Who touch my tails?!! Chapter 72

6.1 - It was once again an eye-catching tragedy

After experiencing nurous deaths, Xue Ling had learned to deal with the feelings left over from the previous world before arriving at the next world. After all the superfluous thoughts were cleared out, he beca much more accepting towards the new world, and would not be as easily stimulated by the new plot.

Nevertheless, Xue Ling was still angry when he opened his eyes.

Oh, it couldn't be considered as opening his eyes. He didn't even have a physical body right now, and was floating in the network as a bunch of code and data.

The system that had fully integrated into the network system appeared as a small fox and pleaded with its host, "Didn't we already discuss giving lord host the opportunity to practice?"

"Practice?"

"Yes, changing from data to human form is also a form of practice."

"… This also counts?"

"It's the sa. Imagine your own appearance, and then slowly, bit by bit, build up your body's details. Be careful not to make any mistakes, otherwise we will have to rewind and start over, and if the main server finds out, it'll be ga over."

As soon as it spoke, the cluster of data in front of it began to change. The code seed to rotate around him like it was blown up by the wind, and very soon, a person appeared before it.

The system was a bit confused. It hadn't expected its host to be able to put its words into practice right away. Heaven knows that it had still been talking, and hadn't told him to go ahead and start! They hadn't even gotten the plot yet, and its host had already created his body. What if it didn't match up with the plot?

Oh… They had never been in line with the plot anyway.

He was still made out of virtual data, but looking at him gave the system a particularly realistic feeling. Previously, he had always appeared as a soul, and because his strength was not condensed, Xue Ling seldom showed his true face. Now, its host was showing his true appearance for the first ti.

The feeling was difficult to describe. The system had seen all kinds of beauty on its host, but when it saw the face that that pair of eyes truly belonged to, it was left speechless. Clearly they were only pieces of data, and it would be able to see even if it covered its eyes, but it still lifted its paws to block its eyes in a mont of shyness.

The person in front of it had nine beautiful tails waving behind him, long silver hair that stirred on its own even without a breeze, and was wearing a white robe. He appeared like an elegant and modest gentleman, but when one t his eyes, the word 'gentleman' would be thrown out the window in an instant.

This was a demon.

Yes, the type that could destroy countries and bring about calamities.

He had a pair of slightly slanted fox eyes, and eyebrows that tilted upwards. Perhaps due to the influence of his wilful and capricious disposition, his entire person looked a little uninhibited. His thin lips were extrely red, and also reflected his indifferent and fickle nature. The tear moles at the corners of his eyes were like ornants, adding the finishing touches to his face, and making him seem alive instead of like a painted picture. A person like this, with such a face, was still tolerable at a glance, but when he moved and beca vividly alive, it would absolutely leave the vast majority of people speechless and breathless in wonder.

It was an extraordinary level of attractiveness that only an extraordinary person would be able to afford.

The system covered its small eyes as it reviewed its host's body from head to toe, and then spoke in all earnestness, "Host, you were very successful this ti. So, do you have ti to take a look at the plot?"

Xue Ling stretched out a hand and moved. It felt very good to have his own body back again. Although it was only composed of data, it still made him happy. "Plot? Am I not myself in this world?

"No… Although you're completely out of sync now…"

"Fine, send over the plot and my identity."

Perhaps because he was within an ocean of data, the transmission process was very simple, and Xue Ling easily understood what kind of life he was supposed to have led.

It could also not be considered a 'life', because he was just a series of data, a bunch of code that had its own thoughts and ideas.

To put it another way, he was an artificial intelligence existence that had not yet been discovered. Although his ability was not high, and still needed to depend on a ga in order to exist, he already realized that he was only an illusory thing and was extrely eager to have what he couldn't possibly have.

For example, a body. Or better yet, love.

This was a ga world. To be more precise, it was a holographic virtual reality ga.

Currently, the ga had not officially opened, which was why all he could see was data code. Only when the ga opened up and began to accept gars would things begin to appear before his eyes, and the link he secretly established to the ga would also open.

