½ Prince

Chapter 2: Shock! The True Identity of Yu Lian-dàsăo – translated by Akakuroi

I coughed twice as I stared straight at Winter Triumph and Disi, who were kneeling before Doll, while the group of people around them were petrified. Who would have thought that I would be met with this kind of mind-blowing scene the moment I returned from my fight with Neurotic. “Can anyone explain what exactly is going on?”

“Ah! Nothing much, Prince-gēgē,” Doll waved her hands frantically while trying to use her eyes to warn the two people kneeling on the floor.

No matter how slow I am, I can’t be so slow as to not realise that Doll is the princess that Winter Triumph and Disi were referring to, can I?“So, Winter Triumph, are you both Doll’s citizens?”

“Her retainers!” corrected Disi as she looked up, displeased.

“Retainers?” everyone surrounding them gasped.

“Of course. Doll is a princess, so having retainers isn’t that strange, is it?” I commented naturally. But when I looked up, Doll was staring at me with her eyes wide, and the others had their jaws dropped.

Eh? Winter Triumph was already kneeling before Doll. You mean no one knew anything about this? Then, doesn’t that mean I just…

“Wow, the radio station just announced a huge secret!” Wu Qing whistled and criticized me.

“N-Nobody knew…?” How is that possible? Wasn’t Winter Triumph bowing before Doll just now? Oh my god, don’t tell me I really did become the radio station this time?

Doll sighed softly, nearly making my nervous heart jump out of my mouth. I’m dead meat now, I really did let Doll’s secret out…

I nearly burst into tears, and I was just seconds from kneeling down to beg her for mercy. “I really didn’t say it on purpose, Doll! Please don’t be angry with me.”

Giving a rare, bitter smile, Doll replied, “It is fate I guess. I just hope that no one will be angry with me for hiding my identity.”

“Who would dare be angry with Her Highness? Her Highness didn’t do it on purpose anyway. Does she have to reveal her identity as a princess to every single person she meets? ” Disi commented angrily.

“Disi, don’t say anymore. Anyway, it’s entirely my fault. Everyone, please forgive me,” Doll said while looking toward the members of Odd Squad with eyes of regret and dismay.

“Rest at ease Doll, no one’s going to blame you.” Ignoring the title of princess, Wolf-dàgē patted Doll on her head while smiling warmly.

But somehow, the smile on Doll’s face seemed rather reluctant; her expression also looked rather lonely. Then, feeling sorry for Doll, Lolidragon walked forward and started comforting her, saying, “Don’t worry, Doll. I understand how you feel, but don’t worry. No one in Odd Squad is ever going to change their attitude toward you.”

Hearing that, Doll’s eyes actually turned red and she buried her head into Lolidragon’s chest, her shoulders shuddering. Is she crying? But…no one has blamed her, so why is she crying? And crying in a way that even my heart aches for her…

“Why is Doll crying?” I asked blankly.

One death glare from Lolidragon, acquired! And as a bonus, an abusive scolding, “You pea brained, yet to evolve plankton! You brainless dinosaur that only knows how to bite! You Neanderthal who can’t even start a fire and has to eat raw meat! You muscle-bound idiot, whose brain activity is below the first percentile; even saying that Einstein’s intelligence is ten times yours is an insult to Einstein!”

It was as if a loud thunder clap had stunned me, and for a while, everyone else was stunned too. Then they actually started applauding! The round of applause was like adding hail to snow, like a bolt of lightning that struck me half dead. Sniffling, I hid myself in a dark gloomy corner, and wrapped myself up with that damned long cape so as not to pollute other people’s eyes.

“Prince, don’t mind what Lolidragon just said.” Gui’s anxious voice rang outside my cape, “You see, plankton don’t even have brains, so how could they possibly evolve? Dinosaurs do have brains, so they’re definitely not brainless! And some cavemen did know how to use fire…”

Why is it that…with Gui’s consolation, I’m just getting more and more depressed?

