4 Red Mountain Town (2/2)

”Actually, it isn't.” Roland shook his head helplessly. ”But the country I'm from is rather safe. It's peaceful and prosperous. Occasionally, unbelievable things happen, but they're all far away from me.”

For Roland, it was a plain explanation, but for Falken, it was pure bragging. His white robe moving under the cool morning breeze, Falken heaved a long sigh and said, ”If only I could live in your world.”

Roland looked at the old reverend with great interest.

Thanks to his major in college, he had been in touch with the famous AI. Although he had no chance to get to know AlphaGo, he was quite familiar with Siri.

Siri did quite well in daily conversations and acted like a regular person. However, in the more in-depth conversations, including those about life, world events, or history, Siri was obviously not intelligent enough and would give rigid and mechanical replies.

The old man before his eyes, however, was no different than a regular person when he was sad or envious in a conversation.

Roland was not sure that Penguin Corporation could achieve that. Besides, according to the official website, there were more than fifteen billion intelligent people living in this game world, and every NPC could compare to a real person.

What technology had Penguin Corporation, which was famous for its counterfeit products, developed?

Before he entered the game, Roland was never convinced of such propaganda, because every company tended to oversell their product. However, he believed it after meeting this old man named Falken. He could imagine how spectacular this world could be if all the NPCs had a unique personality and soul.

Real scenery and perfectly-simulated NPCs… Roland felt the passion for games that he hadn't felt for a long time.

He slapped his thigh hard and asked, ”Mr. Falken, how should I go to the nearest city from here?”

Falken was surprised. The young man, who had been calm so far, suddenly had strange enthusiasm. The guy's eyes were still clear, but there was now new light in them.

”Go down the road on the west side. You will see Delpon in four hours if you're on foot.” Falken paused for a moment and continued, ”You'd better not deviate from the main road on your way. There's a maple forest next to the road outside of Red Mountain Town. Many enormous spiders live in the forest. Normally, they don't come to our territory, but when they're too hungry, they might go crazy and hunt human beings.”

”Thank you, mister.”

Roland waved at Falken and walked down the gray steps on the mountain road. The morning sun was as bright as an orange, and the breeze was as gentle as a veil. The noises of the town gradually found their way into Roland's ears.

Roland was of a mind to open his arms and embrace the blue sky and the white clouds, but he was afraid that he would seem too silly.

He simply pursed his lips and murmured, ”Falan, I'm here.”