½ Prince

Chapter 11: The Great Patch – translated by Starie

After I had dragged Fairsky, Sunshine, Jing, and Yun into the room urgently, I rested my hands on Fairsky’s shoulders and said very solemnly, “Fairsky, you cannot love Sunshine.” I ignored Jing and Yun for the time being as they stood on the sidelines. Upon hearing my words, they were so surprised that their eyes looked like they were about to pop out of their heads.

Fairsky opened her mouth and then closed it again, before finally managing to spit out a single word: “Why?”

I knitted my eyebrows tightly, looking at Sunshine and wondering whether or not to reveal the fact that he was an NPC. In response Sunshine knitted his eyebrows in the same way.

“Allow me to explain, Prince,” Sunshine said in a pained voice.

“Then tell me, why can’t I love you?” Fairsky asked with a trembling voice. “I refuse to believe…I definitely refuse to believe that you don’t have any feelings for me. After all, we’ve gotten along so well these past few days, haven’t we?”

Gotten along really well? When did this happen? I thought, frowning.

“No wonder the chances of us seeing Fairsky around Dàgē have been lower recently. She was actually off falling in love with someone else,” Yun muttered to himself before the “two” females, Jing and I, quickly covered his mouth.

“But I have no way to love you. I can’t possibly love you, I…” Sunshine hadn’t even finished his sentence when he was suddenly forcefully kissed by Fairsky. He was so shocked that his arms waved frantically, trying with all his might to push Fairsky away. But the game’s cruelty was in play here – a mage’s strength cannot compare to a thief’s.

Meanwhile we, the three outsiders, stared open-mouthed at Sunshine as he was forcefully kissed without any guilt in our consciences. Then the scene which often appears in romance novels simply unfolded before our eyes: The person being forcefully kissed (usually the female lead, but in our situation it happened to be the opposite) begins by struggling for a while, but when they can’t pull away, they helplessly allow themselves to be kissed, until finally they even begin to tightly embrace the person who is forcefully kissing them… Now Jing, Yun, and I stared dazedly at Sunshine and Fairsky hugging and French kissing each other, the two looking deeply intoxicated.

“Such deep feelings, how moving!” Jing took out a handkerchief and began wiping questionably genuine tears away from the corners of her eyes.

Yun patted my shoulder, winked and said, “Dàgē, it’s not as if you need Fairsky, so why don’t you just give her to Sunshine?”

“Don’t need, my foot. That’s not the point; the point is that Sunshine isn’t even human!” I yelled loudly. These two best friends of mine hadn’t even grasped the circumstances!

As I finished yelling, I noticed that Jing and Yun were staring directly behind me while wearing exceedingly awkward expressions. I turned around and saw that Fairsky had finally broken off that long make out session while I was speaking and was now standing behind me, visibly fuming.

*SLAP* I was hit across the face with a force so great that I nearly sprained my neck.

“I misjudged you, Prince. Even if I don’t like you any more, you shouldn’t insult Sunshine and say that he isn’t human.” Fairsky held back tears, her disappointed gaze fixed upon me.

This is a huge misunderstanding. I wasn’t insulting him, I was only pointing out the truth, I thought, rubbing the painful area of my cheek.

“Fairsky, Prince is telling the truth, I really am not human,” Sunshine said with great difficulty.

“Sunshine, why are you insulting yourself as well?!” Fairsky’s expression changed to extreme disapproval as she shouted at Sunshine.

Sunshine held Fairsky’s shoulders tightly and, with a level of agitation I had never seen before, said, “I’m not insulting myself, Fairsky. I am not of the human race: I am only a self-aware NPC.”

Fairsky froze for a long time. Then, with a tone of tremendous disbelief, she faintly said, “What did you say?”

“I am an NPC,” Sunshine repeated, sounding pained.

“That’s impossible. That’s utterly impossible. How can you be an NPC? You’re lying to me!” Fairsky yelled. “Even if you don’t like me, you don’t have to lie to me like this!”

