Chapter 12

Chapter 12: The Lonely Soul

When Ji Xiaodao came to her senses, everything was over.

Over a dozen knights lay fallen alongside their warhorses in a vast pool of blood as vivid and ghastly as a hellish painting. Mo stood at the center of this abstract tableau he had woven himself, his cloak's hood lowered. He smiled, arms spread wide as if to embrace something, the upper half of his face hidden behind a black mask that only covered his eyes. His gaze was filled with unrestrained madness and a calm as deep and heavy as an abyss.

Contradictory yet harmonious...

For some reason, watching that man standing in the blood with an expression of utter enjoyment, Ji Xiaodao suddenly felt an inexplicable, unreal ache. This girl, who from birth had rarely been close to anyone besides her parents and sister, now seemed to see the soul of the person not far away—nothing but loneliness and despair.

She wanted to turn and leave, afraid that the soul, seemingly screaming in silence, might swallow her at any moment.

But she also didn't want to go, because deep in her heart, Ji Xiaodao found herself unable to abandon that figure that made her feel so lonely and desperate...

That person seemed to be rejecting this world, or perhaps... hating it...

Either way, she didn't want to just leave him behind!

[What am I thinking... This is just a game, right? That person is just a player like me. Am I overthinking this? Is my delayed chuunibyou finally kicking in or something...]

She rubbed her forehead, silently scolding herself for this sudden, unusual behavior.

By then, Mo had returned with the sole survivor among the ordinary knights—a young man with chestnut hair. Though he had taken no damage in what could only be called a massacre, he was as pale as a ghost, his right hand trembling violently as he gripped his longsword. Clearly, he couldn't accept the reality that his comrades, who he had lived with day in and day out, had been slaughtered in an instant.

"I'm going to do my own thing now. I hope you can leave immediately." Mo looked at the dark elf girl before him, whose face was stern but seemed lost in thought, and said softly, "My patience is thin. Very thin."

Ji Xiaodao bit her lip and gently shook her head. Though she had played many mental simulation games before, dragged along by her sister, this was the first time she had encountered such a terrifyingly realistic scene. An ordinary girl might have been overwhelmed and forcibly disconnected, but she quickly overcame her psychological barrier, staring stubbornly into Mo's eyes behind his mask. "What I do is none of your business!"

To her surprise, after she spoke, Mo, who claimed to have little patience, didn't raise a hand to send her to respawn as she had expected. He just shrugged and said flatly, "Fine."

Then he ignored her.

"Look at me." Mo turned to the survivor he had deliberately left alive and commanded, "If you don't want to experience a death process lasting several dozen minutes, you'd better do as I say."

The soldier, whose mental defenses had been completely shattered, lifted his head and stared blankly into Mo's eyes.

Those were indescribable eyes, as if the most primal terror swirled within them, like a tangible manifestation of... sin.

"Watch her here." Mo pointed at Ji Xiaodao, who stood nearby, and said softly to the young soldier, "Don't let her disturb me. Of course, you don't need to stop her from leaving. After I return, kill yourself."

[Original Sin]

Talent Skill

[Note: The Original Sin you represent can also corrupt others, allowing you to ignore any conditions and make the target follow one of your commands. Cooldown: 24 hours. Cannot be used on the same target again permanently.]

Although the description says 'one command,' based on Mo's tests during his last login, this talent has many hidden effects. For instance, when the target's spirit is extremely fragile, activating it can make them follow a series of commands issued within a short period, as long as they can understand them. It's very useful.

Ji Xiaodao saw the soldier's body stiffen, then he nodded naturally and replied obediently, "Okay."

He then drew his sword and walked over, standing rigidly and staring at her.

Meanwhile, Mo dragged the Knight Captain, whose right forearm had been shattered from the start, into a side alley. Moments later, he disappeared from the girl's sight.

Ji Xiaodao instinctively wanted to step forward and follow, but a longsword blocked her path.

