Chapter 43
Chapter 043 Ethical Issues
For a moment, he even doubted if Xia Xinyan could read minds.
It made him feel a fleeting panic.
Then he switched to his old virgin shyness: “N-no… that’s not necessary, right?”
As soon as he said that, he realized it sounded rather unhygienic. After a moment’s thought, he added, “This is in the game, right?”
Xia Xinyan’s smile remained unchanged: “Life is also in the game, you know? Sometimes, we have to pay attention to the sense of ritual in life, right?”
“Is that so?” Ling Mo paused, unsure how to respond.
A sense of ritual in life? He never thought of life having any rituals.
But if it’s what Xia Xinyan wanted… it wasn’t impossible.
No, no, no… regardless, bathing in a game is just too weird, right? It’s not a life simulation.
Besides, in life simulation, you don’t even bathe or sleep yourself…
“Ah…” Ling Mo’s mental storm raged for nearly a minute before he snapped back to reality, hesitating, “But this game can really allow bathing? Isn’t there any scale restriction?”
He had checked the game rules before, but he still found that a bit strange.
“Nope,” Xia Xinyan squinted slightly, a hint of something mysterious in her eyes, “In this game, you can do… anything.”
—Unfortunately, Ling Mo didn’t get her hint: “Isn’t such a broad allowance going to get a warning from the Optical and Electrical Regulatory Bureau?”
Xia Xinyan: “…”
“What about the game’s background?” Ling Mo pondered seriously on this point, “Isn’t this a big problem? You can bathe in the game without revealing your privacy? The GM or the game company should be able to access dungeon recordings, right? So wouldn’t we be seen doing anything?”
Xia Xinyan paused for a moment, shook her head: “You’re overthinking it. The game doesn’t save any dungeon recordings. Players can save recordings or live stream, but only from perspectives they can perceive themselves, to prevent various kinds of cheating and the privacy leaks you mentioned.”
“Is that what the game developers said?” Ling Mo frowned slightly, “It’s not that I’m saying anything, I just… have some doubts. Developers can say whatever they want; who can know what their settings really are?”
Xia Xinyan: “…”
Why does this guy love to get hung up on such things?
Just now, he had that bit of old virgin awkwardness, but now he was drifting away from that state because of this line of thought.
What can she say? She can only think he’s a fool.
While inwardly muttering, she patiently explained to Ling Mo: “Don’t worry, a company that can create such a game won’t do such small tricks; there’s no need. In other words, our bodies in the game are just models provided by the game. Since we created our characters, the game has our character models. If they wanted to, would they need to wait for us to do these things ourselves?”
Besides, only those confident players would likely choose to shape their characters to look like themselves.
Like fat guys.
Moreover, whether the game’s developers or the company behind it are even human remains uncertain; why would they care about a few players’ bodies?
No way.
Yet Ling Mo still struggled: “It’s not the same, the developers using models is different from our self-initiated actions.”
“…Do you really have to fixate on this?” Xia Xinyan didn’t want to discuss it anymore, “If we keep talking, we’ll get into philosophical territory.”
Like whether doing it in the game actually counts as doing it in reality.
Just like that kiss she invested in before, she thought of it as not being a real kiss, which is why she could send it away. The disconnect between the game’s early stages and reality was too strong; most of the time, it was just for fun. If one were to take it seriously, then it wouldn’t be necessary.
She never liked to think about philosophical questions.
Neither did Ling Mo.
Of course, the main point was that he finally realized Xia Xinyan seemed a little unhappy: “I was just thinking of having some fun… But maybe we shouldn’t bathe since we don’t have clean clothes, and who knows what might happen tonight…”
“I know, I know… it was just a joke,” Xia Xinyan yawned, turned around, and flopped down on the bed, then lay there motionless.
This guy was really no fun.
Who thinks about philosophical issues right in the middle of being teased?
In other words, who after checking into a hotel with a girl lays around thinking about life instead of getting down to business?
Like Liu Xiahui?
At least Liu Xiahui still cuddled the girl to keep warm.
Pfft.
If she were in Ling Mo’s position, she’d definitely want to push things forward first and then talk.
…Okay, maybe she’d have a similar reaction as Ling Mo.
Tch, the more she thought about it, the more annoyed she became.
Ling Mo had no clue what she was thinking, but he could feel her mood was quite off, and it felt somewhat inexplicable.
Did he do something wrong?
Was it the previous doubt about Xia Xinyan that upset her?
He felt it was okay; it was a reasonable doubt, after all.
Hiss… women are truly hard to understand.
The long night passed with such an atmosphere half gone.
The second half of the night was Ling Mo keeping watch, but honestly, he hadn’t really slept much during the first half. After all, lying in the same room with Xia Xinyan, even if not on the same bed, was quite a thrilling experience for him; just breathing the air felt like a heart-pounding endeavor—because the air seemed to carry Xia Xinyan’s scent.
Rather than saying it was delightful, it felt more like torture.
—Mainly, he was just a coward; if he had been braver, it would have really been delightful.
He knew this point, but he just couldn’t muster up the courage. What could be done?
Sighing, he quietly got up from the bed and left the room.
After leaving the room, he felt a little more at ease.
The fat guy was still sitting dumbly in the corridor. After all, there wasn’t any mobile network in the game to kill time, so to avoid falling asleep, he had been familiarizing himself with his abilities for half the night.
When Ling Mo came out, the fat guy was rubbing a ball of electric arc in his hands, from left hand to right, and then from right hand to left…
Like he was performing some circus trick.
“Hey there, bro! How’s the rest?” As soon as he saw Ling Mo come out, the fat guy dispersed the electric arc and scuttled over, whispering slyly, “Pretty delightful, right?”
“Don’t say that,” Ling Mo shook his head, “You should go to sleep; I’ll keep watch now.”
“It’s fine, I’m not sleepy at all; just right to chat with you to avoid making you drowsy,” the fat guy was completely unconcerned, as if they were still in high school buddies mode, “Hey, how’s university been for you these past few years?”
“What do you mean?” Ling Mo glanced at him sideways.
“This game, I busted my butt getting one of the first batch of qualifications and got a Game Pod; you have no idea how hard it was—who would’ve thought I’d run into you on my second try, and you brought your girlfriend too. You’re totally winning at life, bro!” The fat guy sighed deeply, “I’m envious as hell; I want a girlfriend to play games with me too.”
After a pause, without waiting for Ling Mo to reply, he seemed to remember something and suddenly perked up: “Oh right!”
“What is it?” Ling Mo was startled by his sudden enthusiasm.
“I almost forgot,” the fat guy threw an arm around Ling Mo’s shoulder, leaning in close he whispered, “Your girlfriend’s ability is to transform into a catgirl, right? With animal ears and that kind of thing?”
“…”
Then the fat guy became even more indignant: “Dammit! Why can’t I meet a girlfriend like that? If I could, would I still be in this state?”
“…”