“Fairsky, this is the truth. Sunshine and Kenshin are both my humanoid pets. The difference between them and regular NPCs is that they’ve achieved self-awareness.” I sternly shattered Fairsky’s last shred of hope. Short term suffering…is better than long-term suffering, right?

“How can this be…?” Fairsky kneeled weakly on the ground, her tears falling like a broken string of pearls and her choking sobs heartbreaking to hear.

Aside from allowing Fairsky to cry to her heart’s content, there was nothing else we could do, so we stood dumbly off to the side.

“Fairsky…” Sunshine knelt down next to her with a dismayed expression and Fairsky buried herself in his chest, crying her heart out.

“I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to intentionally hide it from you.” Sunshine embraced Fairsky dearly, his eyes filled with infinite regret.

“It’s your fault! It’s all your fault for deceiving me!” Fairsky began to violently and uncontrollably pound her fists against Sunshine’s chest, howling in sorrow. “How can this be?! I even thought that I had finally found my true love! You big liar, why were you being so nice to me? So nice to the point that I couldn’t help but fall in love with you, and only then do you tell me that you’re an NPC! How do you expect me to accept all this?!”

“I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have tricked you.” Sunshine could only apologize profusely, his haggard expression a startling sight to behold.

Seeing this pair, one crying like a waterfall and the other continuously blaming himself, I felt pity towards them, and couldn’t help but open my mouth to comfort Fairsky. “Fairsky, it’s not like Sunshine was doing it on purpose. Even though he’s an NPC, I’m sure his feelings for you are real and that he really wasn’t deliberately trying to hide it from you. So there’s no need to blame him anymore.”

Beyond all expectations, Sunshine unyieldingly replied, “No, this is precisely my fault. No matter what, I shouldn’t have allowed Fairsky to get her feelings hurt.”

As Sunshine finished speaking, the sound of Fairsky’s sobs suddenly faded. She lifted her head with a captivated expression and the look in her eyes…was one that made my hair stand on end, as it had the sort of determination shown when putting one’s life on the line.

“Sunshine, when all is said and done, do you love me or not?”

Sunshine gave a beautiful, mournful smile. (The description is strange, but believe me, there are no words more suitable.) “Is it possible for me to love somebody? Fairsky, I am only a sequence of numbers, a computer program. I don’t understand love, nor do I know whether or not I can love someone.”

Fairsky looked directly at Sunshine. “Do you like being together with me?”

Sunshine stiffened slightly, and then nodded his head.

“Aside from me, is there anyone else whom you have the same feelings for?”

Sunshine firmly shook his head.

“Then, ignoring everything else, would you be willing to stay with me forever?” Fairsky’s expression was one of extreme yearning.

Sunshine considered this very seriously, and as I said before, he cannot tell lies, so he earnestly replied, “I am willing. In fact, it’s one of my greatest desires to be able to spend an eternity with you, Fairsky.”

This is bad! My internal alarm began ringing incessantly.

“Then I am willing as well,” Fairsky said with a resolute expression. “I don’t care if you’re a human or not. To me, you have more emotions than a human. I don’t care whether or not you understand love. If you don’t, then I will help you to understand it.”

“But Fairsky, I don’t have forever, and there is no way for me to stay with you forever.” Sunshine had a happy but worried expression. After all, he was living a life that wasn’t really a life, merely bound to a game system.

“People say it’s ok that we don’t have forever, it’s more than enough that we have this time together. Regardless of what the future might be like, right now I just want to be with you! Do you understand?” Fairsky asked.

“I understand.” Sunshine’s smile was as radiant as his namesake.

“Uwaah, what a speech! Just live in the present. It’s so moving!” Jing held a handkerchief and was desperately blowing her nose.

“Ay, this is just fate, Dàgē, so don’t rain on their parade any longer!” Yun patted my shoulder once again.

