What does "ice cream" taste like?
Luo Cheng once asked himself this question. A few years after the thought first occurred to him, his curiosity was finally satisfied.
It was a strange and inexplicably addictive mix of hot, humid, slightly salty, and the milky scent of shower gel, all combined with a girl's hormones. Luo Cheng's love for "ice cream" was a hobby he had developed over the half-year he had spent at Tracen Academy.
Back on the training grounds, Super Creek's round, full feet were curled up, her five adorable, translucent toes tucked in together. Her eyes were moist as she looked at Luo Cheng, and she rubbed her neatly trimmed nails against his chin.
Wiping his mouth, Luo Cheng looked at Super Creek's stamina bar. She was lying softly on the ground, and her stamina bar had just increased by nearly 20 points. This wasn't from eating "ice cream," but from the massage. Massaging her during training breaks really helped the horse girl recover her stamina, and the effect was quite good.
Luo Cheng helped the girl put her socks back on her matte, milky-white little feet. Super Creek was the "mom-type" character, famous at Tracen for her nurturing nature. Luo Cheng often saw her acting like a mother, following the younger horse girls and even using a handkerchief to wipe the corners of their mouths when they were eating. Unfortunately, this kind of motherly affection couldn't be used on Luo Cheng, otherwise, he would have loved to experience being a baby in her arms and being cared for.
Wait, couldn't he just max out her affection and then play in the real world?
Luo Cheng looked at Super Creek's affection level. It had just gone up by three points, making her affection [70]. Normally, it would only increase by one or two points. The only explanation was that she particularly enjoyed this type of interaction. Luo Cheng seemed to have discovered Super Creek's secret fetish. Whether it was in the real world or the game, the characters acted according to their character settings, so a horse girl's personality wouldn't change from the game world to the real world.
Learning more about the horse girls might help him trigger future plot events faster. Luo Cheng made a mental note of Super Creek's sensitive spots for future use.
After learning Fumino Naze's techniques, Luo Cheng said his goodbyes to the two. Fumino Naze didn't respond much, but Super Creek nodded to him, triggering her parting dialogue. The horse girls were still warmer than the Trainers.
On the way back to his dorm, Luo Cheng glanced at the VR equipment. This machine could temporarily pull him into a virtual world and connect with the horse girls in a more normal state, but Luo Cheng couldn't control it. He opened the computer, but the screen was blank, and he couldn't proceed with any further operations. All he could do was wait for Tazuna Hayakawa's next test.
It's about time to incorporate VR training into the regular routine. How much longer do I have to wait? He couldn't wait to have a cyber conversation with those AI horse girls.
Just as Luo Cheng was staring blankly at the computer, he suddenly heard a strange noise behind him. A cup on the desk fell to the floor, and water spilled everywhere. Luo Cheng turned around.
"Is anyone there?" he asked.
"Good morning?"
There was no response. Since there was no character dialogue triggered, it meant he was the only one in the room. He picked up the cup and put it back on the desk, then mopped up the floor. He then turned to leave the room.
As he opened the door, he heard a clicking sound from the doorknob.
Hmm? What's going on? Is it locked?
Luo Cheng was baffled. These horse girls usually came into the room to check before they locked the door! Who was it today? Are they slacking off?
Luo Cheng knocked on the door a few times and shouted, "Is anyone outside?" Then he put his ear to the door.
Click!
A crisp metallic sound came from outside the door, and the locked door suddenly opened. Luo Cheng walked out of the room, looked left and right, but didn't see anyone.
Did they just refresh away? Or is someone playing a prank on him?
There were indeed some prankster horse girls at Tracen. They would sneakily lock people in a room after they went inside. But that was usually for other horse girls. As a player, Luo Cheng had never been pranked by the horse girls. Of course, he was never soft on those prankster horse girls either, and he would always make them behave afterward.
Getting back to the point, he looked at the door. Did the world have a bug?
After half a year, this was the first time he had encountered a system issue in the game world. It was unexpected but made sense. Luo Cheng didn't understand the world's operating logic, but all systems had bugs. Not paying it any mind, Luo Cheng closed the door and left the room. A shadow followed him like a phantom.
In the following hours, Luo Cheng discovered that the world seemed to be broken, with various strange bugs constantly appearing. When he was eating, Luo Cheng left to get a soda from a vending machine, but when he returned, his food was gone. The food on the plate of the horse girl next to him was a bit more than when he left. Luo Cheng immediately grabbed her head and rubbed it vigorously. How dare these horse girls steal his food! The nerve of them!
Just as Luo Cheng finished rubbing her head, he turned around and found that the soda he had worked so hard to get was also gone. He searched around and finally found it on a nearby table.
Did a horse girl take this too?
This had never happened before. The horse girls were usually oblivious to his things unless Luo Cheng forced them into their hands. Then they would react.
What's going on?
Not only was the door acting strangely, but the characters' behavior logic was also problematic. If the software was broken, you'd find a programmer, but if the world was broken, who would you go to? A god? But a god was just a program, too.
Luo Cheng could only hope that the program would self-correct. However, his hope was quickly dashed. The anomalies continued to follow him like a shadow. As he walked, a tree branch fell squarely on his head, but there were no trees above him. When he returned to his dorm, his keys were gone from his pocket, and after searching for a long time, he found them hanging on the doorknob.
Back in his room, he heard a strange knocking sound from outside. Luo Cheng opened the door but saw no one.
Luo Cheng was starting to feel that something spooky was going on. The bugs didn't affect him, they were just a little creepy. A knocking sound in the middle of the night with no one there felt like a ghost story. Maybe he should sleep in the student dorms tonight. The beds were a bit small, but he would feel safer with people around.
A clicking sound came from the door. Luo Cheng's heart skipped a beat. A bad feeling suddenly came over him. He rushed to the door and grabbed the doorknob.
Click-clack.
It's locked?!
Just as Luo Cheng was about to ram the door open, the surroundings suddenly went dark. A crisp sound of footsteps and a girl's soft giggle slowly came from beside his ear.