Chapter 99: The Artificial Idiot

"Wait!" 

I hurriedly stopped him, then checked the human's body. Finding he was severely light-polluted and beyond saving, I signaled for Adrian to proceed.

"Looks so strange, is it for blocking light to ensure good sleep? But why this design?"

Staring at the "headset" for a while, we couldn't find any special clues. The material was similar to the previous black card, and it also contained both light and dark elements in the same way.

"Why don't you try wearing it?"

Adrian spoke and put the headset on just like the person on the bed. Caught off guard, I couldn't stop him in time, my heart skipping a beat.

"Such an amazing thing, is this a game device?"

I saw him waving his hands around in the air, confirming my guess - it really was a VR headset! But it didn't cause the whole body disconnect from reality seen in some animations when worn.

"You try it too, seems like a magic toy. But doesn't look to have any elemental connection cables eh?"

The so-called elemental connection cables are similar to electrical wires, mainly designed to transmit specific types of elements. At "SummersField Entertainment", those gambling devices were all elemental-powered. Since they could interconnect between different machines, elemental cables were indispensable.

Could this headset be using a wireless network? WiFi? 

This thought crossed my mind, though I had no phone to verify it. But the light element contained in the headset made me think of another possibility - the light element can similarly achieve long-distance disembodied spiritual communication. Maybe it worked on that principle?

Anyway, might as well see the actual effect first. I thought about it and followed Adrian in wearing the headset.

I instantly found myself in a spacious plaza, with a huge information prompt in front describing the device's purpose in the common continental text.

It was a virtual remote query device that could access this central city's virtual municipal, news, entertainment and gaming facilities. But to actually use it normally required the user to present an ID card for verification login. 

Of course I didn't have such a card, but immediately thought of the black card Adrian had picked up before. I had a flash of insight and tried "swiping" it on the headset according to the operation flow. This worked by chance, but I just received a prompt to patiently wait for verification, with no response after a long time.

What, there's "network" lag too?

"Help!"

Seeing this situation, I immediately shouted out loud towards the air.

This was a voice operation method written in the information instructions, to get additional help when encountering difficulties using it - the equivalent of customer service on Earth.

"Sorry, since we cannot contact the main body zero and the central city data storage, your operation cannot continue!"

As the words fell, a girl with an extremely well-behaved appearance suddenly appeared in front of me, smiling as she spoke.

"Whoa! So advanced? High-tech? An AI?"

I gave her a long look up and down in amazement. But after some brief experimentation, I realized she didn't seem very intelligent at all. She could only give specific answers to specific questions - her "intelligence" was very limited, essentially equivalent to an "artificial idiot".

No wonder Adrian immediately thought it was a game device. Aside from that voice "AI idiot", the operation flow was basically no different from the gambling devices in Norvale: swipe card -> verify -> log in! The only differences were replacing the magic cards with this ancient magic-tech black card, and upgrading the "physical desktop display" to "3D immersive experience".

Looks like just like Nicola, Adrian was also a die-hard fan of these entertainment rooms.

"Seems to have no practical use, completely unable to operate at all..."

After trying fruitlessly for a while, I could only say to Adrian while still wearing the headset. But I suddenly heard a familiar voice coming from the virtual plaza.

"Who are you? How dare you spy on my master! Are you human? Humans must submit to my master's authority and accept my master's rule, or face merciless suppression!"

"Oh no!"

Wasn't that an Apostle talking? I quickly took off the headset and immediately understood what was happening.

This virtual reality headset must be using the light element to communicate with the outside world. But in a world ruled by the God of Light, that purpose was completely corrupted. Beluto controlled all light elements, and his method of communicating with Cyra and the Apostles was precisely through light elements. This was similar to me using the "Spiritual Convergence" spell to "voice call" Elara in Edenmere - the exact same principle. 

Except the God of Light had higher authority and could monitor all spiritual messages transmitted through light elements. So using this headset was like an ordinary person tapping into the spiritual network, quickly getting discovered by the God of Light.

"What happened?"

Adrian asked in confusion.

"Run, we may have been discovered!" 

I dropped the headset and pulled Adrian to flee. But it was too late. As soon as we opened the door, we saw a four-winged Apostle descend with a few two-winged ones, blocking our path.

"Was it because of that headset?"

Seeing this situation, would he still not understand? Adrian immediately drew his weapon without a second word.

"You're not human! Although your back has no wings and you look completely human, I sense an aura similar to us Apostles from you?"

This was the four-winged Apostle questioning me. Based on experience, the two-winged ones likely had even lower intelligence. 

Since I was currently hiding my wings, they found my appearance very strange. After all, once they detected my light elemental aura, it was easy for them to tell I was different from ordinary humans.

Looks like Apostles can't hide their wings, unlike angels.

The situation didn't allow me to ponder more. Facing this complete emergency, Adrian wasted no words, shooting an arrow marked with the word "explode" into me.

Well, the response was certainly that simple and direct...

It's not that we couldn't defeat them. But we'd then face endless pursuit by countless Apostles, and we didn't have much time left before the forced reset anyway. Rather than constantly fleeing those last few days, it was more worthwhile to just start over! This had been our agreed contingency plan.

It's just that the feeling of being completely blown apart was a bit indescribable.

"Couldn't Adrian come up with a way to die painlessly..."

When I reappeared at the village entrance, shaking my head, I felt it was quite a headache. What single word could simply summarize the humane requirement of dying painlessly? I couldn't think of one for the time being.

But even after the reset, I didn't plan to continue challenging the Saint Angel Cyra, since I still hadn't found a feasible way to deal with Beluto.

Challenging the Demon Lord...oh no, challenging the God of Light is impossible, absolutely impossible!

I didn't know if it was my mind also affected by light pollution, but I constantly felt I had become lazier. All this killing and bloodshed is so meaningless. It's way more comfortable just staying home, sleeping and eating. Plus, after each reset the food is replenished, so no risk of going hungry - not that I'd ever go hungry personally anyway...

So Adrian and I built another wooden hut by the lakeside, spending everyday fishing, playing cards and chatting. If we got bored, we'd take a trip to explore places we hadn't been, going on hikes. This life was quite comfortable, and before I knew it several resets had passed in the blink of an eye, I couldn't even count them clearly anymore.

Then, it was another day nearing the forced reset. 

I opened the door, looking at the dazzling sky outside as I lazily stretched. I had used the light element insulator yesterday, so I had a good sleep. Glancing down, I noticed a bundle of fresh flowers placed by the door.

Sighing, I could only quietly put them away, calling out to Adrian who was fishing in the distance.

"How's the haul today?"

"Not bad, after so many resets, I've managed to figure out these fishes' preferences!" 

Adrian nodded, pointing at the buckets behind him. They weren't empty at all - there were two fish swimming around, one quite sizeable.

"So what's for lunch today, Sour Fish again?" 

I extended my hand to check the fish, asking.

Mentioning Sour Fish made me think of Judith again. It had been a long time since I last saw her. Of course, the situation of her freeloading meals from us could never happen again, because she had "died"!

These past few resets, because I was too lazy to "reconnect" with her, the memory-lost Judith went straight to her death, trying to mediate the "conflict between angels and the church". This caused Vivianne to sneak away alone, triggering the "Judgement of Light" to descend. I even had to use the "Light Sanctuary" to help Adrian withstand it.

To be honest, every reset, watching Vivianne, Mike and others mechanically go to their deaths just like a script, my heart couldn't help but feel a sense of guilt. But rationally, even if I saved them it wouldn't be of much use. At most, the same scenario would repeat again a month later. If I couldn't solve the fundamental problem, saving them any number of times would be meaningless.