Alice in the Land of Steam

Chapter 1070

Alice ignored him and continued to tap the buttons on the controller, making a clicking sound. In front of her was an old-fashioned game console, which was quite bulky, and the screen only took up less than one-tenth of the space on the huge iron shell. Therefore, although it was a high-tech creation, it gave people a rough feeling of hand-built. During the day, Alice had enthusiastically introduced that this was a game console called an arcade machine, the earliest development form of electronic games.

The cold light from the inferior screen hit the girl's face, making her look even paler than a real vampire. Her eyes were lifeless, and she just stared at the scene on the screen silently, mechanically tapping the handle to control her character to fight. Linger stood behind her and took a look. It seemed to be a two-player game, just like the duels often described in medieval knight novels, where both sides controlled their own characters to fight until they defeated each other.

But the characters in the game are much more colorful than those old-fashioned knights. In terms of clothing, the male characters are innovative, while the female characters are immoral, to the extent that the ascetic monks of the spiritual prayer society would shout "Saints above" when they come; and their hairstyles are also wonderful in their own way, far beyond the imagination of young people. The most surprising thing is that they can always keep their clothes intact and their hairstyles stable in the fierce battles with flames exploding and frost freezing. It is nothing short of a miracle.

Since no one was playing with her, Alice was probably playing against the program set inside the game console, and a rigid game program naturally could not compete with an experienced and talented player. In just five minutes, Linger saw more than a dozen exciting words flash on the screen. He didn't recognize the alien language, but he could guess that they should mean "victory".

Alice's face was expressionless.

After each victory, she would quickly move on to the next battle, without cheering for her own victory. Was it because the opponents were too weak, and a natural victory could not arouse the interest of a talented player? I'm afraid not. After all, Alice used to have a lot of fun playing games with Olvera or Ieta. According to the young man's observation, those two were much worse than the game program.

So, is it because the game programs are not living people, and even if Alice defeated them, she would not know who to show off to, so she felt bored? Perhaps there is such a possibility. Ling Ge thought about it, and when Alice defeated another opponent and had not had time to enter the next battle, he walked over to sit next to her, picked up another empty controller on the arcade, and asked, "Do you mind playing with me?"

Alice finally responded. She turned her head like a puppet and glanced at Linger. There was no extra emotion in her eyes, or no emotion at all. She turned her head back and silently pressed a button on the arcade console. The battle interface disappeared and was replaced by an interface with many character portraits. Linger tried to control it with the handle and found that he could choose the character.

So he pushed the joystick awkwardly and looked at each one. Since he had never played this kind of fighting game before, he looked at each character very seriously. Unfortunately, he couldn't judge who was strong and who was weak just by appearance. Besides, young people didn't care about such things as strength and weakness or winning or losing. So after thinking it over, he chose a young man with short brown hair, flames wrapped around his hands, and who looked very sunny and cheerful.

As for why this character was chosen, it was probably because he was the only one who smiled the happiest among all the characters, and he must be enjoying the battle. This kind of pure character image always makes people like him, and young people still remember what the shepherdess said, asking him to smile more. A smile can convey kindness and warmth, and Alice needs these two emotions at this moment.

The genius player did not move until Linger had chosen his character. She then glanced at him quietly, and then quickly tapped the four buttons on the controller. A magical thing happened soon: the original character selection interface disappeared, and the new interface only had an avatar representing a question mark. Alice quickly locked onto this mysterious character, and a young man with short white hair, bare upper body, and a cold expression appeared on the screen, but unexpectedly gave people a sense of divine sexiness.

After choosing the character, the battle officially began. When Ling Ge was still familiar with the operation and accidentally discovered that he could use the combination of keys to perform cooler and more gorgeous moves, the genius player had already defeated him in a second with a small combo, showing no intention of letting the newcomer off at all.

Ling Ge: “…”

He thought he was unlucky and started the second game. This time, the genius player gave him some time to get familiar with the character. The character she controlled huddled in the corner of the screen and silently watched the character controlled by Lingge jump up and down, sometimes kicking in the air, sometimes squatting and setting fire, and occasionally posing in an incomprehensible posture. But he was not completely idle, and from time to time he would use long-range attacks to rub him. Because the blood loss was not much, Lingge did not take it seriously and thought she was helping him get familiar with the character's skills.

As a result, by the time he finally figured out how to play his character, the genius player had already filled up the energy bar below the character's health bar by taking damage, and it exploded into three bars. In the gorgeous stop-motion animation, the white-haired young man teleported behind the character controlled by Lingge, and with a cold, solemn declaration with a hint of pity, he raised his hand and ripped out his heart.

Ling Ge: “…”

He began to understand why Yieta and Olvera were unwilling to play games with this guy. It was definitely not the game's fault.

Then came the third, fourth, and fifth rounds... Ringer always lost, but his skills became more and more skilled. Should we say that although he is not interested in video games, he is unexpectedly talented in this area? By the sixth round, Alice could no longer easily defeat Ringer without using any tricks. Although the character she controlled had strong performance, Ringer's reaction ability was stronger. He could always dodge attacks at the critical moment. He even learned some advanced skills without a teacher, such as seizing the gap when the opponent used a move to launch an attack, so that she would not have time to react. When she first cleared "Dark Castle: Dawn Waltz", Alice seemed to have said that this technique was called catching the backswing.

