Inexplicable Gathering

The time ratio between mental simulation and real time was 2:1. ...

Not only Innocent World, but most similar products followed this example. Human thoughts and consciousness could not be fully manifested in reality, but if they were converted into data, "theoretical fast-forwarding" could be achieved, thereby maximizing mental efficiency.

However, the scope involved in this milestone discovery was simply too broad. To avoid going too far off-topic and taking such a long detour that we could never return, let us get back to the point.

After performing a few simple calculations, Mo Tan roughly deduced that something seemed wrong with the time ratio between reality and the game. In other words, if everything were calculated according to normal logic, it should currently be around five in the morning, not seven as his phone indicated...

"Did a section of time disappear for me, or is this device malfunctioning?" Mo Tan frowned. He was currently in his most normal personality, so his way of thinking was relatively conventional as well.

However, after pondering for quite some time without reaching a conclusion, Mo Tan decided to get something to eat first. After all, he had not eaten a thing since noon the previous day and was already so hungry that it hurt.

As for this doubt, he had not forgotten it. He merely set the question aside for the time being and excluded it from his main concerns, planning to think about it again when he had time.

Although there were now very few things Mo Tan could not figure out, if a problem truly appeared that he could not explain for the moment, he would not dig into it relentlessly. High-intensity thinking was troublesome, and many questions could not be solved even after finding their answers. So why bother?

Mo Tan's home was not large. It took less than a minute to walk from the living room to the kitchen. He simply cooked himself a bowl of noodles to deal with breakfast, and from turning on the stove to carrying the bowl to his computer, the whole process took less than ten minutes.

Cooking was one of the essential skills of a single man living alone. Although Mo Tan's illness was rather lively, he still technically belonged to this category of creature, and thus possessed a certain level of culinary skill. He could not make a dish whose ingredients cost more than two hundred yuan, but he had steadily advanced through the halls of low-cost cuisine. One of his few friends had even once given him the fierce review: "I actually tasted happiness in your rotten-vegetable noodles and plain boiled porridge! So please, go get a sex change."

After starting up the computer, Mo Tan slurped his noodles while opening the Innocent World forums. Although this newly released game had not been promoted particularly heavily, it had still gathered a certain following on its first day of sale. Even someone like Mo Tan, who had initially planned to return it as soon as the twenty-four-hour trial period ended, had abandoned that idea. Its appeal was obvious.

Compared with mainstream games that offered extremely high freedom, where a little spending or grinding allowed players to slay gods and demons and trample every NPC beneath their feet, only falling short when they encountered someone willing to spend or grind even more, Innocent World could be said to show players very little consideration.

Aside from adjusting their appearance to a certain extent and choosing their names, players had no say whatsoever in their faction, race, birthplace, or talents. Moreover, not only were the game's NPCs highly humanized, they all had distinct personalities. If your attitude was even slightly poor, ignoring you would be the mildest outcome. There had also been cases of NPCs beating players up or drawing their blades and cutting them down.

Human beings were always like this. Bound by all kinds of restrictions and rules, they yearned for freedom, but when "freedom" truly descended upon them, they instead hoped to be bound and limited.

Innocent World was such a world filled with restrictions, but at the same time, it gave you another kind of "freedom."

Because in this game, you did not feel like a player. You felt as though you were part of the world itself.

While browsing the forums, Mo Tan ate his noodles and occasionally made a comment or two, such as "So human nature really is cheap~~" and "There's no Innocent World during the day, and you're telling me to die? Go ahead and show me!" or "Holy crap, the death penalty is that severe?"...

That was right. The game's death penalty was extremely severe. It was not something as simple as running back to your corpse, losing a coin, or waiting a few dozen seconds to revive on the spot.

As for the details of the death penalty, which the official side had not announced beforehand, countless players had personally proven and experienced them last night. If their words were summarized, it could probably be summed up in six characters: "A truly awful gaming experience!"

After death, aside from character talents and soul-bound items being retained, all class levels, attributes, and similar things were completely reset. The player would then revive at a random location somewhere on the Continent of Innocence and start over in a place where nobody knew them.

"That's basically deleting your character and starting over!" Mo Tan was shocked. Although he had expected "death" in this game not to be simple, he had not imagined it would be so... exciting...

