Inexplicable Gathering

The ratio of mental simulation time to real-world time is 2:1.

This ratio isn't unique to Innocent World; most similar products follow suit. Human thought and mental reality can't be fully realized in reality, but by converting them into data, a 'theoretical fast-forward' can be achieved, maximizing thought efficiency.

However, the scope of this landmark discovery is far too broad. To avoid veering off-topic and getting lost in endless detours, let's get back to the main point.

After a simple calculation, Mo Tan roughly deduced that there seemed to be an issue with the time ratio between reality and the game. In other words, according to normal logic, it should be around 5:00 AM, not 7:00 AM as his phone indicated...

"Did I experience a gap in time, or is this device malfunctioning?" Mo Tan frowned, currently in his most normal personality, so his way of thinking was more conventional.

However, after pondering for a while without success, Mo Tan decided to get himself something to eat first. After all, he hadn't had anything substantial since noon yesterday and was starting to feel uncomfortably hungry.

He didn't forget his doubts, but temporarily excluded the question mark from his list of priorities, planning to think about it when he had time.

Although there were few things that Mo Tan couldn't figure out, if something truly inexplicable came up, he wouldn't necessarily dig to the bottom of it. After all, intense thinking was a hassle, and many problems couldn't be solved even with an answer. So, why bother?

Mo Tan's home wasn't large; it took less than a minute to walk from the living room to the kitchen. He quickly cooked himself a bowl of noodles, considering it breakfast, and from starting the stove to placing the bowl next to his computer, it didn't even take ten minutes.

Cooking was an essential skill for single men living alone. Although Mo Tan's condition was quite lively, he still fell into this category, so he had a certain level of culinary skill. While he wouldn't make anything costing over two hundred yuan, he was steadily improving in the realm of low-cost cuisine. One of his few friends had even made the bold statement: "I actually tasted happiness in your rotten vegetable noodles and plain boiled porridge! So please, go get a personality change."

Starting his computer, Mo Tan slurped his noodles while opening the Innocent World forum. Although the new game hadn't been heavily promoted, it had still gathered a following on its first day of release. Even someone like Mo Tan, who initially planned to "return it after the 24-hour trial," had abandoned the idea, showing just how appealing it was.

Compared to those mainstream games with extremely high freedom, where you can become a god or demon with a little spending or grinding, trampling all NPCs underfoot, and only being inferior to those who spend or grind even more, Innocent World was quite unforgiving to players.

Aside from a limited ability to adjust appearance and choose a name, everything else—faction, race, birthplace, and talents—wasn't determined by the player. Moreover, the NPCs in the game were not only highly realistic but also had distinct personalities. If your attitude was even slightly off, being ignored was the least of your worries; being beaten up or slashed with a sword wasn't uncommon.

Humans are like that: yearning for freedom under the constraints and rules, but when 'freedom' truly arrives, they instead long to be restricted and confined.

And Innocent World is a world full of constraints, but at the same time, it gives you another kind of 'freedom'.

Because in this game, you don't feel like a player, but rather like a part of the world.

While browsing the forum, Mo Tan ate his noodles and occasionally made comments like, "So human nature is inherently cheap," "You wouldn't die if you didn't play Innocent World during the day!" and "Damn, the death penalty is that severe!"

That's right, the death penalty in the game was quite severe, not just something simple like running back to your corpse, dropping a coin, or waiting a few dozen seconds to revive on the spot.

The official hadn't announced this detail about the death penalty beforehand, but countless players had personally proven and experienced it last night. If their words were summarized, it could be described in six words: extremely poor gaming experience!

After death, besides character talents and soul-bound items, all class levels, attributes, and the like are reset to zero, and you randomly revive somewhere on the Innocent World continent, starting over in a place where no one knows you.

"Isn't that the same as deleting your character and starting over!" Mo Tan was also taken aback. Although he had expected that 'death' in this game wouldn't be simple, he didn't expect it to be so... stimulating...

