QT: LAC Chapter 47: Fourth World (6)

Chapter 47: Fourth World (6)
Translated by Shiya of Exiled Rebels Scanlations
Editor: Sulo

Even if the situation didn’t feel right, after long hours of gaming, Bai Duan still succumbed to the temptation of delicious food. Bai Duan told Xie Yan his favorite dish while being full of expectation, then was he was surprised to hear that Xie Yan happened to have the same ingredients at home.

Yes, of course, Xie Yan had all the ingredients. He already knew clearly what food Bai Duan liked. When he moved over here, he had already been well prepared, so it was impossible for him to let Bai Duan down.

Although Xie Yan was in charge of making dinner, Bai Duan felt bad having him do all the work. Even if he had no talent in cooking, it was still within Bai Duan’s ability to take on the role of an assistant. He knocked on Xie Yan’s door, and followed him into the kitchen. Bai Duan washed and cut the ingredients diligently. He cooperated very well with Xie Yan; even if Xie Yan didn’t say anything, Bai Duan could understand what Xie Yan meant with just a look.
They had such a strange sense of familiarity, that made Bai Duan feel that they might have experienced the same thing before, something like cooperating with each other in the kitchen.

However, Bai Duan did not put too much thought into it, he just disregarded it as something like an ordinary sense of deja vu.

With the two cooperating, the dinner with a perfect appearance and a lovely fragrance was soon served. Bai Duan enjoyed eating the food a lot, he also praised highly of Xie Yan’s cooking skills. If it wasn’t for the existence of morality, he really wanted to have Xie Yan as his sugar daddy, he would use every means possible to make Xie Yan cook for him for the rest of his life.
He was a poor child who had to eat takeout or fast food for several years straight. It was not that takeout was bad, but it was never as comforting as home-made dishes that had a warm feeling of familiarity.

After having filled their stomachs, Bai Duan was content and rubbed his slightly bulging belly. He rested as he slightly squinted his eyes, and was like a little animal idly turning its stomach after a meal. If he did not start controlling himself and continued to eat like this, Bai Duan thought that maybe he would have to join the ‘trying-to-lose-weight team’ soon.

After a while, Bai Duan sat up straight and looked at his ‘new friend’, he decided that he wanted to learn more about his past, “In the game, you said that you would tell me about yourself when you had time. Is now okay? Can you tell me?”

Xie Yan, who was cutting some fruit froze, he had a wry smile, “My story… There’s really nothing to tell. I think you’ve probably guessed most of it.”

Yes, the original body’s story was really simple.

His parents died on a business trip, leaving a large sum of pension to ensure that the original body was well fed. Because of the problems with his appearance, he was lonely and had no relatives around to comfort him. Plus, in the real world, he met many obstacles. He suffered from discrimination everywhere, so when he found [Ten Thousand Realms], it was as if he found a priceless treasure.

It was a highly simulated virtual world. He could do things he had never done, and experience another life without any constraints. What’s more, the system of allowing him to craft an avatar allowed him to get rid of his own body. The body that was making him tired and filled with self abandonment. The system allowed him to look like a normal person in front of others — even a handsome one at that.

After entering the world, he became controllably obsessed with the game. In order to stay in the game for a longer time, he directly withdrew from college. Except for dealing with physiological needs, he stayed in the game all day long; he learned, he honed his skills and he grew stronger. He turned from a small transparent player to a god level player, he was also sought after by many guilds and welcomed by others. He was worshipped and was envied by others.

Gradually, he lost himself in this magnificent and dazzling virtual world, and he began to yearn for more, such as… love, something he had fantasized about before, but had already long lost hope because of his appearance.

He hoped to find a lover in the game, and experience the beauty and sweetness of love — even if it was just in the game.

And that fox tribe teenager called Luo Xi was the person who was with him at that time.

Luo Xi’s appearance was good-looking; he was beautiful, delicate and lovable. He had a gentle and considerate personality as well, which coincided with the original body’s ideal. When he saw Luo Xi, he fell in love at first sight. As they interacted with each other some more, he fell even more in love.

Luo Xi was ‘picked up’ by the original body near the fox tribe novice village. At that time, the fox tribe teenager was still a fledgling little white fox. He was foolish and stupid, so he was chased around by some wild monsters. The original body happened to pass by, so he commited a scene of ‘the handsome prince saving the damsel in distress’. From then on, he and Luo Xi became increasingly close to each other.

Luo Xi was not willing to fight and kill. He preferred to be a plain player who visited all the pretty scenery, and the original body was willing to indulge him. When Luo Xi needed materials, he would leave everything aside to help him collect the needed materials. If Luo Xi wanted to go sightseeing, he would again put aside his own affairs to accompany him. A lot of the equipment Bai Duan was wearing now had been acquired by the original body before, so as to increase the survival ability of the low-level Luo Xi. After all, many places where the scenery was nice was dangerous, and even with Xie Yan, it would still be very difficult for the fragile Luo Xi to survive there.

It can be said that in order to get a lover and love, the original body did all he could. Even as Xie Yan recalled the past now, he had to admit the original body’s care and thoughtfulness for Luo Xi was admirable. Of course, compared with his own thoughtfulness for Bai Duan, the original body still had a long way to go. As the part about the original body’s thoughtfulness and love for the other guy, Xie Yan would never disclose that in detail to his own love interest.

