Chương 127: Chapter 80 (part 1)

Leo Parker, who had lived alone for a long time, was a little neurotic and often talked to his ship's AI. So the AI had a great deal of information about him.

Access to this information didn't trigger an alarm according to Leo's safety regulations, so when Han Yanyan had smuggled The Autobiography of Leo into the mecha world, the system had padded it out with a lot of extra details.

After filtering out the self-pity, the boasting, and the twisted perceptions of others, the figure of Leo Parker became clear.

A nerd with social anxiety who had been living alone for a very long time.

He had been in love only once in his life - ah, no, he had had a crush on a girl. Not only had that girl fallen for his roommate, but she had died in the virtual world with that very same boy, thereafter changing Leo's life forever.

From these messy, disordered, rambling memories of the past, Han Yanyan had reason to believe that Leo Parker was probably... a virgin.

If he had any sexual experience at all, a gloomy, withdrawn man like him would certainly have bragged about it during all his trivial, diary-like rambling. But there was nothing. Han Yanyan read the book forwards and backwards, inside and out, and found only boasting about the technologies and instruments he had created. There was no mention of any woman except for that one dead girl.

She had been studying Leo Parker for a very long time.

From the moment he appeared, he had hesitated to get close to her. When her fingertips had touched his skin and caused a layer of goosebumps to rise in this simulated, ultra-realistic world of the consciousness, Han Yanyan had known that her profile was right.

No longer speaking, she simply closed her eyes and quietly shed tears.

Never in his whole life had Leo Parker ever experienced a woman crying so weakly and beautifully in his arms.

She's a liar! She's a liar! She's a liar! - he told himself.

Taking a deep breath, he tried to push her away... and failed. The feeling of having a woman delicately nestled in his arms was... so fucking wonderful! Leo's hands felt a little weak.

He struggled for a while before calling up a screen. "Drop the concentration of inhibitor to 1.5 times, no, no, 1.8 times!"

The temperature of the person in his arms had risen a little, and was now at least feeling 'warm'. "Better?" Leo asked.

The weakness that Han Yanyan had been feeling had lessened quite a bit. Opening her eyes, she broke away from Leo's embrace and moved back, propping herself up using the floor. Then she curled up in a fetal position, hugging her legs tightly and burying her face into her knees, only her eyes peeking out to watch him.

His arms suddenly empty, Leo crouched down and craned his head toward Han Yanyan. "Better now? Then if you're better, get ready to work."

Han Yanyan stared at him indifferently without saying a word.

"Hey." Leo said, with a little annoyance. "I'm telling you, if you don't work, then don't blame me for punishing you! And I'll turn up the power!"

"Turn up..." Han Yanyan slowly raised her head. Perhaps because her body temperature had been so low just now, her simulated body was very pale, very unlike the rosy cheeks she had had the first time she had appeared here.

"Turn it up all the way. It would be better if I disappeared," she said coldly. "Even better if it only took one try."

A pale face, indifferent eyes, an icy tone.

Indeed, that was exactly what this damn woman ought to look like. Maybe she hadn't been intentionally pretending to be weak just now? Three times the concentration of inhibitor might indeed have been a bit too high.

If Han Yanyan had threatened him through the screen, Leo would have jumped to his feet and scolded her right back. But now he was half-crouched, half-kneeling next to her, and she was less than a meter away from him, their eyes meeting. Leo found himself at a loss for what to say.

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This wasn't surprising. Behind a keyboard, any man could hold his own against a crowd of scholars, but when he left home, he would be clumsy and awkward of speech.

In The Autobiography of Leo, Leo had often derided his former classmates viciously for being inarticulate.

"One world, a few years, a few decades..." Han Yanyan lowered her gaze. It were dull and unfocused. "Just let me disappear now..."

"It's all fake. If you set it to high speed, a few decades go by in only hours," Leo said. "It won't take long."

Her eyes dropped. "It's that long for me. I live and spend time with those people for so long. As soon as the world ends, they're gone, all gone."

Leo's head hurt. "Data, they're all just data, that's all. Stop having feelings for data."

"Have you ever been in the simulated world? Have you ever crossed paths with these people? You keep saying they're data, yes, I know they're data." Han Yanyan lifted her eyes, eyes in which anger was gradually accumulating. "But they're living data! They have souls! The whole world is so vivid! Everyone in there is so lifelike! It's like they're real! Can you not have feelings for them just because you don't want to?"

Tears rained down her cheeks.

Her indignance was even more beautiful than when she was weak, because it was vivid, because it had a soul.

No woman had ever before evoked such intense feelings in Leo Parker. When he had been a teenager, most of them had regarded him as transparent, like air.

He had never had a woman sit before him face to face and rebuke him like this. At a loss, he had no idea of how to answer. But even as Han Yanyan's eyes were fixed resolutely upon him, the tears kept flowing down her face, making him reflexively reach out to touch...

Han Yanyan shoved violently against the floor. Her body moved backwards about six inches!

Leo's attempt to touch her came to nothing. His hand froze in it's position.

She stared at him, alert, indifferent, disgusted.

Leo abruptly flew into a rage. His trouble finding words suddenly disappeared, and he leapt to his feet. "Han Yanyan! What do you mean by that! You sleep with men in every world! What are you avoiding me for?!"

"That's none of your business," Han Yanyan sneered.

"You're a man who has no heart. Have you ever tasted the feeling of loving someone or being loved? Parents, friends, lovers?" She watched his expression change and suddenly smiled. "Oh, looks like the answer is no. Not a single one."

Her smile was mocking, sneering, pitying, gloating. 'Sure enough', it said.

This damned woman! Leo was so angry, he wanted to flee! But just then, he heard the aide's voice in his ear. "Did you work things out with her?"

All of a sudden, Leo lost steam. Exiting the simulated space, he opened the hatch and hopped out. The attendant was standing next to the operation cabin, smoking a cigarette and waiting. "What happened?" he asked calmly when Leo emerged.

"It won't be easy," Leo said. "The way she is now, she's about to go mad."

The aide's heart sank. Just as he was about to speak, he heard Leo Parker continue, "I suspect that she's faking it."