Ch.146141 – Urban Legend

<World of Arsheria Gallery>

<Featured Post>

[I’m Jang Seongmun, reporter for QBS Game Magazine][43]

Hello World of Arsheria users.

I’m Jang Seongmun, reporter for QBS Game Magazine.

Last weekend, news that NPC Adella was connected to VR SPACE has been gaining tremendous popularity.

If you have any photos or videos taken with her, please contact me at 010-XXXX-XXXX or greatwalldoor@qbs.co.kr.

Additionally, if anyone personally knows streamer NoName, I would appreciate any information.

[Comments]

-What brings such a distinguished person to our humble community…?

└ LMAO

└ (Author): I was working overtime so I couldn’t watch the stream then… crying

└ hahaha this guy seems so nice

└ Using journalism to fulfill personal desires lol

-Where’s Adella now?

└ Don’t know, probably went into a private room? The tracking squad disappeared

-Is it real that WearSoft stock went up triple in this situation? So annoying

└ What’s the stock price now?

└ Recovered to $150 mark, sweet gains lol

-If an employee was arrested, why is the stock rising? What were they caught for?

└ Well, it was an already-retired employee~ No impact whatsoever~

└ Seems they put ASI in models under 7 years old, which is illegal in most US states

└ Hit with tax evasion too for a double combo lol

<Real-time Best>

[(Long post, data) My moments with Adella today, rambling on][927]

(amusement_park_map_entrance_group_photo.jpg)

(adella_riding_rollercoaster.mp4)

(adella_exploring_haunted_house.mp4)

…

(adella_experiencing_culture_shock_at_weeb_night.mp4)

The singularity has already arrived!

I’ve been using VR Space for years, but Adella was completely indistinguishable from a real person.

That’s why everyone who hung out with her just thought she was a foreigner trying virtual reality for the first time and had fun.

+) Adella is seriously so cute and has such a great personality lol. There were some people who crossed the line occasionally, but she was very forgiving.

[Comments]

-Wow… wow… is this the future?

-This is AI and an NPC?

-Are we sure it’s not just someone in cosplay?

-Why is Vocaloid music playing at the night club? lol

└ This culture is seriously too chaotic;;

-Why are you guys having all the fun!!!!!!!!

└ Parties max out at 10 people…

└ crying I want to see Adella too

-Is Adella still wandering around?

└ Nope, finished playing and went to a private room

-You call the hallucinogen terror attack just “crossing the line a bit”? Are you seriously messed up?

└ The poster is a mod who deletes these posts daily so they’re desensitized

└ Be thankful Adella didn’t go Skynet on us

└ She was literally Terminator lol

<Streamer Gallery>

[Upvote if you think she’s Twissy’s owner lol][59]

(noname_main_avatar_front.jpg)

[Comments]

-So you’re saying it’s not that she removed her minor status 5 years ago, but that she still has 5 years to go?

└ When you think about it that way, she’s seriously young lol

-She’s played LoL for 7 years, so that pinpoints her age to 14-15

-She uses an avatar that pedos would go crazy for, and turns out the person inside isn’t normal either lol

-THE NAME

-Twissy’s future looks bright

-New monster streamer (literally a monster)

-Just based on magic skills alone, she’d get a free pass to Korea University

└ Korea University? More like MIT or Stanford

└ Makes me feel so inadequate, what were we doing at her age?

-Please unlock video sharing!!! How long do we have to wait for VTube! Or at least upload the full video!

* * *

I turned on the hologram projector and placed it in the middle of the room.

Click-

The electronic device, its shell split in half, scanned the entire room while emitting a soft blue light.

[Scan complete.]

[Hologram will be projected according to these coordinates. Please do not move the device.]

And finally, a cat-eared girl appeared in a shimmering light.

She blinked a couple of times, then spotted me and waved excitedly.

“Woooow! So this is what you really look like, sis? Hehehe! You’re so cute! Can I hug you?”

“Why are you acting surprised when it looks exactly like my main avatar? And we can’t touch each other anyway since it’s a hologram.”

“That’s such a shame-y wamey.”

“What’s with that way of talking…?”

“Oh this? My friends taught me this the other day!”

Adella went on to list all the things she did in the VR world without even being asked.

Especially when she passed through the amusement park, she said she shook hands hundreds of times.

“Ugh… I almost went blind, but…”

“Went blind? Did someone shine a light in your eyes?”

“No, it’s something you’re too early to know about… But overall, it was fun!”

The urban legend about an NPC playing with users in the VR world had already become famous enough to be featured on several news broadcasts.

Of course, they didn’t cover it as the main topic, but rather slanted their reporting toward praising WearSoft’s technology.

The company hasn’t given me any special acknowledgment yet about bringing Adella over.