But only this way could players truly cherish their lives. What followed was the revelation of their true selves. After all, if death were merely a matter of running back to one's corpse, then even if someone treasured their life and feared death, it would not stop them from putting on a noble act in-game—staying behind, throwing their lives away, or displaying fearless valor—to raise their own coolness.

Then, at eight that morning, the official side released a statement. Its contents were as follows:

Innocent World is a complete world, so it has no dungeon system.

Innocent World strives to make everything realistic, so it has no party system.

The native lifeforms of Innocent World are highly intelligent, so please take the NPCs seriously.

Innocent World is still a game, after all, so it has private player spaces.

Innocent World places great importance on economic development, so it supports a trading system.

Innocent World hopes players will advance the story, so it has no expansions.

Innocent World's main system is extremely powerful, so... the programmers state that they accept no additional responsibility.

A single stone stirred up a thousand waves. The official forums practically exploded in an instant...

But Mo Tan did not continue paying attention. There were two reasons.

First, he had finished eating. Second, he had... well, changed personalities...

This version of him, Chaotic Neutral, did not like wasting time listening to other people's nonsense. Compared to that, he felt it would be better to wander around a church or someplace similar during Christmas, find a believer to chat with, and cause them a little trouble~

Of course, he would not actually do that. Mo Tan was afraid that if he uncontrollably changed personalities again, he might accidentally be persuaded to believe in religion, which would be troublesome. Although he was an atheist, he was also a kind person. Those fanatical believers could do insane things for their lord—even holding a knife to their own necks to make you believe in him...

After washing the dishes with an unwilling expression, Mo Tan briefly checked his mental state. Once he confirmed that he was unlikely to undergo a drastic change in temperament for a while—don't ask me how he did it—he picked up his phone, casually replied to a message, and then quietly counted, "Five, four, three, two..."

Bzzzz~

The phone in his hand began to vibrate. The caller ID read: Buddy A.

In fact, Mo Tan's phone contacts were basically filled with names like these: Buddy A, Buddy B, Buddy C, Lackey A, Lackey B, Undercover A, Classmate X, Bald Teacher, Menopausal Teacher A, Fly, and so on. Their meanings were unclear...

Although Mo Tan often felt the urge to change them all back to normal whenever he was in a more serious personality, after experiencing an unfortunate phone theft, he had to admit that this method was quite useful. At the very least, it had spared him from spending half a month helping an idiot recover tens of thousands of yuan he had been defrauded of, followed by carrying out another anti-extortion operation.

"Hey~ Hello, Buddy A~~" Mo Tan answered the phone with a grin.

"If you call me that again, I'll take you to Africa to alleviate poverty while you're still a model young man!" the male voice on the other end said irritably.

Mo Tan shrugged. "I don't mind. But after we come back, I might post your photos and personal information on various gay dating sites. Bilingual introductions, worldwide."

"Brother Tan, I was wrong! Don't call me Buddy A—call me Gay A if you want!" The man on the other end immediately cowered. Mo Tan—or at least the current Mo Tan—was absolutely capable of doing such a thing, and his execution was terrifyingly efficient!

Mo Tan whistled. "All right, Little Yi, what do you want?"

Yi Dong

Race: Human

Gender: Male

Faction...

Sorry, wrong channel~

Yi Dong was a friend Mo Tan had met at the orphanage, and one of the few people in this world unfortunate enough to know about Mo Tan's dissociative identity disorder. Unlike the latter, Mo Tan was a true orphan, while this young master was different. Apparently, for some extremely superstitious reason—in Mo Tan's eyes—his parents had abandoned him at an orphanage when he was one year old, only to take him back five years later, claiming that the child's bad karma had been dispelled and so on...

"Crazy people!" That was Mo Tan's evaluation of Yi Dong's family. It also contained an element of him standing up for his friend, but Yi Dong himself did not care much. Instead, he felt that meeting the oddball Mo Tan at the orphanage had not been without its benefits.

As for why the orphanage had taken in a child whose parents—and even great-grandfather—were alive and who came from a wealthy family, the reason was simple: he came from a wealthy family~

As the saying went, enough money could make a ghost turn a millstone!

Incidentally, Yi Dong and Mo Tan were also classmates—middle-school and university classmates~

"There's a meaningless gathering tonight. Come with me!" Yi Dong got straight to the point without wasting words.