"You can't go over there, Elf." The young man with chestnut hair said seriously, "You can stay here or leave, but you can't go over there."

Ji Xiaodao glanced at this knight, who had just been so dazed he was practically on the verge of collapse. "Are you okay?"

"I'm not." He replied lightly, "The squad I belonged to was completely wiped out. Banser City is said to be destroyed, and the Captain probably won't survive either. He always took care of me like an older brother, but..."

He calmly looked at Ji Xiaodao, "You still can't go over there."

"You're insane." Ji Xiaodao stared into his calm, unruffled eyes, unable to imagine what psychological state he was in.

"Insane?" The soldier shook his head, "No, of course I'm not insane. In fact, I've never been more clear-headed."

...

"If possible, Sir Knight Captain~" Mo leaned down and smiled at the nearly dying Knight Captain, "Please share the information you have with me."

The response was a bloody spit and a cold retort: "Why don't you go ask someone else? Like the souls of those you've killed, you bastard!"

"I made a mistake." Mo spread his hands and said, "My first stop began at the banquet hosted by the City Lord. Unfortunately, almost everyone with valuable information was present—the City Lord, the Minister of Finance, the Hereditary Count, the Chamber of Commerce Head, beautiful women, too many... In short, when I realized I needed some intel for reference~"

A chaotic light flickered in his eyes, along with something else, as he bared his teeth: "They're all dead."

"Pure Evil..." the Knight Captain sighed. "Kill me. I won't tell you anything."

"You will." Fine, dense incantations appeared on Mo's fingertips, and he chuckled lightly: "Good news for you—there's a large Dark Mage Association in Banser City. Those quick-witted folks were said to be a real headache for local law and order. That problem's been solved now. Oh, by the way, mind telling me your name?"

"Owen." The middle-aged knight's face was now pale to the point of near transparency as he stared fixedly into Mo's eyes. "I swear I will curse you!"

Mo just whistled and nodded: "I believe you will too. But before that, we have plenty of time to try out all those goodies I scavenged from the Dark Mage Association..."

...

[You have logged out of the game. Neural connection terminated. Good morning.]

The familiar dizziness washed over him as Mo Tan sat up from the Game Pod, rubbing his head. His first move was to check his phone.

AM 7:00

"If the first time was an accident, then the second time is either a problem or an incident." He muttered under his breath, then walked into the bathroom and took a quick shower. Afterward, still in his shorts, he washed a few pieces of clothing, hastily downed a couple of slices of bread, and rushed out the door.

To feed the cats outside.

Mo Tan lived in a low-end neighborhood—poor environment, inconvenient transportation, aging buildings—and it was a favorite haunt for many stray animals. Whenever he had the chance, he would squat by the neighborhood entrance in the morning to feed the cats. If he spotted any plastic bags, empty drink bottles, cigarette butts, or the like along the way, he'd clean those up too.

From this, we can see that just after waking up, he was currently in his [Lawful Good] personality. After all, in the other two states, Mo Tan would be extremely unwilling to get up early and brave the cold, let alone do some charity work on the side.

This shift in personality is hard to explain. As mentioned before, his split personality doesn't involve separate, independent selves. All personalities are Mo Tan himself. At any moment, he knows exactly what he's doing and why he's doing it—it's just a difference in mindset.

Perhaps each of us suffers from this condition to some degree. Take a simple example: maybe one day you're on a bus and see an elderly person get on. Influenced by your personality, moral values, and habitual thinking, you'd naturally offer your seat. But change the circumstances slightly, and faced with the same person in the same situation, you might make a completely different decision~

There might even be a full-blown fight, and if you run into someone clever, you might have to pay up.

Perhaps this example is enough to prove that our mindset and personality are constantly undergoing subtle changes at all times. These changes are not very obvious, but sometimes they can lead to completely different outcomes.

The same person, taking the bus or subway a hundred times, might give up their seat to the elderly, weak, sick, or disabled ninety, eighty, or seventy times—but Mo Tan is different~

His personality has never undergone the subtle shifts that ordinary people experience; instead, it is thoroughly divided into several modes.