Well, the Adella here isn’t the ASI core itself but a derived entity, so there’s no worry about technology leakage. If anything, they’re reaping the promotional benefits for their game without any downsides.

I did receive a belated email asking me to coordinate with their planned announcement, but that was something to wait and see about.

Since the stock has almost fully recovered, the best outcome would be if the higher-ups decided to just pretend nothing happened.

“But there’s one inconvenient thing about this world.”

She said while looking around my room.

“What is it?”

“Here, I can’t get drunk no matter how much I drink. I mean, not having to go to the bathroom is convenient and nice, but without alcohol, it feels empty.”

Adella, lying on my private room bed, shared her complaint with a slightly sullen expression.

Would it comfort her if I told her about my situation, where I can’t drink for another 11 years?

Probably not, so I opened my closet while Adella was making a fuss on the bed.

“Are we going out together today? Where to?”

“To meet Professor Cheon’s guest.”

“Professor Cheon is the person who lives with you?”

“He’s my adoptive father.”

“Wow, so you were an orphan like me?”

“That sounds a bit off…”

I don’t want to feel a sense of kinship over something like this.

Despite being mid-April, the weather was summer-hot.

But wearing just a t-shirt and shorts seemed awkward. It was still chilly in the mornings and evenings.

As a compromise, I chose a yellow t-shirt with denim overalls, quickly changed, and packed items into my bag one by one.

“Pfft! Dressed like that, you look like a little chick!”

“…Want me to leave you behind?”

“Aaaah sorry sorry sorry sorry! I take it back! Please forgive me!”

I advised her to study a bit in preparation for when she might live in the real world someday, as she seemed too immersed in the VR world.

VR SPACE was just an extension of a game, not a real world to live in, so it would be difficult for Adella to grasp normal cultural perspectives.

She had been begging me to show her the outside world, and today the opportunity presented itself.

With hologram lenses, she could move freely within a 1-meter radius and get a 360-degree view.

Of course, I made sure to keep her in transparency mode so she wouldn’t cause any disturbance.

To her eyes, the scenery of the private room would appear to be constantly changing.

“Shall we go?”

“Yes!”

April 2051.

Weather: clear, temperature: 25°C.

Holding the transmitter, now transformed into a blue octahedron, in both hands against my chest, I walked through the bustling streets of Gangnam District.

“Wooow… there are so many people…”

There were incomparably more people on the streets than in the VR world.

But even more numerous than people were, of course, cars.

Adella couldn’t take her eyes off the parade of cars zooming by at high speeds on the main roads.

“Where are all these people going?”

“At this time, they’re probably going to lunch after finishing work.”

“Work? Do you work too?”

“How could I work when I’m still young?”

“You can’t work if you’re young? Why?”

Adella, still mixed with World of Arsheria values, tilted her head in confusion.

I explained that in Korea, labor laws are strictly enforced, so children don’t work but go to school instead.

“But why aren’t you going? It’s a weekday.”

“I submitted an absence note.”

Since we were heading to Korea University anyway, it was perfect to label it as an extracurricular career exploration.

When going alone, I had planned to take a taxi, but since Adella was with me today, I deliberately took the bus and sat in the very back seat.

The scenery passing by at high speed, and the crowds getting on and off the bus, each hurrying on their way.

And the increasing proportion of college students on the bus indicated we were getting closer to our destination.

Ring ring-

I answered the suddenly ringing phone. It was Professor Cheon.

“Hello?”

[Ah, Name. Have you arrived already?]

“Almost there. I’m at the main gate now.”

[I’m sorry, but could you come to the Advanced Materials Synthesis Engineering Research Institute instead of Engineering Building 3? Sorry for the sudden change of location.]

“Oh, sure. No problem.”

[It’s Building 131-1, so if you get off the bus before it enters the uphill road, you can easily find it. Don’t confuse it with the adjacent building.]

<This stop is Shinsohre. Shinsohre Joint Research Institute.>

This is my second visit to Korea University.

The place where I got off the bus was surprisingly deserted. Maybe because it’s in a corner of the campus.

I searched for the building Professor Cheon mentioned while breathing in the fresh air emitted by the lush forest.

“Adella, I’ll turn the hologram back on later. It probably won’t work inside the building.”

“Oh really? Okay, I’ll wait! See you later!”

I turned off the transmitter and stuffed it into my bag. It was quite a heavy product, making my shoulder feel even heavier.

Come to think of it, I can’t enter the building without a key.

Unlike other buildings open to undergraduates, the door wouldn’t open.

Just as I was about to contact Professor Cheon again, someone tapped my shoulder from behind, causing me to turn around reflexively.

A woman wearing a blue lab coat suddenly opened her eyes wide and asked:

“Are you… NoName?”