Chapter 59: Pretending to Die

Lin Han was lying on the ground, on a blanket spread out on the soft grass.

Alfred sat beside him, using his body to block the sunset light for him. When he turned his head to look at him, the outline of his face was blurred by the large patch of orange-red sunset in the sky, with furry edges, looking particularly soft.

His eyes were very dark and dim, and the pupils were almost indistinguishable. They were like two deep pools of water, with only a few ripples appearing when he blinked.

"Are you still scared?"

Perhaps because Lin Han was slow to answer, Alfred asked again.

This time, he lowered his voice even more, as if Lin Han in front of him was a fragile sugar man who would break if blown by the wind or even a loud noise.

"If you're scared, you can continue to rest. Come back when you're mentally prepared. I'll always be there for you, don't worry."

Like coaxing a child.

It was a very warm evening. The sun had not yet set, and the residual heat was still swirling in the air. The chill and moisture in the ground were still on the way up. When the wind blew, it was so comfortable that one had to squint their eyes. They could close their eyes and take another nap at any time.

But Lin Han couldn't really sleep any longer.

He wasn't a child, and closing his eyes in front of Alfred would only embarrass him.

"No," Lin Han pushed the hair that had been blown into her eyes behind her ears and sat up. "I thought it was Chenchen waiting for me."

He spoke subconsciously because he felt a little uncomfortable being stared at by Alfred, so he had to say something in response, but he felt even more embarrassed after he finished speaking.

He only said a dozen words, but these ten words revealed a message that was not very friendly to Alfred - he, Lin Han, thought that it was Jiang Xuchen who had been waiting for him by the side, so he felt guilty and went online. But if he had known that it was Alfred who was waiting for him, he might not have come.

In fact, if Lin Han really knew that it was Alfred who was waiting for him, he might not have felt so guilty. He would have sat on the sofa and thought for a few minutes before going to sleep.

Lin Han looked away in annoyance, and a light laugh came from his ear.

Alfred: "The young master is very busy. He left first because of something."

Alfred was a very perceptive person and it was impossible for him not to hear the subtext in Lin Han's words just now, but he spoke very naturally, as if he didn't notice it at all, and even made excuses for Jiang Xuchen.

Whether Lin Han passed away as soon as he closed his eyes at that moment, or he had just left for a few minutes, it could be that he "left early for something". According to Lin Han's understanding of Jiang Xuchen, it was probably the former, because the child was too lazy to even walk and was never someone who would let himself be wronged.

Lin Han lowered his head: "Oh."

He and Alfred should be relatively familiar with each other, but not too familiar. The main reason is that Lin Han sees him too seldom, and Alfred pays more attention to him alone. Moreover, compared with Alfred's image, Jiang Xuchen, the soft child, and Su Fu, the person with maximum affinity, can make him feel closer.

Lin Han couldn't help but start thinking about whether he should quit the game again at this time. Fortunately, he was just thinking about it. He was also afraid that the next time he came in, it would be the same scene, and Alfred would still be guarding him. Then he would be really embarrassed.

From the time he left the game to the time he returned, almost a day and a half had passed. During the time he was outside the dungeon, the flow of time inside and outside the dungeon seemed to be about the same. This meant that Alfred had been guarding him here for nearly a day and a half...

The NPCs in the New World game have a high degree of freedom, and their algorithms are very flexible, almost indistinguishable from real people. If it weren't for the need to guard him, Alfred wouldn't have to be restrained here for so long. Just thinking about it, Lin Han felt a little guilty.

This is the difference between holographic games and ordinary PC games. Players can no longer treat the NPCs they encounter in the game as paper people. Even in PC games, some people will shed tears with real emotions, let alone holographic games. At least Lin Han can't do it.

But Liu Guoqiang's words suddenly popped up in his mind, hoping that he would return to the game as soon as possible. The reason for saying that...

Lin Han turned to look at Alfred.

He was taller than Lin Han, so when sitting he had to lower his head to see Lin Han's eyes. His gaze always stayed on Lin Han and never moved away.

Lin Han asked, "Were you the one who just went to the meeting?"

It was said that during the game in the new world, players could not mention "non-game" content, but Lin Han wanted to give it a try now, and he did say it without any obstruction or warning.

Alfred: “No.”

Lin Han's eyelids twitched and he quickly turned his head back.

When Lin Han first entered the new world to draw a character, he felt that Alfred seemed different from the guides other players had met. He wondered if he was played by a real person, but that was just a thought and he quickly rejected it. It was not until now that Alfred answered without hesitation that Lin Han realized that he was not wrong.