Star Year 808, Cosmos Baba Ga Company developed a holographic online ga called 'Seal the Devil' that was lauded as second world of mankind. Ever since then, online virtual reality gas were no longer a topic of debate and contention and entered an era of unity and acceptance. Countless people regarded online gas as a second world, and broke through the barrier dividing gas from reality to live in the online world.

Seal the Devil was set in the ancient tis, during the Battle of Gods.

———— Opening Chapter: God's Funeral

During the Battle of Gods, there were countless deaths and injuries. Blood flowed freely, but the number of people who could achieve godhood and beco gods was limited. Tens of millions of souls carried grievances in death, and began to stir up trouble over the Divine Land.

The strength of the gods had been greatly affected by the battles, and even those who achieved godhood would require a lot of ti and many years to recover their cultivation. In order to ensure that they would have enough ti to rest and live on, they had no choice but to seal these grievances in the Abyss of Buried Gods.

Many years later, a young man ca out of the Abyss.

Strengthened by his trendous grievances, he stepped forward and took revenge against the gods!

———— Prologue: Seal the Devil

The land of Jiuzhou was full of spiritual energy. There were countless immortal cultivators aiming to beco gods, but the young man who ca out of the abyss completely changed the continent.

Countless people had fallen and died, and now the mainland was divided into two camps.

In Ninth Heaven, the youth who had killed the Divine Emperor wiped the blood off his face and laughed wildly. "You all can beco gods, but I can seal the devil, and can also beco a devil!"

The land of Jiuzhou experienced a trendous shock, and demonic sects ca out one after another, which lasted for thousands of years.

The Battle of Devils.

————

These were the two pieces of information that Xue Ling could retrieve from the ga. It was also the only two scenes provided to the players when they entered the ga. Only, players would be able to experience the scene, while Xue Ling read simple text descriptions.

The ga would be ready in two days, and a soul from the twenty-first century would also transmigrate into the world on the sa day.

In this world, there was a way to revive a brain-dead person. It could be done by re-stimulating the soul to wake up through the ga and then re-integrate it back into the body. The protagonist was a lonely soul from the 21st century. In order to survive, he swallowed up the soul that originally resided in the body, occupied it, and then entered the ga through the treatnt that the owner of this body's family had fought hard to obtain for him, starting his journey of rehabilitation.

He would not show up until two days after the ga opened up. At that ti, the protagonist gong had already beco the first to leave the novice village and was the top ranked player in the player listings.

In this kind of virtual reality ga, as the protagonist shou's biggest golden finger, the little protagonist gong naturally had to be the most powerful existence in the ga. If he wasn't a great god with extraordinary skill, he would be a well-known Rennbi player. The protagonist gong in this story was a combination of the two. He was an existence who was rich, handso, and played with a group of brothers; wherever he went, he was hailed as a god.

As for the protagonist shou, he was a little beginner who had never played any virtual gas before.

The combination of a clueless beginner and a god followed the typical nurturing plot style, and the storyline was happy and sentintal. They levelled up by beating monsters, had high luck stats, and constantly ca across various encounters, special instances, and other good things, making their life in the ga very fun and interesting.

The character that Xue Ling had taken over was their fortuitous encounter and luck.

Why did he say that?

To explain, one needed to look at it from the perspective of a string of data. Once there was awareness, one would naturally begin to wonder about it was, where it ca from, where it was going to go, and similar philosophical life questions. This string of data had no other experiences; he was naive and instinctively wanted to learn and absorb more things, so he chose to learn from the most powerful person in the ga.

He learned from the players and created a ga character for himself, chose a race, and then secretly observed the protagonist gong. He learned his habits and behaviour, his words, and his deeds. And in the process of this imitation, he slowly fell in love with the man.

This was really a sad story. The protagonist's rivals generally never co to a good end, and even if his feelings were buried deep in his heart and never brought to light, this string of data would still be plagued with bad luck.