But only in this way would players cherish their lives more, and the result would be the revelation of their true selves. After all, if death was just a matter of running back to your corpse for some people, even if that person was afraid of death, it wouldn't stop them from putting on a noble facade in the game, sacrificing themselves, or being bravely heroic to boost their own image.

Then, at eight o'clock that morning, the official released a statement with the following content:

[Innocent World] is a complete world, so it has no instance system.

[Innocent World] tries to make everything real, so it has no party system.

The native lives of [Innocent World] are very smart, so please value NPCs.

[Innocent World] is still a game after all, so there is an independent player space.

[Innocent World] values economic development very much, so it supports the transaction system.

[Innocent World] hopes that players will drive the story, so there are no expansion packs.

The main system of [Innocent World] is very powerful, so... the programmers say they are not responsible for any additional responsibilities.

A stone stirred up a thousand waves, and the official forum almost exploded instantly...

But Mo Tan didn't continue to pay attention, for two reasons.

First, he finished eating; second, he... well, his personality switched...

The Chaotic Neutral him didn't like wasting time reading other people's nonsense. Instead, he thought it would be better to wander around places like churches during Christmas, preferably chatting with believers and messing with them a bit.

Of course, he wouldn't really do that, because Mo Tan was afraid that he would uncontrollably switch to another personality again and accidentally be persuaded to convert to a religion. Although he was an atheist, he was also a kind person. Those fanatical believers were capable of doing crazy things like holding a knife to their own necks to make you believe in their god...

Mo Tan reluctantly washed the dishes and then checked his mental state, confirming that he wouldn't drastically change his personality for a while (don't ask me how he did it). He picked up his phone, casually replied to a message, and then softly counted: "Five, four, three, two..."

Buzz buzz buzz~~

The phone he was still holding vibrated, and the name on the caller ID was: Buddy A

In fact, Mo Tan's phone contacts were mostly names like this, such as: Buddy A, Buddy B, Buddy C, Henchman A, Henchman B, Undercover A, Classmate X, Balding Teacher, Menopausal Teacher A, Fly, etc., with unclear meanings...

Although Mo Tan always had the urge to change them to normal names when he was in a more serious personality, after a disastrous phone theft incident, he had to admit that doing so was very useful. At least he didn't have to spend more than half a month helping some idiot who had been swindled out of hundreds of thousands of yuan get his money back, and then complete a counter-extortion.

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

"If you call me that again, I'll take you to Africa for poverty alleviation while you're still a good young man!" The buddy... the man on the other end of the phone said unhappily.

Mo Tan shrugged: "I have no objection, but after I come back, I might register your photos and personal information on various gay dating sites, uh, with a global bilingual introduction."

"Brother Tan, I was wrong! You can call me Gay Buddy A if you want!" The man on the other end of the phone immediately backed down, because Mo Tan... at least the current Mo Tan could definitely do such a thing, and his execution was off the charts!

Mo Tan whistled: "Alright, Comrade Yi Dong, what's up?"

[Yi Dong]

Race: Human

Gender: Male

Faction...

Sorry, wrong script~

Yi Dong was a good friend Mo Tan made at the orphanage, and one of the few people in this world who unfortunately knew about Mo Tan's split personality. However, unlike the latter, Mo Tan was a true orphan, while this young master was different. Seemingly due to some very superstitious (in Mo Tan's eyes) reason, he was thrown into the orphanage by his parents when he was one year old, and then taken back home five years later, saying that the child's karmic debt had been cleared or something...

"Crazy!" That was Mo Tan's evaluation of Yi Dong's family. He also felt indignant for his friend, but Yi Dong himself didn't really care. On the contrary, he felt that being able to meet a freak like Mo Tan at the orphanage wasn't without its rewards.

As for why the orphanage would take in a child whose parents, not to mention great-grandparents, were still alive and who came from a wealthy family, the reason was simple: because they were wealthy!

As the saying goes, money makes the world go round!

By the way, Yi Dong and Mo Tan were also classmates, from high school to university.

"There's some meaningless gathering tonight, come with me!" Yi Dong didn't waste any time and got straight to the point.

Mo Tan asked doubtfully, "Don't you have class tonight?"