He is not an ordinary game NPC, he is controlled by a real person.

He knows what's going on outside.

"Don't be nervous," Alfred stood up. "I'm glad you're still willing to participate in our internal test, Lin Han."

The light stretched his shadow longer, and Lin Han was almost completely shrouded in his shadow. When his name was called, he looked up in fear. Alfred looked down at him, and he was almost completely turned into a black shadow with his backlight, and his expression became eerie and strange because of the blur.

Lin Han: It’s over, I don’t even want to act anymore…

"After comprehensively evaluating your performance in the first two dungeons, we've made some adjustments and updates to your game mode."

"Young Master said you're a very kind person, and I agree. You have a gentle soul, easily immersing yourself in stories, and you also adhere to the bottom line."

Lin Han pursed her lips and said nothing.

It was still dusk and he had just woken up. Not much time had passed and it was not yet getting darker, but he just felt that his surroundings were becoming uneasy.

Somehow, Alfred started praising him. Lin Han knew that he was a good person, so what should he do?

“So you need a little bit of a disconnect.”

"A feeling of...disconnection?" Lin Han repeated with some doubt.

Alfred held out his hand to him, presumably to pull him up.

He wore white, fitted silk gloves on his hands, and his fingers were long and slender, wrapped in the cloth without looking bulky.

Lin Han didn't reach out his hand immediately. He was really nervous until his vision suddenly flickered a few times like snowflakes. He shook his head, and his vision was still flickering. He blinked hard again, and everything finally returned to normal.

When he looked up again, a new, slightly bright outline began to emerge from Alfred's fingertips, and his entire body was surrounded, as if... he was chosen.

[Whether to use a unique perspective for this character]

This sentence was not clearly displayed in front of Lin Han, nor did it hinder Alfred in front of him in the slightest, nor did it ring in his ears like a system prompt.

It appeared directly in Lin Han's mind and was received by his consciousness.

Lin Han didn't even have time to speak, nor did he silently mutter to himself in his heart away from Alfred. He just subconsciously gave it a positive answer the moment he realized the existence of this question.

Thoughts follow the heart.

In front of Lin Han, Alfred, who was maintaining the posture of slightly bending over and extending his hand towards him, disappeared, replaced by a cabbage that Lin Han was somewhat familiar with.

Compared with the one Lin Han remembered, it seemed to be thinner and longer, and therefore the green part of its leaves was larger, but of course it was still within the reasonable range of a normal cabbage.

The hand it stretched out in front of Lin Han was still there, and its five fingers were even more finely divided, pointing to four cracks on a leaf. However, the edges of the cracks were smooth and slightly curled, not the diseased yellow color, and looked very healthy.

You have to know that the cabbage holding the scissors was so crudely modeled that it didn't even have hands, it just used its leaves to wrap around the scissors.

Lin Han looked up further and saw its face.

Its face also has a simple expression made up of lines. Two short curved lines with arcs are the eyes, and there is an even shorter straight line, probably the mouth, without any arc at all.

Alfred had always spoken to him in a gentle tone, and he seemed to be smiling before. Lin Han didn't remember it clearly, but since he met Alfred, he always had that smiling expression.

Whether it was true or false, his mask never broke.

But now in Lin Han's eyes, he has become a cabbage, with smiling eyes and emotionless mouth corners.

Perhaps to answer Lin Han's doubts, Bai Cai spoke in Alfred's voice.

"Lin Han, congratulations on passing the entrance exam. This is your exclusive perspective as a reward for completing the game. As long as you want, you can transform anyone you choose into whatever you want. You don't need to be afraid during the rest of the game."

Because he has lost his human image, Lin Han can treat the game as his imagination and do whatever he wants without any psychological burden.

He will know that he is in a game, and Lin Han will be calmer after separating himself from his fear.

Perhaps because Lin Han was slow to extend his hand, Bai Cai retracted his hand, which had been empty for a long time, and squatted beside Lin Han again. However, the roots underneath him looked quite clean and white, so even if he squatted down, he would not descend more than five centimeters.

Lin Han still had to look up at it.

"So, what do I look like in your eyes now?"

It was really hard for Lin Han to imagine that such a gentle voice could come out of the mouth of such a cabbage, and that such a soft voice, even with a laugh, would eventually disappear in that flat and smooth line.

Alfred always pretends to be a nice guy with a warm smile, but he is actually not happy at all.

The person may be smiling on the outside, but the cabbage may not even be smiling on the inside.

He was pretending to be dead.

Is this what they call a sense of disconnection?

Upon discovering this, Lin Han couldn't help laughing.