Suddenly, a small hand landed on my shoulder, and a cute voice said, “Prince-gēgē, don’t feel sad! Lolidragon-jiějiē was just scolding you for fun!”

“Doll!” Turning around, I hugged Doll and, feeling wronged, pouted my lips.

“Prince-gēgē, be good! Don’t be sad anymore.”

Hearing that, I poked my head out from my cape and checked to see if Doll was not sad anymore. However, although Doll was smiling, her smile was not the usual innocent, carefree smile anymore. Eh, eh… I shall use the final killing move now. Shoving my hands into my pocket, I pulled out a bag of cookies, “Here, Doll, I’ll give this bag of cookies to you, so don’t be sad anymore, okay?”

Seeing that, Doll was stunned. I thought for a while, then opened the bag of cookies, took one out, and held it next to Doll’s mouth. “You want me to feed you, right? Come, say, ‘Ah’ and open your mouth wide.”

Before Doll could even respond, Disi became outraged and said, “Do you think you’re feeding a puppy? Before you is our country’s princess! Even if you’re not going to kneel down, there’s still certain etiquette by which you should abide—!”

Crunch! A sharp sound rang out as an incredible amount of pain emanated from the same place. Looking at my right hand, I said helplessly, “Doll, did you have to bite my hand too? And were your teeth trained? Their attack power is really high, and they made me lose a rather large amount of HP.”

Finally letting go of my pitiful right hand, and after licking her lips, Doll said, “Iron Teeth. I’ve been training them every day with French baguettes. They are currently at level five with an attack of fifty.”

“Y-your Highness?” Disi opened her mouth wide without holding back her shock and surprise. One could even see that deep down in her throat, a silent voice was screaming, ‘Your image, Your Highness!’

“Don’t worry about it, Disi. Having to abide by the rules and etiquette of real life alone is tiring enough for Her Highness. Rarely does she get a chance to play a game, so just let her relax.” Winter Triumph was rather unhappy about his sister’s overreaction.

“Brother’s right about this— Ah! Your Highness, how can you behave in such a manner?” Halfway through agreeing, Disi suddenly noticed how Doll had started crawling around like a monkey on me. She had devoured the last bit of the cookies and was trying to discover any sign of food. Disi immediately overreacted and tried to correct Doll’s behavior. She’s just like White Bird, except that Disi is more honest and frank compared to her.

“What are your jobs under Doll?” I turned around and asked Winter Triumph curiously, ignoring Doll’s continuous act of making funny faces at Disi, who was continuously correcting Doll’s behaviour.

“We are in charge of the Finance Department. Living a life with money is the best life ever. Simply earning money during the day is unable to satisfy me anymore. Now that I can also earn money at night in Second Life, what could be better?” Just like a cat that caught the canary, Winter Triumph had an extremely satisfied look on his face.

Indeed, they‘re all money-crazed. Thinking this, I was suddenly reminded that they mentioned something about Yu Lian-dàsăo being their ex-colleague. Hence, I turned to look toward Yu Lian-dàsăo, but the moment I looked there, I realised that the mood just wasn’t right. Why would Yu Lian-dàsăo be looking at Wolf-dàgē with those eyes of remorse? Just when I was about to ask, I was pulled back by Lolidragon.

“Idiot, can’t you tell?” she scolded me softly. Then, afraid of being overheard by dàgē and dàsăo, she whispered, “If Yu Lian used to be Doll’s retainer, how could she not have recognized that Doll is the princess?”

Is there anything strange about that? After all, my brother didn’t even recognize his twin sister!

“I’m afraid that what Yu Lian said before, that she joined us because she was touched by our squad’s teamwork and friendship, was all just a lie. The real reason was because…”

“She saw Doll?” I immediately finished her sentence.

“That’s right!” Lolidragon said firmly. She then explained, “This was what Wolf-gē was questioning Yu Lian about just now.”

Worried about the two with the ominous aura around them, I asked, “They’re not going to quarrel, are they?”