"One of my aunts is on the board of trustees," Yi Dong said indifferently. "I can just say hello and be done with it."

"Heh, the rich are different, with all their connections," Mo Tan said disdainfully. "Us commoners are so scared!"

The young man on the other end of the phone immediately got angry, "Hey! You, the bastard who only shows up for exams since the first day of school and always gets perfect scores, have no right to say that to me!"

"Yes, I do, because my IQ is my own," Mo Tan retorted. "Everything should be based on real talent and learning. If you manage to seduce the principal through your own efforts and get her to give you the green light, I won't look down on you."

"Bro! You're my real bro!" Yi Dong said frantically. "Our principal is almost eighty, give the old lady some face! And I'm not that picky!!"

He took a couple of deep breaths and brought the topic back, "I'll drive to pick you up this afternoon, okay?"

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

"Why?" Yi Dong asked. "Do you have something to do?"

"First of all, I want to play a game, and that game can only be played at night," Mo Tan said. "Secondly, you said it yourself, it's a 'meaningless' gathering, so it's bound to be troublesome, and while I don't mind trouble now, it doesn't mean I won't mind it then, you understand?"

Yi Dong was silent for a while, then said, "I understand the latter part, after all, your mental state is quite something, but you said that game that can only be played at night... uh... bro, you know there's a saying called 'impregnable fortress turns to ashes'..."

"If you dare to finish that sentence, I'll find some people to impregnable fortress you tomorrow," Mo Tan threatened. "I'm just playing a game, it only supports sleep mode."

"Oh! That's rare, tell me about it later!" Yi Dong said with a laugh, then his speech became rapid, "Listen, I promise to send you home before twelve o'clock, consider me owing you one today, the main thing is that the gathering is mostly strangers, and I'm a bit afraid of awkwardness. If you're there, at least I'll have someone to talk to. We'll talk about the specifics when we meet this afternoon, bye!"

Beep beep beep...

"This grandson is getting more and more outrageous..." Mo Tan shook his head and sighed as he listened to the dial tone in his phone. "He used to be such a simple and honest kid! Sigh, whatever."

Since Yi Dong had already said the words 'owing you one', Mo Tan didn't plan to refuse any further. Besides, he was never one to stay idle. Just because he had a small social circle didn't mean he was antisocial or reclusive. He wasn't very resistant to attending an event with some rich second-generation where he could probably get a good meal.

But since he had decided to go, he had to prepare.

"It's better to go in my current state..." Mo Tan said softly to the mirror while washing his face. "'Meaningless' gathering, it should be quite interesting, right~"

Then, he deliberately brought out his other personality, changed his clothes, and went to do Christmas charity work in the neighborhood.

In the afternoon, when Yi Dong drove over in his SSC-13, which Mo Tan called the 'original sin of capital', Mo Tan had already returned to his Chaotic Neutral personality mode, listlessly sprawled on the sofa in a daze.

"Are you sure you don't want to change your clothes?" Yi Dong looked at Mo Tan's cheap outfit that cost no more than a hundred yuan in total and asked, "I remember you have a suit, right? I'm afraid it'll be awkward later, after all, it's my first time meeting those people too, and I don't know what they're like."

Mo Tan pointed in the direction of the closet, "Haven't worn it in too long, it smells musty."

"Then..." Yi Dong asked tentatively, "How about I get you..."

"If you're planning to buy me a brand name outfit that's enough for my food expenses for several years," Mo Tan looked at Yi Dong with narrowed eyes, "You might as well buy me an apartment first, then get me a flashy car like yours, and introduce me to a princess from the United Arab Emirates as my wife, one whose old man has terminal cancer."

Of course, Yi Dong could understand what Mo Tan meant. To be honest, except for the part about having a father with terminal cancer, which was a bit difficult, he could handle the rest. But Yi Dong had no doubt that if he really did that, Mo Tan would send his information and photos to all the gay dating sites worldwide, with real-time updates to his contact information.

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

An hour later, the two appeared on the second floor of a top hotel in the city, heading towards a private room with the number 666 on the door.

Chapter 6: The End

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