Kronos's floating body slowly landed, the surrounding wind gradually subsided, and the Ghost that had been peeking out in the distance floated out again, seemingly hesitating whether to come over.
"At first, I regarded you as a wise man because you were full of wisdom. Your ideas were often beyond my comprehension, yet they always made the world's order more reasonable. Later, I regarded you as a friend who could understand God, or rather, my only confidant. At that time, I longed to talk to you about everything, but you always distanced yourself from me, and I had to maintain God's dignity."
"When I realized that beyond our world, there was a larger world that contained us, I began to wonder if you came from that world. Tell me, Butterfly of Deep Space, who exactly are you?"
Golden hair tinged with silver cascaded down his back, and a snow-white robe flowed around the tall body of Kronos like drifting clouds. He looked down at the Butterfly of Deep Space, his eyes filled with both divine radiance and human curiosity.
Bian Ziyuan had never paid attention to Kronos's eyes before. When he designed this NPC, he simply found some images of Greece mythology online and made some modifications to suit the game's art style. Because he wasn't an art major, the character design was a bit rough and monotonous. But now, looking closely, he found that Kronos was very different from the original design. Although the overall appearance hadn't changed, his facial expressions and movements were much richer, and the emotions contained in his eyes were astonishing.
"I am a wandering knight!" Bian Ziyuan insisted on his in-game identity. "I will bring light back to this dark world!"
"Oh, yes, you are a ranger, a fantastical adventurer, burdened with a sacred mission. But you are much more than that; you must have another identity," Kronos said. "An identity I myself am unaware of."
Bian Ziyuan asked, "How do you know?"
Kronos said, "Well, first of all, you adventurers are a strange bunch. You often travel day and night on your missions and quests, but sometimes you just stay in one place and do nothing but eat and sleep all day."
Bian Ziyuan knew that what Kronos was referring to was actually the online and offline status of players. When they were online, playing for a few hours could feel like months had passed in the game world, but once they went offline, from the perspective of the game world, that person became a lazybones who only ate and slept, or even a hibernating monster.
"Just a short while ago, at least seven or eight adventurer teams were traveling around the world," Kronos continued. "But, I don't know what happened, suddenly, all those teams stopped at the same time, as if by prior arrangement. Only you—you're still walking. You used a time-space scroll to come here to find me. I think you must have something to say to me. Please don't tell me that what just happened was just a coincidence."
A Ghost broke away from its party and drifted over along the mountainside. Of all the monsters in the entire game world, Bian Ziyuan hated this kind the most—they had high health and high evasion, and even if you managed to kill them, they wouldn't drop anything good.
He clicked the mouse lightly on the Ghost, and the archer in the party immediately fired an Ghost at it. The Ghost nimbly dodged the arrow and stopped a short distance away, as if eavesdropping on their conversation.
Seeing that the Ghost was no longer approaching, Bian Ziyuan ignored it and asked Kronos, "What would you think if I admitted to coming from another world?"
"That's wonderful," said Kronos. "Please tell me what your world is like. May I go and see it?"
Bian Ziyuan fell silent. It wasn't that he was unwilling to answer Kronos's question; on the contrary, he was more than willing. Kronos was the intelligent program he had compiled, the artificial intelligence he had created. He was willing to tell Kronos everything about this world.
However, he didn't know how to tell Kronos.
A universe that has existed for billions of years, life that has evolved for hundreds of millions of years, humans that have survived for millions of years, and a civilization that has developed for thousands of years are not so easy to explain. Concepts like computers, the Internet, and games are even more difficult to explain. As for Kronos's suggestion to come and see this world, that is even more impossible.
How can we help him understand human society and that he is merely an artificial intelligence created by humans?
Bian Ziyuan fell into deep thought.
Taking advantage of its momentary lapse in attention, the Ghost drifted over and formed a triangular formation with Kronos next to the group of Butterfly of Deep Space. If the Ghost were to launch a sudden attack at this moment, it would cause immense damage, potentially even killing the weakest wizard in the group.
But the Ghost didn't seem to intend to attack; it just hovered there quietly like a passerby. Kronos ignored it, still waiting for the Butterfly of Deep Space to reply.
Bian Ziyuan had many ideas, such as compiling evolutionary theory, global history, or the Encyclopaedia Britannica into the game as myths and legends within the game world, allowing Kronos to learn them on his own. However, this was a massive undertaking, not something you could simply copy and paste from a Word document.
After much deliberation, he realized this was the only way forward, so he said, " Kronos, my world is extremely complex and cannot be explained in just a few words. You wait, next time I will incorporate information about my world into this world in the form of myths and legends."
"What did you say?" Kronos didn't quite understand.
"Hmm, it's just..." Bian Ziyuan found even this difficult to explain. Changing the mythological system here, or adding a new mythological legend, was itself changing the rules of this world. "How about this, I'll modify the game to create a few incomprehensible celestial books here. When you see these celestial books, you'll naturally understand them."
"Oh!" Kronos nodded solemnly. "You mean you can change this world? Who is the supreme god of this world, you or me?"
"Damn it!" Bian Ziyuan cursed inwardly, pressing F5 to save the game with lightning speed. He knew he had said the wrong thing; Kronos couldn't possibly be intelligent enough to understand what he had just said, and such words would only enrage him. In this game world, Kronos had the highest authority and could easily destroy everything, including the players.
Sure enough, after a moment of contemplation, Kronos suddenly roared, "I am the only true god here! If you wish to surpass me, go back to your world!"
He extended his hand, hidden in his white long sleeve, raised a finger, and pointed it to the sky. A bolt of lightning descended from the sky and struck the location of the Butterfly of Deep Space.
Bian Ziyuan saw that the player's avatar at the bottom of the screen had turned into a grave, so he quickly paused the game and loaded the save. He was secretly glad that Kronos had only used the lightning attack and not his unique spell, Annihilation. If Annihilation had been used, all information about that player would have been erased from the server, leaving no record.