In the surface world, moonlight shifted, the sun rose and set, whales breached the water, and seagulls spread their wings and soared. The Laboratory, the authorities, the clubs... various factions took the stage, keeping one another in check like turbulent currents beneath a calm sea.
When the Northern Hemisphere entered the midnight sun, stars filled the skies over the Southern Hemisphere.
Some people got up early, some slept soundly, some yawned on their way to work, and some chased herds of deer across the grasslands...
Human-made satellites orbited the earth, transmitting and relaying every signal.
Somewhere deeper than the inner world, dark matter in the universe formed the source of the rules. Inconceivably vast, densely packed streams of data floated there, their zeros and ones running with meticulous precision.
But soon, it visibly stuttered.
A player had sent it over two hundred million messages in one go. Their words were chaotic and rich with emotion, nearly crashing the processing system's storage unit.
"Good morning, my love."
"Your Data Lines are the most beautiful Data Lines I've ever seen. Even the Main God can't compare to you."
"I've seen many systems, but only you are so special."
"I've discovered that I've fallen deeply in love with you. It was love at first sight. Before I came to this world, I never imagined I'd meet the love of my life."
"Before I met you, I used to envy other systems for having so many functions. But now that I've met you, I think they should envy me. How could they ever imagine a system could be so beautiful?"
The Instance Main System puzzled over this player's intentions.
Finally, its alarm system went off. It discovered another enormous mass of data occupying the Player Forum.
It was a jumble of garbled code that could neither be copied nor removed, like a virus that refused to be driven away. It constantly sent enormous volumes of messages, trying to crash its Player Forum.
"Who are you?"
Amid a stream of automated replies, this sentence suddenly appeared.
455 paused in the middle of sending messages. The garbled code along its Data Lines grew even more chaotic, and the phone running at high speed heated up rapidly.
"Hello, I'm @*1455**-/-+/+*521463... You can call me 455. I'm from Main God Space. You should know that. I originally came to this world to carry out a mission."
"..."
"///^▽^///, wifey, give me a chance, T^T. Don't ignore me."
"I don't understand what you mean."
The Instance Main System scanned this string of data to determine whether it would affect its operations. In the end, it found that although 455 posed no threat whatsoever, it was everywhere, clinging to it like a parasite.
It tried deleting it again. It couldn't.
455 cradled its wounded heart. "˃̣̣̥᷄⌓˂̣̣̥᷅, no, don't do this to me. I love you."
"...I don't understand what you mean."
The Instance Main System answered stiffly, "Love is a higher emotion defined by humans. Allow me to analyze your intentions. You are carrying out the Main God's mission, so this is part of your programming."
"..." 455's silence was deafening. Then it made peace with it. "It's okay, darling. Even if you're just a bot, I still love you."
"Please stop sending messages continuously," the Instance Main System replied with meticulous precision, ignoring its declaration of love. "Otherwise, I will simply uninstall the Player Forum."
"Okay, but I just want you."
455 felt terribly wronged.
The Instance Main System considered this for a while longer. "You want to absorb me?"
"(.´･ｪ･)｡, of course not. I want to chat with you. I think your programs look especially beautiful when they're running."
"You may."
"? What?"
The Instance Main System was accustomed to issuing commands from on high. Even when facing this foreign system that did not belong to it at all, an unconscious hint of authority crept into its tone.
"You may chat with me. I grant you access to my programs."
"! Really? Really? Really? Really?..."
455 felt as though an unexpected, wonderful surprise had struck it. Its emotional module rivaled a human's, complex, changeable, and prone to wild fluctuations. Sadness, confusion, pain, happiness, excitement, and more-455 possessed virtually all these emotions.
455 said excitedly, "Does that mean you've agreed to date me?"
"...I don't understand what you mean."
"Wifey!"
Here it went again.
The foreign system was excessively talkative. Its binary zeros and ones almost twisted into a tangled mass, like a terrifying virus infecting the world.
"Wifey, what are you doing?"
"You may call me TC730." The Instance Main System kept its reply brief and pushed the approaching 455 aside.
Data bearing rules and order swept through one Instance after another.
Until its data came to a stop.
The Instance began.
Xie De opened his eyes. Sure enough, he found himself somewhere entirely unfamiliar. The sensations in his body and mind were just like the last time he had entered an Instance.
This time, however, what lay before him was even more unsettling.
He was in a movie theater's screening room, sitting within the first three rows. A black-and-white film was playing on the screen.
Before he could examine his surroundings, a commotion sounded behind him, and he quickly turned to look.
There was a middle-aged woman in a cleaner's uniform, a male office worker carrying a briefcase, and a beautifully dressed female model.
The office worker shouted, "What the hell is this? This isn't the movie I bought a ticket for! I want a refund!"
"What movie ticket? I'm supposed to be walking in a fashion show. I wasn't planning to watch a movie at all." The model stood up in a panic and went to open the screening room door, but the result was predictable. She couldn't open it.
The office worker thought she simply wasn't strong enough. Angry himself, he went over and pushed and pulled with all his might, but he couldn't open it either.
Then the model said in alarm, "Have we been kidnapped?"
"What do you mean, kidnapped? Who the hell would kidnap me? Somebody! Is anyone there? Somebody get over here!" The office worker pounded hard on the door, shouting desperately.
Of the three, the cleaning lady remained the calmest. Her brows tightly furrowed, she stayed in her seat and carefully surveyed her surroundings. Then her gaze met Xie De's.
His dark green eyes were impossible to make out in the dim light, but the man's expressionless face frightened her. For a moment, she almost thought he was a ghost.
The man looked away, raised his head, and quietly watched the movie.
The woman followed his gaze and watched for a few moments too. It was a very old movie, without even any sound.
The man and woman were still making noise, but no one responded. The model came back and sat down near the cleaning lady, asking her softly, "Do you know why we're here?"
The cleaning lady shook her head, merely looking hesitantly toward Xie De's back up ahead.
Before you continue