To borrow the alignment classification from the game [Innocent Realm]...

[Lawful Good] Mo Tan would give up his seat 100% of the time, no matter the circumstances.

[Chaotic Neutral] Mo Tan would decide based on factors like his mood and the other person's looks, but this is by no means random—under identical conditions, his choice would always be a certain 100%.

[True Neutral] Mo Tan would, under the influence of what ordinary people consider standard morality, choose to give up his seat 100% of the time. Perhaps he might grumble inwardly, but in reality, that's just his follow-the-crowd personality—if most people think something is right, he'll do it; if not, he won't.

In short, at this moment, Mo Tan was surrounded by a group of stray cats, cheerfully feeding and petting them, occasionally greeting passing neighbors, helping an elderly man carry his groceries, or joining an auntie in a dance...

A model youth, plain and simple.

Then, around noon...

"Ouch!" He slapped his forehead and muttered to himself, "I didn't log into my Mo character yesterday at all. I wonder how things went with the caravan... but the caravan folks should be able to break through, right... I wonder what it'll be like when I log back in..."

Suddenly, a bitter taste filled his mouth, and he sighed as he stood up: "I have to rush to the gathering for my Hei Fan account, and my Tan Mo account has just started laying the groundwork. Being able to build multiple characters like this is clearly a protagonist-level perk, so why does it feel so miserable for me... I'm so tired from playing, and..."

The phone in his pocket vibrated.

"Sure enough..." Looking at the screen showing Buddy A, Mo Tan answered the call: "Hey, Yi Dong, what's up?"

The friend on the other end chuckled cheerfully: "What, are you in your honest-guy mode right now? Feeding cats?"

"You're the honest guy, your whole family are honest guys." Mo Tan tossed the empty cat food bag into the trash as he replied, "How did you guess my current state? I've always been curious about that."

Yi Dong said briskly, "Simple, because it's only in this state that you call me by my name properly in the first sentence after picking up the phone, instead of 'Buddy A' or some other nonsense. By the way, I tried to add you as a friend after logging in yesterday, but it didn't work. Weren't you playing?"

"It's a long story." Mo Tan, who had no secrets from him, said as he climbed the stairs, "I couldn't talk about it yesterday, but actually, I ran into a bug..."

Then he briefly told Yi Dong about his ability to create three characters, even experiencing a Personality Switch during the process. However, the other party was already used to it—aside from a shift in style, there was nothing else unusual.

"Anyway, that's pretty much it." Mo Tan said while deftly switching between computer systems, "You must have created your character too, right? Let me guess, is it Chaotic Neutral?"

Yi Dong exclaimed in surprise, "Damn, you're amazing! How did you guess that?"

"Nothing special..." Mo Tan replied casually, rapidly typing on the keyboard, "You're just too shallow and carefree. A little deduction was all it took."

Yi Dong let out a dry laugh and said helplessly, "Alright, we're basically complete opposites anyway. My in-game name is Deep Frost, and I'm planning to go the Ice Mage route. I'm a level 3 mage, Eternal Race, currently located at Icewind Castle. I haven't found out anything else."

"What the hell is the Eternal Race?" Mo Tan chuckled, "Zombies?"

"You could say that." Yi Dong replied with a sour tone, "Basically, my character's soul is attached to my character's corpse. Luckily, it doesn't look much different from when I was alive... Anyway, forget that. How about we meet up in the game?"

Mo Tan rolled his eyes, "I still haven't figured out exactly where my characters are."

"Player Independent Space." Yi Dong said, "Didn't the official website announce it earlier?"

"We'll see." Mo Tan squinted slightly at the screen, "I'll hang up now. I'm a bit busy..."

Putting down his phone, he pressed his hands on the desk, leaned forward, and brought his face close to the monitor, muttering to himself, "I might have underestimated you too much... Futaba!"

Chapter 12: The End