“Who knows. Let’s just wait quietly by the side and see,” Lolidragon said casually while shrugging her shoulders.

Suddenly remembering something, I asked, “Weren’t you in that mess with Wu Qing and Undying Man?”

Giving an extremely despicable smile, she said after an evil laugh, “Feng Wu Qing, that jerk, kept telling me to look into Undying Man’s eyes. I got annoyed so I grabbed hold of his face and banged him into Undying Man’s face.”

Staring at Lolidragon with my eyes open wide, I couldn’t believe that she was actually cruel enough to do something so inhumane. Worried, I asked, “Is my brother still alive?”

Lolidragon laughed grimly, but gave no reply.

“So you falling in love with me was all a lie?” Wolf-dàgē’s sudden words filled with pain shocked me, and I immediately turned to look at them nervously to see what was going to happen.

“Not a lie. Wolf, my love for you is definitely true,” Yu Lian-dàsăo was so anxious that she was near tears.

Closing his mouth, Wolf-dàgē remained silent and stared at Yu Lian-dàsăo with eyes filled with coldness.

“Wolf, I admit, the reason I joined Odd Squad initially was because of the princess. Her Majesty, Doll’s mother, was worried that Doll might learn bad things in the game, and hence purposely asked me to follow Doll. That was my initial reason for joining this team.” With eyes full of remorse, Yu Lian-dàsăo looked at Doll and me.

Then, seemingly full of determination, Yu Lian said, “But Wolf, I swear to god, to you, to my heart, that I have never tricked your feelings. I really, really do love you, and every time I see you, my feelings for you just grow stronger. I love your gentleness, I love your considerate nature, I love your charisma, and I love how you’re able to stay calm and cool-headed at all times. I love everything about you!”

Oh my god, I’m getting goose bumps. What a touching speech. Looking around, I could tell that everyone was staring at the two of them with expressions that could be referred to as “go die, go die.” We could see how envious everyone was of Wolf-dàgē.

While all the members of the “go die, go die” team were still hating, Wolf-dàgē, whose fur on his face couldn’t hide his blushing red cheeks, stammered, “Yu Lian you, you…”

You what? Hurry up and apologize. While you’re at it, say something nice that will touch Yu Lian-dàsăo! Anxiously, I muttered in my heart,Wolf-dàgē is just too honest.

“I’m sorry, Yu Lian. Even though I knew that if your reason for joining Odd Squad was fake, you didn’t necessarily have to cheat my feelings; I still couldn’t help but suspect your feelings. I’m really just a stupid wolf; stupid enough to suspect your heart!”

Well said, Wolf-dàgē! So you have the talent for being romantic too! Filled with respect and admiration, I looked toward Wolf-dàgē. However, what I saw instead was Lolidragon hiding behind Wolf-dàgē’s broad back, imitating his voice and talking…

“Lolidragon…” Wolf-dàgē scratched his face helplessly.

“I was just helping you convey your feelings!” With no sense of remorse, Lolidragon walked out from behind Wolf-dàgē and said, “Wolf-gē, you can say those words to Yu Lian again yourself.”

What a great way to get him talking. With my fist clenched, I watched nervously to see how the situation was going to turn out—no, how this “love matter” was going to turn out!

A little embarrassed, Wolf opened his mouth, as if wanting to say something, but closed his mouth again. This is what I call, “The one who’s worried isn’t the emperor but the eunuch who’s not involved.” Finally, when everyone was bored to the point that we almost decided to take out popcorn to watch the show, Wolf-dàgē, seemingly determined with resolve, said, “Yu Lian, will you marry me?”

Very promptly, all the popcorn in my mouth flew out. How did this turn from an apology into a proposal? Furthermore, it’s not romantic at all; there’s no flower, no diamond ring, no kneeling down, no sweet words, nothing! What’s more important is that this is still in a game! Is there anyone who would propose like this? It’s impossible that anyone would succeed this way…

“I will, Wolf!” Although blushing, Yu Lian-dàsăo did not hesitate to jump straight into Wolf-dàgē’s arms, hug him tightly, and not let go. At the same time, Wolf-dàgē hugged her back gently. Although their lovey dovey act was enough to make the “go die, go die” rays from the surrounding viewers intensify drastically, it was all blocked by the thick love aura protective shell surrounding them.