In the sixth game, Lingge still lost, but it had nothing to do with his gaming level. It was because Alice suddenly looked back halfway through the game. Lingge thought there was something over there, so he looked over as well. However, when he turned around, he found that his character had fallen on the cold floor, while Alice pursed her lips and returned to the character selection interface expressionlessly.

"The same trick won't work a second time."

Ling said to Alice, still locking onto the character controlling the flames.

And Alice still chose the white-haired young man.

Sure enough, at the beginning of the seventh round, Alice fell into a disadvantage and could only shrink in the corner to defend; Ringer pursued and attacked aggressively. However, if you don't look at the game screen, you will find that Ringer's hand speed is not very fast, and the force of tapping the handle buttons is also very light, as if each press must be carefully considered before pressing, which is counterintuitive in a fast-paced fighting game, but magically fits the attack frequency of the game character; Alice, on the other hand, tapped the poor four buttons on the handle and made a clacking sound, as if she wanted to knock them out sparks, her fingers jumped on the handle so quickly that they even left afterimages, but the character could only defend, defend, and then defend, and no one knew what moves she wanted to make after tapping so many buttons.

Victory is decided.

Lingge thought.

Suddenly, Alice, who had been keeping a cold face, said, "Aren't you here to find me to go back for dinner? Is it really okay for you to stay here and play games with me?"

"Nothing bad." Ling'er's attention was briefly diverted from the game. He replied, "Everyone is very worried about you and insisted that I take you back. So, at least until you realize that now is not the time to be depressed, it's not a bad idea for me to stay here. In fact, when I decided to come to you, I was already mentally prepared."

"That's really hard on you."

The genius player curled his lips and said, "Who made me not as strong as Lord Lingge? No matter what happens, I can stay calm, or rather, too cold to be human. I am just a fragile and weak guy who refuses to face reality. I am really sorry for betraying your trust."

What an angry statement, just like a child whose parents refuse to buy a new toy.

Ling Ge shook his head helplessly: "If you insist on interpreting my words in such a sarcastic way, then I can't do anything about it... huh?"

He suddenly realized something and tapped the handle quickly a few times, trying to save the situation, but it was too late. The white-haired young man on the screen used a smooth combo, followed by a gorgeous special move, and instantly killed the brown-haired young man who was exposed due to the operator's momentary negligence. Big golden words representing victory appeared on the screen.

"Seven battles, all victorious."

The genius player proved his worth with four words, then put down the controller and stretched his back: "I'm so tired, I don't want to play anymore."

It's really despicable that they didn't even give me a chance to save face.

Lingge also put down the handle. He was a little annoyed. He had clearly told Alice that the same trick would never work a second time, but he still fell for her trick. He was speechless. Then he was stunned again, because he suddenly realized that the emotion of annoyance rarely appeared in him. It was as rare as his smile after Mr. Yang Ke passed away. But tonight, he showed a long-lost smile for a girl, and felt a long-lost annoyance for another girl. These two emotions that had been away for a long time returned to the young man on the same night, making him think that he had returned to the past.

Back to that time - when Lingge was still a young boy with normal emotions, who could cry and laugh, feel upset, and was full of longing and expectations for the future.

Lingge would not refuse to admit what he gained from the two girls, such as the lap pillow and the fun of the game. If the lap pillow symbolizes a kind of inclusive love, then the fun of the game comes from the original fantasy. Can love and fantasy make people return to their childhood? This is a grand proposition, and it is definitely not something that can be explained by a random idea that flashes in the mind.

When he was feeling lost, Alice, who had put down the handle, suddenly stood up. Her legs staggered because she had been sitting cross-legged for a long time, but she didn't take it seriously and just staggered in another direction. Ling Ge came to his senses and asked quickly, "Are you going back?"

"No." Alice answered quickly, as if she hadn't thought about it at all: "Just playing the next game."

"Didn't you say you were tired of playing?"

"I'm tired of playing that game."

Alice found another game console and fumbled around on the shell for a while before finding the switch. She pressed it gently and turned on the game console. The cold light projected from the glass screen illuminated the small patch of darkness around her. Then she picked up the matching handle next to it and sat cross-legged in front of the game console again. She said nonchalantly, "I won't feel tired if I change the game."

Linger also stood up and walked over. With the cheerful music, he saw a character wearing a red hat and a big nose appear on the screen. From the appearance point of view, it was not as good as the character in the fighting game just now. Each of them had their own beauty or handsomeness, but it gave people a sense of innocence and funny. If it was Metien and Shemi, they might like this game very much. Linger thought, and was also surprised that he could have such an association.

Then Alice controlled the character, rushing around on the screen, stepping on mushrooms, hitting bricks, occasionally growing bigger, occasionally shrinking, and its enemies were not vicious, but some anthropomorphic turtles or chestnuts. It sounds like a boring game, but the genius player played it very hard, and Lingge watched it very hard, and occasionally he would be amused by Alice's scumbag, and his mouth would curl slightly, but the genius player had his back to him, so he couldn't see it.

"I suddenly realized," the young man said, "that video games are actually quite interesting."

Alice paused, and the red-hatted uncle on the screen was hit by a monster, and the invincibility effect disappeared. If it were in the past, the genius player would definitely yell and complain that Lingge ruined her unharmed clearance, but now she just curled her lips and said indifferently: "Do you know what this reminds me of?"

"what?"

Alice deadpanned, "It's those rigid and stubborn parents on Earth who hate it when they see their children playing games, but start praising them when they succeed."

"Uh……"

I was halfway through writing when I realized that the arcade machine doesn't seem to have a controller, and I'm too lazy to change it... Give me some meow