Mo Tan asked in confusion, "Don't we have class tonight?"

"One of my aunts is on the school board," Yi Dong said indifferently. "A word from her will take care of it."

"Heh heh, rich people really are different. Those connections~" Mo Tan sneered. "A commoner like me is terrified!"

The young man on the other end immediately blew up. "Hey! You bastard who has only attended exams since the first day of school, and gets full marks every time—you have no right to say that about me!"

"No, I do have the right. After all, my intelligence is my own." Mo Tan replied, "Everything should depend on genuine ability. If you seduce the principal through your own efforts and get her to give you the green light, I won't look down on you anymore."

"Brother! You're really my brother!" Yi Dong was frantic. "Our principal is almost eighty! Show the old lady some respect! Besides, I'm not that undiscerning!!"

He took two deep breaths and brought the topic back. "I'll drive over to pick you up this afternoon. What do you say?"

"No." Mo Tan answered lazily. "I don't want to go with you."

"Why?" Yi Dong asked. "Are you busy?"

"First, I want to play a game, and that game can only be played at night," Mo Tan said. "Second, you called it a 'meaningless' gathering, so it's clearly going to be troublesome. Although I don't mind trouble right now, that doesn't mean I'll still tolerate it by then. You understand, right?"

Yi Dong was silent for a long while before saying, "I understand the latter part. Your mental state is pretty weird, after all. But that game you can only play at night... Uh, buddy, have you heard the saying about sails and oars turning to ash..."

"If you dare finish that sentence, I'll find a few people tomorrow to turn your sails and oars to ash." Mo Tan threatened him. "I'm only playing a game. It only supports sleep mode."

"Oh! That's rare. Tell me about it later!" Yi Dong laughed, then spoke rapidly. "Anyway, I guarantee I'll get you home before midnight. Consider today one I owe you. The gathering is mostly strangers, and I'm not good with awkward situations. With you there, at least I'll have someone to talk to. We'll discuss the details this afternoon. That's all, bye!"

Beep, beep, beep...

"That bastard is getting more outrageous..." Listening to the dead tone from his phone, Mo Tan shook his head and sighed. "He used to be such an innocent, honest kid~ Sigh, whatever."

Since Yi Dong had said he owed him one, Mo Tan no longer planned to refuse. Besides, he was not the type to sit still. Having a small social circle did not mean he was antisocial or withdrawn, and he did not particularly object to attending an event with a rich second-generation heir if it sounded like he could mooch a good meal.

But since he had decided to go, he needed to make some preparations.

"I'd better go in my current state..." Mo Tan murmured softly at the mirror while washing his face. "A 'meaningless' gathering should be pretty interesting, right~"

Then he deliberately guided out another personality, changed his clothes, and ran out into the neighborhood to do Christmas charity work.

That afternoon, when Yi Dong drove over in the SSC-13 that Mo Tan called "the original sin of capitalism," Mo Tan had already returned to his Chaotic Neutral personality mode and was sprawled listlessly on the sofa, staring blankly into space.

"You sure you don't want to change your clothes?" Yi Dong looked at Mo Tan's cheap outfit, which had cost less than a hundred yuan in total. "I remember you have a suit, don't you? I'm worried it'll be awkward later. It's my first time meeting those people too, and I don't know what they're like."

Mo Tan pointed toward the wardrobe. "I haven't worn it in too long. It went bad."

"Then..." Yi Dong asked tentatively, "Why don't I get you..."

"If you're planning to buy me some brand-name clothes that cost several years of my food expenses..." Mo Tan narrowed his eyes at Yi Dong. "You might as well buy me a house first, then get me a flashy car like yours. While you're at it, introduce me to a princess from the United Arab Emirates as a wife—one whose father has terminal cancer."

Yi Dong could naturally hear what Mo Tan meant. Honestly, aside from finding a father with terminal cancer, he could manage everything else. But Yi Dong had no doubt that if he really did so, Mo Tan would post his information and photos on every gay dating site in the world, complete with constantly updated contact details.

"Forget I said anything~" Yi Dong sighed. "If you don't need to get ready, then let's go."

An hour later, the two of them appeared on the second floor of a top-class hotel in the city and walked toward the private room whose door bore the number 666.

Chapter Six: End