“J-just that worked?” Staring blankly at the loving couple, Undying Man’s tears started pouring out. “Then why is it that in the past when I was proposing, not only were there flowers, sweet talk, and even kneeling down, I still couldn’t even get a girlfriend! Why is it that others only have to randomly throw out the sentence ‘please marry me’ and a beauty will marry them? God, you are so unfair to me!”

“Excuse me, just a question; has the conference not started yet?” Confused, Nan Gong Zui, Broken Sword, Wicked, and Gui entered to face a messy crowd. There was a pair of love birds, a crowd of “go die” members full of grudges, and the other continents’ overlords who were confused from head to toe.

“The conference has yet to start, but the music for the wedding march has started playing already,” I said helplessly.

“The conference! Yes, the conference should have started a long time ago.” Only realizing it now, White Bird hurried all the overlords to their seats. As for the two who were still in a lovey dovey mode, it seemed doubtful that they would come back to reality anytime soon, so everyone just let them be. After all, that’s just how Yu Lian-dàsăo and Wolf-dàgē behave usually, and everyone in Infinite City is used to it already, so the other overlords would just have to get used to it soon too.

When everyone was finally in his or her position, the Conference of the Overlords finally began for real. After a deep breath, I started recounting my encounters with the assassins. Of course, I spoke about the assassin I encountered in Infinite City and the other one in the tower with Nan Gong Zui. I believed that the ones who tried to assassinate Neurotic and me were definitely from the same party.

After my recounting, Neurotic began describing his experiences. Eh, after many impatient death glares from everyone, most of the talking was done by DanDan.

“Exactly the same,” Undying Man immediately said after hearing our accounts. “It’s the same situation as mine. I was nearly killed by that person. How dangerous. If I had been killed by him, could I, Undying, still be considered undying?”

“But what reason do they have to kill us? Even if they kill us, at most we’ll just drop a level. It can’t affect our positions as overlords at all, and it’s just not economically beneficial,” Winter Triumph shook his head and complained.

“That’s right, so what if they kill us? This is not the real world. They can’t just kill us and seize our thrones,” I said, furrowing my brow.Originally, we thought that the other party wanted to take over Second Life, and thus had to assassinate all of us. However, thinking back on it now, so what if they did kill us?

“I do have a question. From what everyone has said, it seems that all four overlords met the assassins around the same period of time. However, the type of assassin each met was the same. So is it possible that the assassins everyone met were the same two people?” Lolidragon’s question caught everyone’s attention, “If it was the same people, then how did they manage to travel between four continents in such a short period of time? If they’re not the same people, then since when were there so many anonymous elites in Second Life—especially now that all the suspected elites on the ranking board have been cleared of suspicion?”

Everyone remained silent after hearing that. From how everyone was furrowing their brows, one could tell that everyone had a lot of questions about this situation. Finally, Neurotic asked the question that was on everyone’s mind, “Why didn’t the Flower Overlord come?”

“She and her five husbands can’t be found anywhere, and the people in her city are looking for her as well,” Feng Wu Qing replied.

“Maybe it’s all her doing?” Undying Man curled his mouth with scorn and said, “Only women would ever do such illogical things.”

“What did you say?!” Lolidragon and I shouted at the same time.

Undying Man immediately realized his slip and apologized with his big teary eyes, “Lolidragon, I’m not talking about you. You’re the world’s most logical, most clever, most beautiful—”

From a moment of extreme terror, Lolidragon actually screamed and went to bang her head against a pillar, as if wanting to bang the scene she had just seen out of her mind.