This problem was caused by the original body, but every time he had to carry the consequences, this was just really upsetting!

Unfortunately, the original body’s sincere intentions did not achieve good results, and the reason for that was still the original body being obese.

Cheng Hong was the human swordsman with Luo Xi the other day, and he was once the original body’s roommate in college. The original body always felt inferior, he disliked communicating with others, and had bad feelings towards the rest of the dormitory. His relationship with ordinary classmates was also bad. Although he tried his best to protect his identity in the game, he met a lover and was the leader of a guild, so he had to deal with many trivial matters. Sometimes he had to communicate with people in the game when he was outside of the game. So after a long time, it was hard to completely avoid being detected.

Even though he gave up his studies very soon and dropped out of college, Cheng Hong still realized that Xie Yan was the God player who was very popular and admired in [Ten Thousand Realms]. This led Cheng Hong to be not only jealous but also contemptuous.

The rest was easy to explain. Cheng Hong exposed the original body’s appearance in reality, and since the original body had no evidence to refute it — or rather after hearing the news, the original body, who had always been unsociable and clumsy, was completely shocked.

All of a sudden, all the players in [Ten Thousand Realms] were furious. After all, the original body’s appearance in reality was so different from the avatar in the game that they felt cheated and fooled. Especially the men and women who adored him because of his appearance and status in the game; they just couldn’t accept the real appearance of their ‘beloved’, and the backlash was especially intense.

The radical players changed the public opinion in the game, and the original body didn’t formally appear to explain and refute for himself. So, he immediately became everyone’s focal point of hate. No matter what he did or didn’t do, intentionally or unintentionally, all problems were somehow related to him in everyone’s eyes. He was completely loyal to Luo Xi, but somehow people began spreading the rumor that he was using his looks to date multiple people. People began saying that he was an unfaithful scum, in other words, ‘ugly people always do bad things’ — if people are ugly, whatever they do was disgusting.

Just as the saying goes, ‘the higher you stand, the worse you fall’, the position of the original body in the game was too high. When he was perfect, he was admired and envied by many. Once his perfect mask was broken though, everything crumbled along with the mask.

Due to the dissatisfaction of the players in the guild, plus, the outburst of all the accumulated self-abasement the original body had, triggered by the sudden revealment of his true self, he didn’t even refute back even once. He was then driven out of the guild that he founded himself, the cowardly appearance disappointed many players who valued his strength and skill, and the original body lost his last supporters.

Just as the original body was expelled from the guild and was homeless, Luo Xi’s reaction undoubtedly gave him the worst blow.

Luo Xi was a sensitive person. It was hard for him to accept such a huge contrast between his lover’s avatar and his lover’s real self. His personality was also gentle, he believed others easily and relied a lot on others. It was hard to not be influenced by the one-sided public opinion. He had no determination or courage to stand with the original body and share the rejection and disgust of other players.

After the true face of the original body was revealed, Luo Xi began to hide from the original body. The original body couldn’t contact him. Naturally, he understood the meaning of that, and he couldn’t find the courage to directly locate him and confront him face-to-face.

Therefore, their relationship ended, and everything disappeared like a burst bubble. He had failed in real life and in the game, all his efforts turned into ashes. In desperation, he completely destroyed his gaming room and ended his life.

Then, Xie Yan came.

After listening to Xie Yan’s narration, Bai Duan was so sad that he sighed softly, “Then why… did you want to go back to the game?”

Xie Yan naturally couldn’t say that there was another soul in the body now — after all, his current relationship with Bai Duan was not deep enough to reveal the truth, “Because… I don’t want to leave in such a gloomy way and give up everything I have worked for.” After a pause, he gave a wry smile, “Besides playing games, I don’t know what else I can do now…”

The sentence lacked ambition, but Bai Duan’s heart was full of sympathy and pity instead of disdain, “It’s okay to escape. If you don’t get over the past, it will become a lingering shadow scarring the rest of your life, it will hinder your progress.”

“Um.” Xie Yan nodded, “So, I want to lose weight, then start over in the game, and make myself better. I want to let people know that I’m not bad, those comments… they are all false.”

“I will support you!” Bai Duan stood up and patted Xie Yan on the shoulder. Although he didn’t care much about Xie Yan’s appearance and figure, since Xie Yan wanted to change, he would naturally help him achieve his wish. “Now that it has been more than half an hour after dinner, let’s start exercising!”

Xie Yan nodded his head and followed Bai Duan to get up. On the surface, he was full of fighting spirit, but in the depth of his heart, he was very depressed.

He already described himself as something so pitiful, but Bai Duan didn’t even hug him lovingly… It was so disappointing there wasn’t even a compassionate embrace!

This was all this body’s fault! Try imagining the scene of Bai Duan hugging a meatball and whispering to it softly. The scene will be so awful that people can’t even look at it with a straight face, even Xie Yan himself can’t bear the thought.

So…maybe he should put the counter attack in the game aside first. Weight loss and love; those were the top priorities!