Chapter 34: Second Scenario: Movie Theater

In the Outer World, the moon cycled and the sun rose and fell. Whales leaped out of the water, seagulls spread their wings and soared. Laboratories, official organizations, clubs... various factions made their appearances one after another, keeping each other in check, like the surging waves beneath a calm sea.

When the polar day appeared in the Northern Hemisphere, the Southern Hemisphere was dominated by a starry sky.

One group of people woke up early, another group slept soundly. One group yawned on their way to work, another group chased herds of deer on the grasslands…

The satellites manufactured by humanity orbited the Earth, responsible for the transmission and transport of all signals.

In a place even deeper than the Inner World, the dark matter in the universe formed the origin of the rules. An unimaginably massive, dense cluster of data floated around, with 0s and 1s operating meticulously.

But soon, it experienced a visible stutter.

A player had sent it over two hundred million messages in one breath. The wording was chaotic and full of emotion, nearly paralyzing the processing system's storage unit.

"Good morning, my love."

"Your data cables are the most beautiful I've ever seen. Not even the Main God can compare to you."

"I have seen many systems, but only you are so special."

"I find myself deeply in love with you. It was love at first sight. Before coming to this world, I never imagined I would meet the true love of my life."

"Before I met you, I envied other systems for having so many functions. But now that I have met you, I think they should envy me, because how could they ever imagine a system being so beautiful."

............

The scenario system perplexedly analyzed this player's intentions.

Finally, the alarm system sounded. It discovered that there was actually another massive lump of data occupying the player forum.

It was a pile of gibberish, impossible to copy, impossible to remove. It was like a virus that couldn't be driven away no matter what, constantly sending it massive amounts of messages at all times, striving to crash its player forum.

"Who are you?"

Amidst a pile of bot-like responses, this sentence suddenly popped up.

Gibberish paused in its messaging. The gibberish on its data lines became even more chaotic, and the high-speed operating mobile phone heated up rapidly.

"Hello, I am @1Gibberish*-/+/+*521463... you can call me Gibberish. I come from the Main God's Space. You should know this, I originally came to this world to do a mission."

"......"

"///^ ▽ ^///, Wifey, give me a chance, T^T, don't ignore me."

"I don't understand what you mean."

The scenario system scanned this string of data to see if it would affect its own operations. It finally found that although Gibberish posed no threat to it at all, it was like maggots clinging to bones, omnipresent.

It tried to delete it again, but couldn't.

Gibberish clutched its wounded heart.

"(╥╥), no, don't treat me like this, I love you."

"...I don't understand what you mean."

The scenario system replied rigidly, "Love is a high-level emotion defined by humans. Please let me analyze your intentions. You are completing the Main God's mission, so this is your program setting."

"..." Gibberish's silence was deafening. Then, it let it go.

"It's okay, my dear. Even if you are a machine, I still love you."

"Please stop your behavior of constantly sending messages," the scenario system turned a blind eye to its expressions of love, replying meticulously, "Otherwise, I will simply uninstall the player forum."

"Okay, but I just want you."

Gibberish felt extremely aggrieved.

The scenario system thought for a while again.

"You want to annex me?"

"(。・・。), of course not. I want to chat with you. I think your program runs exceptionally beautifully."

"Okay."

"? What?"

The scenario system was accustomed to issuing orders from high above. Facing this foreign system that completely didn't belong to it, its tone unconsciously carried a bit of dominance.

"You can chat with me. I permit you to access my program."

"! Really? Really? Really? Really?..."

Gibberish felt like it had been hit by an unexpected surprise. Its emotional module was comparable to a human's. Complex, changeable, and easily feeling anxious, sad, confused, pained, happy, excited, and so on. Gibberish practically possessed all these emotions entirely.

"Do you mean you've agreed to date me?" Gibberish said excitedly.

"...I don't understand what you mean."

"Wifey!"

Here it goes again.

The foreign system talked far too much. The binary 0s and 1s almost twisted into a ball, like a terrifying world-ending virus.

"Wifey, what are you doing?"

"You can call me TC730," the scenario system said concisely, pushing aside the approaching Gibberish.

Data carrying rules and order swept past one instance after another.

Until its data came to a halt.

Scenario opened.

............

Xie De opened his eyes. Sure enough, he found himself in a strange place. The sensations in his body and mind were just like the last time he entered an instance.

However, this time, the things in front of him were even more unsettling.

He was in a screening room of a movie theater, sitting in the first three rows. A black-and-white movie was playing on the screen.

Before he could even inspect his surroundings, a burst of noisy sounds came from behind. He quickly turned his head to look.

It was a middle-aged cleaning lady in uniform, a male corporate slave carrying a briefcase, and a very beautifully dressed female model.

The male corporate slave yelled loudly.

"What is this thing? The movie ticket I bought wasn't for this! I want a refund!"

"What movie ticket? I have a fashion show to walk. I never intended to watch a movie." The female model stood up in a panic. She walked over and tried to open the door of the screening room, but the result was as one would expect. She couldn't open it.

The male corporate slave thought it was because she was too weak. Filled with anger, he also walked over, pulling and pushing vigorously. He couldn't open it either.

At this time, the female model said, flustered and confused, "Could we have been kidnapped?"

"What kidnapping? Who would want to kidnap me? Is anyone there? Is anyone there?! Help!" The corporate slave banged on the door forcefully, screaming desperately.

The calmest of the three was the cleaning lady. She frowned tightly and didn't leave her seat at all, carefully observing the surroundings. Then, she met Xie De's gaze.

The dark green eyes were completely unseeable in the dim environment. It was just the man's expressionless look that frightened her, making her almost think he was a ghost.

The man retracted his gaze and quietly looked up to watch the movie.

The cleaning lady took the opportunity to glance at it too. It was a very old movie, and it didn't even have sound.

The man and woman were still making noise, but there was no response at all. The female model walked back and sat in a seat near the cleaning lady, asking her in a low voice.

"Do you know why we are here?"

The cleaning lady shook her head, just hesitatingly looking ahead at Xie De's back.