“Terrifying right? I told you that he’s incomparable to me,” Feng Wu Qing said, rejoicing in Lolidragon’s misfortune. Aiya, when did my brother come back? With a pair of sunglasses on his face too…

“So the biggest suspect now is the Flower Overlord, who’s not currently present? Although from what I heard, Flower Overlord is not one who craves power, but it’s hard to say that none of her five husbands are—” But before Winter Triumph could finish, he was interrupted by a small commotion.

“It’s definitely not the doings of the Northern Continent!” a group of raging people yelled as they rushed in. “It’s because of a problem with the game Second Life itself.”

Lolidragon’s face immediately turned dark from hearing that. “And what do you mean by those words?”

The group of people shouted with rage, “There’s definitely something wrong with Second Life!”

“And what evidence do you have? If you said those words without any evidence, you could get sued, you know that?” Not knowing why, Lolidragon actually became really angry. Maybe it’s because she’s a hidden GM? And she inevitably has some feelings for the company?

Seeing the tension, I immediately came out to resolve the situation and said, “Let’s just talk things out. Everyone is still unclear about everything, so there might be some misunderstandings here and there. Let’s hear the whole story first.”

Only after hearing my words did the two sides start to calm down. Taking in a few deep breaths, the people from the Northern Continent explained, “We have already contacted Flower Overlord in the real world and she told us everything that has happened. Also, she has just passed it on to Second Life’s game company.

“That day, Flower Overlord and her five husbands encountered five assassins. The assassins’ power was beyond their expectations and they could barely handle them. Soon, all of them perished. It was not a big deal initially because, at worst, they would all just drop a level. However, that was not what happened. After dying, Flower Overlord and her husbands did not turn into white lights and resurrect in the city, but instead they got disconnected from the game.”

“Disconnected from the game?” With a rather anxious expression, Lolidragon asked nervously, “And what happens after they re-login?”

“There’s no way to login to the game.” With a sorrowful expression, the people from the North Continent said, “Flower Overlord and her five husbands… Their characters have all disappeared.”

What? Everyone present was shocked, especially me. I had just narrowly escaped from being killed. If I had been killed that time, then…

“How…is that possible?” Lolidragon said with a gloomy face, unbelieving.

“No matter if it’s possible or not, it has occurred!” the citizens from Northern Continent shouted angrily.

After a moment of thought, Lolidragon asked, “Didn’t you say that Flower Overlord has told this to the game company already? What was their reply?”

“Still checking,” they replied hostilely.

The expression on Lolidragon’s face could only be described as horrified. If there was anyone from the game company here now, there would be an eight out of ten chance that he’d be caught by Lolidragon and eaten alive with wasabi. She then rushed out anxiously, leaving a group of confused people behind. Of course not including me, as I already knew about her identity as a hidden GM. She must have gone to discuss it with the company.

When she reached the door, Lolidragon turned around and yelled urgently, “Everyone be careful! You must not get yourself killed by the assassins.”

“Get killed and you’ll disappear?!” Gui suddenly shouted with surprise. Then, with his face as pale as a sheet, he said, “Then wasn’t it a close call last time? Prince nearly disappeared forever.”

“The situation doesn’t seem that simple; it might be something even more frightening,” Nan Gong Zui said. He spoke calmly, yet still showed his anxiety toward the future.

“Second Life holds approximately ninety percent of the gaming market. If anything happens, things would go out of control.” Winter Triumph’s face looked rather disturbed.

“Why did Lolidragon run away?!” Undying Man howled while sobbing uncontrollably.

…

“Anyway, let’s just protect ourselves,” I said, sighing deeply. Despite my words, I could not help but start worrying. If this character, Prince, were to disappear, then what would I do?After all, ‘Prince’ has too many memories that I couldn’t bear to let go of.

Footnotes

Love matters: Here the words “situation” and “love matter” used by the author are two words with the same pronunciation.

“The one who’s worried…not involved.”: The person who the situation concerns isn’t worried, but the people who have nothing to do with the situation are the ones who are impatient/worried.