Hearing those two spouting nonsense, Sunshine and Fairsky spun around, looking at me with frightened yet longing expressions. It was the type of expression made by a daughter who is scared that her evil stepmother won’t let her marry the person she loves… Hey, don’t get me wrong, do you really think I’m that cruel?

I was also moved and so after robbing Jing’s handkerchief and blowing my nose with it, I said in a sobbing voice, “Since neither of you have any objections, do as you please.”

“That’s wonderful, Sunshine!” Fairsky grabbed Sunshine, and then hugged and spun him around in circles, before once again forcefully kissing him.

Fairsky, show some reservation… If not, at least consider the fact that there are three singles watching right over here. This kind of lovey-dovey display will only make us die of envy.

“Prince, what on earth happened?” Lolidragon’s voice suddenly came up on the PM channel, giving me a huge fright. “I just heard a very strange rumor.”

“You’re talking about Fairsky being in love with Sunshine, right?” I replied helplessly, watching the happily spinning and kissing couple.

“So it’s true?” Lolidragon sounded dumbfounded, as though she had just heard that her Chanel brand products were fake. “Have you told her that Sunshine is an NPC?”

“I told her, but after she finished crying, she said she didn’t care and the two of them are currently reveling in the celebration of their love.”

“Celebration, my foot!” Lolidragon abruptly bellowed, almost deafening me. “This situation is very serious! Think about it; even if Second Lifecould exist forever, the news that Sunshine is self-aware can get out at any time. If Sunshine then gets erased, what would Fairsky do?”

“But those two said they don’t care about what happens in the future and just want to live in the present…” I frowned, thinking, Even if they did say that, if Sunshine were to disappear then Fairsky would definitely be very heartbroken, wouldn’t she?

“And also, no matter how self-aware Sunshine may be, he is still only a sequence of numbers. Perhaps he simply cannot understand the meaning of love.” Lolidragon’s tone grew progressively worse.

I considered this calmly. “I think he understands.”

“How would you know—?”

I interrupted Lolidragon and said with conviction, “Fairsky is very sincere about this, and I think that if Sunshine doesn’t understand what love is, there’s no way that he could have made Fairsky fall in love with him this seriously. There’s nothing we can do about it.”

Lolidragon was silent for a while, before slowly saying, “No matter what, this situation is bound to end up in tragedy, Prince.”

“Maybe a miracle will happen.” I gave a speculative look at the couple drunk with happiness, although even I was not putting much faith in the chances of such a miracle happening.

“Okay then, we’ll leave Fairsky’s situation alone for now. After all, we don’t have any other ideas.” It seems as if Lolidragon has more she wants to say?

Lolidragon took a deep breath before continuing. “Prince, I have something important to tell you: Second Life is going to have a great patch.”

“A…great…patch?” I repeated as I froze. A patch? I haven’t even played through the game thoroughly and it’s already going to have an update patch?

“Yeah, and the biggest change is that the three pre-programmed cities, Sun, Star, and Moon, are going to be opened for player invasion,” Lolidragon said excitedly, “Right now everyone is discussing which city they’ll invade first, and they all agreed that they will wait for the liege lord’s decision. Prince, can we capture Star City? I love the European feel of Star City!”

“We’re going to invade cities?” My expression changed slightly. Infinite City has only just finished construction and we already have to invade more cities? Seems like I really have a life of hard work; I can’t even rest for half a moment.

“Yes, ‘Infinite City’s Liege Lord’, and this time you better not sneakily disappear again,” Lolidragon replied mockingly.

I shrugged. “As long as Nan Gong Zui doesn’t ask me to go drinking again, I think I can obediently stay in Infinite City this time.”

[½ Prince Volume 4 Chapter 11 End]

Footnotes

“…say that he isn’t human”: 不是人 (bú shì rén), literally “Not human”. This is a common insult in Chinese that means the person doesn’t have any human conscience anymore, or that the person is an animal.

“The description is strange, but believe me, there are no words more suitable.”: This a real sentence from Yu Wo. The description is strange in Chinese because it is usually used to describe a female smile.