Four Split Personalities

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[Welcome back, Orderly Good Mor. About to load into The Realm of Innocence, wish you a good night]

...

Game Time AM11:21

Northwest Continent, Descendants of the Dragon Clan, [Timing Tower] ruins, second-floor small workshop

"Ugh, what’s going on today..."

Motan struggled to open his eyes, rubbed his slightly aching forehead, and muttered softly, "It’s really not great to have a ’fragment’ first thing in the morning, although I won’t be on tenterhooks for the rest of the day, and it even broke the noise nuisance when I was going frantic, but it’s still really hard to get used to."

Although he had largely determined that his ’other side’ was not out of control, or rather, even though it was always out of control it lacked the ability to trigger various adverse events, the experience of being forcibly ’fragmented’ still did not improve because when he switched between the states of ’Orderly Good,’ ’Absolute Neutrality,’ and ’Chaotic Neutral,’ he could at least trigger a [Premonition] (The Long View of the Sage, an Absolute Neutrality), which gave some psychological preparation. But when a ’fragmentation’ type override occurred, neither ’Mor’ nor ’Tan Mo’s [Premonition] talents would predict it, not even the highly operable [Long View of the Sage] could foresee it, still leaving no reaction time.

This kind of unmanageable ’routine accident’ was always troubling for Motan, no matter when it happened.

But after all, it’s an unsolvable problem; no matter how much he worries, he can’t find any way to solve it, so at this stage, all he could do was complain.

Fortunately, although the ’fragment’ times were erratic, they rarely came loose at critical moments, and even when Motan was fighting in Misha County, being suddenly switched to ’Chaotic Neutral’ at a crucial moment didn’t cause any trouble, which was somewhat relieving.

As for why he could so recklessly mutter about his own privacy, it was naturally because there was only himself in this empty abandoned workshop; the girl who had said goodnight to him when logging off yesterday was not here.

"She must have already returned to Sky Pillar Mountain."

Motan shook his head, throwing his uneasy thoughts to the back of his mind, and slowly got up from the ground with the support of the wall while letting out a breath, involuntarily recalling the sun-kissed girl who radiated remarkable vitality at all times.

Having been together for such a long time, her sudden departure did make him feel a bit unaccustomed.

Although he had been mentally prepared back at the Diesel Family’s place and the two players could communicate via messages at any time, after the series of thrilling adventures yesterday and discussing various epic topics about ’time’ with student A Sang, the departure of his partner still made Motan feel a slight sense of sadness, to the extent that he couldn’t help but start recalling her appearance.

Well, actually, there’s nothing much to recall; after all, anyone who saw Ji Xiaoge without headgear on couldn’t possibly forget that girl’s beauty, which could even be described as stunning.

"But still... when I think about it, it still feels a bit strange..."

Motan slightly furrowed his brow while massaging his tail (he had inadvertently cramped it when he logged on) and whispered, "It’s just a head ornament, neither plastic surgery nor Photoshop, the appearance before and after taking it off is totally the same, why does it feel so different? Is it really just because of the [Allure] talent... But if that’s the case, why does it still affect me even after exiting the game?"

This was a question that had troubled him for a long time...

Although Ji Xiaoge had already shown him the detailed information about the [Allure] talents, and apart from [A Glance Can Captivate A City] and the other two talents, [A World Apart] and [A Glance Can Captivate A City], Motan was aware of their effects, yet this still didn’t explain her almost game-breaking charm.

While it might be easy to gloss over with an almost universal explanation of ’ability effect,’ Motan always felt that the matter wasn’t that simple, as he had indeed seen what was referred to as ’mental influence’ in The Realm of Innocence; notably, the Whisper Sect members in the Violet faction conflict, after which Motan learned through exchanges (and verbal sparring) with Double Leaf. Even the player Double Leaf was influenced, nearly missing the hundreds of Assassins right under their noses, later only discovering the clues from a friend’s message records.

But this still did not explain Ji Xiaoge’s issues with facial charm since as far as Motan knew, any influence experienced by players in the game should absolutely never affect reality, and he had even specifically collected relevant information from the forums for this.

Yet, when Motan carefully thought and recalled, he still perceived a certain indescribable charm in the real Ji Xiaoge.

Although very subtle, and not at all comparable to when the girl activated [A Glance Can Captivate A City] in the game, it unambiguously existed!

He still remembered the moment in early January when he went out to buy cat food at the mall and unexpectedly encountered Ji Xiaoge, and how he had undeniably paused for a half-second.