42 Online (2/2)

[Winter Fog: It's just one of the few items I made to practice crafting. I'm not a warmage so I have no use for it so it would be more useful in your hands. If you need any help don't hesitate to contact me]

Kazuya added her a s friend and she accepted quickly. He wanted to spend more time with this friend of his after a long time but decided not to push it. she might feel overwhelmed if he acted like he used to and scare her off. He decided to go back to town to do quests while keeping an eye out for people he needed to find.

[Autumn Mist: Wait!]

[Winter Fog: Do you need something else?]

[Autumn Mist: Umm… Are you busy?]

[Winter Fog: Not really. Why do you ask?]

[Autumn Mist: Do you have other friends who play this game?]

[Winter Fog: Not really. I can only play at night because of how busy I am during the day. You're the very first person I've talked to here]

[Autumn Mist: That's great!]

[Winter Fog: …]

[Autumn Mist: Err… I don't mean that you didn't have any friends that's great… I was referring too you not being busy and me being the first person you talked to. I wanted to ask if you wanted to do stuff with me or something]

[Winter Fog: I see…]

[Autumn Mist: Please don't think I'm weird or anything. I'm really not used to playing these kinds of games and I only tried this one out because it was given to me for free. I'm happy to have met a person who read one of my favorite books and even named their character after one of its most interesting chapters]

[Winter Fog: I really don't mind but… you may surpass me since I only play during night time]

[Autumn Mist: You don't need to worry about that! I can only play during night time as well. So we're pretty much the same right? It's weird… it's like this isn't a coincidence]

Needless to say, Kazuya had succeeded and the two hit it off. He showed her the ropes and even gave her advice about playing the game. It felt like old times only he was the one who was doing the teaching. He didn't consider himself to be one of the top players when he played, but he was knowledgeable enough to play through the game's content until a few years later.

The two played together every night. Kazuya had kept an eye out but the game was too big for him to find one of them soon. New games always have high attendance when they are released and it takes a while before those who were just here to try it out were gone. It took him three days until he was finally able to find one of the targets.

This person's IGN (In Game Name) was Void Android. He was a person who made it big but at a great cost. No one believed in the technology of artificial intelligence. As a person who mastered in both psychology and programming, it was his dream to develop an AI system that would respond like a human would. This dreamer was known in the future as the father of human-like androids.

In his autobiography, he confessed to have sold all his assets including his house just to fund his research. His wife had left him because of it and married another man before he could get a company to support and release his research. This was his biggest regret.

He played an online game to go back to his roots and to think a about why he started his project in the first place. It was due to the community of New Gods online did he never give up on his endeavor and finally made his own company with the help of donations he received through the generous people that heard about his story.

[Autumn Mist: What's wrong Winter? Are you tired?]

[Winter Fog: Sorry, I was just thinking that we're reaching the point where we have to party up with people to get through the game faster]

[Autumn Mist: Do you have people in mind?]

[Winter Fog: I only have you in my friend list so not yet. We can always help people out and ask if they want to join us]

[Autumn Mist: Don't you have friends at work that play this game too?]

[Winter Fog: Work? Sorry but I'm still just a student]

Kazuya hesitated before entering the last message. He knew little about what Autumn Mist did in real life. She would always make a clear separation between game and real life and hardly ever mentioned it but this version of her initiated an inquiry about Kazuya's life outside of the game.

[Autumn Mist: A student!? (◯Δ◯∥) Me too!]

[Winter Fog: Then why are you asking me about work?]

[Autumn Mist: Hehe… You give the feel of being older (・ωｰ)～☆]

[Winter Fog: I'm just a six year old kid you know]

[Autumn Mist: Hmph! If you're six then I'm four! ((⊂(`ω´∩)]

[Winter Fog: Then please call me Onii-sama]

[Autumn Mist: Dream on! ( ￣＾￣) ]

Kazuya was telling the truth but he didn't mind her not believing him. He may appear to be a six-year-old but his mental age was a lot older. The person behind Autumn Mist wouldn't meet with him in the real world anyway so he didn't mind it at all.

[Void Android: Excuse me! Are the both of you looking for party members?]

Kazuya almost forgot about this person. Since they were near a dungeon, a lot of people were gathering up so Void Android chose to approach the two of them since they were the only ones missing a member. The first dungeon could be completed by one or two people but there would be more rewards if there were more people. Kazuya and Autumn Mist already cleared this dungeon so they were not in a hurry to try again.

[Winter Fog: We were actually just discussing finding new friends since we've only been playing with just us two. Since you're a healer, then it would help us a lot if you joined us]

[Void Android: It would be a pleasure. Though you should rethink it if you want to party up with me for a long time. I only play during nights because of my research]

[Autumn Mist: That's perfect then! We also play during night because of our schedules. That's why me and Winter hang out a lot]

[Void Android: Do you mind if I ask you a strange question then? It's just a something I ask people to see what they think]

[Winter Fog: Go ahead]

He had a feeling what the question would be. It was also mentioned in this person's autobiography that he asked various people's opinion about his project.

[Void Android: What do you think about programs that could interact with humans like a normal human would?]

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