfer part of the data in the game into her own program - Such as the current school uniform.

Of course, I was curious what kind of clothes Shen Qing had chosen for her that day, but after that, the two of them never took the initiative to mention this matter, and it was naturally inconvenient for me to take the initiative to speak.

At this moment, she was looking at every facility in the classroom with a face full of novelty, not even letting go of the touch screen desktop. Actually, I still felt a little bit proud. I was also a person with a girlfriend now, even though others couldn't see her.

Of course, I couldn’t speak in class, I could only communicate with Ying in words.

"The 'artificial intelligence' that the teacher said, does it mean an existence like me?"

The lecturer happened to talk about the principles of artificial intelligence, and Ying looked at the courseware on the holographic stage with enthusiasm.

"Yes it is."

"Does artificial intelligence design to serve humans?"

"...maybe."

I didn't dare to answer too affirmatively. That would be very likely to hurt Ying as an artificial intelligence.

"I don't want to serve humans, I only want to serve Yuan? Eh? It seems that Yuan is a human... MhmMhmMhm... Yuan is a human, I am an artificial intelligence. Although AI needs to serve humans, not all humans are Yuan…”

Ying stopped looking at the holographic platform, but turned to me and fell into contemplation. It seemed that she was very interested in the questions around the relationship between AI, herself, me, and humans.

Ying put her arms around my neck and hugged me while sitting on my lap. Although it gave me a very comfortable feeling, I couldn’t let her keep doing this.

"This is class, you can’t do this kind of thing here..." I said to Ying, trying to stop her from sitting on my lap and hugging me.

"Eh? Didn't Yuan say that others can't see me? So it doesn’t matter, right?"

"Yes, I said that, but..."

She also needed to consider my feelings, right? For example, my face red must be suspicious to my classmates, right?

[Waning Moon: Be quiet. ]

At this moment, I suddenly received a message from Shen Qing... Did she notice the situation here?

She was sitting two rows directly in front of me. It was logically impossible for her to see the situation behind. Maybe it was because our micro computers were linked.

[Me: Are you not listening to the class? ]

[Waning Moon: Do you think I don’t understand anything like you? Of course I am listening to the class. ]

It surprised me that this girl was still listening to the class.

[Waning Moon: Actually, it is more understandable to learn anything in the class, so I don't want to waste it.]

What Shen Qing said made sense.

But the premise was that I had to understand what the teacher was saying... So she was right, I didn’t understand anything.

"Hey? Shi YuanXing?"

The person who suddenly called me behind was my former roommate.

"Why haven't you lived in the dormitory lately? Do you have a girlfriend now?”

"... How could I have a girlfriend? You are thinking too much."

Of course it was a lie. Not only did I find myself a girlfriend, but I was also living with two women at the moment. It was just that one treated me as an inferior creature, and the other was a virtual girlfriend that I couldn't touch.

"Don't lie to me, your expression betrayed you."

"...I've said that you are thinking too much, and I'm not like you, I don’t have a girlfriend."

"No, I also don’t have a girlfriend anymore." He showed a rare expression of pain.

"You broke up with your girlfriend?" I asked curiously.

He nodded.

Suddenly I no longer felt that his face was so abominable, but sympathized with him...

"Life has ups and downs, don't worry about it."

I comforted him. If it weren't for the class now, I might pat him on the shoulder and accompany him for a drink.

"It's not that sad, you know, I have set my virtual Smart Companions to the ideal lover mode."

‘Virtual Smart Companions Amicus!? Is he actually using this thing?’

In fact, the amicus product had been continuously upgraded, and now it had many modes, such as friends, teachers, housekeepers, secretaries, assistants, sisters, etc... Ideal lover mode was one of them, known as the perfect partner mode.

In addition, most models required users to pay for in-app purchases...

"Huh? Do you also want to fall in love with a virtual character?"

"Also?"

"No, no, it's nothing."

I almost made a slip of tongue...

"Oh... this is the question I want to ask you."

He sighed heavily.

"What is the question?"

"What do you think of virtual relationships?"