The string of data constantly wanted to do sothing for the protagonist in order to express his gratitude, so he secretly modified the code and programming under the main computer's figurative nose. He improved the protagonist gong's credibility in the ga and did various other things to help them trigger more hidden tasks and secret instances. Because of his actions, the protagonists' group ca to the notice of the main computer. This world also had other virtual existences; the main computer considered him to be a virus that needed to be formatted. Only, it was constantly unable to catch him.

In order to achieve its goal, the main computer and the protagonist shou made a deal, and it told him about the string of data's identity. The protagonist had originally already been concerned about his existence, and after learning that he was only data and not human, he agreed to the main computer's request and used the protagonist gong's na to draw him out.

This led to an intelligence, a thought, or more accurately, a person, disappearing completely from the world.

Xue Ling flipped through his life experience and felt that it was quite a tragedy. The string of data had not even had his own na, only a ga na, and his in-ga-na had also been quite amusing.

He had belonged to the demon race in the ga, and was a snow fox demon. His ID had been 'Snow Fox', and that na, which could not even be considered a code na, accompanied him for his entire life, until he had been formatted.

Xue Ling narrowed his eyes and said, "So, it was the ga's main computer that killed him in the end? Does the main computer also have its own intelligence and self-awareness?"

"According to my judgnt, yes, but that intelligence does not have full independence as it is under the control of the ga company. Although he is the absolute king in the ga, he is not free."

"Then why did he have to destroy the string of data?"

"He did not consider the original existence within the string of data as intelligent, and because of so other reasons, he just thought that it was a virus." The system spoke slowly. "This ga does have a virus that is comparable to the main computer, but it was definitely not host's original string of data. It was only a sacrificial victim in the ga between the main computer and the virus, and also the victim of the relationship between the protagonist gong and the protagonist shou."

"Huh? What kind of sacrificial victim?

"After its disappearance was noticed by the protagonist gong, he went and asked the protagonist shou about it and learned that it had actually been a string of data. The protagonist gong did not believe that such an existence should not exist, but then the shou beca angry." The system paused for a mont before going on to say, "The protagonist shou's original words were, 'So you care more about virtual things than , who is real?!" After their quarrel, they t up in real life and their relationship deepened.

"Ha-ha." Xue Ling silently mourned for the forr owner of this piece of code for a while. It had died so silently, with nobody knowing; it was really an eye-catching tragedy.

But it didn't matter. Even if it was even more tragic, he would help it get its revenge.

Only, it would probably never appear again, and had no way of seeing it happen.

New arc! I'm so excited - i really enjoyed this one. There are three things that probably need to be explained before we go further into this arc:

封 Seal - 'sealing' is a word that has several english anings. one is to 'seal', obviously, in the context of sealing sothing up and closing it up. another way to look at it is to consider the 'seal' as a 'stamp' (kinda) and its more like bestowing/becoming sothing. so, Seal the Devil has two anings. one is to seal it away, and the other is to beco a devil.

魔 Devil & 妖 Demon - this is a distinction that english also doesn't cover very well (or at least in the context of this novel?) since devils and demons are relatively similar in the english language. so translators use the word 'monster' for 妖 rather than 'demon', but i didn't do that in WTMT because Xue Ling is a fox demon (seduction and all) and not a fox monster/beast. demons in this context are neutral, not 'evil' or 'bad', and generally just refer to beings that started off as non-human and cultivated their way into human form. this also ans that in this arc where genuine devils exist, it might beco a bit confusing… just rember that devils and demons are not the sa thing!

ga 'cultivation' setting - i'm not the most well-read on genuine chinese cultivation lore, but in this ga setting, there are two preset cultivation paths, the righteous path (the typical cultivating to beco an immortal) and devil's path (cultivating to beco a devil). the important thing to keep in mind is that cultivating along the path does not necessarily an that one has truly beco an immortal or a devil. the youth in the prologue achieved it and beca a true devil, and the gods in the Battle of Gods also beca true gods, but the players in the ga don't reach that level of awesoness just because they're cultivating on their chosen path.