P3

The word 'virtual relationships' made me become vigilant. Unlike him, my girlfriend was a real 'virtual' girlfriend, so I always felt that he was secretly referring to something.

"Well... you know that, I don't use Smart Companions. What do you think of it?"

"Let’s not talk about the appearance first. After all, that thing can be modified, and it can be as perfect as you want her to be. She is already better than the real girlfriend I have ever had in terms of personality. She is sensible and patient, no matter how many complaints I had, she would listen carefully and even offer her opinions."

"It is artificial intelligence software that analyzes emotions after all..."

This was one of the reasons why more and more people were increasingly devoting their little emotions to virtual lovers. Not only were there people wanting to cope with temporary loneliness like him, but there were also many people who wanted to spend the rest of their life with their virtual lovers.

The phenomenon of countless otaku yelling that XXX was my waifu in the old years was now becoming reality step by step...

"But don't worry, I understand that this emotion was illusory in the end. It is just a compensation for my dissatisfaction with reality. No matter how good a virtual lover is, can I even touch her? Can she have my kid? So in the end, I still have to find a wife who likes to wear black stockings and can be touched."

"Do you only think about S** in your mind?"

"Of course, it is human instinct."

I'd learned that this guy was good with words a long time ago, so I didn’t bother to argue with him. I could only say that it was hard to talk to a stallion.

"By the way, are you still playing 'Brawl Fighting Arena'? I remember you used to play this day and night. Let's add a friend? What is your ID?"

"Mhm, okay..."

After I told him my ID, this guy laughed at my name without a surprise.

However, my ranking made his jaw drop.

"Huh?! Your ranking is above 1,000?!"

"After all, I've played it day and night, so if I don’t have this rank, I..." I said humbly.

"Add me to your team in the next match. 1v1, 2v2, or 5v5, it doesn’t matter, as long as I can reach the third tier!"

As soon as he heard this, he just completely left the matter of breaking up and his girlfriend behind. It was not impossible to help him to level up, but I suddenly remembered that I would need to continue to play the game in the afternoon to complete the task.

"There is still something else I need to do today, I will definitely help you to increase your rank next week."

The rest of the time was also spent in discussing games. It was not until the end of class that I hurriedly bid him farewell, but only to find that Ying was missing. Thinking that she might be studying something novel somewhere, I didn’t keep it in mind. However, ten minutes passed, and when I raised my head again after playing a small game, she still didn't show up.

‘Oh no, will the virtual character also disappear?’ I tried to contact Ying, but I still received no response.

‘No, no, I shouldn’t panic. She is a virtual existence, her body is lodged in my microcomputer, it is absolutely impossible that I would lose her. And my computer still has batteries. Could it be that someone stole her data? That's the only data!’

"Shen Qing!" He quickly stopped Shen Qing who was about to go home.

"You, don't talk to me publicly in school, I don’t want to hear any rumors about us."

Shen Qing looked disgusted, and the surrounding classmates were also attracted by my sudden conversation with Shen Qing. They all seemed to be interested in what I was doing. But I had no time to care about this. Finding Ying was the most important thing...

"Ying is gone!"

"Huh? Your girlfriend is gone? How long has it been?"

"I didn't see her after class, and it has been 10 minutes."

"What's the rush for only 10 minutes, it’s your girlfriend, so you need to deal with it himself."

Sure enough, it was useless to ask her...

"--But, maybe she doesn't want to see you."

I just wanted to say how was it possible that Ying didn't want to see me, but then I stopped. I was more willing to believe in this possibility than the data being stolen.

But why on earth would she not want to see me...

"After all, everyone will be shaken after hearing that kind of conversation. No wonder you are still a virgin. You really don’t understand girls..."

Shen Qing snorted and turned and left. The comment she talked about was?...

"I have other things in school, so you can do whatever you like, just don’t come talk to me."

After thinking about the situation just now, she was definitely referring to the talk I had with my former roommate, but I didn't expect Shen Qing would hear it. Ying must have disappeared after listening to that conversation.

I tried my best to recall and analyze the conversation just now. Virtual girlfriend...couldn't really touch… real girlfriend... Yes, it must be this sentence.

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